2-17-14 Daniel Got Baptized

Hola mi familia y amigos how are you all doing this lovely week!! 

This week was pretty dang fantastic and fun here in good old Mexico! First off Daniel had his baptism yesterday!!! He is seriously a miracle and we are so happy for him!! He almost started crying yesterday after the baptism when we were just talking to him. Hes a big tough guy too and I never thought I would see him cry. He loves the church and totally changed his life and man we are just so pumped for how awesome he is and the fact that he feels the spirit and knows that this was the right decision for him!

And guess what else we went to Tijuana last week for the conference with the whole entire mission! Best day ever!! Seriously it was so awesome! I got to see all of mis perros and it was so happy!! I freakin love those girls and it was so happy to see them! We were talking and realized that we had all taught our companions our phrases from the MTC like Que en el Mundo and I dont know random stuff, it was just a jolly day!!!

But yeah that was pretty much the highlights of my week! The language is getting better! Im still not very good but SO much better than before! And woo hoo as of yesterday I have two months in Mexico! One more month of training and then hopefully i'll be ok at spanish! So MExicans eat EVERYTHING with chili...well and tortillas! Haha but yeah so they have candy with chili powder on it and suckers and stuff like that. The first 3 or 4 times I ate it I felt like barfing it was so gross. I dont know what happened but now when I eat it I totally dig it and think theyre way tasty! I think this means Ive officially transformed into a Mexican!!

Oh and the other day we taught a lesson all in English that some of the Elders in our zone are teaching. The girl wanted to meet me so we went and i helped teach with them in one of the lessons. It was awesome! I think that was the first lesson where I have understood everything that happened. My companion was confused out of her mind but I totally loved it haha!

Well I love you all so much and youre the best!! Im so happy to be on a mission right now!!!!! Theres so many awesome people that Ive met and I wouldnt trade it for anything! It makes me sad to think if I hadnt come here and met the people that I have! Love you all so much have an awesome week!!

2-10-14

Ok zero time today but not much happened so its all good! Mom thank you SO MUCH for the gummy bear jokes!!!!! I was laughing uncontrollably at breakfast and had to read it in little sections and take breaks to breathe because they were so funny! It made it even funnier because I had an experience pretty similar to what went on in those stories so it just made me laugh even harder! You know me too well, you know those kind of jokes get me haha! First off I ate a little too many beans and mixed that with a little too much dairy so lets just say that was not the most fun day haha! I'm going to be real so no judgement haha! I spent a good part of Thursday in the bathroom sick and that was also the day that they decided to turn the water off.......lets just say it was not a good day haha. But its all good we feel fine now and back to work!

We had some AWESOME things happen this week!!!!! First off Daniel has totally changed and has been keeping the word of wisdom and is set to be baptized next Sunday! Then we met the best family in the world!!! We were teaching the mom and she goes yeah I like everything Ive heard but I really want to go to the church on Sunday and see how it is! Milkawhat nobody ever wants that! WE usually have to beg haha! But she totally came to church and we were teaching and she said that she prayed and got her answer and she knows this church is true!!!! They ask the most perfect questions that just fit in perfectly with the lesson and they LOVED the plan of salvation because they said they have been wondering for a long time if we will have eternal life and if we will resurrect as old people or what and they have totally been prepared by the Lord. They said if we were Elders we wouldn't have gotten in the door and the dad said that the Lord sent us to them to teach them!! Woo hoo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are so stinkin stoked for this family!! They're amazing!! The computer is having issues but I love you so much and hope you have the best week ever! Oh wait and guess what I get to go to Tijuana tomorrow!!! We are having a conference because the general bishop for the church is coming to speak to us and the WHOLE mission is getting together!! This means that yes I get to see all my friends and I'm freaking out!!!!!!!!! Love you!

2-3-14

Literally zero time today and surprise, surprise you don't get pictures again haha. I'm sorry but the computers suck. I think I'm going to send my SD card home because its going to be too hard to catch up on everything. This week was pretty slow so I don't have much to say! It was our first transfers and I'm staying here in Ensenada to finish my training! I knew that would happen, I'm not surprised. Everyone always finishes their training so watch out Ensenada I'm still here to party haha!!! 

