Week 70

     Hey Mom! That's super exciting to hear that you guys are closing on the house! You may be almost completely moved in by the time I come home! Haha just teasing. I hope you guys like the new house as much as you've talked about. Also that Nate can learn to love it haha. I sent an email to the Stalkers, that's super weird that they are moving after Aaron got tenure! I'm sure they prayed and fasted about it a ton. I wish they'd move down here and teach the people how to be leaders.

     With the camera, yeah I have a nikon coolpix, it's not like the worst camera ever, just that unless you hold it super still the picture is blurry. I don't really know any good cameras, I can't really look it up haha I'll ask some missionaries about theirs and tell you about em. 

    It was so hot the other day, we did a blitz in the sister's area. A blitz is where all the missionaries in the zone work in one area for a few hours. So they make plans for each companionship and we help em out a little bit. It was pretty hot that day and Gonzalez and I had to bike pretty far to get to the area in which we were working. And we were sweating a ton! haha and I told you about how much Gonzo sweats, a lottttt. So we knocked on this door and a women opened and the first thing she said was, "Oh wow, you guys are really sweaty." With this kind of disgusted look on her face, needless to say it was a wealthier part of town. So she had her daughter grab like 4 water bottles and gave them to us. We just laughed and were like, "well yeah we're biking around in the hot sun" And so we talked with her and started teaching the restoration a little and everything and when Gonzalez was talking about the BOM she just cut him off and asked if he'd like a towel or something, and then went and got him one. It was so funny, I dont think she listened to him at all, probably just in her mind was like, "oh my gosh he is so sweaty".  Then we went back to our apartment and for some reason I decided to switch my scriptures that I study with with a few copies of the BOM in spanish and english. I took em out and found them super ruined!! I sweat through my backpack and about an inch into the BOM and it has terrible water damage now and the edges are all gray! Haha it was so gross. So I got a new one and wrapped it in a towel. 

     The mission is so fun, idk why but it is kind of fun to suffer sometimes. Whenever it is scorching hot and we are just sweating through our clothes, it's just funny, cause there is nothing else you can do about it. Or when you're biking and we get a flash flood, you just get super soaked, and it's fun. I think it's to help us learn that we can have a good attitude in any situation. And it's true, happiness is a choice, just make the decision. 

     I love you guys a ton, thanks for emailing me, take care. ;)

10 minute break 

Socks

Week 69

      Haha that's awesome, Elliot seems like such a diva and she's only three! Nathan is going to have such a fun time when she is older! So it's almost in Northern Maine? Oh no, haha, that means we are crazy weird inbred lumberjacks right? I remember you and dad talking trash about Northern Maine and now look! Haha, that's pretty funny. Nate emailed me! He asked me some questions and it was actually pretty fun to answer them, here I'll put em in here too.

     Our area is doing pretty well, the only thing is kind of a normal thing, people are lazy. Not lots of people want to work for things, it's hard to get them to understand the Gospel. Especially the concept of authority! I like using the story of like, Imagine you're driving in your car and you hear sirens behind you and you look behind you and the ice cream truck has a light on the top and he's trying to pull you over, would you pull over? No, right? Because he doesn't have the "authority" to do so. Now imagine the same situation but with a cop, then you would pull over. It's the same with the authority of God in ordinances like baptism, we have to have the authority in order to perform them. But people never understand, who knows..

    My studies are going really well, I am trying to get to know the scriptures more, recently I've noticed more how I like when good teachers quote, or share scriptures often to give authority and power to their teachings, so I'm trying to memorize, or at least know the scriptures well enough, so that I can share more scriptures in lessons. Before I would share more scripture stories and relate it to their lives, which I still like, but little doctrinal scriptures are cool too. I don't know if that really even makes sense.. But yeah. And then I'm reading the book mom sent me called "The Inevitable Apostacy" It's super cool and I'm learning a lot about why Christ's church was lost, it's super interesting.

     Grossest food is menudo. It's nasty, it is the intestines of a cow. It's pretty hard to clean out and often times makes you feel like you're eating poop. And it's really chewy and hard to swallow, like you can't bite through it with your teeth, once I almost choked and died lol. But I just eat it with lots of chile and tortillas and fight through it.

