Drew's 19th Birthday

This week went by pretty slow for a change. November 19, Monday we did a bunch of contacting because the majority of our investigators have been cancelling like crazy and don't seem interested anymore. We went to teach Ruby and Jose and we taught them The Restoration, on the side of the street, while a bunch of kids were playing soccer. And Jose was baptized like 5 years ago, but he wasn't confirmed, because he didn't attend church again a single time after that. So we asked our mission president and he said we need to rebaptize him and then have him confirmed. So that is planned to happen this Saturday, Jose and his sister Ruby.

On Wednesday , Elder Stevens joined our companionship until his companion returned from Mexico City. So, I had my first experience of a trio companionship for a day and a half. We also went to practice singing for the meeting on Thursday, in which our zone was going to sing to recognize Elder Pino, of the seventy, who came to visit the Mission with his wife. I also received my Christmas package from my parents, which was a pull up bar that doesn’t require a door frame, since the doors here don't have door frames. I set it up, and it works amazing!!! Later that day, we hopped on a bus and headed for Chihuahua for the meeting the next day. And we slept in the assistants house again and it was insane like always. I didn't get to bed till 12 AM because it was so loud and there was no space to sleep, until I just stole my companions bed haha.

Thursday, we got up at 6 AM to get ready for the meeting and to practice singing again before it started. The meeting was about 5 hours long and we learned quite a bit. For example, our mission gets 1 baptism for every 10 Investigators, 25 baptisms per month, which is only half a baptism for each companionship each month. And he set a goal to get 2 baptisms per month, per companionship. After the meeting, we hopped back on the bus and returned to Parral.

Friday, we went back to work and the eleven people that we planned to teach were unavailable. But along the way, we taught 2 new people that we weren't planning on teaching.

Saturday, we contacted for most of the day since 12 people we had planned on teaching weren't there. Comida that day was Discada, which is chopped up hot dogs, sausage, ham, and hamburger in tacos and it was soo good and I had so many. One of the contacts name that day was Elder, and when we told and showed that our names were Elder too, he couldn’t believe it haha. Oh and as we were walking back from comida, I saw Sotero, the crazy guy and called him out and so he stopped his motorcycle and he met and started saying a bunch of crazy stuff to the other 2 missionaries that were with us. And when he started spitting on them, my companion and I started laughing so hard because of their faces haha. After he left, they thought he was the craziest guy too and they wanted to know who that guy was. Sotero also told us that Vicky, doesn't like when we invite her to church and talk about Joseph Smith. 

Sunday, we went to church with Jose and Ruby again and 3 Missionaries gave talks, including me. And after Sacrament Meeting, there was no 2nd hour. Apparently, if there's not very members at church, we just don't have 2nd hour. The Sacrament meetings here are very very different than back at home. It takes like 3 minutes for the whole ordinance and the pieces of bread are huge, like 10 times the size of the Blackhawk Ward Sacrament bread. Anyways, after church, we had our food and then went to a correlation meeting with the branch mission leader. After that, we had been invited to a members birthday, so we went to that and had even more food. So that was a fun way to celebrate my 19th birthday haha. Have a great week everyone!

