Changes

We have had a lot of changes this week. Well more like today, in the past couple hours. We had a giant activity in downtown and we got together the two missions - Guadalajara, and Guadalajara east. We set up tents in the middle of these giant round about things(it kinda reminded me when I slept in the round abouts with my buddies), but it was day this time. And we got all the stakes from the city together and had the members contact people and bring them to us where we had little presentations and taught them a little bit. We cleaned out our storage room in the office and gave away all of the old stuff and all the vhs videos (we had a ton). Then if they were interested in having missionaries pass by in their house they wrote down their directions. It was actually way cool! A lot of members showed up and we had a ton of success. One area in the city received over 100 referrals!!!! The president said that has never happened in history. 100 referrals in between 1 companionship!!! Well that's were the changes come in. The President closed our area. His wife said because the members weren't doing their part. But I really love them and I am going to miss them a lot. So Elder Moguel and I are now in an area called union. It has been closed for a while and we are going to open it, well kind of. The area that had the 100 referrals is going to merge with this area and we are going to work reeeeaaal hard together to make sure all of the 100 referrals get baptized. So it will be a huuuuuge area with no borders between us!!! It is going to be quite the adventure and the truth is that I am super excited! We don't have food with any members this week so we are going to eat in the street  on the presidents tab! I am very happy about it. I am going to push my body to the limit! I haven't been sick for a while, knock on wood. Life is good here in the office. I can see miracles everyday and it is awesome! I love being a missionary. I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to spend Christmas here in Mexico. I will mos defs miss my family but I still will have a good time. I won't have to wait 4 hours  until we take a picture to open my presents, hahaha just joking. I loved every minute of those 4 hour mornings of waiting. Hermano Octavio is doing great! I am so grateful for the opportunity to watch him grow spiritually. He is preparing for the Melchizedek priesthood right now. I am so happy for him. I am praying that he can find a wife. That guy needs to get married. Well I love you all. I am very happy where I am, even though I don't know where I am going tomorrow. I will have fun with it and I know if we have the spirit we will see a lot of miracles. 

Christmas Time!

Great week. We had a service project with our zone in a little town called Estipac. We got the whole zone together and headed down there to clean a road. The President's wife gave me a sweater which I am very grateful for because it is starting to get cold in the mornings, and driving in a truck bed in the morning is freezing but I stayed warm. We got to Estipac and cleaned the biggest road in the city. We all had santa hats on and we all were caroling while sweeping. We also gathered a bunch of unwanted clothes, books, and toys and invited everyone that drove down the road -we stopped their car or tractor to invite them to the church to get free stuff. It had an awesome turn out. A lot of people went and we gave tours of the church before they could grab stuff. I hope that they got some awesome investigators from that activity. Yesterday was a great Sunday, I am very grateful for yesterday. Hermano Octavio blessed the sacrament while I passed it, He also brought his little brother to church. He is 18 and a little shy but he wants to learn more about the church. We have an appointment with him this week which I am super excited about. Also Hermana Alondra was confirmed. She didn't get confirmed last week because we had stake conference but it was an awesome experience. She asked me to help with her confirmation and I was very grateful for that opportunity. We are trying to get the ward more involved in the missionary work. We are having activities almost every week to try to gain confidence in the members and to get referencias. Like this week we have a ward bring a friend to a movie night and I am very excited for it. I love Christmas! I listen to Christmas music in the offices all day long. I taught my companion the English part of ´´Feliz Navidad´´ oh and ´´Jingle Bells´´  and we sing a lot. I sure hope Santa Finds me in Mexico! I have been a good boy!!! Well its cambios right now and Elder Moguel and I are together for another change. and I have a presentation to give tomorrow. We picked up the new elders this morning which was cool. One from Chili, one from Uruguay, and one from Salvador. They have some crazy accents!!! Well I am going to sleep. 

DIA DE GRACIAS!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!!!!!!!!! I had a good Thanksgiving here in Mexico! Its not a holiday here, so pretty much nothing happened. I am not complaining when I say this but I am just going to say that I am thankful for all the Thanksgivings I have had at home and I am thankful for all the Thanksgivings I will have at home. It was different without turkey, taters, gravy, oh and my love that I have missed so very much...Pumpkin pie!!!!! haha but really I had a great week, and I am very thankful for the things that I learned this week. We had an awesome experience to have Elder Tenorio of the Quorum of the 70 come and have a conference with us. He gave a great talk. He told a lot of stories which I love. His wife read us the ¨giving tree¨ and we were all in tears. Man that book is good!!! After the conference he came to the offices with us and we got to sit down and talk with him for a while. I was so grateful for that opportunity! He is a very powerful man and there is no doubt that I knew he was a man of God the moment he walked in to the room. We are getting ready for Christmas here! We have a tree set up. I helped President with the lights. We have Christmas music playing all the time here. Its great. Next week are changes so this means I don't get to sleep. I am 99 percent sure that I am going to stay here in the offices for another change, but who knows. We found a few new investigators. We are changing things up a bit, and really focusing on the youth because 1.we are frustrated with the old people here. They will listen to us but they don't do anything and sadly that's 90 percent of the population. But I won't lose my faith!!! 2. is because my companion and I, we think we are kinda cool but who knows??? But I imagine we could get along with some teenagers and young adults. and 3. this ward has less than 5 people under the age of 22. not counting the 4 kids in the primary. WE NEED TO SAVE THE WARD!!!! I am having a great time here in Mexico, I am learning a lot from my struggles and challenges here. I have a lot to learn! I am thankful to serve a mission and to be here in Mexico! I am thankful for all of your prayers. I am thankful for this Church, and being a part of it. I am thankful for Christ, he did a lot for me, and continues to do a lot for me everyday. I am thankful for my Mom and Dad and all my brothers I love them all.

