There are a ton of bugs. A ton. The gnats make it darker than it is, and I am always itching. BUT, I am really really happy here. This place is awesome. The main reason why this place is so great is because we already found some of the people we got sent here together for.
I am currently serving here with Elder Smith, born in Utah, raised in California. He is a surfer dude during the summer and a skier dude during the winter. He is a very, very friendly person. He was having zero success here with his last companion due to this elder´s unfortunate lack of wanting to be in the mission. So, we had no one when I arrived.
Then we got to contacting and contacted the Castillo family. There are six of them. Their names are Irma, Juan, Juliet, Lizbeth, Lissete, and Juan Jr. They invited us in because the mom (Irma) had seen a post in facebook that talked about the missionaries! It said that we walk around all day in the heat, without water, trying to help people learn about God, and that many people turn us away. So she decided that the next time the missionaries tried to talk to her, they would enter her home regardless of what she was doing at the time. ;)- We found her washing clothing. We got invited in, we shared the message, and then we got invited back. That first lesson, only Irma and Juliet were present; the rest were doing homework and getting ready to play soccer. In the second lesson, they were all seated on the couches waiting for us when we arrived, and they listened. And they accepted. Juliet actually told us this is what God has been preparing them to hear their entire lives. All of the kids went through catacysm, so they had a basic knowledge of the bible. They decided they would be baptized the 13th of this month. Then, they came to church. They arrived at 8:40. The meeting started at 9:00. Most of the members arrived at 9:20. And they absolutely loved it. ;)
Also, people are more willing to talk to us here, even though it is because most of the time they are drunk. We prayed to know where God wanted us to go, and he sent us to Sauteña. There, we met a man who is possessed. He investigated the church, and on the day of his baptism for some reason the bishop could not attend, so he decided he did not want to do it. And he stopped going. He went to another church. He explained to us about his Espíritu Santo, or holy spirit. He remembers how the spirit felt from when he went to church with us. But he has a different spirit now--one that appears to him in a cloud and tells him to do things, makes him feel really good, and started taking control of his body while we were talking to him. It changed his voice and started yelling things that were incomprehensible at us. We did all that we could. But he let the demon win in the end. We are trying to find him again so that we can exorcise him.
So we prayed again to know where God wanted us to go. We got the answer: everywhere. Every part of the city [with the exception of one where we got a distinct "NO--do not go there"], we got an affirmative. This place is great. :)
There is a lot of mud, though. It floods mud here, not water. The flooding basically ended, but when it rains we get pretty dirty.
And that was the week.
Love you guys!
Saludos, Amor, y Todo que puedo ofrecer a tí,
Salutations, Love, and All that I have to offer you,
Elder Scott
No comments:
Post a Comment