On Monday, we washed dishes for 2 straight hours after P-Day for a less active lady. We had planned just to go and teach, but, when we got there. She asked us to wait while she washed dishes. She had a four-foot tall stack of dishes. We knew that if we just sat there, we would waste over an hour waiting, so, we helped. And washed dishes for two straight hours. Afterwards, we had a sweet lesson with her and her less active sons, and her 10 year old son who is not a member, César. As is common with lessons, at the most spiritual moment, the crap hit the fan. The two year old fell down, smacked his face on the tile floor and lost it. The dogs started barking. The 3 year old grandson started throwing food. The nonmember dad lit up some cigarrettes, so the whole place smelled like smoke. And the less active lady had to attend to her newborn daughter who just woke up and started crying. It was the definition of a disaster. Then, out of nowhere, it stopped, and my comp pulled up the Easter video from last year, and the spirit totally flourished. It was awesome. We were able to commit the son to a baptismal date. He is the first we have had since Juan José kinda fell through the cracks. We went back later in the week and we saw a big change in the less active sister. I think it was because we washed her dishes, and she saw that we were there because we care about her, not just because we are missionaries and are supposed to visit people.
On Friday, we had an amazing lesson with a less active guy named Juan Pablo. His wife and daughters are not members. We passed by them before and have had great lessons, but, his schedule got recently changed at work and it has been totally impossible to find and teach him. Totally impossible, that is, until Friday. We started reading Ether 12 with him. About half way through, the power went out (a HUGE storm was raging). So we couldn´t finish. I felt like we had to read verse 27 though. So, I pulled out the phone, and, in the very dim light it cast, read verse 27. Then Juan Pablo started talking. It was really hard to stay awake. The light was dim, it was warm in the house, and we had just eaten lunch. The perfect combo for dozing off. Just at the point where I was about to lose it, the spirit reminded of a story in Preach My Gospel about two missionaries that almost fell asleep, but pushed through and the lady ended up asking when she could get baptized. So, I pinched myself as hard as I could, and, luckily, the lights came back on. As soon as I did that and that happened, he told us about his nephew that had been kicked out the house a few weeks ago, and recently found dead in the streets of a nearby city. He had been murdered. Then, he told us of many more family problems he has been having along those same lines. He totally opened up to us. It was so sweet (not that his nephew died, rather that he felt comfortable enough around us to tell us that). He promised to come to conference and then to church the Sunday after. There was an amazing spirit in there.
It was Elder Ostler´s birthday! It was a sweet day. We helped a member till his garden and had two meals with a member, one of which being an asado. It was a pretty awesome day.
Genceral Conference, as it alway´s is on the mission, was super sweet. I hope you all watched every session. If not, I invite you to go back and watch what you missed, because it really was awesome. I don´t usually like every talk of conference, but, this time, I did. I even really liked Elder Bednar´s talk, which was filled with big words that I didn´t understand.
Hope you all are doing well. The work in Empalme is slow, but, there is progress, so I am happy with that. Have a great week!
Elder Brown
Helaman 5:12
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