BREAD RUNS ARE GOOD!

July 7, 2010 Wednesday

BREAD RUNS ARE GOOD!

We did the bread run tonight. After the hitting the regulars who need the help, we went to Town Beach where there are always backpackers who love free bread. There was a group of 4 or 5 older couples who had just pulled in in small rented motorhomes. They were from New Zealand. We had a good conversation with them and gave them pass along cards. We then went over to the other side of the parking lot where there were about 4 vans. Some of the kids there had gotten bread from us in the past and were happy to see us again. One Chinese youth came over to talk to us and his first question was, “You believe in life after death, right?” Well, that was enough to get us started. He was very sharp and is from Taiwan. He’s working here for a little while to get some more money to continue on his trip. He gave us his phone number; we’re going to try to teach him while he’s here. He’s familiar with the church in Taiwan and has seen the elders over there. His name is Joseph Tang. His English is great, and he even commented that he has a great first name after we gave him the Joseph Smith pamphlet.
Then we went to the Wylde’s home hoping we would also run into the Brazilians we’d met 2 weeks ago. We did, and they apologized all over the place that they’d had to cancel the lesson Sunday. We’d given them an Ensign last week, and Ricardo had read a lot of it and was very interested in the concept of temples. We’d worried about all the Buddhist looking stuff in their home, and he brought up the concept of Karma while talking to Orson tonight. So we do have a bit of a challenge there. They made an appointment for Saturday afternoon so we can teach them. Hurray!
Poor Luisa, though. She works at a pre-school that takes in Aboriginal kids. She said that the other day a little kid threw a hand full of sand in her face. And the laws here are so strict that they couldn’t punish him in any way for what he did. Evidently, no one can even look them in the eye (which is like challenging them) or touch them in any way that could be construed as forceful. No wonder some of them are the challenges that they are in school!