Arrived June 13 2016
Love the fam more than watching my companion Elder
Oldroyd cross the river-stream that divides our area. Every time it rains the
little makeshift wood bridges float down the river so we are weekly finding new
obstacles. My favorite crossing point is several tires with rocks in them, with
water running across them. I love watching the lanky Elder Oldroyd, nervously
stumble across. We laugh a lot and have fun.
Since we had a shorter week in between P-days I have
less to write even though this week felt longer than normal. I have been trying
to write down a few things each day that I would like to write about so here
are a few.
To make my point about the summer heat, the other day we
walked into someone´s house and they had a thermometer that read 33 ish degrees
Celsius or about 95 degrees Fahrenheit with a humidity of 40. I don’t want to
ruin dreams but tropical islands are not the paradises they seem when it comes
to the weather.
This week we did a service project with a member family
and their downstairs neighbor. We cut off some limbs on the big mango tree in
their backyard, but with machetes. I have fallen in love with machetes, even
though it is a tough relationship since I now have some blisters. It amazed us
that here instead of using an axe, hatchet or chainsaw the right way is through
machetes and maybe and old saw. I am proud we cut down a limb the size of me, in
only an hour. I wish I could have taken a few pictures of a pair of skinny
white guys up a mango tree and also a picture of the neighbor’s faces.
Part of a new joke Elder Oldroyd and I have is to try
acting out and then guess who the other person was imitating. It is fun how
well you can get to know the complete strangers we meet in just a few days.
Espedito the elderly winks at me every time he tells a joke, Robert calls
everyone primo, viejo or flaca (cousin, old man, skinny lady) and
Santiago the member just is funny in general. Happy Days in Tierra Alta.
Somebody we met the other day recently put their
restoration pamphlet in their shrine to the virgin Mary on their front porch, which
brings us mixed feelings.
We had some big highs this week. This week finished off
by some tough lows. Cesar and Iluminada are an older couple we are teaching and
they actually read parts of the Book of Mormon! And they retained the
information in their minds!!! Cesar claimed he had read and we asked him what
he read, trying not to be doubting but not getting excited for no reason. He
then proceeded to explain how there were various groups of people who had
traveled to the Americas but because of their falling, had been destroyed at
times. It made my day to here somebody understand after having read something.
Ignacio as well read, and this time it was for real. It is very common for
people to claim they read and then feign forgetfulness, or if you have an
excuse or if you are being honest it is excepted that people are not responsible.
These individuals couldn’t come to church but we are seeing promising
improvements.
On Sunday we went to pick up four individuals who had
promised to come to church and sent our man Brother Lee to pick up another.
After so much promise things didn’t turn out as the expected four less actives
and five investigators ¨Couldn’t make it¨ but ¨next time¨. I felt bad that
brother Lee was let down because of his hunched back and poor health history,
but he has one of the greatest testimonies I have heard here. Progress report:
Jaser, Eliani and Aira will be on the back burners for now, the super tigre
Josue as well, we are planning a talent show and all the members are very
excited and we hope investigators will come, Robert and his testigo de jeovah
wife got a very backed up by the bible lesson on the organization of the
primitive and modern church and Elder Oldroyd is slowly making me trunky or
homesick as he is starting to think about his date to go home, but don’t worry
I won't let it mess with the work.
I think a lot about the things of this life in the terms
of decisions and the idea of convenience. We are teaching some very nice people
right now and I would say we are good friends with them. Despite the goodness
in the people I talk to here, there is a fault in the want for the long-lasting.
I cannot measure the amount of how people live just day-to-day when I think God
wants us to live for tomorrow and eternity. We need to make the right decisions
now for the decisions of eternity. In the words of Elder Holland satan’s mode
is have it your way, or in essence if you can make it by day to day with and
looking for the easy to do it. The supposed easiness of things is a big
obstacle to Gods designs. Sleeping in, instead of going to church is choosing
the convenient slow current away from God. Sitting in a plastic chair that says
Presidente on the back, watching stray dogs walk by instead of reading the Book
of Mormon is a convenient decision to enjoy today but then the eternal things fade in the distance. I pray
that we may choose the right path even if it is not and may never be the most convenient.
The inconvenient stairs of the gospel are what will one day raise us the meet
Him. I know the gospel of Christ, faith in him and his atonement with
repentance, baptism, the gift of the Holy Ghost and the continual climb up the
stairs of the gospel is the truth Christ teaches, in His holy name amen.
Elder A. W. Sheffield
with a new mission rule of increased bug repellent we have also
found a new way to get rid of the occasional cockroach
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