Cowboys and Dogs

Ok another week gone by

This week  we were able to find a lot of new investigators by references. We are teaching a sister named Angeles and on Tuesday she invited us over to teach her friend. She helped us in the lesson and everything, so it was a good experience all around. The next lesson was just with Angeles and we went of the baptism questions. She seemed a little standoffish after we finished, but were hoping that in her baptism interview she will be able to get rid of any doubts she has.

We saw a huge setback and miracle with Rosa and Hugo this week. Rosa lost her drivers license and was going to have to pay to get a new one, which would have been basically impossible for them. We left them to read Mormon 9 which talks about miracles and started praying for miracles. When we went back to visit them Rosa told us how her and her husband had to take their son to the hospital because he got sick, but when they got back they read Mormon 9 at three in the morning. She then told us that she found her drivers license in a stack of pass a long cards she has. Coincidence? I think not!

And like all the other weeks we had a great run in with a catholic man. We knocked the door and his daughter answered, but then he came out and told us if we really wanted to be like Jesus we should carry around food to give to the people and i mean he wasn't wrong. Before we could explain to him how man does not live by bread alone he closed the door and told us that his daughter wasn't home.

We have also been working with some antiguo investigators this week and they still have the same problem of making commitments because they don't want to betray God by looking at other churches. We were able to do some service with them, so hopefully that helps the situation a little. 

On Sunday President Degaldo from the mission presidency came to our branch. He gave a super awesome talk on the spot that all the members needed to hear. When he opened to Jacob 2, I knew it was going to go down. He talked about the law of chastity and the authoridad and the whole time i was cheering on the inside because it was 100% led by the spirit and what the members here needed to hear.

We've been able to see a lot of miracles this week and have been able to see how the plan of salvation helps people find their purpose in life. Now speaking about the plan of salvation. Our apartment neighbors bought a dog and I may send it to meet its maker before its time. Right as we fell asleep the other night it started barking and making so much noise. I only get 8 hours of sleep here and if something wants to interrupt it, it better be important. This dog basically sounds like its being tortured 24 hours of the day and just as i got out of bed to throw it off the roof, the owners got home, so its safe for the moment.

One last note. I never thought that i would meet a real american cowboy in Zacatlan. We have ran into a guy name John McLure for the past to weeks now and he is super awesome. He's from California and talks with a super american accent. He told us how he broke both of his ribs one day and then instead of going to the hospital he just googled it and stayed in his bed for a couple of months. Then the day he got out of bed he broke his foot walking 2 miles from his house. The other elders are going to teach him and i'm jealous because he is way cool-

Adios

Les amo

Elder Warburton

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Elder Warburton

México Puebla Norte

Marinela, Salmonella

Ok this week had its ups and downs.

Earlier in the week we were able to visit with a family of old investigators. We were able to get to know them a bit better and we are hoping that this time they will progress. They didn't come to church on Sunday, but baby steps right?

On Wednesday we had our last district meeting before transfers and the last district meeting of Elder Stirling. Elder Stirling was an assistant when I got here and we have been good friends since. It has been awesome being in the same district and he is a great missionary. he also gave me his super sweet marinela tie (marinela is basically mexico hostess). He goes home tomorrow and he said he is going to send me the email address of Lindsey Stirling, his cousin. Fingers crossed.

On Wednesday we also ate a ton of food. Everywhere we went people were giving us food, so we went home stuffed that night and later suffered the consequences. I woke up at around 3 Wednesday night with salmonella and all the symptoms lasted through Thursday. Then in the middle of the day Thursday the salmonella hit my comp. We couldn't really work any of Thursday and it was a constant race for the bathroom. We were pretty drained Friday, but we were feeling a lot better on Saturday, so we were able to do more. The cure for salmonella is fast the first day and after eat pure carbs, so we have eaten a ton of rice these last couple of days.

On Sunday we were blessed with some more inactive people at church, so that was awesome. We also ate with some investigators (Rosa and Hugo). They should have their money to get married in July if all goes according to plan, so then we can baptize them and everything will be good to go. The best part is though: They invited us over to eat on Sunday. For those who don't know, I'm pretty sure the Lord gives special blessings to the people who give the missionaries food. So now, they should be protected from anything that satan can throw at them. 

