Queretaro Mexico Mission: Week 83

First off, and this is what I know you want to hear: I will be talking May 8th (Mother's Day) instead of the 10th! I will be able to talk with everyone together, so I am pretty dang happy. And that is amazing what has happened with Michael! God is always there to provide the way to overcome our struggles. This week I had a pretty great experience with the power of prayer as well. We were having an open house in a chapel here in Celaya and it was a 3 day thing, Thursday and Friday for 3 hours each day and 6 hours Saturday. We coordinated with the other zone of Celaya and sent missionaries to go ahead and help out because the stake asked us to help out. 

Thursday, not a single member came to help out and we were on the street contacting the 3 hours bringing people in. Friday the missionaries told us that it was the same. We called the stake president and told him what had happened. He promised us it would not happen again. Saturday the members finally helped out but there was almost no one that was coming. Elder Alonso and I took a break and we prayed. I said the prayer and it was the most honest straightforward prayer that i have ever uttered. I said that we felt frustrated and we wanted people to come in. So please help us. We left and all the missionaries started having success with their contacts. The church started filling up and everyone, members and missionaries got excited. And Elder Alonso just looked at each other and smiled. We knew what had happend ;) We have found some new people to teach, and the truth is that I am growing in my faith. i am pretty happy right now! I love you guys a ton and miss you. Take care!

love

Elder alex Chadwick Eaton

Photos

1)Sweet grafiti

2)We went to dairy queen today. and it made my week.

Queretaro Mexico Mission: Week 82

Well, the work is going MUCH BETTER! These past few weeks have been pretty dang hard!  But this week  I was thinking about if it was all worth it. The last week we didnt find anyone and I was asking myself if all this obedience was all worth it. I have been pretty dang obedient my entire mission so i was wondering if all this effort and hard work was worth it. I have had success up until this point, so if I had only found 1 investigator in 2 weeks in this area, whats up? So we went from house to house Tuesday and it seemed like everyone was against us. Finally we decided to go with one more house and knocked on it. A lady came out and told us she had no time. I was really getting down at that point, then all of the sudden her husband came out and invited us in!!!!! We talked with them and they were willing to hear and to learn! It was super amazing!! I left that appointment feeling on cloud 9. I have learned a lot in this area, that it really DOES make all the difference. Just try one more :) 

My companion and I get along great still. We have an investigator that committed to baptism and we are pretty hyped about that! Now, about Mothers Day, it will be Mexicans Mother Day! D: But tomorrow we are going to have interviews with president Mejorada, so I will ask him special permission to see if it can be Sunday. He trusts me so i think he will say yes ;) I will let you know next week. Anyway, this Sunday we ate with a super cool sister that cooked us hamburgers that TASTED LIKE HAMBURGERS!! :D They also gifted me some barbeque sauce!!! :,D I cried for sheer joy! I haven't had real barbeque sauce in a year and a half!! It WAS AWESOME!! She also shared us a video that sums up the mission in 5 minutes.  http://mormonsud.org/arte/version-misioneros-mormones-hello-de-adele-viral/. It is pretty amazing! i love you guys and miss you a ton!!

Love 

Elder Alex Chadwick Eaton

Photos

1)We ate it all. We felt so sick after

2)Baptism of a less active family. They are strong in the gospel.

Queretaro Mexico Mission: Week 81

I am doing fine, don't worry mommacita :) I have just been working like a dog this past little while. I only have 5 months left and I want to make the best of it. I am trying my best to be obedient and also help Elder Alonso with that. Elder Alonso was having trouble getting up and exercising, so I suggested something to him and he accepted to my great surprise. As of last week I started exercising day and night. I am currently doing 100 pushups at night and 100 pushups in the morning, all accompanied with ab workouts. Elder Alonso is doing 50 and 50. The first couple of days we were hurting so bad. I couldnt wash my hair the first 2 days because I couldnt lift up my arms. But we have now gotten used to it. 

The work here in Vergel is pretty hard, not going to lie. The majority of my mission it has been easy to find and baptize but now I have felt like looking for investigators is pretty much like the hunt for red october. Where they are WHO KNOWS?! and when you finally find them you have a LOT of problems trying to get them to come with you. Dad will understand me on that. I understand why President sent me here. We are still on the hunt. Today we had a carne asada and it was a pretty relaxing day, which is exactly what I needed. Nothing more to report, just working hard and feeling constantly tired, but a good, satisfied tired. I miss you guys and love you a ton. BYE!

Love

Elder Alex Chadwick Eaton 

PHotos

1)Carne asada with chorizo!! Dont know how to translate that. 

