Monday, November 28, 2011

Oh my doctrine for the week is Mosiah 27:14! More pics!



Elder Shirley from LOVELOCK!

28 Deciembre 2011! (He's confused!)




Buenas Dias!!
Where is love?! Last week I had like 18 emails to read and this week like 4! What am I supposed to do for an hour? This week went by so fast! I already have been on my mission for 5 months! That`s crazy.  I get to go to the temple on the 9th of December and I get to call home when I want around Christmas. When would be good? Who is going to be there? How much will I cry?
Last Monday ended with our Junta in San Pedro. Every Monday night we have a meeting with the district to motivate us and to improve on the things we need to work on. Elder Leyva is the district leader so he is in charge. I have to help him prepare and give it too since I am his companion.  I usually love them. The Elders in Ajusco are having a hard time with the members wanting them to baptize anybody which is just a little bit weird. So we talked about how we could help them change. Here is a quote that Elder Leyva shared with us from President Monson, "Let`s tie the children of God to the post of righteousness with the chains of love." This is true. You have to show people that you love and care about them before they will listen to you.
On Tuesday I went to Ajusco with Elder Garza. He talks about his girlfriend so much but he is pretty funny so I forgive him.  All we did was look for inactive members to teach but we didn`t have much luck.  We ate La Comida at the guy`s house who they just baptized. He told me that he was baptized because he promised God he would change if his wife recovered from a sickness. She did and he didn`t get baptized so she got sick again and the same thing happened. After one more time of her getting sick, him promising to change, and her getting better, he was baptized. The missionaries didn`t even have to do much work because he was prepared.
On Wednesday we taught Mauro`s aunt Juana. She was a little embarrassed at church on Sunday because she didn`t know answers to questions and said she didn`t think she would come anymore. We taught her how to use the scriptures and comforted her and now she still wants to be baptized. But she didn`t come to church yesterday so I`m a little worried.  We also went to another Hermana`s house to talk to her inactive husband and son. They have to work every Sunday. It`s always the case here. We do so much work just trying to reactivate the members and for it is working pretty well so far. The branch is more full every Sunday.
Thanksgiving doesn`t exist here but I said Happy Thanksgiving to everybody anyways. We just worked all day and we had La Comida in Parres. It is another town that we have, I don`t know if you knew that. We went there and nobody was there so we went back to our house and ate with Hermana Lulù. She never fails us.  It definitely wasn`t a normal Thanksgiving, but I was happy to be in Mèxico.  We watched Finding Faith in Christ with a new family after that. It is a farming family of 8. They have five sons between 15 and 22. It was a really spiritual lesson and I hope everything goes well with them. The parent`s names are Alvaro and Taide.  I felt kind of like I was in the Wadsworth`s home during the lesson. Haha. We met the zone leaders in La Joya that night to have intercambios and I went to Contreras with Elder Vial.
So on Friday I was there with him. Elder Vial is so fun to work with. I hope I am his companion some day.  We had to go to to baptismal interviews and we only had three lessons that day.  They were some good new investigators but I will probably never see them again. How sad.
On Saturday we had three baptisms! A while ago I told you about a lady named Erika. She was depressed and we gave her a blessing and she felt way better. We have been teaching their family and their kids got baptized! Erika and her husband Luis Armando aren`t married so we are still working with them. It is so difficult here to marry people! I hate it. The kids names are Luis Armando, Sebastian, and Tomas. They are 14, 9, and 8. I baptized Tomas and Hermano Carlos and Elder Leyva baptized the other two.  I love these kids so much. We have had some good lessons with them and they are always happy. Sebastian was saying, "I`ve been born again" afterwards. It was pretty funny.  I can see how much happier they are than when we first started going. After the baptism I couldn`t resist and took them to pizza since I knew they wouldn`t eat much that day. It was a great day.
Yesterday they all came to church to get confirmed and just kept smiling all day. It was the primary program which I loved. Little kids are nuts here too. They sang To Bring the Worlds His Truth which was the best.  Oh yesterday I met a missionary who just got here from Lovelock! Elder Shirley. Do you know his family? I took a picture with him and sent it to you.  It felt so weird to talk about Nevada with somebody that lived there. Haha.  I don`t realize how much spanish I know until I talk to the new missionaries and they are just lost.
No mom, we do not have to do laundry. Most people here do it by hand or in washing machines from the 18th century. The aztec calendar has a huge explanation that even I do not understand. I just do my own interpretation of it which includes tortillas, and the lady that washes our clothes in the center of it.  This morning I cooked for the first time in 5 months! We made pancakes downstairs out of a bag! They were so good. I don`t think anybody else really liked them though. Haha. But yeah, we never cook, and we don`t have a stove, or anyway to cook.  Every door here is like a metal gate and the house have high walls with barbed wire and broken glass on the tops of them.  We just pound on the gates with pesos or chap stick and we yell Buenas Tardes. Then they say, "¿Quien?" and we ask for the person and they say, "No hay nadie." Haha. That`s my life. I love it.
Thanks for everything and to those of you who did write to me, more blessings for you. I still haven`t gotten the package but I am not worried. In the future you should send me some peanut butter, and make sure you send pictures in the package!  I miss you, and thanks for everything.
Love,
Elder Hubbard