Homeward Bound

This last week went by really fast, wow.

Honestly my mind is all over the place, so i don't really remember what happened. 

We worked pretty normal. We bought lots of food so i could eat everything one last time before going home. The sisters bought me pizza two times during the week. One time after the district council and then again on Saturday, so that was fun.

I think packing was probably the hardest part. Don't worry though i got lots of cool stuff and i'm leaving behind almost everything i brought with me. Basically only taking home scriptures and a bunch of souvenirs (no idea how to spell that now).

On Sunday i got told by two drunk guys that they were going to kill me, so i think that's a sign that i ended good. We also had a devotional with some of our converts, so it was good to see them all again. 

Today we just went to the center and hung out talking about the good times we had all together in the ccm

Tomorrow we go to Cholula and Wednesday morning we fly home.

If I've learned one thing on my mission its that happiness only comes through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's so easy that sometimes we forget it. The Book of Mormon is true. We have a prophet that walks the earth today. Joseph Smith did in fact see God the Father and his Son, Jesus Christ. and most importantly Jesus is the Christ, our savior and redeemer and it has been an honor to wear his name on my chest and represent him for two years.

Sorry that after two years of letters we are ending on a short note, but ni modo. 

My homecoming will be this Sunday (the 29th) at 9am in the church above BHS. Carnitas will be served after.

Adios for 2 more days

Elder Warburton

Elder Warburton

  México Puebla Norte

 District selfie

The best tacos money can buy

Second to last torta de tamal (i had one today too)

With the legend Sandra

In the center 

Everybody eating Carl's junior

¡Viva México!

We started the week out going to visit some people with a member who went around with us for about an hour and a half. We didn't find anybody and almost everybody told us they didn't have time, but it was super good to finally work with a member here.

On Tuesday night we had our correlation meeting. We don't have a ward mission leader or anyone in the elders quorum who is in charge, so just the elders quorum president showed up. Then he tried to get mad at us saying "is this meeting even important for you guys" and i was just shaking my head the whole time. Then his family was supposed to feed us on Saturday, but he never answered his phone and he wasn't home when we went to look for him, so you could say things in the ward have hit rock bottom. In a month we have lost about 20 people in sacrament meeting. There's not a whole lot we can do to help when we are only two and nobody wants to do anything, but i guess we will just keep trying. 

On Wednesday we did an attack in the area of the sisters and we found some people for them and it went good. Then we went back to our area and ended up in the middle of nowhere and we found a lady crying on the edge of this canyon thing with her daughter and we contacted them and who knows what was going on, but we gave them hope. She couldn't really explain to us where she lived, but she gave us her number. Who knows if anything will come out of it, but its good to know that the Lord leads us to where we need to be to help his children.

Then later that night we went to look for a lady the other missionaries were teaching and she received us really good, but then literally started to attack us 10 minutes in saying that we are fanatics who worship Joseph Smith. I'm an expert with these types of situations, so i explained to her what we believe and bore my testimony. And then she mad a critical error. It says in Preach my Gospel that its hard for the people to put in doubt your testimony. Well that is what she tried to do. She tried to tell me that my testimony wasn't real and that God has never answered me. So, she preceded to tell me what she believed was the truth and i probably made a mistake here, but she made me mad, so i taught her using her bible that she was 100% wrong and at the point where she was left with nothing to say, we left. 

There is a widowed returned missionary here who honestly could be the bishop because she works so hard to minister and work with us and we had a family night with her and it went good. She invited her elderly neighbor to come and we just shared a simple message, but the sister was just happy that she got to participate in missionary work. 

We were contacting in the street and a lady came up yelling "nobody wants to listen to you guy" and i though oh no here we go again, but turns out she was ¿joking? i think and then just told us that she likes to listen to every church there is to learn and we explained the restoration very basically and she was getting super pumped writing down everything we said and after she asked for every folleto we had and then she disappeared with our phone number.

