Dec 28, 2015

Well this week had a lot of ups and downs. My favorite part was the
Christmas calls of course. I was finally able to talk to my family
which was great! The worst part was that my landlord decided that he
didn't want missionaries living in his house anymore. So we had to
move all of our stuff yesterday. Right now we're living with the zone
leaders which is terrible because it's 4 guys to a bathroom. Also I
learned that there is a hidden rule book other than the white
handbook. It's called the President Chamber Policies. Is there anyway
to get this book? No it doesn't exist. Only the AP's and zone leaders
know all these secret rules. Is there any way to find out the secret
rules before you break them? No of course not they're secret!!! So
that's been pretty annoying. Living with zone leaders is not fun.

I also learned that doing my personal study in Spanish has really
helped me with the language. Many people in the branch always tell my
how I have really good Spanish for someone who has only been learning
for 5 months. "I've been studying English for 9 years and I'm still
terrible at it!" That's what many of them will say as well.

Isabel is getting a schedule change at the end of this month so she
will be able to start coming to church with us. If everything works
out and she keeps her commitments then she will be able to get
baptized on the 9th of January. I'm very excited for her.

Valery is another investigator that we have who's only problem is that
she's not married to the man she is living with. This is a problem
because she can't be a member unless they either get married or they
split apart which probably won't happen because they've had 3 kids
together. We're taking a marriage specialist with us to our
appointment with her today. His name is Elder Dale but he goes by
Elder Guapo. So we'll see how that goes.

Transfers are coming up in about two weeks so we'll see if I'm going
to be in the same area for my birthday or not. It would be nice if I
stayed her but it would also be nice if I was able to go somewhere
else for a change.

Well that's about it. Hope everyone is doing well.

Elder Austin

P.s. This is something I was able to eat for the first time. They're
called sopas.

They are very good and I really really want some right now but that might be the only time I have some on my mission. Also here is my companion: