Week 52 - A Ver Si Jala!

Hey Everyone!

Pretty good week this week.  Lots of chamba (work).  Last Monday we went with a Colombian woman that we found contacting last week named Sandra.  She's super cool.  She lives with her husband and her two little kids.  They moved her from Columbia like 4 months ago I think?  She was really interested in our message and it's always cool to hear a different accent.  The Mexico City Chilango accent is funny so change is good.  Actually people always tell me that my accent is super chilango and that I talk like a Narco, because I learned how to talk Spanish in Iztapalapa which is super ghetto and the accent stuck.  Oops.  But anyways we taught her two lessons and she accepted a baptismal date this week!  Her only problem is that she works on Sundays.  We're gonna have to work on that.

Also this week we went with Karla and Joel (the two school teachers that need to get married before we can throw them in the water) and had a really good lesson.  Since I'm leaving in two weeks I told them that I really want them to keep progressing when I leave.  We set a new goal with them and they said that for sure they are going to get married in December.  They set a date and made plans to get it done.  It was great.

On Saturday we had a leadership meeting in my old area, the famous PARAISO.  I was so excited to go back there.  It was sweet.  Sadly I couldn't visit anyone, but the meeting was good.  We talked about what we can do to make the mission better.  Right now we're really focusing in becoming truly converted, not just receiving a testimony.  We talked about how we need to learn how to be true disciples of Christ while we're here and that if someone else isn't being a disciple of Christ, it's our job to correct them.  There were a lot of good ideas shared and it was awesome to feel the Spirit in that room for about 4 hours.  Good times.

That's about it for the week.  Have a great week!  Love you guys!

Elder Warren

Elder Kay's face

Tacos 5 por $15 in Paraiso

Love these guys!

Elder Osorio and I in a mototaxi

Just so you guys know I can still dunk after 1 year in the mish

Week 51 - NDH De Oro

What's up fam,

We had an awesome week this week!  This Saturday we had the baptism of a little girl named Briza.  It was really cool how we found her.  We went to do a service project with a member from our ward and she told us she had a reference for us of an inactive from our ward named Teresa.  We went to visit her and found out that she has a 9 year old daughter!  We started working with both of them and were able to reactivate Teresa and baptize Briza!  It was really cool.  We had three investigators present in the baptism which was awesome.

Also we planned a Family Home Evening with an awesome family from our ward this Thursday.  They told us to invite all the people we wanted.  So we did, and we were able to bring FIVE investigators and a recent convert.  We played games and taught about prayer and it was awesome.  We love that family.

On Tuesday we had a Zone Conference and it was the greatest one so far.  They were talking a lot about if we're doing our job here on the mission.  They made the reference to a pit stop team.  They can change a car's tires and fill it with gas in like one second (if you haven't seen it watch a video).  If we're doing our job efficiently and correctly, we find great results.  They shared a lot about Jesus Christ and our own mothers and if we were making them proud for the work we're putting in and the loyalty we show them by being great missionaries. (Don't worry Coach Susie, I got you.)

To finish off the week it was Mexican Independence Day.  It was WILD.  Everyone was shooting of super loud fireworks and getting drunk in the streets.  It was pretty crazy!

That's about it for the week!  I hope you're all doing great!  Love and miss you guys!

Elder Warren

Week 50 - Que Flojera!

Hello Everyone!

Pretty solid week this week, probably because I wasn't sick haha.  Some cool things from the week:  We've been teaching a man named Julio recently.  I don't know if I've mentioned him before, but he's the father of a less active family and he's not a member.  We've been working with them for quite a while and finally (five years after the baptisms of his family) he's progressing!  We've had some really good lessons and he and his whole family went to church for the second time in a row!  That's the first time he's been to church twice in a row.  Good progress.

Also this week we started teaching a sastre (I don't remember how to say that in English).  The missionaries were teaching him like a year ago but they stopped visiting, who knows why.  We started talking with him and he was like, "What are the requirements for baptism?"  Long story short, we explained the requirements for baptism to him and put a baptismal date as a goal that we're going to work towards with him.  All he's gotta do is stop drinking alcohol, which shouldn't be too hard with the help of the Gospel.

