Last Cambio of The Mission, First American Companion

Hola, hola! I’m doing good and you? We had cambios this week. I’m in the same area but have a new companion. More on that later though. After p-day ended last week we tried to visit Victor but he wasn’t home so we went contacting for a little bit and found 4 contacts before our appointment with Joselin. We didn’t have a lesson because we wanted to celebrate her being baptized so we went and ate burritos. Oh and I was finally able to Skype home with you because Elder Parke let me borrow his webcam and that was way awesome!

Tuesday we had district meeting and mainly focused on how we need to be more persistent with contacting. After that we went to the house of President to celebrate that in June we achieved the baptismal standard as a zone. So for several hours we played games and ate some really awesome food! We got back around 7 which was later than we planned so we had to call people we had citas with to reschedule. We did find a few contacts too. It was an excellent day with the activity and also because I got the birthday package you sent me! Thank you so much!!

Wednesday we had a lesson with Pedro Velazquez who we found a couple of weeks ago. We were able to get to know him and give him an introduction about the Book of Mormon, why we are here and what our purpose is. We weren’t able to invite him to be baptized because after some talking suddenly he jumped up and thanked us for coming. We barely had time to set another cita before he rushed us out the door. We were able to pass by with 2 other contacts and talk with them a bit and make them investigators! One of them is a young guy named Luis Miguel. We have him a copy of the Book of Mormon to read the week before because he told us he loves to read. He told us he’s been reading it and really likes it! 

Thursday was a crazy day because it rained a ton and we got drenched. We did find refuge for a bit but the rain didn’t let up and we didn’t want to be late getting back. I got soaked from my thighs down but my companion got all his clothes wet. Our appointments fell through because of the rain so we went back to the casa to change and went back out. By then the rain lightened up a bit and we were able to find 2 contacts before we visited a couple members.

Friday was my companion’s birthday so I made him pancakes in the morning and then at night we went to a truck that sells burgers that Joselin told us about so I bought us some for dinner and they were actually really good! We had 2 appointments and one turned out good. It was with a man named Miguel Mendoza. He’s a really cool guy! He’s a former investigator as of about a year but is really interested in the different programs of the church and the well-being of his family. He smokes a lot so we are going to have to work hard to help him overcome that and also to get him to go to church with his family.

Saturday we had 13 appointments and all but 2 fell through. The 2 we had were pretty good though. The first was a guy named Gonzalo Cruz. He’s an ex-boxer and now a referee. He is catholic but more a believer than anything. He is really interested to learn a bit more so he invited us to come back this next week. The other lesson we had was with Joselin and William. 

Sunday church was pretty good. There is a sister in the ward who is married but her husband isn’t a member. He came to church today and wants to be baptized so he and his wife can be sealed in the temple. We’ve gone to their house and talked with him before but he never really seemed interested. Thank goodness his wife talked with him about being sealed in the temple. He is a really good prospect to baptize this next cambio. Speaking of cambios we got transfers and I’m staying here. My companion was transferred to the zone Coacaleo. After 4 cambios and 6 months together we are finally changing! My new companion is from the USA and he’ll be my first American companion for my last cambio in the mission.

Monday while my companion was packing I was trying to clean and organize the casa. We had to be in the offices by 3:30 so we didn’t have time to write families. My new companion is Elder Curran who was born in Maryland but he was living in Kentucky. He is 19 years old and is really cool! After we got back to our area we went shopping so he could have food then we left to start working. The only appointment we had fell through so we contacted for a bit and were able to find some good contacts! One lady said she wants us to explain to her more about the Book of Mormon especially when Christ came to the Americas. Another told us she’d talked to the missionaries a while ago but happily said we could go back another day to visit. We had 5 contacts in total and were able to visit another contact that we didn’t have planned but we decided to go by and found him there and were able to talk to him for a bit. Then we went and visited the familia Cruz Roa to introduce my new companion. I love this family so much!

