Hola everyone!
This has been a rly long and short week haha. We had zone conference this week and we do those in Merida about a 3 hour bus ride from where we live. I slept in a single room with 10 hammocks strung up every which was we could fit, had conference and met a bunch more missionaries and had so many spiritual experiences this week.
I have realized, and I'm ashamed to admit, but I am quite the fruit addict. Originally, I would have thought eating more fruit would curb my bloody candy addiction but now I just have two problems. There's so much fruit here, and I am now a big mango guy. Had never had fresh mango off the tree in my life and I've had more than I'm willing to admit since I've got here. There are these little fruits that the mayaans here call whyums, that's the only was I can think to spell it in English. They're like cherry sized and they're like a cherry but with a skin you peel off and theyre orange and theyre the sweetest things ever. Me and my companion Mark all the whyum trees we find in area book.
At zone conference is when everyone gers their packages from everyone and one of my buddies Elder vest got a huge box from his girlfriend with all the American candy you can think of that we don't have here and more and I might have bought it all off him.
What I didn't know is how every single fruit stains white shirts. I started getting a few of my shirts back from the laundry with these brown burned stains in them almost to the point where they're unusable and I was about to have something to say to the laundry lady until someone in the ward made an off comment about how she doesn't eat whyums because they stain so bad 😐 so now I'm down 4 shirts.
Spiritually, I had an amazing week. Sweet Martha was baptized, she is what we call a golden investigator. Never had anything wrong not a question followed all the rules right away and had a testimony. I couldn't help but tear up when I saw her rise from the water. I gave her the gift of the Holy Ghost and a blessing in Spanish which was no doubt helped by God that I was able to do so. Without sharing some sacred experiences, I can tell you that the lord is in every detail. I know that every decision I make is from the lord and backed by him, and it's a confidence I've never had before. So many times where questions were answered and things happened at perfect times that have proved to me we are under his watchful care even if we don't realize it.
Me and my comps area is currently been blowing up, more so than anywhere else in the mission that I know of just since uve been here. Not that I've had a thing to do with it that's just the time frame. What I have helped with is helping my companion get so good at teaching lessons by himself because I don't say much. That's probably the reason for success. My faith is ever growing and increasing, and I have a realization almost everyday that grows it more. It's as though I'm like leveling up. And every time I advance I realize why I was where I was before and why I thought what I thought and everything is so clear, but there's a next puzzle to decipher. I always thought faith was how sure you were on a scale of 1-10 that God was real. I've always been a ten within those parameters. Selfishly I used to think how could I possibly grow when I have the most faith I can have. Silly huh. I love learning and growing, which I good because thats now what I do for a living.
I had one cool experience this week, I gave a guy a book of Mormon last week and we followed up this week asking if he read it. Usually the answer is no, didn't have time. I actually haven't received a different answer thus far. But this guy read all the way to second Nephi in a week. He is a big history guy and knows his stuff about the Bible. He told me the mayaans have a book of a white man coming out of the sky and giving them power, until they weren't righteous and he took it away. We showed him 3rd Nephi 11 and it blew his mind. He had questions, we had answers. This is what I thought being a missionary would be like. Teaching people who want to learn and build upon knowledge, the book of Mormon and the gospel builds upon everything and makes everything make MORE sense. And for any one with a desire to know more will quickly be met with every answer they've ever wondered. But I've been teaching people who just don't care. You could give them the sermon of a life time and their response is, que bueno. Like what?! The gospel is the glue of life! All the information in the world and why we're here and it's at our fingertips and these people don't GET IT. I WANT TO SHAKE THEM. so needless to say. This guy was refreshing.
Spanish is weird, because I have gotten to the point, where I recognize every single word that is said to me. No matter how face I can break it up word to word and I know the word but I still don't know what they're saying and can't keep up. It's the most crazy feeling to know but not know at the same time. And it's put a hault on my speaking because I feel like if I could just have a reference for how others talk and speak I could incorporate how they speak into everything I say and I could grow exponentially but that's my problem for now.
I want to leave you all with my testimony the lord is always there for us, if you don't feel as though he is, you need to increase your faith. There's a lesson to learn in everything you go through and every trial you go through. I love serving the lord and being here and I miss you all. Something crazy, my school class of 2023 graduated this last week, I'm almost 3 months down as a missionary and I live in Mexico. Life is crazy.
Have a great week!
-Elder Bastian
