A Lot Of Catching Up To Do

11/28
I figured you guys would get a good laugh out of this... We were trying to take zone pictures but my camera was taking forever. I tried to run in but while I was coming in, the camera of an Hermana was already taking pictures... And I slipped.

I asked him if there was anything specific he wanted for Christmas:

Man…. I always think of things. I have my Christmas decorations from last year. I had packed them up and I bring them to every area in wait for Christmas. I´m going to set them up this Thursday on the 1st of December. I would like a card from everyone. Handwritten. Everyone you can find. You and Dad, Grandma, Uncle Mike, Brendan and Amy, cousins, Dallas, Logan, The Whites, Hunter, EVERYONE.

Some other Christmas decorations would be nice too :) BTW, my companion loves cup o noodles. So you might wanna throw a couple in there for him if you want. I would love some homemade cookies :) Just wrap them up real good and send them por favor :)

I asked him when he would have his next conference so I would know when to send his Christmas packages.

Not sure, in a couple of weeks we´ll have our Zone Christmas conference. Oh and I took pictures about what I ate on Thanksgiving haha... I didn´t celebrate so it was normal food. But a tleast you´ll know what I ate!! But I´m gonna need to send these pictures in another time...I forgot my camera.

Hey I love you Mommy. Keep me in your prayers and pray that I can be comforted at heart, I have had a lot of troubles trying to keep my spirits high when my companion is always whining and complaining. It gets tough and tiring.

12/6

Well since we didn´t have internet yesterday, we were given permission to write for 30 minutes during a down time. It was kinda funny. I received an unexpected phone call from Hermana Greer saying that my mom was worried why I didn´t write her yesterday :)

Things are going better with my companion, he is improving a lot. I push him a lot but I´ve seen a lot of his improvement. I just hope that he will keep these habits of obedience when we get changed to other companions. This change or the next.

12/10

I´m gonna be training again next change. So Monday I´m gonna be on a nice 7 hour bus ride to Xalapa to pick up my 2nd son. :) Entonces, today I´m writing back home. I have been waiting for changes and I´ve been praying that I may stay in this area. The Father has heard my prayers and he answered according to His will. And His will is my blessing :) This change has flown by as they are starting to go by faster and faster. Yet, there have been certain days where the days are longer due to problems of the work with my companion. BUT I´m happy :) New Change, new companion, new missionary, baptismal dates set and progressing, and more work a´waitn :)

Dad, how did you refer to greenies in your mission? They still call them "verdes"(spanish translation for greenie) here but they also call them your kids. He will be my 2nd son :)

12/19

My new companion is awesome. Super humble, wants to be obedient, wants to work, willing to learn. He is awesome. Also I was just bumped up to District Leader! So now I´m a District Leader/Trainer. It’s been cool and definitely keeps me busy in the night time. I got sick over the weekend and gave mom all the juicy details already so you can talk to her more about that. We were able to start off my companion’s mission good this last Sunday with 2 baptisms!! I love the guy, he´s awesome.

I do try to remember about the service of being a leader. I am also trying to constantly remind myself of how I need to set an example with my work as well. We´re continuing to work hard and get the work done.

I repass through the scripture Alma 37:35 often, and it reminds me of you. And how I didn´t know that you quoted scripture until after I arrived in the mission and saw the verse.

Saturday night I started to feel nauseous. Then we went to the house after a lesson because I felt terrible. I was fighting the ganas to throw up but succumbed to it. It hurt a lot. Then I felt like that was just going to be it and I needed to set the example for my kid so we left to work again. I had very little energy but we went along talking to the people. When we were on our way to go back home, I felt like I wouldn’t be able to walk, so we took a taxi... BIG mistake. I started to get even more nauseous from the car ride, and when the taxi slowed down to hit a speed bump, I very smoothly said, "Esperame un momento," opened the door, and puked my guts out again for about a minute. Then shut the door and said, "ya, vamos" we got back home and I laid down. Then in the middle of the night at about 4 in the morning I woke up again and threw up pure water (because it’s all I took). Then all Sunday I had very little energy. Hna. Greer gave me reposo, but I wanted to at least go to church for the Sacrament and our baptisms.

