Thursday, December 4, 2014

Mexico Week 8

   Ok, so mexico is pretty legit, we have 3 new investigators, everything is good, language is improving, love the people here!!! I am feeling really sick right now. nothing to do with the bowel movements, I just have a super high fever, a head ache, and a sore throat. I am going to the mission doctor right after this, dont worry!! I know now what really being poor is like. We taught a family on a dirt floor, no lights at all except for a kerosene lantern. We have a recent convert that got her house trashed by people who said she stole money from them. She called us up and it was bad. Elder Alonso and I went as fast as we could to her house and found her crying on the street.
          We asked what happened and she told us about everything. She was hysterical and begged us for money, to pay off the guys. She grabbed onto me and just said help me guerro, help me. over and over again. We are only servants of God, Elder Alonso and I have literally nothing, except the bare necessities. It was probably the saddest moment of my entire life. We took her into her house and everything was destroyed. I came out to see what life is really like and now I know...
           She asked us what she should do and we simply said to follow her heart and what God tells her to do. And  thats all we can do in our lives. That humbled me to the point I am wondering when I am gonna get back up. I meet people and I want to cry for them and I spend a whole lot of time praying for them, that God can touch their lives and make it infinitely better. and he can. One of our investigators who is going to be baptized used to be an achoholic druggee who was not the best with his three daughters. I met him after the transformation and I never would have guessed!  He is maybe the nicest guy I have ever met and he is one of my favorite investigators!!!! I freaking love him! Not that I dont love all my investigators but come on, gotta have favorites!! jkjk, heres some pics of the house and other stuff!
1 my hand after service of redoing a guys lawn
2 selfie with another elder in the middle of zone conference (yes we got yelled at)
3 selfie on the bus ride
4 that late night study though
5 our kitchen window (already like that when I arrived)
6 all our lights are like this
7 views from the street
8 our house








Sunday, November 23, 2014

Mexico Week 7

   This place is so awesome!!! I love it!!!! It is the greatest place ever! I live in the ghetto, surrounded by dogs everywhere! There are a couple on our roof too, at night we can here them running around. So I am in Cortazar, Guanajuato, not Queretaro, our mission has big boundaries! The flight was good, except I dont have any pictures because my camera was stolen. I wasn't robbed at gun point, but we all fell asleep on the ride from Mexico City to Queretaro, Me with my bag open. Our driver of our van took it! hahahahahaha dont worry, I have the polaroid and its been upgraded to my mission camera. I left my bag open, camera on top, asleep. after the guy dropped us off, I was in such a hurry to get all my stuff that I did not notice until later that night. The mission home is only where the secretaries stay, a heck of a lot nicer than ours! 
  We have to turn on the gas (it is a tank in the back) light the boiler, wait for ten minutes, only then can we have hot water!! It is loco!!! I am companions with Elder Alonso, we are about two hours away from queretaro by bus, and we actually have bikes here! Woohoo!! Sorry I dont have very many photos of the outside, If I take photos outside, then I will probably get mugged, which I haven't and probably never will. I am one of two guerros (gringos) here and I am about 5 inches taller than everyone here. The only other guerro is Elder May and he's 6'2, so while I'm big to everyone, he's a giant! 
We stayed with other missionaries at their house (again, sorry no photos) when we first arrived here. everyone is super nice here and it's pretty great. Our investigators are legit, one has 3 bulldogs that hate everything that moves except for missionaries (lucky us). another is the comandante of the Queretaro police force (like captain). We have another that is like dirt poor, has no electricity dirt floors, he lives with his mother and 3 daughters, who are the cutest little girls I've ever seen!! I only got to take a photo with one and her name is América! We have a couple others, two are living together, dying to get baptized, but the woman is still married to another man, this is actually super common in mexico. 
  Elder Alonso got to baptize the comandante ( Alfredo) and I had to confirm him, in sacrament, in front of everyone!!!! I almost died!! I had to confirm/bless him because it's all in one!! It was intense, let me tell you! after that it was fine, I just bore my testimony, also 8 investigators came to church!!! It was crazy!!!! like what?! The language is coming along awesomely, I can understand the gist of what nearly everyone else is saying. I had to go back to Queretaro for my visa with another Elder who has been here for a week too (only us). so it was 2 guerros who already stick out like sore thumbs, traveling together. YAY!! But as soon as I opened my mouth and started talking spanish to him, He didnt understand a single thing I said, so I was a flippin latino compared to him! I translated everything for him and had to give the cab driver directions but yeah, I'm good! I was with all the new guerros in the city and it turns out, since me and my companion can actuallly talk to each other, we are the closest out of all the new companionships! It may sound stupid but I can joke in spanish now! MILESTONE!!! 
  Elder Alonso is seriously awesome! He's super funny, all the members and investigators love him, and he loves american music! It's awesome, we just  sit there and name off songs that we like and try to sing them to each other. He knows all the lyrics, but has no idea what some of the lyrics mean, so I point out all the songs that he probably shouldnt sing, which is a lot of eminem, rihanna, and some others. But we get along great, I'm teaching actual sections of preach my gospel with him to investigators, and he's super patient with my spanish, but he especially likes it when I accidently curse (which doesnt happen that often) so many spanish words are similiar!!! but here is awesome, culture shock was there, especially when I first walked up to our house and all the sudden dogs were barking at us from the roof. He just looked at me and nodded, smiling. He is from Tijuana and is 20 years old, almost 21. I seriously could not have asked for a better companion! He is the best! Also I have to learn spanish because that's a lot easier for both of us, so yep, spanish protoge, right here ;) hahahah jk, but honestly, I love it here!! Now pictures!! First are of the house,then others. The clothes hanging up? Yeah, thats our closet. Our  house is pretty legit, we have a little courtyard we have to walk to our kitchen, it's lemon tree.





















