Busy, Busy, Busy!

Everyone told me getting here that the first and last week are the busiest here in the offices. I got to experience that this past week. I like life here and am having a great time. So much has gone on this week and it has all kind of mushed together. I can´t really remember every detail, but if one thing wasn´t happening, it was another. Last sunday we went to a stake conference and heard from Richard G. Scott and Thomas S. Monson via satelite. They were some great talks. Later I kind of followed elder morgan (the old assistant) with his mom while he said goodbye to some of the families here. Later we came to the offices to receive all the numbers from the zone leaders and later call all the zones to tell them their tranfers. We ended up getting home at about 12.

Change

Monday we got to wake up early (around 5) to say goodbye to elder sparks (one of the elders that ended his mission) at the airport. We waited there for an hour and a half or so for the new mexcian elder that was getting here. After that we headed off to the offices to get him oriented. Later we headed off to the mission to give him more training and ate with the Hna. Moss. Later we went to the airport again to pick up the American elder that just got here and took him to the Mission house.

Speaking English

Tuesday we were in the offices and later we went to the mission home to train the new american. This time i did it since i speak english. It was really weird to explain some things and talk in english- i didn´t remember some of the words. But i am talking a lot more here, there are 3 other office elders (Elder Crow, Coffin, and Petersen) and a missionary couple (Hna. & Sis. Batt) so we talk a lot of english. But after the training we ate the same meal with Hna. Moss, but it was really good so i´m not complaining.

Preparing for the Concilio

All last week we were preparing for the concilio, the training we have to give to the Zone Leaders for their zone conferences. Whenever we had free time we were going on the topics, the princilples and looking up subject matter. President talked with us for about 5 minutes and it was our responsibility to come up with 3 1/2 hours of training. Wednesday was a really busy day. We worked on concilio and showed president what we had and he gave us direction. Later we went to see elder morgan off at the airport. Our food appointment fell through and it was late so Hna. Moss invited us to eat at her house again. She gave us some chili beans- it has been a while since i´ve eaten those. Later we went to a family home evening but had to leave a bit early to go pick an elder up and take him to the Mission home. Afterwards we headed to the offices to plan a little more for concilio. we got home pretty late that night too.

An All Nighter...

Thursday night was very interesting. We pretty much stayed up all night preparing for the concilio the next day. I got about an hour and a half to two hours of sleep on the office floor. It is just crazy because there are so many things we have to type, change, go over, and print out. it´s not that we didn´t prepare sufficiently before, its just a whole lot to do in a short amount of time (with a lot of other responsibilities throughout the day).

Concilio

On friday morning we got to the house at about 6, showered up and fine tuned everything for an hour before picking up the elders and going to the mission house to eat waffles. I was really nervous about the training- i was tired, felt unprepared, and was going to be talking for a long time to 16 other elders. I prayed for help from the Lord and definitely received it. It went very well actually. We talked about all of us being Children of God and Disciples of Christ. Later we talked about what our focus is really on- that we should forget ourselves. Something that i shared and really liked is that ¨try¨ should not exist for us. If we only ¨try¨ to do something, it means it will never be accomplished. President gave a great example- he asked an elder to ¨try¨ and hand him a book that was on the table. the elder just stuck out his arm and acted as if he was really struggling to make an effort to grab the book. ¨Do¨ is what takes the place of ¨try¨. Nephi ¨tried¨ twice to obtain the brass plates, but he never said ¨I will go and try. . . ¨
Several elders thanked me and said i did a good job- i gratefully thanked them for lying. Later we ate some ¨Sloppy joes¨ and had some brownies and ice cream. That marked the 5th meal i ate in the mission home this week. I think i´m going to get fatter here. I eat more and walk less due to the van that we drive from place to place. Now that all the craziness is over we´ll drive it a bit less. So yeah, it was a fun week. Just add a lot of phone calls and problems with some elders, and other fun stuff in the mix and everything turns out great.

Go Cardinals!

That is awesome about the Cardinals! I knew they were in the running to go to the super bowl two weeks ago when i was in valles. We were going to eat at a nice breakfast buffet and the man next to me was reading the newspaper. I looked over and saw a full page picture of a cardinal player and thought ¨wow, that´s weird, the cardinals in the newspaper. . . especially here in mexico.¨ then i read the caption and saw that it said that they were one game away from going to the super bowl. i was so suprised- i didn´t even know that the playoffs were going on! That is pretty cool. I found out they were going when we were eating with president moss on monday. He told me how they won the game against the eagles.

And again...things are Good!

Well, things are good now that the week is over. This week will probably be much better. . . haha, i just realized that we are going to be traveling the whole mission with president this week. Monday we are driving to poza rica for the zone conferences Tuesday. Wednesday is the zone conference here in tampico for 4 zones, and thursday we are driving up to victoria for the zone conference there on friday. Should be fun!!! Love ya lots. I´m glad everything is going well for you!!! bye.

