I hope you all had a great week. I really miss you all.
We ate with Hermano Morales's family on Wednesday. They feed us delicious food every other week. He always says, "aquí comemos rico, aunque seamos pobres" this translates (more or less) as "here we eat delicious, even though we're poor". I almost cry every time he says this....it's true, I can make soup for 10 pesos and it tastes just as good as anything else in the United States.
Last Monday we were walking to a cita (appointment) in the rain (again it rains too much) and this taxi was just chilling in the road for no reason. I was getting a little upset that they were holding up traffic. Then I realized the taxi was muerto (dead). The taxi driver rolls down the window and yells "GUERO" and says some other stuff I didn't catch but he made some pushing motions with his hands. I finally understood he wanted us to push his car. So we pushed his taxi until it started. It was cool, I like pushing cars. We pushed another car on Saturday but we accidentally pushed it into a curb, but it's casual.
We helped move this lady out of her house and into another. We carried a bunch of stuff from the third floor of an apartment building down into a van, and then jumped in the back of the van and laid on top of all the stuff. (this was so great I wish I had a picture) There was so much stuff we scraped across speed bumps. One of the bishopric members made the joke that we were getting ready to cross the frontera (border), and that we should keep our heads down. It was great
We ate Dominos pizza and had Costco cheesecake on Wednesday....greatest day of my life. It was just like the United States. The same counselor of the bishopric that said we were gonna cross the border told me he can find mountain dew here and buy it for me. I almost cried for joy.
This story is awesome. We had intercambios (exchanges) on Wednesday with the lideres de zona. Elder Martinez came to our area with me. That night he told me he wanted hot water in the morning so we were examining the boiler, trying to figure out how it worked (first bad idea). He begins reading the steps on the boiler, they don't make sense to me because they're in Spanish. (I only know how to preach in Spanish) So he turns some knobs, sticks a lighter in the hole, and we wait. I have my flashlight pointing in the hole and I'm looking through it. I hear this "whoosh" and I'm like what is that. Before I can ask Elder Martinez the boiler lights and a huge flame shoots out the hole and hits me straight in the face. I freak out and sprint into the bathroom wondering how much of my eyebrows and eyelashes are gone, but everything is intact so no worries guys.
I contacted my first micro. A micro is a bus. It costs 4 pesos to ride. The micros are those buses you see pictures of where there are 800 people inside and 17 hanging off the doors, and they're real. The best spot actually is hanging off the door because the wind is blowing and it's great. Anyway, we were coming back from intercambios and I told Elder Sanchez I was going to contact this micro. So it's pretty full, all the seats are taken and two people are standing in the back. I knew this was the perfect opportunity. I stand up and ask the bus driver if I can share something with his micro, and he says of course. I turn around with my Libro de Mormon to these 20-25 people and say "Muy buenos dias hermanos y hermanas! Disculpe por la molestia, pero queremos presentarnos con ustedes! Somos misioneros, de la iglesia de Jesucristo do los santos de los ultimos dias..." (Good afternoon brothers and sisters! Forgive me for bothering you but we would like to share [a message] with you! We are missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints....) and I contact this entire micro. We got one reference from from those 25 people but he's not from our area. Speaking to the whole entire micro was hard to do, but I actually really enjoyed it!!
We visit some less actives from one of our wards a lot. Elizabeth, Abish, y Ana Elen. They're a family of three. Ana is 7. Her mom wants us to teach her so that she can be baptized in February. We were with them the other day and Ana comes up to me and gestures for me to bend down so she can tell me a secret. She says "you're my favorite Elder that's ever visited us". I started laughing so hard it was really adorable.
I had a really special experience where the spirit spoke to me like never before. We were knocking a door of a less active family. We had never visited them before. We knocked once and no one came to the door. So we knocked again. After the second knock we waited. We could smell the weed from inside, that's pretty normal and doesn't usually stop us, but this time I really felt that we really should not enter this house. My companion was like, "Nah, it's okay. We are going in". So he knocks one more time and someone answers. We go in and teach this family. It's obvious that they need help so I began to think that what I heard/felt was nothing...that this is good for this family. We continuing talking to them and it gets weird. The family tells us about some problems and the conversation gets even more weird. I was not getting good vibes. My comp asks they're last name and when they tell us, my companion realizes this was a family that the Bishop told us that we should NOT visit. So he hurries up and ends the lesson and we leave. He then tells me, "that's the family that the Bishop told us not to visit. I'm sorry I didn't listen to you...you were prompted by the spirit and I didn't listen." It was an amazing experience for me but I also felt bad that I didn't stand up more for what I felt we needed to do.
I ate some bad chicken on Friday. It woke me up early Saturday morning and I saw it all again. It was quite terrible. But because I'm a missionary I slept a little and then we went to work.
Finally, last week we had a conference for all of Mexico. Carol F. McConkie (she spoke in very bad Spanish), Elder de Hoyos (he speaks Spanish), Elder Hales (he used a translator), and Elder Nelson (also spoke in bad Spanish) spoke. It was super spiritual. Elder de Hoyos said "joy and happiness have little to do with the circumstances of life. They have to do with focus, and our focus should be the Savior". This hit me like a bag of bricks. All the times that I've been upset because of how life has been around me....its really not those circumstances that should affect me. I should be focused on the Savior and his love for me. Then I'll see and feel and know the happiness we can obtain here. In the grand scheme of things it doesn't matter if you get robbed, if you fail a test, if your baptism falls through, or if you scratch up your car. We need to have an eternal perspective to focus on the Savior.
Very last, Alma 38:5 says: And now my son, Shiblon, I would that ye should remember, that as much as ye shall put your trust in God even so much ye shall be delivered out of your trials, and your troubles, and your afflictions, and ye shall be lifted up at the last day.
Remember this always. Remember that if we trust in God it's gonna be okay. I promise you guys that, as a missionary I've learned this. It's really hard to understand the plans God has for us, but they're his plans and they're perfect. Remember, if we have that eternal perspective, focus on the savior and trust in God, we will "be lifted up at the last day"
I love you guys! Pray for me, and I'll be praying for you. Enjoy Texas! I miss it. Enjoy Thanksgiving!!!....because it doesn't exist here (awk)
Hasta luego, cuidense!!!
Elder Jones
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