Jerky Pal

Jerky Pal:

On Monday evening Elder Petrucka saw this little neighborhood on the map and wanted to go knock the doors there. When we drove over it was pitch black and looked a little sketchy and since I didn't feel like getting murdered we left.

The next day he wanted to go back, so after an early teaching visit we biked towards this place in the forgotten part of Groesbeck.

We pulled up and realized this was no ordinary neighborhood, it was a large run down trailer park. At some point in time the roads had probably been pretty nice but, after decades of neglect they had become dilapidated and decrepit. Bordering the trailer park on 3 sides was a thick forest guarded by a rusted barb-wired fence. We could hear noises coming from the forest too. Some were distant human voices others were not-so-human. Basically, imagine if Jurassic Park had a really old trailer park in it.

I took a step forward and I accidentally kicked something. A syringe. 

I made one of those smiles you make where you're just like, "whelp, this is a bad idea but I'm going to do it anyway." 

We Knocked on the first door and this guy who was simultaneously balding and growing his hair out answered. He had a really dazed look on his face and he smelled... questionable. 

"Hi!" I said, probably sounding really fake, "we're missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and we have a message about how God loves you."

He started swaying like he was inebriated and cut me off, "Nahbrah. We's Pente- we's Pentecostal. I believe." He was unable to make prolonged eye contact with either of us and looked like he was going to fall over. 

We gave him a card and left before he could throw up on one of us. This was shaping up to be an experience. 

We Knocked on another door. No answer. 

Then, we saw this Hispanic dude next door walk out of his house holding a tin tray of what looked like dried peppers or something.

He set the tray down on his grill and went to light his cigarette when I walked up to him and introduced ourselves. 

"No speaky English." He said with disappointment on his face. Then he brightened up a little bit, "¿Hablas Español?" 

"Un poco," I said holding up my fingers to indicate I only spoke a little Spanish.

I guess he misunderstood and thought we spoke more than we actually did because he started giving us his life story and why he didn't speak English. If I heard correctly, he had lived in Texas for about 15 years but since he was a migratory worker and he spends most of his time around other Spanish speaking migratory workers he just never got the chance to learn. 

He spoke for about 10 minutes and we used what little Spanish we knew to explain the Book of Mormon. 

After we finished I pointed at the tin tray and said, "¿Que es?"

"Es carne," he replied walking over to the tray. "Es, um... es..." He put his hands on his forehead so it looked like he had antlers. "Ah, si! Es carne de deer!" 

He picked up a piece and said something about salt. He said something that I assume was about how he poached it but I'm not really sure. 

He presented the piece to me, "here, here." He said excitedly. 

I carefully held the piece of jerky and took a closer look at it and then I tried handing it back to him. 

"¿Te Quieres?" He asked me. 

I was ecstatic on the inside, it's not everyday you meet a stranger that gives you a piece of deer jerky. On the outside though I was a little confused, "um, yeah," I said, looking at the jerky in my hands. 

He grabbed another piece of jerky and handed it to Elder Petrucka, "You take." 

He accepted and we stood there awkwardly. He gave us instructions on how to salt it... I think. The only 2 words i understood was 'sal' and 'horno.' Salt and oven. 

He then waved his hands in front of him, "No quiero dinero." He said smiling. 

I still felt like we should give him something I saw Elder Petrucka had grabbed a Spanish Book of Mormon from his bag and I said, "Trade, this for that." We handed the Book to him and he gracious accepted. We shook his hand and walked away. I turned around to say 'thank you!' again but he was gone. The only trace of him was the tray of deer jerky and an unlit cigarette. 

Since we didn't have a car Elder Petrucka volunteered to put the jerky in his bag until we could finish preparing it.

Th at night we put it in the oven for 10 minutes and sprinkled some salt on there in addition to some other things. We took a bite and I split it out immediately. Obviously we had done it wrong. 

Elder Petrucka didn't think so and ate a bit more. That night Elder Petrucka had to go to the bathroom 3 times. 

On a more spiritual note, 

our Branch Mission Leader spoke in sacrament meeting and told a story from his mission where they were going to see some speaker at church on a weekday. 

As our BML pulled up to the church he saw this woman in a really nice dress sitting outside the church in the dirt. He said the Spirit prompted him, go talk to her.

He ignored it. They went inside and about 15 minutes later they felt that they should leave. As they walked out they went a different way than they normally would and as they approached the exit, there was the same girl perfectly framed in the glass door, sitting in the dirt. Again the Spirit prompted him, go talk to her. 

Again, he ignored it. As he was driving out of the parking lot he saw the girl again. Once more the Spirit prompted him, go talk to her. This time he complied. 

He drove up to the girl rolled down his window and said, "Do you know who we are?"

"Yes," she replied "I'm a member."

He wasn't sure what else to say but then, as if someone else was speaking for him he said, "Your Father in Heaven loves you very much." 

The girl hung her head and burst into tears.

Our BML was then prompted to roll up his window and leave. 

As he drove away he turned to his companion and asked, "Was that weird?"

His companion said --and this is the part that struck me-- "Weird to the natural man... but a miracle to the saints."

Sometimes the Spirit prompts us to do things that may seem weird like: tell a random girl that her Father in Heaven loves her or, to walk 2 miles down highway 84 and then walk down a long driveway to talk with a woman and her husband. (Yes that happened to me. Yes it was awesome.)

But, following the Spirit always results in good things even if we don't understand why we're doing them. To quote the Words of Mormon 1:7, "And I do this for a wise purpose; for thus it whispereth me, according to the workings of the Spirit of the Lord which is in me. And now, I do not know all things; but the Lord knoweth all things which are to come; wherefore, he worketh in me to do according to his will."

Love y'all,

--Elder Murdoch

"We was hitchhiking down a long and dusty road"

Elder Petruka has only served in the city so the fact that there are only 1073 people amazed him.

Elder Petruka trying to get a cell signal out in the boonies