Last letter home 6-2-14

I don't know how to start this letter.  Day by day, I guess, to not complicate life too much. 

Monday:  In three hours of proselyting we taught 4 lessons- 3 with investigators and 1 with a less active member.  We met a new investigator named R.  We had contacted him in the street a few days before and he told us that he has never been part of any religion.  His wife and kids go to some other church, his parents are Catholic, and he's talked to the Jehovah´s witnesses, but he said he's never felt anything.  He feels bad because he feels like he's unbelieving or something like that and he wonders why.  So obviously we taught him the Restoration and it went great.  He said "If God has tells me which is the true church, I'll go.  I'll get baptized.  I just need to feel it's true."  And he said that before we taught him about Joseph Smith and the first vision.  So we put a baptismal date for July 19th and he accepted.  The problem is that he works in Manzanillo and it's been hard to find him again, but we saw him yesterday and put an appointment for today at 8:00.  We visited the former relief society president, who has been inactive, and taught her about Enduring to the End and the Sacrament.  It was a super powerful lesson.  She feels the spirit and commits to come to church every week, but she just doesn't come.  It's a little frustrating, but I have faith that one of these days she'll understand.  Then, we taught J, who is still doing great, reading the Book of Mormon, and accepting all the commitments, but he's still working on Sundays.  I don't know if we should just be a little bit more patient (we've been teaching him for more than 6 weeks now) or drop him for a little while.  He can't come because of his job, and he's tried everything to get out of working Sundays, but he hasn't been able to.  I don't know if it's like a N family situation or if he's just not ready yet.  Anyways, afterwards, a lesson fell through so we went to contact some referrals.  We were looking for someone named M and we couldn't find her address, so we asked the people in the neighborhood if they knew any Ms around there.  They gave us two addresses, so we went to look for the first and it wasn't the M we were looking for but she was super receptive and listened to us right there in the door way.  We taught a 3 minute long lesson and left with a prayer without even entering the house, and she thanked us a lot for having come over and said she knew that God had sent us.  We've been doing this a lot more lately, praying with people right there where we contact them, and it seems to be working.  They feel the Spirit and the need to learn more. 

Tuesday:  We had district class, which was great of course, and then afterwards we did divisions.  Elder C stayed in Manzanillo with the district leader, Elder C, and I came back with Elder G, who's from Honduras and has 1 transfer more than Elder C.  He's way awesome and we had a lot of fun.  It was actually drizzling a little bit off and on so it wasn't too hot.  We got back to the house and realized that Elder C had taken the keys with him to Manzanillo, so we couldn't get in!  We called the landlady and she said she didn't have a spare, so we called a member from Manzanillo and arranged for him to find Elder C, get the keys, and send them to C on a bus so that we could pick them up when it got here.  Saved the day!  Then we went to visit M and H and they were doing great.  H loved primary and was super excited to go back to church.  M said she wanted him to keep going because he's a little rebellious and he had been a little better behaved after going to church on Sunday.  They're awesome.  We also went to visit C and V and M and all them, and we taught them about the word of wisdom.  At one part of the lesson I told them I wanted to share with them the blessings that the Lord promised for living the word of wisdom, and M said "It's in Doctrine and Covenants 89, right?"  My jaw dropped about to the floor.  I'm pretty sure when I was 13, I had no idea where the word of wisdom was in Doctrine and Covenants, and I had 13 years in the church, not 3 months.  Greatest converts ever!

Wednesday:  I went to pick up Elder C.  We went to visit R, kind of sketched out already because we had an appointment with them on Tuesday but they weren't home, and the primary president had told us that they hadn't gone to their reading class that day, either.  And we got there and she came out, looking horribly depressed, and just told us that for now she didn't feel up to letting us in.  She said she had just got back from the hospital but she didn't really want to tell us what was going on, she just said "We'll see if God gets me out of this..." which was enough to know that something awful had happened.  She didn't want to put another appointment, and she went back into her house crying.  I haven't seen her since.  We tried to send the primary president to go visit her, but she hasn't been able to yet.  It was one of the saddest things that has ever happened to me, and it was bothering me the rest of the day.  In fact, I can't even remember what else we did that day, other than visit F.  We contacted F in the street one night and he accepted an appointment right away.  He's an older man, in his late 50s or early 60s, and he's a carpenter.  He has a wood work shop in his house and we teach him there.  Last week we started teaching him and he's great.  He says he wasn't the greatest father and husband and just recently he started reading the Bible and he said it has helped him a lot.  He has a great desire to learn and to make things right with God and with his family.  We had a nice lesson about the restoration last week in the which, by some miraculous way (I don't even remember what we said or how this happened) it all kind of just clicked to him and he's been a lot more receptive towards the church and baptism since then.  Wednesday we read the Title Page of the Book of Mormon with him (man is it powerful!) and he seemed really interested.  Up until then, he hadn't read any of the Book of Mormon, but he committed to read it and to come to church on Sunday that day. 

Thursday: We visited M again and we convinced her 12 year old daughter E to be part of the lesson this time.  Both her daughters are SUPER shy so we were wondering how to get them to listen.  But when we got there on Thursday, E was the only one home, so we asked her if we could wait outside for her mom to get there.  She said yes and we took advantage of the opportunity to talk to her a little bit.  When her mom got there we invited her to be part of the lesson and she joined right in!  God totally put everything into place so that that could happen.  We brought the Relief society president to the lesson and I cannot say enough about her.  SO GREAT!  Anyways, the lesson went really well and they're still super excited about everything. 

Friday:  We still hadn't found a house for the sister missionaries and were kind of in panic mode, so we went looking for one.  The members had told us of some departments in the centro, but they were all full, so we just started asking random people in the shops and things if they knew of any apartments that were for rent.  A guy in an animal food store showed us an advertisement for some new apartments in another side of town--there were pictures on the advertisement and they looked really nice.  So we called the number and they asked the price and it was within the budget, so we went to check it out.  They're brand new and way awesome, super modern looking.  Cool design.  Anyways, we told the guy right there that we wanted the apartment and we're just waiting for the money the missionary couple sent us to get here to make the contract.  Whew!

Other than that, we also met M's sister, A, and her three kids, B, W, and A.  She's going through a divorce and really needs the gospel right now.  They were way receptive to everything we taught and A and B accepted a baptismal date for July 19th and committed to come to church.  Awesome!  I felt the impression during the lesson to say "I know you've been praying to ask God that he would help your family.  The fact that we're here is an answer to your prayer."  She started crying and said it was true.  The Spirit knows all things.  

After that, we visited M and her family, and her 14 year old daughter M also joined in that day, so the whole family is listening to us now!  We had left them Mosiah 4 to read and E said she had felt something really special when she read it.  Like, her heart started beating really hard and she felt the power of God.  She looked different, there was more light in her eyes.  That's one of the things I've loved most about the mission.  Seeing how people change when they have the gospel.  They all committed to come to church, even if their mom couldn't (she might have had to go on Sunday to Colima to settle things with her husband). 

Saturday:  In the morning, M took us to meet her grandma and one of her friends that she had preached to at school.  Neither one of them received us in that moment, but I was still really proud of her for taking us. We visited A again and she was still super pumped to go to church.  We were super direct "You've been wondering which is the true church.  This is it.  Will you be baptized on July 19th?"  She said yes.  That night we visited F again, he was still doing great and had read up to the Testimony of Joseph Smith in the Book of Mormon.  And he was firm in his commitment to come to church. 

