Week 14 - Feliz Año Nuevo and Best Birthday Ever!

Hello friends and family!

First of all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!  I didn't get to write last week so I hope all of you had a great Christmas and that all of my packages from you guys are on their way (;  Also I hope that all of you guys start off your new year strong with some good goals, and I hope that your goals last longer than two weeks!  Personally, I didn't make any goals, that way I can't break them.

Our Christmas out here in Mexico was awesome.  We went to a member's house to call our families and hangout for the night.  This family is the coolest family I've met since I got out here.  They all know a little bit of English, and everything they know is hilarious.  Like the dad, Alejandro, calls everything coffee and donuts and Cocoa Krispies. We played some board games with them and ate a ton of food.  It was really fun.

Also this week I got to watch my companion shave a baby's head.  I think she's like five months old.  He cut all of her hair off and then even used my electric razor for my beard to make her completely bald.  Then for New Years, we went to a member's house with some other missionaries.  I got some socks as a new years gift and we ate some KFC.  I bet you're all jealous.

The best part of the week was the 30th.  First of all, thank you to everyone for the birthday wishes!  The best birthday present was being able to baptize a family on my birthday.  It was a mom and her two sons.  Mayra, Derek, and Marco.  It was super cool because my companion and I both got to baptize so we were both in white.  This family progressed so fast, just like our investigator Cristian.  It's been awesome to work with them and see the change that has happened in their lives.  Even in the young kids, 8 and 9 years old, I was able to see the gospel help make them happier and closer as a family.

That's just about it for the week!  I love you guys and hope you have an awesome week!

Elder Warren

Week 12 - Chicken Feet and Feliz Navidad!!

What's good mis amigos,

Didn't I tell you guys this week was gonna be better?  Well to sum it up, it was.  Let's get down to some awesome and funny stuff first.  Pretty sure the first thing I ate right after emailing last week was CHICKEN FEET.  Man Mexicans are weird if they really think that chicken feet taste good.  The texture is terrible and the taste isn't that much better.  I ate like half of one before I was about to throw up and my comp ate the other four.  Then the next day was Dia de la Virgen.  I don't really know exactly was happened because we didn't really get to go out of the house but I know that people were shooting fireworks at each other and that a bunch of people just block off streets and have church right in front of people's houses.  Then they all looked at us funny when we passed by because we're Mormons.  But we didn't die so it was good.

On Friday we had our Mission Christmas party.  It was sweet.  I met hecka new people.  They gave us hot dogs and hamburgers but they were actually super trash.  That's the first time in my life that I wasn't excited to eat hot dogs and hamburgers haha.  But President Mann dressed up as Superman and we played a bunch of basketball so it was sweet.  It was fun to actually play against people that are good for once. Most of the people down here have no idea how to ball.

Alright now onto the good stuff.  This Saturday we had the baptism of Cristian, our golden investigator.  He's so awesome.  It's crazy how you can see a person completely change their life in just three weeks and be prepared for baptism.  He shared his testimony after and it was super strong.  Then after the baptism, we talked with one of our other investigators, Ahuizotl.  We've been having a really hard time getting appointments with him because he's been so busy.  But we were able to set a baptismal date with him right there at the end of the baptism and he even told us that although he hasn't been able to see us too much lately, he loves seeing us.  He said that when he sees us and talks to us he forgets all of his worries, and he says he appreciates the work we put in to see him because other missionaries he's talked to haven't worked so hard.  We're meeting with him tonight and I'm excited.

Then last night we had a Christmas activity with our zone and the stake.  We put ourselves in front of the church and invited anyone passing by to come inside to see a video about Jesus Christ and Christmas and to eat cookies.  We got a bunch of people to come in and they ended up staying inside for like 45 minutes.  My companion and I got appointments with like 6 new people just because of that activity.  It was awesome.

Well, I hope you all have a great week!  Everybody remember to keep Christ in your hearts and minds as we approach Christmas and try to share his light with those around you.  I love you guys and Merry Christmas!

Elder Warren

Week 11 - Laundry Fiascos, Pinatas, and the Parable of the Vineyard

Hola amigos,

Well, no baptisms this week after all.  Our investigators were being a little bit difficult this week.  It was super hard for us to get appointments with them and a lot of the appointments we set fell through.  But that's just how it goes out here haha.  I feel like this week will be a lot better.  If we keep setting appointments and baptismal dates sooner or later they have to stick!

