October 3, 2011

This week included lots of running around and laughing and eating delicious food; three good things. Elder Borgersen had ended up to be another awesome companion. I have had lots of good luck up to this point. He has a little bit of a hick accent and keeps me laughing all the time by saying weird sayings that don't exist anywhere else except in Oklahoma like, "its all gravy" and "that's dirtier than pond water" and "You are tougher than a leather boot with the heel kicked off". I can't really tell, but I think I am gradually adapting a little bit of hick accent day by day.

We have been super busy running from one side of our area to the other several times a day and teaching lessons. It's always good to be busy, but when we get back at night, we are so beat that we plan and then go straight to bed. This week we got permission to start entering into Villa Paris (the area where we got chased by a guy with a gun) again. We were a little nervous at first, but we started finding a lot of people in the area, and everything looked pretty tranquil. This Thursday we a Noche de Hogar with a menos activo family in Villa Paris. As we left the house at about 9 pm, I told Elder Borgersen that we were in a pretty sketchy area and needed to walk the five blocks to the bus stop pretty fast. At this point we were both pretty on edge and a little bit scared. We started walking at a pretty brisk pace when Elder Borgersen said, "Walk a little faster, someone is following us." I looked behind us and sure enough, I saw a guy following a little too close for my liking. We started walking faster and so did the guy. I was just thinking, "Oh jeez, not again." when I heard the guy behind us start running our way. We started to sprint as fast as we could towads the bus stop. Along the way, we saw another group of pibes (gangsters, punks) and they too started to run after us and shout. I was just thinking "Oh great, now there are two different groups of people trying to rob us." We kept on running till we got to the bus stop on a lit street. (The pibes don't really follow people into the more high traffic areas.) It was only then that we realized that the first man who had started following us was only running to catch an oncoming bus. We looked back and he was about a 40 year old man with a briefcase. We felt pretty stupid for running and I said to Elder Borgerson, "Well, at least we escaped the other group of pibes who were trying to rob us." He looked up and said, "You mean that group of pibes who is coming towards us right now?" My stomach dropped a little bit and I saw the big group of pibes who had chased us just a few minutes earlier walking down the street towards us. We were about ready to start running again when one of the pibes shouted, "Hey Elders! Elders! Why are you running?" I looked up and realized in relief and a little bit of embarrassment that the other group of pibes who had chased us were young men from the ward. They had seen us running, assumed we were being chased, and ran after us in an attempt to help us out. They asked us who had been chasing us so they could go beat the guy up and we told them a little sheepeshly that it ended up that no one was chasing us. They laughed and made fun of us for a second and then bid us good night. Elder Borgersen and I still feel a little stupid for running, but I think it is better to run from someone than have the chance of getting mugged. We laughed the whole bus ride home.

It ended up that we were able to watch all the sessions of conference except the Preisthood session. The Mission President decided that all the missionaries needed to see all the general sessions and no one complained. Conference is only broadcast at the stake centers here, so all the Elders from our stake got to have a little reunion and it was quickly evident that conference weekend is a holiday weekend for missionaries. It only got better when the Stake President told us that he had set up a different room where all the American Elders could watch the sessions in English. It was as close as I have been to a party in almost 8 months. It was great to rest and listen to all the conference and be with people from my own country.

I loved to hear all of the messages, but my favorite talk by far was that of President Uchtdorf. I loved the stat that he told that there are 10 times more stars in the night sky than every single grain of sand in the worlds beaches and deserts combined. God has an infinite number of creations, but knows and loves every single one of them. As we all know, the value of every soul is great in the eyes of God. This, for our mortal minds, is a paradox. The devil tries to use this paradox by making us think that we are either worthless or more special than others. But President Uchtdorf ensures us that we each have a divine plan and divine potential. I took this as being especially applicable in the mission field. One needs to try to maintain the perspective that every person is oh so valuable at all times. But at the same time, we must avoid pride at all costs. Pride causes us to value the things of this world. "All the combined currency in the world could not buy one loaf of bread in the economy of heaven."