The Big City

Hola friends and family. For all 3 of you that read this, no i did not die everything is all good.

The week started off good, but everyone and everything was trying to destroy the baptism of Rosa and Hugo. We were planning to baptize them Thursday, but then on Tuesday we got a call from the branch president saying that we needed to change it to Saturday. he basically decided that if it was Thursday, nobody from the branch would come and he also decided to tell Rosa that, so she got freaked out and we moved it to Saturday. Then, Wednesday afternoon we got a call from the branch president again and this time he was loosing his mind. He told us he had to leave on Saturday, so we should just do the baptism on Thursday. He told us he didn't know why we even changed it in the first place. So, we basically ran around all of Thursday planning stuff and inviting as many members as we could to the baptism.

So now we get to Thursday, baptism day. We had planned to go take Rosa and Hugo to the river in a combi and all of the branch members were going to meet up in the church and a member was going to give them a ride. So of course, as we are in the combi going down the mountain we get a call from the members who were going to help us with the car saying that they couldn't do it. After a lot of talking with the other elders who were helping us bring the members and stressing, we just told them all to take taxis and we would pay for it like the rich white Americans we are. We ended up paying 100 pesos each (best 5 dollars i ever spent) all of the branch members showed up and a lot of them came too, so we were super happy. There was even more stressful stuff happening, but i'm stressing just reliving it, so i'm going to end it there. When it was all said and done, we had a really large turn out of branch members and they all really enjoyed the baptism. I baptized Hugo first and my comp baptized Rosa second. I had to baptize Hugo 3 times because his jumper was way to big, so his pants kept coming out of the water because of all the air inside. A really awesome baptism with a bunch of help from up above. Satan can throw as many obstacles in the path as he wants, but when the Lord wants two people to be baptized, the two people get baptized. I can now say that i have fulfilled my missionary dream of baptizing in a river, so now the next goal is to baptize someone with no legs. 

On Sunday all of the youth got back from efy and the whole sacrament meeting was just them sharing their experiences and it was the most spiritual sacrament meeting we had had all of my time there. We have also been having more people assisting these past weeks, so it is awesome to see how the branch is really growing and that it is in good hands. 

This last week we also had changes. We were expecting our phone calls Saturday night, but they didn't come until Sunday night. I got a text from the mission president at about 6:30 asking me to call him whenever i got the chance. So, i called him and called him, but it wasn't until he called me back at 8 that we finally talked. I was thinking that he was going to ask me to train or be a district leader because a couple weeks back in our interviews he asked me a ton of questions about those two things so I knew the inevitable was coming. However, when we finally talked he said that the Lord wanted me to come to the offices to be a secretary. I wasn't really expecting that and it came as a pretty big surprise honestly. So, now it is day two in the offices and things are going good. Puebla is really nice and its weird being in a big city with nice cars and restaurants and clothes after being in a small pueblo. Then last night we went to the area where the mission president lives and it is suuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuper nice. Maybe I don't remember what its like in the states but this place blew me away. It was a gated community, but a huge gated community like houses in all directions and the houses were giant. Seriously look this place up. Its called Angelopolis. Also the office hours don't follow the go to bed at 10:30 and wake up at 6:30, its usually after and before so i hope i don't die.

That's the cliff notes of my crazy week

Adios 

Elder Warburton

El Secretary mas Guapo de La Misión México Puebla Norte 

Elder Warburton

México Puebla Norte

We all got matching cow ties (made out of genuine cow)

All of the people who came out for the baptism

Oh just me...baptizing in a river

And the comp 

The view from our new apartment

Marriage, marriage is what brings us together today

Ok, lets just get right into the good stuff this week. Rosa and Hugo finally got married!! Last Saturday (9 days ago) things were looking pretty rocky. So, on Tuesday we brought in our district leader and we had a lesson with them and they decided 100% to get married. So, on Friday they got married and it was just about the biggest miracle we could have hoped for. We talked with Rosa after and she said that after Tuesday they really started reading and praying together and then Hugo basically had a night to morning change and everything went really smooth up until they got married Friday. After they got married, we threw a little party for their daughter Danna because it was her birthday. We got her a cake and even decorated it so maybe i'll be able to show my sister Rachel a thing or two when i get home. Then the next day they both had their baptismal interviews, so now they are good to be baptized. We were going to do it Saturday, but we thought it would be better to wait so we could invite the branch. So, they are going to get baptized this Thursday because that is when Hugo doesn't have work and the coolest part is that they are going to get baptized in a river!