Thursday, November 13, 2014

Queretaro, Mexico Week 6


  All right, so I made it ok, a guy was waiting at the terminal for us and took us to the mission house. It took 3 hours to get there from the airport, much more than we thought! I am dead, I fell asleep at 1:45 cuz I couldn’t sleep and then woke up at 2. No sleep at all!! But I am good. We just had a Mexican dinner, met the president and his wife, who both speak English really well! After the Mexican dinner we had Little Caesars, who knew? Elder Cueva, a missionary here wanted to say hi! We will be sleeping at a members house tonight, have intro classes, then I'll be assigned my trainer, and wont get into my area that night. Also, I can't speak Spanish :P everyone said that it would take a couple weeks before I get used to the speed. All right, that’s pretty much it, I miss you, love you, and think of you guys all the time. 
Adios and wish me luck.

Provo MTC Week 5


  I got your package, thank you so much!!! I'm pretty pumped and kind of
nervous. I got my flight plan, my first flight is delta airlines at Salt
Lake City at 7:10. I have to wake up at 3:00 and we leave at 3:30 on the
shuttle to the airport. This is probably when I'm going to have the most
time to call you, also Utah is now in daylight savings time. I arrive in
Atlanta, Georgia about 12:45 pm. I have only an hour layover and I leave at
1:45 to Mexico City. I arrive in Mexico at around 4:21 pm. I have 8 missionaries in my group, traveling to Mexico.  I land in Mexico City, where someone will find us and take us to Queretaro, which is only like an hour away. They said everything would be explained by our travel leader.
  I'm probably going to miss my district the most, that's going to be the hardest part, for sure. Not really scared for Mexico, a little nervous about teaching and sticking out like a white thumb, but not really. I'll make sure I'm extra careful. I'll for sure get some food. The past week and a half hasn't really been anything different, other than welcoming new districts, we got a New Zealander and it's tradition in our zone to assign a spirit animal to everyone (I was the white-tailed lynx) and so we called him "The One Wombat to Rule Them All" since New Zealand is where they filmed Lord of the Rings!!  He got it and loved It!!! I gave up the Scottish accent.  I couldn’t handle going 5 days without talking normal English!
  The time is going super fast!! I thought these would be the
slowest days but they're insanely fast! For the last week we tried to speak
only in Spanish and only a few of us made it, (your son included) but it's
P-Day and we don't want to try that hard.

1)thanks for the bubbly
2)we said goodbye to our investigator Jose, who actually wasnt a member,
and it was sad because he's the greatest guy in the world!! We will miss him






Thursday, October 30, 2014

Provo MTC Week 4


  It's going pretty good, I'll just give you a quick summary: I am now zone leader and yesterday I welcomed in all the new missionaries into the MTC WITH A SCOTTISH ACCENT! They all believe 100% that their zone leader is from a small town in Scotland named Eberland, all of our districts are in on it and the poor saps have no idea. We also convinced them to eat their new missionary stickers (it's ok, we did the same thing), and we gave them Captain America stickers to put on the back of their name tags. There are 4 hermanas in our zone now, the only ones! Little worried about that. Also Elder McLeod left to Guatemala a few days ago, which was pretty sad. We are no longer the biggest district, just a normal district :(
  
  Thanks so much for the past couple of packages!!!! We have been having duels with the nerf guns and we put up all the halloween decorations. They made us take the ones down from our door though and that was disappointing. They said they looked cute but couldn't have them on the door!!! Lame!!! So everything is good here, Tell Brandee that her packages are the highlights of my life!!!

