Hola! Hola!

National  Art Museum

Monument to the Mexican Revolution

Angel of Independence

Hola Hola!

Well it was another really great week here in the lovely DF. However after the last p day I did get pretty sick. I think it was from the 11 tacos. haha No but for a few days I had a really bad headache, fever, and my whole body hurt. The kind of sickness when you just want to plop yourself in the hot tub for a year, but no, I get to walk for 12 hours in the blazing sun. yay! Definitely some of the hardest days so far, but I wasn't gonna let it keep me from working. We worked really hard and the success we had was definitely worth the pain. All the greasy food doesn't help either, my stomach has been pretty uneasy all week, many rapid runs back to the house if you know what I mean. . haha. E. Rodríguez got a new companion this week so I didn't see him again until today which was good. haha He will be with him through the next transfer so that means he will most likely have 8 months in Centenario before he leaves his first area. haha rough.

So a lot of my problems from my last Sunday have been more or less resolved. We went and visited the Eldas last Sunday and shared a really great message with them. Hermana Elda fell up the stairs(maybe that's why I like her so much, just like me) and was kind of banged up. But they came to church yesterday and everything is gonna be good with them. Ofelia and Royed and their family are still really progressing, but still haven't recognized the answers to their prayers yet, YET. Our most progressing is Tera. She is going so well, she has a baptismal date for 16 of Feb. She never wanted the missionaries in the past, but she has really seen the positive influence of the gospel in the life of her daughter and wants to be baptized. Everybody has their time! I love teaching her plus they always give us pizza, or hot cocoa with bread and cookies after.

So this week we had interviews with our president that were really good! I really like our president a lot. Pres. Anaya for life. Area Mexico came out with a new plan for 2014 which is a whole lot more work for us. They said we need to have at least one baptism every week, 40-60 lessons mínimum every week, and like 15 new investigators every week. Ahhh with the way we are working right now, which is really hard, there is no way we can reach those numbers. I had a good chat with pres about it and he helped to realize how to accomplish it. AND we can knock doors now! We can't plan to do it, but if our appointments aren't there then we can knock doors. After the interviews Elder Bocanegra told me all the things Pres said about me to him. He said his trainer is amazing, and he said I am one of his best missionaries so he is lucky to have me as a trainer. Ya I know. ahh no jk. 

So we had our first attempts at knocking doors this week, and it went really well! The first 3 doors that we knocked, we put appointments to come back. We found about 8 new people to teach in only about an hour and half of knocking. So it went better than I thought. I don't love it though cuz I feel like a salesperson and I don't like that.

Church was really good yesterday but the attendance wasn't the best, only 40. Ah. This Ward before averaged an attendance of 100 until we changed churchs' and the church is much farther away, and most people really don't have the money to go. Its frustrating.

We had a really great family night this week with Ivan, Syra, Pamela and their family. We shared a message about the family. They are really working hard to enter the temple as soon as they can. We ate juevos rancheros after which I love. They are tostadas with beans on top, and a fried egg with lots of spicy salsa. mmm love them, make them!

Today was another really great pday. We dedicated about an hour and a half this morning to cleaning the house, and got it as clean as it can be, which is not saying much. haha. Then we headed to Hidalgo to find Elder Rodriguez and then we went to downtown Mexico City again. We walked around in Zocalo (look it up) for a while and ate at Burger King. Then we hopped on a doublé decker bus for a little city tour. haha. I really do love this city it is really cool. Definitely worth coming to one day. It was quite the adventure because the path was right along the edge of our missión so we had to get off early so we didn't leave it. But ya the city is all really new and modern, or really old and cool European architecture.

Well sounds like a good week you all had, I miss the cold. haha. January sure does go by a lot faster in the heat though. haha. Mother, yes I love the chats, keep them up. Psh who else am I gonna write. haha. jk. No but seriously I really like it.

Thats cool Regan is leaving for her missión. Lots of missionaries are going home early. I understand. I think a lot of people rush in to it fast and aren't ready yet. I have felt that way at times.

Next week is transfers, not this week. This transfer was 7 weeks because the last transfer was a week early for Christmas. I think I will stay in Carrera with Bocanegra. but you never know its very unpredictable at times. Crazy that only 2 more transfers and then I call home again! Seems pretty fast to me! haha.

I didn't go get the package today, but I'm sure it is in the office. Elder Rodríguez is going to the offices tomorrow and he will get it for me. So tomorrow! yay!

Well I hope you all have a great week! Love you all so much!

Tengan un buenísimo semana!

Elder Elgan

5 Months!,

Basilica of our Lady of Guadalupe

Hola Everyone!

Well it was another great week, things went back to normal a little bit. This last Tuesday Elder Rodriguez got a temporary companion who was in a trio until yesterday but today he is back with us. His companion was a winner, from Elko, Nevada and don't think he had every talked to anybody but his family . . ever. ha 5 Month mark tomorrow, wooh, but technically I come home in 18 months so I like that better :)

This week I really tried to work as hard as I could to make up for my crappy numbers lately. It really paid off, we had some really amazing days this week. But there were also some really difficult not so good days, but I'm pretty sure there will always be some of those. 

