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