14 Septiembre 2015
This week was
a week of surprises.
1. We found a
few new people, and one of them whose name is Jose Luis at first was a super
Christian guy. Just so everybody knows, Catholics here tend to be hard to teach
because they either don't care about anything religious or are super Catholic
and are determined to not change, even if they know and admit that they know
that their religion is wrong about many things (that sounds ugly but that's how
they themselves say it.) Jehovahs Witnesses are hard even to get in the door
because they try preaching to you and don't listen to anything you say.
Atheists don't want to listen. Gnostics think they know everything and don't
want to listen. But Christians might be the worst in that they know all these
scriptures about the Restoration, they know about the Spiritual Gifts and they
know about just about everything that is the True Church of Jesus Christ but
have different interpretations of it all and generally come back to the line
"well, I have crazy spiritual experiences in my church, so that means that
my church is of God." There's also a general belief here that there is
no·True Church of Christ and that it doesn't matter what church you belong to,
you're going to be saved. I've even heard Jehovah's Witnesses say that.
Anyway, this
Jose Luis we weren't too sure about him because he seemed pretty sold on his
current church which is governed by a pastor and then by an apostle at a
regional level. He talked about how they laid their hands on him and gave him the
Gift of the Holy Ghost and how then he talked in tongues. And then he
demonstrated how to talk in tongues. But then when we came back he told us
about how he's just never run into the church that has "the greenest
pastures" for him and that he's looking for the true church. So then when
we talked about the Book of Mormon he wanted it and so we gave it to him and he
got really excited. So that was kind of a surprise. We weren't sure he was
interested at all.
2. We've been
trying to get with this lady named Carla Rios for a few weeks, but something
has always just been coming up and so we haven't been able to line up our
schedules with her until finally we went to knock her door again and she wasn't
busy. At first she had expressed doubts about Joseph Smith and had seemed
pretty adamant about that. But then when we were sitting there her doubts just
kind of went out the window. She even mentioned she had looked online to find
stuff to bring up in the lesson, but we answered her questions really well. So
that was cool. Another surprise. Also, she has a German Shepherd named Hitler.
3. We had the Temple Rededication of the
Temple of Mexico City this Sunday. Turns out President Eyring REALLY struggles with
Spanish pronunciation. At one point he didn't even try to pronounce the name of
someone and just waited for the translator to say it. But it was really
awesome. But that's where the surprise comes in. I recognized the translator! I
don't remember his name, but he was in the MTC with me in the other district. His
Spanish was TERRIBLE when we were there (which is only to be expected) and you
couldn't understand a word he said! But when he was translating for President
Eyring, he sounded native. His accent switched in and out of Argentine and
Mexican, so I´m thinking he probably has had an Argentine companion or
something like that, but it was definitely not an American accent. So that was
cool to see.
All our converts went to the dedication
as well! It's nice to have been here long enough to actually be able to see
these people progress in the church, not just as investigators but also as
members. And it's REALLY cool to see that they're still active. I don't have a
lot of baptisms and a lot of converts, but from what I know, most are still
active in the church. And that makes me feel like I've done a good thing.
(Apparently something happened with the Familia Alvarez and it sounds like the
husband is mad about it and so he hasn't gone to church, but I hope they can
get it worked out because they've got less than 2 months left before they can
go to the temple to be sealed.)
4. We felt like we should call Martha
Sanchez to get an appointment with her this next week because it's been just
about 3 months since we've been able to sit down with her to talk. So we called
and she answered super excitedly. "Elders! I'm no longer working on
Sundays! When is church so I can come this Sunday?!" So then we had to explain to her about the
rededication and how only active members can enter. So that was disappointing,
but she was already talking about getting with Sister Coty to take her to
church or maybe even just grabbing a taxi if Coty couldn't take her. So that
was another surprise.
We went with her on Sunday to say hi (and teach a lesson of
course) and I asked her how to make horchata. So then she explained it to me
and it's super easy. I'm making it today and then I'll tell you all how it
goes.
5. And the last surprise of this week.
Actually, many surprises. The transfers.
I am leaving to Piedras Negras tomorrow. That
means I'm going to be on the Texas border. My companion is named Elder Flores
and he's from Chihuahua and got here to the mission the same day I did. And
being from the Mormon colonies, he speaks both English and Spanish fluently.
This is going to help a lot.
But that wasn't too much of a surprise.
The real surprises were these: Elder Briggs is ALSO getting transferred and is
going to Nueva Rosita. The new Zone Leaders are going to be in a different area
and Elder Johnson and Elder Cerron are coming here. There were basically a TON
of changes in these transfers. A lot of people are staying here in Monclova but
are going to different areas. Also, a lot of areas are being whitewashed which
is where both missionaries are getting taken out. I was sad to learn that Aeropuerto
1 is getting shut down because the missionaries were doing dumb things and lost
all confidence of the members. But oh well. One of our best missionaries from
this zone is going to Aurora, so he'll be there taking care of my converts. I'm
glad for that.
Well, that's basically all that's
happened in the past week. I'm pretty excited to get to Piedras and see what
it's all about. We're going to have a small zone with looks like all obedient
missionaries. I've heard this ward Barrio 4 is one of the best of the mission,
I've heard the food is awesome, and I've heard just about half the people speak
English. We'll see.
Que les vaya super mucho mega muy bien!
Elder Taylor
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