9/1/14 Ice Bucket Challenge

So after a pretty exciting and hot week here in Hermosillo where we found 9 really cool new people to baptize... there were transfers and after only being here for not much more a month they moved me to another part of Hermosillo as Zone Leader. I was pretty upset at first because I had just finished really getting to know my area and workng with the ward but what Ive learned from all my super short transfers is that the Lord guides and directs this work so we should all just be happy for that and be dumb enough to think about what we think we want.

But yeah so this week aside from getting the members to host FHE´s and invite their friends (which was pretty cool) and finding some awesome new people we had a sweet lesson with Ruth (22). She was an investigator that my comp stopped visiting about 2 monthes ago but abunch of failed plans one day led us to her door, and we started bringing a member of her age to the lessons and she really started to progress. After teaching her the plan of Salvation I asked her what she thought her purpose in life was and she said... BAUTIZARME or BAPTIZE ME. So that was pretty cool and then she proceeded to tell about how she was doodling in her journal the day before the missionaries got to her door and out of nowhere she wrote ELDER without ever having heard pf the word or knowing what it means until the missionaries showed up to her house the next day. Pretty neat. 

And then so today I was carrying my super heavy suitcase down the worlds skinniest and steepest set of stairs outside our house and I banged my elbow on the cement wall that was right there. But the thing is that this wall has tons of broken glass bottles sticking out of the cement on top, kind of like teeth, probably to keep out cholos. So it cut me open pretty dang good. So I said goodbye to my comp, and me and an Elder from Chicago took a taxi to the hospital and they stitched me up. BUT Mom and amigos there is nothing to worry about, I am in my new area all safe and sound and everything at the hospital was good.

My new comp is Elder Maldonado from Guatamala, Guatamala and is finishing his mission here in 3 months so I will probably be the one to send him home :/ He was my district leader in Agua Prieta so I already know him and he is pretty cool. Our area is supposedly the nicest in Hermosillo so that is kind of cool but also pretty tough...but our house is sweeeeet. So all in all I am pretty excited to start working here!  

I cant really say I know what the Ice Bucket Challenge acually is but it definetly doesnt exist here probably because 1 it is so hot that ice cold water just doesn´t happen and 2 there was a huge spill in a mine in Cananea so the little bit of water that there was here, is now poisenous. So I guess the next time you dump a bucket of perfectly good ice cold delicious water on your head remember all the peeps here in Sonora grindin it out here and toss a prayer our way. 

Besitos,

Elder Mitchell

8/25/14 No he hecho un pupu en cuatro días

So apart for being a little sick of the stomach this week everything has been pretty good. We have really started working a lot more with the members but still waiting on the fruits of our labor. On Sunday I went to the ward cancel and about halfway through Stake Prez showed up (who is my good buddy who brings packages to us from AZ) and chewed out our bishop and the ward for not helping with the missionary work. So I thought this was the perfect moment to tell the bishop that we need a new ward mission plan and that we would make it and present to to him to help unify the ward and the missioaries in this effort and get everybody on the same page. And he went for it! So I am pretty excited about that and really plan on changing things around here. 

Also this week we started preparing Imelda to go to the temple and do baptisms by teaching her about family history and she was pretty excited for that. 

We found some cool new investigators but nobody came church :( 

We found a contact in the goverment of Hermosillo who is going to help us get Guadalupe and her husband married free ;) so her and her kids can get baptized hopefully soon in September. (Yay for corrupt government)

Tonight we are having FHE with Stake President and his super sweet wife and their neighbors and then Im taking Elder Diaz to get his Patriarchial Blessing... long story short, he is from Guatemala.

So overall everything is pretty great!

AND finally after a bet we made 3 months ago in Agua Prieta, Elder Gullien paid up. (Whether Japan was closer to Wasington State or Peru... Point US education system, Peru 0)

Les quiero machin,

Elder Mitchell

8/18/14 SPIDERS AND SCORPIONS

So things here in Hermosillo have been pretty normal, except it has been raining a ton which never happens so everyone likes that. Don´t have much time so I am going to try to make this one fast...

Imelda and Glenda were baptized on Saturday!!!! That was pretty sweet. 

Took a little 1 hour vacation to visit Alejandrina, convert from other area in Hermosillo, on her birthday which was awesome! She is staying strong in the gospel even though all her family members, that had baptismal dates when I left, have flaked out. 

After avoiding us pretty intensely for a week and a half, we finally decided to hunt down Francia and Margaret´s dad. So we called his taxi number and asked him for a ride and when we got in he was pretty suprised to see us, but even more suprised when I told him that we wanted to plan his daughters´ baptism... after that he just went on and on saying things that didn´t make much sense, zipped us to our destination and kicked us out and over charged us. BUT later when we went to talk to his wife she was pretty impressed that we stuck up to her husband and says she is going to work harder and be a better example for him by going to church EVERY sunday... but we´ve yet to see much results.

I woke up at 12 one night to go to the bathroom and found this huge creepy spider... so naturally I captured it and put it in the same box as the scorpion we found in the house a while back. We always feed little spiders to the scorpion but this spider was pretty big so i thought it might put up a decent fight but after watching for like 20 min and no action I went to bed. But when I woke up in the morning the scorpion was dead... and the spider was alive... so we assumed the spider killed him. But we left the spider in the box thinking maybe he would keep eating all the little spiders but the next morning the big creepy scorpion killing spider had escaped from our thought to be unescapeable box and probably is wandering waiting for me in my shoes or bed or backpack or something.