Also we've been working with that reference that a member gave us (the one of the less active member with her daughter that's 9 years old that she wants us to baptize).  They've been able to go to church with us and we have her baptism planned for this Saturday!  It's pretty cool because this Saturday is Mexican Independence Day (which must be like Fourth of July but with tamales and tacos and stuff?).  We're excited for it and hoping that everything goes well!  I'll let you all know how wild Independence Day gets down here.

That's about it for now,  hope you all have a great week!  Love you guys!

Elder Warren

Pictures:

Getting my young selfie game up with my friends at the bowling alley x5

A pic of the Young Gun J-rad and I before the mish

A pic of the Young Gun J-rad and I before the mish

Getting my young selfie game up with my friends at the bowling alley!

Bowling fun!

Week 49 - Ataque De La Gripa

Hello Amigitos,

This week was a little slower for us.  I was sick all week with a pretty bad cold so I couldn't really breathe or stay awake, but we were able to get some work done still.

We had a cool visit with my recent convert, Alejandro (the old dude that got baptized like 2 months ago).  We were talking with him and he said that he wanted to help more people learn about the church.  He said, "Let's go knock on all of the doors in this area and explain to them all why they should be Mormon."  Alejandro is so awesome.  He laid out a whole plan for us to knock on every single door in the Colonia to baptize more people.  So we're gonna start doing that with him in a couple of weeks.  It will be really cool because Alejandro is a professional salesman, and he's one of the best.  I'm excited to see how he "sells" the Gospel!

Also this morning we went to the offices and while we were there was an earthquake alarm.  So all of us missionaries went outside to see what was up.  There wasn't an earthquake, but some drunk dude came up to us and started yelling at us.  He actually had pretty good English for a drunk dude.  He said that it wasn't fair that some dude beat him up, and I guess that was our fault?  He threw some garden hedge clippers at President Mann but missed by a lot because he was pretty wasted.  And then a bunch of girls from across the street started waving at us and taking pictures.  I guess they're not used to seeing so many white people haha.  It was a fun trip to the offices.

Well there's some other stuff from the week but it's not too interesting so I won't bore you all.  This week will be better because I don't feel too sick anymore.  Hope you all have a great week!  Love you guys!

Elder Warren

2 Week Old Puppy (:

Pres and Elder Santiago (He leaves next week)

We're big (but he's bigger)

The five white people from my generation

The zone at the end of last cycle

Week 48 - Olvidados

Hello Everyone,

We had a pretty solid week.  Yesterday Rafaela got confirmed after her baptism last Sunday.  President Mann was there to see it and he was able to talk to her and her family afterward which was cool.

Also this Monday we had a cool experience.  A sister from our ward asked us to help her move some old stuff up to her roof (on a three-story house, which was pretty tiring).  After we helped her she made us pancakes which was pretty awesome, but it was more awesome because she gave us a reference of a less-active sister from the ward.  We went to visit her this week and turns out she has a nine year old daughter and she wants her to get baptized!  We were obviously willing to help her with that haha.  The blessings of service!

Today's the day of changes but we didn't have changes, which was what we were expecting because I have to finish Elder Callirgos' training.  So we're getting ready for six more weeks together here in Pantitlan!  It should be really good, there's a lot of work here right now.  We have three people preparing to be baptized in the month of September so we'll see how that goes!  We're having a good time out here and seeing the blessings of our work!

Well that's pretty much it for this week, it was pretty tranquilo.  Hope you all are doing well and that you have a great week!

Elder Warren

Week 47 - Back 2 Back

Hello my friends,

Awesome week this week.  Yesterday we had a baptism (back to back).  One of our investigator's named Rafaela got baptized.  We've been teaching her and her family for a long time so it was a really cool day.  Also it was cool because this week she started to have some doubts and she wasn't sure that she was ready to get baptized.  We talked with her a lot and were able to help her with those doubts, and she decided she was ready to get baptized.  After the baptism there were no doubts.  I asked her how she felt after the service and she looked at me with tears of joy in her eyes and said, "I'm very content."  It was awesome.  Also afterward two of her grandsons said they wanted to follow her example and start listening to our lessons!

