So
there's this thing in Mexico where everyone is super honest... and that's
not a bad thing until you've been in the same area for 6 months and the
members have started to notice your fattening up. And they tell you.
like, "Ohhhh hermanita gordita. Me recuerde cuando llegó y estuvo bien
delgado (oh chubby sister, I remember when you arrived and were so thin)." And I'm just like... k thanks bye. But it's all good, cuz Hermana
Juarez majored in nutrition. So we are GOING ON A DIET. Well... we will
see how it works out. I'm just enjoying my mission OK?!
So we had a very un-miraculous experience this week. We
contacted this Señor named Renato Miguel in the street... absolutely
sure he was ESOGIDISIMO (super chosen). He told us he´d met the Mormons in the states,
and been to church 3 times. So we took down his direction and set up an
appointment.
We went looking for his house on Friday in Los Altos de
Sur...but the direction he gave us was wrong. He told us he lived in
Mansana D Lote 15... but it wasn't him.
We thought we might have heard
him wrong or something. Since he was freaking chosen, and the
colonial is relatively small we decided to go looking for him. After
asking people if they knew a Renato Miguel (nobody did) and looking for Lote 15 in a few of the other Manzanas (rows of houses), we had an idea.
We've heard a bunch of stories about missionaries looking for someone or whatever and they say a super specific prayer, complete with what they say they will do, and end up finding the person. So we were like, cool. We have faith. Let's do it.
Cute Hermanas at the Tuxtla Gutierrez Temple
So we said a prayer promising that we would contact 3 people in the
street and ask if they knew Renato Miguel. If they didn't, we would go
down to the very last street on the block and knock on 3 doors. If we
didn't find any info doing this, we would walk back to where we contacted
him in the first place at the beginning of the colonial.
We started
doing this... and logic got the best of us and we decided this was
probably a stupid idea. We decided to say ANOTHER prayer and change the
promise...that we would go to all the Manzanas in the Col (A-J)...and
knock on the doors of all the Lote 15s looking for him.
So we did this for about two more hours. Finding ANYTHING BUT Señor Renato Miguel. We did find 3 dogs with rabies, a Catholic shack (well I guess it was a church..but it was in a shack so...), a Christian women´s prayer group (which we got invited to join), a basketball court, a creepy store, a Jehovah´s Witness, and some Catholic member missionaries...that although they failed in their attempt to try and convert us...they did give us some delightful information that changed my mission life.
They told us about this lady who has a megaphone thing where she charges 10 pesos and makes announcements that apparently the whole colonial can hear. We didn't really believe them but we said, "What the hey!" and went looking for this said megaphone thingy.
When we finally found the house it was dark, and we were feeling a little sketchy because this is one of the more dangerous colonials. We had never been there at night before. But we knocked on her door. She invited us in. We told her who we were looking for, and who we were. She left to make the announcement.
Just as we were asking her son how it works. We heard a
voice from the heavens.We jumped and as we were looking around wildly
trying to discern who the heck was talking (if it was God or what), we
realized it was the lady making the announcement!
"EL SEÑOR RENATO MIGUEL," she said. "LAS HERMANAS MISIONERAS ESTAN AQUI EN MI CASA ESPERANDOLE." (Mr. Renato Miguel. The sister missionaries are here in my house waiting for you). And she repeated it 10 times.
We were laughing so hard we were crying. It was like the
most random, sketchy thing ever...but the whole colonial could hear it!!!
Welcome to Mexico. It was definitely the most graciosa (funny) experience of my
mission.
We waited for El Señor Renato Miguel.... and he never came.
But, we did end up teaching the megaphone lady's son and his kids the gospel...and invited them to
come to church and be baptized. Also, we contacted 55 people... so it
wasn't all in vain.
Who knows, maybe if we would have followed our first
prayer we would have found him. Or maybe Renato Miguel was drunk or
just having some fun messing with the Mormon missionaries. And God is probably
laughing at us right now. But whatever, it was a very un-miraculous,
super graciosa (funny) experience that I will never forget.
Love you all!!
Hermana Hansen