  We mostly play basketball and volleyball for workout. I got all of annie's packages!! They were AWESOME!!!! It's a little weird being zone leader because I have to look over so many more people, I honestly just check in with the zone leaders every once in a while and make sure it's quiet at lights out. We dont even know if it's weird or not since this is only our second day with us. We only met the newbies in the classroom, only hosts pick up from the curb (which I really want to do) and it doesnt even make me homesick a little. I feel great here.
1)me being elder wright
2)us benching elder gurr
3) we got our zone leader phone
4)note the inspectors left us










Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Provo MTC Week 3

Here!!!!!! Sorry, I tried sending a letter but I guess it didnt get there in time! Anyways here at main campus it is pretty cool, there are 6 beds to a room, but we only got 4 people in ours so we have so much room for activities!!!! I like the room arrangements but the bad news is that every single time we walk out of our room, the door always locks when you shut it. so this morning when me and elder brewster were showering, we left the door open (also, we can make eye contact over the shower stalls, don't like that) so we could just go back in. Elder Schow and Sellards came back, closed the door while we were in the shower!! Like what?! so me and Elder Brewster get back to the room and since we were showering we dont have a key!! Elder brewster just chilled out in his old pajamas while I tried to look cool in as everyone passed by. We got Elder McLeod and Gurr to go get the key for us from the other Elders so waited for 20 minutes in the hallway outside our room. That was the highlight of our day, and now we are just sitting here emailing you guys. Nothing much is happening, my favorite teacher is Hermano Turner. I think i like Hermano Turner more because he's the missionary I want to turn into. He gave it his all, and his biggest regret on his mission is that he didn't work as hard as he could've for ONE WEEK! And that's it! I want to give my all so when I start going lazy on myself, I know and I'll want to change right away.
           As for the food, My favorite meal so far was when they brought in papa johns for us since there was almost no one at west campus. Yesterday my mashed potatoes tasted like soap and all our meat is overcooked. Mom, you spoiled me. This isn't food. But it's bearable! My companion is doing great, he's a pretty chill guy and we get along the best in our district. yesterday he broke his suitcase, so he called his mom real quick to check if it was under warranty. They put us in a room and he dialed her. When she answered, and he said it was him, then I heard her scream across the room. I started laughing pretty hard! They only got to talk for 10 minutes but he loved it. This week is my last as DL since you can only serve for 3 weeks at the MTC. I'm relieved and also a bit sad. It's fun but very challenging. I'll miss it. Anyways that's all I got, investigators are hard, we met one that asked us what the difference between the light of christ and the holy ghost. Uh huh, "investigator". The entire time she was talking, i was just thinking, "you little member of La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias." It was pretty fun this week. Elder Murphy (the one who got sent home for surgery) is doing well, just got his surgery and is waiting his 6 months for recovery. We pray for him every night and write him every p day. Nothing much more to report, other than I love you guys, miss you, what is the status on the SEAHWAWKS and nothing else :) Love you!











Provo MTC Week 2


 



Whats up?! in case you didnt know from cole's letter, I became district Leader!! Our old District Leader tore his meniscus and ACL, so he has to go back home for surgery and six months of rehab. Our last night with him, he got released, I got assigned DL, and we stayed up till 11:30, just talking about the reasons we all served missions. It was really sad but it was good. The next day he left and we got one last picture together and now he's gone. I just cant even imagine going through what he is right now. In other news, I got my first real meal in 2 weeks!! Woot Woot!! I went to the mexican consulate and am expecting my visa soon. the building is where we have class. We also had an arm wrestling competition in our district, and it's ok, you can be disappointed in your son foronly making it to the 2nd round. Just ask away!!!

