New Area

Hola everyone. Not a lot of time today so I will try to write fast and reply to as many of you as I can.

First off, my last week in Morelos was a good one. On Wednesday we had exchanges and for most of the day I was with one of the zone leaders, Elder Voci, while he was doing baptisimal interviews and after we got pizza. 

We knocked a lot of doors. Friday we knocked doors for almost the whole day and then again on Saturday. We didn't find any new investigators Friday and almost nobody opened their door. Luckily on Saturday we were blessed to find two new investigators. 

Then Saturday night we got our transfer calls. My companion elder Martinez will be staying in Morelos and as of right now I am in my new area. My new are is called Zacatlan and supposedly it is one of the best areas in the mission, so it should be good. I am in a trio with Elder Wilcox (he was in my district in the CCM, so its good being with him again) and Elder Figauroa. In 3 weeks Zacatlan is going to be divided into two areas and Elder Wilcox will train and I will be in a normal companionship with elder Figauroa. As if the transfers weren't crazy enough I also found out that I will be Branch Clerk here. So I will basically be in charge of all the money, tithing, computers, and records in the ward. Hopefully there will be somebody to show me the ropes and if not it will be a bit of a learning process.

Not much else to say. Transfers are crazy. I wish I had my mom to help pack my bags. Wish me luck with the new area.

Elder Warburton

                  Elder Voci and I eating pizza

 Elder Voci and I almost dying after putting ketchup on the pizza

   Elder Martinez and I after knocking 1000000 doors

 My new comps

Ward Missionary Work

Sorry, but not a lot happened this week. I'll try to make this letter as interesting as possible.

We got some new ward missionaries this week that are really excited to help us out. One of them is named Hermana Cristina and she is always helping out the missionaries. We visited her earlier in the week and explained her new calling and we have already visited some investigators with her. She was also really great in the weekly coordination (more on that in a second).

On Wednesday we had our district meeting and after got the worst tacos that I have had here. They weren't totally bad, but they were almost 100% french fries and corn tortillas, not something you expect when you order tacos de res. 

Now on to the coordination. Boy was it an interesting meeting. We started out like normal, a hymn and a prayer and then the new ward missionaries had some stuff to say. One of the new ward missionaries is a Hermana who is around 90 years old, but has a ton of energy and is ready to help us. She went to town on all of us saying that when we have baptisms we need to make the baptisms special (which I totally agreed with) and we need to gift them scriptures and such. After we went on like normal until we got to one investigator named Arely. She has all the lessons and all the asistencias, but she has seem some things in sacrament meeting that she doesn't like. When we said this, our ward missionary leader asked what it was and we told him that she has a problem with seeing people kissing their girlfriends during sacrament meeting. This is the part where Hermana Cristina came in and totally backed us and the investigator up. It's gotten a little out of hand here and the truth is its pretty distracting when there's about 5 couples making out when i'm trying to take the sacrament. We didn't stay on the subject too long because our mission leader was quick to change it and his advice was "If we want to see change, we need to change ourselves first." I didn't really understand what he was trying to say, but hopefully me and my companion won't be kissing any girls next week in church. All in all it was a pretty lively coordination, but we made some good plans and i'm excited to work with these new ward missionaries.

Not much else happened this week. We talked with our server in the restaurant where we eat Saturdays and we have an appointment to teach him and his wife tomorrow. He is a really great guy, so I hope that he accepts our message. 

That about sums up the week.

I'm a little short on pictures too, so I hope you like what I got.

Adios

Elder Warburton

Gourmet Shredded Chicken

Hola amigos y amigas. Puedo decir que quiero y no van a entender. Pero los que hablan español van a saber que mi español es chafa.  

This week was a pretty crazy week that started out normal. We played some fútbol with the priests in the ward and talked to them about going out on splits with us Tuesday night, so that was fun. Thanks to my years as a little league fútbol player i'm not totally horrible. You will all be happy to know that the nickname "The Steamroller" still applies. 

On Wednesday we had our zone conference and it was really good. We learned how we can focus more in the first vision when we teach and how we can use a video called "Botans Virtuales" that the assistants made for us. Its basically a slide show of pictures and music that we can use to help our investigators feel comfortable coming to church. I also got to see my companion from the CCM, Elder Mackey. It was great to catch up with him and hear how he is doing. He said i've lost a lot of weight and the ladies better look out when I get home hahaha. At the end of the conference we got to watch Coco, so needless to say I was pretty happy (and sad because that movie is an emotional roller coaster).

