September 30 2013

HOLY CANOLE! Jayde! You are GREAT WITH CHILD!!!!!!!!!!!! haha that´s so dope! When are you due again?!

So jealous that you guys went to Disneyland! That sounds so fun! 

How did nicks weekend go with being home alone?!

I WANNA SEE PICS OF NOODLE!!! And Morgan!

And of the whole family!

My shoes are doing... well okay! They arnt waterproof any more thats for sure! One pair is doing very good, but the other ones are comming unglued on the bottom! THE SOLES ARE COMMING OFF!!! but I think I´ll just send them to one of the million shoe repair places there are down here!

Not loosing weight anymore, we´ve been walking WAY MORE than normal, or better said Running from appointments to appointments, but we have been EATING A TON!!!

Beef jerky for sure for christmas, i´ll have to think of what else, I WANT THAT SHOE CREAM FROM HOLMES!!! If you want you can send me new CTR socks, I have missplaced like 2 or 3 pairs along the way!

I´ll have to think of what else I want! I´ll finish the list in a few weeks!!!

Yes, I am incredibly excited to be able to talk to Jr. aND Gerardo!!!

The weather here is just leaving the rainy season in the Capital, we are entering the cold! So yes! I can feel the weather start to change to be fall down here, not like at home but now I can recognize the seasons here! Super cool!

Kenzie, I love that you are doing awesome in your calling and you HELP THE MISSIONARIES!!! There is always 3 or 4 people like that in every area that the missionaries just LOVE cause you really do make our lives easier!!

What a CRAZY week! Holy cow I dont think I have ever worked harder in MY WHOLE LIFE than I did this last week! It all started with the fact that we were going to have 2 baptisms on saturday and we still had to finsh teaching them. One of them WAS FOR SURE that we were going to baptize him (w) then the other one (r) was a maybe cause he NEVER shows up to talk to us! So we passed through the week with a ton of luck in being able to find R. So we taught him and had his baptismal interview and he was super ready to be baptized. Then we taught willy the last lesson and he was supposed to show up at the church the next day to have his interview, but he never showed up! His phone was turned off and everything so we couldnt call him! 

We left a ton of messages to tell him to go to his baptism the next day and we´d do the interview right before! We knew that he had 2 phones but we only had the number for one, but we also had the number of his wife who lives in utah, so we went to a members house and called his wife to see if she had talked to him and to see if she had his other phone number. She told us that he had been VERY sick and that he was spiritually ready to be baptized but not physically... So we kinda lost hope!

 So we get there, R shows up.... But no W... So we had R´s baptism! It was super cool, our ward mission leader baptized him and they both did a great job! Then we were a little bummed out cause W didnt show up. So we got home and Elder C decided to call him, HE FINNALY ANSWERED!!! So I talked to him (W is from here but he´s lived in the states for his whole life and doesnt like speakin spanish that much) So he told me that he had been sick with the flu and took flu medicine that didnt react well with his body and he was just a zombie for 2 days. So we told him that he could wait 2 weeks to be baptized or that we could do it at 7 in the morning before church. He said he wanted to do it before church! So we got up at 5 in the morning to fill up the Font and get everything ready, we even made the Zone Leaders come to do his interview aaaaaaaaaaannnnnnnnnndddddddddddddd W NEVER SHOWED!!! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO So we were a little bummed out about that after, but we called him later that day and he told us that he´s been super depressed lately cause he feels like he´ll never get home to America again and that he´ll never see his family. So he asked us to go to his house tommorrow to give him a blessing. Poor guy, I feel really bad for him!  Hopefully in about 2 weeks he can be baptized!

So all that happend Sunday morning and then we went to sacrament meeting and Pres. and Hna. Watts came!!! They came cause they meet R a while back when we first started teaching him and told him they´d come to his Confirmation! So we got to see them and they both got to give talks in the meeting! SUper awesome, I hope this helps the ward be even more excited!

