July 12, 2010
Hey,
So I guess the rules have been changing for the whole world, because they are doing a revision on preach my gospel. Elder Clark also made up the new rule that we have to be with our companions for at least three changes. There have been a lot of good changes, things that I noticed should’ve been changed earlier, but the main problems are still not taken care of.
The ward is getting worse and worse, but we’ve been put in a new district, so we are working together more---before our district wasn’t even in our same ward, and we couldn’t do anything. The members aren’t helping us at all, or the other members, and even the classes don’t work like they should, so we have more work to do with they members, but can’t leave the new people off the plate, so thanks to the ward, our workload has been doubled.
So, interesting story----so we know this guy named Victor, that we have been teaching and helping. We’ve known that him and his friends have all had problems with alcohol, and we’ve been trying to help them out, and they all have been progressing well until now. One night he was crying outside his house, and we came up to him. His problems with alcohol had created more problems with his life, but he’s been wanting to quit his addiction first. So we started analyzing the problems, setting goals, making solutions, and looking for alternatives---the whole gig and process. He told us that before he had once quit drinking for eight months, so we asked him how he did it. He said Suero---here its like this nasty vitamin drink, and I’ve had to take it many times when I was sick----usually it comes in pouches, and you mix it with water or soda. But we were like “ok, let’s go get you some suero and you can start tonight, and we’ll call you or visit you every day to check how you’re doing.” Anyways, he got really excited, so we started heading to the tienda, to buy some Suero. While we were walking, he switched directions, and said that there was another tienda, that sells Suero in bottles. We get there, and it’s an alcohol shop, and he asked for suero. All I see on the shelves is vodka, so I jumped in---“hey, this is the vitamin stuff right?”---yes---“No alcohol”---“no this is clean, no alcohol.” So they bring him a bottle. Vodka, of course. I freaked out “No! what are you doing? Put it back!” and I grabbed him, and we took him around the corner, and told him that vodka is alcohol also. He said no, that he mixes it with water and sugar, and then there is no more alcohol. We sat there explaining to him for ten minutes again, the commandments, the effects, and the goals.... so he finally said he would try to quit drinking, and he said one minute. He went back to the tienda, bought the bottle, shoved it in his pocket, the whole time thinking that we didn’t see anything, and walked away high chested, and he comes up to us---“ok, thanks for teaching me about goals, I’m gonna start quitting tonight.”-----Well, that’s about the closest we’ve gotten to a commitment with him. So we decided to look for more people. Knocked 60 doors, absolutely nothing. So that’s still our goal. I don’t know how well you can see the map, but there are 28 streets. We started knocking (because the members don’t give us references) at street one. This is the second time around, and we are at 15th street again. It’s a huge change form Zacatecoluca, because over there, nearly everyone would let us in, and we could talk and do little service projects, and nearly everyone would start and keep commitments.
So, you can look on the google map again---across the highway from Bosques de la Paz, there is a little train line. It’s abandoned, but there are houses there too. It’s the same place with the grim reaper graffiti that I sent the other week. Anyways, there was a huge gang meeting---like 60 people, all in a circle and some sitting on the rooftops. We stayed with some members until they left.
Well that’s about it---things are going well—I’ll try to send some pics. I hope everyone is doing well, and I’m glad that dad has someone to help him out. Tell Karlie that’s the way to do it, if you aren’t getting stuck, then you aren’t having fun. Tell Isaac that he should send me some pics of his work.
Salud!!!
---Corey
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