I´m feeling better now. My companion gave me a blessing and we´re continuing forward. I love my companion! He is super humble and we get along great. We are both pretty weird so when we make our funny noises when we´re thinking or doing something (cleaning, writing, etc.) Its funny and we get along good.

Baptism! Laura Karina and Catalina Lopez Rodriguez :) more sisters of Adriana

I told him there were problems sending his Christmas packages and that they would be delayed:

I don´t think I´ll get them until after Christmas... Sorry Momma :P But I did get a notification through my email saying that they have gotten to the mission home. I think I will be getting them in about 2 weeks.

I then told him that Hermana Greer (President’s wife) told me that they were going to make a run through the mission to deliver any late packages on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. But shhhhhhhhhh, it’s supposed to be a secret:
Oh well thank you for telling me, because it would be a shock if my companion and I were studying and all of the sudden President starts knocking on my door haha

My companion and I are gonna go to the American Embassy (Walmart) to buy some food and some stuff for the house right now after we write. I haven´t been to Walmart in SOOOOOOOOO LOOOOOONG. I have only been to a Walmart once in my mission and it was about 9 months ago. So it will be nice. I also cut my hair again this morning, so I will be looking nice and pretty for our video chat on Sunday ;)

Oh and my companion is from Tijuana Mexico

12/26

It was really nice to see and talk to everyone on Skype yesterday! We just got done playing basketball and volleyball with some of the other missionaries. Then we´re gonna go to Walmart because my companion needs to buy some new shirts. I´m gonna take advantage of the opportunity and get myself something with the money I got from my favorite Uncle Mikey :)

Well we have to get outta here now. I love you! Not sure what I´m gonna buy with my Christmas money but I´ll let you know next week :)

1/2

I bought a suit with the money Grandma gave me for Christmas.

 I don’t have to buy special suits anymore because of the bub. YAY!

As of right now all of our investigators are having a tough time... or at least we are. No one came to church yesterday that is progressing for a baptism. We invited a couple inactive members to come and one came so that was a ray of sunshine. But apart from that it has been pretty tough right now. I´ve been trying to look for different ways to teach and find more people because other ways I had used before just aren’t working. But, we´re gonna have some good talks with our investigators this week. Just to develop more of a friendship and confidence with them and then see how things go.

We´ve been working through less active members and our list this past week. We´re going to do it more this week as well and we´ll see how everything goes. Oh, and the taquitos were very delicious ;) spicy going in and spicy coming out.

Oh and those lindor chocolates.... SOO DELICIOUS. My companion never had one before and I gave him a couple. He almost started crying a little, and drool literally fell out of his 

Huge aviators

 "Viejos Borrachos" (drunk old guys) they burn them on New Years Eve.
Symbolism of the old year passing away. It was hilarious.

We made tacos dorados the night of New Years Eve
because we needed to be in the house early

We went to the beach today 😉

1/9

The work is going along reeeeal slow right now. We find new people to teach but they don’t progress nor do they give us the chance to progress them. The District is improving…finally, we have had people in church that are preparing for baptismal dates. We fasted yesterday that the Hermana who is preparing for the 21 of January will be baptized. She came, so we were very thankful. The Elders that are in the District I´m in charge of are in "white wash." Where they are both new to the area and don´t know anyone. They also finally had people in church yesterday. So, it’s a relief. I´ve been a little stressed out because I don´t know why everything is falling out of place. These past 3 days we haven´t had 1 lesson. Everything has fallen and no one talks to us (Or at least wants to when we make conversation). They recognize who we are and then send us to the goma. But it’s alright. We´re keeping our heads up and we have some ideas so the work will go better this week. Cazones is super small, but our area is huge. We have so many little communities that are spread out that we can go to. We´ve made plans to go to these communities this week and look for some people. We´re just gonna keep working and see how everything goes.

