Transfer 16 Week 5 November 30 2015

Well this week was really great. We have had a lot of success lately with finding new families to teach. So that has been great. We have been really busy lately which has been awesome! So nowadays we have a few dates set with our investigators for baptisms. So this next week we have transfers, and if i stay here i should have a few baptisms next transfer which is also going to be my last transfer! So i am pretty sure that i am going to be staying here for my last transfer. But we will see.

So this week we had thanksgiving! I hope all of you had a great Turkey Day! There aren´t many people here that celebrate thanksgiving, but luckily the stake president here does and he invited all of the missionaries from my zone to his house on t\Thursday to eat a thanksgiving meal! It was really good! we had turkey, mashed potatoes, salad, roles, and even pumpkin pie! there are 25 missionaries in my zone right now, so all of us were in his house as well as the Mission president and his wife, and the family of the stake president. Fun fact! the son of my stake president here is in the Torreon mission and Elder Bryan Earl knows him. Then in the night time we had one of our investigadors invite us over to eat a thanksgiving dinner as well! We ate a lot that day. Hopefully i will be sending some pics next week.

This next week we are going to have a chrismas activity for the mission. We are going to have a contacting/caroling activity in a park here in Saltillo on Friday, and then on Saturday we are going to have a white elephant gift exchange and do some other activities. today we went downtown to buy the gifts for the exchange. It should be pretty fun.

Elder Earl

Transfer 16 Week 4 November 23 2015

Well this week was really good. We had a lot more lessons this week than we usually do. So that was exciting.

We have an investigator named Daniel who is really cool. He has gone to church many times before with his cousin who is a member of the church. We had a lesson with him and his mom this week and we set a goal for his baptismal date! so if everything goes well we will be baptizing on the 5th of December. He is really cool, and his mom invites us to eat dinner with them like once a week, so that is always nice as well.

This Sunday was the primary program in my ward. It was really good. On Saturday in the morning we went to the chapel to practice with the primary children because we sang a song with them yesterday during the program. It was a lot of fun. I have always really liked going to the primary program (except for when I was still in primary) because all of them are still so innocent, and sometimes kids can just be hilarious. I feel like I haven´t sent pictures in a while...I´ll see what I can do about that next week...

Elder Earl

(From left to right) Elder Merrill (Kennewick, WA), Elder Mera (Hidalgo, MX), Elder Bedoya (Colombia), Me (Moses Lake, WA), Elder Fernandez (Bolivia), Elder Hopper (Atlanta, Georgia)

Then all of the kids

Transfer 16 Week 3 November 16 2015

Well this week was really good. My mission president had to have surgery this last week, so we were all a little bit worried about him, but I saw him yesterday and he seems to be recovering really well.

My companion and I are still having a lot of success in the area. We have quite a few investigators and we are even teaching three families! This week we started to teach another family, they have a son named Daniel who has gone to church before. He also went to a big activity a few months ago called efy, but it is a bit different from the efys in the united states. They really want to learn more about the church, and we are hoping that they will choose to be baptized soon. 

Well, that´s it for this week

Elder EARL

Tranfer 16 Week 2 November 9 2015

Well i dont have much time to write this week. We had a service project today and it took longer than we originally expected.

I am doing really well and we had another really good week here in Saltillo. The most exciting thing that happened this week is finding a new family to teach! It is always a really good feeling when you get to teach an entire family together. The spirit is always super strong especially when we testify about the importance of the family and the fact that through the power of the preisthood our families can be together forever! So far we have had 3 lessons with them, and so far they really like the message. We are going to continue working and helping them and hopefully someday soon they will be baptized in the church of Jesus Christ. 

Overall everything is going really well. My companion and i are working really hard and we are having a great time doing it! We have seen a lot of success in these first two weeks of the transfer.

Elder Earl

Transfer 16 Week 1 November 2 2015

Well i have officially started my last 12 weeks as a full time missionary. Truthfully it feels a little weird, but i don´t think that it has fully hit me yet that i am going to be home in just a few months. But i can worry about all of that on January 20th.

 

So far this transfer has gone really well. They didn´t transfer any of the 6 missionaries in my ward, so it feels like basically nothing has changed. My old companion Elder Gallardo from Ecuador is in my District now, which is super cool. He is a really good friend.

 

We really focused this week on trying to find new investigators in our area in order to have some new people to teach this transfer. Truthfully this area is one of the hardest areas that i have had when it comes to finding people who are willing to hear us. But luckily i have come to the point in which rejection doesn´t really phase me. Sure i feel sad for the people who may never get to hear the message of the restoration, but i am reminded of somthing that my mission president told us in a conference not to long ago. Everytime someone rejects us that just means that we are one person closer to finding a person prepared to accept the gospel. I am also thnkful to be in Mexico, because i know that there are other missions that have an even harder time than here. So by the end of the week we were able to find 6 new investigadors to teach, and we are hoping that by the end of this week we will be teching another family as well.

 

Everything else is going really well. My companion and I still get along really well. I am happy! and i am glad that the Lord is letting me be a full-time missionary for another 12 whole weeks!

 

Elder Earl

Transfer 15 Week 6 October 26 2015

Well the week went really well, and it went by super fast! i can´t believe how fast the time has been going lately. The transfer has officially ended, which means that we got all of the transfers today.

We had quite a bit of work this week. It was really good. We found a few more investigators and one of our investigators went to church with us yesterday. I wouldn´t say that my area is one of the easiest areas in my mission, but i have grown to really love it, and i have seen a lot of success and progress in the time i have here. 

So something super crazy happend this week...Aparently there was a giant hurricane here in mexico. It was super weird because i didnt hear anything about the hurricane until the day that it actually hit. I heard that it was the strongest hurricane in all of history, but apparently it didnt do nearly as much damage as everyone was expecting. Which is great. Here in Saltillo it just rained a lot. It kind of sucked because when it rains the streets all flood, but i am not going to complain.

So turns out i am staying in the same area with my same companion Elder Hopper. I wasn´t really expecting that, but i am happy with it. I only have two more transfers left, so it is possible that i finish here in my area.

So anyway, i am doing great! 

Elder Earl

                                               My companion Elder Hopper (Atlanta, Georgia)

                                                                 Elder Mera (Hildalgo, Mexico)

                                                                  Elder Nay(Utah)
                                              

Elder Bedoya (Colombia) and our pins we bought.

 

Transfer 15 Week 5 October 19 2015

Well we had another really good week. I dont have much time to write today because we went downtown to buy some sarapes. A sarape is like a colorful blanket that is originally from saltillo. They are pretty cool, so i bought some since i am actually ending the mission pretty soon. They are kind of like a mexican poncho but they dont have the slot to put your head into.

The week went really well. But not much happened that is really worth mentioning. We had a good lesson with one of our investigators Andy. He says that he is going to think about and pick a date for his baptism. That is something fairly new that we are implementing in our mission. Instead of inviting an investigator to be baptized on a certain date, we have them pick their own date. I think it is a good idea. I am not sure how many missions are doing it, but i think all of Mexico is.

So hopefully by the end of the week we will have another goal for a baptismal date. Everything else is going well. We only have one more week left in this transfer so we are going to keep working and finish strong. I am pretty sure that this next week i will receive my transfer to my last area!

Elder Earl  

                                                          I made this salsa!

Transfer 15 Week 4 October 12 2015

Well. We had another really good week this week. But i dont have much time to write so i am not going to write much.

