16 Mayo 2016

16 Mayo 2016

Well....actually, another uneventful week.

Something funny that happened last week that I forgot to mention: My companion, Elder Del Angel, is really innocent. SUPER innocent. So it was really funny when he decided to stop by an ice cream shop one day. We went in and the lady at the counter (who was dressed rather scantily) asked us who we were and what we were doing. She said "I've seen you around, and I just always wondered who you were." So my companion started talking to her about the church and everything, just like he should. She said she was interested. "But," she said, "I don't have any time. I work here in the day and also work at night." But she said it really pointedly, indicating just what kind of work it was that she did at night. But my companion didn't understand. He started asking some questions about where she worked or if she had a day off. "Look," she said, "I WORK AT NIGHT. Do you understand?" "Uh...I don't think so." She sighed and explained how she broke up with the dad of her kids and so now she had a "Padrote" (which means "Big Daddy") that was basically her pimp. She explained it a lot more explicitly than that, though. My poor companion just about turned bright red, which is funny because he's really moreno. We left her an invitation to go to church and the pamphlet of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and left.

Other funny experience that really demostrates the culture of Frontera really well (besides the fact that the whole colonia basically took the week to get drunk; "happy mothers' day!"): One morning as we left we noticed a man that had been painting a really long wall but had left a small part unpainted. He was lying up against the wall and resting, even though we could see he had enough paint to finish it. I turned to my companion and said "Looks like he just left that little patch to be able to lean up against it. I'll bet that as soon as the rest of the wall dries, he'll paint over here and then go and rest on some other part." Sure enough, as we came back that night, even though he wasn't lying up against the wall anymore, the part that he'd left unpainted was painted. Monclovenses: working just hard enough to rest up before finishing the job.

We finally got Monica to go to church! She's the daughter-in-law of a super-active member and we were just about to drop her because she wasn't coming to church or reading the commitments. But then her mother-in-law told us that Monica got up before she did and told her to get up so they could go to church. But the mother-in-law was feeling bad, so she said no. But then she decided that maybe that was Satan making her feel bad so that Monica wouldn't go to church. So she said, "Let's go." And they came.

Also Angelica came again with her husband, Jose Luis. They look happy in church.

We're still working with Zulema, but she didn't come to church again, and we don't know why. She told us this last time that she feels like she's in the right path listening to us and coming to church. So we gave her 2 Nephi 31 to read and pray about if she should be baptized and she said she would.

We're also working with a lady named Alejandra. She's really awesome. She's got a little daughter named Kathryn of about one year old and SUPER cute. She and her husband are Christians (but less-active), but Alejandra says that when she hears us talk she feels it in her heart that it's true. She's just SO willing to accept the gospel, it's awesome. I haven't really seen someone like this since Gilberto in Piedras Negras.

We also found a GREAT couple last night. We got a reference from an hermana in Frontera (she found out I was here so started looking for references in our area. I LOVE that lady!), but she said that the husband wanted to listen to us but that he thought that the wife wouldn't want anything. We went with that in mind, thinking that if the wife came out when we knocked the door, we would treat her like any old contact, but if the husband came out we would treat him like we were contacting a referral. How great was our surprise when the wife came out, took one look at us and said "come on in!" We met them and they're really nice but are going through a really trying time. The husband had a relationship a while back with another woman and contracted an STD. But now he's repentant and just wants to be forgiven of God and by himself. The wife seems to already have forgiven him, but they want another child so that their only daughter of six years isn't alone. So that's what the problem is. There were a few tears shed, and we felt the Spirit and they accepted baptism. It was a really sweet experience. And FAR from rejecting us, the wife practically threw her home open to us as if she had been a member her whole life.

Well, that's just about it...

Say hi to everybody and invite everyone you know to my homecoming talk!

Love you!

Elder Taylor