September 15th is mexico's independence day and on Friday the stake had its big party. We couldn't go so that was a bummer :( but we bought tacos instead and ate them in our house. On Saturday my comp bought a tamale in the street and got super sick. Pobrecito just needs to buy a couple more and nothing will do him harm.

On Saturday i got a call from one of the companionships of sisters here from a random number saying that they got robbed. We saw them a little later in the stake center and they told us the whole story. 2 people pulled up in a taxi and one got out and stuck a gun to the stomach of one of the sisters and asked for all they had. The sister that had the gun to her stomach gave him her backpack with her wallet, ids, money, camera, and cell phone and the other sister was so nervous that she couldn't unbuckle her bag to give it to him. Luckily they were both fine in the end.

And to top it all off some guy who was high out of his mind sat next to me on the bus yesterday and showed me his fireworks and kept giving me chicharon.

Well that's about it. If you've always wanted to write me and have kept putting it off well you have one more week.

Adios

Elder Warburton

 Happy mexico day

A nice view from the middle of nowhere

A day in the Life

I don't have notes for this week, so ill try to remember it all.

On Monday we had a baptismal interview that fell through, so that took up basically all of our time that afternoon.

On Tuesday it rained super hard, but we hid out inside of a store and i bought mac and cheese (only available at select Boudea Aurreras). Then we went to the stake center to help teach English and it went good.

On Wednesday we had interviews with president and they went good. The zone leaders told us the night before we had to be there 15 minutes before our interviews (for us 11), then at 9 i get a call from the zone leader losing his mind telling me that we had to be there at 9 and why weren't we there and where was everybody. So, we get there at 9:30 and we waited until 12:30 to have our interview. Why did we have to be there at 9? that is a mystery that will hopefully be revealed in the millennium. After some members took us to a restaurant to eat some carnitas, so that was cool.

On Thursday we had interchanges and i was in my area and it went good. We contacted almost the whole time and we found a family of four that could have promise. I was with the other zone leader that i don't verify with that has 9 months in the mission. He showed up and he said "well i think you know more than i do and you already know Spanish, sooooo." I think he had no idea what to do hahaha. It was all good though and we had fun. Then that night he bought pizza, so that was cool.

On Friday i can't remember what happened other than we visited a family that we had found a little bit ago and we read the introduction of the Book of Mormon with them and then we had another lesson with a lady we have been teaching and she might have finally realized the importance of finding the true church. She had read in mateo about Jesus cursing the fig tree and didn't know what it meant, so we explained it all to her and then she was like "wait are your leaders like the leaders of some church that will not be named that's leader just got put into prison" so we explained to her how awesome President Nelson is.

On Saturday we contacted a bunch and my comp wasn't paying attention and walked into a guy riding his bike and we got a good laugh out of it. 

Yesterday we gave a blessing to a member who really wanted one because she said she is going through a bunch of hard things and it was a really cool experience. 

I think that's the first time i've given a run down of every day. 

Adios 

Elder Warburton

also i didn't take pictures this week, so go and watch the Book of Mormon videos trailer instead.

--

Elder Warburton

  México Puebla Norte

Book of Mormon Videos | Official Trailer | 1 Nephi - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com › watch

Da semana

This week went by really fast and then really slow.

On Tuesday we had zone conference. It was good, but weird thinking that its my last zone conference. I got some good pictures with some homies (hna barron included). It was a good conference though. President talked about sacrificing and remembering the feeling we had when we opened our mission calls. Also Monday night, the night before the conference, i got told that i was going to be capacitating(training) with one of my zone leaders about the area plan. In the mission there are 4 priorities and one of them is the area plan. So, in the conference all of the missionaries decided in what priority they wanted to focus in and only 2 sisters form my district wanted to focus in the area plan. So, luckily it wasn't too stressful not having prepared anything.

We also started giving English classes in the stake center as a district, so i think they will go pretty good because we will be able to invite lots of people and its closer to our area than our church.

