Angel of Death

February 8, 2010

Angel of Death


It's a new transfer now, ye-haw... We got transfer calls on saturday and I'm staying here in Conroe with Elder Woodruff. This will be the first time I've had the same companion for more than one transfer. I'm rather happy to be staying I am tired of Conroe, biking up and down the same old streets, knocking on the same doors, and standing on the same old door steps while nobody answers the door. I'm tired of the same old inactive members who won't come to church and the same investigators who won't progress. But on the other hand I didn't want to get transferred to the downtown Houston zone where the majority of the spanish missionaries are. I have no desire to be down in the city any time soon I prefer out in the middle of nowhere much more. Also I didn't want to have to get used to a new companion again.

So this last week was okay. We don't have any progressing investigators, the closest we have to that is the Dubon family. They're from Honduras and they're an interesting bunch. The father, Giovanni thinks like a white man. He's very different from most hispanics. We've been teaching him since October and he still hasn't come to church, he has thousands of questions, lots of doubts, and is a rather intelligent guy, he remembers everything we tell him and from what he's read. He's read a good chunk of the Book of Mormon and he remembers every detail, names, principles and everything. And he always has deep and serious questions. For example we had him read about Lehi's dream of the tree of life and Nephi's explanation of it in the following chapters. He understood it perfectly but his question was: "So what happens if I do everything I need to do and my children choose not to follow the same path? If we're going to live in this celestial kingdom of yours with our families forever and be eternally happy how can I be eternally happy if my children aren't there because they mad bad decisions and didn't want to follow?" To this we didn't know what to say. Later we had to ask our mission President what he thought about this. Anyway so he has all of these "questions of the soul" and whatnot and is in agreement with everything we've taught so then the natural question is why isn't he baptized yet? Because he's like a white guy with all of his questions and doubts. He, apparently are the kind of people that english missionaries deal with all the time. He also thinks ahead. Most hispanics don't think too much about the future, next week being the farthest in advance they think about. Giovanni just bought a bunch of land behind him and he's planning on buying another trailer and renting it out. It's weird, he plans and thinks things through, most hispanics don't do that. Your average hispanic, upon having a pile of money will go out and buy a big but not very good TV. After a couple months the TV will break but they don't want to throw it away so they just go and buy another one. I've been in countless houses with these huge TV's everywhere but the family will all be watching the smallest TV.

Anyway Giovanni is a great guy, he has four kids. The oldest a 20 year old named Jose was kicked out of the house for getting some other girl pregnant (again most hispanics wouldn't be bothered by that). Two girls, Elisa and Martha, ages 17 and 14. And a little baby, Giovanna. The kids are good too. We don't see much of Jose but the two girls are always with Giovanni when we come over to teach them and they will always read the homework we leave them, they like their dad, have read a lot of the Book of Mormon. They'd also be baptized by now if it weren't for their dad. They're not all that independent, but I think it's a cultural thing.

Hispanic culture is very macho-istic. Petra, who was our first convert in my first transfer, was 25, lived with her older brother and his wife and with her younger sister. Neither of them could leave the house to go out anywhere unless they had their brother's permission. They're all like that and it's weird, even in member's houses for dinner and such, they'll feed us the guests, and the father and the sons if any and all the females will be in the kitchen just bringing food to us and cleaning up after us. It's the weirdest thing. And they'll get mad if you try to help them with the dishes or anything. It's just their culture I think, the men never have to do anything and it's expected that the women do everything. This may be part of the reason why most spanish missionaries I've met who have been out for a while want to get married to a hispanic when they get back.

Anyway, this last saturday we went to the Dubon's at 8:00 to go help them clear their property behind their trailer. It was a lot of fun, we were chopping down trees. There was one guy with a chainsaw and he'd cut a little wedge out of the side of the tree and then he'd start cutting on the other side while we pushed. Then these huge trees would come crashing down all the wood cracking and splintering and then the huge thud and crash as they hit the ground. Then all of us would get the machetes and start taking off the branches and then we'd pile up the logs and branches. It was a lot of work, lots of heavy lifting. We worked from 8:00 to 2:00 doing this and at the end of it we were scratched up, covered in sap, and sore. But it was a ton of fun, we cut down about 70 trees. Anyway the best part about this was that Giovanni finally seemed to trust us know, he finally knows that we were serious. And so when we were leaving he asked if he was going to come to church on sunday. (like we always do) and said if he could he would. But the next sunday he promised that he would come. So this next sunday he's going to come and perhaps finally start progressing and hopefully they'll be baptized before the end of this transfer. I'm excited for them, we've been working with them for so long.

Well I'm out of time now. Hope you have fun in the Netherlands mom, send me pictures and a soccer jersey. Hope the rest of y'all are having a good time too. Oh and Alyssa I got your letter but I haven't gotten a single e-mail from you. I don't know where they are going but I'm not getting them. And the comics are funny, I have them thumb tacked up on my wall. But I think whoever made them doesn't really know much about those countries, at all. And the one with the fish is Iceland not Switzerland. Send more if you can. Okay, 30 seconds left. Peace out.

--Elder Rice