Killer Bees, Cow Tongue and Outhouses... oh my!

Well as the subject of this email implies, this week was quite the adventure. but first i´m gonna talk a little bit about how the work is going here in Lourdes. As far as investigators goes this week was a little rough, everyone decided that they weren't going to church. we heard all kinds of excuses, some good some not so good, but in the end nobody came. frustrating. But the good news is that we had three members that came to church that hadn´t been for 4, 15, and 12 years. the first one was this guy named R., he was baptized four years ago but has never come back since. we visited him with the ward mission leader and he decided to come to sacrament meeting. I don´t really know him super well yet, he lives out in the boonies, and can only meet with us on Saturday. But is was good that he came back, we will keep working with him as much as we can. The second person to come back to church was Hermana V. she is the wife of this guy that we always leave with to go visit but because of some personal problems she hasn´t come back to church when he did almost two years ago. But this week she finally came, it was only for sacrament meeting but it was a good start. She really liked it and she said it felt super familiar and friendly. she has been to around three churches while she was inactive, but said that it has never felt the same. Hermano V. was super happy to have her in church. Also Hermano T. came, the guy that I told you guys about last week. He came and stayed for the whole three hours. It was a huge first step, and we started teaching his son who isn´t a member. He can actually speak English really well so sometimes we explain things to him in English. He felt good in church and connected with some of the members that he knew twenty years ago. I think it was a little awkward for him, and it took a lot of humility but he took the big first step. 

Okay onto the killer bees, cow tongue and outhouse pit...

    Our area is basically divided into two parts, Campos Verdes, and Lourdes. In between these two places is the pan-american highway and a bridge that you have to cross to get to Campos V. the bridge is about sixty feet tall over a small river. it is also infested with a huge killer bee nest. they haven´t been able to exterminate it because the bridge is so tall, but people have told me it is several feet in diameter. anyway so on both sides of this bridge there is just this little swarm of killer bees. Last Monday we were coming back from playing soccer, wearing shorts and jerseys. unaware that there were killer bees near we just casually walked through as we were about twenty five feet past the bridge I felt this sting in my calf, and I look down to see this bee stinging me. I swat it off not thinking anything of it. but it doesn´t stop hurting. my whole calf swells up and I have a three inch bruise, red spot from the sting.Yesterday is when My leg finally got back to normal, they also stung my companion in the Achilles tendon. Through his sock! it has basically started an all out war with the killer bees. there was a big group around this piece of fruit that someone had dropped, and I stomped on it, probably killing like 10 of them but then I had to run like crazy because they pursued me for about 100 yards. I think its time for a little more serious bee killing equipment. I took a picture of the bee sting but it doesn´t quite capture it. I will send it soon. 

     We talked to our cocinera about strange food, and she is all over making it for us. This week was cow tongue, when i first saw the raw tongue I had my doubts, especially with the taste buds on that thing, but after trying it I was sold. one of the best weird foods I have ever tried. super tender and great flavor. the only complaint would be the amount of grease on the thing but that is easily pulled off. With some fresh avocados, tortillas and tomatoes it was a delicious lunch and something I would eat again for sure. My companion tells me that Los Betos carries a tongue taco. it anyone has interest I highly recommend it! I took a couple pictures of the raw tongue and the plate and I will send it after I finish the email. 

     Two of the mornings this week we got to go help this poor investiagor family dig an outhouse pit. they are neighbors of the ward mission leader and hopefully we will start teaching them today. ground is great for digging. no rocks and mostly clay that can be easily broken up with a dig bar. A far cry from summer days spent struggling through a rock quarry trying to dig a sprinkler head. we got the hole about three meters deep at the end. we had to bucket the dirt out. it was actually super fun. I miss some good ole manual labor sometimes. getting out was a little tricky but with a rope and some foot holds it is possible. it really isn´t that wide so we could scramble out. It felt good to help them. I think they are going through a rough time right now. 

     Anyway that's most of what happened this week. Lots of stuff going on and we are staying busy. But I guess that's how it should be. Getting ready for mango and avocado season again its so close! but that also means its going to start getting hot. I guess you can´t have everything. Well Love you all and can´t wait to hear from you. talk to you next week!