Howdy, Y'all!
Okay I haven't actually said that yet to anyone (though the 'ustedes' form in Spanish is basically the 'y'all' form) but I certainly do hear it often from the english-speakers that I'm around.
I made a list of things I wanted to type about, hopefully I remembered to write everything!
First I remember people telling me about all the food I would get stuffed with all the time, I was a little worried being of a tender tummy as I am at times. And all the stores about the strange/gross things other Missionaries had to eat did not help my expectations. But one thing I discovered in Texas is that I actually get hungery! I thought I'd be stuffed to the gills all the time, but thankfully that doesn't happen. We get fed dinner at least once a week on Thursdays before Coordination Meeting. But other than that it's been only occasional that we get fed again. But earlier in this week I did experiance five meals in one day. Three dinners in a row, less than an hour apart from eachother. Amazingly I didn't feel full by the time the next one came, I wasn't hungry but I was able to eat what was placed in front of me. That was a little crazy, but I chalked it up as a positive experience.
Friday we had this crazy-awesome Thunder and Lightning storm! While waiting for a ride with a recent convert to the Ward Family Home Evening my companion and I were watching the lightning in the distance and counting the seconds between the flash and the rumble to gauge the distance. It was still pretty far away. But when we went from the little back porch area to look out the front door there was a blue-white flash and an almost immediate crash above us! Then all the car alarms in the parking lot went off! I've never seen that before! I wish I'd had my camera with me! Around then it started to rain really, really hard. Being from Seattle and a storm-lover I was enjoying the experiance. Later while driving the freeway went at a crawling pace and it was like one big bucket was constantly pouring over us. While returning home in the dark it was so surreal! We were not driving on roads anymore, they were rivers! Out of drains and manhole covers water was gushing like fountains! Some smaller cars were in water up to their headlights! It took a while to get home. We could see other cars making waves like speedboats as they went through the lakes that had formed. Houston is so flat, there is nowhere for the water to go!
Also there was an article in the Houston Chronicle, a newspaper that I think has the 7th highest circulation or something, had an article about the Missionaries in Houston as the cover story. Just go to the website and search 'On a Mission' and you can read it! The reporter who had been researching the Mission and going to lessons, meetings, and such did a really good job of being fair and reporting only accurate information. I recommend that everyone go read it directly after reading this!
I have been pretty much having a dream Mission so far. People are generally very nice, even when uninterested in our message. My Trainer is wonderful and so much fun. And I haven't melted from the heat yet! There was one experience this past week though that I will count as a good learning experience even if I do not feel it was especially positive in any way. My Companion Hermana Green and I had gone to a house for an appointment and as it sadly frequently happens no one was home. While trying to decide what to do with the rest of the time until our next appointment I took notice of a man hanging on the other side of the tall fence of a house across the street. He was watching us. I suggested that maybe we should go talk to him. Maybe he was the reason we were here at this time. So Hermana Green and I walked over and started a conversation. I regretted my suggestion rather quickly I'm afraid. This man might have been drunk, or high, or even possessed in some degree. I felt like I was looking at a dangerous animal through the fence. He kept moving back and forth, pressing his face against the bars as if he wanted to get at us. I felt a jolt of fear when he grabbed the fence and pulled it to the side, it was a sliding gate, and he came on the same side as us.And the things he said were not at all in harmony with the doctrines of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. He insisted that Moses was a false profet and so the first books of the Bible were all false, and that Jesus Christ has said that there was no such thing as the Sabbath Day. He has his own interpretation of the Bible that would allow him to live any way he wanted and still feel good about himself. And he refused to listen to anything we had to say, he just wanted to tell us how to free ourselves from organized religion. I think the greatest thing I learned fromt his unpleasant encounter was that I started to feel downright nauseated while he was talking. That was a sign from the Holy Ghost letting us know that this was not a place that we wanted to be anymore. I have never encountered something, or someone, so devoid of the light of Christ that I felt physically ill before. Later our District Leader gave us advice when we recounted the experiance. He said that if we ever felt that way again, to just get out of that situation.
Now after that back onto happier things! We had an investegatore accept to be baptized! YAY! Hermana Green said that he is my Investegator too because I have been there ever since his second lesson. Oh Pedro is such a good guy! He's around his fifties I believe, recently moved into the area, and is looking for a community to associate himself with. He was actually a referal from a recent convert who made his aquaintance. Pedro soaks up everything like a sponge and is not afraid to ask as many questions as he feels like! When we gave him a Book of Mormon to begin reading, he would read several chapters that were not assigned! The last lesson we had with him he said first thing "I want to become baptised" and we were so happy! Though he wanted to get baptised right before we left the mission. That's a problem, because Hermana Green and I are not leaving at the same time, and she's leaving in five months which is far too long to wait! We got him down to two weeks from now. I'm so Excited! He'll be my first Convert! His apartmentmate has been taking lessons too. Though we found out he has some serious problems that need to be worked out, he's progressing too. Last lesson he said that he wanted to change and become better, and wanted to participate in our church, but to not leave the Catholic Church. We'll see how long that keeps up, but even if it's a little he's still progressing!
I'm participating far more than just bearing my Testimony now in lessons, I can give points of doctrine and personal stories, though those are still a little awkward and I need a lot of help. Still, bearing my Testamony is very strong, the Spirit touches me and those we teach too. When in doubt, bear your Testimony of Christ! It's ALWAYS a good idea!
Oh! Gah... running out of time but I want to mention that on Saturday I went to the Pulga! (Flea Market) where we talk to people who pass by our table, pass out literature, and find the people who would be willing to have the Missionaries come over and share a message about Jesus Christ. In Spanish! I was so awkward but one lady listened to me, and signed the binder and I did that one almost all on my own! That was towards the end, when I wasn't tripping over my words as bad. But we're doing it again this Saturday at a busier location, and there will be tons more people without it raining so bad!
That's all for now, folks!
Love you!
~ Hermana Smart
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