Hospitalized, 4th Month in the Mission, Days of Rest, Cambios....

Hi mama!!! It was a very crazy, interesting week, but more on that later…

P-Day!! I wrote my thoughts about The Book of Mormon. A while ago, you asked me what the Book of Mormon means to me. Like we teach people, the Book of Mormon is another Testament of Jesus Christ. More scriptures of the word of God. Through the Book of Mormon we can receive knowledge and wisdom. Peace and guidance. Love and kindness. Because it is the Word of God, he can talk to us and help answer our questions. It has and contains stories of prophets in the America’s and their experiences and trials they went through. Because of those stories and experiences, we can learn and grow ourselves and become closer with God. I have received personally much peace, guidance, knowledge, comfort, happiness, love and truth from the Book of Mormon. God has answered my prayers because he has spoken to me through it. Because I have the Book of Mormon, I have the light of God in my life. And because I have his light, I can share that light with others. I still have much I need to learn about it, and I don’t know if I will be able to understand it all either. But I am very privileged to have it and study it and gain much knowledge from it.

Tuesday we had district meeting and it was really good. We talked about extending invitations and how important it is to be confident in your words and trust in the spirit. After the meeting we basically had a fiesta with tortas, juice, Cheetos, candies and cake. It started off as an awesome day, but when we got home, it just went down hill. As the afternoon went on, I started to have stomach pains. Elder Anastacio and I tried to do some studying and we were planning to leave to some citas but I had stomach pains and my body was super achy, so we decided to stay in and call Hermana Urrea. She told us that we needed to go to the hospital the next morning. Great. I guess it’s my turn for a trip to the hospital.

Wednesday I spent most of the night sick but we made it to the hospital after 10 a.m. The doctor did some tests and told me I had an infection in my stomach and I needed to stay a day. Frick. Neither my companion or I brought extra clothes or hardly anything to change into. They put an IV in me and unfortunately, it took 4 tries and 3 nurses. The first nurse tried to put one in my left hand and then right elbow but he couldn’t do it. Another nurse came and tried to get it in my right hand but couldn’t so a third nurse came in, felt my left wrist and put it in super quick and simple. It’s a good thing I’m not afraid of needles. I slept a lot during the afternoon and evening. They brought me lunch and dinner that were actually really good. The assistants also stopped by for a bit and said hi.

Thursday the doctor came to see me in the morning but because I still had Montezuma's revenge and a really bad headache, he told me I had to stay another day. Friggin Frick! We were supposed to go visit the temple in the afternoon with the Juarez Family. The assistants visited again and helped me practice teaching lessons and how to prepare lessons for our investigators. My DL also stopped by and stayed while his companion and Elder Anastacio went back to our area to get extra clothes. Even though you probably didn’t know I was at the hospital, at least I knew that I was in an approved hospital by Presidente and Hermana Urrea with a great hospital staff that was really kind to me. I have great leaders who check on me, a companion that helps me, and most importantly I have my Heavenly Father watching over me as well. Also I have the prayers of my family to help too.

Friday was my 4^th month mark in my mission!!! Holy cow time has flown by. I have already learned so much in the four months I have been out, it’s incredible! I know it is because I have a gracious and merciful Heavenly Father who has been helping me and loves me too! I could not do anything and I could not become anything without him! Any-who, we left the hospital that day after they gave me 5 different medications to take. We had to go back to the hospital later though for Elder Anastacio’s checkup where he learned he has 2 hernias and 2 slipped disks in his back. They gave him an injection in his spine, medication and told him to rest for a day. Oh they also told me to rest for 2 days and I have to be on a zero fats diet. They gave me a list of foods I can and can’t eat. So yeah we had to stay in the casa for a couple days and I have to be on a diet. I don’t think it will be that bad though honestly.

Saturday because we couldn’t leave we basically watched all the movies we had, did crafts, did some studying, the bishop brought food for us, we took a nap and just hung out. Elder Anastacio started feeling sicker though, he just can’t seem to catch a break. It’s okay though because he is a great missionary, a hard worker and won’t give up. I started doing so much better too. I wasn’t having any problems with my stomach. The diet is hard because I have a giant sweet tooth but can’t eat any sweets! At least it’s only for a week.

