Week #46: Guadalupe (La Oficina) - 2

This past week has been pretty good. We had intercambios and I went and worked in the area of La Pastora. Their area is pretty huge, and it´s really close to El Cerro de la Silla, which is the famous mountain here in the Monterrey area. In their area we can actually see "La Silla" part of the mountain too - in my area you can´t really see it, because we see the side of the mountain, and not the view that gives it its name. We climbed up pretty high and could see the entire valley basically.

The rest of the week we were doing normal stuff. We taught, and worked in the office and went to immigration. We had an adventure too. We went more into the center of Monterrey than I have ever gone in visa trips. It was good. We had to do some paperwork to officially tell immigration that some Elders lost certain legal / visa documents. So, that was pretty cool. Tomorrow we´re going in, in order to finish up some documents. There´s a Sister from the Dominican Republic who has until the 6th to put in her paperwork, we´re going the 3rd! Wooh! But, we´re all good with that. No worries. I´ve got it under control. I only have to really, REALLY, worry about this kind of stuff until October starts, then it´s all up to Elder Quevedo (and of course I´ll be here to help him along the way). Kind of cool knowing my future.

Hmm... What else can I talk about?

Ah yes, our baptism. It was a good experience. Omar is a great kid. We went early in the day to go and get things ready in the baptismal font, cleaning it and starting to fill it up, and we set up the chairs. That afternoon we got together with him and his family, and members of the ward started trickling in before the service. We took a lot of group photos, with primary kids and other ward members, and we went inside to start the service, when guess who shows up. Presidente y la Hermana Bird came to be there for the baptism. They had called and said they were going to try and make it, and they did. Omar was told and he got SUPER excited to see them (they came to our Stake Conference last week). It was cool.

Elder Quevedo had the honor of baptizing Omar. Afterwards, Omar was so happy and emotional that he started to weep. I was snapping a ton of photos on Elder Quevedo´s camera, and I got some really good ones that capture the moment. It´s a blessing the Lord has given us, cameras to capture moments in our lives. I liked getting some good photos. It´s a nice, moving photo.

During our Gospel Principles class, our teacher let Omar´s mom borrow his Triple from his misson, and it had an image of the Savior hugging a person that looks A TON like the photo that I snapped. It´s pretty cool. It can actually be connected to how we will feel when we´re there with Him and our Heavenly Father. Also, as missionaries we are literally REPRESENTATIVES OF JESUS CHRIST, and as such we should live up to certain standards. If we´re doing it right, we are acting as though HE were there. We are to do what He would do, were HE here with these people. That´s something cool and beautiful.

I got a haircut today, we´re going iceskating, and I´m going to be able to go to the Temple this Thursday. This week we´ve got the Leadership Council, and I´m going to be taking the minutes of that, so we´ll see how it goes. That´ll be fun, kind of cool to be there with all of the Zone Leaders, the "Sister Leaders," the Assistants, and President and Hermana Bird. Being "on the inside" of that meeting for the first time. Good stuff.

For now, I close my letter. Take care all, and be happy. Love life, and have a great week. Always remember to write in your journals, and look for the miracles each day in your life. Take care!

P.S. I went to my first ever Ward Council yesterday. 10 months before I had a ward council!

Week #45: Guadalupe (La Oficina) - 1

This past week has been full of stuff. Really. Like, full of stuff. I´ll have to see what I can fit in here to get a nice full General Email out to all of you, and still get the personal messages out there too.

Before I forget or anything happens: HAPPY BIRTHDAY GRANDMA VAL! I hope you have an awesome birthday and I love you! I owe you a letter!

This last week, as I indicated in my past letter, was the week of transfers. I knew my future at that point, but did not reveal it. Now, I will reveal what all happened. To recap, I was told beforehand that I was going to be leaving my area, so I packed my bags and we emptied out the house. Then we came here to help out with the transfers. It was, as always, pretty crazy stuff. Well, not really that crazy. Most of that was my own fault... PROCRASTINATION! But anyway, everything looks okay at this point. One last note of craziness: I´ve got TWO ELDERS who are going to need help with their visas more than the normal... But, it´ll be okay.

So, Tuesday morning was the official announcement of the transfers, and I am with a new companion in a new ward....

My new companion is Elder Isaias Quevedo Espinoza (Elder Quevedo). He just turned 19 this past week, and he has 1 more transfer in the mission than I do. He is the Materials Secretary in the offices right now, and we´ve already spent some time together. He has been the materials secretary as long as I have been (in-training) Executive Secretary. He is from Sinaloa, México. So far we´ve been getting along pretty well. We both have the goal to be really good, like best friends by the end of our time together. Elder Ramírez and I did pretty well on that, getting along well, so we´ll hope for the same here.

