Stories: Violence in Leon pt. 3
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 -- Add Story
| On Sunday the 27th of August, the paper reports that Civil War has been declared. I quote from my journal A bomb just went off not too far away. In fact, it was so close
that I could feel the sound wave very well. Both my comp and me jumped. Tonight while we were out we heard guns, bombs, shouting and things of that nature. There is group outside right now, yelling their heads off, shouting stuff in Spanish that I cant understand. Now I am hearing gun fire. As we were on our way in from proselytizing that night, a member asked us in because some rowdy things were going on in the neighborhood. >From Monday to Friday things were about the same as I read in my journal. Crowds gather in the street corners, barricades built out of the Samoza stone, broken glass in the street. We walked by some men who were openly wearing weapons. It reminded me of the old west that Hollywood portrays. It gave me an eerie feeling having those men stare at us as we walked by. Saturday, September 2nd, I split with Elder Smart, the other junior companion while my companion did a baptismal interview. When we got back in, the others told us that a bomb was thrown behind them and their hearing was just returning. They said they passed through an intersection of people and the next thing they knew was that there was an explosion right behind them. They could feel something behind them but they did not stop, turn or run. They just kept walking at an even pace. All they knew was their ears were ringing. Sunday through Wednesday was uneventful. Before we came home each night, we stopped at a members house to get the local news. As the week wore on, she became increasingly agitated about the danger of the streets. She invited us to spend the night at her home for safety reasons, but we felt it was because she had a 16-year-old daughter. Every night we would make our excuses to leave and walk the six blocks home. On Thursday, September 7th, things changed a little. The city turned off the street lights in the part of town were we lived. We had to walk the last four blocks in the dark. As we approached the darkness, my companion and I stopped on the street to decide what to do. We could hear yelling on the streets, but that went on every night. We finally decided to pray about what we should do. Our options were to walk straight through the darkness or circle around through downtown where it looked like we could get close to home before walking in the dark. Going home by way of the streetlights would take about 15 minutes longer. After our prayer, we both felt it would be safe just to go straight home. We couldnt see much, but we made it home okay. On Friday we stopped by the members house again. |
| |
|
|
|
List All | Add Story
|