Sunday was another day of rest because Elder Anastacio’s back was killing him and because of his cold. We also had personal study time. It had been a few weeks since I read D&C in sections 18 and 19 and holy cow they are awesome! I love reading these revelations that were given to the prophet and others back then and applying them to my life. I also read through a bunch of Liahona magazines and found some super awesome talks. A little after 10 we got a call from our district leader saying that I am staying in this area and getting a new companion. Elder Anastacio is being transferred to Izcalli where he’ll be the DL. My new companion is Elder Rojas from Chile! I’m not sure what part but it’s soo cool cause that’s where Shawn is serving! I’m going to miss Elder Anastacio a lot. I learned a lot from him and he is like my brother.

Love you mama! Have a great week and good luck with all! Also I wasn’t able to get to all emails so please tell people sorry and if I didn’t respond, that I will try to respond next week.

Pictures are from our district meeting, hospital time and a cool "tree of life" stone.

A Baptism!!!!

So our week was alright......we just had a baptism on Friday is all.... It was way awesome! (but more on that later). On Tuesday we went to the stake center and watched the address from our new prophet Russell M. Nelson, then we got to watch the press conference as well. It was being translated into Spanish and I could understand most of it. It was super awesome to hear from the new Prophet of the church. I know that President Nelson has been called of God and will be a great leader for the church. He was already a great leader before he was called to be the Prophet. We are super lucky and privileged to be able to have a living, modern day Prophet here on the earth with us! Afterwards, Elder Anastacio’s back was super sore from sitting so long and then walking back to the casa. He still wanted to go out to our appointments even though his back was killing, and luckily we found one of our investigators working so we stopped and talked to her and taught her about the Law of Chastity, which is sometimes awkward but it turned into a great lesson.

On Wednesday we had to go to the office so Elder Anastacio and the other missionaries who have been here for a year could go to the capital to renew their visas. The companions who stayed at the office became a companionship, basically intercambios. It was really fun to be with other missionaries and go contacting with them to see how they talk to people and do things in general. I also got my package with my new debit card, finally. Later that day, we missed an appointment with an investigator so we ended up going to an Internet Café to look up talks we just got assigned to speak about on Sunday. Freaking heck, another talk already? :)

Thursday was my turn to plan for the day, solo, which I hate doing. We haven’t been able to get a hold of Brenda the last couple of days to confirm her interview for baptism, and I asked Elder Anastacio if we should try calling her again and he said he didn’t know. I almost said fine we won’t call her, we will just wait to hear from her, and if she doesn’t call oh well. Luckily, I thought about that and decided that we needed to call her, so we did and set up everything for her interview in the afternoon. The Spirit helped me to calm down and realize the importance of calling her for her interview, so I followed that thought and she passed her interview! I learned a very important lesson: Always listen to the spirit and think about the consequences of your actions before you do them. Later, we had a lesson with the Juarez family and it was amazing! Elder Anastacio and I taught and talked calmly, slowly and carefully. Because we had the spirit with us I know and could feel the power of our words and the spirit reinforcing our words. I invited them to be baptized and they accepted!

Friday was baptism day!! We spent most of the day at the church cleaning the font, turning on the boiler so Brenda wouldn’t have to get baptized in cold water and waiting while the font filled up. She had her husband baptize her and it was a wonderful experience for me. We weren’t the first to start teaching her, but we were able to finish the lessons and invite her to be baptized. Seeing Brenda be baptized and how happy she was after was incredible! The spirit that was there was great as well. She had a lot of support from the ward, which is super important because she needs to feel welcome. It’s a super special experience to see someone get baptized.

Saturday we had a long talk with Alisson’s mom, aunt and grandma. We decided we need to postpone her baptism for a while, because she has a huge problem with respecting and listening to her mom, tios y Abuela (uncles and grandma). She also won’t do any of the commitments we invited her to do. We are still going to try to keep teaching her; but I have no idea how to teach a 9-year-old girl how to have respect, how important it is for her to be obedient to what her family says and to do what we invite her to do as well. It’s going to take a lot of studying and prayers, but I know we will be able to figure out how to help her. We were also out later (on permission from Presidente) teaching Eduardo from the Juarez family about the Plan of Salvation. He wasn’t there the first time we taught the family about it so he had some questions and was curious. We still didn’t get through all our lesson but we had to get home and finish preparing our talks.

