Week 12

Week 12!! Wow it's flyin bye!  My first transfers are this week!!!  My trainer goes home.  I'm actually pretty bummed.  He was an awesome trainer!!  Even if he was a Trunky mess!  Kidding he was pretty good most the time.  Now I am going to get another comp named Elder Orton.  And guess what He leaves in 5 weeks... Awesome... What is president trying to do to me??  And this transfer is only 5 weeks because President is going home in 6 so we will be getting a new mission president here pretty soon.  Fun stuff.  So this week was nuts.  It was cool cuz we had a lot of lessons with less actives.  Most people know the church is true but its hard to dedicate them to do stuff because they are lazy... but when we have the spirit everything becomes super fun!  Which is why we need it!  So this last week we found out what our branch pres loves. Chick fil A!!1  I am slowly getting addicted to it!  You eat it with chick fil a sauce and its sooo good!!!  So when I was street contacting we talked to this guy and I asked him his favorite food.  He said pupusas.  I asked him if he liked chick fil a..  He goes... ohhhhh me encanta Chicky fil A!!  I would eat that stuff for breakfast lunch and dinner and he literally goes on for 20 min on how much he loves chicky fil A sauce. It was so funny.  Didn't get a return appointment tho cuz he was on his way to get chicky fil A with his novio.... great...Oh then we had dinner at this ladys house.  Her name is Otillia.  She's a great cook.  I'll send you some pics of the sweet food we ate!!  Oh so I saved my comps life this week!  We were just in our appartment complex and we knock on this door and are waiting for them to come answer when I heard this super weird hissing noise.  I look down and am like oh FREAK!! There is this huge snake right by my comps leg and it's getting up in the position to strike!  My comp is completely oblivious and I yell to him and push him out of the way.  He's like what? Oh shoot!!!!  This huge black snake almost bit him  Don't know what kind it is, but it was nuts!!  Oh another story, so we contacted these other latinos and they started speaking super fast to me and just repeating, just to try and confuse me.  They thought they were sooo funny..  Then I realized that I had met this guy 3 days before and he was like ya come over Sunday and you can teach us so I was like sweet!  Ya! He just starts busting up laughing and all his friends are going hysterical...  my comp steps in and is like no no no.  Apparently I had just agreed to go drink with them on Sunday... whoops! haha  I love not speakin spanish!  Great week tho!  Fun adventures.  Last week with my trainer.  Life is good.  I am so thankful for all the things I have been given.  Out here, people don't have very much.  One kid named Gerardo that we visit has to sleep on the floor cuz the bed bugs ate his bed.  Then there are like 2 or 3 families living in these tiny houses that work 24/7 just to try and afford the rent... Sad stuff but that's why we are here.  To help them!  And in helping them it's such a good feeling.  I love missionary work!  Thank you to everyone back home for all you do!  Have a great week!  

Love,

Elder Cornejo 

By the way, Thank you phyllis!!! You are the best!!  She sent us a package with tons of goodies!!

So did service this week!  The lady we did service for kept asking if i was from krypton or something haha.  It felt so good to do work!!  Studying so much is a different kind of work but you cant beat good ol fashon yard work!  I dug a path for em and moved 1.8 tons of stone!  

Playin with the kids

The pupusa family!  Bye elder riddle

Week 11

Happy Mothers Day!

Great week!  It was so wonderful being able to skype the family.  You really begin to appreciate the simple things in life when you don't use them anymore.  But this week was great.  The riots calmed down so we were able to get a big group of missionaries to go to Baltimore and help clean all the trash off the streets.  It was just sad.  There is trash everywhere... Huge rats like I am talking HUGE 5 lb rats run around!!  They are nuts!  We were cleaning up and we lifted this piece of trash and this giant rat rolls out.  All the girls started screaming, but it was dead, so that was good.  Then we needed to throw it away so our mission mom, Sister Richards, says, is there a shovel anyway.  I told her oh you just have to pick it up.  The look she gave me was like there is no way in heck, you are getting me within 10 ft of that thing! haha So I was like ok ok I'll do it.  Sister Richards daughter was there and she was like if you touch that rat we are sending you home!!! She's like 16.  So I pick it up by the tail and they all freak out.  It was heavy!! Sister Richards got a picture of it and I think she posts them on the mission blog if you google search the Maryland Baltimore mission blog, I'm sure it will come up!  But ya super nasty! So fun!  Smelled delicious!  What else, oh so this week, we went on exchanges!  First time taking over the area so that was cool.  I learned a lot!  I got a english speaking comp so he literally knew 0 spanish... awesome.  So I'm left to teach the lessons.  Had to rely on the spirit a ton and he helped me a lot.  Taught Nectali and he came to church this week. So that was awesome!!  He brought his 3 year old son but his girlfriend still doesn't want to come...After the lesson we get outside and have to walk to our next appointment and it starts raining.  Our next appointment is a mile away and the rain is crazy.  I am literally soaked to the bone!  My comp was so mad.  He's been out for 21 months, never got his scriptures wet and the first day he comes on an exchange, his scriptures get drenched!!  But it was a blessing because a less active named Juan let us in so we were able to teach him a lesson.  Big lesson story, I had to teach the restoration by myself this week on the exchange cuz it was in spanish.  Let me tell you, it was nuts!  Everything went nuts!! Right before I taught the first vison... I wound up teaching 5 people at once and everyone is just throwing down what if questions in Spanish, people are walking in and out of the house, phones are ringing, babies are crying, the mom is breastfeeding, it was nuts!  My comp that I'm on the exchange with is literally green cuz he can't handle the mom feeding her kid right next to us and all this is while I'm teaching, yet somehow it was still spiritual... Great week.  I love the mish.  Thank you for all the support from home!  Matt Whiting, I received your letter this week.  Thank you!  And Carolyn you are awesome! Thank you!!  I hope everyone has a great week!  Enjoy the time you have with those you love because we never know what can happen.  The gospel is real and it blesses lives.  I've seen it! I know it and I know God lives and speaks to those that ask Him today!  Have a great week! 

Elder Cornejo

Bee hunting with silly string. They have gaint bees in Baltimore

The harbor in Annapolis

  My comp and I chillin on the way to church

Week 10

I think it's week 10!!

 Ok so crazy week in Baltimore! But I am not there, so no worries!  I am out of time! but I hope everyone had a great week!!!  I have a couple of crazy stories but can't tell them yet!!  Sorry... but this week was alright, full of fun!  Hard week.  People don't like keeping commitments and they never say no... they just don't show.  They say oh come over at this time ,then they just aren't home after you have walked 2 miles to see them. It's fun though!!  Sorry no pics!!  Just know I am doing great and am safe!  I miss you all.  I have a strong testimony that this is God's work and the harder we work, the more we get out of it! I miss you all and have a great week! 

Elder Cornejo