Feliz Navidad 12-25-2017

Well, this week was fun! Santa came, and we took a ton of pictures and visited cool places and had a good week. It was a tough week for the work, cause everyone and their pet goldfish left to visit family for the holidays and the area became dead. We walked in the streets for quite a while without seeing a single person or store open.

BUT we had a lot of fun finding each other christmas presents. Elder Lloyd didn't get me anything though haha. From Santa I got a black sweatshirt, a blanket, a towel, 2 pairs of shoes, a watch and some cologne. 

Not much to report, but I did love getting to speak with my family once again. It was a great christmas, even though it doesn't snow here and doesn't feel like christmas at all. 

I hope you all had a great christmas and I will send you another email next week! 

Christmas cheer Dec. 18, 2017

Hey folks, this week was hey howdy hey!

We had a lot of success, and we walked a TON too. I hate contacting people in the street, and I even did it a few times! We were all over the place, but in a good way. With Christmas coming up, we are feeling the Christmas Cheer! We have been invitingeveryone we visit to spread the cheer and do service or smile at EVERYONE they see for an entire day and stuff like that, and I invite everyone who may be reading this to do the same! I know that now most of you have probably forgotten about me and clicked the trash button the second my email came in, but its all good. I forgive you. 

This week my mom sent me some plastic christmas displays to help light up the house a bit. Combined with the tiny christmas tree I found for 3 dollars, I'd say its a jolly place. (pics below) 

Really all we did this week was work, I just kinda woke up early and worked every day and went home late and yeah. Mission life, you know? But that is good, right? I think it's good. 

Not much else to say, but I hope you guys have a great week full of the Spirit of Christ, and that you can feel his love! Enjoy your Christmas Eve, and I'll check in on Christmas day!

Nocaut December 11, 2017

Just in case you wondered, that is how they spell Knockout in spanish.

This week was great. I had a great time with my new companion, or well, not really new, Elder Lloyd! He still likes tractors, and this time around, his spanish is a lot better! Funny Lloyd quote of the week: "Dude I can't stand those things anymore. They just look so islamic!"

This week I just ran around a lot. Immigration, conferences, meetings, choirs, I was barely in my area. But, even with all that, we still had a lot of success in our area and we are really happy. 

It doesn't snow over here, it just gets down to freezing and the houses here are the worst at keeping the heat in so i'm pretty sure living in an igloo is better than what we live in. 

I'm just happy to be out here. Christmas is right around the corner. Doesn't really feel like it over here though, but I still like Christmas. Time is flying and crawling at the same time haha. 

Thought: an investigator this week said: "God squeezes, but he never chokes." it was so deep! I invite you all to reread his quote and think about it. Blew my mind. 

I don't have any pictures cause this computer thought my USB was a virus and deleted everything and we are trying to get it all back. Until next week. 

I love you all, have a good week!! 

Tractors round 2 Dec 5, 2017

Hey Everyone!! I hope you're all doing great, and that you're getting into the Christmas spirit!!

Well, a lot has happened in my area. A lot. 

A bus ran over a guy in my area, so to add to the insane traffic, now the busses are suspended from driving their route. Thanks micro driver. Smooth. 

There was a shooting like 2 minutes from our house. Someone got popped in the back of the head and then everyone went nuts with their guns. Also caused a lot of traffic. 

I think I chatted with the devil the other night. He knew wayy more about the temple and church than he should have. Or maybe he was just a servant of the Devil. Either way.

Transfers were yesterday, and that is why I am writing today. I got my changes; that my companion wasn't in the mission. I had no companion as I waited for him to arrive. And who was it? My companion from the MTC!!! He went home a while back to have surgery on his stomach, but he is all good and ready to work again. After getting everything worked out, we are just barely writing for real. I am gonna spend both Christmases in the mission with the same companion!! Cool stuff!!

Other than that, the work is going great. I got my house all set up, tons of investigators, and everyone just is a lot nicer with Christmas coming up. There is so much to do, and the best part is, I am staying in Chinampas, again!! I'll have 8 months here in total. I'm thinking about buying a lot of land over here and moving my baptismal records to the Branch.

Spiritual recommendation: Read D&C 121. It was the invitation given by President Mecham to us, and I'm doing it to you guys too.

pics

1. estefania and kevin

2. the mission family. elder rosales trained me, and 3 others. theyve all trained, and our sons have trained, and im a great grandpa!! it is so awesome!!! 

