We had a crazy experience on Friday night. Elder Mills had to go to Colima because he is district leader, and when he got back to Guzman with the zone leaders we had to go and pick him up there again. Again, because we had to drop him off there on Thursday night, the zone leaders should have gone back with him to Tuxpan this time, but they didn't. And, well, something different in Tuxpan, is that we hitchhike rides all of the time, and so we took a ride to Guzman, and then took a ride from an interesting man from Guzman to Tuxpan. He said that he was going to drop us off at a certain place, but did not take us to that place, he took us way up into the mountains, and at this point, we were all pretty freaked out, and eventually we stopped him, and got a ride to a small town (Alista). This at like 11 pm at the time, where we slept with some non member family that we did not even know for the night and then went back to Tuxpan on Saturday morning.
It was the four Tuxpan missionaries that were there, along with another young kid who lives in Tuxpan and is studying Medicine, and he was really freaked out.
President Wagner knows that we were hitchhiking, past tense, we are not going to do it anymore, well just to lunch, which is about 10 minutes away, two times a week, and we basically have to hitchhike to get there, but other than that we are not going to do it anymore.
This is sol, or sun, the daughter of the former branch president. We have taught his wife a few times, and they came to the activity, well the mom and the daughter, and the dad is a really nice guy, me and my companion both find it hard to believe what supposedly happened, but who knows.
We had a branch family home evening on Friday night. It was a big success. Elder Hernandez and Elder Cervantes taught a lesson about the Book of Mormon to the adults, and I played Musical Chairs with the little kids, and they understood me and I understood them! It was totally awesome!
My companion was testing my patience today because he was washing his laundry by hand and it was taking forever, and I was cleaning the house the whole time. It was not as much that I had to sit around, I was cleaning the whole time, but it was a little bit frustrating because he did not tell me thanks or anything, sound familiar? I hope that I will not be bothering you guys for too long when I get back home, but for the time that I live with you guys before moving out I promise you that I will help you clean the house.
Veronica is like 50 years old, but she looks older than she is. Her mom lives across the street from her and also is a member of the church, but it sounds like the elders forced her to be baptized. She still has the catholic thing up, but it is just there to be there, it does not mean anything.
I do not have the chance to hear about the people in Guzman much. 34 people came to church yesterday, but it was not a good day. The branch president had to work, and his 1st counselor had to take over, he is a cool guy, but well, lets just say that I realized how important good leadership is. We ended Sacrament meeting at 10 55, and we obviously start at 10. He asked me when I arrived to church to talk, and it did not go well. First of all, I passed the Sacrament for the first time in my mission, and I forgot to give it to the first counselor first, and went to give it to a member. Luckily, I went to give it to Hna. Castolo, possibly one of the few members who recognized my error and thankfully corrected me. Then, in my talk, I said apostasy (taught false doctrine?). I told them that any sin could be forgiven through the sacrament, but that is not true, serious sins cannot be forgiven simply by continuing to partake of the sacrament (3 Nephi 18, 29 and 30). The classes were fine, we have a problem here, that, well many of the 34 who came were little kids, and many left after sacrament meeting. I feel like we have kinda been thrown into the fire here, like we are the Ward leaders and I do not feel ready for that.
Even when I make stupid mistakes like speaking apostasy in a talk and mess up on the sacrament, this week I really felt like I received a lot of help from The Lord during my personal scripture study and was able to learn a lot.
I feel good, I really tried to be more patient and have and show more love this week, I prayed often for the pure love of Christ and I felt like those prayers were answered. We found several less actives members this week who are now once again Catholics. One told us repeatedly how much he regrets being baptized in our church and that he even confessed it as though it were a sin to his catholic priest.
But, the good news, is that we taught Oscar and Luz Maria, and we had a nice lesson with them about Faith. He is a member and she is not. She is really timid and pregnant, and they are looking for a new house. He is working for a mortuary right now, but sometimes has a hard time holding a job because he has heart problems. They are really nice, humble people, we are going to go and teach them again in about an hour. She accepted the challenge to be baptized, but was not ready to accept a date as of yet. But we were able to gain a lot of her confidence, and they also went to the Branch family home evening that we had on Friday that was a big success. His parents are inactive members.
This week, overall was a good one, it will be tough to baptize here or reactivate, it is very frustrating in general at times, but oh well. By the way, I have been sleeping better, I still do not sleep great, but it just does not bother me like it used to.
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