Drunk guys, man

Sup

 So Tuesday, we went to district council, ate some Chinese food after for some reason, and then we went back to the area. We put in a long couple of hours working on Facebook and calling old investigators. We achieved nothing from it, and I was happy to be able to finally leave. We went to go teach Jesús, the blind recent convert, and oh boy. We all know this guy likes to talk, but my goodness he was on one that day. He talked  FOREVER. We had no clue what to do, so we literally just listened to him, and talked when we could. He ended up talking for just over 2 hours and we could only sneak in 1 principal: Obey and honor the law. Jesús is a great guy, but after that lesson we were a bit grateful to be outside. After we went to teach Gerardo, a guy who works in a tiny, cluttered store and sews and repairs pants and stuff. He's a nice guy and we have nice discussions with him, but Im almost certain that he just likes to discuss religion and im not sure if he'll convert, but he's a cool guy. 

On Wednesday, we left the house early to go find some lady we contacted in Facebook. It took us quite a while to find her house and when we did, she wasn't there. We called and sent messages, and she left them on read, then we knocked on the door and some different lady answered the door who lives in the same complex as her. We contacted her and she said that we could come back to teach her on Friday (she wasn't there on Friday sadly enough, just a rude old man) we went to the church after, and they were having a service for some very sick woman who had just died. We didn't know her, but we went in and sat down for a bit and saw how we could help. We moved some tables and chairs under orders of an extremely bossy woman for a while. After we went to go eat some fantastic tacos by the church. I’ve mentioned the place before. It's where we ate cow head tacos once. This time they weren't cow head, they were just steak and longaniza (a sausage type Meat) but they were just as good. The guy Who makes the tacos, Miguel Angel, was actually someone we were teaching for a while, so we taught him a brief lesson. He's got some problems in his family (his son is in jail), but he's a cool guy. He told us he wants us to baptize him. We also had a family home evening with a really cool family from the ward. 

Thursday we did the dreaded weekly planning to start the day, and after we went to Carmen’s house. She's the recent convert who's 2 of 3 sons died of alcoholism, her husband died, and her brother just died of covid. It turns out that also her daughter has to have a C section with her baby, and her other son has alcohol problems and she's extremely worried about him. She was crying pretty hard, so we gave her and her daughter a blessing and then we talked go her son for a few minutes. He's a nice guy, but you can defiantly tell he might have some problems. Later, we went to go visit Jesus, but I guess he wasn't home cause he didn't answer so we went to go to find old investigators using the map of the area on the phone. Good ol’ Duke began to follow us and even though he's a funny dog, its really annoying to contact with him on your tail cause he starts barking if you don't give him a rock in 5 seconds so we threw a rock as far as we could for him to go chase and then we sprinted and his behind some pillars behind the old catholic church and slowly snuck away. We ended up finding this grey dot on the map and it turns out it was the house of the brother of Carmen who just died. We were debating what to say if we knocked and right as we were doing that, some guy opened the door. I didn't want the situation to be awkward and literally just said the first thing that came to mind and asked if he was Carmen’s brother (which probably wasn't the best thing to say knowing the circumstance). He said he wasn't, but he was her nephew. We told him we were very sorry to hear what happened, and we’d like to come back and help his family. He said we could and we put an appointment. We made a few more contacts, and went home.

Friday we had exchanges in another area. I went with good old Elder Larson (his names Larson and he looks a bit like a Gary Larson drawn character funnily enough) we were walking all day trying to contact people and knock some doors. We only ended up having one lesson with one of their investigators Who up front said they'd rather attend other churches before ours and stuff. Not the most successful day I've ever seen, but elder Larson is a fun guy. After we bought some tacos and my goodness they may have been the best tacos I've ever eaten. I don't even know why. It was just some guy and his wife making them outside their house, but they were literally so fantastic.

