So this week was super cool. This week I'm grateful for three things:
Number one: I really enjoy having an english speaking comp. hahaha that's like one thing I'm truly grateful for.
Number two: it was my birthday; I am now twenty. Yippee! Hahaha weird though I felt like I was never nineteen. Haha birthday meant birthday cake, I apologize for not having photos, but my comp took them and forgot his memory card, and.... Honestly the internet is sketchy and the computer probably has viruses so I wouldn't have sent them even if I had the memory.
Number three: the work has like exploded in my area. hahaha finally my effort pays off too bad it took like almost 6 months to do it. like a couple weeks ago we found Alberto and pedro, family members to a super less active. super escogido peeps that we just put the baptismal date for the 7th of February. honestly like instead of like deadbeat inv. that you ask if they read and they say like "ya, didn't get around to it" Alberto and pedro we get there and they say "so i had a question, when Joseph smith restored the priesthood the original apostles came down to give it to him?" hahahaha. It's striking the difference. so from like a couple weeks ago with like one or two investigator that didn't really progress, we have them. apart from them we have another person that's just waiting to get baptized. she is a 15 year old girl, her mom is a less active member that honestly wants nothing to do with the church, but Diana has like friends at school that had given her the Book of Mormon and she started reading it. her dad is like a super catholic, and her parents are split up, she lives with the dad but comes to her mom's house on the weekends so that she can go to church, when we like got to know her we presented ourselves who we are like a normal "hi I'm elder blotter I'm from the united states blah blah blah'' it was her turn to present herself and she said something like "I'm Diana blah blah blah I'm really interested in being a missionary when I'm older like you, and i want to be a virtuous woman'' ........ get baptized already please. hahaha and she has gone to the church for like a month and a half where her dad lives because he went on vacation in December and she had to stay at the dad's house to take care of grandma, but she went to church every Sunday.
oh wait there's more, as well as Alberto pedro and Diana, we also have Emmanuel he is like the nephew or something of a member that lives in our area, that we'd visit the member and Emmanuel would ask about us after we left, till Raul says like hey i'll present them to you, Emmanuel is a good kid of 17 years with a baby, so he really likes the idea of the family and like getting organized and setting his life straight because he wants to be like a good dad and husband, the only disappointing thing in that was that Raul a member who was like bishop, high councilor more than once, is less active and so Raul didn't come to church and so Emmanuel didn't come either.
Don't leave still more new people, the elders crossing the major like highway from me that are in a different stake/zone had been teaching a family of 4 that lives in my area so they passed them over too, I've only talked to them on the phone though, we have an appt. Saturday they went to the church 3 times already, and the elder who gave the reference to me said they are super cool, so I'm excited for them too.
also we were walking on the street and some guy was like hey elders, and i looked at him then at my comp and said "do we stop, I'm not really in the mood to get robbed'' we stopped and it turns out he was a member, oops, haha and that his "wife" isn't but that they were listening the missionaries before. i think i have a big lesson to learn with them, to like not judge or to like work super hard cause they are going to be difficult. they're both 16 and they have a 2 month old baby. they didn't even finish junior high, and he`s looking for a job. but still they showed up out of nowhere so that we could help them, i just hope they do their part.
So like from the week before we had two at church I'm waiting/praying for 10 in church this Sunday.
Did I tell you that I bought a super cool searsucker tie? Hahahaha. We'll call it a Christmas present from me to me. Hahahaha.
Ooh also I don't know if I explained the bishop — ward council here in guelatao, like super dead. Hahahah no one did anything and they were all okay with it. Finally. I don't know why, but the bishop like brought everyone into ward council that like honestly he`s never held before, and like started saying new year let's get to work. FINALLY!!!!!!!
Hahaha idk I think that's about it. I also have to like give the first district meeting since I've been DL because practically every Monday we were having zone meeting. I hope that goes well.