Surprise Baptism!

Hola! Well this week was great! We have been visiting members a lot to find some references and we found out that one of the girls in the primary isn't baptized. Her name is Alondra. Her grandma is a temple worker and she goes to church with her. Her mom is a little less active and her dad lives in a different city and is inactive. She just barely turned nine and her grandma asked if we could baptize her. It was a special experience getting to teach a little kid. Of course we just had to teach the basics but she still had an interview and everything. She was pretty excited about it up until she poked a toe in the freezing water. The boiler didn't work so the water was ice cold. She started to cry and her dad came to the rescue, with jeans on and everything. He jumped in the water and helped ease her into the ice cold water. Elder Moguel baptized her and right after, she gave her dad a huge hug and there were a lot of tears. It was a cool experience. We have been working pretty hard lately, but we are still having problems finding new people. I swear 99 percent of the people that live here are over the age of 70! But I will not lose my faith!!! THERE ARE CHILDREN OF GOD THAT ARE READY TO BE BAPTIZED HERE!!!!!!!!!  We just gotta find em. We had divisions one day this week and I went with Elder Escamilla and we found this guy that looked like Phil Collins only with a bigger beard. After I presented myself and shared my testimony he started talking to me in another language. I told him I didn't understand, then he told me he was from something called Opis diem. I didn't really understand, but he got really upset and yelled at me a lot. Well it turns out Elder Escamilla, before he was baptized, was studying to be a Catholic Father. He told me that he was speaking in latin, and Opis Diem were the assassins for the catholic church. It was weird but it was kinda cool too. Well I had a good week. I love the mission. I love the church. This week is going to be awesome! Elder Tenorio of the Seventy is coming, he actually will arrive tonight. I think I will get to spend a lot time with a General Authority this week!!!! I am pretty stoked about it.

 Elder Mogul

Yep! Thats right! I drove the President's car today and it was real great! I don't know that I have ever driven a new car before. Not the highlight of my week, but it is most defs going in the journal. This week was rough. We worked a lot with the President to get the mission in order and we have a lot of things that we need to change. Hermano Manuel fell into temptation for the first time in almost 5 weeks!!! We were devastated! I wanted to cry. But I know why he fell. He has been a little sick for two weeks, and he missed church two times in a row. He wasn't at full spiritual strength. I hope this strengthens his testimony of the power of attending church. It was a sad day! We were going to take him to a baptism service of our buddy's in a neighboring ward but he was in no condition to attend a Baptism service. So we decided to go contact instead. While walking to the colony we decided to contact my companion and I needed to use the restroom. There was a store that had bathrooms and the church, both about the same distance from where we were.We decided to choose the church (always decide to choose church!!!) While we were there a young man shows up on his motorcycle wondering about English classes (a few elders a few months back gave English classes here). Anyways a member told him about them and he showed up! Have I ever taught English before? Nope! But it will work out. I do speak English! We talked about English for like 2 seconds and the rest we talked about the plan of salvation. He was way interested and came to church yesterday! It was real great. Hermano Daniel is a great guy. I know that wasn't a just a coincidence(help me with that one mom, I know you probably spell check me and take out words you don't like, like poopy or sucky and stuff like that before you forward this stuff, haha) God is blessing us for our hard work. We found a Chilis in our area and maybe one of these days I will get an awesome blossom. I love you all! Read the Book of Mormon, I wish I had more time to read it. Really you all have time to read it. I love it! thanks for all your support and prayers.

Basketball Again!

Well this week was alright -nothing too exciting happened. We have alot of work to do in the offices and in the field. I finally played basketball again for the first time since my first area. It felt great!  I am still doing work down low. They call me the mexican Dwight Howard. When I entered the offices, we were in the middle of a huge visa mess! Elder Gonzalez and I fixed a lot but right now we are finially getting out of the woods. This means I get to sleep a little more and also I HAVE MORE TIME FOR THE FIELD!!!!! We are really grateful that it is almost cleaned up. A lot of miracles happened. This week was alright. Hermano Manuel was sick so he couldn't go to church, but after sacrament meeting Elder Moguel and I visited him, His mom is way Catholic but way nice. She has watched him go through all of his problems and now she is definitely noticing that he hasn't been drunk for over a month and asked him if we could do anything for his flu. We explained to him about blessings and  then we gave him one.. We all felt the spirit really strong, I loved it. He is an awesome guy and we are pretty tight. He was a big tennis player back in the day. We are hoping he will be baptized next week. He has to wait a little longer because of his addiction and he wants to be sure that this is the true church. But I know he can be baptized the next week. We have alot of work to do. A lot of finding. Well I am tired and I am going to the temple tomorrow!!!! Super excited! love you all!!!!!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope everyone is willing to share half their stash ofcandy with me! Well we had some transfers in the offices, Elder Gonzalez left and Elder Moguel came back. I don't know if you guys remember, but he was in a trio with us for a couple of days - he is a pretty cool guy  from the Yucatan. Transfers as a secretary of the mission are pretty rough! We didn't sleep, we didn't eat. I drove EVERYWHERE!!! But it was awesome!!! I got to see a ton of my old buddies like Elder Esquivel! And I also got to see a ton of Guadalajara that I haven't seen before, like a ton of crazy art buildings and bridges. It was a good experience. 4 new Americans arrived this weekend. Its crazy to think I was in their situation not too long ago. None of them speak spanish and we had to train them in all spanish. I remember giving that wide-eyed gaze and nodding my head like I understood, far to well! It felt so good to get out in the field and work again this week. I was craving it. We found a couple of new people that look like they have potential to be escogidos. Yesterday was a great day.We got to church and the Bishop told us that we were giving the talks! I wrote a few things that I wanted to talk about, said alot of prayers and it turned out great! I felt the spirit and half way through I had the strongest impression to say I promise all of you that you all have a friend or family member that can be baptized. I then stood there, gave it a nice pause, and I think it really sunk in. I didn't know why I needed to say that really until after church a girl came to me and gave us a reference that she had a lot of faith in. The time I have been in this ward we have received only one reference so they are a huge deal!!! I was very happy and very gratefull! Hermano Octavio got the Priesthood yesterday! I was very happy about that. This ward is in desperate need of priesthood holders. We have a couple but the majority of them are over 70 years old. The closing ceremony of the Panamericanos was last night and we could see and hear the fireworks. It was pretty awesome. Well I am getting ready for the Christmas season and I would love some Christmas cds if you want to send them this way.

