"Lemon leaves are quite refreshing!" November 12, 2012

Man, this week has been a headache, I never thought that I would go through so many back up plans! We went to visit our investigator Azucena to teach her and talk to her about her baptismal service. We got to talking and she told us that the only time she could do it would be at 9 in the morning. We thought that it would be okay, because that means we would just have to have one of the District Leaders come over to interview her and her kids Friday. Well, that fell through because it turned out that our DL wouldn't be able to make it due to transportation problems. He didn't come until Saturday morning at 8. That went well, we all made it to the Chapel at 9 ready to start but our sketchy ward mission leader forgot to assign talks and was looking for someone to talk. We told him to forget it and that he is going to have to do it. This guy is always snaking out on us. If we ask him to prepare something, he always finds an excuse to get out. Including yesterday! He had gotten a family home evening all planned and told the branch where it would be held. Only 30 min before he was asking if we were there at the house of the investigator of the FHE and if people were there. There were 11 members there including the district president. We waited and waited for him to show up but he flaked out. We even tried to call him but he turned his cell phone off! So we whipped out a lesson with the sisters and taught James chpt 3. The part that made me made the most is that as we were walking up back to our house, he passes us on a street with someone in the front seat. He totally ditched us. Anyway, lets get back on track.... The service went beautifully and our investigators felt amazing. Afterwards Azucena came up to me and shook my hand and told me "thank you". I think that was the first time that anyone has actually ever come up to me after and said thank you. It helped me realize the importance and the excitement that she had felt that day. I'm so grateful that I have been given this opportunity to serve a mission. There couldn't have been a better time to leave at the time I did, because if not, I don't think I would have ever met them.

Something that I noticed that always seems to happen when we teach about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the reverence and the silence there is when we teach them the first vision. We always quote the journal writing that Joseph Smith recorded what he saw that day. It doesn't matter if the chickens outside are making a bunch of noise and running in and out of the house, but when it comes to that time, it always goes quiet. Its like every single living thing stops and listens to what we have to say..."Vì una columna de luz, mas brilliante que el sol directamente de me cabeza. Al reposar sobre me la luz, vi en el airre...." and by that time everything is silent. I sat thinking about it and it hit me.

Yeah, so we went out one day to visit our converts that live out in toward the mountain. I had to use the bathroom, so I asked them if I could use it. When I opened the door, it was a toilet without a seat. I turned around and asked them if they had any toilet paper and Rafa stood up and went over to his lemon tree and said "Lemon leaves are quite refreshing".... its a good thing he has a good sense of humor.