Was this email to serious? Hahaha I don't know if I told this story, hahahahaha I think it's really funny. So we are waiting for a bus at like the spot the bus comes to go back to my area from the stake center. It's like kind of not that frequented of a bus route so we sometimes stand there on the corner for like 15-30 minutes that leaves some time for funny things to happen. So as a person i pretty much like make eye contact with everyone, in the halls in high school instead of being like focused on walking to class i look people in the eyes, here in Mexico i might have taken it to the next level, but we are standing on the street corner and like a group of four people are walking by in the street and i make eye contact with some dude and then he gets a crazy look in his eyes and then like stops walking and comes over to me. then the eye contact changes from just looking someone in the eyes to like a like a dog trying to sense fear or like get me to back down.... which was interesting cause i didn't say or do ANYTHING, hahaha and the dude was like crazy looking so i couldn't just look away, and he walked over to us and got into my face like super close, and he was like ya I'm right here what do you want, I'm right here ya like wanna go? haha he was about to like take his backpack off so he could like fight me, haha i was like hey like i don't know what i did but I'm sorry like bye.... haha after like this really tense moment of this i like turn and walk away and he like politely says goodbye to my comp, who looks like Mexican.
super funny but i guess it's that kind of story that makes more sense telling in person. hahahahaha
Love you guys.
elder blotter
Monday, January 12, 2015
Monday, January 5, 2015
Week 50 - Birthday time on the mission
Well, I totally could have written to you but we got super busy and I really ran out of time to email you guys. My bad.
I have no idea what to write about. I've been having a lot of fun with an English companion. He still wakes up late and does stuff that bothers me, but it's cool. I've been teaching and stuff like normal.
So the weeks from like the 12th of December till the 6th of January are hard because like everyone is busy and no one is home. So not a ton of stuff to talk about.
We found a new investigator that I'm not sure if I've mentioned or not, his name is Alberto. He is the husband of a super less-active member that we found who had, like, zero interest. So, we contacted her husband. He was super interested, which is awesome because his interest will help his inactive wife out a ton. We taught about the restoration, I think. We didn't invite him to church or something, my bad. The next time we went, we went and taught about the importance of going to church and the commandments, and we committed him to go to church. We went by his house Sunday morning and we didn't find him and at night we like couldn't go visit him so we didn't see him all week, which is like bad cause he can't progress. So we went by his house, on like Friday, and he like saw us and came out invited us in and was like why didn't you guys come by to take me to church, I was waiting and then I tried to find the church and I couldn't. So we committed him to come to church and we went back to his house to teach him after church. super cool investigator he has the desire, there are many investigator who like what we teach and everything but like only think about the gospel when we show up. we show up in his house and he was like so the three original apostles gave jose the priesthood? tell me about that? he also called me like thirty minutes before church started and told me his wife was sick and they were going to the hospital so i can't come to church, then he like thought about it and came to church. super cool. THAT NEVER HAPPENS!
Anyway it's super exciting finding new people to teach. I honestly don't know what to write we went to the mall today and I bought a super sick tie and a sweater, birthday presents to me. The tie was a little expensive but worth it.
Last Sunday we had like 25 people at church, not one investigator and like 5 less actives. This Sunday there were like 50 people 18 less actives and three investigator New Year's resolutions I think cause like working this past week was difficult and we didn't even have that many lessons.
Anyway love you tons. My packages haven't gotten here yet. You made some comment about you didn't think it was going to show up, I think it's going to come it just takes forever. Hahaha also about packages I was worried Fedex was super expensive. I think there is a service similar to"Dear Elder" for packages that look like they don't take forever.
I'm going to try and have a good birthday here in the mission; eat some cake for me at home.
Loves!
Elder Blotter
I have no idea what to write about. I've been having a lot of fun with an English companion. He still wakes up late and does stuff that bothers me, but it's cool. I've been teaching and stuff like normal.
So the weeks from like the 12th of December till the 6th of January are hard because like everyone is busy and no one is home. So not a ton of stuff to talk about.
We found a new investigator that I'm not sure if I've mentioned or not, his name is Alberto. He is the husband of a super less-active member that we found who had, like, zero interest. So, we contacted her husband. He was super interested, which is awesome because his interest will help his inactive wife out a ton. We taught about the restoration, I think. We didn't invite him to church or something, my bad. The next time we went, we went and taught about the importance of going to church and the commandments, and we committed him to go to church. We went by his house Sunday morning and we didn't find him and at night we like couldn't go visit him so we didn't see him all week, which is like bad cause he can't progress. So we went by his house, on like Friday, and he like saw us and came out invited us in and was like why didn't you guys come by to take me to church, I was waiting and then I tried to find the church and I couldn't. So we committed him to come to church and we went back to his house to teach him after church. super cool investigator he has the desire, there are many investigator who like what we teach and everything but like only think about the gospel when we show up. we show up in his house and he was like so the three original apostles gave jose the priesthood? tell me about that? he also called me like thirty minutes before church started and told me his wife was sick and they were going to the hospital so i can't come to church, then he like thought about it and came to church. super cool. THAT NEVER HAPPENS!
