Scorpions and Sticky Hands

Shopping

 

Those stories about the Philippines’ are something else. A large part of me wants to be there to see it. I loved that story about the 10 Sister missionaries who escaped. I am super jealous. What an adventure!

We had a great week. We normally write you in the library because it is free. But the library is closed so we are at a different site. The problem with the library is that it changes something on the memory cards. It did it to both mine and my companions - so we can only open the folder from there. Sorry, but no photos today.       

We visited the lady where we helped paint her numbers on her house several times. This week we asked her what she remembered from our discussions.  She said, look "I really don’t remember anything for more than a day."  That doesn’t help make a progressing investigator. But she has a 17 year grandson and he has an interest. Every time we go to teach her he sits on the steps and listens. She sits outside of the entrance to her house where she sells clothes. We sit on a stump to teach her. We invited her to church but she declined. But, she said that she would send her grandson.

We showed up on Sunday morning and he was waiting for us but he said he could only go for an hour.  I was hoping it was a good speaker so he would have a good impression. I remembered Megan’s story about bringing an investigator when the first hymn was Praise to the Man. The investigator listened to the words then suddenly stood and shouted mid song: "I praise no man" and sprinted out of the building.

Ha - of course our first hymn was Praise to the Man. But he stayed calm. The speakers’ were fantastic.  At the end of the meeting he asked if it would it be all right if he stayed a little longer. Yessss!  He is the first person that we have been able to get to attend church here. So, I was super excited.

I was planning on taking him to the adult Sunday school class because it is so good - but the youth forced my hand and wanted him in their classes. I think it went well.

The coat and gloves are fantastic. It was super chilly here last Tuesday & Wednesday, so I was wearing everything you sent me. The sweaters are great.  The day I arrived in Torreon, President changed the rules from us not being able to wear sweaters to being able to. When he started here, the mission was way too lax. He started a program called "Obedience Total." Part of this was that we carried a small yellow card everyday in our shirt pocket with the rules. He has really has turned this place around. We had a conference several weeks ago with the Seventies over Mexico and the Mission Presidents. They had a discussion about getting all of the missions synchronized. President decided to do away with the program. At the meeting we had a ceremony where we cut the cards. He said that they are going to back off the rules because the missión didn’t need them anymore. He said, "I am giving you the gift of my trust; please don’t return to Babylon." So, the point of all this background information is that I can now wear these sweaters.  

We have had a few rules here that are unique and one of them is that we are not allowed to play sports with the members. My first comp was a Professional soccer player in Chile, (I have found out since that everyone here is a "professional" soccer player). They were playing as a zone and he blasted the ball at the goal. The ball slammed into another elders’ face, which shattered his glasses and he was bleeding pretty bad. This reminded me of the book "the chosen."

Mom sent me a pair of sticky hands in the box I just received. The other night when we got home I was a bit restless. We normally wrestle on such nights and while changing my clothes, I saw the sticky hands, and laughed. I took them out of the box, threw one to my comp then baited him and hit him in the rear. He laughed and took the bait and swung back. We ended up having a super epic sticky hand battle with full on overhand tennis stroke type swings by the end. We ended up on the floor on our backs laughing and out of breath. 

We also went to the Bishops house and made the brownies you sent. We then took them to an elderly lady that invited us to her birthday party. She is of very humble means and was super excited. At the party they found a scorpion.