Happy Birthday Elder Roberts!

I had a great birthday week! Well it was a normal day of the mission and everything besides the fact that we ate at a greeeaaat restaraunt. We found a place called "sirloin" its like a chuckarama but more Texan. But to find a buffet in Mexico is pretty rare. It was fantastic! It had all of the American buffet food I love with a ton of the Mexican food I love. They had a quesadilla station and a ton of hot wings that were fantastic. My buddies here at the offices made me a cake it was good. We didn't have frosting so we used condensed milk and it turned out great. I'm glad I had an awesome birthday because the past couple nights I have not slept. We have changes today and that means A TON OF WORK!!!! I had to make presentations for the new elders and drive people different places. I had no idea that I would be pulling pretty much all nighters on the mission. If I sit down for more than 5 minutes, I fall asleep. Yesterday hermano Octavio received the Holy Ghost. It was great - super powerful! My companion and I were very very happy. Hermano Manuel is progressing very well! He hasn't fallen into his addiction since we have been talking to him, but it is not because of us. We shared with him one of my favorites- D&C 10:5 about prayer and overcoming satan, always a good one! We taught him the way to pray and told him every little thought that he has about drinking, PRAY!!!! The power of this awesome tool is incredible! He still has a long way to go but I know that God will help him every step along the way. He went to church and accepted to be baptised. We have to wait a little longer because of his addiction but I know he will overcome it with the help from our Heavenly Father. During a comida this week I thought of you Dad and how you would react in a sitution like I had. Alright so we were eating and then a mouse runs across the floor and the cat jumps on it and starts to eat it, right in front of us. It didn't bother me that much, except for the sounds the mouse was making and the fact it didn't die for lilke 10 minutes. It was pretty good food though, so it was alright. Well thanks for all my birthday wishes. I love you all!

Nin-ja Borracha

Hermano Octavio's Baptism

Well I had a great week this week. I want to start off by thanking you guys for the wonderfull package!! The hoodie fits great and I love it. The candy is spectacular and I am enjoying it everyday! And the blanket....it's beautiful. I absolutely love it! It matches my STARWARS pillow cases perfectly!!!! I am a happy man! Its good timing too because its starting to get real cold in the mornings and my sheet isnt really doing the job. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Clark and Grandma Bliss!The pictures were great, looks like everyone is growing their hair out besides Dad! I'm sorry but your forehead has grown like 6 inches since I have been gone! I hope you are not bald when I get back! But really thanks a ton for that package- it was perfect!!! This week I got attacked by a drunk guy, we were talking to a lady at her door step and all of the sudden a stick with a metal thing at the end flies right next to my head. I turn around and it's a drunk guy holding this weapon he created. Then he began to twirl it and start to do ninja tricks, it was actually impressive because of how drunk he was. He was swearing at us and threatening us and then he hit me with the stick! He ripped my poncho! The lady shut the door and I got a little upset but we just walked away from him. We found a new investigator, well he actually found us. We were walking to find a house and he called us over to his yard. He has been addicted to alcohol since the 5th grade and wants to change. He is a lawyer and very intelligent but he has lost a lot in life due to this addiction. He poured his beer out the first lesson and came to church. I have alot of faith that he will be baptized. This area is turning around quite a bit. We had a baptism yesterday! Elder Gonzalez's first in his mission!!! It was awesome! This ward hasn't baptised in months and I think this has really excited them to help us out. Hermano Octavio was baptized, super escogido! i talked a little about him last week how he rejected the missionaries in the past but had some dreams and it changed everything. His dreams are incredible, they blew my mind, he told us he dreamed that mormons came to america before colombus. His parents are from an indian tribe so he is as lamanite as it gets and it looks like he is inheriting some gifts from his great great great great grandpa Lehi. It was an awesome experience, Elder Gonzalez was soooo happy! I was glad to be there to watch it all happen. Well thanks for everything. I love you all! I know there are more escogidos here in this area. I know this church is true.



I have a Camera!!!!

HOLAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!
Well I finally bought a camera. I waited until the dollar was high- almost 14 pesos to the dollar to be exact and once it hit it, I didnt hesitate to buy. I bought it in the 2nd biggest Best Buy in the world. So now I can send pictures. I had a very interesting week this week. The panamericanos are here in Guadalajara. It's like the mini-olympics but for South and Central America. It's a pretty big deal. In palacio(the place we go to fix visas) its loaded with athletes from all over the place. It is way fun to see them. I hope I get a chance to see a competiton. We have been working real late so we can have more time in the field and out of the offices, but it is taking quite the toll on my body. The other day we got a call from an elder and my companion took it and we sat down on the street. I closed my eyes for 2 seconds and fell asleep on the curb- I'm going narcaleptic! It was like a 2 minute call too! We set a date for an investigator this week, Hermano Ignasio. He is old and loves the Book of Mormon, but his family is way Catholic, especially his wife, and it is hard for him to progress. We have faith. I was calling the parents of missionaries that are headed home at the end of this change, to give them the flight plans and to congratulate them on the return of their missionary and it turns out the brother of Elizabeth Smart is serving in this mission! I had a nice little chat with Ed Smart. Oh!!! happy news! remember Hermana Mercedes?? Well she called me the other day from Elder Esquivel's phone and told me she got baptized! I was sooooooo happy!!! Her whole family came and it was a great experience for her. She will be an awesome Member of the true Church. We got a call from an investigator that was talking with missionaries a while ago and he rejected them after a few lessons He told us he had a dream and he knows this church is true and needs to be baptized. We have an appointment with him tomorrow and we will see what happens. We had a great activity with this ward, a Hawaiian activity. The members that came loved it and it was actually a way strong spiritual experience. Well it is late and I am tired. I have to go to palacio tomorrow but I am loving my life. Sleep is a luxury, not a necessity! Don't laugh at my grammar, I don't speak english anymore and I only have a spanish spell check. I love you all! I know I am where God wants me to be and I am soooo happy!