We also had intercambios this week and i was with my favorite Brazilian. It was fun, we contacted a bunch and at the end bought tacos. Then the next day the bad news hit. They called Elder Backman in my district and told him that he was going to have emergency changes. Then he called the assistants later that night and they told him that they are going to open the new zone (my old area) so, him and Elder Nacimento were going to get transferred to my old area to help open the new zone. We helped them pack everything and clean their house because they were told they were closing area only a couple hours in advance. It was pretty sad when they left because now we are alone covering a huge area and we have to travel all over the place to eat with and visit members. They left Friday afternoon and that night we had to cover one of their family home evenings. It was supposed to start at 7, but everyone showed up at 8, so we could only share a lesson for like 10 minutes then we had to leave super fast to get back to our area.

We also had some really good enchiladas on Saturday, so i think that is worth mentioning. And on Sunday we had stake conference and it was actually really good. All of us missionaries and the president were outside greeting people as they came in and one lady was pushing somebody in a walker and they both fell over and it was like an army of missionaries ran up to help them. In the end they were ok.

That's about it for this week. Oh we keep contacting tons of people, but nobody wants anything and the zone leaders only care about numbers, but don't help at all so that's cool.

Have a good week

Elder Warburton

  

Elder Warburton

  México Puebla Norte

 Seconds before they left

A fruit called Vaina that is basically cotton candy, but fruit. super cool

Snacking on grasshoppers

With the boss

With one of my best buds

Noy soy San Pedro ni San Pablo

Hello (said in a Guatemalan accent in honor of my favorite Guatemalan comp)

This week we contacted. I don't know if we contacted more than last week or the same, but we contacted tons. It is super hard to find people that actually progress and read and are at home when we have our next appointment, so we just keep on looking.

This week i spent the last of the quincena (950 pesos) buying a stove for 250 pesos. It was worth it because last Monday i bought pancake mix and eggs and then the stove broke, so i was pretty stressed out. Luckily i can reimburse it though, so in about a month ill have that money back again.

We found a super awesome family from Veracruz. We had barely knocked on their door when the mom invited us in and told all of her kids to stop cleaning so they could come and listen to us. We taught them the restoration and we are going back today to see them again.

We had a cool lesson teaching somebody about the sabbath day and inviting them to church, but they didn't come. Hopefully this week she will be able to come. We also found somebody that asked us when the Book of Mormon was published and knowing what was coming i said around 200 years ago. And then the lady said that the catholic bible was 4,000 years old and i was about ready to leave because that's what they always say and then i was like "wait she just said 4,000 years old i got to look into this." So, i said "wait how is it that the catholic bible is 4,000 years old when Jesus was born only 2,000 years ago, Juan disappeared around 83 AD and the bible as we know it was first put together roughly around 250 AD." And then she said that Jesus was born more than 4,000 years ago and that she reads the bible every day and then slammed the door in our face. 

My back hurts super bad and when we visited a member family they had a member from another ward who is a physical therapist there, so he popped my back and offered me free physical therapy which i might do tomorrow.

And the highlight of my week happened on Friday. I thought i had lived it all being on the mission, but Friday around 7 as we left the house of some in-actives we were visiting a dog started barking at me. So, i faked like i was going to hit it with my Book of Mormon and it didn't do anything, but while i was distracted another dog came up and bit me on the back of my leg. I have never been closer to throwing my Book of Mormon in an animals face, but member lady was watching us go, so i couldn't do anything. So, we left her street and i looked and it was bleeding. So, i decided to rub hand sanatizer on it and we kept working. Then we went home around 8 so i could wash it good and then i had to call sister barron. She set me to the hospital and we had to take a taxi. The taxi guy was talking to us the whole time and we had to stop by the offices to pick up money (the financial secretary's tried getting mad at me that i didn't have money, but i threw it back at them because they haven't done my reimbursements for a month) and the taxi driver heard that i had a dog bite and he literally peeled out of the church. He was like "why didn't you tell me you had a dog bite??" as he was going like 70 mph. Then i was like "don't worry Paul got bit by a snake and nothing happened" to which he replied "Tu no eres san pedro ni san pablo tu eres Elder abaratweifalj" I guess everyone freaks out about dog bites here, but i was pretty chill. Long story short, everything is good and i wont get rabbis.