So I totally hurled in the middle of a lesson the other day! No joke, it was so embarrassing. Luckily we were teaching outside because the mom won't let us in becasue she doesn't like the church. But we were teaching these three kids and I was taking a drink of juice they gave me and someone made me laugh and I inhaled the juice and legitly thought I was going to die haha!! I dont know what happened but I couldn't breathe at all and turned around and started coughing and next thing I know I'm throwing up! You should have seen the look of horror on this little kids face haha it was priceless haha! Never going to forget that!

Yesterday we were teaching some recent converts and saying that they needed to help us get a hold of their nephew because we had been teaching him for a while but hadn't been able to get a hold of him for 2 weeks. Literally 10 seconds later there's a knock on the door, and in walks their nephew. I just laughed and was like well ask and ye shall receive!! Haha missions are awesome I love the little things like this that happen!

Only one of our investigators went to church yesterday so that was really disapointing since we have 8 with baptismal dates! But yeah he's awesome and is set to be baptized in two weeks as long as we can make sure he keeps the word of wisdom, we will be good to go. He's awesome, he's totally pumped to get baptized so we are working with him like crazy!!!

One other weird thing that happened this week was we were on the little bus the other day and these two people dressed like clowns literally crawled on and started doing a little skit thing. It was Spanish so I didn't really understand but there was two girls laughing like crazy people in the back so it made me laugh! Pretty much all for this week.

Tijuana Baby!! 1-27-14

Oh man I had a lot of ups and downs this week but it was pretty awesome! First of all I was in Tijuana today!! It was awesome we had to go down there just for the morning to get stuff down for our visas. I think I have to do it every six weeks but not positive.  Guess who I saw....Hermana Muir!!!! Let’s just say we were freaking out a little bit haha!! Seriously it was the best thing ever I was dying it was so much fun!! I saw a few people from my zone and stuff from the MTC so it was just SOOOOOOO nice to see some familiar faces. Sadly Hermana Nielsen and Hermana Eye are going next week so I didn’t get to see them. But talking to Hermana Muir was the best thing ever! That girl kills me! But yep now we are back in good old Ensenada ready to do work. Tijuana was pretty classy with people selling luchador masks and ponchos and I didn’t get to see much of the city but I LOVED it! Oh I love my mission! This is totally the place for me! So guess what I got letters and packages this week because the mission president came for a mission conference! They want us to send everything all letters and packages and anything to the San Ysidro California address!!!! Everybody wipe the Mexico address from your mind and change it on my blog and stuff if you can because I was misled and they never want the Americans to use that haha! And guess what I found a white lady in church from California and she’s going to send my letters to you when she goes back to America so be excited to finally get my Christmas letters!! Ok I got the package today from the ward and tell them thank you A MILLION TIMES!! I haven’t even looked at all of it and its crazy nice and they’re just so sweet!!! Thank you so much Kierstin and Sean I also got my Christmas present form you!! Thank you I love you! Oh and happy birthday tomorrow Sean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I only got letters from Jenna, one from mom, and one from dad. So if anyone else sent one it’s probably lost in the Mexican mail haha. Thank you so much everyone!!

So the conference with the mission president was good! It was nice to finally meet him really and have my first interview with him. He doesn’t speak much English but he’s really nice I liked him a lot. He does this thing every conference when four people have to go up front and give parts of the lesson and everyone like critiques it. Before the conference I turned to my companion and said if I have to go up there I’m going to die....so of course I did. It was terrifying, but everyone told me I did really well for the amount of time that I’ve been here! I loved talking with all the other missionaries that were at the conference. 

Oh my so I’m totally graceful. The other day Hermana Ortiz and I were late so we were booking it and it was dark outside and I didn’t see this little hill in the ground. I totally turfed it!!!! Like I’m talking it looked like a funny fail video that I would watch at home! It was like I was head first diving into second base except I was on concrete haha! Hermana Ortiz and I still laugh like crazy whenever we pass that part of the town. 

I had to give a talk in church yesterday. That was pretty scary too, but Hermana Ortiz had corrected my spelling so I had to look down and read straight from the talk a lot of the time, but oh well. I survived! 

The other day we were at Carolinas house and she was trying to imitate all of us and I don’t even know how to explain it but she is the funniest little girl on the planet! She can always make me laugh like a crazy person whenever we teach her! Well the computer is about to kick me off so I have to go but I love you all so much and know that I’m really happy! The Spanish is coming a million times better...still hard and it’s not perfect but it’s much better than week one. I love you all and sorry but no pictures again this week. Give up hope haha. One day I’ll send home my SD card. Love you all!! 

