Life Is A War

Pretty interesting couple of weeks. I'm not going to get into too much detail, but I'll give a small run down. First- One of our missionaries got assaulted. The Elder is about 5" 6'... maybe. Little did the guy know that he's a double black belt in some kind of martial arts. So everybody was kung fu fighting and he easily defended himself and his companion and knocked the guy out. Needless to say, he's awesome!!

Changes! Halle-Freakin'-Lujah! My new comp is Elder Freitas from Brazil and he's pretty cool. He is now the third comp I've had twice in my mission... Are you kidding me...? I mean, I love the guy! He's great, and I'm glad I'm with him. But that's unheard of!!!  It's rare to be with ONE companion twice. Even weirder to be with TWO companions twice. But THREE?! Some people here might say "loco". Any ways, let's get down to business.

Tuesday we got the changes done.

Wednesday. We went around collecting money from all the Elders in our zone. Backstory on that is that we have a sports day on Monday. So we had to pay for our jerseys. It took way longer than it should have, and while handling all that money, I realized that I will not ever become an accountant. For my sake AND the sake of others.

Thursday??? It felt a little bit more like The Bangles "Manic Monday"! And I WAS wishin' it was Sunday, cause that's my "I don't have to run" day. We were huffing it from our area, to Chalco, back to our area, to the stake center, to the middle of nowhere, ect. And the sun decided to be the hottest it’s been for almost my whole time here in the Valle. So that was lovely. We did however have a zone practice in the morning to prepare for sports day Monday. I've decided that I will not lose my last sports day on my mission so I'm taking this one pretty seriously!!

Friday was one of those lovely zone leader meetings that takes the whole day away. But it's always fun being able to hang out with Elder Reading and Elder Searle! Elder Reading goes home next Friday, and it’s going to be really weird not having him around the mission.

                                Elders Reading, Searle and Johns

Saturday. We had to do a contract in the morning. That was a long and painful process and took forever. But we didn't even finish because he had to leave and talk to his brother who owns the place. So we leave, we eat, and there hadn't been a call.  So we decided to go chill and watch a baptism we had in our zone. We didn't even get through the first hymn before I get a call saying, "it’s now or never with the contract"!  So we tear out of the baptism and grab a moto taxi and haul over to the house. The story stops there. And I don't know how it ends yet because we still haven't finished the contract...

Monday. Sports day. The most important day of the year... right behind conference...  We lost though...

Lastly, I'd like to share a thought I had this week. It was that sometimes, life feels like a war. We may have periods of rest, but there will always be another battle we have to face, until Christ our Savior and Redeemer comes again on that Great and Terrible day. But until that happens, we must fight. And it ain't goin' be pretty. We have to claw, scratch, bite, and yell with all our strength. Now luckily, we have the freedom to choose who we fight for. Christ or Satan. Either way it’s going to hurt and there WILL be tears. Thankfully God has given us the answer to who will win. So it should be an easy choice. But we all know it’s not that easy. And just like the 2000 sons of Helaman, every one of us is going to receive wounds, gashes, and injuries. However, like the example of those 2000 warriors, we can all come out alive according to our faith and diligence that God requires of us. This is His gospel. We are His children. And I am His witness. He loves us. As Always!!!

Stay Classy,

Elder Johns