Week 11

Ok, so I started out September with a pretty great week. On Saturday, I attended my first wedding in the field. We (missionaries in general) had been teaching the husband, Hermano Oscar; for almost a year. However, he wasn't married to his wife and she didn't want to have anything to do with the church  She refused to marry him just so he could be baptized.  However, we went in to teach him a week ago and she had had a miraculous change of heart and actually listened to our lesson and agreed to marry Oscar. It was a very quiet service. Just their family, the lawyer, and us in their house, but it was very rewarding. I've included (hopefully) a few pictures.

As I have already written, I have fulfilled several of my lifelong dreams already by getting to wade through a thoroughly flooded street and seeing a volcano erupt. This week I added a few more things to that list.

The first occurred a few days ago. We were walking and it began to rain pretty hard. We then began to hear thunder getting closer and closer. Before long, it was louder and closer than I have ever heard in my life. Finally, there was one clap of thunder that was so close and the rumor later that day was that it struck in the same park that we were in at the time. I couldn't believe how loud and sharp it was. Not at all like the low rumbling I normally hear. It was actually fairly terrifying at the time, although now I'm just thrilled that I could be so close to a lightning strike (don't worry mom and dad, I'm pretty sure I was quite safe.)  There was a bunch of other tall buildings and trees around and there wasn't much more we could have done anyway.

The second experience was even better. We were sitting, teaching a lesson, when I felt a few vibrations in the floor. I thought that someone was pounding on the wall next door, but a few seconds later the ground began to shake even more. I always imagined earthquakes as just shaking the ground back and forth, but actually the ground was moving in all directions. It was way cooler than I ever imagined. I can see how even a relatively small earthquake that doesn't cause much damage can make it impossible to walk. Anyway, the earthquake lasted for a solid 32 seconds but didn't do much more than cause the TV to rock back and forth and make my day.