Sunday we were so sure that the Juarez family was going to be at church but for some unknown reason they didn’t show up. We went by their house later in the evening and tried calling them but we got nothing. They always say they are going to come to church but the end result is them not showing up. They are such an awesome family and want to keep learning about the church so it’s really frustrating when they end up not coming. I’m not sure what we need to do but keep praying for them and teach them about dia de repose (day of rest) and living it every week! On the bright side, my talk – I think and feel – went really well! Because Elder Anastacio and I talked the previous night, he helped me and I was actually not nervous or scared. Okay maybe a little nervous pronouncing words but one thing I kept thinking about before was my two favorite scriptures – D&C 50: 23-24. Being afraid that I won’t give a good talk, that I won’t pronounce anything correctly and that what I share/talk about won’t affect the members, that is NOT from God. That is from the Devil. What comes from God is uplifting, peaceful, clear and will help you learn and grow.

We have cambios next week. I’m not sure what will happen. Whatever happens I will be happy that I got to be Elder Anastacio’s companion, but I kinda think we might stay together. PS - That’s so awesome about the snow! haha oh I’m sure Koda was just in heaven. That’s also super cool about the new Family Search facility in Lehi! How awesome! Wow another missionary from the ward! How wonderful!

Thank you mama! I really appreciate all the love and support from you guys! Love you so much!

me, Brenda, her husband, Elder Anastacio

Cleaning the font, getting it ready for the baptism

A hermana in our district drew this during district meeting! 

More Investigators, Trying Carnitas, and a Trip to the Hospital

Things are going really good with our investigators and yes we found 5 new ones this past week! Side note, this week Elder Anastacio and I were craving hamburgers so we bought stuff to make them and they were super good. We had an appointment with Anaid and she had some questions about the dream Lehi had and what everything meant. I had no idea how to tell her any of that in Spanish so Elder Anastacio talked about that and answered her other questions as well. I could at least understand them though and that was super awesome!

I had more stomach pains this week. Hopefully one day my stomach will adapt and I won’t have to keep buying medicine. I did buy a coke and it helped a lot. We also had a district meeting where we talked about using invitations for various commitments, then we took some time to read and search the scriptures (specifically Mosiah 18, Alma 18 and Alma 22) for examples we could use. We have 35 pages of references (from now to 3 years ago), that we need to talk to and track down!!

Thursday started out a little rough since it was my turn to do weekly planning. It still went pretty good, just a little slow because I’m not used to it yet. After lunch we went contacting in a random calle Tocando Puertas and we contacted 4 people! Usually we don’t have much luck but that day we did! One of the contacts saw us walking in the street and asked us what we were doing and who we were. So we started talking to him telling him that we are missionaries from the church, told him about the Book of Mormon and then asked him some questions to get to know him. His name is Luis. He is catholic but he wants to change and is interested in learning more about the Book of Mormon and our church too! He wants us to come talk to his mom and younger siblings as well next week!

A bit later we had a lesson with Brenda. Their daughter kept bugging them so they were distracted and frustrated and couldn’t feel the spirit. Both Elder Anastacio and I said prayers in our minds for Heavenly Father to help them stop being frustrated and eventually they did calm down and the last half of the lesson went great! We were all able to feel the spirit.

I’ve been struggling with study time cause there’s so much I need to study and we only have an hour each day to do it. Elder Anastacio helped me to realize that each day, I need to focus on our investigators that we have planned to teach that day and the needs that they have. As I plan for my investigators, I will be able to learn more doctrines, principles and altogether have a greater understanding of the gospel. Later that day, we weren’t having luck with the appointments we had so we decided to go contacting down the first street we came across. The first door we knocked on, a woman answered and right away she invited us in! At first Elder Anastacio and I didn’t know if she was somehow just joking with us or if the situation was real; but because of how great God is, he prepared this woman and her father to start hearing our message. Also, they were feeling sick so Elder Anastacio offered to give them both a blessing, which they loved the idea of! So we gave them a blessing and scheduled another appointment for next week!

During the week we also met up with a member who took us to a street vendor place and bought us carnitas. I have never had any real carnitas until today and I gotta say that I’m not a huge fan of them. It’s like they take every part of a pig, boil it and then put it on a plate and eat with tacos. There was some meat that was good, but the part I didn’t like was the fat!! Any who, after that we were at our casa and Elder Anastacio was looking at the big map we have on our wall and somehow tweaked his back. He was in a lot of pain, didn’t have strength in his legs and couldn’t feel his feet either. I called Hermana Urrea and she told us to go to a hospital, so our zone leaders came and helped us. They took xrays at the hospital and didn’t see anything wrong, but they gave him 3 different medications and told us to come back in 2 weeks. They also told us not to walk too far and take it easy. I’m not sure what will happen these next couple weeks but I know everything will be okay.

