Cow's Heads and Miracles

High ho family!

Fact: In the days of the Bible to say to someone “Hey so and so” or “Hey what's your face" you would say "Ho, such a one!" (see Ruth 4:1). So you've got that going for ya.

Wow, family, what a week. I'm glad all is good for you guys and that you saw Mo-Man Jennings at the wedding of Mikey. That’s so, so, so cool. He is such a good guy.

Wow, it was a good day today. It was Elias's b-day today and we went went to his house and had COW HEAD!!! Ahhhhh! It has been a dream of mine ever since I got here and it was great. I did take a great big apple-like bite of the eyeball. It doesn’t taste too bad. It's like meat flavored gelatine. I also had a bit of the tongue (which, we're always having tongue so it was nuttin') but I did get to have some brain and you had to put salt on it. It was so weird. It's like super, super, super soft cheese but, you know, it's brain. I had a bit of a time getting it down but I ate it. I have photos of it and I'll be sure to send 'em to you. But yeah, I finally ate a cow head and am waiting for some sort of bacterial infection or worm now—so worth it—take that, Andrew Zimmern, I ate face meat!

Well yes, it's my first week as DL and it's going well so far. I had our meeting and it was all good. I also got to travel for 2 hours to San Pedro to do an interview for the hermanas there. It's great. It's still kinda weirding me out and I'm waiting for the hives to go down on my face from the shock of it all but it's going good. Pray for me, though. And yeah, I'm with the same comp but ya know, I'm not bummed about it. Yeah, he bugs me sometimes but mehhh, it's alright. With prayer and just doing my job, it's cool.

Man, what an amazing, upon amazing, upon more than amazing, thing happened this week! Get ready and pay attention because it's about one of the coolest things that’s happened on my mish. So yesterday we were looking for people to bring to church. Every Sunday in the morning you go and drag (sometimes) your investigators to church. I was with Elías looking for Juan and Isaac. As I was about to clap outside their house a man came running up to us and said “Hey...um-mm...I don't know why but do you guys wanna come talk to me and my family?” After nearly wetting my pants I excitedly stuttered out a ¨YESSS!!!!! We would love to pass by the house.” So we passed by the house and there was a woman and her little son and they said ¨Please sit down” then said: ¨We often see you guys passing and we felt like we needed to talk with you”. They asked us about why we are here in Yuto. We explained that we are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  They were like, “Look, we’ve been going from church to church: From the Jehovah's Witnesses to the Evangelistas and we have felt nothing in any of those churches. Our son, who is 7 years old, tells us 'Mom, Dad, this isn’t the right church. This isn’t Christ's church'. So we have always wondered, where is Christs church? Why isn’t there a church about him? Didn’t he set up the church?" After nearly wetting my pants a second time we told them, “How about you guys come with us and we'll show you Christ's church.” They had a clothing stand they were operating while talking to us but they hurried and packed up everything and got all dressed up nice and neat and said, “¡Vamos!”

So we went with them to church. We watched them during the meeting (as we sit on the stand) and the mom was crying the whole time. I went up to her after and asked, “How did it go?” She immediately asked us, “When can you guys come over to our house? At that point I nearly wet my pants AND fainted. I told her that we could pass by tonight. We did and we talked with them about lesson three which is the gospel of Christ (faith, repentance, baptism, Holy Ghost, enduring to the end) and they just took it all in. It was incredible! They kept telling us things like: “We feel so good and so at peace” and “I don’t know if this sounds weird to you guys but all this stuff seems like déjà vu, like we've heard this all somewhere before.” We talked with them more and the mom said, “We have never talked about these things with other people because they would think we're crazy if we told them but, about a year ago, I had a dream where a book was placed before me and I remember hearing a voice that said, “Great and marvelous things I will reveal unto you; just be patient and I will give them to you.” A little while after this dream she said her husband was riding his bike in a neighborhood here in Yuto and found this book in the street. She said they'd kept it all this time. “I think this is the book I dreamed about but I don't know, what do you guys say?” Just then she got this book from her shelf and it was a worn down, beaten up, dusty Book of Mormon! Remember that episode of Spongebob when the crazy guy buys all of their chocolateand Patrick's pants explode? Yeah, it was kinda like that. I was nearly in tears it was so incredible. I couldn't believe it, it was just so real. I was speechless, my comp was speechless. What a miracle! We asked, “Would you folks like to be baptized?" They emphatically said, “¡Si!” They will be baptized the 22th of June.

They kept telling us how they felt that whatever was missing from their lives was there now. They were amazed when we told him that the Book of Mormon has these great and marvelous things. They are already married, they want to follow Christ wholeheartedly, they want to help out in the church and make friends in this church. They told us that and many, many things. Mind you, we just met this family yesterday; all this happened in one day! The Lord loves us so, so, so much and he is always preparing His children. He knows when and where they need to hear the gospel: This is a living testimony to that. They are the Familia A_______ and they are a miracle. What a great work this is and how true, true, true it is!

Well, that was just about the highlight of the week—incredible! I’m more than so insanely glad to be a missionary and be doing this, it's a kickin' job. I love it! Anyway. Pregquestionz?

• Has the rainy season started there yet?

No, and we really need it. It was starting to rain when I was in Jujuy with Mariño but its been relatively hot where I am. It hasn’t rained much but I'm hoping for that to change.

• Do you have district meetings in Yuto now?

No, I still go to Ledesma. It's just easier for everyone. It's cool.

• How are you helping your comp stay focused?

Just by trying to show an example and by not doing what he´s doing. If he´s watching a movie or something, I just won’t watch it and make sure I do something else like reading the scriptures or studying. Within a little while he´ll drop it. There are a few times where I have had to come out and say, “No dude, you don’t need to do that.” But with things like that and blessings like the Familia A_______  it will keep him motivated to keep going forward.

• What's the best part about serving in Yuto?

The tranquility of it all. It's just so chill here.

• Have you managed to get your hands on that ever-elusive sugar cane yet?

NO!!! I keep trying to find it and you would think living by one of the biggest sugar producers in South America that you could find some dang sugar cane but I'm still searching for some teeth-rotting good fun.

Well famz, I best get heading. Its been a good day. I love you guys so much. Pray for all the people we got going here, especially the Familia A_______they are so, so, so cool, you guys. Pray for the district that they’ll do good and that we can keep finding people like this. They are out there and being prepped. Til next week family, I love you and its all good.

Con Amor,

Russ

P.S. and do give Jade Madison a shout out from me. Tell her Atlanta is nice and "Britsy" this time of year.