Week 16 Ahome

Hey guys! 

I hope you all are doing great. This week was probably one of the most difficult, because we had some sucky things happen to us.

I´ll try to make a long story short. When we get back to our house on Monday, we found that someone had cut our power cables. We went a full week without power in the house. Every shower was ice-cold and dark, no air conditioner, cereal with warm milk, wrinkled clothes, we had mold growing in our fridge, everying just was annoying. It´s all part of the experience, and it´s over now at least. We finally were able the problem about 4 hours ago. We cleaned the fridge, bought new food, and it´s all good.

If you remember from my last email, we had 3 baptisms planned for Saturday in our area. Every one of them fell apart. It was pretty sad. I was super excited for my first baptism, Edgar had even chosen me to baptize him. Hopefully this Saturday or the next we´ll have the baptisms.

Friday was the day of the week that was the best because I was in Los Mochis on splits. I played basketball and soccer with some of the youth in that area. That was the first time I had the chance to do anything fun like that since I arrived in the mission field. The church has a ton more members in Los Mochis than in Ahome. We have two more weeks in Ahome to try to get some baptisms because transfers are coming up again soon and one of us is going to leave Ahome for sure.

Something interesting that I forgot to mention in my letter. Last night, we accidentally hitched a ride with a drunk driver. We didn´t know at first that he was drinking, until after we were already in he pulled out his beer. He almost hit a guy on a bike, and was driving insanely fast. We got out as soon as we could.

Week 15 Ahome

Hey everybody! 

The week was really good. This week was really successful for us and made us feel like we´re making a difference in people´s lives.

Yesterday at church there were over twice as many people at church than last week. Obviously that wasn´t all because of us, but we helped by bringing a lot of investigators to the church, and members who haven´t been to church in a long time. It almost felt like church in America with how many people there were.

I am going to have my first baptism on Saturday, and it is actually going to be three baptisms in one. 2 are our investigators and 1 is from the other missionaries. We have been working with those two investigators, Edgar and Porfirio, for about 7 weeks now, and it´s awesome seeing them get this far.

This week we had interviews with the mission president. They went good, and the best part was that he ordered Domino´s pizza for us afterwards. I haven´t had good pizza in a while so that was amazing. We eat a lot of seafood here because my area is actually pretty close to the ocean. I´ve eaten sting ray, marlin, and a lot of unfamiliar foods. It all tastes really good though.

Thursday, while we were walking to Las Grullas, we saw a huge cow on the side of the road that had fallen out of a trailer. It was really bloody, and somehow one of its legs had snapped off. That was probably the most interesting thing that I saw this week.

That´s all. In general, the week was a confidence booster. We are seeing real success down here in Mexico finally.

Here are a few pictures of my week

Cool Critters everywhere

Another normal sight of cows

If we don't walk.  This is the only other way to get around.

We rode in the back of that truck for about 30 minutes. We could see the street right through 

the floor underneath us. It was a sketchy ride a little bit.

Week 14 Ahome

Hey guys! Week 14 in Mexico was beautiful. The weather wasn´t too bad, or maybe I´m just used to to the heat.

I don´t have a lot to say for this week. We did a lot of walking. Normally we hitchhike, but we had horrible luck this week. I enjoyed it though, there are a lot of corn fields here in between each little town that we visit. It reminds me a little of the midwest.

I read a talk titled, "The Fourth Missionary." It was super good, and I invite you all to look it up, especially those of you that are on missions or are getting ready to leave on missions. It´s about the characteristics of missionaries, and the ending results of having those characteristics. The main idea is that a missionary doesn´t really benefit from the mission unless he serves with all his strengh, might, mind, and heart. The heart is key.

I haven´t talked much about my investigators. Right now we have two that are actually progressing. One we have been teaching for a while. His name is Edgar. He is 23 and in the Navy. We have become pretty good friends with him. He has a lot of very difficult trials in his life right now that makes him very receptive to listening to the Gospel. Just in the 7 weeks that I´ve known him, I´ve seen him change into a happier person. It is the result of trying to live the Gospel. There are so many blessings that come with the Gospel.

