Week 22: From Provo to the Aldeas of Guate to the middle of Africa to idk, Japan

So I hablared last week about the fair that came to town. That was nothing compared to what happened this week. Tuesday it went from being a few tents, to the entire town being filled with tents to the point where you couldn't see the sky. Also we lived right in the middle of it. Tuesday was mas o menos busy, but Wednesday through Friday was locisimo. The streets were packed. Plus all the chapines walk unbelievably slow that it was impossible to get anywhere.

Right in the middle of the town is the big iglesia catolica so naturally all the streets conduce right into it. I wouldn't necessarily say it was a den of thieves. Cueva de ladrones on the other hand… I only say that because at first we joked about it but then they started selling inside. Selling necklaces, candles, and the flowers they were using to worship. Idk, no es mi negocio… Really tho the fair wasn't too bad. The towns gonna be really boring without it.

It was a good week tbh. We lost our most positive investigator (for the moment) so that was a bit of a blow at the time but it all turned out alright. Also something bad about the fair was that nobody was home. We couldn't talk to anyone and like all of our citas fell through.

Saturday we went to Nenton tho and that made up for it. Everyone was going to Santa Ana, so the buses actually had room. Nenton is awesome because the members always have questions for us to answer and they're super curious. Ernestos the best because he0ll always have a doubt or question that wont even matter but hell be so ready to follow it. Like once someone told him we couldn't eat pork and so he swore it off. Another time he wanted to speak at like a public political event thing and thought we couldn't. So we told him we could do those things and he seemed pretty relieved. We also went to a restaurant and our waiter was a joven and he told us he spoke english so he just sat down with us and talked to us while we ate. He was super cool. Also I discovered on my camera that all of my pictures got deleted so that was pretty depressing.

Sunday was pretty awesome. Literally nobody got to church until 10 after. But we had two families bring references. One lives an hour away so we taught them after church. She was super positive. The other was a super shy 18 yo kid living with his sister in the ward. We taught him that night and he didn't talk a lot but he was super cool about everything. So we lost our most positive investigator but we gained two that are low-key better than him so that was lit.

Also I helped a nino pay tithing. It was one quetzal which is probably like 20 cents. Super cute tho. I think it's cool that even if  that seems super insignificant, its still going to get counted the same in gods eyes and in the church. I think the organization of the church is awesome. It doesn't matter if you live in Provo or if you're a little kid in Santa Ana Guatemala. Maybe your 20 cents will go to building a temple thats two hours away from your house instead of seven. Everyone's accounted for.

Next week we have Conference, which I'm super pumped about, but one area in my zone is planning to stream it in Mam. Which probably no one knew even existed. From Provo to the Aldeas of Guate to the middle of Africa to idk, Japan. Everyone deserves to hear the word of god. Which is why we're out here. It's why we preach the Book of Mormon. To show that God didn't just reveal his gospel to the people in Israel. You would think that would interest the people down here because we tell them that the book was literally written in this area. But it doesn't make a huge difference to them. They just say Biblia, una Biblia! Tenemos una Biblia y no necesitamos más Biblia! Literally. Pero no es mi negocio…

So for Pday we went to this place called the mesilla. Or the little table. It's on the border of Mexico and everything there is super cheap. I bought some soccer jerseys for like 2 bucks each. Other than that it was a pretty tranquilo day. Well I'm super animado for Conference. I hope everyone else is too. Luv u all.

Elder Severe