Hey Fam,
Not a very eventful week. On Thursday we taught a drunk guy! We contacted him several weeks ago, and he just straight up told us he was a drunk, but he was willing to listen (he was pretty sober at the time, he was on a bike, so). Well it turns out his address is the same as a former investigator, which coincidently a couple days later, our Branch Mission Leader told us to go by! So we went back and the former investigator answered and let us in. She is the sister of the first guy, And a pentecostal preacher! I guess she talked to missionaries a couple years ago, and was really interested because she was getting her degree in theology. She seems to really like the missionaries, but didn't seem particularly interested in our message anymore.
So we kind of went on, but a couple weeks later, Elder Nelson and I thought we would stop by. Well, her cousin answered and we talked with her on her porch a bit, also Pentecostal, about The Bible and The Book of Mormon, she seemed cool and said we could come by again one day. Then, as we were leaving the drunk guy gets dropped off, so we chat with him for a sec, but he's drunk, so we plan to stop by another time.
The second lady invited us to their Bible study thing they have at their house this past Thursday, but when we showed up it was cancelled 😕. But we did get another chance to talk to the drunk guy again, and he was drunk. We tried talking to him a tiny bit about the Book of Mormon, but it wasn't a very productive meeting, so we scheduled another time to come by and he promised to be sober.
Well when we came by again, he wasn't there, but we got to talk to the preacher lady again. We just kind of compared beliefs and then we talked a bit about the Book of Mormon again, and she said she was willing to give it another shot. So we will see how that goes. Coincidentally she goes to the same church as 2 of our other investigator couples. Never have I found so many Pentecostal Hispanics, must be big here in Lufkin.
We are a little confused though, because the preacher's sister and one of those couples that we're talking to, believe in the trinity, but the preacher lady, and the other couple didn't? So I'm not sure what Pentecostals/this church believes but there seems to be some confusion about the trinity.
Also several instances of Hispanics spontaneously feeding us. The first was on Wednesday I was on exchanges with one of the English elders, and we stopped by an old Book of Mormon referral we haven't been able to get in contact with. They had a long drive way, and it was at night, so we parked outside their fence and walked up awkwardly, and there's a group of guys out drinkin' and grillin' and blasting mexican music from their car speakers, as Mexicans are want to do. And I walk up and ask for our guy, and he's not there but I chat with them a little bit, throw in a couple jokes give them all cards, and then they offer us some tacos! They've got some fajita and some pollo goin' on the grill, and they hand us some tortillas and insist on us having a couple tacos, so we do! They were delicious, and now they like missionaries. Elder Mears was a little taken aback, and in a daze, because we just walked up and took over a classic after-work mexican fiesta, ate their food and left, and he didn't understand much of what was going on.. lol.
Then we had an appointment with an investigator, on Saturday, that has been taught for a long while, and it was for the morning. We show up and she made pancakes for her brother-in-law and some kids she's watching, and she insists we sit and eat her pancakes. A couple interesting things: 1) In Spanish, honey and syrup are the same thing, 2) the Spanish word for jam/jelly/preserves seems to just be the word for marmalade, 3) she put cream cheese on her pancakes, like, A LOT. Like a pad of butter, but like that covers her pancake, then a layer of jam then the other pancake then syrup. I tried a piece like that and it was awesome. She said when she was pregnant she would get a brick of cream cheese for herself and one for everyone else..lol.
Then on Sunday, we had an appointment with this really inactive lady and her son. And when we pulled up they were all outside eating dinner, flautas! Man, flautas with crema, queso fresco, some salsa verda, maaan it's the best. Well they just kind of pulled up chairs and started getting us some. We ate with them then they let us teach them The Restoration. This is the same lady who gave us a big thing of enchiladas last time we stopped by.
The way to a Hispanics heart is by eating their food. And eating seconds.
Also! The 14 year old neighbor of the member that has a son on a mission, he came to church! By himself! He's awesome! No other significant updates at the moment on investigators.
Otherwise, I love the work, I love the people, this is the life.
Love,
Elder Hogg
Elder Mears and I trying to take cool pictures with the truck. And "stancing" it. Also a good ol' Texas sunset.
