Nothing clever and this computer is slow

This week I have been able to walk, so things are improving.

On Tuesday we had a zone conference and I got to see almost everyone from my district in the ccm, so that was great catching up with all of them and seeing how they are doing. After the conference ended Elder Diaz and I stayed in Puebla to get some new toys (picture attached). Elder Diaz fractured both his feet, so we spent the day with President and the mission secretary buying him boots for his feet and an ankle brace for me. It was interesting spending some time with President Nelson and he's a pretty funny guy (he reminds me a lot of my dad). He took us out in his van and lets just say that he is an angry driver and it was pretty hard not to bust out laughing. Everything turned out good in Puebla and by the time we got back to our house in Zacatlan it was 10.

On Wednesday we had chincharon in salsa verde which is a pretty normal dish here in Mexico. Chincharon is basically fried pig skin and salsa verde is green salsa for all you güeros. I'm mentioning this because a lot of gringos don't like it and Elder Wilcox is one of them (I think its fine). So, of course we had to tell the hermana that Elder Wilcox loves it and he ended up eating about 6 servings. 

On Thursday we got our lights cut. When we came back in that night we found that we didn't have any lights and we didn't know why (we got them turned back on about an hour ago, but since Thursday we had been living without electricity). All of our milk went bad, so the only food we have, cereal, couldn't be put to use. 

All in all I was feeling like things are pretty bad considering we didn't have any power and I can hardly walk, but then the Lord served me some humble pie Friday. We visited an inactive member and things are going pretty bad for her. Everything in her house got stolen, her son got mugged and was almost killed, and her daughter has abandoned the family. So, I realized that things could be a lot worse and I realized that I need to just forget about how things are with me and help others.

On Saturday we contacted a drunk guy and were talking to him and then his drunk friend showed up to the party. Things got interesting. My comp told them I was from Russia because he didn't want any problems with two drunk guys and an american from Trumpland. They asked me to talk to them in russian and I said some stuff to them in spanish in a russian accent and they were blown away; they immediately said "wow yeah he's from russia" and it was all I could do to not burst out laughing. We talked with the wife of one of the drunk guys and luckily she was sober and wants to help her husband be the same, so who knows maybe we will be able to help them change. 

Lots more stuff happened and I'll try to type it fast. 

One of our investigators felt like they didn't have faith and when we convinced her to pray she offered one of the most sincere prayers i've heard here and it was awesome. Sunday we didn't have anyone to feed us so we went to the house of the other elders and had a cereal party.

That's all for this week

Adios

Elder Warburton

 Picture from the zone conference

Subway in Puebla with Elder Diaz

Elder Diaz and I with our new duds

Zacatlan, it rains a lot here

Zacatlan Proved to be a Refiners Fire

This week was un poco raro.

Lets start out with the good. We contacted a lady in the street and talked with her for a bit and found out her husband is really sick. When we visited them the next day (Tuesday) we found that her husband can barely move because his diabetes has progressed so far. It has been really cool to visit them this week and its been great to be able to give them hope.

A little update on the area. Elder Wilcox's companion arrived last Monday night, so now we have split the area in two and its been fun. On Tuesday night we gave Elder Wilcox our number and told him it was the hermana who we were going to eat with tomorrow. We talked with him for about 10 minutes and the whole time he thought my companion was the hermana Francisca. On Wednesday night they forgot their keys in our house and didn't realize until it was 9, so by the time they got to our house it was about 9:30 and they had to sleep in our house because it would have been too dangerous for them to walk all the way to their house. 

Now if you're my mom don't keep reading.

On Wednesday night I may or may not have fallen and twisted my ankle really bad. We were jumping over a stream like we have done 100 times before, but this time I landed wrong. When I fell I basically saw my whole mission flash before my eyes because I thought I had broken my ankle and would have to go home. I felt something pop out of place and when I lifted my foot up it was like a dead fish. I thought for sure it was broken, but then I tried to twist it and whatever it was popped back into place and I could move it a little bit. We were close to our next appointment, so we went and visited them, but it was pure agony the whole lesson. The hermano didn't invite us inside so I was standing outside his door dying the whole 30 minutes while we were trying to explain how only our church has the authority. After I couldn't walk, so we took a taxi home. I called the mission president and he told me to rest and he would look at it Sunday because he was coming for our branch conference. 