We had a zone activity and we played basketball and pool. There is an institute building on the side of the stake center here. So we got permission to their game room and racked up some billiards. Then we went to a place called, Peter Pipers Pizza and had a buffet. It was pretty good, I ate a whole pizza and a slice to myself. Then my companion and I went into a shop to buy some things. I needed some shower sandals because I have the Nikes but they´re all I have, and once I shower, they get all wet and uncomfortable. So I bought some crocs. Then I got a sweet jacket. In the states this thing would cost a few hundred dollars and I got it here for less than 50. Great quality.. Thank you Uncle Mikey ;) then we came here :)

I actually am in single digits already. On my picture in the office, it says I go home on the 2nd of October. Because that’s when the changes are. So if you think about it in that way, I go home in less than 9 months. But, I´m still trying to count up. I almost have 15 months. I don´t wanna think about how much time I have until I go home :P

We have changes coming up again in a couple weeks. Not this Sunday but the next. We´re hoping that I will be able to finish the training of my companion. I think this is the first companion that I´ve really truly wanted to stay another change with.

Like I said the work has been inching along. We have a couple plans to pass by some investigators but they aren´t sure appointments. We´re hoping they´ll be there

1/16

I´ve been reading the Book of Mormon, The Bible, and Jesus the Christ. I´ve been taking it super slow. Every Chapter I look at all the references and do cross references with other scriptures. It’s been pretty cool. I believe that Lehi and his family knew the Prophet Jeremiah from the Bible.

Because Nephi says that the people of Jerusalem were quick to reject the prophets. It says that they had put Jeremiah in jail. And if you look in Jeremiah, he is talking with the king Zedekiah, who was also in rein when Lehi and his family left Jerusalem.

I haven´t read the Bible all the way through. I started in Matthew a little while ago, now I´m in close to the middle of Mark. I´m on chapter 31 of Jesus the Christ, and it’s so cool to go through and read the Bible now, it gives me such a better understanding and a different perspective of the Savior when I read about parables, miracles, examples, etc.

It’s good. Tough, but good. I´ve had lots of problems with the Branch President for stupid things that happened from before with missionaries. I´m talking to Hermana Parkin about it right now through email.

We had Interviews with President this past week and that was the basis of our conversation pretty much. Stupid stuff, I think I might be leaving this change. I want to finish the training of Elder Muñer sooooo bad. But, it’s the Lord´s decision. I cut my hair last night, pretty cool. My companion threw up while we were cleaning out the shower drain this morning. I aguanted... Right now I gotta boogie cause I have a 7 hour bus ride ahead of me to Xalapa for the training of my kid.. Love you! Talk to you in a week :)

1/23

We got our changes yesterday. We stayed the same!!! :) I get to finish Elder Muñer´s training!!!! :) I was really hoping that we were gonna stay the same. I´ll also complete 6 months here in Cazones.

It is so hot! I´m burning under a hot sun. These past couple weeks I realized that I was starting to get a cold in the heat. I meditated through what I was and wasn´t doing and water was what I lacked.

I´ve been wanting to start school in the 2018 Spring Semester. I want to start working 2 jobs as soon as I get home, then when time for school comes around, I´d move out to go over to Provo. I want to look into grants and work as much as possible. I absolutely hate, and despise debt. 

Oh and we had a baptism Saturday and confirmation yesterday :)

1/30

The First Presidency, Quorum of the 12 and the Missionary Department made some huge changes to the missions around the world. Our whole schedule has been changed as far as studying and working goes, and also our Key Indicators (dats that we report). They said that the changes were effective immediately, but the mission Presidents still have their say depending on areas. We have our Zone Conference coming up on Wednesday so he said that we are going to wait to apply the changes until we have conference. Nothing has a set time, its supposed to give us more of a liberty to choose how we use our time.

We now:

Wake up 6:30

Between 6:30-10:00

-Breakfast

-Exercise

-Plan

-Prep for day

-Personal Study

Between 10:00-9:00pm

-Comp Study

-Lang. Study

-Proselyting

-Lunch & Dinner

9:00-9:30 Prep for bed
9:30-10:30 Option to sleep

Our Old Key Indicators were:                                        New:
Baptisms                                                                        Baptisms

Confirmations                                                                Confirmations

Investigators con fecha                                                  Investigators con fecha

Investigators en la iglesia                                              Investigators en la iglesia

lecciones con miembro presente                                   Nuevos Investigators

otras lecciones

progressing investigators

references received

references contacted

new investigators

lessons with less actives or recent converts

contacts in street with appt.