We had a zone conference this week. It went really well. Our president talked to us about Faith. It was really interesting. It is so strange how a principle that seems so simple can be so deep and interesting. We also talked about inviting people to make and keep commitments. Which is something that we do a lot as missionaries. It went really well.

This week was really good. We had quite a few lessons and we have three investigators that seem to be progressing fairly well. One is named Oscar, and the other one is a couple named Guillermo and Norma. 

On Wednesday at like 8 at night a drunk guy in the street started to talk to us. Which is something that happens quite often here, especially in my area. Luckily the drunk people here are really nice, but this one was a little TOO nice. After talking for like 2 minutes or so he grabbed my face and pulled me down and kissed me on the cheek! it was really weird and truthfully it made me a little mad, but then he did the same thing to my companion. So i just started to laugh. It was an interesting experience, but we both had a laugh about it as we were walking to the next meeting.

Well that is about it for this week

Elder Earl

Transfer 15 Week 3 October 5 2015

It was another really good week. The transfer is already halfway over, and luckily everything is going well. I really like my area still, we have a lot of investigators, we continue to find more people to teach every week, and i still get along well with my companion.

Well, truthfully there wasn´t anything really all that exciting that happened this week. We had quite a few lessons, and on Friday i did divisions with an Elder named Elder Nay. He is from St. George, Utah. The divisions went really well. We stayed in my area. I get along really well with Elder Nay, so the day was really cool. He has been in the mission for almost a year.

This weekend was General Conference! it was amazing! I had a really great time, and it was the first time in the mission that i was able to watch the conference in English. Spanish is great, but i definitely like the conference more in English. The traslators can´t convey the emotion that you can hear in the speakers own voice. I would say that my favorite talk was Elder Robert D. Hales. I am pretty sure that is was in the Saturday Afternoon session. I also really liked the idea of ¨Ponderizing¨ a scripture every week. And it is definitely something that i would like to apply.

It was also really amazing to see the three new Apostles called to service. I really enjoyed all of their testimonies. I am sure that they will make great Apostles. 

Well thats it for now

Elder Earl

Transfer 15 Week 2 September 28 2015

Well, the week went really well. On Tuesday we had divisions and i was with Elder Domiciano all day. He is from Brazil. It was really cool, but sometimes it was really hard to understand his accent. And this is only his 4th transfer, so when he doesnt know the spanish word he would just say the word in Portuguese. A lot of the time i could undertand what he was saying, but other times no. But it was cool. He taught me a bit of Portuguese, but i have forgotten most of what i learned. I is kind of like speaking spanish, but you just say it weird...That is probably the best way i could explain Portuguese. He also gave me a coin from Brazil, so it ended up being a pretty successful day!

The week was great! we found 7 new investigators this week knocking doors. And i think that about half will probably progress. We have a new investigator named Oscar. He has a bunch of problems with a lot of different things. But luckily he has the desire to change, and i know that the Gospel can help him do it! i have seen it happen before! A lot of people here say "La gente no cambia" or "People dont change". A lot of people believe that that is true, but one of the things that i have learned here is that that is definitely not true! we all have the capacity to change. And our Savior Jesus Christ is willing and able to help us do it! I have seen a lot of people change for the better here, and i have seen myself change a lot as well.

I am doing great, and i am looking forward to this coming week. This week it really hit me how much time i have here, and how much time i have left. I am not ready to go yet! I just hope that i can do a lot of good in these next 4 months.

Elder Earl

Tansfer 15 Week 1 September 21 2015

Well, the new change has started, and so far it has been really great! My new companion Elder Hopper is super cool! We are getting along really well, which is always great. It is super hard to work efficiently if you don't get along with your companion. Have you seen "Meet the Mormons"? Turns out the bishop from Atlanta that is in that movie is my companions Stake President! Which means that my companion knows a famous person! Which means I know someone who knows a famous person! So that is pretty exciting.

We had a really good week together in our area. We found 7 new investigators to teach and we did a lot of contacts.

So i talked a bit about our investigator Luis last week. We had a lesson with him yesterday that went really well. He is super excited to be sealed to his family! so yesterday we made a list of goals and plans for him to prepare to enter the temple. We explained the Gospel of Jesus Chirst and the importance of all of the priciples that it contains, as well as the importance of the ordinaces of the preisthood. He is super excited to learn and to start applying everything that he has been learning. He said the closing prayer in the lesson, and we could all feel the spirit super stong. Especially when he asked God to bless his family so they can accept the Gospel as well. Because so far his family hasn't been quite as excited about all of this as he has. 

We also were able to find a new family to teach this week. It is the grandson of one of the sisters in our ward, his wife, and his two children. We had our fist lesson with them on saturday, and it went really well. We taught about the Restoration of the Gospel. They had a lot of questions, and they accepted all of the invitations that we gave to them. We are hoping that they are going to progress. 

Well, everything is going great! I just realized that i am going to be home in exactly 4 months, so that is super crazy! 

Elder Earl

Transfer 14 Week 6 September 14 2015

So the change is over and we have our new changes, and i have to say the changes really surprised me this time.

The week ended up being super cool! We had a lesson with and investigator that is named Luis. We discussed temples and the ordinances that we do inside them. He really liked it and he told us that he wants to be baptized so he can be sealed to his family. His son Andy (Ya like from Toy Story) is also listening and accepting the message. And today we are going to have another lesson with them and we are going to invite the entire family to be baptized. 

Other than that we also got to watch the rededication of the Mexico City Temple via satelite yesterday! It was an amazingly spiritual experience and i feel super blessed that i was able to see it. And it was super sweet because a less active family that we have been teaching got to go as well!

Anyway so this morning we got our changes. I was almost positive that i was going to stay here with my same companion because we both only have 6 weeks in this area, but my companion is being changed to Piedras Negras! And i am going to stay here. My companion is going to be Elder Hopper. I dont know him very well. I have just seen him like 2 times, but i know that he has been here for about 5 months and that he is from Georgia. I was kind of bummed, because i actually wanted to stay with Elder Miller because we get along great, but i am sure that i will get along really well with Elder Hopper as well.

I am doing great!

Elder Earl

Transfer 14 Week 5 September 7 2015

Well this last week ended up being pretty good. But i have decided that i have gotten kind of tired of typing, so please excuse me if my emails are shorter from now on.

This week we started teaching a new family! they are really great! They were actually being taught by the missionaries about a year ago, but we dont really know why they stopped visiting them. Some of the members of the family have even been to church before. We taught about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ through the Prophet Joseph Smith, and the Spirit was really strong. It was a great lesson and we explained a lot about the Preisthood and how there family can be blessed through it. They all accepted the invitation we gave them to be baptized, and they want to go to church with us this next sunday.

We have also had lot of success with the less active members in our area. Yesterday three less active members went to church with us, and all of them said that they had a really spiritual experience. 

This coming sunday is the rededication of the Mexico City temple. We are going to watch it via satelite in my stake center here. So i am really excited about that.

Well that is about it for this week

Elder Earl

Transfer 14 Week 4 August 31 2015

Well i dont have much time to write. But i did have a really good week this last week. I got a little stomach flu, but it didnt really affect me all that much and i feel a lot better now. So we had a buch of lessons this week and we found some more people to teach. Two of our investigators went to church yesterday, and i think that one of them will be baptized soon.

