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