Carolina's baptism (1-20-14)

A more general location of where I am is my street is called Ambar and I live in house 1108.  There’s a self-owned store called Mini Super Dannys just two houses up from mine. Other things around the city is there is a Calimax right next to our church in the center of town and there’s a Calimax closer to my house and a Fruteria Kris close to that. There’s lots of OXXO which is like 7 11 and it reminds me of the hug, hug, kiss, kiss letter from Nacho Libre, haha. Oh and a Mangianos pizza close to some of our investigators houses. Calimax is where we do our shopping. Yes people come by selling stuff on the streets it’s pretty funny. Most common is tortillas but there’s all kinds of stuff. Sometimes people just drive by with Mexicans and all sorts of stuff in the beds of their trucks and just have huge megaphone things and shout out what they’re selling.

This week I have seen some amazing miracles. The explanation marks aren’t working today but

pretend like everything I say has explanation marks instead of periods, haha. Oh boy seriously it was amazing.

 First off we had a baptism for Carolina and she is seriously my favorite person I have ever met...at least here in Mexico. She and her mom are amazing. They were prepared by the lord. The mom was inactive and Carolina is 9 and is baptized now woo woo. The other day her mom, Rosa, was saying that there are special people in your life that you will never forget. That they come into your life at exactly the time that you need them and that was us to them. My heart died. I stinking love them so much they’re my favorite people they make me so beyond happy. Carolina makes me laugh so hard every time we go to her house. The other day I was crying because i was laughing so hard at a story that she told. I’m really sorry but the pictures aren’t working again this week. One day I’ll be able to show you all my pictures, haha. Every time we leave Carolina and Rosas house Carolina tries to pin us down and tell us that we can’t leave. Who knows if you will ever get letters? Sorry but for now just give up hope. I love you all SO MUCH. Another miracle was that we taught these three kids, the oldest 17, on a day when their mom wasn’t home and Hermana Ortiz bore her testimony and they were all crying and it was just one of those experiences that was so spiritually awesome and crazy to be a part of. they all accepted baptism but the problem is that their mom came home from vacation and does not like the church and she wouldn’t let them come with us yesterday but hopefully we can talk to her. Ah we had 3 investigators come to church again yesterday and they were all new investigators so that was awesome. Daniel, one of them is so funny. He was mad that we weren’t there when he came to church. We went to his house at 7 30 to get him like we said because our church starts at 8, kill me. But he didn’t come when we went to get him so he showed up at 11 30 and had sacrament with the other ward because he didn’t realize it wasn’t us. Oh the people here make me laugh. I feel like I’m never going to learn Spanish but I just keep going. I’m already getting out of shape. We had a speed walking contest from one investigators house to the other and i got shin splints, haha. I exercise in the morning but it sucks not being able to really exercise like i want to. Oh I saw a cockroach in someone’s house the other day but they just kind of kicked at it and it ran into another room and they just let it be haha. There was a rollerblading thug listening to rap music around the streets the other day. Haha funny story we had a zone conference last week and I was talking to an Elder and told him that I feel like this is just my life now and that I’m going to die a missionary. He thought I meant I was going to die because I was going to get killed because it was sketchy so he was like no you’re not going to die you need something like this check it out. And he pulls a pool ball out of his bag. He’s like, I’ve got this to chuck at any chollos if they try giving me trouble. Haha Now I have to worry about chollos apparently. Plus they tell me one day the time will go fast and I’ll come home one day. Haha out of time but I love you all so much and sorry that the pictures aren’t working. Oh wait and we did service for someone and I can testify of service because she totally opened up to us. We cleaned her front yard. The vision of this is we swept the garbage off of the dirt haha. So yeah pretty easy and we have been teaching her son a little English and she accepted baptism and totally loves us now and went to church and before she was pretty reserved about us. Woo hoo service is awesome and things are getting better and I feel like I’m actually helping people so it’s getting good. It would be transfers next week but we have a 7 week transfer this time because the last one was shorter because of Christmas so hopefully in two weeks I will go to the border and see all my friends from the mtc. I will pee you have no idea. Well I love you all so much and hope you have the best week ever. Know that I love you and think about you every day but I’m happy to be where I am