Hello, and welcome back to another exciting week of "How's that Gringo?" As to the subject line--a lunch appointment we had. We were trying to figure out what the hermano was eating, and what animal. We are still debating, but there is a solid chance I had DOG yesterday.
So, as usual it's been a full week of sweating, walking, interesting smells, smiling and nodding, and incredible spiritual experiences. And as usual, there is oh, so little time in the hour to write them all out. So, it looks like you guys just get snippets.
In order from least interesting and amazing, to most:
HALLOWEEN. Right now I feel like a halloweenie, because I still haven't really figured out how I can send pictures (sorry all) (He did manage to get a few through email. Yay!!) But, we did in fact, have as much of a Halloween here as we could. We bought 4 watermelons and were able to hollow them out and cut faces out of them. It was great! We had such a fun time and we think they turned out pretty well.
Plus, we had like 4 bowls worth of watermelon meat. We couldn't eat all of it, so we naturally decided to throw some away and rinse some down the drain. But apparently, drains don't like out of season watermelon any more than we do. I remember being younger and not understanding why Dad freaked out when I put potato skins down the drain. I'm understanding a lot of things like that on my misión now. The sink threw it back up and clogged up and what do you know--our floor starts flooding. In order to fix it, Elder M had to go into the belly of the beast and clean out the deposit that was literally a foot and a half of food that's been sitting there for who knows how many years. How many transfers worth of missionary food down that drain? The sight and smell is something that can't quite be described. Olivia would call it a "classic" moment.
MY FIRST BLESSING. How exciting and spiritual, right? Well, they're supposed to be. We hit up a referral this week, and it was just another day. This family was on the poorer side of what I've seen in my time here. After trying to talk to these two girls, (one was like 25 and the other was 10) we didn't understand why the older one couldn't seem to look us in the eyes and both of them would only make noises at us and maybe one or two words. After a while, the Mom came out of their three room tarp house with another cat that looked on the verge of death, but bigger than the one the toddler was strangling in the corner. And this lady, very sweet lady, explained how hard life had been lately. We asked about her daughters, and guess what? They speak Guarani...pure Guaraní. They don't even understand Spanish. As bad as mine is, I know more Spanish than they do. The Mom said how she was worried about the daughter who couldn't look us in the eyes and said that it's because she was possessed by a demon and asked us to give her a blessing. It was really sad, actually. We asked some questions and for a time she was in a lot of pain, like a ton--and would just cry and not eat for days. Elder B, who spent time in a hospital working, said it was the symptoms of kidney stones or something that was big enough to need surgery, but they're way too poor to even afford that. What we kind of found out was that she had been pushed to the limits in terms of pain and hunger, and that it broke her mentally. I was asked to give the blessing, in my second language, to this lady who spoke an entirely different third language. Interesting day, that day.
FIRST BAPTISM. I had my first baptism this week. This amazing lady named G who is the standard of faith and testimony to me. It was incredible to finally be able to baptize her after a long time of her having to deal with some issues with her partner. This lady, who in the first lesson told the Elders to shut up and never come back, looked at me as she said her life had forever been changed for the better because of us. Now she and all her kids are baptized and fuerte a ful. Such incredible stuff and such an incredible spirit. Just makes you love the work.
Last thought. A reoccurring one I've had throughout the week. A few days ago an image hit me. It was the Webb family, and my dear little cousins, Jennifer, Leslie, and Kaydee sitting around a table with Auntie and Uncle praying for me and Deji. Then it hit me, as I thought about all the other cousins, family, and friends that spend time throughout their days and spend just a second to ask our Heavenly Father to help me. It means a lot, as I know how much I need them. Keep it up! I pray for your safety and hope all is well.
Elder Yocum
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