Other than that we have been focusing super super hard on working with the members to find new investigators. Although the members here are super super nice they don´t really understand how to work with the missionaries... we are supposed to be getting 24 new names from members each week but right now it is taking us about 3 visits per member to get one name...which is super slow and frustrating and it is pretty tempting to just go back to contacting people in the street but The Lord is pretty clear in how he wants us to do His work so in the meantime we´ll just be tryng to beat that into these peoples heads. Matthew 7.21

Love,

Elder Mitchell

8/11/14 Holis

Sooo this week was pretty normal as far as missionary life goes. Lots of work.

But this Saturday Imelda and her daughter Glenda are going to get baptized so that is super sweet. Just about 3 or 4 weeks ago Imelda told us she would be ready in about 4 or 5 months for baptism but we really challenged her to pray about it and since then has been progressing tons! We taught her te Word of Wisdom and she had just finished the last of her coffee and said she would never buy any more. 

Also this week we found 2 new families to teach. One was a lady we talked to who had been carrying around a book of mormon for like 16 years but never read it and her 4 kids and the grandma. The other is a 16 year old girl, Paty, and her mom. We talked to her on Saturday for like 5 minutes. We showed up to our planned lesson and it fell through but as we left I felt like I should talkd to the girl sitting on the curb. So we talked and invited her to church and told her to bring her mom. And in the middle of second hour on Sunday a hermana from the ward grabbed us and said there was a mom and daughter looking for us and sure enough it was Paty and her mom. They went to their young womens and relief society classes and afterwards were super excited for the activites that are coming up this week. Also they asked if we could say a prayer together because Paty is going to start la Prepa this week which is like between HS and college and so we kneeled in a classroom and said a prayer, basically like how we did as a family all my life growing up before a new school year except with just a simple prayer rather than individual blessings but this basically blew my mind. We teach so many people fpor so long trying to get them to come to church and so many never do, and then Paty just shows up and brings her mom after a 5 minutes contact in the srteet. Really shows how missionary work really is only effective when we act by the spirit. 

snip from district meeting this morning... What kept the original twelve apostoles so motivated in their missions and willing to dedicate all their life and even be jailed, stoned, bound, rejected and killed (most of them) EVEN when they all knew and prophesied by revelation that despite their efforts the church would be corrupted persecuted and fall into apostasy? The only battery that will never die or waiver, absolute love for our Lord, Jesus Christ... which is developed through te atonement and repentance.

Acts 21.13

PMG p.2

Les quiero machin

Elder Mitchell

7/28/14 AMPLIFY YOUR VISION

Highlights from this week include hitting 55 C or aprox 1,000 F getting to know my crazy little Guatemalteco companion and starting my first transfer as district leader.

Mi comp Elder Diaz just barely finished his training so he has about 4 months in the mission but he is a great missionary. He has this crazy little laugh and kind of reminds me of guatemalen Mr.Bean sometimes but we get along well which is really all that matters. 

I also did my first baptisimal interview which was super sweet.

We found this awesome family that wants to be baptized but the dad wont let his daughters or wife so we are have been trying to hunt him down to talk to him but havent had much luck in finding him. The family is super cool though. Francia, Margaret and I are actually already MAPS (mejores amigos para siempre) and we did some practices on how they can invite their dad to church and talk to him about the gospel. 

Sorry that's about all the time I have!!!!!!!

A quick thought from this morning's district meeting 

The dif between LamanLemual and Nefi is the vision that Nefi always kept of why they were working adn wandering in the desert (kind of like us in Hermosillo) which allowed him to be happy and productive versus whiny and a burden for everyone else. To Laman and Lemuel they were suffuring in the desert, to Nefi they were traveling to the promised land. 1 Nefi 4:22 (note the last line) our vision is to be able to be baptizing every week. What is your vision? WHy do you work?

AMPLIFY YOUR VISION. KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE PRIZE. DON"T BE A WHINER

paz, amor, Jesucristo,

Elder Mitchell

(pic of the zone) (in my hand tailored shirt)

7/21/14 The heat never bothered me anyway!

¡CAMBIOS!

Just when I thought for sure I was safe from having tranfers (and had just bought 3 kilos of yogurt, ice cream and other easily perishible groceries) and ALL (almost all) of our investigators FINALLY come to church... they send me back to Hermosillo. And just in time for the hottest part of the summer. It´s supposed to be like 90 degrees at night and 115 in the day and could get up to 130 in August. So we´ll see how that goes.

But the highlights from this past week include getting our power shut off for 3 days for an outstanding debt of 2 pesos or about 15 cents, making friends with the neighborhood coke dealer, arriving juntos with the AG firefighters to the scene, and then bringing 11 investigators to church. And then if you remember from the MTC days when I made my own dress shirt out of bed sheets, I really stepped my game up and tryed to tailor one of my shirts and it somehow turned out pretty good.

It is pretty hard to leave an area and all the people you come to love so quickly, and a whole 10 baptisimal dates for August but I have learned to just trust in the Lord and just be happy out here.

So yeah this week is pretty short but here are at least some pics!

