Great Christmas Present

Yes indeed it was good to talk to everyone. I had a great christmas- we spent a lot of time with all the elders here in Valles so it was fun. Tuesday we headed out for Victoria for Zone conference- Wednesday was the zone conference and Thursday was Christmas. After I talked with you guys we went and visited Ana. It was the greatest Christmas present of all when in her prayer she thanked Heavenly Father for the opportunity to get work off to be able to go to church and be baptized. It was awesome. Friday was a little tough, we did a lot of walking and and didn't find too many people at home. It was a pretty tiring day, but we did find some new people to teach

Disappointment

Saturday started off well, but got kinda scary towards the end. We visited Ramiro and Nayeli, the family that went to church last week and they gave us breakfast, beans with cheese and tortillas- and of course we drank Coca Cola. Later we visited a woman named Angelica, and she seemed interested. She goes to the baptist church, but I think the message really touched her. After lunch our appointments kind of fell through, but then we went to a baptism. Ana came late, but seemed as if she enjoyed it. We were going to go to her house for an appointment, but she had to go somewhere else. She said that she couldn't be baptized on Sunday and gave us a lot of reasons why she needed more time. We talked with her for a while and it came out that she didn't know if President Monson was a prophet. She said she was having a lot of doubts about baptism because her parents were saying things. We talked for a while and told her to read and pray about it. It was a pretty disappointing night.

Happy New Year!

Sunday Ana didn't show up at church. I was pretty sad but later after the prayer she came walking in. Church was good, she enjoyed it again, but the best part was that in the gospel principles class we talked about the church in the time of Christ. She understood everything and the class helped her resolve her doubts. It was definitely an answer to many prayers the night before. We visited her after church and she is going to be baptized on Thursday! Happy New Year!

Contacting a New Way

We have been using a new method to contact and find people by the spirit and Sunday night we found 4 new people who have a lot of potential. We can't visit the family of 3 until next Sunday, but we were excited to find them. Everything is going well, not much changes in 4 days. But I love yoiu all and hope things continue to go well.

Singing Carols

1st night singing carols

Singing in the stake christmas activity

Singing in our suits

Sweet is the Work!

Tuesday we visited with Ana and she taught US the plan of salvation. She works in another area and the elders that found her dropped by and taught her while she was watching her bosses house. When we got to her house she pulled out a diarama that she had made of the plan and exlained every part to us and also to her brother. It was really cool. Then we shared some donuts we had bought with her family. Later that day we went to Tampico for the concilio with president. I went to visit some of the people from Cañada, but no one was home. But I did get to talk to Carolina and she said she was going to church every sunday and fulfilling with all the callings they giver her. I was so excited to hear that. I wasn`t really sure how she was doing in the church. But everything is great! Concilio was good, the only bad part was that president moss wasn`t in town and we didn`t go to the mission house to eat waffles. We had it in the high council room in the stake and only the assistants were there. It was fun though. Now 5 of the six americans from our MTC district are Zone leaders now. it was fun to be around and talk to them.

Teaching and Testifying

Thursday was our night to sing carols in our area. It went well, we found some new people to visit and helped a less active hermano feel the spirit. Our carols have really helped the zone this time of year with the work. It has worked out well. Friday we taught ana about Tithing and she understood it well. oh yeah! We also put a baptismal date with ana! She is going to be baptized on Sunday! I am so excited. Later on friday after caroling we were waiting in the bus station to go back to our area. A young couple contacted us and we were just talking to them. They accepted listining to our message and then we invited them to church and they were really excited to go. We told them we were going to pass by for them and they said ¨ok, but you`re going come right?¨ It was really cool. Saturday was good, we found some less actives that hadn`t been to church in a while, an dwe also found two new investigators. We also talked with Orlando and his brother (the one that has been baptized 3 times but not confirmed) and the brother seems interested. Orlando not so much, he just likes being friends with the elders.

Sunday was Awesome

Sunday was awesome. We had 3 investigators in sacrament meeting. Ana came and we also went to pick up the young couple. Everyone seemed to like it. We have been feeling so blessed, later we ate with an investigator and then a person that we invited twice before accepted us in her house. Her family from the other ward just got baptized and they sat in on the lesson with us and testified very strongly about the restoration and the blessings they have recieved. Their daughter/sister is a little shy, but i think she has potential.

Greatest Gift

Everything is good. I also am so excited to talk to you. I am so greatful for this time of year as well. Our Father in heaven gave us the greatest gift ever by sending his Son to the earth. I am so greatful for the opportunity to share that gift with the people here. This is the Church that Christ has established on the earth and he continues to guide it through his servants the Prophets. I love my Savior and am thankful for all the blessings i have recieved from Him and His Gospel. Love you lots. Talk to you on thursday.

And They Don't Know How to Read!

Time is just flying by. Today i complete 16 months away from home. Crazy. 2/3 of my mission is gone! This week went fairly well. Tuesday started out kinda slow, but then got better. We met with a inactive who now has some weird ideas about life and talks pure apostasy. We are hoping to be able to teach his wife and reactivate him. Later we found a former investigator Orlando who had already got baptized three times but never has gotten confirmed. We taught him and his girlfriend. He´s a funny guy. Later we taught the mom and grandma of a boy and girl that are recent converts, they went to church last sunday and have already listened to the missionaries, but are really excited to keep going and learn more. Wednesday was good we taught a few people and found a lady to teach. We felt the spirit a lot, but she can´t read so that will make things a bit more difficult for her to progress. Her granddaughter said she would read to her. Lets hope so. We met with Ana that night and talked about the Word of Wisdom. She drinks and smokes, but its not a problem for her. She had already gone 2 months without smoking but slipped up a little while ago. She knows its a commandment from God and it has helped her testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith grow more. She really liked the Family Home Evening activity and felt really good there with everyone. Thursday we taught a big fat lady, and it was pretty depressing. We felt the spirit so much and helped her with her problems, but she wouldn´t budge that she was catholic from birth and would never change. Friday started out pretty different. First we went and practiced our carols to sing, then as we were getting on the bus to go to our area, i saw my second companion from Abasolo. The ex-elder Aquino. Turns out he came back for a girl in the ward and is visiting this week. It was funny to see him and talk to him again. Later we visited ana and taught her about the keeping the Sabbath Day holy. She is progressing along great. That night was the christmas party for the stake. It went really well. A lot of our investigators went and had a lot of fun. Ana seemed to enjoy herself a lot. It was cool, someone talked about watching a soccer game and she said ¨as long as its not on sunday¨ - and continued on to explain keeping the sabbath day holy- exactly what we had taught her a couple hours before. The tamales we ate there were super good. Saturday we taught fransisca and concepcion, the mom and grandma of the kids and they learned how to pray. the grandma doesn´t know how to read either. The kids have the book of mormon on cd, hopefully they help their grandma out and play it for her. Later we found some new investigators, one was Antonia, she seemed to understand our message and said she was going to pray and go to church the next weekend. The onl y problem is that she can´t read either. Maybe we need to get some reading classes going on in the chapel or something. . . Later we had the first night of our carol singing in the area of Elder Morgan and Soltelo. It went great. We sang at some of their investigators houses, but then later as we were walking in the streets a woman asked why we were dressed like we were. We ended up singing silent night and as we finished she was in tears. She told us that she really knows that God lives and loves us because he always answers prayers. I was glad to be able to help her. Later after a couple people rejected our singing, a pretty rich family accepted and later accepted the elder in their house the next week to teach the restoration. It was great because they were a family that probably wouldn´t have accepted with a normal invitation. I hope it continues to go lik this in all the other areas. Sunday was good, we taught an awesome lesson with a new investigator and she understood perfectly the importance of the message. Now she only needs to continue and read and pray. We went and sang again on sunday night another area and it went well also. Things are going good. Tomorrow we go to tampico for concilio and later we are going to have a special christmas program for zone conference right before christmas. wow, we will be talking on the phone before you know it. It would probably be better if you call me. Its the best way.

