Week 24 - El Gato Du Diablo

Que tranza papis,

We had a good week out here in Mexico City!  Let's start off witha moment of silence for my good friends Elder Corzo and Elder Dominguez, as they finished their missions this week.  They will be missed.

We had a baptism this week!  We baptized a fourteen year old named Eiberham.  He's super cool.  He's the son of the alcoholics we're teaching.  It's really cool how we've seen a change in him in such a short amount of time.  He wanted something better for his life and he was able to find it in the Church.  We were super excited for him!

Also something really cool happened with Elias, the drug addict we've been teaching.  First of all, we've been teaching him for over a month and he hasn't relapsed in that time.  Also he wasn't able to go to church at all because he played baseball every Sunday.  But on Saturday he told us that he really wanted to go to church with us so he decided to quit baseball so that he would have time to go to all three hours of church.  It was really cool.

ALSO some inactives that we've been visiting have a cat that just had baby kittens!  I hate cats but they're so dang cute.  I sent a picture of how tiny they are.

Alright now to the good story.  So I went on divisions on Saturday with Elder Dominguez because he leaves home on wednesday and it was my last time to see him.  So we went to his area and were working in an area called Gelatao which is a little more dangerous.  We were working with a member whose name is Alexis and he's awesome.  We were walking to an appointment and these dudes ran up to us with knives and robbed us.  They took my money and my phone and my watch but they actually recognized Alexis and took off before they could steal my backpack which is good.  So turns out Alexis was inactive for 7 years, and during that time HE WAS IN THE MAFIA.  He got really mad because they took his smart watch.  So he took us to one of his friend's house from the mafia.  It was so sketchy.  Just being near the house I felt like I was in a drug deal.  This old lady was outside and Alexis asked if her son was home.  She was like "Do you know him?"  He said "yes."  She said "does he know you?"  "yes."  Then she went to go check.  She did some special knock to get in and when the door opened this dude was spread out on the couch like a freaking king.  He came out and Alexis told him what happened and he was like "hold on let me make some calls."  Within five minutes six other guys showed up.  These guys were Dwayne Johnson HUGE and tatted up and they all had little backpacks on (I asked Dominguez and it turns out those backpacks are for carrying their guns).  But they were all homies.  They all called us papi.  Anyways they heard we got robbed and they got super mad.  They were all like "let's go find these guys" and they got into a car and took off because they knew where one of them lived to get our stuff back.  They didn't end up finding them in their house which was probably good.  That was probably the coolest thing that's ever happened in my life.

I'm going to end with a quote from David A. Bednar: “If today you are a little bit better than you were yesterday, then that's enough. And, if tomorrow you are a little bit better than you were today, then that's enough.”  We're not going to become perfect in a single day.  But if we can make the little changes day by day, we'll see giant results.

Have a great week!  I love you all!

Elder Warren

Pics

The 4 of us from my generation that are training

Tiny puppy

Elder Dominguez

Baptism

Tiny kitty

Elder Corzo

Week 23 - Refuta Mi Tesis

Hola Mis Amigitos,

Pretty good week this week!  I felt better than last week which was good!  I was getting a bunch of killer headaches.  Turns out I pulled a muscle in my neck and it's super tight, so it's pulling on the other muscles around my skull.  The fact that they're all pulling against my skull is what's giving me so much pain.  Pretty cool!

Some cool things happened this week.  First, we have some investigators that have been investigating for over 2 years.  We always put baptismal dates with them and the dates always fall because the mom says it's not her time.  This time the date fell again, but it wasn't completely sucky!  She said that she has now received her answer.  She says she knows it's her time.  The only thing is that she wants to talk to her whole family first to figure out their thoughts about her baptism (her whole family is Catholic).  We're making progress!

Also we went to met with the drug addict that we're taching (and making tons of progress with).  But when we went he wasn't there, he was out doing something with his dad I think.  We talked with his mom for a while and I felt the need to leave him a little note.  It was really simple.  All I put was that we missed him, hoped everything was well, and that we couldn't wait for the next time we could meet with him.  When we visited them later in the week, we found out he had a really bad day that day.  When he got home the note was everything he needed to make his day better.  It funny how little things like that can make such a big difference.  Even if a little act of service means nothing to us, It might mean a ton for the person receiving it.

To end I want to share a scripture from Mosiah 14 about our Savior.  It says, 

"3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows; yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.

5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed."  After reading this scripture we begin to get an idea of what Jesus Christ did for us.  He went through so much simply because he loves each one of us.  I love the last line:  And with his stripes we are healed.  I hope each one of you remembers to think of Christ this week, and that you can think of things you can do to give something back to Him.

I love you guys!  Have a great week!  Don't forget to take the time to send me a package! (;

Elder Warren

Pictures:

Chilling in our house

We went to McDonalds

Cat of my favorite family in the world

We stole our investigators' cigarettes to help them with the Word of Wisdom hahaha

Week 22 - Ya Me Desmaye

What's up my friends!

Crazy week this week full of work which is good!  I'll get right to the point.