2)there were some maintenance guys in the chapel while i was doing some interviews, and right as we finished, we heard a huge crash. We ran outside and found this with a maintenance guy looking pretty scared because the tree almost hit the church. I realized that I have turned into dad when the first thing out of my mouth was "was that intentional?" The maintenance guy said yes but his face said no.

Queretaro Mexico Mission: Week 80

Well, thanks for the heads up of 24 more weeks mom! THAT doesn't make me feel weird AT ALL.  ;) Everything is good here on the mission, calm, and yeah. My companion trained me when I got here at the beginninng of the mission, now I am senior companion. Celaya is pretty safe, just a lot of drunk people that scream at me. But I am used to it and know what to do now, don't worry, I got them street smarts!! The conference was really good! I enjoyed it a lot, and so did our investigator. I liked Uchtdorfs talk about looking for the perfect girl. That was hilarious!! So yeah, the area is kind of hard, not going to lie, so the Assistants told me that I got sent to pick it back up. I also got sent with my ex trainer because I have been one of the few elders that he was obedient with, so President wanted me to encourage him and get him to work again. I like how the president trusts me and everything, but I am so exhausted!! I am happy about how I am working and we have a baptism planned for the 30th. But wow. I will tell how my week goes next week. :) sorry I didn't write so much, I am going to work right now. I worked my booty off, so I am going to work a little and then have a family home evening and work out my zone conference tomorrow and train the missionaries and sleep! I love you guys, bye!!

Love

Elder alex Chadwick Eaton



- shirts I bought
- Reunited

Queretaro Mexico Mission: Week 79

I survived (Easter)..... BARELY!!!! hahahaha just kidding, everything good here. Well, here is now Celaya :) yep, thats right, I had transfers!!! And I am with my trainer as ZL 1 and he is ZL 2. Kind of super weird, but eh.
  Anyways, this is how I passed Easter.  For Easter here they do a representation of holy week and the atonement of Christ. They have one person carry the cross (representing Jesus) and some people dressed as Roman soldiers whipping him and then they put a fake body on the cross, paint it with blood, and leave it there for a couple days and then take it off. Not the prettiest thing ever. But I did get a picture of the crosses. I took it quick so nobody would see, I was careful don't worry ;)

The companion is awesome, it is super cool to be with Elder Alonso again. We are in an area called Vergel, and I got sent here to lift the zone is what the assistants told me. So that means work. A lot of work. But I am cool with it. During Holy Week, NO ONE is in the city! All of mexico takes a week break so everything was so empty! The entire mission struggled a bit this week but we are going to get back on our feet pretty soon. This holy week I realized a lot. I am amazingly grateful for Jesus Christ´s atonement, but I realized that he could have stopped at any time, and any second. When Peter started fighting the guards with the sword, Jesus reprended him and reminded him that if he wanted to, He could have 12 legions of angels from His Father to save Him at any time. But this is how it should be. Jesus had all the power to save Himself, but He chose not to, out of love, out of His amazing love that he has for us. As the hymn says and I can now say it with my soul, "I stand all amazed". I love you and miss you.

Love

Elder Alex Chadwick Eaton

Photos

1)Arcos of Queretaro. It was a little stormy so I got a super cool photo 

2) baptism I did for the sisters.

3) Crosses

Queretaro Mexico Mission: Week 78

Well, I will have to say that this is going to be one weird week. As you already know, everyone here in Mexico is Catholic, so they celebrate it way differently. Every day of the week they have a huge festival. For example, everyone here was waving palms yesterday because that is when Jesus walked into Jerusalem. Everything escalates until this Friday, they put a Jesus statue on a cross in every neighborhood. They leave him there all day and they paint him with blood. They then take him down on Sunday when he arises. They call this week "Holy Week". This is one of the toughest weeks in the mission. Almost everybody's numbers drop, but we got to keep on trying. 

We are still killing it this week and are super excited for some baptisms coming up. We had a whole family come to church so that was super cool. They had a talk with the bishop and are way more excited for everything. They will be getting baptized this next month, but transfers are this week! DUN DUNN DUNNNNNN! But I am almost 100% convinced that Elder Cruz and I will stay together. We just watched the Passion of Christ today and it impacted us a lot. The President asked the assistants, us, and some sisters to watch it and see if we would approve it for the mission. After the movie ended none of us talked for 15 minutes. It shows a very detailed description of how the last 12 hours of Christ's life was. You would not like it mom. It is very very bloody. But I understood the atonement a little better. I can say that during this year and a half, I have learned much about the atonement. And I can also say that in these next 60-70 years that I have left I can study the atonement all day and everyday and STILL not understand all of it. But what I do understand is that Jesus Christ loves us and God loves us. Jesus is the Messiah and the Christ, and He suffered not only for our sins, but our pain, our sadness, and our suffering. He knows and understands me, better than anyone else that has lived, lives, or will live. With this small part that I can say that I know, it is enough for me. 