The weekly challenge was yesterday morning. We woke up and there was no water at all. I tried to fix the problem by calling people and tinkering with this and that, but nothing worked. We ended up taking a shower with the little drinking water we had left. It was cold and uncomfortable, but I keep telling myself that it´s all part of the experience. When we returned to the house last night, the water worked fine, thank goodness. I don´t like how things break for no reason, and start working again for no reason.

That´s it for this week. Love you guys.

This is in between Macapul and Ahome. There are cornfields in all of them I think.

This is just outside Las Grullas Derechas

This is near the other picture outside Las Grullas. There are sunflowers everywhere. 

The picture doesn´t do them justice.

These are the best mountains. It is in an area called Cachuhuana. I think that is how it is spelled.

Check out this small turtle that we found 
next to a sewage drain in Ahome. Poor thing.

This is what I made myself for lunch today. It was the spiciest tomato soup I have ever tasted. 

Here is the last picture. We tried to get a picture with us in it.

Week 13 Ahome

Hola! 

I hope everyone´s Semana Santa was good. Semana Santa is the week before Easter and it is extremely huge here. All the students have the week off school, and the week after as well. A unique thing here is that the jews dress up in wild costumes with masks and dance around the streets. On Wednesday night, they all gathered together to dance laps around the Catholic Church. Ton´s of people were there to watch. It´s an interesting tradition that the jews do.

Because of Semana Santa, a lot of people were busy and out of town, so as a zone, we didn´t have much success this week in teaching. We have 2 "escogidos" investigators, but other than that, we only teach about 5 or 6 people occasionally. We work hard every day, and we´ll see success soon.

General Conference was this weekend, and obviously all in Spanish. I cheated though and put English Subtitles up during a few sessions. As a missionary, General Conference was better than ever. The members here only watch the one session on Sunday Morning at the church, but me and my companion sat by ourselves in the church watching the other sessions.

I had another draft, but it accidently got deleted. I guess this will have to do for this week. Happy Late Easter everyone. Remember the Atonement.

Church in Ahome

Week 12 Ahome

The first transfers came, and my companion and I are both still in Ahome. Here are the highlights of the week.

Monday: We went to Los Mochis to eat and we fit 8 big guys in a small car. I bought new shoes already because I walk so much my old ones were broken.

Tuesday: Los Mochis again for a district meeting, and lunch with a lady who has un buen de niños.

Wednsday: Los Mochis 3 days in a row. This time for baptismal interviews. There are actually enough members in Mochis to have a youth group on Wednesday nights. They were all learning to dance to a country song, which was fun to watch. Afterwards, we caught the very last bus to Ahome.

Thursday: We went to Las Grullas to teach an investigator who showed up to church on Sunday. We did a zone fast on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, so I was starving by the time lunch came. Lunch was kinda disappointing. It was a fish with the scales and bones still in it, so we had to pick little bones out of our mouths. I´d rather have the boiling hot soup than Mexican seafood.

The best part of the night was on the way home. We had a stranger drive us the long distance back to Ahome in the back of his pickup. It was long drive where we could sit and relax and not worry about anything.

Friday: I had to speak in front of a whole bus of strangers by myself about the church. It wasn´t too bad. They probably didn´t know what I was saying, but oh well.

Saturday: We had to go to 18 de Marzo in the morning to get a baptism record that we accidently left. We saw un chancho the size of a cow. 3 men were trying to force it into the back of a truck, but is was stronger than all three of them. When we got back we attended the baptism. We haven´t had a baptism yet for any of our investigators yet, soon.

I finally taught piano lessons that night. It was pretty difficult because obviously everything is different in spanish, including the note names.

Sunday: Church and calling the other missionaries about transfers.

My training is halfway done. Spanish continues to be easier. I´m having dreams partially in spanish now, which is cool. I can speak spanish without thinking sometimes. 

That waas my week. Hasta Luego!

This is a picture of the girl that was baptized in our church building. I witnessed it. 

It was really cool, as soon as she came out of the water, the spirit came really strong to me. 

I knew that the Lord told me, as the witness, that he accepted the baptism.

