Loving Leon

Monday, March 6, 2017

Wow!  Hey Mom, this week has been awesome and crazy.  The two Martinez are hilarious!  We have had a good time and we have had some really awesome lessons.  We have been working in both of our areas.  Our area is humongous, we take so many buses.  Leon is awesome!  Our house is pretty cool I guess.  It's simple, but it gets the job done.  Everything has been smooth here in Leon.  I have been learning a lot, it's been awesome!  The spirit has been strong recently.  I talked with a cholo (A cholo is a gangster) today it was an experience. haha  It was funny, he was drunk.  We were at a bus stop and he started talking to us.  I don't want to tell you what he was saying to us. haha

I just barely got the package, it is awesome!!!  Debbie Arbon you are  the best person in the world!! Second to my Mom, of course.  Thank you so much to you and all of  those that contributed!!!

We have had some really cool lessons.  We were teaching one of Elder Martinez investigators.  He is 18 and he's super cool.  We were teaching him the restoration and  everything was going great.  I was super proud of how I taught as well.  We got to the point about where Joseph Smith read James and decided to pray.  He said, well ya, I have thought the same.  Why are there so many churches?  We asked him if you want to find out if what we are telling you is true, that Joseph Smith really did restore the church?  He was like, well ya, and we were like well let's do what he did.  Will you pray and ask the Lord right now?  So we did.  We all knelt down and Ivan (the investigator) said the prayer.  It was super cool.  The spirit was overwhelming.  He was beaming.  He was like, wow I have never felt like this before.  We showed him in the scriptures that what he was feeling was the spirit.  It was super awesome.

Gotta go.  Love you Mom!

Monday, March 13, 2017

Hey Mom, how are you doing?  This week was sweet.  hmmmmm stories.  I don't know, everyday we just go out and work and work and come home tired haha  (He was really tired last week.  It was hard getting anything out of him.  Yes, missionary work, is HARD work!)  My area is huggeeeeee.  We take a bus to a bus station to take a bus everyday.  We still walk a lot too. Probably more than in Celaya.   

Sorry, mom.  I'm good, I'm tired. haha  It's been awesome.  We reactivated two familias this week. This was my first time going to the church because the last week was Stake Conference.  It was super awesome.  We had some powerful lessons.  We should be able to baptize.  Something cool, we went to contact a reference of a teenage girl.   Her mom answered the door and she asked us why we wanted to talk to her.  She was super cool.  She was like well ya I want your help because she has noticed that God helps out families, so we are going to return.  She was super nice and well it was cool.

Another story, we were teaching a lady whose husband is a member.  It was super cool, we were talking about baptism and we explained why she needed to be baptized and she was like, wow, it all makes sense.  The Catholics are wrong.  haha  This next lesson with her we are going to set a date.  We also have like 4 kids that we should baptize, it's awesome.

Elder Martinez is awesome!  We went to the centro to buy him some shoes and stuff.  We looked at the Nike store but it's super expensive.  It's better that we buy fake things haha.  Can you send me another pair of jeans?  I asked at the tiangius and they just laughed in my face. (Apparently they don't have size 34/36 in Mexico. haha) 

Gotta go Mom.  Love you guys so so much!

Baptisms, turning 19, and a new area

Monday, February 20, 2017

Hi Mom!

Wow!  Harold and Tristian are awesome!!!  How was Harold's talk?  Was he nervous?  I hope they are doing well, they have been an inspiration for me here in the mission. 

This week was crazy preparing for the baptisms and everything.  We are super super tired.  Friday night we went to the church to see about the font and everything.  The building was trashed so we cleaned it up as good as we could.  Saturday morning we were at the church at 7:00 to fill the font. There wasn't any gas in the boiler so we had to put in water heaters that did nothing.  So that was cool. A's baptism was at 10.   He showed up super late.  It was insane!  The font didn't fill up quite all the way.  Then at like 4:30 we went to the church to check up on everything, and the water level in the font had gone down!!!!!!!  The baptism was supposed to start at 5 so we flicked on the font and filled up a bucket with a tap in the church and kept on dumping it in the font, it was insane.  Luckily they didn't show up on time.  Their whole family came, there were a lot of people!!!  We had to wait for the bishop too.  He didn't show up until like an hour later but finally everyone was there and it went fine.  J's father baptized him.  J is so awesome, he was beaming!  His Grandma told me that he couldn't sleep the whole week because he was so excited.  The program was awesome, the spirit was so strong.  Elder Romero and I were witnesses for the baptism.  The water was freezing.  The first time they did it they messed up and had to do it again.  J  clung to his dad because he was so cold after being dunked.   Elder Romero told him tranquillo, it's ok.  It was cool, he just calmed down and they did  it again.  It was so awesome and cute because right after he came up out of the water he shouted Aguante! which translates roughly into like "wow I did it," or "I handled it."  Everyone laughed, it was super funny.  I felt real joy then.  It was super awesome to see the blessings of the gospel that are to come to this family. 

I love you so much, Mom.  Talk to you later.

Hayden's Birthday was on Wednesday February 22, a couple of days after we got this email.  That evening my phone blew up.  A sister in the ward, Beatrix, who has taken such good care of the missionaries threw a party for Hayden.  She sent me pictures and videos.  It was so fun to be a part of the festivities!

taco feast

cake and Coke Jello

presents

We love Beatrix!

celebration signs

translation - "missing Lorraine"  Yes, I cried!!!

Monday, February 27, 2017

Hey Mom, what's up?

So the news is I got transferred to Leon and I was made District Leader. It's super freaking cool here and it's super hot, I'm dying right now.  My comp is Elder Martinez, he was my Zone Leader in Celaya my first change.  He is super cool, this is his last change here.  He is from Vera Cruz, he is Mexican.  Also the other Martinez from when I was in the offices is with us for a week because he is going to train and his comp doesn't get here for another week. It was about an hour and a half to travel to Leon from Celaya.  Leon is the shoe central of the world so I'll find some sic shoes here (if he can find his size 12-13 haha). Leon is a pretty big city with lots to do. 

My Birthday was amazing, we had a ton of tacos.  Beatrix is so awesome!!! I have tons of pictures. Last week was cool, we had some cool lessons.  There was one where I kind of just took over and because of what I did he accepted a baptism date.  Elder Romero is going to baptize him thanks to me haha.  I traveled here to Leon with most of the zone.  We went to a place like Buffalo Wild Wings (Hayden's favorite!). It was super cool and super fun. They played lots of music that I like, even Hootie and the Blowfish haha.

 Awesome new bed! (We got Hayden a new bed haha) It probably fits me, the beds here are super small. haha  I'm super excited for this change, I think it's gonna be cool.  I like my comp.  He told me to not stress, he'll help me out.

Gotta go, Mom.  I love you!

He didn't have a whole lot of time since transfers were this same day, he had just arrived in Leon and it was evening. We are anxious to hear from him today and find out about his first week in Leon.  

Hayden's District in Celaya

Leaving Celaya

Saying Goodbye