11/3/14 Que Onda Fam

So sorry about not writing last week, we had a super busy P-Day and on our way to write in the cyber a family from Agua Prieta who was in town called us and invited us to eat pizza at Costco so we tried to squeeze that in and just ran out of time because we had an FHE with Hermano Alex and his family pretty early. The friends they invited ended up bailing but I helped my comp carve his first pumpkin ever so that was fun. It only lasted about 3 days in the heat before it was complete mush but oh well. But here we go with a quick 2 week update!

Familia Serrano- Two weeks ago they couldn´t go to church because they went out of town so we went extra hard with them and had some super sweet lessons with them (in one of which the hermana had a vision while her husband prayed that we are God´s messengers and has legions of angels protecting us), and had a special lesson with just the dad in the chapel where he told us was ready to get baptized, and gave an awesome lesson about the sacrament saturday night so they would go to church on Sunday... and they told us they would go... Sunday morning rolls around and right as the meeting starts we got a message saying that they couldn´t come and "see ya tuesday night for a lesson" so that threw us off quite a bit. Tuesday night we went and turns out that the dad went off to some mountain with his buddy to visit some shrine to a saint or something... ... but we went on with the lesson we had planned anyways and told them that we can´t visit them anymore because they have to learn how to exercise their own faith, and can´t rely on us for all their spiritual help. We told them they already know everything they need to be baptized but just haven´t shown enough faith to recieve a better answer and feel more ready. It was pretty hard to drop such this family but me and my comp both new that we had done our part and were starting to try and do their part too... and what they really need is to just really think about this, realize that God has blessed and answered them in 100 ways and accept His will. SO then Saturday we fasted for them, and Sunday they all came to church! So this week we are going to see how things went and talk about when are they finally going to get baptized.

 It was pretty tough dropping this family because our area is known to be really tough and we don´t have lots of people to teach. We spent almost the whole time we would have been teaching them looking for new people, contacting references and talking to people and EVERYONE was just shutting us down left and right. I was like freak now who are we going to teach! But we had received a confiration by the spirit that we had to drop them so we just kept at it. It was a good trial and in the end the Lord put in His part. Thursday we found one new person, Dora, and Saturday we found another family, la familia Gutierrez. We have only taught both of them one time, so we´ll see if they end up progressing. 

Ramona, Consuelo, Margarita, Genoveva y Martha...

Two weeks ago Ramona and Martha came to church and really liked it and then that following week we taught them the restoration and they gave us the second most delicious Horchata I have had in my whole mission. But before we went back tho visit them again they had a health emergency with their mom and we couldn´t visit them again until this week when we taught them about the Book of Mormon, or really Ramona taught us about the Book of Mormon. She had basically memorized the whole introdction and story of how we got to have this set of scriptures. I was actually really impressed, and at the end of the lesson they accepted a baptismal date for the end of November... but Sunday they didn´t go to church... probably for Dia de Los Muertos... but we´ll find out tomorrow.

Halloween- This day the assistants made us do splits, which made me upset because we had a super sweet halloween lunch planned with an hermana and I had to go up into the mountains where halloween doesnt really exist. (Here a lot of people snag a lot of US traditions because we are close to the border but usually its the people with $$$ who do) So it was basically a normal day except I got to kick it with Elder Montenegro, my first ZL when I got to Mexico a year ago. At night though we did see a small little band of niño hoodrats egg a small little band of tricker treaters so that was a good laugh. 

Dia De Los Muertos- This day is actually two days. Nov 1 is where they honor children who have died and then Nov 2 where they honor everyone else who has died. What they typically do is visit their grave sites or make alters at home and put pictures of them, the things they liked... toys, cigars, soccer, a certain food, or whatever and leave it their for the day. And then blast music out front and drink a ton... but they do that every weekend so maybe that was just a normal thing idk. But really the only thing that I participated in was eating a special bread they make on this day which is just a sweet type of mexican bread that kind of looks like a dead spider. I wanted to go to a cemetary but they arent any in our area. We did talk about Family History/Temple work at church though so that was cool, to talk about what we can actually do to help our dead loved ones, and la famila Serrano really liked that too.

But yeah that is about all the time I have!!!

I will send some pics next week!

