Siempre HLJ (Haz Lo Justo)

Another week come and gone and i'm back.

Last week after finishing emailing we went and contacted. We contacted a lady that had on a ctr ring (but in Spanish HLJ) and said that her old boyfriend was a member and that she has worn the ring for 8 years more or less since she broke up with him. I gave one of the mini ctr rings i have to her daughter (thanks mom) and we set an appointment to go back. When we went back she wasn't there, but hopefully we will be able to find her again. Just cool to see how the church reaches all places in different ways.

On Tuesday night i finally got to really know the bishop and he is a really cool guy. Hes 50 years old and really laid back. He got married when he was 36 or something like that, so both of his kids are still young. We got on the subject of leaving behind girlfriends, which of course i am much to smart to do, but my companion has one at home. So, for the next 30 minutes the bishop and his wife planched my companion for having left a girlfriend and they told him that he needs to stop writing her so he can be 100% focused in the work. It was the funniest thing ever because they were not holding back.

On Wednesday night we left an appointment super late and i was pretty stressed because i had been trying to leave before so we could get home on time, but my comp and the member we were with just kept adding stuff on to the lesson after we had finished. So, at 9:20 we started the half an hour walk home and i started praying that a combi (big van) would pass by so that we could get home on time. I basically only said "padre celestial por favor bendícenos con un combi para que podamos llegar a casa antes de 9:30 y ser obedeintes.." and before i could finish a combi pulled us to give us a ride home. The power of prayer is real especially if we are prying so we can be obedient!

We passed by a persons house that we were teaching and they couldn't receive us for a lesson, but she had her 1 year old granddaughter in her arms and she was obsessed with my Book of Mormon. She kept grabbing it from me and whenever i opened it to the picture of Jesus she would get surprised and start happily clapping. It was a nice tender mercy and reminder that to enter the kingdom of heaven we need to become like little children.

On Friday we went to a pueblo that is a little out of the way where we had plans to work with a member. When we showed up the hermano still wasn't there, but lucky for us he is a panadero (he makes bread). So, we got to make pan de muerto (google it), and eat some too. 

Sunday i became a living legend for all of the ward members here. As i was sitting peacefully in church the second councilor of the bishopric gets up to announce the people who were going to be speaking. And then of course i hear my name. I had all of 5 minutes to prepare my talk. I talked about cleaning the inside of the glass before cleaning the outside of it and related it to the members being worthy through the sacrament before we can really see the mission work move forward here (pretty good am i right). I thought i didn't do to good or too bad when i had finished. After, with every member we talked to they all commented on how good my Spanish was. They said i was talking faster than they all do and that my Spanish is better than theirs. Not joking like 5 different members said that to me throughout the rest of the day. The gift of tongues is real i guess because i still consider my Spanish to just be alright. 

That's all for this week. 

Adios

Elder Warburton

--

Elder Warburton

México Puebla Norte

The field by our house lighting on fire

Making Pan

The oven to cook the pan. And yes he is wearing a sgt peppers lonely hearts club band shirt and no he doesn't know who the Beatles are

PSYCHO

THE SHINING. Sorry i thought the picture was going to turn out better. I had typed "All work and no play makes Elder Warburton a dull boy" a ton of times, but you cant see it. Happy Halloween

When life gets too hard....

kneel because your knees buckled as you started throwing up.

This week was pretty slow and consisted of me learning my new area, so not too much to report.

On Wednesday night we found two new people to teach. By Wednesday i had realized that there was basically nobody here being taught, so we were saved from contacting for hours on end by a member who invited us to teach these two people. At first i thought that the reference wasn't going to be very good because the hermano who invited us to teach them is almost 100% crazy. However, when we got there and started to know a little bit more about them i realized that they were perfect. They have a lot of problems, but they want to be baptized, so as long as they have the desire anything is possible.

On Thursday night/Friday morning i got super sick (food poisoning from the salchicha that crazy hermano gave me). So, we didn't really do much that day. I got to know the bathroom of my new house pretty well though. I also thought of that subject as it was 3 in the morning and i was throwing up and i thought it was pretty funny. It probably isn't, but it got my mind off of throwing up.

 

On Saturday we went to a pueblo called San Jose as a ward activity with a bunch of members to contact. I think we basically contacted the whole pueblo, but we didn't see a lot of people that were interested. It was a good activity for the ward though and they got more excited to help us with the missionary work. I also got to know a lot of the members here too. All of the members seem really nice and they all like the missionaries a lot (for the most part). 

