Transfer 16 Week 6 December 7 2015

Well, the tranfer is officially over so i am going to start my last transfer (My last 6 weeks) tomorrow! I am super excited! we have the new transfers, it should be a really good last transfer.

This week was really cool. The most interesting this that happened this week was the Christmas Conference. It was really cool. On friday all of the missionaries here in saltillo got together for the conference. So there was about 80 of us as well as the mission president and his wife. It was a lot of fun. We had a gift exchange! we ate tamales! and we just chatted for a while. I got to see a lot of Elders that i hadnt seen in quite a while, so it was super cool. For the gift exchange i got a newton´s cradle, a pen and a journal from an Elder named Elder Gallegos. But unfortunately i already broke the Newton´s cradle. It was cool while it lasted...

Then later on we all went to a park here in saltillo calle La Alameda. It is a really nice park. There we did a contacting activity. And we showed the new church christmas video A Savior is Born with a projector there in the park. There were also some Elders and sisters singing chritmas hymns in another part of the park. It was a really good activity and we had a lot of success doing it.

Anyway, that is about everything for this week. So i am staying here in my same area, which means that I am ending here! My companion Elder Hopper is being changed to Acuña. Which is super sweet, but really far away. So he has to catch an 8 hour bus ride tomorrow to get there. I dont know who my new companion is, because i am going to be training a greenie for my last 6 weeks! It should be fun. I am going to meet him tomorrow. Well i guess that is it.

Elder Earl

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.