So much success in a month! Lots of pictures...

I've been horrible the past month and haven't updated Ty's blog! Here are his letters for the past month. So many baptisms!!

7/4/16

We have baptisms lined up for these next few weeks. We´re really excited! You can´t forget about faith, hope, and charity.

We found an investigator named Rebeca and her daughter Ana. Rebeca is 45 and her daughter is in her mid 20s. Ana has a daughter that is 6 months old. They are both super awesome. We were walking 2 weeks ago, contacting people in the street as we went. And then I saw the 3 of them sitting in front of a tiendita (little store). Normally, I wouldn't think much of it because there are always people sitting in front. But I saw the baby, and it was just so darn cute ;) I had a feeling that we needed to go back. So I told my companion that we needed to talk to them and we headed back. We talked to them a little bit about temples and eternal families. We told Ana about how she could be with her daughter forever and they could be together and happy in the presence of God. They told us that they lived in an apartment above a carniceria right next door. We set up an appointment to talk to them and came back the next day. We shared our message and they are so interested in learning. The restauracion, Plan de Salvacion and all. One day when we went to teach them, Rebeca told us about how she believed that we were sent from God to teach them. And that everything had fallen into place. How that one day, they didn´t bring the baby into the tiendita, and they felt as though maybe a breeze would be good for the baby so they kept her outside (with them). And how when we passed, I saw the baby, and felt compelled to return to them. Because they had always seen us walking up and down the street every day. They are now preparing to be baptized on the 31st and came to church yesterday! They also saw the baptism of Victor.

I attached a picture of Victor. He has been listening to us for a while now. His wife (next to him) at first didn’t want anything to do with us because she is a Jehovah’s Witness. But I had a little help from the Spirit ;) Now she is coming to church and she is going to be baptized not this Sunday, but the next! :)

Another guy who is really cool is Jilberto Gomez. We were talking to a lady who was selling chicken in the street (and the only thing that covered the raw chicken was a cloth to attempt to keep the flies away). Jilberto came and we started talking to him and we set up an appt. to go back and teach him at his house. My companion and I have joked around about how his name could be next to some of the reformers in our pamphlet the restauracion (Martin Lutero, Juan Calvino) because he sees all the flaws with all the churches he goes to. ESPECIALLY Tithing. We shared with him our message and he believes it’s true. He came to church yesterday and is also preparing to be baptized on the 31st.

Oh!! I found Elder Porter!!!!! He is companions with a good friend of mine named Elder De Mata. I talked to him on his first day in the field to make sure he was doing ok. Then today while my companion and I were shopping for food, we ran into them! We were both really happy to see each other. We talked for a little while in the store and then continued onward to buy our stuff. It’s so cool to see a familiar face from home around here.

I really love this area. I wouldn´t mind staying here for the rest of my mission ;) The members are awesome, the investigators are awesome.. The only thing that could make it better would be clima (A/C) in the casa ;)

water water water. It’s my life. I have to make sure I put water in my 2 water bottles in the fridge in the night time so I have cold water to drink in the morning, and again I need to put water in them before we leave the house to work so I have cold water to drink in the night time once we get home. Then we try to drink water throughout the day as we go to houses to teach. Some people have cold water, and other people don’t :P Cold water is like a delicacy out here.

7/18/16

Well, we didn’t have any luck with Lorena this week... She was supposed to be baptized last week and didn’t show up so we passed by her house multiple times this past week. We did what we could and tried to take the patient route. But nope, everything blew up and went in a completely different direction. She got weird fast, and now I think she has some type of sickness or illness in her head, like a problem with her brain. We passed by her house yesterday after we ate and her mother from Mexico City came over here, her husband from Tampico came down from where he was working and her 2 kids that practically abandoned her and then just came back once they had to do some type of investigation. Lorena’s mom was furious with her whole family and she blamed it all on them for just completely abandoning her with her youngest daughter Nayeli without money or anything. All her neighbors were there too along with us, and they were talking to us about how they felt about this whole situation. And they all thanked us for always being there for Lorena when no one else was. I was also talking to my zone leaders again about it. It was more of just part of a conversation we were having, but he said, "Well, you did your part, and now if she doesn´t progress more in this world, she will receive and accept the Gospel better in the spirit world." And I agreed.

Did you get the pictures? and by the way, the guy who is wearing the red shirt, his name is Mario. We were trying to find people to teach and offer service. We saw him with his wheel barrow and I offered to help. We asked him where he was going and he told me that it was "todo derecho" I didn´t understand how long "todo derecho" was but I figured, "It can´t be that far." I ended up pushing that wheel barrow for 45 minutes through the middle of nowhere. It was very beautiful though, and a great experience. Apparently, everyone knows Mario, and we put a super good example as representatives of the church and servants of The Lord as we offered this service to him. We talked to quite a few people as we passed them in walking. In one of the pictures, you see me sitting on a rock, with Mario and a guy named Juan. Juan was our "Disciple" as we joked about it. We were walking and we passed him in the road, we talked to him for a little bit, then he decided to accompany us on our journey. It was pretty awesome.

Oh and in our interviews from this last week, Hermana Greer gave me a copy of my passport and my visa. My companion and I looked at the fotos... WOW... We were fat!!!!! I know that when I came out here I was about 240 to 245. But about a month ago I weighed myself on a different scale and it said I weigh about 200 or a little less. I don´t know if its accurate, but there are scales around here that I can check that are electronic, I have a ticket that said what I weighed in Tuxpan, but I need to check again.

