March 31 2014

Hola Familia, I just have one question for you...

Have you ever dressed a dead man for his burial?

Well, now I can say that I have! And I have to say that that was the highlight of the week. Elder Flores and I were walking in the street one day, in the very merry month of... March, when, suddenly, a man approached us. "Hello, Elders," he began, "You don´t know me, but I know you. Actually, I´m an inactive member of your church and also a returned missionary. My father just died, and we have to dress him in his temple clothes so he can be buried. But I don´t remember how the temple clothes go, so I want to know if you two can help me."

Needless to say, we called the mission President to ask his permission. "Elders," he began, "I´ve done this before, and it will affect you both a lot psycologically." he told us some other things along those lines, and it was enough to have us scared halfway out of our minds when we got to the funeral home. The hermano started to undress (Yes, we had to touch a naked dead man), and then dress his father, requesting our help when necessary. When we got about halfway through the process, the bishop arrived, and started to help us. when he put on a part of the deceased hermano´s clothes, he told us something interesting: "I have to put this on well," He said, "because this is how the Hermano is gonna look when he wakes up in the ressurection, and I do NOT want him to walk around in that day saying, ´Bishop Robles didn´t dress me right!´"

At first it was funny, but then we got to talking about judgement day, our ancestors, and the Ressurection, and everything took on a new perspective for us. an experience that was heavily awkward only moments before, turned into one of the most spiritual experiences of my mission :)

That´s my story of the week, because nothing else I can tell you can really top it. My comp and I get along great, and I hope we stay that way until the end of all this... even though I miss Jackie Chan... oh! and my last General Conference in the mission is next week! so we´ll see how that goes :)

Stay In school!

Elder Stormy Sheppard