When I first got my mission call and saw, "Texas Dallas", I was for sure excited to serve, but thought to myself, "Well, here goes my exploration of foreign countries..." but it seems like every day I think to myself, "Toto...I don't think we're in Los Angeles anymore...."
Like this past week as we are continually pushed by President Austin and President Durrant to find and teach the Hispanics out here in what covers the South District. Sometimes it just feels like a wild goose chase as we'll get a couple references to what may be a possible area or location that has some hispanics. The norm for hispanics is to live together or in big groups and don't like tending to themselves like all the white people in the boonies do. They need a party close by, so they're normally together, but not out here in Upshur county that for shur haha, but they're super desparecidos or spread out...so whatever has the fruits of a Hispanic home or neighborhood (bright neon painted trailers/houses, soccer balls everywhere, Imagenes or Catholic figurines, Christmas lights when it aint Christmas, Shrines for la Santisima Maria, old beat-up trucks/suv's with the lights all pimped out, sun/moon/star figures on the trailer, ect...)
(by the way as I'm typing this...in the local library, a dude just walked by with spurs and the whole 9 yards...50 bucks says he's got a gun on him...)
So as we knocked one of these houses, we got to meet a super nice, but white and not interested lady. After she told us she didn't want to listen to us, we asked her if she knew of any hispanics that lived close by, and then she started off with the East Texas directions....gotta love em. She told us to go right down the next FM road (Farm to Market) and take a left, followed by turning onto the first ...oil top...then about 5 more rights and 3 lefts involving I don't know how many oil tops with about 4 brick houses involved and the red one being the one we're looking for. I had gotten what I thought was enough of these types of directions and felt like we were cultured enough to know how to get to the red brick house with the Mexicans. Having never heard the term "oil top" and after using our deductive logic, we figured that an "oil top" must have been a small oil tank or one where you can just see the top of it, so we drove down FM 1795 in search for the Mexicans we were determined to baptize!
.....7 miles down the road and well off into another county, we decided that we had somehow missed it along the way and decided to backtrack and retrace our steps. We felt that while we were heading back that we should call someone to make sure that our "Texan" is up to speed and that we understood exactly what the lady was trying to say, and as we talked to good old Brandon Dodd, we found out that an oil top is just a road without a line through the middle, so basically any country road or the small ones that run all throughout East Texas. I wish my call woulda told me I was going to serve in four languages (that's including the Ebonics that's required all over the South). So with our tails between our legs, we went back to the point we started at to find that the first oil top a couple hundred yards from the lady's house. Yup...I may have been here in Texas forever but the languages and the land are still foreign to me.
It woulda turned into an awesome story if it didn't end up with 5 brick houses at the end of the road, all of them being red and looking exactly like the lady explained them. Everyone we talked to out there had no idea where any hispanics could have lived close by...they were so confused that they probably didn't even know what a hispanic was, but I guess it's one of the beauties of the East Texas characteristics.
We did end up driving over 100 miles almost every day for the past few days and have found a few hispanic families that we're excited to work with and hopefully catch some more momentum with them. They all work crazy hours on Farms and Dairy Mills out here so it's going to be tough to get them to church, but with God all things are possible!
It is pretty neat though how every hispanic family we meet looks like we're straight in the heart of San Luis Porto Si or El Salvador or the country parts of Guatemala! For example, one lady we met was surrounded by about 10-15 mexican kids, the oldest probably at 8. Luckily only about half of them were buck naked, and as we talked with the Hermana they would just keep running back and forth trying to hit each other with balloon animals. The ones that weren't completely naked had at least a shirt on, and as we saw them running, one of the kids just stopped in the middle of the tracks they were making as the other ones just kept running. He squatted down to lay quite the treat, and then stood up, wiped his behind with his tall tee (that he was still wearing), and then just ran on to get back in the game. It was amazing how, even though everyone saw it, nobody stopped to point it out or even commented on it. The best part is that it was right where all the kids were running and they somehow missed it every time. There was no effort made to avoid it, but they somehow missed it every time. So, if you have more than four families living in a house, restrooms will be busy and are sure to raise the water bill, so for your economical information, dirt yards are a good alternative.
Feelin like a foreign country??? Fo sho.
Life is still great, Lawerence Tefteller is back from the oil fields so I'm looking forward to the greatest briscut ever...again! We also got lost this last week as the GPS took us down this road that I have no idea how it's even known to Garmin. It was a road that looked like it's been driven only a handful of times by trucks and tractors and was a miracle as our Ford Fusion AKA the Hovercraft or Master & Commander made it up this trail. We did have to stop eventually as the trail came to a huge chasm (the GPS still wanted us to go...I don't think it likes us....), but we passed a cow bone-yard that's pretty much the same deal as the bone-yard where the Hyenas find Simba in Lion King, and it led to a moonshining shack with another trail that led to some hunting meadow and one of the only hills in all of Texas. Golden Find? I think so!
Miss yall and hope that you're enjoying life just as much as I am!
Les quiero mucho!
Elder Wilson
P.S. Dear Natles....Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy....Happy Happy Birthday From All Of Us To YOU! We wish it was our Birthday so we could party too!!! HEY!!!! So I know you probably think you're all old and can drive and date and stuff, but there's a rule written in stone and in heaven that says that you're not allowed to date until your older brother is around to scare off the boys and keep you locked up in your room away from trouble. I hope I'm making myself very clear....send me a note back to confirm that you've got my warning...
P.P.S. So Mom...what are your thoughts of me extending my mission to 25 1/2 months??? Let me know ASAP
No comments:
Post a Comment