7/25/16

We baptized the wife of Victor! The guy we baptized 2 weeks ago :) her name is Monica! and also, Victor received the priesthood the other day! :) And their daughter came to church with us yesterday too :)

We have an AWESOME FAMILY that just moved here from Veracruz. They were baptized in December and just moved down here. They came to the capilla and introduced themselves one day when we were there. These are some of the greatest converts I have ever seen. We visited them (the parents) on Friday and got to know them more. Then on Saturday, we got what seemed like a desperate call from the dad asking if we could go visit them at 8:30. So once we got there, they had picked up their kids from Veracruz and brought them up. Their kids are 18 (preparing to serve a mission), 17, and 15. Their 17 year old daughter wasn’t saying too much when we tried to talk to them. Then continuing onward, we asked why they invited us over and why they wanted to talk (Mainly trying to find out what they were expecting of the visit). They just wanted a good spiritual message of Repentance and Baptism. As I was scanning the room, I noticed the mom looking at the daughter. OH YEAH. I knew that look. I instantly knew exactly why we were there and what the situation was. We shared a message of repentance and whenever we asked a question to the daughter she had a hard time answering. I could see the look in her eyes of what she was going through. I finally got her to talk about some of her feelings about God, how he loves us, and things like that. She started to get choked up and cry. So I gave her a little space and we continued onward. But thinking back on it now, it takes me into the book of Alma. Where Ammon saw the king’s servants crying and in sorrow because they had fear of their outcome. But it gave me joy to see her cry because I knew what her tears meant. She knew that what she had done was wrong, and she had already begun the process of repentance.

Something that I´ve come to learn about my purpose as a missionary is how repentance brings happiness. I´ve seen it for myself in my personal life, and I want people to feel that same happiness.

8/1/16

We had 2 more baptisms yesterday! :) Rebeca and Ana :) They are the people that I contacted because I saw their baby :) And there is a guy we are teaching along with his 2 kids that came to church yesterday. This guy´s name is José Luis. He has had problems with drinking all his life but now has the desires to quit. We gave him a pamphlet of the Word of Wisdom one day, and when we returned the next day. He shaved, combed his hair, had a clean shirt on, and was sober. He told us he read the pamphlet and liked it. Also, when his friends came over to invite him to go out drinking, he said no, and worked instead. He told us about the blessings received he recognized from not drinking. Its pretty cool to see people change :)

We work, contact, try to teach and find new people but it’s just at one of those hard parts of the mission. I´ve felt like I´ve been carrying the load for a while. My companion did admit it to me this week "If I don´t do it, it won´t get done." So I have to do it or I have to make sure he does it. Yes it’s been a little difficult. He can be a good friend and it’s fun to talk with him. We had a companionship inventory this week and he broke down and told me his feelings and started to cry a little. He told me he knew that he hadn´t been giving his near full effort, hardly any. He said that when he was with Elder Jackson before me, they worked A TON. Like 20+ lessons a week sometimes. Yet they never had baptisms to show for it. He said that once I got here, he just lost the will to work as much. I wanted to, but he didn´t. So I got out, worked, taught, and I knew we could have had a lot more success if we would have worked together, but I still felt like I was carrying everything. It wasn´t as much as they had taught before, but what he noticed, was even though we weren´t teaching lesson after lesson after lesson, we were having success. We were getting people in church, having good times with the people we were teaching and enjoying the work. This made him more discouraged because with ALL the work they did before I got here, there was nothing (that he could see). Then once I got here and we had few lessons but more fruit. His ganas (desire) fell even more. Then they raised me to Senior companion and pushed him to Junior. You can only imagine how that would feel. Even when he already feels down. He told me that he felt and feels insufficient or inadequate. He asked for my forgiveness and said he would help more. I told him I forgive him, but I wasn´t the person he needed to ask forgiveness. Then I also said that the past is the past and I don´t care, let’s just move forward. So we have been working more and harder and its better :)

8/6/16

Hi Momma! My PDay is today this week instead of Monday :) We have changes! And on Monday I'm gonna be on a bus to Xalapa to pick up mi hijo!! ( I´m training!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :D

I´m staying in the same area…YAY!

So when I bought my shirts before the mission, they were all a little big. Now they are HUGE, and I´ve already had to buy a couple new belts that are smaller. Now I´m gonna have to put some more holes in the ones I have. Also my pants are huge too. And when I put my belts through them, they double over and look really funny. I need to get new ones because I look funny. I´ve been looking around at shirts, I´ve already had my suit altered once and coming up here soon I think I´m gonna have to have it done again. I found some pretty nice shirts for about 20-25 dollars. I´ve been looking to try to keep it cheap. When I go to Xalapa I guess I´ll have some time to go look around. I´ve heard that there are some places there that are pretty cheap and really nice so I´ll go check it out. But I imagine that if I were to go to get about 5 new shirts it would be about $100. Then I guess I could slowly start getting more clothes that fit after that. I think I´m gonna go buy a couple shirts so I can look nice tomorrow for church and for when I go to Xalapa. Any donations would be appreciated. :)

Love Elder Koontz

Victor's baptism.  This is his wife Monica who was listening to the lessons at the time. 

I offered service to a man that was pushing this wheel barrow and
ended up pushing it for him for 45 minutes!

Mario is in the red shirt who I helped with the wheel barrow.  The other guy is Juan.

Our view on our journey with Mario

Our view on our journey with Mario

Victor's wife Monica was baptized!   And...Victor received the Priesthood!  :)

Rebeca and her daughter Ana at their taco cart.

Rebeca and Ana got baptized!

Lots of wonderful experiences!

Hola Familia!

We had changes yesterday, now I´m Senior companion! It’s funny though, I still have the same companion. So really the ONLY thing that will change is I carry the phone. So now when I need/want to make a call, I don’t need to ask. :)

We were walking the other day and contacting people, there was a couple that I hadn´t even seen but my companion stopped to talk to them! It was an awesome contact, we gave them a Book of Mormon and set up an appointment to talk to them yesterday. But we saw them again Saturday walking in the street! We talked to them again and they told us that they had read it and had some questions! They are also a family of 5, with 4 eligible for baptism. 2 boys and the youngest is a girl. They like super heroes, and the favorite of the oldest is Green Lantern! I thought that was pretty cool. We passed yesterday but they weren’t home. We called them and set up an appointment for tonight at 7. I really hope they progress, they are super awesome.