 I forgot to tell you that it was transfer week this week! I´ve only got 1 change here and I ALREADY HAVE A CHANGE!!! NOOOOOO Of course I get to an area that has people to teach and things to do and I CAN ONLY LOVE IT FOR A CHANGE!!! So yeah, not really sure why I gotta change... I think about half the mission has changes! But It doesnt really make sense that I have one! So who knows what could happen this time! Supposedly they´re opening a bunch of areas outside the capital! Maybe I could leave the cap! But maybe not, who knows! I´ll know this wednesday and I´ll have to tell you next week!  

So i´ll leave you guys with a litte suspense as to where I am going to be! haha there are a lot of openings in the zone that I was in for a year so who knows, knowing my luck I´ll probably go there haha, whatever happens Im sure i´ll be happy! 

Keep reading, praying, going to church! Have fun in YOUR GIANT WARD!! I cant even imagine a ward of 500 now!!! Love you guys a ton, I love your support and letters! You are the best fambly!

Love,

Alex

September 23, 2013

This week was awesome! We´ve been soo buisy there isnt time to take a break! We had to organize a wedding and 2 baptisms! On friday we had the wedding, everything went well! The people who got married have a parrot that gets sad if he´s alone so we just played with this parrot for an hour while they decorated! haha super sweet! Then they got married and we baptized the husband cause the wife is already a member! Great baptism and wedding combo! I´d say over 100 people showed up! Then to celebrate we ate at this burger place called Del Puente that´s SUPER GOOD!!! Then on saturday we had the baptism of C H, Which is funny cause our Elders Quorem president is named C H aswell! that went well, he had nerve problems and got super nervous in the water!! He said he thought he was going to drown! So the actual ordinance was awkward cause he didnt want to go under but the guy baptizeing did a good job pushing him allllll the way down!

I took pictures but Elder G stoll my converter to send pics like 6 weeks ago so I´ll have to find another one!!! So you guys wont recieve anything

I didnt eat breakfast today and we just played 2 hours of soccer so IM DEAD!!!! But we played gringos vs latinos annnnnnnnd GRINGOS WON!!!!! MERICA!!!!!

This sunday we had a sweet lesson! We have this old mexican lady Hna. Toledo that was a missionary like 50 years ago and just LOVES the missionaries! She´s super awesome and always is super nice to us. So she came up to us and told us that she had some references for us, we went to her house at 3 for the appointment. The investigators didnt show up and so at 4 Hna T went to go get them. We were thinking that maybe they werent really interested and that´s why they didnt show up. But they walk in (a mom and ehr 2 daughters) and they start asking a bunch of questions about Joseph Smith. So we explained the Restoration of the Church and then we talked about the book of mormon. We told them to pray and ask to receive an answer to know if the book of mormon is true and if Joseph Smith was a prophet. Then she just looked at us and told us that she already has a testimony of the church, and that she´s had it for years! hahahahahaha it was the best lesson ever"! So we are going to put a date with her next week! 

This week we are going to baptize W and R! W is from UTAH!!! his wife is a member but he is down here for some patriot act that Obama made. So he speaks english and its awesome! His wife is commin down here in December and offered to meet you guys somewhere to bring me a package! I have her number but it´s in my agenda and that´s in my house! I´ll send it to you next week!

Okay well I hope you all had a great week and that you had a blast in mexico and that nick had fun all alone! love you guys a ton! YA TENGO 13 MESES!!!! 

Love

Alex

September 16, 2013

HEeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey

Sup fam? haha glad to hear that you guys dont rememeber ANYTHING I write! hahaha just kidding, I dont really remember either...

