21 Septiembre 2015

21 Septiembre 2015

This week was very tiresome, but we're getting over it.

I'm here in Piedras Negras now and I feel like I'm in a different mission. In Monclova, it's SO HARD to get a direct response from anyone and almost nobody lets you in the door, but here, people open the door and tell you a direct yes or no after listening, so it's super easy to find new investigators and even easier to decide who to continue visiting and who no. So basically, I arrived into this area and there was already a lot of investigators in various stages of progress. Which was nice. Sad to say I sure didn't leave this much behind in Frontera.

And besides the people that were already here, we've found a TON of people in the past few days, and some of them seem SUPER ready to receive the gospel. One lady is the mom of a recent convert and she went to his baptism and ''felt so good'' and couldn't explain why. She came to church this week and we haven't gone back to see how it went yet. Another new investigator is the girlfriend of the son of a lady that got baptized last week in our area. Apparently she's always been around the house whenever the missionaries were there but they never thought to invite her to listen. And another guy, we got turned around and went in a wrong street and then realized it and turned around and he was coming up the street to us and turns out he's the husband of a recent convert and wants to come to church. They just moved here from Veracruz. So yeah. We're pretty excited and my companion is pretty dumbfounded because this sort of thing just wasn't happening before. I think God is recompensing me for a hard last transfer.

We have an odd dude in the ward. He wants to get the whole ward involved on his business plan to make a company for dog houses and bicycles. He started passing out business cards in sacrament meeting.

There are some things that are just too weird about this place. It's not even nearly the same as Monclova or Saltillo. It's just across the river from Eagle Pass Texas and everything is really almost more American than Mexican. A lot of houses have front yards instead of patios and garages instead of the half-garage-half-patio thing they usually have. The people dress and act more American and the streets seem more organized in an American manner. Everyone here has a car, which is hugely different, and even the church building looks more like an American Chapel instead of the normal cookie-cutter mexican style. Also, most of the music people listen to is American Music instead of banda or norteña or cumbia and a lot of people speak English and actually really well. And there are TREES! I haven't seen so many trees since I left the states!

Speaking of that, my companion is helping me a TON with my spanish. He's from Chihuahua, Ciudad Juarez area, and speaks both languages fluently. I don't know if it's a Chihuahua thing or if it's just him, but he speaks in almost just idioms and so I'm learning a TON of things that are REALLY useful and don't make any sense if nobody explains it to you.

Here are a few I learned this week: Rifársela (me la rifo) and it means do something and do it in a really cool way. (Te la rifas? means Will you do this for me?)

Te mueve el tapete: he pulls the mat out from under you. It means like catches you off guard or throws you off.

Valió barriga: it was worth a belly. It means a whole lot of effort was spent and at the end didn't end up mattering.

Those are the ones I remember right now. But it's going to be fun learning them.

So to throw him for a loop, last night leaving from Ward Counsel I told him Let's make like a bread truck. That got him pretty confused. It was fun.

There's a really cool graveyard here on the way to the church that looks like something right out of a movie with voodoo, like Princess and the Frog. I'll get a picture of it and send it next week if I remember.

Whoops! I didn't finish the last email before sending it.

My companion and I while eating lunch right now watched the movie of the Restoration. Whenever I see these movies or even just think hard about Joseph Smith and what he did and what he saw, I'm always just so amazed. He saw God and Jesus! Who doesn't want to hear about this?! This has got to be the coolest thing that has ever happened besides Jesus himself and maybe the creation!

I know this church is all that we profess to be. It just has to be. And even if it weren't, it wouldn't matter to me. It makes me happy knowing that God cares about us and is willing to restore His religion by means of a simple farm boy. It makes me know that he doesn't care who we are or what we've done or not done in this world. He knows what we are capable of and will help us get there if we're just willing to get there. I run into SO MANY PEOPLE every day that want nothing to do with this, and I sometimes feel like grabbing them and shaking them and telling them: YOU DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU'RE MISSING! And then there are people that try and prove it false with scriptures or scientific or historic data and we can be arguing for hours upon hours about these things that are truly superficial. It all comes down to three simple facts:

God loves us and sent His Son to do all He did. Joseph saw them. We can come to know it and it will make us happy if we just put it to the test and are willing to receive the answer.

Well, that's the spiel this week.

Hasta la proxima semana!

Elder Taylor