I gotta go now! Thank you so much mamá! I love you guys lots! Thanks for everything! You guys are the best! Have an amazing week!

Mission President's Home

Celebration of baptismal achievements for our zone

The Tultitlán Zone

Burgers for Elder Cruz' birthday

Me and Elder Cruz with Lucy, Gabi, Baby Isabel and Naomi
(a member family)

Joselin's Baptism!!!!!

Hola Hola! This week was really good! Joselin finally got baptized! More on that later. After p-day ended on Monday it was pouring rain so we started calling people from our Area Book until it lightened up. Then we went to an appointment with Joselin. We didn’t get permission from President that day to baptize her, but you’ll see we worked it all out later.

Tuesday in district meeting we talked about using our time more efficiently, then we had intercambios after district meeting and I was with Elder Parke. I really admire him because his Spanish isn’t the best right now but he gives it his best and doesn’t care if he messes up when contacting or in lessons or with anything! He knows how to work hard and have fun. We had a good day, even though at one point it started pouring cats and dogs.

Wednesday we finally figured out what to do with Joselin for her baptism. After talking with the ZL, the DL and the bishop, we decided to have her baptismal service on Sunday after church. That way she can get her third attendance and then get baptized and confirmed after church services. We had to hurry and get things ready like the paperwork and what not so she could have her interview Wednesday, and she passed with flying colors. It was such a relief!

Thursday in weekly planning we decided to drop 3 investigators because we haven’t been able to get a hold of them or they haven’t come to church for 3 weeks. It’s hard and it sucks but it’s necessary. Later we were able to go visit Joselin and talk with her about the baptism clothes, when the baptism would be and who she wanted to invite. The little stinker didn’t want more than 10 people to be there, really only those who need to be there, but we had already been trying to let members know so they could be there to support her. I knew she would be happy whatever happened though.

Friday we didn’t have many appointments so most of the day we were contacting. We had some success knocking on doors but were able to contact more people in the streets that day. At one point while we were knocking it started to rain and gradually got worse. We knocked on one door and an old man answered. Unfortunately, he didn’t want to talk to us but was kind enough to let us into his garage to take refuge from the storm and thankfully, because a huge hail storm passed over us that lasted about 30 minutes, then it rained more after. There was a river, like a big river, flowing down the street that we were by! When it started to calm down we left his house then we heard someone yelling and saw a young guy yelling for us to go talk to him. He told us he is a member who moved here a couple weeks ago and has been looking for us so he can start coming to church and prepare to serve a mission! His name is William and he’s really cool. He is the only member of his family. His parents are separated, and he came here to live with his mom. He wants us to start teaching her because she is interested.

Saturday we went back to visit William and his mom but unfortunately she wasn’t home. We talked with William for a bit though and he told us he would love to join us to visit and teach people to help him get ready for a mission! We had a lesson later with a woman named Julieta who we found the week before. She has a lot of interest in the church and wants to improve her life and her family. She has some problems and although she does want to change, she thinks that because of things she’s done in the past that we won’t be able to help her or want to help her either. We explained that nobody is perfect, we’ve all made mistakes but thanks to Christ we can be forgiven of our sins if we truly repent. We also invited her to be baptized and she accepted! She is separated from her husband and has 4 daughters that she would really like to take to church so they can go to classes to learn about the gospel and scriptures because there’s some things she doesn’t know how to explain. 

Sunday Joselin was baptized!! We went by her house early in the morning so we could go to church together and everything went well. There were about 20 people there and she was nervous; but in the end, she was happy and it was a great experience. It started raining a lot in the late afternoon which made it really difficult to contact people so we ended up going back to the casa and calling former investigators. It was a really great day!

It’s not fun that it’s been hot there, yeah here it’s been hot and cold and sunny and rainy here. Thank you for those thoughts you sent! I really liked them! My thought is one you guys have most likely heard before, "venga lo que venga y disfrutalo!" or in other words, come what may and love it! No matter what experiences we have in our lives we can always find joy, even out of the bad or hard ones. We are in this life to learn and grow. If we are positive and press forward with faith in Jesus Christ and love for others forgetting about ourselves and our problems and needs, we will be so much happier!

