Vamos a la Playa

Hello everyone

This week was pretty good. Lots of stuff happened that i probably shouldn't put in this email, but lets just say the Lord is trying to help me develop my patience and preparing me for marriage. 

We had interchanges on Wednesday and it was probably one of the best days ever. I was with Elder De Regil and it was awesome. We were able to find a bunch of people and we had some awesome lessons. it was so nice teaching with someone who can pull his weight and just not having to stress all the time about what he is doing and if the people are weirded out by him. We also bought tacos and had a good night eating tacos.

One of the families we taught is super cool. I contacted the mom and her daughter a couple of days before and we went in the interchanges to go and teach them. It was kind of hard to find their house, but when we got close they were outside waiting for us and they were so happy to see us. We taught them about the restoration and they loved it. The mom is super great and she said she was almost crying during the whole thing. We've gone back one other time since to visit them and we were able to read part of the Book of Mormon and she loved it. The dad needs a little bit more work, but he also likes listening to us. 

Other than that not much has happened this week. The bishops wife here is in charge of family history work, so one day we went to her house and we were talking about family history. I told her that i had made it all the way back to Adam and she said that she didn't believe me. So, thirty minutes later and with a computer that almost exploded i showed her that i'm a descendant of Adam. She was losing her mind the whole time saying "Wow Elder I've never seen anything like this before this is crazy." Thanks to whichever one of my relatives put all of that information on so i can blow peoples minds.

That's all i have sorry. Its way hard to focus with someone yelling 2 feet away from you (my family will understand me). I finished the Book of Mormon again today so another invite to read the Book of Mormon everyday. If you get bored of reading the same thing find a way to change it up and get new revelation.

Adios

Elder Warburton

Zone conference with everyone who has a birthday in march

The zone

             Elder De Regil and i in a moto taxi

 Me going all the way back to Adam

These puppies were so cute i had to hold them

Cujo

Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen.  Right now I got to tell you about the fabulous, Most groovy bell-bottoms.

This week we had a lot of stuff going on. Tuesday we visited Dominga and Antonio. I don't know if you remember them, but now since the church has changed, or updated is privacy policy and the things we can say. I can just tell you that they believe in Jesus and we have been teaching them for a couple of weeks. We watched the Joseph Smith movie with them since they really like videos and they really enjoyed the movie. The whole time i was just praying that no one would look at me because i swear i was almost crying every 3 minutes. It seems like every time i watch it I feel the spirit even more and get even more respect for Joseph Smith. If you haven't watched it in a while i'd invite you to watch it again.

On Wednesday we had divisions and i went to the zone leaders area to work. Nothing too out of the ordinary. I was, i guess, the junior companion so that was weird. I didn't have to lead all the lessons and contact everyone so that was cool. We also taught a guy who has a super nice house and visited Utah back in December so he has been closer to my home than i have.

Thursday we had the zone conference and it was good like always. He taught us how to make chains of scriptures like Joseph Fielding Smith and Bruce R McConkie did to master doctrine.

We bought firewood this week and it took forever for the people to gather it up and bring it out to us. They gave it to us in like a dolly type thing at 9:25 at night, so it would have been interesting to see a white boy running down the street pushing a cart full of sticks. Then the next night we made a campfire and roasted hot dogs.

We are teaching someone who has a very high chance of getting baptized, but i don't want to jinx it so i'm not saying more. If you don't ever hear anything more about this i jinxed it.

And to finish it off, i had to really fight off my first dog for the first time. We were looking for some people, but they weren't home. Then this dog that i knew bites came up to us. I grabbed a rock and threw it so he would go and start eating it, it worked for a couple of seconds, but then it decided it would rather eat my hand. So, i had to throw my Book of Mormon at it and then it started eating my Book of Mormon. Then it decided it wanted to eat my bag/rear end. The whole time i was yelling at my comp to get a rock, but he was just standing there. So, at last i could finally get a brick in my hand and i nailed it in the face. It went running back to its house and by that point i wanted to kill it. I picked up a huge piece of concrete and went over to the house. Then i decided i shouldn't kill it without asking the owners permission so i knocked on their door and told them as politely as i could to put their dog inside and the next time it comes near me i'm going to stone it.

Adios

Elder Warburton

the view from sta cruz

Camp fire

Roasting salchicha 

Rest in peace my Book of Mormon

El Poder del Libro de Mormón

Buenos Dias 

On Monday we found a place where they sell crepes and apparently its been there the whole time, but I've just never seen it. The crepes were good and the lady who worked there was interested in us, so we are going to try and teach her.

On Tuesday it got really windy and the problem here is that everything is dirt so i ate so much dirt and had it in my eyes all day. Then it rained really hard for like 20 minutes. Then it was really windy again so it all dried out in like half an hour.

On Wednesday we went to Puebla for a district leader conference and the elders in Juarez say that whenever they talk to somebody there they always say that i found them. That was good to hear because i wasn't there for a lot of the baptisms, but at least a lot of them got baptized.

