Jacob and Hailey wanted some friends to come over and I gave a lecture to Jacob about leaving his sister and her friends alone when they're in the house playing. Jacob informed me that it's only his friend Andrew who bugs Hailey when he's over because Andrew likes Hailey. I asked Jacob how he knew Andrew liked Hailey and that's when Hailey yelled down the hallway that Andrew told her once that he likes her. Jacob concurred and then told me that Andrew pretends to be mean to Hailey and tries to drive her crazy so she doesn't think he likes her. (So that's why boys are mean to girls when they're little, even though they like them. I have just been educated about the matter from a six year old himself.)
Brennan shared a story from his mission in Brazil that I hadn't heard before (or at least the full story). At one point during Brennan's two year mission, he was transferred to a little town of about 20,000 people. Apparently there hadn't been any missionaries in the area for about three years because the last missionaries screwed around and gave people the wrong impression about the church, a stumbling block if you will.
Brennan and his companion were the first set of missionaries the town had seen in a long time. Brennan shared this story. One day he and his companion were having lunch on the sidewalk, outside of a cafe. He said that the main road in town was backed up with traffic. At one point, a car accident occurred where a young man rearended an older gentleman and his wife. Both men stepped out of their cars and instantly began arguing. It wasn't long until the younger gentleman began violently beating the old man. Brennan said that he looked around and realized that no one was going to help the old man, so he ran over and held the younger guy in a headlock until he finally passed out.
The police showed up and at that point, the younger man finally woke up and pursued Brennan. The police intervened and the man was arrested.
Brennan was required to attend court, to testify of what had happened on the scene. The younger man approached Brennan and told him that when he got out of jail, that he was going to find Brennan and kill him. Brennan took the threat seriously and quickly alerted the mission president of his now endangered life.
Well, the mission president felt that Brennan needed to stay in town and that's where he stayed for the next 5 months.
Brennan expressed that he felt that this experience in his life, the moment where he helped save an elderly man from getting beaten to death, was a blessing and act from God to help open the door to missionary work, once again, in this small town. Everywhere he went, people would call him, " A Gravata" which means "tie" and is the term used for a headlock move in wrestling. He would knock on doors and people would open and say, " A Gravata!" and then invite him in. Apparently everyone had heard about him on the news and when you're the only Mormon missionaries in town with white shirts and name tags, you're pretty easy to recognize.
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