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