Dear Family,Not a lot really happened here this week. Just a full week of work. It does feel like I just emailed yesterday though. The week went by so fast. That’s what happens when you stay busy.
Monday my companion got Dear Johned. At first, you know, I said, “oh I’m sorry” but then he replied in an angry Spanish accent, ¨THATS THE 3RD TIME!¨ So then I just erupted into laughter. I asked him if it was the same girl who dear johned him 3 times or if it was the 3rd girl. He said both. I guess my companion has a lot of women waiting at home in Chile for him and they all keep sending him emails saying they are dating someone else. But once they break up with their ‘other boyfriends,’ they start writing my companion again. I laughed for the rest of the walk home.
Tuesday night we ate at an investigator´s home. Afterwards my companion said he felt pretty sick. We had a district meeting the next morning and he endured through that. But after that, he spent the rest of the day in the bathroom puking and using the toilet. We went out that night but had to hurry home because he went to the bathroom in his pants. As he lay in the bed above me he said, “My girlfriend crapped on me, I crapped on me, Elder McRae, are you going to crap on me too?” After that, I laughed for 10 minutes, then I told him ‘no’. But the president called about 5 minutes later and said he needed him in Guayaquil. The president crapped on him too.
I had to go with him to Guayaquil to drop him off and then I returned with the two other elders who live with us. My companion is staying in Guayaquil for a few days so I am here in Naranjito in a trio.
My favorite experience this week was Wednesday. We were teaching a man who has done some pretty bad things in his past. He has a family now, but doesn’t have a job. He is going to be baptized this Saturday but on Wednesday he was telling us sometimes he doesn’t want to read the Book of Mormon or do anything because he is depressed. He looks at his past life, his family he can’t provide for right now, the job he doesn’t have (and a few other things) and it causes him to be depressed and to doubt whether or not this church is true. My companion told him always read the Book of Mormon because it will give you strength. I then piped up. I said, ¨I cannot relate to a lot of the things you are going through. I am just a white boy from the United States who never had to work a day in my life, who always had a family there for me, and never have had a worry or ever doubted that this church was true. But, since I started my mission, and my family was gone, and I had to work every day, and no one can understand me because I don’t speak Spanish, all of the sudden for the first time in my 19 years of life I began to question and wonder. What am I doing here? Is this church really true? What would happen if I die? Will the lights just go out? Is there really a heaven, a Jesus Christ, or God? For the first time in my life these feelings entered into my mind in the MTC. And there was only one thing that gave me strength… only one thing that was always there to confirm my testimony that this church is true… my English Book of Mormon. I read it non stop in the MTC because when I read it, I have no doubt that this church is true. The Book of Mormon will do the same for you. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that the Church of Jesus Christ is absolutely true.¨
That was a very emotional night for Marcos, but I was glad that for the first time, I could relate to someone here. It’s hard to relate to them when I’ve never lived like them. But now I have. And I am thankful for it. For the tiny house, the poor conditions, the freezing water, & the bad water. Oh and the power goes out all the time. I am thankful for these things because I can relate to these people and help them come unto the fold.
Love you all,
Elder McRae
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