February 23, 2015 -- Cake!

Well, Evalyn did get baptized, which was really cool. Her good friend who helped us teach her got to baptize her, which doubly cool for her and her friend. The taxi driver, Cesar, brought his entire family to the baptism but did not come to church and we are not sure why. We will be figuring that out this week. But he enjoyed the baptism. Evalyn is super happy, and when she entered the font she had two bracelets that my companion took and forgot to give back, which is pretty funny now.

While Evalyn and her friend were changing, the missionaries had a special number (we sang), which everyone enjoyed. Here in Mexico, people know (generally) how the hymns go but only melody, and they are unable to sing that part. We sang in parts, and it wowed them all. "Mas cerca dios de ti" is a glorious song. We sang all 5 verses, the first in unison (which no one payed attention to), and we sang the rest in parts (which everyone was enveloped for). The bishop was particularly fun to see the change, tablet to staring in an instant.

It is very normal for people here to tell you exactly what they think. People refer to people as they are. Telling you that you are fat is normal, and being socially acceptable is not something that exists. People always tell me I need to eat more, because I am enflacando, or getting less fat. I do not see it personally, and my weight stabilized at 195ish for the moment, so there is that. People refer to their daughters as the fatty, little fat girl, and names similair, and their parents as the ancient, old woman, crone, the works. Also, they love to tell people exactly how attractive they are. If you are ugly, you will hear it many times when you talk to people, you get desensitized; if you are pretty, you will hear it many times, and you will get a really big head. Normal.

Quote of the week (I will try to include one every week): "Soy ateo, Gracias a dios." In English, this means "I am an athieist, thanks to god." Due to the giant catholic influence here, everyone thanks god for everything, regardless of whether or not you believe in him or what to church you attend. It is very funny sometimes.

We are waiting for the news on who is changing (or not) this Saturday.

Apparently it is a pretty normal thing to smash the face of the person who has a birthday into the cake here. I found this very strange! Here is how this happened... I am Elder Scott, innocent as to the things of the world. It is my companions birthday, and the first thing he tells me is not to tell anyone it is his birthday. Well, ok, however you want it man--your day. So we go about the day, trying to be normal. Three member families have, somehow or the other, discovered it is his birthday. The first one happens after the lunch of the day. The sister brings in a cake, and everyone gets out their cameras. We sing happy birthday, and then they tell him he has to take a bite. I am sitting at his left, Elder Uribe at his right, and the other people on the other side of the table. He does not want to do it. He has everyone but me stand up and step back from the table. I just want to eat the cake, so I want him to take the bite so we can eat. He tries and fails 3 times to take the bite. On the 4th try, he goes in, and Elder Uribe jumps a couple of feet in order to slam his face into the cake, which happened in something like 2 seconds. Then he jumps back and everyone starts cheering. I started, confused, and then started laughing because his face was covered in icing. I had never seen anything like that before. Twas a new experience. :) The second family made us eat dinner with them. I said made, and they found us, brought us to the house, and fed us delicious gorditas. The 3rd had us come to their house and sang the Mexican version of happy birthday, which the missionaries did not know, and we ate more cake. I was a happy camper!

In other news, church now start at 10 because all the people who live in presidentes The colony farthest away from the chapel need an extra hour in order to try to arrive at church on time. It helped a lot of people get there. The Zuñiga family are officially reactivated after a lot of time and missionaries trying to get them to come to church. We were the succesful ones! Muahaha! Lots of people come to church now. The Paz Martinez family is waiting for the 28th, the day after the free marriages so that they can all get baptized. Woohoo! Well, that is about all I have right now. Until next week,

Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott