97th Email Home April 25, 2016

Hey, Family and Friends! I am sorry to say that we haven't had the chance to teach a whole lot this past week, my companion feels pain in his hip still and the mission president said that he needs to stay in the house for the week and I need to go with one of the young men to go teach and find new people, then after this week, me and my companion can leave and work together again, but we can't walk too much, because his hip gets swollen, when we walk about 17 miles a day and we need to take care of his hip. The members are very happy to have missionaries here, because we are having activities and are trying our best to help them in all that we are able to help. 

  We had a crazy experience on Saturday, the sister missionaries have a little boy that just turned 8 and so the sisters talked with the mother and the little boy and the mom wanted her son to be baptized and so the sister missionaries told us to pass by the house of this little boy, so we came by to see who was going to baptize him and this little boy came in and we asked him," Who do you want to baptize you?" and he said," I want the gringo!" I was thinking," I knew it!" Lol! I was okay with his decision. We waited until that day came for the baptism and the baptism was planned to happen about 4:30 p.m. and we showed up a half an hour early and when we entered no one was there and we called the sisters and we said," Where are you? There's no one here and the baptismal font is empty." and the sisters were shocked, because they told a brother to fill it up, but we didn't see the brother until he walked in behind us and he told us that he was trying to fill the baptismal font, but the water was draining out, so we went outside and we sealed the drain and filled the font, but it was late and people started coming about 4:50 to 5:10 and the water was pretty low, but we went on with the baptism and this little boy told us," I am a little nervous." I was thought he was nervous, because of the people that were there, so I got in the water first and then he got down and he was shivering and I thought it was, because of the cold water, but it wasn't that bad, so I asked for his full name and he didn't respond and so I had his name memorized and I repeated it to the 2 witnesses and they said,"Yeah, that is it." so I went on with the ordinance and after the prayer, he plugged his nose and I laid him back and then he took his hand off of his nose and started breathing in water and so I picked him up and set him on the stairs, then the mom,uncle, branch president, my companion and his grandma came over to give him strength to get baptized, but the mom didn't tell us that he was scared of the water, so he didn't get baptized, they are going to wait a few more years... 

  I didn't know that every 4th Sunday, the family has family home evening! Luckies! That is cool that some of the family could make it! It must have been a great experience to learn more about the Sabbath day. How was the family? Were they happy to be there? Did they enjoy the pizza and cookies?

 Wow! June is going to be a very busy month for me, I have a lot of appointments. I can't wait to go to the temple! My speaking skills aren't the best, but I will give what I got. I was going to talk this past Sunday, but the Stake president came over and robbed my time to speak! I don't have a lot of experience speaking in the church, I have only talked about 7 times in the sacrament meeting and most of the time I just read... Lol!  I am trying to learn to just talk more without using a paper, but I couldn't do it, because of the Stake President. It's okay. 

  Molly is escaping again? What are you going to do to keep her in? Finally, Dad will have a trailer! His dreams are being completed! Lol! Dad you are soo funny! But a very awesome Pops! I gtg, but I will be back! (Next week!)
  

Me drinking Strawberry lemonade in Chili's!

 I ate a Southwest Ribeye with a double side of fries!

My companion ate the Famous ribs and he fell in love with the corn!

 Our view at the front of the house

  Our family room with the kitchen.

My companion put hydrogen peroxide in my ear to clean it up.

  CARPET! is the best! We were in the church and some have carpet and others don't.

 I found another puppy that looks like Molly bears! Her name is Fifi

 Fifi is crazy!

My companion cooking jamaica with cinnamon. (It's a drink out here if you haven't heard of it, its pretty good.)

 Outside of the church.

More of the property of the church.

Our activity with the sandwiches.

My companion is using the costume for the activity. 

Me with my companion and the SANDWICH! 

Group picture of the branch activity! 

Missionary picture! With sister Molina in the middle and Sister Cotacachi at the end.

  We took a picture with the branch president at is house, for family home evening. He has 15 years since he dropped drinking alcohol! 

Group picture of his grand kids.

96th Email Home April 18, 2016

Hey Y'all! I have good news and bad news again. The good news is that we are gaining the confidence of this branch here in Coita and the people seem nice and happy to have the missionaries again in Coita, but the bad news ( Which we all don't like to hear) is that my companion has been having problems with his toe nails and they were ingrown toe nails, so for about three days of this past week, we were hunkered down inside the house again.... Everything is alright and we are going to do our best to make up what we didn't do in this past week, we are going to have a "Sandwich night", my companion had this idea to do this and the catch is that the ticket to enter is that everyone needs to bring their favorite sandwich that they really love and we are going to put all of them on a table and we are going to watch a movie " Johnny Lingo" and while the people are watching we are going to give everyone a sandwich that isn't theirs, so we are excited to see how it turns out! 

