Matthew didn't get his usual Sunday email from the family, since we were vacationing hard (and thus the late date on this). From his synopsis of the week:

Monday, we had a lesson with our most progressing people,...[She] is having trouble giving up coffee, so she gave us the last of her coffee that she had in her house and we threw it away.

Tuesday, we had a lesson with Robert. In our church, the culture is to get there shortly before services start, and hang out and chat afterwards. Apparently in the church that Robert came from, it is the norm to get to church long before services start and chat then. So Robert showed up two hours before church started. He stayed until half an hour before church was supposed to start, then left, because he was turned away by all the kids in the chapel running around and playing video games.

Wednesday, we went to the food bank to volunteer. It reminded me a lot of Birch [ed. note: a place our family has volunteered at for many years], except on a much smaller scale. There were only about 20 pallets that people were taking food from, but we were downstacking pallets, moving product from the back of almost empty pallets towards the front so that people could get to the food easier, sorting out bad produce from good (we got a pallet full of 50 lb bags of carrots), breaking down boxes and taking them to the baler in the back, taking empty pallets and crates and stacking them in the back outside, and showing one of the managers the easiest way to break down a particular type of cardboard box.

If that doesn't sound a lot like Birch, I don't know what does.

Thursday, our dinner appointment with a member cancelled, and our two lessons cancelled.

Friday, our dinner appointment with a member cancelled, and our one lesson cancelled.

Saturday, we had an interesting discussion with...someone that missionaries have taught in the past....I will say that he has some interesting beliefs about where he came from before existing on earth, the purpose of life, and who the Devil is.

He then told us about chasing a web self-referal on the outskirts of their area (blowing their allotted miles), being locked out by a gate, finally reaching her on the phone, and hearing "Wait, are y'all with the Mormon church? Thanks, but no." and being hung up on. Happens a lot.

Sunday, no one that we were teaching came to church. Not the guy that showed up two hours early last Sunday, and not the couple that are on date to be baptized next Saturday.