La Cucaracha

Hola!

Well I almost made it a year in my mission without finding a cockroach in my piso.....my streak of luck ended this week! After planning Wednesday, Elder Greep went into the kitchen to eat some dinner before bed. Immediately as he walked in, he started screaming for us all to come to the kitchen. I immediately came running over to the kitchen took one glance in, did a 180, and went right back out of the kitchen. Because....on the cupboard doors under our sink was the largest cockroach that I have ever seen. And I have seen some pretty large cockroaches on the side of the road. Elder Greep ending up killing it as it came charging at him (yes he claims the cockroach charged him). Unfortunately we did not take any pictures. We were being too big of sissies and disposed of the body immediately by way of the toilet. We convinced ourselves that we were okay. That a cockroach that big could only have come from outside. And that if we had a problem/investation there would be smaller cockroaches. Well two days later I turned the light on in one of the bathrooms and there lying on the floor, acting dead, was another cockroach! And this one was smaller! The good news is that it was still huge. Pictures of the second one (post death) are included. We told a member about them and she told us that those types of cockroaches live in the streets and come in through windows and doors. Thus I believe we are safe. We are yet to see any baby cockroaches so I don´t think we have an infestation. And we have been extra careful about the windows and so no more (that we know of) have come inside. On the bright side everyone finally agrees with me that we need to keep our kitchen cleaner!

We had a great week. Our investigators are progressing so well!

On Saturday we finally had our first visit with Yessi after she cancelled her baptism the previous week. She is still progressing amazingly! Unfortunately because we were really rushed to catch our bus, we did not have time to teach a good lesson. As we were hurrying to leave, I felt impressed that we should stay and not worry about catching the bus. Thus we stayed. We ended up clearing up several small questions about the Word of Wisdom and piercings. When we finally left, we decided to try taking the train, since we had missed the bus. We arrived at the train station five minutes after the departure time, but the train arrived 10 minutes late. Thus we caught the train and made it to our next visita with time to spare. And the next day at church, Yessi no longer had her tongue piercing!

Natalie´s father, Manual, finally came to church yesterday. We have been trying endlessly to get him to come. Everytime he gives a flojo (flimsy) response of maybe and never comes. We decided to stop directly asking him and wasting time on trying to persuade him through words. This week we focused hard on following the Spirit in our visits. On Saturday we finally mentioned church again to verify that Natalie was coming. She of course said, "Yo, sí!" Then we turned to Manual to extend the invitation and he said, "Yes. We have already made the plans." And he came! (Natalie did too of course!)

Gerard, one of our recent converts, has had quite the miracle story! He really wants to serve a mission. However, unfortunately, the university only allows students one year off of classes. A mission is two years. Gerard has been trying to get permission to take two years off for a mission. However, everytime he tries, he gets pushed from office to office and is treated quite poorly. Finally Gerard decided to pray to Heavenly Father, telling Him of his desires to serve and how he needed help getting permission. That same day Gerard tried again. This time the receptionists treated him nicely, helping him out the best they could. By the end of the day, Gerard had permission from the president of the university to take two years off of classes at the end of the next school year. Next summer Gerard will be serving a mission!

If you take time to actually listen during your prayers....it´s amazingly miraculous the inspiration and revelation you receive...and how clear the answers are. Just something I have learned on my mission.

Love,
Elder Buchkovich