 I would love to do baptisms for the dead, I think it would be perfect! It sounds like a great plan to go to the temple! I want to go to the temple often when I get back,but honestly I don't like going alone. It is soo crazy, that the whole family is growing so fast, I have only been gone for about 2 years and everyone is changed, it's crazy! Lol!

  Yesterday, we also had our stake conference, but we didn't go to the stake center, we had the chance to see the conference through,"Live video" it was pretty cool, but the sound was bad on the Sunday session, also the camera was pretty low , so people were walking in front of the camera and some were talking with others, so it was interesting. Our Mission President and his wife talked about missionary work, it was also very funny when our mission president mentioned a scripture saying something like this," How beautiful are the feet of those that preach the Gospel...." The Mission President said," I don't know why they talk about the feet of those who preach, there are a lot of blisters and ingrown toe nails." I got a good laugh out of that one. Also the Temple president talked about the temples, also how the scriptures mention a lot about them, the Book of Mormon has a lot of references about temples, we just need to understand what they are saying.

  I love Coita! For me the streets are clean and the people in the streets are nice so far. It gets cold here some times, so I might be able to get my body temperature,back to Utah temperature! There aren't any super markets, just small stores, but I think it good enough. Oh, this is my first house that we get to have a gas burner, so it's pretty cool. I feel like we are going to have a lot of success here! The thing that is different from my other areas is that there are a lot of members in the church and the leaders are getting excited to work more with the missionaries. Thank you for your prayers and we will be in touch the next week! I might have to send all the pictures next week,because the computer isn't working.. but I love you all!  

95th Email Home April 11, 2016

 Hi! Beautiful family! The last time that I wrote to you all, I mentioned all the investigators that were going to get baptized and now I have good, but bad news and the bad news isn't about the investigators. The Mission President felt inspired to send me and my companion to another area and so we have to follow his words, so we felt bad leaving Huixtla, but about a day later we showed up in our new area and it is called Coita, Ocozucautla. If you can pronounce the name of the place you are amazing! About the family that we were about to baptize, it was so bad, because we wasted about 3 to 4 hours filling out papers and then on another day our zone leaders showed up and interviewed them and then we finally found out that they had their membership papers, it was sure an adventure! We knew that they were members, but their membership numbers weren't showing up... I don't remember if they mentioned how long they had being less actives. And Yes, they are excited to go back to church! It would be great if you could still put the investigators names on the roll still, I am sure they need help.

  I haven't heard about the 6 week plan still, but when I have the chance to ask I will. I would love to have guidance after my mission, so I can find a good job and be super active in the church. Jack is almost 8???? What! That is soo crazy! If Crystal and Ben need me to baptize him I would be happy to do it. I sure Ben is going to baptize him, but if something happens and he can't, I am here! I really love my Mission President, I feel comfortable with him, I feel like I can be open with him when I need to be. I hope everyone in the family can be together before I get home, so we can enjoy experiences together while we are together! I did receive the picture of the quote and I love this. It makes me feel the spirit strong. I really love the talks from Elder Holland. I need to go, but I just want you all to know that I love you all! 

 I took a picture with a different zone, because we were leaving our zone. 

I wanted to take a picture with my first companion.

Our First trip in Coita with My companion and 2 sister missionaries 

 We took our last picture as a District.... 

When we were leaving Huixtla.

94th Email Home April 4, 2016

 Hello! For this past we had only 1 baptism! The family that we wanted to baptize were already members, we were looking for their names in the computer and we finally found them and so the baptism was called off for them. We had to change their names in the computer, because a lot of their names were spelt wrong, so by the permission if the President of the mission, he said that we can count these changes as baptisms, so we had about 7 baptisms, also we are going to have more baptisms on the 25 or 26th of April. Their names are Faridy, Alejandra and Jackilyn! It's awesome! The people are flocking to us! 

  That is soo nice of John and Rosita, I will try to find some thing! The conference was very interesting, first because it is my last conference in the mission and I don't know about you all, but the choir sounded even better this conference. I loved the talk about the "Pride and being humble" by the new apostle, I can't remember his name. It was in the first session almost at the middle of the 1st session, it was pretty powerful. I was also waiting for the talk of Elder Holland, but he didn't show up, but then at the end they called him! I was soo excited to hear what he had to say! He is soo funny. 

  I haven't heard of anything about the six week plan, I don't know if we have this down here yet, but we will see when I have 6 weeks left. Thanks for putting a lot of concern for our investigators, I am sure that is why we are baptizing so much in this transfer. It means a lot to me, that you are praying and fasting for these investigators, they really need it. We are going to work harder to assure that they get baptized! 

This is the Dad of the family Balbuena, diggin a well. 

 Spaghetti with tomato sauce using tuna instead of ground beef... We're poor.

 Birdy! 

The brother of the sister that is got baptized! I don't have the picture of the baptism! WE forgot to take one!