Week 11, Oct 20

This week´s letter will have to be short. We got stopped on the way to letter-writing by a man who yelled out, "Hey, it´s the Mormons!" We went over and said hello. It turns out he was totally nuts. I could hardly understand what he was saying, but I caught the words "Mormon" "Jesus" "Heaven" "America" so I felt like we were on the same page. He also asked us some weird hypothetical questions with appropriate gestures, like "What would you do if you were reading under this tree and somebody cut it down right then?" We told him that we had to go, and he responded by kissing us on the forehead, on the hand as we shook hands, and on the pass-along card that we gave him. Maybe we´ll cross paths again.

It has been another great week in Telde! I´m convinced that this is the best place in the mission. That picture I sent was of me and the man we just baptized, William. He is just the best. (I´m pretty sure I already told you about him...) He loves church, loves reading the Book of Mormon, and his wife will get baptized soon. Every time we teach them she insists on cooking. And even though he´s baptized, we still go over a lot to teach the new member lessons and to teach her (because she´s still an investigator, technically). And then, one of the rama members showed them the chart where you can sign up for feeding the missionaries. AND THEY SIGNED UP. They´re both South American and are our best friends. 

This is a picture of our rama, faulting maybe 1/3 or 1/4 at Willy´s baptism. There´s an old man in the back, behind a girl in brown. His name is Parreño and is the coolest ever. Not sure why, but he kinda reminds me of Grandpa Walker. He loves church and helping out, and he always tells the same old man stories. One of these he told last time in Sacrament, and I could not for the life of me figure out what the story was about. I know for sure I heard the words "las papas" meaning potatoes, "los papas" meaning popes, misioneros, finca meaning farm, and catolico. So not sure. But he´s so cool and the very definition of enduring to the end.We´re great buddies (when I understand him, about 90% of the time)

Sorry it´s short, but rules are rules.

Love, Elder Maxfield