Sunday:  We went to pick up A and her family to go to church together.  That's always such a nerve-racking experience.  The whole way to the investigator's house you're always thinking "are they going to be ready, or are they going to stand us up?"  But there they were, ready to go.  When we were one block away from the church, we saw F turn the corner on his way there as well!  We got them all in and settled and left again to bring M and her family.  When we got there she was ready but she told us that her daughters weren't going to come.  We said "Let us talk to them."  E came out and we asked her if she was going to come.  She said "Sure.  Let me change real fast."  M had a headache so she didn't come, but E, M, H, and their cousin A that they invited also came.  Along with J, that made for 8 investigators in church.  It was an amazing testimony meeting.  Brother G bore his testimony and he said that he felt like he was doing it for the first time.  And he was--he's a new man now.  It was powerful.  Everyone was crying.  I just remember feeling so, so grateful to my Heavenly Father for all that was happening, for all he has let me experience here in the mission.  It was a great moment.  Our genius relief society president invited M and A to their cake making activity this week, and the genius young women's president invited E to a stake young women's activity in Manzanillo in 2 weeks.  I don't know what the Primary president does with those kids, but she does it well because they all came out super excited and happier than they were when they got there.  It's a lot of work having so many investigators in church, but the members did their part to make sure they all had an amazing experience.  I could write more about all that happened on Sunday, but time won't allow it.  Let's just say it was a day to remember. 

If you ask me what I feel right now, it's gratitude.  I'm grateful for the mission Heavenly Father has given me.  For the gospel, the Atonement, my amazing family and the amazing experiences I've had here the last two years.  This is the truth.  God loves us.  He does so much for us that we don't even notice.   Jesus is the Christ.  This is my testimony, and nobody can take it from me.  I love you all and hope your enjoying your summer! 

See you next week!

Elder Pew

May 19th & 26th, 2014

May 19th, 2014

If I explained all the happened this week, it would take a whole other week.  But we'll go with the highlights.  

I think I mentioned in the skype session that an American member on vacation here showed up to church on Sunday asking us what he could do to help.  So we handed him the branch missionary calendar and he signed up to come with us Monday night.  He was with us from 6:00-9:00.  This was great because:

1.  He had a rental car and he drove us all over the place in it.  We made it to all the lessons on time and didn't have to be in the sun. 

2.  He is one of the most loving, friendly, spiritual people I have met in my life.  

Our first lesson with him was with R and J.  Before the opening prayer, J started saying that he didn't want to keep going--that there has been too much opposition and he feels like it isn't worth it.  And it´s true, there has been a lot of opposition.  All kinds of people have come to tell R that she's wrong for leaving her old church and to make sure they're disapproval is understood.  All the opposition led to her getting sick last week, and she couldn't come to church because she was feeling so bad.  So J had decided he had had enough.  We said a prayer and explained to them that OBVIOUSLY there will be opposition because it's the TRUTH!  Satan can't be divided against himself (Matthew 12:25).  We did the best we could to help her make the decision to keep going and she decided to do so!  And that really was the only battle to win, because if she's going to keep going, there's still going to be opposition anyways, so J might as well keep going as well.  And he has.  They both came to church this week and are doing a lot better, which is an absolute miracle. 

Tuesday:  We had zone class.  Man is the mission going through a lot of changes.  They talked about all we need to change to be able to acheive what the area presidency wants us to acheive.  Basically what I got from it was that we need to recognize that we can't baptize every week, find 20 new investigators every week, or teach 40-60 lessons every week, but Christ can.  We all need to be more humble and recognize our dependance on Him now more than ever.

After we got back, all our lessons fell through, and none of our backup plans worked out either.  This always means SOMEONE else needs are help.  I had no idea what to do, but I felt like we should walk down to the end of the street.  Why?  I didn't know why, until about 20 seconds later when we saw V sitting there on the corner.  So we stopped to talk to him and found out that he and C had had problems the night before and that she had left the house with her kids and gone to stay with her mom.  So we decided to go visit her at her mom's house, knowing now that that was where the Lord wanted us to be.  We had a nice conversation with C and she said that she knew she needed to go back with V.  He showed up at the end of the lesson so we decided to leave to let them sort things out.  On our way to the next lesson, we saw our branch President and his wife walking up the street.  We asked them where they were going and they said they were going to visit M!  So we told them that was great since C and V were there and needed help.  Amazing how God not only inspired us, but also the Branch President, to be where we needed to be to help that family.  They're fine now, and I'll go into more details about that later.  

Wednesday was zone conference.  I can't possibly describe the hundredth part of all we learned there, but it was absolutely amazing.  They talked about "killing the zero," in other words, having at least one of each key indicator (lessons with a member present, referrals received, referrals contacted, new investigators, lesson with a less active or recent convert) every day.  From that day on we've been able to do it (except one day).  President Wagner taught us about the Book of Mormon.  He said "tell me all the evidence your investigators give that the Book of Mormon isn't true" and then one by one went destroying all the theories that we hear every day!  It was so awesome.  He talked about the three witnesses, (which are enough witnesses to win any court case) who saw the plates, heard the voice of Christ declare that they had been translated by His power, and saw the angel Moroni who commanded them to bear testimony of the work.  And ALL THREE witnesses were excommunicated and turned against the church and even still never denied their testimonies.  Not to mention 8 other witnesses who saw the plates, Joseph and Hyrum Smith who sealed their testimony with their lives, and the personal testimony we can all receive by reading the Book of Mormon, applying the principles it teaches, and asking God if its true.  That's evidence!

We got back here all fired up, and we killed the zero in three hours.  We went to visit R and J again, and C and V came with us to the lesson.  What was our surprise when we found out that those two had visited R and J on Sunday afternoon after noticing that they hadn't gone to church.  Nobody told them to do it, they just went.  And after hearing about all the strugglings they were having to get married, they offered to help.  Basically the problem is that J's birth certificate is registered in Michoacán, which is another state and it´s a lot harder and takes a lot longer to get it here.  But V has a brother that lives in Michoacán, so he wrote down J's information and sent it to his brother so that he could get the birth certificate and send it to them, making it so that they can get married a lot faster.  I could go on for about an hour about this, but it truly was amazing to me to see this happening.  It's only fitting that C and V, after going through so much to get married and get baptized, be the ones that help R and J.  It´s because of that that they feel such a strong desire to help them.  And it's just amazing to me that two recent converts would go visit a family of investigators without the missionaries and without being told to do so, when in most of my areas even the ward leaders wouldn't go visit the investigators with OR without us even if we told them to!  But the reason they did is because the members here visited THEM when THEY were investigators, and so they have understood now that THAT IS WHAT WE DO in this church!  One good example can have such an amazing effect on the world.  

Thursday was a historic day in my mission.  We taught 7 lessons, contacted 8 referrals, received 5 more, and found 3 new investigators.  One of the new investigators was P, who's dad is A, a less active member that we didn't know until Wednesday when we contacted him in the street and he told us he was a member.  He's an older man that hasn't been here for a whole lot of time, but he's been a member for 2 years and really wants to come back to the church.  And he has a lot of daughters and granddaughters that aren't members.  They didn't make it to church this week, but we're going to keep working with them.  

Friday morning the branch president's wife came with us to the lessons, but they all fell through.  So she took us with one of her friends, C, who we taught the first lesson and invited to be baptized on July 5th.  We're going to try to visit her husband this week so that we can teach them together.  Her dad died 2 years ago and she just found out she won't be able to have kids, so she's got a lot of needs and is ready to receive the gospel.  

