The Gringo in Guatemala : Cow Foot Stew and Flooding

Well last week was very tough. I forgot to bring my journal so I'm not going to have a daily update of what we did each day, just more of an overall update. So in the last email I talked about the less actives who the dad was passed out drunk in the mud... Well we went and visited them Tuesday I believe.. and it was extremely sad. I had no idea what to do. The wife and the two kids were there and the dad was still a little tipsy.... The wife was telling us about what the dad does when he gets drunk and how they have absolutely no money for food, the dad was mad and he destroyed part of their house... which meant that every time it rains water comes in.

If there is one thing I can't really handle in this life is when people are abusive to children, so this was extremely difficult for me to handle. I had no idea what to say to them all I could do was sit and listen to the parents fight and they both kept trying to bring the boy into it to defend their side. We ended up just leaving with a prayer and telling them that the stake president is there to help them. Elder Carlson and I have gone back one time since, it was on Friday, and the Dad was still drunk. This time wasn't as hard, but we are trying to work with them and get them back on the path.

On Friday we also had most of our visits fall, so we went and visited a different less active family. It was a whole different story than the other one. The Dad who isn't a member said that the night before he had been contemplating calling us, but he ended up not doing it. He told us that he had had just this pain in his heart and didn't know what to do. Not a physical pain but a spiritual pain. He thought about reading the book of mormon but ended up not doing it. He also told us about a dream he had had a year ago about two missionaries coming to his house in his time of need. Which was awesome! It's a reminder that God is preparing his children to come back into His fold. We ended up giving the Dad a blessing and sharing a message about the Book of Mormon. We will see where things go from here, but I really want to see him and his family happy and I hope that they will find that happiness through the gospel, whether its Elder Carlson and I or some different Elders. They just need the blessings that come with being obedient to the commandments of God.

Saturday.... Saturday was just a great day haha. So we got at the stake center to play basketball at 6 AM and we started playing. Afterwards at about 7:05 we were getting ready to leave when we noticed that there was water all over one side of the church. Elder Bryan the zone leader had forgotten that he turned on the Baptismal font and therefore, we flooded half of the church, and I ended up having to go into the freezing cold Baptismal font and pull the plug.. Which I wasn't going to do in my clothes and walk home wet... so you can imagine what happened. I like to think of that as my first Baptism (Insert smiley face)but after I pulled the plug and spent almost 3 hours getting water out, we got home around 10.. Haha. What a good day. We also ate some stew called Pata. Which is very similar to Pato which is duck, but nope PatA is cow foot stew... It was horrific. Worst thing I think I have ever eaten.

My testimony has been strengthened this last week about the little things. The little things we do in life make a huge difference. No matter what it is, from sports to the gospel. The little things in the end change the outcome. Keep that in mind.

I want to share a quote and it is also the challenge for the week, but this is what is helping me handle the Family who is having the problems.

¨We must Develop the capacity to see men not as they are at present, but as they may become¨

Love you all! Hope all is well and I hope you are all enjoying nice American junk food!

Elder McLain