My new ward is Guadalupe. It´s in the Paraíso Stake, and I´m liking it so far. It´s smaller, and it reminds me a bit more of my first area. The members are nice, and the investigators we´ve met have been pretty good so far. In fact, this weekend we´ve got a baptism planned.

Omar is a young boy who has been listening to the missionaries with his family for quite a while. His mother and his Grandmother are not able to be baptized quite yet, but he is. On my first day in the area, we were sharing a lesson with them when Elder Quevedo asked if he felt ready to be baptized. He said, "Yeah. I don´t know" or something, so we went ahead and did the Pre-Interview (practising the baptismal questions) and he answered well.

Elder Quevedo told him that he was ready, that he answered perfectly, and he ran out of the room while we spoke of baptismal dates. He came back and we put a baptismal date and he started to weep. Elder Quevedo got up and gave him a hug and Omar said, "Thank you" and I think that he felt "bonito" (beautiful, or really nice) and he was like that like the whole rest of the time. He was so excited. He really misses Elder Mills (a lof of the people in Guadalupe do) but even so he´s really friendly to me too. His family also accepted the date, and are happy for him. It was pretty cool.

The next day was Elder Quevedo´s birthday.

There is a river that separates our area (Guadalupe) from the area where the offices are (Laureles) and Elder Quevedo and Elder Mills spoke of crossing that river. Well, that morning we slept in our house, and we decided to go ahead and walk to the freeway, then drop down in the river, and cross it. It took some time to find a good place to cross without getting all wet, and there were a ton of trees, so we didn´t want to worry about what´s in there, but we went for it and found a good place. Then we climbed up, crossed the freeway, and and walked to the offices. It took about an hour, and it was pretty fun and adventurous. I´ll be sure to attach some photos.

We worked in the offices, then we canceled our food to go out as an offices family (the four Secretaries and the Assistants) to eat. We decided to go to a Mexican Buffet which is called Los Generales and it was a good experience. Really it was. There was some pretty good food, and even though it was a bit costly, I ate what I liked and the ambient was awesome. The architecture was good, and there was a LIVE MARIACHI BAND! So, that was pretty awesome. It was good.

Let´s see... The rest of the week... We had rain, yesterday we got SOAKED in the rain. I´m enjoying Guadalupe. I´m in THIRD NEPHI nowadays, I just read Chapter 7 I think. Getting close to the personal ministry of the Savior. Things are pretty well. P-days are crazy now. I guess for now I´ll close off this general letter and get to the personal messages. Take care all, and love every single day of life. Be sure to record your memores and experiences!

Oh, one more thing. With the photos we´ll name each of us (from right to left):

Elder Vazques (Assistant 1), Elder Mills (Financial Secretary), Elder Erekson (Executive Secretary), Elder Larsen (Assistant 2), Elder Miller (Records Secretary), and Elder Quevedo (Materials Secretary). Okay, so that´s the email. Take care all!

Week #44: Laureles (La Oficina) - 24

Well, the transfers are this week. That is, they´re today and tomorrow. Transfers are always pretty crazy here in the offices. Definitely something different than a normal transfer - which I really have never had. I got here alone, was with my companion, then we had one transfer day when we didn´t have transfers, then the time it was my turn to have a transfer, I came here and helped with the transfers. Ever since that day, I´m here helping with each transfer. Good stuff.

To give a bit of background information on this week´s transfers, I´ll just share some basic statistics; sound good? Here we go:

Total Missionaries who are going home: 3
Total Missionaries who are coming here: 22 (actually 21 - one came last week)
Sisters who are leaving: 2
Sisters who are coming: 4
Elders who are leaving: 1
Elders who are coming: 18
New areas opening up: 10
Visas to do: 12 or 13, I don´t remember 100% at this moment.

So... These are interesting days. I have to help prepare a bunch of visas. I have to finish up the Release Packets for those who are going home. What else? Help out with everything else. So, this should be some busy stuff.

This past week was pretty good. On Saturday we spent too much time here at the offices, but we had to help receive the beds, bed-frames, refrigerators, and other stuff. So, we were there for a while. It was a bid wasteful in time, but we were able to get stuff done. That day, we ate with Pablo y Paty, but we had to only go and get the good "to go" because she was alone by the time we went for the food. She made Chiles Rellenos and they were good.

