Week 92 - Note from Executive Director of the Missionary Department

Dear Brother and Sister Blotter,

My wife and I just concluded a tour of the Mexico City Southeast Mission.  During our time there we had the opportunity to meet your wonderful son, Joshua.  He has been an outstanding missionary.  His President and wife speak very highly of him.  I was able to interview him during our zone conference and found a very mature young man with a strong testimony of the gospel.

Thank your for sending your son and thank you for raising such and outstanding young man.

May the Lord bless you and your family as he continues to serve.

Sincerely yours,

Elder Brent H. Nielson
Executive Director of the Missionary Department

Week 92

Hello.

how are you guys im doing great.

I´ve been punching it out here in texcoco without like any visible success. we arent getting discouraged though. we had zero investigators in church again. that is just sooo painfull to have.

but sunday was ward conference. which is nice cause lots of people come to that, and the stake pres talked and the bishop. the stake pres gave a good talk he just didnt take his talk to application it was just a feel good talk.

And monday we had a zone conference with elder nielson and his wife. it was a really cool experience and i like the sister nielsons talk she talked about how what is being a nielson, then she talked about how in laws change and she said ruin but as a joke, the dynamic in the family and how to accept and more than just tolerate people but really to learn from them. i really liked that cause i feel like in the mission i had thought that it taught me that but i realized i have just tolerated some of my companions, tolerated very well, but never really got to the center and loved them adn made them my best friends.-on some of my comps yes- she went on to talk about her sons and their character adn some comps they had in the misino and how they learned grew and applied it to us.

elder nielson talked to us about the atonement and the enabling power and the doctrine of christ and he helped us apply it to missionary worka dn hwo to teach better contqct better certain principles that he thought we could do a better job teaching and stuff like that. it was a truly choice experience.

the meeting was in the stake center, whichis like 90 mins from my area, so we got permissino to stay over at the zone leaders house, actually they told us to do it so we didnt have to wake up at 5 am to be there. but at the zone leaders house they had like 2 extra blankets and no extra mattresses and there were four of us that slept in their house. i had brought a blanket, but it got chilly, and the cement floor was cold. so i slept all night on a a cardboard box that i laid out on the ground like a homeless person, it was terrrible. hahahhhahaha

idk we went to siome lame ruins today in my area, i bought a chess board to teach my comp how to play chess. hahaha to keep the brain active in between study sessinos.


not much more. i sent an email to a dude about my job, he still hasnt replied if chels could contact him, i sent an email to kyle.
when is registration for classes? and i dont want an earlier class than 9 am please and thank you. also about the apartment, if you could find one where i only have to sign a semester contract? cause after a semester i probably will have friends i wan tto live with again.



UMMMMM did i forget anything? chang my major no?

love you

Elder Blotter



The first two pictures some super lame ruins in the middle of the city of texcoco, my area

this was at a fair, we paid like 10 pesos to take a pic with this cool snake

Week 91 - First Week of Last Full Transfer

Hey,

This week we did a ton of service. We found a couple of lost less actives and we found a bunch of new investigators, but the all put the return appt. for this week.

ummm... I'm honestly pulling a blank for what happened this week. hahaha

I love you guys tons. It's freaking me out having to sign up for classes at byu. I don't want to think about that at all, hahahaha but I know that I have to... and it stresses me out a lot.

I still haven't had a ton of success in this ward where I'm serving, but we're still trying hard. We're still working, working, working.  It's such a super large area that makes it's so hard to effectively work. There aren't a ton of members in a centralized place, so we have to go and visit the one or two members that do live in an area, and contact and look for maybe a less active if we are lucky and then that's like the afternoon. It makes it really hard. hahahaha

We had a super cool less active come back to activity and then like a week ago he had a stroke, I think, and now from what I know he can't speak. It's super, super sad, because he was wanting so much to be an active member of the church after like 54 years of getting baptized.

Ummm I re-did a chicken coop at a members home. As we dug up the ground three rats ran out and got on me... it was super super cool. Hahahahahaha we also went to a birthday party of a two year old. It made me remember how old-ish Tanner was when I left.  Hahaha. He was half talking and stuff.

Hahaha I love you tons seriously. I'll write a better letter next week, and I'll have more success this week.

LOVES,

Elder Blotter

Week 90 - Look who's coming home!!!

Look who's coming home!!!! 😇

Sent from my iPhone

Begin forwarded message:

From: Joshua Blotter <jblotter@myldsmail.net>
Date: October 12, 2015 at 2:58:19 PM MDT
To: Shauna Blotter <shauna.blotter@gmail.com>, michael blotter <blottervet@hotmail.com>
Subject: Fwd: Flightz


Que onda homies. Here´s your flight!!! Let your parents, bishop, and stake pres know. If there are any questions, concerns, or complaints they can be directed to my companion, Elder Orchard. Thank you.