After that, we had a lesson with a young couple we contacted in the street the day before.  Their names are M and A.  It was a great lesson--M got super excited when we taught about the Book of Mormon because he had always wondered why the Bible didn't talk about the american continent.  And he accepted a baptismal date for July 5th super easily.  We're going to go visit them in a few minutes.  

Skip to Sunday, running out of time!  Sunday was the third week in a row we had 63 people in church, which is the record for all my time here!  There were no seats left.  Also, the G family came again.  Bro G looked so happy all day and in Elders quorum he said he's made the decision to come back to church.  J and R and J made it and they were great meetings.  Also, we're teaching a mission prep class for the youth who are leaving on their missions soon, and we started yesterday!  It was great!  And I heard rumors that C and V are going to go to the temple this week!  Life is great!

Have a great week everyone!  Love you!

Elder Pew

Not sure what Elder Pew is doing but it was something funny during a Zone Conference.

May 26th, 2014

This week's subject line (4) brought to you by the number of missionaries there will be in C next transfer.  We got the call Sunday morning before church. In two weeks there will be a pair of sister missionaries here to open C 2.  We have to find a house for them to live this week and have everything ready with furniture, meal schedule, and a division of the area.  It's been cool to see how the Lord has been preparing this area to receive another pair of missionaries.  SO many less actives have come back into activity, not to mention the two new convert families that are super strong.  They'll be ready.  So this will be the second time they send 3 more missionaries to be my replacement in an area.

It's really, really hot here.  This morning it started raining and we were super excited but by about 10:30 it stopped and the sun came out again.  And all that rain made it even more humid.  Yuck.

In other news, all my pants have a hole in them in some place or another, most of which are of considerable size.  And I can't find my sewing kit.  I'm kind of in super survivor mode.  

More Ensign stories.  I just haven't been able to keep up with all the excitement that's going on around here.  Week by week isn't really the way to tell all these stories.

G family:  I've mentioned this family before but I'll give the full story now.  Bro. G had a lot of difficult challenges. He stopped going to church and his family went inactive with him.  He had a lot of anger built up inside for a long time.  And that's how we found him.  His wife had started to want to come back to come to church, but he still resisted.  We tried teaching him when Elder M was here, but he usually left his wife and kids with us and went into another room, or sat there to listen but wouldn't participate.  The Sunday School President even left sacrament meeting one Sunday to pull him out of his house and take him to church, but after two or three Sundays he said he didn't feel comfortable in church and that he didn't want anyone pressing on his agency.  So he went inactive again.  His wife stopped receiving us for fear that he would say something rude or embarrass her.  So we left him alone for a while.  A few weeks ago, we started to visit him again.  We just made it really clear that we only wanted to help him, that we understood that he already knew the doctrine and knew what was right, and that it was up to him to come back to church or not.  He started receiving us a little better and we taught him and his wife the restoration and invited them to come to church.  He said "If I feel like it, I'll come." That Sunday, his daughters wanted to go to church, so he took them and when he got to the church, he felt like he actually wanted to be there.  So he came in and stayed all three hours!  The next week he came again, and one of the district leaders that he had so much resentment for was there.  I thought "Oh, no!  He's going to walk out and never come back!"  But he didn't.  He stayed all three hours again, and two weeks later he still hasn't missed a Sunday in church.  I wish you could have seen what he looked like before and what he looks like now.  He is a changed man.  We had a lesson with them yesterday and I could not believe what was happening.  The Atonement changes people and can heal any scars from the past.  

P family:  Brother P is a returned missionary, he has 3 kids: S , B , and S.  His wife has about 3 years in the church, and he has been inactive for who knows how long.  His kids came every week without fail, with or without their mom.  They are really some of the greatest kids I've ever met in my life.  Special spirits.  One night we went and taught them about eternal families and invited them to prepare to be sealed as a family.  They said they would think about it.  The next Sunday in branch counsel President Q told us that the P family had the goal to get sealed in May.  From that Sunday on, the whole family has come to church every week.  And not just to church, but in every activity, in institute, and in our mission prep class, they're the first ones there.  Saturday they were sealed in the temple as a family.  Brother P is serving as branch secretary, and it's been amazing to see the change that has come over them.  

S family:  Brother Suarez is our ward mission leader and works in the military base.  After a few months, he stopped working with us with the same excitement that he had before.  Sister S was young women's president, but they released her and weeks later they went inactive, in part because of financial problems.  Lots of members went to visit them and they still weren't able to make it.  Because they live in M, we weren't able to visit them much, but after about 2 months of not seeing them we were able to find them and teach them.  Brother S apologized for what had happened and they said that they would be able to start coming to church.  Now not only are they active again, but Brother S has been coming to C (they live about 40 minutes away in M) to help us out with the lessons to fulfill his calling, and his family has been blessed for it.

Now to keep up with the R and J saga.  This week there has been more opposition and they've been rethinking getting married.  I've seen that one before.  It's the same tool Satan always uses to keep people from getting married.  For some little argument they start questioning that they're marriage will really work and they lose the desire to get married, but they really do love each other so they don't want to get separated, so they just end up staying together in sin until they die.  That's his plan.  God's plan is not to procrastinate the day of your repentance.  So we had a powerful lesson with them about that yesterday and invited them to pray to know what they should do, even though I feel like I already know the answer.  R has said countless times that meeting J was an answer to her prayers, and if that's true, that's probably why I can't get this scripture out of my mind: "What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." (Matthew 19:6)  

We found a cool new family this week.  It's a single mom named M.  She has 3 kids, 2 girls ages 14 and 12 and a 9 year old boy named E.  She just got separated from her husband, he lives in C right now and they're going through rough times.  We found them looking for another investigator who wasn't home.  They were sitting outside her dad's house and we talked to them and taught a mini lesson and said a prayer with them right there.  We went back the next day and M said that she had felt better ever since the prayer we said.  Her mom was there and told us she had dreamed us the night before, dressed in white in a paradise-type place.  Awesome!  M and E went to church on Sunday and we're really excited to keep teaching them.  They accepted a baptismal date for July 12th.  

Have a great last week of school!  Our branch president is having another operation this week--extra prayers for him and for my companion, who's having kind of a rough time lately.  Thanks for everything!  This gospel is true!   Love you!

Elder Pew   

May 5th and 12th, 2014

May 5th, 2014

This week's subject line (Full House) brought to you by the house of prayer (church) this Sunday, where there was an attendance of 58, including 2 less active families that came.  Also, it seemed fitting since Elder C and I have been playing with Monopoly cards all day.  (note from mom, he must be playing Mexican Monopoly because I have never heard of a full house in our Monopoly)

Well, we did find a good amount of new investigators this week, but R, J, and J are still the only ones that are really progressing.  But I'll introduce them to you:

H Family:  Made up of C, her 14 year old son F, her 12 year old daughter V, and her husband who we haven't met yet.  Let's see if I can explain how we found them...where to start, well there's this less active 18 year old girl named D in the branch (her older sister is the primary president who is teaching J and R how to read), who is actually going to college in Ciudad Guzman, but when she's been here for vacations and stuff we've taught her and her boyfriend G, who's also studying in Guzman but he's also from here.  Anyways, in the few opportunities we've had to meet him, he's seemed really cool and interested in learning more about the church. So last week during spring break we saw him walking down the street and got to talking and the thought occurred to me to ask him where his family lives.  He said they lived right around the corner and we asked him to introduce us to them and he said sure!  So he took us over and we met his mom (C) and put an appointment for this Tuesday.  We went Tuesday on splits with members because we had 2 lessons at the same time.  I went with R (convert power!) to visit C and my companion went with our branch president (more on that later).  Basically, we were only there about 30 minutes, we taught the first principle of the restoration, invited them to read the Book of Mormon, go to church, pray, and be baptized and they accepted a baptismal date for June 7th.  It was awesome.   They're open to what God tells them to do.  And the kids are way smart and receptive also.  We went back Saturday and had a powerful lesson on the restoration.  We had left the Book of Mormon Tuesday night and C read it but didn't understand, but by the end of the lesson the Spirit was way strong and they accepted the baptismal invitation again.  F said the closing prayer and I don't think I've ever heard a more sincere prayer from a kid his age, and it was the first time he had done it!  Unfortunately, we don't know how the dad will react to all this--they said they were going to see if he wanted to come to church and they didn't come so I'm guessing he wasn't too thrilled with that idea.  But I have faith that they will keep progressing.  