Surprise!

I did get your email. I´m glad you got mine because otherwise it would be a sad Pday here in the offices. yes that is correct I am now here in Tampico a little bit early because the President has called me to be his new assistant. Prettty crazy eh? I´ve always thought it was a possibility, but never thought it would actually happen. Its pretty weird- i don´t feel like i should be here, but I know the President is inspired and the Lord sees something in me that can help the mission. I got that call on Tuesday morning, and by wednesday morning I was headed out to Tampico to be able to get into the swing of things and to be ready here when the new elders get here. I haven´t done much here so far, ive just learned my duties, acompanied the assistants and helped with what i could here and there. It has been pretty fun, and definitely a change in scene. There are a lot of americans here right now, so i´m getting to work on my english! My comp is Elder Avila again. I am pleased, we get together well and only had one transfer together in Valles as zone leaders.

Awesome Day

Yesterday was awesome, we got to go to the temple with President and Sister Moss and the two elders that are going home. It was a great experience and President Moss was the person that recieved me at the veil. It was his first time doing it in spanish and my third time. Later in the celestial room i felt the spirit so much and was reminded of the little time there is left to do the Lord´s work.

Feelin' Good!

I´m feeling good right now, I´m not sure really what lies behead and how it is all going to come to pass, but it will be fun. I don´t feel fully prepared for this calling- but when have i ever felt ready to fulfill the assignments i´ve recieved here in the mission. I know i will grow, and i know that this is exactly what I need. Things are good.

Crazy Jose

So supposedly everyone thinks I wrote a gigantic letter last week, so this week i will repent and write a shorter one. haha, no it`s just that not much happened this week. Tuesday we met with Josè and Karina, he is the inactive that has some crazy ideas. We watched a video and he was pretty calm, but afterwards he was trying to teach us apostasy so we got out of there. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful- everyone wasn`t home. But we did find a pretty good investigator to teach.

Missionary Work

Wednesday we did divisions with the district leader from Mante- We visited Orlando and felt the spirit with him, although he doesn`t show it a lot i think he wants to change. It`ll take some work and time, i`m just not sure my comp wants to spend that time. We visited with ana and watched the Testaments movie. She really liked it and was crying at the end. She hasn`t been here though, her dad got deported for drinking and driving and she went to pick him up. Later we taught the investigator we found the day before and then went to give a blessing to a member`s sister.

Travelling and Wasting Time

Thursday i went 1 hour 1/2 to mante to pick up the other district leader but had to wait around another hour and a half to go back to valles, even thought when we got our tickets the earlier bus still hadn`t left. o well. It was pretty sad because in Valles we didn`t have much success that day, we contacted a referral- federico and his wife Reina. The elders visited with them about a year ago maybe and they seem interested again. That night my old comp elder avila came to valles to do divisions with me the next day. I had to leave at like 6 from valles to be able to get back at a reasonable hour. We visited some less actives and recent converts and then at about 6 he had to go back to tampico. I was supposed to go to tampico with the other assistant, but they were running low on time. I was pretty bummed. That night we had a ward party and it was a lot of fun. There were less actives and investigators there and everyone had a good time.

Golden Investigator

Saturday was good- we visited with a new investigator named Jairo. He is looking pretty golden- he is just really serious or shy, who knows. His family is really nice. His mom gave us good hot chocolate and bread. We think she is a little afraid to talk with us though. We taught some other lessons and had one with a member present. It went well. Later we taught a inactive 15 year old fernando and taught Sonia- a recent convert. The people are so awesome here! I`m kind of sad to be leaving. (that is, IF i`m leaving)

Sunday

Sunday was a good day. We went for orlando and he came to church with us. The only bad thing is that we walked across the whole area to pick up Fernando and another investigator and her family, but she wasn`t there. So we showed up late, but at least they went. I think they had a good time. Later we looked for Fausto`s house- he is a taxi driver that is our friend and invited us to his house to talk with his son. We went to his house, but he wasn`t there. Later we talked with Jairo again and later went to an hermana`s house to talk with her sister (the one that we gave a blessing to on tue.) All in all it was a good week.

CTR Ring

I`m going to need a new ctr ring. I kind of gave mine away to help orlando go to church and quit smoking. if a birthday package is coming you could just slip it in there- its size 10 and the picture is attached. Things are going awesome- i`m loving life and have realized even more that success isn`t judged by how many baptisms you have. It all depends if you are teaching and testifying people by the spirit. Love you lots. Elder Evans

Trip to Xilita and The Beginning

Today we did something that ive been wanting to do for quite a while. We traveled about 2 hours away to the little pueblo called Xilitla. A long time ago a french(?) ruler named Edward James moved there and build a castle in the middle of the jungle- he had some crazy ideas so there was a lot of weird/different architecture. I really liked it a lot. I felt like indiana jones exploring ancient ruins in the jungle. We had a lot of fun.