TE QUIERO MACHIN,

Elder Mitchell

10/20/14 Buenas

Soo there isn´t that much to report from this week. We only got to visit with la familia Serrano once before they left on vacation and they admitted that they hadn´t been keeìng the word of wisdom (coffee) so we have postponed their baptismal date. Everytime we meet with them they throw new doubts at us so we realized that they need a more firm testimony of the Book of Mormon and Jospeh Smith, so this week we are going to work on that and try and re set baptismal dates with all of them. 

Also this week we were able to find a another family to teach! A mother, 4 daughters and one grand daughter... but I almost feel like we found them 40 years too late! The mom actually is sick and really old (85) and her daughters are between 55 and 70 and the grand daughter is like 50 but there never really is too late to accept the gospel so it´s okay! They don´t live together but they are almost always at their moms house to take care of her. We taught them the plan of salvation and they didn´t really understand that we were teaching them new doctrine. That actually happens quite a bit, we teach about the pre earth life, the spirit world, three kingdoms of glory and people just accept it all as the truth like they have known it their whole life... even though they are Catholic or Christian and don´t understand that this is actually something different from what they "believe", that this is all restored doctrine that isn´t complete with just the Bible. But we also taught them a little about the restoration and that woke em up a little. We found them through their cousin who is a less active member in our ward and told us of some of the trials they have been having, especially Ramona, one of the sisters. Her and the grand daughter, Martha even came to church on Sunday! So this week we hope to put a baptismal date with them!

Other than that... this week we got flu vaccines which was a new experience. I have been to the hospital a few times in the mission, but it is a private hospital for people with tons of dinero and missionaries, so when we went to a real public mexican hopsital it was a little different. SUPER PACKED. Super long lines and tons of people who sneak in front of ya. But at the end of the day we found a nurse who asked our names, injected us, and sent us on our way in about 3 minutes... without having to pay, so it was pretty successful. 

The same member who made fun of my english last sunday invited us over for dinner (he is a US Diplomat and works at the consolate here, Hermano Alex) and it was super weird/nice. Their house is like a tiny piece of the good ole USA here in Hermosillo. We ate lasagna with American sweet corn and salad, and sat down at a big nice table and ate all together. (that same day we actually ate mexican none sweet corn covered with butter lemon and chile...interesting contrast.) It was pretty sweet. And I felt super thankful that that is the kind of life I grew up with, eating nice family dinners all together. Here dinner is kind of like a free for all snack type meal, and lunch is the main meal, but usually people are working or at school and dont eat together so that kinda sucks. 

Other than that... everything is going along pretty normal. 

CUIDENSE MUCHO,

ELDER MITCHELL

La familia Serrano in front of the temple

10/6/14 LOS CIELOS NOS HABLAN

SOoo conference was sick. I watched the first 4 sessions in English on the secretary´s computer with Elder Ensey (cool kid from Oregon). We threw on red white and blue ties, popped popcorn and tried our best to reduplicate watching conference at home... but it was pretty rough due to a terrible feed and it took us 3 hours to watch 2 hours of conference so I might have set a record for most hours of conf watched in a weekend... 14. I was soooo excited for conference that the whole lagging in and out didnt even phase me the first 3 sessions but after the 4th I was like yeah I´ll just listen in Spanish. But something interesting I realized is that the thing I like isnt listening in English but listening to the voice of the speaker. So that was pretty cool to be able to understand those two talks given in Spanish.

It is pretty tough to pick a favorite talk but I reallllly really liked the ones by Elder Jorg Gleginbat and Elder Lynn G Robbins. PLANCH. Also I really liked the story Elder Eyring shared about his mom and trying to sneak in the door late at night hehehe Mom. And my favorite phrase was probably "The hit bird flutters." PLANCH. They were all so good though I could seriously talk about all of them! I feel like listening to conference willl never be better than when you´re in the misison. 

Also the whole time we were expecting investigators to show up and then a sweet talk about Joseph Smith or revelation would pass and I was like NOOO their missing the talk!!! And then la familia Serrano showed up toward the end of the last session and they were talking about temples and family history and I was like cmon change the topic guys! And then got up Elder Bednar and said "I would like to direct myself at those who are not members of the church" and I started singing alabanzas in my mind. Afterwards the family was pretty impressed and even commented that they would like to be able to see it in person one day. We didn´t talk much with them after conference right now only the dad and oldest daughter are on for their baptismal date of October 18th. BUT we´ll see how things improve this week with them! They are having some pretty intense maritial problems that we didn´t know about before. I know they´ll make it but it might just not be as fast as an impatient missionary would like. 