Adios

Elder Warburton

1. The district picture that the zls photo bombed 

2. dawg bite. not even that, but i guess its a big deal when its a mexican street dog

--

Elder Warburton

  México Puebla Norte

Siervos del Alto

Ok i know that last week i said that it had been raining a lot, but i lied. It was just raining a lot, but now this week it has been raining and hailing.

We have been contacting a ton this week and it went as well as you could expect. We've gotten called just about every swear word there is in mexico (and there are lots) we have met self proclaimed prophets, and lots of really cool people who have listened to us. Just a pro tip, if someone is drunk and they tell you that they are a prophet and a servant from on high its probably smart to just end the contact and go back another day.

I've been verifying a ton every night because now every day we have to verify the number of new people we have found and contacts we have done. I usually start verifying at 9 and end at around 10. It was funny seeing everybody in the district council on Wednesday. If you add up all of their time in the mission i still don't think it would equal the time that i have. It's fun seeing the new generations and getting a reminder of what i was like before; IE not being able to talk Spanish or teach or do anything. Luckily they are all super awesome and excited to learn.

The other day we went to look for a recent convert that hasn't been coming to church. We knocked on her door and she answered and was super happy to see us. She told us that her dog had just barely died and that she was sad. It was cool to show up at just the right time and being able to talk to her and help her.

We had the capacitation of district and zone leaders and i went with Elder Lyles (read my letters from a couple months ago, he was my companion) it was funny being with him and everybody said that the dream team was back. 

On Saturday we celebrated the birthday of an elder in my district and we bought him a cake.

My favorite quote of the week is from a 3 year old. We were eating with a family and they gave us ice cream for dessert. So, of course we had to steal the 3 year old's ice cream and tell her there was none left, we gave it back and left the house and didn't think anything of it. Then on Sunday she came up to me and says "Tu y yo necesitamos hablar" (You and I need to talk) and she started telling me that i can never steal her ice cream again.

Adios

Elder Warburton  

  

Elder Warburton

  México Puebla Norte

Elder Backmans birthday party

One Last Time

It rained a lot this week. I think it rains a lot every week, but i just notice it more when i don't have my rain boots on and my feet get all wet. 

Funny thing happened when we went to eat with some members. We knocked the house number 11 just like we were supposed to, but somebody answered it and immediately slammed it in our face saying no. So, we thought we weren't going to eat, but luckily there were two houses numbered 11 right next to each other, so we knocked the other and we proceeded to eat. 

My comp got medicine for his stomach. I'm starting to think i might need to look into that.

There are some members here that live part of the time in Monterrey and the other part here in Puebla. We ate with them and they gave us some amazing carne asada with flour tortilla quesadillas and some type of beans that i've never had before. All super good. I think the highlights this week are mostly food related.

We did some intercambios this week and i worked with elder Nacimento in his area. we visited a lady that has been inactive ever since the bishop asked her to talk and we taught her about the sacrament. She said she would come to church (they always say that), we gave her a blessing for her health and left. Then to our surprise she actually came on Sunday and stayed the whole time, so that was a good miracle. We also didn't have water the whole time we were in intercambios. We had to awkwardly ask their neighbor to lend us a couple of buckets

.

A five year old on a bus saw me and said "Es me amigo!" and started talking to me. Her mom told her to stop talking to me, but she just kept on talking and talking. Then when we got off she said adios like 10 times. If only the adults were as receptive as the kids.

Elder Tarrega (my trainer) finally left this week. We had  various going a-way parties between us and the members. We bought pizza, tacos, and took lots of pictures. We also got our transfer news (6 more weeks left) and i'm staying in my area as district leader and will be finishing the training of a missionary who has 1 transfer in the mission.

Adios

Elder Warburton

-- 

Elder Warburton

  México Puebla Norte

Last district picture

¿Y la pizza?

Last time

First time

A picture we took awhile ago with the zone leaders

my new companion