Conferencia!!!!!

HOLA FAMILIA!!!! Well this week was great! I loved it! A trio is a lot different in the mission. It was fun though. Elder Moguel is now in another area, he was a nice guy. So it is now back to me and Elder Gonzalez. We had a great meal this week - it tasted exactly like a cafe rio chicken salad but it had a extra ingredient that made all the difference - a TON of avacado! I was in heaven. Since we don't have the full amount of time in the day, we have been putting appointments a little to close together in the agenda, which sometimes means we have to walk really fast to make it on time. My companion was having trouble keeping up and I was very curious what the problem was. The next morning I saw what he was eating for breakfast and that explained it: cookies out of a package with cajeta(it tastes exactly like carmel but it is derived from goats milk) poured on top of them. I then showed him how to make breakfast like a man. We made Chorizo, eggs, pancakes and all that great stuff. It is making a huge difference. Conference was absolutely fantastic! I loved every second of it! We had 3 investigators attend and whenever one of them attended, I watched the spanish session. I still loved it, but it just wasn't the same. I could understand everything perfectly but I love to hear the apostle's voices. Fun fact of the day: Do you know that Richard G. Scott records his talk in spanish, so I got to hear his voice in the spanish session. He did a great job.  I did watch the priesthood session in english and Elder Holland, ya he is a man. D. Todd Christoferson's talk was great, perfect for investigators and for the world. I took a lot of notes on everything. It was an awesome experience. Well I have a lot of work to do. love you all!!!
Elder Roberts

PS. ok well these are the last pictures that my camara took. I  didn't have a tripod so I made one and I was taking pictures of lightning with the function I discovered. Well I was on the roof and the tripod tipped and my camera took quite the fall. The last picture actuallly is of the fall. It was a sad day. I will try to buy one soon.  Thanks for everything. Sorry I stink at making tripods. love you all!!!

Guadalajara City Life!

Well this week sure was different! I wouldn't say it was terrible, just busy! I only had the chance to do my personal study 2 times this week. The rest of the week we were in downtown Guadalajara (early early) fixing stuff with visas and other stuff. I get to drive!!!! And driving an 18 passenger van downtown in the 2nd biggest city in Mexico is quite the adventure. I have never been more scared in my life! Nobody is nice when driving here. You have to fight for your life - no laws, no speed limits! The only thing they have to limit us is speed bumps in almost every street. It did though feel nice to drive again, it has been 9 months! I like Guadalajara alot! There is more diversity here. I also saw the first black man in 9 months, oh and the chinese restaurants have real chinese people working there! The area has been asleep for a while and the area book is almost empty. I talked to the members and I guess the other elders here didn't really do anything, but we have been talking alot with the ward offering to do service and they all changed their attitude about the missionary work super fast! I know that this area will have success! Elder Gonzalez is a nice guy, still is super shy but is learning  a lot. He talks way funny! You can tell from the words he uses he is from the border. for example the other day he said ´´¿¿Elder Roberts, se farteó?? I laughed alot. Oh ya the president sent a missionary home so a few changes were made and I guess I have 2 companions. They are the same age in the mission -a little over 3 months old. It is going to be a challenge in the field but I guess it will be better in the oficinas. I have faith it will work out. We have been contacting alot, asking for alot of referencias and I have a feeling soon we will start to see the fruits of our works. Our district has set goals for contacts and lessons with members, and these goals usually didn't apply to those elders in the officinas, but I want to change that. We are going to accomplish all those goals. I have a ton of work to do in the field and in the offices! I have never had this stress before but I know that it will all be fine and all will work out with the help of the Lord. 

In the City!

Thats right, I had to leave my little town of Xalisco. It was a sad day! Elder Esquivel and I had some great times, (mos defs one of my favorite comps). But I had to leave my lamanite brother. I know that he will do work in Xalisco with his new kid. I said my goodbyes to the members, one of them Hermana Ponce, who is like 80 years old and she is like a Mexican Zona!!!! She was great and always spoke her mind about people and it didn't matter how brutal it was. But she started to cry when I left - it was some rough stuff. Well I got my changes and I was a little surprised. I got called to be one of the President's secretaries. This means I work the mornings in the offices, doing stuff for the President and then after comida I go to my area. It is a ton of work, and I dont have time to do anything for myself anymore haha. I actually haven't eaten a real dinner this week - or breakfast! We just barely had time to go to the store to buy our food. Oh yeah- we don't have p-days. But we have a guayaba tree out front so I just ate those all week and it worked out great. Ok it sounds a little rough but we have some upsides to being here. I get to drive!!!! It's dead center in downtown Guadalajara so it is awesome!!! I have a nice house and the offices have a full kitchen!!! I'm happy. My companion is pretty cool. He is from Monterey and I am his 2nd companion in the field. He doesn't have a lot of experience and he is kind of shy, but he has a strong testimony and he is ready to learn!!! Our area has been a little neglected for  a while. I arrived and we had 2 investigators. We have a ton of finding to do! I have heard a lot of bad things about this area but I don't believe this area could be dead - it's the city!!!! There are millions of people here! For sure there is escogidos here!!!! We have 3 hours less than everyone else but I know that if I work my hardest the Lord will make up for the rest. I'm in the offices so I got my packages from the post office myself! And by the way, thank you very much!!!! These shoes are awesome! The candy is great too! I was extremely happy!  I am back in Guadalajara and I am back to having to turn down the ¨Kiss Hellos¨.