ALSO we have two investigators that have been listening to the missionaries for a super long time (if you don't know what a long time is, it means 6 years).  The problem is that they're not married.  The woman, Karla, wanted to get married and get baptized, but the man, Joel, kept saying that he didn't want to get married.  Last week we asked them to talk seriously about marriage and what they are going to do.  This Friday, when we visited them again, Joel said that he was finally able to look at marriage differently and that he knew it was necessary.  He was able to see how marriage would help his family, house, job, etc., and said that it was going to happen before the end of this year.  Great progress.

That was the best of the week!  I'll keep you all updated on the other awesome stuff I do in the near future.  Have a great week!

Elder Warren

(Also we fould and killed that stupid mouse that woke us up at 2 am which was a huge success.  I will attach a photo and video.)

The selfie is with my buddy Ulisses the cholo

Week 46 - Bautismos Sorpresas

Mi Gente Que Tranzita,

Pretty awesome week.  One of our investigators told us on Saturday night, out of nowhere, that she wanted to get baptized and confirmed on Sunday so that she could go to the temple with the other youth from our ward this week. So we made it happen!  Her name is Monica.  She was the only non-member from her family so it was pretty easy to teach and baptize her.  She was able to get baptized and confirmed yesterday and it was an awesome service.  My boy Elder Santiago in the offices is gonna put her information in the system today so that she can go do baptisms this week!

Also Ulisses, the awesome dude that's been to jail and has maybe killed somebody before (who knows) started reading the Book of Mormon all by himself this week to help calm him down in difficult times.  He read about Enos and was interested in learning about repentance, just like Enos was able to do through his prayer.  We had a really great lesson with him and he says that he'll go to church with us (for the very first time) this Sunday.  He's such a cool guy.  And I feel safer in my area because I'm his friend hahaha.

On Friday we did divisions with some other Elders because I teach a white lady in their area and she doesn't speak any Spanish.  And I'm the only white person in this area so I go over there every Friday.  It's pretty dang difficult because (1) I'm not used to teaching in English, and (2) She asks a TON of questions.  She's super skeptical about everything.  And then later that evening we had a literally debate with a family about religious beliefs which was fun because nobody got their feelings hurt.  And it was funny because they're supposedly from the same religion but they started to disagree on so many things and were almost yelling at each other.  There were a lot of interruptions and wild ideas flying around in that room.  That was a first for me.

That's it for the week!  Hope you all are doing well!  Love and miss you all!

Elder Warren

Week 45 - La Pura Pachanga

Hey Amigos,

It was a wild week this week.  I wanted to die Saturday night.  A mouse got into our room (who knows how, our house isn't THAT dirty) and woke us up at 2 am because it started eating the wall.  It took us like an hour and a half but we finally found it and cornered it behind some suitcases, with the plan to move the suitcases and stomp on the mouse to kill it.  I was about to kill it but to be honest this lil guy caught me by surprise with a wild sneak attack and I got scared.  Long story short, we didn't kill it.  I hate mice.

This week we had a lessong with two investigators that were references from a member of our ward (thanks Hermana Lucy).  We taught the Restoration and after the lesson we invited her to pray to know if it was true.  She said, "It's okay, I believe you.  I already know that all of it is true.  If I didn't, I wouldn't have kept listening to you."  We were both caught of guard.  It was pretty cool, I'm pretty sure that's the first time that's happened to me here!  

Also this Sunday was really cool because everyone that we invited to church (except like 3) went to church with us!  So we had a ton of investigators there, including an alcoholic that we're teaching named Rafa.  He really hadn't progressed at all, but on Saturday we had a great lesson with him and yesterday he went to church with us AND to the addictions course that the church provides.  He's excited to keep going!

Also a little girl had an accident in her pants during English classes on Saturday which was pretty crazy.  Probably not her best day hahaha.

That's about it for the week!  Love you guys!

