As you may have guessed by the subject line of my email, it was quite the week this week. There wasn't a whole lot too interesting within the week, but yesterday (Sunday) was pretty crazy. First, it requires some backstory. As I mentioned before, the ward split 2 weeks ago, changing the boundaries or our area. We gave some of our area to the sister missionaries, and they gave a rather large portion to us. There was a less-active family that the sisters had been teaching that they then tried to pass to us, but when we introduced ourselves, they absolutely refused a visit from us. We tried to insist, but they were oddly firm in their decision. They have a slight mental disability (I think it may be a mild form of autism, but I'm not really sure), so when we explained that the sisters were no longer allowed to visit them, they went a little bit crazy. Last Sunday, they followed them for like 2 hours in the evening, waiting outside of their appointments and continuing on their same path when they left the house. The sisters told us about this, and we didn't really think a whole lot of it. To give them some reassurance, we simply told them to let us know if it continued to happen.
Everything seemed pretty normal during the week; nothing out of the usual that the sisters reported... until the following Sunday (yesterday) came. We had just finished a lesson and were walking out when our phone rang. I took one look at the phone, saw "Mixqui 2" (the sisters) and knew what was up. Supposedly the sisters had returned to their house to use the bathroom, and when they went to leave, the two... we'll go ahead and call them stalkers for what I will explain momentarily--were there outside. Thinking quickly, Hermana Rojas said, "I forgot my book..." and they went back into the house to call us. When we arrived they were waiting down at the corner a good 50 meters from the house. We made the executive decision to cancel our appointment for the evening and accompany the sisters to theirs just to make sure everything was all right. As we walked, Hermana Rojas told me that it had happened a few times in the last week that they returned home and said stalkers were simply there waiting for them between 9 and 9:30. Therefore we shall refer to them as stalkers. We arrived at the appointment just fine (they didn't follow us), so we waited outside for them and all walked back. Upon arriving at their house, I saw a small head peek around the corner, see us, and immediately retreat. I knew who it was. "Wait here, hermanas. Elder Morales, follow me." Now, you have to understand that this is something I've never in my life done; confront a stalker as I was about to do at this moment, but due to who-knows-what (righteous anger, perhaps), and had absolutely no reservations. As we rounded the corner, they began to walk the other way. We flagged them down, and the conversation went something like this. "¡Hola, Hermanas! What are you doing over here?" "We're just... waiting for a friend..." "Oh, really? Do you think your friend could use a message of the gospel? Where does she live?" "...she doesn't live around here..." "What's her name? Maybe we know her." "no... you don't know her." "Oh, okay. And what were you doing at the corner on the other side of the street an hour ago?" "...the chain on the bike fell off, so we had to wait." At that point, I got tired of them lying, so we went in to burn the bush. "Why are you following the sister missionaries?" Rather taken aback, they denied. "Don't lie to us, hermanas. We know you're following them, and they know it, too. Quite frankly, you're scaring them, so we are going to ask you to stop." "We're not following them. It's a free street, we can walk where we want." "Hermanas, we know you're lying to us. You're always there behind them no matter how far away from your house they go." "...No... It's a free street..." "Stop following them. We don't want any problems, and if you continue to follow them, they will tell us and we'll have problems. They'll take the sisters out and you'll never see them again." After further denial, we wished them a good night, and rounded the corner to tell the sisters what happened. After they entered the house, we simply returned to the corner to sit and make sure they left. They simply sat there about 20 yards away as if waiting for us to leave first. It was already 9:30, so we let President know we weren't home and why, he gave us the okay, and we began to plan for the following day. We're still not sure what they were waiting for, but after about 45 minutes, they got up and began to walk up the street, in the opposite direction of their house. We decided to leave, and as we passed them on our bikes, we simply said, "Go home, hermanas. It's late." They yelled something at us (probably some swear words, but I didn't hear), and we returned home. I pondered repeatedly that night about this experience and about how it was something completely out of the normal for me to do. I wondered exactly why I did it and even more I wondered why I didn't have any reservations or feel nervous about the decision to do so. This experience helped me to realize that I'm actually a very protective person when it comes to the people and things that I care about. I recalled various experiences when I had protected a friend or family member from whatever influence, and I related it to the gospel. Do we care enough about the gospel to defend it from any influence? Are we willing to give anything to live it? If not, we have some soul-searching and faith-building to do. I love this gospel, I know it's true, and I love the Lord's work. Iré y haré, Elder Groesbeck
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