15 Junio 2015

Un añito ha pasado ya...

Bueno, this has been an insane week.

A missionary in our zone got hit by a car going 100 kmph. His leg got broken in two places and basically his hip got ripped in half, and something about his appendix exploded at the same time. Long story short, the doctors spent a long time just trying to figure out what to do first. His family (non-members) came up from Mexico City to be here. He's being taken care-of, and we're rotating doing splits with his companion so that his companion isn't shut up inside for the whole month or however long he's in there. The hospital feeds Elder Velasco (the one who "wanted to play bullfight on the highway" as one sister said it) and the relief society of the stake has organized to give breakfast, lunch and dinner to whatever Elder is his companion every day. Elder Velasco is in good spirits.

This bit about him getting hit actually showed up on the national news, so you might be able to find it on Google. There's a really heroic looking picture of Elder Velasco splayed out on the road looking right at the camera and Elder Torres crouching over him, shouting at someone for help. it makes you wonder: who had the audacity to stop and take a picture instead of calling the ambulance? But whatever. Maybe they'd already called, who knows.

Anyway, all the attention that he was receiving made me jealous, so I busted my head open walking into low-lying overhang. We went with a less-active member and his daughter (not a member) cleaned me up and then we shared a quick lesson and it turns out she'd met the missionaries before but they'd never been able to clear up her doubts. So maybe it was all meant to happen so that we would meet her, because she seems really open to learning.

Then we walked over to the cheap walk-in clinic and all the people kept looking at me on the way over. I hadn't seen myself up to that point. We got to the clinic and sat down. Everyone turned and looked at me and an old lady said "you can go in before me if you want." So we accepted but then I wanted to know why everyone was acting like that and so I took a picture. I'll send that right now so you all can see it.

Me in the clinic

The doctor looked at my wound and said "that's going to need anesthetic and stitches." The needle moving around under my scalp to give me the anesthetic was just about the weirdest sensation I’ve ever felt. Then he stitched me up and told me to sit up and tried whipping up the pool of blood I left before I saw it, but I saw it anyway. That was a LOT of blood. But everything's good now.

Lucy FINALLY got baptized this week! 

Lucy and Tere and us

That took WAY too long, but she finally went under. Everything went well until they were in the font and in that moment apparently she panicked and stiffened up. Elder Stensrud brought her hand up to plug her nose but she didn't understand the gesture and the hand went over her eye instead. Then she thought she was supposed to go forward and Elder Stensrud was trying to make her go backward and so they fought like that for a few seconds before Elder Stensrud won and WHOOSH she went under, luckily completely. It was basically the most awkward baptism I've ever seen, but she later said that if we had told her she was going to fall backward she wouldn't have wanted to do it, so it worked out better this way. Then she almost tripped on her way up to the stand to get confirmed on Sunday. Oh well. Better awkwardly than not at all.

Well, that's about all. We've had to drop some awesome investigators this week because they've just not been coming to church. But one with whom we've been struggling for a couple weeks to come finally came. She's living with a less-active family while she's studying here in Monclova. Her name is Maribel and is super duper interested, but it's hard to teach her because when we go to teach her the family she's living with is always trying to distract us with questions that have nothing to do with anything or trying to get ready to go to parties or whatever. It's frustrating. But SHE CAME! And she also said she started reading the Book of Mormon and has a TON of questions for us today when we go over there. 

AND.......Martha came back in town. So we're picking up the teaching where we left off. And her husband is really open with us now, so just pray for us and for her so that his heart will soften and he'll be willing to marry her and let her be baptized. God softened Pharoah's heart, he can soften Rodolfo's (or Panzon as we call him. Panzon basically means "big fatty." That's what Martha calls him to his face so that's what we call him when he's not around.)

That's it for this week. I hope you all enjoy your vacations and everything!

Los quiero a todos!

Elder Taylor

8 Junio 2016

Well....I hit the one year mark this week. Good grief.

Here's a brief report of the past year:

Area 1: Aurora 2, Saltillo. Companions Elder Alcala, Elder Carpio. 5 Baptisms

Area 2: Aeropuerto 1, Monclova. Companions Elder Muñoz, Elder Vasquez, Elder Tamo, 2 Baptisms

Area 3: Frontera 1, Frontera. Companion Elder Stensrud. 2 Baptisms, 1 Pending

I'm going to hit 10 baptisms this next week (Lucy didn't want to do it this week for health problems) and I've baptized in every area up to this point, one goal that I had coming out on the mission. Woo!

This week was a little rattling because of a lot of things. We had another Leadership Conference in Saltillo and they went over a lot of things that they said basically "These are basic things that everybody should know and be doing." And I thought, "Oh crap, I don't do those things." So that was uncomfortable. Good news is I came back with a huge long list of things to work on.

But while I was down there I heard about something. Carlitos Alvarez is dying. Apparently the doctors told him and his family he has very little time left. We knew it was coming, but I don't think anyone thought it was going to be so soon. I wrote them a quick letter and asked Elder Alcala to take it to them (he's the Zone Leader down there in Valle de las Flores) reminding them about the resurrection, about faith, and about the promise that they will one day be an eternal family. And then I reminded them of an experience we had together in a lesson when we taught them about the Plan of Salvation. In that moment I felt prompted to have them close their eyes and imagine themselves, the whole family, dressed in white with perfect bodies that can't be harmed or get sick. The spirit filled the room and I remember asking Hermano Alvarez what he felt and he just smiled and said, "La gloria."

