A rather memorable night

Dear family,

I guess I had better send you a long one.

Well, this Sunday we had a rather interesting fellowshipping activity.  Every Sunday here, Amazonas 1st Ward puts on a ward activity called Faro.  Someone gives a little spiritual message and then everyone plays games designed to develop ward unity.  The spiritual part last week was rather genius, in my opinion.  The hermano who is in charge of putting on Faro started the night by telling everyone that this was a night that would change the nature of the ward forever.  The plan was to make everyone start bawling like a baby, thus forging long lasting bonds of friendship by sharing such an emotional, potent mutual experience.  To achieve such an exquisitely emotional atmosphere, we watched a movie called Las Familias Son Eternas (Families are Forever).  It dates back to when all the church media was on little slides and you played a sound track that made beeps so you know when to move the filmstrip. 

The first time I saw this movie I was on an exchange with Elder Ruiz.  During lunch he put this movie on for the family to watch.  As the mamita served us the food, I had to wipe away the tears, while mumbling, "Gracias por la sopita, hermana, fue muy rico" (Thank you for the soup, Mamita.  It was delicious).  It gets to me every time, so when I saw they were starting it at the ward activitiy, Elder Castro and I ran to the back to take cover because we knew an emotional bombshell was coming.  It got to everyone.   Afterwards, Elder Castro and I had to search around the church and round up everybody who had left during the movie.  We would tell them, "It’s alright.  You can go back in.  Everybody is crying." 

After that, to lighten up the mood, we played a game called “Lamanitas,” where if you don’t say a certain phrase right, word for word, people get to draw Lamanite marks on your head with lipstick.  All in all, a rather memorable night. 

Noemi, Joao, Meylin, Dioselina

Do you remember how I told you about Joao last week?  (we don’t remember)  He is the son of our favorite mamita, Hermana Dioselina.  This hermana has always been super active since she was baptized, but she has never really been able to enjoy being a member of the church with her family.  Recently, Joao told us he was interested in taking the discussions.  We are trying to finish up all the lessons quickly because Joao is leaving in a week and a half for a karate tournament in Paraguay.  He spends most of the day practicing, so many of our appointments are in the morning.  The only problem is Joao likes to wake up a wee bit later than the missionaries do.  It takes a family effort to raise him from the dead to come listen to us.  We were very pleased to find out on Sunday morning that Joao had woken up by himself and was already to go to church!  Hermana Dioselina thanked us afterward and told us that being able to chat together with her son on the short walk to church had made her whole week.  It was nice to hear this from her since she does so much for us.

Obispo Rafael Tigre and Carlos Valdez

Well, thank you for the birthday picture.  One of our investigators learned it was my birthday and decided to give me some boxers with a dragon on them.  She told me she got them because she knew I didn’t have any like that.  It was a little difficult to explain why I couldn’t accept her gift.

We’ve just kept busy here in Amazonas.  Elder Castro has taken on the determination to finish his mission running faster than ever.  I hope to hear from you soon.  You are all probably out of school by now, aren’t you?

Love, Brother Birthday Boy