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.