A Great Meeting with Elder Holland!!!

Hola Mamá y Papá! I’m doing good. After our p-day time ended last Monday we went to try and visit a couple of contacts but they weren’t home. Thankfully we were able to have a lesson with Joselin in a park. A friend of hers who’s a member joined us to help her feel better and understand what we taught. When we ended we did all we could to get them both to promise they are going to come to church on Sunday. They said yes, but you’ll hear what happened with that later. We also got a new goal from our leaders to have 15 contacts daily, this is to help us find someone who will come to church since our numbers have been low lately.

Tuesday we had our district meeting where we talked about how we need to plan for every hour in our day and have backup plans for if plans fall through. We’ve talked about this before but it was good to go over it again. We only had a few appointments so we were able to contact for a good amount of time. A little after 7 p.m. we had 10 contacts and my companion told me he was satisfied that we had 10 and said he didn’t want to contact more. I told him he’s still got 20 more months of contacting so he’d better get used to it. Plus the goal is 15 contacts and it’s not for the leaders but it’s for us so we can find more people to teach. So we continued to contact and were able to find 2 more. Even though we weren’t able to achieve 15 that day I was grateful for the 12 we found.

Wednesday we had a lesson with a woman named Belia and her 2 daughters Diana and Dania who are both in their 20’s and going to school. We had a great lesson about the restoration and talking with them to get to know them. It went really well. They didn’t accept to be baptized because they are baptized in the catholic church and they want more time to learn and understand. We were running a little late so we weren’t able to answer their questions and doubts about baptism before we had to leave but we are going to go back again next week and do more. During the rest of the day we didn’t have much success with contacting. We didn’t get our numbers that day, we tried hard but we could have done better. I know and feel it.

Thursday we went to see Karla and when she came out to talk to us, the mom of her boyfriend came out and was just standing there. So we tried to talk to her but she said she’s catholic, has her bible and doesn’t think the Book of Mormon is from God and wasn’t interested. I’m not sure why she was standing there then… She finally went inside but we feel like she may be playing the Devil’s advocate to Karla and trying to get her to stop talking to us. Karla told us she had just been reading the Book of Mormon and has some questions but had to leave and said we could come back Friday. We were also able to find some new contacts throughout the day. We didn’t get 15 but we are improving and finding more contacts than before.

Friday in the morning we found a ton of scriptures that talk about the similarities of the Bible and Book of Mormon and prepared to answer Karla’s questions but when we got there she was having a hard time from her dentist appointment the day before and could barely talk so we just invited her to keep reading the Book of Mormon, pray about it and confirmed we were going to pass by Sunday in the morning before church. We were able to contact more people that day too, which was good.

Saturday was such an amazing day! We had to get up super early to go to the church in Villa de la Hacienda where I first started my mission, for our meeting with Elder Holland. We waited until he got there then took a big group photo with him in the parking lot. Then we all got to shake hands with him one by one, tell him our names and where we’re from as we entered the chapel. We first heard messages from Hermana Urrea and Presidente, then from Sister and Brother Pingree and then from Elder Holland. I don’t have enough time to write all the things I loved from what he said but it was amazing and just what I needed to hear to help me know what I need to do to change and do better. I know he truly is an Apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ. It was an honor and a real privilege to meet him, shake his hand and hear his message. After we got back we had a ward mission activity by the main supermarket where we tried to talk to people about families and give them a Family Proclamation page along with the pamphlet My Family. It went okay we just needed more help from the members and a better location next time. 

Sunday I realized I have 20 months in the mission! I’m sad to say though that we didn’t have any investigators at church, despite our efforts to confirm with our investigators throughout the week about going to church. That morning we called Joselin and her mom said she left at 6 a.m. to go to work with her dad. We also passed by Karla’s house and knocked for a long time but nobody answered. We later passed by and to our surprise she answered and had the pamphlet of the Plan of Salvation in her hands. She didn’t go to church because she was trying to rest from the pain in her mouth, but before we went by she had just woken up and had been reading through it. We were able to talk to her for a bit about it and help her understand it more, but it was a real surprise she was reading it. I really hope she is interested and that she will come to church this next week. Later we were able to visit the Relief Society President and her family. They gave us food and took us back to the casa. They are an awesome family!