Baptism!

 Juanito!

Hermana Eva and Juanito's Baptism

HOLA!!!! Well we had a great week this week! It was a lot of work and a ton of stress, but it was soooo fun. Well 2 of our investigators were baptized this Saturday, which was really great -Hermana Eva and Juanito! We found them when we were knocking doors. She is a single mother with a ton of problems. They are awesome! We found them a little over two weeks ago. They were prepared by the Lord and had the drive and the desire to learn and progress. I loved watching them learn and being a part of the teaching. Hermano Juan is awesome! He is 13 years old and he kind of reminds me of Max and Jaxson, so we got along great! And he is a big pokemon fan which is also awesome! He loves to learn and asks a ton of questions from how do we obtain a celestial marriage to where can I find the poké-flute in red version? I did my best to answer all of them. Oh sorry about last week -about my odd tree comment. I attached the picture this time. My companion is a man. We had an awesome lesson with a man named Eren. He is in a wheel chair because he has only one leg. Also, he is bald. We taught him about the plan of salvation and when we hit the resurrection, I have never seen a man more happy in my life! First about his leg and then when he learned about how not a hair on his head would be lost, it was almost too much for him. The only problem is trying to find a way for him to get to church. Xalisco is not the most wheel chair accessible place. But God will prepare a way.   Well I love you all. I know this church is true. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and I look forward to reading it every chance I get. 

The Random Tree

Hola!

Another week in the town of Xalisco! Well it started out pretty rough. Tuesday morning at about 4 am I woke up to the most horrible sound known to mankind! I was more scared than I have ever been in my life! I thought demons were screaming at me! But after a good 5 or 6 seconds of sheer terror, I realized it was my companion throwing up. He spent the entire night throwing up- I felt way bad. He called Hermana Saucedo and she told us to go get his head x-rayed (I don't know why either). One thing about Mexico that I love is that everyone automatically thinks the worst case scenario. When we went to the hospital, we were talking to a lady outside and she told my companion that he probably had a tumor. So he got his head x-rayed and like you can imagine, it showed literally nothing. But he was feeling better as the day went on. I will do all that I can to keep me from returning to a hospital here. There weren't enough beds so people were on the floor and there were a lot of bloody people. It was like a war hospital that you see in the movies. 

Hermana Mercedes sadly still is not baptized as fear is eating away at her faith, but not at mine! She will be baptized!!! We also have another family that is preparing for baptism. They accepted a date for the 28th, so we have got a lot of work to do. We did a lot of contacting this week but didn't find a lot of chosen ones, but no worries because we did find a family of a Mother, daughter, and granddaughter that have a lot of problems and a lot of challenges in life but I know the only true church can help them. 

We found an odd looking tree growing close to the side of the road. We have a lot of work to do this week! I love my companion. He is a man! We teach way good together. I love you all! I know the Church is true. I know the Book of Mormon is true and I love to testify of it.

 Yummy!

Cora!!!!!!

HOLAAAA!!!!!! Well our baptism had some problems this week, but no worries we will defeat satan once and for all! Hermana Mercedes will be baptized this week! Elder Esquivel and I get along great! This kid makes me laugh so much! And also we teach way good together. We were walking down the street the other day and I see in the distance a guy with a hat very familiar- a white BYU hat!!!!!! We get a little closer and this guy is white too, so I thought for sure it was a tourist from Utah! I, of course, ran to contact him but it turns out he has no idea what BYU even is. Oh ya, and he is gay. It was a pretty big let down! In church yesterday the meeting started and we had planned on having 16 investigators in the capilla and no one was there! Usually we pick our investigators up, with help from a member, but everyone insisted on coming on there own. But right before the sacrament, 2 familias that we invited showed up! I was soooo happy! They have a tooooon of problems but the only true Church will help them out. I had some armadillo tacos this week. They were real great! It's like pork but it's also like chicken??? We did a lot of finding this week and we have a ton of contacts. I have less than 50 pages left in Jesus the Christ and my mind is still blown away every time I open up that book. I officially am from Nayarit now! Everyone here has these bags from either the Cora or the Huichole Indian tribes and I got myself a sweet cora bag just the right size for my scriputres and everything. It's manly, not a purse! I will have no one thinking that I wear a purse. I love this place! I am way happy that Elder Brown visited! He is a man. 

It looks like a purse to me!

Elder Esquivel

New Cambios!

Well we got our calls for cambios last Monday night telling us that I am staying here and Elder Heath is going to Guadalajara. It was terrible for Elder Heath because when we returned to the house, we didn't have power so he had to pack in the dark. But I found birthday candles, so I guess he had a little light. So Tuesday morning Elder Heath left and then arrived Elder Esquivel! Mexicano!!! He is a man, and it was nice to have another Lamanite companion. The first lesson we had together was awesome and we instantly clicked. We teach great together. We still need to rely 100 percent on the spirit but it is nice to have unity in teaching. I know that we will see alot of milagros this cambio. This Saturday we have a baptism set for Hermana Merecedes. She is awesome and the spirit is always way strong in our lessons. We have a family that we are teaching that live high up in the mountains in a rancho. We set a date with a few of them and we are hoping that they are all going to be baptized!! There are like 7 people in that family!!! We were going to visit a member and we found her talking to her neighbor- a great opportunity for a investigator! We said hi and began to talk and then I don't know what my companion was thinking, but he asked if she was pregnant....she wasn't! He was soooo embarrassed and I couldn't get the stupid smile off my face, but it was too funny! The truth is, she really did look pregnant but I personally try to avoid situations like that! We got a reference from a hermana in the ward for one of her friends. She has a lot of problems with her husband and we came to have the gospel fix everything. Her husband has a huuuuuge zit like thing on his shoulder like bigger than a golf ball! Mom you would go crazy! I couldn't stop staring at it and wondering what it was. But we had a great lesson and she wants more that anything to have the gospel in her life. I am loving the mission. THis cambio is going to be awesome!