Pictures from Trevor

Here comes the Train!

The Missionaries and Youth at after a cultural program.

"Polly want a cracker?"

The Work id Awesome

Today were transfers and I am staying here for another six weeks with my comp. I am glad I`m staying here for Christmas, the members are awesome and they take care of us well. Its going to try my patience staying with my comp though, he reminds me of Goofy- he wears these brown bootish like shoes, kind of hops when he walks and just gets overly excited about the smallest things. Its kind of funny, but he`s a great guy and means the best.

Tuesday was good, we practiced singing and later helped the hermanas from the ward sing during their Relief Society activity. Elder Salazar played the piano and I directed them. It was fun to see all the hnas from the stake and what they had prepared for the activity. Later we went with Ana, and taught her about faith, repentance, baptism and the holy ghost. She understood everything but didn`t feel quite ready for baptism at the moment. We didn`t set a date with her, but we are going to keep visiting her. She is awesome, she not only read 3rd Nephi 11, but also the introduction, in Alma, and in the bible dictionary too. Later she went to the family home evening we had on Thursday and really liked it. She was already making friends and was telling me that every week she makes a dinner and takes it to someone in the hospital! She`s going to fit perfectly in the relief society. The only negative thing is that she didn`t show up to church on sunday. But she`ll continue progressing i know it.

Baptism

Wednesday Elder Morgan the assistant came to do divisions in my area with me. Normally I`d go with him in Tampico, but the mom of his convert here in Valles was going to get baptised and wanted Morgan to do it. So we visited some people from his area and prepared everything and had the baptism. It was great, I`ve been able to eat dinner with the family on Wednesday nights and they are awesome.

Family Home Evening with the Ward

Thursday I watited for Elder Salazar to come in from Tampico and later we prepared for the family home evening in the ward that night. It went well, everyone had a good time and better yet there were 3 investigators there. Ana seemed to like the church. We talked about the parable of the wise man and foolish man, and how we need to heed the words of Christ and build our foundation stronger in him. It was good. Later we played a small game and ate cookies and juice. Everyone was excited to know when the next fhe was going to be

Progress

Friday was good, we were looking for less actives and ended up finding 2 new investigators, Ana and Magdalena. They are neighbors practically but we taught them seperately. They both seem really interested. What was even better was that on Sunday we went back to visit Anita a 16? year old girl, and her mom answered and said that she also read the pamphlet we left and she thought it was all very interesting. She told us about how Joseph Smith recieved the Aaronic Priesthood then the Melchezedic? I`m excited to see how they progress.

More Baptisms

Saturday we interviewed 5 people that were going to get baptized in our district. The elders over there have been working really hard and showing lots of love to the people. But it is always fun to interview people because you can see how much theyve learned and how much their lives have changed. Also you instantly earn affection from them, they invited us to eat breakfast and also to a little party Sunday night. And when we see each other in at church it is fun to talk to them. We went to the baptism later that day too.

Great is the Work

Sunday was good. We met with a less active and went to visit the investigators we found from Friday. We ended up finding another new investigator, but who knows if she`ll want to progress. We only lost one elder here from Valles, and 3 from Mante because of the transfers. So the zone will continue working well which is good.

Everything is great here. I know good things are coming this change. We are going to have success. I love this work and am greatful for the opportunity to serve the Lord. I love you all and hope you have another wonderful week.

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!

A circus came to town and one day these lions and tigers and bears were chillin out on the street. I wanted to go to the circus, but we didn´t make it.

What a Week!

This week was good. We did divisions with the elders from the other part of the zone again, but this time I stayed here in my area. It was a lot of traveling, I made 3 journeys there and 3 back. one trip takes about 1 hour and a half, not to mention the time waiting for buses. But it was fun to work with someone else for a change. At times the work gets mundane if you don´t try to change things up a bit. Right now me and my comp haven´t been changing things up- but we´ve decided to do it. The weather has been nice- at times it gets hot while walking- but the beginning of the week was cloudy and cool. Wednesday was rough, we visited soo many houses of investigators, but no one was there, or if they were they couldn´t visit us.

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was good (definitely better than last Thanksgiving). We spent half the day traveling to and from Mante, but we ended up eating a nice meal. I got meat (it wasn´t turkey but oh well) and potatoes and carrots. there was also good sour cream rice, and good juice. Later we went to the house to plan a family home evening and later a couple elders came over and we celebrated Thanksgiving playing uno and eating pizza. It was a good day, I just had to avoid thinking about all the family together. I did a pretty good job.

Where are the Investigators?

Recently we have been practicing singing, because we are going to sing carols next week to contact. We did that Friday and Saturday. Later Friday we had our family home eveing. It took a while for people to show up, but at the end there were about 23 people. I gave a lesson on obedience and later we played a memory match game about church questions. It turned out well and everyone had fun. The only bad thing was that there weren´t any investigators. We´re having another one on thursday and all the members promised to bring someone. We´ll see how it goes.

Awesome Investigator

We found an awesome investigator named Ana on Sunday night. She is one of the best I have seen in a while. She truly wants to know the truth and really wants to choose the right. We are going back tomorrow to see how her prayer went.

Signing Off with Love and Gratitude

Well, can´t remember too much else I was going to say. I love you all and am glad all is well with you. Next week are changes. I´m pretty sure I´ll stay here, but there´s a chance that I could leave. We´ll see. . . I am so greatful for the opportunity I have to be here serving the Lord. I have been soo blessed all my life with everything He has given me.

Its soo good to hear that Matthew has progressed. His pictures are so cute. He´s an awesome little guy. and i realized what i´m going to call him: Mateo.

Progress :/ ?

Things are good. I am feeling great here in Mexico. We are working really well together, but we aren`t having many results as of yet. I know they are coming though. Whether it be in the next change or farther into the future. We are teaching a lot of people. Not many are progressing or showing many signs of interest, but we are doing the best possible, and that`s all the Lord asks. But the weahter has gotten cooler (kindof like Mesa in these months) so that is good.

Doing the Work

Tuesday were the interviews with the president. Sister Moss sat in on our district meeting and liked what she saw. I truly love being around President Moss- he is truly called of God to lead this mission. We are devoting a lot of time to find and visit the less actives and while we are searching we invite everyone in the street. We visited two families and one of them after about 3 or 4 or more months were really excited to see us and visit with us. I think they are going through some harder times and realize that they need to be more obedient to recieve more blessings. They showed up on Sunday, so it was good.

Dark Knight

Wednesday we found a lot of less actives and found 2 new investigators who have potential. The less actives we found have children that aren`t baptized, so there is some work there to do. haha, we were going to eat with an hermana at night, when suddenly a bat came swooping down from a tree. I thought it was a sparrow at first (sparrows have had a knack for frightening me, but anyways) but later i realized it was a bat and me and my comp covered our heads and sprinted to the corner. It was one of those random funny instances that make you laugh.

Gospel is Awesom!

We visited the family that we found last week and watched the restoration video with them. The wife was crying and the little girl liked it a lot. I think they are our best hopes for baptisms in this transfer. They didn`t go to church, but I think with another visit they will want to go. We also visited a less active family, the kind that make you sad- those that have gone through the temple but later fall away and question whether Joseph Smith is a prophet. We visited a similar family in Tampico and in the both cases the problem comes because the husband starts drinking again. The gospel is awesome when we follow it!

Golden Contact

Friday was rainy pretty much all day. It was nice, but it was hard to contact and find new people. But we managed to find a new family and find a golden contact, but for another area. It doesn`t matter though. We visited Jose Luis again and watched the video about the mediator. He and his wife liked it a lot and we really felt the spirit. He shared his testimony, said he wanted to get baptized, and said he could quit smoking easily. It was an awesome feeling.