Sunday we had stake conference in our church building so there was a ton of people there including all the missionaries from our zone. It was nice to see and talk to them. After church we went to lunch with a member and her daughter and husband and their kids. After we were done eating, we started talking to the member’s daughter and her husband and we found out they aren’t members. We asked them what they believed in and that led us to a couple hour long discussion and lesson about the restoration! It went really well I think and they said we could go by their house and teach them again!! The only thing that will make it rough to visit them is that they live far away. When we got home that night we got a text message from a member who said his 19 year old niece went to stake conference today and wants to be baptized! We were blown away and super happy! We’ve been praying for help to have a baptism and while we still need to teach her the lessons, we know she is the answer to our prayers!

My thought this week comes from Alma 32. It talks a lot about faith and compares it to a seed how we need to nurture it and be patient while it grows. While it is important to be patient with faith, you can compare the seed to just about anything. For example, I have been really wanting to get a baptism this transfer because I know the people here well and I could be transferred at the end of this cambio. During interviews with President last week, he told me how important it is to be patient with investigators and help them learn and grow until they are ready to be baptized. If you take bread out of the oven too early and eat it, it won’t be good. For good bread to be made, we have to have the right ingredients and be patient while it is cooking. As long as I am helping plant seeds and nourishing/helping our investigators grow, it doesn’t matter if I baptize them or not. As long as they are progressing, they will be baptized eventually! I hope that all makes sense. In short BE PATIENT WITH EVERYTHING! Haha

I love you Mama! Have a great week!

Yay for hamburgers!!!

Two Months In the Field

Things are going good here. Just learning lots and lots and trying to teach the gospel! After I emailed last week, we went to visit the investigators we had planned but they were either not home or busy. We decided to go contacting down one calle and every house we knocked on either no one answered or if they did answer they didn’t want to talk to us. We were pretty discouraged but luckily we have an awesome district leader who helped encourage us and reminded us that hard times will come but we always need to stay positive and have faith.

We had a lesson with Brenda, who’s husband is a member but she is not. She has received all of the lessons and has been going to church with her husband and little daughter for a few years! After we reviewed all the lessons with her and shared our testimonies with her, we asked her to be baptized and she said Yes! I could feel the spirit so strong and I know she could as well! I know that Heavenly Father and her husband will help prepare her for baptism - January 19, 2018. She has a strong desire.

On Friday our landlord brought us food! She brought us fried chicken, rice, beans, tortillas and soda! The fried chicken was my favorite part. It’s a good thing there’s not a KFC around here because I would probably eat there every day! :) We also had another cita with family Juarez. They had some more questions that we are going to research and get back with them on.

Also, I’m helping my companion with his English by using a study book he has to quiz him and then grade him on. He can actually pronounce most basic words and phrases really well. What’s funny is that he learned a lot of English from listening to American music! Too bad for me that in pretty much all Spanish songs, the singers talk really fast and I can’t understand them to help me learn Spanish… None of our appointments that we had scheduled on Saturday were home, again; so we went to visit the family of Alisson because they were having a big fiesta for one of her uncles. We didn’t eat any food because we started fasting after lunch but they were kind enough to give us some of the really good looking and smelling food to take home to eat Sunday.

I’m super excited to say that Sunday marked 2 months in the field! Two of our investigators showed up to church; also to our surprise, Presidente Urrea showed up too! It was great to see him at our church building. The teachers for Gospel Principles weren’t there, so we ended up teaching that class. Although it was a little difficult for me, we still taught a great lesson! And I found out during lunch that I don’t like Nopales (cactus). After lunch, we went to visit the familia Juarez and we were able to have a lesson with them. We asked if they had any questions or doubts and the questions they had led us into a 3 ½ hour lesson on the Plan of Salvation. It took so long because we (Elder Anastacio) explained the parts very slow and as clearly as possible, stopping every now and then to make sure they understood, and it was a great lesson! They are progressing so much! Overall, things are going pretty good with our investigators! Alisson is slowly progressing but at least she is progressing!

I love you so much Mama! Thank you for everything! 

Happy New Year!!!

Couple of funny stories from the week before Christmas. First we got Ribeye steaks!! Hermano Cano got them for Elder Martinez and I because he is being transferred. It was great! Also before Elder Martinez left we went and got haircuts. I needed one really bad! After I got it, E. Martinez was funny and told me I looked like a soldier! I thought about it and realized that I am a soldier. A super soldier of God, in the words of Elder Martinez. My first and middle names mean Warrior of God and I love that – so much!

