What a ridiculously crazy week that was. I'll tell you about it in a minute.
First off, tell James that he's a stud, and that he'll make a great servant of the Lord. One of my companions from the MTC is in that mission, I've heard it's like the boonies of Argentina. But way cool, we'll be speaking that castellano together.
Oh yeah, and what ever happened to Jory? He get a call? I'm gonna be training him in a few months right here in the Guay, right?
And I need jacob curtis's address, so I can respond to his letter. Thanks!
Yeah, technically I'm not supposed to get email from anyone more than my family. So I can't endorse people sending me emails. But they can pass messages through you guys if you want, I guess. Editor's note: you can email andy at urumontemission@gmail.com, with Elder Andrew Pyper as the subject line and he will get a hard copy in the mail. I think the restrictions are just for him spending time at the computer reading emails, so either that email address or a regular snail mail letter would be great!
Ok, so here's the week. The baptism last week was named Washington. He's Justo's brother. And to be honest, I felt a little weird about it. Like should we really be baptizing this guy. And plus I directed and presided at his baptismal service, is that even allowed? I mean, we had permission from the branch president, but it felt so weird. Anyway, their sister was meant to get baptized this week. But she hasn't been to church in like a month, due to various circumstances, and I never really saw her keeping commitments wholeheartedly, changing, you know? She has a testimony, but I just felt weird about it. So then my DL calls and asks how she's doing, and I said we would pray about it to find out if we should go through or not. So we prayed, got up off our knees, and my comp skips off to the bathroom whistling. Meanwhile, I ponder, I pray again, and I can't deny that I feel we have to wait another week. I just felt bad about that Sunday. So he comes out of the bathroom, I tell him, and he about blows a gasket. (We say that in english, right?) Basically he told me that everyone should always get baptized, they can grow afterward, and that I was confusing my emotions, cause I'm a really emotional guy. There are some golden quotes from that conversation, honestly. But the point is, he tried to overrule me and just act like I'd never said anything. So I had to call in the DL, he called the ZL's and eventually the zone leaders called my comp and bajaron la caña. So later that day my companion called the mission president. Ayayayay. He spun it pretty well, but I think president saw through everything and said to go figure it out with your leaders. So she didn't get baptized. And she didn't come to church yesterday. Again.
Other notable experiences. This one is quite impressive as well. My companion told a catholic priest, well implied, anyway, that he didn't know the bible. That left me feeling awful. Gotta represent Jesus Christ better than that. And now he's got this image of missionaries as insolent upstarts who don't read the bible.
Nevertheless, I am very grateful for this experience I'm having. I think I learned how to be happy regardless of circumstances in my first two months here. I learned that baptism should be a goal, yes, but never a motivation. You can really tell the missionaries that are caught up in the numbers, because they are insane. They get discouraged and sad very easily. All my friends who are leaving soon on missions: Don't get caught up in the numbers. Just work.
I'm super grateful for all the prayers and thoughts coming my way. They lift me up. It's very tangible.
So are you guys moving, or what? Where are you going?
Tell bekah that my favorite food here is called rosca. It's a big C shaped pastry filled with dulce de leche and topped with powdered sugar.
Mom, my wisdom teeth are good. I wear my retainers every night.
Love you all! Have a great week!
Andy
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