Seek and Ye Shall Find

Saturday we tried looking for people, but once again it proved difficult considering all the numbers of the street are mixed up. and we are looking for people that in some cases lived here over 25 years ago. But it was ok, because we found a lady and her son that listened to the message and seemed really interested. We were going to go back later that night to give them the Book of Mormon, but they weren`t there. In the afternoon we went to a baptism of one companionship here and it was awesome- she was so excited to get baptized.

Ups and Downs

Sunday was good, except for the fact that Jose Luis didn`t go to church, but his daughter did and Maxi and her family did (less active family from Tuesday). Also some other less actives went for the second time, Paty and Oscar. It was great. But later we went by and visted Jose Luis and it was a complete change from Friday. before we even started he told us he didn`t want to listed, and didn`t want to get baptized and confirmed yet. It was pretty sad, but we didn`t let it get us down too much. One day he`ll finally do it- he just needs more time. I guess he had a nightmare or something and it scared him to get baptised. He saw the trials that his family had to go through to get baptized and he doesn`t want to go through them.

Growth

I am doing good- I am so happy with the zone that I have. They love to work and they really care about the people they serve. There are some other zones where the Elders are usually lazier. This might have been one of them a while ago, but now we are all working very well. It is good to not have to worry about problem missionaries.

I hope everything continues to go well. I will still pray for Matthew. It is good to know all the other grandchildren and family members are well. I am so greatful for the increased spirit I have been feeling and how much more I understand. I still have a LOT to learn, but I feel like I am getting better.

A Very Good Day

Saturday was good- we visited a reference and she was so nice and we felt the spirit a lot. She might not be prepared to get baptized at this time, but I know our message helped her out a lot. Later we went to visit the converts of my comp in his old area, to help them go back to church (it worked). Later we went out to eat with an hna. from the other ward becaue our whole ward went to the temple. We ended up eating seafood and I really liked it. I thought I didn`t eat fish and seafood because I didn`t like it, but that`s not it at all. I didn`t eat it because you never really cooked it mom. Later we were invited to a birthday party by an investigator and we went there to support her family. It was a lot of fun. Later we went to the Cultural Ceremony for the Rededication of the Mexico City Temple. It was cool. President Monson and Eyring went and spoke. President Eyring talked about how his dad and granpa were Mexican citizens so coming to Mexico was like ¨coming home¨ President Monson talked about how he loved the Mexican people and how he had a Mexican friend in elementary school and they were always late to school cause his mom would force them to eat enchiladas. He also sang a little song in Spanish that he learned in his Spanish class. It was hilarious. Later the youth did all their dances. The program was good, the sound and music was just a litte bit off. The dances were long at times, but all in all it was a good night.

Rededication of Mexico City Temple

Sunday was the rededication of the Temple and I can`t explain how good it was. The spirit there was so strong. When President Eyring and President Monson spoke; there was such great power and love flowing from them. They truly are servants of God. Most of the times we do not realize what special blessing we have to listen to their words. There was such a peace in that rededication, it makes me want to go throught the temple again so bad. I remember going to a temple dedication at a younger age (I don`t remember which one) but don`t remember much from it. After going through the temple and learning so much here this temple dedication meant much more to me. Later that night we found 2 different families while lost. The fathers are both members, but their wives and daughters are not. It was great to follow the Spirit and be blessed with more people to teach. I hope they pray and do what the Lord directs them to do.

Everything is Good :-)

Everything is good. I am getting along with my companion really well despite the fact that he is goofy. The work is good. We don`t have many fruits of our labors right now, but i know they will come. All it takes is faith and patience.

Trial of our Faith

It is good to know that Matthew is doing better. Earlier in the week and before I read the email I kind of suspected that something was wrong- but it didn`t distract me from the work. I was just so happy to find out that it wasn`t as bad as I was expecting. I will continue to pray for my little nephew. A couple weeks back as I was reflecting on how great life is and how blessed our family is, I was thinking about what kind of trial would come into our lives to try the faith. I knew that no matter what it was, we have the strength and the faith in our family to overcome whatever came our way. I know Carrie is strong and has shown the dedication necessary to the Lord to recieve His consolation. This weekend my heart has been overwhelmed with how much our Father loves us. I am constantly learning new things and know that as we remain faithful to our covenants, the Lord will help us.

The Work is Moving Forward

Tuesday we just happened to pass by a members house and her son`s girlfriend (Guadalupe) was there with her. We just started to teach her, we didn`t even ask if she wanted to listen. She has been to church a couple times i think, just as a visitor with the sister. She doesn`t seem too excited right now, but she is nice and says she wants to learn a bit more. It was good that we visited that house because she told us of a family that had recently moved behind her house. We had heard that the family had moved, but didn`t know where so it was good to find them. Later an hermano from the ward took us to a reference that he had found working. It was a young couple named Fernel and his wife Amalia. We haven`t been able to visit them again, but they are a young couple that are humble and seem to want to follow what God wants for them.

Wednesday we visited a reference of another member here. Her name is Elisa. It is weird though- she is the member`s son`s girlfriend, and she lives with the family. She is 18 and has a baby and for that was excommunicated from the Jehovah Witnesses. She is kind of scared of our church right now, but we are gaining confidence and i think she has potential.

Not a Good Day

Thursday I woke up kinda sick. We planned for the week, and then headed off to the lunch appointment. I was feeling kind of weird, so it was a more relaxed day. We visited Antonia, and her brother ended up butting into the lesson and said that her sister wasn`t going to get baptized and was happy in her religion, she was just too shy to tell us no. So that was kind of rough. Thats the thing though, she straight up told us she knew she needs to get baptized, so that`s why we kept visiting and bothering her about it. But now we probably won`t be visiting her anymore, its sad but it has to happen. Later we used a members computer to make announcements asking for references and also for the Volleyball tournament that we want to do.

Ups and Downs of Missionary Work

Friday we met with Elisa and her inactive boy friend and taught them about baptism. We asked her if she got answer would she get baptized and she said yes, so that is a good sign. Now she just needs to put forth the faith and works to get her answer. Later we met with some crazy less active members. One lady kept calling the prophets ¨dons¨ like ¨Don Heber¨, ¨Don McKay¨ and later ¨Don Moises and Abraham¨ it was pretty funny. We met with Guadalupe again that night and talked about prayer, but later her boyfriend got home from work and my companion tried to set a baptismal date with her. She rejected it and the boyfriend (who`s a member) started to get on our case about rushing her into baptism when she didn`t even know about the Book of Mormon.

Zone Conference with Pres. Moss

Saturday was our Zone Conference. We were up later than usual preparing for it, and had to get up earlier than usual to go to the other city where it was going to be held. It went all right, even though I think I bore all the misisonaries when I talk. I just hope that they apply everything we talked about to the work. We talked about the Christlike attributes and how they help us in our lives and in the missionary work. I love hearing President Moss`s talks at the end of zone conferences, they never get old.

Old Habits Die Hard

Sunday was a good day. I always get so tired after eating lunch- I think its due to the tradition of Sunday afternoon naps for years before the mission. My body is just used to sleeping on Sunday afternoon despite a year of being in the mission. I got over it though and later we went out to find the less actives from the list. A member accompanied us to visit her aunt and later we visited a less active member who gave us some good tacos. It was a good Sunday all in all.

Work is Slow

Things are going well, we are finding new people to teach- they aren`t progressing much right now, but I have faith that they will get on the stick. We are inviting a lot of people in the streets, but no one is showing even a bit of interest. I think we need to change something up a bit.

