No Email :(

No email this week. I guess no news, is good news. I'm thinking that Elder Medina may have been transferred. That may explain no email from him this week.

On The Mend (We Hope)

Dear Mom,

Yeah, those aren't fun the whole kidney infections. Our cocinera is looking up all of the natural food things that she can do to fix up kidneys. I guess pineapple works and carrots. But I don't know there. I want a healthy week as well. I understand the whole hydration thing. I always have water with me or a way to get it. I am drinking. I'm pretty sure it's just because of constant sun exposure and like you said the humidity. On top of that the fridge is broken. Not the best situation. But we're in the process of getting a new one.

This week was a week of challenges. My companion and I have had to cross new techniques to get to investigators. We had to defend our own testimonies when an investigator said that if we went to his church we would find that he was right and not us. I felt the strongest Spiritual high and I was able to testify again along with my companion and that man kept quiet and didn't push it anymore. I have come to find that now, I don't need to argue or get mad to get a point across. I just need the Spirit. We're trying so hard to keep the Spirit close to us. It's working a lot more. 

Mom, I love you. I hope you feel good this week. There is a scripture in Psalms 147:3 that I love that I found this week. In spanish (sorry didn't read in english) it says: "Él sana a los quebrantados de corazón, y venda sus heridas". Only through Him and His Spirit of love can we be healed emotionally, spiritually, and physically. I know this because I have had to depend on Him and His power here. There has been so many times that I have felt pain that I didn't know what to do. When I had my infection and fighting by myself with a dangerous fever, for the first time in almost 3 or 4 years, I cried for my mom. I bawled because of the pain. I had to depend on my Maker to get me out of it. And I was able to. I felt your love and prayers and the love of my Father and Older Brother. You can feel the same. As well as everyone else. We just have got to grab onto it.

Take care this week Mom, I love you so much. I literally want a wife like you so my children can have such support in the future, you've always been the greatest example of parently love I've seen.

Love all of you!

Elder Medina

Kindney Infection

Just wanted to give everyone an update. Elder Medina is currently dealing with a mean kidney infection. After several days of fevers and feeling horrible, he went into the Doctor's. He is being treated for it and it already feeling a lot better. The mission office has been in contact with me, which has been great.

Hives!

Dear Mom,

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, Diego my man. I would be doing the same as dad probably. "Diego! Get the ball." Oh funny, that really made me laugh. Something that my companion and I figured out, after today, only 10 more emails and then I'm home. He's supportive. It stinks really.

We're still trying to work hard. We got some more baptismal dates this week. We should have some this month. It'll be good.

We went to the beach to play ball again. I didn't want to go. But my comp did so we went. It was raining. Not fun. But the waves were HUGE!!!! On a side note. I just randomly broke out in hives this week. Don't really know why. But I'm ok now. We painted a house this week which was fun. We saw another area 70 in stake conference. Interesting. Mom, I can say that we had a great week!

Take care I love you all.

Love,

Elder Medina

Goodbye Elder Lloyd!

Dear Mom,

This week has been interesting. Elder Lloyd left (sniff sniff) and my new companion is Elder Zolano. He is from Nicaragua. I'll send a picture of him next week. He came with me in the mission. The only difference is that I go home earlier than him. I had more time in the MTC that's the only reason I'm going home first. For the first time in a REALLY long time we went running. We got up at 5 am to do it. I am SOOOOOOO sloooow now. I was embarrassed, so badly. On top of that, I felt like I was breathing water the whole time (humidity). My companion and I are both wanting to do it. So that's cool. 

We are trying really hard lately with less actives. And on top of that home teaching and a whole lot more of other difficulties in the work. Something that has been really stressing me out lately is that everyone here looks at the missionaries to do EVERYTHING. To visit less actives, inactives, active members, and on top of all of that the investigators. I was just a little frustrated on that point. So now what we're doing is doing another mini-MTC for the members again. We are going to do it on a small scale and maybe eventually for the whole stake. But we'll see how that goes. Oh, we have a new bishop now. He's pretty sweet. He wants to get stuff done as well. We all have some high hopes to have an increase of activity here. 

I love you guys. Keep up all of your hard work. Thanks mom for the jersey money. I appreciate that. 

Love,

Elder Medina

Beach Day!

Dear Mom,

Oh, injury stories. The sister's feet. Olivia, yes I do remember coming home from that senior trip. That was exhausting. On top of bible bashing with an old guy (that was a bad idea). Olivia looks so cute now! I showed all of the people in my pasaje her graduation notice. Every lady in the street thought that she looked beautiful. Especially her hair. Way to hold the beautiful family genes there. 

Having a companion who is finishing the mission is pretty hard. It is almost impossible to not feel baggy at times. At times we'll think of pros and cons of going home. It's pretty funny sometimes. A whole lot of people have been showing feelings and love to my companion. It's pretty funny actually. The work is going great. We are still finding some great people. In a literally Catholic society on Sunday, we found a guy sitting outside, he let us talk to him and share a bit of our message. He was a great man, he told us of how he overcame drinking and a whole lot of other stuff. And how he and his family are doing a whole lot better. We are just going to help him get a little bit closer now ;). 

Today was the best P-day in the world. We all went to the beach (with authorization) and played beach soccer! I found like a million shells to bring home with me. For free too! I wore a hat that was "regalado" given as a gift to guard my neck from turning more black. Elder Lloyd got sun burnt as well as a few other guys. I can now understand why Rocky Balboa ran on the beach. It is a whole lot harder to sprint. The sand literally eats your feet as in you sink at some points. Yes, we all are wearing America jerseys made by the bishop. We got these a while ago. Now it's just waiting for the El Salvador one. It's going to be sweet!

Well, that was this week. I love all of you. Take care of yourselves. Keep up on your scripture studies.

Sincerely,

Elder Medina

Last Skype

Dear mom,

Yeah, skyping for the last time. I understand not being lively. It is pretty hard to be happy when you're sick. I remember my salmonella days. Like it was last week (because it was.)That was pretty tough. Yeah, I'm pretty bummed that Alesia missed out on her play. I know she was really looking forward to that. That's one thing I regret from high school, was not doing drama. It was something that I always wanted to do. 

The bishop's house was fun. While we were waiting to skype for the other guys, we watched motab movies and videos from the life of Christ. My companion had a family emergency. Please pray for him. I do not know what happened really. Please include him in your prayers. 

This week was a really great week for work. We got lots of references from members making a Mormon Lemonade Stand. We are going to try again in a few weeks and we are going to better plan it this time.

I love you mom. Happy mothers day. Stay awesome. I appreciate the maturity thing. It was something I needed to hear. This week will be dedicated to a lot of working harder and doing great stuff. Oh yeah Dad, those times. I will start working on those when I'm 100% on health.

Sincerely,

Elder Medina