Hello everyone! It's been another great week. There's been lots happening.
On Monday, July 4th, for our weekly visit, we went to one of the Amanfrom elder's investigator's homes and enjoyed rice and stew. Spending time with these people is the best part. The investigator's name is Lydia; she's a single mom of three. We enjoyed each other's company, but then the rain set in. We got stuck at her place for 45 minutes waiting for the rain to let up, but it never did. Elder Riley and I got sick of waiting, so we decided to brave the rain. That was a bad idea. We took off out of the house as fast as we could, but the rain was too strong, and it was already too late to turn back, so we proceeded on. The rain was so strong that it created a few rivers that we had to cross to get to the main road. Elder Riley was wearing his nice church shoes, and if they got wet, they would get ruined. So, I put him on my back and carried him through knee-deep water all the way to the main road. It was awesome. We finally got to the road and waited about 10 minutes for a taxi to pick us up; I guess no one wanted to pick up two soaking wet white dudes. Later that night, we made a makeshift grill and cooked burgers and hot dogs and later set off fireworks. I may not have been arrested, but all of our neighbors knew it was America's birthday.
From Tuesday to Saturday, we had normal proselytizing. I had two exchanges with Elder Riley, one in his area and one in our area, and, of course, more rain. We got soaked twice in a week; that's a new record! There has been so much rain recently that everything is flooding, including people's houses. Not a good deal. Also, a gigantic tanker of fuel ran off a bridge and crashed; it was fully loaded with diesel and caught on fire. It's still on fire today. It was a huge miracle that it was diesel fuel and not gasoline or it would have leveled a good chunk of the city. It crashed partway into a river, and all of the fuel caught fire, so the entire river is on fire. And the smoke is thick; hence the name of my email.
On Sunday, we had a baptism for our wonderful sister Ernestina. Her kids were baptized a few transfers ago. I was so happy that she made the choice to join her kids and make covenants with the Lord.
I believe that's all for this week. I hope you all have a wonderful week; I'll talk to you next time.
-Elder Gilbert
For the photos this week, I have:
-A video of a crazy kid
-Bonku and Pepe with onion and fish
-Baptism photos
-Photos of a moonshine operation we stumbled upon (I thought that was sick)
-A video of me carrying Elder Riley through the rain
-Photos of all the flooding
-Chicken sausages and corn on the 4th