Anyway it's super exciting finding new people to teach. I honestly don't know what to write we went to the mall today and I bought a super sick tie and a sweater, birthday presents to me. The tie was a little expensive but worth it.
Last Sunday we had like 25 people at church, not one investigator and like 5 less actives. This Sunday there were like 50 people 18 less actives and three investigator New Year's resolutions I think cause like working this past week was difficult and we didn't even have that many lessons.
Anyway love you tons. My packages haven't gotten here yet. You made some comment about you didn't think it was going to show up, I think it's going to come it just takes forever. Hahaha also about packages I was worried Fedex was super expensive. I think there is a service similar to"Dear Elder" for packages that look like they don't take forever.
I'm going to try and have a good birthday here in the mission; eat some cake for me at home.
Loves!
Elder Blotter
Monday, December 1, 2014
Week 45 - Changes and Challenges
So this week was pretty good. Idk. wasn't anything out of the ordinary. We had a lot of appointments with investigator that fell through, so thats always fun.
I'm begging that I'm with Elder Hernandez, he has 20 months but he is pretty darn obedient so thats a breath of fresh air. The only thing is he's new in the area and he's semi-quiet so I talk a lot in the lessons. He is from Guatemala, not Mexico, and he is also another key indicator that he's not dead or frito.
Mom you asked if I was senior comp. yes. I've been senior since, like, September or more. Not that it really means anything. But no I'm not training anymore either. My child got changes and I got Elder Hernandez.
What else? Oh, my investigator, named Roque (pronounced rocky) is a super, super cool guy he's having a lot of desafios (challenges), which sounds better in Spanish. He is super escogido (chosen), this guy, but in this past week he got his wallet stolen. The next day he fixed it all, re-did the paperwork to get his drivers license and all that jazz, and then he gets in a car accident. He's a taxi driver. Over the next day or two he got car-jacked. Ya, tough situations! I don't really know whats going on in his family life but I think his unmarried daughter got pregnant too, we promise blessing for going to church and by beginning to live the gospel and Satan steps in and throws a bunch of trails and someone mentioned to him that everything bad is happening because he stopped praying to the virgin de Guadalupe, don't you just love catholicism.
But I have a baptism this Saturday, finally. It's been long enough.
the other day we were teaching a less active family that I've grown to love them but they are so frustrating. we teach a good lesson about the scriptures and then challenge them to keep it they all say yes. we go back in three days and no one read anything. we challenge them to go to church and they say yes. then no one goes. so we {went over there and we talked for a while about the importance of all this stuff and i finally got fed up and righteously called them out. And told them they have a lot of problems as a family and if they want to apply the gospel to change and fix their problems they can but what are we doing here teaching if you guys don't want to change. did we waste the past hour challenging you to read or whats up? i hope they can understand that the gauntlet was thrown not because i don't like them, but because i do, and i want them to change and live the blessings of the gospel.
What else can I tell you? November blew by so fast, honestly so fast. It's already December and it feels like mid September. It is hot in the day with a cool breeze and cold at night. Everyone is like dying from the "cold"!
Welp, I think thats all folks.
Love you guys, have a great week.
Elder Joshua Blotter
I'm begging that I'm with Elder Hernandez, he has 20 months but he is pretty darn obedient so thats a breath of fresh air. The only thing is he's new in the area and he's semi-quiet so I talk a lot in the lessons. He is from Guatemala, not Mexico, and he is also another key indicator that he's not dead or frito.
Mom you asked if I was senior comp. yes. I've been senior since, like, September or more. Not that it really means anything. But no I'm not training anymore either. My child got changes and I got Elder Hernandez.