Besos,

Elder Mitchell

1. Elder Mitchell con los bomberos de APSON

2. Yessenia, Alejandro and the fam

3. Brinda,Gaby and their niñas

4. Piling into a taxi to go to church in true Mexican fashion

7/14/14 Cucaracha

So the crazy and most exciting part about this week (aside from waking up almost everynight swatting cockroaches off of me and then not being able to go back to sleep) was that we baptized AGAIN! When this week started we had no dates set but we witnessed a pretty sweet miracle. 

So on Tuesday we set out to find Lupita and figure what happened (the other girl who was supposed to be baptized with Magaly but disappeared) we went and talked to all her neighbors and the only thing we could figure out was that there was a family problem and her mom went one place, her dad another and all the kids to another, probably to their grandma´s house... but nobody knew what that was. So we sort of gave up and went to contact a reference that lived nearby but the parents weren´t home, just the kids and their cousins. We decided to ask the kids of this family if they had heard anything about Lupita and they said no BUT their teeny little 6 year old cousin piped up and said that they were with their grandma. I asked her how she knew and she was like ´oh she lives pretty close to my house´  then pretty much shouting I asked where the little girl lived, and she gave us absolutley terrible directions to her house which was way out in the middle of nowhere, where we had never been and where there are no missionaries. I tried drawing a map and asking her to show me where her hosue would be or how to get there but it was no use. All we ended up with was ´by a sign that says Yaqui there´s a white house on a corner in one of the 5 government housing projects built out past the rail road tracks´ (the invonabit government housing projects are these teeeeny little identical houses all pegged together in lines. Each project probably has about 300-500 houses and about everyother house is white)

So my comp was like yeaaah we´re never going to find her, which is really what it seemed like but I just had this really hopeful feeling that we could find her. SO I was just like Vamanos Elder, have some faith. And we headed off to the other side of the railroad tracks out into the desert and biked around not really knowing where to go for like an hour until we found this guy on the side of the road selling grapes and we asked him for directions and he was like ´Im not from here I just sell grapes but down this road you might find what your looking for´ a little confused we realized we had no better idea than him so we went down this road until we ended up at this old semi abandoned water park. We stopped there and talked for a little and my comp asked so how much longer do you want look for her, or where do we go now? And I didn´t really know how to answer him or where to go next but something kept telling me to keep looking. So we went back down the same road and as we were passing a little housing project all the stupid little directions the girl gave me started to make a lot of sense in my mind. Like what she said to us realy made no sense but all of the sudden I was like ´oh this is what she meant, turn here´so we turned and went down this road and then my companion was like ´NOO WAY, this sign (this tiny little street sign) says Yaqui´!!!! So we stopped amazed that we found this sign and looked around at proabably 100 identical white houses on this on street. We also didn´t even know her grandma´s name so we could ask around for her and were thinking about what to do when about 100 yards down the street a little kid ran out into the road and starting whistling at as. My companion was like ´Is that little Chito dude? NO way!¨ And then as we got closer the kid started yelling  HERMANOS HERMANOS and then out of the same house came Lupita and her mom. And me and Elder Ranger just looked at eachother and started laughing. 

Long story short after talking to Lupita and her mom and finally figuring out all of what went down, and then explaining to them how we found them, Lupita asked us when she could get baptized.

Saturday she was baptized and Sunday her and Magaly were confirmed members of the church. There´s actually a lot more cool parts to this story but I don´t have a lot more time to write. 

I know that this is the Lord´s work. He Himself directs it. If we are worty and willing we can participate and He will guide us, in the bringing of souls unto Him. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Elder Mitchell 

(Chito and Lupita)

7/7/14 USA!

Ya so right about 10 minutes after writing that email last week I was puking in the street in front of an Oxxo. Probably one of the lowest points of the mission so far. And then I spent the rest of monday tuesday sick in bed. Wednesday we left for like an hour and then returned home because we both felt sick,Elder Ranger and I and Thursday also we could only work for about half the day. So that was all pretty rough, one of the toughest and most boring parts of my mission. Also Thursday we went with the Zone Leaders to do the baptismal interviews with Magaly y Lupita who were to be baptized on Friday and we found out that the night before her dad got in a big fight with her mom, he got thrown in jail, the mom is 5 hours away in Hermosillo and Lupita and all her siblings are with their aunt, somwhere in Agua Prieta... but Magaly passed her interview and was baptized!!!! Yay! But none of her family came which was pretty sad because we planned the whole thing with them so they could go...

But we did do a little 4th of July celebrating here by going to the border to pay some respects to the motherland, watching the Douglas Arizona fireworks from our roof and lighting off some home made mexican bottle rockets. The Douglas fireworks were actually pretty sweet and right on the border but we were at our house like 5 miles away so it wasn´t as cool. 