3. I FOUND ELDER SIMMONS. you guys probably dont care, but he was in my district in the mtc and i found him today while we went to immigration for my companion. crazy stuff!!

Hogwarts? November 27, 2017

Well, this week was tough in the beginning. We didn't have a ton of success finding people and no one honestly wanted to listen. We ran out of money cause my comp spent his money on cuff links and I had to pay for both of us for transport, and I ran out. Our investigators bailed on coming to church, so it was just a rough time haha. Until we got to church, and halfway through Sacrament meeting, our assigned door usher tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to an extra room our Prayer house has. I went in and found a young 22 year old guy named Hogwart crying. He explained to me that his aunt had given him a book (the Book of Mormon), that he had read it, and prayed about it and never felt so happy and peaceful in his life. He brought his girlfriend and her brother, who also were very very interested in the Church. I thought it was fishy until I figured out who his aunt was, called her, and it all checks out. She is an inactive member who took an opportunity and look what happened! He and his friends are getting baptized on December 23rd. We even gave the lesson right there during church! It was crazy!

This week we didn't celebrate Thanksgiving cause it doesn't exist here. It was a plain old day like any other. But some Elders in our house bought a disco light and we had a 6 missionary dance party to EFY songs. 

I finally ate Pizza for lunch, someone in our ward makes pizzas and invited us to eat.

I found a house in my area, so I will not be spending hours on busses every day which is awesome! But the apartment is kinda crappy. Oh well. 

I forgot my cable to upload pictures so I guess those will wait until next week! 

The Spiritual thought you can take away from this, is to look out for those in need. This less active member gave a book to her nephew and look what happened! THAT is missionary work. I'm not out here to DO the missionary work, but to SUPPORT it. YOU need to be a missionary. 

I love you guys, hope you all got stuffed full of Turkey and other delicious foods! 

Immigration 11-21-17

Hey everyone, happy Thanksgiving! They don't celebrate Thanksgiving over here :/

This week I went to Immigration and extended my visa until November of next year, and tomorrow I hit a year mark! I am halfway there haha! It is a good feeling. 

This week I visited an investigator, and I bent down to pet her dog and it bit me in the face. 

This week I helped push our Ward Mission Leader's car into his "garage" (just a door with a bit of grass infront of his house so no one steals his car) and when we pushed it into his property, he went down the slope and slammed the car into his house and broke pretty much everything. It was so dang funny. I still don't know why he didn't push the brake. 

Other than that we just worked non-stop. I'm writing today for that same reason, we worked all day yesterday and moved our P-Day to today. There is a lot of success in the future for this area, and all I can say is that success in the Lord's work makes me happy. 

I hope you all have a wonderful week and that you're all happy. Remember where true happiness comes from, and do what you need to to get it. 

Photos:

1. We found a bird

2. My name

3. A cool view of what my area is like

Zoo Exhibit 11-13-17

After being in Mexico for a year, I now understand what Zoo animals feel like. People here are short, overweight, with black hair and black eyes, with dark colored skin. So you can imagine all the stares a tall, blonde, skinny, blonde kid gets. Not to mention I'm in a white shirt and tie too. People stare and stare and stare. I'm like the super exotic ugly animals that everyone awkwardly stares at in the Zoo. They either hate me, or are fascinated by me. The other day an 18 year old girl, 18 might I say, yelled "OH MY GOSH LOOK IT'S A WHITE PERSON, IT TRULY IS, HE IS REAL". I'll just say I don't know if my self-confidence should go up, or should go down from being over here. I think I'm gonna dye my hair black and use black contact lenses so that people stopmaking fun of me. 

This week was all over the place. I went to Azteca for some comp exchanges, and we visited this investigator who is just golden. Really wants to be baptized and everything. As we visited with her, her super inactive ex-gangster cousin showed up to "help" us teach. He only has the Aaronic priesthood. She felt stressed and asked for a priesthood blessing. Elder Marquez, who knew her, gave the blessing. Halfway through the blessing, I felt a 3rd pair of hands be put on mine. I opened my eyes and saw the inactive cousin participating in theblessing. The spirit jumped out of the room and ran away. It was super awkward. I have no idea what he was thinking. Pure apostasy.

I almost found a house to live in. But it fell through again. So I still live like 2 hours away from my area. Cool stuff. A lot of funny stuff happens on those long bus rides. Mostly extremely drunk people, but it is still funny to me. 

