April 27, 2015 -- Weekly email and pictures

Last picture before leaving the CCM

Less of a crazy week than the first one, but I still had some good missionary experiences of course. When we're having success, teaching lessons, being able to talk to people, contact and even if the days are a little less sunny, it's easy to be in a good mood and focus on missionary work. But a few days, recently, a lot of appointments have fallen through, people being busy with work or something, and we end up just walking around contacting. Lots of walking. It's a good chance to work on my Spanish (which is getting better and better) with Elder Velez, but I like teaching lessons even more. When we're just doing that, I get a little more homesick. I'm not really a person to get homesick, and it's not really that I miss home. I do, but it's more so that I miss America and stuff that'll be there after my mission. Just sometimes.

Now for a little more on my area. Lots of walking like I said and you already know how hot and humid it is. Really hot and really humid, but even more so in the next few months. I just sent pictures of the house. We tend to go by the out of sight out of mind rule when it comes to bugs. My kill count for cucarachas is about five right now. I'm getting used to the showers now. You can choose between a cold shower or a hot shower. But you have to heat the water on a stove and mix it with cold water in a bucket and pour it on yourself. I'm getting used to the nice cold showers. For contacting, a lot of people have fences in front of their doors so you have a coin to tap on the gate and they come out to talk to you. Very friendly people. We've yet to get a door slammed on us. There are a lot of dogs too, as in everybody and their dog has a dog. They're not very good for inviting the spirit when we are trying to make an appointment or teach a lesson, but usually it's fine. At least they don't chase us. For the weirdest moment contest this week, we had a drunk person come up to us to set up an appointment and ask what we believed. Turns out that happens a lot and they don't remember us, but we set up an appointment anyways and he gave us God's blessing. Nice guy. Thanks for everything and I love you all! And last thing, I realized I forgot to write about general conference (General conference is a semiannual gathering of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. During general conference weekend, Church members and others gather worldwide in a series of two-hour sessions to receive inspiration and guidance from Church leaders.). I really like Elder Jeffrey R. Holland's story, President Uchtdorf's talk (he gave two) and I forget who, but the talk about not needing a title to do good (Elder Michael T. Ringwood). Also, the General Authority (Elder D. Todd Christofferson) who said that no one is predestined to receive less than all God has to offer. Keep love for everybody with that information.

-Elder Allgaier

Elder Allgaier with his trainer

Headed on the Metro