But then on Sunday we had district (stake) conference and it was waaay cool. All the talks were about the temple and we given by district prez, husband and wife that were just converted and sealed, a kid leaving on the mission, Colonia Juarez Temple prez and his wife and Mission Prez and his wife (they actually talked about missionary work) but it was super sweet. Two things I liked the most was when temple prezident said that ¨the dead dont really exist¨ because a lot of times they are more alive than us if we arent fulfilling our duties here on earth AND his wife that said our futures are as bright as our faith. And that really struck me and made me think a lot about our investigadores Gaby and Brenda that promised theyd come to church but made some excuses and didn´t come. So I felt really inspired to go share this message with them after church and we went and I gave em a little bit of a wake up call and pep talk about what faith really is (getting your butt in gear and not making excuses) and we put tons and tons of goals and intermediate goals with them. One of them being a baptismal date for august 16th (Yay Carter!). And afterwards they we super grateful and expressed how they felt that is what they lacked and exactly what God wanted them to hear and I was like ya I know because He sent us here to chew you bums out. (in my head of course)

Also this past 2 weeks we found and have been visiting the coolest family ever that reads the book of mormon like everyday and also has baptismal dates...the only thing is that they don´t come to church either... YET. Jesse Alejandro and their 3 kids are way cool though. They actually live right by us and brought us tons of rice and food when we were sick and ask tons of questions about Lehi and his family and Moroni and all that. 

Also this week it cooled off a ton and rained a lot so that was sweeeet.

Anyways thats about all the time I have for this week!

Love and miss you all tons,

Elder Mitchell

 

4th of July at the US Mexican border with Elder Ranger and our sweet USA ties.

And Magaly and her friends from the branch at her baptism.

A tough week is nothing Agua Prieta´s biggest and best burrito can´t solve

Also AMERICA!!!

6/30/14 barf

So about a few hours ago I puked more than I ever have in my entire life and then conked oout on the couch of some other elders. I think it has something to do with heat exhaustion. But other than that this week was good. 

Sorry I have to go. Still feel really sick.

Love Elder MItchell

Enjoy the now! 6-23-14

So this might have been the hardest week I have worked in the mission but it was great! We found tons of new people to teach and things are really starting to look up here in Agua Prieta! Right now we are in the process of planning Laura and Lupita's baptism for the 4th of July! And in the process of putting lots more baptismal dates. 

Some of the highlights from this week include an Investigator who brought us chocolate milk from Douglas Arizona (I could barely keep myself from crying). 

An Hermana chewing me out for saying that there are 7 continents. Here they count America, North and South as 1 and don[t count Antartica. I explained to her that we divide the American continent into 2, North America and South America and she exploded saying that we think we are so much better than everybody else and always have to separate ourselves from everyone else and that it's all one America and we're all Americans and that The United States of North America can't make itself one continent. And I explained to here that the name of our country is The United States of America and that Canada, the US, Mexico and all those little central american countries are part of North America but she was still pretty upset. 

I have been getting real good at riding my bike with no hands.

I gave a talk in Church.

We had a branch talent show.

Mexico tying Brasil.

We actually had a FHE with a less active family and talked about this this past week. The dad cheated on the mom and there is just a huge gloom in their house, And i was like jeez how am I supposed to be able to help them? so I shared Elder Uchtdorf's talk from this past conference about being greatful in our circumstances. And then this same talk was used on Sunday as the basis for our lesson in Preisthood. But it really got me thinking. A lot of times, people are working and working super hard looking ahead to something and forget to enjoy each day. Each day is a blessing and we should never lose time we could have spent being happy because we are waiting for what lies ahead. So many people don't realize we are living RIGHT NOW dreams we once had. Like me for example, almost all my life I dreamed of being a missionary and here I am, living that dream. But it is SO easy to complain about the heat, or the companion, or the lazy people who won't come to church, or all the things we aren't allowed to do, and waste this once in a lifetime opportunity looking foreward to the day I go home. And tons of missionaries do it :/ Just living in general, is a dream we once had as spirits in the pre-earth life. We rejoiced when God presented us his plan and told us of the all the things we could do here on earth, and we waited and waited and prepared TONS to come to earth. And, here we are, living this life. So yeah, don't ever waste any time not being happy. Give thanks everyday. Take a moment to realize that you are living your dreams (being in college, being married, being a mom or a dad, being able to have a job, being able to drive, being able to date, ect. ect. all these things we looked foreward to for so long) but then keep working hard to accomplish the dreams you still have. 

We taught so many lessons this week, I wish I could write more but I am almost out of time!

I hope you keep me and the people here in Agua Prieta in your prayers!

Love and miss you all!

Elder Mitchell 

(Us hiding from the rain last week and me riding a crazy tall bike with some neighborhood ninos)

Tucking in a drunk and huge spiders 6/9

So this week we had transfers and my companion Elder Guillen got shipped off and tomorrow I will be expecting an Elder Granger, my first gringo companion. We will be working in a new area because 2 more missionaries are arriving to the branch.(That will be 8 in total!) So we will have our work cut out for us. Also, Emmanuel, our only progressing investigator moved to Hermosillo two weeks before his baptismal date so we are basically starting from scratch. Also this week marks a whole year since I got my mission call, time is just flying by. Really not much has been happening here in Agua Prieta, we teach a good amount of lessons but we are really struggling to get people to come to church and progress so we are going to focus on finding ¨los escogidos¨ or the chosen ones. And recently in general conference and in conferences de Mexico, the first Presidency has made it clear that the way to do that is working with the members. WHICH has been super hard to do here so far... so a little note to everyone back home that missionary work pertains to more than just the full time misisonaries... read M. Russel Ballard´s last 2 general conference talks... But we have had some success witht he people we have found trrough our own efforts. 