Sounds like a super fun time you guys had and are having! Thank you for the thoughts you guys sent! For my thought, I want to send you a talk from Elder Bednar titled: Accepting the Lord’s Will and Timing from August 2016. I found it from a Liahona, and it’s really amazing and opened my eyes more. My invitation is that you guys will read it together! I will be expecting a report next week from what you read together! 😀

Thank you guys so much for everything! I love you both and am so very grateful for your love and support and prayers!

This Week is a New Week and That's What Matters!

Hola Mamá, muy bien, y tu? Well it wasn’t the best week last week but this week is a new week and that’s what matters! Tuesday in the district meeting, we talked about, and had practices for, how during the week we were going to focus on teaching very clearly and as many times as is necessary about the Sabbath Day. We were also going to verify with them as many times as we can throughout the week about coming to church. It was a good district meeting.

After the meeting we had an appointment with Edith but she told us she is busy and has other things going on and asked if we could give her a month or more before calling her again or passing by. She wasn’t progressing anyways, so now we can use that time to look for and contact other people.

Wednesday we had quite a few appointments but when we would pass by they would say they were busy and ask if we could come back later. Only when we went back, they weren’t home. We were able to reschedule a lesson with one guy for another day so that was good. One of the best parts of the day was when we were contacting, we knocked on a door and talked to a guy who once lived in Salt Lake City! He knows about the church, temples and the Book of Mormon and happily told us we could come back another day to talk to him and his family.

Thursday was another day of life and learning but not much happened in the progression of missionary work because all but 2 of the appointments we had fell through. The two we had didn’t go as planned either. I realized I have been starting to not be motivated as much because the appointments we set are always falling through, or they tell us after a couple of lessons, they don’t want us to come by anymore for x reason. I’m trying to keep going and not give up but it’s hard. I know it’s not supposed to be easy but I’m trying to figure out what the Lord wants me to learn from this.

Friday we had intercambios. I was with Elder Hidalgo for the day and was able to learn some things from him to help me improve myself and think about how to contact and do things differently. I feel like my companion and I are stuck in a rut so it was good to change companions and see how other missionaries work so I can learn more. Of course it’s also good to figure out what’s not working in my companionship to see what things we need to change and do differently too. I did learn some new things from Elder Hidalgo that I’m going to apply with Elder Cruz so we can improve our area and investigators.

Saturday was a big trial day. We went to visit Jackeline and her family to have a lesson about eternal marriage and temples and to confirm that they were going to come to church but that didn’t happen. They told us they don’t want us to passby anymore and that they aren’t going to church because they aren’t ready to change their religion or lives yet. In part for their little daughters who recently did their first communion so they don’t want to confuse them. We did our best to show them love and be understanding and not ruin at least our friendship but yeah the decision is final. We just have to wait and hope that missionaries in the future will be able to help them and teach them. One good part of the day is when we were walking in the street, we found Eduardo’s girlfriend, Karla, who is a really sweet and great girl but who has also had lots of problems in her life. We were able to talk to her and she opened up to us about difficulties she’s had. We were able to talk to her about how the gospel, the scriptures, prayer, and going to church can help her and then invited her to be baptized to which she accepted! She is a great girl with lots of potential. I just pray and hope she isn’t playing with us and that we can actually help her.

As of Sunday we have 3 investigators: Fernando, Joselin and Karla. None of them came to church but at least they told us beforehand they wouldn’t be there. Church was really good though and helped me not worry so much about the not so good week we had. Later, we talked with various groups of drunk guys in the streets that were actually really cool. One of the groups of people we talked to were super cool and bought us coke and told us that if we ever have problems with anyone or anyone gives us crap that we can tell them and they will take care of the situation. I don’t know how but it’s super awesome that if we have problems they will help us out.

But wow thank you guys for those quotes! I love them a lot! Thank you so much for everything! I love you guys!