This week we helped a family paint there house. it was pretty fun. Other than that the week was pretty normal, but really good. I am still getting along great with my companion, an i really like my area. Well that is all for this week.

Elder Earl

Transfer 14 Week 3 August 24 2015

Well this last week was pretty good, but it was a little tough too. But something amazing did happen. On Tuesday i finally aquired some chocolate muffins from Costco! A Costco opened up here in Saltillo in June and i have been trying to get some muffins ever since. And it finally happend on Tuesday! And thankfully they tasted exactly the same as they do in the U.S., But unfortunately they are all gone, and it could be a while until we can get some more...

So we started to teach a christian family here in our area. They have some beliefs that are pretty different than what we believe in. Especially when i comes to Sunday Worship. They say that in their chuch they have music and they dance, and people faint when they are overcome by the spirit and the people speak in uncomprehensible languages. So we had a lesson with them, and it was the first time that i was really a part of a real ¨Bible bash¨. It was a lot of fun. Luckily the family is really cool so there wasn´t too much contention. And i think that they actually understood what i was trying to tell them. So I was able to talk them into reading 3 nephi chapter 11. and they also fed us dinner. Afterwards the brother asked my companion if he could pray for him. My companion told him that he could and the brother asked him to stand up. So he did. Then the Brother told my campanion that he was going to faint and you should have seen my companions face! He looked so scared! So luckily i was able to talk him out of it and we went home.

Then on Friday we returned for the next lesson and they weren´t there. I guess they were afraid of losing again, and that this time i would actually talk them into being baptized! But seriously, they actually did know a lot about the Bible, a lot more than i do truthfully. I guess we just interpret it in a different way. But it was a lot of fun truthfully. He would share a scripture, then i would share a scripture, then he would, then i would. Then i would share my testimony and there is no way that he could argue with a testimony. I hope that we can see them again, but for the meantime we are going to keep searching for new people to teach.

We actually found quite a few people this week. 9 people told us that they would go to church with us Yesterday, but unfortunately only one person showed up. But i was still pretty happy that that one did go. We had Stake conference this week. it was good.

Elder Earl

Transfer 14 Week 2 August 17

Well we had a really great week again. My companion and i basically have the area down. Which is awesome because we learned it super fast. So now I almost never have to use the map unless i am searching for a referral. We found a lot of new investigators this week and we had an investigator go to chuch with us.

The coolest thing that happend this week was finding a new investigator named luis. We were looking for some of the less-active members in our area so we knocked on his door. The member had moved a while ago but we started to talk to Luis when he opened the door and he let us into his house to talk. The most interesting think about Luis is that he is completely blind. It happend about 3 years ago. But despite that he is a very pòsitive and friendly person. I cannot imagine how hard it would be to lose my eyesight. He is a very strong person. We talked a lot about the plan of salvation. Especially everything that is going to happen after this life when we die. He was unsurprisingly very interested in the Resurrection and the fact that we will all be given perfect bodies thanks to Jesus Christ and His Atonement. It was a really powerful lesson and he says that he wants to go to church with us. 

Other than that some other things happend as well. My companion gave a talk in church yesterday, he did really well for only having 6 months. I bought a new camera today because my old one broke. Overall the week was really good.

Transfer 14 Week 1 August 10 2015

So in tuesday I arrived to my new area with my new companion. Like i said last week my new companion is named Elder Miller he is from Grand Junction, Colorado. He has almost been a missionary for 6 months and he is really cool! We get along well, and we had a lot of success this week!

So there are actually 3 companionships of missionaries in my ward! So ya that means that there are six of us. Which means that my area isnt extremely large like it usually is. Which is nice since both of us are new to the area so we kind of have to learn it together. 

So most of the week was spent meeting all of the members and investigators that live in our area. Which was great because we have a lot of really cool people in the area. We have and investigator named Ricardo who is super excited to be baptized! he has read the whole Book of Mormon and he has an extremely strong testimony of the Gospel. Unfortunately he needs to get married before he can be baptized. But we are hoping that he can get married very soon. 

We also found a new family this week. We contacted this man in the street. He is a very active member of a different chuch. Actually i am pretty sure that he is basically the pastor, but we shared a short message about the resoration of the gospel through the prophet Joseph Smith right there in the street, and he said that he wants to hear more. He also said that he is going to go to the church with us this coming Sunday with his family. He has a wife and one daughter. He also gave us each a bag of prickly pears (Ya like the ones in The Jungle Book) which are super good! 

Well i dont really have time to write any more but really a lot of things are happening in the area. Oh ya! yesterday church was great! there is a family in my ward that lived in my previous area that i had a year ago! it was really great to see them again! they live in my area and they are a really cool family.

Anyway i guess that is it for now

Elder Earl

Transfer 13 Week 6 August 3 2015

Well, the transfer is officially over and i am being changed tomorrow, but i will get to that later.

I had a really great week this week. We had a lot of lessons we found some new investigators and we had two of them go to chuch with us tomorrow, These last two changes have been really great. I like my area, and my companion has been super cool.

On Thursday we did divisions with Elder Bauzan and Elder Miller. I went to the other area with Elder Miller. And we had a really good time. He is from Colorado and he is about to finish 6 months as a missionary. The day was great we found two new investigators for his area and we made quite a few contacts. We met a guy who had previously talked to missionaries before who asked us to give a blessing to his sick friend. It was a really neat experience to see the faith of this guy who we didn´t even know to yell at us from two streets over so we could give a blessing to his friend. Elder Russell M. Nelso of the Twelve Apostles said in a talk that ``Men are that they might have joy`` and the best way to recieve true joy is to participate in Priesthood Ordinaces. I have come to know that his statement is very true.

Then on saturday we had a service activity. All of the missionaries in my zone went to one of the chapels and we washed cars for free. Truthfully i didn´t think that many people would show up, but i was wrong! we had a bunch of signs, and people just kept coming. I guess if you put ``free`` on a sign people are bound to show up. So all of the elders washed the cars while the sisters talked to the owners about the church and invited them to accept a visit to there house. We actually got quite a few referalls. So i guess it was a pretty successful activity!

Anyway so we got our changes today in the morning. I am staying in Saltillo, actually in the same zone, i am being moved to a ward called Fundadores. My companion is going to be Elder Miller. Yep! the same missionary that i did divisions with on thursday! Unfortunately we are both going to be new to the area so we are going to have to figure everything our by ourselves. But it should be a lot of fun!

Elder Earl

Transfer 13 Week 5 July 27 2015

So we had another fairly good week, except for the fact that me and my companion both got a pretty bad cold. We are basically fine now, but it was pretty rough for a while.

So basically we had to go to the doctor almost every day this week. My companion is going to get a minor surgery to get something from his face removed. He is fine, but there is a lot of paperwork that we had to do to get it approved by the insurance. So we had to go back almost everyday for that, and then i got a cold, and then my companion got a cold. So that was the bad part of the week.

But on the upside, even though we had to lose quite a bit of working time durring the week. It didnt really affect the number of lessons and contacts we had. Which was a huge blessing! On Wednesday we found a new investigator. His name is Miguel and we contacted him in the street. He has a lot of questions and he is interested in the message that we have, but he isnt exactly the best listener in the world. He just likes to talk a lot. He is a really interesting guy though. We are going to keep working and hopefully he will accept the message. and in the meantime we will keep searching for more people to teach.

We have transfers in a week, and i will almost for sure be transferred. Hopefully i get to stay in Saltillo though because the heat is almost unbearable anywhere else!

