Semana 37: Disfruta la Fruta and Death Threats

Hellooooo everyone!! I hope you all had a great week!

Disfruta la fruta comes from when we exploded a cantaloupe with some fireworks hahaha! Members are literally the coolest here.

Bautizar Bautizar

We got fed 7 times in one day... that's gotta be some sort of record.

I'm getting better at using my common sense and not blabbing my mouth about something that I will eventually be roasted for. Anyway, we were at the bishop's house eating and chatting and I accidentally said "Idk there's something about bishops daughters that..." and then I realized I was sitting with a bishop... and his 20 year old daughter. 🤦‍♂️

Esoo

My area is filled with vegetation, whenever my comp and I pass by orange or banana trees, we pluck some and eat them while we are walking around.

Despite México being the best country in the world, once in a blue moon we come across some people who really hate Americans. Some members have warned me this week that someone figured out a white "mormon missionary" has been serving in the area and there's been rumors going around that someone put a death threat on me 😶 So we were cautioned not to go to that neighborhood for some time...

The Fam

We have been teaching the sister of our most recent convert. They have a brother named Juan Carlos, who loves to make a joke out of literally everything and makes it very difficult to have a normal mature lesson. This man is 12 years old and has more (bad) life experience than a 40 year old man who went to college at ASU. So, knowing that he's not the sharpest tool in the shed and loves to harass me for kicks and giggles, I made a pretty reasonable bet with him... I pointed at this massive tree that was a good 3-4 kilometers away and told him that I would give him 10 pesos (50 cents) if he could run to that tree and back in 30 minutes. Being the gullible stinker he is, he was up for the challenge because he'll do anything for money. He started running... and running... and it was GREAT because we actually had a good lesson without him disrupting! When we left and he still had not returned.  We came back the next day and he was soooo mad hahahah! Now okay I know this sounded horribly mean but Juan Carlos and I like to joke with each other a lot... and it was beneficial because we had a solid lesson. 

Low quality pic with a high quality amigo

We were teaching a lesson over the phone and this guy was telling us about how he was reading the Book of Mormon we gave him and how much he loved it! I muted the mic and leaned over to my companion and told him to put him on date for baptism since he's never done it before. My companion out of the blue with no context blurted out "Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized?"🤦‍♂️ (comp study the next day was how to put someone on date) The man's response was quite interesting... he said, "I mean I've been baptized in your church 3 times already but I would love to be baptized again. Bishop Torres, (our bishop) that man is so cool!!" I couldn't breathe I was laughing so hard and my companion was so upset hahaha! My companion put a member on date for baptism 💀💀 

Models

I HAD MY FIRST DREAM IN SPANISH!!! It was a very odd dream but it was dope nonetheless because it was all in Spanish woooooo!

This week I got a good taste of what it is like to be a leader in the church and having the weight of a ward, stake, or mission on your shoulders. I got bombarded with a lot of horrible situations going on in our ward here in Petromex. It really opened my eyes to the amount of suffering and extreme poverty that these families go through on a daily basis. One of our recent converts is 21 years old and he is studying full-time at a university WHILE working full-time to support a family of over 10 because his mom doesn't make sufficient money to put food on the table. On top of all of that, he still finds time to serve in the church and attends every meeting. I don't know what every individual person is going through, but I just want to invite you all to thank your church leaders, because it takes a lot to support a ward family. I can't even imagine supporting a ward of 500 people or a stake of 2000. I also want to invite you all to love everyone and do everything you can to support the people around you. We are so so blessed... remember this.