Mr. Worldwide and Holy Cow He's Been Shot

Disclaimer: 

This email is not intended for children. Please do not read this with children under the age of 14. Also not intended for those who are squeamish or worry a lot.

Mr. Worldwide:

This is a short story but I still think it was very cool. 

We started seriously learning Swahili recently and after we had listened to a "Learn Swahili CD" we pulled up to a house where the primary language was Swahili (The dad speaks decent French) the kids answered and we spoke what Swahili we knew with themv

"Jambo?"

"Habari-gani?"

"Nzrui-sana"

"Wewe unafahamu kingireza?"

"Kidogo"

Then the wife showed up and we switched to French 

"Est F***** ici?"

"No, Il à travaille"

Then we switched back into Swahili

"Kwa heri!"

"Asante!"

Then we went to a Mexican restaurant where missionaries eat for free. The Spanish Elders must be the only ones that go there because everyone spoke to us only in Spanish until they started going into words we didnt know. We replied in what Spanish they knew and then said we didnt speak it. Then they apologized and switched into English. 

Then it hit me. 

I spoke 4 languages within an hour.

Call me Mr. Worldwide.

"Holy Cow he's been shot":

Our apartment building is in the back of our complex so from our window we can see a laundromat parking lot. The parking lot and our building is separated by a fence. We are on the 2nd story of our building so we can see the entire parking lot. Just keep that visual in your head.

We came back from 6 hours of meetings (we have 2 wards) and I was making z chicken and Elder Alleman, pancakes all of the sudden we hear 4 gunshots in rapid succession coming from outside.

Gun shots had been a pretty common occurrence in Mexia because there was a field next to our apartment where people would hunt. I then realized that this wasn't Mexia and we looked at each other and ran to the window.

 We peeked saw a young African-American man who looked like, well, like he'd been shot. With one hand clutching his side and the other hand holding a gun he coughed, and sputtered, and stumbled right below our apartment window. The only divider was the fence which he was laying next to. 

There was blood all over his torso. It felt like he looked up at us and his eyes then rolled into the back of his head.

"Holy Cow that guy was just shot!" We said in unison.

 I instinctively called 911. And Elder Alleman looked out the window to see if the attacker could be seen but they had disappeared.  A crowd of people just stood there looming over the victim.  Then 2 people that looked competent tried to help the man but they weren't exactly sure what to do either. 

We weren't sure what we should do. The fence separated us so we couldn't do first aid so we kind of just stood there frozen in shock. We turned around and Elder Alleman's pancake had been incinerated so we rushed fix that mess while we waited for the police.

An eternity later the cops showed up  pulled the crowd away from the man then they stood there like they werent sure what to do. They sluggishly stripped the man of his shirt and covered up the wound in his chest then paramedics showed up and did some speedy medical work on him and drug him away. I'm not sure if he was alive or dead, in fact we didnt see the paramedics put him in the ambulance we were too busy freaking out on the phone asking the ZL's what protocol was.

We tried to eat as we watched the crime scene unfold and we called President Whitney to see what we should do. He just laughed and told us "Not to go looking for the police but to talk to them if they talk to us." Then he chuckled and said a similar experience happened to him on his mission. Then he hung up leaving us with very little instruction on what to do. 

We finished up dinner and took off without saying a word to anyone.

On a more spiritual note:

A testimony from a member in Fort Worth 8th ward really struck me yesterday. He essentially said: "I cannot testify that Christ is risen. I wasnt there. I don't know. What I do know if that by following his teachings and the principles found in the Book of Mormon I feel good. And I've only felt this happy since I became a member. And so, logically if I feel good about something logically I can put my faith in it. So I testify to you that I have faith that this church is true."

I just liked what he said, that was all.

Love y'all,

--Elder Murdoch 

(I did not get any pictures of the crime scene)

Pics 1-2: our investigators thought they looked pretty fly in their suits so we did a photo shoot in the church parking lot.