New rule

Bad news... New rule.. Only 30 minutes on the computer each week. So emails are going to be much shorter. You can still send emails to me before and I will print them off. I will send pictures of my letters that I will send each week. I will respond to emails a week later from what I receive. So I will read the emails today and throughout the week and I will respond to them through a picture of letters that I am going to write. I'm not too happy with this change, but I must move forward and adjust to the circumstances.

 

Please keep praying for Sergio. We believe he will getting baptized on my birthday weekend. He is getting better with the smoking. He is going 7-8 days at a time without him smoking.

 

We did watch conference in the Santiago district building. There was a little English room for all the American missionaries. I loved Elder Holland, Elder Uchtdorf, and Elder Nelson's talks. The part I liked about Elder Nelson's talk was his quote. "Ask the missionaries! They can help you." Its true. The missionaries know a lot and can help you with almost anything. I challenge you all to come up with a question or some type of service and ask the missionaries in your ward. They can help you. :)

 

Also, in the next package that you send, I am in desperate need of at least two more memory cards and some new white shirts. My shirts have been stained orange on the sleeves and collar because of sunscreen. It looks horrible. Also snacks are okay to send according to other Elders. Just make sure to put Virgin Mary stickers on it, and to put Virgin Mary's neck over the seals of the package.

 

I love you so much. Stay strong and be good!

If you're interested in sending him a package let me know.  I'll get you his address.  :)

Praying really hard

Before I read these emails that I printed out, I’m just going to say that I’m probably  not going to like what I read in them from what happened in General Conference. I’m actually really nervous to read them. I will be emailing you in four hours. love you.

I don’t have much time today. I’m sorry. This morning I killed a chicken and then prepared it and then ate it. That was something fun to do on pday. I’m not quite sure what to think about with the new age change with missions. As soon as I heard that, my jaw dropped. The first things in my head were, I’m probably not going to see Austin for another 3 years, and Ashley is going to want to serve a mission.

I enjoyed conference. I liked Elder Holland’s and Elder Nelson's talk. I liked the quote "Ask the missionaries, they can help you" Oh and I really enjoyed the talk of president Uchtdorf on don’t regret not spending enough time with the ones you loved.

My week has been good until the email today. I have been praying quite hard for help and answers to my questions.

That’s cool that all those girls in the ward are deciding to serve missions.

I haven’t played the piano yet. I have stopped that because we don’t have enough time for me to practice constantly.

I also received more dear elders this week.

I love you. Stay strong, do good and be who He wants you to be.

Dear A,

      I am reading in Ether right now. I'm actually exactly where the Brother of Jared asks Heavenly Father to touch the stones. What great faith he had to have been able to ask that. We should have a lot of faith. Also I love the last chapter of Mormon with faith. I challenge you to read that chapter and look for prayer and faith. Please give me scriptures that you like from it and why. I encourage you to serve a mission A. You can be ready by next summer. Just read the Book of Mormon and gain a testimony of it. Then read Preach My Gospel. These two key things will help you for when you go to serve. I love you Brother. Bring others unto Christ and prepare yourself to serve a mission. You will learn so much. I love you and I hope to hear an answer soon about if you will be serving once you turn 18. I love ya!

Elder Hartmann got stung by a scorpion

How is everyone? My week has been pretty good. Some pretty good things have happened and some pretty scary things have happened. Something scary was that Elder Hartmann got stung by a scorpion in our house this morning. He just put his hand into one of his book containers and he got stung. We then rushed to urgent care for him to get a shot. We were both freaking out a bit. We have heard some pretty scary stories of people getting stung by scorpions.

The last time I sent pictures, they were pictures of our pila, a bathroom, and kitchen.

I don’t think I have told you this yet which is weird, but Captain America has been my most favorite superhero for the past 8 months thanks to the Christmas present I got. Thanks!

I'll be sure to keep Julie Roos and her family in my prayers.

Something else exciting this week was that I was called to give a talk 3 minutes before Sacrament Meeting started. So I prepared a super quick talk on testimonies. 

Sergio is doing better. He went 3 days without smoking and then he relapsed. Now he is at least day 4 without smoking. We have another appointment with him tonight. Please pray for him to give up is smoking completely. His baptismal date is for October 13. He is changing so much. He is giving up more and more. He is being more obedient to Gods commandments, and he is much happier than our first couple visits with him.

Our assistance in church was 31 people. At least it wasn’t in the 20’s. When it gets to the 20’s, that is when it is bad.

Villa Hidalgo is doing pretty well. It is super-hot in the day and is cooling up in the evening. What do you want to know about Villa Hidalgo?

Spanish is getting better. I can hold conversations with people. There are still a bunch of words that I don’t know but I know enough to communicate. My understanding of people has also gone up a lot more.

I'm doing well with Elder Hartmann. He is such a good companion. I'm going to miss him when he leaves to go home in the first week of November.

Please pray that we will be able to find more investigators. We are trying really hard, and we haven’t been able to find some more good investigators.

I love you. Stay strong, do good, obey the commandments, and remember that I love you.

PS. No more tarantulas in my pants.

I'm losing weight

We had another zone conference thing this week because Elder De Oyos came to speak to us in Tepic. He is in the seventy. It was pretty cool for what I understood. haha I also saw my MTC companion Elder Fox at the conference. He is in Puerta Vallarta right now. I was so happy to see him. We caught up a bit. It made my week to see him. He also commented to me that I have lost weight. I have gotten that comment quite often now… haha I’m losing weight! Even Sister Wagner said it! I gained weight in San Diego and now I’m losing weight here.

