Turtles, Wiccans and Dust Storms

Dear family and friends,

 

      This past week went slightly better than the previous one before it and this upcoming week looks promising. This past Thursday night we went on splits and we decided to make visits to our former investigators since we're trying new ideas on how to find people. Well we found a nice Wiccan girl and we found a family where the son said he literally wanted us to baptize him and that he'd recently spoke to his mother that morning about baptism. I thought it was awesome and we set up two return appointments with these individuals. The Wiccan girl isn't interested in "converting" but at least she wants to know more about our beliefs. I don't know how to deal with people like this because on the one hand you don't know if the Spirit will be working on them and they'll change, on the other hand they say they're not interested and as a missionary you always want to live your purpose at all times and find people who are interested. I talked it over with Elder Hebert and he thought it'd be better to work with her at the current level that she's at and give the Spirit a chance to work on her first. Besides we don't have anything better to do anyway since the number of our investigators dropped since the beginning of this transfer so what do we have to lose? We received a referral from the bishop of one of our wards for a lady who's undergoing about as many trials as Job did. I feel really bad for her but if these trials humble her and if they increase her receptivity to the gospel then at least they'll serve a purpose which in the long run will work to her advantage. We gave her a priesthood blessing and invited her to take the lessons. She accepted and we're meeting with her this Tuesday. 

 

        Two days prior to splits we met with this member named Brother Hoban, who struck me as a very interesting individual. He likes reptiles, as you can see from the pictures. He keeps horned toads, mosquito fish and he breeds turtles for the purpose of selling them. He even keeps an incubator. He showed us the turtle eggs and then explained that after the turtles hatch they have something like an ambilical cord that's attached to them and that they continue to derive nutrients from this cord for several weeks. The "ambilical cord" eventually shrinks and their bodies absorb it. Brother Hoban places the turtles in several different tanks of water after that based on how old the turtles are. He showed the mother turtle that laid all the eggs. According to Brother Hoban mama turtle "went to town" as he put it when she laid her eggs because she laid about 40 eggs within a period of several weeks. He then sells the turtles for about $20. That's not how he makes his living but it sure sounds like an interesting hobby.

 

        There was an habub (the Arabic word for dust storm) on Saturday as Elder Hebert and I rode our bikes on our way to a dinner appointment. The habub flew in our direction at a rapid pace but fortunately we were close to our dinner appointment by the time it blew over. We waited it out and ate chicken fettucine alfredo and the dust storm blew off after we ate. Dust storms always affect the weather long after they're blown. The temperature drops but they spike the humidity. After that dust storm the humidity in the air rose to about 30%, if not higher. It also rains both before and after a dust storm plus rapid moving winds always accompany habubs. So Elder Hebert and I rode in rainy, humid, windy weather on Saturday evening and we decided to ride as fast as we possibly could and when we arrived home we both felt like we jumped in a swimming pool. We were exhausted and I felt like I sweated off several gallons that day.

 

Well that's about it. Hopefully by the next e-mail we'll have several investigators with baptismal dates.

 

Love you all,

 

Elder Boothe

How Brother Hoban's horned toads deal with their prey

Multiple horned toads

Brother Hoban's 1 year old turtles

Some older turtles inside a tank full of water

This is what a habub looks like. They move really fast.

 Taken 10 minutes later inside a member's house