Nice form, I'd give you a 10!

Elder Evans and Elder Morgan

but let me start from the beginning. last monday we taught the baptist lady named angelica and gave her the book of mormon. She thanked us but really only said she liked to listen to us but was fine in the church where she was at. We tried to help her understand that if she prayed, God would really tell her that all we said was true. It was a really good lesson. later we went with orlando and talked with his brother and sister in law about prayer. We are hoping to keep teaching the sister and law.

It was a Good Day!

Tuesday we talked with ana and taught her all that was left to be baptized which was- 1. obedience and 2. Obey and honor the law of the land. later we visited with concepcion and fransica and they pretty much flat out told us that they can`t get baptized because they are addicted to coffee. I know they can stop drinking it, but we will keep coming to help them. We also got to visit Estefana, she is the daughter of some recent converts from the other ward. At first she was shy, but we gained a lot of trust. She prayed which is a good sign, but hasn`t recieved an answer. that night we visited a contact we had made a while ago, sergio, and although it wasn`t the greatest lesson (we were really tired) he understood and wants us to keep coming. Afterwards we met with a rather special less active- anacleto and he seems to be progressing little by little. I don`t think he`ll ever go back to church but his family is excited.

New Year's Eve was Tough

After such a good day tuesday wednesday was kind of tough. It was New years eve and no one was really home. We did have the baptismal interview with ana, and it went great. We helped a hna that is a recent convert. Her husband isn`t really enduring to the end with that much excitement and she is really stressed out. Later one of the sisters invited us to her house to eat for new years. We had to be in at 9, so we told her we would show up at 8 to be home on time. We ended up waiting with her husband until 9 until she came and started to serve the food. We got home at 9:30 which isn`t too bad.

A Talk with President Moss

Thursday we had interviews with president moss in the morning. They went good. He said i could stay here another transfer or possibly be moved to another spot in the mission- he just said he needed to pray about it to see what is going to happen. Pretty much half the zone is going to be changed, there are a lot of elders that have been here a while. My interview was a little longer than normal, it was nice just to chat with President, normally he likes to keep things short and sweet. After that we started preparing for Ana`s Baptism

Ana's Baptism

Ana`s baptism was great! She was so prepared and so excited- even though she was a little worried about the water and it being so cold. There were about 2 families, another 2 sisters, 6 elders, and ana`s 2 friends there. There was such a special spirit present- as the speakers gave there talks and as we sang. My comp and i did a special musical number- i sang ¨when i am baptized¨ and he played the piano. It felt so good to use one of my talents to help someone else feel the spirit. That is the first solo i have sung here on the mission. i should sing more. Ana was crying and it was a great experience. She wanted me to baptize her- i felt very priveleged. Her story is awesome- she was a reference from the elders from another area. They were about to stop contacting because everyone was rejecting them strongly, but they kept going and found Ana and the rest is history. We taught her for the first time on Nov. 30th and she entered the waters of baptism on Jan 1. That is a month. wow.

Elder Evans, Ana, & Elder Avila

Book of Mormon

Friday we visited with concepcion and later sergio- he seemed really excited to read the book of mormon. He had already met with elders before but we gave him the book. i hope he reads it. That is really the key to conversion- reading the book of mormon. The people who have REALLY read the book of mormon are the people who i have seen get baptized. Later we met with estefana and had a lesson with her mom present. it went well- she still hadn`t recieved an answer, but we read 3 nephi 11 and explained that at first we might not understand or hear the answer, but it will come afterwards.

We Found Some New People to Teach!

Saturday was a good day, we found some new investigators- In the morning we met with a less active and his wife who is not a member. The lesson went awesome, but afterwards he started to express his doubts and say that prophets don`t exist and a lot of other apostasy and maybe me and my comp lost our patience. One of the many things he said was that the bigger the bible is, the truer it is. It was a weird situation, we`ll see what happens when we go back. We visited Anacleto again and he is going to give us a referral. The sad thing was that we passed by with Ramiro and Nayeli, and Ramiro was acting weird and said that they weren`t going to be members of our church and that he never had time because he works washing cars door to door and that he doesn`t want to meet with us anymore. It was sad because his ¨wife¨ had read and prayed and felt good about it.

New Time and TV Stars

Church was moved to 11:30 this week, and it made a difference. There was almost 100 people there! that is a record in a ward that i`ve been in here in the mission. A lot of less actives came for the first time since i`ve been here. It was a good meeting. At lunch me and my comp ate way too much way too fast. Later we found an awesome family, but they are only visiting and today went back to their town close to the capital.

My whole family is turning into TV stars- first aubs, then mom, now trav and steph have all appeared on tv! and i haven`t been there to see!