Sheep Tacos

January 6, 2020

General Información

Hola todos! I know it's been a year since I've written you guys ( ;) ), but we had a great first week of 2020 here. For starters, the morning of the first day of the year started out with us doing some service with a Brother from our ward. He is in charge of the landscaping of the churches here in Querétaro, so we went to go help him move some branches to a spot where he said it was "legal". The spot may have been on the grass of the street divider, but crazier things are indeed legal here in Mexico, so we got to work. 2 hours later, and the police show up with the President of the neighborhood as we are dumping the last load on reports of "2 suspicious looking teenagers." How 2 young adults wearing soccer jerseys and basketball shorts in the middle of the day turned to that, I do not know, but I do know that it was a strange situation. In the end they worked things out with the Brother of our ward, who after they left literal just moved the pile a little down the road. Service gone wild!

Big miracle in a Little Town

While the service project held mixed results, on Thursday we made a trip to a little town an hour away that was one to always remember. The week before we had received a reference from the sister missionaries in the Salt Lake City Temple mission of a man named Maurizzio. He lives super far away in this tiny city called Huimilpan, and the only note we had foe his address was a restaurant called The Dolphine. Not much to go off of, and he hadn't answered our calls or texts so I had doubts of finding him. But, the sister missionaries commented to us that the last they heard from him was that he had an attack of depression, and we felt impressed to go inspite of the lack of informacion. We loaded a bus, drove an 1 hour into the middle of nowhere, and miraculously as we got to the town, we saw the restaurant on the side of the street! We were stoked, but the bus driver told us we were wrong and made us get off at the next stop. That was fine though, as we thought we would just walk back a little and find the store. But, equally miraculously, as we backtracked we could not find the building for the life of us. We ended up walking for a solid 30 minutes on this country road looking until we got all the way to the entrance of the town. It was there that instead of finding the "The Dolphine", we found "The Sheep", rightfully named as they sold tacos of just that, sheep. Maybe it was all the signs that said "TACOS OF REAL SHEEP", or all the mannequins that they had of sheeps laying around the place, but I was interesting. So, we walked in, ordered 2 tacos, didn't feel like throwing up, ordered 4 more and then were off. Honestly super good tacos, would recommend if you ever find yourself wondering around the town of Huimilpan. Anyway, we start the long journay back to the bus stop, and as we get close we see the a building with "The Dolphine" written on the side. I know what you are thinking, but no, this place did not sell tacos of Dolphines; in fact it didn't sell anything at all as the boarded up windows suggested it had been a while since customers had made a stop. Still, we knocked, and lo and behold, a man opens the door. We quickly asked him if was Maurizzo, to which he smiled and said, "You guys found me! I've been waiting to talk to you, come on in." We sit down in the living and told us how great of a time we had arrived at, as right as we knocked he was laying in his bed, beginning to think himself into a hole. He also said how he had just come home just 15 minutes earlier, and how it'd been a miracle that we found him. In that moment the spirit testified of the truthfulness of his words, and continued to testify as we read John 16; a beautiful chapter that teaches us how our sadness and become a joy that is eternal. The spirit was felt, and we hugged each other goodbye with another visit planned for this Tuesday. A special trip, and another testament of how God works in mysterious ways to help His children, even if that way is getting lost for an hour and a half and eating sheep tacos. 

El Fin

To cap of the week, we had the baptizm of 2 young brothers, Andres and Giovan! Their service was super spiritual. A Brother from our ward who is a family friend did the baptizm which was special to see. Even more touching was that their Dad, who was in-actived before, matched with his sons; first wearing all white before the ordanence, and then coming in with them after in matching suits. Very good memory, and cool too as Elder Manavahe helped a lot in their teaching which made these first baptizms even more meaningful. Overall, I am super happy here in the work. Being with Elder Manavahe has been such a blessing, and my testimony has grown as I've seen his faith bring forth fruit in his language. For fast Sunday we got up to bear his testimony and he gave a powerful and clear testimony on prayer; proud Father moment indeed. The gift of tongues is real, this work is real and our Heavenly Father truly does love us perfectly through our many imperfections. May you all feel of His love stronger everyday, and may this week be even better than your last. I love you all, and can't wait to talk to you soon! Malo lele! (My Tongan is coming along ;) ) 

Elder Jackson 

1. BAHHH

2-4. Baptizm of Andre and Giovan

5. Post-Baptizm refreshments