Tuesday. Tuesday night we had a lesson with an
investigator. We originally went with the intention of teaching her and
not setting up a return appointment, to have her call us when she's
ready. Well, we get there and the house is all crazy there's extra people
there, and they're in the middle of doing a bunch of other stuff. She
babysits and 2 of the moms for whom she babysits were there. One of them
was very impressed by 2 white guys speaking good Spanish, and was
pretty curious about the whole situation. The other new about
missionaries and Mormons and such, because she had lived in Rexburg, ID
for 2 years with a Mormon family. What are the odds?? She wasn't
particularly interested in any religion, but we were talking and gave
the first lady a Book of Mormon. They both said we could come back
though. They all live in the same complex, so we will going back
tomorrow!
Wednesday. We have been going on splits (each one of us
goes with a different member for visits and lessons that night), and Hermano
Roberts is one of the guys that comes out with us. He's an American guy
that served his mission in Argentina, so he's been called to help the
branch. He takes us in his 1969 Chrysler Newport convertible. It's
awesome and people love it. People on the street offer him money for it,
and our investigators think it's awesome. And it's awesome to ride in.
Thursday. On our way home for the night were rear ended!
Like less than a half mile from our house. It was a kid with a truck
(1999 Ram 1500 to be exact lol), in the exact situation that happened to
me that time I (supposedly) rear ended someone. We were at a stop light
and it turned green and he started going before I did. I think he hit
the gas though, because he dented our bumper pretty well. After we
exchanged information and everything, we talked for a sec, and he said
missionaries could stop by his house and share the message. We hope he's
actually, at least, a little interested and not just saying that because
he didn't want us to get him in trouble haha.
Saturday. So Friday night by we were walking through downtown
Lufkin. Surprisingly dead. Well there was this guy on a really loud but
cool motorcycle. He stopped at a stoplight and we offered him a card,
he shouted over the engine "I'm Catholic", we told him to have a blessed
day and he sped off. Well Saturday comes around and we are walking near
that same neighborhood where we found the Russian Mexican, and the
other borrachos we talked to Super Bowl Night. We went back to where he
was and knocked, and it was the Motorcycle guy! We noticed it outside
but couldn't tell if it was the same bike because the the first time we
saw it it was night. He opened that door and said the same thing, but we
asked if he was the same guy we saw the night before and he said yes.
We asked him a question or two about this motorcycle, and he says "hold
on a sec I'll let you hear it". He closes the door and comes back out
with the key and turns it on and even lets us sit on it and rev it. He
said it was a limited edition one from the factory, they only made 100
of them and he can get up go to 90 mph and still have 2 gears left. He
was spouting off a bunch of other jargon I didn't understand, but it
was awesome. He said we could come back and share some stuff with him,
and even let us give him a pamphlet.
The set up of his place was really
weird, but in the weird house building behind his was the drunk guy that
started talking to me, in the middle of the Russian Mexican experience,
about the Virgin Mary in Mexico, that could supposedly be found in the
Bible. So we found him and set up a time to come back, nice guy. He said
he didn't know where the Russian lived, and hadn't seen him since that
night. So we are still on the hunt for him haha.
A little bit down the street we felt prompted to knock a
door, it had that jewish prayer thing they keep on their door frame. A
kid answered and we chatted, turns out they are Non-Jew Jews! I think
because they weren't ethnically Jewish, they refer to themselves as
Torah-followers. But they also believe Jesus to be the Messiah, but he
didn't really say they consider themselves messianic jews. I was a bit
confused, but it really interesting. He had the little undershirt prayer
tassel things, but I couldn't tell if he was wearing a Yamaka. Super
neat. He said missionaries used to come by forever ago, and that we
could stop back again another day. Really interesting!
Sunday. So Sunday we had expected a ton of investigators to
make it to church. I mean, we invite people every week, and if everyone
came who we invited, we would fill up the chapel. Our Branch President
said on his mission in Veracruz, he had 50 investigators at church one
week! Mexico missions, what the heck?! Anyway, this week we had made
plans with them all and it all felt really sure, but alas, only one of
them actually came. I think last week I told you about that big tree
that fell down in one of our investigator/less-active's yard? Well
earlier this week we stopped by with the other missionaries and helped
take care of/clean up a bunch of it. We invited them to church and they
said yes! She is already a member, baptized in Mexico, and when she came
here, 20 years ago if I remember correctly, Lukin didn't have its own
Spanish branch yet, and she didn't understand a thing in the English, so
she just kind of went in active, remarried a very Catholic guy, and now
goes the Catholic church. Her husband is super nice, but is out of town
for work most of the time. We taught him The Restoration and he's been
taught a little bit before, but he happened to be in town this week for
something with his health, and we were able to help him with his tree
and invite him to church. It was awesome when they came. He's never been
and super Catholic, and she hasn't been probably about 20 years and now
effectively Catholic, so that was neat to see them come. I think they
were a little shocked at how small the congregation is. I think they
used to go the Catholic church.
Also Sunday night we had a couple cool lessons. One in
particular was with a guy we've been slowly teaching. Him and family are
learning Catholic. The kids are getting ready to
be baptized and stuff, and they're going through classes to get
Catholic married (they're already legally married). Usually we teach him
outside, but it's been a little cold, so he invited us in, and his 10
y/o son joined us. We taught the plan of salvation, and the son was
asking a ton of awesome questions, and kept calling us Sir. lol. He asked
questions about Jehovah, Angels, Spirits, etc. He's a super smart kid! We
also had to explain that when we pray we don't use pre-written prayers
(Matthew 6:7), and that God, Jesus, and the Holy Ghost are 3 distinct and
individual people. And the week before we talked about why we don't baptize infants. Then afterwards they fed us Espaghetti! Hispanics are
the best at random acts of food.
Anyway that's about it for this week,
Love y'all!
Elder Hogg
PS: All the other Elders were pretty blown away by all the
snow pictures. Particularly Elder Hadley from Arizona. He keeps the heat
on in their apartment lol. Elder Nelson says they get snow up in Utah
but never that much haha. Making me miss home haha
We've
been trying to be more healthy around here, but its super hard when we
get fed 2 dinners sometimes. And we were lucky this week, we even had 2
lunches this last wednesday lol.
By
the way, my official come home date right now is September, which is
only like 5 months away! I get a bunch of anxiety just thinking about
it!! I've started applying to UVU and BYU-I. I'm going to apply to BYU
Provo too, don't think I'll get in but its the same app, so might as
well. If I don't have to pay out of state tuition I'm really considering
UVU. Did you know Dante is there now?? I think I'll be starting January
2019. So I'll get home for a couple months, go up to Christmas then
probably leave right after. Its really weird to think about!!
PPS: Elder
Mears caught this cool lizard that stuck around with him for several
hours. Then he said "if you love something, let it go" and the lizard at
that moment suicide jumped off his arm and ran away. His name was
Grirmelgoren (prounced Grimel-gorn). He pooped in his pocket shortly
after the photo.
(I didn't get a photo yet unless it was this one... which I thought was just a stump. -Mom)