Oh and we´re looking forward to success! We have baptisms lined up for these next 4 weeks! So we´re praying they all come through! :)

Did I tell you I bought a hammock?

So this was a really cool experience we had this week, and a testimony of the Power of the Restauración:

We´re looking forward to another good week! We talked to our investigator who had his interview the other week and everything is good now. We also started talking to his wife and teaching her as well! She is a Testigo de Jehovah and didn´t want anything to do with us for a while. Until persistence got to her. We were looking for her husband on Tuesday but he was still out working. So when she told us he wasn´t home we said that we would also like to talk to her upon his return. She flat out said, "I´m not going to study with you, I already study the bible." After she said that, I just felt like I needed to keep talking to her. I didn´t know why, I just felt like I needed to keep our little conversation going on for just a bit more. So then I asked her kind of a funny question, "Alright Hermana! So what do you study in the Bible?" I think this question kind of caught her off-guard because she asked me, "What do you mean, what do I study?" I responded to her question with, "Well there are lots of things in the Bible! What is it that you study? What does the Bible say?" I think she thought she could get out of it by saying, "I already study with the Testigos de Jehovah, y estudiamos la Biblia." But she still hadn´t answered my question of what she studies. So I once again asked her, "Yes, hermana. But what is it that you study with them?" She was on top of her house when she was talking to us so she said, "Ya, voy." She came down and started talking to us at her gate. She said, "Look, I can´t be changing my religion every 2 seconds." So this started up a conversation a little better than what we were having before. We talked about how WE don´t change people, they change themselves. Then her husband got home and gave us a free invitation to pass. So the four of us sat down, Elder Brooks (we were in divisions), Me, Victor, and Monica (his wife). We opened with a prayer and then started by teaching the Restauration. We taught the first 2 principles of God and Families but Monica still had the face of doubt and as if she wasn´t interested. So I asked her what was wrong, and she said again, "I´m not going to change my religion." So I again replied with, "Hermana, you are never going to hear us asking you to change your religion, all we ask is that you listen to our message and talk with us." The coolest thing that I noticed was when we explained the Apostasy. I asked her if she had heard of it before and she hadn´t. We taught it, and she was completely focused in the lesson for the rest of the time and it was a lesson of conversation. It was awesome. She understood Apostacia very well, and it made everything else come together for her. We taught her from both the Book of Mormon and the Bible as to answer a lot of her questions. We gifted her a Book of Mormon, and she was very excited to read it. It was so awesome to see how the power of the message of the Restauración works on people. She went from, "I´m not going to study with you." to "Thank you for coming, when will you come again?" with a smile on her face. We hadn´t yet taught baptism, so we passed by again through the week and taught lesson 3. Monica understands the authority restored concept very well, and accepted a baptimal date to progress. ALSO Victor also recovered a lot of interest and animo because there were a lot of unanswered questions he had from when he had been taught the Restauracion the first time. But reviewing everything really helped him, and made him a lot more interested again.

I also did drive a car last night... Haha it’s a funny story. We were with some members and it started raining, hard. Like really hard. We were just about to leave and then they told us that they weren´t going to let us leave until the rain calmed down a little bit. It never did and it was getting late. We told them we would be fine walking but our house was kind of far. They tried to call a taxi for us but they never answered the phone and they wouldn´t reply to messages. We think something happened with their electrical systems. But we waited and finally the mom said, "I will drive you." We asked her if she knew how and she said yes, but she doesn’t drive in the night time because she can’t see.... and it was night time. We were a little hesitant but they weren´t going to let us leave without some way of getting home "safely”. So she was trying to pull her car out of her.. well... area where she parked her car? I don’t know how to describe it. But it was dark, she couldn´t see, she didn´t know how to maneuver it going backwards, she almost hit a bunch of stuff, and she was taking forever. So finally I was talking to my companion and he said, "You know how to drive, you can do it really fast." I figured there wasn’t any harm in just backing it out. So I backed it out pretty fast and then parked it. She was like, "Wow, that was really fast!" I don’t know where you live and I can’t see so you just drive to your house and then I can drive back. At this point I was like... Ummm... what?. So I had 2 options. Let her drive, fear for the lives of the 4 of us in the car (me, my companion, the mom, and her kid) and probably die, or I could drive, be a lot safer, and have the experience saying,"I´ve driven in the crazy traffic of Mexico". Also I confirmed it with my companion and he wanted me to drive too, he didn’t want the hermana to drive us. So I thought about it and made my decision...... Now I have bragging rights to say I´ve driven in the crazy traffic of Mexico. ;)

Me and other missionaries in my District.  I've been getting
 good use out of my rain boots lately  :)

My companion and I sporting our new "church approved" hats.

Birthday Packages, Saying Goodbye to My Area and a New Companion

Hola Familia,

We had a good week. We had a fast to find some new investigators and we did! It´s been raining pretty profusely in the night time so we hope they are ok. Some of them live in areas where there is a lot of mud and hills, and given how hard it rained Saturday night, we think that is the reason why those investigators didn’t come to church.

There is a lady (reference from member) that we found this week, super humble, super awesome. She is deaf and can´t hear anything. She told us that within these past weeks she has been able to hear a little bit, but now when we teach her she can´t hear. I use the book you sent me with the gospel art and it helps soooo much. But something else that makes her great, is how humble she is. She has such a hard time with her life right now. Her husband lives in Tampico and is cheating on her, her son beats her and his little sister, she can´t hear anything, her son and his friends read the book of the dead and his eyes are always super red (she believes he has a demon in him), and she is afraid to live in her house. Rather than curse God like much of the other people we have found, she wants to look for God, and she says she feels happy when we come to visit her and share our message. She seemed really excited to come to church and told us that she had made the plans to go, but she is one of the people that lives on the muddy, dangerous hill. So she and the members who live near her weren´t at church... We hope they are ok and we are going to go visit them tomorrow.