   Super good to hear from you guys even though we just talked. I got a haircut today, my hair went all the way down to the end of my nose! And my nose is like 3ft long so, haha just kidding. Now it's a lot shorter but someone just told me it looks the same, so that's... good? It didn't look that long but it was, here's a pic of me being cool. Then idk if you can tell how much Gonzalez sweats but oh man, it's so funny. Then, I sweat through my backpack the other day, it was only like 103 though, people say it gets like 115, so that'll be fun. 

       Glad to hear you guys are doing well! I love you a ton, have a great week!

Week 68

    It was great talking with you guys too! It was good to actually talk with you guys, it reminds me of when we used to just sit in your guys' room and talk before bed, that was cool. Well not much has happened since yesterday as you could imagine haha. 

    Well so remember that I talked about how the ward had a mother's day dinner on Friday? And the little kids did the whip/nene dance? So they gave us all the leftover food from it, and so I'm not buying food this week, the members here give us a ton of food! It's awesome. You know that nene in spanish means like toddler? So I think that song is super funny cause I just think of little kids dancing, and it is kind of how they dance sometimes. 

       Everything is going pretty well, it's feeling a little weird now that our mission president is almost finished his mission. Pres Holland when he was here told us to start praying for the new mission president and his wife. Apparently they get kind of nervous before coming out? Who knew, right? I'm sure they'll be great, he is only like 37 so he must be a fireball. I'm looking forward to meeting him, also he is from Honduras, so he probably has awesome spanish.

      Well that's all I can think of for now, thanks again for speaking with me yesterday! Have a great week, I love you!

Week 67

   Haha yeah the other day we went out with Hermano Gutman to visit some people. Unfortunately, nobody answered the door! We tried visiting like 15 people, but nobody was home, and it was like 5pm. Idk, it was strange. But it was fun, he's a great guy, their family feeds the missionaries in the branch on Sundays. And yeah, Elder Gonzalez sweats more than anyone I've ever met! It's so funny. Like at least twice a day we'll be talking with someone in the doorway and they'll get this suprized look on their face and say, "Oh wow, do you guys need some water?". And I think it is the funniest thing. He has like beads of sweat on his face after like 10mins of being outside. It's useful I guess, we get in more houses because of it. 

    The work is pretty interesting here, lots of people lately have.. not like rejected us, but they just say they're not interested. Like a lot more than usual, so the other day we figured we'd try a different approach, we sang some hymns to people. So we'd walk up to them if they were outside or if it was a referral we'd contact it and ask them how their day is going and everything and ask if we could sing them a song. Even then, lots of people said no! I would reply, "just a quick song, it'll only take like a minute?" And they'd tell us that they already have a church and they don't want to hear anything about other beliefs. It was really strange! Some people liked it of course and a few invited us back, it was just really strange that someone would reject a little song. But I guess it helps us to know that they're not prepared to hear the gospel. Haha it is super interesting, we had a bunch of kids following us around when we were singing to people though, they were nice :P. 

    Laredo is pretty different, the weather is a lot dryer, and hotter. What a blessing that I'm here in the Summer. We have some awesome investigators, it's just really hard to keep in contact. I don't really know why people have phones down here or why they're always on them because they never answer their phone! It's crazy. Laredo is really great though, I am having lots of fun and growing a lot. Even though I feel that we haven't had lots of time for spanish studies, my spanish has improved, maybe not grammatically, but I can speak better. 

    The thing we're working on right now is having more animo in our zone. I don't know why or what it is but we just dont seem to have a lot of energy. I'm trying to help, I feel that I naturally have lots of energy. Who knows, I guess I'm just getting more accustomed to how things are here. 

    I've been thinking more and more about getting a new suit, Idk why but I really want to get a new suit. "Duncan we told you have to use the one we bought for you before your mission because it was expensive!" Yeah I know, and there's nothing wrong with the one I have, I just want a different color. Tons of missionaries find really cheap suits here that are really nice. One of the assistants has an awesome one that is like almost a denim color, and its an express and he got it all for like 175. But then thats just me liking to buy expensive stuff, you know how I am haha. 

