7.20.14

This week was filled with events! It started off by trying to get a ring off of one of the sister missionaries here. She thought it would be funny to walk around like she was already married and suffered the consequences. She was screaming and saying that she was never getting married. I also had to set up a bunch of lessons for my child (Elder Neilson) because I was going to be going to Tacuarembo for the weekend to help them with their fireside. (Elder running is there and said that I could sing all parts...so if they needed a high soprano, I was the right Sister for the job.) But Elder Neilson was freaking out. He did not want to be stuck with a Latino for three days and have to take him around our area. While I was in Tacuarembo things were crazy. The Zone leaders were not organized, so we had no idea what we were going to do, who we were going to be working with and a lot of the missionaries just didn't want to do divisions because that would be extra work. So Elder Johnson and I were like, “Well ,do you want to go proselyting close to the church?” So we did. Not knowing the area, and not being used to working with each other, made us decide to walk around talking to EVERYONE about the special fireside. A lot of people rejected us in very funny manners. For example, one woman was walking around with a cane (holding it 5 inches above the ground, not even using it) and when we asked her if she had anything to do this evening, she said, “oh no, I'm only free in the mornings until 2” so we were like, “PERFECT! You can come to church with us right now then to participate in our meetings. She was like, “no, I have this cane here and I can't walk very far.” I said, “ma'am, we have been walking with you for a while now and I just want to tell you that the distance that we have just walked with you is twice as far as the distance between your house and the church” (because we started with her when she was leaving her house.) She explained that that wasn't her house and that it was her friend’s house. (Interestingly, we saw her lock the door behind her) We noticed that it was going nowhere so we moved on. We found a guy gathering sticks and putting them into a HUGE bag (exactly like that part in Monte Python when they are collecting filth) and we were like, “hey can we give you an invitation?” and he was like, “no, I'm working” we offered our help after seeing that he had managed to collect 5 sticks, and he said, “nope, I'm actually going now...that should be enough.” Elder Johnson picked one up and was like, “this looks like a good one!” he said, “oh no, I already have too many” and left... After having more people just lie to our faces, we had a couple successes, so we headed back to the church. An hour had passed by, and as we turned the corner, we saw the same old woman who had said the church was just way too far… walking right in front of the entrance of the church. Elder Johnson started laughing his head off, so we ran up to her and were like, “Señora! This exact church! This is the one we were talking about. You found it, see it's not too far,” and she was like... “oh, that one? no, it’s not too far I guess.” So we were like, “well do you want to come on in and we can show you around?” “No...uhm, I'm ah, I'm...CATHOLIC, that's right, I'm Catholic.” Elder Johnson said, ''and I ate a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Now that we have pointed out meaningless information, would you like to make your way to the door?”  I was laughing my head off and the woman just couldn't think of any more excuses and gave us the silent treatment. It made me think about using that one when people ask for money... “hey can you spare me some change?” “No, sorry I'm Catholic”  “what does that have to do with anything?” “RIGHT? What does that have to do with anything?” But we did manage to have a super odd lesson with a man named “P” in the church and he accepted an invitation for baptism. He said he stopped believing in God for five years and those five years were the worst years of his life. When he saw us, he knew that we were going to help him regain his faith. It was super cool. I got back from T Bow and E' Neilson was super excited to see me. I guess a bunch of people went to church and we will be having a baptism soon. So things are going well.

Love you all!

E. McRae