Baptism Date for Ruby

November 4th was a PDay and we went to Samsclub with some other missionaries, because one of them was using his dads card since they have the same name. But it was way more expensive than the store that we normally go to, so that day we just went to walmart since it was close. But for some reason Walmart stopped bagging the items so then we had to take a taxi back home. Later that day we left for Chihuahua for our 5th week meeting. And once again we sleep in the Assistants house with a bunch of missionaries from the CCM so that was fun to see those guys again.. The next day, we had a
 meeting and one of the main things we discussed was to never lower our standards and be examples for the other missionaries that have more time in the field. After the meeting, we returned to Parral. November 6th, we did our normal routine and on the street this man named Abel called us over to come and talk to him. He seemed pretty cool and we gave him a pamphlet and told him we would come visit him later that night. After that, we had our normal comida at 2 pm with one of the members and then we taught Martin lesson 1, and he has a hard time retaining the information we teach him so it's tricky. But afterwards, our other 5 people that we were planning on visiting were unavailable, so we went to talk to Abel. And at first we thought it was going well. Then we start talking about our gospel and that's when things got interesting with him. But, before we got to his house, we found the same pamphlet that we gave him in the street. We thought he had just accidentally dropped it, but while he was talking to us, he told us that he believes the images of Jesus Christ on the pamphlet is a sin and that it breaks the commandment about graven images because it is not actually him on the pamphlet. I thought he was just kidding but nope he was being serious. And so he wouldn't accept any of the pamphlets. So then we start talking about the Book of Mormon, and believes the whole thing is fake. Also, after we gave 3 clear examples, in the Bible, where it is clear that the Godhead is 3 separate people, he still thinks that they are all one person. He had a lot more to say than just that, but that's all I'm going to write about him.
November 9th, we visited Martin and reviewed Lesson 1 with him and he said that he would go to the church the following week. We also talked to Belen, one of the Testaments of Jehovah for an hour outside her door because she said because we are different religions she didn't want us to come inside her house. November 11th, we had a soccer zone activity on the concrete, in the rain. It was a lot of fun, however I was being held back by the giant holes in my socks and shoes and that they have no absolutely no traction on the bottom. This week it got super cold and rainy, and I still didn't have a jacket because I couldn't find any good ones. Also for some reason, there are small rocks in the bag of beans that you buy here, but I didn't find that out until after I tried biting down on it. But, I know for next time that I need to sift through and get rid of all the rocks before I cook my food.
November 13th, while we were doing companionship study outside, a family came and talked to us about the church. And it turns out the son is a member, but the rest of the family wants to become members. After we talked to them, we had our food with a member and then we went to visit Sotero and Vicky. And she says she is so confused, because she has been taught one thing for so long and now we are teaching her something different, so we are trying to work with her through this. I forgot to recount our first encounter with Soterno. So, about 4 weeks ago, we were walking to an appointment and this old guy on a motorcycle tells us to come to him, but we just keep walking, So then he rides to where we were going and stops in front of us and starts to spitting I meant talking to us about who were are, and he just starts rambling about a bunch of stuff I wasn't able to understand. But this man spits so much while he's talking, so we stepped back to get out of his range. So that was our first impression of him, and then one day we were contacting and we saw him in his house, because his door was open. Anyways, I have been timing how fast how I can shower and change and get ready and right now my record is 9 minutes.
November 14th, Testaments of Jehovah knocked on our door and we ended up talking to them for an hour and we asked them a bunch of questions and they said they are going to come back next week with the answers, so I'm real interested to see how that's going to go. Later that day, we went and visited the family that came and talked to us and we found out a lot about them. Both of the parents have problems with smoking, they told they each had been doing it for the last 15 years. And then we asked them if they wanted to stop and they said yes. Then moments later, the mom lights one in the house haha. But the boy named Jose was baptized about 4 years ago but he said he wasn't confirmed. And the parents want to be baptized, but they aren't married. However, the 9 year old girl named Ruby wants to be baptized and so our goal is December 7th for her. She said she wants me to teach her English and then she wants to teach me English.
November 15th was the day before our branch activity so we went and bought everything that we needed for that. Then after comida that day, I went on divisiones with the District leader for a day and that was good to see how every missionary works in their own manner. We went throughout his whole area, inviting people to the activity in person instead of over the phone. But only one person was actually there. Along the way we stopped in the street to play soccer with some kids for a bit and that was fun. That night, I was able to learn so much Spanish grammar just by talking in English with him about it, so there are definitely advantages in having a companion that knows both English and Spanish. But he is an interesting guy for sure haha so back at home he said he would dump soup that went bad down the toilet. And so he did that here before I got there, and by doing that, he clogged the toilet full of potatoes, so we had to make several stops for a bathroom.
November 16, ended divisiones with him and we had our branch activity. We brought the 2 kids with us and it was a really good turnout. There was a question game, lesson about temples and family history, and then food at the end. There were about 35 people that attended the activity, which is way more than the church attendance. November 17, we brought the 2 kids to church, which was our first time bringing people to church so that was exciting. After church, we got a ride from a member from a different branch in the back of their caged off trunk in their truck, so that was different than just taking a bus.Then we had comida with the branch president family and I talked to Gabriel, the Branch mission leader about working out and food because he is very into it like me haha. Finally today, we got up, ate, went to central Parral to buy a bunch of stuff and did our groceries. There is a store that sells ties for 34 pesos which is less than 2 dollars so we got a bunch of those. And I finally found and bought a jacket that is actually good. I hope this very long letter made up for those times I wasn't able to send letters haha. Have a good week everyone!

Meeting some interesting people

So I'm at October 22, that day we had our first lesson with an investigator that was a mom and had 2 daughters and we taught them the first lesson. Unfortunately now, she’s has been working a ton and we haven't been able to even to get an appointment with her since that day. There's this one spot that we have to pass by if we want to go to a certain colonia and these same 5 smokers are always there and they think it's their territory or something because they always say pasale as if we need permission haha.

