Hola everyone
This week was tough as far as missionary work! We had a really good progressing family drop us this week. I was sure they'd be baptized, we were met by the father at their door when we went to see them for that week and I couldn't quite understand him but I could infer. I wanted to say more but I didn't know the context or if it was only this week, I wanted to say just one more lesson please, but before I knew it we were walking away. I began to cry in the middle of that dirt road. I couldn't hold back my tears. I felt so much sorrow and pain, how could they not see it? I can only imagine the pain the Lord feels. We also had a day where we didn't teach a single lesson, every place we knocked didn't have time for us. We hit all four corners of our city and walked for 4 hours with no success. But that's the work I suppose.
Some highlights though made this week fun. We teach an English class on Saturdays to the natives here and It is the craziest thing to see people try to pronounce English words when they have never once made those sounds in their life. Like the sound of TH and the sound of a U saying uhhh they can't do it! We laughed so hard when I tried to get them to say it right! It reminded me of friends when Phoebe is teaching Joey French and she breaks every word down to syllables correctly and when they put it together Joey says a completely different word haha! Another thing, which might not be funny to you guys but it made my day. I was reading this mug in a restaurant we were eating at, and when I read I automatically just say the words in English in my head, and this was a rhyming little phrase and I didn't even realize it because I read the Spanish phrase in English. I made the off remark to my companion about it, and he said I don't like Spanish rhymes. And I said why? And he replies, I feel like it's just kidding. I laughed SO hard that coke came out of my nose haha! Because everything in Spanish has the same endings, most basically with an o and a so everything rhymes. Anyway, that made my day.
Two crazy stories from this week. We were walking to a family home evening at a member's house but we had some time to kill so we went to a store on the way. Then on the way to the party, we walked through the central park in the middle of the Pueblo. I was eating chips and looking around when my comp says, watch your pockets. I immediately cover my left pocket and look back to see a kid with his arm reaching out at me, snap his arm back, and run away. It was not only a blessing that it wasn't stolen for obvious reasons, but if I caught him I don't know if I would be able to restrain myself. The other story was looking up from my nightly prayer to see a huge tarantula on my wall. I gasped so loud haha! I don't think I have ever seen one in real life before, it gave me the Willys!
Being a trainee is hard because everyone here bosses you around, and because they've been here longer than me, they're inclined to think they're more spiritually advanced or knowledgeable than I am naturally. And if I have a problem with the authority, I need to humble myself and the lord just hasn't "worked on me enough yet" For a guy like me I've had a hard time conforming and being teachable while being demeaned and made to feel like having a problem with how people respect me makes me less Christ-like but just another thing to test my patience. I know full well I can humble myself to the point where such things are not a bother, I can confidently say I am not at such a level quite yet.
I love you all and hope you have a great week, I'm doing great and I love it here!
-Elder Paxy
