7 September 2009

Hey HEy Hey!!!

And hows my family today? Im doing pretty good here in Tacna. Not too much has happened this week actually. It went by really fast...I guess thats a good thing right? Anyway, we are doing good here. And since I dont have too much exciting news from this week Ill share some stories Ive been saving up from weeks passed. hope I havent already shared these. Sorry if I have.

1. One day we were walking along the street and a man in a car pulled over and offered us a ride. We told him no, but he kept insisting!!! He said he always sees us walking and wanted to be a good Samaritan that day. He had a nice car and didn’t look like the kidnapper ( missionarynapper) type AND he had his girlfriend or wife or something in the car with him so after like 5 minutes we finally got in. He said, Youre not headed too far right? Just up the street and around the corner? And he was right, we were on our way to visit a new member that lived up the street and around the corner. I was thinking, maybe hes an angel or something. How does he know where we´re going? So we got in and got to talking with him and the lady and we started to talk to them about the church. They said they weren’t members, but had friends that were members. Supposedly super active members. We were a little confused because we didn’t recognize their names, but we didn’t think much of it. So as we´re talking the car comes to a stop and I realize he´s waiting for us to get out. I thought it was kind of weird he never asked us what house we wanted to be dropped off at, and was just going to drop us off in the middle of the street instead of at the ladys house, but I didn t want to complain so we thanked him and got out. Well as the car pulled away my companion and I realized he had dropped us off at the Jehovas Witness chapel!!!!! I didn’t want him to feel bad for confusing us with the JWs so we pretended to walk into the chapel!!!! So, in case youre wondering, Im STILL getting myself into awkward situations. Thought youd enjoy.

2. We were knocking doors the other day and a man came out with a scythe. A SCYTHE!!!! Like for harvesting wheat. He was polishing it as I started to do our door approach, but I was so shocked, scared, that I didn’t get very far. He finally saw the fear in my eyes and said he is a worker at the house and was cutting weeds and didn’t have time to talk. We walked away laughing and so relieved.

3. About a month ago we found a really great investigator. She invited us in and gave us oranges and was interested and listened. She travels a lot so we haven’t been able to meet with her much, but when we do she always accepts what we teach and asks really good questions. So we went last week to teach her and we extended a baptismal invite and she told me she´d already been baptized (like pretty much everyone does) so I explained to her that she needed to be baptized like Jesus Christ and she said she had (which everyone does ) so I started to explain to her more….after 20 MINUTES it came out that she is a member!!! She got baptized like 10 years ago and doesn’t go to church now, but still has her FHEs, and pays tithing!!! I felt so dumb!!!! How had she not told us she was a member after talking with her so much-??!?!!! More importantly, how had she sat through our lessons and asked questions like an investigator?!! I have never been so confused as when we made the realization that our golden investigator is a baptized member of the church. So yeah, we´re going to keep visiting her hoping she´ll come back to church, but looks like we wont be planning her baptism anytime soon.

4. We started talking with a man the other day and he told us he believed in God, but not in a specific religion. We asked him why and he said it´s because he´s been abducted by aliens, seen the future, and visits daily with ghosts and no religion he´s investigated believe in those things. The practices we did in the MTC did NOT prepare me for that.

Anyway, I better wrap this novel up, but I love you and I miss you all!!!