(One of the quotes was from Gordon B. Hinckley: "Believe in yourself. Believe in your capacity to do great things. Believe that no mountain is so high that you cannot climb it. You are a child of God, of infinite capacity." Tom was definitely inspired to pick that quote this week 😀. And, despite the hard week he had, when I talked to him on the phone he sounded good and was looking forward to a new week ahead so that was good.) 

From intercambios!

Pollution in the city...

Rough Week with Investigators but Great Skyping Home for Mother's Day

Hola Mamá! Muy bien! Yes it was super good to be able to talk to you as well! The rest of the week was a bit rough with investigators letting us down and canceling appointments but more about that later. 

Since I am staying with Elder Cruz again for this cambio, he’s my first companion who I will have been with for 3 cambios, which I really don’t mind. I didn’t think we were going to be changed either. After p-day time ended last week we were able to contact because the two appointments we had fell through, but we were able to find 5 new contacts thanks to Heavenly Father.

Tuesday we had our district meeting. It was really good. Our new district leader is Elder Ortiz and we finally found out what was going to happen for Mother’s day. As you know we got to talk on Friday and we had to do that because we aren’t allowed to Skype home from members houses so we had to do it on Friday from an Internet café. That’s going to cost us more money, and we already get very little, so I don't understand but I’m going to be obedient. Also that day we were able to find quite a bunch of new contacts.

Wednesday was another day in the life of a missionary. We were blessed by Heavenly Father to find 1 new investigator, Fernando -- who initially we weren’t thinking was that interested. All of the other appointments we had feel through, including the ones who we thought we would be able to make new investigators. We were able to find a few new contacts, but I’m getting very frustrated with people canceling and not being direct with us. We just need to do something different.

Thursday we got a surprise visit from the zone leaders. They are concerned that our investigators aren’t progressing so they came to talk to us and help us see what we need to do to improve our companionship, area book, and find/help our investigators. After that we were able to passby with our neighbors Jackeline and Jose Luis. We invited one of their other daughters to be baptized which she happily accepted. The oldest daughter, who is 12, didn’t accept because she’s a bit more timid; but we have a lesson next week so we’ll try to help her more then.

Friday was awesome because we got to Skype home and talk with you all. It’s crazy to me that I will end in 4 months, like it kinda stresses me out, but it’s all good. We were also able to call former investigators and set up appointments with them so that’s how we found our contacts for that day. But the highlight of my day was Skyping with you guys!

Saturday we had really good plans to contact investigators and invite them to church but our plans got interrupted because there was a sister in the ward whose son was baptized. She didn’t have anyone from the bishopric to clean and fill the font so she asked us to help. While the font was filling and after the service, we went to look for investigators and remind/invite them to church.

Sunday, none of our investigators came to church so other than Jackaline and her family and Fernando we are dropping the rest. Church was good but kinda crazy because we got a call from one of the Bishop’s Counselors asking if one of us could prepare a talk because someone wasn’t going to be there who was assigned. So I prepared and gave a talk and it went pretty well! Better than I thought! Later in the day was hard. We had 10 appointments planned and all but one got canceled. The one that we had went really well though. It was with a girl named Joselin who had listened to missionaries before and has a friend who took her to the visitors center a couple of months ago. She is interested in the church and accepted a baptismal date! We set it for July, but we are hoping to baptize her before if all goes well.

I’m glad you liked the talk I sent you! Thank you for the thoughts and for your love and support! I love you so much!

A few pictures of our Skype call with Chad!

Good Week, Cambios and an Awesome Zone Activity with Intense Sack Races :)

Hola hola! So today is cambios and….. we are staying the same! We just got the news this morning, but I’m excited to continue to work with our investigators. 

This last week was a good week. Since last Monday was technically the last p-day before cambios we had to deep clean the casa, in case we were transferred. After p-day time ended we had an appointment with a woman named Angeles Mandujano, whose name we found while looking through our area book. We taught her a lesson then invited her to be baptized to which she accepted! Nobody else in her family wanted to listen to us, but we are going to go back another day to try and talk to her husband and invite him as well so they can progress and be baptized together.