Another of our investigators, Victor, is preparing to be baptized on the 19th. We´re excited and so is he. He will have his interview this upcoming week. Not gonna lie, I think fasting in Poza Rica is the hardest thing ever. We fasted twice this last week (during the week and again for fast Sunday) and I think it’s harder on the mind than it is physically. The dreaded sun drains all the water from your body and then leaves you dry for the rest of the fast. It’s definitely a sacrifice, so I guess Poza Rica is where you receive the most blessings for fasting.

Elder Martinez and I get a long great and we just bought food today. We will be even happier when we are in the house because we won´t be cranky when we´re hungry. The only thing that would make it better is if we had clima (A/C) in the house. The nights are killer because all day long the sun hits our house, so when we get home we walk into an oven. So the fans that we have only blow hot air on us. We’re going to talk to someone about getting a clima (A/C).

I feel pretty good about our ward leaders, they seem like they care how things are going. They show how much they want success by how much they work, so I assume they want a lot.

Something that was pretty significant about this week was a dream that I had. So to explain why this is even more significant is because normally every night, I ask for good dreams, to remember my dreams, to wake up not tired and to sleep well... But this night in particular, I remembered to ask to remember my dream, but I forgot to ask for a good dream.

In my dream, everything up until the middle part was normal and happy. I was with a family and I apparently knew them (thinking about it now I have no idea who they were). But there was one part when I was talking to them, when one of the family members (older, young man) looked at me. His eyes turned pitch black. After this moment, a demon was tormenting me throughout the rest of my dream. I was constantly searching for ways to avoid it, run away, find a solution to get rid of it, or something to give me peace. The hard thing was, I couldn´t see it. But it kept taking all my new friends away, and eliminating them from the dream in some way. Towards the end of the dream, I walked into an area with 4-5 mirrors. I could see the demon standing and facing towards a wall. The only way I could see this demon though, was through a mirror. It started talking to me, but it was yelling, and saying terrible things. It turned around and faced me, and I could see what it looked like. It just looked like a dirtier, deformed, sad, miserable me. Then it jumped at me to attack. It moved out of the way of the mirror so I couldn´t see it anymore. I don’t know why, but I sprang my hands forward. I couldn´t see the demon, or feel it, but I just felt it´s presence. But, I wasn’t going to bring my hands back down. I got the feeling to look over to my right, and I saw another mirror. I had in fact stopped the demon when my hands shot forward, but it was trying to attack me still. Very violently and angrily waving its arms, yelling, and trying to attack and kill me. I pushed it away and ran. When I started to run away, I woke up.

At first I thought this was just a bad dream. But then the other day I was talking with some other Elders and one of them told me about how he was reading in the bible, how dreams can be revelation. I didn´t take that much into thought or perspective until I got home. I walked into our bathroom and saw our mirror. I will admit, I was a little hesitant because the last time I remembered actively looking into a mirror, there was a demon hunting me. But as I looked in the mirror, I only saw me. At that moment was then everything started to come into perspective. Everything seemed to have some type of symbol.

1) I could only see the demon if I looked into a mirror.

2) The Demon just looked like a very terrible version of me.

3) I couldn´t see, or feel the demon, but I could feel its presence.

4) Without use of my own force, I shot my hands out to stop it.

5) I felt like I had been protected.

There were multiple things I learned from this dream... How does Satan work against us? Does he always talk directly to us or through the actions/words of other people? Or does he mess with our mentality, our way of thinking, to make us work against ourselves. When I couldn´t see the demon in the mirror, It’s because the demon was "in" me. The ugly part of me, was in fact that. Our ugly, negative thoughts come from a demon, but in our way of thinking through our own mentality. When we think badly or negatively, it’s not anything we can see, or touch. But we can feel the negative presence. But I had help to stop it. When the scriptures talk of the Holy Spirit as a Guide, Protector, and Comforter, I feel like it applies specifically like this in my dream. The guide was to spring my arms in front of me to block my attacker, I couldn´t see it, but He could. He was my protector in keeping the demon away and letting me know it was still there by making me look in the other mirror. When I threw the demon away and ran, I woke up. It was when I woke up, how the spirit comforted me. I felt nervous, agitated, and it was difficult for me to keep my mind off of my nightmare. But all of the sudden, a hymn started playing in my head. The exact hymn I can’t remember, but all I know is that as I thought of that song, I was calmed, and I was able to go back to sleep peacefully. This I know was the spirit, comforting me when I felt alone, and scared.

I have applied this dream to my way of thinking with many things throughout the week. Whenever I start thinking negatively about something, I remember this experience. And how they are my own thoughts, or bad spirits messing with my thoughts, to make me think in a negative manner. This dream has helped me think a lot more positively throughout the week. Not that I´ve had a problem with negativity, but when I do start to think bad of someone or something. I take a step back. I feel like I have the spirit more with me, and He helps me think in this more positive manner.

We just had a baptism yesterday! Her name is María and she´s really great :)

Remember how I told you about the fruit I wanted to try really bad? This is a lichi :)  They taste like those peachy o´s but they are healthy for you :) 

 Oh and there are a lot of people here who think the little ventilador (little fan that hangs around your neck) idea is great. People want you to send more out here so they can sell them hahaha. Oh, and there is one hermana who has her life long journey to try and get a hold of some Red Vines. They are her all time favorite candy. She has told me which Elder first introduced them to her and how long a go. She was like 13 and now she is in her late 30s. So maybe in this next package you send you could include a couple things of Red Vines? I know it would really mean a lot to her add she would love you forever. They don’t make them out here and she has looked everywhere. She even tried ordering them straight from the factory. But she never got them :(

I had the best tacos of my life the other night. Ohhhhhhh they were soooooo gooood. I went with Elder Jackson, Elder De Mata, and my companion to a street vender in Elder Jackson’s area who makes BOMB tacos. Best things I´ve ever had.