Okay so we're teaching some alcoholics and trying to help them the best that they can, but they keep drinking when they say they won't which is frustrating.  The sad thing is they have a 14 year old boy that's pretty much perfect.  One lesson with them we took him outside afterward and he actually started to cry because he wants something better for his life.  So we asked him if we could start teaching him by himself in the church and he said absolutely.  We had our first lesson with him and he even brought a friend!  We taught the Restoration and invited them to be baptized and they said yes.  He came to Stake Conference with us this week and already started reading the Book of Mormon.  He's awesome.  (Also we stole his parent's coffee and took a picture with it.)

I already told you guys about our drug addict investigator?  Well we met him!  We taught him at the beggining of the week and set some goals to stop taking drugs.  We returned at the end of the week and he didn't do drugs all week!  He said everytime he was tempted he said a prayer or read the Book of Mormon and the temptations went away.  We definitely invited him and his family to get baptized and they said yes.  He said before he never would have said yes to us, but now he can see that he needs this Church in his life.  Super cool experience.

Also this week pretty much every missionary in our little area had medical problems.  I think all of us except my companion went to the hospital this week which is awesome haha.

To finish I'd just like to share a quote from Jeffrey R. Holland that I really like.  It says, “Some blessings come soon, some come late, and some don't come until heaven; but for those who embrace the gospel of Jesus Christ, they come.”  I've noticed here in the mission that a lot of times people want to receive the blessings right now, without putting in hardly any work.  It even happens to us missionaries.  But we need to realize that God has His own time and His own plan for each of us.  Sometimes we won't receive the blessings we want exactly when we want them.  The important thing is that we can't stop doing the things we need to do just because we don't get our blessings right away.  Patience is a virtue for a reason.  When we keep the commandments, we know that God has to bless us.  We just need to wait for God's timing to align with our own.

Have a great week!  I love you guys and hope you're all doing well!

Elder Warren

Pictures:

Our investigators' coffee

We went to Walmart to get a new phone cause ours got stolen

My boy President Mann

Week 21 - El Pollo Loco (Earthquake!)

Hola Mis Carnalitos,

Well I'm gonna start out with the bad news this week, we didn't have any baptisms.  It was super sad.  What happened is that their nephew died and they were helping family with that all week and they didn't have time to do anything else.  But the good news is they're super excited about baptism still so we're gonna help them find a way to get baptized soon!

Okay so this week some cool stuff happened.  First of all our neighbor's chicken jumped off of their roof into our outside washing room and then it started running around our house which was pretty awesome.  We had a pet chicken for like a minute!  Also we had an earthquake!  The sirens went off and we went outside from a lesson and everything was swaying and shaking but not super crazy.  It was awesome actually.  But also kinda funny cause everyone was in the streets crying and praying really loud and we were just saying how cool it was haha.

Also something super cool happened on Wednesday I think?  So when we planned out the day I told my companion that we were gonna knock on doors at some point with the goal of entering a house (because they never invite us in the first time we visit them).  Anyways we had just finished with a lesson and had a bit of time so we went to see a person we hadn't talked to in awhile.  They weren't home, so we turned to leave and we decided to knock on a door that we had a good feeling about.  Two SUPER drunk people came out and I thought "Oh, great."  But we started talking to us and the woman said she's actually been searching for help because she's an alcoholic and wants to stop, and she INVITED US IN to help her!  The very first door we knocked!  Anyways long story short we started teaching them and we're going to help them quit.  Then we went to our next visit and they weren't there either, so we were talking to some little kids when a woman approached us because she has a drug addict son and we stood out to her as people who could help.  We told her we definitely could help.  We met with them twice this week, they came to church with us, and we're going to start teaching their son in a rehab center which is gonna be super cool.  That was one of the coolest evenings of my whole mission.

To finish, we had a zone conference all about working with members to find new people to teach.  I would like to encourage all of you members to do something to help your missionaries:  First, pray and choose a date that isn't too far away.  Before this date, your goal is to find a person/family to introduce to the Church and the missionaries.  I can promise you all that if you have the faith to find someone and you really search, you will find someone before the date.  And these people will be perfect investigators because they will already have a friend and a little bit of an understanding of the Church.

That's it for the week!  Love you guys and hope you have a great week! 

Elder Warren

Pictures:

1. My favorite family in the world, the Perez family

2. Elder Avendaño fell asleep in our FHE

3. Elder Avendaño woke up when I went to take a selfie with him

Week 20 - Chongwis

Hello Everyone!

Another good week out here with my greenie Elder Chichia!  We've been able to get a lot of work done which is good obviously haha.  But before we begin I need a moment of silence for my good friend in the mission Elder Trinidad.  He didn't die or anything but President Mann moved him to a different zone so now I never get to see him.  We had a funeral for him on Thursday night.  It was very sad.