So this week was awesome! First we had our zone conference with Pres. Watts and Hna. Watts! They talked about how to work more with the members and how we can find new investigators! Which doesnt really apply to me cause the investigators just invite themselves to church here ;) haha. Then we ate a DELICIOUS lunch of turky wraped in bacon hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm dervisious! Then they had a couple more instructions and we got to take pictures! hahahahaha I may have accidentally hugged Hna. Watts for a picture! I didnt realize untill after and I just jumped away and told her I was SO SORRY!! hahaha she just laughed and said it was fine! super funny

So I learned a lot that day and we were super excited to get to woork, we have already had a meeting with our bishop about how we can make the ward better and help him out. Then I got sick! noooooooooo! I had a cold? Its called Gripe in spanish, I think its a cold! But I had a fever and everythign! But we still worked, I dont like to stay in the house! I feel mostly better now, still got a bit of a cough though!

Then on Friday we had our baptizsm! A got bapzited Friday the 13, we had a LOT of bad luck that day but in the end it turned out okay! The first problem was that NO ONE showed up on time, then when people DID show up A didnt show up! We tried to call her like 30 times but she wouldnt answer! Then like an hour late she finnally came! Only to have ANOTHER problem, the baptizmal clothing we got for her was WAY to small, she told us she was XL so we got XL... she needed like XXXL! So we had to donate one of our white shirts to cover up the parts that we couldnt zip up! Then the DVD player in the church didnt work, so I had to give a 15 minte talk after she was baptized and changing. Which really isnt all that bad except I was sick at the time and I lost my voice about 5 minutes into it! hahahaha so it was just a mess of a baptism but like I said, It all worked out!

Then saturday we had a ward activity for the 15 of september, our ward got together and ran around the city with a torch! A LOT of people do that here, pretty cool tradition! then they came back to the church and sang the national Himn of Guate (SUPER LONG) and then ate tostadas. Really fun activity, we had Cesar go and he LOVED it, along with R. 

So this comming week we should have more baptisms! 2 More to be exact! On Saturday at 5 we are goin got baptize C! He has changed a lot and is very ready, so we are super pumped for that! Then on Friday we are going to have a wedding! An investigator named L is going to get married to one of the members in our ward (they´ve been living together for 3 years) and then he´s going to get baptized! This week should be SUPER buisy for us because we still have to teach ALLL of the lessons to Luis! haha he already knows them cause his family are members too but we gots to teach him anyways!

As for my spanish, there is literally NOTHING that I cant understand. And I can say pretty much anything that I want to say! yaya! As for the danger level here in zone 5, when I tell people I was in zone 18 for a year they just about poop their pants hahaha, they always ask me for stories ;) so here isnt too bad, but I got this place called the Limonada in my area (about half of it) and Im not alowed to enter because it´s a red zone.... So yeah its a little more safe!

Okay well love you guys a ton! I jsut ran outta time so I gots to gooooo!

Love 

Alex

September 9, 2013

Sup fam!?¿

I LOVE the fact that you guys adopted a kitten... when it turns into a cat we´ll have to get rid of it though! Holy cow, I have a lot of south missionaries in the east mission now! Tell him to be VERY OBEDIENT NO MATTER WHAT! There are a lot of disobedient missionaries from south mission!

YAY!!! Ben is going to Tijuana! That is so cool! I was going to ask about him today actually! Is he super pumped? I LOVE MEXICO! 

Also, that`s Popeyes chicken (fricken awesome) that looslis are in our ward now!!!!! YAY!!! And Abbey!! Sounds like you guys are makin a lot of friends ther in your new house home!

So this week made me realize how much more blessed this area is! Did I tell you that for about 3 weeks in a row we`ve had RANDOM people show up to church and say they wanna be baptized! hahahahaha when that happens I just laugh now because it is SO COMMON!! So right now we have 6 people that we have put a date with for their baptizms! and this next week we´re going to put 2 more!! This next Friday the 13th we have a baptizm! Hopefully we dont have any bad luck!! Her name is A the one I told you about last week, she´s super excieted to take this step and it´s going to be awesome! 