Provo MTC Week 1


Hey MOM!!! WHATS UP?! The MTC is pretty dang great!! My companion is Elder Brewster, a Mormon boy from Utah; I will be attaching many photos to this email. My P-Day is, as you will soon find out, WEDNESDAY! Which sucks because we got here Wednesday, so ugh. We had to wait a whole week for this beautiful, amazing, glorious, and absolutely divine day of loafing around. The cafeteria is, while not bad, definitely just straight up mediocre. Nothing like your cooking at all ;) I'm loving it here and hope to be able to speak the language even better. I'll start this off with my first day. After you guys dropped me off, I went through about a billion people, yet strangely enough, I never had to turn in my immunization sheet, since I turned it in online. Before you stress out, I made sure that I was ok and ready to go. I went to the classroom next and sat down in my seat. Our teacher, Hermano Turner, started speaking nothin but Spanish all day! And you know what the best part was ? I understood!! WOOT WOOT!! So it's true that when you arrive it's a little overwhelming but it was still fantastic. I met my Companion Elder Brewster after I was placed in my class, so no I was not detained for  not having my companion with me. He's a pretty chilll guy and a fantastic companion. I got really lucky with him because we get along really well.
 We share our apartment with two other pairs of Elders: Elder Mcleod (McLoud) and Elder Gurr, Elder Schow and Elder Sellards. Anyway, that first day was pretty easy, although a bit confusing. Hermano Turner was kind of blown away with our Spanish, and it turns out he thought he would be teaching an beginner class, not us experienced intermediates. He bore his testimony to us in english at the last class period of the day by saying he believed in us and even though there would be times we want to quit, that we feel unable to do this, that we could do it. I thought a lot about this and while I have already felt this feeling, i must keep on moving onward in faith, trusting continually in our lord that he will be there with me every step of the way. The first night I woke up literally every hour, while Elder Brewster slept like a baby of course. The 2nd day was pretty busy and now we are in a schedule that goes step by step literally every half hour. It took awhile but i'm used to it now and enjoy how well planned my day is. The food tasted terrible the first day but now we now when it is REALLY gross and when it is just normal. We had zone conference and Elder Murphy and Elder Wright were assigned as our district leaders. I am the senior companion to Elder Brewster and so I can bring up my authority if there is a disagreement.
 Unfortunately, we've never had one. 3rd day was much of the same, lots and lots of teaching time, but that Friday we had to teach a pretend investigator all in Spanish!!! Elder Brewster and I didn’t connect at all, didn’t lock ideas together, forgot tons of words, and just didn’t do well. We felt pretty discouraged that night, but Monday we made up for it. We taught Carlos (our fake investigator) and we ROCKED IT!!!! We taught with the spirit, constantly testified, and invited him to be baptized. Although we knew it was fake, I could barely contain myself when he said He'd love to!! There was many fist pumps and that night, since we all had great lessons, we toasted to each other with IBC root beer. It was a great night. Next 2 days was conference. The first day was amazing and we got a lot out of it
Elder Bednar's talk,  it was so awesome, I literally want to jump out of my seat and clap to him! I felt awake, alert, and pumped! another cool thing was the fact they spoke in their own language! Elder Brewster and I fist bumped every time one of the speakers spoke in Spanish. Monday we were back on track with our schedule, learned from hermano turner and taught Carlos. Tuesday was fun but while we were playing volleyball during gym time, Elder Murphy Hyper extended his knee and pulled his ACL.  This was actually better it happened earlier because it takes a couple weeks to heal. He's up and walking, albeit with a slight limp. Today is P-DAY and we just back from the temple. I desperately needed this break and am loving it!! I have learned so much Spanish over the past week that I don’t have to try nearly as hard and it comes more naturally. Our temple time was at 9:30, so when we got out, it was around 12. 
We saw all the future missionaries gathered around the temple taking pics with their families. It feels so strange, because in the moment time is going so slow, but then suddenly it's been a week. It definitely doesn’t feel like it though. One elder in my zone told me something that only made sense today "The days are weeks and the weeks are days". That is what describes my experience perfectly. So Elder Brewster and me have been lying back all day and enjoying life. The temple was a different experience today and definitely for the better. Also, I'm known as the guy in our apartment with food, our entire district comes over to hang out at our place since they know we have food. Thank you so much for your packages and thank everyone else too please, I enjoy being the loved one! Something I do want is actually my scripture case. I have been carrying around my scriptures in my hand like an idiot! HAHAHAHA jk, but for reals, I want that. Other than that, I want to continue being that guy with food, keep loving me! What I want to know is what is the status of the Seahawks!! I want their season stats and a brief summary of how they did in the previous game! How's everybody doing, how's Cole's games doing in football, etc. I love you guys and miss you tons! I think of all of you everyday and that's what keeps me going and motivated on trying harder to serve La Iglesia de Jesucristo de Los Santos de Los Ultimos Dias. Adios and talk to ya soon!















Wednesday, September 17, 2014

14 Days and Counting!!!

Just went to the temple with my mom and am on a spiritual HIGH!! Super excited for the mission, It's getting pretty close!!