Another Good Week

This week was good. I am doing great. My companion and I have gotten more accustomed to each other, and everything is good. He is a bit strange at times, and is a work-a-holic. It amazes me at time. But he is so nice and I can learn a lot from him. That picture of the missionaries in masks was taken without me unforutnately. It was taken when I went to mante on divisions with the district leaders. I was disappointed though, cause the elders from mante had taken a picture like that, and I wanted one with my district, but they didn`t wait. We can just pretend like i`m one of those missionaries in the back. It sounds like all is well with the new nephew. Its soo good to finally have him here, it seems like I`ve been waiting forever. He looks good, keep the pictures coming. . . This week was all right, even though we spent it doing other things. Our only whole day of work was wednesday. Tuesday we had District meeting and got aquainted with each other. It was finally good not to have to give the lesson. Later we worked a little bit, then my comp went to write his family. Then we ate, and later talked to members trying to find less active members from the list.

First District in Valles

Trip to Tampico

Thursday we planned for the next week then headed out to Tampico for the Concilio with President Moss. We got there a bit earlier to practice a special musical number with 2 Zone leaders from Tampico. We actually finished a lot earlier than planned so we had some time to visit, ¨The Margaritas¨ from Cañada. That was the family that got baptized right before I got there, then Ana got baptized while I was there with Elder Garcia. It was weird to be back in my old area almost 4 months later. It was good to see the family though and talk with them to see that everything was alright. Later we arrived at the office house and ate sandwiches with all the other zone leaders from outside of Tampico. There are 3 other ZLs from my generation, Elder Hintze- my comp from the MTC, Elder Horton- his grandma lives in Mesa, and Elder Frazier.


Me with Hermana Margarita, Ana, Evelyn, and Elsa

Meeting with President Moss

President and Sister Moss with all the Zone Leaders in Tampico,

Friday was the training with the Assistants and President Moss. All went well, it is always so powerful when President Moss gives his message. He is such a great man and loves the Lord and all of us. It was weird to see my old comp Elder Avila again just after 4 days from him leaving. Once again we ate waffles (with peanut butter) and sloppy joes. We ended getting back to Valles at 8 and had time to eat tamales with an hermana.

Inspections-Goals & Testimony

Saturday the couple missionaries that are here (Elder and Sister Batt) came to Valles to do inspections on the 5 houses here in Valles. Me and my companion got to show them around to all the different houses. It was pretty fun to be with them, they are good people. Sister Batt`s sister was with them too. Their comments just cracked me up. It was weird to be around American ladies again. They were always commenting on the stuff that has become normal to me living here in Mexico for a year. Everything is going well. We have some pretty high goals for the month of November, now we just need to work hard to make everything happen. I have come so much closer to the Savior here. I know this is his work.

A Good and Crazy Week

This week was good, a little crazy, but ok. Tuesday we went to district meeting and I gave the lesson- it went well. Later a couple Elders had bought Halloween makeup and painted themselves like clowns. The story is that President Moss says that we look like clowns in our nonmissionary clothes and that we scare the people. So Elder Batchelor and Cabrera took a picture of them clownified, maybe they´ll give it to President Moss. Later we went to the store and got the famous ham and cheese rolls that we get after district meeting every Tuesday. Afterwards my comp said he had been feeling sick all morning, so we stayed in the house. It was pretty bad, he couldn´t leave because at any second he needed a bathroom. So we stayed home all Tuesday.

Maybe a Baptism?

Wednesday was good. We went to an appointment with a less active we found, but she didn´t show up. We spent that day finding people from the lists. On Sunday and Tuesday I was supposed to interview an investigator from another area for baptism. He didn´t show up, so the Elders kind of cancelled the baptism. They went to the chapel to tell the people that showed up that there wasn´t going to be a baptism. But it turns out that the guy (Angel) showed up and wanted to be baptized. So the Elder called me and asked if I could go to the church and do and interview. We went and I interviewed him, but the water in the font stopped filling, and there was only one member from the ward that was there. The counselor decided that it would be better to baptize him on Saturday.

Trio

Thursday we went to the bus station to pick up Elder Morgan. His companion ended his mission and had to go to Tampico about 4 days before the transfer ended. So we were in a Trio for about three days. At night we went to a mini reception of a couple that the Elders from our district helped get married. It was fun and there was good food. I met the investigators that were going to get baptized on Saturday.

Elder Avila Moving On

Friday Elder Avila called President Moss to ask if he still had permission to go see his brother in Tampico on Monday. President took advantage of the call and told my comp he was going to be the new Assistant. I kind of knew it was coming. He has 9 months left in the mission, and there really isn´t any Mexcian older than him (there are two, and they are really disobedient.) But I had a feeling since interviews that he was going to be Assistant. Later we did the interviews for the 5 people that were going to be baptized. One of them really didn´t know if she was going to get baptized but the other ones were really excited. It was pretty cool, a couple of them chose me and Elder Avila to baptize them. We had only known them a day, but they for some reason they wanted us to do it.

Crazy Day!

On Saturday we had a busy schedule. We had some citas in the morning, then we had to eat, go to the stake center to fill the font, we met some Elders there- I went with Elder Morgan to get his baptismal clothes and Elder Avila went with the other Elders to do another baptismal interview. We got back and waited for another companionship to get to the stake center to stay with Elder Morgan and help him with his baptism (Angel). Meanwhile me and Elder Avila went to our chapel where the 5 people were going to be baptized. When we got there only two of the 5 people showed up. And supposedly there was a big situation with the husband. At noon the Elders had past by and he was excited to be baptized, but 5 hours later he got all crazy and said that the church was from satan, that Joseph Smith never existed and that he was going to beat his new wife and a bunch of stuff like that. It was pretty crazy, especially since I was the one who had interviewed him the night before and he was really calm, happy, and ready to be baptized into the church. The baptism took place and later we went to pick up Elder Morgan at the stake. We got there and it turned out that Angel didn´t show up, so they went to his house to look for him. When they got there he hurried up and tried to get inside quickly, but then invited them in. It turns out he was drunk and was talking about havig a problem with the police. I felt pretty bad about that one too- I was the one who did the interview and he knew everything and really showed the desire to keep the commandments to be able to be baptized. Later we had a short meeting with the Stake President and then ate some tacos. An Hermana invited us to eat dessert, then at last we made it home. It was such a busy and crazy day!

Changes

Sunday was a good day. We went to church and later Avila said goodbye to all the members and stuff. We ate and later took my companion to the bus station. He headed off to Tampico and me and Elder Morgan spent the rest of sunday together. I flew solo while we passed all the numbers and got the changes from the assistants, but everything is good. Our zone didn´t get changed too much- I think we are getting three greenies and a couple other good elders so things should be good this next change. My new comanion will be Elder Salazar (no not Eduardo haha). He seems like a strange guy, but he´s a good Elder so things will be good here.

You Live Where?

Things are going okay in Valles. Nothing much exciting or noteworthy has really happened. Just work. Pretty much all week we visited our investigators and looked for members here in the area. One day it was pretty bad, the sun was blazing and we were not having any luck finding the house here. The adresses are ridiculous here. We will be looking for a house number 42 and the houses on the street skip from 27 to 700 and there is never a house number 42. We start to ask the people if they know the person or family, or where they live, but no one really knows. Sometimes its frustrating, because we knock doors only to ask people questions, and they don`t come out. We`re not even inviting them to listen and they don`t want to come out (even though we always drop the invitation on them at the end. bwa ha ha. . .) But we got smarter after being able to sort all the names and the colonies in which they lived in. We started going to the houses of members that we knew and asked them about all the members that lived nearby. With the information from the members it was much easier to find people, get to know them, and know more members. The week went much more efficiently later on. The bad part is that we should be talking with our ¨comitee¨ of members every week, but they`ve never showed up. This is supposed to be a team effort, us and the ward, but we`re not recieving too much support.

A Funny Thing

One funny thing that happened was that in the list we found some members that lived in our same street so we headed out to look for them first. We got out our gate and realized that the adress for the members was the address of our house! Its cause we live in a little courtyard (?) or a community, and all 3 houses leave out of the same gate. But the son of our landlord used to live with them, but now has moved away, but is still in our ward.

