Crazy People

buenos dias!

this has been a pretty great week. sister kellett and i found 8 new investigators. we found two young families who are just amazing and really searching for more in their lives. we also found a pretty awesome guy named genaro. genaro villarreal. who knows, maybe if you googled his name you would find some crazy things. he was a pretty big time drug dealer. then about two years ago he got in a bad car accident. he was the only one who survived.. was in the hospital for three months. got busted for the drugs and everything, his wife left him and took his two kids, all of his cars and houses were reposessed, he's pretty physically damaged.. he's like on welfare/rehabilitation because he can't work. and he kind of has a little bit of brain damage, but who knows if it's from the drugs or from the crash. anyway.. he's awesome/crazy. so he's totally turned his life around to god. like he turned himself in for a bunch of other things he had done.. like stolen cars and such.. and is probably going to be facing a good 10 year jail sentence in a few months. he's working with his lawyer and has court dates and things. he reads the bible for hours every day and all sorts of books on jesus' life. he's very receptive to the things that we teach him. he has genuinely turned his life around and knows it's for the better that he's going to jail and he doesn't want to feel the guilt anymore, he knows he's done wrong, he hasn't done drugs since the accident.. etc. he's cool. the funny thing is though, he had a tattoo of his wife on his arm. but then after the accident and she left him and all that, he had her face tattooed over with like the freakiest looking skull face ever. i took a picture of it.. i will send it home some time. it's so funny.
hmm. what else.. i feel like crazy people are just attracted to missionaries for some reason. we meet the craziest people. it keeps life so entertaining. we meet this toothless guy. he had like two teeth. and he was talking to us about the bible, and the conversation was very calm and didn't have contention, but for some reason he was yelling. SO. loud. maybe he was deaf or something. but he would yell, and then make the weirdest facial expressions with his no teeth and it was the funniest thing ever. he was crazy.
we also meet very cool people. like we met this guy named Al. he just retired from being a teacher at the age of 80. and he is so fit! he exercises every morning. he used to be the texas state champion for boxing. he has this huge poster cut out of himself in like 1940.. which sounds kind of weird but i swear he's super cool. and he has the coolest thoughts and philosophies and really knows what life is about. like he was telling us about his friend who was the first mexican ever to be president of this very racist medical association in texas. and how proud he is of him and how we should never give up and should always keep working. and that work is the only thing we need in this life. as long as we're working we're learning and growing and staying alive. which is all so true. what a cool man. he's traveled the world being a teacher and helping people. he is my hero. his son got in an accident a few years ago (is like 35) and still can't walk. but they are both so positive and so grateful for the blessings that they have and are just an awesome family.
well.. i am out of time. it goes so fast. thanks for all the e-mails and things letters and things this week! i love and miss you all.
xoxo
brittany