Elder Warren

Pics:

What I see every time I enter our bathroom

A quick selfie

The zone

Week 44 - Papas a La Francesa

Hello Everyone (:

We had a pretty wild week.  Lots of cool experiences.

First, I started teaching someone from France!  It's pretty wild. I never thought I would do that.  She's the girlfriend of a dude from our ward.  I teach her in English because she doesn't really speak Spanish yet.  We taught her about temples and the Book of Mormon and she's super cool.  She went to church twice already and she even made her boyfriend go to church, for the first time in TEN YEARS.  It was awesome.  I think this week we're going to take her to see the temple.

Also we've been teaching a man named Julio for a little bit, he's the father of a less-active family.  This week was really cool because his daughters went to Youth Conference and Sunday was the testimony meeting of all of the youth from the stake.  We felt like we should go with the family to the testimony meeting so that we could invite Julio.  We invited him and he said yes!!  Both of his daughters gave awesome testimonies.  We had to leave early because we had to go to the ward family home evening, so we'll see this week how he liked the meeting.

Also it was cool because at that same testimony meeting we were thinking about staying the whole time, but we felt like we should leave early to go to the ward FHE.  It was a good thing that we went because an investigator family that we haven't been able to visit in a long time showed up and we were able to make an appointment with them.  And the relief society made tamales which was also a blessing.  Thank you relief society.

Well that's about it from this week!  I hope you're all doing well!  Love you guys!

Elder Warren

Week 43 - He Llegado

What's up everybody,

We had a good week!  My first week of training Elder Callirgos was pretty dang cool.  We had some good experiences.  

First,  we went with two investigators named Karla and Joel.  They're really cool but they're not married, which is kind of a big problem.  They weren't really progressing with the idea of marriage so we gave them two weeks alone to talk about it.  We went back on Friday, and they were much more open to the idea.  Karla actually said that it was a for sure that she was going to get baptized, and she said that I would still be here when it happens.  Let's hope so!

Then, on Friday at like 11:30 at night we got two text messages.  I was pretty asleep but I decided to check who it was and it was a different investigator, Alejandro, that we left about two months ago because he didn't accept the principle of tithing.  We visited him on Saturday, and he told us that since we left, everything in his life kind of took a crash.  He stopped reading the scriptures and praying.  He said he was having too many problems too handle.  It was actually pretty cool because I think he understood how much this Gospel was helping him.  He said he wants us to start visiting him again and I think he'll be a lot more willing to pay tithing now.

THEN, we were talking to Miriam, a less active member and the aunt of Humberto, the young boy we were going to baptize but his grandma said no.  Anyways she was talking about Humberto and the conversation they had about baptism.  She asked him if he really wanted to get baptized and if he was going to continue in the church.  He said that he really wanted to get baptized, and that he wanted to keep progressing in the church because someday he wanted to be like me.  I was surprised because Miriam said that he said "Elder Warren", not "The missionaries".  I guess he really looks up to me.  It was pretty cool because I don't think I've ever been an example like that for someone.  It was cool to hear that I had helped him so much.  I hope he's able to reach his goals within the church and that his grandma will let him get baptized!

Well that's about it my dudes.  I miss and love you all!  Have a great week!

Elder Warren

Week 42 - Otra Vez

What's up Fam and Amigos,

Well we were having a pretty normal week when President Mann decided to call me on Friday and tell me that I would be training again!  Either I did a good job the first time or I need a little more practice because here we go again.  Elder Callirgos from Peru arrived early on Saturday night and stayed with Elder Ayala and I until today, the day of changes.  He's a cool guy!  Pretty relaxed which is cool.  Looks like I'm going to be in Pantitlan for three more months which means by the end of his training I will have one year in the mission and only two areas.  Awesome.

This week was pretty cool.  We started talking to Julio, the husband of a sister from our ward.  He's not a member, and has never wanted to listen to the missionaries.  But when we visited the family last week he was there and we shared a scripture with him.  He started talking about how he really wanted to change, to get closer to God, and to be a better example for his family.  He invited us to start teaching him.  We taught him the Plan of Salvation and this week he came to church for all three hours!  He even said the closing prayer in the third hour which was WILD.  It was awesome.

