Hey guys how's it going?This week was pretty crazy! I know I just emailed you guys on Wednesday but this week was definitely better than last. I feel completely fine, my comp gave me a blessing because I was feeling sick and now I feel as good as new! My companion and I worked really hard this week appointment wise; we stayed busy from 11:00-9:00 just about every day.
I also had probably the weirdest/strangest/scariest experience of my mission so far on Thursday. We met this man (covered in tattoos) and his wife on the street the other day after he approached us so we told him we'd visit his house later in the week.
So the day comes for us to visit him and during companionship prayer in the morning, I felt prompted to pray for our safety and our protection that day, which was strange because it had never really crossed my mind before, so I followed the prompting and included that in our prayer. So it's now Thursday night, and we walk a short way over to his place. His house was decently nice for it being here in Nogales and we decide to knock on the door. But my comp notices something weird, he sees a small spy-type (idk what it's called haha) camera off the side of his house that was aimed right at the front door, so we thought that was a little strange. But by this time, the woman opens the door ever so slowly and eventually lets us come in. We walk into this house and first thoughts are 1. why are there refried beans all over the floor and on the dresser? 2. Where are the table/chairs, don't these people eat anywhere? 3. stacks of clothes, EVERYWHERE 4. As we look around to the other side of the room, we see him without his shirt on with tons of tattoos eating, yep you guessed it, tortillas and refried beans.
So he offers us to sit down on the bed next to him (super awkward btw) and we start talking to him casually. But about fifteen seconds into out getting to know them, he starts BAWLING. Full-grown man with tons of thug tats just starts crying. He tries speaking in English to me and explains that (using the F-word just about every other word) he wants to change his life and that he's had a lot of problems in his past. But as he switches over into Spanish, he says that he's got a drinking problem, his wife and him fight all the time, that he deals drugs, used to be in prison for a long time, and "doesn't want to kill anymore." Yep, you read that right. He and his wife kept fighting with words right in front of us (even more awkward) and I soon realized that that was why there was beans all over the floor haha. Food fight. Anyways, so we tried helping them but we soon realized that there was no way we could help them because it wasn't safe nor good for us to be there in that type of a hostile environment. We left and as we were on our way home we couldn't get over how strange of an experience that was.
That same night, we were going to a member's house and knocked on the door but they weren't home, so we decided to call them. As we were sitting on their doorstep calling them, a man stops in front of the house and just stands there watching us. We decide to leave and immediately after we walk away, he runs up to the same house and tries to break into the door! Like we were just standing there watching him break into this house and he didn't even care haha. So we called the police and went back to our apartment because we just kept getting this vibe that it wasn't safe for us to be out that night.
Whew that was a lot to type (and probably a lot for you guys to read, sorry). Anyways, our investigator with a baptismal date showed up at church this Sunday and he looks like he's ready and prepared for us to baptize him. The work has been going great and our investigators are all just awesome.
I'm doing great as well and I've really been reading a ton of the BOM a lot lately as well. Somewhere around 15 chapters a day haha. My testimony has been growing a lot lately and it gives me so much more motivation to work.
I hope you guys are all doing great, I love getting your emails and I appreciate your support. I pray for each of you daily and hope the best for everyone. I think that's about it for this week, have a solid seven days and I'll be writing you again! Love you
-Elder Thayne
I also had probably the weirdest/strangest/scariest experience of my mission so far on Thursday. We met this man (covered in tattoos) and his wife on the street the other day after he approached us so we told him we'd visit his house later in the week.
So the day comes for us to visit him and during companionship prayer in the morning, I felt prompted to pray for our safety and our protection that day, which was strange because it had never really crossed my mind before, so I followed the prompting and included that in our prayer. So it's now Thursday night, and we walk a short way over to his place. His house was decently nice for it being here in Nogales and we decide to knock on the door. But my comp notices something weird, he sees a small spy-type (idk what it's called haha) camera off the side of his house that was aimed right at the front door, so we thought that was a little strange. But by this time, the woman opens the door ever so slowly and eventually lets us come in. We walk into this house and first thoughts are 1. why are there refried beans all over the floor and on the dresser? 2. Where are the table/chairs, don't these people eat anywhere? 3. stacks of clothes, EVERYWHERE 4. As we look around to the other side of the room, we see him without his shirt on with tons of tattoos eating, yep you guessed it, tortillas and refried beans.
So he offers us to sit down on the bed next to him (super awkward btw) and we start talking to him casually. But about fifteen seconds into out getting to know them, he starts BAWLING. Full-grown man with tons of thug tats just starts crying. He tries speaking in English to me and explains that (using the F-word just about every other word) he wants to change his life and that he's had a lot of problems in his past. But as he switches over into Spanish, he says that he's got a drinking problem, his wife and him fight all the time, that he deals drugs, used to be in prison for a long time, and "doesn't want to kill anymore." Yep, you read that right. He and his wife kept fighting with words right in front of us (even more awkward) and I soon realized that that was why there was beans all over the floor haha. Food fight. Anyways, so we tried helping them but we soon realized that there was no way we could help them because it wasn't safe nor good for us to be there in that type of a hostile environment. We left and as we were on our way home we couldn't get over how strange of an experience that was.
That same night, we were going to a member's house and knocked on the door but they weren't home, so we decided to call them. As we were sitting on their doorstep calling them, a man stops in front of the house and just stands there watching us. We decide to leave and immediately after we walk away, he runs up to the same house and tries to break into the door! Like we were just standing there watching him break into this house and he didn't even care haha. So we called the police and went back to our apartment because we just kept getting this vibe that it wasn't safe for us to be out that night.
Whew that was a lot to type (and probably a lot for you guys to read, sorry). Anyways, our investigator with a baptismal date showed up at church this Sunday and he looks like he's ready and prepared for us to baptize him. The work has been going great and our investigators are all just awesome.
I'm doing great as well and I've really been reading a ton of the BOM a lot lately as well. Somewhere around 15 chapters a day haha. My testimony has been growing a lot lately and it gives me so much more motivation to work.
I hope you guys are all doing great, I love getting your emails and I appreciate your support. I pray for each of you daily and hope the best for everyone. I think that's about it for this week, have a solid seven days and I'll be writing you again! Love you
-Elder Thayne