What else? Oh, my investigator, named Roque (pronounced rocky) is a super, super cool guy he's having a lot of desafios (challenges), which sounds better in Spanish. He is super escogido (chosen), this guy, but in this past week he got his wallet stolen. The next day he fixed it all, re-did the paperwork to get his drivers license and all that jazz, and then he gets in a car accident. He's a taxi driver. Over the next day or two he got car-jacked. Ya, tough situations! I don't really know whats going on in his family life but I think his unmarried daughter got pregnant too, we promise blessing for going to church and by beginning to live the gospel and Satan steps in and throws a bunch of trails and someone mentioned to him that everything bad is happening because he stopped praying to the virgin de Guadalupe, don't you just love catholicism.
But I have a baptism this Saturday, finally. It's been long enough.
the other day we were teaching a less active family that I've grown to love them but they are so frustrating. we teach a good lesson about the scriptures and then challenge them to keep it they all say yes. we go back in three days and no one read anything. we challenge them to go to church and they say yes. then no one goes. so we {went over there and we talked for a while about the importance of all this stuff and i finally got fed up and righteously called them out. And told them they have a lot of problems as a family and if they want to apply the gospel to change and fix their problems they can but what are we doing here teaching if you guys don't want to change. did we waste the past hour challenging you to read or whats up? i hope they can understand that the gauntlet was thrown not because i don't like them, but because i do, and i want them to change and live the blessings of the gospel.
What else can I tell you? November blew by so fast, honestly so fast. It's already December and it feels like mid September. It is hot in the day with a cool breeze and cold at night. Everyone is like dying from the "cold"!
Welp, I think thats all folks.
Love you guys, have a great week.
Elder Joshua Blotter
Monday, October 27, 2014
Week 40 - Better Week
Hello.
So I didn't take a picture this week to send to you, sorry my bad.
Also this week was super tranquilo.
Hahah so we went and visited a bunch of the primary children with the primary presidency one afternoon, and went to a spot in my area thats like super sketchy, and it felt super uncomfortable because the primary presidency aren't a bunch of old, ugly, fat women. We were walking and theres like a bunch of drug addicts in the street and it was just a super strange experience.
Also, what else? Oh, we visited a part of my ward that we hadn't visited in the entire time I've been here. While we were visiting a family that lives there the elders from the neighboring ward and stake showed up. It was kind of an awkward situation, except that the area we visited is a disputed area. The maps show that the area is in my ward but the stake presidents had like a verbal agreement to secede the area to another stake. Oh how I love the church and her organization, not! Well, at least not here in Mexico. Hahaha the church is rather organized in the states -- Mexico is chaos and that is passed onto the church and it shouldn't.
We did shut-ins; we gave the sacrament to a family that couldn't come to church cause he, a member of the family, had surgery.
This week blew past honestly because were trying to get the ward to work so we've been accompanying the organizations visiting the members and the days went super fast.
I forgot our inv. Alejandra who was super excited about the church and accepted everything and was reading and praying and all that stuff, and then she disappeared from off the face of the earth for like 2 weeks. and we finally talked to her and we had a super cool lesson about the gospel of Jesus christ. and repentance and we used a ton of questions of what she learned and it was really cool. she was receiving a lot of negative pressure from her mom and family and she finally took the decision to say no, this is what i want and this is what is best for me. it was cool to hear her. and to feel the spirit so strong.
Honestly I feel like I have nothing more to share....
Love you! Thanks for your prayers and your emails, they make my day and week so much better.
Elder Blotter
So I didn't take a picture this week to send to you, sorry my bad.
Also this week was super tranquilo.
Hahah so we went and visited a bunch of the primary children with the primary presidency one afternoon, and went to a spot in my area thats like super sketchy, and it felt super uncomfortable because the primary presidency aren't a bunch of old, ugly, fat women. We were walking and theres like a bunch of drug addicts in the street and it was just a super strange experience.
Also, what else? Oh, we visited a part of my ward that we hadn't visited in the entire time I've been here. While we were visiting a family that lives there the elders from the neighboring ward and stake showed up. It was kind of an awkward situation, except that the area we visited is a disputed area. The maps show that the area is in my ward but the stake presidents had like a verbal agreement to secede the area to another stake. Oh how I love the church and her organization, not! Well, at least not here in Mexico. Hahaha the church is rather organized in the states -- Mexico is chaos and that is passed onto the church and it shouldn't.
We did shut-ins; we gave the sacrament to a family that couldn't come to church cause he, a member of the family, had surgery.
This week blew past honestly because were trying to get the ward to work so we've been accompanying the organizations visiting the members and the days went super fast.
