WOW.... WHAT A WEEK!!! I can´t even BEGIN to tell you guys the amount of stress, events, and just all around craziness we´ve had here in Esquel... Here it goes...
I´ll just get it out of the way... Diego? No. He disappeared for a little while, and with some very interesting events that happened over the week, we didn´t have the opportunity to go find him. And so, regrettably... No, he was not baptized. Probably won´t for awhile now, but more on that later.
Now, last Monday, after writing you guys, E. Rojas got VERY quiet. He put a big amount of distance between us, and ignored me whenever I spoke. We went back to the pension and I began writing some letters. He was still very quiet. We usually leave at 6pm on Pday to go teach, but I could tell he was angry with me, and so I told him that when he was ready to talk to me, then we could leave. He wouldn´t say a word until 7:00. He then began explaining to me that his feelings were hurt, because I apparently said that he didn´t have the faith or love necessary for investigators or members. I had only told him that he needed to work on his faith/love with Diego... But he took it a little bit to the extreme. Because of this, he had been crying in his bed when I was writing letters. I hadn´t even known what was wrong, and I was SO happy that I said I wasn´t leaving the pension until he opened up and told me what was wrong. We sorted it out, and then at 8:00 went and taught a lesson.
Tuesday, in the morning we had District Meeting. Halfway through the meeting, we received a text from Lidia saying: Elders, I need your help. I have nothing to give my kids to eat, and they went to school hungry. I was so angry... We finished out the meeting, and then E. Rojas and I ran to the pension and ransacked our own fridge with all the food we had for Lidia and her kids. We had been talking with the Branch Pres. to get her a box of food for 3 weeks, and they went twice, only asking if she needed anything. Very vaguely offering help. Lidia, being very shy and not trusting them just yet, had said no both times, but then we received the text from her saying that she needed food. We went with our own food, and called the Pres. on the way there asking him to do something about this Now. He got angry at E. Rojas, and hung up the phone, saying he was going to call the Mission president... Bla bla bla. Anyway, after we dropped the food off, I went to Trevelin with E. Menghini, E. Barton´s companion for divisions. We got there and had a lesson with a guy named Gustavo. I was there a month and a half ago when they found him. He´s a heavy smoker, and loves gringos! We had a good lesson on the importance of not smoking, and he promised to stop. Also in Trevelin, we had a meeting with the ward mission leader in Trevelin. He´s LDS... but acts and speaks and pretty much is an Evangelical. Gosh dang it, he tried to teach me about the fact that we as people, because we know right from wrong.... Don´t have agency. Uh huh, right. I was counter_arguing him, backing up my side with scriptures and everything, but he kept ranting off about the fact that I was completely mistaken and didn´t know anything as a missionary. I almost exploded. But, we cut the meeting there, and left and taught some great families. Got back to Esquel on Wednesday and visited Vanesa Greniel, this lady with her two daughters. She is very open with us about her situation, which is a toughy. They have a hard time making ends meet, and I know exactly why! Vanesa drinks a lot on the weekends. A LOT. A TON. HUGE AMOUNTS OF BEVERAGES. Have you ever seen a pitcher? Yeah... a pitcher comes into the story in a little bit. Anyway, we had a good lesson about the BoM, and the importance of Baptism. She finally accepted a baptismal date for the 24 of September. We are going to help this family!!!
Thursday morning was very slow. We had gathered all the addresses people had given us in the streets in a particular part of the city, and went to visit every single one. Turns out that every single direction that people gave us... Was fake. Hahahahahahaha, Oh, the life of a missionary. It´s ok though... I saw the most hilarious experience of my life... Walking down the street, we came upon a man staggering up the middle of the road. COMPLETELY DRUNK. This guy was just drowned in beer. He was staggering the whole width of the street, laughing, yelling, waving his arms... It was pathetic. He came to the sidewalk, and then began the real battle... The attempt of climbing the flippin´ CURB to keep walking down the road. He was swaying back and forth as he made many attempts to climb the curb, when finally.... He CRASHED to the ground, in a great, pathetic, drunken stupor. I almost DIED of laughter, only because he was so drunk, and even when he fell, his mouth wouldn´t stop yelling and shouting. It was hilarious. But also extremely sad... THAT is what I have to protect people from. Alcohol. It is vile, it is cruel, it is evil. I´ve seen children scared of their fathers because of it, I´ve been ridiculed in the streets because of it, and I´ve lost a baptism because of it. Alcohol is evil. Period.
