Welcome to THE CRAZIEST WEEK OF THE YEAR in Coita!
Starting Sunday morning (with an impressively enthused pre-party Saturday night) the week of "Carnaval" started, a Catholic tradition that apparently is at its craziest here in Coita, and for that reason everyone comes from Tuxtla and all parts roundabout the land to throw flour and wear wooden masks, really cool colored costumes and hundreds of bells on their legs and march around town in groups with wooden soundmakers cackling like this: "WOOOhooohoohoo!" Like is this a dream? Because our calm proselyting mission life has turned into a virtual game of PacMan as we walk up a street, see a group of matching, colorful cackling Death-Eaters marching our way, turn and walk half a block only to see another ahead, turn again and there's one over on the right, etc. And apparently it's going to go for four more days. If there's one thing about Catholics over here, they can PARTY! I used to think partying was what we did when we played UNO til four a.m. or went for tacos at midnight [in Mexico, from Texas] but...I must say they outdid us when the dancing started Saturday night at 6, was going strong at 9, and I even heard something of a Congo line going past our door at 5 a.m. so apparently it was still going. The sad thing is the drinking and idols and stuff.
So that made our weekend interesting. But what we learned amidst walking among all these crazy flour-throwing people, was that it was actually a blessing, because by dragging all the partiers into the streets and covering them with flour, we could visibly see the normal people who were in their houses or walking along quiet streets with their kids and contact them! It was like a sorting system and we met some nice people.
Including today, in fact. An hour ago we went to see a new investigator who seemed really interested, even though it's P-day, because she said she was only home in the mornings and because of meetings and zoos we won't be home in a morning til Friday. So we went to talk to her and she was GOLDEN! "Catholic," but not partying, super interested in what we had to say, said she's studied a lot of history and always wanted to know more about the Mormons, and when we started with a prayer, she asked what she should do. We told her we close our eyes and fold our arms and suddenly her eyes were closed and arms folded and there she was waiting. Really really pure spirit with three cute kids and a husband we haven't met yet and we felt really blessed to meet her this morning, especially since we've been praying hard for people with desires.
Oh, yeah, the other part of that title was when this man tried to kiss me, but first he tried to sell me a pie, and then tried to explain to me why it was all okay. It's actually a pretty normal thing, men going in to kiss your cheek and we have to go "WAIT!", but still kind of weird and rare when you just met them and those we know know they can't, so it doesn't happen often. But he went in and I'm like, 'Wooop sorry, we can't do that because we're missionaries." "It's okay because I'm a missionary too!" "Uh huh, okay! Well we don't have money for a pie but maybe next--" (Interrupts to go on a lengthy monologue on how we're all humans and there's nothing wrong with kissing another human, the rules are in our mind, and do you think Jesus is going to tell us not to kiss him and something about dogs I didn't understand, ETC) and me: "Welp Gerardo, thanks for your opinion!" And the whole thing concluded with us doing a weird three finger handshake which I'm still confused about and walking away good friends.
Also, yesterday a 70 member, Elder Reyes, came to our BRANCH! Which was super cool and I still don't understand why! Because he only talked for five minutes and didn't reorganize us into a ward like we kind of suspected, and then we ate tacos and left. But we got to talk to the stake President who also came and we told him what we've seen that needs to be done in this branch and he told us what he's seen, and it turned out to be the same and we agreed to activate the priesthood holders woop! Then he thanked us for caring about this place and we told him it was a pleasure and that was it.
Love you!
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