E and A:  E is President Q's nephew, and the same day we had asked G to bring us to meet his family, President Q was with us and felt the impression to take us to meet his nephew.  He wasn't home that night, but we felt like we should go look for him again and so Elder C and President Q went to see if they could find him Tuesday night while R and I taught C's family.  When I came out of the lesson, R and I went to the meeting spot to wait for them, but by about 9:20 there was still no sign of them.  The very latest we can come home is by 9:30, so by this time I was kind of freaking out, especially since I had the phone and Pres. Q doesn't have a cell phone and there was no way to communicate with them.  I didn't want to go looking for them because they could show up at the meeting spot and then I would be the lost one, plus I wasn't really sure if they had found E or not, but when it was already 9:35 and they hadn't made it, I called our Elders quorum president, who is about the only member here with a car, to take me to go look for them.  I was kind of panicking--thinking that my brand new companion and branch president could have been kidnapped and it was all my fault.  We had started the splits at about 8:15, so I really couldn't imagine what was taking them so long or where they had gone.  I called the branch president's family and they said that he hadn't come home yet, so I went to look for them with our elders quorum president, Brother M.  We went to President Q's nephew's house and they told us that they had just barely left about 10 minutes ago (by this point it was already 9:50 and the zone leaders were started to get a little sketched out by the situation.  They were calling me every 2 minutes to ask if I knew anything yet).  So we went back to the meeting place and there they were!  Whew!  Elder C was super pumped, apparently they had taught the restoration and E and his wife had a lot of questions and he had a lot of fun answering them.  Unfortunately it took them about an hour and a half to do it.  Oh well, the important thing is that we got home safe and sound.  We went back on Thursday and I got to meet them.  They're a young couple with a two year old kid and they're way cool.  They hadn't read any of the Book of Mormon so we read it with them.  They committed to coming to church and we passed by at 9 Sunday morning to remind them, but they didn't make it.  Who knows why.  We're going back on Tuesday so hopefully we can help them be a little more committed this week.  

M and family:  Friday while we were looking for referrals we contacted a lady inside her house (basically door knocking without knocking the door) and taught her a brief version of the restoration.  Her name is M and she has some medical problem that keeps her in her house all day.  She's about 60 years old  but Friday we gave her a Book of Mormon and we went back Saturday morning and she had read from the title page up to 1 Nephi 10.  She was waiting for us excitedly and had a lot of questions.  We answered them and started to teach her and her family the restoration.  Her son and his wife and daughter were there visiting from Manzanillo, along with another of her daughters and her 3 kids who live there with her.  So there were a lot of people there and there weren't enough chairs for us to sit so we taught the lesson standing.  I felt like an old-style preacher from the early days of the church.  Or like Peter when he went to teach Cornelius´s family.  It was awesome.  They had a LOT of questions but they said that if God tells them the Book of Mormon is true they'll get baptized.  They also didn't come to church on Sunday, but it's rare that someone comes the first time we invite them.  

We also have 21 other referrals to contact this week, yeah, we've been getting a lot.  So we should keep finding and finding until we get to the ones that have been prepared.  

R and J are doing great.  We taught them the 10 commandments on Tuesday and C came with us.  I think she ended up teaching more of the lesson than we did, she did a great job!  LOVE my converts!  R has this necklace with a cross on the end that she always wears, and the next lesson after that she told us that the day after we had taught the 10 commandments she was cooking and miraculously the cross fell right off the chain of her necklace.  It wasn't broken, it wasn't loose, she showed us the two pieces afterwards and I really couldn't explain to you how that thing fell off the chain, but she took it as a sign from God and said I guess I shouldn't use this anymore.  Thank you!  Also they paid tithing this week and all the members love them and have done a great job of making them feel welcome.  J came to church this Sunday again, making it now 6 times that he's gone, he just needs to make the decision to be baptized NOW and we'll fill up the font.  I don't really get what's still keeping him, but we'll work things out this week.  His family is really neutral, and I think that's tough for him.  They don't tell him not to go to church or to listen to us or anything, but they don't have any interest at all either.  But he is God's child and this is His work, so I'm sure He'll do something (or inspire us to do something) to help him make the decision.  

Thanks for your love, letters (not love letters), and prayers.  I feel them for me.  I think it'll be a hard thing to get use to not having so many prayers said for me.  I love you all as well and I love hearing about all you're doing.  Have a great week!  Happy 5 de Mayo!

Elder Pew

 

May 12th, 2014

First and foremost, I would like to thank the general public for all the letters I received today which contained something along the lines of "see you soon."  Know that your efforts are appreciated, but that no futile attempts will have such an effect upon me.  There is nothing you can do to make me trunky.  

What a week.  Since we talked a lot yesterday, I'll be brief.  

Monday- We broke the Taco record, played Monopoly, and taught two lessons to people who were totally uninterested.  

Tuesday- We had a lesson with R and J.  I can´t actually remember what we taught them, but at the end we ended up giving R a blessing because she's been pretty sick.  It was sweet--she was promised that she would sleep well that night and wake up feeling better, that she would be able to be baptized and learn how to read some day, and that her children would be able to enjoy the same blessings of the Gospel some time in the future.  Which is the biggest shocker of them all, "for at the present our strugglings were vain in restoring them to the true faith. (Enos 1:14)  But we're waiting for that miracle, whether in this life or the next.  And she did sleep well that night and feel better the next day.  We're still working on the getting baptized part.

Wednesday-  Wednesday morning we were teaching a new investigator who wasn't really seeming interested, but we asked her what her neighbors' names were and she told us about the couple across the street, named V and E.  Since they live right by the Branch President, we went to his house and he volunteered to come with us in that same instant to go contact them.  They let us in and listened to us and accepted a baptismal date for June 21st.  They're an older couple, they're both from Chiapas and only have about 6 months together.   They've been going to a Christian church for the last 4 months and V says that thanks to that, he's been able to stop drinking.  So it seems like they've been well prepared to receive the gospel.  

Also, that day the members from La Huerta sent us the requirements for marriage in their town.  It's substantially easier and cheaper there, the only problem is that they ask for a recent birth certificate, and J was born and registered in some random town in Michoacán about 2 days from here in car, and he either has to go all the way there to print it off or have them send him one, which takes forever and sometimes doesn't even work.  So he's been pretty depressed about that lately.  We'll see what happens with them.  

Thursday-  We had another lesson with V and E, we taught the Restoration and V seemed to have understood everything.  Esperanza seems to be comfortable where she is and doesn't really understand why she should look for the true church.  They couldn't come to church this week, but we're going to go back Tuesday and we'll see how they're doing.  