Tuesday in our district meeting we talked about helping investigators better understand why we are here. We are going to show them their teaching record and explain what it’s for in a way that helps them know we care about them. We’re also going to give them a copy they can use and mark to help them see if there’s any points of any lessons that they maybe don’t fully understand so we can help them. We’ll see how that goes. Then they announced we were going to have a zone activity to celebrate the success we had the cambio before with all the baptisms we had!! I was super excited! We were able to contact a few new people that day too so that was good.

Wednesday we had a lesson with Cesar planned but when we got there he told us he is grateful we were able to passby but he’s started going to school and doing a bunch of other things so he doesn’t have time for us to continue. It’s sad and hard but hopefully missionaries in the future will find him and he will accept them. Later we visited a family whose daughter was baptized by missionaries before us. We found out the family is active, except for the dad. He is catholic and has a stone heart, but we had a nice visit where we talked about the Bible and things they had questions about. We also found 8 contacts throughout the day, one of them is a super awesome and kind woman named Fabiola Santillan. She accepted to talk to us right then and accepted another day for us to come back and talk with her and her family! She also told us she didn’t think we knocked on her door by chance, that it was for a reason.

Thursday was our zone activity and it was so much fun! We played musical chairs and that sounds lame but it was really intense, fun and I won! Then we had sack races, had a game/challenge where we were with a partner blind folded and had to try to feed each other yogurt which got really messy but was fun. After that we had a water balloon toss where if one partnership threw it out of bounds or failed to catch it and it popped, they were out. Then we ate food and had a tug-of-war challenge. The only thing is during the sack races, at the end of my race I got super antsy and ended up tripping or rather diving and fell on my wrist and arm and jacked up my arm. So as a result, I couldn’t play in the water balloon toss or the tug-of-war. I didn’t break anything, I could flex and extend my arm. I felt dumb I got hurt but at least it wasn’t worse (and it’s all good now). Quite a few people got injured with scrapes form falling during the sack races, but it was still super fun. 

Friday, we had a couple interesting appointments. The first was with a lady and I don’t know how to describe her but she just acted strange. The second was with a guy who knows a lot about religions and Christ and the scriptures. We talked with him about the Restoration but at the end we didn’t feel it was the right time to invite him to be baptized. It was an okay day other than the fact that my legs, neck and a little of my face are very sunburnt form the activity. Then we went to visit with Elias to see how he is doing and he told us he doesn’t feel like this is the true church because it’s basically like the others and he wanted to be free to think. He tried to return the Book of Mormon we gave him but we told him to keep it, actually read it, and pray then we would talk on Sunday.

Saturday we had quite a lot of appointments but they all fell through. When we first contact people they almost always say we can pass another day, just to get us to leave them alone rather than saying no they aren’t interested. It’s rare when someone is direct and says they aren’t interested. Unfortunately, that’s how the people are here, which drives me crazy! So we spent the day walking all over our area trying to verify with our investigators that they were going to come to church. 4 of them we contacted said they would be there. 

Sunday we called and confirmed with our investigators in the morning, but only Eiias went to church. After Sacrament meeting he told us again he wants to be a free thinker and gave the Book of Mormon back. I don’t understand but he has his agency. At least we gave him the opportunity but that didn’t really help me feel better. After that we had a lesson with Concepcion so we talked with her to help her know that God loves her and about the Plan of Salvation. Later we don’t know if it was from the lunch we ate or what but my companion started to feel sick to his stomach, had head and back aches. We tried calling our leaders, Hermana Urrea and the doctor but no one was answering so we decided to go back to the casa and good thing we did too because my companion threw up. I eventually got ahold of President who get us in contact with the Mission Doctor who told us of medicines to go buy. After we got the medicines, my companion rested while I made calls to set appointments. He’s feeling better today which is good.

PS we haven’t heard anything about talking on Mother’s day yet but I’m sure we will be able to!! Thanks so much for the email! I love you guys so much!