One-third of my mission complete!
This week was pretty good but it started out being really difficult because of my companion. We’ve never fought or argued or anything like that because we’re both really good friends and think a lot alike, but this week he was a little depressed because he’s had a lot of problems in his mission and it’s been kind of tough. He doesn’t normally act like it all bothers him, but really he’s struggling a little to be motivated, especially because he think’s he’s cursed to have sad birthdays — It’s happened for almost 4 years in a row — and since his birthday was the 5th he expected a bad week.
… He really shouldn’t have because he (And I, too!) got a smack upside the head from life! On Wednesday we ran into this guy on the street (Rather, this guy ran after us!) and asked us to come visit him the next day. It was a little weird because it came from nowhere and he acted a little sketchy — kind of like a guy on a date when he first meets his date’s dad: talking really fast, acting like he didn’t know what to do with his hands, and answering questions with short, respectful phrases like, “Yes, sir” and, “No, sir”! Then we learned he lived in an area that’s a little sketchy and we got a little more curious — not exactly worried because we both practiced martial arts and it would be in broad daylight — but it was certainly strange.
So we went to visit him on Thursday and the first thing we noticed about the house is that it was at a 45-degree angle! When his mom, Emilia, invited us in we had to bend over to pass through the door, and we found out it was because the front wall was falling over and she couldn’t fix it! It turns out that was just the beginning of her tale of woe: Her 18-year-old son that asked us to pass by is a drug addict, her two middle kids had trouble in school and are now studying in a special school that costs a lot (“But at least they’ll get an education,” she says!), and her youngest kid is Autistic and lives with his abusive dad, who left Emilia to care for the other three by herself. Her house is made of scrap wood and metal that she could scavenge and is destroying itself, but she doesn’t have the strength to fix it herself, her TV broke and she traded it for a tiny, less-broken radio to entertain her kids, and she works 2 hours away and makes only about 10 Sols every day (For a reference, it costs about 1 Sol to take an hour-long bus ride). Soooo… her life is really sad
… And she’s one of the happiest people I’ve ever taught! I don’t know how she does it, but she’s constantly laughing about how bad everything is and she doesn’t let any of it bother her! I know she really is worried about all of it, but she knows that it will all work out in the end! That’s some impressive faith! We’re both hoping she progresses quickly!
Well, this week I’m also a little short on time so I can’t send any of the photos from Elder Rodriguez’s birthday parties (Yes, plural!) but I’ll send them next week!
— Elder Schroeder