Family Home Evening

Friday we had a Family Home Evening with the Bishop and his counselor, their families, a recent convert family, and some new investigators. I`m not sure if the wife and daughter are members, she goes to seminary every morning, but the dad is not. We watched Together Forever and talked about families and our Fathers plan for them. It was good, and later we ate good food.

Slow Progress

Our investigators haven`t really been progressing as of late. Antonia still doesn`t feel like she`s ready to get baptised, She didn`t go to church on Sunday again. We think its because she was sick, hopefully thats the only reason. Jose Luis went to sacrament meeting with his wife, but then left. They have been going through adversity as of late, hopefully they can stay strong and he can smoke less and less every day. We haven`t been able to meet with Leyda. We have been meeting with 4 teenagers that recently got baptised. They don't go to church and are going through some tough times right now. The mom of 2 of them left without saying anything to another state to work, and she was kind of the example for all of them in the church. We visit them quite frequently, but it is different because they don`t apply anything we say and its like we are visiting them in vain. Normally if it was an investigator we would drop them, but they are members and need to come back.

Transfers Are Coming

I don`t know what else there is, next week are transfers- maybe my comp will get changed who knows. This change has gone by really fast. But my comps brother is coming to this mission, its pretty weird, even if my comp doesnt get changed he`s going to Tampico to see his brother. I might have to go with him. we`ll just see. I think we`re going to see a lot of big changes here in the mission, but after this transfer I think things are going to be a bit more tranquil in respect to the transfers and stuff.

Another Good Week :) !

This week was a good one, it flew by pretty fast. I don`t know what really happened in my area because for three days I wasn`t here! Early Tuesday morning me and my companion traveled about an hour away to Mante, the other half of our zone. We showed up for their district meeting and later I stayed and did divisions with the Districts leaders` companions. It was fun to get to know a new city and work with new elders. We got a little bit lost, the Rlder had only been in his area 3 weeks, and was a little disorganized, but we ended up teaching and visiting quite a few people

Switch-A-Roo

Wednesday we did an ol` switch a roo, my comp came up and dropped off one district leader, and picked up the other one. I headed off to a new area with the other companion. He only has one transfer in the mission, and it was his first day working without his trainer in charge. It was a pretty tiring day, we walked a lot to different houses, but most of them couldn`t visit or weren`t there. We walked in circles all day, nonstop. I was quite glad to get home and get in bed.

Thursday I got back to my area right before lunch and later we visisted Jose Luis, and then Leyda. Little by little Jose is quitting smoking. Leyda is the investigator that I found with Elder Mendez last week. We were finally able to visit with her again and we gave her the Book of Mormon. She feels like an awesome person, if she completes with her commitments I know she`ll recieve an answer. She had gone to church a couple times 15 years ago in Tabasco when the missionaries invited her, and she had remembered the name Nefi (Nephi) from that time. It was pretty cool. I`m pretty sure on Thursday we visited Antonia too. She still doesn`t feel like she`s ready for baptism. Its getting pretty hard to hear the same thing over and over, even when we resolve all of her doubts for her. she`s such a good person, but for some reason is afraid.

Divisions with Elder Morgan

Friday I went on Divisions with Elder Morgan here in Valles. Its always different to be with an American. One, because you talk in English all day (at times I started speaking in Spanish to him), and two, because everyone stares at us even more than they normally do. It was really fun though, we worked hard looking for less actives, but weren`t succesful. Although we did find some new people and taught the first lesson. Later we went to the baptism of a comanionship here, and waited for a meeting with the Bishopric that they never showed up to. Overall it was a good time.

Baptism?

Saturday we went around and visited people before lunch, ate, then went to the Stake Center for a baptism of an 8 year old from the ward. The Bishop told us it was that day and Elder Avila was going to baptize him. We got there and no one was there. We waited for an hour and the kid and his grandma showed up, but no Bishop. We waited for another hour, but the adult session of stake conference was starting and people started to show up for that. Finally the Bishop showed up, but had forgotten about the baptism. The session of stake conference was good, I love listening to the Temple president and his wife, hna. and President Bentley. They are awesome speakers. Sunday was Stake conference and it was good. Later we had the baptism of the child and it was also good. Short, but good.

I Love the Work!

I`m looking forward to this week. Its going to be the first week that we get to work in our area 100%, uninterrupted. Every other week we`ve had some reason to be traveling, but I think the last two weeks of this transfer are going to be free.

I love this work and know its of the Lord. I know this is where I`m supposed to be and is helping me be the man the Lord wants me to be. I loved what Elder Eyring said about preisthood responsibility. When we complete with what the Lord asks, he asks more of us. Or something like that. Also President Bentley said something like- ¨the Lord won`t ask of us what we can`t give.¨ It is so true. With the Lord all things are possible, and if we do what He says we will have joy in this life and all that He has in the life to come.

I love you all and am glad that you are all well and happy.

Testimonial of Conference

This week was great! General conference was awesome- I`m kicking myself for always being asleep in the basement in the past years. It is such a treat to hear from the Lord`s servants in these days. I love seeing all the apostles and hearing of the news that has happened in the past six months. I agree with President Monson when he said that the last six months have flew by. I enjoyed so many of the talks I don`t know where to start- Elder Bednars on prayer, Elder Hollands, Elder Eyrings, the one on sacrament, the one on unity, Elder Uchdorfs during priesthood. All of them were great. I am just sad that I can`t do everything they counseled all at once. But with the notes I took and the Ensign that comes out I will be set to be better every day. Once again we had the seperate TV in English and there were three of us Americans there watching together. It is always fun to have all the missionaries there in their suits with all the members there too. There is only one stake here in Valles, so all the elders were there.

Elders from Valles (minus 2) at Conference

Divisions with the Assistants

Tuesday we had divisions with the Assistants. My companion went to Tampico and Elder Mendez came here. It was cool because Mendez was my Zone Leader in Tampico and is one of my better friends here in the mission. He goes home this transfer. But we had a great time working together here in Valles. We planned and spent the day looking for members from the list to meet and revise their addresses and ordinance dates. At times the address doesn`t come complete, so we have to do some detective work to find the person. When we were knocking doors asking for someone, we found a inactive family and a person interested. Later we visited more people and found another new investigator named Leyda. We had an awesome lesson with her and the spirit was felt. We worked hard- but had fun doing it. The day went by quickly and before you knew it we were back at our house talking about good times together in Tampico.

Progress

Wednesday through Thursday continued with the work- searching for the ward members from the list and also visiting Antonia and Jose Luis. Jose Luis has started to smoke less and less. He is putting forth much more of an effort to quit, and we are helping him almost every day. He wants to be with his family and be baptized. Things are going well. Antonia still thinks it would be difficult to be baptized, even though she knows Joseph Smith was a prophet of the Lord. She went to the Relief Society broadcast and the first session of conference Saturday and seemed to really like it. Hopefully Elder Aidukaitus`s talk about his father joining in Brazil helped her be more excited.

Random Stuff

Me and 4 of the five companions that are still in the mission, elder Avila, Mendez, Garcia, and Callejas.

Thursday I had to take my suit to the dry cleaners because mold had sprouted out all over the place. One of my ties was all moldy too, so I took it to get washed too. It costed a pretty penny (for a missionary`s allowance).

Friday was especially difficult to find the members. We found a lot of the houses, but the people weren`t home and the family members that were there didn`t want to cooperate. We worked all day, but didn`t get a whole lot accomplished- those are always the hardest days.

I saw Jason Alston singing in the MTC choir during priesthood session. I thought that was pretty funny. I was looking to see if i knew anyone there and sure enough there he was.



