Week 39 - Ayunation

Que Tranza Carnalitos,

Before I start with the happenings of this week.  I'd like to take a moment to remember my grandpa, Ellis Matthews, who passed away this past week.  He lived a full life and had several health problems at the end of his life, so it was nothing unexpected, but still pretty rough on my family and I.  I loved my grandpa.  I never knew him super well until the last 2 or 3 years before my mission, when he started to get really bad healthwise.  I had the opportunity to help him and visit him during that time and it was a huge blessing to be able to spend time with him before I left.  I was able to get to know him more and really understand the great man that he was.  We will all miss him, but it's also comforting to know he's resting with his wife Marge, who passed away 15 years ago.  We love you Grandpa.

This week we had two great experiences.  First, on Sunday we were asked by our zone leaders to fast to find a family to teach, so we did it.  The very next day we got a call from some members asking us to come over and help some of their neighbors.  We showed up to give them blessings and found a family of four!  We visited them two other times during the week to teach them and they enjoyed our messages.  They say that this week they're going to go to church with us.  Who knows how much they will progress or if they will be able to fix some of the problems they have, but it was a great answer to our fast and a blessing for us!

Also this week we met Gustavo,  the ten-year-old nephew of some members from our ward.  He was visiting from California and speaks perfect English (something you don't find here in Mexico City).  His father passed away 3 mont

hs ago so we took him to the visitor's center at the temple to learn about the Plan of Salvation.  It was a great trip.  He loved it and asked us for a Book of Mormon before we even got done taking the tour.  I hope we were able to help him as he makes his trip back home this week.

That's the best from the week!  Hope you are all doing well!  Love you and miss you!

Elder Warren

Week 38 - Nos Mojamos

Hey my dudes,

We had a really wet week here in Mexico.  I'm pretty sure it rained every single day this week and I think it's gonna stay like that until the end of the year so that's gonna be fun!  Honestly it's better than walking in missionary clothes in the sun all day!

This week the World Cup started and everybody's going crazy.  Apparently it's just about the most important thing in the world down here.  And it was even crazier because Mexico beat Germany (one of the best teams).  One of our more difficult investigators actually said (jokingly) that if Mexico beat Germany he would get baptized, so let's see how that goes!  It was definitely a miracle haha.

Also this week we had the goal to talk to Ulisses, the boyfriend of one of our investigators.  We hadn't really ever talked to him because, to be honest, we're kind of afraid of him haha.  I'll tell you why in a second.  Anyways we were in a lesson with his girlfriend and he came in and I decided to talk to him (it was a scary decision though).  He started to talk to us and actually really opened up which was cool.  This is why he's scary, he just got out of prison a few months ago.  He told us all of the stuff he's done and how he gets into a lot of fights with groups of 10 to 15 guys and beats them by himself.  He also said he used to fight the biggest guys in prison just to get more respect.  He's done some wild stuff.  But the cool part was that at the end of his time in prison he prayed and asked God to help him get out.  Within the week he was a free man!  He says he wants to change but he's stuck in some problems right now.  He asked us to visit him so we're going back tomorrow to start teaching him!  Pretty cool experience.

That's about it!  We have some good investigators that are progressing really well right now.  Mexico is cool.  Have a great week!

Elder Warren

Pictures from the zone conference with some elders that are leaving this cycle

Week 37 - Descansa en Paz LeBron

Hola Amigos!

All good things this week.  First I gotta tell you a story to give you an idea of how awesome some people are in Mexico City haha.  Alright so the other day we were walking down the street to do some exercise in the morning and we saw an old dude sitting on the street using hie cell phone.  A teenager passed behind him, todo tranquilo, and then out of nowhere turned around, snuck up behind the old man, took his phone STRIGHT OUT OF HIS HANDS and ran away.  I thought it was a joke, but the dude never stopped running!  By the time we realized it wasn't a joke the guy was long gone.  Gotta love people like that.