Elder Earl

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Transfer 13 Week 4 July 20, 2015

So we had another really good week here in Saltillo. On Wednesday we had a multi-zone conference with all of the missionaries in Saltillo. Because one of the Seventy came to the mission. Actually he is teh area president of Mexico, and his name is Elder Pieper.

It was a really good conference. We learned a lot! It was really cool because he shared us some experiences from his mission and his first area was in saltillo! but when he was here, there was only one ward and four missionaries in the entire city! now there are three stakes and about 70 or so missionaries. So the church here has definitely grown a lot! 

So we have been teaching a less active famlily for a while about a month now. And they have been progressing really well. And yesterday there 8-year-old son was baptized. It was a really great baptism and he asked me to baptize him! I will send some pictures next week. His name is Julio. 

We also have an investigator named Carlos. He is doing really well, and i am sure that he is going to be baptized within the next two months, but unfortunately i will most likely be changed before his baptism because we have changes in two weeks and i have been in this area for quite a while. 

Yesterday my companion and i were talking and i spotted something on his shoulder. I wasnt sure what it was but then i realized that it was a giant cockroach! I tried staying calm, but there is something about giant cockroaches that makes you just forget all reason and freak out! so i kind of yelled at him, which mad him scream, brush the cockroach off, and stomp on it about 10 times. It wasnt super graceful but the job got done nonetheless. We were laughing for about 10 minutes after that.

Well that´s all folks

Elder Earl

Transfer 13 Week 3 July 13 2015

This week ended up being really cool. We got a lot of work done.

Anyway so the house that i am living in right now isnt exactly the nicest house in my mission. Probably one of the ugliest. Partly due to the way hat previous renters and missionaries have treated it, and partly because it is just and ugly house. But we put up with it because it is right next to the chapel, which is really nice. 

This week we decided to do a big cleaning project on the house mostly in the front of it, because it was full of weeds. And for some reason a lot of people decide that it is okay to throw their trash in our yard. I say ¨¨yard¨¨ but it really isnt a yard. But this last week we had a few other missionaries in our zone come over to help us out, and it is actually looking really nice! There were a few unseen setbacks, like the large slug nest that was pretty disgusting, but we got it done, and pretty quickly actually. But we have decided to start looking for a new house.

Other than that the week was pretty normal. We have a few investigators that are progressing, and we continue to find more people every week. But most of the success that we have had are the less active families. three of the inactive families that we are teaching went to church yesterday, and one of them is even working on her mission papers. The converts in our area are doing really well as well.

Well i guess that is it. I would have included a picture of the slug nest, but trust me you dont want to see it, and i didnt take a picture of it anyway.

Elder Earl

Transfer 13 Week 2 July 6 2015

Well the week was pretty good but it was kind of rough because my companion had some health problems all week. Nothing super serious, but he did have an ear infection and some strange infected bump on his face. It was kind of gross, but i felt pretty bad for him because i could tell that it hurt.

Well i am not giong into all of the details about what they ended up doing to get rid of the bump but let just say we had to stay in the house for like a day and a half due to some bleeding and the fact that he would have probably scared anyone that we went to visit. But everything is fine now. We do have to go back to the hospital on Wednesday though to get it checked out.

So we have continued searching for the inactive youth of the ward to invite them to join seminary, and it is still going great! We found a few more really cool families this week, and even a few investigators. 

So ya everything is going great here in Saltillo. I am fine. I get along well with my companion, and we have a lot of work.

Elder Earl

Transfer 13 Week 1 June 29 2015

Well the new Transfer started but truthfully it seems like nothing has really changed at all. Because there were almost no changes in my zone. there are only 2 new elders that were not here last transfer. But that is great because i really like my zone right now.

so i guess the most exciting thing that happened this week was my birthday! I turned 20! so i am feeling super old right now. But the day was really great! One of the best birthdays that i have ever had! not because i got a nice present or ate a lot of good food. it was actually just like any other day in the mission. But that is exactly what made it the best birthday. there is no present i could recieve that is better than just being here helping people. (But presents would be nice too. My parents have my address)

Other than that the week was a little tougher than usual. Mostly because it rained a bunch this week. At one point my companion and i were running in the street trying to get to the house, but we ecentually gave up because there was absolutely no way we could have gotten any wetter! it actually looked like we had fallen in a lake or something. But then the drops were so big that they actually hurt when they hit you, so we started to run again. 

This week an area seventy showed up to our zone meeting and asked us all to visit the young men and women in our ward to invite them to seminay. It is going great! we found a few more families to teach as well as some investigators.

So ya i am doing great!

Elder Earl

Transfer 12 Week 6 June 22 2015

So this was the last week of the transfer, and i have to say that it was pretty good. It would have been great, but the investigator that we were going to baptize on saturday ended up not going through with it because of some problems that she is having. Thankfully she still wants to be baptized, so hopefully she can continue progressing so she can be baptized soon.

Other than that the week was great. I am still getting along with my companion, we had quite a few lessons, and some investigators went to church yesterday as well.

It also finally hit me that i am actually going to turn 20 in 6 days! which is super crazy because that just seems super old to me. I kind of wish that i could just stay 19. 

So this morning we got our tranfer and it turns out that i am staying in Aurora in Saltillo with my same companion Elder Gallardo. Which is cool, because i get along great with him. But i have been in this area for a while so i was kind of hoping to get changed. But i am sure that we are going to have a great transfer with a lot of success!

Elder Earl

Transfer 12 Week 5 June 15 2015

So this week was super good. We had a lot of success this week. so much success that our zone leaders actually called us last night just to congradulate us. We had the most lessons in our zone this week. and we have 4 dates set for baptisms. unfortuanately i dont have much time to write today because a sister invited us over to eat and then we are going to help her clean up in front of her house. pull weeds and stuff.

So the best news that we had this week is that we are going to have a baptism this saturday. Her name in Maria and she has a sister that was baptized in februrary. She is really cool because she really has a desire to learn. she always has at least 10 questions every lesson that we have, and she is always reading the pamphlets we give her and the Book of Mormon.

So ya i am doing great! I am getting along really well with my companion, and we are having a lot of success. We will get out transfers next Monday. we are hoping to stay companions for another transfer.

Transfer 12 Week 4 June 8 2015

we had another really great week. but unfortunately it is getting hotter and hotter every day! But whenever i feel super hot i just think about the other missionaries in Monclova or Piedras Negras, or Bryan in Torreon and i feel much better. Because the heat is absolutely horrible in those places.

So this last tueday i spent the day with Elder Bauzan in divisions. It was an okay day. Unfortunately we didnt find many people in there houses and every meeting that i planned fell through, but we did get a lot of contacts, so the day didnt go completely to waste, but thankfully we were able to have some other really good days this week, and by sunday we actually had more lessons in the week than we have had in a while. In the mission, sometimes we have days that kind of suck, but if you keep working all through the week with a positive attitude you can still make it a great week. That is something that my mission president taught us in our last zone conference. its something that i would like to try to apply to the rest of my life, even though it can be super hard at times to keep a positive attitude when crap happens especially for me.

so like i said the rest of the week was really good. We had a ward activity on friday. we watched the movie Meet the Mormons. But it was actually Conozca a los Mormones because we watched it in Spanish (obviously) We had a really good turn out like 55 i think. A few investigators went as well.

