Mexico on Fire

Otra vez

Well lets start out with the fun stuff. The elders from the south mission thought that they could come to our area to meet the people we are teaching, so on Tuesday they came up (without permission) and we went to visit some people that were going to get baptized last Saturday. Long story short, we showed up to the appointment, they said they didn't want to get baptized, we told them to pray, we came back the next day, they had prayed and they said their answer was to stay in their church that they don't even go to. So, we saw a setback there, but we are going to keep working with them to help them see the truth.

We saw some awesome progress with a part member family we are teaching where the husband isn't a member and we went to visit them with the bishop and his family and he accepted a baptism date. We told our district leader and all he said was "don't be too excited he probably won't get baptized." If you haven't been able to tell i don't really like the leaders in my mission and if you didn't know why that about sums it up. Good thing my loyalty is to the Lord first.

We visited this less active family where they are all returned missionaries. One has gone super apostate and doesn't believe in the church anymore. When we showed up the family basically hid and we had to listen to him rant for like 40 minutes. Then finally we cut him off and asked for references and his mom came out and gave us a GOLDEN reference, like holy moly. We went later that day to talk to her and set up an appointment. Two days later we go to the appointment and she had brought us a big bag of food and we taught the plan of salvation and she felt the spirit. Then she came to church on Sunday and loved it and said that she is going to come again this week. So, i guess listening to false doctrine for 40 minutes was worth it to find this lady.

Side note i bough sushi at this sushi place here and it was actually really good and i didn't get sick.

This week we have had some crazy weather. It has rained super hard and last night at like 8:30 the sky literally got black. We went to go find some people last minute that weren't home, so we started running. The second we got home it started to downpour and it cut the power for around 50 minutes. However, if that were all i would be happy. The Popocateptl (the volcano) decided to do some work and on Friday it started raining ash and broken rock. We were outside like normal and we thought it was raining, but we realized it was black. Then we realized it was ash. We called the zone leaders and they told us we had to go home and stay home, so we had to be in our house most of Friday and Saturday morning. The whole time we were only saying "Mexico on fire!!"

that's it

Adios

Elder Warburton

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Elder Warburton

  México Puebla Norte

This roof we hid under while it down poured

volcanic ash

Ash on our washing machine (don't worry it doesn't work)

We went back to some pyramids today and i found a Lamanite

Indiana Jones

Pathway to the forbidden temple 

Jenga Part 2

Bienvenidos 

Ok lets do this quick. 

So we are still in the area and president said that we are going to be here for the next little bit. He said things are going on in the church headquarters or something like that. Basically no one wants to tell us whats going on, but now we have to verify with the district leader from the south mission, but the stake president told us that part of the south mission will become the north mission so who knows. On the bright side we only packed. The sisters in the other area packed, left on Sunday, and came back on Monday. 

We have seen some amazing progress in the people that we are teaching. I don't want to spoil anything so that's all i will say. Then on Friday and Saturday everything fell apart and we thought that all the people we were teaching were done for and didn't want anything, but then everything got saved on Sunday, so we are doing good.

Funny story from this week. One of the ward members we are friends with saw that we were on a bus and he hopped on too and as he got on he yelled at us "hey what's up beaners" i guess its not racist if a Mexican says it. 

Wednesday was the birthday of my comp, so i got him a cake and we celebrated in fashion. We also taught a family that we are teaching about family prayer and their minds were blown. I guess its the simple things that can realize big changes. I also told them how whenever we did family prayer i was always busy watching a movie and had to make the trek upstairs to say it, but now i'm grateful for my parents showing me the good things in life. 

We live in something similar to a gated community, so its pretty peaceful. This week though all the cats were in heat. I thought i was going to lose my mind. All day and all night they are basically screaming at each other and going crazy. So, one morning i went outside with a pitcher of water and drenched them all. I had to do it like 3 more times, but after that they haven't been outside of our house.

On Saturday a part member family we are teaching invited over their brother and his wife for a lesson because a little bit ago they lost their 3 year old daughter. They have been really sad about it and had almost stopped believing in God. We were able to teach them a little about the plan of salvation, that their daughter is saved and were able to teach them more about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It was an awesome lesson to just help these people start feeling the love of God again and to help them find some peace. They don't live in the area, so we passed the reference and hope that they will keep progressing. Just another reminder of how grateful i am for the Book of Mormon. Without it, it would be so hard to find peace and answers in my life and to know what's going on with everything. 

And last but not least. If you remember my pictures of playing Jenga with Sophia, you will be pleased to know that something good came out of it. Her parents aren't members, but are investigating the church more or less. So, on Sunday we went over before church to invite them and they (the parents) said they didn't have time. So, we decided to play jenga and if Sophia lost they had to go to church. I almost always lose so i think the Lord was with me during this game of jenga because Sophia lost and they came to church.

Adios lean el Libro de Mormon

Elder Warburton

--

Elder Warburton

  México Puebla Norte

 My comps birthday

I couldn't get a really good picture, but we call this cat zombie because it literally looks dead, but its alive

Holy Places

Interesting week

On Tuesday the assistants called us and told us to have everything ready to close the area. So, most of the week we were filling out forms, getting the house ready, and helping our people progress.

