Hiking, Building, and High Fiving!

Family,

Sorry this letter is a bit later than normal.  We hiked about 7 kilometers, over 3 mountains this morning, to find some ruins that didn't turn out to be much. It took longer than normal, and we didn't have time to write in the morning as a zone, like normal.  The hike was very fun though, and I have many pictures that I will send in the other thread.

So, every single person I have met here in my area has built their own house.  And they all believe the house will not last unless you build it out of brick.  Because of this, every building, house, tienda, everything, is made of brick, and it ugly as can be.  There is a family in the area that has helped us a lot, and asked for us to help add on to their house.  The house is on the top of a mountain, and though we have little brick house building experience, we told them we would help.  We also recruited some of the other members of the ward, and the youth to help, and we finished with more than half of the add-on in one day.  They were extremely pleased at all the people who came to help, and it was also a good experience. I never knew how tough laying bricks correctly could be, but I do now.  At one point, one of the other elders knocked down a large chunkof the wall, which put us back some time.  The family fed us twice though, and had all of this nasty maize water we wanted to sip on. Everyone ended up gaining from the experience of this service project.

This past week we had interviews with the president.  They wen't very well, and I learned a lot about what will be happening in the near future.  He told me that because my companion and I had proven ourselves and had success, he was going to have to split us this next transfer, which is in two weeks.  This isn't normal here in the mission to split after 2 transfers. Usually you have 3 transfers together while training.  Another thing he told me was that I would likely be leaving the area, even though De Horta has been here for longer.  He didn't explain it, but I know its for a good reason.  One of the last things he said to me was that it wasn't certain, but he would like me to train either this next transfer, or the one after.  This was a huge shocker to me, as I still have 2 weeks left in training, but if this is what the Lord wants, then of course I will accept.

We have one investigator that we have visited probably more than half a dozen times, but has not seemed to progress much.  She was always willing to let us in (only with her friend, who is also a member present) and hear our message, but that was it.  This last week when we visited her, we started out asking how we could help, as usual.  She never had anything that she needed from us, or at least that she told us, until now.  We could tell something wasn't right, and she eventually told us.  She is going through a divorce, and is having a very hard time with it, as its not her decision.  When she told us this, she broke down in tears.  We told her we would do anything to help her, and she asked us just to visit her more often.  We agreed to do this, and also invited her to church, which we had done before but she had yet to attend.  To our suprise, she came to church! Along with her 2 kids also!  When we visited her later that day, the spirit was stonger than I have ever felt it.  She is now reading the book of mormon, and is praying daily.  When we left the house, my companion and I hi five'd and said "We're gonna baptize a family!!"

Elder Potts