Drunk Guys and a Baptism

On Tuesday, the week started out with intercambios. My first time being in my area without my trainer and I can happily say that we never got lost. My spanish muscles were worked overtime because I had to talk to basically everybody because my comp for the day didn't know them. I also led my first ward mission meeting (I don't know the names of these things in English, so sorry if it sounds weird). It was good on my part, but there was a lack of respect coming from the ward mission leader (who does practically nothing), so I was a bit mad after it was over.

On Wednesday we met the funniest drunk guy yet. He started off by asking us "What was a Jesus Christ" so that's when we knew he was a little incapacitated. He went on to tell us how he knows 30 languages, but he doesn't speak them because nobody here knows them. We asked him to talk to us in some French and he yelled "Yabba Daba Doo!!!" After talking with him in spanish for about 10 minutes he suddenly asked "wait you speak spanish?" and his mind was totally blown. All he knew how to say in English was "Yes I do my friend" so whenever we asked him a question, that was usually the answer.

On Thursday we invited 5 of our investigators (2 we found that day) to be baptized and they all accepted. Hopefully we will be able to get them to come to church, so we can actually baptize them. Everyone here is normally pretty happy to listen to us and accept baptism dates and they usually like the going to church part too, but when Sunday comes they vanish off the face of the Earth.

On Friday a woman left 400 pesos in one of the vans we take to get around and when we got out to find her, she had vanished. We know where she works, so we are going to have to keep going there and asking for someone who lost a wallet with 400 pesos.

On Satuday we baptized Evelin (pictures attatched) and everything went great. The only problem was the ward mission leader didnt show up and he was in charge of the program, so we had the Bishop direct the baptism. All in all a really good baptism. The next day I confirmed her in sacrament meeting (sorry no pictures) and I didnt forget the name of the church or anything, so that was really good.

Sunday night we passed the house of one of our investigators who has a date for baptism and as we passed we saw a group of guys outside his house partying and then we saw him. He called out "Hermanos" before we could pass by unnoticed because parties here in the street usually mean the people are really drunk. Needless to say he was really drunk and we talked with him for about half an hour before we could leave. Its better to be friends with the drunk people than enemies.

Today we had cambios (another thing I don't know how to say in English). My trainer is now in a different area and I am here with Elder Martinez. I don't really know him very well yet, but he seems like a good Elder.

Adios

Elder Warburton 

Futbol, Creedence, and Weddings

This week our whole district was hurting because we played futbol for three hours last Monday. Attached is a picture of the district, but don't let the smiles fool you, we were all in pain.

On Tuesday our ward mission leader, David, finally went out teaching with us and it was an experience to say the least. He went with us to teach two investigators named Silveria and Esteban. Esteban is 17 and has a drug problem and Silveria is his mom. They're both really great, but teaching them with David was a bit strange. He's a really intense person, so when he Esteban said he would like to change David went off saying "SI TU NO QUIERES CAMBIAR NO VAS A CAMBIAR" (IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO CHANGE, YOU ARE NOT GOING TO CHANGE) the caps is not an exaggeration. They came to church on Sunday though, so it looks like they weren't scared. At the end of the lesson Esteban gave the closing prayer and it was pretty funny. He said everything in the form of a question that ended with "no?" So for example he said "thanks for these missionaries no?" "Thanks for this guy that came with the missionaries no?"

On Wednesday we were contacting and no one would open their door for us. While we were contacting one house, a house across the street started playing some Creedence Clear Water, so I was thinking "all right, no one wants to talk to us, but at least we have some good music." When we finished the contact (unsuccessful) the music across the street stopped, so I was bummed. However, when we turned the guy who had been playing the music waved us over and he said he wanted to hear what we had to say since nobody else would listen to us. We ended up teaching him and his daughter and they both accepted a date for baptism.

We found out who our new president is this week. His name is President Barron and he is a native Mexicano, so all the latinos are pretty excited about that. He is 43 and has 4 kids all 13 or under. Ill send my full report of what I think of him as soon as we meet him.

On Saturday the investigator we have been teaching, Evelyn, had her wedding. We got to go to part of it and it was pretty similar to a wedding in the States. We sat with the grooms family and it was hilarious because the whole time his mom was talking bad about the venue and the food which is all paid for and chosen by the brides family. They did have a mariachi band playing, so that was cool.

We had some more emergency changes today and now we only have one zone leader, so that's pretty weird. Who knows maybe i'll be zone leader in a week when we have changes again.

Adios

Elder Warburton

The picture with the crepes is me and the district leader

Taco Party and Blessings

I don't have anything clever to start this letter with...

This week was good. On Tuesday night we had tacos as a group with the other missionaries near our house. In their house its two zone leaders and two regular elders. One of the zone leaders was on splits (apparently he's always chewing out the other people in the house), so they decided to throw a taco party and we were invited. The tacos were good as always and we made it all the way until Saturday before we got in trouble, but not too much trouble.

