April 9, 2012

¿Que Tal?

We just finished up with Semana Santa for the Catholics.  This is the week that they celebrate the week leading up to the crucifixion and the resurrection.  Viernes was crazy because every catholic church (they are like Mormon church's here, on every corner) had their own reenactment of the crucifixion.  So we saw a lot of bloody guys with crosses on their backs, in one case they actually nailed the guy to the cross.  Wasn't my favorite part of the week.  On Saturday we were walking to an appointment and we saw some kids playing on a roof with water.  As we got closer the kids saw us and then took their buckets and launched the water at us.  Elder Briggs and i were super confused, luckily we are super agile we didn't get wet.  Come to find out that for some weird reason the tradition on this day is to get every one wet, friends, family, and your local guerro. 

We are teaching Louis English here at the local college.  He is one of the funniest guys I have ever met in my life.  After he read in the BOM he told us that after his baptism he is going to change his name to Luis Nephi.  This week we taught Luis about the Word of Wisdom.  It kind of hit him as a big surprise because he loves his cup of coffee in the mourning, and opening up his can of cerveza.  After explaining the commandment and the blessing we receive from obeying, he was willing to give it all up.  Thinking it would be difficult for him we put a plan were he would give it all poco a poco over a 2 week span.  Our next appointment, when we asked about how it was going with the Word of Wisdom he told us that there was no problem.  We asked him if he could throw the 2 week program in the trash and give it all up that same day.  His response showed his faith,  "yeah, that won’t be a problem".  We asked him how he was able to give up some thing he has been doing all his life in seconds.  He told us, “because i understand that it is the only intelligent thing to do".   I learned a lot from him in that moment.  There are some times when I need to remember to keep the commandments because like Luis Nefi said," its the only intelligent thing to do."  I'm grateful for the lessons I learn from these people who have been prepared by God. 

I'm learning tons of things every day here on Gods mission.  I hope that never ends.  Hope all is well up in the states.  Don't worry, we had another earthquake.  Say hi to the family for me.  Keep  smiling and marching forward.

With a whole bunch of love

Elder Gardner