La Familia Cruz y Su Armadillo

We spent last Saturday and Sunday with members and the missionaries of the branch of the small city of General Villegas, which is a 6 to 7 hour drive out into the "campo" (the countryside). While we were in General Villegas, President Benton extended a call to Brother Cruz (in the blue sweater), to serve as President of the Branch, and he accepted.

After church on Sunday, the Cruz family held a lunch in their home, which included me, Pres. Benton, Elder Weaver, (from Utah)  and Elder D´Avila (from Chile).

The bottom photo is of us with the Elders, and the Cruz Family, Natalia (in the red sweater on the left), her husband Christian, Sister Cruz (on my right), Brother Cruz,next to Sister Cruz, Elder Weaver on the left, in front, and Elder D´Avila, on the right.

(Before Brother Cruz was called as Branch President, Elder D´Avila was serving as Branch President of the General Villegas Branch.)

Things got very exciting after lunch, when one of the Elders told me that the Cruz Family had a pet Armadillo, and I asked if we could see it, thinking that we would be taken out in back of the house to look at the pet Armadillo in its cage.

Well, surprise, suprise!! The next thing I knew, Brother Cruz was walking into the house with the Armadillo, which was upside down in his hand, so he could show it to us. The little creature´s  rat-like legs and paws were batting at the air as if it was running away from us, but, of course it was not getting anywhere, because it was upside down in Brother Cruz´s hand. The armadillo was furry on the bottom, but the skin on its top looked like the skin of a rhinoceros. Its eyes and snout looked like a cross between a possum and a rat.

I had seen alot of Armadillos dead on the side of the highway when we lived in Texas, (it´s the state animal of Texas), but I had always assumed that Armadillos were very slow, like turtles. The events that happened next totally changed my mind about Armadillos being slow.

As I was nervously pondering the looks of the Armadillo, President Benton asked if he could have his photo taken while he was holding it.

Right after the photo was snapped of Presidente Benton holding the Armadillo, he accidently dropped it, and it started running really fast around the kitchen, where we were all standing!

Immediately, Natalia and Sister Cruz began screaming at the top of their lungs in fear of the Armadillo, and I joined in with their screaming, because I figured that if the owners of this little guy were panicking about him when he was running rapidly around on the floor, I was going to go ahead and panic about the situation too!

When the mayhem finally had settled down, and the Armadillo was safely outside of the house again, I knew that the memories we had made with the Cruz family and the missionaries that Sunday  were happy memories,  which would last forever. We will always cherish the memory of being part of the historical milestone of a member of the Branch of General Villegas being called as Branch President, topped off with a great lunch at the Cruz home and an Armadillo on the loose.

All of these types of events combine to make our missionary work rewarding, exciting, joyful, and definitely not boring!