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.