Also in the past week, I finally finished the Old Testament. So I have finished the Bible on my mission and I can technically say I have read the Bible. There were some boring parts in it but I learned a lot from it. There are also so many good stories in the Bible. You know one of mine is David and Goliath, also Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego. Also Noah, Moses, and Joseph.  I’m definitely going to read it again more times in my life. I challenge you to read one of the stories from the Old Testament and to relate it to your life and what you can do to improve yourself.

I love you. Stay strong, do good, read the scriptures, obey the commandments, and repent! I love you. 

The tarantula

Well, with the tarantula, I felt it in my pants and I didn't know what it was and then I slapped it and I realized it was bigger, whatever it was. So then I started jumping up and down freaking out. All of the sudden I see a tarantula come out and I hurt one of its legs. I got scared like no other. Like I said...I was in mental shock after that had happened. They are smaller tarantulas but they are tarantulas and they are pretty big..

Could I please get some advice with learning piano at a fast rate?

We got a set baptismal date with Sergio for October 6. We are trying to do all that we can still to help him overcome his marijuana addiction. He smokes less in the day, but that's not good enough. We have to at least have him not smoke for two days, and then a week and then he needs to let it go for good before his baptismal date. Please keep him in your prayers. I can tell that he is changing. He just needs that help from a lot of prayers. Thank you so much for your support.

We also went to the High School again for their English Class. We talked with them only in English. I had a super fun time. I got all the 11 kids in my group to participate and we got them to have fun. I even had stickers for prizes. I also showed them a picture of our family because they asked. They all awwwed. hahaha They said that we have a cute and good looking family. I would have to say that I agree. haha When they found out that we had to go they all got bummed. We were there for 1 hour and my group wanted me to stay for the last hour of their Class. I believe that we are going back in 3 weeks. We are trying to find through doing this service.

I love you all so much. Do good, stay strong, and remember that God is always looking down on us.

Up to my knees and brain in my soup

How are all of you? Well I hope you are just all fantastic!

I had a couple different parasites earlier on in the week.  I had a super soar throat.   That wasn’t too pretty. I had to get pills to flush them out... hahaha

I also had a tarantula climb the inside of my pants up to my knees and bite me while I was playing the piano in the church. It wasn’t on Sunday though. Let’s just say that I freaked out and my mind was blown for about a half hour. I took in some deep breaths for a while. That was interesting....

I also ate some type of brain. I had half of a brain in my soup for one of the days. I again had a super tough time.. hahaha

We don’t get mail until I believe zone conferences and interviews which happen every 1.5 months I think.

On Sunday we had a branch movie night. We watched the Testaments, and we had a super big screen. It was really awesome. We had a few less actives come.  Also after the movie, we had a few people cry. It was a super spiritual experience.

I have an assignment for you all. I saw "Together Forever" and I want you all to watch it for family home evening. It’s a church movie and it is really good. Let me know your thoughts on the movie and what you can improve from after watching it.

Here, we are still working with a lot of less actives and in actives. We are kind of struggling with finding investigators. We have an investigator named Sergio and he smokes marijuana. We are trying to help with that and teach him. He is super interested in the church. I can already see how the church and Christ are helping him in his life. He just seems like a much happier person. We just need to end his addiction. Please keep him in your prayers and pray that he will be able to overcome the addiction. Also please pray for us to find more investigators. We have dropped a lot.

I love you. Stay strong, do good, and keep praying.

I do love many parts about being in Mexico

To be honest, this was a super rough week for me... I found out that I left my memory card at the computer place and it got stolen... I had a really hard time when I found that out... I lost all of the rest of my pictures from San Diego, and the majority of the pictures I have taken here.

I was also sick for 3 to 4 days. We went out and worked and it was tough.

Also we walked through a flood this week. The water was almost up to my knees. Also we have found another scorpion in the house, a tarantula, a big frog, and a snake. We found all of these in the house.. That only made me freak out a bit.

The zone that I am in is the Santiago Ixuintla zone. We had our zone conference in Santiago which is a town near Villa Hidalgo. It is maybe 3 or 4 times as big as Villa Hidalgo. I am liking my zone and my mission president.

The weirdest thing I have eaten here in Mexico so far has been chicken liver. I actually just had that on Friday. Let's just say that it was super disgusting. I was polite though.

  

I haven't played the piano yet. It will probably be a couple more weeks. I only practice at most a half hour every 2 to 3 days. I am improving though. I can do most of the hymns with only the top notes. Do you have any suggestions so that I can improve quicker?

We baptized Maricruz this past Saturday. It was a neat experience. We had a good turn out at her baptism. She had a lot of support. It was a really neat experience. I can definitely see the change in her from the beginning when we first started teaching her a few weeks ago. She seems to have that glow that comes from being a member of our church. Elder Hartmann baptized her,while another member and I were witnesses. 

It really makes me happy. We have been working super hard. There hasn't been a baptism since March, here in Villa Hidalgo. That is not very good at all. Baptisms should be a lot more frequent. But now we are turning this area around and making it a better area and branch.

Sergio came to church on Sunday. So now he needs the lessons, and then he can be baptized. We are hoping he will be baptized by the end of September.

We are still waiting on a return appointment from Cristina.

I do love many parts about being in Mexico and I do very well miss San Diego. Well I'm trying to be positive and keep moving forward even with all these trials that have come my way this past week. I hope everything goes well and make sure to stay strong, do good and read the Book of Mormon. I love you.