Email 2/20/17

Hola! 

First of all we had another baptism. My companion baptized one of the girls in a family that we have been teaching. I baptized another person from the same family. They are progressing very well. but some of the little kids are really hard to deal with. Like they never really pay attention to the lessons and it’s just really hard. But I’m so stoked for them. It’s only the kids in this family too, the parents never sit in the lessons with us. 

We have another family that we are also teaching, a kid named Miguel who is 9 and then his mom, grandma, and great grandma. They are all super interested in the Gospel. They ask really good questions and really want to know if it’s the truth which is soo awesome!

I almost got bit by two dogs this week. Hahahaha I was on my bike for one of them and the other one was actually at a member’s house.  We built a super shabby dog house out of pallets for him.  I was letting the dog sniff my hand and I could tell she wasn’t really liking it. Then she snapped at me, I could already tell she was going to so I moved my hand. Later I pet her and she was cool.

We have been teaching an English class every Wednesday and Saturday and that’s really fun. Some days we have like 20 people show up, other times we have only 5.

So last night we had a crazy random thunder storm come through. It was fine one moment and then after a lesson at an investigator’s house where we had dinner, we started to go over to another investigator’s house.  It was just starting to rain and there was crazy lightening with huge drops! I took a video of it! I will try and send it later. We got to the other house and then it started pouring! it was nuts! There was so much lightning and thunder and wind. We couldn’t go inside the house because they have something like 15 dogs and one that always stays on the porch.  This dog is a straight up savage and if you try to go up the stairs where they live he tries to kill you, literally! So we are standing out in the rain under this tiny overhang, but we are still getting soaked. We decided we should try and just book it home. We grabbed our bikes then and walked out to the street but it was starting to flood so we thought it was a bad idea to try and ride home with lightning and flooded streets. We tried to call a member to pick us up but no one could. So we just decided we had to go on bikes but by that time it was like 20 min later and the storm hadn’t really let up.  We had to leave so we prayed and started off.  We didn’t get more than maybe 15 feet from their gate and my companion’s chain fell off his bike. The streets were so flooded it was up to our knees but we had to put the chain back on. We kept going and as we crossed intersections the water was starting to cover our thighs while we are riding. That’s a good three and a half feet of water. We were with the other missionaries that live in our house and one of their bikes got a ton of crap caught in the chain so we had to stop again and try and clear it out.  We finally got his bike where he was able to somewhat ride. We are riding for a while, but only about half way home when Elder Kirkman, who was in front, suddenly just falls over!  I’m like... what the heck? Then I see this downed power line and I’m just freaking out! I thought I just watched my friend die right in front of me. But then he gets right back up Hahahaha. Turns out it wasn’t a power line, I think it was for the cable company, but that was so sketchy!  We finally got home and we smell like poopy water because the water in the street was so gross! We want to shower right away but we didn’t have water for some odd reason. Elder Kirkman and I start rinsing off our clothes in the rain water that was pouring from the rain gutter and we showered in that too. After we finished somewhat showering, we went inside and there was just enough water for us to rinse off again. It was so insane! and so awesome! I was a tiny bit scared but I know the Lord was with us while we were coming home last night. But still, showering from the rain gutter and all this was just crazy. I just kept thinking wow, this is the mission and it is so freaking awesome! 
I haven’t gotten the packages you guys sent yet but we are supposed to go to Monterrey on Wednesday! Elder Nelson is coming to talk to us!!!! so I think I might get the package there. 

Love you all!

Elder Wilcox