Week 9 - Birthday week!

David's birthday cake! (we challenged David to fit all 19 candles we sent him on one Ding Dong :))

At mission home in Chihuahua?

 

David and a new friend

David and Elder Narvaez at baptism of Lili

David chillin' in hammock :)

 

Hey guys!  Quick update again!

Do you remember the guy I was talking to you about last week (the one that I said needed a hard lesson)?  Well, we talked to him again, and I want to say that I followed the Spirit and spoke with love to him!  He's wanting to be baptized the 22nd, he just needs to quick smoking now....  

The Spirit also does some pretty strange things.... I was telling my story of how I came to the knowledge that this church is true, to a guy who has been going to church for the past 15 years (and has a testimony but doesn't want to get baptized).  I've told this story so many times, but the Spirit was so incredibly strong, it actually made me cry like a little baby while I was talking to him..  I'm not ashamed because I've told this story hundreds of times, and its never happened until now. This is what the guy needed though.  He's taking more lessons from us, and we'll see if we get him baptized this week or not.  I just want to say the spirit will make you do weird or strange things sometimes, but the Lord always has his reasons! 

So I've officially been to a baby shower and helped two people get married now!  Send me more pictures (over email or in the mail)!  I take pictures of all the pics you send me :)  I absolutely loved Lizzy's scrapbook!!!! The Hermanas' here are keeping me well fed.... Though I'm losing so much weight! Those packages you sent are helping to add some on though ;)  Mas Steak strips! And mangoes!  My companion wants you to send an extra for him ;)  Haha Oreos and those frosted animal cookies would be absolutely amazing also!  I'm becoming more Mexican every day!  It's crazy! And weird, but its so beautiful and wonderful.  I'm falling in love with the people here every day, and I absolutely love it!

Love and miss you guys!!!!!

Week 8 - November 10, 2014 - Hard lessons and demon dogs

David and companion - Elder Narvaez

David outside of small village

David with Elder St. Pierre - cooking??

Hey guys!  Sorry I don't have much time again this week!  I'll write this email first next time!  So this past week was soooooo cold!!! Starting Monday night, it didn't stop raining until Saturday afternoon, and the temperature dropped down so low that I could see my breath!  Haha I didn't have a rain jacket too.... I had the umbrella though! Which helped out so much!

We're teaching this new family - they have about 5 people in it who are old enough to understand what we're saying.  They are such amazing people! We've only taught them about the Restoration and church attendance, but they're already being missionaries!  They're always inviting new friends over every lesson saying, "Hey the missionaries are coming - they always have a great message!" The Spirit is always incredibly strong when we teach them.

Right now, we're also teaching this 25 year old man. His whole family is Mormon, but he doesn't want to accept the gospel because he enjoys the ways of the world more.  In case your wondering, in Galatians 5 or 6 it talks about the fruits of the world and the fruits of the Spirit.  The next lesson is going to be a hard one.

Elder Narvaez and I talked about it, and we are going to give him a hard lesson.  We've taught all about the blessings, what you have to do, and he just doesn't want them.  His family is such a wonderful family too......  I'm going to be talking about Nephi's vision, the mists of darkness and the fall of the great building.  I'll also talk about how the Lamanites ended up as a people after they rejected the Lord.  Its all in 1 Nephi 12 (I'm pretty sure -don't have time to look in my scriptures).

I don't like dogs here anymore..... There are three demon dogs in my area.  And a lot of the dogs here don't have a home and they just roam around.... a lot of them die of starvation, or search through the trash.

Week 7 - November 3, 2014 - 1st baptism!

Hey guys!!!! Ready for the first week of miracles???? Technically the first 4 days in Mexico????  By the way sorry about grammar and spelling in Englich, the keyboards here are sticky and weird..... haha ok, so I got here and we took a giant taxi to mission headquarters where we dropped off our stuff then went to a big buffet restaurant!  Met the Mission President!  He's a great nice small Mexican man!  Haha - we stayed at mission headquarters that night and the next day got our new companions!  I got a native speaker... who is also fluent in English!!!!!  He's been a lot of help, and one of the best missionaries out here in the field, even though he just barely finished training!  He´s a district leader and a trainer right out of being trained, so this is as much of a challenge for him as it is for me!

We are in serving  Chigabata Paran!  Its a crazy area, very beautiful, very poor.  The people here are so amazing and humble!  We have a ton of investigators, and getting more every day!  I'm learning more and more every day and seeing the gospel help people in their lives so much!  Its been weird seeing everything in Spanish for a change, but its awesome!  For the past while, I haven't been able to understand anything because they speak so fast and all the words are jumbled together......   but it's getting better!

Friday night we were talking to an investigator, and she and her boyfriend wanted to get baptized.... but she had to get married first to him, and needed a signature from her mom who she hadn't talked to in a while. We tried to convince her to go and talk to her but she wouldn't, so we went talked to the mom ourselves (she is this sweet old lady who wants to make us hamburgers soon and take some more lessons)!  Anyway, she said she'd be willing to if Alejandra came and told her why she wanted to get baptized.  So we walked back, told Alejandra, and she and her boyfriend walked with us to her mom who then signed it and talked with her.  She seemed really surprised about some of the things she said.

Anyway the next day we ran into even more roadblocks like not being able to find Alejandra's birth certificate (the mom had it under a huge pile of papers) and then we couldn't find her boyfriend who thought the baptism wasn't going to happen...... but in the end, I had the wonderful opportunity to baptize both of them!  The Spirit was incredibly strong, more so than usual, and that night the language finally clicked for me.  When we were teaching a family after the baptism, I realized that I could understand most of what they were saying, except for random words here and there. I could finally tell their words apart, and it wasn't just a weird jumble to me!

Every day is full of these wonderful moments, and I will tell you guys more next week! Just know that I'm walking like 10 to 13 miles a day, I have gotten some pretty big blisters, almost have a hole in my shoe, and I'm absolutely loving it here!!!!!!!!  Haha even the spicy food, even though its killing me!  Oh! you guys will be proud, I actually am eating lettuce and tomatoes, rabbit food.......  Haha but its all going great! 

More pics from David's 1st day in Mexico - October 27, 2014

David with new Elders/Sisters in the mission October 27, 2014

David with new Elders/Sisters in the mission October 27, 2014

New Transfers October 2014