Week 56...8/31/15...Weeks fly by. Bad back and service come together

Alright, this week is already over! So this email is gonna be pretty short because we've got work to do for The Lord. But here are some of the highlights this week!

I FOUND A DOG NAMED SCOTTY!!!! 

I WAS SO PUMPED: One Because it’s the first thing or person I've found with my name that isn’t toilet paper. Also that this dog was in good enough condition that I was willing to pick it up.

Some nice cows!

We met a ton of awesome new investigators! We just have been contacting and asking for references from everyone! The best one we got was from our ward mission leader, Hermano Joel. We met this lady named Sandra. She's been to the church activities a couple times and is just so prepared for the gospel! It's amazing! The best compliment came from Joel.  He told us his family had had this reference for years and years and everyone was free to give the reference to the missionaries but no one ever did. He told us he just never felt like they were the right missionaries. So that was a super nice compliment that he trusts us that much! It also means we've got to go and work with her a ton! 

I did a bunch of divisions this week too! They went good but they stress me out being away from my area. I'm still wrapping my head around the fact that my area is like 6 times the size of how it used to be with all of the new areas in my district that I'm in charge of.  I find myself getting to bed later and later and waking up earlier and earlier. But it's a good life.

This week we worked sooooo hard! We had two service projects.  For one of them, we woke up at like 4:30 to go help some investigators of the church ''sembrar milpa'' or plant corn. Man, it was exhausting!  

Planting Corn

Sweaty Selfie

We worked soooo hard! I was sweating like crazy till like 11:00!  But, we met a few cool guys that we are going to go contact this week and the family we helped came to church!!!! Then we can home and they gave us coconuts! And I got to try Iguana! It was like a mix of fish and chicken, it was actually really good! So it was totally worth it! They also had a sweet little dug-out pool in their back yard that the little kids were kind enough to show us how to jump into. 

The awesome little pool of water that comes from a natural spring.

Investigator in the pool showing us how to use it.

That pool has fish all over it.

The other service that we gave was unexpected. We had just got out of a tuc tuc when we saw this lady on the side of the road standing next to a huge bag of crushed plastic. I don't have a photo of it but it had to of weighed at least 100 pounds.  We offered to carry it for her but she said her house was really far away and that her husband was going to go carry it. So we did what any good missionary would do, and pretended like we didn't hear her and picked it up and started walking. Man, this lady was not lying. SHE LIVED SOOOOOO FAR AWAY FROM THE ROAD! I don't think anyone in their right mind would have found her house if they wanted to! I carried it most of the way on my back, how they do it here. When I wasn't carrying it we shared the load half and half. It was raining and we went up and down several slippery hills.  Amazingly, we didn't fall! But I think the biggest miracle happened after we got to the house. We started talking to the lady and we had the feeling that we needed to talk to the husband.  We waited for him to arrive... AND GUESS WHAT!!!!?  It was one of the guys we met planting corn! I don't know how we would have found him if we hadn't helped this lady!!! SUCH A MIRACLE! After planting corn and plus my amazingly comfortable mattress (loaded with sarcasm) my back was dead! But it was totally worth it! We met 2 awesome families that we are now teaching!

River in the back yard of some investigators.

That’s a dead dog in the river….. They're always so clean…

Guy crossing the river (yes the same river the dead dog is in).

The other fun thing of the week continues to be the political campaigns. UHHH they drive me insane!!! One in San Rafael they have these ''caravanas'' basically the loudest and rowdiest parade you can think of that lasts like 30 minutes... AND THEY HAPPEN EVERY SINGLE NIGHT!!!!!! It's insane! The big thing to show your political pride here is to load your pickup with people with whistles and blow your whistle and honk your horn to annoy the other people enough so that they vote for you. I'm not quite sure if I understand the logic but I mean... that's what happens. Also, we had 2 candidates for the President visit. We were just about to bring some investigators to church. One of the ladies had just told us she couldn't leave her house under any circumstance that day. But as soon as she heard the helicopter above her house and landed close by, she bolted to go see the candidate.... leaving us and her house completely abandoned. But I mean that's cool. It's sad how people will dedicate so much to political things and so little to our Heavenly Father. But we are working on it.  That's it.

Can you spot the Presidential Candidate in his helicopter?

Love,

Elder Pugmire