Hoollaa!'

  

 Ward Family Night

Elder Rodriguez & Elder Elgan at Walmart

Hello once again!

Well that is just quite the busy week y'all had! My week was all right, had its ups and downs, but pretty normal. Got another cycle behind me, changes are tomorrow but me and Elder Lopez are staying put here in Industrial. I'm glad I'm staying in the ward.

We are having lots of success here in some areas of the work and not in others. We are always reaching 40 or more lessons every week, but we have been struggling finding new people to teach. So we gonna have to work on that. We have been working really hard  and I'm just . . tired. always. haha  I really love my personal study everyday, I am trying to use it as effectively as possible. I try studying from the Book of Mormon, the missionary reference library, and Preach my Gospel everyday.

We did divisions this week and Elder Murphy came to my area to work. We had a good time, its always distracting to be with another Americano because we talk a lot about useless things that don't matter but it was fun. haha We made some pretty bombing fried bananas that night and the next morning.

We had a ward family night this week that was really fun. More people came than we were expecting so that was good. Our mission leader and his wife shared a message, then we played some games, and ate some food. It was a good time. I will send pics.

We ate some pretty good food this week. The bishops mom has spent some time in the US so she made us taco bell tacos that were just like taco bells. haha I don't think I would have loved them if I were at home, but I quite enjoyed them here. The family that has adopted us more than anybody is the Cornejo family. They make us lots of good things to eat, whatever we ask. The hno Cornejo is hilarious and is always goofing around. For some reason we always have problems with the food in the ward. They give us lots of money and we have to figure out our own food which I don't like, and lots of people always cancel so that's a bit frustrating.

There is a less active family that we have been working with that I got frustrated with this week. They only care about money and just got baptized so the church would help them. The dad is on drugs, and they just use us and the ward to get financial help. That doesn't make me very happy. But on the other hand this Sunday we will have the baptism of our investigator Isreal, so that should be good!

Today was a pretty good day. We cleaned the house, then met up with E Rodriguez and we did a little shopping and I bought some new shoes. Sunday shoes, just to wear with the suit. Early bday present :) Then we went to Walmart and then I got a haircut by some members. Didn't know but they were new trainees in this salon, so I was a bit scared but hey it turned out all right and it was free.

Well that's bout it for my week! Sadie's birthday looks super fun, cant believe she needs glasses! That's crazy, gonna need to see a pic of that! ha Dad hope everything went well with the surgery and you're  all good now. No mother I haven't talked with anyone or done anything about my cyst but it was fine this week, so I'll just suck it up. That's pretty exciting Kayla is graduating from college this week! But then leaving the next day, what is that about. So Josh and Kayla are leaving the week before I call? How rude! haha Well that's exciting that Julie and Nichole are official on the new house! But not exciting that Britt and Trevor are as well. haha jk. but seriously.

So Brandi, this week is the week! How exciting, hope everything goes super great, you're in my prayers. I'm excited to hear how everything went and see a pic of my new nephew next week!

Happy birthday to Grandma and to Josh this week! Hope y'alls have a great day!

So planning on my calling Sunday the 11th in the afternoon. Probably at 6:00ish our time, so 5:00ish your time. ya?

Well I think that should just about do it, hope you all have a great week, love you all!

Elder Elgan

Earthquakes, Water fights & Baptisms

Hello Hello!

Well this week was pretty crazy to say the least. First off it was Semana Santa (holy week). So everybody is on 2 weeks of vacation which made finding and teaching peeps a bit difficult. It was really hard week kind of like Christmas and it continues all this week so that should be fun. It rained a ton this week, everyday I think. And on Tuesday, it hailed pretty hardcore. Everything was covered in white and it was like a Mexican Utah! We had a snowball fight.

Tuesday was a good day because we had an activity with our stake for all the youth. It was a missionary activity so we went and helped them learn how to give their friends Books of Mormon, invite their friends to church things like that. After that we had our interviews with president. And after that we had a party. The stake president bought all us elders pizza cuz we met the stake baptismal goals for the month. So that was fun.

So Friday was a bit interesting with the EARTHQUAKE and all. ha My first experience. We were in comp study and I was like Elder Lopez stop touching my chair! But turns out. . he wasn't touching my chair then the whole building started shaking. It felt like being on a cruise ship when its rough seas. It made me dizzy and nauseous more than anything. We went outside and everyone was freaking out and crying thinking the world was gonna end.  But it was really fast and nothing happened so it was all good. That day thunderstorms and tons of rain continued all the day. It was good raging on all the crazies doing their crazy holy week stuff. There are people who seriously crucify themselves and torture themselves. Its a bit out of hand. Silly Mexicans.

