February 8, 2010
Hey,
This is the first time in such a long time that I have nothing to say. I am sitting here in front of my computer, at Nova Southeastern University, in a little computer lab on the bottom floor of the library, looking at the pictures of my companion’s niece and I have nothing to say. Absolutely nothing. How weird. i didn’t get a lot of mail this past week. I did get my birthday pressie from Brandon and Sarah. Thank you so much. I haven’t eaten there since before my mission. Actually, I have only eaten at McDonald’s only once since going on my mission, and that one time it made me sick.
Umm…the headaches. I finally went to the doctor’s office. That was an experience I’ll never forget. It was like walking into the world from living in a temple for a month or so because in the waiting room they were playing a rated PG-13 movie, culture shock. The music in the background of the movie was a little on the ghetto side, something I am not used to. It was so weird. I was like, send me back to the Latin ghetto, and give me some more accordions. It was a weird weird feeling. But I got to see a nurse practitioner and a doctor. They prescribed me some head stuff and told me it was tension related and that I needed some alone time every day. I wanted to ask them if they knew what I did everyday and that I always have to be within sight and sound of my companion, but I didn’t. They probably would have thought that I was a complete fool or completely crazy for living the lifestyle that I live. They just think that missionaries are sight-seers who go out and teach the good word every once and a while. WRONG!! So, I am taking the medicine and I find time to myself, even if it is a quick little nap here or there in the car or in my bed or on the couch. And I have gotten pretty straight up with my companion. If she annoys me, I let her know and the funny thing is that she listens to me. I asked her why and she said it is because she loves me so much and that she wants to make me happy. Weird.
Hey, did any of you watch the Super Bowl? I’m pretty sure Dustin did. Well, that was filmed about 40 minutes away from me. And man was traffic bad! But it was kind of fun to see all of the different types of people and hear the hype about everything. We even got invited to go to a few Super Bowl parties, my favorite invite was from a man was smoking a cigar and drinking directly from his Jack Daniels. His name was Disco, from Haiti. It was very generous. But now I know, with a surety, that I could never ever take anyone seriously if they start out their pick-up line with “Hey there pretty ladiessshhh. You look so nisssh and professssssional. You should come over to my party tomorrow. I’m the cook!” Bad line, my Islander friend. A major thumbs down.
So, some other funny things that happened this week. Last night we went to teach someone about tithing and offerings. We usually ask this man to pray, which is funny because he prays for everything, “bless the animals in the fields and also the animals in the houses that there will be water enough for them, whether from the rain or from the house. And please don’t send us a trial so that we have to remember Thee, we remember Thee.” When it was time to pray my companion started it off, so we could avoid his prayer. Sometimes she prays for a very, very long time, but not as long as Felly. As she is praying I hear this shuffling coming towards us from the street. This is not too terribly odd because Felly lives with a bunch of people who come and go. But the shuffling was coming right towards us, bee-lining it towards us. I got a little scared, so I opened my eyes and this man was walking towards us. Then he turns towards Felly and holds out his hand and mumbles something in English (Felly only speaks Spanish). Felly reaches into his pocket and pulls out some change, outs it into the hand of the man. They give each other high-fives, then the man gives my companion a high five and then he shuffles away. Apparently this man stops by Felly’s house a lot because Felly gives him money. There are dos locos that Felly helps out whenever they come by. That warmed my heart a little bit. My companion then finished her prayer. It was a sweet moment. Weird, but sweet. It also made me a little sad for those dos locos who have nothing and have to beg for money for food from the humble of the humble.
We taught this gangster last week, Felito. He is pretty hard-core. We tried to go and see him awhile ago but he was in prison, so we had to wait til he got out—don’t worry, though. He turned himself in, so he is not completely dangerous. And he was once in love with a girl named Betty because he has her name tattooed on his neck, right next to the NY Yankees insignia. Anyway…we taught him about the Book of Mormon and then left him the first two chapters. We stopped by 3 days later to see how it was going. He said it was a little confusing, but he had only read one chapter. We told him that was okay because as he got more into the book it would start making sense. He said ok, but he didn’t look like he believed us. So I asked him to go and get his book and we would explain a little bit more about the book. He pulled it out. He had read all of 1st Nephi, thinking that that was the first chapter. Ummm…so, when we finished explaining it to him we asked if we could back the next day and teach him about Joseph Smith. But we left him some homework, to read a little bit more and then pray about it. He said that he would read the second chapter and the first chapter once more because he wanted to understand it all. OK. That’s cool. Then we stopped by yesterday to talk with his mom (Felito is 21). She had been reading the Book too and she told her Pastor about it. He told her that she shouldn’t read the book because it would confuse her. She said that she was going to read it all because she liked reading it and she knew it was a book about God and shouldn’t we read books about God? The answer, YES! This also happened to another one of our investigators who we thought was going to drop us. She said that she could never change and that she has her Bible, why would she need anything more. We left her 2 Nephi 29-31. When we stopped by the last time before her trip to Mexico this week, she had a grin on her face. She said that she had read it and that she was thinking that she had her Bible, why did she need anything else, then she read the part in the book where it talks about people like her and then she said that she felt guilty about her thought process. She said that she knew that the Book of Mormon was the word of God. Now that she is going to Mexico for the week, to spend time with her very Catholic Mom, she said she is scared, but she knows what she is going to tell her mom. Mom, you might not like this book, but it is the word of God and I am going to read it. She also liked the part about Christ’s baptism and how it makes sense to not baptize babies. It was so cool. Baby Steps.
The church is true. The book of Mormon changes lives. Kacey start reading the Book and get to know its pages, its doctrine, get to know the words of the Savior because those words, that book changes lives. It is the thing that converts people because it invites the Spirit into their lives and into their hearts and then they are willing to make the changes necessary in their lives. What a cool job I have. What a blessing we all have to have the church in our lives. Love everyone and read the Book of Mormon. ITS TRUE!!!
Love love love,
Hna. Barros
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