The highlight was on Wednesday when we had a conference with Elder Holland. The north and south missions got together for the conference and it was an hour and a half of pure power from one of the Lords anointed. We all got to shake his hand one by one and as he said it was a "mini interview." He didn't pull me aside to have a longer interview, so i think i passed. He started out talking in Spanish which was super awesome. He just stood up and said "Elderes y Hermanas Dios vive. Dios vive" the spirit flooded the room and you could just feel that he was a special witness of Jesus Christ. He went on to talk about how important missionary work is, which was honestly perfect to get me to finish out my mission strong. He only got really firey for a couple minutes and leaned over the pulpit to yell at us "my mission means everything to me and it should mean everything to you too!" I felt like the entire church was going to fall down after that. He also talked about the importance of the temple and how when we go to the temple we ratchet everything else we have ever done in the church through the roof. He said that after the mission we will only keep progressing in the gospel or be worse than we were before the mission. We can never go back to being the same. That point really hit hard with me and in my studying this week I've really seen the truth in what he said. First in the Book of Mormon when it talks about Amalickiah and his Nephite followers who fell away from the church and became worse than the Lamanites. Then i saw it again when  i was reading Saints about the falling away of Oliver Cowdrey and other church leaders. It really hit home what Elder Holland said. We can either keep progressing for all eternity or end up worse than if we had never known the gospel. There is only one direction to go and its up. He taught a lot more, but that's all the stuff that really hit home with me. 

After Wednesday we were super pumped to go out and work and we worked like machines until it started to downpour. We were in a bus and it started to rain and i thought "oh its only raining a little." We stepped out and literally in 2 seconds i was drenched from head to foot. We had to go back home and change. It was one of the worst rain storms I've seen here and I've seen some big ones.

We didn't find too many new people to teach this week, but we have seen some amazing progress with the people we have been teaching. It seems like everyone we challenge to read the Book of Mormon actually reads it and has thoughtful questions which is a first ever. We are teaching one couple who have been steadily reading the Book of Mormon in these past two weeks and they have both received answers that it is true. They even went all the way to Cholula to the multi stake conference on Sunday. We are teaching another family, a mom and two daughters, who are so prepared its not even funny. The mom feels the spirit in every lesson and we taught them the restoration on Friday and she cried like 3 times. Literally the first person i've seen cry when we explained about prophets and dispensations before the coming of Christ. And last but not least we are teaching the husband of a member who drove us all the way to Cholula to go the stake conference even though they couldn't go for family commitments. Pure gold.

On Saturday we packed as much as we could and got the house ready for the next missionaries to come in. After we got back from working for the day we called president at around 10 to know what time we were leaving on Monday (today) and if we had to do anything else. He told us that we weren't going to be leaving until next week and was surprised that nobody had told us of this change of plans. Of course the assistants told us to pack everything as fast as we could, but then didn't bother to tell us that we weren't actually leaving. If the assistants were the mission president i think we would have another early church level of dissension here in the mission. Bonus fun fact the sisters in the other ward left yesterday, so now we are working the two areas for the week. 

That's about all for the week. Now we have to pass by and awkwardly tell everyone that we are still here.

  

Elder Warburton

  México Puebla Norte

The family of gold

Last night (or so we thought) of burritos

 I have some weird obsession about my study desk, but i created the perfect study desk only to have to destroy it 2 weeks later

A good view of the malinche not covered by contamination from mexico city

Cuchi, Cuchi

This is going to be a short email

We did a bunch of stuff this week. We found some people that are super ready to get baptized. We had some really spiritual lessons with them and they said we could come back anytime we wanted.

Sofia and I became best friends after I lost 4 games of Jenga.

And my area is going to become part of the Puebla South Mission. So i'll be here for two weeks and then who knows where i'll go. That's about it because anything else that has happened won't really matter in a week.

Elder Warburton

  México Puebla Norte

This is what the majority of my area looks like, tons of apartments

 Apartments continued

My district 

Sofia and I had a tajin eating contest (basically like a sour pepper flake thing) and this was her face

my face eating tajin

Jenga 2.0

Filling up the water at the local well

Adios Chimuelo

Hello and welcome back to another week of my mission.

I don't have a lot of time, and i have no notes, so we are just going to hit the most important parts with a few pictures (i hope).

Number one: We found some people in our ward that have been to church and can get baptized, so there are going to be some baptisms there in the next couple of weeks. The bishop and his counselors tried coming in to tell us that a 12 year old girl wasn't worthy to be baptized, the zone leader interviewed her twice, found no problem, so she is going to get baptized. I understand a little more why everybody is always mad at the bishopric there.

Number two: I was going to baptize a girl that some other elders in my district were teaching, but then the zone leaders told me we couldn't go to the baptism, so lets just say good thing they weren't man enough to say it to my face and they had to call me.

Number three: I got transferred and now i'm in an area called Almecatla. I'm back in Tlaxcala again, like 30 minutes away from my other area Tule. I was 6 months in Tlaxcala, 6 weeks in Puebla, and now i'm back in Tlaxcala to probably finish out the mission, but who knows.

