So about that talk. I was going to make copies of it because it belongs to Elder B, but then I got transferred out of A and I haven't seen that talk or Elder B since. But I think I'm going to ask my mission president if he can get a hold of it for me (and for my companion). So I'll keep you updated on that.
So you're probably all wondering where we had church. Well, we were looking and looking all week, and finally Wednesday we found a house that was pretty big, so we called the number on the sign and set up an appointment to go look at it. We went with our branch president later that day. It was a really cool house, with lots of perfect little rooms for classrooms, and a big open patio thing in the middle with a swimming pool. The problem was that that was the only space big enough to have sacrament meeting, so we decided that if we could convince the maintenance people into putting some sort of metal cover on the pool and installing a roof, it could work. That's how we do things in Mexico. The next day when the maintenance people came, they went and talked to the lady who was renting us the old house of prayer and convinced her to renew the contract! Which was really great, because when we called the people who were renting this other house to tell them that we didn't need it anymore, they told us that they had already rented it just that morning. So the Lord wanted us to stay where we are, I think, which is good. The only downside is that that pool would have been a super awesome baptismal font...
So I'm kind of freaking out that Timo is getting is mission call this week. Almost as much as I did when I got my call. I don't know if I'll be able to wait another week to find out! And congratulations to Scott (his cousin) for his call! Salt Lake is an awesome mission, from what I've heard. And it's also the most beautiful city on earth, so yeah, enjoy.
This week was really rough. It was Carnival here, which is basically the equivalent of the Cedar Hills Family festival, except way crazier. Nobody was home all week. The madness all started Thursday with the Día de Malhumor. It's basically the day when everyone in S declares a waterballoon war on everyone else in S. But they don't just throw water balloons, they get rotten eggs, fruit, and dog poo involved also. And the water balloons aren't always full of water (use your imagination). And it's tradition to burn a box of kittens in the Centro at the end of the day. All the members warned us not to leave the house that day, but I've read the story of Samuel the Lamanite way too many times to let that happen. So we left. It was all calm in the morning, but after a lesson with a less active member, it got a little crazy and all the streets that we could see were blocked with people who wanted to get us wet. It was nuts! There were people in front of their houses with hoses and buckets drenching every person (and every car) that passed by. There were also trucks full of little kids in the back armed with water balloons to throw at everybody else. Everyone walking down the street had a backpack full of waterballoons and there were little groups of people everywhere. So we stayed in the less active member's house until it calmed down a little bit. I'm totally coming back in two years to be a part of that.
S couldn't come to church this week, but we had a good turnout. Almost all the active members showed up and a couple less actives that we visited. One of said less actives gave us a referral that we contacted Saturday. She's an older lady named J. She can't read and told us that she is not sure who God is, so we are pretty much starting from scratch with her spiritual knowledge. She couldn't come to church this week, but said she would the next week. We put a baptismal date for March 2nd, so we're praying that all works out.
Elder R has had a really tough week. Thursday and Friday were really bad days for him. So I talked to the Zone Leaders about it and they are going to come with us tomorrow and Wednesday this week. He's been doing better today and yesterday, but still needs a lot of help. Keep him in your prayers.
Well, that's all for this week. I'm excited for this week and I really hope we can find new people to teach. I could only have three weeks left in S, which is sad, but I'm going to make the most of them! I love you all! Have a great week!
Elder Pew