So, I have been pretty useless since then. Luckily we have had the help of some young men in the ward and the Branch President so other elders can go out at work while I was wasting away in the house. Luckily I have had a lot of time to study, so when the Jehovah Witness come at me I can bible bash them (I also had time to watch all of the D&C Church movies, so thanks to the Joseph Smith movie for the email title). It has been nice to have so much study time and i've been learning a lot, but not being able to leave the house and teach is the worst. At first I didn't have any crutches, so I had to use my chair to balance while I hopped around the house, but luckily a member had some and he loaned them to me. 

On Sunday President came to the branch conference and he checked out my foot. We knew before hand that I had only torn some ligaments because I could put a little bit of weight on it. He checked it out and the good news is I won't die. I can walk a little better now, but its basically impossible to go out and work because our area is so big and I basically walk at a snails pace. 

Its good to see that the mission can teach me everything I need to know. So far I have relearned how to: talk, eat, and now walk. 

That's all for this week

Adios

Elder Warburton

Sorry for the pictures of my gross foot.

1. 5 minutes after i feel and my ankle the size of a baseball

2. Its hard to see in the picture, but when we got back to the house, my whole leg was swollen.

3. Some cool brusing, my whole foot is basically different shades of purple

4. Today I made pancakes for p-day. We didn't have any measuring cups, but they turned out good

Pig Snouts and Moon Landings

This week went by really fast. Tuesday was a normal day (lots of contacting, as usual) and nothing much really happened. On Wednesday we started exchanges and I went to Chinaughuapan the area of the district leader. I was in Chinaughuapan with Elder Reyes, the companion of the district leader and we had a good time. While we were contacting we found a member of the Church of the Light of the World (I think that's what its called). It started out pretty good, but then he asked us if we knew who the 5 gods were and then it just got more crazy from there. Chinaughuapan is only about 25 minutes away in combi, but it is way colder than Zacatlan.

On Thursday I stayed in Chinaughuapan, but I was with the district leader Elder Mas. We didn't really have a lot of time to work and find people because in the morning we were in Zacatlan for weekly planning and then we had to go to Chinaughuapan and eat, so by the time it was all said and done and we hit the streets it was about 6. We taught two of their investigators the importance of going to church on Sunday and they felt the spirit so strong they started to cry, so it was a pretty good lesson. However, the highlight of the intercambios was that I got to shower in hot water 2 days in a row before going back to the polar plunge that is the shower of Zacatlan.

On Friday when I got back to Zacatlan a member invited us to eat tacos. They were super good and I had tacos of Mixiote, pig snout, and pig ear. The pig snout was really good and I would highly recommend it. The pig ear was alright, but it was a bit crunchy because the meat still had the cartilage. Later that day we convinced Elder Wilcox that the moon landings were fake, so it was a pretty good day.

On Saturday we spent the whole day contacting. We found some really good people and had some awesome lessons and were super pumped. We had 2 people commit to come to church the next day and one of them told us that they knew what we were saying was true. The next morning when we called them to confirm if we could pick them up they told us that they couldn't come/hung up on us. So, we will visit them this week and see whats up. 

The branch here is basically in a really bad state. The old branch president basically destroyed it and dropped the attendance to about 50 people every week. We are basically doing all we can to help the branch and this Sunday is the branch conference and President Nelson (our mission president, not the prophet) and his counselors are going to be here, so we are going to talk a lot with them on what we can do to save the branch.

That about sums it all up

Adios

Elder Warburton

1. The District (the tall white guy is the cousin of Lindsey Stirling)

2. A night with Elder Reyes

3. A red rock wall in Chinaghuapan

4. The Barranca

No pictures of the pig snout because I forgot and it just looks like regular meat.

