2-27-17

This first picture is Lily,  DJ (and Niko, we babysit him) anxious to get on the computer to check their emails from Kyle! 🤗❤ Makes me happy to see them so excited to hear from him. 

Hi! This week was a lot of work, but we are finally starting to see some progression in the ward, with investigators, and with the overall position of the area. 

We have a baptism coming up! On Saturday, Kate (9 years old!) is going to be baptized!! We are so so excited for her and her decision. It is so cute to see how happy she gets when we talk about Baptism with her!! 

We also have a few more investigators with baptismal dates, but due to time, I wont write about all of them this week. Their names are Maria, Adrian, Elizabeth, and Delia. The other investigators are progressing but havent accepted a date to be baptized. We are working on that. 

This week was full of crazy things! A bird pooped on my shoulder during a lesson with an investigator, so I just had to sit there and smile while the investigator wondered why I had bird poop on my shoulder. I ate Pancita, or cow stomach, and it was the WORST. It was literally the intestines of a cow, complete with veins, villi, and the other parts inside your body. The texture was a combination of pure fat and slimey seaweed. Good stuff. This week on Wednesday, in my personal prayer I asked that when I worked out in the morning, I wouldnt pull a muscle. I pulled a muscle in my neck less than 10 minutes later. I found 50 pesos in the street, and then later in the day I dropped the bill, and it fell in the sewer. My luck was amazing this week hahahaha!! 

Quick lesson in Spanish, and why I have a hard time. The phrase "I was" is past time of "I am". For us, there is only one way to say "I am". But in Spanish, they say Estuve, Estaba, Fui, and Era. And its all based on context. I still dont understand and I just guess randomly which version I should use when I speak. Oh well. Also, they say "Nos Vemos!" to people in the street, which literally means "We will see ourselves!". Its weird, but Im learning. 

I had my first assault of the mission this week. It was about 8 o clock at night and we were walking down a street when 3 young kids of about 10 years crossed the street and walked towards us. When they got to me they each threw 2 handfulls of confetti in my face and ran off. Good times. Good times. 

Amongst all the hardships, this week I had pizza so its all good. 

Im having a good time and we are working hard. Thank you for your prayers and I hope you have a good week!!

Spiritual thought: 

"And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, that our children may know to what source they may look to for a remission of their sins." (2 Nephi 25:26 with some dope editing by me)

"And now, my beloved bretheren, I know by this that unless a man shall follow the example of the Son of the Living God, he cannot be saved" (2 Nephi 31:16)

The message is plain and simple. Missionary work is to bring others to Christ and help them Repent so that they can follow Christ and be saved. We cannot be saved in the Kingdoms of our Heavenly Father and follow the example of Christ in all things. Take some time this week and do something that Christ would do if he were here. And remember that that is how we gain eternal life. 

Photos:

 Pizza time!!! 

A wonderful pic of Elder Rosales and I 

My comp got mad at me

2-20-17

This week was rough! And slow. Not a lot happened.

On Thursday and Sunday we had all except one of our appointments cancel, so we had all day to walk around and find new investigators, or visit members of the ward. Well, no one wanted to listen, not even one person, and every house we tried, no one was home. So that was difficult, we were extremely tired and had zero success. 

However, we extended 2 more baptismal dates this week! Our progressing investigators are: Hugo, Kate, Adrian, Delia, Elizabeth and Maria del Socorro.

-Maria is an old single lady, with about 60 years. She has a super strong faith in Christ, she literally started crying when we asked the question: "Do you have a belief in Christ?". So we know she loves the Lord. She investigated the Jehovahs Witnesses, and other various Christian churches, but never really stuck to them. We hope that she can feel the spirit and know that this Church is the right church to be in. 

-Elizabeth accepted her baptismal date with ease, she has a lot of questions but they arent of doubt, theyre from interest. 

-Hugo was at church, and he called us last night asking if we could visit him. He is experiencing the change of heart that we strive to take place in our investigators, so we are so excited for him! 

-Delia is just waiting for her school to end! 

-Adrian and Kate missed church this week, so we have to reschedule their baptism. We hope they will be able to attend church next week and be baptized!! 

The work is tough here, especially with our tiny ward. We have so many less actives and barely any active. But we think that will change soon because a couple just moved into our ward 3 weeks ago, the Castros. Theyre both exmissionaries, both young, and recently married. They know how to work as missionaries and how to utilize the ward much better than I do. And Gustavo (the husband) was called as our Ward Mission Leader! We hope he can help the ward. We really really hope so! 