Last night we had a awesome lesson with a member who was baptized when she was 16 and hasn´t been to church in about 10 years. Her name is Gabriella, a single mother of 2 and said that she just started meeting with the Jehovas Witnesses when we found her but is very confused. So we (re)taught her about Joseph Smith and told her she can clear up all her doubt and confusion if she prays to know if the Book of Mormon is true. We also had to sift through un chorro of lies that the TJ´s have been feeding her about Mormon Missionaries. That the church pays to be missionaries and then also pays for our schooling after the mission and that Satan guides us to people to pull them away from the truth... bla bla bla. She really does have an honest desire to know the truth and accepted our (re)invitation to (re)read the Book of Mormon and (re)pray to know (remember) that the Church is true, so I think everything will work out.

Also we found a drunk man in the street one day (happens everyday) but he started yelling at us and for some reason I felt inclined to talk to him. Long story short I ended up throwing away all his alcohol, walking him to his mom´s house, narrowly avoided a family brawl, tucked him in bed, and taught him about the Word of Wisdom the next day. 

Also this week we found 2 Matavenados in our house which means ¨Deer Killer¨ and is this big really poisenous spider. 1 of them was on the wall above my bed so that really freaked me out and we are looking into having our house fumigated. 

That´s all the time I have! I love and miss you all. 

Elder Mitchell 

(included pics of hermosa Agua Prieta and the spider)

 

Manuel 5/26

So this past week was the first week in the new house and for the first 4 days we didn't have water or electricity so that was a bit of a struggle to wash clothes, eat, bathe, pretty much do anything, but we managed and now everything is great with the house. 

Other than that this week was pretty normal, we are working hard to find the people here who are not just willing to listen to us but are willing to act! This week we had an awesome lesson with Manuel and he accepted a bautismal date for June 14th. Carmen who is his friend and a convert to the church, my companion and I all shared our testimonies and experiences from our baptisms and the spirit was super strong. I was planning on just letting Carmen and Elder Guillen share their stories, because they were baptized a lot more recently than me and I don't remember much about my baptism (12 years ago) but after they both finished, Manuel looked and me and waited... and almost without thinking I started talking about my baptisimal interview with Bishop Billings, which just came to my mind. Afterwards Manuel gave me a hug (I was tearing up a little) and told me not to cry and then I explained to him about the spirit and he was like 'oh yeah I know I felt that but you don't have to cry.' Hahaha 

 5 Therefore, verily I say unto you, lift up your voices unto this people; speak the thoughts that I shall put into your hearts, and you shall not be confounded before men;

 6 For it shall be given you in the very hour, yea, in the very moment, what ye shall say.

 7 But a commandment I give unto you, that ye shall declare whatsoever thing ye declare in my name, in solemnity of heart, in the spirit of meekness, in all things.

 8 And I give unto you this promise, that inasmuch as ye do this the Holy Ghost shall be shed forth in bearing record unto all things whatsoever ye shall say.

So this was a really awesome experience that lifted my spirits after a tough few weeks, but then on Sunday Manuel didn't come to church so we'll have to talk about that with him! Finally somebody did come to church though!  The cousin of a few kids that we're baptised a while back, named Ana came to church with her cousin. We have taught her a few times but this week we are going to try and put a baptismal date with her! We also had a great lesson with Areli where we brought two young members with us so she could meet some members and not be so timid to come to church. The lesson started of a little awkward because she is suuuper shy but ended well and she said she would come to church...but didn't. 

That's about all the time I have! I love and miss you all.

Love,

Elder Mitchell

Kool aid, cowboy boots, and a Pokemon pillow case 5/19

Last week I had almost no time to write but also not that much too exciting has been happening here in Agua Prieta. After three weeks here and almost none of our investigators coming to church we finally decided that we needed to sift through them all and make some cuts. just like Jesus Christ didn't perfrom miracles for the Pharises due to their incredulousness, Jesus Christ doesn't have affect in our life if we don't have faith, and faith means action! So I shared that message a few times this week and almost nobody gave heed so we're going to be looking for a lot of new people to teach! We have already found a family where all but the mom is excited to listen to us, another young lady, and a part member family.Also Emanuel, a friend of a recient convert,has been reading the book of Mormon and been to church activities before but has been sick recently and couldn't come to church.

Also this week we moved houses and bought bikes! With the bikes we get around so much faster and it is good for my bad foot (which is already a lot better) and our new house is dooooope. We had to move because our apartment was deemed unsafe and unfit for mission standards by President's wife. (We were living next to a drive though liqour store which comes with tons of cholos, drugs and loud music and even sometimes the Mexian Military) The only bad part is that the new house is a little bit outside of our area, but with the bikes it isnt a big deal. Oh, also this week we did lots of service for the members of our ward... mostly yardwork but it was a great opportunity to also teach the members and now we have a good group of members willing to acompany us to lessons and stuff. Actually one Hermana after pulling a bunch of weeds agreed to to visit one of her neighbors with us. It was about a 1 minute walk from house to house and her two dogs followed us. We taught for about 20 minutes and when we walked back her dog was dead on the side of the rode. So we then dug a little grave for her perrita right where we pulled all the weeds and had a little ceremony for Chicis. :( Not exactly the blessings we promised her for getting involved in missionary work. 

Also this week I bought a sweet hammock in the tianges (which is a weekly flea market) a switchblade, some koolaid powder smuggled across the border, cowboy boots, a pokemon pillowcase all for like 15 bucks. 

