Hi Mom!
It was another swiming week! It’s also a puppy and painting kind of week.
This tuesday was a bit of an exciting one. There is a little city in my area called La Estancia. It is a good 30 minute drive and oh boy is it a small town. We pull into the main road and I felt like we walked right into a western movie. It was just like you see in the movies, but with a mexican twist. Instead of a wooden saloon and hotel. It was a concrete pharmacy and an oxxo. Anyways I haven’t even got to the exciting part. We went her to visit a recent convert of my companion. His name is Reynoldo. Or Don Rey for short. He is like 76 but really sick and frail. He also has a really awesome member named Claudia who helps feed him and checks in on him.
So we stop by Claudia’s on the way. Now, my comp warned me but I wasn’t 100% sure. This member literally has 45 dogs. No joke. She is literally has a herd of dogs living in her house and patio. As we walk up 5 of these 45 are out front barking at us. Then we finally get in the house and the majority are out back but there are still a good 5 or 6 inside. So we try our best to have a bit of small talk over all the barking and dog smell. But eventually we transition to Don Rey. We got up to go pay him a visit.
When we approached his house I was shocked. It wasn’t any more than a concrete 20 by 20 box with a broken light socket and a bed. He had all his clothes on one side of his bed and he slept on the other. As we walked up to his rusty and holey door he was sitting on his bed with a tattered shirt and no pants. So we shielded our eyes and waited for him to invite us in. Like I said he is super frail. He had surgery on his knee and his back is all messed up. He definitely looks older than 76 that is for sure. We ended up giving him a priesthood blessing and then taught him the plan of salvation. While Claudia brought him breakfast. It was all very interesting. We hope he gets to feeling better soon.
Leaving from Don Rey’s we go and have quesadillas at Claudia’s house. Which was a whole other interesting interaction. Claudia’s mom was sitting in the living room watching General Conference at a much too low volume to hear over the dogs. So every few seconds she would yell at the dogs.
Then we visited one of Claudia’s neighbors, Olivia. Who when we showed up was super excited to see us. So she invited us in and it turned out that it was their daughters birthday. Olivia and her fam fed us a shrimp soup that was super spicy and would stain any shirt (even &collar) but absolutely delicious.
After tuesday it was just like any other week. We visited a neighborhood here in San Juan called La Rueda. On the way we met a batch of puppies! So darn cute. Which is my favorite place in all of San Juan. All my favorite people live there, not to mention our baptism!!
Also, we visited the mexican version of Cam Rogers from Fort Mill! He loves painting and I love his paintings!
We were able to baptise Vero this Saturday. She absolutely loved it. In fact the day before we actually got together with her member friend Marce and had doblitos (spicy quesadillas). It was so awesome. Then I got to confirm her a member the following sunday. Which makes her my first confirmation!
I’m loving the work and looking forward to the next 6 months!
Till next time,
Elder Service