So I had one of the best lessons with some of our investigators this week, Ofelia, Royed, Marlen, and others in the family. They are very Christan and were so confused when we said that Jehovah was Jesus Christ, not the Father. Me and Elder Bocanegra studied for a long time and found sooo many answers in the bible and BOM for them. I pounded it into them with 15 scriptures or more and by the end they sure understood. haha. But it was just proof to me that if we study for the needs of our investigators, or other people, we will find answers, and we will learn so much in the process.

We are really trying to work with the ward as much as possible, especially the ward missionaries. We had a training for them this week and have lots of good goals and plans to help improve the ward as much as possible. 

One day this week Elder Bocanegra had to go downtown for visa stuff for half the day so I had to sit in the offices with the secretaries for 4 hours. Pretty boring. 

We had some pretty interesting crappy food this week. One Hermana gave us little deep fried patties of what I wasn't so sure at first, then she showed me and there were a ton of little crusty whole fish, like what would be baking in the sun on a rock on the riverside. Gross. We also ate some really nasty oatmeal patties with tuna that were just dreamy. 

We had some interesting experiences in our area this week, the first time I haven't really felt super safe. 3 crazies started following us for a while so we had to ditch them but then it was all good, and while we were teaching a lesson, someone in their fam came and said there are guys outside with guns robbing people. We were way up on the hill pretty late in the night, so we certainly hurried home but everything is all good. 

Sunday absolutely sucked. haha no it wasn't that bad but I certainly didn't enjoy it. I was excited because we had Royed and his family and some other investigators in the church. But right after sacrament meeting they got up and left and didn't say anything. I'm pretty sure we lost them all because they had had bad expéricences in the church in the past as well. I gave a talk about retention and fellowshipping for about 15 minutes. I hadn't prepared a thing so I struggled a little bit. But I was so mad because after me a member of the stake presidency gave a talk which was awful for the investigators to hear. He was talking about profound doctrine and teaching false doctrine, like you can only enter the celestial kingdom if your sealed to your spouse in the temple! NOT TRUE! ahh. Then that afternoon the Elda's sent us a message that said they are having problems and are not going to be able to go to church anymore. We called them and she was crying and only would tell us they are having problems and can't come for a good time. Ahh, it just broke my heart that we lost our best investigators, and our best members yesterday. Its rough. 

Today was good, we had a zone activity. So we went to Centenario and had some activities then we ate tacos. I ate 11 tacos al pastor (my fav). Mmm. Then we went and got Elder Rodriguez's hair cut by a lovely gay man women who was just too happy to think straight. Then we went to Walmart, then went to the Bascilica de Guadalupe. It is by our area, the first church in Mexico I think, where supposedly the virgin appeared however many years ago.  

Here is my quote of the week. The things you do for yourself are gone when your gone, the things you do for others remain as your legacy. Love it. Truly no greater joy will come than it will when you serve others. It is verrrry hard at times, but all definitely worth it. 

AHHHhhhh the car show... . I miss it. . One of the best days of the year. So did you pick out a car mother? MDX? I could kind of approve that one, it is a Honda, I don't like the old ones but those new ones are pretty nice. Or you could just buy the IS350?? haha freakin gorgeous. 

Well it sounds like a good week for you guys, Britt and Trev hope you had a good time on the cruise, Dad your pretty much the boss of all England and Logan now? Sweet, glad it worked out well. Things will always work out well with work and money if you always faithfully pay your tithing :) 

Les amo muchismo, y les hablaré proxima semana!

Elder Elgan

Hola! Hola!''

These pics are in the first post office in Mexico, really cool

That is my Napoleon Dynamite pose for y'all

Hello frozen Utah, 

Well this week was. . a bit different. I am writing from Elder Rodriguez's area and I don't have my notebook with everything that I wanted to say for the week so don't know how good this email will be, oh well. So Elder Jordan, Elder Rodriguez's companion, got really sick and was in the hospital all week. So we went back and forth helping him work in his area, Elder Bocanegra stayed at the hospital one night with him, and he has come to our area a lot. Then Saturday President called Elder Jordan and said you have one hour to be in the offices because we are sending you home. He also had a minor addiction to the drugs so that was another reason why he went home. So since then we have been in a trio with Rodriguez. It has made it really hard to focus on the work in our area, and our numbers weren't where I wanted but oh well. We still have no idea what is going to happen with Rodriguez, the Pres. hasn't told him anything. It has been pretty hard on him. So it will be interesting to see what happens. 

My area is going all right with my investigators, but we need more. We took two of our investigators, Ofelia and Royed, to the visitors center this week. It was interesting. I got scared when we were in the first room with the Christ statue, and I felt bad for the sister that gave the tour, because they just have sooo many doubts. They were going off about how the Christ is a graven image and it is a commandment not to have those, but we got it all figured out and it ended up actually being a really great experience for them. We also had a really good lesson with them, with Elder Rodriguez, and Ivan to help us, we taught their whole family, and got some new investigators, so that was really good. 

For Sunday, Elder R went to his area and went to church and worked with his mission leader. I was supposed to give a talk about retention and fellowshipping new members, but only Elder Bocanegra had to give one. 

