Bandit Queen

We've started doing morning exercize with a member of the branch. He needs to lose 40 pounds so he can get his back realigned and stop having severe back pain so we've decided to give him a hand with that. It's cool because he's actually pretty excited about it. So every day we go for a walk with him. You can definitely tell he could be in better shape because he was sweating and huffing and puffing at the end of the walk. But it's way cool to be able to talk with him in the mornings. He just had a brother move from Mexico and we're trying to see if we can teach his brother.

 

We had a mission tour by Elder Koelikker of the Seventy on Thursday. It was nice. He talked about how a lot of our investigators don't know how to pray sincerely and that because of that they don't progress towards baptism. It's funny how the Gospel always comes back to the basics like prayer. I've been trying to make my prayers more sincere lately and you can really notice the difference.

 

On Friday we had our branch Thanksgiving activity. About 100 people came. Now if only that many people could come to Sacrament Meeting. It was pretty fun. There were about 6 turkeys there plus mashed potatoes and so forth. It was one of the member's kid's birthday so they brought a pinata. There were a whole bunch of little kids there so it was complete mayhem when the pinata broke. And on top of everything some punk kid used the church phone to call 911. So the police came and surrounded the Church. That was about the last thing we needed, a Church full of illegal immigrants and several cop cars parked outside. President Bleak had to show them the Church and that everything was okay.

 

Yesterday Elder Wheelwright got sick. We're not quite sure what it was but he felt really nauseous. So I went to the branch with Elder Lancaster while Elder Bartlett stayed home with my companion. Elder Lancaster seemed to enjoy the wild ride that is being a missionary in a Spanish branch. Just a sampler: First hour, I taught the Sunday school class on keeping the Sabbath day holy. I had to kindly correct a member who said that if your boss says you have to work on Sundays that it's not your fault for not coming to Church. I can only imagine how few people would come to Church if they thought all you had to do to get out of it was have your boss tell you no. Second hour, our priesthood class got into a debate about who is in the wrong, a woman dressed immodestly or the man for looking at her. They turned to me as the authority I guess. I explained that both are wrong. Me and Elder Lancaster had a good laugh about that whole episode. It made us think of a Bible story: "This woman has been taken in skimpy clothes. Moses commanded us in the law to stone such women. But what sayest thou?" "He who has not looked at her, let him cast the first stone."

 

At the end of the Church Elder Lancaster leaned over to me and said that he now understood why it was so important that I made it to Church. Apparently English wards continue to function without the missionaries. I'm pretty sure our branch would turn into some sort of Lord of the Flies-esque situation without us. In the words of Elder Lancaster "rapid apostasy ensues."

 

A person we found in Sedona has a baptismal date in the English ward up there. That ward hasn't had a single baptism all year. I thought it was pretty neat that we got to help that area out. We really didn't do much. We were just walking back to our car from checking up on some potential investigators when a woman called us over and told us she was a less active member and wanted to come back to Church. She also said her teenage daughter had never been baptized and that she wanted her to take the lessons. So now that teenage daughter has a baptismal date for December.

 

Only three weeks left. That's crazy. This week at the mission tour President Taylor walked up to me after the meeting and said, "You ready to go home?" I looked at him quizically and said, "To Cottonwood?" He responded, "Of course, that's the only home you have for now." Man, even the mission president is teasing me about going home.

 

Have a happy Thanksgiving everybody! I can't believe this is the last holiday I'll be away from home.

 

Love you guys,

Elder Grasley