If it rains outside it is dry inside‏

email dated 6/9/08
One very interesting thing about having a tin roof is that if it is raining outside we stay perfectly dry in the house. But if it is sunny weather, the humidity sneaks the water drops into our house and drips all over us. So here is the question: which is better? Be cold and wet outside all day or be cold and wet inside at night? I haven't decided which I prefer. We actually had a decently warm week this last week because we got hit by a warm front out of nowhere. One day I only had to wear my jacket. But it has been raining for 3 days now. As it rains, our roof doesn't drip a drop. Our tin roof protects us that way at least. There are no holes or leaks. We are surviving. I am grateful for layers and layers. And por suerte I am in a ward that stuffs us silly with food so I at least have alot of food in me now as I have gained up to the 20 pound mark. That should help keep me a bit warmer and I can sweat it back off in the summer.

So we had a really good week this week, Elder Oliphant and myself. We work really well together I think. Yesterday we taught, in my opinion, the best lesson of my whole mission. Not because it was to the best investigator I have seen or because of what we taught, but we taught in a unity I have never had with a companion. At least in our lessons, we are heading the same direction and we both talk. It is nice. In the street we don't talk so much, but at least our lessons are going well. He is a good kid. I like him.

We taught the Word of Wisdom to an old lady named Lidia that is getting baptized this next Saturday. I had wanted to drop her for some time. She wasn't progressing, she was grumpy, and she had said she didn't want anything. But then she kept going to church. I couldn't figure her out. So when I challenged her to be baptized I had assumed she would say no, I had intended on never returning. But then she said yes. And I was so confused. But she doesn't talk really that much. And she is grumpy. Anyway, we taught the Word of Wisdom last week and I asked at the end if she had any problems with any of the substances and if she would be able to do it. She said "well I drink coffee." ... we wait... I ask "will you stop drinking coffee?"... we wait... "Yes. I don't even like coffee that much anyway. I can stop drinking anything I want." And so it was and she agreed to obey the Word of Wisdom. She is so unique. I had a real scare yesterday in church in Sunday school. The lesson was on baptism and the teacher asked her to share her feelings about baptism. She stood up and didn't say anything for maybe 20 seconds, during the which I prayed really hard, and she finally said "I like coming to this church. I feel good when I come here. Therefore I have decided to be baptized." And then she sat down. She is odd, but she says she believes and she wants to do it. So this Saturday we will baptize Lidia.

I am also very grateful to have some families that we are now teaching and some younger investigators. Yesterday we found the wife of an active member and he has wanted her to come around for years. We took "The Testaments" and watched that movie. After we bore testimony of the Book of Mormon. This hermana, who had always seemed kind of grumpy, and I have known her for a few weeks before she finally let us come teach, was just sitting there with tear-filled eyes. It was so odd. She didn't cry during the movie when the Savior came and visited, or when the blind guy regains his sight, etc... But we bore a simple testimony and her eyes filled with tears and she showed her first spiritual emotion to us. She felt the spirit and invited us to come and teach more. And then we went to our young 27 year old Fernando investigator who was my favorite and he dropped us. Such is a missionaries life.

So anyway, we are teaching. We have investigators and we get dropped by investigators and so we find new ones. The biggest issue is not the Word of Wisdom or even tithing, but everyone's biggest problem is going to church. I have pondered going and visiting other churches where people actually get out of their houses on Sunday to go to a church. And then I want to follow the people home and write down their addresses and knock on every one of them. We need to find people who are willing to do something. Some people will let us teach them til the cows come home without doing anything. Complacence is the most annoying thing to a missionary.

We have been dropped by 2 husbands or boyfriends this week. The women wanted to learn but the boys said no. One lady, Maria Jose, wanted to join our church. She loved the family friendly atmosphere and she has 3 kids she wants to grow up in a church. We were teaching and she loved it and then we go back one day and the boyfriend said, "You get out of here. You aren't welcome here. She isn't going to be joining any religion." She ended up leaving him 3 weeks later and moved back in with her mom, I hope the missionaries can get her now. Another guy did that to us yesterday. I don't know why some of these women stay with these guys. I also don't know why women seem to be more spiritually open than men, but we struggle to find good men to teach.

Anyway, I am bored of talking about all of this. If you all actually want to hear things like this you can read my journal when I come home.

June marks the big 8 month mark. One third the way into this thing they call a mission. I guess 2 years isn't really that long. However, If you look at it on a calendar it is forever long. It is a good thing I don't have a calendar. My last companion did, and he was counting down to this August. He goes home on my birthday. I remember looking at his calendar and feeling like it looked like forever just til August. I cant even imagine counting down on a calendar when I still have til next October. I have decided it is best not to have a calendar or count down. But I like counting up and feeling like I have been out for a good time. That makes me a vet in the mission. I am not a kid anymore.

So sorry this email is so boring. I know there were funny things I wanted to say, but I can't remember what they were. I think that when I wrote an email to Janice that didn't get sent because my LDSMAIL account expired in the middle of the session that it really frustrated me and turned off my funny bone. Stupid LDSMAIL. So you know Janice, I wrote you a good long email. You just didn't get it.

Well, I must be going. There are things to do and I don't want to bore you all any longer. Take care!! I love you!!!

Andy