Elders from Valles (minus 2) at Micos

Me at Micos

I also fell while I was hiking and now I have a slightly swollen left rign finger.

It's a Small World

I think I found a cousin here- Elder Peterson from Snowflake is also related to William Jordan Flake. I think his grandparents are in Mesa South Stake. It was pretty funny we were randomly talking about the temple in Snowflake and ended up about how we were related.

Thanks to my Family

Everything is going well here. I am happy, my comp is a good guy, the people here are friendly, and its a dryer heat. It is also starting to get cool in the mornings. . .

It sounds like you guys are doing awesome, I love looking at your blogs- its so nice to see the simple things, pictures, and videos of all you guys and your activities. Thanks for all the love and support. I know this is the Lords work and am greatful for the chance I have to invite others to come to Christ. As I see the youth here in Mexico and what their priorities are I am greatful for this opportunity to learn, mature, and grow. Talk to you later-

It's Raining, It's Pouring!

This week was good. It all started last Monday in the night time. 6 of us elders were getting our haircuts and as P-night was beginning, it started to rain a bit. As we headed towards a family home evening appointment it started to rain a bit harder. By the time you know it it was POURING! The streets started to flood a bit, and we were walking the streets trying not to get too wet without much luck. We started playing around a bit and my comp went to splash us all in the street, but as he lifted one foot to kick water on us, the other foot slipped from underneath him. He fell flat on his back in about 4 inches of dirty rainwater. It was quite hilarious. We were all laughing so hard. Afterwards, there was no way to get across the street, so we had to wade in up to our shins in the water. It was pretty fun. We showed up soaking wet to the noche de hogar, but we taught an awesome lesson on Christ and later ate some awesome tacos.

Trip to Victoria

Wednesday we traveled to Victoria which is about 4 hours away. It was fun traveling with the elders from the district. Normally when we travel, its only me and my companion. We had a good time. We got to Victoria and waited for the zone leaders there to come pick us up. It was raining pretty hard there too, and all the streets were flooded. We waited for a bus forever, but they weren`t coming. When a bus driver saw 12 guys standing at the bus stop he asked where we were going and said he`d drop us off at the stadium. Supposedly he dropped us off pretty far from the house and we walked once again in the rain.

Zone Conference

Thursday was the Zone Conference and it went fairly well. Elder Dr. Thomas, the psycologist came and talked to us again, but pretty much gave us the same shpiel as in January, but it was good, I love that guy, he`s so happy and taught me how to be happier here and in life. Too bad that he`s leaving though. But we didn`t have too much time to give our training after that- it went by pretty quick, we didn`t finish everything that we had planned. It went good I think- I still have some work to do to become a better teacher in front of a lot of people. I only lost my train of thought once and couldn`t really think of what I was saying. But my comp bailed me out, and everything went well. I talked about Exaltation and Obedience. Later Sister Moss shared a talk with us that Elder Holland gave in the Mexico MTC, and it was pretty much the same talk he gave to us when I was in the MTC. It`s a good talk. Later we visited a family from my comps old area in Victoria and headed off to Valles again.

Inactives and Investigators

Friday we started looking for inactives, searching from the new folders we have. We found a good number of them, it is just depressing to see them knowing the church, but willfully staying away, or falling away just cause they didn`t have the desire to go. Its interesting to see their reactions to us. We have no idea who they are at times, but they know who we are, and they feel guilty because they know what they haven`t been doing lately.

Antonia is a super investigator- she actually studies and stuff, but she is so unsure of what she wants. She is so shy and doesn`t like going out or being around a lot of people.

Elder Evans vs. Goat!

Saturday was pretty much the same story with visiting the less actives and looking for people from the list. We also visited some recent converts. The husband of a recent convert family seems excited to be a member (which is awesome) he just can`t seem to quit smoking. His interest in the church has just barely come around and we are going to work with him to see if he can join his family. Haha, that day we were going to visit them and there was a goat standing in the middle of the road. He looked like a mean goat, so I distracted him by throwing a leaf and continued walking. As I looked back, he had lowered his head and was charging after me ready to give me a head butt. It caught me off guard and I barely made it out of his reach before he didn`t have any more slack on his rope. Later I was distracting the goat with a branch while my comp passed and it got close to head butting me again. It gave me quite the scare.

Working with Less Active Members

Sunday was normal- we had 3 investigators in the Sacrament meeting- but 1 goes to Tampico all week because he`s in the Marines. The dad of the family (Jose Luis) went, and stayed all 3 hours. It was awesome! The only let down was that Antonia didn`t make it. Later in the day we had a meeting with the Stake President and all the Bishops and missionaries from the Stake. We had this meeting in Poza Rica already, but I got to hear everything again. This Stake President did a better job I think. The plan was made a lot clearer to the bishops and to us. Visiting these less actives is going to help have:
- more baptisms
- more ordinances
- more missionaries in the field
- more callings within the ward
The whole focus is that we have more and better of each one of these things.

Things are Good!

Overall things are good. We still haven`t had a lot of time to just get to work in our area, but I guess thats just part of the job description. Tomorrow we do divisions with the assistants, so my comp will go to Tampico and I will be the one that knows the area. Hopefully I don`t get us lost. Later (maybe this week or the other one), we will do divisions with all the district leaders and I will be going to their areas while they come take my spot. I can`t really remember if there`s anything else to say.

Noche Mexicano

Baptism of Karla

Ciudad Valles

It still really doesn`t feel like I`m a zone leader, but things are going well. Its just I`ve always had a lot of respect for my zone leaders and I`ve looked up to them- I just don`t feel like I`m of that caliber right now. But President Moss has a lot of faith in us and knows we can help make the mission more successful. I have been feeling great here in my new area. It`s called Loma Bonita. Valles is a pretty hot area, I think its a dryer heat though. This whole week it has been pretty cloudy and rainy so it hasn`t been hot at all. Valles isn`t too big, but isn`t that small. There are 10 elders here in the city, it only has 1 stake. There aren`t any burger kings, but it has a couple bigger grocery stores here and has a Dominoes and a Pizza Hut. My new companion is Elder Avila from Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua. He has one transfer more than me in the mission. We get along well, he is a funny guy. Everything is good.

Getting to Know the Area

Wednesday we went around getting to know members and visiting investigators and rescent converts. It went well, there aren`t too many investigators right now, but there are a lot of awesome recent converts. Our investigator with the most potential is Antonia. She is very intelligent and knows she needs to get baptized, she is just nervous to rush into baptism. Her whole family is catholic and she says it`ll be difficult to make the change.

Trip to Tampico

Thursday we traveled to Tampico to go to the concilio- a meeting with President Moss, the assistants and all the Zone Leaders. The Assistants give us a training on what we are going to teach in Zone Conference the next week. We got to Tampico a little early and went and visited a family from my comps old area. Later we went to the office house and slept there with about 10 other elders. It was pretty fun. Friday we ate waffles, and me and the other elder from Arizona had made a special request for peanut butter to put on our waffles. It was just like home. . . But later we had the training and got to hear from President Moss. It was good, I hope I can transfer the message well to the missionaries in the zone. I am pretty excited though, our zone has a lot of potential. We don`t really have any lazy missionaries or elders that like to cause problems, so I think it will go well. I have a lot of faith in the elders here. Later we ate Sloppy Jo`s and headed off to our area. Its about 3 hours from Tampico to Cuidad Valles, we waited an hour to leave and got back at about 9. It was a great trip.

Small World

The world is so small. A sister here said she had family in Mesa and went out to get a picture of the family. I didn`t recognize them, but she said there last name is Mho. I didn`t recognize the name at first, but she said they lived in front of the temple (which means they went to Mesa High). Later she went on to say that one of the sons died while lifting weights, but she couldn`t remember his name. Later the light bulb clicked and I remembered that he was on Trav`s wrestling team in high school, and his name was Ghandi. It was quite the coincedence. She is his aunt I think, and the ex stake president is his 1st cousin once removed or something like that. Also Elder Fisher knew a kid from the Mesa Swim Team, Bear Behrman- who left his sophomore year to Utah, but came back to swim his senior year here. Also a new elder that came in had met Preston Noble from my volleball team in the MTC.