Yesterday was great as well. An investigator that we hadn´t seen in a while went to church by herself yesterday and said that she wants to be baptized. We have a lesson with her in a couple hours and we are going to set her baptismal date for the 20th so that is super exciting! 

So ya

Elder Earl

Transfer 12 Week 3 June 1 2015

We had another really great week, and a large part of it was making sure that our investigator Ricardo would be ready for his baptism on Saturday.

On Tuesday after our regular Tuesday meeting I did divisions all day with Elder Flores. He is from Chihuahua. It was a really great day! We found some new investigators that are super cool. It is the Soliz Perez family. They are an old couple. He is 81 and she is 79. We had a really good lesson with them, and they actually accepted the invitation to be baptized in the first visit. Which was a pleasant surprise because in the past when i have taught senior citizens they usually aren`t too eager to make changes in their life. Later on in the week I was on divisions with another Elder named Elder Bauzan and we had a really spiritual lesson. We taught the Restoration. And they went to church with us yeterday, so if everything plays out right we could be baptizing in a few weeks. But it is also very possible that i will be transferred before that happens.

So on Friday We had Ricardo`s baptismal interview. Everything went super well, because he was super prepared for it. His wife is a return missionary, and she really helped him a lot as well. So on Saturday we had his baptism. He couldn´t decide who he wanted to baptize him so we decided to have my companion baptize him, and then on Sunday the Elders Quorum President from the ward confirmed him. 

On Sunday we had a capacitation at 7:00 with one of the members of the Seventy. It was really good. It was mostly for the members of the Ward council of all the wards in Saltillo, but all of the missionaries were invited as well. It was really powerful and i learned a lot. and i also got to see some missionaries and members that i have not seen in a long time, so that was cool too.

So ya i am doing great.

Elder Earl

 

Transfer 12 Week 2 May 25 2015

Well this last week was super sweet! I am getting along super well with my companion, we had a lot of fun, and we had a lot of success as well.

Well i guess the most exciting thing that happened this week was our baptism! Our investigator Paloma was baptized on friday by her father. It was a really cool and spritiual experience. Mostly because many people in the ward thought that she was never going to be baptized because she has had a lot of opportunities in the past but always decided not to. mostly because her mom is not a member of the church. But her mom has been going to church a lot recently and she was there in the baptism as well. Brother Silva (palomas dad) Baptized Paloma and his 8-year-old daughter Sarabi. then at the end of the service he bore a very strong testimony of the church. Truthfully it was one of the most powerful testimonies that i have heard. I could tell that he was super happy that his two daughters decided to be baptized. Now just his wife needs to be baptized and they can all go to the temple together to be sealed for all eternity!

Then on sunday we had the confirmation. Paloma actually wanted me to baptize her at first, but after talking it over we all agreed that it would be better for her dad to baptized her, so he asked me to do the confirmation. So i did. It was also a really great experience. I always love to participate in the ordinaces of the gospel, because i always feel so spiritually uplifted afterwards, and they really strenghten my testimony of the church and of the preisthood authority.

On saturday we had a really great lesson with another investigator named Ricardo. And he accpeted the invitation to be baptized this saturday! So we will be having another baptism on Saturday! Well it is possible that we will have to move it to the next week, because he still doesnt know his work schedule for the week. But he is definitely going to be baptized!

Elder Earl

 This is me and my new companion Elder Gallardo

 

 

This is us with the Silva family. They are now all members except for the mom. Paloma is our convert that was baptized on friday, her sister Sarabi was baptized as well, but she is eight so she isn´t a convert. Their dad baptized them, then on Sunday I confirmed Paloma.

 

Transfer 12 Week 1 May 18

This week was super sweet! I ended up not having time to write about the changes last week. So i will do it now. My companion was sent to another area here in Saltillo and i recieved my new companion on Tuesday at like 2 in the afternoon. His last area was in Monclova. It is like 3 hours north of Saltillo. His name in Elder Gallardo and he is from Ecuador. He is super cool! And I can already tell that he is going to be one of my favorite companions.

We had a lot of success this week. Quite a few lessons and we actually have another baptismal date for the 30th of May! so i am super excited. This Friday we are going to have one as well! It is going to be a really good couple of weeks! 

This week we accidentally left the keys in the house two days in a row! And the houses here are a lot different than the united states because when you close the door there is absolutely no way of opening it from the outside without the key. The first day wasnt too tough because we left the window open and i was able to open the door through the window with a stick. It took me a while but i did it. But the second day was super tough because we closed the window! We had absolutely no idea of what to do, so after about a half hour or so we decided to break the window and open the door with the stick again. My companion started to throw a big rock at the window a couple of times, but aparently our house has the strongest windows in the world! Because it didnt even crack. Then i picked up the rock and started to bang it against the glass and there was still not even a crack. Then i decided to do it just one more time as hard as i could. 

I was super confused for a second because it made a loud noise as if it had broken, but there was still no crack in the window. Then i realized that the blow had actually loosend the clasp on the inside of the window allowing me to open it normally. And we were able to grab the keys from the table with a long stick. We thought it was pretty funny. 

so ya. I am doing great! It was a great week.

Elder Earl

Transfer 11 Week 6 May 11 2015

Well my 11th transfer is officially over. Which is kind of scary because i am pretty sure that i only have like 6 left!

This last week was actually pretty rough for me. I all started on Monday. I woke up feeling a little bit sick to the stomach, but i didnt really think much of it because it had happened before. But then we went over to the house of the other missionaries in our ward to eat hamburgers for lunch and to play Uno. That was fun, but then later on i started to feel super sick. And to top it all off, on the way back home I stepped on a nail. It passed through my shoe and stabbed my foot. So we finally got home and I ended up throwing up about 4 times with a sore foot and everything. I finally got to sleep at about 3 in the morning.

The next day (Tuesday) we had the zone meeting in the morning. I sat through the whole thing but i felt like dying. I probably wouldn´t have gone since i was sick, but the mission president gave the capacitation so i decided to go. 

After the meeting I finally got to go to the doctor. Our ward mission leader brought us because i could barely walk. They gave me a Tetanus shot for the nail thing and a bunch of medication for my stomach. Butt i am not going to say where they gave me the shot. Oops...i gave it away. 

By the end of Tuesday my stomach was feeling better, but i couldn´t get back to really walking until Thursday. so ya it was a rough week, But i am fine now.

But despite the dificulties the week ended up being one of my favorites because i got to see my family

Elder EArl!

Transfer 11 Week 5 May 4 2015

Well this week was cool. i didnt have time to mention it last week but a week before sunday i gave a talk in sacrament meeting. It went well! It was definitely the best talk i have ever given so far in the mission. Mostly because my Bishop actually told me that i was going to give a talk a week before hand. So i had a whole week to prepare and apparently i prepared too much. i was only going to speak for 10 or 15 minutes but i took up like 20...oops. one of the missionaries in my ward didnt get to give his talk. He was pretty thankful.

Anyway the work in going really well in my area. we are going to baptize on the 22 of may so i am super excited about that.unfortunately one of our investigators decided that she cant continue taking the discussions from us anymore. which is really strange because she was super excited about being baptized, she even wanted to go on a mission! But her sister is a member and is going to continue to support and encourage her. And obviously we will do whatever we can.

Today my companion and i made hamburgers with the other two missionaries in our ward, Elder Briones and Elder Miller. It was a lot of fun and they tasted super good! I am an avocado addict now which is funny because i always said that i didnt like it before coming here. 