This week was stake conference, and seeing as how we live 2 hours away from the stake center, the stake rented our Branch 2 busses to take us there. I felt like a star getting off my private jet when we showed up. It was awesome. The talks were okay, I am so tired from working and barely sleeping that I may have missed a little bit of the conference.... sleeping. 

The Sister missionaries in my district this week asked me if it is okay to put on a shower cap when baptizing someone for medical purposes. What a time to be alive

Nothing else really happened. Just working, you know? We have a BUNCH of people progressing towards baptism. And I mean a BUNCH. I like my mission. 

Quote of the week: "No, Nephi hunted cool things, not lizards" 

Dia De Muertos 11-6-17

Howdy y'all? This week sure was swell. I mean, it was okay. It was Day of the Dead this week. Everyone paints their faces all cool and they go trick or treating and set up a table full of food as an offering, and other cool stuff like that. Obviously it's another reason for everyone to get drunk, but it's overall a cool experience over here in Xochimilco. They even slept the night in the cemetery waiting for their loved ones!!! 

They make a type of bread only on Day of the Dead, and I got to help make it! It was super delicious and I will make it for all of you when I get home. 

We found a house! It is really nice, nicer than any other mission house I've ever seen in Mexico. And it is across the street from our Prayer house! I get to live in my area again! Im gonna save so much money on transportation! It really is a mess living with 5 other Elders. I do not recommend it. 

I had companion exchanges with my Zone Leaders this week, and we followed a reference into the mountains, so high that I didn't think it was physically possible to live there. Well they do. And they are now investigating the church. *fist pump*. 

I had my Zone Conference this week. Good stuff. They gave us hot dogs (haht dahgs is how we pronounce it, hut dowgs is how they say it) and I loved it because I haven't eaten simple american food in a long time haha. 

Ain't much to say more. I'm just waiting for the church to call me as the Branch President cause I've been here so long haha. I love you all, I hope you had a good week, and stay fresh! 

Quote of the week: "If you don't shut up I'm gonna give you some Taxi license plates" -Elder Lozano.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY LITTLE BRO! He turned 10! That dude is old now. 

Spiritual thought: Alma 36:16-24. If he can do it, we can too!!!! 

Photographs: 

1. I made some Pan de Muerto (Dead Bread) bro!!!

3. A traditional offering to the dead

 And Pictures shared by the mission president's wife during zone conference.

Powerful Prayers 10-30-17

This week my highlight was hearing investigators pray. We had 3 new investigators specifically, that kneeled down and prayed with such a strong power that everyone was crying when they finished. We found a lot of really prepared people this week. I was really grateful for hearing those prayers because it taught me how to pray better. I've never heard prayers so sincere in my entire life. The people here are great!

We also had a baptism this week, but I forgot the camera so I don't have pictures. I also forgot the baptismal clothes, and the keys to the church. I am forgetting everything lately. But, we had our bapitsm and Alejandro was super excited and his Grandma cried. It was a great experience. 

I am living with my companion and 4 other Elders in a department made for 2. It is a nightmare haha. But in a good way. I am with Elder Garcia from Santa Maria California (In McCall's mission!) and he is super dope. Super Californian. It is awesome. 

A lot happened this week, but also... kinda nothing. We just did a lot of service and had a good time. I am learning how to be relaxed and work. I like the mission.

Our branch is back and functioning, we had a hundred people show up! We also had investigators show up, which was something we missed cause no one wanted to drive an hour away to go to church. Lazy people. 

I am fine, I am working, and I hope you all have had a good week. I am super excited for this week cause we have a lot of potential, and this week Mexico will be celebrating Dia de Muertos!! I hope you all enjoy this coming week! Love you! 

Spiritual thought: "Life is nothing without rice- I mean Christ" -Elder Garcia

Feliz Coumpleaños 10-24-17

That means Happy birthday in spanish, if you didn't know 😂

This week was bueno, we celebrated Elder Paz's 26th birthday. Just kidding, he is only 20. We bought a round looking cake from Wal-Mart and sang "Las Mañanitas" or something like that in Spanish. I didn't sing. 

On Saturday we got to go to the Temple! The Temple has such a brilliant spirit that not even Elder Paz could make jokes. It was like we grew up in there for a second. Then we left and we started joking again and the thought went away. I was super happy to go to the Temple, because well, it's the Lord's house, and because they brought 100 sandwiches and only 30 people came. Guess who ate 9 sandwiches for free? 😎 But really if you haven't been to the Temple in a while, go. Because you'll feel the spirit, and the pants they lent me made my butt look really good, so you also get a nice confidence boost there too.

