So we were at McDonald's and on accident they gave me a
kid's meal but told me I could keep it...and lo and behold there was a
smurf inside. So I decided to go smurfing but "Missionary Smurfing."
I'm taking this little guy around with me everywhere...notice his own
tag. ;)
Meet Elder Smurf.
Elder Smurf goes driving with us everywhere.
He is such a great nightly planner! He always has the best input...
He even comes with us to all of our appointments...
(More on the smurfing next week)
....I've also got a fun little story to share with you all this week.
Thought you might like to know. We've been busy with exchanges this
week, as always and this Friday I was here in the area with a new
English sister missionary who just came out this transfer and Sister
Biancardi who was in their area back in El Paso. Of course this would
happen to me on an exchange. I have the best luck. :)
We were visiting an investigator and he wasn't home so we got back in the truck and I made a
quick phone call to one of the sisters who wasn't feeling very good
that morning so we sat in the truck outside of the house for a good 10
minutes. (PS, we had a member in the back with us coming to
appointments). I finally pulled out and started heading to our dinner
appointment on the other side of Horizon a good 20 minutes away. We
had just enough time to get there and to drop off our member.
I noticed a cop car going the opposite way and checked to make sure I
was going the speed limit and I was, so I had no reason to worry. I
thought. ...I thought wrong. :) He turned around and started following
us. I made a comment that I really don't like
when cops do that. It always freaks me out. He followed me for about 5
minutes and I really started getting ancy but I wasn't doing anything
wrong so I told myself to calm down. Finally turned his lights on and I couldn't believe he
was pulling us over and I couldn't figure out why?? I rolled down the
window and he asked me my name and what we were doing in the area. I
told him that I was Sister Silva and that we were missionaries for The
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints and that we were spreading
the gospel of Jesus Christ. He gave me the look like 'yah right' and
said that they had received a call reporting two suspicious females in
a white truck selling books! Can you believe it? I almost started
laughing...until I saw 2 more cop cars pull up and 4 more police
officers step out. I definitely didn't laugh when he told me to step
out of the vehicle myself. I told him that it was a rule my companion
come with me and he told me firmly..No. So I yelled back at the sister to roll down her window so we'd be in sight and sound of
each other and I went with the officer. The officer introduced me to a
Detective 'someone' and she began asking questions (with a body guard
by her side whose hand sat promptly on his gun the entire time...not.
even. kidding.) By this point I was starting to tremble a little and
thought we might have to cancel dinner haha. I felt an impression to
state our missionary purpose and to testify to her. It was kind of
fun. I told her that I was a missionary for the Lord and that our
purpose was to invite others to come unto Christ, to learn of Him and
to help them receive His restored gospel and so on...she then asked
how many of us were there. I told her I thought about 76,000 of us
now. She looked at me bluntly and said she meant in our area only. I
told her at least 10 of us or so. Sometimes we ride bikes, sometimes
in cars and no we don't sell books. We give them free of charge. She
started to look a little sheepish and I tried to contain my laughter.
The whole situation was just funny. They finally let us go but only
because they cleared our licenses and because we had our missionary
identification cards on us. Totally gained a testimony of keeping
those on us at all times! They told us how important it was in the MTC
but I now have an understanding of the 'WHY' behind it. Later (after
getting to dinner a little late) the bishop's daughter told us
the rumor that has been going around. Apparently, there's been a lady
going around selling children's books and targeting families and then
kidnapping the children and selling them into child trafficking!
Absolutely terrible...but it hit me that that is exactly why we got
pulled over. Bottom line is...I got mistaken for a child trafficker
this week! Totally makes sense because we are always looking for
families to teach and a common question we ask is, "So, how many
children do you have?" However there is a BIG difference between the
two situations of course but I can see the reason we got pulled over.
Hilarious now...at the time no. Anyways, just the general life of a
Sister Missionary.
Love you all and have a greeeeaaaat week!
-Hermana Silva :)
(Read the news story here)
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