That night, we had a lesson with President Q's friend, J.  We taught him about the Atonement and invited him to be baptized and he said yes.  The problem is that he works on Sundays right now because they're preparing the fields (he works on a farm) for rain season.  So we've been praying that it rains soon so that he'll go to church.  

Friday-  There was a Mother's day activity in the church, but we only were there for the very beginning and the very end, because we had an appointment.  Our lesson was with 2 new investigators:  J and his wife E.  Last week we were asking a less active investigator for referrals, and her 9 year old daughter told us to visit one of her friends.  We asked her what her parents' names were and went to go contact them.  They weren't there, but we actually ended up contacting the dad in the street that same day.  We met his wife later on and put an appointment and Friday night we taught them the Restoration.  It seems like J really has a desire to repent and be cleansed of his sins.  They're both about 30 years old and they're good friends with the M family (the family whose computer we used to skype yesterday).  They also accepted a baptismal date for June 21st, and J went to church on Sunday.  E couldn't go because her dad, who lives in Guadalajara, got really sick and was about to die, so she was getting ready to go to Guadalajara for a few days to be there with him.  

Saturday- We found a family of 3 Saturday morning.  Earlier in the week, we asked J, one of the future missionaries, if she had already talked to all her friends about the gospel.  She said that she had and that nobody was interested.  So we asked her who her enemies were and she named a few, one of which is C, who lives on the same block as her.  So we went to contact him and he accepted an appointment on Saturday.  He's about 20, we taught him, his 23 year old brother D, and his mom L.  We had been practicing the Restoration a lot lately in our companionship study after what happened with E earlier on in the week, and it paid off.  We taught it very clearly and the Spirit was really there.  They all accepted baptism and L said the closing prayer and was crying throughout the whole thing.  I feel like they really have potential, but the went to visit L's mom on Sunday and didn't go to church.  But we'll keep trying.  

Sunday- R and J didn't come because R was feeling sick again.  J didn't come either, but J did and the whole G (less actives) also came and the 16 year old daughter brought her boyfriend.  Also, another less active member, who strangely enough is also named J, came for the first time in all my time here.  The branch president went to visit him during the week and Sunday morning stopped by to take him to church. That was great.  In all there were 8 less actives in church, plus all the visits from Manzanillo made for an attendance of 63, which is the best we've had in all my time here.  And they were really good meetings, also.  It felt great.  

Today- We went to Manzanillo for a zone activity.  We played basketball and it's become very apparent that I've been in Mexico for a while now.  I think I might of made 4 shots the whole time. But it was fun to get together with everyone there.  It's a really young zone--there are 6 missionaries in my district and I have more time in the mission then the other 5 combined--but they're great.  We came home early to have time to still do everything we need to before 6:00.  Then back to work again!

I love you all so much.  It was great getting to talk to you yesterday--even though it was hard to do it in English.  Mom, thanks for all you have done to help me become who I am.  No effort has been wasted--all your good work will pay off, so keep it up! Being on my mission has helped me really learn to appreciate you and dad more--I've seen the difference you've made in my life and I realize all you have done to help me.  You are exceptional, Mom, and I will forever be grateful for that.  Have a great week!  You deserve it!

Elder Pew

Photos

Last Zone Conference for Elder Pew

 

 

All these elders it was their last zone conference-some have one more transfer than Elder Pew.

April 21st and 28th, 2014

April 21, 2014

This was such a tiring week.  And just an FYI I've been battling with this keyboard all day because the "a" key gets stuck, so if there happens to be some random "a´s" in this email, just ignore them. 

 

Monday I had an awful allergy attack.  I used up an entire roll of toilet paper in about 3 hours.  We did end up having a lesson with some new investigators.  A member, M, took us to meet her friend P after we invited her to write her testimony in a Book of Mormon and give it to someone.  I was too sick to breathe, so Elder C ran almost the whole lesson and did a pretty good job.  P and her husband, L, are an older couple (about 70) but they've been reading the Book of Mormon and have enjoyed our visits so far.  L works on Sundays and they're not married so those will be the biggest challenges there. 

 

I feel like I need to share the story of that member, M.  When I got to this area, she was inactive.  She's in her late 50's and has really bad arthritis, so it makes it really hard for her to get to church.  For about a month we visited her almost every day to read the Book of Mormon with her because she wasn't in the habit, and finally she started to read it on her own.  She started feeling good enough to come to church, and for about 3 months now she's come every Sunday.  In February she went to the temple to get endowed and has given us more referrals than any other member.  Cool story. 

 

Tuesday we had district class in M, ate lunch there, then worked with the Elders there for a few hours before going to the bus station to go to Guadalajara.  We got there at 5, which gave us just enough time to get on the next bus at 5:15 which would get us there at about 9:00.  Or so we thought.  But it turns out they didn't tell us that the bus we got on stopped in every little town on the way and we ended up getting there at 11:30 at night.  On the plus side, we got to see just about every town in the mission in one day, and it was cool to stop by Ciudad Guzman again.  We slept in the offices and all the other Elders there were already asleep when we got there. 

 

The new missionaries went to the centro in the morning to get their visas all worked out and afterward we met in the chapel by the temple for the training meeting.  President Wagner said something I had never heard him say before:  "Very few times have I been with a group of such good missionaries."  It was a great meeting, as always, and we got out by about 3.  We made it to the bus station at 3:30 and took a bus to M at 5.  We got there at about 9 and stayed with our district leader that night.  We finally made it to our area again Thursday morning and we were just exhausted.  Plus we haven't been sleeping well the rest of the week.  We remodeled everything in our house today, so we'll see if that helps. 

 

Lots of our investigators are still doing great.  J went to church for the 5th time this week, so technically he could be baptized this Saturday but we're going to wait a little longer to make sure he's ready.  I think we're going to have to teach him the first three lessons again before we can go on with the rest of the commandments and laws and ordinances.  J and R went to church again but we found our yesterday that they're not actually married, and the problem there is that the government pays R a certain wage every month since she's a widow but they'll stop doing it if she gets married and J doesn't have a job.  So it might take a while for them to get all that sorted out, but we'll see what happens.  We couldn't find G and M all week, and it turns out their baby's been sick so they had to go to the hospital in M and all that, but we have an appointment Tuesday with them. 

 

This week there was a YSA conference in Guadalajara and a member from our branch, Ml, took his friend A.  We had met him a few Sundays ago when he came for his interview with the Branch President for the conference, and he's way cool.  It seems like the conference helped him a lot.  He came to church yesterday and we put an appointment with them this week, so that could be good.  I just can't say enough about the members in this branch.  They're so great. 

 

Sunday afternoon we finally found N again!  Remember how she had gone to Guadalajara to see her daughter?  Well, she got back this week.  And while we were over there, her daughter M, the one that was listening to us and went to church and everything before she had to move, called and I got to talk to her on the phone.  That was a great experience--she's one of the investigators that I've bonded most with in my mission.  It sounds like she's doing better and she said she's reading the Book of Mormon and praying and has had some spiritual experiences.  Once her situation calms down a little more she's going to give us her address so we can send the missionaries to visit her there.  I gave her the addresses of about 4 different chapels in Guadalajara so that she can figure out which of them is closest and go on Sunday.  N's going to be back and forth between here and Guadalajara for a while, but we'll see if we can put a baptismal date for her in our next visit. 

 

I hope you all had a great Easter.  I know the Atonement is real!  Have a fantastic week!

 

Elder Pew

April 28th, 2014

We left a cake in the branch president's oven since we don't have an oven in our house and Elder C was DYING to make cakes again.  Did I tell you he was studying to be a cake-baker?  He is.  Also, he just cracks me up.  He is literally always laughing.  And he still has a little-boy-before-puberty voice, which makes it even more funny.  Anyways, the point is, we're going to have to go take that cake out and eat it soon, so I'll be brief.