I love it. We have applied the key indicators already, just not the schedule. I love it. I feel so much more like I´m doing the work because I want to. As in I don’t have the option to think, "Oh I only contacted X amount of persons today because I wanted to reach X goal." I talk to the people with more love and purpose now than I did before. I don’t mean to say that I was heartless before, I just mean that now I don’t have the option to have those thoughts in the back of my mind. Its pure work and people. No numbers. I have always tried to avoid looking at people like numbers, this just helps more :)

We have a golden investigator named Angela. She came to church for the first time yesterday and is already anxious and doesn’t want to wait for her baptismal date. She is doing everything, goes to activities, church, reads, prays, everything!!!

Oh, and my companion is great. We’re getting along great and we work well together.

Look at this cute kid, his name is Jeremy

This is the Book of Mormon Class I teach. I teach the Book of Mormon in English. I had an English Class and a Book of Mormon class (2 seperate classes) but then the Stake started up a Program of the Book of Mormon in English, the members and people who go have a hard time understanding. So I take the material they are going to study on Thursday, and pass through it with them on Wednesday so they can learn better and have more help.

2/6

We´ve been getting up and running in the mornings now :) We run for a good 30 to 45 minutes. It’s been giving me more energy and helping me be more attentive in my studies too :)We started Saturday and continued today.... :) But hey it’s a start. I´ve lost a lot of weight. My grey suit is HUGE. OH MY GOSH I put it on for the first time this week in like a month and it’s a monster. And I have already taken it to a tailor once!!! I have to take it again!!! I´ve become my own tailor for my shirts too :) I double both sides over and then sew them by hand. I´ve taken my first shirt that I´ve adjusted out for a test drive today and its holding up great. It looks soooo much better like this too. I´ve looked like a pumpkin or a muffin for who knows how long. I’ve lost a lot of fat, and a lot of muscle tone too. I´m getting into doing more push ups, sit ups, etc. The sit ups hurt though after a while with this hard floor

The girl who we were teaching who was doing everything is still awesome but she just didn´t come to church this last week. We were pretty bummed. District Leader is still pretty great, just a little difficult with this new schedule we have.

I have been super tired lately. I love this area and I want to do a lot to help it, but I feel like a change would wake me up a little bit more. I´ve walked all these streets so many times, talked to the majority of the same people over and over again. (there’s still a lot more). I think a bit of a change would wake me up a bit more.

We find a lot of new investigators, we found 13 this last week. Just no one came to church. Bummer. It’s also really tiring with all the time I have, training, and being District Leader. It’s not too much and I´m not complaining. I´m just tired.

You know what I miss, Doritos from the states. I haven’t had those for a while. Could you (in your next package) send me just a bunch of big bags of different types of chips I would eat from there? That would be lovely 😃

Well, tell everyone I love them. I´m outta here. we are gonna go get my companions haircut and then go to a service project.



Here are some before and after picture of when I cut my hair

Goofy Hair

Goofy Hair

Dapper Hair

Dapper Hair

2/13

Hey momma :) People are still inching their way along. We had 3 people in church yesterday but one of the people didn´t enjoy the services and doesn´t want to come back :/ The other two are awesome, they are two girls who will be entering into young women and they are progressing firmly to their baptism. The only problem with one of them is that she needs her parent’s permission and her dad doesn´t want to give it to her.

Oooohhh ya. They celebrate Valentine’s day here. It’s pretty funny too because a lot of the gifts there are its 50% I love you and 50% I´m sorry, take me back.

But, I would really enjoy some chips from the states. Any type you can find that I would like. Random flavors like pizza, baked potato, etc. I´m not a fan of.

I Love Nacho Cheese Doritos, Cool Ranch, Funyuns.... I can´t remember what other types of chips there are... It’s been so long...

Well I’m Audi, Love you all….talk to you in a week.