So in total, if everything goes well these next few weeks we should have a total of 6 baptisms in september! 1 this week, 1 the next (the 21) and 4 on the 28th! Holy cow, they always have said `some Elders will plant the seeds, and some will harvest` I didnt realize how true that was! I have been planting seeds for the whole mission and now I get to harvest! So awesome! 

I got my package today! THANK YOU! hopefully I´ll start doing somesort of exersise now... haha Elder C wants me to do exersise buuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut id rather study the old testament! THAT CRAP IS CRAZY!!! But now I have something to exersise with so I think i´ll start doing it!

Hey, did nick already start school!?!?!? THAT WAS A FAST SUMMER! It´s almost september 11... I think Im going to wear 2 america ties that day!! Hey and you have to fly the GTown flag on the 15 because its INDEPENDANCE DAY!!!!

Oh I gotta tell you about how our baptizm that we were going to have last saturday fell through... super sad... So we were going to C house on wednesday to get him ready to have the baptismal interview the next day! So we knock on the door and his mom comes out and tell s us that she was SUPER worried because he went to zone 1 to do an arrend but he never came home after. She told us how when that happens he´s normally passed out drunk in the street. And when the people drink in the street here people jsut beat the bananas outta them and steal their stuff. 

So we went back ne next day and he STILL wasnt home, he came back to get new shoes (cause they stole his other pair) and then went back out to drink. He was drinking the medical alcohol...It´s like rubbing alcohol. So we went to another lesson and on the way back we found him passed out in the middle of the street. So we helped him up and broght him home, he was so waisted that wehn he trid to tell us Gracias all that came out was GGGGGGAHHSIS... Super sad, we had to practically carry him to his house and he was all smashed up so I got a bunch of blood on my shirt... But we got him there! We`re visiting him EVERYDAY to make sure he´s okay, he says that NO MORE, because he could die doing that and he feels super bad to what it does to his mom.. So we put another date for his baptism and we are still going to work with him!

phew, that´s the story of the week! hahah oh I forgot to tell you ( I think) Me and my comp have been working to convince people in my ward that Justin Beiber is my brother hahahaha, we are so convincing that people have looked up the family of Justin to verify! hahahaha so much fun! 

Okay, well that was my week! Tommorrow we have Zone Conference with Pres. Watts! That should be awesome! I´ll tell you how it goes next week!

Love you guys so much! Tell everyone Hi for me!

Love

Alex

September 2, 2013

So this week was AWESOME! It went by sooooo fast! This new area of mine is EXTREMELY blessed right now, the investigators just show up to church already wanting to change! We dont even have a lot of investigators, and we dont teach NEARLY as much as we did in La Laguna, but the people are just ready here! LOVE IT! 

Holy cow I love the new house, the deck looks very nice! hahaha I wish I coulda seen morgan! Im sure she´s gonna get lost in there for the first couple of days! haha, hows the ward there? How many people asisst there? I wanna know the number cause people always ask how big my ward is! 

So this week it has been raining a lot, and the people here are babies so the work was a little hard. They think that if it´s raining and you walk outside you´ll get sick... So when there´s rain, no one does ANYTHING! They dont even talk to the missionaries! haha So this last monday they told us that we were going to have an activity with Pres. Watts on Saturday. They didnt tell us anythign about it they just told us that we had to invite the ward and tell them to bring their friends, so that´s what we did. Then Friday Elder S(I was in Alameda with him for 3 months, I LOVE the guy, he´s from Tijuana! and we`re very good friends) and Elder G (one of the funniest people I´ve ever met, I met him in Alameda too! He was my ZL for a while!) called (oh and they`re APs) and told us that we had to open the church at 7 in the morning so president could come and get everything ready. Then at 630 in the morning they called us and told us not to do it untill 11..... then at 11 they told us not till 2! haha so we bought McDonalds (yes I finnally have normal food in my area!!!) and just camped out in the church! Then President came and we got everything all set up. We left at like 3 to go invite more people and have a lesson. Then we came back at six and there were a TON of people here! 