This week I tried an Orange Tamale. Dang. It was so good! I also had a Dulce Tamale, which was also amazing. Its my favorite food here! Im going to try a strawberry and pinapple tamale this week, I hope! 

I gave another talk in Sacrament meeting, and Ive been noticing that Im almost fluent! I havent realized my progress until a few days ago a member of our ward complimented me on how fast I learned! I dont realize im progressing because I teach a lot of drunks and people with hard accents so I cant understand them. But in normal conversation I can already fully communicate with people. Its not me, its the Gift of Tongues. I promise. 

This week we ate at a members restaurant for lunch, called the 400 Plumas Cafe. I had my first Frappe (without Coffee, dont worry) and I went to heaven right there in the tiny Cafe. Its like a Cafe Zupas but with Mexican food. The Hna that owns the joint said we can come by any time we like and she will give us food! Im so ready to take her up on that offer. 

We met some extremely crazy teenage girls this week. There is a cooking school across the street from a less active members house, and the students are always on Lunch break from 1 to 2. They always hang out outside the building. A few of them think Im cute, and I didnt think much about it until they almost died trying to say Hi to me! The street is a 4 lane road, and the cars dont go slow here. When they saw us coming, they literally ran in the street, with oncoming traffic to get to the other side of the road to say hi. Cars slammed on their brakes, and their friends were screaming because we all honestly thought they would get hit by a car. Luckily they didnt, but we arent returning to that street from 1-2 cause if they are willing to run in traffic to say hi, well, its self explanatory. 

Im still getting along with my companion, we have a really good time together now that we can communicate haha! I teach as much as I can in the lessons now, and he helps me by filling in the rest. I dont hate him, so thats a really good thing. He has taught me a lot about being a missionary and hes pretty cool. 

Im working, Im learning, Im always tired, but its the work of the Lord, so its all worth it!

Other cool/interesting things this week:

-I taught a Buddhist

-2 Kings 2:23-24

-We had 44 people attend church

-I was catcalled by women multiple times

-I got a torta (sandwich) for free with some peach soda

-This week wasnt very exciting so I dont have anything more

My spiritual experience this week was one of a kind, something I will never forget. Ever.

We found our investigator Carlos Jugos drunk out of his mind last Monday, and it was the saddest thing Ive ever seen. He was crying, so embarassed, and he wanted to change. We told him we would walk around our area until we found him and help him every day. So we did. On Wednesday night, we looked for him, and couldnt find him. We said a prayer, couldnt find him. We asked the other drunks on the streets, they couldnt find him. We were really worried about him and couldnt figure out what to do. So i started praying. I prayed so long and so hard. I asked and asked and begged that we could find him. When I opened my eyes, he was in front of me. Literally in front of me. Of all the places in the entire city, he was in front of me. It was an amazing answer to my prayer and I will never forget how much God can help me in times of need. 

God can and will answer our Prayers!!

February 13, 2017

 How good it is to write to all of you again! If my emails are too funny for you or maybe you are jealous of me and dont want to recieve any more emails, shoot me a quick email and I can remove you from the list. 

This week was filled with adventures. My first Mexico campout, my first sickness, my Birthday, and transfers!

Transfers were today, but I am with Elder Rosales for another six weeks. I think thats a good thing but we will see. Just kidding, hes pretty great. Our Zone leaders became Assitants to the President and the other District leader became a Zone leader. Other than that, nothing changed. 

On Tuesday of last week, we took the spare mattresses and slept on our roof! It was insanely cold and I hated it, but my companion said that it was basically his mission dream to do it, so we did it. We saw the moon, but nothing more. The pollution here is unreal. So unreal, that E. Rosales was pretty stoked to even see the Moon. 

Due to the extreme cold on the roof, I was a little sick the next day but didnt think much of it, until I woke up at 4AM the next morning and threw up. And continued to do so again and again every half hour till about 10 in the morning. I crashed super hard and slept till 5pm. I got a good taste of being a missionary in a foreign country. It was great (not). 

It was my Birthday!! I turned 19 on Sunday. My District is really cool and baked me a cake and threw me a mini party on Tuesday for our District meeting. The cake was Oreo. It was delicious. Then on Saturday night, Elder Rosales and I bought 3 Family sized pizzas from a family pizza shop and enjoyed the super strange pizzas that Mexico has. Marinara sauce, Cheese, Beans, Avocado, Sausage, Jalapenos, and Catsup! It actually wasnt that bad. My family sent me some birthday presents, a really good looking watch and a beautiful tie. I was really happy to receive the gifts, but it was a little difficult to really celebrate without my family there. And I didnt really celebrate because as Missionaries, we have a large workload, so my Birthday was me working haha. 

