Elder Frito

It is so crazy that Meish is already heading home.  That went by so fast. It seems like yesterday that I was saying my last words to her in our living room with President Tingey.

We did a big ol hike this morning. At transfers they reopened the other area. My district leader is a stud and we are already super buds. He is from Guatemala and was a state champ wrestler. His baptism story is super funny. He worked in a Radio Shack type of joint and one Saturday two elders came in and bought 2 hours on the X Box. say wha! After several weeks of this they started talking to him and then teaching him. He was the only one in his family for 6 years and then he came on the mish. Last year his brother was baptized as well. He speaks broken English and said to me: “I got here, read the rule book and had a shock. Ha he said to me, "I’m so mad that I was baptized by Elder Frito (fried - or super dead)."   haha

This week he asked me what I thought we should do for a P-day activity. I said kind of joking, "Hike in Parras." He called me the other day and said that is what we were going to do!

Two days ago while we were walking a drunken man came up to us and told us he needed help. We took down his address and made an appointment.  We stopped by then next day and he let us in with great gratitude.  We began talking and then he went into the other room and we saw him take a sip of beer. We told him if he wanted our help he needed to get rid of that. He said, “ya anything.”  We went and poured it down his toilet. We then had an excellent lesson. He kept saying that he felt really down and that his life was falling apart. Toward the end of the lesson he told us that he had been seriously thinking about killing himself when he went to talk to us.  He came to us as a final plead for help.   He said that he had held the pistol ready but didn’t do it before. We spoke to him a bit longer, focusing on hope and love. He told us to come back this morning because he wanted to be more sober to talk to us. I told him to call me that night, whatever hour if he needed to talk. This morning we got there and he said that he had called me last night.   I looked and although he had written the number right he had been dialing it wrong.  He had panicked when I didn’t answer, but didn’t do anything because we had an appointment the next day. Can you imagine after not answering the phone if.....       yikes. But we got to sing hymns with him this morning and talk a bit. He was a lot better physically and emotionally after being able to just talk it out. I really hope we can help him.  

We also had the best first lesson this week of my mission. This was a reference from the baker that I sent you a picture of a few weeks ago. The baker went with us and we had a great lesson. The best part is that to the side of the room where we were teaching, this woman’s sons was watching a movie. You couldn’t hear it initially while we talked. But when we got to talking about Joseph Smith, and especially while I told the story of the First Vision, the classical theme song for the movie was a few notches higher. It was like a movie; perfectly timed music rising and lowering at the right moment. I can’t remember what movie was playing but I’ve been chuckling about it since.

Cate looked very pretty for the dance.  

Alright my parents - I have to take off. The next two weeks are going to be a great time. I am super excited to see my flesh and blood on Skype on Christmas Day.  That time works great for me.  

Love

Speen