Tijuana Temple open house visits

 Bus the ward rented to visit the Tijuana Temple

Dear All,

This week. It's over. Phew. Busy week. We went to the temple two more times, once with the ward in some rented buses (I'll send the pics, cause its something words cannot describe) and once more time (which will be mentioned later, no os preocupéis).

So Monday was pretty normal, we ate some more tacos, which were pretty solid, and we set a new baptismal date with a lady who is married to an inactive american dude. And she's pretty legit. When we invited them to come to church, her husband was like "Nah its just that I work at night and Sunday all I want to do is sleep" and his wife was like "Ok no not acceptable. Look, I'll get everything ready for this Sunday so that we can go to church." And we were like DAAAANG IN YO FACE SON. Then, on Sunday morning, we called to make sure they were going. The husband tells us that their baby is sick and they haven't slept and they're not going. So dang. BUT THEN. Halfway through sacrament meeting we get a call. It's the wife. She tells us she's trying to find the Church, but doesn't know where it's at. WHAT. So we go find her and bring her to church. Exhausted, alone, pretty much in pijamas, but she came to church. It was pretty legit. She told us,
"I know my husband said we weren't coming but I wanted to come. And so I came." Boom. Lesson learned. It's not over till it's over.

Tuesday, things began to get interesting. First, I didn't feel great in the morning. It wasn't enough to stay home, but I was definitely not at 100%. And then we went to go visit a less active lady. I don't like speaking bad about people, but this lady is insane. Here goes her story, quoted as well as I can remember it:

"When I was a girl, about 5 or 6, I had a friend that was a rat. I would talk to him and he would talk to me, and we were friends. Well, one day my brother saw me talking to my rat friend and he called [The President of Mexico]. One day, the government came and took me to their lab and they did an experiment on me. They put a cell phone in my head. And that cell phone is what they use to tell me to do bad things. So when I sin, it's not my fault. It's the government's fault. It's this cell phone here in my head."

I have never, in my life, had to supress laughter as I did in that moment. First off, the lady is ancient. Cell phones definitely did not exist when she was 6. According to what my companion told me, when his old companion took him to her house to meet her and she told them the story, he asked "Could you give us your number so that we can call you?" HAHAHA. But yeah.

So yeah anyways after that we got sick. Those tacos betrayed us. My companion puked his guts out and I about fainted. But don't worry we all good in the hood now. But I will extend a warning to all who come to Mexico. If the taco stand doesn't have three walls, don't trust it. 

Wednesday was normal.

Thursday we went to the temple with the ward, in some buses that were straight bumpin. I'm talkin light jobs, sound jobs, the whole package, Let's just say that when we got to the temple, people noticed. BARRIO INDEPENDENCIA HA LLEGADO. The only thing that was missing was a fog machine so that when we got off it was more dramatic.

Friday was pretty normal again.

Saturday was amazing. In the morning, we went to the temple, because all of the wards from Mexicali were coming, and among them converts of mine and members and everyone and wow was I excited. And it was awesome. Several of my converts are still active, preparing for missions and stuff. Others that I taught got baptized after I left, others now have the preisthood, callings, everything. It was a great day. It's just wonderful knowing that I had, even though it might be small, influence in the lives of some of God's children, and that those changes that I helped them make lasted. All of the tiredness, the stress, the pressure, the long prayers looking for answers about how to help these people payed off. Of course it's sad to know that a few have already gone astray, but that's just part of it. From what I heard, the rescue effort is being launched towards all of them.

Sunday we saw lots of miracles. Also, a 4 year old child pulled the Spanish equivalent of "Hey look, someone wrote gullible on the ceiling" on me and it totally worked. I fell hard #humbled.

But yeah this week was pretty dope. Had some fun, taught some people, saw the hand of God in my life, all in a day's work. 

Los quiero mucho,

Elder Rawlings

Jenson and Elder Alegria on the bus