VIVA MEXICO

con muchisimo amor,

Elder Mitchell

Ugliest town ever 5/5

As far as I can tell nobody did anything today here in Agua Prieta to celebrate Cinco de Mayo... today was actually pretty boring. My right foot had been bothering me a little the past few weeks and this week it started getting a lot worse so we went to the doctors office on Saturday and it turns out I have tendonitis in my foot. But they gave me some injections (en la cola) and some anti inflammatory pills and things are already getting better! The bad part is that Hermana Hernandez (Presidents wife) talked to the doctor and agreed I need to rest or I will never get better. So tpday we just stayed in the house pretty much, we{ll see how tomorrow goes, I can{t really take much more of sitting around! 

A little bit about Agua Prieta... It might be the ugliest little town I have ever been to but the people here are awesome! There will be a street full of humble little shanties and houses and then out of nowhere these huge huge mansions with lifted trucks out front, and that is supposedly where the narcos live. Also just about every other person who lives here in AP has a Visa to go the US but it only gets them as far as Tucson Arizona or something like that.We found some new people this week to teach which was really exciting but only person came to church on Sunday. The one person is a 15 year old names Luis who is the oldest of 5 boys and one of the maturest 15 year olds I know. We put baptismal date with him for May 24th but we are hoping that his parents and brothers will follow his example!

There{s not really that much going on here yet, still pretty new to me. One of my favorite parts of this week was teaching this lady who is super catholic and worships all the saints. She told us she usually runs off all the people who come to her house preaching or selling anything but for some reason accepted us. We taught her pretty in depth about who God is and how we are His Children and why we should only pray to Him and not the virgin mary or San Pedro and she accepted it all pretty well. Sometimes it is pretty daunting to go into a strangers home and tell them what they have believed their entire life is false, but through the spirit people recognize these things, or in a way remember this things, as something that is eternally true and inbedded in our spiritual genes. We are working with her to switch her work schedule around so she can come to church.

Love and Miss you all

Elder Mitchell

Agua Prieta 4/29

¡Hola de Agua Prieta! Sunday morning I was suprisingly transferred out of Hermosillo after only 1.5 months. It was a pretty eventful week this past week in Hermosillo so it was a little sad to get moved out of there but oh well. I got here late last night after a 6 hour bus ride so I didn{t get to write any (hence me emailing today) But about this last week....

We fasted for our investigator Maria Isabel and had a great lesson with her and invited her to see a baptism on Saturday, she accepted, came to the basptism and right after told us that she would like to be baptized this Saturday!!! We also learned how to make the famous giant tortiallas that they have in Hermosillo. Alejandrina{s son finally accepted to listen to us and even accepted a baptismal datein May. La familia Acosta that we taught in Guaymas called me on Sunday to tell me that their daughters were baptized tat day. Xochitl cut it off with her BF and came back home. The weird part was when we helped this very very VERY (overly) friendly family carry a ton of heavy stuff to their house, and started to talk with them but we quickly left after feeling like some really weird was going in that house. Long story short they are basically a family of witches. If you think witches don{t exist, come to MExico. And we talked to one of our investigators (Bianca, the nice lady who invited us to eat hot dogs and then apparently uploaded a billion fotos to face) and her friend about this and then her friend confessed to also prcticing witchcraft and explained what this creepy family was intending to do to us. So I guess the good news is I am out of Hermosillo away from the witches and in Agua Prieta with all the narcos (drug lords). Agua Prieta is on the border of Arizona and Mexico. I can see practically see the motherland from our house. But all the drug trafficing here I think will beworth the access we have to American Milk and a bearable amount of heat. 

My new Companion is Elder Guillen from Peru, and also speaks no English, but thats just my normal life now.

That{sabout all the time I have for now. Love and miss you all!!!!!!! I will send pics next week!

Elder Mitchell

Semana Santa 4/21

Although they call it Semana Santa here there is really nothing holy about it. All week everybody went to the beach and nobody really even mentioned Easter... so it was a little dfficult to find people to teach because EVERYBODY went to Kino which is a beach like an hour away. School is out again this week too, for really no good reason and they call it Semana Diabla, which is just another week of vacations and party. 

Also this week Xochitl our awesome investigator who told us she wanted to be a missionary and marry in the temple and had a baptism planned for this Saturday... ditched town. We passed by her house last Sat night to remind her about church and she was sleeping, Sunday morning he ex boyfriend came by her house and carried her off to another part of town out of our area. It happened SOO fast and was pretty confusing and sad. We finally set out to find her one day and talked with her and she and her boyfriend said they would listen to us together but then didn´t show up for our lesson so yeah that is a bummer. 

Other than that, not much went down in Hermosillo this week. We celebrated my Companion´s, Elder Pineda, birthday with some investigators with a bonfire and I taught everybody how to make smores. Except there were no graham crackers so we used Pan dulce and I thought t was kinda gross but they claim to have liked it! 

Let´s see also this week... I got a million bug bites on me feet somehow,

I had piroline for the first time which is like a mexican popsicle that is actually really good (a lot of the sweets and candies here are super gross), we hiked cerro de la compana which is a mountain in the middle of the city and toured around downtown and also learned how to whistle like a Mexican. 