Anyway, we´ve been looking for a new apartment for a long time now, because the owners of our apartment have just jumped the price from $1,150 pesos every month to $1,500 every month. It´s ridiculous!!! So we´ve been looking for the last 2 weeks for a new place, but it´s so difficult, because we want to teach, and the search for a new apartment draws away from our time to teach! On Friday morning, E. Rojas says to me: Gosh, Elder!!! I can´t even study... We NEED to find a new apartment! Not 3 seconds later, we get a call from a member saying they had one for us! We went that morning to look at it. It was HUGE. It´s owned by a member, but she´s living down in Comodoro right now, and wanted to rent it out. It´s pretty much a house, E. Rojas and I were sold. The best part is that we´re only paying $1,300 for it, and it´s almost 3 times the size of our old one!!! We ran back to our apartment and began packing everything, cleaning... stuff like that. It reminded me of when we moved from Mapleton to ... Mapleton, Ha. Later on that day, we stopped packing and went to an appt. we had with Greniel and family to make the filling for Empanadas... We got there, knocked... And no one answered. We said we would wait for 5 minutes. About 2 minutes later, Greniel answers the door... half drunk. Oh no. She invited us in, and we... very cautiously, entered. She began saying she was so happy that we were there to help her make empanadas, but first she needed a blessing. She was feeling terrible, obviously because of the PITCHER of beer on the table that she had been drinking out of. Gosh flippin´ dang it! I gave her a blessing, then she told us of her experience with praying to HF to know if the message we had brought was true. She told us that after that prayer, she had seen only us in her head, and she said: I know HF answered my prayer... And that he sent you two here, to help me and my family.¨ YES, she was half drunk, but it wasn´t to where she would say just any random thing. She still had her wits about her and could relate things and communicate well. And so yes, she has had her answer and is anxiously waiting for the 24th... We made empanadas with a drunk woman... cutting onions, crying while doing it... Yeah... It was a very... Interesting day. I didn´t know what to do. I realized that although I feel ready to take on much more responsibility as a missionary, there are still experiences that I look to E. Rojas for.. because of his experience. But yeah.
Saturday morning, the Elders from Trevelin came to help us clean up everything and move to the new house. We didn´t have a moving truck... And we were going to be moving in 4 hours!!! I said to E. Rojas... Che! Tenemos que flippin´ encontrar un flete!!! Dude! We need to flippin´ find a moving truck! Not 2 seconds after I said that, a Flete or Moving truck rounded the corner. I waved it down, and we scheduled the guy to come help us move. How LUCKY IS THAT?? Anyway, we got everything into the truck, and took it all to the house. The Trevelin Elders are so jealous of it. We got everything in, and then began to unpack and organize. It was too late to teach anyone that night, so we ran to a store and bought a bunch of beef and had an asado as our last night as companions... (supposedly)... ;) That night we got the call... No one was leaving Esquel. That never happens! Every single person in Esquel and Trevelin was staying where they were. How weird! I was happy, because it meant I would have time to enjoy the new house! An hour later, we get a call from the sister missionaries... An emergency transfer had happened, and the two of them were leaving Esquel. We were thinking that night, how weird!! Who´s going to replace them in their area, not knowing the members, investigators, or anything?? We found out the next morning who was going to replace them...
Sunday morning, I got my shower interrupted with a call from E. rojas saying: District leader has called... you need to hear this! I listened through the bathroom door to hear that I, ME, ELDER CUTHBERT, was being transfered to the other half of Esquel as my next area... WHAT??!! I was in shock. My new companion, E. Sharp, gets here on Tuesday morning. I´m have very ... mixed emotions about everything. I´m very excited to get a new companion, and from what I´ve heard, E. Sharp and I will get along great. But we are both like aliens in the area. We don´t know ANYTHING about what´s been going on. Our first week will just be finding the Investigators, members, and getting to know the area. It´s a very interesting situation... But I´m excited, also. So yeah... I´m being transfered!! But not out of Esquel... Hahaha! This has NEVER happened before. It´s called a Whitewash... When the missionaries from an area leave, and it´s replaced with two that don´t know anything. It´s going to very strange for the next few days. So yeah.
I´m in love with the Book of Mormon, I love teaching, mornings are as hard as ever, I love working out, missionary work is awesome, I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. I want you all to know that I´m doing great. Jordan, My bro in law... Thank you for the letter! It was a lot of help. Jared... If you´re going to get that ´81 Camaro... You have to promise me that you´ll ONLY race on Saturdays... ;) Simon! Kill it in football, Man! Mom, I love you more than ever. Melyn... I was thinking about before the mish when you and I drove back from the Temple and had that long talk... I miss my Sis. Ha. Dad... I love you so much. I hope you´re doing incredibly well, and that work is treating you well. Good luck on the house!!
Send the letters... I´m letter hungry! Haha! Love you all...
E. Cuthbert
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