Well this week has been one of the longer weeks for the extra amount of work in the office and little amount of work that we could do as actual missionaries....... But I have really found some blessings within the work! And some answers to questions I didn't even know I had thanks to conference!
But first, pictures!!! One is of a Sister Missionary that got here from the CCM this last Monday! President wasn't here and neither were the assistants so I got to play President and be the welcoming squad with my comp! Super fun! There are 3 pics of this, one is of Elder and Sister Robbins with her also playing President to help make the sister feel welcomed! She knows that she just came at a weird time which is the real reason why President wasn't there.
The other 2 are when we did a service project to clean a chimney for a BBQ grill, but we didn't actually clean it because he didn't have the stuff. So I just climbed up it to see how dirty it was, and yes it was dirty.
Anyways going back to why the week was very long, but fun! So Monday the new sister got here, I also had to do some immigration stuff that day so that the people would not be sent home a year or 6 months early. So Monday morning I was running around like a chicken with my head cut off.
Monday night we found out that the Sister that was coming to the city for special transfers, got stuck in a blockade. (.... Oaxaca... -.-) (JK, I love Oaxaca!!!!) (But not blockades.-. ..) Anyway, so we get the news that she should arrive at about 2 in the morning and we would have to go get her. I couldn't sleep well because I was kinda worried for the Sister, even though I didn't know her, I didn't want her to suffer either... But then we go the entire night without a single call telling us she is still there, and so she calls back in the morning, telling the assistants that the blockade was still up in the morning and because she had a lot of stuff and no money, someone, (the secretaries) needed to go out there to pick her up, and bring her and her luggage to Oaxaca, because she couldn't pay for an Urban that will drive out there and take people to Oaxaca if you walk all the way across the blockade.
So Tuesday morning early we get going on very little sleep to take a 3 hour ride in a van, to get to a blockade, on a very windy road, so sleeping there is almost out of the question. But by nothing short of a miracle I was not only able to make it without throwing up, but also was able to catch a few Zzzz's! So we get to the blockade at like 11-11:20 and we pass by like 50 or 60 stopped cars before the driver says we can't go any farther and we have to walk the rest. Literally we were walking until 1 at a fast pace, before we found the sister, and we didn't even walk the whole blockade! It took us like over an hour to get past all the cars and too the actual blockade in the road, and well after that it was another 30 minutes of knocking bus doors asking if there were any missionaries on board XD It was definitely a once in a life time experience! So we find the Sister and she had actually been talking to the driver about the gospel and he didn't just want to learn more, he wanted to go to church so he could get baptized! But the sister didn't have any pamphlets or a Book of Mormon to give him, but that morning I wasn't planning on bringing anything because I wanted my hands empty to help the Sister with her stuff, but I had a small impression to bring a Book of Mormon, so I put it in my pocket, and when I was able to give it to him, you could just see that he wanted to read it. And he was about to as well, before another miracle happened. So we grabbed all of the sisters stuff and he was like "Y'all are walking to the other side?!" I told him yep, cuz that is how we got there, and after he told us good luck he said, if by some miracle they open up the blockade, before we get to the other side where we could take the Urban, he would pick us up and give us a ride! So off we went, and literally after I walked about 20 feet with a bunch of bags, I hear him scream, "Wait! Come back, they are letting cars pass!" So we quickly through everything back in and got a free ride to Oaxaca in a charter bus that is MUCH nicer than an Urban (15 or 20 passanger van). So we finally get back at like 6 and after some time waiting and doing some stuff we send the sister off to her area. But I kinda had a headache from the 6 hours of windy Oaxaquen roads. But it was a major blessing not having to walk the 3 miles again, with suitcases, and then stuffing us into a van to head home.
All of that in the first 2 days of the week... There is more, like how I had to send someone home yesterday to renew his visa from his house, but that will be for a different time cuz I have got to get to conference! Sorry that that last paragraph was longer than the book of Alma! XD
See y'all later, have a great week!
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Elder Loosle
Secretario de Misión
Misión Mexico Oaxaca
