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| Santa and the Elder with his helmet on backward |
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| Wearing a nail gun chain. |
(I have debated on calling this one, "What are you talking about?! I
WAS at church." due to this story, but the polygamist one has a nice
ring.) We have been teaching this nice older Mexican guy who has been
golden the past couple of lessons. We asked him if he would follow the
word of wisdom and he said, 'of course', we asked him if he would be
baptized, he said 'of course', (KInda like that guy from the Princess
Bride who says 'As you wish', except this fellow is quiet a bit older)
we asked him to come to church and this is where it gets weird... On
Friday he said he was coming, but there was no Adrian at church. The
kind gentleman with a mustache of barb wire and a heart of enchilada
sauce was no where to be found. However, we went to his home after and
said we missed him at church. He scrunched up his facial hair and
said, "What are you talking about?! I WAS at church." Now, the normal
observer would estimate that Adrian either had a lost a few marbles or
that Elder Thomas and Elder Perkins are blind. It wasn't either. His
ride was late and he wanted to go, so we drove to the chapel in Monet
and went to the English ward. Yes, it is true, we asked the
missionaries in Monet and they said they did stumble into a clueless
Spanish speaker, but with the help of a quick game of charades they
aided our Hispanic compadre. Pretty cool right? He told us he didn't
understand anything in English, that was a set back.
Now for the Polygamists. On an exchange to the small village of
Stockton, I ate dinner with an ex-polygamist family. They had one
maternal parent and 19 kids. Yes, 19. We only met three but I met one
in another location a couple hundred miles south of my present
location in a missionary training center. One of their daughters was
in the CCM at the same time as me and I met her. A couple of my
friends from Alta were actually in the group that left with her. They
were a kind family and the parents were surprisingly stable
considering at one point they had 19 kids running around their crammed
cottage in the backwoods of Missoura. They are pretty patient parents.
We taught a man how to pray in a trailer this week. Teaching people to
pray is one of the greatest blessings out here. As mice ran across his
oven and his daughters pulled his sleeve saying, 'Papi, yo tengo un
tableta! Papi, hay un rato en nuestro casa! Papi, mami esta
dormiendo!', we taught him that God loves him. Then the mice returned
to the dirt-filled chasm from whence they came and the children lost
interest, and we asked him to pray. Presumably, he didn't want to, but
with some encouragement he did. It was humble, brief and very
powerful. As he ended he looked at the ground with eyes wide open. You
could tell he knew he just spoke with his Father in Heaven. He looked
shocked, but the light in his eyes suggested a sense of peace. It was
awesome and a great blessing.
Pretty cool week all in all, and I am looking forward to the next.
Keep on praying for these people in this area. I love you all and
Merry Christmas from the Aurora library, they say hello.
Elder Thomas
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