The University

We had 3 baptisms on my birthday.  One of these was the daughter of the family that I thought would never fully commit. We had spent a lot of time with them and it was so great to see her in white. The other two were from the new area. We showed up by a reference and taught for 15 minutes then needed to leave.  We asked when we could return, they said "well tomorrow." Ha -  baptized 3 weeks later. Talk about being ready.  Here is a problem, the zipper on the baptism onezey doesn’t work, so we have resulted to stapling and other such methods. 

 

I haven’t been sick at all. I’ve been completely healthy - so give Tagge my thanks for the tonsils.

I think I Gained 10 pounds this week. The people here found out it were my birthday and I was showered with ice cream and cake for three days.  Today was the end of my time training with Elder Poblete.   We would spend three hours on 2 days of the week in an adjacent area that has been closed for a year because there was some trouble there in the past. We weren’t allowed to walk to the houses but rather drove with a member.  I am now reopening that area. It is called the University. My companion is Elder Nicolas; a native that is finishing off his mission with me.  I am actually pretty excited for this new area.  4 of our 5 baptisms have been in this area, and we have a pile of references that we didn’t have time previously to visit.  Also our old house was quite an adventure.  We didn’t have water for three days last week and that would happen every other week. The bathroom reeked.  But we found solutions and sources of water to accomplish what was needed. And I did learn quite a bit about piping.  Also it was on the top floor of an apartment which was quite hot after a day of Torreon sun.  Our new house has air conditioning and a great water system.    

I have a ton of pictures from the last couple of weeks but my camera was taken out of my backpack in the move.  The bishop helped us for several hours move.  That man is a saint to us.  On my birthday and one other day this week his family invited us over, then whipped out a big cake and other food. They sang me happy birthday in Spanish then tried in English, then a whole compilation of other Mexican songs and traditions.  The other day he took us to lunch to get some delicious tacos on the side of the street. I talked to him about business for twenty minutes while we ate and it made me miss my dad.  He is going to try to sell his old business and start up a chain of restaurants’.  He has a "help" that knows how to cook like no one else.  So the bishop is going to have Mike the help teach those in the ward without work how to cook then place them as chefs.  The bishop has two sons on the mission now.  One was very rebellious.  The bishop had enough when the son was 18 and sent him to a farm to reform him.  The son was beat up a lot there by other delinquents, but came back different.       

Thanks so much for the packages. That it really makes the week.   Thanks to Chari for her package.   I got to give the zone leaders some treats for helping me move, and it was fun to see elder Tec, a tiny little native whose eyes get wide with anticipation when he sees sugar (or really any other food), smile with a mouthful.  Really he downs it. ha