Alright so this week we were washing our clothes and I just about killed someone.  We were washing all of our white clothes and apparently, nobody in the whole country of Mexico owns a dryer so everytime we have to wring everything out and hang it to dry.  Anyways we were hanging up our white clothes and we were about 2/3 of the way done when the clothesline snapped and EVERYTHING fell on the ground.  It was not a very good morning.  We had to rewash and rehang everything and I HATE hanging things up to dry.  Plus I was super hungry at the time which didn't help.

Also this week we had a devotional thing for all of the young single adults in the stake.  It was put on by our mission president so all of us missionaries from our zone came and sang hymns for it.  It was probably the greatest performance of Spanish Christmas hymns ever.  We had a ton of fun doing it actually I love the missionaries in my zone.  Then afterwards they had a bunch of piñatas and President Mann couldn't break one, but then Hermana Mann came in and wrecked it.  It was legendary.

Other than that the week was just work as normal.  Nothing too exciting happened this week which was lame.  But I feel like this week is going to be a lot better.  Tomorrow is Dia de la Virgen so hopefully, I'll see some crazy stuff if we get to leave our house.  Also, I'm super excited because our golden investigator Cristian is supposed to get baptized this Saturday.

To end I just want to share something I read a little bit ago that has really helped me recently.  It's Jacob 5:21-23.  I don't know exactly what it says because I don't have it in English but it's the parable of the vineyard?  The gardener took some of his best trees and put them in the worst part of his vineyard because he knew that they were strong enough to keep growing wherever he put them while he worked on other parts of his vineyard.  Sometimes we feel weak when we're put in hard situations, but I feel like it's the opposite.  Sometimes God puts us in tough situations or puts different trials in our lives not because we're weak, but because we're strong.  Because He knows we can grow no matter what situation he puts us in.

That's just about it for the week! I hope everyone has an awesome week and sends me presents for Christmas! (;  Love you guys!

Elder Warren

Week 10 - Golden Investigator and Tiny Dog!

What up my people,

This week was pretty boss.  We got a lot of work done out here in the Great City of Mexico.  Also I'm still out here killing the food.  I swear I've tried something new like everyday.  These homies here make a kind of soup called posole.  It's really good and I like it a lot.  Most of the time they put shredded pork or chicken in it and it tastes bomb.  But I guess sometimes they also put FREAKING BRAINS in this soup.  I was eating it with one of our zone leaders Elder Kay last night and I was like "Bro is this chopped up brain?" and he was like "Yeah dude." and I was like "From what animal?" and he said "Don't ask bro, just eat it."  I get kinda scared sometimes when people give us food haha.  But for the most part I really like everything I eat which is sweet.

Alright, just a few funny things from the week.  So one of the other Elders in our ward is named Elder Trinidad.  He's a real homie.  He doesn't know any English though.  But the other day it was hecka funny cause I was trying to tell him something and I was talking to him for like 30 seconds before I realized that I was talking in English, and then I was like "Wait, do you have any idea what I'm saying?"  And he just gave me a blank stare.  Then after I died laughing! I had to repeat the whole thing in Spanish.  But don't worry we're teaching him English.  We pretty much only teach him the bad things though.  Also we were painting some person's house the other day and idk whay but their little son loves me more than the other Elders and wanted to paint right next to me.  But that silly kid didn't know how to paint so he kept splashing pink paint into my hair and stuff! It was ridiculous!  I kept telling him that he could help paint other places but he would not leave my side... haha!

Alright so now to the baller parts of the week.  First, we went to the house of three of our investigators whose baptismal dates just fell through.  We took our district leader to do some "practice" baptismal interviews (they were actually real).  After all of the inverviews Elder Roberts concluded that they were all ready for baptism.  We put new baptismal dates for this Saturday and January 7.  I'm really hopeful about these new dates.

ALSO our investigator Cristain is straight up golden.  We taught him twice this week.  In our first lesson of the week we taught the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  He understands and accepts everything we teach him which is awesome.  During the lesson he actually asked us how he would go about getting baptised into our Church!  It was crazy.  We explained it all to him and put a baptismal date for the 16th of this month.  Then at the end of the lesson he asked us if he could say the closing prayer! Our second lesson with him also went really well about the Plan of Salvation.  And then this Sunday was fast Sunday and the Bishop wanted all of us to bear our testimonies.  So we did and after I told Cristian that he could go up and share something if he wanted to AND HE DID.  He gave his testimony about how he was new but that he already knew the Church was true, that he wanted to learn more from the Book of Mormon, and that us missionaries were angels sent into his life.  Oh my gosh he is so awesome.  It's so true how the Lord has prepared people for us to teach, all of us.  There are people out there already willing to hear the Gospel and live its teachings, literally all we have to do is bring it to their doorstep.