I forgot our inv. Alejandra who was super excited about the church and accepted everything and was reading and praying and all that stuff, and then she disappeared from off the face of the earth for like 2 weeks. and we finally talked to her and we had a super cool lesson about the gospel of Jesus christ. and repentance and we used a ton of questions of what she learned and it was really cool. she was receiving a lot of negative pressure from her mom and family and she finally took the decision to say no, this is what i want and this is what is best for me. it was cool to hear her. and to feel the spirit so strong.
Honestly I feel like I have nothing more to share....
Love you! Thanks for your prayers and your emails, they make my day and week so much better.
Elder Blotter
Monday, October 20, 2014
Week 39 - Fixed Brad's tie...
Hey!
I'd be halfway done with the mission if I was a girl. I'm about to hit about of halfway marks in the mission, my first of two halloweens thanksgiving my only christmas that I'm going to have in the mission. It's strange. I'm almost halfway done. Hahahaha I'm not trunky I just don't like my comp.
So... this week was different. I spent practically half the time out of my area, my comp had something wrong with his back so we went to the offices to have them buy the pills, and take x rays to see what the problem was-is that was Tuesday morning. Wednesday we went to go pick up the X-rays from the clinic that took forever. Thursday we went to the temple to get the X-rays read by the doctor, Friday we went to the temple to get flu shots, I opted for not getting shot. Hahaha and Saturday we had a mission meeting that I was hoping Dallin H. Oaks was going to come too. But no, just President. And there was lots and lots of combi riding. A combi is like a passenger van (smaller that prison vans) that they line with seats and fill with like 17 people 18 with driver, I think.
Traveling here is stressful and when it gets hot you open the windows and breath a lot of smog.
And its crowded.
When I went to the temple I was wanting to see Bryce from BYU cause I think all the Mexico City missions were getting vaccinated. I don't think vaccinated is a word. But I didn't. Darn.
Anyway our investigator, Alejandra, was progressing super well. She came with us to the visitors center, had a baptismal date, and was super excited. She had a ton of problems in her personal life and she said that the gospel was helping her, that all her problems were trials because Satan doesn't want her to know the truth. Yep... and now we have had one lesson with her in the last like two weeks.
Also the guy that sells hamburgers close to our house took our message really well, but now he is like being weird. Haha he bailed on his appointment that we had and he acts weird, idk. I saw so much potential in this guy and his family and he wont use his agency to accept Jesus in his life!
So pretty much all of our investigators buzzed out. Ramon, the guy that I'm pretty sure has received all the missionary lessons and everything in other areas and even in the states, is practically impossible to talk to and he's unreliable. He didn't come to church. So we went from three progressing and a baptismal date to all zeros. The silver lining is that we have like three families that are referrals that are pending, so I could have good news in the next email.
I realized how much I hate negative speaking. We have a couple members who we visit who are like super strong in the gospel and they know like everything, and they just want to bash the bishop for a good hour. I understand and agree that the bishop is crap, but I just get depressed listening to it. And instead of saying it's okay well keep working until the bishop changes or I'll do my part even though he's not doing his, they all think *I'll just go to church once every 3 months to stay active and hibernate until the bishop gets changed.*
So we had a mission meeting with all the missionaries in the mission because president is fed up with all the disobedience. He put a row of chairs in the front of the room and said "Disobedience is equal to not having faith and if you don't want to be obedient then go home." We sat in silence for like a good minute or two until he asked "Who wants to go home?" I honestly hope the mission changes, but my comp hasn't changed his attitude. Ugh.
Also president said that missions are supposed to be fun, and they can be fun. I so want for my mission to be fun, but I'm suffering here, haha, and boy can I tell you it's not fun!
I was thinking out loud while changing out of my suit on Saturday and my comp like blew up and called me a bunch of names. Hahahahaha it was so out of nowhere, I didn't know what the heck was up. So instead of going and visiting people we had a little chat until he got his head back on. Boy, do I love my companion. I sure have learned a lot. But it's not the types of learning experiences you look for. I've learned to be patient and not to argue to not respond, I've learned a lot of humility. And long suffering. I guess I had to learn those attributes sometime I just hope I can be done learning them in two weeks.