Investigator update: 

Gloria: We received instruction to never visit Gloria again. We are 99% sure she is super addicted to drugs. The last time we visited her, her house smelled like rotten cat urine, she told us about a vision she had in which an Angel in a flea market gave her a Bible and 50 bucks, and then she told us about her infection of her... lady part. We were extremely uncomfortable, but nevertheless, very polite. As we left, she said that if we arrived late to our next appointment with her, she would kill us and string us up by our ears. We awkwardly laughed and consulted with the Bishop, who said it is now prohibited to visit her again. 

Delia: Delia is progressing, its just that she cant attend church because she has a class at 8am on Sunday for her college. As soon as she finishes college, were going to baptize her. We are hoping for April 29th. 

Adrian and Kate: Adrian has some stumbling blocks to overcome on the paperwork side of marrying his girlfriend-wife, Carmen. We hope that he can marry her quickly and get baptized. His projected Baptismal date is April 1. Kate really wants to be baptized, and we dont want her to wait for her Dad if something goes wrong with the marriage license and they cant get married. We are going to Baptize Kate on February 25th! Right now, we are teaching about the Word of Wisdom and various commandments like that. They accept all of it with reason and keep every commitment they have. 

Liz: Isnt an investigator, but she received her first calling in the Church! She is the representative of the Single Adults in her ward. We hope that she will like the calling, and that the calling will help her stay active for these next crucial months in her life!

We dont have very many more investigators progressing. And we are having trouble finding new ones. This week we ran into a lady named Marisol. She was selling tacos, and we contacted her. My companion said that it wasnt a coincidence that we found her in the street at that day, and that time. She said she was thinking the same thing because she wanted some help from God on how to help her family grow closer. We thought that she was of Gold, and we were sure we would be able to baptize her, and her entire family! Until we learned she lives 2 hours away from Nativitas and only works in our area during the day, but lives in another area at night. And that is how it goes with every person we contact in the street. 

Other cool and funny things:

1. Mexicans think that we eat hot dogs with mayo for breakfast. 

2. E. Rosales favorite song is called- We are daughters of God (he doesnt know that because he doesnt understand English)

3. I was called papacita multiple times this week by girls, and also hit on multiple times.

4. The cops in Mexico ALWAYS have their sirens on. How do people know when there is an emergency?

5. I have gained 15 pounds in 6 weeks because the members get offended if you dont eat all the food on your plate, and its so much food and i cant eat it all but i force it down and im gonna be super fat by the end of my mission cause of courtesy.

Pictures:

1. Me before I froze to death sleeping on the roof

2. Me with my birthday pizzas

February 6 2017 *Mcdonalds

 Hey everyone! Its good to write to you all again, and thank you for the emails, thoughts, and prayers! They help so much! 

I forgot to tell you guys my area is Nativitas! Delegation: Benito Juarez. Its dirty, and everything is packed together like crazy but I already love it. 

Tuesday went great! I killed it with 12 lessons in one day! We taught like crazy, and I contacted my first investigator all by myself. Her name is Elizabeth and she owns a Soap Shop. We have bright hopes for her and hopefully she is a baptism! Tuesday was long and hard, but was really satisfying to know that we tried our hardest, and we felt like real missionaries.

Unfortunately, the rest of the week was a bit depressing. In fact, all of Missionary Work at times is depressing. Its because once we have seen someone start to feel Jesus Christ in their life and accept him, once they feel that love and the peace, and then dont follow through? We see everyone we teach as people with the ability to live in the Celestial Kingdom with God and with their families and it is so unbelievably sad to see people turn that down, or willingly not follow it. We worked a ton this week, with zero results. Its not about the results, because we know that Jesus Christ can choose to bless us with success or not, but its really sad to see someone not live up to the potential that the Gospel has given them. My ward attendance was 50 this week, and our Ward Directory has over 100 people. We taught some less actives this week who didnt even know who Joseph Smith was. Its just been a week of sorrow for the salvation of my brothers and sisters of God. However, among the sadness, there is always happiness. 

 We started teaching Carlos Jugos, a juice Puesto owner (a puesto is a sidewalk shop) who is super addicted to Alcohol. He really wants to change and he said to us that when we are with him, he feels a burning in his chest and it tells him that this church is true. Its an amazing experience to see how much the truth of the Gospel is helping him! We just have to help him with straighening up his life and he will be an amazingly strong convert to the church. 