Elder Gutierez!!!!

HOOOOOOOOLLLAAA!!!! Well this week was really great! We lucked out a ton! Presidente made a new district (las cambio)- that is 5 missionaries that go from zone to zone every week and stay with a companionship for the whole week and help them improve their teaching skills and everything. We had Elder Gutierez come and stay. Let me give you his stats: district leader, zone leader, AP for 6 months, and the mission's top baptizer. He is a man! Every word he speaks in a lesson is with power. He helped us a ton improve our teachings. He is from Ecuador and this was his last week of his mission and he spent it with us. As I am writing this, he is on an airplane or in an airport going home. Some things that he taught us: We need to challenge the investigator for baptism before we say the opening prayer. If they are an escogido( it means chosen one but I like the word in spanish better) they will accept.  It has really helped our first lessons a lot because people know why we are here. We learned sooooo much. Probably the next time I see Elder Gutierez will be in general conference, when he is in the quroum of the 12. We ate hamburgers the last night he was here. They were pretty good. I can't imagine it being better than one from America, but still. It was sad when he left. I won't forget the words he said, "mision completo." He knew he had served his mission as hard as he could. I want to end my mission with that same feeling but I have a looooong time before that so I want to end everyday with that feeling of doing everything that I possibly could of that day. We had 10 investigators in church yesterday. That is the most I have ever had in my mission. It was crazy! And waaaay stressful,  but it went great. I don't know if we are going to have a baptism this week but for sure next week. My testimony has grown a lot this week and I know I have a lot more learning and growing to do. I love you all!

Huicholes!

Well this week was pretty good. Presidente has a new rule for us to see 300 contacts a week. It is going to be reeeeeaaaal hard to do, but it is possible! I absolutely love the weather here! I am pretty used to the heat and every night we have a sky fulll of lightning! It is sooo beautiful! Really I think it is better than fireworks! Some nights there are a good 30 to 40 lighting bolts a minute! It is crazy! One day my companion Elder Heath and I were walking and it started to rain. So we took shelter to  put our books in grocery bags so they didn't get wet. Directly across the street a house had a antenna and it got struck by lightning! IT was soooo bright!!!! And it sounded like a transformer! I have never seen anything like that! It was pretty scary, but way awesome! I am almost done with the book, Jesus the Christ. I can't put it down. It really is the greatest book I have read. This week we had a family home evening with a menos activo. He was a strong member at one point but now is completely inactive. He is way cool and we watched the Joseph Smith movie. After he started asking us some weird questions about the Book of Mormon. He was mos defs reading a lot of anti mormon stuff. I hated it! But I stopped him and bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I told him it didn't matter what anyone says to me about the Book of Mormon because I have asked God and he showed me the truth of this book. He didn't have anything else to say. Really, I know that the Book of Mormon is true. 100 percent sin dudas!!!! I really think we had a effective lesson with him and he is going to reactivate! There is a indian tribe here called Huicholes. They wear very colorful clothes and are as lamanite as it gets, and they speak an awesome language! I only know the extreme basics right now like hello, goodbye, and how are you, but soon I will be a white Indian boy.

My pet cockroach!

The Baptism of the Cuellar Family

Rocky!

Well we won the battle with satan and the Cuellar family was Baptized!!!! It was a B E A utiful experience! Only one thing went wrong, the drain broke so when it came time to baptize, it was like barely above my knees. I got to baptize the Mom who, well is a little on the heavy side. She is soooo awesome, but it was a struggle! But no worries, everything worked out perfect!The spirit was way strong! Gissell is the oldest daughter and is 16 and she is going to efy next week! It's free down here so it is such and awesome missionary tool. YA- its the same everything too! All free! They all received the Holy Ghost yesterday in sacrament meeting and the Bishop asked my companion and I to confirm them. I was kind of nervous, but it went great! They all told us that they felt the spirit way strong! We had quite the adventure this week, We had Comida with a Hermana from the ward, Hermana Consuelo. She is 82 years old and lives alone and is blind. I dont know how she does it??? It was raining super hard on the walk to her house and the winds destroyed our umbrellas and we were completely soaked when we showed up and she told us to take of our shirts to hang them up to dry. Of course we told her we could not but she told us "I dont have eyes so it doesn't matter if you have shirts on or not!" Still I felt way weird so we stayed clothed. When she told us she didn't have eyes I thought that was just another way of saying blind in spanish??? But nope she took one her eyes out and showed us that it wasnt real. She was awesome!!!!! I dont know how she did it but she made us a nice pot of beans. It actually was way good! Our bishop here is one of the coolest guys I have met in my life! He is a way humble farmer of sugar cane and is always laughing! We went to his house for a Comida and of all temptations in my life - he was watching ROCKY I!!!!! And if it makes things worse it was in English with spanish subtitles!! Turns out he is a big rocky fan and as you all know, so am I! We walked in at the part where Apollo was coming in dressed like George Washington so I knew the final fight was soon! Oh the temptation! But I stayed strong and studied my vocab instead of watching. I asked the Bishop which rocky movie was his favorite and it turns out we both love number 4 with IVAN DRAGO!!!!!!! It is a great movie but it can wait til after the mish. I was with some investigators and they gave me a bowl of something called cococi. I thought it was something derrived of a cocunut but nope, it was actually a type of rotted milk that is frozen. It was terrible! Well we have a few investigators that are close to baptism, we are hoping for two more this week. The language is good, the food is good( besides cococi)! I love this town, and I love being a missionary! 

