Christmas in Mexico

Hey everybody! It's late and I am tired but I will do my best. Well Union is going great! 23 people went to church this Sunday! That was incredible! Everyone was so happy! Everyone is getting so excited! Hermana Bety got sick so she couldn't go to church, but she still wants to get baptized so bad! It was a holiday here named the day of the kings. It is like a second Christmas! But it is when you get more presents and you have this traditional bread and inside the bread there are 3 or 4 little idols of baby Jesus. I got one in my bread and I started screaming "I won, I won"! But it turns out that you don't win. All the people that get them have to cook tamales for everyone else on  the 2nd of February. I don't know how to cook tamales. We are finding escogidos every day here. The only problem we have is its like 45 minutes to an hour to travel from the offices to there. We don't have that much time to work or to put appointments but we have 3 people that have accepted baptism. Hermana Bety, she is the best! I love her so much, but she is way hard to find. We can only teach her at night because  she works so much and she lives in the land of Narcos, so its way sketchy walking home. Hermana Abby- she is so great! The gospel is changing her life a ton! She loves prayer and she can't stop bearing her testimony to us and to her family of prayer. She wants to get baptized but we have to pray a lot that her dad will let her. He is not a big fan of the church at all. Hermano Jose Jesus is a new investigator very similar to Abby. He is 15 years old and is super prepared for baptism but his mom is super anti- baptism. But I know that God wants him to be baptized and he needs to be baptized and we need to have our test of faith. But I know he will be baptized! I love being a missionary. I have a ton of work next week. We've got cambios. I don't think I'm leaving the offices. I WANT A FULL DAY IN THE FIELD!!!!!!!!!!!! But I am here to do what The Lord wants me to do. I know the Church is true. I know that everything done in the church is a revelation from God. To see President make changes is a incredible process. I don't know if you remember that conference talk about missionary callings and the revelation in that, but it is the same. I love to see the church grow and I know that The gospel of Jesus Christ changes their lives.

 The fake snow Mom sent was a hit!

 Tyler making a snow angel!

Missing Utah and maybe a little skiing!

Christmas, New Years, and a New Ward!

Well Merry Christmas to all! Thanks for everything!!! Mom your packages were perfect!!!! The sees chocolates were delightsome! Lloyd and Meg and Family- I think I was the only man in Mexico with a bag of Funyons and they were the best!!!!!! I missed that flavor so much for too long!!!! Grandma and Grandpa Clark- I loved your letters and package! They were very heart warming! Well Christmas was awesome, I talked to the fam and they all looked too old. That was weird, but it was awesome!! Skype was great!!!! On Christmas day, we opened the ward of Union. It was quite the adventure. When we arrived at church there were 2 people, but then 6 more showed up a little later. That was it in sacrament meeting - The missionaries and 8 members. We were asked to speak and it went great! It was the first talk I have ever given that they clapped! It was kinda weird. They were so happy to see missionaries! We visited a ton of less actives this week and found a ton of success! We found Hermana Abby, a cousin of a less active, that is going through a real tough time right now. Her parents are having a lot of problems and she feels really alone. We taught her about prayer and she was so happy! She accepted a date to be baptised - the 15th! We also found an old investigator that accepted to be baptized, hermana Bety!!! She is real great! Literally the shortest person I have met, but I love her! I love this area so much! It has a ton of work to do. All of the less actives were so happy to see us! There were 17 people yesterday in church!!! The only thing I don't like about this area is that half of it is factories, but not just any kind of factories, there is a HUGE factory of beer, and also a giant factory of dog food!(I think its dog food)??? So the whole town smells absolutely terrible! The first couple days were rough! We had a lot of headaches. I went on divisions with my zone leader and he threw up. We were riding in the car with a member and a cop pulled us over and searched us to see if we had drugs. I couldn't help but have a big smile on my face the entire time especially when he asked who we were. We simply responded, "we are representatives of Jesus Christ..." and we taught him about the Book of Mormon. We didn't get a direction but we did get out of paying money. We found a lot of families here that have potential to be chosen ones! I love this place! I know the Lord is blessing my companion and I more than we can imagine right now. New years was great! When it hit twelve we heard a lot of fire works, but there is a clear difference between gunshots and fireworks, and we heard a TON of gunshots!!! and not just little guns, we heard full on automatics! They just shoot them in the air. It was kinda cool and I personally like the change! Well I love the mission. Everything about it is awesome! It was most definitely the best decision I have every made in my life! I hope you have set a lot of Goals this year. If I have learned anything from setting goals in the mission it is that they should be set prayerfully and they should be clear and we should be able to measure them, not any thing like "I will read the scriptures more" but more like" I will read the Book of Mormon 4 times." And also, they are not goals unless they are written down and written down good. I love the mission. I love Mexico. I love the people here. I love my companion. I love my family. I love Jesus Christ, my Savior and I am so thankful for him. I learn more and see more proof of the impact He makes in my life everyday! I love you all!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!

Love Elder Roberts

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