Today we had transfers, but nothing got changed in Zacatlan, so we are still the same 4 elders.

That's all for this week. it wasn't too eventful apart from the salmonella.

Mexico also beat Germany so vamos con todo!

Adios

Elder Warburton

Elder Warburton

México Puebla Norte

Last district foto

Elder Stirling and i with his marinela tie he gave me

Elder Emerson and I sharing a drink 

Family Home Evenings and World Cups

This week was a little slower than the last, but ill try to make it interesting.

On Tuesday we were able to find two inactive members, both named José. The first jose sadly doesn't want to come back to church. he said he was forced into it by his brother and doesn't believe in it. He was friendly and we just invited him to read his book of mormon because he says he likes to read it. The second Jose was super awesome. He is 21 and has been inactive for about 3 years. When we saw him in the street we had an immediate connection and knew he was going to be baptized or he was a member or something. He wants to come back to the church, so we are helping him work through all of his problems. He has been ordained an Elder, so he could really help the branch out because we are super low on priesthood power at the moment.

On Wednesday we had a family night with an older sister who lives alone and far away. When we got there she told us that the branch president and a bunch of other sisters were coming too. I called the president and he basically canceled on coming because they didn't want to walk the ten minutes to get there. It was a pretty sad affair. She had taken the time to make about 50 tlacoyos for all of us, but everyone else canceled. Luckily she was able to invite some neighbors, so we were able to go in and share a message with her. She was really sad that nobody else had come, so we tried to help her feel better. The next day I just told the branch president that she was there all alone with the food she had made them and let him think on that. Hopefully this was a learning moment for all of us.

On Thursday when we went to eat with the members i felt like i was in the US. They made us cream of broccoli soup and lasagna. The food here is awesome, but it was good to get a little taste of home. Then later that night we had a super awesome family night in the church. We invited a bunch of members, less actives, and investigators and a lot of them showed up. One of the sisters gave a message on not judging (¡Hipócrita!, saca primero la viga de tu propio ojo; y entonces verás claramente para sacar la paja del ojo de tu hermano.). It was super awesome and after we were in charge of the game. I wont go into details because it would take to long, but the members loved it and it really helped to build some unity.

We also go the chance to serve some members, Ambar and Jorge (picture attached). We helped them clean out their fish tank and after they took us to get tacos. Then we had a really good lesson with some in-actives and some of their family who aren't members. Their niece was really interested and they all promised to come to church on Sunday. Sadly Sunday morning they told us they couldn't come (like always here in Mexico). All we can do is invite them and help them understand.

Lots more stuff happened, but I don't really want to say any of the super awesome stuff because it seems like whenever I do we get jinxed. We did get to see a little bit of the world cup when we went to the buffet to eat on Saturday. The goalie let by two goals in under 5 minutes. That's basically a death sentence here in mexico.

Have a good week!

Adios

Elder Warburton

Elder Warburton

México Puebla Norte

Next week i'll send some more cool pictures of stuff i bought

Cake smashed in my comps face for his birthday. 

Us with the hno. Jorge. Him and his wife are super awesome

Pig snout taco. One of the best things here

Holy water. Don't ask

 You already know i'm picking mexico for the world cup. Sadly Denmark beat them, but every person here is praying that they wont lose to Germany next week. I just hope the goalie lives after all this.

Week of Miracles

Ok this week was full of miracles and if I attempted to write them all it would take me forever,so I'm just going to hit the highlights.

On Tuesday we found two new awesome investigators. The first one works in a little store and saw me hobbling up the hill. She called us over and wanted to know why I was walking funny (I think i walk pretty normal know, but who knows), so we started to talk to her and she is now investigating the church. Then later that day we finally got to talk with a JAS that had contacted us a week ago. Our mission president has told us to look for JAS because that is what Elder Anderson told all the missionaries to do in Mexico about a month ago. She is super awesome and really wants to know who God is (more on her in a second).