The next transfer we´re going to be opening more areas still. Good stuff.

Tomorrow is the announcement of the transfers. Next week I will reveal what I know now to all. As for now, there are transfers to be. What is common knowledge, acceptable to share with ALL before the transfer: I am leaving LAURELES. So is Elder Ramirez. Both of us leaving Laureles. So, yesterday we had to say our goodbyes to our people. We got to almost all of the really important people we really like and love.

I´ve had some really great experiences here in Laureles. It´s been great. I got here on March 5th, and I´m officially leaving tomorrow, August 20th - so that gives me 5 months and 15 days in Laureles. It´s been good. 24 weeks here. I´ve been able to grow, and I´ve been able to have fun. I have also been able to see my weaknesses, things I´ve gotten bad at. I need to improve and be a better missionary. I have time to do it, so that´s great.

Speaking of time to improve, and other time: On Saturday I completed 10 MONTHS in the mission field. So, that means that I´ve only got 14 months left to become a better missionary, love my mission, learn, and grow. And then, I´ll be home. It´s been good so far. Time does go by pretty quickly. I´m already wrapping up my time with Elder Ramirez. We have almost 3 months together. 12 weeks. It was a good time.

I enjoyed being with Elder Ramirez. We´ve had good times. It hasn´t been perfect, of course, but it´s been really good. I´ve been happier, and I´ve learned things that will help me and bless me in my mission and my life. I´ve realized things I need to improve on. My life is pretty good right now. And, I´m feeling pretty good about the future I´ve got ahead of me too. Next week there shall be more detail. CAMBIOS.

I will definitely stay in contact with my converts here in Laureles, and others; also, with my converts from Nueva Aurora. I´ve had good people and experiences in my life.

I love you all, and take care!

Week #43: Laureles (La Oficina) - 23

This week was a pretty good week. We need to work harder, and better, but we´re getting along well, so that´s a good thing. I have definitely been happier this transfer, this companionship than I was before. The Lord has blessed me with this, and we´ve tried more to be friends and resolve issues than I did previously.

This week, even though we´re in the middle of "La Canícula" we had rain. In fact, we got totally soaked on Saturday. It was raining really hard. We ended up seeing the Torres Garza family, and visited with them for a little bit. It´s the third time I´ve been totally soaked here in Laureles, and the third time I´ve got to see them while totally soaked. It´s like a "tradition" to see them if we´re soaking wet.

This week we had the blessing to have a baptism. Hermano Pablo was still without a record, and he and Paty set a goal to be sealed August 12th, 2014. The only problem was that HE had no record, appeared as not a member, and that unless we acted this weekend he wouldn´t be able to meet that goal (August 12th is their wedding anniversary, and their anniversary of becoming an item). We talked with President, and in the end he gave us the okay to baptize him. So, we had a baptism this weekend. He was happy.

This next week are the transfers. Who knows what will happen? I know almost 100% I won´t be leaving the offices, but that says nothing of which area I´ll be in, or whom I´ll be with either. So, we´ll just have to wait and see. It looks like we´ll be opening 9 more areas up.

Well, that´s it for this email. Next week I´ll know my future. I´m not TOO concerned about it, but it´s still something to think about. Hope you all have a great week, and I´ll talk to you later! Take care!

Week #42: Laureles (La Oficina) 22

This past week was pretty good. It´s been nice and hot. We´re now in "La Canícula," which is a 40-day period of 40°C +, but it hasn´t been that hot this year. I´m getting a nice tan, what with all the sun. And yeah, it is hot, but it´s not unbearable.

This week was "efy," and some youth got more out of it than others. One less-active young man told us that it changed his perspective totally, that he wants to put forth the effort and go on a mission. We´re going to be visiting and helping him out with all of that. His name is Miguel. We´ll see where we go.

That same day, we met a less-active young man named Erik, who is about 20. They haven´t gone to church for like, 12 years or so, and about 3 weeks ago his mother passed away. We´re going to be visiting him and helping him, and maybe he´ll start coming to Church too.

We met a new investigator named Juan Manuel, he was a referral from Elder Mills and Elder Quevedo (the other two secretaries). He was interesting. He said he was going to read the Book of Mormon in 4 days. Tomorrow we have an appointment with him, and we´ll see what happens.

