Tuesday, April 25, 2017

Week 066 - Everyone Goes At It While The Mormons Just Eat Fish


Congratulations on another successful egg hunt. One of the many reasons I am proud to be an American, is the annual tradition of looking for eggs dropped by the Easter bunny. My companion, sadly to say, sees these traditions as distractions of Satan. I proudly disagree, and defend it as a healthy balance of worship and good times. Because clearly you guys accomplished both… remembered the resurrection of Jesus Christ while enjoying a few starburst jellybeans.
I actually had a fantastic Easter Sunday as well. A couple families of the ward had invited us over for dinner and lunch, I was delight for the invitation, but can you believe it… when I tell you that there were no cheesy potatoes on either these dishes? But that was alright, they were both great eats. And both spaghetti with a meat sauce. No joke guys, if someone invites you over to eat here, it’s either spaghetti with a meat sauce, or a fried breaded chicken. Both are some of my favorite foods, so we are in the clear. And check this… the bishop’s family gave us a super cool present. A CHOCKLATE EGG! But check this out, once I bit into the chocolate I soon realized there was A TOY INSIDE OF A CHOCLATE. Another missionary told me that these don’t exist in the United States because too many weirdos accidently ate the toy inside, so they had to get rid of them. I don’t know if that’s true, but you can’t always have nice things.
I don’t remember if it’s the same in Texas, but here people get Thursday and Friday off work and school for Easter preparation. Dedication. So everything is pretty much shut down for the weekend. And everyone eats loads of fish and wine. It’s a catholic tradition, but everyone goes at it while the Mormons just eat fish. It’s pretty great though because everyone books it down to the river in the morning to catch fish, and then they sell them in the streets; fish, fish empanadas, fried fish, fried breaded fish, and some other kind of fried dish that you can do with fish. People try to hose the missionaries with all their fish advertisements, because everyone thinks we have money. They even try to screw up the prices. But I don’t get pushed around, I know your fish is not worth that much. So yeah, it was a fish weekend.
Another exciting event, was that Recreo had a new member named Milena join the church. The sister missionaries of Recreo had been teaching a ten year old, and she was baptized on Saturday. Her parents did not get baptized, but her mom comes with her to the Sunday meetings. So hopefully there is some change in her in the future. Her baptism went a little crazy because the church ran out of water, so the baptismal font only filled up half a foot. So it was time for some problem solving, calling for the firefighters, or steal the next door neighbors’ water with a hose. So we stole the water from the next door neighbor. We asked of course, but it was kind of funny trying to explain to the women at the door why we need her water. And so we connected three hoses, and were able to transport water from her house to the font. And the water flowed super slowly, so eventually we just decided it was high enough that she could fall back under the water. Good day.
Aldana Ramirez is doing awesome and comes to all the activities of the church. Actually, right now she is with us watching a bunch of the videos of the church. She downloads them and shows them to her family and dogs on her TV. Super neat.
We are teaching a couple right now named Fernando and Gisela Galli, they are a super special family. A member of the ward gave us their address, and so we passed by their house. it was super funny because he answered the door, and right when he saw us he said, "Come on in." And so I thought, “Sweet, nice to meet you.” Then he said, "Jesus sent you guys, right?" We didn’t realize that the name of the member that gave us the address was named Jesus. So yeah, both Jesuses sent us. But this family, when we teach them, has such a spirit in their home, and has really strengthened my testimony on the restoration. That’s all. We´ve been teaching them since our first visit. And when we talk about the Book of Mormon and the visitation from God and Jesus Christ to Joseph Smith, it’s not just a story, but it’s the truth, and the reality that we are part of it. They have a lot to change before they can become members of the church, and they are moving to another area in our zone, but it’s really cool what’s been happening to these people.
I love you guys and miss you! I’m so glad you all had a great Easter Sunday!
Elder Greene








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