bofount

Querido familia… Les quiero mucho…  Thanks for the Renaissance Hymns.  I quite enjoy them.  I also got like four letters the other day, and that made me very happy because I thought you guys hadn’t written me for a little while.  Things are going pretty great…  We are now forbidden to eat in restaurants though, so that’s a little bit sad, but it’s for the better because we do get kind of distracted when we go out to eat on pdays because there’s always music and stuff.  But we’re going to order pizza today, so that should be excitin. Hermana Ellis has been thinking about songs that she can dedicate to investigators, and mission life in general.  For example, a song for investigators:  “Never gonna give you up!  Never gonna let you down!  Never gonna turn around and… DESERT YOU!”  This was my dedication for when we’re looking for people who hide from us and won’t answer the door:  “One way, or another, I’m gonna find yah, I’m gonna GETCHAH GET YAH GET YAH GETCHA!” And… I don’t remember the other ones… talk about being worldly, eh? Giovani (Blanquita’s brother that just got baptized last Wednesday) got up and bore his testimony in Sacrament Meeting the other day… Sunday.  He went to a temple excursion with the Primary, even though he was too old, he lied about his age and said he’s 11.  I’m not sure he actually knows he’s 13 because he says something different every time you ask him…  Anyways, he got up and said, “I’m glad I went to the temple, because I felt the Holy Spirit with me.  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”  Something like that.  I also liked this other little boy who got up and said, “Sometimes I feel lonely, but then I felt that Jesus Christ was with me and I’m not alone.  In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.”  Pretty much my favorite testimony I’ve ever heard. And our poor investigator who was there at church for the first time listening to all these testimonies about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon when we haven’t even taught him anything yet… And why hadn’t we taught him yet? Well, I’ll tell you. We were walking down the street, going to church, and this guy was walking alongside us, we were about to pass him, and I was like, “Hermano, there are meetings in the church at 10.  You’re invited!” Yeah.  I actually do that quite a bit, ever since my second change when Hna Estrada did it all the time… so we both just started randomly inviting people to church on Sundays.  And you know, I’m very eloquent and tactful, sometimes I wonder if I’m like President’s example of how you have to give people a brownie (like the gospel) on a plate with a fork, instead of slapping it in your hand.  But sometimes… I feel like a hand-slapper, like, “TAKE THAT!! EAT IT!! IT’S GOOD!!!!”  And people are like, “whoa there, crazy…” And so he was like, “Well, gee thanks.  That’s very nice.” And then Hna Ellis started talking more about the church, and I was like, “Yeah, what things better do you have to do than to go to church on Sunday??”  And he was like, “Uh, I don’t know… I don’t think I have time if it starts at 10…” Hna Ellis:  “Look.  If you were a woman I might believe that, but you’re a man.  You can be ready in two hours.” And he was like, well, good point, “But I don’t wanna come in like a planted duck. I’ll feel funny cuz I don’t know anyone.” Hna Ellis: “We’ll wait for you outside.” “All right… I’ll just go home and shower and get something to eat.” “Ok, great!” Then he left, and we were like, “Wow, I think he might actually come…” AND HE CAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY, CARLOS!!!!  My first random contact that ever went to church on the spot!!!  And… we still haven’t actually taught him because he doesn’t live that close and he works late, but we’re going to teach him tonight, so I hope it goes really well and he can come to church again this Sunday. Reina and Roxana are doing good.  But we’re running into disasters with the nuns.  Tyrants.  They have something to do this Sunday so they don’t think they’ll be able to make it to church again, and Roxana is worried about one of her classes that she’s not doing very well in, because if she fails or drops a class, she’ll be kicked out. Heartless tyrants. Charity… charity…. please…. forgiveness, love and patience… But we’re fasting so that something will happen so that they will be able to go to church and get baptized before August because if they don’t get baptized this month they have to wait because they’re going to be locked up in an activity thing without permission to leave for a month in July.  Very frustrating.  But I know they’ll get baptized even if they can’t this month.  They want to serve missions, and they were asking what they have to do in order to become women leaders in the church (Relief Society President,etc.) Roxana is hilarious.  I could see her being a singer or some kind of rebellious artist.  Reina is really sweet.  She was telling us the other day how it’s her dream to graduate so that she can take her sisters away from her abusive mom.  Poor thing.  I can’t imagine what it would be like to have an awful mom who doesn’t even care about her at all… enough that she abandoned her, and hits her when she comes for visits sometimes. Yeni and Fernando are pretty good.  They didn’t come to church because a dog bit Edgardito (he’s seven), but he’s fine.  He didn’t bleed, Yeni was just worried because he had a fever, but that was from the rain, not the little dog. Please pray for: Carlos, Alonso, Yeni and Fernando, and Reina and Roxana. Love, Bek