Cutting my companion's hair

1 YEAR DOWN.....About 100 pictures

10/10

We tell our investigators to trust in their prayers. And Ana Karen had a really cool experience with one this past week. In one of the lessons we taught. She closed with a prayer, asking that her sisters would listen to us. The next lesson. 4 of her 5 sisters and her mom listened. We put baptismal date with them and they came to church yesterday. Also, Hugo and Adriana have been limping along with the message. They have needed to pray!! They do everything, read, go to church, listen to the lesson, its been awesome! They love the message but they always feel like something has been missing. My companion and I have asked if they have prayed and they say its something they haven´t done. We push and push and push the message of prayer. Finally!! We talked to them in this past lesson and they have been praying, and they said that their feelings of something missing just went away!

We ate with a member this week and when we walked in he was watching Civil Wa r... I had to cover my eyes, plug my ears, and ask him to change it.. and then yesterday, we visited a family who are members but that dad isn´t. He was watching Batman vs. Superman. I h ad to cover my ears and wait outside until he changed it :P Its worth the wait. I guess this is just up there with the law of chastity and marriage. Just wait. It will all be worth it.

10/17

I have lots of photos but its the Branch Presidents birthday today and I´m gonna be cooking steaks over a homemade grill. Should be fun. They said I can use the computer to send pictures, but I have to go over to their house first. So there will be a delay between sending more pictures

I teach English every Thursday at 6 oclock in the tarde. 

These are my chicks ;) They cant get enough of me when I go to teach an Investigator 

We have to wash our clothes by hand and I took a couple pics :)

Makes my knuckles raw. 

My clothes sitting in fabric softener 

When we ate with Adriana when I completed a year, she started us 

off with some alphabet soup. I spelled my name 

I burned a shirt on my year completion!!!!!! 

Woooo! The next few pictures are of the burning 

10/17 continued:


Today we went to a place called Tajin! Its where a lot of Pyramids are from Book of Mormon times. I took a lot of pictures and these are from our journey of today

This is Hermano Joaquin. He is the BOMB. He took us to Tajin today.

Some of the rocks have engravings on them. Check them closely.

Some of the pyramids still have a little bit of paint from thousands of years ago.

I´m in the middle of the pyramid

10/24
We´re on pretty early today. We have some plans for later in the day so we came to write first.

This is from the noche de hogar (family home evening) 

I was at last week when I was sending pictures.

My name on my desk

I found Dad!!! 😉

Don't we look alike?

We filled the Pila up with water and the water was DISGUSTING. We put Clorox in it to take the brown away, so it was a musty green... It was all we could do. Also, we had to clean up because there was water damage from the rain in some parts, and a bunch of ceiling tiles fell down.

Baptism!!

Hugo, Adriana, and Ana Karen were baptized yesterday :) The daughter of Hugo and Adriana will be baptized this next Sunday, and the 2 women in the middle picture are progressing as well with their mother. Apart from the youngest in the photo, all the girls are sisters. and we are progressing the whole family :)

I love my companion. He´s awesome. My favorite as far as 

how we get along. I have loved this change.The longest I´ve been with 

one companion is 2 changes, and that was only with one companion.

By the way..the bible is hilarious! If you just imagine the patience needed between God and Moses its so funny. Then Jesus and Peter, Jesus and the Pharisees. Its funny

Read in Genesis where Moses is trying to make excuses to Jehovah about how he isn't a man of many words, then just try and imagine voices of suttle intolerance. A bit annoyed and how Jehovah responds, WHO GAVE MAN THE MOUTH??

10/31

I'm still not DL, but I´m still happy :) My companion got changed :( now the Lord has put me to a new test with another famous missionary, who´s famous for not so good of reasons.. Oh! I have had had an ingrown toenail for the past 3 months and it got SUPER bad. It didn´t even look like a toe anymore and it was killing me. I finally went to the doctor and she took off my whole toenail!!!!!!!!!! It looks so gross, but it feels A LOT better. It still hurts a bit but its nothing in comparison to how it was before. My companion took a video of when they took it out, but he got a call in the middle of recording and put pause. So you see before she takes it out, and after she took it out. I took some pictures but forgot my camera in the apartment :P I wanna try and get the video from my companion so I can send it.

Hard day at work!!

Our district in district class

The last 3 are with the familia Lopez Rodriguez. 

They needed their light bulb changed, and since 

I´m considered a giant, they gave it to me to change. 

