Sombrero

Howdy Y´all! a big fat greetin´ from TEXAS!!!!

alright its true I´m not in Texas, but I am sporting a super awesome cowboy hat and many people have told me I look like a Texano or Texan. [DID YOU KNOW THAT...? (turns out "Texas" are spanish tiles for roofing. the authentic ones though) ...NOW YOU KNOW!!] Don´t worry my friends who might be a little faricyish and say "NOOOO YOU CANT WEAR A COWBOY HAT ON THE MISSION!!!!!" let your souls rest easy. on wednesday the president gave us permission to wear anything from baseball caps to sombreros to help protect us from the hot sun while its super hot like this because lots of people are getting sick. so I cruised on over to the tiangis (each friday they cover the streets in "El Centro" with a roof of tarps suspended from building to building supported with polyester ropes and crude wooden poles and everyone from the surrounding pueblos comes and sets up a station where they sell whatever good it is they sell. its nuts. you can´t even recognize the streets once you enter. you literally have to count the blocks to find your way around through there.) on friday and scored myself a sombrero!!! its so nice to have to block the burning rays of the sun. I look like an idiot, but its fun :)

well, this week was a bit lame to tell the truth. on tuesday I ate a papaya that tasted a little weird, but me being new to the papaya world thought maybe it was just another type of papaya and seeing as how it cost me precious money I ate it anyway :) about an hour later I started feeling really sick. I went to the doc on Wednesday and he hooked me up with some pills that help a lot. I just had a stomach infection and something that felt just like a fever with hot and cold flashes, body aches, and the works. never threw up though! victory. I still went out and worked each afternoon the most I could though except for Thursday. Thursday sucked. but I feel much better today. my energy still doesn´t last very long but at least I don´t feel like a dead person. Seriously there were a couple days where I was walking around delirious. I could not think straight to save my life. for instance one night I tried to send a text message to my DL (about 10 words) and it took me like 10 minutes and it still didn´t end up making much sense. haha :)
along with all that I had a constant headache.

I did have a victory though! I finally got my companion to stop flirting with girls on the phone and in text messages!!!! that's a huge feat considering the fact that he had to have a special change a little while ago from one side of the mission to the other because he couldn´t control himself with a girl... he would like tickle her and all sorts of inappropriate crap aside from super flirting and sharing love notes. so even if we don´t baptize anyone this change thats a sufficient success for me. nobody´s been able to accomplish that with him so far. And whats even better is that he doesn´t hate me! in fact we´re good friends! I secreted it :) along with lots of help from the Lord of course. can´t steal that credit. you might ask, "why didn´t you just not allow him to use the phone?" That was strategy number 1 believe it or not. ha. didn´t work though. he would still just steal the phone whenever I wasn´t looking and sneak off messages or calls and it started causing irritation from both sides in the companionship. his because he wanted to talk to girls and saw me as a rebellious teenager sees a parent who forbids an action. as we all know it just causes irritation on the part of the teenager and causes them to want to do it more just to spite the parent. same thing here, and obviously on my side because i´m responsible for him and he´s doing something stupid, like the parent in the analogy, and I only have his well being in mind but he´s resisting and resisting and the harder I would try the more resistance I would receive. needless to say, frustrating. so i needed a new approach.

I hit my knees and asked for help and the Lord immediately started instructing me. not with words, more with understanding of what I needed to do.

the first thing that came to my mind is to show more love toward him and to be an example. I had a friend who is a girl from my first area that I would talk to every once in a while that he knew about and even though the situation with her was very different from the situations he was involved in, he still saw it as justification. so the first thing I did was I completely cut all communication with her. and I told him about it. without saying anything more to him about his problem, I explained to him that I didn´t feel right talking to that girl while in the mission even though she was just a friend and that I wasn´t going to talk to her again and I asked for his help to not let me (not that I needed that, but just so it wasn´t sooo obvious what I was doing) and he agreed.

Later I succeeded in not talking to her and pointed it out to him every once in a while how long it had been and how much better I felt. subliminal messaging :) I also continued being his buddy and winning his confidence.

I also stopped prohibiting him from using the phone and only mildly monitored his phone usage to make sure there was nothing really inappropriate going on. I did, however, consistently make comments and communicate in every way I could without saying anything he could justifiably be angry about (mostly just giving off the strongest negative spiritual vibes I could) every time he would use the phone to flirt. this part required a TON of patience because I didn´t know when or if he would get it and stop doing it by his own will (which was the goal). I just kept listening to the spirit when I´d get the promptings to just sit tight and keep doing what I was doing. Showing love for him whenever he wouldn´t be doing that, being his friend, and showing my strong disapproval when he would do it. The Lord blessed me with a TON of patience and helped me to have faith to not worry much about the when and just worry about loving him and being consistent.

well, finally just Saturday morning he approached me and volunteered this phrase, "Elder Henze, Ya no voy a musear con las chicas. ni por teléfono ni por mensajear." translation: "Elder Henze, I´m not going to flirt with girls anymore. not on the phone nor by texting." I hardly believed it when I heard it. I told him that was AWESOME and how happy I was that he´d made that decision and all that and the best part is that so far he´s stuck to it!!! :D I´m so happy. Thats probably the biggest success of the change so far. he was literally the most flirty missionary in the mission before being my comp. It´s literally his only reputation and I really think this lesson he´s learned could help him to be less of a creeper when he gets home in 6 months and hopefully the start of a new direction in that aspect that will lead to fidelity in his marriage whenever that happens. could be a long shot, but i like to keep the faith that its not. I have noticed big changes already and the best part is that because I followed the Lord´s council on how to handle the situation, he was able to make these changes internally by his own will. lasting changes instead of just putting up with me until we got changes and then returning right back to the same thing when I was gone. The phrase comes to mind "give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime."

Ok everybody I´m out of time for today but here´s some pics from this week! I love and miss you all and as always thank you so much for all your prayers and support!!!!

Love,

Elder Spencer Henze