Con mucho amor,

Elder Mitchell

Good news and bad news 4/14

Get that corn outta my face!

I would honestly be suprised if there is another country wth more holidays than México so we´re looking at another potentially difficult week to find people but oh well! This past week was filled with some good news and bad news so I guess I will start by finishing my email from last week, get to the bad news and then finish with the good.

So for almost a month now I have been praying pretty specifically to be able to find any people that are praying for some help or to know the truth or anything like that. Last week we were running late to our lunch appointment to which we were bringing a few investigators. We were in a hurry and as we walked past people I would greet them with a buenas tardes but we passed a bus stop and as I said buenas tardes to a lady she looked at me and greeted me back something about her caught my attention. But because we were already late and had Dania y Xochtl with us, I put it in the back of my mind. As we kept going at our brisk pace I thought of this woman again, but then put this thought away when Xochtl asked me a question. About five minutes later we arrived at the comida and as we knocked on the door, I realized the woman from the bus stop had followed us all the way here. I asked her if she was the woman from the bus stop and she said yes and then asked if we were Jehovas Witnesses, I told her no and said we are misioneros de la Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los ultimos días. She asked if we had books or pamphlets and if she could buy one... I laughed and told her that we give them away. I reached into my backpack and was going to give her a pamphlet about The Plan of Salvation, but felt I should give her one about The Restoration. As soon as I handed it to her and started to explain a little about it she started crying and told me she had to go and left. I, a little shocked and confused, looked at my comp and we threw our backpacks in the house explained to the family who was feeding us what happened and ran after her. We caught her a minute before she got on the bus and put a date and time to visit her and her family. When we went a day later she told us that she had found a pamphlet of the restoraton, read it and wanted to know more. Prayed that she could know it was true, and the next day she found us, when I gave her that pamphlet, she knew her prayers had been answered. What an incredible experience that was!!!! We returned to teach her another time and everything went well. 

Bad News: We showed up to visit her again and she seemed really different, reluctantly invited us inside and then told us she didn´t really have time to think about all of this basically telling us not to come back. So that was pretty weird and bien bien chafa and I felt like I definitley misunderstood what she said, but nope. Also we´re not sure if any of our 3 baptisms we had planned for April will be ready in time but they are still progressing just a need a little more time which is ok!

Good News: We started teaching the family of Alejandrina´s sister and they are all are comprehending everything well. The father declined to listen to us but after a few visits Conchita, the mother/wife invited him to to church and all 4 of them went! They are a super cool family and accepted the invitation to be baptized in May! 

Oh also this week I went to the hospital to get an infection (random sores than randomly bleed) taken care of but things are already looking better. Also this week was constantly between 40C(104F) and 42(107) degrees. ¡Viva México!

You don´t need to worry about me (Mom y Caitlin) but plz keep me in ya prayers!!

Love and Miss you all tons!!!

Elder Mitchell

Attached are some pics from the dope suprise HBD party Alejandrina and Conchita threw for me and smashed my cake in my face.

Birthday! 4/7

Thank you everybody for the birthday wishes, reading emails from all the people I love and miss so much had been the best part of my day. We woke up and my companion had made me flan for breakfast, then we had a district meeting, played soccer and frisbee for a while and then ate some ice cream. It doesn´t really feel like my birthday that much, but that´s really ok seeming how the mission isn´t really about me. 

Conference was sooo awesome though, luckily I got to watch 4 of the 5 sessions in English. It was easily the most I have ever enjoyed conference, which I think is probably most missionarys´ experience. I loved every single talk and can´t pick a favorite but here are a few things I picked up...

M. Russel Ballard said that every member of the church should make at least 4 invitations each year for others to come to church/listen to missionaries.

Jeffery R. Holland basically said that if we are disobedient it is because we love Satan more than Jesus

Donald L. Hallstrom said that we benefit nothing from conference if it doesn´t change us

and Henry B. Eyring said that of all the service you can give, none is greater helping others come to choose to qualify for eternal life.

So if you put those together it should be pretty motivating to do a little bit of missionary work! for real...

I learned so much though from conference and it was an amazing experience for me! I think the two most quoted scriptures were Moses 1¨39 and Matthew 22´37-38. Basicially talking all about love. Which is really where everything begins and ends, with God´s love for us. 

I am just realizing I don´t have much time to finish this...

But we had a miracle this week, I´ll tell you more about it next Monday..sorry.

I can´t believe I already have 5 months done but then again I still have 19 left haha the mission is pretty hard, but it is also pretty awesome. Hope you are all keeping me in your prayers. Thanks again for all the bday I love and miss you all tons. 

El viejito,

Elder Mitchell

Alejandrina's baptism! (3/31)

I will admit that I am not very excited to be turning 20 *Next Monday* *cough cough* I am feeling super old right now. Being honest though, I am planning to live to be about 130 years old, which would make 20 the new...16? If that doesn´t make sense to you, don´t worry about it. 