I asked him what their plans were for that evening: Well Elder Herrera (my trainer) is in my zone and he passed me a reference of a pretty awesome reference. He said he set up a noche de hogar (Family Home Evening) with this guy. The reference works in their area but lives in ours. So he said that we can go meet him today and then he is going to pass him off to us to teach. But, I´m not too sure about all the details. I need to talk to him more about it, I´m gonna call him here in a bit.

Well, hope you have a great week. Love you all!

Elder Koontz

My last day with Aldo and Griselda  :(

Hermana Nora and her mom Hermana Aurora! I´m gonna miss them a lot. They were super awesome and sweet.

Before having my face smashed into my birthday cake

And after

Another birthday cake :)

Finally!  Time to open my birthday packages from Mom  :)

Am I spoiled or what??

Homemade birthday card from mom  :)

You can't tell but these are super hero tie clasps.  Superman, Batman and Green Lantern...YES!!

I put 19 candles on my betty crocker microwaveable cake mom sent me. It was delicious :)

It was REALLY good!

Thanks mom for all the birthday goodies!

Met with Elder Falabella, a member of the Quorum of the Seventy

A surprise visit from a member of the Quorum of the Seventy.  I can't remember his name  :-/

The English school where we help teach had a little birthday celebration for me. 

Another birthday cake.

Taking the ferry to go find out about transfers.

My new companion, Elder Martinez

6 months (April 14) and loving the work!

Hi Friends and Family,

We have had a great past couple of weeks. My Spanish is awesome and whatever I want to say, I can say it. But, within this last change, even though it was difficult for us to work together and get along, we still worked a ton. A TON. We baptized 4 people this last change! Irma Guadalupe, Aldo & Griselda Hernandez (we married them), and Esmeralda Acosta :) They are all so great. 

Irma Guadalupe got baptized yesterday!!!!!!!!!! :D the baptismal service was beautiful and awesome. Irma is a teacher who has family that lives in Utah! So I told her that     I´m going to keep in contact with her so when after the mission, we can catch up and talk about how things are going in Mexico! :) The Bishop told us "por fin. Ustedes terminaban el ayuno de bautismos aquí en Centro" (Finally, you've ended the dry spell of baptisms in our area" and our mission president sent us a text this morning congratulating us on our hard work :)

Aldo & Griselda were boyfriend and girlfriend when we found them. They have a 4 year old son named Jonas. At first it was fun to play around with him... But the poor kid has been spoiled rotten. He has little to no discipline; they let him do whatever he wants which gets annoying. Now he always "plays" with us, he takes his toys and shoves them in our faces when we aren’t looking. Then he punches us in the throat and.... In places where the sun doesn’t shine... But seeing their progression as we were teaching and how they dropped a lot of their bad habits was awesome! They are definitely strengthened as a family, and they have a happier home now.

Elder Koontz and Elder Martinez obtaining an application for a marriage license for Aldo and Griselda.

Aldo and Griselda got married!!

Aldo and Griselda getting baptized!

Esmeralda has been listening to the missionaries for the past 4-5 years. Every time she listened to them previously, there was always something that she didn´t like or didn´t understand correctly which made her not want to listen. But when we were talking to her these past few times, we answered all her questions and helped her understand what the other missionaries couldn´t explain. The sad thing is, she has 2 kids and she has such a confusing relationship with her "boyfriend." They have been together for a while, she is 26 and he is 43 or 44.... So there’s that.. But they always always always fight. They were only together because they have the kids. He is an inactive member of the church and has lots of problems with drinking, drugs and I believe a bit of a temper. But we had talked to him one night and he said that if she progressed to be baptized, he would quit everything. Drinking, drugs, everything. Talk to the Bishop, propose to her, and try to prepare to enter the temple with her to be sealed as a family. The sad thing is, they had a HUGE fight one night. Now they don’t ever talk. They haven´t seen each other in a few weeks now. The thing that broke my heart, was when I was standing in the baptismal font waiting for her to come in, she looked at me, then looked out at the people, then asked me, "Erik didn´t come?" At that moment, I knew that she loved him. You can call me a baby if you want, but I almost cried when she asked me. Later on after her baptism, we went and told Erik that she had been baptized. He was surprised, and said, "Really?" There wasn´t much to see, but I could sense something different about him after we told him. He looked down, and gave a very small smile. Then we continued talking as normal. Within the next couple of days when we visited him; he shaved, told us he hadn´t even touched a drink of alcohol, and told his dealer he wasn´t going to be buying anymore. He still tells us that he doesn´t want to talk to her and doesn´t want to see her. But I believe he is secretly changing all these things about himself so he can walk up to her as a new man and say, "Come to Daddy." haha just kidding... That would be weird. But I do still think that he is going to try and fix things with her.

Esmeralda got baptized!

Well a little more about me, I just got changes. I´m going to Poza Rica! I´m going to where Elder Jackson was again hahaha. His old companion is going to be my new companion. But we are gonna be in the same city! He´s just moving over areas. Also! Elder Heslop and Elder Coray are gonna be close too! So on PDays we can go over and play basketball, go to Peter Pipers Pizza, and hang out.

Well I´m gonna be here till about 6 o clock. We don’t really have anything to do on Pdays. We wash our clothes, play basketball, clean the house... That’s pretty much it. Then we write. Unless there's a time when we want to go to some type of historical site.

I´m reading the bible in Spanish. It’s pretty cool :) All of my studies are in Spanish. Unless I’m reading the ensign or some type of talk, those are typically in English. But all my books, study manuals, and everything else are all in Spanish.