 

Well after all of that, the rest of the week was pretty boring. On Tuesday I went to Chinahuapan for interchanges then got back on Wednesday. We visited Hermana Angeles (our recent convert of a week now) and she is still super powerful. She gave us food and is really excited to go do baptisms with the branch next month. It honestly seems like now Angeles and Rosa are constantly competing to be the next relief society president without even knowing it. Now all we have to do is find men equally powerful and this branch will be in good hands.

On Thursday we had interviews with our new mission president. When we got to Apizaco where he was doing the interviews, we had to wait about two and a half hours because he was so behind. The interviews were super good though and President Barron is a really cool guy. He likes to joke around more than president Nelson, so it's a nice change of pace. Changes are coming up next week and he asked me how much more time i want in Zacatlan and i said, if i want to break the record, i'll need to stay here for 5 more months. I guess we will see what happens.

Lets see what else happened. On Sunday i gave the elders quorum class to all of 5 people and we saw all the youth off to efy. I let one of them borrow one of my ties, so he could hopefully impress the girl he likes from another ward (I got to look out for my boys after all).

I'm about to finish the Book of Mormon for a second time here and basically its talking about miracles and iniquity. Its a testimony builder to see that the Lord really is willing to bless his people when they are obedient and want to change. We have been able to see some real miracles these past two weeks with a baptism, marriage, and another baptism coming up Thursday. Now we just have to hope that more people are willing to repent so the Lord doesn't destroy Zacatlan like he did with all the Nephites.

Read the book of mormon 

adios

Elder Warburton

-- 

Elder Warburton

México Puebla Norte

Baptism last week

Rosa and Hugo getting married!

 Photo shoot after

 The Hermana Danna's birthday party

The river we are going to baptize in this week 

Baptism!

Ok here we go again

This week went by super fast, mostly because we were preparing for our baptism we had Saturday, but more on that later.

The lady we baptized Saturday (Angeles) gave us a super awesome reference earlier in the week. This girl lived with Mormons for a year in South Carolina and when we went to visit our investigator Angeles, she was there and we talked with her. We visited her in her house a couple days later and she really wants to learn more about the church and have it be a part of her life again. She was never baptized in South Carolina, but she says that she wants to know more about the church now.

This week we were with Hna Angeles a lot getting her ready for her baptism and Rosa and Hugo if you all remember them from awhile back. Rosa is super ready to be baptized and wants it more than anything. Hugo on the other hand is a stereotypical male Mexican who doesn't want to do anything and doesn't want to get married. They had plans to get married this week, but their relationship is really bad, so tomorrow we are going to see if they are going to get separated or married. Either way, we will be baptizing Rosa this week or the next.

On Friday our branch had a primary activity where they were going to watch movies for kids. We finally convinced Rosa to go (they were supposed to do the activity last week, but nobody showed up except for her and she didn't want to go and be stood up again), but we finally convinced her to go with her two kids. We got to the church about 10 minutes after the activity started to check and see if everything was going good and when we got there what we saw had us dying in tears. We show up and see that they are all watching a movie, but when we looked closer we realized it was a Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas special in English. I guess nobody brought a movie for kids and after convincing a ton of people to go we show up and see this. It was so funny and sad we just started laughing. Then we ran to our house to pick up my USB (luckily i have some animated movies on it) and ran back to save them. When we showed up all sweaty from running i plugged in my USB and the first thing i got from one of the members was "elder do you have coco" "no hna i don't sorry" "Elder we want to watch coco why don't you have coco?" All in all it was just a funny experience and i'm glad we could at least bring a watchable movie even if it wasn't coco.

On Saturday we went to give service in the morning and we cut wood and grass with a machete. My comp cut himself with the machete and it was a miracle that he didn't cut his fingers off because before he was cutting super hard, but just on this one hit he slowed down for some reason and his fingers were only a little bit bloody (a lot, but not cut off). Then we had the baptism of Angeles and everything went good for the most part. We forgot to tell her to bring a towel, but luckily there were some members who lived by that went to go and get one before we baptized her. Then we confirmed her on Sunday and she seemed so happy about the whole situation, so it was a good two days. 

Hopefully the pictures send

Adios

Elder Warburton

No pictures this week. This computer is really slow and i'm mad now

--

Elder Warburton

México Puebla Norte

Happy Birthday America

This week went by really fast and i forgot to bring my notes on what happened so i'll try to sum it up as best as i can.