This week was pretty great though. Alejandrina was baptized and confirmed last Friday *woop woop* and tons of her friends came and it was awesome. Some American Elders and I, by her request, sang a hymn in English, and we bought her a huge cake and a brand new set of scriptures. This week we plan on teaching and going to contact a lot of her friends and family who were there. We already have put a baptismal date with three of them for the end of April. This might have been the most excited I have seen anybody for their baptism, she really is an amazing woman. Saturday we had a lot of our appointments fall through so we went to visit her and she chewed us out and told us we should be teaching her family and not spend so much time with her at her house. Wow haha. Another thing she told me, that I don´t know if I will ever forget, was that ever since the other missionary left and I came (transfers 2 weeks ago) she has been able to understand everything in our lessons much better. Which makes almost no sense because the other missionary was from Mexico and I am still learning Spanish, so that´s basically proof that we learn and understand eternal truths only by the spirit. She calls me her guerito angelito. 

Also this week we found some other cool people to teach and everything keeps going great! Learning tons, and more thankful everyday for this chance I have to be a missionary.

Oh also this week I had to explain to somebody I met that his grandma´s soul was not living inside his dog, or that his dog was not a reincarnation of his Grandma. 

Mucho amor,

Elder Mitchell

Hermosillo Homies (3/24)

As sad as it was to leave Guaymas, after just one week, I already love Hermosillo! We met almost everyday this past week with a single mother of four, that has already had some time with the missionaries named Alejandrina. She comes from pretty humble circumstances and quit her job a while back so she could start going to church on Sundays. She has overcome every kind of obstacle to prepare herself for baptism and says that she knows the church is true and will bring her many blessings and she wants to be an example for all of her kids, none of which have wanted to listen to the missionaries. On Thursday she asked me if I would I would baptize her this week. I said yes.

This same week we started meeting with two of her kids, Dania who is 18 and she accepted a baptismal date after we taught her about the Plan of Salvation. Alexis is 16 and dropped out of school and lives on and off with his mom, but we helped him build a hen house. Also Soche, a friend of Dania, started coming to our lessons and Alejandrina Dania and Soche all came to church this Sunday. This family has tons of adversity facing them but they are all ready starting to see a bit of the blessings that God has prepared for us when we keep His commandments. 

Also another investigator, Maria Isabelle, came to church this Sunday and agreed to quit coffee after we taught her about the word of wisdom and wants to be baptized! 

Besides this family we didn´t have many pèople to visit so we started visiting ward members to share lessons with them and see if they know anybody that we could visit, which lead to quite some interesting... treasure hunts? Wild goose chase? Not sure what to call it but we had some interesting and awesome experiences with this haha. Some of the interesting would include going to visit this one house which had about 9 people in the front yard (using the term front yard pretty loosely). We shared a little message about the restoration. However, we realized about half of them were stoned out of their mind when two started fighting eachother because one of them interrupted me and the other got mad, another pulled out a plastic bag and started taking hits, and the other started talking about his rap career. (he did do some rapping and was actually pretty good) The four women who were there did listen to us though! 

Some of the awesome would include Guadalupe, who we found after we had an awesome lesson with some less active members who referred us to ther inactive neighbor. Guadalupe starting battling breast cancer years back and hasn´t been to church since, so we taught her about God, how much He loves us and the importance of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. At the end of the lesson we invited her to pray and she told us she couldn´t and it has been too long. But we pressured her a little and she agreed. During her prayer the Spirit was suuuper strong and afterwards she was crying and kept thanking us and thanking us over and over for visiting her as we were leaving, and it felt wrong that SHE was thanking US. But it just made me so much more thankful to be a missionary of the Church of Jesus Christ and do His work. 

Love you all,

Elder Mitchell

3/17/14 Bienvenidos a Hermosillo!

So this was the last week of transfers so all week we were saying goodbyes to our investigators beause Elder Cornejo knew it was his last week in the mission, and eveybody was a little sad but somewhat reassured because Elder Mitchell would still be here... ya nope. Sunday I found out I was getting changed to the capital Hermosillo (good thing I didnt buy that crocodile) so I didn´t even get to saygoodbye to everyone. I just left some notes and pictures that the new Elders that come can take to them. 

It was still a great week though! Area President of Mexico, President Johnson, visited each zone in the mission and did some training which was awsome! Also this Saturday we baptized Adalberto after visiting him for 3 months, and it was easily the best day of the mission so far! 

It was sad to leave Guaymas and especially the two familias we had been visiting with for so long, but I am confident that they will continue progressing in the Gospel. We had already put goals with them to legalize their marriages and be baptized and so I´m sure things will go great! I got here to Hermosillo today and met my new companion, Elder Pineada, who his from somewhere near Mexico City and also doesn´t speak any English.  He told me that we don´t have a single appointment set for this week but I am super excited to start working here! 

Aldaberto is getting baptized!

This week La Familia Acosta that we have been teaching for 3 months now told us that they are hoping to get all their divorce and marriage issues taken care of really soon so they can be baptized. The mom and dad told us that their kids are starting to bug them because they want to get baptized! Also Alan and his... almost wife? told us that they set the goal to be married before April is over so he can be baptized. (Teeré the wife is already a member) Their grandpa who had been sick for a little while passed away Sunday morningso today they asked that we help out at his wake. It was pretty sad, but comforting to have a knowledge of the plan of salvation.  

And then this week we met with Adalberto and he is all set for his baptism this Saturday! Also another family we teach that works on Sunday told us that they would try their best to make it to church this coming Sunday and that would be awesome! They are older and super nice people but we have a hard time getting them to follow through on any commitments but it looks like there is some hope!

Nos Vemos

Elder Mitchell