Another crazy week down in Santa María, Huatulco! Wow the next transfer is coming up quick! Just two more weeks until tranfers! I imagine and I hope that nothing changes for me. I am loving training Elder García and working here in Santa María.
We also are having another baptism this week! We are going to baptize Remedios. Well that's the plan. Hopefully she passes her interview. I don´t think she´s going to have any problems. She´s 50 years old and her Husband and Son are recent converts. It´s awesome to be a part of the conversion of an entire family. They are planning to get sealed in the temple, but first they have to wait a year after being baptized. It will be cool to attend their sealing, because I will still be in Oaxaca a year from now!
We also had a Halloween sort of experience this past week. Elder García and I have been pretty creeped out ever since. Well here´s the story: One day we were walking to the Branch President's house all the way in Techal Blanco. Santa María is broken up into Barrios (Wards). Techal Blanco is a long hike and we have to walk it almost everyday for visits and food appointments. On the way to Techal Blanco, this Elderly lady came up behind us and started talking to us. She seemed like the typical old Oaxacan Lady. She said that the Elders visited her before but they quit visiting her for some reason. We made an appointment to visit her and we said goodbye.
A few days ago, we went to go see her in her house. She let us in, and we began talking about our message. She complained of pain that she has had for a long time in her legs. We offered to give her a blessing and we did. Now, everything was pretty normal up to this point. She was super dramatic with everything, yelling all these praises to God and all of that, but that's pretty normal with the Christians and Catholics here, so I didn't think twice about it. We continued the lesson and she told us about an experience she had. She said that the Grim Reaper appeared to her and lead her to the nearby mountain. I couldn't understand her story really well but she said she pleaded with "Death" to not take her. She then went into telling us that she has done horrible things in her life and she started to cry hysterically. My companion and I just looked at each other in confusion and a little bit of fear. We wanted to get out of there so we asked her if she could offer the closing prayer. She agreed and she started to prayer in her irreverent yelling form of praying. Halfway through the prayer she started to speak a dialect of some sort. After she finished praying, I asked her if she knew a dialect. The there are a lot of different dialects here in Oaxaca so I thought it was Zapoteco or something. She said that she only knows Spanish....
Elder Garcia and I booked it out of that house. We went straight to a member´s house nearby and asked her if she knew this old lady down the street. She told us, "Oh yeah, that´s the Witch of Santa María." So yeah we taught a witch. She also gave us an apple before the lesson with her...she's the evil witch from Snow White. Haha but seriously we were creeped out.
The majority of are experiences are uplifting and filled with the spirit, but I wanted to share this experience too. :)
Oh yeah! I forgot to talk about Francisco's confirmation! I confirmed him yesterday at church. It was super cool to do my first confirmation. I was a little nervous and midway through my legs started to shake a little bit. I don't know why but I was relieved because I said everything correctly and it went really well. I love you all, and I hope you all have a fabulous week!
Con Amor,
Elder Smith
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