Basically, this week we had to drop almost all our investigators.  Can't waste time with people who don't progress when there are lots of others ready to receive us.  And we found a few of them.  

One of our new investigators is J, who is N's son.  He lived in Salt Lake from 2001 to 2005 and loves Mormons because they treated him really well.  Also, he and his family went to General Conference while they were there, but since they hardly spoke English they didn't really understand it that well.  His wife's name is A and he has one kid, a 13 year old boy named A.  They're really nice people.  J fell off the roof of his house a few years ago and has a nerve problem--he lost control of the whole right side of his body and his right arm shakes uncontrollably all the time.  He is a car mechanic and has his own repair shop, but since the accident he's had to teach his wife and kid how to do everything so they can help him since he can't do much anymore.  We taught them the Restoration on Friday and went back Saturday and they had read the introduction to the Book of Mormon the night before and liked it a lot.  But who knows why they didn't come to church.  Oh well, we'll keep trying there.

J was in Manzanillo all week at work, and he didn't get back until Sunday afternoon.  We saw him yesterday and he had some doubts about tithing-whether he'd be able to pay it or not.  But we explained it to him the best we could and he accepted to pay it.  He's got a lot of faith.  Once we can get him to keep all the commandments and feel a little more confident, he'll get baptized.  

R and J are doing well, they went to find out what requirements are needed to get married and they were way too many--the one that really would be hard is birth certificates of at least two kids of each of them, because Js kids live in Veracruz, Tijuana, Michoacan, and other far away lands like that.  But some members from La Huerta, another town about an hour from here that's part of our branch, came down from there to come with us to the lesson with them on Wednesday and told them that they were going to find out the requirements for marriage in their town. They're pretty sure it's a lot easier, so once they find out they'll let us know and maybe they'll just get married there.  They came to church again but are going through a lot of opposition from family members and friends.  They need extra prayers.  

We taught A for the first time, (the kid who went to the YSA conference) and before the lesson even started he told us he wanted to go on a mission, and that he had already told his mom he was going to serve a mission and she told him he could do whatever he wants.  He accepted a baptismal date for June 7th, we would have put it earlier but he lives in M and it's hard to go out there more than once or twice a week.  Unfortunately, he didn't make it to church this week, again, who knows why, but his best friend is a returned missionary so I'm not too worried.  

Awesome memories from this week:

Monday after writing home we found C in the street.  We asked her where she was going and she said she was going to meet her visiting teaching companion to go do their visits.  Yes!

 

 

Wednesday we had a lesson with R and E, and when we got there only R was there. We asked him where his daughter was and he said she had gone to give a friend a Book of Mormon that she had written her testimony in.  We saw her again on Saturday and she said that she had invited her friend to church and told her she was going to go back to see how she was doing with the Book of Mormon.  BEST CONVERT EVER!  

Saturday we had an activity, inspired by Elder C.  We had studied part of preach my gospel where there's a story of a taxi driver that tells about his conversion, and my companion felt like it would be a good idea to get all the members to write their conversion stories and make a book with all of them in it.  We presented the idea to the branch president who talked it over with his counselors and planned the activity. He started out telling the story of Enos, how he had been a member his whole life but still had a conversion story.  Then he invited a few members who were born in the covenant to come up and share their conversion stories.  Then he talked about Paul, who was a convert and persecuted the church before his conversion, and invited a few converts to share their experiences, one of which was C.  Then he invited them all to write their stories and give them to us the next day.  It was an awesome activity, the Spirit was way strong.  Instead of making a book, he decided to put all the stories in a time capsule that they already had in his office.  They're going to open it in 2020.  

Well, that'll be it for this week.  We have some high elevated goals for this transfer and we're excited to give all we've got until the end.  Thanks for all your support!  I love you all a lot!

Elder Pew

 

Photos

April 7th and 14th, 2014

April 7^th, 2014

We didn't have any weddings this week, but I'm almost home, so I thought I'd stick with the marriage theme.  

First of all, thanks for reminding me that it was going to be my birthday this week!  Because if not, I just might have forgotten.  I was actually forgetting until I logged on to my email account and saw 130 new messages today.  Thanks everyone!  I'm sure it'll be a great day.  And special thanks to Granny and Jay for the package--yes it made it!  

Well, I don't have a whole ton of time left--lots to do on the computer today, if you can believe it.  Anyways, we had a pretty good week.  I kind of forgot how stressful and hard training a new missionary is.  Not that Elder C is difficult, it would be hard with anyone.  He's a good kid and doesn't complain about anything, but in two weeks in the MTC they can't teach them a whole lot.  I'm really tired!  Hopefully he learns what he needs to from me.  

Remember how last Thursday we found 7 new investigators?  Well, one of them who I didn't tell you about was R.  We were walking down the street and she was sitting outside her house and we felt strongly that we should talk to her.  She told us that she really didn't know anything about God and was a little frustrated because she's gone to the Catholic church but doesn't feel like she learns anything because she doesn't know how to read.  We said a little prayer with her right there in the street, invited her to church, and put an appointment to go back on Sunday.  On Sunday she was waiting for us and introduced us to her husband, J. They're both in their 60s and they've been married for only 6 years. They were both widowed and miraculously met and got married.  Quite the story that I don't have time to tell.  J doesn't know how to read either, so that's a major obstacle, but we've been teaching them almost every day since Tuesday and their faith has grown a lot already.  R told us that she really has a spiritual hunger and would just get so frustrated sometimes because she couldn't find anything to satisfy it.  She says that this whole week, since we said the prayer with her in the street, she's felt better.  They came to the Saturday morning session of conference and to both sessions on Sunday.  Also, we introduced them to our branch president who told them that he had seen some manuals to help someone learn to read in the church. The next day we stopped by to meet a member to come with us to a lesson and he was there in his office.  He had found the manuals--one for the teacher and for the person who wants to learn to read.  The member who was going to come with us just happens to be a kindergarten teacher (the primary president), so he gave her the teacher's manual and gave her the assignment to teach R and J how to read, and she accepted.  So starting tomorrow she's going to start giving them reading classes.  Love this branch.  Hopefully they can learn how to read quickly so that they can read the Book of Mormon, because until they read it it'll be hard for them to really have a strong testimony.  