Saturday started out a bit slow, we had to talk to the zone leaders for half an hour to give them all the information of all the recent converts in our area book, and boring  stuff like that. After all that we went to go eat with a member of the bishopric and his wife. They were cool. Later we went to work in the street. We knocked a few doors and stuff. And then we met the drunk dudes. I first have to say the drunk guys are actually quite friendly and courteous, but make no mistake that these guys were just EXTREMELY hammered on alcohol. we bought ‘em a small Coke and sat down with them. There was two of them so basically my comp was talking to one, and me to the other. From what they told us, they were drunk from sun up, to sun down, and they're always sitting in the street drinking and smoking. They were sharing a cigarette, and they were in such close proximity to us, I was inhaling the smoke and just dying. The guy I was talking to, and its just my luck, was the more drunk of the two. His words were SO slurred and it was so hard to understand him cause it took like 5 seconds to say a word. (not really but it felt like it) he was trying to speak english too and he told me his name was Juan but I should call him John. He kept spiking the red cola he was drinking too. After he came over to me and started to clean my shoes there in the middle of the road. It wasn't the best shoe cleaning job I've ever seen, but knowing the circumstances I'll give "John" a pass. Pues, it was a nice gesture. Then he got up and started doing shadow puppets in the street and then sat back down and told me to sing the Mexican national anthem. I told him I didn’t know the song, so he told me to sing the American one. I still didn't. Later he started going off about how much he hates everything about Monterrey and using every swear Word in the book to describe the place (and theres a lot of swears in Spanish my goodness). So that was basically the conversation. We got up to leave and I gave good old John an "Evangelio de Jesucristo" pamphlet and I said "hasta luego John" and he told me to just call him Mexican (not like Mexicano in Spanish but literally just Mexican in english) so I said "Adiós Mexican" and we left. Quite interesting guys. I’d say if they weren't drowning in beer 24/7 they'd have some potential. After that we were looking for some lady named Clara, and we went into the store next to her house to ask the shopkeeper if he knew her. He said he did but the shopkeeper was extremely rude and said we "lacked knowledge" and stuff like that. He then said we were narrow minded cause our tags say "Jesucristo" not "Jesús Cristo" and slamming us. I literally just watched as my companion and him were just arguing for about 10 minutes until the guy finally just walked away. Arguing is pointless in my opinion.

Sunday. So we went to church and none of our investigators were there. That seems to be a bit of a challenge in this area. There was a lot of converts and some Less actives there though. Later we had some fantastic burritos with the family Rivera and then we returned to the church. We were able to take Elizabeth to the temple visitors center with all the other missionaries and their investigators in the stake. (its a pretty small stake though) This was my third time going to the visitors center/the temple, but the rude over never ceases to amaze. You don't go through the city but you get pretty close and I've never seen so many houses or buildings in my life. Miles and miles of houses lining the mountains or the freeways without being able to see an inch of space. If you want to feel tiny, go to México City. It reminds me of this excerpt from Moses:

28 And he beheld also the inhabitants thereof, and there was not a soul which he beheld not; and he discerned them by the Spirit of God; and their numbers were great, even numberless as the sand upon the sea shore.

29 And he beheld many lands; and each land was called earth, and there were inhabitants on the face thereof.

30 And it came to pass that Moses called upon God, saying: Tell me, I pray thee, why these things are so, and by what thou madest them?

31 And behold, the glory of the Lord was upon Moses, so that Moses stood in the presence of God, and talked with him face to face. And the Lord God said unto Moses: For mine own purpose have I made these things. Here is wisdom and it remaineth in me.

32 And by the word of my power, have I created them, which is mine Only Begotten Son, who is full of grace and truth.

33 And worlds without number have I created; and I also created them for mine own purpose; and by the Son I created them, which is mine Only Begotten.

34 And the first man of all men have I called Adam, which is many.

35 But only an account of this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, give I unto you. For behold, there are many worlds that have passed away by the word of my power. And there are many that now stand, and innumerable are they unto man; but all things are numbered unto me, for they are mine and I know them.

36 And it came to pass that Moses spake unto the Lord, saying: Be merciful unto thy servant, O God, and tell me concerning this earth, and the inhabitants thereof, and also the heavens, and then thy servant will be content.

37 And the Lord God spake unto Moses, saying: The heavens, they are many, and they cannot be numbered unto man; but they are numbered unto me, for they are mine.

Anyways

We took a tour and we walked the grounds with Elizabeth. The tour and travels were pretty short but they were good. Elizabeth had brought some tuna to feed us with on the bus, so right before we left she wanted to open the tuna outside to pour out the water so she literally just started pouring it on the grass at the temple with everyone on the bus waiting. Then she started passing around the large plate of tuna to all the missionaries on the bus. Maybe it was just a little weird, but Elizabeth is one of the nicest people live met on my mission and all the missionaries really liked her. 

Anyways that was my week so bye.

Pics

Us and Elizabeth at the visitors center

Our family home evening

Me and Elder Cervantes