Let's start off with the street names here. They're super tough! We live close to a street called Revillagigedo, which is a mouthful in and of itself, but there's another one called Netzahualcoyotl. When you practice it a bit it's not so bad, like Baxcaxbaltépec or Cuahtémoc, but it took me about a week to get it down solid. At first, I'm sure I sounded like the gentleman I contacted last week. He spoke Spanish fluently, but he also happened to have no teeth, as I found out. That made it a little hard to understand him. Very nice, though.
Another full week in the port! I have tried a few new and interesting foods, including (wait for it...) meat al pastor! Still not tacos, but after a long day of divisions with an élder in Tecnológico we grabbed some "gringas al pastor" on the way back to the apartment. Kind of like quesadillas? Tortillas, meat, cheese, lettuce, habanero sauce, pineapple, lime... They were good. I also was invited to try orange slices with Valentina hot sauce. Interesting... I still haven't decided if I like it or not.
And, speaking of hot sauces, my companion and I both bought small bottles of habanero sauce that we're going to try and finish as soon as possible. I'm not going to use the word race, but that's pretty much what it is. It SAYS with drawings that it's "five out of five peppers spicy," but after trying it we were both disappointed. It's good, but not the heart-wrenchingly, tear-wringingly, soul-searingly spicy we were hoping for. Ah well.
Last night we had a really special lesson with an investigator. He had some awkward experiences with missionaries in the past that kept pressuring him to get baptized, so in the beginning, he really didn't want anything to do with us. He lives with his aunt and uncle and their family, who are less-active (in the process of reactivation :)) in the church, and so in visiting them, with time he started to listen to us, too. He accepted a baptismal date for very soon, and we're going to work hard with him to prepare him well. What changed was when he finally understood the necessity of reading the Book of Mormon and praying. He went to church on his own last week, and yesterday with his aunt. He's older, around 22, and told us yesterday that he'd received an answer. Last night we talked a little more about that, and he was telling us about his experiences, the problems that had started when he accepted his baptismal date. The challenges had started that very night, actually. But he said that he had been thinking a lot about Joseph Smith, and how he knew why the difficulties were happening, and what he needed to do. He told me, actually, almost out of the blue, "About my baptism... I've actually been thinking about it a lot, and..." That's when my breath caught for a second. Nothing good could finish that sentence, I was thinking. "...and, I don't know if it's possible, but if it is, could you be the one to do it?" He still has a way to go, and Satan's not going to give up, but I'll freely admit that my light was really light that night.
The Book of Mormon is the word of God, the Spirit is real, and it freely testifies of the truth to all who look for it.
With much love from Veracruz,
Élder Rob Weatherford
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