Thanks for all the birthday wishes. It was a good day- some recent converts even threw a surprise party for me that night complete with cake and everything.
Speaking of recent converts, Janice, the woman who died and came back, told us she hasn't been paying her tithing because she can't afford it. We spent an hour talking to her about it and yet she didn't budge. It was very distressing, especially because I know she's missing out on the blessings that she needs the most.
My first transfer as District Leader has gone well, more or less. We're a tight district, which is good. We're all good friends- but Elder Allen and I haven't baptized anyone this transfer. It's horrible. The sisters have six baptisms lined up for this Sunday, though- I interviewed two of them last night and will interview four more on Friday. The lady I interviewed last night even bawled in front of me because of how horrible her life has been. Her baptism will be very, very good. So that's all fine and dandy for the sisters, but meanwhile, over in our area we have ZERO investigators right now.
We went to the one 15 year old investigator we had yesterday- our last hope of baptizing this transfer- and started talking to her. Every time we go there she doesn't let us in, but goes inside and grabs two chairs so we can sit on the porch. I should mention that she lives on the second floor of an evangelical church of which her father is the pastor (he even has an official police looking badge that says "Ecclesiastical Authority"). I imagine that's why she doesn't want us to enter her house. This, of course, I should have realized would cause problems. The other problem is that she's extremely shy and never looks anyone in the eye or talks above a whisper, so I'm never really sure if she's understanding anything we're saying. The third problem is that she gave us back the Book of Mormon and claimed she didn't know how to read. She was not exactly the golden investigator. But anyway, we went there and were talking to her and her brother came out and started listening, which was fine. We asked if we could start with a prayer and they said that was fine. Elder Allen started to pray, at which point she got up and walked back inside leaving just her 11 year old brother. I felt something touch my head, and then pain. The brat had grabbed a chunk of my hair and just started yanking on it- I have no idea why! I grabbed his wrist with every intention of breaking it, but decided that was not the best thing to do to the son of a pastor in his own home, so I pushed him away and said to Elder Allen "finish the prayer." He finished, we got up, I said "goodbye" and we started walking down the stairs to the door. To put the icing on the cake, as we were leaving, the kid spit in my hair! I spent the rest of the day with crusty kid-spit in my hair and no investigators left. It was awesome.
We've also had a couple more run-ins with the police this week. They seem to be increasing pressure on our area to get the drug traffickers out. The other day we were contacting a media reference in this tiny alley, and as we were talking to the lady in her doorway a big police SUV pulled up and four cops jumped out with guns in their hands ready for action. They started descending into the alley towards us until they got to the door right next to where we were standing. I looked at them, and then at Elder Allen and we just started going down deeper into the alleyway. Turns out it was a dead end. We ended up staying in the depths of the alley for like, 20 minutes while the cops busted into the house and arrested everyone. I imagine it had something to do with drugs.
That's all the news I've got this week; I'll see if I can send some pictures next week.
Much love,
Elder Sisco