In one of the branches we attend I assist in the Primary. The very first Sunday we were there I was told
twice that the little boy, Fermin, seen on the left here, is crazy! They told me this in English, no less! He's five, but I've seen him down on the floor crying when he is picked on or doesn't get his way, and he is a little wound up sometimes, but in my opinion he is not crazy...a little hyper-active maybe, and a little young for his age, but I don't think he is crazy! Now mind you, I am not a professional and I can't understand much that he says, but that is how I see it. He really likes me and I like him. I worry that he will get a reputation in a small town that he can never outgrow. And in a small congregation it would be hard for others to see him as he really is. And I worry that his self-image could be damaged by such an opinion, whether he hears it voiced or not. Last week when we were there I learned that Fermin had been ill since our visit three weeks before and had a tennis ball sized tumor removed from his abdomen. I don't know the whole story, but I understood the words "tumor" and "cancer," and can only hope that he grows up to prove them all wrong! He really wanted to take a picture with my camera. I hesitated, but then relented, and he did a really good job of this second photo of the girls and me.