Wednesday was a day I'll never forget.  Almost all morning we had lessons fall through, and in the afternoon it looked like it would follow the same pattern after two more fell through.  It was about 5:00 and we had visited all our plan a's and plan b's up to that point, so I said a prayer to ask Heavenly Father where we should go.  The thought came to me that Elder C already knew where we should go, so I asked him and he said that we should go with the C family.  Remember them?  It's the pure-bred Lamanite family we met a few weeks ago that hardly speaks Spanish.  We hadn't seen them for a while at this point, like almost a week.  Usually they don't get home from work until about 8:00, so I was thinking, "Ok, they're probably not home but there's probably someone on the way that we're supposed to talk to."  But on the way there there was literally nobody in the street, and when we got there, sure enough, there was the whole family.  Brother C was sitting outside with a can of beer and when we got there he told us that he had given up on himself--he had been addicted to alcohol for too long and wasn't going to be able to quit.  But he asked us to keep visiting his kids so that they wouldn't follow his example.  We asked him if we could say a prayer and talk a little more and he said yes.  He wasn't drunk yet, so I wanted to give it one last try.  We gathered the whole family and after the prayer I knew we had to teach him about the Atonement, but recognizing that they really don't know anything about Christ, we started from the beginning.  Elder C has this book of Gospel art, so we pulled it out and went page by page, starting with Christ's birth, explaining to them all the events of His life.  We talked about His baptism, His miracles, His teachings, His suffering in Gethsemane, His death on the cross, and His Resurrection.  They were filled with wonder and amazement.  With each new picture they seemed more and more captivated, and more and more convinced of the truth of all we were telling them.  After talking about the Resurrection, we asked Brother C "If this man had power to do all these things, do you think he can help you stop drinking?"  He said yes.  We invited them to be baptized.  They all said yes.  We invited them to keep praying and to come to church on sunday and they said they would.  The last picture in the art book was of the second coming.  We explained to them that Christ one day will come back, that He still lives and loves each one of them.  I hadn't felt the Spirit that strong for a long time.  They didn't end up coming to church on sunday, and they're not sure how much time they're still going to be here in C, but it was still such an amazing experience to be able to teach these people who knew absolutely nothing about Christ who He is.  He is the Savior, and He has power to save each one of us.  To top it off, that night C and V came with us to visit an investigator, J, and they're super awesome and shared super powerful testimonies in the lesson.  And he did come to church.  

Well, that's how things are going right now.  I'm out of time and really don't have much else to report.  Thanks for your love and prayers.  Have a fantastic week!

Elder Pew

April 17^th, 2014

So spring break just started this week here, so we decided to go on vacation as well.  Ok not really but we're not going to be in our area for like half of the week.  Tomorrow we have district class in M and tomorrow night we have to be in G at 9:00 because Elder C has to figure something out with his visa Wednesday morning, and then Wednesday afternoon we have a follow up meeting with President Wagner for all the new missionaries and their trainers, so won't be getting back here until like Thursday.  I'm a little bit worried since that's a lot of time without being able to see our investigators and converts, so remember them all in your prayers!  And if anyone's going to the temple, it would be just great if you could put their names on the prayer roll there as well.  Especially V and R Paniagua.  Thanks.  

We had a pretty awesome week.  R and J have been going to the church every other day so that the Primary president can teach them how to read.  This branch really just has the greatest members.  They're more and more convinced now that this is the true church and R is excited to be baptized.  Also, it turns out that R's son in law, who died three years ago in an accident at work, just happens to be Brother D's brother, and when he heard she had been listening to us and that she has a baptismal date he got super excited and came back to church this week!  He told us that when he got baptized, she was one of the first people to criticize him and tell him not to.  The Lord really does prepare people to receive the gospel.  Look at her now.  Our branch president's wife told us that she stood up in relief society this sunday and basically bore her testimony to everyone about how she was stressed out and frustrated one day and went outside her house when all of a sudden we came by and talked to her and from that moment on she has been happy and peaceful and knows that the church is true.  Yes!  

J is still doing great.  We've been teaching him the commandments this week and so far so good.  The only ones left are the law of chastity and the word of wisdom, and I really doubt he has a problem with either of them.  He's halfway through 2 Nephi and came to church all by himself this week and stayed for 3 hours.  Unfortunately, his family remains completely uninterested.  Hopefully someday soon they'll listen.  We're really hoping we can get them to come to his baptism in a few weeks and maybe from there on things will change.  

Wendesday we had interviews with President Wagner.  He told me that Elder R begged and begged and begged to be my companion again for my last transfer, and that he remembers his time with me as the "golden days."  We both found that to be really funny.  But it was good because he also told me that he's come a long way.  Also I asked him for advice for how to finish off the last two months of my mission and he said not to think about it, talk about it, write about it, or do anything different.  Don't let the members know, don't mention it in your letters, just business as usual.  So in the letters you write me just pretend like I'm going to be staying here for another 3 years (and if it were up to me, I just might:).  

On Thursday we were walking to a lesson when a lady stopped us on the street and told us she wanted us to go visit her.  Her name is M and she and her husband S had listened to the missionaries a few years ago and were about to get baptized but S didn't pass his interview and they kind of lost interest after that.  But apparently they've had "problems" in their marriage lately and want help.  We went Friday and taught them the Restoration.  They accepted a baptismal date for May 17th, but they didn't come to church and we couldn't find them afterwards so we'll see what happens.  

On Friday we were walking down the street and a young couple was walking towards us and we felt like we should talk to them.  We did and they gave us their address.  We went by Saturday and they're super awesome.  Their names are G and M , they met in Mexico City and lived their for a while.  While they were there, they started going to some church and got baptized, but when they got here, they started listening to the Jehovah's witnesses who told them their baptism wasn't valid (thank you!) so now they're kind of confused about what they should do.  Actually, not anymore, because we taught them the Restoration and they understood and accepted everything, including a baptismal date (May 24th).  They're not legally married, but they know that they need to be and have already been gathering together the papers they need.  They came to church yesterday even though G has a nasty cut in his leg and can barely walk and stayed the whole three hours, and we're super excited to go visit them in a few hours. 

Before the lesson with them on Saturday, we felt like we should talk to a lady sitting in a chair in front of her house.  She was totally not interested, but she told us the names of three of her neighbors so we went to contact them.  One of them was G and his wife C.  When we contacted them, I felt strongly that I should talk about families.  He accepted another appointment and we went sunday afternoon.  Apparently, they've just recently started to have problems with their marriage and really need help.  Also, they have 2 little daughters and had another one that died as a baby 2 years ago, so when we taught about eternal families the spirit was really strong.  They also accepted a baptismal date for May 24th.  So basically, the Spirit has been guiding us to the people who are ready to receive the gospel, and they are many.  Truly, the field is white already to harvest.  

E spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday.  She's so great.  C, her, and L also are visiting teachers now and they're going to call L as the first counselor in the relief society presidency.  Our converts are going to help so much in this branch!  

Basically, I'm loving my life.  Preach my Gospel says that there is no other work that is more important, or more rewarding, than missionary work, and I know that's true!  It would be foolishness for someone to have the opportunity to serve a mission and turn it down.  You're only hurting yourself.  God's work will go forth, the only thing that's left to decide is if we will have the joy of participating in it or not.  Count me in.  

Have a great week everyone!  I love you all!

Elder Pew

March 24th & 31st 2014 and photos!

March 24^th, 2014

THIS IS IT!  (shout out to all LP alumni 2011)  The week that C and V get married!  C has her ID now, so all that's left is the premarital lecture the government makes them take, and then turn in all the papers and wait to see what day they give them for their wedding.  If they can get married before Saturday, they'll get baptized, if not, the week after general conference.  But MAN am I excited for that.  Its about time!  

Ok, well, I'll go in order now. I just couldn't contain myself with this last part.  Sorry for the super short, lame letters the last few weeks.  I feel bad, I really do.  So this week we're going to pretend like I just got to the mission and I want to write about every little thing that I did.  I think it'll help me not to get trunky, right?  Ok.