Also this past week I started working on being more DILIGENT... something I struggle with but a Christlike attribute that is super important in our progression. But so far I´ve got two weeks of diligent flossing and journal writing along with better companionship communication and following up on goals. 

And then today we had a sweet zone activity where we played soccer and some other games and also had a carne asada which is the equivolent of a mexican bbq. 

That´s just about all the time I have! But the most important thing about Conference isnt what we like or what we learned BUT what we actually do to put these things in practice in our lives! 

PAZ AMOR CARNE ASADA,

Elder Mitchell

Elder Ensey and I teaching the American tradition of going to DQ after priesthood to our latino comps (they were mind boggled)

Got to see my good ole comp. Elder Ranger!

9/29/14 TE DAMOS SEÑOR NUESTRAS GRACIAS

So this week was quite a bit more chill than last week. We are strugglin to find more people who progress, because so far everybody we´ve found but la familia Serrano is flaking out hard on us. However there were some highlights...

A few weeks ago we went to teach some members to try and help them, help us, help their non member friends come unto Christ. (Because that´s what the mission is like now a days) And the Holy Ghost indicated to them 4 people who should listen to the missionaries... but the tricky part is WE can´t contact them, so we have been working pretty dang hard trying to get the members to get off their... ... couches, and talk to their friends about the Gospel. But yeah so after weeks of playing little game finally we just told them to invite them over for FHE whatever day of the week and we´ll talk to them. And they did it. And it worked. And the Gospel is true. And they were super suprised to see how their friends responded to our message and we are going to teach them again this week!

Also we some huge progress with la familia Serrano! The oldest daughter Alondra (14), youngest son Eduardo (10) and the dad Jose all say they want to be baptized. The mom and middle child Carolina (12) still aren´t exactly sure but think they will be for 18th of Octubre. We really got down to roots of their problems and realized we needed to teach a more in depth lesson about repentance, forgiveness and the atonement and it really helped them tons. Sometimes I think we get a little caught up in Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and forget that really the most important thing is Christ and the atonement, and the restoration of the gospel is really just the means by which we understand what we have to do to fully come unto Christ. I mean it is all neccesary and super important but when we took the time to really explain and teach about repentance and forgiveness it kinda made everything click and the spirit was super strong. BUUUUUUUUT for some strange reason the mom didnt go to church with everyone else, so we´ll have to see what´s up with that. Also the dad does have lots of doubts but we are going to prepare em good for general conference to clear all that up. And they invite us to eat dinner with them like 2 nights a week now and it is waaay good food. Like super simple but so good it is almost confusing. 

Other than that there is an Iguana that lives across the street from us and leaves his hole everyday right at 11 in the morning, very very strangly punctual. So I made a trap out of a box and some string and am going to catch him. 

Also... we ate lunch with some members and treked over to this golf course gated community and totally forgot I was in Mexico. It was suuuuper nice. And with us was an elder from Honduras that has like 3 weeks in the mission and he was like crying and singing and laughing in an attempt to comprehend how some people can have so much money. 

And an hermana made us some kick butt mexican pizza. And we fixed another hermanas roof!

Anyways, everything here is all good. Septemeber flewwww by and this next month, one year later.... Ya tu sabes ;)

PAZ,

Elder Mitchell

9/22/14 ): ): QUESO DE CABRA :( :(

Sooooo the highlight of this week was probably taking a mini vacation (LOL) to a pueblo in the zone called Pesquera, a little tiny grape town about an hour outside of Hermosillo. Now "pueblo" means "village"... so just imagine a little mexican village with the most limited technology, no paved roads, super humble, super dirty and super nice people.(( The missionaries actually find tons of people who want to be baptized but they cant because they... aren`t registered people (like no birth certificate or anything, wasnt born in a hospital, never went to school... nothing) or because they are married to somebody who lives in Oaxaca or Veracruz or with some sort of legal paper issue.)) But anyways we went there do do a baptismal interview and everything went super well.