The boy in the yellow is a Mexican Kaylor (my little cousin)

Lunch on Pday in Los Mochis with Victor our investigator

Those houses in the background are SUPER nice houses

This is a common sight in Mexico

Also, not in the picture, but to the right of it, there are 3 Mexicans trying to get a pig into the back of a truck. The pig is literally the size of a cow and is stronger than the 3 men. The pig got mad and started fighting, and it dragged one of the Mexicans on the ground, but the guy held on tight.

There is a dog here that we named Squashy 

I really don´t like him. He stole my galletas last week and he keeps following me. This is him.

Here is a cool lizard we saw
It is on the church wall. We saw it from the window of the baptism room.

Here is another lizard that we saw

Week 11 Ahome

Hey guys! 
The weeks are getting pretty routine. I´ll keep this letter pretty short by only including the fun stuff.

On Tuesday we witnessed a police car chase, which was pretty cool. The police caught the guy pretty fast because they have big trucks that drive on the rough roads with no problem.

Thursday night we saw a dog that had been run over by a car and its organs had popped out and were sitting next to the body. It was pretty gross. 

On Friday we went on splits again, but this time I stayed in Ahome. We get yelled at in Spanish by this guy who was on a lot of drugs.

I had a little bit of stomach sickness again this week on and off, but I think I´m over it now. The food is brutal sometimes. It´s been super hot outside, and we always have boiling hot soup to eat. It makes me sweat so much as I´m eating.

The teaching is getting better. It gets more interesting the more I learn spanish because I can understand some crazy stories that people have. 

We have one more week until my first transfer. It went by pretty fast, 15 more transfers after that and my mission is over. I have mixed feelings about Ahome. I wouldn´t care if I was transfered or not. I like the people here, and some areas are pretty, but I don´t like all the walking, all the trash in the sewage drains, and I don´t really like my apartment. I want to feel like I had success here in Ahome, so I´m gonna work especially hard in this next week, just in case I end up transfering.

Photos of Our Apartment

This is where we iron and hang our shirts.

Here´s our shower. This is why I need shower sandals.
Scrubbing doesn't help.

Home Sweet Home. It´s amazing how much I´m used to it now. 
When I go back to the United States I´ll feel like I´m living in a mansion.

Week 10 Ahome

Hey everybody! 

Happy Spring Break for those of you back home :) This week was pretty eventful. Here are the highlights of each day.

Monday: We had crazy problems with our house. Our toilet wasn´t working all day long, and we had mouse poop all over our kitchen again when we woke up. After P-Day we went to a members house to teach, and they asked me if I would teach them some piano lessons. It´s gonna be hard teaching spanish piano lessons, but I´m excited to try.

Tuesday: The highlight of the day was when an investigator gave us a picture of Christ that he drew.

Wednesday: We had a training meeting for 6 hours, but we got pizza afterwards so it was worth it.

Thursday: We caught a mouse in a trap that we borrowed from a member. We killed it by shaking the trap really hard. A random stranger bought us Hot Dogs because he says we work really hard. We don´t know everyone here in Ahome, but they see us, and recognize us.

Friday: We taught a very frustrating lesson. The people agreed with everything we told them, but they didn´t at the same time. It´s hard to explain but it was just frustrating.

Saturday: We killed a second mouse by beating it with brooms. I think we are mouse free finally. We went on splits with some members. I taught the old man Octavio and a brand new investigator without the help of my companion. The experience proved to me that I can teach better than I thought without my companion.

Sunday: At church, we were asked to speak during the meeting, with literally no time to prepare anything. I walked up with nothing on my mind, but thoughts came to me as I just spoke. I was kinda nervous, but there are only like 60 people at the church, and they have all seen me make a fool out of myself before and they know I can´t speak spanish well. At the end of church, I took a picture with a kid who looks like a younger, mexican version of myself.

That was my week! Hasta luego :)

Here is our mouse-trap. Animals are everywhere here. It works great. The mice don´t die when you shake it though. I shook it and it looked dead, so I went to take a shower and when I came back it was moving around again.

My companion and the mousetrap.