This week had some memorable things happen. 

We teach this blind guy. We've taught him probably 3 times now and he asked us, the last time we went, if we were the same 2 guys. We said yeah and afterwards we told him our names again. He said he could kind of recognize us by our voices. We asked him what we sounded like and he said that my voice sounded kind of "Macho" and Elder Fenn’s voice was more kind of "malambot" hahaha meaning soft or kinda feminine or gay. He said that the one of us is "Macho macho" ~"manly manly" and the other one is "macho lang" ~ "macho only" hahaha it was just really funny especially since Elder Fenn started silently asking me if his voice was soft in front of this blind guy. Brother M has a ton of great questions and potential besides the fact that he’s gonna have a hard time getting to church. We’ll probably come get him the first couple of times.

Second thing what happened is that ALMA GOT BAPTIZED!!! For all of you who don’t know, or don’t remember, Alma is the girlfriend of a member in Agoo Branch 3 that I taught when I was serving here over a year and a half ago. She finally finished college and, forever, she’s been saying she would be baptized after she graduated. I don’t know why she waited but hey, at least she stayed true to that goal. It was super fun to go to the baptism and see old members. It has been a real Tender Mercy that I was able to come back to my first zone. If not in the exact area, I still see people I know from my first area on the weekly. 

One of those pics is a bunch of kids eating mangoes. It is officially mango season here in La Union. Before we taught the Santa Cruz Family we went out to the field behind their house and picked probably 40-50 mangoes. They’re green on the outside and kinda hard still but they’re still really good. I just think its funny how much skins there are on the table and poor Tintin had to skin all of them for all the little kids. After she was done though I was shocked to see a 9 year old with a big ol kitchen knife skinning a mango… I guess that’s just how it is here. 

The last thing I wanna share is about a girl who I originally met on a bus. We were coming from Agoo to Demortis and I sat next to Elder Fenn. About halfway through the 2o minute ride I felt I should talk to this girl in the seat behind and across the aisle from me. I kinda pushed the thought away but it came back again and again. I finally grabbed a Plan of Salvation pamphlet with our name and number on the back and gave it to her with a brief explanation. She said thank you and was honestly probably just a little weirded out that I'd waited so long and then kinda suddenly just gave her a little book with a picture of Jesus on it. After we got off the bus I waved at her in the window and went on my way. About an hour later, to our surprise, she texted! She asked if this was the right number and just kinda small talked for a while. Elder Fenn said I should just tell her if she has any questions to text and to leave it at that, not to text-mate her haha. I agreed but then our conversation got really focused on the message. What is our belief about Jesus Christ? How is He a god if there’s only 1 God? We answered her questions simply and clearly using scriptures and short testimonies and she said "I want to try your church, I'm INC (Iglecia Ni Cristo)" She said she would come to church and that the sisters could come teach her over where she lived. It was a real testimony builder about finding and promptings from the spirit. I'm just glad that I listened to the Spirit and extended the pamphlet to her so that she could have a seed of Faith and curiosity planted in her mind and heart. I will try to keep up about her progression to see if anything really comes out of following that simple prompting. 

Hopefully we'll all try to be sensitive to the promptings of the spirit and worthy to be used as His hand in the lives of those around us. It'd be a shame if someone has been prepared to hear the gospel, but they miss that opportunity because for whatever reason, we fail to act. 

Elder Hennessey