The other noteworthy experiences from this week have to do with a woman named Angelica:

Angelica was an investigator from early on in the year. Elder Capiz and Elder Cayetano were teaching her, and President Walker even met her, and said that she was an "escogida" - or, a "chosen" person, who would be baptized. I think it was within my first week here in Laureles when I got to meet her. We were here in the chapel. She told us that she wanted to "close a circle" and that she didn´t want to keep meeting with us anymore. So, we said goodbye, and she went.

Her record does not have her address, but it does have her "hermanadores." I remembered who she was so it wasn´t a record that we just threw away for lack of usable information. A few weeks ago we dropped by her hermandores´s house and asked Hermano Hernández to take us to find her house. We dropped by a few times to try and find her, but we never found anything.

On Saturday we were here near the chapel. Elder Ramirez suggested that we go and see if we couldn´t find Angelica. We showed up, and her car wasn´t there outside, but we rang her doorbell. She opened her door, and I recognized her, and said something like "Hello, you´re Heramana Angelica, right?" She replied, "You remember me?" I replied, "We met once like 5 months ago. We came by to see if you wanted to start visiting with us again." We explained that not at that moment, but that we´d like to set up an appointment. She said, "Tomorrow is Church, right?" and she said that she would come to Church. We left.

She came to Church. She said she´s going to come to a Relief Society activity on Wednesday, and that the next week at Church we´d arrange the details. Later, we were talking with Pablo y Paty, and Paty related to us the following:

Angelica has lived here about 10 years, she is single, and was feeling really lonely. She decided to put on some music, but it only made her feel worse. She was really sad and crying. Then, we showed up and invited her to Church.

Hermano Pablo spoke about how everyone has their time. Maybe it´s now her time. We´ll have to see what develops, but we´ll talk to her. There are no coincidences. The fact that I´ve stayed here for so long, that we went and talked to her, that Pablo y Paty are in the Church, everything is by the Lord´s hand. It could be that she needed Pablo y Paty in the Church to be her friends. We´ll have to wait and see what develops, but we´re in this.

The Lord really does work through us, and the little details and little miracles really are great. It´s pretty cool. Each week and day we can see the hand of the Lord in our lives, and in the lives of others. It´s really a blessing to be able to see that and recognize it.

Week #41: Laureles (La Oficina) 21

Well, today I finished up reading all of my emails and letters in about 28 minutes. So, that´s pretty good. Thank you to everyone who wrote me, thought of me, or send a message to me. I appreciate hearing about what´s going on in the lives of my people.

Let´s see... This past week we did better at leaving on time from the offices. We had interviews with President Bird this Tuesday, and it was pretty good. I chatted with him about my desire to become converted - like really converted - while I´m here on my mission. He said it´s a good goal, and a life-long one, but still. So, that´s good. As part of the interview we talked about leaving on time to work more in the area, and it´s something all of us have felt basically, and he talked to all of us (office Elders and Assistants) about doing. So, yeah.

This Wednesday I did "intercambios" or exhcanges with Elder Vazquez - one of the Assistants. They´re in our District (it´s just us and them, Elder Ramirez is the District Leader) and I got to work in his ward (AMÉRICA). It was a pretty good day. We gave a tour of the chapel to an investigator and he liked it. We worked on contacting people as we walked, and Elder Vazquez was rejected by every person he decided to talk to. The two best examples are the following:

1) A woman we approached said something along the lines of, "I know you. You´re Mormons. No thank you, I don´t want to hear your message. You can go on your way." Something like that. It was kind of funny, the rejection.

2) A woman (earlier in the day) who walked up to us and asked us if we were from a church, we said no, then she asked if we were christians and said something like "Whatever denomination you are, I´m catholic. I don´t want anything." Elder Vazquez: "Okay. But still, we´d love to share this message with you anyway" and she responds, "When you come and recite the Rosary with me, then I will listen to your message. Have a good day." And, she was off. It was kind of funny. Elder Vazquez later explained to me what the Rosary consists of.

Well... Hmm... This week we were accompanied by Daniel quite a bit. He was baptized just before I came to the area, and he´s doing well. He´s actually off to EFY today (Here they say it as a word, efy - as if it were "effee"). He accompanied us on a few visits, and it was good. He did a good job.

On Friday we were in the offices when a woman came to the chapel. She was seeking for help with her son, who started acting more violent and angry than normal. About a year or so ago, missionaries visited him. A few times Elder Capiz and I tried to find and contact him, but to no avail. Weeks ago, Elder Ramirez and I dropped by and she opened to door. We set up an appointment (which we missed) and we never found them again.

