January 24, 2011-Hugs From Home

heyyy,
glad to hear that you guys finally got my emails from the past 3 weeks haha. hopefully you werent thinking that i wasnt writing or anything.
so i think that this week was a good one overall. ive gotta say that at the beginning of the week, both elder gutierrez and i were a little frustrated with some things. like some of the people that were progressing really well a while ago havent been progressing very well as of late. so we´re kind of working to separate the ¨wheat and the tares¨ if ya know what i mean hahah. like i know that everyone needs the gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives, but not everyone is ready right at this moment to receive if. for some people, its just not their time yet. but we´re trying not to waste too much time with those people right now. but yeah, its still frustrating having to let go to people sometimes...but i think that both elder gutierrez and i would agree that we´re excited about what we see now. like we dropped a couple people with baptismal fechas cause they werent progressing, but now we´re focusing even more on people that are. and that gives us more time to focus on finding new people to teach, which im glad to say that we did this week...i think i told you all in one of my last emails about olga, gisela, and guillermo. well theyre progressing really well now. like we went over to their house the other day and gisela had read up until moroni. like for only having found them a couple weeks ago, thats really really impressive. like she should be done with the book of mormon when we go back again this week. but theyre really liking everything. i think we´re gonna try and take out baptismal fechas with them this week.
and another awesome thing that happened at the end of this week. so one of the things that we were a little frustrated about was that we werent receiving alot of references from the members. like i think everyone thats served a mission knows that receiving a reference from a member is that best way to find people to baptize. but we really havent had luck with that in this area. its something that i asked especially in my prayers, so that the members would feel the need to give us references of their friends. and im glad to say that the Lord always answers our prayers haha. a member named gaby, whos going on a mission in a couple months, gave us a reference for one of her friends. like the girls name is sole. shes listened to the missionaries alot before. but we had a family home evening with her and gaby´s family and sole told us that she feels like now is the time. like she had listened to the missionaries alot before, but had never really asked God if it was true. but she says that now is that time. so we´re stoked about that. shes already gone to church once, which is cool. references really are the way to find people who are prepared for this message.
ohhh ok so just a weird little note...you guys are always asking if i eat anything weird or how the food is. so the other week i tried eel. ive always wanted to try it, ya know? cause people have told me that you can eat it. alot of people dont dare to do it, but ive always wanted to do it and no one´s ever had any hahah. but yeah the other week someone had some and ask me just jokingly if i wanted to try it. i think they thought that id be a girl about it or something and not want to hahah but i was like, ¨yeah ill try it!¨ and to be honest it was actually pretty good. im not sayin that id eat it all the time or anything hahah but it actually is really good meat. so yeah, thought id share that fun little fact with all of you.
mom, im glad that it didnt get to the point where you had to call president hatch so that hed call president stapley haha. dont worry, its all good. dad, have fun up in utah! be sure to tell kenzie that i love her and that i wish the best while shes on the mission. shes going to love it sooo much and really bless lives. ill see her in about 2 years. sean, che espero que todo este bien en la escuela y con ese trabajo. no trabajes demasiado hahah porque si lo haces, no vas a estar en forma para jugarme en tenís despues de la mision. pero igual, te gano hahah. paige, its awesome that you and the fam got to hang out with keeley before going to italy. its awesome to see all of you in that picture. youre gonna have to send me that one sometime. bridg, back to the lovely full week of school hahah. have fun!
well i guess thats about it. but i love you all and appreciate all that you do for me. have a great week and ill talk to you soon.
con cariño,
elder ryan hall