Letter 18A - First "near death experience" as told to his mom

Charlie's reply when I (his mom) asked if he has had any scary experiences:


 i have had one near death experience but i dont know if i want to tell you because i dont want you to worry about me (that and i know it would make dad freak out (it has to do with a 4 foot long very deadly snake....))  yes i am being serious but dont worry hahaha.  and dont tell dad hahahahha.

with elder segard we were teaching a family that lives in the middle of a corn field. while segard was saying the closing prayer i looked down and between my feet was the head of a coral snake (very mean and kill people in 10 minutes) i followed the typical colorado advice they wont bother you if you dont bother them.  so i did nothing (remember at this time i dont know how bad this snake is). it started slithering toward the investigator but also got close to my foot so i slid my foot out of the way.  my investigator heard me sliding my foot, opened his eyes and freaked out!! segard closed the prayer.  and we all freaked out and got back..the noise scared the snake and it slithered into the side pouch of my backpack.  the investigator yelled at his son to get a stick.  the son runs into the house and comes back out with a 7 foot stick.  carlos (investigator) asks me if i have anything breakable in my backpack, i say no.  he smashes the snake with the stick.  the snake gets mad and bites my backpack.  carlos hits the thing probably 15 more times. then i am told how dangerous the snake is.  i left my backpack there so they could properly clean it with and get rid of the blood and venom. 

Letter #18 - "Did you feel that??" Los Brilliantes, Guatemala

well hello

i guess i will start with the big news: i didnt get changes and galvez didnt either so we will be together for almost 6 more weeks!! but yeah that was that..  it was another very hot week in brillantes for the two of us.  it was a very hard week.  we spent one day inside because galvez was very sick and the rest of the week we worked hard with very minimal success.  the only great news is that our investigador Maria is going to get baptized on saturday!! she is super cool and has a daughter who served a mission and she is so ready for this!! it is amazing to see her love for this gospel, she has already started to invite and bring friends to church!!!! we have heard from many members how shocked they are that she is taking this step in her life because she has been talking to missionaries on and off for years and her daughter too has tried so hard.  it just reminds me how everyone has their time to hear and accept the gospel.  

this week we had a very interesting thing happen on friday at about 6 pm.  we were out by the road waiting for a tuc-tuc (3wheeled thing that we use to get places), a bus (really just big vans that are always super super full and we hang out the side of them) or a jalon (hitchhike, yes we do that here) to go to the area of the hermanas to work with them. while we were waiting  i felt something weird.... it felt like a large semitruck had just passed very close to me making the ground shake, but there werent any semis..... it was an EARTHQUAKE!!!! galvez looked at me and said; do you feel that? and i said yes and we freaked out because we were right by this sign that was swaying.  we moved and i actually really enjoyed it and then it stopped and everything was ok.  as far as we know there has not been any damage or loss of life so that is way good!!  

other than that i dont really have anything else to say this week.  it was a good, hard week and we are planning on having a great week to come.  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ZAC!!!!!!

hope all is well back home.

love

elder meyer