Mason's letter -- September 20, 2010 -- ONE YEAR DOWN!

hey familia,

Dad, that's great to hear about the stones. but weird to hear that I'm now a big brother....to a salty stone. you know what the scriptures say about that right, sometimes people need trials to humble them or make them change (Alma 32: 12-14) haha read it, it's funny with the whole kidney stones situation. Yes, I am a missionary and now find humor in the scriptures...how lame right?

But this week was pretty good. It was kind of frustrating in a few ways but there are always weeks like that I guess. We do have a baptismal date for this weekend though, so that's good. I hope it all turns out alright. So yesterday I had to give another on the spot talk, but it turned out really good. I guess one of the speakers didn't show up, so the bishop asked me right before the meeting started to give a talk. I'm glad for all these missionary experiences like that that give me a lot of experience and will help me out a lot in the long run and I always learn a lot from those last minute things, like how to trust in the Spirit and just open up your mouth to talk. Whenever that happens I just pray for the Spirit and when I get up to talk, the Spanish always comes out way way better than normal and a lot of great thoughts of what to say just come into my mind. I really love the feeling of that.

So one day this week we had a full day of great appointments, but as we went to each appointment that day we were disappointed in every single one and they all fell through. So we were kind of frustrated and stuff and were walking across the highway at like 8 at night and saw a really skinny street kid just wandering around (there are a lot of homeless people here). But we said hi to him and I looked at him and felt a desire to help him out. He looked a little different than the other street kids. Normally they are really rude and try to steal stuff from you or just yell at you for money. But we talked to this one kid and he explained to us that he lived up in the mountain, and that his mom was really sick and that he was the oldest of 8 kids, without a father. He was like 14 years old. So he had walked down from the mountain looking for some food to take home so they wouldn't all starve to death. Well he really broke our hearts. So I told him I would buy him a chicken. So we ran home really fast and grabbed some money and took the kid into the supermarket and bought him a chicken and a bag of beans, rice, and some flour. He said it was enough food for like 2 weeks for the whole family. So we then took him around the side of the supermarket where nobody else was and we gave him the food and a few bills to take a bus or something back home. He was really excited and grateful and couldn't even talk because he was stumbling on his words and stuff.

So it was really cool. I then told him that as missionaries we usually don't buy food and stuff for people because we really don't have that much money ourselves, but that we have something that can give him spiritual food for all eternity. That we can teach him the gospel that will give him happiness and comfort for his whole life, but that the food one day would run out and he would need more. So we invited him to church and stuff, but he didn't go. Maybe because he lives really far away in the mountains. I hope we gave him a little bit of hope and comfort, and maybe one day he will be able to go to church. There are a lot of opportunities to serve the people here in this country and that is a great blessing for me.

So that is all that really happened in the week. kind of boring, but that's alright. I hope you get the pictures and stuff. I love you all and hope that this week goes great for everyone. Remember to look for those in need, over there. There may not be anyone in need of food or anything like that, but maybe spiritually someone is hungry and in need of the healing power of the atonement.

Love Elder Mason Cardon