I love you guys and hope you have a great week!

Elder Cruz, Joselin and me

Me, Joselin, Elder Cruz and William

Learning New Rules for the Mission This Week

Hola Hola! I’m doing good! We just got back from going to Walmart, eating Chinese food and Dairy Queen! :) Last Monday after p-day time ended we had an appointment with Pedro and Isabel but had to cancel because it was pouring rain, they live on the other side of our area and there’s no buses or combi’s to take us there. So we went and visited Joselin to have a short lesson with her and explain the importance of getting to church on time so her attendance will count. 

Tuesday in District meeting we talked about verifying with people we teach that they are understanding what we are teaching and also to leave them with a commitment explaining why they should do it and the blessings they receive for doing them. Then we had a zone conference so our ZLs could explain changes/new rules for inviting people to be baptized. (He told me on the phone that they are no longer being asked to invite people to be baptized on the first visit -- unless prompted by the spirit -- and someone doesn’t have to agree to be baptized in order to be an investigator). Later we visited a member couple who have a daughter they wanted us to talk to. She has a sickness and so does her 15 year old daughter. Long story short they are Christians but they are still looking for help from God. We were only able to talk to the mom but we are going to try and go back another day.

Wednesday we called the people from our area book who had phone numbers to set citas and go visit them. We found 4 contacts before lunch! Later we went and served a sister who gave us lunch by cutting grass and wedding out the section where she lives. It was really fun to do a bit of gardening. After that we went to visit a less active man (Gabriel) to see what we could do to help his family come to church and teach his daughter so she can be baptized. We found out there are some problems that we are going to try and help their family with first. It started to downpour after that so we just went back to the casa to call former investigators and set more citas. It was a good way to end the day.

Thursday, we decided we needed to drop 3 of our investigators. First was Eduardo and Angel as we haven’t been able to have any lessons with them since we first found them. They are hardly ever home or are always busy. The other was Claudia, who we are super sad about. She told us she moved in with her boyfriend who lives far away and is living with him to help care for his mom who is sick. She told us though that she is going to continue reading the Book of Mormon, which I hope she does. In the evening we had a short lesson with Joselin and talked about the Tree of Life -- and verified with her that she would be at church on Sunday. 

Friday our appointments fell through but that gave us lots of time to go contacting, which was good because we are a bit low with our contacts. We were able to find 11 contacts! It was a great day! I was also working with my companion quite a bit on encouraging him to keep going and not complain :).

Saturday we were trying to verify with our investigators about coming to church. We weren’t able to get ahold of Jorge Hernandez, who has been super busy with work. We haven’t been able to meet with him for 2 weeks now. Briseida told us she would be at church on Sunday. Joselin also told us she will be at church and we have been verifying daily with her. The other 4 investigators told us they wouldn’t be able to attend. I’m afraid we might lose our investigators again, which stresses me out and frustrates me because in this transfer we found some super solid and awesome people but we may have to end up dropping them because we don’t see them for weeks or they move away!

Sunday Joselin came to church!! We passed by her house in the morning and she came out when we went by so she was able to go to church with us. Because she went late last week, she technically only has 2 attendances. To baptize her she has to have one more or we have to call President and get his permission. We'll see what happens. Later we went by to finish teaching her the last lesson so now she is ready! Other than her interview that is.

Sounds like you guys had a great week! Thank you for your thoughts! My thought for you guys comes from Elder Holland: "When problems come and questions arise, do not start your quest for faith by saying how much you do not have, leading as it were by your unbelief........be true to the faith you do have."

I gotta go. Love you guys and thank you for your prayers and all that you do for me. 