Sunday night we gave a blessing to a members little baby. It was a cool experience because i've never given a blessing of health to a baby before. It made me remember something that i read in Jesus the Christ that says when giving a blessing to someone who isn't capable of having faith (i.e. a baby) the faith of the people there needs to be even more. I think we had enough faith because the baby stopped crying and went to sleep like the second I blessed her to sleep good.

In the most non-pedophile way possible i think i've found that i must have a gift for winning the confidence of girls between the ages 3-10 in no time at all. I'm already the official best friend of basically half the primary here, which I guess has its ups and downs.

Adios

Elder Warburton

1. my new district that changed today, so its all different now

2. My desk (really i was just super pumped that i put flowers in a cup)

3. Tule (there is nothing so you can see everything)

4. Fulfilling a dream of cooking carnitas 

5. Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds"

6. The Children of the Corn

7. La Mujer Dormida 

I'll send more Halloween themed pics next week too 

Elder Warburton

México Puebla Norte

 my new district that changed today, so its all different now

My desk (really i was just super pumped that i put flowers in a cup)

Tule (there is nothing so you can see everything)

Fulfilling a dream of cooking carnitas 

 Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds"

 The Children of the Corn

La Mujer Dormida 

I'll send more Halloween themed pics next week too 

Glass Half Full, Part 2

Hello friends and family you're probably all wondering why I am writing again, since its only been 2 days. Well all I can say is welcome to my most depressing email yet.

So, Saturday night after p-day President wanted to talk to us all. And Elder Salerno and I found out that we would be leaving the offices. I knew that 2 people would be leaving, but I didn't think that I would be one of them. When President said i was leaving I thought that maybe at least I would finish the change so i could see Glenda baptized this Saturday, but no, I left the offices earlier today. So, I made it a whole change and 5 weeks as secretary. With all the missionaries going home we either had to close areas, or get rid of two secretaries, so now I am back out in the field again. 

Sunday we had a baptism, so that was a good way to leave, but after the baptism things got a little worse. I don't really like telling people when i leave an area, but after the baptism Elder Salerno went around telling people that we were leaving. Glenda was at the baptism and I heard Elder Salerno telling her i was leaving and when i looked over and saw the look on her face I knew it was going to be messy. I didn't want to go up to her, but at that point i had to. She started crying pretty hard and then Teresa and Claudia also got a bit teary, so that was not a fun moment. By far the worst thing about leaving is not being able to baptize Glenda. However, its the ordinance that matters, so as long as she keeps her covenants after baptism everything will be good.

That night we went to presidents house to eat for the last time and it felt like the last supper. Then of course came the packing which i hate and it took forever because it was hard finding space for all the food i had bought. Rest in peace my grapefruit juice that was brand new and I had to leave behind. I switched ties with everyone and then finally got to bed at like 1:00.

Now we get to Monday. Just when i thought i couldn't be humbled anymore, i found out i was wrong. My ankle has started to hurt again, so instead of favoring my right leg i'm now walking with a limp again. Then i had the idea to upload all my pictures to google drive before i left the offices just in case anything happened. Of course when i plugged it into the trusty computer i had been using all my time in the offices i got a virus that erased all of my pictures. After extensive google searching and $40 dollars later, i got them back, but they have like a gray screen over them. I'll attach one, so if anyone knows how to fix that let me know. 

Now i am in an area called Tule with my new companion Elder Goico. Its about as pueblito as it gets, which means we have to go into a different area if we want to buy our food every week. It seems like a cool area though and the house is pretty nice, so i cant complain. 

Moral of the story is: sometimes the Lord just likes to humble his people a little bit and let me tell you all i have been humbled. "Con todo, el Señor considera conveniente disciplinar a su pueblo; sí, él prueba su paciencia y su fe." Mosíah 23:21.

Sorry for the downer email. Now i will be emailing again on Mondays though.

Elder Warburton

México Puebla Norte

The house in Tule and my companion

Tule

What all of my pictures look like now! But, some of them are black or red.

Glass Half Full

Lots of stuff happened this week, but lets get down to my conference recaps.