In my studies I'm reading from every book in the standard works. In Leviticus it's talking about the ordinances in the temple and its kinda cool to read between the lines about the robes of the priesthood and the sons of Aaron. In the B.O.M. - I finished it in Spanish about two weeks ago so I'm reading it again and reading the parts that when I first was reading I was in the mtc and I'm appreciating it a lot more. I really like Nephi he's like my hero. Also I'm reading "Jesus the Christ" again, it's such a killer book. Talmadge nailed one home when he wrote it. It explains so clearly everything about Jesus and his life. I'm waiting anxiously until I get the conference edition of the liahona another reason I want these two weeks to be done already.
So the photo I sent, I fixed brads tie. Hahahaha I hope that doesn't make him mad, or sad, or jealous because now it's not hideous. I washed it and then made it skinnier. Hahahaha... I didn't cut it so if brad wants it back to its original width when I get home then he can.
Ummm well I think thats all folks.
Love you bunches,
Elder Blotter
I'd be halfway done with the mission if I was a girl. I'm about to hit about of halfway marks in the mission, my first of two halloweens thanksgiving my only christmas that I'm going to have in the mission. It's strange. I'm almost halfway done. Hahahaha I'm not trunky I just don't like my comp.
So... this week was different. I spent practically half the time out of my area, my comp had something wrong with his back so we went to the offices to have them buy the pills, and take x rays to see what the problem was-is that was Tuesday morning. Wednesday we went to go pick up the X-rays from the clinic that took forever. Thursday we went to the temple to get the X-rays read by the doctor, Friday we went to the temple to get flu shots, I opted for not getting shot. Hahaha and Saturday we had a mission meeting that I was hoping Dallin H. Oaks was going to come too. But no, just President. And there was lots and lots of combi riding. A combi is like a passenger van (smaller that prison vans) that they line with seats and fill with like 17 people 18 with driver, I think.
Traveling here is stressful and when it gets hot you open the windows and breath a lot of smog.
And its crowded.
When I went to the temple I was wanting to see Bryce from BYU cause I think all the Mexico City missions were getting vaccinated. I don't think vaccinated is a word. But I didn't. Darn.
Anyway our investigator, Alejandra, was progressing super well. She came with us to the visitors center, had a baptismal date, and was super excited. She had a ton of problems in her personal life and she said that the gospel was helping her, that all her problems were trials because Satan doesn't want her to know the truth. Yep... and now we have had one lesson with her in the last like two weeks.
Also the guy that sells hamburgers close to our house took our message really well, but now he is like being weird. Haha he bailed on his appointment that we had and he acts weird, idk. I saw so much potential in this guy and his family and he wont use his agency to accept Jesus in his life!
So pretty much all of our investigators buzzed out. Ramon, the guy that I'm pretty sure has received all the missionary lessons and everything in other areas and even in the states, is practically impossible to talk to and he's unreliable. He didn't come to church. So we went from three progressing and a baptismal date to all zeros. The silver lining is that we have like three families that are referrals that are pending, so I could have good news in the next email.
I realized how much I hate negative speaking. We have a couple members who we visit who are like super strong in the gospel and they know like everything, and they just want to bash the bishop for a good hour. I understand and agree that the bishop is crap, but I just get depressed listening to it. And instead of saying it's okay well keep working until the bishop changes or I'll do my part even though he's not doing his, they all think *I'll just go to church once every 3 months to stay active and hibernate until the bishop gets changed.*
So we had a mission meeting with all the missionaries in the mission because president is fed up with all the disobedience. He put a row of chairs in the front of the room and said "Disobedience is equal to not having faith and if you don't want to be obedient then go home." We sat in silence for like a good minute or two until he asked "Who wants to go home?" I honestly hope the mission changes, but my comp hasn't changed his attitude. Ugh.
Also president said that missions are supposed to be fun, and they can be fun. I so want for my mission to be fun, but I'm suffering here, haha, and boy can I tell you it's not fun!
I was thinking out loud while changing out of my suit on Saturday and my comp like blew up and called me a bunch of names. Hahahahaha it was so out of nowhere, I didn't know what the heck was up. So instead of going and visiting people we had a little chat until he got his head back on. Boy, do I love my companion. I sure have learned a lot. But it's not the types of learning experiences you look for. I've learned to be patient and not to argue to not respond, I've learned a lot of humility. And long suffering. I guess I had to learn those attributes sometime I just hope I can be done learning them in two weeks.