To finish I would like to hold a moment of silence for two Elders that finished their missions today.  Elder Lopez (one of my first zone leaders) and Elder Fuller (one of my best friends out here), will be in the real world by Wednesday.  They will be missed.  Love those guys.

Hope you all have a great week!  Love you all and I'm still waiting for your packages that you're gonna send me! (:

Elder Warren

Pics:

The Guajardo fam

My boy (and trainer) Elder Lopez

My new child, Elder Callirgos

My man Elder Morris who was in my district in the MTC

The Paraiso squad: Kay, Me, Fuller, Madrid

The one and only Elder Diuguid (and Elder Judd behind me)

Week 41 - Chupando La Piña

Que tranza amigitos,

Pretty solid week this week!  Highlight of the week was Alejandro's baptism this Saturday.  It was an awesome morning.  His daughter and her family, who are also members,  were able to come to the baptism.  I was able to talk to them before the services, and I realized how big of a blessing it was for their family.  His daughter is the only one in their family that was a convert, the rest of her brother and sisters aren't members.  She told me that her father's baptism was a miracle for her.  She said that after all the experiences she's had with her father and other family members, she never thought he would get baptized, or even get close to the church.  They were all so grateful for the change they saw in him and we could feel the Spirit really strong in that room. I'm grateful that I was able to be a tool in the conversion of her father.

Also it was super funny when I went to baptize him.  The first try, I went to lean him back into the water and he just said, " Nope, nope.  I can't do it."  Turns out his body's a little too old and he can't lean himself back.  So we decided to have him kneel down and get baptized face-first.  But it was WILD because I dunked his head under and when I went to lift him back up HE DIDN'T MOVE.  So he was kind of laying face down like a dead guy for a few seconds and I had to grab him by the torso and literally lift him out of the water.  Then he just popped his head up and said, "That's it?" as if nothing had happened hahaha.  But he said he loved it!  What a guy.

The sad news from the week is that we were also going to baptize a young man named Humberto.  He was 100% ready but when we went to ask permission from his grandma to baptize him she said that he was too young to make a decision like that.  We tried to convince her but her answer was no.  It was really sad for me.  It's so rough when someone can't receive the blessings of making a covenant for little things like that.  But I hope he continues faithful in the Church until his grandma finally lets him get baptized!  He's a great kid.

That's about it for the week!  Changes are next Monday so I'll keep you updated!  Hope you all are doing well and that you have a great week!

Elder Warren

Week 40 - Mexico Ya Chupo Faro

Mi Gente!

Let's start off with a moment of silence for Mexico, who lost in the World Cup this morning.  The people here aren't too happy about that.  Also, the presidential elections were yesterday so it's been a wild couple of days.  Chicharito wasn't enough to beat Neymar.  Bummer.

We had a pretty good week here in Pantitlan!  We saw more blessings from fasting this weekend.  One of our investigators that's going to get baptized soon, a young boy named Humberto, told us on Thursday that he was going to go out of town with his family for a few weeks (which meant he would miss his baptismal date).  Also, another investigator named Alejandro said he wasn't going to be able to go to church because he had to go to a different part of the city to vote on Sunday.  We fasted on Saturday that they would both be able to go to church this week and that we wouldn't have problems before their baptismal dates next week.  We passed to see if Humberto was still here and it turns out he didn't go on vacations with his grandma!  Only her and his uncle went.  He was able to go to church with us.  And Alejandro, although he was in a different area, was able to go to church with his daughter before he voted!  It was awesome.

Other than that we got some good work in with our other investigators and some of them are progressing really well!  To finish I just want to share a scripture I found this week.  It's 1 Timothy 4:12: Let no man despise thy youth; but be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.  I love this scripture.  We are the believers and everyone else should know it!  Our example should always stand out above the rest, no matter where we are.

I hope you all have a great week!  Miss you and love you all!

Elder Warren

Pics:

Turtle

When Korea won Mexico moved on in the World Cup, so they offered free tacos to all the Koreans

Some dudes in our Mexico jerseys