Well that is about it. I am doing super well, and i am so excited to talk to you guys on Sunday!

Elder Earl

April 27 2015

Well I dont have anytime to write today  because we have a lot of stuff to do and the ciber is about to close. but I am doing great! We had a lot of success this week! we found a couple of new investigators and i am sure that at least 2 of them will be baptized within the next 2 months or so. Well i guess i have to go now. I thought that the ciber was going to be open for another half hour but apparently not.

Elder Earl

Transfer 11 Week 3 April 20 2015

well this week was pretty sweet. On tuesday i got to do divisions with Elder Brillones. He is from Guadalajara. We had a a really good and successful day. We had a lot of lessons and we received more refferals than usual (like 3). i had a great time with Elder Brillones. He speaks English fluently and he likes a lot of the same music that i do. He plays guitar as well, so in the night before we went to sleep we played some guitar and talked about music and stuff.

The rest of the week went pretty well. We are having a tough time with some of the recent converts in the area. just trying to help them with the problems that they have. 

I dont have like anymore time to write. We had some confusion today because a member invited us to eat with them today but then cancelled last minute. We also put a Date for the next baptism. So if all goes well we will be baptizing on the 15th of may!  Ya!

Elder Earl 

Transfer 11 Week 2 April 13 2015

Well, we had a pretty good week this week as well. I am just starting to be able to find my way around the area, but only part of it because the area is actually really big! We went to Arteaga this week. It is a small town that is also in my area. I was kind of dissapointed because I was expecting it to be further away from Saltillo, but there isnt really a difference. Saltillo ends and Arteaga begins on the same street.

This week we started to teach a new investigator. He is actually the brother of a member that was baptized like 3 weeks ago. He is really cool, and he does ask a lot of questions about the church, but as of now he seems only halfway interested in the message. But we will see what happens.

This week I met the Ward Mission Leader. He seems to be a really good Mission Leader who takes his calling seriously. Which is nice because that isnt always the case. We went and visited a couple families with him this week.

I also met a family in my ward this week that has a son in the mission field. He is in Torreón Mexico. Which is the same mission as my cousin Bryan! So it is possible that they know eachother.

Yesterday we had a meeting for all of the missionaries and ward mission leaders in my stake. It went well but afterwards there was a huge storm! There was rain lightning, and even hail! It was the biggest hail that I have ever seen! It really wasn´t that big, but i havent really seen hail that much...So we were all trapped in the chapel for a while untill the storm let up and we got to go home, but unfortunately the power went out. But it came back some time durring the night.

Well that is it

Elder Earl

Transfer 11 Week 1 April 2015

Well I am in my new area and with my new companion. My new wards name is Aurora (If anyone cares) and my new companion is named Elder Dichi he is Mexican but apparently his last name is Italian.

Overall i really like my area a lot. It is kind of ugly but i am fine with that. All of the neighborhoods that i have in my area are called colonias de infonavit which are basically just cookie cutter neighborhoods. a company builds all of the houses exactly the same and then they rent them all out. So all the the streets and houses look exactly the same in all of my area. Which means it might be a little hard to learn it all.

Aparently there is a small town named Arteaga that is also in my area. We havent gone yet but we probably will this week. We have to take a bus to get there.

We spent most of the week visiting the members and investigators so i could meet them. But nothing happened that is really worth mentioning.

This weekend was awesome! Because I got to see general conference. All of the sessions and talks were awesome,but i especially liked the talke by M. Russell Ballard in the preisthood session. He explained how each missionary is given his or her mission call and he even had a ´´personal interview´´ with everyone watching at the same time!

Well that is about it. yesterday i completed 14 months as a full time missionary! Whoot!

Elder Earl

Transfer 10 week 6 March 30

Well the transfer is over and we have the changes and everything. We ended the change well we found a few new investigators this week and 4 of our investigators went to church yesterday. So it was a good week.

But it was a pretty normal week not all that exciting. I have been here in my area Cuauhtemoc for 3 transfers (about 4 and a half months) And I have been in this town Piedras Negras for 4 transfers (about 6 months) so I was pretty sure that I was going to be changed and I was right. Tomorrow I am going back to Saltillo. All I know is that my area is called Aurora and my companion is named Elder Dichi. I think that I met him before but I am not really sure because there could be more than one Elder Dichi. 

I am excited to go back to Saltillo because it just started to get really hot here and the only way to escape the heat in this mission is to go to Saltillo. It is going to be kind of tough because I really like my area here. But luckily I am going to have some time to say goodbye to some people later on today. 

Well that is about it. I have a lot of stuff to do today. I hate packing...

Elder Earl

Transfer 10 Week 5 March 23 2015

Well i guess this week was pretty good. On Tuesday i got to do divisions with an elder named Elder Hernandez. Actually right now there are three missionaries in my district named Elder Hernandez. and there are 8 missionaries in my district. So almost half are hernandez.

The divisions went well. On Monday my companion and I contacted two young men and we went to visit their family in the divisions and we actually had a really great lesson! We found out that two of them are actually already members of the church and the other two aren´t we shared a small part of the Restoration and then we had to leave

Then we went back on Friday and we shared a short message. The spirit was super strong and the two members of the family who have not been baptized yet accepted the invation to be baptized! It was a great lesson. Then on saturday we went back and we shared the Restoration video and we talked a little bit more about the Word of Wisdom and of course we invited them to go to church for the next day. They said yes! but then they told us some bad news...

So yesterday they went to church and it was super cool! They got to know the members and they said that they really enjoyed it (Except for when there 4 year old son peed his pants) but that was the only bad thing that happened. The members were really great as well. They really helped us out with getting them to the right classes and explaining the things that we do. All in all it was a really great sunday. 

Did you notice that i didn´t write down the bad news that they told us on saturday. Well, on sunday after church they moved to a different town, which is completely horrible because there are missionaries in that town as well, but know I dont get to continue visiting them. So now they are in Musquiz and we need to find another family to baptize

Also two young men from my ward here entered the MTC in Mexico City this week. One is going to Mexico City East and the other is going to Mexico Cuernavaca.

Thats it for this week

Elder Earl

Transfer 10 Week 4 March 16 2015

Anyway, this week went well. On Tuesday the mission president came to Piedras Negras, and we watch the movie Meet the Mormons as a zone. I really liked the movie. If you haven´t seen it, I would definitely recomend it.

Then on Wednesday, we had our interviews with the president in the morning. They went well. I always like getting a chance to talk with the president one on one. He is really smart and he gives great advice as well. 

Unfortunately we didnt have enough time to go and wash clothes with a member this last week because I went to Saltillo on monday, so we had to wash our clothes in our sink. It wasnt the best experience, but it turns out that I was more skilled at washing my clothes by hand than I thought I was. But luckily today we got to go and wash with a real washer.

All in all the week was super normal. A lot of drunk people came up to talk to us this week. It is super sad to see the effects that alcohol does on people. It is a strange feeling to talk to a grown man as if he were a small child. 

We found a new investigator this week named Jesus. He is really cool. He used to be a tatoo artist and he is almost completely covered in tatoos. even his face. He used to live in texas so his english is really good, and he is also one of the most polite people that I have met here. He joined a church when he was in prison, but doesnt assist any church now, but he says that he would like to go to church with us, 

Anyway, I dont know what else to write, so ya

Elder Earl

Transfer 10 Week 3 March 10 2015

Well, Elder sebastian and I had another really good week. And it is really hard to believe that this change is already halfway over. This Tuesday I did divisions with one of my zone leaders. His name is Elder Muñiz. I had a really good time. He has been in the mission for about 18 months and he has a very profound knowledge about the gospel. I had a really great time and I was able to learn a lot from him.

