That is our theme-song for P-day. But sometimes we sing it to our investigator Belkis (sounds like BELL-keys, mom). and we put her name in there so it goes "Belkis, Belkis...so good to me!" haha and the best part is she is totally gangster and she doesn't even flinch. We come riding up on our bikes singing that out to her and she just goes,"hey." without even CRACKING a smile. doesn't even acknowledge that we're doing anything out of the norm! she's incredible! she's got a sense of humor like steel! haha but man has she had a hard go of it. She is twenty one and pregnant with her fourth child and her boyfriend is abusive in every way possible. It's scary. But I think she holds her own. Seriously. She has told us stories. If i were a man I would be terrified of her.
ANYWAYS...
So last monday night. hahaha. three words: noche de HOGAR! family night. We asked our recent convert Esmeralda if we could do an FHE at her house with our investigator, Rafael. So around three that afternoon Esmeralda calls us and invites us to do it at our relief society president's house instead, because the elders were doing one with her and she invited esmeralda and it just turned into a string of one mexican inviting another and the end result was that we totally crashed the elders' FHE. haha but at about six forty five she called us and said that she was waiting outside our apartment to drive us to it and so we walk out and realize "wait a minute. that's not esmeralda's car. who is that man in that truck?" and it turns out that RAFAEL was driving us, and Esmeralda, and FOUR other women from the ward to the noche de hogar! of course the five women squished in the back seat of the truck so that Hermana Keele and I could sit up front, nice and cozy with our investigator, with his crucifix swinging wilding from the rearview mirror right in front of our noses, while he frustratedly tried to get directions from the five giggling women in the back who lovingly refer to him as "rafa." hahahahhaa I think next time they'll just stick us in the trunk! that's the way we do it here in cloverleaf. Needless to say, I think he's doing well in the "fellowshipping" department. And that was the best FHE i've ever been to. It's a party here in Houston 7.
So "Rafa" is doing great. He really is though. He's a little timid but he told us that he's getting more comfortable around us now and he certainly is telling us more during the lessons. And he prayed for us last time! so that is a good sign. We haven't been able to meet with him as much as we wanted to so we've moved his baptism back to the ninth. He's great. Loves the church. Just really worries that he won't be prepared enough to get baptized. I think he has very little confidence in his spirituality. but we've got lots of confidence in him! he understands everything we teach and expands on it!
It's a good thing we've got Rafael because just about everyone else that we know shut us down this week. Quite literally. and I wish I were kidding. Teresa let us down and didn't come to church even though she PROMISED us she would be coming. So we went to her trailer to chew her out and found her whole family plus every cousin twice removed she's ever had watching the soccer game. not to worry, they invited us in and pulled up some chairs for us in the corner - handed us spicy mango suckers, and went back to the game. So we talked right there in the corner with Teresa. I think she'll figure it out. She's just confused. But she definitely feels the spirit around us. Other than that, we've been doing a lot of finding and we met a woman named... Lily Luna. She is loony. I want to caller her Luna Lovegood! she lives in a bright pink house and she has all these plants and she had one foot painted blue toenails and the other foot green and she doesn't shave her armpits. Anyways she immediately fell in love with us. Didn't listen to a word we were saying. But it was a funny time. The best part of the story happened a few days later though when we were back on her street visiting one of her neighbors and I looked up and saw her...ON THE ROOF OF HER HOUSE! Of course. Of course. hahahhaa. that was a good laugh.
We also met a WHITE guy this week named Josh. He actually waved us down on the bikes - he was standing in front of a gas station, drinking. And he was quite drunk. But he told us all about the girls he met once who were missionaries and how dang fine they were. Then he asked if we were married and "what would happen if he showed up to our church in a tuxedo." hahaha! we just both started laughing and he started laughing and we were laughing at him but he didn't realize it so he just kept laughing and that made us laugh even harder. He said that he needed us and Hermana Keele said, "no Josh. you need Jesus." That is the conversation in a nutshell. Actually it lasted about ten minutes and he just TALKED AND TALKED but never said ANYTHING. For example he would say something like this, "yeah, I know who's ya'll are...me and my buddies, we talked and a fine girl like you, GIRL, you's so da*# SMART! ya'lls iz smart as he#! and one day we put on our finest up ther in pine trails and i be drinking and she had such fine blue eyes and i need ya'll. i need ya'll." and on and on and ON. Meanwhile, the homeless couple we contacted about a block back had made it up to the gas station and while the wife (who only had one breast, and definitely did not have even one bra cup) went inside to buy something, her husband listened in on our convo with Josh and then got right up in my face (he should probably get the skin cancer removed from his nose) and laughed and said "what's his problem!?" and I just kinda pulled my face back and said, "good question." and then he said "huh! he's bin drinkin." Well diagnosed. Which brings me to the other homeless man we met this week named Monty who carried a backpackers backpack and as soon as we gave him a pass along card crumpled it up and started picking at his teeth with it. Made for a difficult time not laughing when we had to refer to the number on it and he had to un crumple it and wipe off the plaque. yuck. Once he realized we were "Jesus people" he just threw his hands up in the air and walked off without saying anything, which I guess is one way to deal with us. Hermana Warner looked at me under her cute little green helmet and said, "I guess Monty's just not into that Jesus stuff." haha. We saw him at a bus stop the next day, yelling across the street at some kids. We sped by and called out "hey monty!" and he said "GIRL, you lookin' FINE today!" so if not a great contact, he's at least a good confidence booster.
But hey, we had a trunky moment watching the women's conference. The hermanas were all saying how they knew their moms were watching it right then and I remembered how my sweet mother always skips it to go to the football game. So I secretly sang the Ute's fight song in my leetle hart so that I would feel connected to my mom too. Kinda like when I come up and hug you from behind mom. But hey - I really do love you and you should read the Prophet's talk because it was a good one. Thank you so much for sending me those notes! i hope you read them first. It's cool to see those blessings coming true! others i'm still waiting for...haha but it helps me have more faith. Okay I love you all this is an incredibly long email for a fairly uneventful week. All in a day's work here in the clover leaf! Take care. "Do work son, and peace be the journey." (quoted from Hermana Keeler.)
love Becca
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