On Thursday we had the zone conference and we had to go to my old area to take the bus to the zone conference. The zone conference was super awesome and I learned a ton on how to be a better missionary and get people baptized. It was also awesome to see all of my friends here in the mission. After the conference we were able to spend a minute in my old area. We went to my favorite panaderia and I finally got to buy my favorite pan,so I was in heaven. Then we went to the church and I got to see my favorite member from the ward there, Hno Alfredo. He was always helping me out, so it was great to see him and talk to him again. Thursday was just a great day all around. 

On Friday the miracles continued. First off we had super awesome ham on the bone and apple pie. We left the comida so stuffed we could hardly walk. Then we went to visit Samantha to see if she had read and when we got there we were blown away. She said she had read and prayed and received an answer. I was so happy because this is pretty rare here in Mexico that the people actually pray let alone read. She was super excited too that she had received an answer and we are going to visit her again today in about an hour. 

Then on Saturday we found a super awesome buffet that serves all of the awesome puebla dishes: mole, chicharon, tamales, coke, etc. All for 90 pesos. Then on Sunday president Nelson came to our branch to do some interviews and when the branch president couldn't pronounce my name president Nelson started laughing, so that was pretty funny. Also we had some inactive members come for the first time in a long while and it was awesome to see how much love the branch gave them.

All in all a week full of miracles. The last miracle (more a temptation from Satan) is that our apartment neighbors have started selling records in a store below us and they are selling super cool records. I had to walk past while Michael Jackson was spinning, so that was a bit of a struggle. Who knows maybe I will be sending some records home next week. 

Adios, les amo

Elder Warburton 

Elder Warburton

México Puebla Norte

 A member taught us how to make awesome mango ice cream/frappe things

Classic zone foto

Food from the buffet (i took the picture after i had started eating,sorry)

Zacatlan de las manzanas

Flower clock

Just hanging out in ZaCatalan

Cool Women of the Church

Another fast week here in Zacatlan.

On Tuesday I had exchanges with the district leader and went to his area, Chinaughuapan. It was a good time and for the food that day we had money, so we bought a chicken and a turkey leg and it was so much food we hardly made a dent and all for 150 pesos. 

The next day we had interviews with President Nelson and it was only a little scary when in the middle of the interview he said he was going to role play an investigator and I would have to find out his need. I had some time to talk to Hna Nelson too and she is super funny. She has so many stories that are crazy, but if you knew her, you would know they were true and could only happen to her. She can hardly speak Spanish and she told us how one day she was fighting in Costco because they overcharged her 20 pesos (a dollar) for about an hour and other funny stuff.

Some good news this week is we were able to see an inactive family come back to church. They had a lot of problems with our current branch president, so we told them to call the mission president because he is like the stake president and we found out this week that everything got fixed. We had a family night with them and shared a lesson on the atonement and then they had food for us. You might remember from some of my first weeks here, but this is the family that always makes us amazing food and they didn't disappoint this time either. 

We also went to visit a member that I have never seen before and it turns out that none of her family is baptized. We started talking to her son and turns out he is a Pentacost that only wants to destroy our religion. It was honestly a good testimony experience to see how our religion makes 100% of sense and his, well not really. He had pulled some stuff off the internet about how the book of Mormon was not true and it was really just grasping at straws. We left him with the invitation to read and pray and we will be going back to visit this family again this week.

On Saturday when we were walking in the street we passed a group of about 50 women and they started yelling at us, so at first we thought they were a group of Jehovah Witnesses ganging up on us, but then we realized that they were just a ton of relief society sisters. We talked with them for a bit and more and more kept showing up until there were about 100 in total. It was a good tender mercy to see all of these strong sisters and also to be mini celebrities for a second. 

On Saturday we also taught an English class for the first time. Only one guy showed up, but we are hoping to get lots more this week.

That's all this week

Adios

Elder Warburton

1. Some outdoor study time

2-the rest, piedras encimadas. Basically a place with rocks and pine trees and it felt like I was at home in Utah camping with the family.

Elder Warburton

México Puebla Norte

Fish and Popcorn

Another good, tiring week here in Zacatlan. Nothing too wild happened. Just a lot of walking in the hot sun.

