The People of Zaragoza

Little different style of email this week. Realized we are teaching a whole lot of really interesting and unique people, so I'm just gonna list them all out, without too much identifiable information, since we're not technically supposed to provide too much of that stuff.

The people we are teaching:

Chuy - A gangster ("cholo") who also suffers from schizophrenia. He's the one who missed his appointment with us a couple weeks ago since he was in jail for getting in a fight with the police (with a CTR ring on)

The R____ Family - A grandma who has legal custody of her grandkids, since the mother of the kids is now a prostitute and the father was in drug rehab for a long time. We've been visiting them and just teaching them things about the Book of Mormon and showing them videos. It's fun but difficult to try and control all 4 of the crazy kids, but they really like it when we go over to visit them. Also the grandma has a hard time going to church since there's a bunch of rumors going around about her since she cheated on her husband way back when, and the whole ward knows about it.

Mauricio - A 10 year old kid who watched his dad get killed 2 months ago. We play soccer with him in the streets sometimes when we walk by, and he has come to church twice on his own.

Reyes - An older man who has been being taught for a long time, and was about to get baptized until he had to go to the city of Chihuahua since they were trying his son, and he got sentenced to jail for 12 years. Also his wife is going to have surgery soon which he is really concerned about.

Filiberto - A man with one leg who is in a wheelchair who begs outside of a supermarket for a living. He has 3 teeth and a bucket in his one room house for a toilet.

Guadalupe - An older lady who has a hamburger and gordita stand from Thursday to Sundays who always invites us over for free food. We do service for her, and have been teaching her and her grandkids. Also, her little stand could be the setting of a sit com with all sorts of people who always come by (the missionaries, a 98 year old man, young college students, people who have lived and worked in Alaska, a couple of LGBT people, and everyone in between). We have made a lot of contacts there.

Hiram - A man who is bisexual who has had a really rough life since his parents and grandparents are all pastors and all reject him for being the way he is. He has been kicked out of his house and lived on the streets for a couple days. He also says he can sense and see things in the future before they happen.

Reina - A mother who has 3 kids but takes care of 2 more from her sister who didn't want them anymore, plus Mauricio. We play soccer with them in the streets sometimes and show them church movies in the church when they have the chance.

Hermano Daniel - A member who is really faithful who got can't go to the US anymore since he was hanging out and doing things with illegal immigrants and got deported. He and his wife have legal custody of their grandkids as well, who l;ive in El Paso during the week and go to school there, so they speak perfect English. Gave a blessing to his grandson last week in English, which was cool.

Joann - A lady from the Philippines who is living and working in a factory here in Juarez. We met her yesterday at church since a coworker invited her there, and she speaks English better than Spanish, and we are going to start meeting with her after the Sunday services.

Leticia - A lady who grew up in the church but stopped going when her parents got divorced when she was 11. Elder Sanchez contacted her father in law who was pushing a toy stroller filled with street garbage, but it turns out that they're rich. Her kids are really liking the church and all 4 of them accepted a baptismal date for March 14th!

Hno. Jauregi - A long time member who spearheaded the construction of our church building. He gave us an hour and a half lesson on how if we just had the right pH balance in our body we would never get sick, and if we all ate like Adam and Eve we would like for 700 years. Also says that the coronavirus is a hoax to scare people into taking western medicine, and that they could do things like cure cancer by consuming more alkaline substances. 

In other news, we had zone conference again this week. President talked about obedience again (big surprise), since he sent 5 missionaries (including Elder Iturbe) home early last week for something that he found out that they didn't tell him about, making that 20 missionaries he's sent home early in the last 8 months. Our district leader here got sent home too, so now I'm the district leader over us and the 2 companionships of sister missionaries close to us. Also hit 6 months on Thursday, and burned a tie. Had people get up during sacrament meeting yesterday and say that they know that if we keep the commandments we won't get the coronavirus. Also been wearing glasses a lot this week since I think I scratched my eye or something and feels like there's always sand in it, making it a little rough with contacts.

Feeling about the same as I have been for the past month or so emotionally, where it's just been hard to get excited about things. I'm staying in close contact with the mission leaders who can help me with that though, and we're hoping we'll be able to figure something out.

Keep remembering it's not the results of your efforts, but your efforts that really matter! If you do things with the right intentions, that's all that counts.

Love you guys!

-EP