FRUITY DOG

The people are nice and polite.  You have the few who don't want to hear anything by any means necessary, but most are extremely well behaved and considerate.  They are slightly superstitious but are friendly. 

 I will trade you all the summers I have here for cold and snow, really, you can have them.  

We are still with the G***a and R***z families.  They are great people!

We had some tacos for Easter, so I mean, it was nice.   Hunting eggs is an American thing, it doesn't exist here.

The cinder blocks are going to be our new grill, so we can make Burgers de ´Murica!

The Mission President sends out emails every week to help us and comes to see us whenever we have a Zone conference (when all the missionaries in a certain area get together) or visit the temple.  He has a good sense of humor and a good attitude towards the mission.  

My funniest moment was when my companion threw a piece of fruit at this dog that was coming at us.  It worked and scared the dog away!  

For those of you who watched conference (twice a year our beloved prophet and his apostles talk as well as other speakers are on the BYU station and speak to all members around the world. This is available for anyone that wants to hear their messages), here are a few of my favorite speakers and why....tell me who you enjoyed listening to.

Saturday Morning Session:

Linda K Burton: 

While obviously geared towards spouses, the principles work well for any form of companionship.

Dallin H Oaks:

His talk was rich in imagery and example, and I found a large well of advice for my efforts in the field.

Saturday Evening Session:

Michael T Ringwood:

Shiblon like humility.  I found great comfort in this talk.  Its counsel to humility and service were powerful and insightful.

Dale G Renlund:

This talk was great for expressing the importance of changing ourselves and continuing to improve.

Wilford W Anderson:

I liked this one for the musical analogy.  :P

Priesthood Session:

M. Russell Ballard:

It was a personally directed talk to missionaries, its going to be a favorite.  The questions helped me focus my efforts to improve.

Dieter F Uchtdorf:

I liked many of his quotes and examples.  "Many things you can count, don´t count; and many things that you can´t count, really do count."  How can we serve, the spirit of that service, is better than any accolade or achievement.

Sunday Morning:

Rosemary Wixom:

The importance of doubting your doubts, having spiritual experiences, and holding fast to what we know to overcome our trials.

Jeffery R Holland:

A good talk on why Easter is so special, why we really worship Jesus Christ, and our indebtedness to him.

Dieter F. Uchtdorf:

Our great love for his unending Grace and love.  Also our responsibility to "do all that we can do" to receive his grace.

Sunday Evening Session:

Russel M Nelson:

A good talk on how to keep the Sabbath day holy.  "It is a perpetual covenant..."

Kevin W Pearson:

His talk was very straightforward and clear.  It had a lot of good quotes and advice.  "We struggle when caught between conflicting or competing priorities."

Have a great week.  My condolences to the James Family in the loss of their mother, grandmother, great grandmother, Aunt, Sister-in-Law...Aunt Wava will be missed but I know that she is in a wonderful place and if we could catch a glimpse of the joy in her countenance we would be very happy for her.  Families are Forever!  Happy Birthday to Beckham, Brianna, and Mallory!

JUST KEEP SWIMMING! SIX MONTH MARK!

Just keep swimming!

I am doing fine, its a little hilly in my new area but otherwise I like it. I like the members and the house is really close to the church so I don't need to take the bus or an expensive taxi to get there so that is a plus.  It looks scary and very poor.  It is poor, scary no, but poor yes. My new area is on the other side of the mountains from my last area, it took about 1.5 hours to get here in taxi with my new companion. I am the 3rd oldest in the mission.  Almost no one  in Mexico has a dryer, it gets so hot in the summer that clothes dry almost as fast as you pull them from the machine.

My comp

Language is probably about the same as last month, only around 45% on the talking and 65% on the listening.  Weekly diet consists of tortillas, potatoes, meat, tortillas, rice, tomatoes, tortillas, and also tortillas.  Everyone here always ask me if I miss eating hamburgers and hot dogs everyday.  They don't understand how we could eat the same thing everyday... yeah... we definitely eat the same thing... But its all really delicious, except for Menu-do and animal eyes, those are not delicious... 

  I still have meal with the members and nice people from the area  everyday.  I look forward to seeing the G*** Family, they are really nice and receptive.  The parents are very kind and they are always willing to stop and talk to us if they see us in the street.

Nice meal from a local family.

Weirdest thing?  Someone told me that whenever he touches someone that he sees when they are going to die if it happens within that month...  it was a little off-putting.  The kindest thing was when Hma. Gonzalez gave us some Ice Cream when it was super hot yesterday.

I am definitely glad I came, I am really enjoying my time when we have people to teach.  I only regret bringing pants that need to be dry cleaned that don't go with my suit, its almost impossible to find a dry cleaner here.

Just keep swimming part 2.

I AM IN A NEW AREA AND HAVE A NEW COMP!

PEREZ FAMILY

GREAT ELDERS

MUSTANG!

 As for the cold, its fine now that I have my BATMAN SNUGGIE!!    We have 2 space heaters in the apartment but we really only need to use one at a time and only for a little bit in the mornings.  It is supposed to warm up quite a bit after this month.  From April to May its around 30 C  (86 F) and then from May to August around 37 to 43 C (98 to 109 F).  So we are going to be pretty hot soon enough, I want the cold...We have a few weird fruits here but they are grown in the southern part of Mexico, not in Monterrey.  My Spanish is probably around 55% now.  I still struggle with some conjugations but I just need to work on my vocabulary now.  The people are very nice here for the most part.  Even if they don't want to listen to us they will give us a little time to hear our message before they say no. 