Thursday we had a conference in Puebla, so we got to go into the big city. It was a good conference and here are the highlights: We were shown a house of some missionaries that had cat poo on the floor, so now cleaning the houses has become a big issue. Hermana Nelson, the wife of the mission president, doesn't really know how to speak any Spanish. So, she started to say something in English and the President got mad at her and told her to talk slower if she wanted him to translate. My Christmas packages finally arrived, so I got Christmas in January. Finally, after it was all over we got cemitas. We went to a shop that a member owns and when we tried to pay her she insisted that they were free, so we got amazing cemitas for free.

On Thursday we went to the house of a person we contacted a week ago and this time he didn't want to hear anything we had to say (thanks Jehovah Witnesses). He told us we should go to a seminary (we told him gracias, but we already have 4 years of seminary). Then  he was under the impression that our missions were for our whole lives and we got paid to preach the gospel. Needless to say it was a fruitless lesson with him, but a good lesson to remember not to become a bitter old man.

Luckily Thursday got better and we wound up finding the house of some members who have been inactive for around 10 years. The husband has gone anti-mormon and is leaving the family, but the daughter and wife came to church with us on Sunday. Before we left I gave a blessing to the wife and it was alright as far as blessings in Spanish for me go. After we went to the church where we taught one of our investigators named Evelyn. I don't think I've talked about her, but shes getting married to her boyfriend that was inactive on the 3rd and were going to baptize her on the 10th. My comp is going to do the baptism and i'm doing the confirmation the next day. Wish me luck, hopefully I don't forget the name of the Church or forget to confer the Holy Ghost. After we taught them, we left the classroom and a man from the other ward asked if we could give a blessing. We thought it was just going to be a regular blessing, but when we walked into the classroom, a man was on the ground having a seizure. My comp had me give the blessing and its a good thing that God knows the desires of our hearts and doesn't only listen to our words. After a minute his wife came in and helped him calm down and all was good. 

On Saturday we had the first rain storm I've seen here and of course Saturday was also the first day in all my time here that I wasn't carrying my umbrella. My comp didn't have his so we made it back to our house to get them before it started raining too hard. The rain here is a lot more and a lot longer than Utah rain, but it was a nice change of scenery.

I also got all the letters that the family and ward sent. Thank you all! 

Adios 

Elder Warburton

Mole and Dulces

This week was easily the most painful, but best week I've had here. My stomach hurt all week (I think it was the Tortas we got last Monday night, triste tortas). Saturday night I almost died, but then I bought some pepto-bismol and drank some Coke and it got a lot better. The Coke here is magical.

This week we went to an investigators house who was progressing really good and out of nowhere he said he didn't want to hear anymore. He wouldn't tell us why, just that he didn't want to hear anymore. We think it was his wife because she doesn't like the Church. However, we got two new investigators this week who accepted a date for baptism in their first lessons.

I got one more picture this week than I did last week. The area where I'm at looks a lot like southern Utah and walking on the dirt roads was almost like hiking in Zions or Capital Reef. There is a mountain behind me, but you cant really see it at all because its burn season here, so the air is always full of smoke. If you want to see what it looks like its called "La Malinche." I think I spelled that right.

One of my awkward/funny stories this week: On Wednesday night we decided to buy some candy from a shop and we asked about one type of candy (mango candy in chili powder) and how much it costed. For some reason it was a lot of money so we just bought another kind and left. As we were walking we were talking about how it was weird how that candy costed a lot of money for no reason. As we were talking about it I said "Tranquila con sus dulces" which means "calm down with your candy" for a female and right as I said it we walked past another candy shop where a lady was buying candy. Needless to say the lady thought I was talking to her and she shot me a dirty look as we started walking as fast as we could. 

I gave my first talk on Sunday. The bishop asked if I could give a talk Friday late afternoon, so at least I had Friday night and Saturday morning/night to write it. I think it went pretty good and I'm pretty sure its the longest talk I've ever given clocking in at a solid 13 minutes. Later that night when we were with some members I asked if they understood me and they said they did, so that's a win.

Sunday we had mole twice. I went from basically not having it at all (Im not counting the first time because that mole was really disgusting) to having it twice in one day. Both times it was super good and basically life changing, so I would highly recommend it. 

My final note: I've noticed the church meetings here are a little different. Its not church here if one of the two following things doesn't happen: A fight during Elders Quorum or the Bishop gets up and has to correct someone who is talking. 

Adios

Elder Warburton

                                             

So much food I almost died

This week we had a lot of good lessons. We are working with a member who has a friend that is about 60 years old. She has paralysis in her right arm and depression. We taught her the plan of salvation and about the atonement and the spirit was really strong in our lesson. We have taught her twice now and she has a baptism date for February 10th, but her husband doesn't like the church, so we will see how things go.

Everyone here thinks that the missionaries like to eat a lot of food. Some days this is a blessing and some days it is a curse. On Tuesday we had so much food I almost died. I had to hold back throwing up as I put more food into my mouth. You might be thinking "Why not just say no?" Believe me I tried. You can only say you don't want more food about 10 times before caving in and saying "ok but just a little" to which they will bring you back even more food than they gave you the first time. 