But that is basically how my week went, back and forth from our area to his, helping him out, and we have had lots of sleepovers. haha Today was good, we went into the downtown of Mexico City, which is really cool. It is all very old European looking buildings and churches. But it is really nice, unlike my area. haha. I will send pics. Then we came back, went to Walmart, Sam's club, ate some tortas and now we are writing. 

Ahh I really wish I had more things to say, but I don't, hopefully my pics will make up for the crappy letter.

A cruise sounds amazing right now, lucky Britt and Trevor, hope you guys have fun with the girls this week. Mother, email me back the questions about the things I forgot :)

Love, Elder Elgan

And a Happy New Year to You!

These are the cupcakes that Elder Rodriguez had made for us for Elder Sumano's birthday. (Sumano means your hand so that's why his is a hand)

Pics from bowling today

Me and Elder Bocanegra at Chili's

 And, my chicken enchilada pasta. Oh so good. 
It was SUPER expensive though, oh well I'm over it

Hello Hello!

Well the new year is officially here, and now I can say: I come home next year! haha. The party at the house looked like a ton of fun! Loved the pics. Meanwhile, I had the worst week of the mission so far. haha jk It wasn't that bad just bad success-wise. I am so happy the holidays are over just so everything can go back to normal. My new years eve was good, we actually got to go to Elder Rodriguez's area to eat with his members because we didn't have anyone in my area. We ate a really good dinner with them, and were really late back to the house. (9:45) So late that we couldn't go back to Elder Rodriguez house to get our things and the members drove us back and we had to pound on the door to get in because my keys were with my stuff at his house. But then after that we just went to bed. Super Exciting night I had. haha. New years day first thing we went back to Elder Rodriguez's to get our stuff and we ended up studying with them all morning. The studies were awesome, its a lot better to have other people to practice teaching with. But new years eve and day we had zero success. We walked and knocked and walked and knocked alllll day. At one point I just sat down on the curb and was just like WHY is this so difficult? I would think the Lord would want to give his missionaries success? I was frustrated. It is just hard! But its worth it. . .

The week got a little better as it went on, but not much. One morning a Jehovah's witness knocked on our door and gave us pamphlets and said he would return to talk to us and I said well of course you can. . that will be fun :) I like proving people wrong. muhaha. Saturday we were supposed to get up at 5 to go workout with Ivan, but it was SO cold in the morning and I had a headache so I didn't get up. We will try again this week. haha. Saturday was the most successful day of the week we had lessons with Juan Carlos (probably our most progressing investigator), Rubi (a menos activo), and Ofelia & Royed. I loved teaching Ofelia and Royed, they are always such great lessons. They have so many concerns and we have worked through them all except that Joseph Smith and the first vision. Royed quotes the bible scripture that says that nobody has seen the father. Well. . I have found a whole load of scriptures yesterday that will beat that doubt into the dust. This last lesson with them was really powerful. Its amazing when you really just focus on the people, and not what you are going to say, the words just come.

This Sunday was good, but the fast was rough. haha but we started it off right Sat afternoon with tacos al pastor, and lavenderias con papas. (corn dogs with cheese, and fries). We didn't have to talk or teach this Sunday for I think the first time so it was pretty chill. The 12 o'clock time is definitely better for the mission. After church was pretty hectic though. We had 4 appointments back to back, I just about left my phone in the taxi, and we had to eat with Alicia who lives clear out of our area. Every one of our appointments fell through. surprise surprise. Our last appointment was with the mom of a member, so we went with the member and the mom wasn't there yet so we waited and waited and waited, ate some pan dulce and hot cocoa, and I got permission from Pres. to be out later to teach her but she never showed. She said she was in Walmart, and the Walmarts here are absolutely crazy here, especially this time of year.

So today is El Dia de Los Reyes (day of the kings) Today is a Mexican holiday mainly for the kids where Santa comes. Except its not Santa it is the 3 kings, which comes from the 3 wise men. The kids write their list and put it in a balloon and release it into the sky. Then the Reyes come and bring their presents.

Today was a really good but crazy day. We went into Buenavista. So we got up early to get some things done, then met up with Elder Rodriguez, Areanas, Wagner, and Jordan and took the metro (subway) into Bueanavista. We met with some other Elders from a different zone and went bowling. Then it was one of the Elders birthday (one of Rodriguez's friends) so we went and ate at Chili's. AND I bought myself a present. A pull up bar! Yay. Mother I used my credit card so watch for that and pay for it out of my account or whatever. It was $650 pesos. (like 50 bucks). I also bought a pretty sick tie. But not with the card. Then we went to Walmart in Buenaavista and bought some stuff. Ya you think Walmart or Maceys in Logan is crazy at holiday time, try going to one in Mexico City where 3 million people share the same Walmart. Its insane! Every time we have gone it is a zoo and at least 30 minutes in the check out line.

So father looking at cars are you, DON'T LET ME DOWN! :) And be sure to sign me up for my motor trends at the show. Hope everything goes well with your work changes, and you still get to go to cool places. (That's the important part ;)

Well hope all is well, love you all, and happy new year!

Elder Elgan