*Sigh* So, last Thursday I turned one year old. We got
together with another companionship today to burn my shirt. I have a video...
I'll see if I can send it, but it may have to wait until I get back.
What else has happened... I got over a bout of tropical
sickness I had, a weird disease nobody here knows how to pronounce, not even
the doctors--it's that new. But supposedly it's spreading all over Mexico! Chikungunya, or something like that. It's kind of similar to dengue, but you
get weird spots all over your body, especially on the forearms, that gets worse
when you're in the sun. Which, in Tuxtepec, is all the time. It was kind
of funny, actually... I was feeling a little bad one Sunday afternoon, and then
even worse on Monday, when I broke out in fever. On Tuesday morning, a few more
symptoms added themselves on, and my comp started the chikungunya jokes. I
laughed it off and told him it was the tail end of a cold combined with some
dehydration. We were heading to the house of a less active sister to visit her
when Elder Lind noticed and pointed out the spots on my arms. I was like,
"Dang it. Ok, maybe it's chikungunya." And so we go in to
visit the sister. She just happens to mention that she's been just getting over chikungunya, and casually lists off every single one of the symptoms I had.
She's just talking, and I look over at Elder Lind, and he's giving me "the
look," and I just start laughing into my towel (covering my mouth so the
sister doesn't notice). and he almost loses it as well... So then we visited
the local pharmacy doctor and got it diagnosed. There's not really a medicine
for that kind of thing, you just have to drink liquids and vitamin C and you
can take advil for the pain and fever. And stay out of the sun. Hehe. That last
one's not really an option. We don't get to use hats, so I used an umbrella for
a little while, but everyone associates that with the Jehovah's Witnesses here,
so I didn't do it too often. But, I've passed through it, and super fast, as
well. A lot of people are laid out in bed for a month, not even able to walk
because of the pain, but my comp gave me a blessing that Tuesday night and we
haven't even had to take a day off. And that was all a couple of weeks ago, and
now I'm pretty much completely over it. I haven't even seen my leopard spots in
over a week! So pretty much everything is fine.
We've had some great spiritual lessons this week, even
though we don't have that many investigators that are progressing. We're still
visiting the Serena family (I sometimes have a hard time letting things go),
but because of sickness and some other problems they've had a lot of
difficulties in going to church. There's another investigator we have, Jesús,
who's really solid, but his path to baptism is going to be super hard. We know
we were sent there to help him, though. It was an inspired street contact. But
it wasn't actually him. Let me explain... We passed a woman walking in the
street with her young son carrying tortillas to her house to eat, and Elder
Lind felt prompted to contact her. She didn't seem that interested, but she
gave us her address and a time to pass by. Flashback a few weeks earlier when
we were searching out an address that other elders gave us as a reference. We
didn't end up finding it, but I felt satisfied with the effort we were doing in
contacting those we could in the area we were looking in. I had mentioned to
Elder Lind that sometimes the Lord puts us in a certain place at a certain time
to find someone who we maybe didn't even know we were looking for. So (fast
forward again to a few days after the contact), when we pass by the house at
the time the woman told us to pass by and she wasn't there, we stayed and
knocked on the neighbors' doors. The first one we knocked on was Jesus'. He
told us he was busy cleaning his patio, and so Elder Lind offered to help. He
didn't believe us at first, but when he saw we were serious, he let us in. We
cleaned for a while, and then he asked us if we wanted to talk inside. We of
course accepted, and we had a really intense chat. Let's just say he's been
through a lot in the last few months, and really needs the Church. Since that
time he's been progressing well, even if he has a harder path than most.
There's also another investigator, Saira, who also has a hard path
ahead of her, but who's finally started to progress.
At times I start to think a little bit about my mission
being half over, but I try not to do that too much, just focus on the work and
area and people at hand. And that helps. I still have a ways to go, both in
time and in self-improvement that I need to do. But I have had many experiences
here with a lot of special people that have helped me, members, non-members,
and missionaries. I'll miss this area when I go. But not the heat. Unless I go
to Tierra Blanca...
Con todo mi amor,
Élder Rob Weatherford
