The “Special Plate”

I have two major stories to share this week. Before my own mission, the two main things I liked to know about missions from RMs was 1) about the funky food they ate and 2) about any cool baptism stories.

Story number 1

Javier Blanco is the ward mission leader. He is full gytano(gypsy) and his wife is half. They live out in the middle of nowhere on his farm.  Every other friday, we take an hour bus up to Sevilla, then catch another hour bus out to the closet town where he lives and he waits for us there, where we ride in his car with him another 20 minutes to get to his house.  This past friday, we took the long journey out and after getting to his house and settling down, his wife had finished preparing the meal.  She handed us all our bowls and began scooping the soup into our individual plates. After she scooped mine she said "oh, you get the special one." I didn´t pay to much mind to it and we said the prayer and began to eat.  The soup had garbonzo beans and some kind of meat it wasn´t too bad, just a little rubbery.  I had a large chunk of meat in my bowl and I just hadn´t worked my way to eating yet. When I was about half way finished, I heard the phrase that I hate more than anything in this life.

"Do you know what you´re eating?"

NOOOO! That phrase is worse than finger nails running down a chalk board.

I said no and before he could respond I ate faster so I could get as much down before he told me what I had been putting into my mouth.

"Pig intestines" He said.

I had a big spoonful in my mouth and it was so hard to finally gulp it down. At this point I realized why I had the "Special Plate."

My companion looked at my plate at the larger chunk of meat and laughed out loud and said "You´ve got the sphincter!"

Yes. On my plate, I had the sphincter.(if you don´t know what the is, check it out in your nearest anatamy book)

All I had in my bowl at this point was this chuck of meat. I´m not going to describe it too much, but at the top of it, it had a circular top. I took my spoon and put it in the middle of the hole and cut it in half. Everyone at this point was watching me to see if I was going to eat it.

I took a deep breath, grabbed a piece of bread, put one half of the sphincter on my bread and ate it. I remember just praying that this aweful body part from the pig wouldn´t kill me or at least I wouldn´t be able to taste it. (But now that I think about it, I should´ve just prayed for deliverance! haha) But I slowly chewed it then did the same process with the other half.

I ate pig intestine soup and on top of that a sphincter from a pig. I love the mission.

Ok, now for story number 2!

This past month and a half we have been working with a man named Pepe (José) and this past saturday was his baptism. I can´t even describe the enormous change that we witnessed in this man. In our first meeting, we asked him to say the closing prayer and in it, he basically cursed God for his aweful circumstances and blamed him for forgetting about him. A little bit about Pepe, he has been looking for work since February and at the first meeting(first week of July) he told us that if he didn´t pay his rent by the first of August, then the owner would kick him out.  We met with Pepe 3 times every week to teach him and talk him through his struggles.  When we told the bishop about his situation, he gave us specific direction not to mention that the church gives economic help to its struggling members, he wanted to make sure he was investigating for the right reasons.  We heeded his council and continued to teach him. Pepe has had a very sad past, he was arrested about 20 years ago and served several months in prison because the police mixed him up with someone with the same name (Everyone in Spain is named José) and every since then, things have just fallen out of sorts. His family wants nothing to do with him and he literally has nothing.

We worked so hard with Pepe. This past Saturday was his baptism and it was an AMAZING experience. My companion baptized him and on sunday I confirmed him (I had never given a blessing before and on top of that it was in spanish!).

On sunday, after the confirmation and the Sacrament, Pepe bore his testimony and it was so powerful. He told us a story from this past week, about how the Lord answered his prayers.  Like I said before, if he wasn´t able to pay by the first of August, he would be kicked out. He got kicked out. He has been living in an abandand house these past 2 weeks and literally has nothing. But he told us that after our lesson on thursday, he was thinking about how nice all the members at church look with their white shirts and ties and he would love to look like that. Once he was a member, he wanted to look is best. He told us that he prayed to the lord that if it was his will, that he could somehow find a white shirt and a black tie (he said black ties were his favorite) to wear for the sunday after his baptism.  My companion and I live in a missionary house where missionaries have lived there forever and things get left behind, like shoes, shirts, ties and whatnot. So as a little gift, on Friday my companion and I put in a little bag two white button up shirts that we thought would fit him and gave it to him after our meeting. He was so grateful and we could tell that he was getting really excited.

He then told us how on his walk home, he was praying and thanking the Lord in his heart,  about how he just got the two white shirts, and now all he could use is a black tie. Less that 5 minutes after thinking this, he saw a little black tie on the curb of the street. He was telling this story in sacrament and testified that he knew for a surity that God lives and blesses us because he loves us. It was amazing to see this man, who a month ago cursed God for his poor economic standing, was now praising the lord and rejoicing even though he had much less(in material matters) than he had before. And Pepe is so right. God knows us. He loves us and only wants the best for us. People can change as they use the atonement of Christ and I feel so blessed to have had the chance to witness it personally. Pepe continued to say how he had nothing, and now, the hermanos(us) had given him everything.

After the church meetings the bishop met with him and explained how the church was going to help him with his ecomomic situation. We were waiting so we could walk home with him, and when he came out of the bishop´s office, his face was stained with tears, he ran to us and shouting, "they´re going to help me pay for my house!" then immediatly he said "Which room can I pray in!?" we were a little taken aback because it happened so fast and said "uh, any of them I guess."

Working with Pepe has been such an incredible experience.

People can change with the power of the atonement and they DO! I am so grateful for the Lord Jesus Christ and this opportunity I have to help people come unto Christ.

Os quiro,

Jason

Me at "Barrio Santa Cruz" and it is an incredible old town in Sevilla and we could reach out and touch the ways of the narrow passage ways!

Me in the middle of the busiest street we have here in Alcala during mediodia (the time everyone takes their nap) As you can see. There is NOTHING going on during nap time

The 3 of us at the Baptism: Elder Barney, Pepe, and Me.