Saturday was crazy as well. It is glory Saturday so the tradition here is water fights all the day long. Everyone just goes out in the streets trying to get everyone wet. The first appointment we went to that day we got buckets of water dumped on our heads from the apartments above. Then we got into a water fight with our neighbors. Ha Our investigator Paty who lives next to us and all her kids and all the kids of the place where we live had their little blow up pools below and when we came in they all turned into little savages trying to soak us. Even our old neighbor lady was spraying us with the hose when we walked by. It was pretty fun, but I don't like being wet in mission clothes. meh.

Sunday was a really good day. We had Jessica's baptism! It was a stressful morning trying to get the font filled, track down baptismal clothes that were nowhere to be found, and her boyfriend telling us that he didn't think she was ready to be baptized. But we worked everything out, and had a great service! Benjamin baptized her which was cool, but he ruined his iphone in the process. I saw it in his pocket during the prayer and I was about to say no don't do it! But then I though meh, betta not. So hes gonna need a new phone. Some of my favorite moments on the mission are the testimonies of the new converts. The spirit is always so strong with them and it makes me feel like all my work was worth it.

We had some pretty crappy food with one hermana this week. For starters her house smells like a rotting pigs intestine which really gets the taste buds going. Then she gave us burnt soup, undercooked rice, and a chicken milanesia that was dripping with grease. It just made me feel so good inside :)

Today was a good day of course. We ended up going and visiting with the Eldas again and eating breakfast with them. Bocanegra told me that the younger one is moving to the south of the city so I had to go and say goodbye. But that was a lie, she is still gonna move but not for a couple of months. It was  good nonethelesss. She made us hot dogs (chichago dogs) for breakfast. Little weird, but not unusual for here. 

Hope you had a great Easter, I ate my chocolate bunny in honor of it. Sounded quiet with everybody being gone and all. What is this Brittany about shopping homes in Provo again? Don't even think about it sista! Trevor, good luck in Mississippi hope everything goes well for you. Kayla loved the senior display, still weird to see Kayla Elgan though! ha Sadie have a super happy birthday this week! Love you tons!

Well I am now 1/3 of the way done. Phew. Two more times and its all over. Crazy! Everything continues to go good in the area, lots of work to do. This week will be another rough one with everybody gone and partying but we will make the best of it. We will talk in 3 weeks! What time of the day works best for your guys so I can get it figured out?

Well that's bout it. Love you all and have a super great week!

Con Amor,

Elder Elgan

Another Good Week

Hello dearest everybody,

Another good week here in the lovely city. This week went by pretty fast, as they all seem to be now days. Things are really starting to pick up here in Industrial and we are having a lot more success which is great to see. It is kind of the opposite of Carrera here because we also seem to have lots of success in the mornings, and not so much in the afternoons. But we are teaching on average 6-8 lessons everyday. Cant complain.

Mexico finally did their daylight savings this past week so now its a lot darker and harder to get up in the mornings, so that's no fun. But it is light until at least 8:00 every night so that's a nice little change.

We now have 15 or more investigators that we are working with and for the most part, everything is going really good! We were planning on having a baptism yesterday but we had some complications so she should be baptized next Sunday, with baptisms the following 2 Sundays as well. We found a few new investigators this week as well. One who's name is Daniel who is really awesome but his house smells like rotten dog dump. He is a philosophy teacher and I got into a fight with him about evolution. He was trying to tell me how yes we evolve from the apes but also from Adam and Eve, and I was like fool, your more confused than I am listening to this crazy story. So that was fun. I got him pretty straightened out though :) I really do like my ward and area a lot though, so hopefully we cant give it some success that it has been lacking from the missionaries that have been here before us.

We did a few little service projects this week. One we helped a sister who is remodeling her house take down a big tree in her patio that was quite the mess. Elder Lopez got a little too excited and cut his hand with the tree clippers. We also helped one of the few families in this city who have carpet move all their furniture so they could recarpet. I miss things like that. . carpet. . .

We ate with a sister who is from Chiapas Mexico this week. I like trying the different food from the different part of Mexico. Her son in law is a Mexico tour guide, taking tourists all over Mexico for his job. He showed us some videos of Chiapas and it is awesome. Mexico has some amazing places. Not what I was expecting. Makes me wonder why in the heck I am stuck here in the city. haha One day I shall return to all those places. Got my tour guide all hooked up :)

We did have some rough days this week, just a couple. There was times when we just didn't know what to do. We would come back, pray, think of somewhere to go.. and . . nothing. It was a wee bit frustrating but its all good.

We had some good food this week. Hna Bonequi, within the walls of her luxurious modern mansion gave us some frozen oranges filled with ice cream that were pretty dang good. My favorite thing here though has just been the fruit. For some reason here it is just always ripe and so dang good. I loved mangos before the mission but here they are one of my favorite foods. They are better. They have the same kind we have but the good ones are smaller, and yellow. I bought a ton of those today, watermelon, honeydew, papaya, it'll be a good week :) haha

So the bad news of the week is that my ganglion has been driving me up the wall. Its hurting so bad! Don't know what I'm gonna do bout that. . .