We found a lady named Alejandra. She basically has every problem in the book impeding her from getting baptized, but we were able to share the story of Lehi and his family. Maybe she won't get baptized, but it just felt good to help her out with her problems and bring the love of Christ into her life for a few moments.

We finally got to go to a pueblo I've wanted to visit since i got here. I see it every day because its on the other side of the valley on a mountain, but we've never went because we don't know anybody there. Then one of ward missionaries had a reference for us there, so we went. It was a cool little pueblo. The reference wasn't home, but we are going back tomorrow to hopefully find her. 

The highlight of the week is that we finally got more Books of Mormon to give away, so we had 2 really powerful lessons with some people that we found. The first was with an older guy that was a reference and the second one was with a 19 year old girl that we found knocking doors. We taught the restoration and focused on Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. When we were teaching about the Book of Mormon she asked how she could get one and luckily since we got 6 to give away we could give her one. When we gave it to her she just said "I don't know how, but i know this is true". The most beautiful words a missionary can hear. She accepted a baptismal date; the only problem is that she studies literally every day, so we are going to have to figure that out,

Yesterday we contacted some guys at a store that sells corn (like corn kernels). They were unloading their truck that was full of 50 kg bags of corn. We helped them and moved like 20 bags. The whole time i was just really wishing that we still lived the law of Moses.

That's about all for this week. We are seeing some progress in the people we are teaching, so to not jinx it now i need you all to pray for them.

Adios 

Elder Warburton

My comps side of the room when its clean

The sun was red and really cool, but the picture didn't come out too well

Carnaval

This week started out good. On Tuesday we ate descata. Basically a dish from the north of mexico that is like meat in sauce with homemade flour tortillas. I was stuffed after, but it was really good. 

I don't know if i mentioned last week that we are teaching an older lady and her 50 year old son. The two live together because the son had polio, so he is crippled and can't move around very much. We found them last week, but we have been teaching them this past week. We hope that they can keep progressing to get baptized. Neither of them know how to read, but they are always super happy to see us and listen to us. We just need them to feel the spirit enough so they can decide to get baptized.

We also found a guy named Aldo who is 20 something and lives with his family. We went over to teach him and we taught him and his brothers. Then his parents showed up with tacos for us. Apparently they went out to buy us tacos, so that was awesome. We haven't been able to find them all since, but the tacos were a good tender mercy.

On Saturday a ward member named Marisol had the baptism of her 8 year old son. We haven't taught him, but she invited us to the baptism to be witness and she had me do the confirmation. Her husband isn't a member and the next day she called us to go and visit her husband's parents to give her mother in law a priesthood blessing and now we are teaching her parents in law. I guess those are the blessings of supporting the ward members. 

Saturday night some lady tried to sell me jello in the street (travel tip: street jello in mexico isn't good. It basically just tastes like nothing). I told her no politely and then tried to contact her. Of course as soon as i told her we were missionaries and wanted to share a message with her she said she didn't have time. Then she kept trying to sell me the jello and i kept trying to give her her salvation. She just ended up getting really mad that i didn't want to buy her jello and i tried giving her a pass along card and she asked me how much it was and i told her it was free then i quoted Acts 3 where Pedro says he doesn't have gold or silver, but what he has he freely gives then she just threw the card back in my face. Good times.

The carnaval also started here. Basically its an excuse for people to be drunk all day, dress up in sombreros and beg for money. So, yesterday some drunk guy patted me on the head and today some drunk guy came out of nowhere while i was looking behind me and gave me a hug. He was so lucky i thought he was a member and that i'm a missionary because i was about to push him into on-coming traffic. Don't drink it just makes you lose all rational thought. In the words of James E. Talmage:

"Strong drink gives to no man wisdom; it steals away his senses 
and makes of him a fool."

That's all for this week.

Adios 

Elder Warburton

My one pretty bad picture of the carnaval parade

Tacos de Cabeza

Buenas tardes

Lets start out with the good. On Tuesday the stake president bought the whole zone tacos. We had a zone meeting and we talked about miracles, but we were all just waiting for the tacos. There was also a crazy guy that just walked into the stake center that somehow knew a little about the Book of Mormon, but was a street performer and then we saw him the next day, so i think he is stalking me and planning to kill me (joking, but if i disappear you know why).

I didn't know if i was going to have changes this week (more on that in a sec), so we were going to all the places that i've always wanted to eat at just in case i had to go. So, we got some really good hamburgers, tacos de cabaze de res, grilled elotes, and some other tacos that are around here. All in all some really good food with some pictures.

We ate with a member from Argentina and i still find Argentinians way funny. He made us pizzas, media lunas, and we drank mate after. Then we got on the subject of the earth. He is a flat earther. He made some really good points, but then he said that the matrix is a prophecy and based on real events, so that was kind of where he lost some credibility. Then he said that he doesn't believe in the church anymore (he's a sunday school teacher so now i know why his classes are weird), so the moral of the story is: In your search for knowledge don't lose your testimony. Also: If you look for a conspiracy in everything you will go crazy. The highlight of the conversation was when he said the moon landing was faked then acted out the phone conversation in English; to be read in an Argentinian accent "Hello president how are you?" "I am good you?" OK, not so funny in type, but in the accent its hilarious.

