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

Free Masons, Hugs, and Weddings

This week was one step forward and two steps back.

This week we visited one of our investigators and he dropped a bomb on us that he is a free mason. We were totally not expecting it because he has been progressing pretty good. He told us that he is a level 14 free mason and I think that's the highest rank he can get in his order. He told us a bunch of stuff like how he is in the same path that we are and the Book of Mormon is another Bible, so we will see if we keep teaching him and if he is willing to test our religion.

On Wednesday we visited an investigator that we the missionaries have been teaching since before I got here. She is having some problems with her husband, because he is working all the time and he is almost never home. She told us that she needs some time to work things out with her husband, so she asked if we could stop visiting for awhile. She then gave us the most awkward hugs of our entire lives. We didn't know what to do, so we kind of just stood there. Luckily the hugs here are more like pats on the back, so I don't think we will get sent home or anything.

On Thursday we had a meeting with the Bishop about how we can improve the work in this ward. The meeting was scheduled to start at 6, but it was 7 when he finally invited us into his office to talk. We made a lot of plans and he talked about the importance of being punctual (which was weird because we were ready for the meeting at 6 and he knew that), but hopefully we will be able to follow through with the plans that we made. After there was a wedding in the Church of two members in our ward and they invited us in to eat. We sat at the table of the bride and groom, so I guess now we are basically family. The groom is in a group called "Los Dandies" with his brother, so they played some songs and they are actually really good. If you want to look them up make sure you find the most recent stuff, because they are the third generation of Los Dandies.

This week we did a ton of contacting and looking for old investigators and we only ended up with one new investigator, so that was pretty frustrating. So, this week we are going to double down, be exactly obedient, and contact a bunch. Contacting is probably my least favorite thing to do because I'm pretty sure half the time the people don't understand me, or they just choose not to understand me so we go away.

We had stake conference in Tlaxcala on Saturday and Sunday and we only got lost trying to get there on Saturday, so I would say that's not too bad. Other than that, stake conference wasn't too exciting. It was really hot in the meetings, so it was really hard not to fall asleep.

We found out this week that our ward mission leader has been talking bad about us to the bishop and ward council saying that we don't work and a bunch of other stuff that isn't true. So, this week when we have our meeting with him we will have to ask him whats up. Its pretty hard working with the ward here. I don't want to bad mouth them, but its pretty hard to get stuff done when the ward mission leader is talking bad about us and all the ward does is plan without following through on the plans. 

Adios, 

Elder Warburton

There are 6 missionaries in our district, but 2 are zone leaders, so attached is a picture of what our district meetings look like now.

I'm the Captain Now

Like the subject says. I am now the captain of this area. Let's just say its been a pretty stressful week. I'm now in charge of getting us everywhere and planning everything because my new comp doesn't know the area. Luckily everything has gone pretty good.

We have food with different members everyday and luckily we only got lost on Wednesday. I received a phone call from the Hermano we were going to eat with and I didn't totally understand what he said, but I could tell he was mad because he yelled at me for a good while over the phone. We did eventually get to his house.

I didn't come as prepared to write this email as I usually do, so I don't really remember a whole lot that happened this week. It went by pretty slow and not much happened. As of today we have 10 investigators with baptism dates, but only one has attended the church, so we are going to be working really hard this week to get our investigators to come to church.

We spent a good amount of time trying to track down old investigators this week, but it's pretty hard to find the houses when none of them have numbers. We had success with a couple, but most we couldn't find and others still aren't interested. 

My new comp and I get along well. He is from the same area as my trainer was, Tamolipas (I think that's how you spell it). He plays the guitar and he likes to buy a lot of food. The only problem is he spent all of his money in his last area, so now I like to buy a lot of food. He's pretty funny and he's really direct with our investigators which is mostly a good thing. He likes to "planch" (mission language for chew out with love) ward members when they are out of line, so I can't wait until he lets loose on our ward mission leader.

Today our district leader showed up to our area with a washing machine. I haven't gotten to try it out yet, but I think it will be better than washing by hand.

Also this week there was an earthquake somewhere in Mexico. I was trapped under a building for a couple of days, but everything is alright now. The truth is we didn't even feel the earthquake because we were in a bus and didn't know what was going on until we talked to an investigator. 

Sorry for the short email and lack of pictures. My brain has been all over the place this whole week. Next week i'll be more organized. 

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