One of the best thing that happend this week was that we found 8 new investigators. That is more than I have been able to find in one week for quite a while. It was a great feeling to be able to have so much success this week even though it was cold all week, because ussually when it is cold it is really hard to find people who are willing to open their doors.

A few weeks ago I wrote a little bit about an investigator that we found named Jerry. Unfortunately he had to move and we completely lost contact with him for like 3 weeks. But luckily this week while walking in a part of our area where we usually dont visit we found him again! The best part is that we didnt even have a reason to go to that part of the area. We just felt like we should go there and try to contact some people because we hadnt really ever gone there before. And I am so happy that my companion and I were able to follow that subtle prompting from the Spirit, even if we didnt realize it was revelation at the time.

Later on saturday I found out that I was going to have to go to saltillo on sunday to renew my visa so I dont get deported. So on Sunday unfortunately I was only able to go to Sacrament meeting because I had to catch a bus ride, and 8 hours later I was in Saltillo.

Saltillo was fine. It was a super fast trip. It was cool because I was able to see some Elders that I have not seen in quite a while. Like Elder Bradley from my MTC district. And a couple of Latino Elders that arrived to the mission the same day that I did. It was really cool to see them, because I couldnt even talk to them the first time that I met them, but now I can! Then I got back to my area at like midnight yesterday, so I am super tired right now.

so ya

Elder Earl

Transfer 10 Week 2 March 2 2015

Elder Sebastian and I had another really good week. We had a lot of work to do.

This week was kind of just a normal week. But I got cold again which was kind of weird. But I forgot my planner in the house so I cant really remember anything that I was going to write. 

Yesterday was really good. Our investigator Joel went to church. It was his third time going. His wife and two of his kids are members of the church, and he has a son that is in the MTC in provo. He has been progressing very well. I remember the first time that we went to visit him he didnt want to talk much about the church at all. But ever since his son entered the MTC about a month ago he started warming up to the church a little bit more and he started to attend. And yesterday he actually started to participate a lot in the classes. We also went and ate with them yesterday like we do almost every sunday and we shared a message about temples and family history work. His wife had actually gone to the temple just the week before and he had a few questions about it, so it worked out perfectly.

We also had a lesson with our investigator named Rafael yesterday. We shared the Restoration video with him and we talked a lot about the Preisthood. We have invited him to be baptized before but he always told us that he had already been baptized in a different church so he didnt need to. He had a lot of questions for us about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon after the video. And we invited him to baptism again. He said that he is going to continue to read the Book of Mormon and he is going to pray and ask if it is true, and if he feels that it is true he will be baptized! 

So this week was pretty good. I am still doing great. I dont have any compaints at all. I am just glad to be here.

Elder Earl

 One of the families we are working with...with Elder Martinez.

This is how close I am to TEXAS!!

Eating tortillas I made from scratch.  We found out afterwards that you should use hot water and not cold water when making them..they were a little hard.

Transfer 10 Week 1 February 23 2015

Well I had another really good week. I met my new companion on Tuesday and we started to work like usual.

My companion is named Elder Sabastian. He is from Idaho and he has been on the mission for about 8 months. 

On wednesday we had our zone meeting. We recieved a book of mormon from a member in a different ward here in Piedras Negras. It came with an address of her friend that she was gifting it to. So that day we went to her house to give her her Book of Mormon and to contact her. Her name is Paloma and we had a really good lesson with her. She says that she is really excited to start reading because her friend that is a member has told her a lot about it. She also wrote her testimony and marked a lot of her favorite scriptures and chapters for her. It was really cool.

We were also able to have a really good lesson with our investigator named Adrian and his kids. We contacted him a long time ago, but we haven´t been able to have a real lesson with him because he is always busy with work or with his children. We taught them the Restoration and we shared the video of Joseph Smith. They all decided that they want to start reading the Book of Mormon as a family and to pray to know it is true

These were really great experiences because I know that if they read meditate and pray they will recieve their answer through the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true. 

Yesterday was really good as well. Three of our investigators went to church! Which was really great. My companion was called up to give an impromtu talk as well. He struggled a bit but it wasnt horrible. I have heard worse, and I have given worse. Then we had a stake Priesthood conference. It went really well. The three young men that are going on missions all bore their testimonies, as well as a brother who was just called to be the stake Patriarch. The Stake President gave a talk about Patriarchal Blessings. It was really good.

Well thats it

Elder Earl

Transfer 9 Week 6 February 16 2015

Well. Another week and transfer have ended. It was a really good week, and we have the changes!

This last week was really good. We had a lot of lessons we recieved a few refferals and we were able to find a new investigator as well. He is kind of crazy but he is a good guy.

But the best part of the week was definitely yesterday! These last two transfers in this area have been really good but we have struggled with getting our investigators to go to church with us. Yesterday we had a ward conference and 70 people went to church which is the most that I have seen here in this ward and 3 of our investigators went as well! Overall the church services were really good. We listened to talks from the bishop as well as the stake president and the choir sang I Know That My Redeemer Lives (It was okay). The Presidents talk was very powerful. He spoke about Family History work and Temple work as well.

Today in the morning our district leader called us with the changes. My comp is going to Monclova tomorrow in the morning and I am staying here for another 6 weeks. I dont know my companion, but I know that his name is Elder Sebastian. He is american. But that is all I know. I think that he is fairly new to the mission as well. We will see how it goes.

Elder Earl

Transfer 9 Week 5 February 9 2015

Well I had a pretty normal week, not much to tell, but it was good

Next sunday we are going to have a ward conference here so the ward formed a choir and are going to sing a hymn. Unfortunately, not enough men joined, so we were probably forced to join the choir by the sister that was put in charge. And what is even more unfortunate is that I have to sing a solo. I´m not all that excited about it, but I guess it´s not the worst thing that can happen.

Also, on sunday after passing the sacrament I sat down and about 2 minutes later I heard. And now we will here a talk given my Elder Earl(but in spanish) And I was not prepared to give a talk because no one told me that I was going to speak! So I gave a 10 minute impromtu talk in spanish this last week. It wasnt perfect but I felt pretty good about it. And I was able to speak for quite a while as well.

Other than that the week was good but just kind of normal. I feel like our investigators are progressing pretty well, but unfortunately none of them are going to church. Which is super disappointing. But other than that, everything is going great! 4 days ago was the one year anniversary of the day I entered the MTC! So see you all in about a year!

Elder Earl

Transfer 9 Week 4 February 2 2015

Well, we had another really sweet and crazy week in Piedras Negras.

Tuesday was fun. In the morning we bought a pastry from some store really fast and then went to a lesson that he had scheduled in the morning with a man that we contacted the week before named Jaime. But while we were waiting for him to come out my Comp started to feed a dog that was next door. After the dog was done eating my comp just figured that they were friends so he put his figers through the fense to pet it. So we taught Jaime a lesson while my comps fingers were bleeding (ya it bit him). After the lesson we went to the hospital to get it cleaned properly. He didnt need a shot because he just got one last transfer when he cut open his head. I told him that he has bad luck. He told me that it is bad luck to be my companion. But he is fine now.