In my studies I'm reading from every book in the standard works. In Leviticus it's talking about the ordinances in the temple and its kinda cool to read between the lines about the robes of the priesthood and the sons of Aaron. In the B.O.M. - I finished it in Spanish about two weeks ago so I'm reading it again and reading the parts that when I first was reading I was in the mtc and I'm appreciating it a lot more. I really like Nephi he's like my hero. Also I'm reading "Jesus the Christ" again, it's such a killer book. Talmadge nailed one home when he wrote it. It explains so clearly everything about Jesus and his life. I'm waiting anxiously until I get the conference edition of the liahona another reason I want these two weeks to be done already.
So the photo I sent, I fixed brads tie. Hahahaha I hope that doesn't make him mad, or sad, or jealous because now it's not hideous. I washed it and then made it skinnier. Hahahaha... I didn't cut it so if brad wants it back to its original width when I get home then he can.
Ummm well I think thats all folks.
Love you bunches,
Elder Blotter
Monday, October 13, 2014
Week 38 - Serenity Now!
So pretty much the same this week.
Taught lessons, visited members and that kind of stuff. Haha I still don't really like my comp, and by say don't really like him, is just my acceptance of the mission presidents will and through him gods will.
This week we found a lot of new less actives. This ward is in such bad shape. hahahaha there a ton of members and cool members too, but Guelatao used to be one of the biggest wards in the stake with the best membership numbers and all that jazz now we started the sacrament meeting with 17 people. and ended with 40. the thing is that we honestly cant visit all the members, we learned this week about an entire section of the ward that we hadn't visited because we didn't think it was ours. There are at least 25 names in the list that live over there.
This past week we went to the visitors center the doctor a wedding and a baptism. so the week blew by which was really nice. my comp thought he had a problem with his kidneys but the doctor this time said it was is back, like spinal chord pain. so we´re going for an x ray tomorrow and another visit to the doctor Thursday. honestly i don't know what it is but my last couple comps had a bunch of health problems whilst we were together.
We went to the visitors center and brought our inv. who was going to get baptized the 25 or 28th whichever is Saturday. she felt the spirit learned about Jesus and the prophets and apostles. honestly the visitors center is normally the one two punch of a convert. you have someone who is ready for baptism and is scared or doesn't get it all yet or you want them to understand the eternal nature of the family a little bit better. the temple. seriously its always a cool experience.
The only thing that stunk about that was that she didn't come to church on Sunday so she has to wait to be baptized.
What else we finally recontacted some people that we contacted like my first day, and talked with them for a while about missionaries and what we do and that stuff and how he took study from the JW´s for like a year and wasn't convinced, ya because they don't have the truth, so we are going to visit them today, it's a house that more that 15 people live there. and not like a dept. building, like family who i think are going to progress towards baptism. super cool.
Idk. what else happened this week... I'm sure more.
The pic is Friday night when it rained like crazy. And a member gave me a poncho. Pretty styling. I felt dumb but dry so it was all good.
I'm sticking it out here. Missions are better when you have a good comp. hahahahaha I think ill be training next change, but that's like 4 weeks aways. which I hope passes as fast as this change did. Don't worry I'm knocking on wood as we speak. God wants me to learn something with this comp I'm sure of it.
Oh, I remembered the story of the week. we decided to teach sabbath day to the people in our ward, we taught the lesson twice, and after i testify of like completing with gods commandments brings blessings. my comps says its okay if you work on Sundays god understands work is a beautiful thing... i just sat there speechless, we left the house and i was like how in the world do i tell my comp to stop teaching that. he asked me whats wrong. i said hey when we teach people about the commandments, you cant at the end tell them it's okay to break them. he like blew up and like a racist Mexican told me I've never had problems in my life and i don't understand, maybe i don't understand poverty but i do understand gods commandments.
"Courage not compromise brings the smile of gods approval"
- Thomas S Monson.
Ya that got him really mad, and I had to cool off too. Idk, I'm just waiting for the changes honestly.
Serenity now!
Love you!
Elder Blotter
Monday, October 6, 2014
Week 37 - #LDSConf
Hello!
How are you this week? I'm doing pretty well. I needed to hear this general conference. It gave me extra energy or more batteries. I don't feel so drained and I feel like I have more power to teach the gospel. I love hearing the prophet’s voice. Love it. I had been waiting about a six months to hear their voices. Always it seems like everything that’s said is applicable in missionary work, which is wonderful.