A letter he wrote to Grandma:

Wow, I’m 19. And then in a year I am going to be 20! That feels so weird to think, let alone say. So I know you love seafood so I know you might get a little jealous when I tell you about this... In the area I live, its right next to the river. A salt water river that connects to the ocean. In one part of my area, everyone is a fisherman. So whenever we eat there, we always have crab, shrimp, and fish. Before, I used to not be able to stand any type of seafood. But now, it’s just so good. And apparently, now I know, "the right way" to eat shrimp, and crab. Oh, and when they cook it... They just cut the crab in half and throw it in the pot. The shrimp is even less work. They just catch the shrimp, let it die from lack of water, then they cook them. They put it in your bowl and then you eat! There are multiple ways to eat this stuff. You can take off the shell, or not. Simple as that. The heads just kinda fall off so you don’t really eat those, but really it’s so much easier to eat it with the shell ;) "Its fiber!!" Is what the people always tell us. Ugh I wish I would have taken a picture now. I was thinking about it while I was eating but my hands were super dirty. The only thing that makes it super weird when you eat the shell is the crunch :P Its sooo cool here though! We get that ocean/river breeze and it smells so fresh.

This past Sunday, we had 11 people in church with 8 people progressing to a baptismal date :) And that’s an awesome CTR ring that you got! I got a regular ring here that was pretty cheap, then the same guy engraved it for me at no extra charge. I had him put "CTR (infinity sign) MMX" on the inside of the ring. My companion and I are getting along a lot better, we´re getting to be more of friends. Hope you´re doing well at home! I really miss you and really I think about you often! I get so happy whenever I think about how you have gone through the temple. The process you went through and the progress you made to be able to make that sacred covenant makes me so happy. I ponder about that often and it just puts a smile on my face whenever I do think about it :)
¡Te amo G! :) <3

Investigator Omar and his dog Houston

Some of the contents of one of his Easter packages

6 months out on April 14!!  Burning of the tie...

How he burned his tie....not mom approved!!

                                                                 The burnt tie...

He's been out for 5 months and he has some fun stories to tell!!

He didn't email us until 6:30pm on Monday so he was in a bit of a hurry to tell us all of his stories. No pictures this week either  :-(

Hi Family,

So, I am now known in the zone as the contactor. I talk to EVERYONE. This week has been amazing. I´m not getting big headed with myself or cocky, but I share the knowledge that I have with the other Elders and it’s this: "You just have to talk to everyone, share who you are and what you have, be kind, offer your help, and God will do the rest." The zone leaders and other missionaries in the area want to have me come to their areas to show them how to contact. Ugh I wish I could just talk about this stuff because its sooooooo long to write.

Remember the awesome contact I had in the street last week? We went to his house and he has 2 families living there!!!!!!!!! We walked up to the door and someone we didn´t recognize opened it. We said, "Hola! Ahorita estamos buscando por Justino... No sé si él vive aqui" (We’re looking for Justino, I don’t know if he lives here) Then we heard someone from around the corner say, "SI SI PASANLE!!! PASANLE!!" (Yes, Yes…Come in , Come in) We found 2 families, the one of Justino and the one of another lady. We were talking to them and got to know more and more people. They all accepted baptismal invitations but there was one problem with Justino. He´s living in free union with his "wife". Like I said before, he has work in other areas, so we were going to teach them about the law of chastity this past week but we found out that he left for his work again in Montana, and won’t be back until November :´(. But their family is still awesome and the kids are great. There are 6 people total in their family and they are all progressing wonderfully. The mom is super sick, during our lessons, she would have to leave to go and throw up sometimes. Poor lady... So, almost all of them came to church this past week. All the kids came and the oldest son brought his girlfriend!!!!!!!! Sooooo cooool. We are progressing another investigator named Elizabeth and she brought her cousin with her to church!!!!! I had 7 investigators for Centro in the church this week and it was AWESOME. They all said that they were going to come next week because they liked it :)

I love the trio I´m in and we´re getting a whole lot of work done. We have had some wicked experiences this past week. Elder Knutson is dying (finishing his mission after this change), and whenever he talks on the phone he always says, "Elder Koontz doesn´t let me get trunky because with him, we don’t have time to think about anything else." (I like using quotes that I have heard because it’s hard to explain how hard I´m working with my own words) Ugh, I have so much to say!!!!!!!!

Ok so this was suuuuch an inspired contact. We talk to soooo many people every day. We were talking to a Taxi the other day and he told us that he had talked to missionaries before but they didn’t really come by anymore. He said it was quite a while ago but we asked if we could note his direction and pass by his house some day. He said of course and whenever was good for us. So the next day we were walking around, and the person we ate with was bieeeen lejos (really far). We started looking at our notes and found that the taxi we contacted that day before lived in the area, so we thought, ah well lets pass by and see if he´s there. We got to his house and said "Buenas tardes!" and of course he responded, "Quien es?" (who is it?) we came back with "Ah los misioneros hermano!" (The Missionaries, brother) Then he said something that caught us off guard. "Ah! Les esperando! Pasenle, pasenle!" meaning "oh I´ve been waiting for you, come in, come in!" So we went inside and we found 2 kids sitting on a couch (boy-17 girl-16). So we asked him if they were his family or friends and he just responded, "No.............. They´re RUN AWAYS" He told us that he was getting his Taxi washed and he overheard them talking about their plan, he told them to get in his taxi and he would take them where they needed to go. He totally tricked them, and took them back to his house, locked the door, and made them call their parents. They were 5 hours away from their home. He told us, "you need to share your gospel with them." Then he ran upstairs and came back down with a Book of Mormon!!!!!!!

We understood that their parents were going to come and get them and they were about to receive the whoopin´ of a lifetime. So we shared a lesson of repentance and love. We had a great time but the girl was on the verge of tears the whole time and she did have a couple tears fall once or twice. We knew they were scared but we listened and talked and got to know them more. We ended up taking a picture with them and they are going to add us on facebook. Elder Knutson got excited because he was reading a chapter earlier that morning and he knew in that moment that it was meant for them. I got the impression to share something that Dad ALWAYS tells me. Alma 37:35 (look it up) (35 O, remember, my son, and learn wisdom in thy youth; yea, learn in thy youth to keep the commandments of God.)

