Hard Work, Spiritual Experiences, and Rats....Just another week in the life of a Missionary in Mexico

Week 2 in Mexico has come and gone.  Haden is doing well and seems to be having a great time.  His letters are getting longer and longer and it's fun to hear about all the experiences he is having.  I'm hoping to get some pictures from him soon and I will post those. 

All the contact info and everything else on the blog is up to date.  If you need a phone number for shipping purposes, let me know and I can provide that for you. 

His letter is below....

Well another week down in Mexico and this week went by really fast. I never understood how much work it is being a missionary.  We have an appointment every hour, on the hour, from 11 AM  to 8 at night.  I know it doesn’t seem like a lot, but sometimes the people we have appointments with are not home, so we rush to go to another house or contact.  We have two wards right now and they are not small, so we have a lot of ground to cover.  My companion is skinny so it isn’t hard for him to walk all over town.   But seriously, we have been working and spending more time teaching lately, so that has been good.  Let me tell you about some people this week.

We have this investigator Reyna Castilla, she is probably 65.  We went to go teach her this week and as we were talking to her she told us that her son is upstairs.  She said his name is Ulysses, he is 40 years old and just got a divorce three days ago.  She also told us that he has been emotional and all he has been doing is sitting in his room smoking.  Of course all I understood was “divorced three days ago” and “smoking”, so the whole time walking up the stairs to his room I was freaking out.  I was thinking “voy a morir, voy a morir” (I’m going to die).  When she opened the door and you could feel the wave of smoke come out of the room.  We just went in and started talking to the man and reading the scriptures with him.  (Well, my companion did…I was just nodding and saying “Amen.”)  We asked him what he wants right now, and as he stood there his eyes filled up with tears and he said, “to be with my son and wife.”  I could tell he wasn’t really feeling it and he really didn’t want us there.  But we kept going and he was very respectful and listened to everything we have to say.  At the end of our lesson he walked us down the stairs and when we got to the door I said “how do you feel about prayer?” and in his very best English he said, “very bad.”  We talked to him about prayer and told him that if he wants to know if God is there, he has to find out for himself, we can’t do it for him.  He broke down and said, “I smoke and I drink because I like it, and because I like it I am now no longer a part of my kid’s life.” 

He really needs help.  He needs a friend because I know he feels alone.  He pulled up his shirt and showed us four huge scars from where he had been stabbed and slashed.  He is a police officer and he said “I don’t know why it all happens to me.”  We talked to him and I don’t want to say what we said because it was personal.  But before we left, we asked him if we could give him a blessing and he agreed.   We were basically in what is like a garage, so we had to grab whatever we could for him to sit on.  So we grabbed a crate and sat him on it.  My companion gave him a blessing and it was the most powerful thing I have ever felt in my life.  I didn’t understand it all, but all I could feel was my hands on his head, my companion’s hands on his head and another pair of hands on top of mine.  As I write this I am tearing up because this man is a great man.  He has his problems like everyone else, but I know that he wants to change.  At this point, I don’t even care if he gets baptized because what he needs is something different.  That was the most powerful experience of my life.  After the blessing, we told him that we loved him and told him that if he ever needed us for anything to call us.  We went on with the rest of the day, but our minds weren’t with us, they were still with Ulysses.  My companion and I walked for another 20 minutes before either of us said a word or even made a sound.   My companion was the first to speak when he said “yo quiero ayudarle” (i want to help him).  I will never forget that moment for the rest of my life.  I can’t wait to teach him again tonight.

I didn’t have another moment this week that could top that, but we did have another experience.   We knocked on a door and an old lady answered.   She let us in and showed us a book she had been reading.  It was a book about Brigham Young.  But, all I can remember is hearing ten rats running on her ceiling.  You could hear their nails scratching against the wood.  It was maybe one of the worst three minutes of my life.  This lady was a little creepy to start with and then she showed us a picture of the religion she is a part of.  It was the aryan brotherhood.  It was a little scary and she proceeded to tell us that she really liked her religion.  Right then, my companion stood up and told her we had to go to another appointment.   When we left that place I think I was moving as fast as I have ever moved.  Once we were out of there I looked up at my companion and his face looked like he was in shock, then he told me I looked like I was in shock too.  That helped us loosen up and we both just started laughing and trying to catch our breath.   That place was weird.  I think we’ll leave that to the next group of missionaries.  Haha.

I have a few other funny stories from this week.  We were teaching a lesson at a members house and they had there DVD player on.  You know when it goes in to rest mode and the DVD symbol starts bouncing around?  Well, I started staring at it and watching it because I couldn’t understand what was going on, so I kind of zoned out.   I was watching and waiting for it to hit the corner exactly.   It made me think about the Office when they are all sitting in the conference room and when it finally hits the corner they all get up and leave and when Kevin walks out he says, "that was awesome!”  haha…it made me laugh.

Church is an experience here.  It is louder than Dodger Stadium, after a walk-off home run, in Game 7 of the NLDS against the Giants.  People get up constantly.  I’m beginning to think the people in Mexico City have small bladders.  It’s pretty impressive how often they go.   But the people are awesome.   In Priesthood the teacher asked me to explain a quote and the good thing was I understood what he asked me.  The problem was I didn’t understand the quote.  I kind of felt like an idiot, but oh well, they’ll get over it.

Anyways this is hard.  I do have hard times, but what keeps me going is knowing that I am making my Heavenly Father proud and making all of you proud.   I miss you all and hope you are all doing well.

Love,

Haden