Elder Olson I Secretario Ejecutivo I Misión México Ciudad de México Sureste
Avenida del Taller 540, Col. Jardín Balbuena, Venustiano Carranza I México DF, 15900
Celular 5554315074 I Oficina 26120223

Week 89

hey family

hahaha mom you ask me every conference if i watch it live. yes. haha where we are in mexico is like a massive city, currently on the outskirts of that city but everything is moderna dn i think we´re like an hour behind salt lake in the time, and that hour just cause daylight savings is different here.
i really really like the conference and felt like i received a lot of answers, about how to have more success be happier and lots of things. through the spirit.

hahah so ya i fell into a river. the water was only like a foot deep but it was sand and very loose sooo like the watery sand stuff was like 3-4 feet deep. haha my notebook it was where i had taken my notes when D. Todd Christofferson came and last general conference adn had the lists of members i had made, so ya it was important. hahaha it totally got ruined but the writing and stiuff was fine.

yup it was like pottery on point references to the gospel.  did i throw a pot, the answer is not yet.
can you send me the recipies mom.

this week was good. idk normal missionary work we found family of three on like tuesday and then we dropped them on thursday. that was cool, not. we did find a really cool inv. on friday, a reference from a sister we hadnt ever gone to visit nor had she come to church the entire time ive been here. the inv. is a single mother of 25. we decided here in mexico that is honestly the best group of inv. they want and need help in their lives, theyre normally willing to read the scriptures and the couple well with wards normally. she was going to come to conf but for an unknown reason didnt-couldnt


honestly this last week was super fast cause of conference that gets rid of normal saturday and sunday working.

something really cool about this area and ward is that for some reason there are a lot of foreigners, and by that i mean from out of mexico and out fo teh state.
there is a venezuelan, from sinaloa, from veracruz, from guerrero, michaocan, form jalisco, we met some member in the street yesterday from el salvador he was on his way to illegaly enter the united states. ahha
so the other day we got to eat some fish prepared like sinaloan style. twas pretty yummy. last week we ate like venezuelan food, they were like corn pancakes that you ate with cheese instead of sweet.

well idk. ill try and kick butt this week. we all need to be better at listening to the spirit.
love elder blotter.

Week 88

you know the song when semptember ends..... ya well semptember is ending. thats weird. i only have three months left......................


so this week was pretty crzy. hahah we had like two days that we walked atound all day long and teh only house we got into wsa the food. i also fell into a river this week. hahahahaha hahhaha there is the river that just like crosses the road like no big deal, and we had to cross it and so as i jog across the river thats like ancle deep, my notebook falls in and upon crossing the river my comp tells me about my fallen notebook, i drop my jbackpack adn go to the notebooks rescue and step in the river and instead of a bottom firm my leg dropped till like till my thigh. hhahahaha ya. that was pretty nuts. had to take my shoes off and wash tehm out and i walked around for the next two hours with dirty wet sheos and socks and pants. hahahahahahaha

success´ well... we found a couple new less active families thats always exciting for well at least me. haha one is a mother daughter and then they stood us up when we traveled 30 + mins out to visit them, the crappy thing is that even though they stood us up, we couldnt keep workin out there cause the last bus back to texcoco passes at like 730. the other family is an entire family i think that got baptised and as we talked they mentioned idk what adn she took us out to the work shop they have in the back yard that was like a pottery- wood working- paper mache  workshop they even have some sort of pottery wheel............................................ i was pretty stoked. i hope to help them come back. the mom was pretty tough and the father lives in like another state now for his work...... but they have an 18 year old son. who was like ya i want to come back to church. but he´s in some intensive high school agricultural program that takes the classes to travel like every week end.................. so he cant come to church for like 2 solid weeks. but he was cool.


idk. what else really happened this week. im always tired.. ahhahaha my companions name is elder choc he´s from yucatan hes cool.

lots of the poeople in the pueblos mom go to the city to work, or there are a lot of farms, tons of people here are teachers cause theres a bunch of high schools and like two or three universities.

i asked dad but if mom can do it that´d be nice too, can you send me the lemon bar recipe adn the quiche recipe, i was talkign with a sister with holiday traditions adn she wants to try adnd make it. and i think it´ll be fun. hahaha.


idk

love you guys tons!

Elder Blotter

Week 87

awww we lost to ucla? they used to be horrible when i was home are they better now or is byu playing lousy?

we only have two inv. i think. one is cool and everything but she runs like a lumber store- carpintry place- and by like runs i mean she owns the business..... and she`s getting divorced, but she`s cool and her secretary is a member of the church a 19 year old girl thats putting her papers in for the mission. but the member hasnt reallized yet, i think she will when she getson her mission that we would like to visit morethan once a week and weneed her to come to church. the memebrs like she`s super busy and cant see you tpdya but you guys can come by on.... well next wednesday......... guh........ she`,ll learn pretty fast once she`s on her mission.


and the other one is some dude thats costarican, he was a contact and its a slow process with him we`ve not been in his house yet and he also only has us come by every thursday afternoon. ugh. we teach him outside standing up in the sun.... i was sweating hard last time. hahaha but i felt the spirit testify sooo thats all good.

we had found/visited two less actives- or recent converts whose husbands aren`t members both said they`d bring their husbands and we`d see them at church on sunday.... that was saturday..... on sunday they both cancelled on church. ugh.......


but some lady had invited 4 of her friends to church and they live in my area and we put an appt. to visit them and we chatted with them for a minute inbetween classes, gave them books of mormons and restauration pamphlets. so we`ve got hope in those guys.

the one hard thing about openin an area, and not having a washing machine..... is that you dont know the members well enough to ask to borrow theirs,.... so i havent washed my clothes in like two weeks. my garment bottoms i wash by hadn in the wash basin sink thing thatevery mexican home has, i dont know how in the world i ended up with 20 garment shirts, and only 7 bottoms........ and i have quite a few shirts so i havent been missing clean clothes its just piling up in my dirty clothes bag..... hahahaha

i know my area pretty miuch now, i can get around adn im never lost, and i can find people from the ward list. so thats improvement. it helps here that in pueblos everyone knows everyone and you ask for the person and tehy tell you were they live........... hahahaha but im excited to hopefully help some less actigves get active.

idk what else do you want to hear about?

sorry about not sending photos, haveent taken a ton and teh internets not that trustworthy to plug in my memory card............ ill see about in future weeks.


Elder Blotter