In conference, there were a lot of new things, no? People speaking other languages, three topics in a row all about sustaining the prophet, Uchtdorf forgot to fix his hair... It was really cool to hear the talks in Spanish, which were in Spanish. Of course I listen to conf in English. But we entered the room with everyone else to hear the ones in Spanish. I really liked Jorge's talk, he was super straightforward and I felt a renewed call to commit myself to perfect obedience — not that I had stopped being obedient or anything just that I can be better, I'd say the prevailing topics were the fast, testimony and the prophet. Being a missionary during conf is a super cool experience. You get to sit in the stake center in your suit on hard plastic chairs and pay attention to every session of conference, and you get specific answers to your prayers, but that isn't necessarily specific to missionaries.
Anyway, the work here in Guelatao. I learned in conf to stop thinking "I hope the bishops listening right now to this talk", because about ten-seconds before that was said the thought ran through my head. Hahaha so I learned to focus more on me. Be more selfish in my spirituality. Hahaha but I told you we found Alejandra no? She is an investigator who is having a hard time but is super animated (he means "excited") to continue in the gospel, and with the lessons. She was sick so she couldn't go to church on Sunday which is always hard, and Ramón, who is super ready to be a member but he just needs to find time for us was gone and we couldn't see him all week. We also found a bunch of new less actives, idk I feel less discouraged by the work and more impelled to teach and contact after conference.
My comp, simply put my comp is paying me back for all the times I was a bad sibling. We have a family in our ward that consists of a grandma, single mom and two young men 10 years and 12 years. They are a super cool family but Oscar and Omar fight like cats and dogs and I just feel sad that I can see myself in their behavior and every admonitino (baby admonish) that I share with the two kids are the things that I'm using to not kill my companion, hahaha like being the better person being kind, not getting mad, swallowing my pride and just listening when he insults me. Hahaha teaches me right I guess.
You know how missionaries come back from the missions and are fanatics right I was thinking about that and the people who assist general conference here. There are what 5 sessions of conference 6 if we count the women's broadcast, but 5 during conf weekend. And here in Mexico we the missionaries arrive and listen to every session. A total of ten hours of conf. and there are a couple different levels of members here. There are about 15 people in the stake who stay for every session. There are about 80-ish who stay for all the sessions on Sunday, there are like 450 or more who show up for Sunday morning and there are those who take a break from church. And as a missionary I cant but think how horrible it is to not watch every single minute of every single session. And that’s not something I feel like I want to lose when I get home — hence missionary fanatic. Hahaha there are things that I think god wants you to learn on your mish and become a fanatic about scriptures prayer conference, church attendance, going to every activity in church, etc. Idk where I was going with that thought but there it was.
My friend Bryce who is in the Mexico City like east mission who is a secretary with 3 months in the mish, talked to the secretaries of our mission and sent a hello, that was pretty cool, hahaha.
Other random thoughts I've been in the same stake in my whole mission but for three weeks.
Another thing that was super cool about conference was seeing people. I got to say hi to all the people I left in Ixtla all the members the converts and everything it was really cool, I have a lot of friends in that ward. And it was cool to see the other missionaries, and since we the white people, I would say Americans but there were two Canadians, and Mexicans get offended when I call myself American, watched it in English we spoke in English the whole time. It was nice. Hahaha I've only been speaking Spanish for a while, took a little relaxing break to shake out some stress.
What else, well my comp he's like sick in his kidneys or something and he's been taking medicine and everything for the kidneys for like the entire time we've been together, well this week his meds were three shots that he took in the butt cheek, hahaha it was pretty funny to see him get a large injection in his cheek and then walk crooked as we went back to our house.
Sorry that I haven't been taking many pictures but the areas a little sketchy and I don't carry my camera, and my comps not really my friend and so there’s not a lot of photo taking in the house.
I washed that dirty tie that brad gave me that has been on like ten missions, I'm sorry to whoever got their name erased, but it was time.
Well, I feel like I ran out of things to say.
#selfiesunday. I got soaked as we walked home in the rain on Sunday night and I took this selfie in remembrance of selfiesunday, and to have something to send home.
Love,
Elder Blotter
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