We have been teaching this inactive family that we found last week and each visit gets progressively crazier. We ate with them Monday night and the father of the family dropped the bomb on us that he is now Jewish. Then we visited them on Tuesday and it just kept getting crazier and crazier. Basically they are a part of every religion because they feel like they owe it to their friends to do that. Then we went back on Wednesday, but for a different reason. My companion chipped his tooth and they are dentists. Well technically only the guy is a dentist, but he went blind 6 years ago (now he's gotten back his sight), but his wife works as the dentist. They have been giving more and more evidence that i am adding to my theory that when he went blind he just taught his wife how to be a dentist. So, his wife operated on my comps tooth and he was dying. She drilled into it without any medicine and it was like straight out of a horror movie. He can now eat and isn't in pain, but we think that his 25 dollar dentist work here is going to cost him a lot more when he gets back to the states. I think all is good with his tooth, because later that night we were able to eat hamburgers in honor of the 4th of July.

On Thursday we got to meet our new mission president and his family. Its cool to have a younger mission president and all of his family is really great. The president likes to joke and is chill and his wife is like the opposite. She is like a new yorker mexican, but in the best type of way. They are both super awesome and we all learned a lot just from the 2 hour conference we had. They are fresh off of their training from the 12 apostles and one of the things that they were told to tell us is we need to contact 10 people every day. We have been doing that for these past couple of days and its been amazing to see how the Lord has been putting people in our path for us to teach. We have found multiple people that have lived with or have Mormon family and they are all super interested to listen to us. Its been pretty mind-blowing because we will just be walking, or we will knock the first house and there will be someone ready to listen to our message. 

I can't remember what else i was going to write, so ill just tell you about the 80's themed restaurant we went to today. The food wasn't that good and it was like a mexican decorated a restaurant to be themed like the US 80's, but 80's music was playing and any of you who know me know how much I love the 80's so i was basically in heaven. None of the other missionaries understood why i was so happy, but when Toto is playing and you're sitting next to a Karate Kid poster how can you not be happy?

Elder Warburton

México Puebla Norte

My comp in pain getting his tooth operated on

4th of July hamburger

New mission president and his family

Me with chocolate milk in the 80's restaurant

Vermin and Pan

Hola family and friends another week goes by in Zacatlan de las manzanas.

On Tuesday we actually weren't in Zacatlan, but in Puebla. It was President Nelsons goodbye conference, so we went to hear his last words. Just like the last words of any priesthood leader, they were inspiring and powerful and its sad to see him leave. On Thursday this week we will have a conference to meet our new mission president and just like that, out with the old and in with the new. Side note I can now say that I have seen twilight in Spanish because that was the movie they decided to play on the bus. Its just as bad in Spanish.

On Wednesday we had some good run-ins with disgusting houses. The first was the house of a member and let me tell you it was gross. To preface the story I want to let you all know that we ate there three days before this happened. We showed up and decided to help clean, but because the whole family wasn't home, I took charge of the dishes and I washed plates, bowls, and cups filled with rat poop. My comp was inside the house cleaning and he said that whenever he would move boxes, rats would go running. I don't think i will ever be able to go back there and eat again. Who knows maybe all the houses we eat in are like that, but ignorance is bliss and the less I know the better. However, I now know the Book of Mormon promise is true that not even poison can harm the servants of the Lord. The second gross house we encountered was our own. We either have bed bugs or fleas. I'm putting my money on the fleas because before our neighbors bought this dog everything was fine. Now we have bugs in our beds and we can't sleep because the dog is up all night whining. We've washed all our blankets and mattresses, so hopefully this wont be a problem anymore.

In spite of all the craziness, we have been able to see the work move forward here. We have been able to help more members this week. The hermana who washes our clothes is having problems with her husband, so we listened to her for a solid hour and tried to help the best that we could. We were able to have a family night with a less active family that was also super powerful and we called them to repentance, but in a good way. The best miracle of all though was the baptism interview with Hna Angeles. Before she didn't want to get baptized before her son did his first communion, but now she wants to be baptized on the 14th of this month, so its full steam ahead. 

On Saturday we met some people who are more devoted to pan than my companion and i. We went to a new pan place here that we heard was good and the people were crazy. It was basically just a small room where everyone was in a semi circle line that seemed like it was orderly. When we walked in, immediately the woman behind me took her pan tongs and shoved them in my face and told me to get out of the way. Then my comp took one piece of bread and some people started muttering saying "this white guy thinks he can take all the bread, now there isn't enough," as they were literally stacking the bread on their trays. Overall a crazy experience and we barely made it out alive. 

Those are this weeks highlights

Les amo

Adios

Elder Warburton

 

Elder Warburton

México Puebla Norte

 Last picture with papi nelson

Waterfall picture i couldn't send last week 

Found Mountain dew

 I accidentally stepped on a snake and it exploded

Bonus picture of me looking great