On Wednesday I had exchanges with the district leader and met the biggest dog i've seen here. We rang a doorbell and the door opened and out came running a dog the size of a bear. Luckily there was a gate between us and the dog, but when it barked the pass along card I was holding blew out of my hand.

On Thursday, not much was going on, so we decided to leave the main city and take a bus to one of the outlying areas to contact. As we were walking, I felt prompted to knock an orange door I had been looking at. We turned back and I knocked the door a couple of times and no one answered. As we were about to turn back a middle aged lady opened the door. We taught her the first lesson and she accepted everything. Shes Catholic and has a really strong faith in Jesus and Heavenly Father, but luckily her faith didn't stop her from seeing the truth that we have. She remarked that there was something different about us. Shes talked with Jehovah Witnesses and others, but she said we were different and had a spirit and respect with us, so go Mormons.

This week went by super fast and I didn't get any pictures (sorry mom ill do better next week). Just imagine a Mexican town that is 30 degrees in the mornings and and nights and about 70-80 midday and then imagine with frostbite and a sunburn.

Adios 

Elder Warburton

Three Months as a Hermano

As the title suggests, I am not an Elder. I am a Hermano. Who knows why, but by almost all the members here we are called Hermanos and don't even get me started on the number of investigators that call us hermanos too. Its ok though, there are a lot worse names people could be calling us.

We have a recently converted family that we teach about once a week and this week, they wanted to see what my companion and I were like before our missions. So, they looked up my Instagram account. Everyone was shocked at my beard. They all said I looked 40. My companion said that if he would have seen me in the street with my beard he would have steered clear of me. 

I've probably mentioned this earlier, but the tortas here are to die for. They may be the best thing about the mission. Attached is some pictures of me in the best torta shop i've found here and me with my torta (my companion thinks i'm crazy for making/getting tortas with fried eggs). 

A little backstory for the funniest thing that happened this week. We have an investigator who is a woman about 55 years old. Her husband works a lot, so we teach him some of the time, but they both have a baptism date for the 3rd of February. They have a girl who is 7 years old and named "Ojukee." Every lesson, at least once, the woman will randomly yell "Ojukee" followed by "bring me something" and its always completely random and in the middle of our lessons. So, me and my companion have started yelling "Ojukee" too randomly just in our house or in the street. This week when we were teaching her, like always she randomly yelled "Okjukee!! da me mis lentas" and me and my companion started dying laughing. We were trying to muffle it, but we couldn't stop laughing for the rest of the lesson. Everyone time we would get it under control one of us would start laughing again. Luckily, I don't think she noticed.

The ward mission leader in the other ward (there are two wards in the same building) is basically the mission leader for our ward too. Anyway, he has a tradition of cutting the Elders ties and yesterday he cut mine. I was wearing one of my favorite ties and I thought I was safe because he has a rule that he wont cut ties on Sundays, but I guess this week he broke his rule. It all started when another Elder, Elder Burton, passingly said "I like your tie" and that was when Hermano Serrano (the ward mission leader) got that dangerous look in his eye and I knew it was all over.

Adios

Elder Warburton 

Almost a perfect Christmas

As the title states, Christmas here in Mexico was almost perfect. Everything last Monday was going good until we got back to the apartment and found out that we had no water. We tried to get the supers help, but she was too busy with her family. We went that whole night and the next morning without any water. We finally got the supers help in the morning before we left the house and it turns out all we had to do was flip a breaker switch. 

We lost two of our golden investigators this week. The first one moved houses and didn't tell us. When we went to meet with her, we looked in the window and saw the house was completely empty (picture). We decided to ask the neighbors to see if they knew where she went. We found her new house after some searching, but she wont answer the door or our calls. The other stopped answering our calls and meeting with us. We are not sure, but we think the Jehovas Witnesses have gotten to them.

We had intercambios this week and everything was good with those. Nothing too exciting, but we found a scorpion just hanging out on the floor in the house of my intercambio.

We have 13 new investigators this week and a couple of them are of gold. However, that isn't good enough for our district leader. He wants us doing 20 contacts a day, which is hard when we have so many investigators. We want to focus on the investigators we have that are progressing because there's no point in finding new investigators if there is never time to teach them. I also got chewed out by the district leader when he watched our weekly planning. Apparently I was supposed to be doing more, but how was I supposed to know when my trainer has done the same thing every week and I just follow what he does? I don't know these are questions one day ill get the answer to.

I've made it through my first transfer and my companion and I didn't get changed. However, there were some shake ups in our district. One of the other missionaries that was training got transferred to a different area and another that was training got a new trainer, so crazy stuff happening here.

I had my first real battle with the food here this week. Friday morning I was sick all morning and spent a lot of time in the bathroom. I was finally feeling better Sunday, when we got the grossest shrimp soup I have ever had. The shrimp were literally swimming (only a slight exaggeration). Then of course we went back to the same house today and had the exact same soup except this time it had been left out for a night and was cold. Wish me luck.

Adios

Elder Warburton