Anyways on October 25th, I met one of the craziest guys, who claims he is from SAN ANTONIO TEXAS! He says it just like that, so we have been teaching them and the wife is a Jehovah’s Witness. We have taught them the First and Second Lesson. And after much talking with her about what counts as a true and correct baptism, she reconsidered her baptism. She works Sundays so we also reminded her taught about keeping the Sabbath the Day Holy, and so she knows this. So now we are just waiting to see if she wants to change her life or not. We were there at their house for like 3 hours, and the husband also bought us these really expensive hamburgers that were super good for Mexico. The next day October 26th, we contacted and taught this lady named Valeria. And after we had left, my companion told me some of the things she had said. And I realized I didn't understand nearly as much as I thought I did haha. For example, turns out she was sexually abused from the age of 8 to 13 from her brother and her mom's new boyfriend. And when her mom found about this, she didn't do anything about it, which is just terrible. She too at the moment hasn't been in contact with us, because of some more family problems. So once again, we weren't able to bring anyone to church that week. And then Valeria is now living by herself with her son, because her boyfriend cheated on her. And I didn't get any of that in the moment, until my companion told me later.

Anyways October 31 came around and because we weren't in the central of the city, it was pretty lame. So we didn't get to experience or see much of Dia De Los Muertos. But we bought some candy and gave it to all the kids as we were walking. November 1rst we contacted another Jehovah’s Witness, who had also been baptized 3 times already. And so we shared the same things like Vicky. About how in order for a baptism to be correct, the person baptizing must have the Priesthood of God. And that after the baptism, there must be a confirmation of the Gift of the Holy Ghost, because this is how it was done and taught by Jesus Christ. We gave her some homework to read Acts 8 where it talks about this.

November 2nd, we came back to one of our contacts named Martin and he was there and we got to know him and we also taught him part of the first lesson. He too has some family problems, but not nearly as bad as Valeria. All of his family lives in the United States, and he isn't legally allowed to go back because he tried to illegally bring people across the border. But I believe at the moment, he is our best investigator as he's the only one that really progressing. I forgot to share this story earlier, so I'll do it now. One day while we were walking in Central, we were stopped by this older looking man, and he pulled out of, what looked like a trash can, and I guess this was his bag. Anyways, he started pulling out a variety of pictures, one was of Joseph Smith. And turns out he was asking if we had a copy of our current prophet, Russel M Nelson. But the reason why he wanted it was to show everyone on the street, that he was a fake prophet. I have never met so many crazy people who have such obscure beliefs in my life and I've only been out in the field for 5 weeks haha. Have a good week!

14 People at Church

I'm going to go through the weeks really fast because I am very behind. So the process in which we fixed our water was a lot longer than I had anticipated. We went from having green water, to no water, then to lighter green water, and then clear water that was actually still dirty. So here in Parral every house has a water storage and ours had not been used or cleaned in who knows how long. So all of our water was coming from this nasty water storage, because our house hadn't been connected to the street water yet. We also found out that our house used to be a house owned by narcos and that someone died in our house, so that explained why our house hadn't been rented for so long,  the water was green, and why we got such a good deal living in a mansion for only two missionaries.

I had my first zone conference and that was long, but very good and applicable. At church we had a whopping 14 people show up, so that shows how much work needs to be done. I had my first Pday and we went bowling, shopping and organized our house.

There are a lot of people that like to say things like Hey Satan and Diablo to us while they drive past us in their car, as we are walking. And then there is one lady who has got some sort of problem, not sure what it is. But she always passes by our house and she looks at me and says something in Spanish, that I don't understand, but my companion always tells me it’s bad haha. A lot of interesting people here, that's for sure.

One of the things I miss a lot is being able to go to the bathroom in just about any building, without paying. However, one of the good things here is that protein is the first on the food labels. Some of the days we don't get inside a single house to teach. And I'm quickly learning that just because you call ahead a time to call to line up an appointment, and they say yes, that doesn't actually mean they are going to be there. We have been teaching quite a few people, however, they aren't progressing for a few reasons. For example, we were teaching this lady named Guadalupe the 3rd lesson about Baptism. And then she told us that she believes that talking about Baptism is a sin, so that was the end of that lesson. She also believes that you have to be baptized with the special water of life, made by certain prophets and that Jesus and John the Baptist are actual stars in the sky. Anyone have any ideas on how to teach this, send them my way. Anyways, I gave my first talk in Spanish. We are leaving for Chihuahua today for a meeting, so I have to go now. Next week I will actually have more time to tell more.