But other than that the week was sweet!  On Wednesday we did divisions with the zone leaders.  I stayed in my area with Elder Santiago.  He's super cool.  He's from Utah and even though his name sounds Latino he's white.  We had some really good lessons.  We went with my man Alejandro first, some old dude that asked us to clean out his storage room last week.  When we got to the part about baptism he had some really good questions.  After we explained everything, he said, "That makes a lot of sense.  Who do I have to talk to to get baptized?"  Obviously, it was pretty dang easy to set a baptismal date with him.  He's excited to work towards baptism!  Then we went with Isabel.  Isabel and Humberto are super cool.  Humberto is her nephew.  We taught the Plan of Salvation and they both said that their goal is to reach the celestial kingdom with their families.  Right now both are working towards a baptismal date.  After that we went with Loyda.  She's the wife of a member.  He was inactive for a super long time but they just decided they wanted to start going to church with their young family.  We were able to teach her the Restauration and we answered all of her questions.  She said she wanted to pray to find out if this is the right church for her.  She has a ton of faith and spent 7 years in the Jehova's Witnesses church, so it's a little difficult for her, but she says that she didn't like some of the things in that church and that so far she's liked everything from ours.  Awesome day.

To end I just want to share a quote from Thomas S. Monson that talks about our potential.  He starts by saying that we should never let someone tell us that we can't do something.  Then he says,  “Believe in yourself and then live so as to reach your possibilities.”  I think this is really important for everyone, no matter what it is that we're doing.  We can accomplish anything we set our minds to (with some help from God, or course).  Set your goals high and work to reach them!  The key to thiis life is progress.

Well that's all I got for you guys this week.  Have a great week!  Love you all!

Elder Warren

Week 36 - Las Meto De Afuera

Hola Familia y Amigos,

Well, changes were today and we didn't have any!  Looks like I'll be sticking here in Pantitlan with Elder Ayala another cycle.  It should be pretty good.  We've got some good investigators that we're progressing with so I'm happy to be able to work with them some more.

This week we were on our way to another cita when a man stopped us and said, "Hey!  My grandkid is on a mission too!"  We started talking and offered to help him in anything that he needed.  I swear he's the first person in my whole mission that's accepted our service haha.  Anyways the next day we went to his house and cleaned out a SUPER messy room on top of his house.  Afterwards, we started talking some more and he invited us to come back to teach him!  We're going on Wednesday I think.  Always awesome when someone else contacts US!

Also this week we started teaching English classes with some other missionaries from our district.  I'll be honest, even though I've been speaking English for 19 years, I had no idea how to teach it haha.  But I was able to study some things and I think it went well!  We had several people show up and more have called us recently asking for information!  Good stuff.

A good talk that I've been listening to lately: "The First and Great Commandment" by Jeffrey R. Holland.  It's legendary.  It talks about the first commandment of all,  that we should love God with all our heart, might, mind and strength.  He talks about how when we truly love God, we are loyal to Him and His will, not our own.  We serve Him and other people.  And we NEVER turn back.  I think it's my favorite talk, look it up.  But watch the talk instead of reading it because when he talks it's even more powerful!

That's it for the week!  Love you guys!  I'll talk to you soon and don't forget to send me tons of packages!  Ask my parents for the mission address.

Elder Warren

I forgot to take pictures this week so here's some pictures of a turtle in a member's house and Nacho Libre.

Week 35 - Familia Magica

Hola Amigos,

So this week we were out dying in the sun.  This week it was so dang hot and it was super sunny 100% of the time which wasn't the greatest.  It's even worse being in missionary clothes!  But it's all good we were able to work even with the heat!  

One of the visits we had was really cool.  It was with an investigator named Isabel.  Before this visit we were actually thinking about dropping her as an investigator because she wasn't receiving us and she hadn't really been keeping her commitments.  But we went and she received us and we talked about Enos and the answers he received to his prayers.  I asked if she was still searching for an answer and she told us that she had already received it.  Turns out she had been praying for an answer and through an experience she had, she felt like God told her that our Church was the one she should join.  We were able to put a baptismal date with her and now we're working towards that goal!

