Week 20 - World Cup? What is that?

Soooo this week:

I don't have too much to tell about this week honestly…

Who knows about the World Cup; I honestly have no idea. We normally don't have problems with people not answering doors cause of fútbol but I don't know; the World Cup is a whole different level.

Haha and yeah the second week was good, a little difficult this week we are having a hard time finding new people to teach, and no one came to church which sucked cause that means a baptism fell through. In my email from president this week was like help your companion out, hahaha if I was down to be disobedient he’d be such a dead missionary. The good thing is that I don't really let their be time to mess around, and we walk all over the area and I exhaust him everyday.

We had a hard couple of days this weekend, of days completely full of appointments and nobody was home, and when I mean nobody I mean nobody.... We only taught 46 lessons but thats still about the goal of 45. So friday, we had a couple of appointments about halfway up the hill pretty far away, so we went taught some people found a new inv. all was going good then we went to the comida, and she wasn't there.... we waited for like ten minutes and she showed up, angry she started to chew us out cause she said she made food for us on tuesday. yeah she messed us she was responsible for friday so she gave us some money to go and buy food, thats fine and all but it was raining and we were up the hill where we had appts. after the food, so we went down the hill ate, climbed back up the hill and then the next appt. was like at the bottom other side of the area, so we practically ran their, yeah she wasn't home, and the next appt. was back to where we were but even higher. haha so we climb all the way up to the very top of the hill to get a reference and talk with a member of the bishopric yeah he wasn't home, and there are like only 4 families that high on the hill, and only one was home, oh yeah i forgot to mention that during lunch i had dried and it had stopped raining, then as we climbed the hill it started raining only even harder. anyway so the one family that was home we taught a lesson on sacrifice, like what are we sacrificing for the faith and is it enough, at the end of the lesson that is meant to like point out all there is that the members need to work on, they justified it all. and aren't going to change anything, how great.

We baptized three people — the daughters of the baptism we had last Sunday. It was pretty cool, but practically no one in the ward showed up. The only people that came to the baptism were in the church because it was our turn to clean the building.

And then on sunday morning we went by like three inv. to bring them to church and they weren't there so we went to church a lone without any inv.

It's all good. I'm working hard, having fun, and eating lots of food.

Oh yeah we only had 2-3 lessons with a member present this week, so I'm going to get planched in the email from president. To planche is to iron like iron a shirt, so when you get ironed by a leader about something you messed up on. It’s mission lingo for getting chewed out. I just hope he planches with love.

Sorry it wasn't more eventful this week.

Oh, I forgot that we went to the temple because my comp had a doctors appt. for his knees (this area is killing him). It’s just that he is lacking in leg muscle. Anyway, we ran into a zone leader meeting for the East Mission, and the president is from my comps ward, anyway we went in and the president put his arm around me and said for the whole room: “Elder Blotter I found your brother”. Hahahaha it was the same Elder Blotter that I met at the consulate, what a small world. We talked a tiny bit about Robby's wedding.

Love You!

Elder Blotter

Week 19 - Set the Record!

Mom and Dad,

So I guess I shouldn't have mentioned getting stabbed-jabbed. Haha, it was in the middle of the day in the normal part of the area.  No, he was just trying to hurt me, and No, it didn't cut anything. I just had like a bruise after.

Soooo yeah, Elder Zubietta is the district leader in our district right now.  My new comp is Elder Granados, from Guadalajara Mexico.  I like him, but his kind of a frito.  He doesn’t wake up on time, doesn't study english, and instead he goes and lays in bed.   When we were putting appointments with people he said: “We work on sunday?”  Hahaha I replied: “We work everyday.” He asked “On mondays too?” I said: “Yes, in the evening.”  Hahahaha triste (sad) frito. haha its cool I'm working him to death even though I'm junior comp, he only has 5 months on the mish I have 4 and he doesn't know the area or the teaching pool, so he’s senior but I'm really senior right now because he doesn't know the area.  It’s super stressful because I don't speak Spanish completely.  We did 60 lessons this past week which is more than I did with Elder Zubietta.  The highest I did with Zubi was 59, so I set the record.