Love

Elder Alex Chadwick Eaton

Photos

1)meet the zone

Queretaro Mexico Mission: Week 77

Everything is going good mom, I PROMISE! The Elder that was sick, is doing way better now, we went and played basketball today with him. He is back to working as a missionary 100%. Still a little weak but that didn't stop him from playing basketball and owning us all. He played varsity basketball in high school. I have not gotten a parasite or been in the hospital. I got close a couple times, like when I had a migrain for 4 days straight but it went away and Sister Mejorada (the wife of the president who we call if we have any problems with health) said I was good if it went away! Also I have had some illnesses that kept me in the house for 3 days straight but only once or twice. :D

The zone is doing super awesome, we are actually leading the mission with our numbers so WHAT?! We are pretty proud of our zone right now. Francisco got baptized no problem, but I felt a little bad because his family said they were gonna be there but they weren't :( but he loved it and is very very happy, so thats what's important. He got confirmed as well. Elder Meneses is getting used to normal life. He left a girlfriend so they are easing into that relationship. Everything is good here, we are finding a ton of people, but no one wants to go to the chapel! So that will be the focus of the week. that will be it family. Peace out, Love ya!

Love

Elder Alex Chadwick Eaton

Photos

1)Baptism!! 2 in a row!!

2)Graffiti in Mexico!

Queretaro Mexico Mission: Week 76

First off, this birthday was much better than last years. I ate lunch with the Del Valle family, who is the ex president of this mission and they bought me a cake! It was amazing! The sister got me some little caesars pizza today and I bought a blue suit! (failed to take a picture of the suit). We had a baptism just 2 days before and I confirmed her. All in all, it was a pretty great day! I really really really enjoyed it! BEST BIRTHDAY EVER!

Something not so cool that happened this week was that I was in the hospital for 2 days................... BUT I was just staying there will an Elder From my zone. ;) scared ya didn't I?  He is from Lehi Utah and has been sick his entire mission of 7 months poor guy. But he is out and about now. I translated for him while he was in the hospital and it lead to some uncomfortable moments of silence/disbelief on his part. For example "Vamos a tener una colonoscopia y te necesitamos a quitar tu ropa interior". He looked at me and I said (with a sad sigh) "They are going to have you take a colonoscopy and they want you to take off your underwear". It was not the best job in the mission. My zone is going strong right now, we are doing some good work. We have another baptism next week. His name is Francisco and is 80 years old but so legit. 

That is all the news I got. Meneses went home Wednesday and just sent me an email saying that life was harder than he had anticipated. I I hope everything goes good there. But nothing else, I am doing great, My comp is great, the ward is AMAZING! Everyone here knows what they are doing, so after 6 months of teaching everybody, It is a relief to sit back and chillax. I love you guys and Miss you tons!!!! 

Love 

Elder Alex CHadwick Eaton

Photos

1)Baptism!!

2) PIZZA 

Queretaro Mexico Mission: Week 75

Well familia, I would have to say that it is weird to be turning 20 in six days. I just realized today that it was going to be fast Sunday..... Our church services are at 1. so it will be a very very VERY spiritual birthday experience ;) hahahaha but the companion situation has improved, Elder Meneses will be going home Thursday morning, so he is kind of in shock. The area is pretty dang legit, we have a for sure baptism this Wednesday and next Saturday we will be baptizing the grandfather of Chuck Norris. He is 80 years old and the most beastly man ever. He just comments random facts of his life. Last lesson he mentioned that he felt the love of God when he was in a helicopter plunging from the sky and when it crashed, everyone died, except for him. We heartily agreed with that feeling.

The mission is preparing for the new mission president, whose name is Williamson. I am not too hot on the idea of him being the mission president to send me off, but oh well! I will make the best of it. I still feel weird and I can't get my mind off the fact that I am going to be 20. It just doesn't feel right ya know?  I still feel 18, like I just barely got on the mission. When we talk in May, I will only have 5 months left! But that is still far away. I love you guys and nothing new, just loving the mission and working hard! PEace out my party people, I love you guys!! 

Love

Elder Alex Chadwick Eaton

Photos

-A great view of Queretaro

-So my companion Elder Cruz is obsessed with Herbalife and I told him it was just a pyramid scheme. -He didnt believe me and so we walked into one of their stores....

and saw this. He believes me now.