99 Days till A Hug From My Son

99 days till a hug from my son...
99 days till a hug.
And then I'll grab hold
Not stop when I'm told
99 days till a hug from my son.

99 days till I see his sweet face
99 days till I see.
The changes that came
From bearing His name
99 days till I see his sweet face.

99 days till his voice I will hear
99 days till I hear,
The stories of love
Miracles sent from above.
99 days till his voice I will hear.

99 days till his home I will see
99 days till I see
The country he claims
a second home it remains.
99 days till his home I will see.

99 days till his mission is done
99 days till it's done.
A young man he left
Now mature and adept
99 days till his mission is done.

99 days till I embrace my son
and thank my Father above.
For blessings of safety, love and concern
Straight from Heaven with love.

Hey everyone!

                Thanks for the emails. This week has been great as usual, and today i am using a slightly better computer, which helps. We just got back from a zone activity. Today we made pancakes as a zone. I’m running out of ideas for zone activities, as you can tell. =) It was fun though.                

                Elder Richardson and I are still trying to find people to get to church. In all of my areas this is definitely one of the hardest. I think it’s because people have to take the bus to get to church. It’s not all that expensive, but it’s something, and the people here don’t have much. Last Sunday only Meri came to church. She is part of the Flores family. She really wants to get baptized, and it upsets her that her husband doesn’t want to get married. We have a lesson with them tonight about marriage. We going to focus on the fact that a family needs to be sealed in the Temple in order to be eternal.

                With Nyor and Araceli it is a little difficult, because he says he´s too sick to leave the house. I believed him for a while, but this morning I saw him out and about as we were running, so I don’t really know what to do with him.

                Luis is doing pretty well. He had a great lesson with him yesterday, and we challenged him to baptism. He said that he wasn’t quite ready yet, but that he would pray and ask God if he needed to get baptized. We have a lot of members helping us out with him. He is one of our more positive investigators.

                Other than them we need to find some new people to teach. I have been through a lot of investigators here, and with most of them I’m able to set a baptismal date with them, but shortly after they fall away. I know that there are people here that are ready to hear the Gospel, and I know that I will be able to find them. I really like my area, and I am excited to find these people.

                Let’s see, what else is new. We’ve been teaching English classes lately. We don’t have a huge attendance, but we have an investigator, a less active member, and a few active members that are attending. We’re trying to have that be a way to get people to be able to enter the church and see how it is.      

                Esperanza and Jasmin, my converts here, are still active and going to church. They came a half an hour early yesterday. They really like the church.

                I finished reading the Book of Mormon this week. I have a strong testimony that it is true, and I know that the message it contains was written for us. I also am finishing up reading the Pearl of Great Price out loud in Spanish. That’s part of my language study now, reading out loud in Spanish. Right now I started reading the New Testament in Spanish again. One of the cool things about knowing Spanish is being able to read the Bible in that language. It’s a translation from Greek to Spanish, just like the King James version is a translation from Greek to English. The main message is the same, but it’s interesting to note a few translation differences between the two. For example, yesterday I was reading the book of Acts, in chapter 3 I think, where it names Christ as the Prince of Live. In the Spanish version it comes out differently. It gives Him the title of Author of Life, which I thought was pretty interesting, seeing as how the word author shows Christ´s divine role in creating the world and all of its inhabitants. Anyways, I thought that was pretty interesting. It goes to show that the Bible came out inevitably different than what it originally was, due to all of the translations. Being able to speak another language gives me a little more insight on that.               

                Speaking about languages, I think it would be cool to lean another language when I get home. I’m thinking about French or Italian. I really enjoy learning Spanish.

                Well, I suppose it’s question time!

1.       Have you got your birthday package yet? (I will ask this one until you get it) lol

No, not yet! I will probably get it this week though.

2. Are your missionary sessions at the temple in English every time?
lol. No. they are in Spanish every time.

2.       Do you think that you could do the session in Spanish?
yes. I do it frequently.

3.       Did they celebrate Father's Day there yesterday? Or was it like Mother's Day where it was on a different day?
Yes they did. It was on Saturday though. At least I think they celebrated it. I didn’t really notice to be honest.

5. How do they celebrate Father's Day?
I have no idea.

6. So what recipe did you cook with your Oreos, marshmallows and powdered milk? What was the best thing you ate this week?
I made rice crispy treats! This week I bought real milk instead of powdered milk. It’s twice as expensive, but it’s more than twice as good.

The best thing I ate was McDonald's. =)

7. Do you want me to bring anything from the distribution center like Spanish CTR rings?, Proclamation to the Family, The Living Christ, Gospel Art Books, Pictures of Temples or the First Presidency? I did buy 11 CTR rings when I was there yesterday to give to kids when we come. What do you think?

I would say the CTR rings are a good thing to get. Oh, and also consecrated oil key chains. All the priesthood men here want and need those.

8. Isn't your mom just peachy?? Nerent to her!

Do you ride the bus much for transportation in your area?  Or do you mostly walk?

In my area I do a lot of both. The bus is really cheap. It’s only 12 cents, but a lot of times we walk. Out of all my areas I walk the most in this one. It’s good exercise though. I would say we walk about 4 to 7 miles a day.

How is the recovery effort going for the tropical storm and volcano eruption?  What was the final death count?  Was there much damage in your immediate area?

I think it’s almost done.  I haven’t heard too much about it. Here in the area it didn’t effect many people, other than the first few days when we were all trying to get rid of the ash.  I don’t remember the death count, but I don’t think it is very high.

Was there much relief efforts from the Church that you are aware of?

Yes, mostly in providing food to the people who were affected.

Do you elders spend much time doing service projects for people?  What kinds of service do you mostly do?

About once every week or so we do a service project. We usually just help people move dirt around. They do that a lot here. It’s tough work, but I enjoy it.

I know you are pretty fluent in Spanish now.  Do you ever have people try to get you to teach them a little English?

               Yes, and all the little kids, and even some of the adults, love yelling the little bit of English they know at us.

Well, thanks for all the emails and all your love. The mission is great. I love what I am doing.

I hope you guys have a great week!

Love,

Elder Winn