I don't know, my brains not really working right now because I'm kinda sick.  I don't really have any stories of this week.  Our baptism fell through because she left the house like ten minutes before we came to pick her up for her interview, and she is getting kicked out of the house.  That sounds harsh; the daughter and the son of the member that lives there are boyfriend-girlfriend, and she was possessed (evil spirit) a while ago. The bishop came and cast out the demon.  Right now he is possessed and the member that owns the house is kind of wanted that crap to end, so she says that Amira, the daughter, brought the problem into the house and he doesn't want them there anymore.  So our investigator is leaving our area sometime soon.  She got a job recently and she works friday and saturday, all days both days, so she can come to church on Sunday, which is super sick, but that meant we couldn't really meet with her after she escaped her interview.  We went by on sunday morning to see if she could come to church and she said no. I was like “I want you to know how important it is to come to church and we want to invite you”.  Then we left and she showed up to church.  My DL interviewed her, set the baptism for 6 o'clock the same day, and when we went by to pick her up to take her to the baptism she asked if her daughters could all get baptized right then too.  Unfortunately, the answer was no cause they don't have the lessons, but we’re gonna try and do that all this week so they can get baptized before they leave the area.  We don't baptize people that aren't completely ready, if it sounds like I'm focusing to much on baptism.

Well, I love you.  

Elder Blotter

Week 18

So, I finished JTC like three four days ago great book I Yeah, I baptized Valentin; He is Maria Luna’s spouse - yes I The kitchen is huge and on Tuesday our like hot pad thing broke, so we couldn’t eat anything... I haha my comp took it apart but we´re getting a new burner hopefully soon. Yup strong as every, I get an hour less study time this change because I’m not being trained anymore, I have like 4 months in the mish, and if you count back wards from the day I’m l gonna leave I have like 5 months. haha don’t worry I’m not counting down. I’ve got mission on the mind and like nothing more. haha

So my comp is leaving this change we think, he got the phone call that said he was being changed but within the zone, but as we thought about it more, they might just take him to the change meeting to make him a DL which would be dumb to make him pack all his stuff, but its very likely I’m getting a new comp and yeah I don’t think I’m dreaming in spanish.... haven’t really been remembering my dreams. I bet I use spanish words though, its actually pretty difficult to speak in spanish all week have things happen in spanish and then later try and talk about them in english.

Soooo this week. I don’t really remember.

Love you bye.

Haha, but honestly who knows what happened on Monday. We taught a ton of lessons I can tell you that. haha so this Renaldo I might have talked about earlier, husband to a baptism like a months ago so last week, I was in divisions and we had a lesson with him, Elder Zubi told me to put a baptismal date with him, so we go and we talk about all the answers he´s received that the BoM is true and then what the BoM means if its true, all me teaching this cause my comp, Elder Tepoz, doesn't know the family or what we´re going to teach, and I didn’t really want him to teach cause who knows what he was going to say, anyways I ask him if he´ll get baptized by the correct authority or however I said it and he kind of hesitated and tried to escape the direct question and so I asked again directly, and he said I’ll answer next time. so this week we go and meet with him and my comp challenges him to get baptized and he said he´d been thinking about it and stuff like that and that yes he´d get baptized this saturday, super cool. haha and yeah we baptized him oh and did I say he went to the visitors center at the temple with his daughter in between my lesson and the lesson with me and my comp when he accepted and he said he wants and eternal family. and after I baptized him when I pulled him up out of the water he just looked and me and said thanks. It was a cool moment.

I got like jabbed with a knife in my back as we were walking in the street, jabbed kinda hard, I'm sure if I wasn’t a missionary- had garments, I would've had a knife in my back haha. we just kept walking and this guy didn't know what to do he just stood there looking at me.....haha don't freak out. god protects and provides and have testimonies of both of these things already.

Umm what more. idk. My comps leaving I love him, I think we´re kind of similar we both don't really speak if we don't feel like speaking. idk. but we have a great time chatting and laughing while walking in the streets. idk I'm going to miss him if he leaves and I really don't want a dead companion someone leaving soon or who doesn't want to work or is a frito.

I've grown to love the ward and I know a lot of the people I was thinking that I would be sad to leave this area too, idk.

I kind of lost the will to keep writing....

Javier, our inv. that is only 18 but he´s pretty darn cool, a little awkward, but pretty golden, finally came to church its going to be weird having appt.'s with him cause he has all the lessons he just needs church before he can get baptized, and we have to keep meeting with him to teach him more but the lessons are up. idk theres definitely things we can teach him but who knows.

