This past week has been a pretty crazy week. I've been super busy and it's surprising how fast the time has gone. Tucumcari reminds me tons of Cheyenne, just because it has that western feel to it, but it also has those frequently seen abandoned houses. The people here are nice for the most part, a little rough around the edges. I love them so much, and I'm going to miss them when it's time for me to go to Madagascar.
We had district counsel last Tuesday, and me and Elder Ward kind of dread district counsel because we are going into a different time zone which means we skip ahead an hour, and then when it's time to come back from Amarillo to Tucumcari, it actually takes two hours instead of one hour to come back. When we come back, we are usually pretty exhausted, but it's always fun to see the scenery of New Mexico.
Me and Elder Ward do service at a place called the ministry of hope. It's like a charity place where they box food and ship clothes places, but it's one of those beat up places that smells kind of funny. Me and Elder Ward went to the ministry of hope for service last Thursday and our job was to box sodas. Well, I have to tell you, I was actually a little bit surprised to see how many of those sodas had exploded in their boxes due to how long they had been sitting there on those crates. For those of you who do not know why they exploded, they exploded because the grain ingredients in the soda had become fermented, and as a result increased the internal pressure of the can and eventually led to explosion. So anyways, I was working and when I got to the bottom of the crate, the smell of fermented Dr pepper and mountain dew came to my nostrils, and I have never smelt anything worse in my entire life. The soda had actually become to a degree like alcohol due to fermentation. It was super gross, it smelled like rotted vinegar, there were flying gnats everywhere, and it was just fun! Welcome to missionary service.
When I was emptying out the vodka of the crate, I saw a tarantula hawk wasp, which is about an inch in length. It was gnarly looking. It is named the tarantula hawk wasp because it actually preys on tarantulas. The stinger of that thing is huge. It's wings were orange and it scared me a little bit, but it flew away and then i was ok. There is a picture of one in the pictures I sent in this email. I didn't take the picture, it was downloaded.
So last Wednesday we were walking next to an apartment while we were tracting. Me and Elder Ward were having a great time taking to each other. Then we heard someone say from inside their apartment "Hey, look. It's the Mormons."
Then, Elder Ward got a little scared and just said keep walking. We kept walking and not even 5 seconds later, a man without a shirt about as drunk as a pirate came hobbling out of his home to greet us. We talked with him for about 2 minutes, and then he said "You wanna meet my homeless friend?"
We were a little scared.
We go inside, and there is literally a blind homeless man sitting on this guy's couch. We shook his hand, we planned to get him some clothes, and then we left.
We returned Friday, and Pablo (the first guy we met) came outside and thanked us for the clothes. We started teaching him a little bit, but then out of nowhere he started slamming us with Anti-Latter day saint material and doctrine. It shook me and Elder Ward a little bit, and we decided to leave, partially because we had another lesson to go to, and we saw Bowie Knives just laying around his yard, and we saw him starting over to grab one, so we had to run. No more Pablo.
Other than that, we had a lot of success with teaching people on the street about the restoration and helping out with service projects that they were carrying out.
On Thursday nights, the elders quorum holds a basketball night. It's a lot of fun. Before me and Elder Ward went to basketball last week, I hit my head on my way in to the truck. I stepped wrong and my head met the top of the truck. I saw stars for a little while, and I had a headache a little while after that, but it felt better later. When we got to basketball, we warmed up with a round of knockout and then we started a game of 2 on 3. Brother Manuele, who was on the other team, was intending to throw the basketball to his teammate at high speed, but instead of going to his teammate it made a perfect hit to the same spot I had hit my head earlier in the truck. It was actually pretty funny, I was rolling around the gym floor and I did a couple of somersaults into the wall.
One of our investigators got super sick this last week. We came and gave him a blessing. It helped him out a little bit, it seemed. But, what made him sick was just a little bit sad.
One of our investigators got super sick this last week. We came and gave him a blessing. It helped him out a little bit, it seemed. But, what made him sick was just a little bit sad.
He works for a fax line company. He had to go find someone's line, and he did, but the door to that room was locked and he didn't know where the key to that room was. So, he got a key from the fire chief, and when he opened the door he saw green water with dead rats floating in it, and a fume of death escaped with a swarm of flies. It made him sick immediately, and he could not work with the fax line anyways, because the lines were underwater from the flash flood rain had caused about a couple months previous.
Poor guy, I hope he gets better.
I didn't really see any crazy animals this week, but last night I saw a huge black widow, which I will include in the pictures.
I was standing outside with my companion Thursday night. We were looking at our mileage log. As we were discussing something about it, I looked up and saw probably one of the most amazing and awe-inspiring scenes in my entire life: Numberless concourses of twinkling stars, with the Milky Way in the midst of them. I could see our home Galaxy in its full form and glory, which was excellent. We are truly blessed with a front-row seat of Heavenly Father's creations. In this particular night, I saw the constellation of Sagittarius. It was one of the first times I got to see it without any light pollution, and to see it in the backdrop of our cosmic backyard was a chilling experience. I felt so small physically in the midst of it all, but at the same time I felt like I was important, because Heavenly Father and Jesus created that all not only for us, but for our Brothers and Sisters that live on different worlds. I am so grateful for the perfect system in which god had created for us and for his purposes, which we can fully enjoy and research.
We still have a baptismal date set for the 29th of this month. I'm super excited to be a part of the work here in Tucumcari.
I haven't received my visa yet, but I'm still praying for it to come soon. I really appreciate all of your prayers in that aspect.
Here are a few pictures from this past week. There was a magnificent rainbow that I took a few pictures of. It reminded me of the scripture Genesis 9:13-16. It's a great scripture about the promise the Lord made to the earth that he would never flood it again with water.
Also I got lucky and took a video of lightning and screenshotted it (only reason I'm not sending the video is because I sound like an idiot)
I hope y'alls week went well, I'd love to hear from y'all, but I understand a lot of you are at work or at school, so that's ok.
Love you all lots!
~Elder Johnson~
P.S Vega is the name of a star, so that's why I took that one
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