We had a great week, found a ton of people to teach, and they fixed my Prayer House so we went to church in my own area this week! We are starting from the bottom, but we will build it back up over here. 

Transfers were this week, and I'm staying in Chinampas again! That means I'll hit my year mark in this area. This area is the best. 

Spiritual Thought: "You just have to eat the Lord's sandwich first" -Hna Rocha 

Photographic content:

1. Me and Paz

2. Templo

3. Hno Saul

?? 10-16-2017

I am running out of ideas for email titles. Being creative for this long is tough.

This week we had 2 baptisms, Noemi and Michelle. I don't have pictures cause it was the craziest day of my life. We were going to get there on time, until my companion forgot that he didn't have his white pants to baptize, so we traveled up into the mountains and got them from a ward member who had adjusted them. Then we started our baptismal service 2 hours late, and it was great. Everyone was happy, and they went home. We drained the font, and were closing the doors when a bunch of members arrived. They were having a surprise baptism for their 8 year old daughter! And of course, we had the keys so we couldn't leave until they left. They left at 7pm. We were at the churchhouse ALL day. We literally just sat outside the church on the curb and waited for them. What a waste of a day. Then, yesterday, a protest broke out and they blocked off all the main roads because they wanted water, so no one was able to make it to church and we couldn't confirm them. Awkward. 

But, even with all of these wierd occurences, I had a good week. I found a house, and it is super rich and fancy, and we will be moving in next week. I like staying with the neighboring Elders because they are the President's assistants, and they are like spiritual giants. And the bottom floor of the house they live on is a candy store owned by a member who lets us take all we want. That too. 

We have been finding a TON of people who are super interested in learning about the Gospel lately. One lady calls me her precious little brother, and she is just dying to hear about the Book of Mormon. One lady said the Book of Mormon just makes sense and she is gonna read the whole thing in a week! We somehow only contact women, I just noticed that. Funny. 

Anyway, my scripture for this week is super touching to me for some reason. 2 Nephi 5:27

"And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness"

I love this work. I like being here. I love Christ. I like living happily. 

Have a good week

Not much to report 10-9-2017

This week, we just started from scratch. I'll be looking at a house tomorrow, so hopefully we can move back into our area soon. We still have people to teach, and we will have 2 more baptisms this weekend, which we are super excited for.

Nothing happened, just teaching and working and stuff, the normal mission life you always hear about. This last month I've given more blessings than I ever have given, received, or seen in my entire life. Suddenly everyone wants a blessing of comfort. Helaman 12:3

We are okay, we are having success, and well, yeah. 

An investigator told me this week something that really touched me. 

"Living without feeling, it just doesn't make sense." -Alfredo the wizard. (he is literally a man-witch)

I don't have pictures either cause my camera died, and nothing ever happened so I got lazy and didn't charge it. Oh well. 

I hope you all have a great week. Remember to pray!!!!! 

(I don't like posts without pictures, so I'll add an old pic of elder Wilson 😃)

October 2, 2017 Homeless

Well, this week was kind of a bummer in the beginning, because Church Services came and said we can't live in our house any more😬, so we left immediately, and now live in a nieghboring area🏠. It takes 2 hours to get to our area, and 2 hours to get home🚃, so we lose a lot of precious time every day. And I don't have very many clothes so I wash by hand what I will wear tomorrow until we can go back to the house and get our clothes. Our area is still really bad and they need water and light and stuff, so no one is really interested in the message as of late. I'm sure that after my area gets back on its feet, people will jump to receive the message of Christ, but until then, we just need to wait.

The end of the week was good thought, cause we got to watch General Conference, and that means we got to hear God's chosen prophets give us revelation for these latter days of need. I enjoyed the entire conference, but what really touched me was the inspired talk by Holland, followed by the song "Faith in every footstep", and if you watch closely, the camera moves to a man singing who is crying while singing, and I'm not sure why that hit me so hard, but it was a moment of spiritual filling for my soul. I really like what I heard this weekend, and I am ready to apply it to my life. 

