alejandro: a story from dallen

alright, ana's dad is named alejandro.

we found alejandro knocking doors. we thought he was golden. he was a miracle because through him we found ana. but it was one of those packaged up little blessings that comes in a different wrapper then you thought. when we contacted alejandro, he told us that he had listened to the missionaries a lot and attended church a lot. we asked him if he was baptized and he said that he had gotten married to get baptized in our church, that is a miracle...just so you know, but then he said the week of his baptism they moved here and didn't actually do the ordinance. we were stoked, we had been praying to find some kind of tender mercy and we were sure it had come. after talking to him for a while, he confessed that when everything fell through where he was, he started smoking again, and drinking and he had basically been drinking ever since. I sensed something wrong in our conversation but, it started to make a lot more sense the more he talked...he was in bad shape. 

We started to put goals with him and stop by to give him the support he needed and try to get him to come to church, he always found some excuse, but his daughter of 11 always came with us. She was always wating with a smile, her only set of clothes as clean as she could get them and her ragged backpack on her shoulder with the BOM inside, "i never forget the bible" she always says. She stole my heart, chiara. watch out ;) so, we stop by one day and alejandro is heartbroken because some guys tried to break into his house and steal his TV but they dropped it and broke it, so ana has nothing to do...nothing, all day in the cement box they call a house. ana answered our knock at the door the next day and said her dad had taken off earlier that day. i had brought my dvd player to watch the restoration video with them...not being able to teach her alone and seeing her in the door and over her shoulder the dark, dank, empty scene, i left her the dvd player. She had shown me a bunch of dvds that she had collected so i figured she could put it to work. she took it and was so excited. her exact translated words after jumping up and down and squeezing me, "don't you worry, i'll guard it with my life". we took off.

we come by the next day and alejandro comes to the door. first thing he says, "hey, did you guys give my daughter permission to use your...thing? "yes". he's tipsy. "well, i didn't let her touch it because i don't like messing with other people's stuff, here, take it back." "well, alejandro, can we watch the video we brought first and after we'll take it." "ok" we watched the video and then spent an hour explaining it all and getting after alejandro a little for not trying to achieve the goals we set.

after the lesson, i tell them both that i'm going to leave the dvd so that they can watch a movie as a family because ana was dying haha, her little face.
 

the next day we go by to get it, knock knock... out comes alejandro (drunk again). i say, "hey, alejandro we just came by to pick up the dvd. we didn't want to bug you. is it alright if we take it"

"yeah, no problem, just a second."

he goes inside and comes out with ana. he starts spouting of a story about how she just took it to the church and gave it to some mystery guy in a suit...it's tuesday. she just nods, not looking up, to everything he saids. i'm like, "no problem, we'll go look for it. can we come in for a second and say a prayer with you?" "yeah, no problem"

we go in and not only does he have a new tv, but a COMPUTER and a bottle of champagne sitting by his chair. i was a little pissed. i didn't say anything, but i took the bottle and threw it in the street. it shattered and his freaking champagne went everywhere. he just stared at me, glazed, and i gave him 50 pesos and told him to go buy some milk for his daughters. then we left. ana still comes to church with us and will be baptized this week. but i haven't gone back to see alejandro.

for some reason too, i had asked my mom, the week before to send me a new dvd player...i didn't know why? stuff happens. and we are guided. not that a dvd player was a necessity, but we all learned a lesson from that. God knows.


---Elder Davies