A Great Lesson with Claudia and My 4th of July Celebration in Mexico :)

Hola Hola! I am doing very good! And you? After p-day ended last week we were able to find 2 new investigators. They are an older couple, Pedro and Isabel, who were former investigators. They live clear on the other side of our area but they are super nice and we hope to be able to help them progress more in this life to help them be baptized.

Tuesday we had intercambios and I was with Elder Hidalgo. We had a pretty good day together because he helped me improve my contacting. He’s a really good missionary and a cool guy in general. Everyone keeps asking me how much time I have left which is starting to get annoying because then they say I’m “dying” and that I’m trunky. It’s not true! I’m doing my best to stay focused but it’s other people and missionaries distracting me…. 😧

Wednesday after we finished with intercambios we went back to our casa and had a practice teaching lesson that went really well. It helped us prepare better to go out and contact and teach with more unity and especially the Spirit. Thanks to the practice we were better prepared and God helped us a lot. We were able to contact 11 people during the day! Later we had a lesson with Claudia that went really well! We left her with homework to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon. When we got there, she had read the intro, testimonies of the witnesses and Joseph Smith, and the first 5 chapters! That blew our minds because that hardly ever happens! She is so awesome, she actually read the pamphlet we gave her beforehand too so she had some background and participated in our lesson with a lot of questions and reading scriptures. She also really loved the FHE we had the Sunday before and wants to see what church is like and meet more members!

Thursday was the 4th of July! I celebrated by making pancakes and eggs for breakfast, although it just wasn’t the same as there. The 4th is my favorite holiday. I didn’t get to celebrate it like at home and have to wait another year to do so, but I love the mission and the people here so it’s okay and actually worth it! At the end of the day we were able to go visit Joselin but it started raining super crazy hard and because we normally have lessons with her in the street, we had to take cover and wait for the storm to lighten up so we could run home and make it there on time.

Recently when we finish lessons, my companion quickly tells people “okay yeah we gotta go, bye!” It’s like he just wants to teach lessons and nothing more. He doesn’t think it’s necessary to talk with people, get to know them, and build a relationship with them, especially with members be it those who are active, less-active or in-active. I had to rebuke him with Preach My Gospel about visiting members. Hopefully it worked. The majority of our appointments for Friday fell through so we had extra time to contact and were able to reach our goal of 8 contacts.

Saturday we had interviews with Presidente y la Hermana Severson. They are super awesome and the interviews went really well. They were trying to get to know us better and figure out things they need to change with the mission – and get adapted themselves. Sister Severson is doing her best to learn Spanish and is doing pretty good for only being here for 2 weeks. Later, we were supposed to have a cita with Jorge Hernandez but he never showed up and never answered our phone calls or messages. 

I was a really frustrated on Sunday because only Joselin went to church even through Briseida and Claudia told us they would be there as well. Joselin got there right as sacrament meeting ended so unfortunately her attendance didn’t count that day. I don’t know why we are having a hard time again to get people to come to church or what we need to do differently. I don’t know if it’s us or the people, I just hope we don’t lose all of our investigators again like the last transfer. I’m just praying it won’t be like that and have faith that if we do our part, God will help us. After church was good though because we were able to visit several people and families of members in the ward.

Well I gotta go. I love you guys and hope you have a great week!

My new haircut

Dominos pizza after intercambios!!

Our crazy rain storm

Elder Parke, me, my comp and Elder Hidalgo

President and Hermana Severson Have Arrived!

Hola Hola! Last week was a pretty good week. Monday after p-day we were able to contact for a bit and went to see Joselin. She told us that she is reading the Book of Mormon but having a hard time understanding or rather having a hard time staying focused during the time she is reading and remembering what she read. So we gave her some ideas like saying a prayer before and after, putting her phone to the side or in another room and reading in private. She is doing really good though and progressing very well.