Also this Sunday we left early to bring some investigators to church.  We passed for three houses and NOBODY came out.  We arrived to church with no one and a little bit depressed haha.  But then the bishop came up to us and said, "Elders, we have some new people here in church and I want you to introduce yourselves to them."  Turns out a WHOLE FAMILY showed up to church on their own because they wanted to learn more!  They stayed for all 3 hours and were really interested.  I don't think they're from our area but it was a blessing to have them in church and to help them a little bit more about what we believe.  I feel like they'll progress really quickly!

Those were the greatest parts of the week.  I hope all of you had a great week and I'll talk to you soon!  Love you all!

Elder Warren

Pics:

Quick selfie with Elder Ayala after church

Played some ball with my son Elder Chichia today

My boy Elder Diuguid from Kentucky.  Straight baller

Week 34 - Ya No Me Quedan

Que tranza amigos,

Awesome week this week!  We were able to get a lot of work done and had a lot of success!  First of all, you all should know that we played a ton of volleyball this morning and my team won the 7 game series.  It got intense.  We showed out big in game 7.  Just so you know that we made California proud today with our volleyball skills.

This week was sweet because we had the baptism of Abigail!  She's really cool.  She was the only member of her family that hadn't been baptized.  For the longest time she didn't want to get baptized but she finally said yes once we got here.  We taught her really quickly without any problems (she already knew pretty much everything).  Her grandpa was going to baptize her but he got sick last minute and since she didn't want to wait another week she asked me to baptize her!  It was a great day.

Also this week I was able to see how God blesses us when we do our part, even if he doesn't bless us in the way we wanted him too.  All this week we were looking for new people to teach or other people that we hadn't seen in a while.  We used the area binder a lot.  Anyways all week we were outside searching for those houses and literally nobody was home.  Even the members that are always home weren't home to receive us.  We arrived home tired and sad everyday haha.  But this weekend we saw the blessings.  First, we had the baptism of Abigail.  Then, we found an old investigator that already has all of the lessons, taught a full lesson, and put a baptismal date with her.  Then, when we went to take one of our investigators to church (he's a young boy who's 11 years old), his grandma said, "Go ahead and throw him in the water already!"  THEN, the Visitors Center from the temple called and said they have a really good reference for us that wants to learn more.  She travels a lot for her job but right now she's sick and is in bed all day so she can receive us!  Just a few of the blessings we saw this weekend, even though they weren't the ones we were looking for.

Have a great week everyone!  Love you guys!  Talk to you soon!

Elder Warren

Pics:

My dog friend

My dog friend when he wanted to eat me

Baptism

Elder Kay and I with our crossfit hats

It started raining hard and the church flooded

Week 33 - La Papita

Hola Mis Amigos,

Super fast week this week!  This Tuesday we had the opportunity to go to the temple as half of the mission and it was really cool.  It's always awesome when we get to go to the temple.  Not only do we get to feel the Spirit super strongly but I also get to see a lot of my friends from the mission which is always awesome.

So funny story, today we had to ask for a new cell phone because ours broke.  Last night we were just hanging out in the house and my companion got a text message so I brought him the phone.  I told him he had a message and tossed him the phone but turns out he wasn't ready AND had a glass of milk in his hand and the phone hit his chest and then FELL INTO THE CUP OF MILK DANG IT hahaha.  Anyways it got full of milk and didn't work anymore so we had to get a new one. 

This week was pretty good for us in terms of work.  We've been working a lot with young single adults and youth, both members and non-members, to help get more work in the area and we're having success!  We've found a few really good young people that are now progressing.  We actually have a baptism planned for this Saturday!

Anyways that's just about it for this week, not much exciting happened.  I hope you all had a great week and that all you mothers had a great Mother's Day!  Love you guys!  Nos vemos!

Elder Warren