This week was a pretty good week. We accomplished most of our goals that we set for the week. We found new people to teach. We taught most of our lessons with a member present. And we regained contact with our investigator Claudie. This week flew by and I just don't know where it went. My mission seems like it is going by in the blink of an eye. I look back and it seems like yesterday I was riding to my first area with Elder Hansen and Elder Heimuli. I still remember the smell of my first apartment and everything about my first area. When I hit my eighth month mark it was the oddest feeling. Thinking that I am a third of the way through my mission just doesn't make sense to me. I just don't know how I will feel when I hit a year. That day is just right around the corner.
I want to just take a minute to tell you about how much I love all the Elders in my District. As a District Leader I made a promise to myself that I would have a personal relationship with all of the missionaries in my District. I can't stand leaders that put themselves on a pedestal and create a power distance between the Leader and the person they lead. I have experienced that before in my jobs and in the mission. The leaders of mine that I have respected most are the ones that I have been friends with. I feel like I have become best friends with the Elders in my district. I love them so much and they are all great Elders. I feel like that we have all come to grow together and be a team that wants to support each other and make sure that we are all fulfilling our callings. I dare say that we have the best District on the mission.
I'll tell you about one of the Elders in my District that I went on an exchange with this past week. His name is Elder Kimball. He is from Cedar Hills, Utah. This Elder love music, clothes, snowboarding, math, camping, and Apple products. I have never connected so well with someone Haha. It was the craziest thing when we went on the exchange and began questioning each other about their life back home. I felt like I was talking to myself. It was great. Unfortunately he has been out for only three weeks, so I will have to wait about eight months to hang out with him back home. He is going to be a great missionary.
So I'll tell you about Claudie. Our last lesson with Claudie was about a month and a half ago. Then She told us that she was going to go to Spain for a month. Luckily she is back now and we have been able to get in contact with her once she got home. Gosh, I love Claudie. She lightens my day every time I get to see her. She is from Africa and we just get along so well. We have been able to see her twice in the past week and both lessons went really well. Her neighbor is a member and we have been able to teach her with her neighbor. They are becoming really close. I think that is just a matter of time before Claudie joins the Church. She is so smart and really pieces things together. What we teach her makes sense to her and she really retains everything that we teach her.
I have really been getting consumed in missionary work. I am really getting the hang of things that we tough for me at the start of my mission. I am getting really good at working with people and using the members in the missionary work. I think that I am getting really good at uniting people under a purpose and helping them work towards that purpose. I am learning so much in the mission and I just can't want to see how much more I learn in the time that I have left.
Brother Asper is teaching me so much. I have learned so much about the scriptures, history, and life because of him. He is like my own personal BYU professor. He is honestly the most intelligent man I have ever met. His mind is just astounding. It is inspirational. I learn something new about him everyday. He grew up on a farm in Oregon. Later in his life he worked on the Lunar Module and met Neil Armstrong. He is just the most amazing person that I have ever met. I asked him if I could write his biography for him and call it "From the Farm to the Moon" I think it would be a New York Times top seller.
The people that I have met on my mission is what has affected me the most. The relationships I've made, the lives that I have seen change. I just know that God is so real and that he truly loves all his children.
Well I got to get going. I don't know if anyone really reads this anymore haha, but it will be a good thing for my kids to read. I love you all so much!
-Elder Ryan Romero
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