Another Baptism

Saturday was Karla´s baptism. It was good, like always not many members showed up, but it went well. I think part of the problem was that it was kinda late and everyone was getting ready for the Independence Day for Monday. Cinco de Mayo actually isn´t the day of Mexican independence like all of the US thinks, its actually the 16th of September, but everyone gets together on the 15th at night to celebrate.

Transfers

I am now here in Valles, San Luis Potosi. Everything is good, I am healthy and safe. It was weird to finally leave Poza Rica, it seemed to jump up on me all of the sudden. We had started the new system of work- searching out all of the members from the list. The good thing is that we have a couple of older sisters in the ward that know pretty much everyone and can tell us what happened to a lot of the members there. But I guess I won´t get to fininsh that project, I´ll just have to start again here in my new area. Saturday night I got quite a surprise. I got a call from President Moss and he said that he just likes to call his zone leaders a little early before transfers come around. I was dumbfounded, I didn´t know what to say. I was thinking that it was a possibility to be called as ZL, but it was more like a 50 50 possiblilty for me. It feels weird, it doesn´t feel like I should be in that position. I have always looked up to my zone leaders and now I´m in that spot. The good news is that we have a lot of good Elders in the zone and I think overall we will have a lot of success here in Ciudad Valles.

I didn´t get to say goodbye to too many people in the ward. All along we didn´t know which one of us was leaving for sure, so it would´ve been weird to say goodbye to people before hand, but then on Sunday when I knew I was leaving for sure practically no one came to church because it was raining so hard.

Independance Day

Monday I woke up really early and took a bus to Tampico. We got there really early because Elder Rigby is going to train and went to pick up his new companion. But seeing as I wasn´t, I got to wait around pretty much all day. On transfers, the bus station is jam packed with elders. It is fun to talk with everyone there and see how everyone is and where everyone is going. We were supposed to leave at 6, but someone´s watch was a little behind and we missed the bus by like 2 minutes, it was pretty ridiculous. We left half an hour later and got to Valles at about 9/9:30. It was raining pretty bad. All my suitcases and backpack got a little wet, it was kind of a pain. We ended up going to the stake center first to find a ride for two elders opening an area with all their suitcases. When we got there, there was a giant fiesta for the independence day. It was pretty awesome, the cultural hall was filled with people dressed in red, green and white and other traditional mexican costumes/suits/dresses. There was mexican music and not to mention a LOT of good good food. I was pretty happy, I thought I was going to miss the celebration again, last year I was still in the MTC, so I didn´t get to see what it was like. But I finally got to the house, upacked some of my stuff, and got to bed. I am pretty warn out right now, I haven't had much sleep in the last few days.

Famous

Me and my comp were in a commercial!! It was for a pretty big water company here in Mexico, check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3waigEX9VcY
(I don't know about anyone else but I didn't see Trevor in that commercial :( - maybe I'm just blind or don't know what my son looks like anymore!)

A Good Week

Well, everything was good this week, it kind of flew by pretty fast. The work has been okay, we haven´t been able to be super busy, but we´ve been getting along. We no longer are in the two areas, so that will help out a bit. They closed an area here in Posa Rica so the elders from there moved into our zone and are now in my district. One of them happens to be one of my best friends here on the mission, Elder Rigby. Besides the first 4 months of our mission, we have practically always been together- in Tampico for 4 months and here in Poza Rica too. That´s a big difference from Elder Horton, whom I´ve only seen twice and talked to on the phone twice. Anyways. . .We have started eating with the sisters from Camacho again, so there hasn´t been too much confusion with the lunch situation. The Relief Society had an activity on Saturday about nutrition and there were a lot of investigators that went. We had the chance to present ourselves and take the addresses of a lot of hermanas. Hopefully some of them will lead to some potential investigators.

Divisions

On Friday we went on divisions with the zone leaders. Those days are always refreshing. Its nice to go to a different areas and help out a bit and see how more experienced elders work in their areas. Its also good to get away from the same comp as always. It was fun cause I got to see some of the same investigators from last month when i went on divisions and i also got to see a recent convert family that had moved from my area to the area of the zone leaders. They are so awesome, they are always making us laugh or we are making them laugh.

Mission Ups and Downs

Our progress with Karla kind of slowed up, we showed up at her house and said she had been reproved by her parents because she had gone out and came home really late. She also kinda slipped with the word of wisdom, but we went over it again, and she understands better. She had also been having some personal problems and we helped her out with those. She came to church again and is pretty excited to get baptized. She has a friend in the other ward so that will help a lot to keep her inside the ward. She seems to have made some friends already after 2 times at church, so things are good. :)

Other than that our other investigators aren´t progressing all too fast. There is potential with them, but probably not in the near future. We taught Carlos once, but weren´t able to find him on one appointment and also to go to church. Benedicto had read the Book of Mormon and knows its an inspired book from the Lord. Now we just need to help him understand what that means. Gustavo is kind of flaky as of late, we need to visit him more than once a week.

A Day in the Mission

Monday we had interviews with President, so Tuesday we had our real preparation day. It was a pretty interesting one, we were the companions of Paco, who had been set apart as a missionary the night before. His dad does not live with them, so we were with him up until he left. It was fun to chill with him and talk with him before he left. But then we went to the airport with him and saw him off. It was wierd to be in an airport again, after about a year from getting here. There were 4 other elders from Tuxpan that were there too, seeing off a missionary that was leaving from their stake. It was Elder Frost, Fisher, Strausser, and Popoca. it was random to see them there. Later we played ping pong in the other stake center here and afterwards we went to Peter Piper Pizza. Its going to be so weird going to a place without Burger King, Peter Piper, or Walmart. . . (can you imagine me saying that when I was in Abasolo?)

Elder Evans and Paco

The Work of the Lord

Thursday we visited with our awesome investigator Karla. She had read the chapter from the Book of Mormon, prayed about it, felt awesome, and had started to read more. We taught about baptism and she totally understood and agreed to be baptised the 13th of September. She is really just a good person, I love finding the chosen people who have just been prepared and are ready to hear the gospel. It has made me realize even more that the real missionary work starts with members and their interaction and examples to those around them. It is much easier to teach and baptize when there are people that already know that the church is something good and normal. Lot's of people are just intimidated by our white shirts and ties I think.

We also walked all the way to visit Gustavo, but he couldn´t visit with us. We had met Benedicto (an old investigator that we hadn´t seen in various weeks) on the way there, but on the way back we found him again. But the second time he agreed to let us talk to him again. We had a nice lesson about the gospel and the Spirit was felt. Later my comp expressed to me how awed he was that the Lord truly answers our prayers. The night before he had prayed to find Benedicto and to be able to teach him. It was nice.

Baptism Mishap

Elder Evans, Aurelia, and Ana
Saturday was the baptism and we spent the day getting everything arranged. We got to the chapel a bit late to fill the font, so we were a bit worried about that. It doesn´t fill very fast, but there were two water faucets. We toggled with the controls a bit, flipped a switch to a pump, and lo and behold water started to come out strong. We went to play the piano for about 10-15 minutes, but then one of the sisters that was preparing for an activity opened the door and said, ¨Elders, the both of you need to come here. You flooded the chapel.¨ We thought that the pila had overflowed, but it turns out that when we flipped the pump on (I was a little reluctant to flip it, it was my comps decision) it started sending water to the font, but also to a water storage tank that for some reason is in the attic of the chapel. There was water in the baptism room, & a good portion of the hallway and it was about an inch deep. Luckily the bishop of another ward was there who helped us, I felt horrible, its just a good thing that all the chapels here in Mexico have pure tile floors. Within an hour we had pushed all the water out and mopped it up. When the baptism came around, you wouldn´t even have known there was a flood. It was quite the adventure. The baptism was good, haha but to add to the story the font didn´t even get filled up that high! Hahaha I think we had more water OUT of the font that in!!!! Wow, that is just too good. . . But anyways, the baptism went well, a good number of people showed up, the sister felt good about everything- she didn´t want to put her head all the way under, but everything turned out ok. It was great to be able to help one more member of the family enter into the waters of baptism. Now we only need to work with the son who likes to drink and didn´t like church that much. Actually, Aurelia´s daughter is in Arizona right now. She´s living in Phoenix as a nanny or something like that and is taking English classes too. That daughter was the first one of the family to get baptized.

