yeah im just going to spoil it right now and tell you all that no, the two events are not related, and yes, im still fine.
well we ran out of el es la dadiva (he is the gift) cards this week, which significantly affected our contacting, and meant that we had to focus on other things. this week was service. sure we always offer to help people with service, but i guess the lord saw what we were lacking and stuck us in the path of people who would accept.
the first one was just a lady who was bringing in groceries and wood from her car. we helped her with her stuff and then she invited us to teach her and her husband right there. i now understand the term golden investigator. you could see from their house that they had lots of money (but not from their grocery bags, im honestly confused as to why somebody with a car and that nice of a house was shopping at bodega aurrera... thats where poor people like us shop) but despite all that, they were super humble. they were super receptive, when they had questions it was never challenging, and they were willing to comply with everything that we asked them to do. "would you like to offer the closing prayer" "yeah sure" "oh come on hermana, its very simpl... wait did you just say yes?" "yeah" "oh, ok then" ...honestly, she made my opening prayer look pretty pathetic.
the other service we were able to offer was to some ladies who had a big wheelbarrow piled with wood. we helped them haul it to their house. there was one log that was too big though and was catching on the ground, so we asked if they had anything to cut it, they had a machete. so elder v tried to use the machete to cut it and on a back swing he whacked me in the face, cut a big gash right above my eye. it bled a lot but eventually it stopped, and it hasn't swelled up yet or anything so i think i should be fine... naw just kidding, he did tap me in the forehead, but no gash, no scratch, didnt even hurt. it did scare the heck out of everyone though and now i can say that i have taken a machete to the face (i have a lot of stories that sound really exciting when technically stated)
other than that we have been working with a guy this week on stopping his smoking habit. he is ready for baptism, but he has a problem with smoking and drinking, so we are working on helping him quit that and have set a goal for his baptism the 31st of this month. not gonna lie it was kind of intimidating to approach. im a 19 year old kid, i have no experience quitting smoking, i dont have a lot of life experience, i dont even have a complete grasp of the language, yet somehow it always seems to work out. i guess thats the genius of the whole missionary program, that the lord is able to take inexperienced young men and women and do all these amazing things (thats me bragging on the lords part, not mine) God has always had a habit of using flawed individuals to do great things, its cool to be able to experience that from a front row seat (or the stage, not really sure which one fits better into that analogy)
another example of that principle happened this week with another experience. we were at the church in a zone conference when a random guy comes into the chapel and asks if we could come visit somebody who was sick and wanted to make a confession, we said sure, but weren't really sure what was going to happen. he lived in our area, so we went to go visit the guy. he was an older man, about 70 years old, in bed, unable to move because of prostate cancer. he was in significant pain in his whole body, except his legs because he had lost all feeling in them. he couldn't move hardly at all except his arms and head, 1.because he didn't have the strength and 2. because there was even more pain when he moved. so we met with him and just kinda talked the first time. he doesn't have any family, and at this point he just wants to die. he met with us because he met some missionaries a while ago when he was well, but wanted nothing to do with it because he was living a very worldly life. he had made a change and with this he realized how little any of that other stuff mattered. as awful as his situation is, i honestly think it is a blessing. it has humbled him to the point that he is willing to accept the way to true and eternal happiness. that night we gave him a blessing and left. the next day we visited him again for just a little. the pain was significantly less, but we had him agree that we would get him moved to a hospital. we didn't return for him the next day, they called and told us that the pain was gone. still cant move himself but he is well enough to be moved to a hospital down in san luis. not sure what will happen from here, but no matter what it is amazing to see that we, as inadequate as we are, can bring peace to somebody with much more experience in such a difficult trial.
well, im just about out of time, and that's all i can really remember, so paz afuera
Elder Gándola
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