After I shared this scripture, both of them just kinda looked down, and had that look of, "we just got told". Elder Knutson looked at me and he couldn’t keep from laughing. But all of us laughed after they read it because they knew it was true. I have been soo excited this whole week to share this experience because its soo funny and so perfect. We even found out that the kid is a member of the church and he was still running away. We got into him a little harder because he knows about the law of chastity and he knows what they were doing wasn’t smart. We talked to them about their plan and where they were going. I was ready to be a Dad and planchar (iron) them with how their plan was very idiotic. I was going to "smack ´em up side the back of the head" and help them realize that they didn’t have a backup plan, and how they would have needed one because obviously things don’t always go according to plan (because we were in the room talking). Then after we talked them out of the whole running away thing, the girl asks us, "So what part of the United States are you from?" in perfect English!!!!!!!!!! We were like, "WHAT?" She then told us that she couldn’t resist doing that. She said she was raised in Riverside California but she moved here a couple years ago. She was fluent in both English and Spanish. A little after that, the whole family showed up. And, I mean the WHOLE family. I´m talking Grandparents, cousins, mom, dad, brothers and sisters, the whole 9 yards. But only of the girl.... That boy could have never been more alone... We contacted all of them and shared a short message with them about what we taught to them. We told them about how we talked about repentance, how they didn´t want to run away anymore, and how they were sorry for what they did. We hurried and shook their hands and bolted. When we were walking around the corner of the house I told Elder Knutson , "We gotta get outta here cause there’s a bomb that’s about to go off," and then we started jogging away with our mochilas.

Ok well, love you all! I have to go because it’s late. I´ll talk to you in a week!!!!

Love, Elder Koontz

Little Caesars in Mexico??

Hi Family,

My companion and I had special changes! It’s sad because he was my favorite companion in the field, but it happened! He is going to my old zone in Martinez, and I am going to be in a trio for a while with some other Elders. We don’t know why, but there are 4 people leaving our zone But yupp! For the next little while I´m gonna be here with some other Elders who are pretty cool :) They don’t do a whole lot of contacting in the street.... So we´re gonna work on that ;)

There is a picture attached of "The Mama" She is literally the mother of missionaries. The only thing that makes her not our mother exactly is blood. She helps us with everything. She is so great. Especially with food... She will bring us pizza any day of the week if we ask her. She is the prime Mama of all mama gallina (hen) in the mission. It was her birthday the other day so we all brought cake and celebrated with her. She is super awesome and super kind and loving. She has so many pictures with so many different missionaries all throughout her house.

Yes, I did get the package you sent and it was awesome!!!!!!!!!!!! I shared all the suckers with the people in my zone............ Wasn’t my intention at first but it’s what happened... I did get 2 from the bag though. I love the ties and the shirt is awesome!!! I wear it to bed a lot. I LOVE THE BOOK. I get trunky every time I look at it.. But then I put it away and continue on with what I was doing. :)

Not gonna lie, the work isn’t exactly a walk in the park here in Tuxpan. We only have one progressing investigator and she is awesome. The work has been hard but I love it. It gets challenging on the mind sometimes. We pray, ask for specific things and have faith that we will receive them. But it puts you down when the things you specifically ask for don’t come to pass. Again, again, and again... I started thinking about what I wasn´t doing, what more could I do to find more people and find success. I studied Preach My Gospel and the Scriptures like no other to find an answer. But everything I found and studied, I had already tried applying to the work over and over again. Then I started thinking about the things we were already doing. If we were being disobedient in some way or if there was some way we could be more obedient. We know we aren’t perfect, but we try to better ourselves each day. I wasn´t getting discouraged, I just knew that it was a trial that I had to face.

Last night when we were waiting for our bus, a man asked me (and I´ll translate into English) "You are from the church of the Mormons aren’t you?" I replied, "Well actually, we are from the Church of Jesus Christ-" then he finished my sentence with "of latter-day saints" I then explained, "other people know us as Mormons because of a book we have, it’s called, The Book of Mormon." he then replied "Yeah with Joseph Smith right?" I said, "Yeah, he translated the Book from another language of Ancient prophets that lived in America:" he then told me something that was music to my ears. "Yeah I´ve read a bit of the Book and I really like it. I´m here in Tuxpan for work. I live in another state but for the next few weeks I´m going to be living here. The people back at home are practically all Mormons, I really like the way they live their lives and I´ve gone to church a couple times." I then started asking him more questions about his experiences with the church and these are all of his responses: "Well I really like the example that they set, they have a type of lifestyle that I want to live my life. Is there a church around here? I thought I passed one the other day but I didn’t see the name outside:" I then asked him more about baptism and he said, "no I haven’t been baptized, but it’s something that I really would like to do, and I would like to learn more about it."

This was AWESOME. And my companion was talking on the phone the whole time with the zone leaders because of something else important that was happening. But I got to know him more, and he lives 2 streets over from our house!

We talk to a lot of people in the street every day. Our goal is at least 20 people every day. We introduce ourselves, give them a card with our names, number, direction of the chapel, when we meet, and other information of the picture on front, and then we describe a bit of what we believe, and extend an invitation to them to come to church with us. We then ask if we can get their address and if we can visit them sometime and share more of our message with them and their family.

I´ll just say that not everybody accepts us... I mean, you know, you were a missionary before. Whenever someone does actually tell us to come by sometimes it’s like, "wait... what?" But we talk to sooooooo many people and with all these people, the people who reject us, I tell my companion that they aren´t contacts. We are planting seeds. Most of the people that we teach have had some type of history with missionaries, whether it be just seeing them walking in the calle or if they talked for 30 seconds. So I always remember these things: Why is this person passing me right now? What did they have to do today and what have I done to be in the exact same spot as this person amongst the thousands and thousands of people in this city? Did God have some way to put them in our path? The reality of it is, I don’t know, so I´m not going to let the opportunity slip, if God had put this person in my path for a reason. And it’s not just the street, it’s in the bus, the taxi, and all other ways when I see someone.