Donde fue escrito el Libro De Mormon: TULIMÁN

This week was amazing despite a few minor setbacks. On Tuesday we helped the family we found two weeks ago put up a fence in their yard. The hermano told us it was only going to take 3 hours at the very most, so we thought hey nothing to lose. We showed up around 8 and started working on the fence. We took a little break and shared a message with the family then went back to the fence. When we finally finished half of the yard we looked and realized it was 2:30. We told the hermano we had to go because we had other appointments and he wasn't too happy about that. We went back Thursday to share another lesson with them and really stressed the importance of going to church, but they weren't willing to commit to anything, so for the time being we are giving them a rest.

Later Tuesday night there was a big rain storm here in Zacatlan and at about 9:10 after we got to our house the power went out in basically the whole city. It was pitch black and we couldn't see a single thing outside our windows. Good thing up until that point we hadn't bought a light bulb for our house, so it was just the same as always.

On Friday we had one of the best comidas yet. We went to the house of the relief society president and the elders quorum president and when I saw the table I almost died. There were two types of carne asada, three types of salchichi, salsas, and rice. There was so much food the three of us and the family only finished about half. 

On Saturday we contacted in what is called "La Barranca" its basically a giant canyon that runs through the middle of the whole Zacatlan region. We hiked down it a little and started contacting the houses and we found a couple of people who are interested, but mostly it was cool to be out in the wild. Later Saturday we had a baptism of two kids whose parents are members. It was a really great baptism, but the best part is the family invited a non member family to the baptism. Everyone in the family felt the spirit and the next day they came to church. We are going to teach them on Wednesday and invite them to baptism, so pray that this family will accept and they can be baptized!

Today was also crazy, we went to a place called Tulimán that has waterfalls and rivers and it was way cool (pictures attached). We were dying hiking out because we basically descended the whole Barranca and were climbing back up, but luckily God answers our prayers and we got a ride out. 

That sums it up for this week.

Adios!

Elder Warburton

                                     Foggy day

                    Contacting in the Barranca

                                     Baptism 

                                       Tulimán

Conference Week

First week in Zacatlan and it was crazy. To start out the knob for hot water in the shower is broken so it is cold showers everyday. We also don't have light in the main room where we do our studies, so we study by flashlight and in the night we sit in darkness. Other than that its a good house.

On my second day here we contacted a man selling coconuts in the street and now we are teaching him and his whole family. We visited them the next day in his house and his entire house is basically dedicated to his fruit selling business, so in every corner there is fruit. We taught them and yesterday the dad watched the first session of conference with us and liked it a lot. We are excited to see how they are going to progress.

We have one baptism coming up next Saturday his name is Ozmar. He is 10 years old and his parents were inactive for a time, but now they are attending church again and we are going to baptize him and his sister who is 8. 

This week was the semana santa for the catholics, but it wasnt a nightmare like everyone said it is. We were still able to find new investigators to teach and no one tried to use the semana santa as an excuse to not listen to us. The only crazy thing that happened was a parade on Friday that went right by our house. We thought at first they were coming to drag us out into the street, but everything ended up find and we got a couple of pictures. 

On Saturday my comps and I celebrated my birthday and I hope that I can send the pictures. In the night we bought a cake and a tradition here in Mexico is that you have to try and take a bite out of the cake without someone else pushing your face into the cake. If I can send the picture you will be able to see how I did. My companion Elder Figueroa also gave me his Star Wars tie for a gift. He wore it the first day we got here and I guess he saw my love for Star Wars because Saturday night I was sitting on my bed and he came into the room and gave me the tie. 

Now on to the biggest news of the week: Conference. Wow conference was amazing the whole time. We could all feel the power in the first Saturday morning session when we sustained our new prophet Russell M. Nelson. It was a real testimony builder that today we have a prophet called of God to lead us and his power is real and his calling is real. It was also amazing to hear all of the revelation that the prophet has received to help us and the church move forward. Isn't it amazing that we are a church led by Jesus Christ through revelation? Conference really helped me learn a lot on how I can improve as a missionary and a person. 

A lot more happened this week, but there is never enough time to write it all. Hopefully I can send my pictures.

Bye

Elder Warburton

                                Rainy days

                           Holy Week parade

Semana Santa gathering

 Birthday celebration

                 Cake on my face

my new tie