"You had better run"

Okay, so what happened this week? Not much, and yet a lot. Basically it was just a busy week of trying to get people to keep compromisos (I forgot how to spell this word in English) and getting them to church, but no one came to church of the investigators. We had a low assistance (attendance?) of 50 this week. Usually it is around 65. We need 90 to have a chapel built. Oh, so our church is a building of three levels with a hole in the ceiling to allow light to enter. The sacrament room is just an open room off to the side, without doors. However, during sacrament it is very organized, like our home ward in a way. The priesthood waits to be excused to sit instead of getting up right after the sacrament. The good thing about being in a branch is that there are so few people that I have the chance to know each of them. One of the families I have the chance to know well is the family Rodriguez. Hermana Coni is in the Relief Society presidency. Her daughter and grandchildren live with her. Hermano Emanuel is the mission leader and is preparing to leave on a mission soon, but waits a while for medical reasons. His sister, Alejandra, comes with us often for the visits. Last night we had splits with Hermana Coni and Alejandra and Alejandra and I returned earlier so I waited in their house and met the cats, Omale and Lucas. The youngest boy, Andres, played with the cats the whole time so that was my entertainment while I waited for Hermana Benavides and Hermana Coni. 

Well, about the adventures of this week, the first was about a cat. We left the house one night and there was a very weak kitten outside of our door, so we tried finding out where it came from and asked all of the neighbors. No one claimed it, and it died the next morning. We had to dispose of it in the barranca. That same night that we found the cat, I had a bad experience. I was waiting for Hermana Benavides to open the door to our house and could see behind me a man on a bike approaching. I saw him slow down and approach closer. My thought was, Crap, what am I going to do? Then he came to me and grabbed my hip. Well, I was already tense from much earlier walking in the dark. I grabbed his arm with my free hand, turned around very quickly and nearly pulled him from his bike. At the same time I yelled at him in one of the loudest yells I have ever done. It scared the crap out of him and he took off fast, running and trying to ride his bike up the hill. I yelled after him, ¨You had better run¨´. My yelling scared Hermana Benavides also. I felt so shaken up and angry afterwards, and ashamed that I had yelled like that. Then when the district leader called I was the one to answer, so I told him of the experience. He told me that I should have punched the guy in the face. I was grateful for that comment he made because I was feeling bad for my yelling. I do not trust any of the guys in Comalapa now. It makes it harder to contact and teach, or ride the bus. 

I read from Preach my Gospel and am trying to finish it. It is sad that I never read it before because there are some things in it that really can help me be a better missionary. Also, I read from Alma, from chapter 5 to 10. Alma was a great missionary. Well, that will be all for now because I want to write kiana. I love you. Have a good week. Oh, and changes are next week. Also there are divisions today with hermana Garcia. (woohoo, I love Hermana Garcia and her mom.  Hermana Garcia's mom tells me they are doing their divisions in Chimal) And tomorrow we go to antigua. bye 

And in an email to me:  We didn´t go out soap-box preaching, but I really wanted to some days. We did find three new families this past week but only one was really positive. We still have hopes that we will have a goal of a baptism by the end of this month, but the work is hard. However, speaking of baptisms, I do have one I can count all though I was not there for it. Giovanni was baptized! Hermana Earl is going to send me pictures.

Well, for the tamale, the hermana used two different types of leaves to wrap it, which were a banana leaf and one other type of really big leaf. For the inside stuff they use usually chicken, some sort of chile pepper to make the sauce, and in the one I ate there was a type of flower, a yellow one, that we used when we made papusas. I don´t know much more of it, but the tamales down here are softer than the ones up north which are solid.