Demormocrat: 19 Octubre 2015

19 Octubre 2015

We'll call this week "disobedience week." Now let me explain that.

Sometimes things happen in the mission and even when you don't want to, it's impossible to follow certain rules in certain circumstances, especially when it comes to things about the schedule, largely due to the Mexican concept of time. I know this probably sounds like rationalization, but even the President has mentioned this several times that sometimes there's just nothing to be done so we do the best with what we have and move on and hope to do better the next time.

That being said, keep in mind that none of the following was with the intent of doing it and we will do everything within our power to avoid it in the future.

One night we had an appointment with a few investigators at 8:30 which happened to be right next door. The bad thing: it's a house of nursing students, all female, between the ages of 19 and 23. What we also weren't planning on was them already having made dinner for us. And then the hermana that was going to come with us couldn't. So we did what we could, we brought chairs outside and sat on the patio to avoid "any appearance of evil." We taught a quick lesson and wrapped it up right before 9. Then they said that they'd made dinner for us. "Okay," we thought. "It's fine, we'll just sit out here" They also mentioned they already had the food made waiting for us. NEVER BELIEVE THAT! That's the lesson learned here. We ended up starting eating at 9:25 and finishing at around 9:40 even thought we ate as fast as we could without being rude. THIS WAS EVEN AFTER WE'D EXPLAINED TO THEM THAT WE HAD TO BE IN HOUSE BEFORE 9:30!

Then the food made me kind of sick. (I was already kind of delicate of the stomach from some other food we'd eaten earlier.) So then for the next morning I turned off my alarm that I normally have set for 6:15 to do exercise, knowing that I would likely not be feeling up to form for that. My companion's alarm went off at 6:25 and like what normally happens we both lay a second longer on the pillow, but unlike anything that had ever happened in our time together, we both didn't hardly blink before we were dead out again. We ended up getting up at 7:00. Repentence measures were taken.

Then this morning we went outside of the mission! AAAHH! Actually, what happened was we went to the bridge between the States and Mexico and so while we did technically cross into the States side of the border, we didn't get off the bridge which would have required papers. The Rio Bravo is really skinny! I thought it was a big river, but I'd say it's smaller than the Snake and obviously shallow enough at parts to wade across. I took pictures and I'll try to send them as soon as I'm done here.

So those were my big sins this week.

We had a bad scare last night when two missionaries went missing because their phone was dead and we asked an hermano to go and check on them at 10:15 ish at night and he said that the lights were out, the neighbor hadn't seen them and the lock was locked from the outside. So we mobilized the whole ward and everyone started calling around to see where they'd been, we told President Rodriguez about it and the assistants, we called the local hospitals and got ready to go out there to hunt them down when we got a phone call from the branch president telling us they'd found them. Turns out they'd been in their house asleep, they'd just gone to bed early and the hermano was wrong about the lock being locked from the outside. That was about 11:40 when we got that all figured out. Good grief. But now we know the lesson: please, PLEASE call your district leader using someone else's phone when your phone dies. Scares like that here in Piedras Negras are pretty scary because of drug traffickers and gangs. So yeah.

Investigators: Ester de la Rosa told us when she wants to be baptized! First she told us the first saturday in December. Then for the next appointment she changed her mind to her birthday, the 4 of February. Then we told the resident recently returned missionary about that and she got mad and decided to come with us to the next visit. She basically said: "God has these blessings for you. Why wait till February?" Ester: "Oh...." Me: "What do you feel about that?" "I feel really happy right now." "When do you think you should be baptized?" ".....How about two weeks. Is that alright?" But it turns out 2 weeks is Halloween, so she decided on November 7. Bad thing: Jocelin started working Sundays, so we'll have to see if she can get baptized the same day. But Jocelin started reading the book of Mormon by herself and already got through Jarom.

Limhi (pronounced lee-mee) Yañez got home from his mission and this Sunday was sustained as the new Ward Mission Leader, so that's good! He's not studying yet, not even working, he knows the scriptures well, he's still on fire from his mission experiences and super excited to get to work with us. And he's really cool, so I think it'll be fun to work with him.

Gilberto: he's the old man I told you guys about last week that called out to us on the street and all his kids and grandkids are baptized. He's a character. He's about 75, gay, and super enthused about the gospel, but doesn't want to put a baptismal date yet. He also has to stop smoking. But he came to church and is determined to keep coming.

Leopoldo: another old man we met this week and brought to church. He and Gilberto struck it off really well. Leopoldo is Catholic and blind and really, super open.

Fidencio, the convert of my companion, came to church this week too! He's about 75 as well and can't walk by himself and unfortunately incontinent, so we have to keep going back and forth to the bathroom. But he's got a lot of faith and is super excited to be coming to church. He even put on his nice baseball cap and a shirt to come to the chapel. Gotta look nice for the Lord.

My comment to my companion looking at the three men we brought to church this week: "Puros rucos." That means "Just old farts." But it sounds cooler in Spanish.

Reyna Betancourt: we finally pinned her down for a lesson but she told us that basically, in her own words and in typical Mexican fashion: "I wish I would have been baptized in the Mormon Church 20 years ago when I should have, but now I'm baptized in the Christian Church and I shouldn't jump into the Mormon Church for now. I want to, but I just don't want to." But she came to church and even participated in the class of Gospel Principles. Unfortunately, she's getting ready to move to Tampico in a week.

This week I had a couple super spiritual experiences in the personal study. First, I made three lists: what life was like in Eden (pure, immortal, etc.), effects of the Fall (spiritual death, mortality, agency and conscience, etc.) and effects of the Atonement (reconciliation, resurrection, purity, etc.) and found the scriptures to back it up. Then on Sunday, I made a simple question: "What is Truth?" and started with the Topical Guide in English and came up with a basic definition of Truth. Let me tell you, I feel like I went all the way into metaphysical doctrines. There are some COOL things about Truth in Doctrine and Covenants. It blew my mind. Scriptures that I'd always read and heard suddenly took on new meaning. It was pretty sweet.

Well, I should go so I can try to send these pictures as well.

Que tengan una buena semana!

Elder Taylor