Number four: My new comp is named Elder Escobar and he's Pablo Escobars grandson. I haven't gotten to talk to him a whole bunch because we were with a member that drove us around all day.  The member is super cool. basically like Parker(Adair), but Mexican.

And that's about it for this week

Questions, comments, or concerns, you can contact me here.

Elder Warburton

Elder Warburton

  México Puebla Norte

La familia Garcia Deolarte. The only family that i took a picture with in Alamos because they are super awesome. When we showed up they were super inactive and in just 5 short weeks we got them active again and on track to get sealed as a family.

This guy is named Jorge and he is a lot like Gabe. He had a ps4, but he is always in trouble so it always gets taken away and every time he gets in trouble we all sang "Adios Chimuelo" 

One last ride with the boys. We always have to burn stuff i don't know why

My new comp elder Escobar and hno. parker adair  

Taco Pizza

Hello everyone i forgot to say this last week but happy 5 de mayo.

The week started out good. After writing we visited a family we are teaching with the ex ward mission leader (we are currently without a ward mission leader) and after he took us out to eat tacos so that was cool.

On Tuesday we had zone conference and it was good. I learned some stuff and it was good to see some people i haven't seen in a long time because i've never been in this zone before. They always tell us that the zone conference will end at 2, but we always get home around 5 or 6 and this time was no different. We missed the food with the ward member and there was a miscommunication, so the relief society president chewed us out, but it was all good in the end.

My comp decided that he had enough sleeping with the bed bugs/mosquitoes, so he asked president permission to sleep with the elders in the neighboring area. So, the first night we tried to get there in a combi (its only like 10 minutes walking, but we were late) and we got totally lost. It was 9:30 and we were wandering the streets not knowing where to go. We found a member and he kind of explained how to get there, but then we asked some police guys if they could give us a ride. They said yes and the whole time we were thinking "this is going to be the saratov approach or were going to be fine" and in the end we got there and we were fine. So, since Wednesday we have been sleeping over there and it has not been very fun. They only have two beds, so we've had to make do with that and basically no one is sleeping and we are all tired, but my comp got permission from the president so that settles it. One night a member from their ward brought us taco pizza and we ate it and Elder Dameron (from Idaho) ended up in the hospital and we all had diarrhea. Then two nights later we got it again. 

We ate with a lady in our ward who does acupuncture and we decided to let her do it on us. She put some needles in our head and in my ankle. It felt like she was moving around the tendon. I think it might of helped a little bit, but who knows. Basically i prophesied that i was going to relive spraining my ankle because every time she moved the needle it felt like my ankle was being sprained again. Maybe i'll go back and do it again though. I don't think its permitted, but its better than taking pills.

As for the people we are teaching. Lets just say we are still teaching them and its hard to find people here.

That's about all that happened this week.

Adios 

Elder Warburton

Elder Warburton

  México Puebla Norte

                needle in my head

            another needle in my head

                          needle in my ankle

                       a cemita from last week

A Culinary Trip Through Puebla

This week on adventures in mexico: it rained, it was hot, and we walked a lot.

After writing last week we visited the lady from Nicaragua and she made us food. It was good, but basically Mexican food just without salsa and the rice was a different color. She also probably smoked like 6 cigarettes in the hour that we were there and she smoked one while she was cooking, so it took a lot of will power to eat the food. 

We found an awesome apartment that doesn't have bed bugs or mosquitoes and it has doors on the bathroom and shower, so that was awesome. The only downside is that the assistants said they were too busy to come and look at it and nobody else wanted to help us, so we lost it and the search continues. It rained super hard that night and we got soaked and depressed, so we bought pizza.

This week we did interchanges with some of the other elders in my district. One of them is from Ecuador (Guayaquil south mission, Megan) and he cant eat any spicy food at all. During the interchanges a member gave us some tostadas of cow foot and rajas that in my opinion weren't spicy at all. He took one bite and said that he couldn't finish it. We also had some good lessons and did lots of contacting. At the end of the day he bought tacos, so it was a solid interchange. 

The next day i had interchanges with Elder Salerno (if you remember my letters from like 8 months ago he is the Argentinian that was also a secretary with me). We had a really fun time and got to visit a lot of the people they are teaching there. At the end of the night he locked me out of the house. Then he let me in and a dog went into the house too so i locked him in the kitchen with the dog and the dog was going crazy trying to eat his food. All in all a good time as well.

One of the members we ate with this week gave us roast beef. Just thought i should throw that in there because its been a year since the last time a member gave me roast beef. We also didn't have electricity in our house a couple of nights ago because some one ran into a power pole. It feels like i'm re-living all of the experiences i had a year ago in Zacatlan. All that's left is twisting my ankle again.

And finally last night we did some divisions of support (i don't know how you say that in English missionary terms) with some other elders in my district that have been having a hard time. We basically listened to their problems, and went and did some visits. One of the members i visited with Elder Dameron (the guy i was with) invited us 4 back at 8 to eat hamburgers, so that was a good way to end the week.

Adios

Elder Warburton

--

Elder Warburton

  México Puebla Norte

Food from Nicaragua