My favorite catholic lady is hard to find now, Virginia, idk I really like her she is idk 55-60 so like a mother-grandmother figure she´s way cool and I just really want her to be teachable so we can bring her the happiness of the gospel. and teach her daughter and her granddaughter. this area has a ton of potential still, if I get a half decent comp we can continue to baptize every week here which is cool.

The pic after the other elders baptism, it was his birthday so some members bought him some cake and made hime that card and if you look closely you can see they spelled his name wrong. haha

Love you.

Elder Blotter

Week 16 - I.D.K ... a lot.

Haha about keeping the commandments -  I literally told someone yesterday that it was a sin to go and buy stuff on sunday and then she handed her daughter some money to go buy soda for us. Haha less actives for the win.  They just justify everything in their lives by saying “when I got baptized I changed all of this stuff....... and I made a big change didn’t I?”  “Well, yes you did, but a half change of heart isn’t what the Savior asked for.”   Maybe your’e just programmed to be zealous on the mission and you see and hear everyones problems so you know all the crap. 

Its all a little funny -  we hold leadership to a high standard pretty much ward counsel (consejo de barrio) idk the meeting with all the leaders, that meeting just includes all the members who are like active/converted.  Converted because I’ve realized converted means a lot more that convert. idk Converted is something that every member needs and I think it’s why a bunch of missionaries go on missions cause the lord needs to convert them. The members here who have gone on missions - you can tell that they just understand everything about the gospel way more.

I.d.k. what more to tell you that happened this week.  Hopefully we’ve found a couple of cool people to teach. oh the mother of a member whose wife isn’t a member nor his daughters have gotten baptized, we’ve tried to teach his brother and we tried to baptize his wife, she’ll get baptized she just needs some time, but his mom and his sister came to the activity and his mom told him that she wants to have a big family dinner and that she wants to invite the elders. hopefully we can teach her. that would be so cool to teach the whole family.

I Love You - 

Elder Blotter

María Luna and her husband Valentin

Everything that my kitchen entails. a blender a mini fridge and a hot plate.

Week 15 - Climbing the Mountain

This past week began with climbing the mountain.  It was actually pretty tough.  I realized I didn't bring any shorts here, so I just rolled up my jeans.  It was pretty sick! It's going to be the style when I get home, just sayin.  The hike was really cool though.  The city is huge, and the other side of the mountain has a cool view of non-Mexico City.  At the top of the hill were two giant crosses... catholics.

This week blew by and I honestly don't remember the first part of it. These last couple days were tough.  We had to quit an investigator, and we had a really tough lesson with the daughter of an investigator.  None of our investigator came to church, and we haven't had a baptism in two weeks.

What I've learned:

Fighting with catholics isn't productive. At. All.  It's so not worth it.  You can point out as many flaws or scriptures that prove the Apostasy, but without a desire to learn, they aren't going to listen. That's not saying I fought with this catholic, but instead I sat there.  I did, however, feel the spirit leave when the member, who was with us, tried to fight.  It was seriously a super tough lesson.  I don't even know how to explain it, but I now understand why this investigator has a hard time coming to church and why the other daughters don't listen. The oldest daughter has closed herself off to the spirit. 

Other peoples agency: the investigator we dropped wasn't keeping their commitments, and his "faith" wasn't true faith.  He was trying to create God in his own image, not the other way around.  One of his biggest doubts was that our agency was bad, or not true agency because there are requirements, and consequences.  He wanted Satan's plan. 

None of the members here understand Keeping the Sabbath Day Holy: The old bishop works on Sunday and when he's not working he has employees running his shop.  The meal on Sunday is always supplemented with things purchased 15 minutes before you eat, and in this case, this Sunday the wife handed her husband a wad of money and told him to go buy us food. 

I've been studying obedience and commandments a lot recently, as well as teaching by the spirit.  There are some awesome scriptures of those topics in the English topical guide.  The first part of Jeremiah has a ton of scriptures that apply to being a missionary.  Jeremiah said "I'm too young" and God was said "Go forth and I'll tell you what to say."  I think that that is so cool and so applicable to missions.  I've been trying really hard to follow the spirit recently,  and my spanish has improved along with my ability to teach and to feel what to teach and what to say.  In both of our hard lessons I felt prompted to say very specific things.

Love you guys!!!!

Elder Blotter

Week 14 - Poop

Responses To Questions:

So piano? Yeah, I play the opening hymn but none of the other ones, because the bishopric member conducting announces like 10 seconds before the hymn is sung, so I can't prepare at all.  They are terrible at singing so, I have to play perfect or I'm screwed. It's hard.