NICE CAR

MAKING PIZZA

 

FOUND A SUSHI PLACE.

ELDER KLEMETSON AND ME

We otherwise had a good week, we found 3 new investigators and have reactivated the V*****a family.  They are a great family and I'm glad that I met them.  We have been trying to focus on contacting more people as the goal is about 100 people a week and we have only been doing around 65, so we are going to be putting our efforts into talking to more people.  Today is also the first day of a new cambio (transfer).  So I may be going to a new area tomorrow.  I don't think I will be but it is possible. I will be sad to leave this area, I like the members and the people here are very friendly. 

ELDER MORALES AND ME (MY COMP BEFORE I LEFT)

FROM THE PEREZ FAMILY!

VERY NICE GIFT FROM THE PEREZ FAMILIA

I am in a new area, Colinas A in Hausteca. It's in the mountains this time so I am walking up and down the mountain all the time now, so I will be glad to be back home if only to get away from the mountains.  But it is very pretty here in the morning with all the mountains on the other side of the valley highlighted in the sunlight while our area is still in the shadow of the mountain.  I will send pics next week.

My new companion is Elder Humiston, from San Diego, California.  He has 7 brothers and sisters and has been to most of Europe for his parent's jobs.  We get along just fine.  As for food, I keep a little notebook with me in my house where I record any recipes or foods I have that I like, I have about 9 recipes right now so I will have a few things to share with you guys when I come home.  As for miracles, I have seen people quit addictions of 20+ years in weeks, I have seen part member families that are now preparing to be sealed for eternity in the temple, and I have seen myself growing in the gospel.  This week, my favorite person would have to be my companion. He is a good teacher and is very engaged in talking to everyone so it's a good match for us since I am still working on the talking to everyone part. 

MAKING PIZZA'S

THANKS FOR THE LETTERS!

Thank you to everyone that writes.  I don't always have time to write back but believe me when I say your letters are VERY much appreciated!  

YEP THIS IS WHAT WE WALK IN.

TOO HOT TO HANDLE!

MOUNTAINS IN THE AREA

me, Elder Klemetson, Elder Morales, Elder Montoya, Hermana Luna, and Hermana Hokansan

As for the Christmas package, YES!!! It arrived on Saturday.  I got it when we went to the stake center to see the new church movie coming out.  That also happens to be the last time I saw the President.  I get my mail normally once or twice a cambio (change), so about every 3 weeks.  The President lives about 50 minutes by taxi from my area, so a little ways off.  But you mailed in at the beginning of December so I'm not sure why it took so long.  

We normally do our own laundry, but sometimes one of the member families will do it for us which is awesome because it gives us time to clean the apartment or do the shopping.  As for doing laundry in college,  I would be like Jayvin, and throw everything in one load.   The only time I ever separated was if I had a brand new something because then it would leak dye everywhere, but otherwise all in one load.

My biggest concern this week is that I won't be able teach someone in a way they will truly understand.  If they don't understand, then we have to teach them again and it hurts their confidence in us as teachers.  My biggest success is probably that I finally understood how to properly use reflexive verbs, still can't use them very well, but I finally understood what they actually mean.  Funniest thing this week?  Probably when my companion tripped on a loose part of the sidewalk and fell into someone.  :p  I did the whole are you okay thing and then started laughing when the other person was out of hearing range because it is something my companion does.  A new food I tried this week is pig skin soup.   I get tacos about every day with something different in them.  This is okay because I love tacos.  One thing that the people in Mexico do is try to out do each other on who can make it the spiciest.  Or maybe so they can see the Gringo's eyes water.  

 I would like your weather please, I hate the heat...  As for rain, its like at home, it just dries up faster is all.  Enjoy your week.  Remember me in your prayers and just a reminder, emails are nice!

TRY TO GUESS WHAT IS IN EACH PACKAGE AND I WILL POST WHAT IS INSIDE NEXT WEEK. YOU HAVE TO READ THE SCRIPTURE.  SOME OF THEM ARE OBVIOUS AND SOME MY MOM WAS GRASPING AT IT  A BIT.

GUESS WHAT IT IS

CHRISTMAS IN MARCH

CHRISTMAS STOCKING

MY APARTMENT

AWESOME DOG

MY BED

COMP DITCH JUMPING

MY DESK

YES MOM, I HAVE FOOD

MY AREA

MY FIRST CHURRO!

My first Churro

Mexico is so bright....gotta wear shades.

My Spanish is around 40-45% now.  I can understand a lot better then before but I cannot speak rapidly still.  I am still struggling to conjugate my words and use correct grammar, but it is coming slowly now.  Our investigators are OK, only 3 are progressing right now so we will begin searching for more sometime Wednesday or Thursday.  But we did have success bringing some of our inactive families to church this week so that is a plus.  We just got the church directory, looked for everyone in our area, and tried to visit 2 everyday last week.  We found 3 of those families at home and invited them to church and all of them came!  So while we only had 3 of our investigators in church, we had around 14-15 more people in church with all of our inactive families.  It was great. 

We are teaching  V***a and G***a , and N***a.  It is hard to change your way of thinking to something new sometimes later in life.  But these wonderful people go on Faith and Feelings and it is great to see their happiness when everything clicks.  B****a will be baptized March 1st.  A former investigator S***a, who went missing around the time that I came to the mission.  We found her mom with her in an Oxxo when we went to pay a bill and now we are teaching them again. 

FHE with Domiguez and Ramirez families.

Comp avoiding the rain.

Road we walk through

Fire ants...not fun when bitten by them.

I'm being fed well.

I love fish!

Another nice meal.