September 10, 2010 Friday

September 10, 2010 Friday

ALEX

Alex was the bright spot of the day. We had 2 lessons scheduled, one with Katrina and the other with Joe, a young man we’d found about a week ago. We even had Renee Robinson, the branch president’s wife, there with us to help teach Katrina. And she wasn’t there. We waited for half an hour. She goes to the gym most mornings and usually is home by 10. We found out later she was running around getting ready for an “aromatherapy” party she was hosting that night. Then we went to Joe’s. One of the guys he lives with called him to the door. He approached the door, saw who we were and turned around ignoring us completely. And we’d even combed our hair! Guess he doesn’t want to hear the Gospel this month.
So later in the day we were tracting—Orson on the doors and me in the car. A little boy was coming down the sidewalk just whipping along on his scooter. When he saw me grinning, he stopped. “Hi,” he said, “want to see my new scooter,” lifting it up so I could see it. I asked if it was a birthday present. “No, well, yes, I think. My birthday is coming up. I’m 5 and going to be six. I can go really fast on this. Want to see?” And with that he was gone way up the sidewalk and around the corner. Eventually he came ripping back. I told him that was fast and he wanted to know how fast. I hadn’t paid attention to the time. I told him probably a couple of minutes. He thought it was more like 4 or 5. I was totally enjoying this—so many kids are taught to not speak to strangers that we really don’t get to visit with kids much. Then he told me he could do lots of tricks on the scooter and proceeded to do some jumping and swerving, etc. His face was totally concentrated on what he was doing. I found out his name is Alex, and he has an 8 year old brother who can do many more tricks. He tried to explain and demonstrate some of the older brother’s tricks. He was so cute. Then he saw his mom coming and asked me when I was coming back. He looked disappointed when I couldn’t give him a specific day and time; then he raced off to join his mum. What a little ray of sunshine he had been!