 A family of members invited us to eat and the grandpa of the family is basically the man who built the church in Pesquera and told me the whole history of the church there. Super interesting. BUT they made us quesadillas... but with some fresh village made goat cheese... which might sound super hipster and cool and tasty... but in reality it just is gross and super contaminated... and that night I thought it was going to kill me. Super super hot fever, terrible headache, stomach ache, chills, trips to the bathroom every 15 minutes... so i slept almost none. But luckily after expelling most of that cheese I have slowly been recovering, but still everything I eat just makes my stomach hurt so I am probably going to get this checked out soon. But Im pretty sure it´s just another stomach infection. OH well. 

ANd other than that...we put 5 baptisimal dates down with la familia serrano but they couldnt come to church for some reason. Easily the coolest family I have taught in the mission. They all read the Book of Mormon and want to be baptized but they aren´t sure in which church. We talked with them and are trying to help them recognize the holy ghost because they TOTALLY already received answers to their prayers but we just got to be a little more patient. The mom even told us, in my heart I know what I have to do but in my head I like my old church more. So we´ll see what´s up with them tomorrow night. 

Oh and Friday night we got back to our house and there was this faaaat party going on right out in street in front of our house...not super irregular here on a weekend in Hmo but because our are has a little bit more dinero $$$ they bought a live band with drums and tuba and everything and the biggest speakers I have ever seen so... idk if the hard part was not being able to sleep or not being to join them but it was kind of fun to watch for a few minutes from our balcony.

That´s about all my time!! Ive heard a little bit about some hurrincane or something but this week we got tons of rain but nothing crazy so dont worry about me! 

Les quiero y les extraño mucho!!!

Elder Mitchell

9/15/14 FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS PÁPA, CHLOE Y MEXICOOOOO

So because none of you probably know, today is Mexico´s independence day!!! Which is not celebrated anything like the 4th of July. Basically everybody just goes to the plaza in front of town hall at like 10 or 11 and there is music and food and stuff and then late at night the governor or president or whoever come out and leads everybody in EL GRITO or The Shout and they just shout like VIVA MEXICO and stuff like that. But yeah here in Sonora everybody here hates the governor because he basically robbed everybody of their money and then stole all the water from the little towns and bought his homies cars and stuff and is just terribly corrupt. But they havent taken him out of office yet because they need more evidence against him or he will just escape from jail with all his corrupt money and connections. And he is the one leading El Grito so who knows what will happen. Last year they plucked all the oranges from the orange trees and chucked em at him. This year they have removed all the orange trees and are supposedly paying tons of people to positively participate but really who knows what is gonna go down. Also there is supposed to be a huge storm tonight so we being double banned from going :/. 

But anyways this last week was pretty good. We invited La Familia Serrano to be baptized on October 11th and the dad wasn´t sure, the mom said ´in this moment I now understand why God brought you to our home¨ but still not sure?? (yeah idk) Alondra (14) said yes I know the book of mormon is true and want to be baptized and Carolina (12) and Eduardo (8) still aren´t sure either. After this lesson it seemed like the dad had the most doubts but then on Sunday he came to church with ALondra and Eduardo super excited with tons of questions about baptism and the mom and other daughter didn´t come. The dad (Jose) didn´t really explain why just said that they had a little argument and she´ll come next week. They are the sweetest family ever. All the kids are smart and obedient and they all listen and paricipate in all our lessons.... something that has never happened to me once in my mission. I am about 99 percent sure they will all get baptized in October but we´ll see!

Other than that we are struggling to find more people to teach who progress. There was a storm the other night and we lost power so it was super dark and dangerous and tree´s and poles and stuff were falling down everywhere but luckily nothing happened to us! Pray that this week we are all safe as well!

This morning we had a sweet Zone celebration for the 15th of Septiembre and ate Sopes (it is kind of like a taco with meat, cheese and lettuce onion tomato and a special salsa but on top of a special kind of mexican tortilla/bread... kind of like a gordita if you know what that is) and played soccer. 

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡VIVA MEXICO!!!!!!!

Elder Mitchell

9/8/2014 PIC

From last week.
Sigo vivo.
Todo fine.