SPENCER W KIMBALL SCHOOL

Two brothers and a sister

One afternoon we joined two Latino missionaries to work with them.  Elder Castillo and elder Castro.   Their area is is small beautiful city nestled in the mountains.   We started walking down a street then turned up a cobble stone road that was very steep.   It didn't take us to long before Kathy and I were really sucking air!   And, even though the words "cobble stone road" has a bit of romance about it, what it really is, is a pain in the foot.  Really hard to walk on.  After about 30 minutes, we arrived at the little house.  10 minutes later Kathy and Gary could finally talk. We taught the gospel of Jesus Christ to a young boy of about 12.   His brother and sister that are close to his age were with us.  They were baptized about a month ago.  They sat on the bed and we sat on plastic stools. It is hard to describe the wonderful spirit that these young people radiated.  They all new a lot about the gospel and scripture stories.  We were given a chance to say a few words that we kind of understood.  The missionaries always follow with an explanation of what we said.  Then, like all houses we visit, they fed us a drink and some chips.  Even though they are literally dirt poor, these great people will always feed you something.  The boys name is minor, and he has agreed to be baptized next week.  They have a mom and a little brother and a really cute German shepherd dog.  The dad is not there, he is an alcoholic, like many families, leaving the mom to fend for themselves.  When we left, they give us a few eggs from there chickens.   Going back on the cobblestone road was just as painful.  But, what a wonderful afternoon.  Here is the family:

Baptizing the dad

We have a missionary that just joined us.  Before his mission, his parents separated because his dad was an alcoholic.  His twin brother and him were called on missions to Guatemala but in different places.  It turns out that his dad lives in a city in our mission.  This missionary arrived and was assigned to a neighboring city to where his dad lived.  After his first change, he was assigned to the same city where his dad lived.  The missionary's goal before coming on a mission was to baptized his dad.  Well, he got the dad off the booze and baptized him.  We thought this was a great story.

Spencer W. Kimball school

There is a school here named Spencer W. kimball, and it has nothing to do with Mormons.   Go figure?  Well, missionaries went to the school and talked to the head man about the book Book of Mormon.   He was very interested to have his students read the book for educational purposes.  He wanted each student to have a book.  The missionaries handed out 400 books!  We have many contacts already.

Why we don't speak Spanish really well

(we might have mentioned this before)

Kathy mentioned some time ago why it was important that we didn't speak fluent Spanish.  If we did, we may be a bit over bearing and not humble.  As it is, we could not be much more humble.  As a result, the spirit carries our testimony to the people.  Every time we have struggled through a testimony, it has been received very well.

Here we are eating Grandma Nettie's recipe, called shells.  Nettie is Gary's mom and "shells" are a family favorite.