Well that's just about it for this week.  Pretty much just living life out here in Mexico with my dawgs.  By the way I met the smallest freaking dog in the world last night and we're homies now.  I'll send a pic.  Everybody have a great week and be awesome!  Love you guys!

Elder Warren

Week 9 - "Just One More Door"

Hey Amigos,

So this week was actually pretty uneventful but I will try to make it as exciting as possible.  We went to the temple on Tuesday so that was a great start to the week.  Half of the mission went so the session was FILLED.  It was awesome.  I got to see all of my buddies from the CCM.  And then afterward we had a zone conference (which was really a three-zone conference) which was pretty cool.  They gave us hecka pizza.  Little Caesars has never tasted so good haha.  But yeah it was really fun we set a bunch of goals as a mission and I met a bunch of new people.

Throughout the week we just worked as usual.  It was a little rough sometimes this week because appointments to teach investigators fall through all the time because usually when we go, they're just not home.  But oh well life goes on.  The best thing ever was that on Thanksgiving we hit up Cinco por Quince super hard as like a big Thanksgiving dinner with a bunch of missionaries.  I ate 27 tacos.  It was legendary.

Also, we've been hanging out with our zone leaders a ton.  They're super cool guys, Elder Kay and Elder Lopez.  They're both in my selfie in front of the Temple (Elder kay is the blonde and Elder Lopez is the Argentinan).  We also go to the gym with them every morning and they work out pretty dang hard which is sweet.  I'll probably be looking like Arnold pretty soon.

Okay, so something really cool happened this week.  We were knocking on doors on a street on Thursday, and we were pretty much at the end of the street.  Nobody wanted to listen to us and we hadn't found any new investigators.  I'm pretty sure we were both about ready to try somewhere else but we were at the very last house and we said "Just one more door."  We knocked on that last door and a man named Cristian opened up to us.  We taught him a little bit and then set a date to come teach him.  We taught him on Saturday the first lesson.  He accepted everything we taught him and was really interested.  he only had one question that we cleared up right away, and he agreed to come to church with us and even said a prayer to close the lesson for us.  THEN when we passed for him on Sunday and knocked for like five minutes and no one answered.  We were walking away when we both felt like we should go back and knock one more time.  We did and he answered! He got ready really fast and came to church with us and he actually stayed for all three hours and really enjoyed it.  it was awesome.  I'm excited to keep teaching him.

Well, that's just about it! Have a great week everyone love you guys!

Elder Warren

Week 8 - Maximo Esfuerzo

Yoooo what's going on!

This week pretty much just flew by.  We actually just got back from the centro a little bit ago which was sweet.  It's like the actual nice part of the city.  They have a bunch of American stores and some cool old cathedrals and stuff.  It was awesome.  And it's a really touristy area so there were actually white people there! I saw more Americans there than I've seen during my whole time in Paraiso haha.  It's weird going into a Costco-sized store and being looked at funny because you're the only white person in the whole store.  But it's chill, I just smile really big at everyone that looks at me weird.  Also, it was crazy cause at the centro this dude that was hecka drunk came up to us and said, "You guys are Mormons right?"  And I mean this dude was super wasted, he was like dancing the whole time he was talking to us.  But anyways he told us all about how he was like wrecked after some party he went to last night and how a Missionary helped him get home, and somehow he included in his story lightsabers and lasic eye surgery.  It was wack.

Some other funny things from the week:  Everybody does this weird whistle thing here whenever they see something that's cool.  But I don't think anyone here knows how to whistle because it's more like a bunch of air.  But you guys will see, I'll probably be doing it a ton when I get home haha.  Also, there's a basketball court right next to the stake center and it's in our area so we pass by it quite a bit, and literally every time we're over there the people beg me to dunk or to play so that I can be on their team.  I should start charging them pesos to watch me play.  Also, another thing that was hecka funny was that we were walking down a street and my comp was like "Those are the things that I want you to try!" (He was looking at churros.)  He's like "They're called churros, they're like donut sticks."  And I was like "Bro we have churros in America.  I've had more churros in America than I've had here!"  It was pretty funny.

I've been pretty good out here, just trying to work hard.  And I've been relatively healthy, except for like the past two days where I haven't felt too good.  But don't worry, it didn't stop me from destroying fifteen tacos at cinco por quince right before this.