Sunday was really good. The Eldas ended up coming to my ward to sacrament meeting just to visit me. haha So it was good to see them. We had a few investigadores in the church which was great to see as well. After church an hermana made us a feast that we ate in the church which was really good. She has been struggling a bit with her life, asked me to give her a blessing. I always dread giving blessing because it is when my worst Spanish comes out. But I felt super good about that one, its hard cuz it is in the informal version of Spanish, and as missionaries we only talk in the formal form so I'm always messing up. But I'm getting there! haha

Today was a really chill day. We didn't do anything on purpose cuz pdays are always just so hectic. We cleaned the house, went to Walmart, did some shoe shopping. E Lopez wanted to buy boots. Like the giant bulky hiking kind. Strange kid. And that's bout it. I don't really have any pics because we haven't really done anything here. haha We did go to Tepito last week which was crazy but I would never take my camera there. I talked for a while with 2 guys who just got deported from the US. One was like 300 lbs and covered in holy death tattoos and who knows what else. He was pretty scary looking, but he liked me. We talked in English for a while. When someone invites you to a strip club with them you know your pretty good friends :) haha Maybe next pday. . .

Well that's about it for, me looked like you guys had a super good week! Early Easter looked super fun. That is hilarious that Max and Sadie are in soccer, I would love to see that. I want to see a video. haha. Mom I have already written you but happy birthday once again! Have a super great day. Nixon happy late birthday! Loved the cake, I'm gonna need a copy of that pic of Nixon, hilarious. Brand that's exciting the baby is getting so close! Yes you must hold him in until May, May babies are the best kind :) haha

Well I love you all, have a great week, you're all in my prayers, and I'll send ya some pics from the club next week. haha. . . ya. .

Elder Elgan :D

Getting into the Groove

Hello Hello!

Well this week was a pretty good week, went by pretty fast! I'm getting into the groove of things here in my new area. We have more and more success every week which is good. Our house is still having water problems with is annoying but its all good. You wanted more info on Elder Lopez so he is from Cornovaca Mexico, like 2 hours from here. He has 5 months in the mission and yes I'm senior companion.

So I did get the package and am thoroughly enjoying it. haha thanks so much for all the Easter treats love them.

We had a super good zone meeting on Tuesday. I really realized that when I do things, I like to do a good job, including the mission. It's so hard, and easy to slack off and be lazy like so many people do, but I know that's not why I'm here. I try to be better and repent of my wrong doings everyday. I really want to look back on my mission and be proud of what I did.

We had divisions with the other elders in my district this week. I went with Elder Lopez (the other one) to his area. It was a rough day haha but whatever, I'm over it.  

Everything is going good with the investigators. We should have baptisms every week for the next few weeks. Its been a while since this area has seen a baptism. haha. But idk, cuz our investigator Jessica who is supposed to be baptized this week broke up with her BF who was the one who introduced us to her and brought her to the appointments in the church and everything, so who knows how that's gonna work out. We are also finding lots of new people to teach everyday so that is awesome.

So the highlight of the week was most definitely conference. Loved it! I have really developed a love for conference here in the mission. For our stake it was in a church kind of far away so we had to take the metro like 50 times going back and forth between sessions. The 2 sessions Saturday we watched in Spanish and I understand most of it but it is kinda easy to zone out. We watched the priesthood session in English in a little room and it was by far the best session of the five. Loved some of those talks. Sunday we watched it in English as well which I was glad for, because it is so different when it is not their voices. In between sessions Sunday every ward had their little Mexi picnic outside which was fun. The food was all right. I was really sad  when conference was over, I wanted more of it. I learned tons of things, and I wish I had my notes with me to share them but I forgot. oh well. That's cool that you guys got to go, I was wishing I could have been there.

Hope you get feeling better Dad, that's no fun. Hopefully everything goes well with the surgery! Maybe you will be able to smell the skunks after :)

Well 1 year since the mission call this week! Doesn't seem too long ago right? A lot has definitely happened in between. Bayler emailed me and said he got his call to Santiago Chile! Leaves in August, so he is exactly one year behind me. So that's awesome.

Happy birthday baby Nixon!! Well I guess your not such a baby anymore, 2 years old. Crazy stuff. I guess the birthday season is started, with a birthday about every week for the next 2 months. haha Mother I guess I will talk to you next week on your birthday! Buy lots of good presents this week. Like a bear lake cabin and a new car :) that would be a good start for a 50th birthday :) 

Well I think that's about it for the week. I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Elgan

I forgot to mention today in the letter. We went to Tepito! That giant black market place. It is pretty crazy! It is HUGE. Anything you could ever want is in there and super cheap. so that was fun. haha