A LITTLE LESS CONVERSATION, A LITTLE MORE ACTION PLEASE

True Confessions this week brings us references to Call of Duty, pumpkin preserves, and praise for UDOT. Seriously, we couldn’t make this stuff up:

That song (title of this post) is obviously about missionary work. 

I know this is something I’ll need to face a lot in my mission, not least of all because my setting apart blessing says be patient with the Mexican people like 56 times (it’s probably twice). But we had so many people commit to coming to General Conference, and not a single one of our investigators showed up. The hardest part is that they apologized, but I was like “¡Hey silly! ¡It’s not for us!” I didn’t actually say or think that, but it’s true.

We had a really frank discussion with la familia Santos Trejo last night. Nailea is on track for baptism, and she’s going with the ward to the Monterrey Temple this week on my birthday! I’m so jealous. She doesn’t get to go in, but she’s excited to know what it’s about. During this talk, Ma and Pa Santos Trejo asked us what they need for baptism. I didn’t really understand the question, so I watched my companion struggle for a minute to answer, I asked again what it was, and he said “Marriage”. So I said the equivalent of “Oh yeah, preach, Elder”, and it got a pretty good laugh. But he was still timid about it so I had to step in and say “Guys, just get married! You’ll be blessed for your obedience, you’ll be able to be baptized, and you’ll be one step closer to being an eternal family!” They both thanked me for my frankness, and very politely asked me never to return. Just kidding, they loved it, and I think they received a strong witness that it was right, becuase Hno Raúl was crying during the prayer. Or he had something spicy. We’ll call it the Spirit.

So this week I had the opportunity to try pumpkin preserves. Basically, much like you would peaches, or apricots, or peppers, if you put sugar and water and pumpkins in a jar, you can save them for, like, ever. And when you take them out they’re freakin’ delicious. Maybe I’ve just been blessed with a new gift of tongues, but I loved them. Thanks to my mother and our favorite holiday being Halloween, I was rather adept at scraping the good stuff into a bowl, into which milk is then poured and enjoyed like a cereal. It was so good.

This is for Caesey, who I’m sure doesn’t read this, so if someone could please share with him, that’d be great: I live in a Call of Duty map. Remind him of the map in Modern Warfare 2 with the 10 impossible Juggernauts, he should know the one. You can also look this up if you’re curious. Or just google “Matamoros”.

If you guys have any questions about church policy, or doctrine, or if you want to define a gospel term, check out “True to the Faith”. It’s fantastic.

Another story about Tote: We were teaching his mom, Mary (Mari?) a lesson, and he was looking very intently at my blonde arm hair. He then started to lift it gently while whispering not very quietly “pelo pelo pelo pelo pelo pelo pelo pelo” which translates to “hair hair hair hair hair hair hair hair”. Pretty cute.

Finally, a list of things I will never complain about again (I like lists, if you didn’t know)

- cold toilet seats

- dry skin

- snow

- the smell of bleach

- slow internet

- nothing being on the radio

- UDOT. I tried putting this in all caps for emphasis, but it’s already like that... Seriously though, we may not understand what UDOT is doing, or why it takes so long, or why they finally finish doing something and then do it all over again after 3 days, but at least they do stuff. Here in Matamoros, the streets flood when it rains, which is often. Because we don’t have drains, they leave the manholes open. Sometimes they’ll mark it with a tire, sometimes a giant PVC pipe, sometimes it’s just open, which means if the street is flooded, you can fall right in. That happened to an elder here. Also, the sewers flood, so all of a sudden it smells like Yellowstone. So yeah. UDOT made it on the list.

I probably love all of you reading this, and many of you who aren’t.

Love each other

Elder Webb