September 10, 2012

The shark gills ferrari is probably a 550 or 575 maranello. Unless it's an old one, then it could be a whole bunch of things. anyway, the santa fe sounds nice. what color is it? I was just going to remind you about a nissan rogue. I rode in one a long time ago and loved it. I might buy one when I get home. Like the nissan z metalic orange color... yeah. I'm excited and scared for Charles in NYC. Everyone says it's so dangerous there.

When I first got here, after about 2 weeks anyway, one deaf man asked me if I had a "rude awakening" he just had to fingerspell the whole thing because if you sign awakening, it's like waking up in the morning not the awakening like a realization or something...so I told him no, not really. I'm not involved with the culture as much as I thought I would be. But now, I find myself slowly adjusting to something. And now I realize that it is probably the culture, the mission, and everything together. So culture shock: no. Gradual adjustment: yes.

So the other day, we were driving through a neighborhood across the street from the School for the Deaf. I was focused on the road of course, but Elder Mercy was looking out the window and saw someone signing. So we pulled over and walked back to say Hi!. It was a woman trimming the edge of the front yard. We just walked up and said "hi, you're deaf?" she said "yes" then we talked a little about the church and stuff, then she said "my dad is deaf and he's inside you can go knock and see" so we walked up to the door, and rang the doorbell. The door opened, and a man's voice came from behind the screen door. (you can't see anything through these things) He said "hi" I said "hello, we're looking for whoever's Deaf??" he said "why...?" I said "we teach deaf people..." (he interrupted) "Look, we've told you time and time again, we have our own faith, we don't care what church you're from, so please go away and don't come back." I wasn't ready to give up that easily. So I replied "We've never been here before..." he said "Look, I don't care who you are or what you're doing, just go away!" I said "okay, I understand" (in my mind I was thinking loud enough for Elder Mercy to hear "not so friendly") but we walked away and we stopped to give the woman a pass along card. I heard the man follow us out and say "really?"

He had a very nice sounding voice but he just used all the wrong words. I never did see him until we walked back to the car we turned and waved. His face was a hippo's mud puddle with two great lumps for eyebrows and a mis-shaven upper lip. His stomach reached passed his toes and his stubby arms swayed from sagging shoulders. He was short and seemed to have been sitting down or laying for a year without getting up for anything. His posture slumped with the heaviness of his face. He wore a dark blue shirt - too big for anyone, and some shorts commonly worn by mexicans in this part of the world. His shoes were for skateboarding but he obviously has never touched a skateboard in his life. 

Elder Mercy couldn't contain himself. He laughed at the sight and the man was furious. He exclaimed "you got a *%!#$@ problem??!!" I turned to see him charging like a disturbed elephant on the plains in africa. I catiously raised my arms in a "calm down" sort of way, and said "No problem" he stopped and yelled "Don't come back!!" I said "ok" and smiled. He stood his ground until we reached the car - half a block down the street, and got in and drove away. My heart was racing. My fists were twitching. I was terrified of this...creature who had just expressed his sharp, stern disapproval of us. As we drove away, I couldn't help thinking ....we should dare some other missionaries to go there and see what happens. This guy was choleric!

Anyway, that was the excitement for the week. In addition to someone rolling down the windows of their car as they drove by shouting "!#$%* you mormons!" It wasn't very hurtful but the fact that Elder Mercy was free of such cruelty put me on edge. I soon got over myself and just kept walking. People are nice aren't they? One street we tracted in Corona...(Royal Palm Blvd) was full of awful people. There was one man, Miguel who gave us water, papaya, and a conversation. But every other person we talked to, was AWFUL. What has the world come to? Assumptions, judgments and discriminations made in an instant. We aren't even given the chance to say "Hello" before we are told to ..."go away" (I worded that really nicely compared to what we get on a daily basis)

However, through all the bad, bad people there are good people. In all the bad, bad world, there are good things. We can just focus on the good, and things will seem better. The good people are out there. Utah has a lot of them. Spanish Fork, Utah has a lot of them. I had no idea how nice people were there. Anyway, Thanks for the encouragement and stuff. I hope you find joy in reading my words. I didn't think I would describe that scary guy quite like that, but I thought you should know what he looked like. hahaha. okay well, I guess I'll talk to you next week.

Elder Peck (CA)