Our current investigators are as follows:

Adrian and Kate: Adrian is having difficulty with successfully helping his girlfriend-wife divorce her previous husband. He really wants to be baptized but he needs to marry his wife first. We think that we are going to baptize Kate ASAP and hopefully, with divine help, he can marry his wife and enjoy the blessings of the Gospel more fully in his life. 

Delia: Delia has confirmed that she is going to be a member of this church, even if she has to wait years. Her prayers are powerful and she has acheived her goal to become closer to Jesus Christ. We are just waiting for her school to end so she can attend church and be baptized! 

Hugo Isac: Hugo has expressed to us that his desire is to gain a testimony of Jesus Christ and this Gospel. His girlfriend-wife is less active but we have seen that she absolutely knows this church is true, she just doesnt keep her covenants because Hugo isnt part of the church. Our goal is to marry them quickly and we will continue teaching him to help him gain a testimony and baptize him. 

We have more, but they arent really progressing, or due to circumstances, they wont be baptized in our area, or have problems that are unfortunately out of our control. 

Our recently baptized convert, Liz, is doing amazing and she loves going to church, she has lots of friends and she is always smiling. Im so happy for her!

The work is moving along quickly, with the other Districts in my area having baptisms and also working very hard. 

This week we got to visit Del Valle, and help the Elders there with motivating the members of their ward. We performed skits, cheers and did activities. In their ward is a middle aged man visiting from Utah who knows absolutely zero English. So with my 4 week knowledge of a foreign language, I was assigned to translate for him. I didnt do very well. I was lost, he was lost. Its all good. He was very nice to me and it was a good time to be able to talk to someone in English for a minute! 

We visited the Dentist again this week, so I restarted the Book of Mormon and Im already done with Jacob... I spend a lot of time in offices. But its okay because Im able to read a ton more! 

We got to eat breakfast at McDonalds this week!!!! We had to go get an X-ray on Rosales teeth, and there was a McD across the street so we popped in and I had the most nostalgic McMuffin on earth. I miss the cleanliness, the fatty greasy unhealthy taste of fake food, and America. It was a good time. That will probably be the last time I eat there for 22 more months. 

Other cool things this week:

1. We taped the area map to the ceiling

2. We taped every pizza menu we could find to the ceiling

3. We taped every other advertisement we could find to the ceiling

4. I made a super cool picture wall from cool pictures my mom sent me 

5. I received an awesome package from my mom (I love her)

6. We had a Zone Conference this week and even though I didnt understand half of it, I enjoyed it. 

7. It was fast Sunday this week. and also this week there was free cake, tacos, and chocolate wafers after church. Dang Satan and his temptations. 

8. We attended the Baptism of Mariana, an investigator from Jardines, and Elder Rosales was asked to baptize her! I sat by the Mission President and his wife during the program. What a rush!

9. I bought almost half the store at Dulce Maria, the heaven of candy. I bought Doritos, Takis, orange chocolate, mentos, air heads, air heads extremes, gummy worms, peanuts, skittles, and more. US monetary value, under 20 dollars. 

The sidewalks here have become a problem for me. They are tiny, and the have many poles, telephone cables, and other random things sticking out of them so in reality I only have about shoulder width of space to walk. Im wall to telephone pole, and the sidewalks here are terrible! They are jagged, cracked, and more missionaries go home from sidewalk accidents than all other injuries or incidents combined (You think Im joking). And to make things worse, the stray dogs here (and disgustingly, some humans) do their business on the sidewalk. Today marked the fourth time Ive slipped on dog poo. Not cool. Not. Cool. 

My spiritual thought today is in 2 Nephi 4 the last 10-ish verses of the chapter. I love these verses! Awake my soul! No longer droop in sin! Oh, that I may shake at the very sight of sin! Lehis words are a powerful reminder of what we should always strive for, and are always the words of encouragement I need to continue moving forward. May we take the advice of Lehi to his sons and shake off the chains that surround us and arise from the dust, that we may be worthy of being Disciples of Jesus Christ and live as he would want us to. I promise that doing such will bless our lives in so many ways that we cant possibly understand! May we rejoice in our knowledge of the restored Gospel of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Have a good week!!!

Photos:

1. Elder Rosales adjusting our ceiling map

2. Finished ceiling map and ceiling of Pizza (and whatever else we found)

3. Everything I bought from Dulce Maria, and Elder Rosales (from Del Valle, not my comp) in the background. 

4. My sick dope study set-up, complete with my cool picture wall (Thanks mom!)