Tuesday, February 21, 2017

"...a person laying down in the grass motionless"

Hola Familia.

This week was just another week in Ibarreta, Formosa. Nothing too crazy to report like cut legs or anything like that so sorry if your disappointed. But I'll will start with the missionary work here and our investigators. To start we went by one of our investigators wednesday names Rodrigo. He is the guy with the drug addictions from Buenos Aires. We actually saw some good progression this week. We were able to have 3 lessons with him cause he told us he wanted us to come by everyday at the same time. SO we have been doing that. In our lessons we always read something in the B o M and then teach a gospel principle and then to finish we work in a book called The 12 Step Program. It is a booklet the church made to help people with addictions. But unfortunately he was unable to attend church this week. His biggest 2 obstacles is his addiction and waking up on Sunday to go to church. He doesn't have a phone either so he cant set alarms. So this week we are going to lend him an alarm clock on Saturday night haha. hopefully that will help out. We are hoping to get him a friend in the branch to that can get to know him and be his friend. This week we found some new people to teach which is awesome so hopefully they will turn into investigators this week. 

This last Friday was fun because Elder Taylor and I ran mutual for the youth in the branch. For mutual they always meet at 6pm and the missionaries do like a 5-10 minute spiritual thought and then after they just do whatever they want (play soccer, take selfies, play piano, etc.)  But friday for the spiritual lesson I just did the simple orange object lesson about putting on the armor of God. Eph 6.  And it was a lot of fun and I think I explained it well enough. Then just last night I had a fun unique experience while Elder Taylor and I were walking back to the house. It was like 8:30ish and it was pretty dark. As we were walking I noticed something just off the corner of my eye just off the sidewalk we were walking on. I did a double take and what I could partially make out in the dark tall grass, a human shape object laying down in the grass. I stopped in my tracks and studied the object to figure out what it was exactly. After a solid 10 seconds of staring I called out to the object and started approaching it. As I got closer I determined that it was a person laying down in the grass motionless. Now to fill you in, it had been raining all day until 6pm that night so everything was muddy... especially on the side of the sidewalks. As I called out again, the person, who turned out ot be an old man moved his head and looked up at me with his muddy face (because indeed his was face down in the mud). I asked him what he was doing and if he was alright. Right as I did that, a wall of alcohol aroma hit me and knew for certainty he was a classic drunk. As he rose his head he cry out in his raspy, slurry old man drunk voice, ¨DEJEME...DEJEME SOLO¨ or ¨Leave me alone¨! I then crouched down next to him so that I could talk to him better. I got this man who I would guess was around 70 years old to his feet and tried to inquire where the heck he lived. He told me by the bus terminal. So I grabbed him by the arm and we started walking. And even with all 155 pounds that I am, he was quite difficult to direct cause he could not walk or support himself very well. We continued walking for 5-6 minutes and along the way he asked me how much it would cost him for our services. I just laughed and told him that we were missionaries and we do this stuff free of charge hahahaha. We got him close to his house but started getting aggressive with us cause I assume he didnt want his family members to see mormons missionaries carrying him back to his house. So we let him free to make the rest of the trip but not before I could sneak a little article of faiths card into his shirt pocket. It was quite the experience and gave us a story to tell. 

Also this week I was pretty sick....🤒  To the point where I woke up Saturday morning with a dry mouth, completely plugged nose and headache and sore throat. I dont know why but I get sick EVERY feburary/march and it doesn't even matter if its winter because its freaking dead of summer here. So that was unfortunate but wasn't too awful. I still have a small headache but most of the other stuff is gone. Luckly mom packed DyQuil and NyQuil so I have been using those. But I hope you are all doing great. Thats my email for this week. I just realized Sunday in sacrament meeting that I am 1/3 though the mission... seems really weird. I feel like I need to put some more urgency in both my missionary work, language study, and gospel study so I dont just go through the mission. I love you all and hope you have a great week!! 

Sincerely,



Elder Corbin Keicher