The soccer game went well. We divided the zone into three teams: Americans, Mexicans, and Central/South Americans. Before our first game against the Mexicans, we huddled up in a circle swaying back and forth around Elder S. Then we sang the national anthem and the game was on. We were just playing to one goal and then the losing team left and the other team came on. It was a tough match, but finally after about 10 minutes they scored on us. We walked back to the sidelines ashamed of ourselves, and Elder S said "Dang it, guys, we just let Obama down." The South Americans destroyed Mexico, then destroyed us, then lost to Mexico. So we had another shot at the Mexicans. After about 5 minutes I stole a pass in the Mexican defense and scored a goal. We went wild. The whole team lifted me up on their shoulders like we had just won the World Cup. It was pretty epic. The sisters took a picture, some day I'll have to get it from them and send it to you. My new nickname in the zone is "Landon Donovan" because I'm the only American that knows how to play soccer.
M. the popsicle seller, is back in the teaching pool. We found him in the street this week when we were going to visit a member from our area. It was kind of weird to find him there since she lives in a gated community, but he told us he lives there too, in fact, 3 houses down from her! We always taught him in his ice-cream shop so we didn't actually know where he lived. But now we do and it seems like he needs a lot of help. He told us he went to the chapel the other day to pray, but it was locked. Sounds like he's had problems with his wife and really needs the Gospel. He told us he's been reading the Book of Mormon and he wanted to go to church on Sunday but couldn't find anyone to cover him in the ice cream shop. But hopefully he goes this week.
I got the Halloween package. Pretty dang awesome mom! Thanks a lot! Gwen's masterpiece is now hanging on the wall above our new couch in our apartment. Also, everyone was fascinated with the candy corn (it doesn't exist here). And I gave everyone some Mike and Ikes also and Sister B had some kind of weird allergic reaction to it. Her tongue swoll up and she started talking with a lisp. We thought she was joking, but that night when I talked to her companion for the daily report, she told me that she had kept talking like that for about 2 hours after, even during the lessons! So I guess she wasn't faking. It was pretty funny.
Crazy experience of the week: Wednesday night we got home and I went to take out the keys and they were no longer in my pocket. How that happened I will never know. I looked to see if they were in my backpack and they weren't. We went back to the bus stop where we were earlier to see if they had fallen out there and we couldn't find them. So we called our Landlord to see if he could come give us the spare key, only to find out that he had been confined to a hospital bed and couldn't come over at that moment. There was no locksmith open because it was 9:00 at night, so we had to go sleep in the offices. The next day we got to our house at about 8:30, waited until 9:30 for the locksmith to open, waited until 10:30 for him to get to our house, only to see that he only had one arm and had a really hard time opening the door. What?! He ended up having to call his wife to come help him, and we finally got into our house at about 11:30. We hadn't showered, studied, or done weekly planning yet. It was a crazy day.
This Saturday and Sunday we went to T. This time I went with Elder K, who is from my generation. It was a blast! We visited a less active family that got baptized in Utah and moved back a few years ago. We taught them about the sacrament and eternal families and committed them to come to church. They came on Sunday! The other group that went to visit people on Saturday also brought another less active family as well as an investigator, so in all there were 5 less actives and 1 investigator in church in T, and an attendance of 23 (normally there's about 10)! It was great. After sacrament meeting, the stake relief society presidency had come to show the Relief society general broadcast to all the women in T, and we stayed with the men and taught Gospel Principles. It was so great! That little branch really has so much potential and is progressing really well. Sometimes I wonder if it shouldn't be backwards, stay in T all week and every other weekend come to E to help out.
Have happy birthdays (Gwen & Emily) this week! I love you all! Thanks for everything!
Elder Pew
