A month and two days in Texas

Greetings to family, friends, and possible future acquaintances!

First off: I had my first baptism on Saturday! WOOOOHOOOOO! Oh it was so wonderful! A couple of things went wrong, but we persevered and Pedro got baptized and I am so happy! I know that his life will continue to change for the better, and he will receive even more blessings. Starting with the Gift of the Holy Ghost. And his apartment-mate Jose came both to his Baptism, and then to his Confirmation the next day!

Speaking of Jose, there is a story I would like to tell. Jose is interesting, he agrees with everything we teach, he even participates and sounds like a Member a lot of the time as he helps Pedro understand. But he says to change is really hard for him, even though he believes everything we are saying is true; INCLUDING that the true Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored on the earth. But he's in every lesson we teach, he's started cooking dinner for us when we come over, and he even reminded us when it was 9:04 and we needed to be home at 9:30. (He called us 'ninas' which means 'young girls' basically) And actually that particular night last week, we said goodbuy and they stayed on their second-story porch as we went to where we always parked. When we came to our car a man called out to us and began to walk towards us. Now this man had a cigarette, a plastic garbage can, and was in striped pajamas with a robe and flipflops. Already we know that this is not normal. Anyways he asks "You speak english?" and we said we did. He said that he had lived there since August and had not met a SINGLE person who spoke english. Uhhhh-huh.... Well he told us this story that made me doutb that he knew english either (there was something about snakes, crippled mexicans, his pregnant ladyfriend, drivers liscence, and a busride across town tomorrow). Then he asked for money, and as missionaries we don't carry cash on us so we couldnt' help him. He turned cold real quick once we wouldn't give him money and then he walked off. Now in normal circumstances we would have driven off pretty quickly, but Hermana Green had to back me out of the parking space, since I was driving, and I didn't want to leave her alone outside the car incase the guy was crazy AND aggressive. So once he walked away Hna. Green gestured at me mouthing 'Go! Go!' and I quickly got in the car and she backed me up, and got inside where it was safe.

Here is where Jose comes in: I didn't see but Hna. Green did that he had either heard the man call out to us or saw him walking towards where we always parked and he came down. He had been watching the goings on from a short distance away with his arms crossed. I wish I had known he was there, Hna. Green said his face was priceless, he looked like a dog with his hackles up. I have no doubt that if that man had done anything threatening at all our short, mexican guardian angel would have swooped in in a heartbeat.

Those were the two most exciting events this past week. There has been a lot of cloudcover and some rain lately, which I enjoy. One day it was even dim enough to remind me of my home in Western Washington! But as soon as I step outside the illusion is shattered, 'cause it's hot and humid. But that's okay. I haven't gotten sunburned yet, I MIGHT be tanning a little, I don't know. But what I do know is that I must have the tastiest bloodtype in the land because I get EATEN up by mosquitoes. I am like candy to them! But weird thing is it's always my legs, and usually my left leg. Don't know why that is. But I am developing a supreme will to not scratch them when I get them. At least I haven't been bitten by any ants lately, that's happened a couple of times too. The buggers are everywhere! We had an infestation of sugar ants in our kitchen a while back, and now some in our bathroom. Though I think they might have exterminated themselves for us, they came for the Robitussin in the medicine cabinet, then we found vast numbers fo their corpses on the bathroom counter. And I didn't see any live ones when I cleaned this morning... hm...

This is the last week in this Transfer (6 weeks) but I don't think I'll be transfered to another area, or that I'll be losing my Trainer Hermana Green. They usually keep Trainers and Trainees together for two tranfers. I'm happy about that.

Much love!
~ Hermana Green