Ok lets start with Tuesday. On Tuesday our district leader was here on exchanges with the other elders in Zacatlan. When we went to the comida they brought out us big grilled fish. They were super good, but as we came to find out the district leader, Elder Mendez, does not like fish at all. He was basically dying to get it down and when we left he was sick for the rest of the day.

We had a family night with some members this week and to our disgrace we couldn't get the fire lit. We were three eagle scouts trying to light this fire and for whatever reason it would not light. I blame it on the wood and paper being bad. After about 10 minutes of trying to light it, their neighbor came out and doused it in gas so we were good to go. Once we got the fire lit it ended up being a good family night and we roasted marshmallows and shishcobos (I know I just spelled that all wrong, but its ok). 

As for how our investigators our coming, we've had some few interesting experiences. We have one Investigator who is really great and is progressing a'lot, but for some reason she wants her son to do his first communion. She wants her and her son to be baptized, but only in August once they have done his first communion. We haven't really had time to explain to her how this is kind of crazy, but we are going to visit her tomorrow and explain a little more about how she wont be betraying God if her son doesn't do his first communion. Then we have another family in which the wife is part of the church of the 7th day and husband isn't. The husband is really interested, but the wife doesn't want to pray to ask if our church is true because she basically doesn't want to change churches and annoy God because she is changing churches so much. So, we are working with them little by little to try and help them progress.

On Saturday we went with the branch in the morning to do service at a hospital. We prepared food and then gave it away to all the people waiting outside the hospital. It was a good activity and we were able to strengthen the branch and get some good references. Then after the activity we went with some of our investigators to watch the Joseph Smith movie and it was a really good lesson. We were able to clear up their doubts about Joseph Smith and they felt the spirit. Then we started a fast with them to help them get their money together for their wedding. However, the next day ended up being sad when they didn't show up to church. They broke their only phone, so we don't have any way to communicate with them, but we will have to visit them and see what is up.

That's about all this week. 

Adios

Elder Warburton

 The branch before the service project Saturday

 Me and my favorite member of the branch Palomita. Her name is Paloma which means dove, but since she is little everyone calls her Palomita which means popcorn. By far the highlight of the week was helping her up some stairs so now we are cuates (buddies) for life.

Bible Bash Pt. 1

Hola friends and family,

A good week here in Zacatlan also the space bar doesn't really work so if words are stuck together sorry.

My new comp is pretty awesome. He is from St George and we have a lot of the same interests (star wars and quoting movies). He has about a year and a half in his mission so he knows what he's doing. 

We found out an investigator from Zacatlan who lives in our area, so we started teaching her this week. She is super awesome and has a baptism date. We basically climb up a whole mountain every other day to see her and the view is always amazing (pictures attached). We also helped her make mixiotes for mothers day and she gave us some to take home and eat. She is progressing really great and came to church with her son on Sunday.

As for Hna Rosa who I wrote about last week.... Lets just say things hit a rough patch. She was converted to my other comp and he promised to pay for her wedding, but when he left and didn't pay for the wedding we were left in a bit of a rough spot. She also watched an anti-mormon attack Joseph Smith video on YouTube, so now we are working to resolve her doubts.

We are also teaching another guy who basically has based his life on his girlfriend and its a long story that basically ends in don't put anyone, even your significant other, above God so that is my advice for you all this week.

On Saturday we also got "Bible Bashed" its in quotes because this guy didn't know genesis from apocolips (revelations). He basically tried to tell us the first prophecy in the Bible is in Genesis 3:15, look it up and you'll realize its not a prophecy at all, but a promise from God to Eve. He would ramble on and when we pulled out verses that proved our church is true (Amos 3:7, Mateo 10:1-2) he would just change the subject. It was pretty hard not to laugh because the whole time he was saying stuff like "I'm sorry i'm humiliating you guys,don't take it personal" and "I need to teach you guys what the bible really says." All in all a pretty fun time, but its too bad he wouldn't pay attention to us. 

The highlight of course was talking to the family for Mothers Day.

That about sums up this week.

Adios

Elder Warburton

An awesome view of Zacatalan

 another cool view staring yours truly

Part of an awesome mural wall here

Mixiotes, blueberry soda, and kermit the frog. Does life get better?

To answer that question, yes it does work cutting grass with machetes

Smores and a campfire for p-day