11/7


We had 7 people in church yesterday! :) All of them right now are references from members! We pass by their houses with the members and share with them the message of the restoration and invite them to prepare to be baptized :) I don't have a whole lot of time, in fact I´m just about to log off right now :P but that is how we have been working! :)

11/14

I just saw some of the pictures Uncle Mikey sent me, did all of Brendan´s own clothes burn or something? Ha Ha

That's funny. You know something I learned this past week? The nurse who took out my nail is a member. A recent convert at that. And she has had desires to serve a mission. Yet she has been having some doubts about going or not. Then when I got my nail taken out, she put me on "reposo" (rest) so I can get better and to deal with the pain better. But I didn´t care because I´ve always had problems with my feet from football american so I just used Sandals for a week. To me, it was nothing, just another way to go out without it hurting as bad. But to her, she saw it as nothing could stop me from sharing the message of the restored gospel. She knew it hurt, and I still left the house and walked around to teach regardless of the pain. She said that she will always remember this experience and use it as a guide to help her with her mission preparation. What I learned, is that even the smallest of actions we think we do on our part, can set an example for a life decision of someone else. So always do the right, and make sacrifices to do so.





We had a dress up activity, so I cut up a cereal Box, drew an S and went as Klark Kent with the borrowed glasses of a member :) They started calling me Klark Koontz.




I got my box of sunshine to "Brigton" up my day (I guess it helped to BRIGHTON it too) ;)



Like I told grandma, its getting chillier. SO I use my hoodie :)



Baptism!!

11/21


I´ve had a pretty interesting week this week! I drank a 30+ year old coke (I took 2 sips and dumped it cause it tasted weird.) I have a bit of a cold right now as well. Drinking more is not on my list of things to do, its just something I wanted to try so I could say I´ve done it :) ...and I learned how to knit :) I want to learn different patterns and I´m gonna try and knit my own hat cause I need a beanie for the mornings. I wake up and its pretty chilly so it´ll make me more comfortable during my studies.


And yes, we think it might be more actually. Where I was cutting oranges the other day (the video you saw) behind that tree and in the back of their house their are thousands of old coke bottles. Because they were once a store, they have a surplus of empty bottles that they have tried to sell but nobody buys them. I was looking through all of them and found a carrying tray that had unopened bottles with the original soda still inside. It took me a couple minutes to get it out but I did. THe cap was all rusty and I asked how old it was. They then told me how long ago they had the store and how that box had been sitting their for even longer. They closed their store in 1980 and the bottle had been sitting their for longer. SOooo I of course needed to try it :)


And we found a lot of new investigators this week! But not one of them came to church yesterday... Bummer



Katy and Laura are more sisters of Mayra, Karen, and Adrianna. They are coming along, they just need to come to church more. The boyfriend of Laura just came down to visit and is pretty interested in our message when Adriana was talking to him about it. He is planning on asking Laura to marry him. We found some new investigators this past week that had listened to the missionaries before but hadn´t progressed very well. I now see why. They say they will do a lot of things but when the time comes to put actions to words they are no where to be found.


I had a dream last night that I was just getting home again. I walked into the capilla (chapel) at home and saw Grandma with Uncle Mike, and other members of the ward. There were a couple missionaries and a sister missionary that we had been talking with. Grandma asked me why I was home already and I said, "I finished my 2 years!! What are you talking about why already?" Then I was talking to Brendan and then I started thinking about what the date was. I realized it was November. Then I looked at everyone, and said, "Hey you guys, I´m really sorry. But this is a dream." Then I woke up.

My companion and Ana Karen (convert) had an arm wrestle. She really made him work to win and it didn´t really like she was doing anything.... hehe..

I was eating Oreos and scored a double-decker!! pretty cool.

I love the colder weather. I started listening to my Christmas music again.
But to me it still feels like October. I was walking through a Mexican version of JCPenneys called Fabricas de Francia and passed be the iPhones and iPads, I was like wow... technology. I have a little peanut phone that only calls and sends texts. I do have a snake game though.

Oh, well I gotta go now. I have to wash my clothes. and I´m gonna go buy an esquite :) its a cup of corn with butter, mayonaise, 2 types of cheese, lime, and chilé :) yummmmmmmmmmm Love ya! Talk to you in a week :)