As many people should know, this week was semana santa (Easter). As such, people were more excited to learn about Jesus than normal. I remember this time last year, I found many people contending one with another about the correctness of their own church and the wrongness of the others. This year, there wasn't too much of that. Really, I don't remember seeing or talking with anyone about different churches this week. Kind of strange, but I think it's because the majority of Trinidad is Catholic, and as such there arn't too many differences. Oh well, less fun for me.
Because of the semana santa, all week movies of the Bible had been playing on the different TV channels (or so we were told; we don't watch TV). As such, we also decided to bring along some movies and watch them in our visits. Sometimes I think that the movies and videos are more effective than just us talking, because people usually pay more attention to the videos. But then I remember if we only had videos, we would't really have a job - we would just be bringing discs around everywhere. Kind of boring.
As I mentioned before, Pdte and the APs came to Trinidad this week. They arrived Wednesday morning, and in the afternoon we had our scheduled interviews. I don't even remember the last time that we had interviews, but I think it was in December. Not that it matters too much. Anyway, after our interviews we had to head home for a moment to change out of our suit coats (which also hadn't been used for a while). After we both got on motos and started to return home, it started to rain hard. My moto just rushed through the rain, dropped me off, then dipped out as fast as he could. The moto of my companion, however, decided to wait out the rain. At least that's what I learned after waiting some 20ish minutes alone out front of the house. The good news is that we where then able to change and leave to visit normally. With rainboots to walk through all the mud.
After the heavy rain Wednesday, the sun decided to come out in full force Thursday, helping to evaporate the mud and make everything humid. We also had the conference with Pdte, so we got to leave in the morning with out suits again. We learned a whole bunch of stuff in the conference, especially about the doctrine of Christ. From there we went to eat lunch in some grill place. I thought it was pretty darned good, but my companion thought the meat cooked medium-rare was raw. It seems like Latinos only like their meat well-done. How strange.
For our viernes santo (Good Friday) the weather got really cold. Someone might remember that a while ago I explained that the weather in Santa Cruz depended on the wind, that when the wind came from the south it got cold, wet, and all around sad for a few days. It seems like el sur also arrives in Trinidad, as we had cloud coverage all day. Unfortunately, I didn't bring any sweater or jacket or winter clothing. Not even one long-sleeve shirt. I had to survive with my rain poncho. The good news is that, unlike Santa Cruz, it only lasts for one day here. Very strange. Apart from the weather, we had a pretty normal viernes santo, watching Church videos for most of the day.
I was pretty happy to see the sun again Saturday. That, coupled with the fact that we were in visits all day, lead to an easy and calm Saturday. Oh, and I remembered that we actually did find someone that talked about their church this week (my second paragraph lied, oh well). We had contacted a woman the other day, and so we went to visit her and her family in the morning. She seemed really excited to listen to us, but then her husband came out and explained that he was 'already a first deacon in a nearby church, and didn't want to be seen visiting with Mormons.' Oh well, we had to move on; can't be ruining the image of other people.
After the church services Sunday, we decided to have a little adventure. In our carpeta de area, we found an old investigator with a map of some place we didn't know, so we decided to look for it. As it turns out, we only had to cross some high grass, cross a stream over 2 sticks, and wander along the edge of a lake to find a little neighborhood. We started talking to a little corner store and learned that Elders hadn't been seen for 2-3 years. Pretty cool no? Anyway, when we started to head back, we had to search a little for the path back. We made some wrong turns, but eventually made it back to where we know well. The rest of the day was pretty average, but we made sure to take some photos to send home.
With love,
Elder Yates
Some gator hides on the wall of the restaurant we went to after the conference
Some artwork on the walls of the restaurant
A tree in the path to the hidden neighborhood
Path to the new area
Lake by the new area; a house can be seen in the top right
Another angle of the new area
Some loros in front of our house. A common sight here.
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