The Coolest Bishop and Rocky Fan!

Rayos!

 This picture and message were sent to Sam and Parker's email with strict instructions to not share with Mom. (I know their password!) "this place is sooooo cool - way dangerous though and people die almost every day here. We walked by this house that got shot up 2 days earlier by the mafia down here and 2 people died. It was sooo scary! DON'T SHOW OR TELL MOM!!!! I don't want her worrying about me"!!!!!!!!
     Well we had goood things and bad things happen this week. Our baptisms kind of fell through, but not to worry they are being baptised tomorrow. We had to battle with satan and destroy him first. I am way excited for tommorrow and I have faith that nothing will impede their baptism tommorrow. We are working really hard with one of our investigators that has a lot of addictions, but really she has the desire to change and overcome all of them. It is so awesome to see people change their lives like that. I am the best lizard catcher in Nayarit. The Mexicans were all amazed how good my lizard cathing abilites were. I am loving the food here! This town is famous for its shrimp! There is the comida called ceviche that is one of my favorites from Guadalajara - it is raw fish on a tostada with a bunch of other stuff, but they have it with raw shrimp here and its even better!!! I highly reccomend it. We had a huuuuuge storm the other day! All of the roads were rivers - like dangerous fast rivers and lightning was EVERYWHERE! AND SOOOOO CLOSE!!!!! There was almost no space between seeing the entire neighborhood light up and the loudest thunder I have every heard. It literally hurt my ears! I really do believe that was the loudest sound I have ever heard in my life! It was scary, but it was sooo awesome! It has rained every evening for the past 2 weeeks and I hear it is  like this until October, but I am fine with it. A huge tree was blown down and is in the middle of the street I  imagine it will be there for 4 months before it is moved. haha! I found a Bulgarian pizza restaurant here!!!! It has Bulgarian letters and everything! Don't worry Neil- I will take a picture of it for you. Saturday we got on a bus and the bus driver gave me my money back and told us that he doesn't charge missionaries. He was speaking in perfect english and he was awesome! He was born and raised in Compton, California (ya the dangerous place). But he has been living with his dad in Mexico for a couple years. But he told us a story about how he was driving his bus and in the middle of the road was a gang fight with grenades and he almost died! He had to drive the bus backwards, flooring it for a couple blocks. I told him he was batman and he laughed. Well I really do feel 100 percent safe here! I love all of the people here! I really do love every second of my mission!

No, this is not the missionaries apartment. (notice the hundreds of bullet holes all over)

Happy 4th of July!

     Today we said the Pledge of Allegiance and sang the National Anthem and it was really great! AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!! (of course all in private, we don't want any problems). Well this week was pretty good. It rained everyday and I finally bought an umbrella today! These roads turn into rivers when it rains, so my feet are white and gross and raisiny. We have 3 baptisms this week which I am pretty excited for! We are baptizing a family that actually is from San Diego and the kids speak English but the mom doesn't. The dad is in United States still. They are awesome! We had a pretty successful week this week and found a lot of people that could really use the gospel in their lives. My companion and I still don't speak English to each other, so spanish is awesome. I love our house that we have, except for the part about how it doesn't have a toilet seat! But really they are more of a luxury item rather than a necisidad. I am still getting use to the area, which is rough, but with time it will come. This place is sooooo green! The mountains are beautiful and everything! 

The beautiful views of Nayarit, my new apartment

and Elder Heath.

Transfer to Colima! I mean Nayarit!

Alrighty! Do I have a story for you! I don't have a lot of time, but I will try to fit everything in. Alright, so 11 o clock at night last Monday and I get a call from the assistant who tells me that I am going to COLIMA!!!!! Colima is a little itty bitty state below Jalisco. I was stoked-the beach and volcanoes with snow! So I said my good-byes to Elder Pucheta and I was off. For a little over 3 hours, I was on a bus to Colima. The scenery was absolutely amazing! There were green jungles everywhere and I sat next to a guy who spoke English better than Spanish and also Chinese. He was a man and we talked for almost the entire bus ride about the church and his life. It was weird giving a lession in English. I forgot a lot of words in English, but it was cool. So I get to Colima and I see the other Elder Roberts. Yup! Another mix up! We both got sent to the same place, same companion, same everything. So a few calls later, it turns out that I am going to NAYARIT!!! Now if you look at a map, you will see that Colima is below Jalisco and Nayarit is above. So back in the bus I went - 3 hours to Guadalajara. I talked to a girl from London which was cool. She was nice. Then in Guadalajara, I go to buy my ticket for Tepic, Nayarit and my card doesnt work! But its ok because I have the back up emergency and it didn't work either??? We tried a million times but nothing. So I said a prayer and pulled apart all my luggage looking for loose pesos. I found 196 pesos and the ticket was 205. The man looked like Edward from Twilight and he let me by 9 pesos short. My prayer was answered!  oh haha- and guess what movie they played on the bus? Twilight! haha! It was the worst! I tried to concentrate on reading the Book of Mormon and Jesus the Christ, but it was so annoying having mexican vanpires screaming in my ears! But finally I arrived in Nayarit at about 8 o'clock at night. That was over 10 hours in busses. My new comp is pretty cool! His name is Elder Heath and he has been out 6 weeks more than me and he is American. We speak the same amount of Spanish and we are both white. He kinda looks like Neil and he is from Kaysville. Really though, this area is incredible! I am in a little pueblo in the mountains surrounded by jungled mountains of green! This area is very poor here so I don't have the luxury of a lavandaria and so we have to wash our clothes by hand. This place is amazing! There are bannana trees everywhere and its sooooo green. I am trying to convince my comp to wake up at 4 with me and go hike one of these mountains. He doesn't seem too excited about it. The best thing about this place is mos defs the FIREFLIES!!!!!!!!!! When I first saw them, I freaked out! My companion's mind was blown on how excited I was. They are the coolest things ever! I had a plastic bag and we caught like 8 of them and before bed I let them loose in my room. It was a great time falling asleep with 8 little night lights going on and off. This place is a totally different culture! -different words, different hand shakes and everything. We have a lot of work to do in this area but I know we can have success if we work hard! We are both greenies so we are both learning everyday. The president told us it is a sin for us to speak to each other in English, so we just speak Spanish to each other. It's a lot harder when I know he speaks English, but we need to learn. I love this place!!!!!!! We have a small ward, but they are all way nice. This area is more dangerous so President tells us we have to be home by 8 instead of 930 so I have a lot more study time which is nice. I love the missionary work! 