So it turns out that the activity was a musical activity, they had Elder L (he´s in the office and I love the guy) Sing. He can sing sooooooooooooo welll it was awesome. They had Elder G play the violin. He´s from my group (he came into the mission the same day as me!) and I was his DL for about 2 weeks haha, but he can play the violin extremely well. And they brought Elder R, He´s from Hondurus and was my first DL in the mish, but he went to a musical school so he can play the piano like a champ. I got to see a bunch of my pals that day, haha it was really cooL!

So they had them sing and play certain hymns inbetween video segments that talked about the gosple! We had an investigator show up who´s been an investigator forever cause he likes to drink His name is Hno. R. He came an hour early and talked A LOT with president Watts (if he cant convert someone I dont know who can!) and in the end Hno. R said `you know pres. I would love to see you and talk to you again` and Pres. Watts said `Oh yeah that´ll be easy, I´ll just come to your baptizm` haha so at the end of the activity Rene came up to us and asked us what he had to do to be baptized! So we put a baptismal date with him for the 28 of september! SO AWESOME!

Then we have our baptizm  for this week! C! C has like 35 years, he used to be addicted to cocaine so he has a LOT of nervous problems. But he is very cool, we go to his house every sunday morning to bring him to church and he´s NEVER home, and then we get to the church and he´s already there! The poor guy always feels like he`s on the run, very anxious! 

Then our other baptismal date is with Hna. A. She´s 21 and has a daughter, and is best friends with the bishops wife. She´s a for sure baptism as well, she shows up to church on her own too! This week she offered to cook us lunch, and supposedly she cooks very weLL!! 

haha I have to tell you about our ward council meeting! We were sitting in there (only about 5 people show up to ward council meeting!) and we were talking about the investigators. When suddenly a guy named Hno. P appeard (he´s kinda old and has a CRAZY CONVERSION story, he was studieing to become a Catholic preist. like 20 years of school, then 2 WEEKS before he goes to the Vadican to be ordained the missionaries come and knock on his door. He read the BOM in 3 days and got baptized instead of going to Italy! hahaha SO CRAZY!!!) But he shows up and starts givin crap to the bishop ( who only has 3 years as a member!!!) about how he doesnt do his job and all this stuff. Then the bishop starts pullin out scriptures about how its his job to preside over the others and their job to work in their callings and all this stuff! my comp made me leave because he feels awkward about contention... I WANTED TO WATCH AND SEE WHO WON!!!!!!! Appearantly this happens EVERY ward council meeting! haha this ward is INSAINE but super cooL! Love it here! 

AH! This week we found GIANT hamburgers! They are probably about a foot in diameter! With steak, chicken, turkey, and sausage, and guacamole and lettuce and all the good stuff!!! SO GOOD!!! And only about 30 quets! Super good!

Okay, well you´ll have to tell me about the new neighborhood and take pics of the unfinished parts of the house! I WANNA SEE IT ALL!!!! Hope every one has a great week!

Love,

Alex

August 26, 2013

Sup peeps!? 

Hows it hangen? Sounds like all of you have had full weeeeeeeeks!!! ME TOO!!! I had to say goodbye to everyone, which was a bummer in a lot of cases but easier in others!! I was really bummed because all my friends had changes too and who knows if we´ll be in the same zones again!!! But yeah, so I get my changes and I said goodbye for 2 days and forgot to pack....... so tuesday night I had to stay up till 2 and wake up at 530 to finish packing on time!!! haha so I get to the change conference and I had an interview with President watts! (which scared the bananas outta me because normally he only does that with disobedients........... haha but Im obedient so dont worry!! haha) So I go in and he tells me that I am going to go to a zone that used to be part of the south mission, and that I had to help make the zone more united and that he prayed and thought alot about my change and that he thinks that this area and this companion are going to help me acheive my potential as a missionary. 

