Ensenada Mexico
Dear All,
Happy late Thanskgiving!! And guess what. I ate super
thansgiving-ish
food: beans, rice, and tortillas! and a chile that made
me want to cry but whatever. I was celebrating in my heart.
This week was really slow, then really fast, then really
slow. No miraclses, but some cool stuff. First thing, tuesday night and
wednesday I did exchanges witht the Zone Leaders, which was way cool.
Theyre in a trio right now, so I got to go with the two while
the other went with Elder Vega in Universidad. And the two I was with were
super cool. One just finished being an AP and the other is gonna leave at the
end of this transfer, so I learned a freaking ton from them. We taught a lesson to
this person whose whole family except her is a member, recently converted, but
she doesnt want anything to do with anything, but she still talks to the
missionaries and goes to church and stuff (fun story: apparently a few weeks
ago she went to sacrament meeting wearing a "daughter of Satan t shirt
lol) but it was super different than any of my other teaching experiences. It
really just made me grateful that I´m here where the majority of people believe
in Christ, and not like in Europe or parts of the US for that matter.
Then on Thursday President Garcia came down to Ensenada
to give a special training for the #HeIsTheGift initiative for the Church.
Which if you guys haven´t seen it, holy cow. It´s special. During my last week
at the MTC, the director of church media came to talk to us about it and show
us the video before anyone else besides the quorum of the Twelve, but we
weren´t supposed to talk about it, but this is a project that has been in the
works for a few years now. And it is HUGE. Like years worth of tithing huge. So,
I´m inviting all you guys, just like I´m inviting the people here, to share the
heck out of the Video. It really is incredible. It´s gonna do some amazing
things for the church.
That was Thursday morning, and Thursday afternoon, we
went to go teach a guy that Elder Vega had cotacted with the Zone Leader. He
told me he didn´t really expect anything, because they had pretty much forced
the appointment on the dude, but we went anyway. And we started the way that we
normally do, with the whole "we are gonna be like your tour guides, so if
you see or hear something you dont understand, tell us and we will go back and
help you resolve everything." and then we started talking about prophets
and right off the bat he goes "so do you guys have a prophet?" so of
course we said well yeah thats kinda the whole point of this message. Then we
kept going and when we started talking about the Apostasy and how many people
sincerely searched for the truth, and for that they formed many of their own
churches. And then he said "yeah but you guys have the prophet so yours is
right, right?" Now this is super different than most lessons here. In our
area, because it´s so poor, most people don´t have much higher than about an
8th grade education, because they can´t afford school, so we have to explain
things very very clearly and then they still dont get it. But this dude put it
together in like 2 seconds. So that was way cool, and super spiritual.
Nothing much happened the other days, we ran into Jose,
committed him to come to church, and he didn´t go. In fact, none of our
investigators went. So that sucked. But the good part about church was that I
have now officially given a talk in church. It was short, but it was good (I
think). I also got the assignment as official bishopric interview translator,
because it´s tithing settlement and there are about 5 members who speak
absolutely no spanish. And it can´t be a member cause of rules, but I can be in
those interviews because I´m gonna leave in three months so it doesn't matter.
So yeah that´ll be fun.
Also a ton of people have asked me for English lessons
and let me just tell you that is the funniest thing you can do in your life.
The first thing I ask is if they know the numbers to twenty. And it is legit
hilarious. But I can´t laugh. So that makes it more funny. And the dude that I
gave pickup lines in English too bought a doll for his daughter that sings
"I´m a little teapot" So guess who got to translate that and then
show them the dance for it. Haha yep. This is what I have become. It was cool
though cause he sells burritos and always gives us his leftovers. And they´re
really good.
Then Sunday night, we had a ward FHE, so that members
could bring friends and we could teach a massive first lesson. And the entire
ward pretty much came. But there was only two investigators. One who has
already come to church a few times but doesn´t live in our area, and another
that idk kinda gave off a vibe like she likes the fiestas if ya feel me. But
she asked us when we could come teach her, so I probably should be happy about
that haha.
Today was also pretty solid. Elder Vega has been talking
smack about basketball, so this morning we went to a court by our house to
settle it. We decided a game of 21 was most fair, and at the end it was 20-16
him. Then he missed the free throw to win, I got a layup, missed the freethrow
but got the rebound and hit a long two, and then buried the freethrow. So just
so you all know who the champ is, its the white guy. And then we celebrated by
going to an all you can eat asian buffet, which may turn out to be a horrible
decision, I´m not sure yet. But it only cost 80 pesos, which is like $7.00 so
worth it.
Les quiero mucho, y espero que estén bien.
Elder Rawlings
Christmas Package arrived :-)
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