Hey Fam!
This be Elder Royal . . . shouting out from the southern hemisphere. My companion hates when I say ̈southern hemisphere.̈ I always use it to blame things that go wrong ... like, for example: Why isn't my bed as comfortable in the southern hemisphere? Just dumb stuff like that . . . to annoy him. ha. It's fun. Anyway...just a side note.
This week was kinda...strange, to be honest. We weren't able to teach very much and got ̈choated̈ a lot. Choated is what we say when we show up for appointments and people drop us on the spot...or say come later...not today...get away from my house...that kinda stuff. However . . . we did have three baptisms...so I guess I can't complain too much. In fact, when I think about it, I really can't complain at all!! Anyway, our baptisms were interesting, memorable. They involved the Mendoza family that I think I mentioned a couple weeks ago: a very poor family...but so nice - happy. The mom and two daughters, 9 and 10 years old, got baptized. Sister Mendoza was easy, but I knew the girls were gonna be tough. They are just kind of crazy wild. I am not kidding when I tell you that I was in the water for a good hour Wednesday night trying to get these girls baptized. After a lot of coaxing, Kathy got in, but when I baptized her, her hand shot up and grabbed my shoulder, and she absolutely would not do it again. She was crying, very upset, scared of the water (I guess), and it was kind of stressful (for everyone). Mercedes, the younger girl, got baptized in about only 20 minutes. Boy, it was crazy. We tried soooo long to get Kathy back into the water, but couldn't. So, we eventually left without baptizing her. I felt kind of empty after the baptism. I know it sounds strange, probably because . . . well . . . it was. Two nights later we tried to baptize Kathy again. My companion got in the water with her this time and we actually asked everyone to leave the room because Kathy was so afraid of the water. She eventually got into the water...with everyone else out of the room. Kathy was crying and really freaking out again...so I was started making all these dumb faces and stuff to try to distract her (you know, like photographers using puppets and stuff), ...which miraculously got her down the stairs...and through the prayer. Yes, I have to admit, during the prayer I continued making dumb faces to help Kathy relax. But, as soon as the prayer was over, Kathy started freaking out again, and ...wow, so difficult (and my face was about to break after all the facial contortions). My companion finally got Kathy to calm down after about 45 minutes, to where she was no longer clinching the edge of the walls with her tiny fingers, and was able to complete the ordinance. To get er done, my companion literally had to go all the way down into the water with her, surprising Kathy. It totally took her off guard. When the baptism was completed, we were all high fiving and stuff. Oh, and when Kathy came up from the water... she was completely calm. She quietly left and got changed, and then returned to us dressed, back to her crazy, wild, happy Kathy self. It was quite a memorable experience. But, we weren't quite finished. Before we left, a mother there asked us to put her four year old son in the cold font water to help cool his fever down. Of course, we aim to please, so we did. Imagine four missionaries holding onto a feverish four year old boy who also doesn't want to get wet, screaming at the annoying situation, as we kind of soaked him up a bit. Very funny . . . again. I felt bad while he was screaming, but he was totally calm afterwards. (I guess moms really do know best.)
So those baptisms were great, of course - but a bit stressful, out of the ordinary. Mercedes and Kathy were not at church to be confirmed on Sunday because they went to a birthday party instead. (Grrr.) Tell ya what, Sunday is a very challenging, tiring day because we spend the entire morning before church running around collecting all the investigators and members to help them get to church...and we are presently running at about a 10% success rate there. The only investigator to show up yesterday was Yakori - a woman we did not even visit. So, that was very cool. She is actually getting baptized on Wednesday, which is exciting. We have another baptism on Wednesday as well...a woman named Maria with two sons that...who might be baptized with her, hopefully. Maria's baptism will pose another unique challenge. She weighs about 300 pounds (mas o menos), and I will be performing the baptism. It will make for another very memorable experience, I'm sure. We are looking for a good week, and excited about finding more great people to teach.
I feel like I am leaving out a lot of stuff this week, but I can never remember. I am starting to receive the "Dear Elder" letters pretty regularly now (weekly). So, of course, I get to read about 50 pages worth of BYU football (awesome blossom), and 10 pages of family letters. (Haha.) I received letters from Brad, Cody and Tia, oh and some post cards from Whitney. Cool stuff. I dunno if anyone has used that address that I sent a couple weeks ago to send real letters, but that`d be sweet to get some - especially since Tia said she has a bunch, and I haven't received an actually physical letter since like the 2nd week in the CCM! It's all good though, not really a huge deal, and the Dear Elder are sweet, too.
Alrighty. Well, I think that's about it. It's amazing out here...and I'm now thinking of more things I wanted to say...but don't have time. (Rats.) Hopefully, I'll remember for next time (and I won't get so caught up in relating so many details that I forget about everything else). But, in short, I love the work, I love Peru!
Love you all.
Elder the Yellow Dart Royal
Posts