I hope Carlos gets better and can have the life that all the doctors said he would never have. But I know that that is probably not what God has planned for him. His sickness was what brought his family to the gospel. Now they're in and strong, and because of his sickness, he cannot progress anymore. It may be his time to go on to the next realm where he can progress and fulfill his eternal purposes, where he can have callings and serve the Lord without physical limitations. I just hope his family can understand that.

Speaking of them, I had a dream this week that was really weird. I dreamed that Hermano Alvarez ran into me and so we started talking. Then he says he met a friend of mine and says that his name was Michael Carpenter. Then I ask him which one because I know a few and he takes out a photo of his wife smiling and doing thumbs up with Michael Carpenter, the one that I was drum major with. And I thought, "That's strange" and then woke up. The weirdest thing of that dream was how REAL it felt. But I don't think anything like that is going to happen. That would be TOO weird.

A new investigator came to church this week. He was a guy we met in the Barboza family's home; actually the same day we met them. Turns out he'd been going to church earlier as a youth but never got baptized because his parents wouldn't let him. We hadn't gone back to visit him since then, but then this Saturday we were walking around trying to find people at home and unoccupied (which is always a struggle on Saturday) and the thought came to mind to go visit Luis, this guy that we met a couple weeks ago. We went and found his home (which is HUGE and he lives alone) and asked if we could come in and he said he hadn't cleaned up recently so it would be better if we came back later (which usually means people aren't interested). So then we just invited him to church and set an appointment to come back later on Sunday.

AND THEN HE SHOWED UP TO CHURCH! The best part (even though he came with about 10 minutes left of testimony meeting) was after the first hour when several people who remembered him from earlier came up and said hi to him (which was key I think because he's rather socially awkward). He started bawling. When my companion asked him about it, he said it was just because he felt so good.

And the heat is starting in earnest now. AAAAAAAAAHHHH! It reminds of a moment I had in Aeropuerto when i was talking with a family about where some of my other friends on missions in Mexico went. When I finished naming places like Guadalajara, Pachuca, Mexico City, and Cuernavaca, the hermana looked at me hard and asked "What did you do? You certainly landed in the ugliest place." Oh joy.

Other news: President Rodriguez gave us an hour and a half to write on mondays, starting this week. YAY! So I'll start being able to write a little more.

Family vacation sounds like fun this year with Grandma in Oregon. Diviertanse!

And at least dad's wearing shorts. That's a definite progress.

Of course I remember Elder Garcia! The poor kid that went through that 3 hour lesson with Sister Marcum with us!

Well, that should be all. Nos vemos en cachito menos de un año!

Elder Taylor

1 Junio 2015

Caption for the photo: Mosiah 15:14-17

We had another fantastic rainstorm this week. It caught us just as we were on our way to stake conference. All the taxis were busy, so we were waiting for about 30 minutes in the rain before one stopped. We told him where we were going and he said, NOPE! it's flooded over there. So then we waited another 30 minutes for another one to stop. So he took us and we got there soaked to the skin and stepped into the chapel. SOMEBODY thought it was a good idea to turn the place into a gigantic refrigerator with the AC system. It was COLD. But we didn't get sick, so that's good.

The Choir in stake conference was dreadful, but they sang with heart. They sang O Mi Padre, Paz Calmense (Master the Tempest is Raging) and Alabad al Señor, which was cool because that hymn doesn't come in the Spanish Hymnbook.

There was a tornado in Acuña which apparently the worst tornado that has happened in Mexican history. It existed 6 seconds and destroyed 150 homes or something like that and killed 14 people. We haven't heard that any missionaries were affected.

Martha should be coming back from Aguascalientes this week! WOOHOO! And we have to give her back a dish that she loaned to us when she made brownies for us. Oh darn, a good excuse to go back.

ANNNNNDDD.....LUCY PASSED HER INTERVIEW WITH THE PRESIDENT! YAYAYAYAY! so she'll be baptized this Saturday. She is super excited.

We ran into a guy from the Movimiento Gnostico these past two weeks. We entered into his house and (I lie not), there were doves flying around in his front room which was small classroom type salon. When he turned on the fan, he said "watch out" and bits of bird poop went flying. He had pictures of religious figures and statues all over, and a ton of pictures of pyramids for some reason. Looking at the board looked like it was a super fascinating discussion. He talked to us about something about 7 great teachers, Krishna, Jesus, Buddha, Quetzalcoatl (which, he claimed, is basically just an ancient Mexican Jesus but it didn't interest him at all that we claimed we had a book that talks about how Jesus came to the Americas because, he claimed, it would "lack profundity"...whatever) and some others. And I've never met anyone who can't answer a straight question with a straight answer as badly as him. Good grief, it was like pulling teeth just trying to focus the lesson. So basically it results that he doesn't want anything with the church "because religions, while necessary, only serve to guide people to the Gnostic Movement." yeah.....But he told us about two religious books from the ancient mexicans that I plan to look up once I get back. One called "Popol Vuh" and the other "Chilam balam."

Speaking of which, Elder Lopez ¿a missionary from the south of Mexico? said that the distribution center in the temple should have books of mormon in mixteco so we asked Lucy-s friendshipper to check when the ward goes to the temple this week. That way she-ll be able to hear the gospel in her own languageª By the way, the order of punctuation marks randomly changed on me in the last couple minutes, so the punctuation in this letter from here on out might not make much sense.

Oh, actually, i-m already done.

Que Dios me los cuideª

Elder Taylor

Mosiah 15:14-17