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