She remembered us from that time, and found the chapel and asked for our help. We went to visit them that day, and we still haven´t really talked with her son a lot, but Daniel did a good job trying to talk to him, and we visited with her and her husband. So far not a ton of teaching really, but it´s nice that they´re asking for our help. Hopefully we can get going with the teaching and help them out with the gospel. It´s like a story from a missionary movie, but those happen. Seriously. It´s been pretty good.

A few days ago I was reflecting on my mission a bit, and the thing that is really great is seeing the change in people, seeing how happy they are with the gospel. It´s a testimony building thing, and they´re really grateful too. Somebody asked me if I really liked Mexico, and it´s alright. Visiting my mission will be a lot more to see the people, not so much the stuff or the country. The converts and the members who I meet in my time here.

Let´s see... What else? This morning we had waffles. I´m currently reading in Helaman. I´m doing pretty well. Still have to work a lot on stuff, but I´ve got time. I realized this week more than once that I lack some of the knowledge of the lessons I should have, so I need to put myself to work on that. I need to focus more in my studying. The office is going pretty well right now. So, yeah.

Rocío has her baptismal date for August 17th.

Pablo y Paty are doing pretty well. Hermano Pablo is going to change jobs. He had a tough week after the baptism with work and stuff over there, but it worked out pretty well. Plus, somebody offered him a new job. He had his interview and starts Wednesday. He knows the Lord is blessing them. He gets more pay, works better hours (I think) and (he said this was the part that mattered most to him) won´t work Sundays except for during the Christmas Season. It´s a great blessing to know them and see the happiness and dedication they have.

Well, that´s it for this week´s general email. I hope you´re all doing well, and have a great week. I love you!

P.S. Here´s a photo of Elder Vazquez and I, AND - I´m feeling tanner than before. And, I got to eat a waffle this morning. Pretty tastey.



Here's a map of our new mission boundaries.

Week #40: Laureles (La Oficina) 20

I´m here in the offices, chilling and writing to you all and listening to "on hold" music. So, -well, I just got an email from Sister Skinner, so a real-time pause on my end. Gimme a few minutes.

Well, after a large break I am back! Hopefully all are doing well, and having a great time with life. Hopefully we´re all learning and growing.

Things are going pretty well here in the Mission, overall. This last week we didn´t work as well as we should have, so of course our numbers were very low. This week we have some goals to get things going better, find more people to visit and teach, and keep progressing.

Paty was confirmed on Sunday, and we talked too. I had the change to translate for Sister Bird for the congregation, that was pretty cool. I kind of liked that. There was a time where I had to pause to think. It was the word "wonderful" I think. Anyway, it was good, and my talk turned out pretty good.

This week was pretty empty overall - we had the Leadership Council that we helped out prepare and stuff like that.

We visited Daniel quite a few times today. He was baptized 3 days before I got here to the ward Laureles. We´re kind of helping him want to go on a mission when he can. So yeah, things are going pretty well, but we can be a whole lot more focused and work harder.

Now, I´ve received some questions about being an office Elder and Sundays, so I´ll take care of that right now.

SUNDAYS - We are supposed to have Ward Council Sunday mornings, but we haven´t - I still haven´t been to a single Ward Council as a missionary. We´ll see what comes soon. We have church at 10:00 am, sometimes we talk - then for the second hour I teach Gospel Principles - I might not be doing that soon, we might get a teacher. Then the third hour we get to go to Priesthood or the third hour class.

After that we go to eat at about 2:00, then we go and work until night time, when we come to the offices. Here in the mission, we are assigned directly to a ward, so we work in the ward boundaries and we go to our ward meetings and we´re the Laureles Elders. Some wards have more than one companionship - this last transfer there was a ward that got a third set of missionaries. So there are 6 MISSIONARIES in this ward. Our ward only has us, but in the future it could change... Yep.

Now, being an OFFICE ELDER - Well, here there aren´t Senior Couples, so we work on the office stuff. There are 4 of us, and the assistants. There is a Records Secretary (who works on putting in baptism records, keeping track of them, and a monthly newsletter) and I used to do that, there is a Materials Secretary (who works on materials and referrals) a Financial Secretary (who works with the money) and an Executive Secretary (which I now am - and I work with the Visas, Release packages, coordinating flights of leaving and incoming missionaries, and other stuff President asks me to do). Plus, the two assistants. So, yeah.

We´re here on Monday through Friday from 11:00am - 2:00pm. We also help out with transfers, and leadership councils, and stuff like that. We have meetings sometimes with President Bird. So, it´s been pretty good.

Take care everyone, and have a great week!