On Sunday our baptism for this week fell through. She was going to have her interview yesterday morning, but she called us and canceled, so we went to go look for her and she said that basically her mom told her not to get baptized and made her doubt everything. My comp had been fuming and cussing since we got the first phone call, so i basically had to tell him to stuff it because he was going to start yelling at her. Long story short she doesn't want to get baptized now and my comp made a scene in the church when we went. 

And as for the changes, we are both staying here in the area. We switched roles, so now my comp is district leader and i'm here to help him out.

Adios

Elder Warburton

Get that corn out of my face. But this corn was roasted 

Tacos de cabeza

Las cabezas (the heads)

The Empire (Satan) Strikes Back

I jinxed myself with my last email.

Lets just say that over the course of the whole last week basically everything fell. Valentin our baptism for this Saturday that was basically 100% for sure, is not going to happen. Basically he has been stealing money from his family, so his mom doesn't want him to get baptized as his punishment. We tried telling her that an interview with the zone leaders and preparing for baptism will only help him, but she thinks the best way to go is making him stay away from the church as punishment. Oh parenting in Mexico. 

Also Jessica and Liliana suddenly lost all interest in listening to us. Basically Jessica's sister was filling their heads with a bunch of stuff not true about us and then Jessica got a boyfriend and decided that sin is cooler than the gospel. Things are still looking good for Lizeth's baptism though, so lets just hope that we can get that one done.

Other than that, not a lot has happened so i think this will be a pretty short letter. 

Some members made us a bunch of antojitos (basically anything that uses a tortilla: tacos, quesadillas, gorditas) and they gave us a ton and it was really good. 

Last night when we went to go look for a person that we had talked to before, they were having a party and they just invited us in to eat. They gave us mole de panza. Basically pig stomach soup that still has hair on it that actually wasn't too bad. They gave us cake and elotes too and told us to come back another day to teach them.

Not too much else happened this week. The new change is weird. Its going to be like i'm not even on a mission. 

Sorry for the short letter 

Adios

Elder Warburton

"GET THAT CORN OUTTA MY FACE" - Ignacio Libre 

Berlina

Ok this whole email is probably going to jinx the rest of my time here because we had a really good week and whenever i talk about how the people are progressing they stop progressing, but here we go.

On Monday night i contacted a mom and daughter in the street and they were really nice. I said "podríamos visitarles en estos dias?" and they said "por supuesto que si" and then i said "podemos pasas mañana?" and they said "si a mediodía esta bien?" then i said "si, podemos regalarle algo para leer?" and they said "si." Fast forward to the next day and we went and visited them. They are super awesome and were trying way hard to get us to go into their house but we couldn't because they don't live with any men. We taught them about the restoration and then we talked about baptism and they accepted to be baptized march 2nd. Fast forward to Friday and we visited them again and they had read the pamphlet and when we asked them what they were thinking about their baptism date they said that they already told everyone they know they are getting baptized that day and they aren't making any plans. Then we taught about the Book of Mormon and gave one to them and the rest of the lesson was hard to teach because they just wanted to read from the book.

On Wednesday and Thursday i had interchanges with the elders in my district and went to their area to see how they are working (there are some problems, but we wont go into that). We visited a family there that is super awesome though. Basically they all have tons of tattoos, smoke, drink, and live in union libre. Their son is 13 and his girlfriend is 24. However, it was probably one of the nicest families i've ever met. They were so nice and the dad plays guitar and they all sang a song for us. They are also really interested in the gospel. Then the next day one of the Elders i was working with got sick and had to go to the hospital. I think i must do something in the interchanges to make everyone get sick or hurt.

On Saturday we finally got to visit a 9 year old kid and his mom that we have been looking for for two weeks. They are active, but the kid, Valentin, isn't baptized. We finally got to teach them and he is getting baptized with his cousin the 23rd of this month.

Sunday we had stake conference and a 70 came. He shook my hand and i didn't realize it was him so i called him "brother" that was a little awkward.

And last, but not least, I've been teaching a girl named Lizeth for basically 3 months, since i got here. Her sister is a member and Lizeth has come to church a lot, she just never wants to accept a date because she didn't know if it was true. Over the past couple of weeks she's been sincerely praying and resolving her doubts and last night she said she wants to get baptized on march 9th. I was so happy i was jumping up and down after we left.

Basically we are finally seeing the beginning of the fruits of our labor and of course its all going to be in march and changes are in 2 weeks. I'm just praying that i don't get changed out because if i do that will be unbearable.

No funny stories sorry

Oh yeah and my title is a type of bread they make here which is basically just two sugar doughnuts with cream in the middle stuck together. so good.

Adios 

Elder Warburton

  

Elder Warburton

México Puebla Norte

Elder De Regil and i made atole de mazapán

 The valley of Zarahemla