Cambios!

I really do wake up everymorning loving my life! Elder Pucheta and I are working hard. He has 20 months in the mission and I will not let him die! Cambios are today, so I don't know if I will stay here another 6 weeks or head out to a new territory. Either way, I will be happy because I love it here and Elder Pucheta and I work well together. But a new place would be cool also. I will be happy either way. The other day I had to break up a fight between two 16 year old girls.  It was a mess of hair pulling and scratching and everything. I even got punched in the face but I  think that was an accident. But it all happened in the middle of contacting a person and we heard screaming and saw them going at it. There was a lot of swearing and I am sure I didn't understand a lot of what was said. 

We did a lot of contacting this week trying to find new investigators and we had some promising first lessons. We just need to do work with what we got. Hermano Raymundo(who we baptized 2 weeks ago) had a interview for his temple recommend yesterday. It was like an hour long and so Elder Pucheta and I were going crazy wondering what was going on in there?? But when he  came out,  he had the biggest smile on his face and told us he wants to serve a mission! It was one of the happiest moments of my life! He is such a man! I am so thankful for him progressing in the gospel! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!!!!!

La Cucaracha and a big rat!

Mexico is great as always; a little scary at times but I know that I am safe. The food this week was really good. During one meal, my companion kept kicking my foot and looking over at the stove and I didn't know what he was doing. After dinner he told me that there was a giant rat inside the oven that kept looking out the window. I am glad I didn't see it because I really enjoyed that meal. While contacting this week, a person's door that we knocked on said that I looked like the brother of Karen Carpenter. Then he went inside and grabbed an album with his face on it. I didn't really agree that much, but I will take the compliment??? During a comida appointment with a Hermana, her kids started fighting over a toy. She looked at me and said ´´Elder hand me your belt¨! I didn't know what to do! I didn't want to be a part of a punishment! But lucky for me my companion took off his belt. And even luckier for them she gave them one more chance. I played the piano in sacrament meeting this Sunday. Yes, you heard it right! Ever since Elder Rosas left, we have had to chant hymns with out music which sounds terrible. And the organ they have here has all the hymns downloaded on the organ so I  just need to tap the keys, any keys and the song plays. But don't think its that easy because I had to still keep up with the people singing which was sooooo hard! But I looked like a man. We have the greatest Elders quorum president here. He is a young successfull lawyer man and all his lessons are incredible. At the end of all the lessons he always challenges our investigators to get baptized. We have a baptism this week with Hermano Raymundo. He is 20 years old and it has been awesome teaching him. Oh ya, this saturday we helped people move. It took under two hours and we didn't have a car or anything! I would like to see that in United States!  Well I love the opportunity I have to be a missionary! Really, everyday is an adventure and my love for the scriptures grows by the second. I can't get enough of them! I love this Gospel and I have seen it change lives!

Just had to show my little brother Dillon all of the Cars toys here. He would go crazy!

The Baptism of Hermano Raymundo

June 13, 2011

I LOVE BAPTISMS!!!!! Hermano Raymundo was baptized last Saturday and it went great!  Before the baptism he called us and asked if he could invite his girlfriend because she is interested in learning more about the church. OF COURSE!!!! So we will see where that goes. Really though, the baptism was awesome! The spirit was strong. He is starting to make friends in the church so everything is going awesome. I had a great week this week. We had zone conference and our President gave us a new goal for contacts that seems almost impossible, but I know that we can do it! So last week we were almost running everywhere, not sparing a second of time to breath, finding people and we almost reached it. This week I have faith that we will make it. In our zone conference we watched a talk by Elder Holland and before he put it on he told us it was the best talk that he has heard from him. About 12 seconds into it I knew I had heard it before! It was a recording of the talk he gave in the MTC! I was there for it! It was awesome to get to hear it again and take a new set of notes to compare to my old page of notes. He is such a powerful man! If you remember Hermano Santos, (Elder Rosas and I baptized him a month or two ago who is the manager of a fancy restaurant -like way way nice), and he invited us to eat dinner last week at his restaurant. Little did we know that we had the whole restaurant of hostesses and waiters serving us with everything you could imagine! Did I mention it was candle lit (haha)?  It was awesome! He served different types of fishes and specialty drinks. Oh ya and 4 different types of brick oven fancy pizzas. I can't even imagine what that would cost! He is such a nice guy! But even more awesome, he is a active preisthood holder! But he is way nervous about blessing the sacrament, but next week he will do it. We have a lot of work to do this week to find more investigators. I love missionary work! Please don't feel worried about me here. I know if I stay obedient and work as hard as I can, I will be safe and it has worked great so far.