Out here on the mission in these small towns, many social events
seem to center around the local churches or the schools. During the fall, we
attended several of the High School football games partly to support our next
door neighbor boy who played on the team. These particular neighbors consist of
a single mom and her son. When we first came out here, we went to meet all the
neighbors and took them chocolate chip cookies. When we first went to these
particular neighbors, only the son was home, so we left the cookies with him.
We had a good conversation with the son; he was very talkative and mentioned to
us that he played on the football team. We later went back to try to meet the
mother and she was sitting on the front porch talking on the phone and crying about
something. She seemed to be dealing with some family matter and didn’t seem too
excited to see us or meet us. It was a little uncomfortable standing on the
porch waiting to introduce ourselves while she was having a lengthy emotional
conversation on the phone. Finally she interrupted her conversation long enough
to say she couldn’t talk to us.
We would still see the son as we went on our morning walks and
he was leaving for school. So we attended several of the high school football
games. The football team was not that good, I don’t think they won any games.
But, it was interesting when the mom would come to the games to watch her son
play, she would bring her very large green Parrot, which sat on her shoulder
during the game and would squawk on occasion. I would be concerned about
getting bird droppings down my back. However it didn’t seem to be a concern of
hers.
During those games I believe she warmed up to us some, on one
occasion she asked us to watch her purse while she went out.
Then about a month ago I was up early, it was still dark
outside, doing scripture study and I hear a knock on the door. It was this
neighbor, she explained that she was going to her son’s wrestling tournament
and her car would not start. She had jumper cables and I was able to give her a
jump and help her get her car started. So while they are not taking the
discussions, I think we are on good terms with her.
