Week 39~~

Hi mom,

 I really hope that you are enjoying your time back home, I honestly cannot tell you how happy I am on my mission right now, everything is perfect. I honestly have grown to be so thankful for this district, they call us Proguero (guero is a spanish word for american and the wards name is progreso) because we are all white. I have mentioned Elder Bennet before, he is my super cool country boy district leader, and honestly is such a great example of leadership, like he never gets mad or lets his own pride dictate his decisions, but instead does what is best for us. Elder Mcgannon is my companion, I think I already mentioned I home taught his girlfriend in college, I honestly love him, he is super chill, like super patient, and its nice because we are like equals, even though I am senior companion, I don't feel it at all because we honestly just work together in like super good unity. Elder Sleight is Elder Bennetts companion, he is super humble and nice, he wants to be an actor and loved to lift before the mission, so he and I have bonded over that. Anyways, we all went bowling today, and it was just super chill, I haven't gotten to have fun like that for a while. We went with our misison leader Carlos Tellez, who is just an awesome guy. He speaks English too, so the 5 of us just bond together, its awesome. 

I have really grown to love this area, like its pretty sick, I have air conditioning in my room, two bathrooms, a nearby park to run at in the mornings, and I just found out that my area is the largest in the mission, so I never have to worry about trying to learn anything bigger. Its incredible to think that I will end up spending 6 months here, but I will be here for 1 more month can you believe that. Anyways, I am just enjoying myself because it was stake conference this week, and 1 of my converts received the melchezideck priesthood after a month of being baptized, and the family of hindus plus Daniel went to the temple to do baptisms. Like that moment when you start seeing people reactivate or get converted is just the absolute best. I love it so much. I did get the thing from the relief society, and it was great, I loved it, we are so blessed as missionaries to have a ward and a stake that loves us enough to do all that they do for us. We got a letter once a month from the high council, and that was honestly one of the biggest sources of comfort that I received at the start of my mission. Honestly the start was rough, but like right now, I just am enjoying everyday, getting to help people. They say that in the mission we learn to love people, and I suppose that is true, but it is different to how I expected. Like I honestly get super irritated at some people when they are super rude or mean to us, but at the same time I really just love some of the people that I have seen converted to death. You do grow in love for everyone though because when people refuse to do things at first I feel a little rejected, as if they are rejecting me, which makes me irritated,  but then I realize that this is not my work, and I invite them to do what will make them happy, and feel sad for them if they don't accept.

So today I will be cooking your tacos for a noche de hogar, so we will see how they turn out. IF you buy flour tortillas that are like corn tortilla sized, you can actually just throw them in the microwave and they taste as good as the corn ones. Also if you want, you can try soy meat (oxymoron) which is a cheap, healthier substitute for groundbeef, that I surprisingly could not believe was not beef. Its great! If you could look up some kind of recipe for a postre that I could cook for a family that has really been active in missionary work, I would really appreciate it (maybe an apple pie would be good).

Anyways, like I said we had stake conference this week, and it was honestly awesome because I learned so much. I am totally gonna be a church nerd when I get back, I love getting to learn about the manual of instruction and things like that, and they did a full explanation during the priesthood session about what each quorum should do, and each reunion, which I honestly found incredible to hear because I really learned a lot. We also had a 70 get up that we could ask questions to, and we really talked about how the members and missionaries could work together, and it was awesome because the next night I got to go on a visit with member with a couple, and they honestly just offered a powerful testimony that really touched the heart of the woman we were teaching, and made me super happy.

This week, I got to see one of the greatest examples of true love that I have ever seen in my life. There is a woman who is crippled, she cannot walk, and she met this man, although she was crippled he still fell in love with her. He takes care of her, and does everything for her, and just shows true christlike love, although he never gets anything physical. It is beautiful because she is a very faithful member and is starting to bring her husband along, and he reads the book of mormon and talks with us because he loves her. I honestly love how beautiful their relationship is.

Anyways, that's all there is to report here mom, I love you, I love my mission, take care.

Elder Kevin Standridge