     We were thinking of doing the mother's day call around 6 or 7 that night. So probably just plan on that night, I'm not sure if they'll let us shoot you a quick email the day before to make sure or anything, but let me know if that works for you. 

      I hope you guys have a great week and I'll see you soon! I love you!

Week 66

  Hey mom! Yeah the Gutman's are great. They had all the missionaries in the branch come over and also the zone leaders. We have 3 sets of missionaries in the branch! It's crazy! It's a small branch, not many people attend, I think we had like 40ish this week. And then we all attend the YSA branch afterwards as well, it's not mandatory, but we can if we want / have an investigator. Laredo is struggling quite a lot with members of the church. We have plenty of less active families though. We are trying to work on it. I like to just talk to people about where they are in life at the moment and help them realize what could change, it seems not a lot of missionaries do that here.

    Guess what, ELDER HOLLAND CAME TO OUR MISSION YESTERDAY!!!!!!!!! It was soooo cooolll!! He is hilarious. Like honestly I laughed so hard for like the first 10 minutes he spoke. I think it was because we were all so nervous, and when he said anything remotely funny, we all died. Guess what, I'm for sure worthy, haha he shook everyones hand when we walked in and had us say our name and where we're from, and he said that when he does so, he looks into our eyes and can see if we are worthy to be out. He said that is how they do interviews as apostles. It was terrifying haha, I kept thinking to myself, "Is there anything I need to repent of?" 

    He was very impressed with our mission, he said that most of the missions he visits he has to talk about obedience and the basics but he talked with us about the spirit and the importance of it and how we can better use it. It was crazy how incredibly strong the spirit was in that room, full of missionaries, a former mission president and his wife, our current mission president and his wife, a General Seventy and a member of the twelve. Lindsey Robins also came and spoke. 

      It was mind blowing, not that they gave us the key to life or anything, he just had such animo about the gospel and how important missions are. I love that man, he is awesome. 

      My new companion is Elder Gonzalez, he is on his 5th transfer. But no, he is not a native spanish speaker. His mom is Peruvian so he understands pretty much everything but not a perfect speaker. He does have good spanish for how old he is in the mission. He is super cool, I was worried that I was going to get a weird companion but I didnt, he did though.

    Laredo is pretty hot, but all of Southern Texas is, apparently it gets up towards 115 or so sometimes, should be an interesting summer. I'll drink plenty of water, cant be turning into Samson, getting dehydrated and almost dying in the battlefield.

    I love you a ton and hope you guys continue to have fun and keep busy, you're good at staying busy :). I will talk with you guys soon for mothers day!

Week 65

Hey Mom!

       Yeah so we got transfers today! Guess what!?! I'm leaving :(((( It's super sad, I have such a good relationship with the members here and I am going to miss so much this transfer. First off, we are having a branch party next week, for the 1 year anniversary of the branch, then Cyndi's little sister is going to have her Quincinera. Not sure if you guys know what that is, it's basically a huge party that mexicans throw for their daughters when they turn 15. Apparently her family put in like $20,000 into the party. Then we are going to skype home for mother's day this transfer! Wooo! I just really wanted to meet Elder Tomasi's family. Then I am going to miss tie digging on Mondays and basketball with the two zones on Saturday. 

       But I guess that's what the Lord wants for me, I am sure that the next area will be just as exciting. I think he knew that I'd miss getting new ties so he blessed us today with a ton. We got 42 ties for free, then we got about 200lbs for $10. Which we had to beg the lady to let us pay her just a little bit for them. It was pretty dope. We sorted through all of them and here is a picture of them when we started choosing who got which tie.

       The area is doing pretty well, we have a few families we are working with, everytime we talk with them it seems they have another problem with a commandment that we have yet to bring up, they'll offer us tea, and then introduce us to their children and their girlfriend. Then offer to have us over for dinner Sunday night. Super sweet people, it's just amazing the difference the Gospel makes in people's lives.

        The other Elders have an investigator who's name is Maria, like almost all women here. Anyway she is like 79 and has dementia. They were teaching her and she'd progress really well, accept the BOM and Joseph Smith but then doesn't understand the authority to baptize. So we'd explain it and she'd understand and then accept to be baptized, only to forget that lesson the next day. It became a problem when she started becoming irritated that we kept "bothering" her about it, even though in the end, it turned out being what she wanted. So they had to drop her as an investigator, because she just can't progress with her mind not being in the right state.