Work For This Week:

We worked our tails off.  Our investigators progressed but, at the same time, they all stopped progressing.  

Virginia, the really cool catholic lady, went out of town, so she couldn't come to church.  Her daughter apparently lives in a different colony during the weekend, so she can't/doesn't come to church.  

Fernando, who is like a rock compared to his family, (they're members) decided he couldn't come cause his studies were more important.  He is becoming a lawyer and has a big test coming up.

Maria Luna and her husband are being super frustrating.  They are willing to accept what we teach them, but recently they've been terrible at applying it.  Specifically, they are struggling with the Word of Wisdom.   No one here has understood the importance of the B.O.M and actually asking God if its true.  That is why there are so many less-active members here in Mexico - because they, as investigators, don't learn how to pray.  It sounds like something easy -  "You can just teach them the importance of reading and praying..." But after an entire lesson about the B.O.M, and the importance of it in conversion and praying to ask God if its true, you ask them to give the closing prayer of the lesson and they don't ask God if its all true in their prayer.  This prayer happens like ten seconds after asking them to pray and ask a specific question and they don't do it!  Discouraging...

This week I've been focusing on "commandments" and "obedience" in my personal study, there are some pretty wonderful scriptures about those.  One thing I found really intriguing was about Noah, in Genesis.  It talks about how Noah was perfect before God and just and all this stuff, and then if you look in Moses it says that Noah was obedient.  I think that's really cool that he was perfect before God.  Obedience is something based in love.  If we love God,  then we obey.  When we obey we receive blessings, when we disobey, Leviticus 26 says that there are some bad consequences.  If you act in rebellion there are some terrible consequences. One of my favorite scriptures on Obedience is 1 Nephi 3:7 "I will go and do..." and there's a part at the end of 2 Nephi where Nephi says, "I've written these things because the lord has commanded me and I MUST obey."  I want that in my character.  I don't know if I've shared this before: in Jesus the Christ it talks about Peter the Zealot.  and how he needed to tone his zealousness down to become an effective apostle.  He had to learn meekness and charity but his attribute of being zealously obedient made him a powerful apostle. 

Embarrassing Story Of The Week:

I felt weird all of yesterday, had like burps that tasted terrible from like the second I woke up till night time.  I felt weird in my stomach too, like I had to go to the bathroom all day.  At the last appt. of the day my stomach decided to die.  Not like "I felt sick", but  "If I didn't use a bathroom right then I'd curl up on the ground in a ball in pain," so I go to use the bathroom.  The door is a curtain and its about 7 feet away from the kitchen table were we were all sitting.  All I'm saying is that it wasn't quiet.  And I knew they were hearing practically everything. Pretty much I have just accepted the fact that everyone poops, and to not be ashamed.

Even funnier... another Elder in my ward pooped himself this past week.  They were really far from their house, so they took a taxi back, and when they got out of the Taxi, he left a nice little spot on the seat...... hahaha.  A day later the taxi driver came and was like remember me? Ya, I found the spot... and the Elder payed him a decent amount of money (for Mexico) to like clean it and to not get beat up.

well I love you guys!

Elder Blotter

This is the baptism I talked about in my last email.  She was baptized at age 7 and they lost her papers.

Selfie I took with the mountain we're going to climb today 

Week 13 - La Semana Santa

Answering Questions:

No eggs filled with flower here, Easter was a water fight!  Easter was a week long here.  It's weird. Everyone leaves for vacations, so Easter was just harder work.  No one is home and Catholics actually feel Catholic for at least one week of the year.

No, I didn't feel the earth quake, but all the people that we visited did.  They said it was pretty powerful, but we were in the church and didn't feel a thing. 

Update:

I don't have much time today to write, my bad.  It rained a ton this week - like poured.  Oh!  We baptized a member ;) haha.  She got baptized at age 7 and they lost her registry so we baptized her again.  

I'm having lots of fun down here in Mexico.  I have one funny story:  we have a recent convert that is legless (handicapped).  We visited him and he happened to be showering with a bucket, when we came by.  We waited until he came out in a towel and he talked with us.  He was completely nude but with a towel on.  He tried to keep himself covered, which was nice, but near the end he had an itch... He scratched with his right hand, then shook our hands goodbye. hahahahahahahahahahaha...

love you!

Elder Blotter