On another note, two young teenage girls that had obviously seen me frequent the house of an investigator gave me handwritten love notes💞. Didn't really know what to do, so I just accepted the letters. I figure they will be a great souvenir from the mission. I hope you're jealous, McCall. 😂

Um... that is it. The Lord has blessed my life, and the life of those around me through his Gospel, and as a living witness of Christ, I testify that He lives and loves us. Have a good week.

󾓩

Ground Zero 9-25-2017

Hey everyone, I AM ALIVE! Thanks for all of the prayers for Mexico City because we have had a rough week! The earthquake from a few weeks ago obviously hurt the city, because when the Earthquake on Tuesday hit, over 100 buildings fell in the City! There are some crazy videos out there of what happened in the City. My area is trashed. We lost power, water, signal, gas, everything. We couldn't tell anyone that we were alive until the next day! They pulled us out of the area and we have been living with our District Leaders because our area is really bad. I didn't take any photos because there were a lot of deaths. Houses full of people went to the ground in seconds, and even the giant catholic church in the center of my area fell completely to the ground. I saw some really sad things. 2 schools fell down, with all of the kids in them. It is a mess over here, but every single missionary is alive and accounted for. I wish I could say the same for the members here. Please pray for everyone, because many don't have a place to live, food to eat, nothing. We have been ordered to not serve because the only service the city needs is professional, like doctors and stuff. But anyway, it is really sad here and everyone is on edge because it's going to happen again. 

When the earthquake hit, I was on a bus. The bus started rocking back and forth really hard, so we all got off and everyone was crying. I wasn't shocked or anything, I was just amazed because I had never felt an earthquake before. We kept walking and saw tons of fallen houses and fires and everything. The videos make it seem scarier than it was. 

Then, on Saturday, I got in the shower at my District Leader's house, and the seismic alarm went off! My companions booked it, without waiting for me, and I grabbed my towel and ran out to the street haha. It wasn't as bad as the quake on Tuesday, but it was awkward standing in the street cause everyone else ran out of their house too, so I was just standing there naked until we could go back in again haha!

Our Prayer house is really damaged and the streets in my area are destroyed, so we had a blasting attendance of 9 people this week. I really hope that they can start to rebuild my area soon so that everyone can start coming to church again!  

Well, I'm okay. And I always will be okay, as long as I'm a missionary. Pray for those that are still in need of help! And remember that life is a very fragile thing, so live in the best way, the way you want to live, because tomorrow you may not get a chance. Do what you need to now, don't wait! 

Remember, God does this so that we will remember him. So let us remember him! 

Photos

1. this is the only photo i took of the earthquake out of reverence for all of the many other buildings that fell down with people in them. no one died here so i felt better taking a pic of it. but it isnt even bad, the building only has moderate damage.

 

Baptismania 9-18-17

This week was super chill, even with Mexico's Independance Day this week. I expected parades and fireworks and a lot of drunks, but didn't see any of it. We worked a lot this week, and I am dead tired. DEAD tired. As in, I look dead some days because of how much hiking and running and teaching and everything that we do. 

This week we had another baptism! He is Jorge, and I am so excited for his baptism because he is 18 and will become a Priesthood holder very soon, which will be a huge support for this little branch! He was so excited, and his mom started crying cause she was so happy and she isn't even a member! It was awesome. 

For the first time in almost a year, I had McDonalds! Woo! 

Other than that... Well, that's it! It was a fast, calm week. 

I hope you all are having a great time, wherever you are! 

Earthquakey people 9-11-17

Greetings from planet Earth!

I think planet Earth is angry. There is so much going on right now! Hurricanes, fires, earthquakes! The 8.2 magnitude earthquake hit us in Mexico City. It was pretty cool to experience, the entire house was swaying like it was a piece of grass in the wind. But nothing fell! Not a single house or building in my entire mission fell. There was literally zero effects of the earthquake here. But it was still cool haha. 

This week we also baptized Julio Cesar! He was super excited and I'm pretty sure the water was past the freezing point because I squealed when I got in it was so cold. But he was a great sport and loved his baptism! I am super proud of him because not only is he baptized, but he helped reactive his grandparents, and his sister is getting baptized soon, and his mom isn't far behind! 

Other than that, well, we have just been working and working! I'm still sick because I don't rest, I wake up too early, I work too much and I don't keep myself warm. Oh well. It's the mission, right? 

I hope you are all okay, and that you are having a fantastic week! 

Spiritual thought: James 4:8. 

Photos:

1. A great dane I found in the street haha

2. Julio! 

3. The cutest human being on earth and her favorite missionary