     Even though I'm sad and a little nervous like always to go to a new area, I'm excited to see what else there is for me to learn elsewhere. Thanks so much for your continued support and I hope you guys have a great week! I love you! 

Week 64

Hi Mom!

   This week has been pretty good. Lots of thinking and correction. Recently the mission hasn't been doing super well like I've said in the past emails. So the question all our leaders have been asking us is, "Why do you do the things you do?" So almost every time I do anything I'm basically doing it selfishly. It has been super eye opening, to see that here we are on a mission to serve the Lord and forget ourselves in the work and almost everything we do sometimes is for ourselves. It is super hard to make sure that you are focusing on other people and not yourself. It's like a constant battle in my mind, "why am I doing this?", "is it really for someone else or am I just justifying?". Also doing things in the correct priority. There is always a good, better and best situation and lots of times I want to do something good, but it's not the best thing that I could be doing.

      Elder Tomasi and I are doing really well, he is a super pure missionary and has a great heart. Something that I've noticed a lot in myself is how easy it is to talk about others. We have lots of.. different people down here and they do.. strange things. So it is fun to talk about the things that we have experienced in our missions and the interesting people we've met, but it often leads to joking and teasing. So I need to be more careful about what I say and from the start, what I think. Every action starts in the mind.

      Transfers are this upcoming week. Super fast! I think that transfers are only becoming shorter and shorter. I am expecting someone to leave because Elder Tomasi has only ever stayed with a companion for more than one transfer once. So the odds are that at least one of us will leave.

     I spoke with an older couple the other day at a baptism that the ward had, and they were from Guatemala. So I told them that I had a companion from Guatemala, Elder Juarez. I couldn't remember exactly where in Guatemala he is from though. It was pretty cool, and then she asked me where I learned to speak spanish, and I said here. And she said wow, and you speak so fast! I did a little celebration dance in my mind and thanked her. it was nice to hear, especially because it has been something I've been thinking about. Lots of missionaries here never really learn to speak fluent spanish, and people don't really like it when we speak poorly. It is interesting the amount of respect is lost when you can't communicate very well. 

    We had a really cool experience, we recieved a referral from the other elders that serve in the spanish ward, and so we went to go find it and the address was wrong. So we asked them for directions and what the house looked like and it didn't really make sense and so we just decided to knock the door we thought it'd be. Turned out to be the wrong door but we talked to a guy and he was really cool. He said he had been going through a hard time and he'd love to come to church with us the next day.(it being Saturday) So we gave him directions and when it started and he said he'd be there. Now I'm not sure about other missions, but lots of people say, "Oh yeah I'll be there for sure, you've got my word." and then they never show up. So I didn't really think much of it. Then yesterday in church, in sacrament meeting, none of our investigators had shown up that said they would, so we were kind of disappointed. Then my companion went with another missionary to go find something and another Elder and I were out in the foyer. Then while we were sitting out there, our investigator that we'd talked with at his door the previous day walked in with his daughter! He apologized for being late and promised he'd be on time the next week. So we took his daughter to her class and we went to Gospel Principles. We learned about the Atonement, perfect for a man with a repentant heart. He participated a lot and added to the lesson and read several pages from the book. Then in Priesthood we talked about Receiving Revelation through Modern Day Prophets. Which we explained, he accepted, and again participated a lot. It was mind blowing. He was completely comfortable and he knew nobody, and he had lots of people come up and introduce themselves after both classes. It was super great. I can see him in the baptismal font. I can just feel his joy that day when he comes closer to his Saviour. 

      Then today I needed a haircut and we were told about a place where college students get to practice cutting hair and they dont charge more than a few dollars. So I went with another elder and we got our hair cut. My barber had only cut hair for a few months and was pretty nervous about giving me a taper. It took about an hour and a half and the sides of my head are very short, like a 1 and the top is just as long, I look a little like a gangster. but it'll grow back. It was a good learning experience for both of us, will I go back? I'm not too sure..

     Thanks for keeping me updated with everything with the house and everybody. Glad you're all doing well. I love you muchisimo y ojala que tenga un buen dia!