Well, gotta go. Talk to you in a week.

Love, Ty

He captioned this picture with simply "HEAVEN"

Zone Conference in Tuxpan

The Mama.  We had a birthday party for her.

Say what?

My companion who is leaving.  He has been my favorite so far. 
Reminds me of a Mexican Brendan.  :)

So many cool stories!

Hi Family,

Cool story: There was a sister missionary from another zone who had heard about me who asked me, "Are you Elder Koontz from the Martinez Zone?" I said yes, then she told me that after our Christmas conference in December, Presidente told all the rest of the zones in their Christmas conferences, that I was a good example to all missionaries, shared parts of my talk, and how well I was progressing in the language.

Another cool story is when my companion and I offered service in the middle of the road. We chopped down a big tree on a hill and then afterwards carried it across the street.

Another cool story is when an investigator said a prayer to know if the church was true, started reading in the plan of salvation pamphlet (her husband passed away 8 months ago) but she had questions, and we had shown up during the time she was reading and answered her questions. I had been studying that morning, and I said a prayer to be specifically guided during my studies to be able to help someone during a lesson. I found two scriptures, one about eternal families, and another about temple work. I knew that both of these were meant for her and I shared them with her.

Saturday night we were pretty bummed. We had only taught 1 lesson and all of our plans were falling through. We contacted a lot of references but they didn’t want anything. In this area we have almost no help from the members so it makes it more difficult. So it was about 7 o´clock and we were in the area around our house. I decided that I wanted to start tracting. My companion hates tracting, especially at night but, I told him that we had no other plans, there weren’t any people in the street, it wasn’t time to go home yet, and I was going to knock on this door whether he liked it or not. So we went up to the house, and the next house, and the next house, and the next house, and the next house.... and so on and so forth. Then we started walking more in the direction of our house because we figured we could just knock a couple more and be done for the night. Something I didn’t know, was my companion was thinking to himself "porque no tengo las ganas para contactar?" (Why don’t I have the desire to contact people) then he saw a man selling tacos in the street and he contacted him. I didn’t know he had stopped to talk, so I kept walking forward, I turned around to talk to him and I saw that he was a little ways away still talking to the guy. I did a funny little waddle-jog with my bag to hurry and get into their conversation, but they were done talking and he wanted nothing to do with us. When I turned around, I saw another huge street that I didn’t see before. We started heading that way, when my companion asked where I was going I said "no he visto este calle antes" (I haven’t seen this street before) We were walking down, and I saw a house with a light on. We walked up, knocked on the door, and a woman with her 10 year old son opened the door. Her son was adorable and his face lit up when he saw us. He had a big grin on his face and when we shared our little introduction and purpose for being at their door, she looked at her son and he nodded with his smile, then she invited us in. We shared with them the first lesson and it was really cool and really fun. We asked if she would like to come to church with us the next day and she said, "le gustaría mucho" (I would like that very much) we gave her a Book of Mormon and invited her and her son to be baptized. They accepted and she flipped through the pages of the book of Mormon with a smile on her face. She gave the closing prayer, and thanked our Heavenly Father for guiding us to her house that night. As my companion and I were walking home, we realized that when we both acted on our promptings we received what I call "duel-revelation" I started tracting, my companion talked to the man with the cart, which made me notice the street, which made both of us see her house and decide to knock on the door.

(I asked him what his plans were for the day) Our plans for the day..... well, we woke up, cleaned the house a bit, got dressed, took our clothes to a members house to do laundry... She is awesome, she does our laundry, and then she gives us 200 pesos to get something to eat. Every day we eat with members except for Mondays. We take this money happily as our food money. Then we went to the chapel with some of the other elders of the zone and we had breakfast. The zone leaders left for Xalapa this morning so If you sent me any packages I should get them Wednesday. (YAY) After that, we went and got our money for the month and went to Centro (town) and bought some cheap souvenirs. I needed a new wallet so I got one. And a pretty cool Mexican backpack. Oh, I cut my hair today too. While we were walking through Centro a couple Mexican piñas (cuties) kept following us around. (we are in a group of 6 missionaries for pday today) when I was looking at some street watches, they asked one of the other elders what my name was. They giggled, followed me around for a bit more and then I evaded them. After we are done emailing, were gonna TRY to save money and go get something to eat. I say try, because there’s this place called Peterdogs that sells huge burgers. They give you 2 burgers, a drink, and you have to eat everything in under 20 minutes and then it’s free. This is our way of trying to save money. Then we are probably going to visit some members to try and get some help from them with investigators. But yupp! Plans for the day :)

Ohhhh and yesterday we didn’t eat at all. We were so hungry. When we went to go eat with the members, they said they hadn’t prepared anything, so they just gave us money. When they gave us the money we said to ourselves "welp, looks like we´re eating tomorrow!" because we don’t buy anything on Sundays, you know, Sabbath day and all. We basically had an involuntary fast because we had no food in the house either. So breakfast this morning was like.... FOOOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I bought a cool watch on the street that ended up not working... go figure. It was cheap so I didn’t care. I took it apart and the insides were fake, but still I didnt care because I got a free battery and a cool case for a picture. I put a picture of Jesus as a reminder that when I get tired, or down, or don’t want to work. It doesn’t matter what I want because that’s not what I´m here for. This time is “the time of the Lord" :)

Love, Ty

 

"The time of the Lord"

My companion reminds me of a Mexican Brendan...haha

We found a staff. and this is me being Moses splitting the river.

Spear fishing?

Groupie

Chapel in Tuxpan

Their condo in Tuxpan