Thursday we had a good lesson with Felipe and Cristina and Hermano Serrano (the guy who cut my tie) came with us. They have 3 kids (6, 4,1) and they are a great family. They have all the lessons, they come to church every week, and pay their tithes and offerings. The only problem is Felipe in the process of divorcing his previous wife and then he needs to get married to Cristina. After the lesson we also had the comida (food)  with them. Cristina always makes the food really spicy and Hermano Serrano always has a hard time eating it. He started tearing up and sweating while he was eating and we asked "Is the food spicy" and he tried to reply, but when he opened his mouth all that came out was some chewed up food. It was so funny and we all couldn't stop laughing. 

On Friday the food wasnt so spicy, but it had a much worse consequence. We had chicken (the usual) and it was pretty good and we felt fine after eating. Then later in the afternoon, around 5 we were in a lesson with an inactive/part member family with our ward mission leader. The lesson started out good and I felt fine. Then as we went on I started to feel sick and I looked at my companion and mouthed "Im going to throw up." I made about 10-15 minutes more before I stood up and ran out of the house. I made it to the neighbors yard before I threw up all of the food that we had eaten earlier. It was a pretty long process to get it all out. For those who want to know it looked like gourmet shredded chicken dish, jalapeños, sauce and all. About 15 minutes later our ward mission leader came out with the family and while I was throwing up he invited one of their kids to be baptized, so now we have a baptism date for the 24th. After the lesson we went back to the house and I threw up a little more. My companion still feels sick from the chicken, so I think its good that I got it all out.

The last crazy thing of the week happened yesterday. All of the stake presidency was in our ward, because we got a new bishopric. So, it was the end of sacrament meeting and it was announced that Hermano Pedro would give the closing prayer. He is an older man, about 70 years old and he lives in his own world. So, he gets up to the pulpit and says "Well I guess its time for my talk. Im going to share something brief." I was pretty excited because hes always fun to listen to, but then the second counselor told him it was a prayer :( So Hermano Pedro says "Oh ok, I'm going to share my prayer" and then he started praying in the way we pray in the temple. It wasn't all the same, but it followed the same pattern. He gets to the end of his prayer and says "I learned this prayer in the temple. Amen." Everyone in the ward was in shock and my companion and I just looked at each other and tried not to laugh.

All in all a pretty crazy week, but we found some new investigators and we have some people progressing towards baptism.

Adios

Elder Warburton

Cold Showers and Resorts

This week everyone looked at me funny because I had a way bad sunburn. My face was red all week and I had blisters on my forehead. I don't know why in three hours playing volleyball I got sunburned, when we're outside walking all day everyday. I guess its one of the mysteries of God.

On Wednesday we had intercambios and while we were in intercambios we found two new investigators. The hermana that we were eating with told us about them and as soon as we were done eating, we went and contacted them. They were great and accepted everything. They even invited us to their 2 year old son's birthday party, but we couldn't go because it was on Sunday. The missionary work has become pretty hard here as of late. No one wants to listen to us and only a few people in the ward want to help us and our investigators, so getting a reference of two new people who wanted to learn was pretty great.

On Thursday we didn't have any gas, so we had no way to heat up our water. Needless to say it was a really cold shower that morning. I cant decide if its more cold using a bucket or using cold water from the shower head; I will keep investigating. It seems like we have this problem too often, but at least for the majority of the time we have hot water.

On Saturday we ate in a restaurant at a tourist resort named "El Mexko" pronounced meshco. One of the Hermanas in our ward is the chef there and the best part is we are going to eat there every Saturday this month. All of the pictures are from the resort. Maybe i'll include the picture of my sunburn, or i'll spare you all the pain. I haven't decided yet.

On Sunday we got chewed out by the first counselor in the Bishopric and here is the brief rundown. Whenever he puts his name on the calendar to feed us, he always says to go wherever we want and he will pay us back. So, we always ask him if there is a limit to what we can spend and he always says "no buy whatever you want." Normally we buy around 200-250 pesos worth of food and he always says "that's all you bought? why didn't you buy more?" So, this week we bought 350 pesos worth of food (carne arabe and coke, que rico) and when we told him how much it was on Sunday he basically yelled "HOW MUCH???" in front of the whole ward. He was pretty mad and as missionaries we cant really fight back, so we just reminded him of what he had told us in the past, but it was futile. I don't think he will be putting his name down to feed us again any time soon.

We received the monthly allowance of money last week on the 27th and by Sunday my comp had spent it all, so it looks like i'll be budgeting extra tight this month.

Adios,

Elder Warburton