Divisions weeks with Elder Porras. July 11, 2016

so holy cow this last week was pretty cool! Well first off let me just tell you about divisions which were awesome! this week i went to a town close by called pantla to have divisions with my district leader Elder Porras. hes a pretty cool dude from guatamela. anyways we get to his area and after we got done eating at a members house we went right to a service activity that he had planned! so i was pretty happy since it had been awhile since i had given service. so we basically were building a little hut for an old lady in that ward. since we were with two other older guys who were working on the roof there wasnt really alot for me and my companion to do. but my companion told me that the lady there wanted some branches cut off of her tree, so i got to work haha! i picked up the machete that they had and started hacking away! not gonna lie i was pretty happy to get down and dirty again haha. i was also really happy to get to use a machete. so as you can see in the pictures i was on top of the roof cutting branches she didnt want there. it was pretty dangerous honestly since i had no good footing on the roof and since each time i cut a branch off the big branch moved a little higher so i was stretching more and more and i almost fell a fe times but the lord was watching out for me! after we got the smaller branches cut off we had space to cut the big one off completely! this branch was about the size of my thigh in thickness and i got to hack away at it with a machete! i did it haha. so yeah that was a pretty good day. even though i got way bad blisters that opened up on my hand i was still happy. i was pretty tired that night though and the next day was tough! their area is really close to the beach so usually they get alot more of the wind that comes from the ocean, but they also have more humidity. so when theres wind blowing in your face you feel good! and when theirs not you sweat alot haha. well just my luck it seemed like there was no wind that day. oh well! but yeah divisions with elder porras were fun. also another funny side story is youll see in the pictures the 3 elders that are taking notes. they might also seem like they are paying alot of attention haha, well thats because i was teaching them english pickuplines, and if you know me then you know my pickup lines are GOLD haha!! the rest of the week was pretty normal. friday night i think that the heavens were angry because at about 130 in the morning there was a terrible lightning and thunder storm! it was loud and bright and it was raining hard as well! even though it only lasted a half hour haha. now for the downside of this week. yesterday was honestly a pretty depressing day and i didnt excatly have the best of feelings towards the "mexican people" because of it. yesterday morning it was raining before church, and i have no idea why but i think the people down here believe the rain is acid because when it rains NO ONE leaves their house. we left our house at 845 with our rainjackets and unmbrellas because it was raining hard, but when we got to the church at 9 it was barely drizzling, and by 930 it had stopped completely. our branch president didnt even show up until 940, and our services start at 10. but at 10 o clock there were only 14 people at the church... so he waited until 1020 to start and by that point 18 people were there. the funniest and saddest part about this story is that at 1030 we were just finishing up the sacrement and they were still passing the bread. when its the ordinance of the sacrement we close and lock the door to keep the reverence and that way no one breaks the spirit. so i had gotten up and locked the door and stood by it while they did the sacrememnt. anyways as their passing the bread someone tries to open the door, but like i said its locked. this is where it gets really good, because i hear keys outside the door. The second counselor shows up and just opens up the door and walks up to the front like it was nothing. i honestly had no idea what to do and i was in shock. the people here to say the least are "flojo" or in other words, lazy. i was kinda dissapointed with the fact i had been working my butt off all week long and no one came to church just because of the rain. so yeah thats my rant for the week. sorry everyone. dont worry im doing good now and i repented for the bad feelings i had against the people. so yeah that was my week! questions? comments? concerns? haha feel free to email me. love you all and i hope you all have a wonderful week! and who knows maybe the next time i write itll be from a different place! have a good one! Love Elder Griffin