First off, conference was of course the best. I especially loved M. Russell Ballard's talk. I always think that when someone close to a general authority dies they have an even extra added measure of the spirit. President Nelson was firing on all cylinders. I think the Lord is definitely using him to get us ready for the second coming. And of course a temple being built in Puebla was by far the biggest announcement made for us here. I had a feeling that a temple would be announced in Puebla at some point, but when the Prophet said he was going to announce 12 temples I knew Puebla was going to be one. The spirit immediately filled the room and it was amazing to see the reactions of the members. Our ward mission leader was one of the first converts here in Puebla all the way back in the 1950's. He had to go all the way to Arizona to be sealed to his wife; a trip that took 15 days and almost cost him his job. Seeing the tears of gratitude in his eyes when the temple was announced was something special that really made me realize how blessed we are to have temples so close to us and the importance of going to them. We have some inside information from a person who helped buy the land and the area seventy's son who accidentally posted on facebook that the temple will be in the Puebla North mission about 15 minutes away from the mission offices. Don't tell anyone i'm telling you this.

On Monday we had our real p-day and we went to the Ferris wheel here in Puebla at night because president gave us the whole day. I also went to pampas (a Brazilian meat buffet) with Elder Neff because he was the only one that wanted to go to celebrate my one year mark. Pictures attached. A lady from the Puebla sur mission randomly showed up to our offices and took us to give a blessing to someone that is in our mission, but in a different zone, a little weird, but a good experience. I'm kind of rambling lets see what else i can think of. 

On Wednesday i turned a year old in the mission. It was a normal day, but i burned my shirt as is the tradition. We held a lovely program in which Elder Salerno read from the Bible and almost caught his shorts on fire. It turned out he just had a light on in his pocket, but all of us including him thought he caught his pants on fire and i was dying laughing. 

Other than that, things were a little slower this week. It seemed like all of our teaching appointments fell through. We are going to have a baptism tomorrow, another grandson of Hermana Teresa se llama Paco. Hermana Glenda is still progressing towards her baptism date next week, so everything is good in that aspect. 

Thanks to conference, i have been realizing all of the blessings we have as a church. As we listen to the words of the prophets, past and present, we will receive revelation and be blessed. Its interesting seeing the lives of the people here who follow the Lord and those who don't. There is such a difference in the peace and happiness that they have. I would invite you all to take President Nelsons challenge in the women's conference and read the book of mormon, marking every reference to Jesus Christ, before the year ends. Its what i'm am doing and has helped me to see the Lords hand in everything. 

Have a good week!

Adios

Elder Warburton

 

Elder Warburton

México Puebla Norte

 Shredding the "I'm Mormon" pass along cards after conference

Pampas 

Ferris Wheel

Ferris Wheel

One year shirt burning ceremony

Starting the festivities

Staying warm

I finally found a store that sells records today. It was all I could do to not buy them. Best of Queen pt. II in my hands. 

All Roads Lead to Zacatlan

Well to start out Jesus Manuel got baptized last Saturday night and it all went good. We finally got to meet his dad too. He seems like hes a pretty nice guy, he just doesn't have his priorities in line, so we need to meet with him and help him out on that.

Also we got a reference from some elders who are working in Kentucky. I contacted her over the phone last Wednesday and then on Saturday during the baptism I get a text from her asking if she can still go to church. I told her of course and she showed up Sunday morning. After church we taught her and she is one of the most prepared people i have met in awhile and that's saying something because we've been meeting some really prepared people. We set a baptismal date for October 20th and she is so looking forward to it. I asked her how much time she would have to read each day because she is studying and she made my jaw drop when she said "i can read about three hours everyday. I like reading." The next lesson we had with her she came with her Book of Mormon and lesson 1 pamphlet all marked up and her questions ready to go. She had read all of lesson one, the introduction for the Book of Mormon, and Mosiah 18 in the space of two days. I don't know about the rest of the world, but that never happens in mexico.

On Monday we went to the doctor again for my ankle and he said that i could go home and get a surgery and that that would be the best option. Then he said i needed to go into one of those MRI tube things to get checked out. After the appointment i talked with the mission presidents wife and she was way mad. She started going off about how that doctor is a scam artist who only wants money from the church and that no more missionaries are going to him. So as of right now i think my ankle is good, but i have to go to a different doctor if i ever get time to call him.

All the members here are starting to notice how many people we are bringing to church, so its nice that they are warming up to us now and seeing the success we are having they are more willing to help. The bishop still needs some work because the only thing he wants us to do is actualize the ward list and other than that we don't exist, but ahi va poco a poco.

Two missionaries had to go home yesterday and i got told they were going home Wednesday night, so that kind of threw off a lot of the plans we had because we had to get a lot of stuff ready for them.

Friday was way awesome. The house secretary had to go and take all of the stuff out of a house in Zacatlan (my old area), so i got to go with him to guide them through Zacatlan. It ended up taking almost the whole day, but it was so awesome to go back if even just for a little bit. I got to see one of my favorite members again and spend the whole day with a crazy car driver. Seriously this guy is insane. He drives his diesel truck like its a motorcycle. He did so many illegal maneuvers and in the rain that i thought we were dead for sure. It was dark and rainy coming back and he just turned to us and said "hey can you guys see anything because i sure cant."

