Dusty's Email -- 8/10/2009

Hey,

This last week was just a mess here in Tecamac. Last Monday was good and calm, we went ice skating and bowling. Yes, Dad we have to wear missionary clothes while we ice skate and bowl, which is good because we always get people that ask us what we do, so it’s a good opportunity on P-day to still talk to people a little and introduce ourselves.
But anyway, so Elder Alpuche and I got up on Tuesday and started to finish up the class that we were going to give to our district. Then we got a call from Elder Haro, one of the district leaders. When my companion answered, Elder Haro said that his companion wasn’t there, he was gone! We thought that he was joking but he was at the point of crying, so we told him we`d call President and that we`d come over to his house.
We got to his house and sure enough, his companion had packed a bag and left. When Elder Haro got up the door to the house was open. Just wide open. One of the neighbors said that the door had been like that at least since 4:30 in the morning.
Elder Haro was really sad and just confused. I was too. We had gone ice skating with them the day before and I talked with his companion. All seemed well. His companion, Elder Mays, is from Texas. But he didn’t leave a note or anything, he just left, got up and left. So that day was just weird because Elder Mays is one of my buddies, I`ve known him since he got in the mission in March. He got here to Tecamac with me.
We didn’t hear anything from him that day. We thought that he was on a bus heading for the border. We were dealing with that all day so we didn’t have much time to work in the area. Then Wednesday we went to a council meeting with President Bulloch. President pulled us aside to tell us the Elder Mays called his family the night before to tell them that all was well and that he was in the state of Guerrero. In south Mexico. He said was going to try and get in contact with President Bulloch. So during the council meeting President left to take a call and it was Elder Mays. He told President that he wanted to know when he could get his passport, and President asked him where he was exactly. He said that he was in Acapulco, a beach. Nice. President told him to come back here and they would talk.
That night Elder Mays came back and the next day he and President talked in the mission office. President asked us to gather the rest of Elder Mays things from the house and to bring them to the mission offices with his companion, Elder Haro.
All of Thursday we spent in the offices. Afterwards President was talking with me and told me that Elder Mays didn’t do anything bad, like break a commandment or nothing, which is what we thought. He did go to Acapulco. We thought that he took off with someone. But President said that he was just frustrated. He and his companion weren’t having much success. He was still in his first area with his first companion. There are also a ton of problems that are going on at his home. He was stressed out and so he decided at that moment that the best thing to do was to leave to clear his mind.
It wasn’t the best decision, but at least he`s still temple worthy. He did decide to return home to fix the things that were going on. He wants to come back in a couple of months.
I got to talk a bit with Elder Mays after he talked with President, seemed calm and a little embarrassed. The first thing I asked him was how was Acapulco, if it’s cool. He smiled and said “Yeah, it’s pretty amazing”. Haha. He`s a good friend and I hope that he comes back out while I`m still here in the mission. But the situation was just crazy. Then my companion got sick on Friday, so we haven’t had much time to do any work in our area.
But things are well, I`m learning a lot everyday from my companion. And he`s got me in the habit of writing in my journal everyday. Haha. That’s something that I struggle with, but I`ve written everyday for the last 15 days. Woot, go me!
I hope that all is well back home.
I`m sure it`ll be hard to see the twins go back Mom, but don’t worry you did your part with them. Tell CJ I said good luck and that I love him. But that’s about it here.
We have our Zone conference tomorrow and we have to finish prepping everything.
Love
Elder Howard