We had a lot of work this week! and Friday was actually one of the best days that I have had in a long time. We found two new invetigators that are super cool! One of them is named Jerry. He was listening to the missionaries while he was living in monterrey. and he went to church multiple times while he was there. He is a very spritual and humble man. He has had many difuculties in his life which have humbled him a lot. He has a strong desire to learn more and to be baptized! We have only had one lesson with him so far, and I think that he taught me more than I taught him.

Other than that the week was pretty normal.

Elder Earl

Transfer 9 Week 2 January 19 2015

Well this was another good week but there isn´t really all that much to say.

We had a lot of lessons with less active members of the church this week. Which was really cool. But unfortunately none of them went to church this week. It has been a little tough lately finding people to teach because of the cold. But we are hanging in there! Today and yesterday have been kind of warm though so that is great.

One of our investigators went to church yesterday. His name is Rafael. He is a really good guy and he really likes to listen to us and to go to church and eveything. He wears a hat everyday that says ¨I love Jesus¨. So obviously he is a really cool guy, but unfortunately it could be a while until he can actually be baptized because he drinks a lot. But we are helping him out, and I believe in miracles.

Other than that, the week was kind of slow. Hopefully we will be able to find a little bit more work this week.

Elder Earl

Transfer 9 Week 1 January 12 2015

hello everyone! I had another really great week this week! It was a great week to start a new change. It was a lot colder this week than it has been lately. But thankfully we were able to ignore the cold and we actually had a lot of success this week! We had 35 lessons this week which was super cool! It has been a while since I have had that many lessons in one week!

This week we did divisions with the young men in the ward again. Two of them sent in their mission papers this week I believe. I had a really good time and we got a lot of work done. I am really glad for the opportunity to help the young men here prepare to go on a mission, I am not anywhere close to being perfect. But I am glad that I can at least try to be a good example for them.

There were only 2 changes in my district this transfer so it is basically the same. Which is good, because I really like my district.

This week we found out that the strange black box in our house is actually a heater! just in time too! because this week was a little bit colder than last week.

Other than that the week was normal and cool.

Elder Earl

Transfer 8 Week 6 January 5 2015

Well another transfer has ended, which means that the changes have arrived. It was a really great week to end the transfer.

This week was New Years, and it was super crazy. People have been exploding things all week. As far as I can tell, they dont really do many fireworks here. Just a lot of firecrackers and other things that explode and make a lot of noise.

New Years Eve was really good. But it wasn`t much different from any other day in the mission. The main differences were that it was super cold! and I felt like I was in a warzone with all of the explosions every couple of seconds. At night time our Bishop stopped by to bring us some dinner! It was super good and very thoughtful of him. So we are Ham, Potatoes, and Lasagna. 

New Years Day was also really cool. Just about everywhere we went people gave us food! We got home super full at the end of the day! They gave us tamales, Menudo, Posole, carne asada, bread, and milk. We had a really interesting lesson that day as well. We went to go visit one of the families in the ward, and they had a few family members over. We were just talking to them for a while until we started talking abour religion. They were all Catholics and the discussion went well. We were talking for a really long time though, they had a lot of questions! But in the end, one of them has decided to take the missionary discussions.

The rest of the week was just kind of normal. It is getting a little bit colder in the area, but I like it. It is much better than the heat! But apparently it is going to continue to get colder, so we will see what happens. 

Oh ya my companion and I are both staying here in Cuauhtemoc. I was surprised, because I usually only have my companions for 1 change, but it is going to be a really good one.

Elder Earl

Transfer 8 Week 5 December 29 2014

Well, this week was super sweet! I had a great Christmas, and I am looking forward to the new year as well!

On Tuesday, We did some more divisions with the Young Men in the Ward. I was with two and my comp was with two. We actually had a lot of success. In the three hours that we were working together, we had 6 lessons and 23 contacts. And I think that a few of them are going to progress! We contacted this really cool guy named Jose. A few years ago he found a Book of Mormon in a trash can, so he read it. He said that it was really interesting and that he wants another because he lost it.

Also, Chritmas was this last week! So on Christmas I got to talk to my family! It was an awesome experience and I am so happy for that opportunity. And I am so glad that everything is going well at home. My comp talked to his family on Chritmas Eve. Chritmas was a lot of fun! It was a lot different from Chrsitmas in Moses Lake. Probably because most of the people here live in more humble circumstances. But despite that, people were giving us food whereever we went! We got home super full!

Saturday was also really cool. We visited a lot of our investigators. We had a lesson with one of the contacts that we did. His name is Adrian, and he is really cool. We invited him to be baptized, and he accepted! We also went to visit our investigator Rafael. He was busy, so we couldn't talk, but he said that he would see us at church the next day. He says that everytime we go to see him, so we didnt really think anything of it, but the next day we were in the church and he walked in! It was a great surprise! In total we had 2 investigators go to church yesterday.

Also, yesterday morning at about 9:50 am. The bishop told me that I was going to give a talk in church that was going to start in 10 min. So ! prepared something really fast and I gave the talk.It wasnt perfect, but it was definitely the best talk that I have given in Spanish so far. I was able to talk for like 15 minutes without writing anything down. And I am fairly certain that most of the people understood what I said. 

Elder Earl

 Hobbit door

 My Zone last Change

 Dog leg on the sidewalk...just a normal day in Mexico. (Below) Baptisms last Change.

Transfer 8 Week 4 December 22 2014

Merry Christmas everyone! This week was really sweet! And it was super busy!

On Wednesday we had a missionary activity in the Stake Center here is Piedras Negras. We spent the whole day inviting people to go, and we had quite a few people go. Not as much as we were hoping for, but as much as we were expecting. The activity was Chritmas related, and consited of many Christmas hymns, videos and small messages. The activity started with the missionaries entering the room singing Joy to the World, but unfortunately they didnt tell us that we were starting so only about half of us went in when it was time. I was not one of them. The rest of the activity went well though. The messages were good, the hymns were good, I was happy with it. Then we ate some cookies afterwards.

Then on Thursday, we did divisions with some of the young men in the ward for an hour and a half. Elder Martinez was with Alexander. He is going to send in his missionary papers soon, and I was with Juan. He is only 16, so he still has a few years before he goes on a mission, but I had a really good time. We went to contact a few refferals, but none of them were home, so we just ended up doing some contacts. He was pretty nervous, but we had a good time.

The next day we had our ward Chritmas party. It was a lot of fun! We ate chickena and some desserts and candy and stuff. And it was really cool because a few of our investigators and some less active members that we are teaching went as well. The primary acted out the nativity, and we had a few piñatas as well. It was a really good activity. 

Then the next day I did divisions with my district leader Elder Ashby. He is from Utah (surprise surprise) and is super sweet. We had a really good day with a lot of success. We had a good time talking because we like a lot of the same things. Like guitar and music and a bunch of other stuff. 

Yesterday was really cool as well. A lot of our investigators have left town for the Christmas season, so unfortunately only one was able to go to church with us. But we were still really happy that he was able to go. Yesterday was the Primary program in the ward. It was really good. About the same as a Primary Program back home but with less kids. Also none of the kids started to cry so I guess that was a pretty big difference as well. 

Other than that it was a normal week I guess. I am having a blast, and I am super excited that Christmas is only a few days away!

Elder Earl

I don't think I really have to explain this picture

Me Elder Ashby and my last comp Elder Martinez