Tuesday in District meeting we talked about working with members more to receive references to help us bring more sheep into the herd/flock. So we were going to call one member every day and offer service then ask if they have references. We were also going to organize an FHE with the bishop and our investigators to help them feel more welcomed and understand more about the church/gospel. During the rest of the day we went by investigators to invite them to church on Sunday because the sooner we invite them, the better. Plus, if they tell us they can’t come, we can try and help them resolve the problem so they will be able to come to church!

Wednesday was a really good, busy day. We had an appointment with a girl named Briseida who is the one we found Sunday who is getting to know the church because of her boyfriend’s mom. Then we went to lunch with a really cool family a little bit earlier than normal because of another appointment we had. The cita we had after lunch was with a really cool family and we were starting to teach them about the Plan of Salvation but only got part way through because they were making food too. When the food was ready they insisted that we eat with them. So even though we had just eaten an hour before, we ate again but we talked and got to know them better so it was worth it. After them we visited with a less active family for a bit. We also got a new District leader. Not sure why but Elder Ortiz called us the night before to tell us he was being emergency transferred. Our new district leader is Elder Parke from Utah! Also President and Hermana Urrea left on Wednesday and the new President and Hermana Severson got here, so now it’s official!

Thursday right as we were getting ready to start weekly planning the zone leaders showed up to help us go through the area books and organize them to find former investigators who have had either one or more attendances at church. So we set those aside to go visit them in the coming days and weeks. After that we went a ways away to eat lunch but on the way back to the casa a dog bit my companions leg. The dog barely escaped through a hole in the fence, just quick enough to bite him and then quickly went back on the other side. We called the President’s wife who told us to call the Mission Doctor. We got it all taken care of but we had to go back to see if we could find the owner to see if the dog has its rabies shots. After that we had two lessons. One with a man named Juan Garcia and we were able to invite him to be baptized to which he accepted! The other lesson was with Joselin. Things are going really well with her.

Friday we had a special conference to get to know President and Hermana Severson. It was cool and they seem like they will do an awesome job! They are still super stressed and trying to figure out what’s going on and adapt to being Mission President but they are super nice. We went to visit a contact after that but it was a strange visit and a bit hard to teach her so we’re going back another day to see if she is really interested or not. We had a lesson with Claudia after that and it was a really great and powerful lesson talking about how God is our loving Heavenly Father, how the Gospel blesses our families and about faith. She has been through hard times and has looked for help with some other churches but didn’t feel satisfied or good with them. She really opened up to us and even cried, but it was because she trusts us and told us she knows God led us to her. It was super great and she lit up even more when we gave her a Book of Mormon and seemed excited when we invited her to an FHE we were having on Sunday with the Bishop.

Saturday we were able to go look for and find a former investigator named Eva. Her son and her mom were baptized like 4 months ago but for some reasons Eva and her 3 other children are not baptized. So we started talking to her and she said she has been really yearning to go to church but she works in Herbalife and hasn’t been able to go. Since she hasn’t gone, the rest of her family haven’t gone either. After that we visited with Joselin again to teach her about tithing but she didn’t think she would be able to go to church. Basically all of our investigators told us they had to work or were going to be out of town.

Sunday like we suspected none of our investigators went to church. We did our part to invite them and promise them blessings for keeping the Sabbath day holy but because of other things they weren’t able to. Oh well. In the afternoon we had an appointment with Angel and Eduaro but they were getting ready to leave when we went by so we had to schedule another day. We also had another lesson with Eva, who was from the day before, but for some reason she and her family weren’t home. Claudia showed up for the FHE that we had at the bishop’s house though and it went really well! We talked about faith and then ate elotes with coke haha. It was a fun FHE and really helped Claudia and the investigators the other Elders brought too.

Where’s the pictures! from the boating trip?? haha jk sounds like lots of fun though! Thank you for the thoughts and I’m sorry I haven’t sent one. I had one in mind before but I forgot so I will go with faith! Faith is like a door, Jesus is on the other side but he can’t open it. If we want blessings from him, we have to act and use our faith and open the door! It's short but there you go! I will look for a really good one for next week! Love you guys!