SO My area is in Zona Palmita, area Palmita, It´s in zone 5 and its HUGE compared to anything ive been in before! The house is AWESOME!!!! HUGE and has hot water!!! BOO YA!!!! soo yeah, then my comp is ELDER C. He´s from Ecuador, im finishing his training, and he´s pretty cool. VERY COCKY! haha because this area has had very disobedient elders and until him and his trainer came it wasnt super successfull, then they had like 5 baptisms in 3 months and his confidece level has shot through the roof. But the area is awesome and he´s super friendly so it´ll all good, we dont really have a lot of investigators but we have found a lot of news already. This Sunday we had 2 new people just show up at church! So that was super cool, one of them is from UTAH! But he has to be in GUatemala for like 5 years for visa problems, but he speaks awesome english and his wife is a member so he wants to be baptized! I´ll have to tell you more on that next week!

uhhhhh so yeah, my zone is kinda weird. The south mission has a very different personality, the missionaries are super not united, where the north mission every one loves everyone!!! So it gotta get used to my kinda different zone, there are some super cool elders here though!! I dont have a lot of time to write today so this ones going to be a little more shorter!! love you guys a ton, I think im ogign to sentd home a memory with all mah pics! 

Love,

Alex

August 19, 2013

HOLY COW that´s a nice house!! That´ll be so cool! I WANT A NICE HOUSE!!! I feeel like that´s one of those houses that I cant goof off in... THAT`LL CHANGE!!! hahaha that´s okay, this week I FINISH A YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That went by SUPER fast!!! So There is good news and bad news. The bad news is that the mission has a rule that we cant go to the gym now... WHAT?! Dont understand that crap. So I wont be getting huge after all.... that really was super fun, definately something I will do when I get home! I LOVE BEING SORE. But the good news is that I finnaly have a change!!! I´m still in my same area right now but on wednesday I find out where Im going and who my companion will be, but hopefully I actually leave this dang zone that i´ve been in MY WHOLE MISH!!! right now there are only 6 missionaries comming into the mission... and they are alllll sisters!!! CRAZY!!! SISTER POWER!!

AWE!! I wanna go to the temple! That´s awesome, congradulations Kenz!! I really want to go into the SLC one because IT¨S SO COOL!!! Definately have to do that when I get back!! Sounds like Nick had ablast in his drum thing! That is right up his alley! 

More than anything I had A VERY slow week. we only taught about 15 lessons in total... about 10 less than normal!! Elder O was sick for 4 days so we didnt do ANYTHING, SO BORED. He´s good now but holy cooooow what what long week! It got worse cause a member convinced him he had this DEATHLY sickness... nothing even close, but I called the nurse for him and she told him EXACTLY what I had told him... Not Dengue my friend!! He´s a little upset that he doesnt have a change but it´ll be good for him to stay one more!

SO yuop, P was FINNALLY home and we got to talk to her! She said she is going to try and get married to her husband and that they are going to move to zone 6.... so I guess that we wont be seeing her be baptized or anything. So that was a downer. Plus the kids Jose and Maydi wont be baptized for 2 weeks because of the schedule of their dad. DANGIT I WONT SEE ANY OF THEM!!!!!!!!!! Hopefully the three of them finnally get to it eventually and dont keep dragging it out!

So yeah, almost ALLL the gringos in my zone have changes! All but 2! Half the zone is leaving! Which is crazy because in most other ones ther are only about 4 or 5 changes, we have DOUBLE that! I Guess they want to clean it out a little, most of us have a LOT of time here! I wanna go to the coast and teach the black people! I would be the happiest clam in the world, but if not i´ll still be happy... JUST NOT AS HAPPY haha.

Next week I´ll tell you exactly where Im at, thanks for your support and everything! HEY!! I have a package request! Can you send me those resitance bands that you can put on the door to work out with?! haha you´d have to send me the instructions on how to use them but working out is definately a good stress relief! Love you guys so much! ONE DOWN ONE TO GO!!! This one´s going to pass by 6 times faster!

Love 

Alex