Now to go into my xfile theories about conference. For about the past month we have all been on the theory that the missionary time is going to be changed. We are at an all time high of waiting right now. So first off the president walks into a staff meeting the other day and asks one of the assistants how much time he had left. He said 6 months and then the president just said "i'm just doing some internal planning." Now we get to this morning. With the two missionaries who went home Saturday obviously changes are need to get them companions. Normally the assistants do the changes and president approves them and it takes an hour at most. This time though the assistants have done all the changes and president just keeps telling them to wait a couple more days and he will approve them. Now to top it all off Elder Neff just got an email of his friend who got his mission call and all it says for his assignment and time of services "more information will be given after the conference." Who knows if anything will happen, but now you have my theories.

This week seemed like it was really busy, but now writing it doesn't seem that busy. oh well.

Nos vemos en abril ;)

Elder Warburton

Elder Warburton

México Puebla Norte

 Staff meeting at presidents house

On the road to Zacatlan

I missed la malinche

Where i really learned how to be a missionary

HERMANA AMBAR. Were going to cancun after the mission

 Jesus Manuel y sus papas

Fanny Pack and a Book of Mormon

Another week of through the roof stress levels down.

After writing last week we had the baptism of Hermana Teresa. Everything went awesome. A lot of her family showed up and she was just really happy the whole time. When she got in, the water was cold, but she said "Dioscito va a usar su dedo para calentar el agua" and she said that when she started walking the water heated up.The next day all of her family came again for her confirmation and they want to learn more about the church, so we sent their addresses to the missionaries where they live. 

On Monday we had the staff meeting and Sister Barron wasn't holding back, so we got some good planches, but she was going all out on elder Salerno. She said "I'm going to planch you so hard you'll throw up the cookies you ate for breakfast." I was just trying not to burst out laughing the whole time until they said we basically can't do anything on p-day except wash our clothes, buy food and write. So, if you want to know how my day has been just read those three things that we are allowed to do, but on repeat.

Later on Monday night we had to run to Walmart to help the other secretaries. As we were leaving the offices, i buckled on my fanny pack and felt the impression to take a Book of Mormon with me. So we got to Walmart and were on our way back to the offices when Elder Neff and i felt the impression to contact a girl we walked past. We went back to talk to her and found out that she had almost been baptized before, but wasn't old enough and her parents wouldn't let her. So, we gave her the Book of Mormon and she said that she would read and that we could visit her Friday. It was a nice example of how following promptings always pays off. Fast-forward to Friday and we went to the direction she gave us and the people said she didn't live there and when we tried calling the number she gave us no one picked up. So, a blessing followed by a quick humbling experience.

On Tuesday I finally went to a doctor to get my ankle checked out. He gave me two shots and some medicine to  help the swelling go down and the ligament grow back. I'm going back on Monday and he is going to check the x-ray that i got and give me some shoe inserts.

We had zone conference this week and i learned some good stuff. I have been meditating on how/what i can do to meditate better and our mission president gave us some really good tips. He said that we should be meditating for at least 15 minutes every day and if we do that our baptisms will literally double. Now i just have to find some time to meditate every day. 

Thursday afternoon a guy tried to steal some stuff from the offices. He came in with a broom and a mop saying that he was here to clean and my comp and i just kind of looked at him like "who the heck are you." We told him we were leaving soon so he said he was going to clean the stairs. We started watching him on the cameras and he found an open closet and took out a mop bucket and two dust pans and started walking toward the front gate. We ran out to stop him and he said that he was going out to clean the street. We made him put the stuff back and he left pretty fast after that. Later we realized that this same guy has passed by a couple of different times always asking for food. I gave him my pop-tarts like a month ago and now he is trying to steal from us.

We are seeing some progress in a person that we are teaching. After having a quick 10 minute lesson with her last week she came to church on Sunday. We went to see her again yesterday and she accepted a baptism date and is going to come to church tomorrow too. We also have the baptism of Jesus Manual (teresa's grandson, claudia's son) today at 6, so the work is still continuing.

Quote of the week: "Quiere que lo planche" (do you want me to planch you) Hermana Barron to Elder Salerno when he tried to fight the new chess ban. 

Arrivederci 

Elder Warburton

Elder Warburton

México Puebla Norte

Baptism of Teresa

With almost all of her family!

Zone conference

And so on