Week #17: Retalhuleu Rain, the Light of Christ, and Chikungunya

This week overall has been a lot better, although still partially sick we have been able to get out working for real again. I don't think there is ever going to be a time when I am back where I complain about boredom. [Editor's Note: We are noting this comment and plan on passing it on to his wife]  When you get so used to being out and about as we are; talking with people, visiting people, working and literally walking, running around the city and then to be cooped up inside with nothing to do, it is a big change, and one that I don't ever want to get used to and hope that those days are behind us, at least for a while.

I remember one of the days (I say remember because when sick here the time blurs together) we got out of a meeting, went to lunch and then started to head back down to our house.  As we started the long walk back to our area it started to pour down rain and try as we might no one wanted to give us a ride to our part of the city. We decided to just enjoy the moment and make the best of it and ended up walking all the way back, a good 3-4 mile walk in torrential rain.  We were soaked to the bone when we got close to our home, and as it came in sight, we saw the streets flooded with water.  It was like a dam had been destroyed and the streets were now rivers.  We practically had to swim to our house,  not walk or even wade, we swam.  I don't quite know how that fits into the rules of the mission with no swimming (maybe ox in the mire) but there literally was no other way.   The road was flooded and our house was under attack with water racing in from all sides.  We frantically worked to throw sand into the sand-bags and create barricades to save our houses from being washed away. In the words of Chad Sobek,  "It was a hoot!".  Once the crisis was averted we swam over to our house, cleaned off and then then collapsed onto the beds from pure exhaustion.

I was one tired boy.

You know how you hear about missionaries that are just so tired in body in soul they collapse at the end of the day.  It's true.

However, with all that,  I really think this was the best I had felt in a pretty long while.  The adrenaline of the situation combined with getting energy back felt good.

One particular experience I wanted to share was on Friday we made the trek down to Las Pilas, which seems to be becoming an annual trek for Fridays. We were contacting and searching all the morning for news and menos activos and finally as we were about to come back up to La Verde for lunch we found the house of the person we had been searching for. Turns out she has moved to Retalhuleu but her family that was there gave us a reference to their neighbor and she ended up a really cool lady. She had been having alot of troubles in life, so we started to teach her about God's Plan of Happiness and his love for all of his children.  She was very positive about the whole situation and we invited her to church.  I think she just might have been prepared for us to come and find her, and the way we found her was for sure directed by our Heavenly Father.

It is amazing when things work out that way and we are led to find others.   We were doing what we could do, what we were supposed to be doing, and Heavenly Father directed us through others, to this sweet woman who was looking for something more in her life.   I sincerely believe that she was praying for guidance and through the light of Christ we were led to her.

Henry B. Eyring, once said, "Make a commitment that the next time you are taught by one of the servants of God, you will heed any prompting, even the faintest prompting, to act, to do better."   We live in a very noisy and confusing world, but comfort and direction are available.  Promptings will come as we live in harmony with the teachings of the gospel, be where we are supposed to be, doing what we are supposed to be doing, and listening to those gentle whispers to our heart.

It was a very successful week over all and I wouldn't mind having many others like it though I could do without "the sick".

Speaking of sick, here is another reason we don't like mosquitos down here, and a reminder we were given to use that bug spray.  I put on bug spray now like Chase puts on cologne! Ha - just kidding Chase.

I just like the the word Chikungunya, I may name a pet as such one day. [Editor's note: click here for more info on Chikungunya]

Answers to Questions:

Q: How are you feeling?
A: Feeling better.

Q: Birthday and Christmas are coming up.  Is there anything special that you want?
A: I don't know, just surprise me There isn't much you really want when you live on nothing you truly realize that you don't need much.

Q: What did you learn this week?
A: I learned how to make balls out of pure rubber.   It was really cool.  We were contacting and found a guy who has a big family.  After we taught him a lesson he was like do you know what I do for a living? I work in a lab and make rubber balls. Afterwards he made one for us right there, it was pretty dang cool.

Q: Did you see any monkeys?
A: I thought I did, I got closer and closer to see and it was just a dead frog.