I got to meet my new companion Elder Anastacio from Peru. He is super awesome and I have faith that God will help us in this area. I also had a great experience teaching Alejandra and Mariana. Mariana has some doubts about the church and one question she had was what is our purpose or why are we here? Elder Anastacio looked at me to respond so I took a breath to relax and said with the help of the spirit what came into my head and heart. I could feel the spirit so strongly when I was talking; and after I was done, Mariana said okay and that she wanted to come to church on Sunday! So does Alejandra and their son Gonzalo! We kept talking with them asking if they had any other questions or doubts or anything and they said NO! It was so awesome to talk with them. We also had another lesson with Alisson, the 9-year old girl who was supposed to be baptized a few weeks ago. It was a really great lesson! It was an awesome day!

Christmas Eve was fantastic. Church was great! Mariana and Alejandra Juarez were there! I was blown away when we saw them! A little bit after sacrament meeting Eduardo Juarez, the father, came!! Holy snot! Haha that will be funny to read later. Anyways it was so great to see them at church. It was so great to talk to and see you guys. Of course I miss you like crazy but right now, in Mexico Mexico City North, in the Zone Tepalcapa, in Villas de la Hacienda with Elder Anastacio as my companion is where I need to be.

On Wednesday, 12/27, I was a little frustrated with trying to plan a lesson for our investigators by myself. After I struggled through it and then we left the casa, I was thinking a lot in my head how I can be a better missionary because I have so much to learn and do right now. I prayed for help too. We went to an Internet café and I watched a video from The District. In the video one of the missionaries said, “The key to know God is to struggle.” That hit me hard, so I prayed and thanked God for my struggles, for the opportunity to learn and grow and become closer to Him. Then I said I will trust in thee and have faith that thou will help me – He did help me too. When we had our lesson with the Family Juarez it went really, really well. We were able to answer their questions or doubts they had. They are such an awesome family! I know they will be baptized soon. As long as I trust God, which will be forever, I know he will help me. I can feel him helping me daily.

On Thursday, we met with Angie and her mom, new investigators, and the lesson went really well. Later in the lesson one of Angie’s friends came in to the shop and we ended up teaching her too. So we have three new investigators and have an appointment to go back and teach them this week!

As of Friday, we still didn’t have gas for hot water for showers; so I decided to heat up water on our plug-in stove top (hot plate) and then put it in a larger bowl and use that while showering. Elder Anastacio looked at me like I was crazy, but he is the crazy one because he thinks the weather is hot! Anywho, we had another lesson with Alissa to verify our commitments we extended and go over the baptismal interview questions with her. She has a hard time paying attention during lessons, and because of that she doesn’t remember a lot of the things that we have been teaching her. She is only 9 and we are doing our best to stop during lessons to make sure she is understanding, but it’s going to take a lot of work to get her to baptism. But I know God will help us and her as well.

On Saturday, we also found out that we didn’t have ANY water for the whole building and wouldn’t have any for 4 days. It’s not just our building but multiple colonies in the area so we went and bought 4 huge jugs of water. On Sunday (New Year’s Eve) I heated up some of the water we bought and put it in a bucket to use for showering. It was the first time I’ve ever had to do that. Even if I have to do it again/more during my mission, so be it. As long as I get to learn more and preach the gospel / teach people, I don’t care. I do care about being a good missionary and being a tool in God’s hands. When church started that day, there was only 11 people in the whole chapel. As time went on, more showed up and it was really good, but after sacrament meeting pretty much everyone left so there weren’t any classes. Bunch of slackers! Oh well. We ended the night with making food, doing laundry and watching church videos. What a great way to end the year. (I forgot to mention we got water back, just no gas for hot water yet.)

On New Year’s Eve there was a lot of fireworks and music, which made it tough to sleep, but it’s okay we got to sleep in for a while on New Year’s Day. Then on Tuesday, we had a district meeting which was really good! We also got a call from the gas people and bought some gas so I’m super excited to shower with hot water! And as you know we didn’t get time to write home so we got permission from Presidente to write on Wednesday (today).

It’s great to hear about all that is going on at home! and thank you for the thought as well! While watching the DVD “Doctrine and Covenants” this past week, one part was talking about the different gifts that people have. My thought for you is to find out what gifts God has given you. If you don’t know, then pray to ask him! If you do know, that’s great! Pray to ask him to help you improve and make your gifts and talents better! In other words too, use your gifts and talents to help others!

I love you so much Mama! Talk to you in a couple days!

Me and Elder Anastacio

View from the top of a hill in our area