October 1, 2012

Hola Familia y Amigios, Saludos desde Peru.

This week I have some stories for you all. Let's start with last Monday night on  the bus.
We were coming from the offices on a very crowded bus. My companion was sitting a few rows in front of me. The Girl that was sitting next to me left open up a spot to my left. I slid over so that Hermana Venegas could come sit by me, but before she could get to me a HUGE, SMELLY Peruvian man took her seat. So I'm sitting there and I can just feel him staring at me so I figure If I was going to be in this uncomfortable situation I might as well contact him ha-ha. So I start talking to him and it was very obvious he didn't have the Lord on his mind . . . Ugh . . . he kept winking at me. So I just decided to look out the window and hope that his stop came up soon. After several minutes of awkwardness the stop finally came, as he went to get off he tried to give me a kiss on the check to say goodbye. (which is normal for Latinos it happens all the time) so I put my hand in front of him and explained that as a missionary I can old shake his hand. So he takes my hand to shake it AND THEN with his other hand Reaches out grabs me by the back of my head and tries to pull me in to kiss me! AAAAHHHHH!!!! So I screamed and threw my head into my lap! And he kissed me like three times on the top of my head! YUCK!! All the people on the bus watched and laughed! YUCK!! Yeah yeah its funny, let's all laugh at the Gringo getting attacked by some huge smelly guy. Basically long story short more men have tried to kiss me in my 11 months on my mission then in the 11 months before my mission.

Other exciting story from this week is that Denisse got baptized. It was a really spiritual experience for her, honestly even before she got baptized she told me she still wasn't sure if the church was true but she wanted to get baptized. Then on Sunday it was fast and testimony meeting. During what seemed to be the last of the testimonies she looked at me and told me she wanted to share her testimony. She walked up there and told us all about how she had prayed and prayed to know if this was the true church and hadn't been able to receive an answer, but when she got baptized she came out of the water with such a strong feeling of joy. She said she could finally feel that Joy that the missionaries had been explaining and now she knows that the church is true.
I love baptisms because you get to see people the way the Lord sees them, not just for who they are, but for who they can be, the potential that they have if they follow the teachings of Jesus Christ and work to always follow the impressions of the Holy Ghost!

Basically things are going good here in Santa Isabel. I worry a little about things next month. We don't have a whole lot of investigators. We are teaching an 19 year old boy that makes me think of Austen my nephew. I accidently called him Austen in one of our last lessons ha-ha. I hope that we can help him. He seems pretty lost to me, and I know he has a lot of desire to do what's right, he just doesn't like to show it ha-ha. But I really enjoy teaching him. Oh we are also teaching a family of Israelites which is an adventure. I'm not sure if this religion exists in the United States, but it's a mix of Judaism and Christianity. It's really interesting. They believe in Christ and his teachings but they also follow the Law of Moses. I'm excited they are going to come to conference with us next week pretty sure when they walk in, in their robes, with their long hair and beards and all we are going to go down in Santa Isabel History.

Well that's about it family. I sent letters home, they should get to you soon. Hopefully within this next week or two. Thanks for writing me even when you all didn't hear from me for a while thanks to the post office strike.
I love you all! Have a great general conference!
I have been gone for 11 months! Do you miss me yet ha-ha!
I love you all!
Hermana Sadie Jean Taggart