Cleaning up the Flood

Sunday Was Good

Sunday was good, I was a bit disappointed when Karla didn´t show up for church on Sunday. We decided we would call her and ask why she wasn´t there. She straight up told us she was a little bit sick, that she had diarrhea. haha I thought it was awesome that she was so up front with us. We invited her to come to the last hour (luckily we have sacrament meeting last) but I didn´t think she was going to come. but then out of no where she showed up! I was so happy it was awesome. She thought church was great, she only complemented about how there was a lack of reverence- which is true. The branch and two wards that I have been in here in Mexico have been irreverent ones. I don´t know if all of them are like that.

I am so grateful for the opportunity I have to serve the Lord here in Mexico. At times its difficult to focus on the fact that we really are doing lots of good for lots of people. Sometimes you get caught in the day to day of the mission and don´t realize what a great blessing it is to represent the Lord. I just keep praying that i can always do a better job.

State of the Mission

We had interviews today and president told me that my generation is on the ¨front line¨ in the mission. There are three big groups of missionaries, one that just went home, one that is about to go home, and the other that goes in October. After that there really isn´t anyone older than us in the mission. He told me he had a lot of faith in me. Who knows if I´m going to be a zone leader here within the next few changes. That seems so weird to me, I never would have thought that would happen this fast, but there really aren´t many Americans older than us in the mission. Things are okay with my comp. He is kind of a strange guy, and thinks a lot of himself. He isn´t really open to recieve advice, so that kind of makes it hard as a tranier. He doesn´t really like to admit that I'm his ¨dad¨. He had time serving in Peru and likes to do things the same as they did there. But things are ok. Three more weeks. . .

Progress of Our People

We met with Gustavo again. He had read a bit from the pamphlet we left and tried praying, so everything is going well. He still has a lot to learn and a lot of progress to make, but I think he´ll progress well. He visits his family in a different pueblo on sundays, so i don´t know if he´ll be able to make it to church so easily, but we´ll see. We need to visit him more often to emphasise that what we teach is important. He says he´s only free thursdays though. . .

Our progress with Carlos is going well, he understands everything and believes what we teach him. At times I forget that he´s a ten year old kid. We took him to church with us on sunday and left him in the primary. It seemed like he enjoyed himself. but when we went to sacrament meeting he was sitting with a friend that he had made from the primary, but before the meeting started the hermana´s son came and told us that Carlos was being really roudy an wanted to know if he should come up and sit by us. He came and sat by me and did fine the rest of the meeting. The bishop had told me that no one showed up to give a talk and wanted to know if I
could give a talk in church. I agreed and started preparing. But when it came down to it, he didn´t call on me to talk! I was pretty bummed, I had prepared a good solid talk in 10 minutes.

Saturday was a good day, we gave service in the morning, we help put metal sheets up to cover the porch on someones house. It was fun. I always enjoy service here, its spices up the work a bit and gives me a chance to leave Mexico looking a bit more bonito. Later in the afternoon we actually found everyone in their houses! We taught 4 good solid lessons. We finally found a reference named Karla who has been wanting to talk with us for a while. We taught lesson one and when I told her she needed to pray to see if it was true she said ¨oh, I believe its true¨ it was awesome. She is pretty golden, but had doubts that she would really want to go to church EVERY week. She just turned 18 and likes to go out on Sundays. We will continue teaching her and I think everything will go good.

We talked with Aurelia and she finally realized that there are prophets on the earth today. It was so great to see the lightbulb go on, she was really amazed. Later we gave a recent convert a blessing because he has had some brain tumor problems and was going in to get a new cat scan or something. We need to pass by to see how it went.

Where Do We Eat?

Tuesday we had a bit of a problem finding our lunch appointment. Since the 15th we have been eating with the hermanas from the other ward and its a bit of a problem because we have no idea where anyone lives! Every day before lunch we have to check and see if the sister´s number is in our phone or in the area book. If they aren´t there we have to call the relief society president and ask for the number or where she lives. In case I haven´t told you yet, they give really complicated directions here. Something like this: ¨well, she lives by my house, but you go up three streets, turn, pass the big tree, then youll see a tortilla shop, but you keep going until you get to the end and her house is on the left with a palm tree in front. (Its even more confusing in spanish- not because its not my native language, its because they use words that are more general.) but anyways we finally found the house.

We did eat at burger king 4 times this week. we ate there on pday, wednesday the sister didn´t give us food and just gave us money, thursday we were in the bus station with the zone leader waiting for his companion to arrive from tampico and ate in the burger king that is next door, and another day the sister gave us money to eat again. I thought it was pretty funny.

P-Day at Tajin

Today we went to Tajin. It was pretty cool. The only bad part was that only me and my companion went. It would have been a little more exciting with more people, but it was good. Enjoy the pics.

I Have Been Out A Year!

Friday was a good day. I completed a year in the mission!! It was pretty crazy. It was weird to talk to an Elder from my generation about the MTC a year ago. It doesn´t seem quite so long ago. It´ll be interesting to see how fast this next year goes. I am excited, things had gotten slow in the work, but also Friday we had zone conference and talked about being anxiously engaged in this work. President Moss gave an awesome talk and I am pumped once again to go and find people to help. It also helped because I got a good letter from my last companion and I also got a letter from Jose and Mayra (converts from Abasolo) and that made me pretty happy. They are still doing great it seems like.But also Friday night me and Elder Rigby got together, ate pizza, and burned our shirts to celebrate the one year mark.

Progress of Investigators

Wednesday was a good day. We put a baptismal date with Odette´s (recent convert) mom, Aurelia. She has always gone to church with Odette, but has never taken the lessons. We started the first charla with her last week and she is ready for baptism. We just need to prepare her more and make sure she understands everything. She is a really nice lady. The problem is that she has a lump in her throat and is worried about what it is. She has some appointments with the doctor and there is a possibility that she might go to Veracruz the 26th, so we will see how that works out with her baptismal date. She is already interested in family history! She doesn´t quite know why yet, but she went to a Relief Society activity about geneology. So that´s good.

Thursday we met with a reference named Gustavo. He seems like a pretty good investigator. He has showed a lot of interest and said he would like to know which church is the true one. He knew he would need to pray to find out. We will see how he does with his committments, we can only meet with him once a week, so we will see how that goes.

Ana and Carlos have kind of lost interest I think. We haven´t been able to visit them this week, but we´re going tomorrow. I think she had a problem with her husband, because she left and wasn´t home for a few days. Hopefully everything sorts itself out and we can help them.

Trip to Las Cruces on P-Day

Last monday we hiked up the hill where ¨las cruces¨ are. There was a gate that was blocking the entrance, but there was a man that said there was a path through the jungle to get up to the top (he also said we were allowed to go up). It was a pretty fun hike. The hills here in Veracruz are awesome (when your not tracting). Its a great site, but it doesn´t come out the same in the pictures. But we finally got about 100 yards from the crosses and there was a man that said we couldn´t go up to them that it was private property. So we hiked back down. It was pretty lame.