Okay now the funniest thing from the week.  Yesterday we were in church and a dude from our ward told me that a non-member was outside and wanted to meet us missionaries.  So I went out to meet him and I could tell right away that he was homeless.  He was all confused about the hours of our services and said he was waiting for his friends (they were fake).  I told him he could come back next Sunday but some other member said "there's still 20 minutes, go in right now!"  Bad idea.  He came in to Sacrament Meeting and withing three minutes he was asleep and snoring louder than that one sister that used to snore all the time in our ward back home.  Anyways the whole ward was laughing because he snored so loud, and then after the meeting WE COULDN'T WAKE HIM UP.  It took like 15 minutes of all of us shaking him to kick him out.  He kept saying "Ya voy, solo cinco minutos mas" haha.  It was awesome.

Also we were teaching some investigators about baptism this week (keep in mind that we've put two baptismal dates with them already and they haven't saiod anything about another church), but we were talking about baptism with them and they were like "Well we were all baptized in the Catholic church."  What?!  But we talked to them about proper authority and baptism by immersion and baptizing little kids and they were still like "Well, I don't think we need baptism, we just need to study the scriptures more."  They also said that Catholic priests had authority because they know 7 different languages, which makes them really smart.  I guess that's the same thing as authority?  Good times.

But this week we're going to marry two of our investigators and baptize them!  (As long as everything goes smoothly with the wedding and divorce.)  We're super excited for them because they've completely changed their lives.

And that's it for the week!  Love you guys!  Have a great one!

Elder Warren

Week 19 - Es Tiempo de Fritiar Hijo

Hola Mi Gente,

Well this week was pretty dang solid.  Actually we just got back from the centro with some other Elders.  We got to talk to some Mormon family in English for a while which was awesome.  It's always a treat to see other white people!  Then we went to eat at a chinese buffet and it was BOMB.  We ate a ton of food and then I got like four bowls of ice cream to finish it off.  I haven't eaten ice cream in forever and it was awesome.

Everything was super different this week.  I think I had to adjust just as much as my new companion (who's straight out of the MTC).  It was weird because I get to make almost all of the decisions now, whereas in my training I didn't have to take on so much responsibility.  But it was cool!  We got a ton of work done this week and even though my companion is new he knows how to teach all of the lessons really well.

Alright so we have some super cool stuff from the week.  I think I've told you all about Jose and Guillermina?  They're the parents of a Sister from out ward and recently they gained an interest in the church and being baptized.  So this week we were teaching the Law of Chastity with them and I was like "The most important thing for you guys is to stay loyal to each other within your marriage" and Guillermina said, "I have a question, What if we're not married?"  Turns out THEY'RE NOT MARRIED.  I had no idea cause they're grandparents and I told them they'd have to get married before baptism and asked how they felt about that.  I also mentioned that their baptismal date was for the 17th so I didn't know if they wanted to keep that.  They both said, "Yeah we'll totally get married!  And we really want to get baptized the 17th so it's in your hands, you guys have to marry us before then!"  It was crazy haha.  So anyways I called a judge about marrying them, and we're going to marry them on the 15th and then baptize them both 2 days later.  I'm super excited.  We also had another lesson about Word of Wisdom with them (because Jose has had problems with alcohol) and it was SUPER good.  We shared a bunch of scriptures, personal stories, and promised blessings.  He told us that he's been in a AA group for two years and hasn't been able to stop, but that after that lesson with him he had all of the strength he needed to stop completely from that day forward.  It was the best lesson i've ever had.

ALSO we brought a whole family of 7 to church this Sunday which was sweet.

And that's pretty much the best of the week!  I hope everyone is doing well and that you all have an awesome week.  

Love you guys!

Elder Warren

Week 18 - Greenies

WE TRIED ON WIGS AT A MEMBER'S HOME

MY NEW GREENIE AND OLD TRAINER

What's up everyone!!

Pretty good week this week.  We don't have a ton of time to write today so I'll make everything quick.  First the funny things for the week.  One night we were at the stake center and some of our recent converts showed up (little kids).  They were riding on some little boards that had steering wheels and tires and a brake and that's pretty much it.  I wanted to try it so bad so I borrowed Derek's board.  Well, it turns out I'm too big for them, I accidentally broke the board in half and I had to buy him a new one.  Then the other day we were eating tacos and it started pouring rain. A stray dog came under out table for shelter and fell asleep on Elder Fuller's feet.

Also today we had changes!  I picked up my greenie earlier this afternoon.  I'm super excited to train him.  His name is Elder Chichia.  He's from Puebla, he likes to go to the gym and play basketball, and he's ready to work.  I think we're gonna have a really good time together here in Paraiso.

To finish I'd just like to share a scripture that I found that I really like.  It's John 16:33.  It talks about how in the world we'll find affliction but in Christ we find peace.  I really like the last line.  In Spanish it says "Yo he vencido el mundo."   With Christ's help we can literally do anything.  I've learned to rely on Him a lot out here and I can truly say that I've felt that peace that comes from Him.  I encourage you all to put your faith in Him too!

Well that's all for the week.  I'll keep you all updated on how things go with my new companion.  Have an amazing week!

Elder Warren