The coolest experience from the week happened on Thursday.  I really needed something good that day because all of our baptismal dates for that Saturday fell through.  It's so hard seeing someone so ready for baptism that just doesn't want to do it right then because of doubts.  But we will keep working with her and her family.  But anyways we were contacting on Thursday and decided to do something different.  We put a table out in front of the Church and layed out a bunch of pamphlets and Books of Mormon to talk to people about.  I didn't really think it would work though cause we usually have the most success knocking on doors, so I didn't have any faith.  After 15 minutes I was ready to quit because nobody wanted to talk to us.  Then Elder Lopez suggested that we offer a prayer.  I said okay and decided to just put all of my faith in Christ.  No joke, within two minutes we had people coming up to our table asking about our church without us even having to talk to them first.  We had like three or four people coming up to us at a time, so my comp and I even had to split up so that I could talk to two while he talked to another two.  We ended up getting 8 new contacts in 45 minutes.  It was crazy.

I also want to share a talk that I read by David A. Bednar called "A Christlike Character".  If you haven't read it, read it.  He shares the scripture John 14: 25-27 which is really good.  A quote from the talk is "The Lord determines if and when we receive all spiritual gifts, but we must do all in our power to desire, yearn, invite, and qualify for such gifts."  We can't just sit around and wait for Christlike attributes.  We have to go out and develop them.  We have to put in the work in order to get the reward.

Peace out everyone, thank you for all your support!  I hope all of you have an amazing week!

Elder Warren

Week 7 - Paraiso and First Baptism

Hola Gente,

Holy cow this week flew.  It feels like I just got here tbh.  The CCM was fast but when you're out here working it goes by way faster.  Everything is going pretty good here!  The members are super nice.  They feed us every day at lunch.  We actually have two companionships in our ward.  It's me and Elder Lopez, and Elder Roberts and Elder Trinidad.  They're awesome.  We eat lunch together every day which is super cool because I always like having more people around.  But other than that during the day we usually don't see them cause we have two different areas in this city.  It's funny cause I'm from Paradise CA and my first area is called Paraíso which is the same haha.  So technically I've been born in Paradise twice!

I haven't gotten robbed yet but someone actually tried to rob me my first day which was pretty funny.  But he was just super high I think.  Also, Mexico City is crazy!  It's so freaking different than in the states.  All of the houses are just cement pretty much and it's just nowhere near as urban as American cities.  But the people are cool for the most part and the food is super good!  The tacos are awesome.  We go to this place sometimes that has five tacos for fifteen pesos.  The tacos are small so you have to eat like 15 but they're the best tacos I've ever had.  It's awesome.  Also, we were at a member's house eating one day and they actually served us fried blood! It was pretty gross.  The texture was whack and the taste wasn't very good either.  I've also tried a bunch of soups and some things that are called sopes.  They're really just tacos but everyone says they're not tacos so I guess they're not but they are.  People are crazy.

Funny things from the week.  So there's a park next to our house and every morning these old ladies go outside and dance to pop songs.  It's funny cause they listen to American pop songs so they have no idea what they're saying and they're all terrible dancers.  But it's super amusing to see them out there.  Also a few nights ago I was cooking some ramen (cause that's the only food we had in our house this week) and I kept electrocuting myself!  Every time I stuck the fork in of touched the pot it shocked me like crazy.  I was so dang confused and I was about to kill my ramen.  But then I realized that I was barefoot and that's why it was shocking me.  I'm never walking around barefoot again.

Some other cool things from the week are that I joined a gym.  It's 250 pesos a month which is pretty dang good and we go every morning.  Our trainer's name is Benny and he's awesome.  And I guess one of the members of our ward actually makes knockoff clothing for a living, like Nike and Adidas and all that.  All of his stuff looks so real but it's just weird haha.  AND the dogs are literally everywhere.  You can't walk anywhere without seeing at least 10 dogs.  But they're pretty cool.  Most of them will let you pet them.

Some really cool things from this week were that our investigator Jonny got baptized! I didn't get to know him very well before the baptism but I could tell right away that the Gospel had made a huge impact on His life.  After his baptism, he bore his testimony and it was super strong.  His life actually made a 180 degree turn towards Christ and it was awesome to hear about that conversion.  Also, the first night here when we were contacting we set an appointment with a woman named Janet.  She was actually my first contact and she said we could come back.  We met with her a couple days ago and she let us in to find a family of four!  We had a really good lesson with them.  They're Evangelists but we feel really good about them.  We're teaching them again this week.

Also, I found a scripture this week that I really liked.  It's 2 Nephi 22:2.  It basically says (because I don't have it in English) That God is my salvation.  I will trust in Him and not fear because He is my strength and my song.  I think this is very important for my mission.  I'm out here for two years, trying to dedicate my life to the Lord.  It gets rough sometimes, but I know that everytime something is hard or uncomfortable I can just put my trust in the Lord because He will give me strength every time.  

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

Elder Warren