Willy Wonka Shades

We found an oldish woman (45) a couple of weeks ago outside of her house, and she told us that she didn't want to listen. We started talking about life and pretty soon we were sitting under her lime tree teaching a lesson. She is supér laid back and wears these Willy Wonka type shades because she has a lazy eye.  We joke around a lot with her which she likes.  She hasn't gone to church yet because she is leery of commitment and thinks that she will be signing herself into a lot of work if she goes.  This week her son came out and joined us in the lesson. We knew him because we had played a short game of soccer with him and his buddies. Good kid!  He is 11 years old and understands the concepts we teach much better than many adults (it is interesting to see the differences between children who are studying and the adults who work in manual labor jobs).   When we asked the mom things like: "what changes have you seen in your life when you have tried to follow God?" She would say "well I used to beat my kids but...now all I do is yell at them; isn't that right boy?!"  Her boy would nod his head and say yes. My comp and I were bustin up´. Then in the prayer the kid said "help us to get to church this week with these hermanos, and if we are convinced by what we learn there help us go every week." Then the mom would start shouting things for him to say like "pray that you will be a better son for your angelic beautiful mother."   I tried not to laugh but then I heard my comp stifle a giggle and I was shaking. I had to plug my nose to keep from laughing. 

This week I had exchanges with an elder from the south of Mexico. He is a humble guy; a bit shy but very dedicated. He seems somewhat serious, and is all about the work but definitely not overbearingly. Unfortunately the members sort of took it wrong and in my first few weeks quite a few members were talking bad about him to us. Though I didn't really know him I stood up for him. In the exchanges I became really grateful for that decision as I got to know him. He turned out to really funny and a solid good hearted kid. I felt like I could be myself with him and he opened up a lot. Since then he has opened up a lot more with the district and jokes and talks with us. 

We have been teaching a family of 4+ people. Father, daughters, grandmother, uncle cousins... The group changes a lot but there is always someone that wants to listen when we pass by. The story is actually quite something. The father became divorced with his wife this spring and it tore him apart. He began to drink large quantities of heavy liquor and spiraled into a darkening depression. He lost a lot of weight and desire and hope of the future.  Just as he was hitting rock bottom his uncle from a city north of here randomly called to check in on him. The uncle is a bishop there and turned out to be an answer to his prayers. They talked for hours and the uncle drove down here to contact the missionaries himself. The man that we are teaching doesn't talk much but he is sincere and follows through. In the exchanges this week he opened up to us and then we talked about the atonement of Christ. After the lesson, my companion for the day told me that he had felt the spirit so strong that he almost cried.  This family showed up at the baptism of the family I had interviewed and felt desires to do the same. The zone leaders interviewed them after the baptism. The grandmother had doubts and wasn't sure if she wanted it. The other three were set on going through. It turned out to be a great thing because the grandmother really connected with the ZL and felt the spirit and decided to go forward. Unfortunately, she and her son both had some word of wisdom issues - so we have to wait a bit but they all left with goals in mind.

There is an older man that we contacted several weeks named Don. He is a lively spirit but has funny mixed views of religion and science; the result of growing up in the dominant religion. He goes around during the week fixing all of his neighbors electrical, plumbing....etc problems and cutting their grass free of charge. He was showing us his tools and then the kids that were playing soccer in front of us passed the ball to my comp. He went in to play. Don and I sat down on the back bumper of his car and started chatting about the meaning of life and his view of it. It was actually a really fun conversation but then his neighbor called him over to see if he could make a quick fix of something. I joined in the soccer game while we waited for him.  Heck of a good time. After playing a bit we said first team to three. We got it tied up 2 to 2 and then Don jumped into the game and the ball got to him. He awkwardly kicked it towards the goal and by some miracle it went in. We were dying. Everyone ran to him and cheered him. We had to take off but he gave us a box of cereal to eat for dinner. It was great because it helped us connect with him, and honestly my comp and I both need a tiny bit of sports every now and then.

There was the normal Torreon, flood the streets and everything else in 7 minutes, rain several times this week. We got soaked. And there is small tumble bush (remember Powell =D ) forest behind our house and it flooded so there were tons of mosquitoes. We had left a window open and as we entered the house one night we saw in horror that the walls were covered in mosquitoes. We made scary movie music with our mouths. We then grabbed a sandal and looked at each other (and it was like that moment  in Lord of the rings when Aragon looks back at the army and says dramatically "for Frodo" and then runs at the enemy hosts. Then we just started running around slapping the walls with the sandals and grabbing the ones in the air.  At the end we stood in the middle of dead bugs everywhere and it was like that moment in Mr. and Mrs. Smith when they are in the shopping center and they look at each other after killing everybody and everything is destroyed.  My comp was Angelina.