Well, Tuesday we were still in M.  We got up and went to district class.  Oh, I'm not district leader anymore, and man does it feel good.  After 11 months of preparing those classes I was really running out of ideas.  But anyways, Elder G is our district leader now and he did a great job.  At one point, he divided us into companionships and assigned us a scripture to study, which we would then share with the rest of the district.  We got Isaiah 58:13-14. I had never understood that scripture until now.  Read it and look for how it relates to the baptismal covenant and you'll learn a lot.  After district class, we went to lunch with a family who lives in M that used to live in C who gives us lunch every Tuesday since we're already there.  They're awesome.  Then on the bus ride we had our companionship study and I taught Elder C how to invite people to be baptized and gave him that job from here on out.  That day he invited about 4 people to be baptized: J, N, V, and M, plus a recently reactivated member named M, who also accepted the invitation.  Haha!  Guess I should have made it more clear that she was a member before we went in to the lesson.  I haven't talked about J yet, he's a new investigator we found contacting on Sunday.  He's about 61 and has listened to all kinds of different religions and has always wondered which is the true church!  So he was pretty interested when we talked about Joseph Smith.  On Tuesday we read 1 Nephi 13 with him to show him why there are so many churches and the need for the Restoration and how the Book of Mormon fits into the picture.  He was super interested and accpeted the invitation to be baptized on April 26th!  Also, we saw E, R and L's daughter who just had a baby, and she's recovered a lot now and told us she wanted to get baptized as soon as possible.  We told her she still had to go to church one more time so the fastest she could be baptized would be March 29th.  She agreed and is super excited!

On Wednesday we visited N again and tried to watch the Restoration video with her, but she really couldn't pay attention.  She is too overwhelmed by all her problems to be able to listen and understand what we were saying.  So we decided that in the next visit we would just go and let her vent.  We also saw C and V that day and taught them about the Pre-earth life and the fall.  They're great.  We pass around a calendar every Sunday in church where the members can sign up to come with us to the lessons during the week, and it's worked out really well.  They feel more committed to come with and we know now what days and at what time we'll have members available.  Anyways, M has been signing up to come with us just about every day of the week and has been sharing powerful testimonies to all the people we visit.  We saw R and L again and they're doing fantastic.  I love converts.  We had a lesson with V and M that night and we took a 22 year old member with us who is working on her mission papers right now.  We gave her the assignment to teach "endure to the end" in this lesson and it went really well.  There are so many ways to make a difference in missionary work--you don't only have an influence on the investigators but also on the members who you work with and your companions.  It feels good.

Thursday we visited N and as planned we just went and listened.  After about 20 minutes she said, "I've talked a lot now, sorry, teach me please!"  We didn't have anything planned, but we felt like teaching her about faith and miracles, so we read some of Ether 12 with her.  Her nephew, who is a member but who has been very inactive, was there also and even bore his testimony to her.  It was just different this time, the whole feeling of the lesson.  She liked it a lot and we left her 2 Nephi 2 to read for the next visit, since it answers one of the "questions of the soul" (Preach My Gospel, Chapter 5) that she has: "Why does God allow so much evil and suffering?"  We also visited the D family, who have been inactive the whole time I have been here but the last two weeks the dad and his 19 year old daughter D have actually gone.  D's actually been signing up to come with us to the lessons and has helped a lot.  Anyways, they're awesome and I love teaching them.  

Friday we went to M and contacted a referral the sisters in M had given us.  Her name is M and her sister is listening to the sister missionaries in M and is actually going to get baptized this week.  She's recently started to lose her sight--she says everything's gone blurry, and it's been a real trial for her.  So we gave her a blessing and put an appointment to come back.  We also visited E again and taught her about the Atonement.  She's already recognized the blessings she's received from Christ--she told us about an experience she had in the hospital when she was having her baby.  Apparently, they weren't sure she was going to live, but she said a prayer before the surgery and said she felt totally calm the whole time and knew everything was going to be fine.  And that, on top of the Relief Society President staying with her for a day in a half so her parents could get baptized, convinced her to get baptized as soon as she can.  We visited N again and she had read 2 Nephi 2 but said that she didn't understand it so we read it with her.  She loved it and understood a lot better the doctrine of the plan of salvation and the need for opposition in all things.  We found some sweet new investigators that day also--the C family.  They're from a little indian town in the mountains of G and they speak a dialect called Bisteco.  C and his kids speak decent Spanish, his wife hardly speaks it at all.  It's really cool to teach them because they believe everything we say, but we have to be very simple and clear because of the language barrier and because they have very, very little Christian background.  

Saturday we visited J again and invited him to church, he said he would go.  Yes!  Our branch President is doing a lot better now.  He's been came to church this week and last week and he's been coming with us to all the lessons with J.  Man did we miss him.  Saturday we went with N and read the end of 2 Nephi 2.  She loved it and it was fun to explain all the doctrine of the fall to her since she has some Jehovah's witness influences. She believed everything and is super pumped to read the Book of Mormon now.  She couldn't come to church because she had to go to Guadalajara to help M with something, but as soon as she gets back we'll visit her again.  We had a critical lesson with C and V that night.  We felt like we should teach them about fasting again and invite them to fast on Sunday so that everything went well this week.  We planned out to share with them Isaiah 58 (that chapter again) verses 6-11 to explain the blessings of fasting before we even finished reading it they were asking us at what time they should end their fast on Sunday if they started right then!  That's the Holy Ghost at its work!  

On Sunday, we went to pick up J to go to church and he came!  Also, we got there and a member from another town, L, had brought a friend who wanted to know more about the church.  So after the third hour we taught her right then. Her name is L, she has 12 year old and 9 year old boys and recently got divorced and is looking for God.  She said she felt good in church and we invited her to be baptized (meaning Elder C invited her to be baptized) and she accepted!  We can't go to L to visit her so we'll have to keep teaching her every Sunday in the church, so pray for her so that she can keep coming!  We also visited M again and taught her the Restoration and she also accepted a baptismal date!  Then we had a POWERFUL lesson about the Atonement with C and V.  It's fun to teach them because they've already heard the missionary lessons about 2 full times now and we can go a little deeper.  They were crying.  Oh, and they did fast, by the way, so it's all in God's hands!

Basically, it was a great week, and if the rest of my mission goes like this, I'll die happy!  This is God's true church and it is his work.  The Atonement is real. Have a great week!  I love you all and we'll see each other soon!

March 31^st, 2014

WOW!  This week was just one of those classic battles between good and evil...like the war in heaven, Nephites vs Lamanites, the revolutionary war, and BYU vs. Utah.  Satan wanted to make his opinion very clear about what a certain 3 people were about to do.  I know understand a whole lot better the words to the hymn "Onward Christian soldiers, marching as to war."  

Let's go day by day.

Monday-everything tranquilo.  The calm before the storm.

Tuesday- We go to visit E and she tells us she thinks it'll be better to wait one more week. I think it was a combination of nervousness because she had never actually seen baptism before and because she recently had a C-section operation 3 weeks ago and is still recovering.  But we told to pray about it and see what God says.  C and V were doing great, except that C´s boss didn't want to give her the day off on Thursday to go to the marriage lectures.  But she said if he didn't give her the day off, she was just going to miss work anyways.  

Wednesday:  We had district class and practiced using the scriptures to invite people to be baptized.  I don't know why i had stopped doing that.  Elder A and I always did and everyone always said yes!  so we decided to try it out with E that day.  We asked her at the beginning of the lesson if she had prayed and she said that she did but she still was feeling like waiting.  So we taught her the Gospel of Jesus Christ and when we got to baptism, we whipped out Mosiah 18:8-10 where Alma basically explains the baptismal covenant and says "if this is the desire of your heart, why don't you get baptized?"  So after reading it we asked her the same question "Is this the desire of your heart?"  "Yes."  "Then what is keeping you from getting baptized?"  She thought about it for a little bit and said "nothing.  I've prepared, I'm keeping the commandments, I'm ready, nothing's keeping me from doing it."  "Then why wait?"  "Ok, I'll get baptized this Saturday."  YES!

C and V were still doing fine that night--C's boss gave her the day off and it seemed like everything would be ok.  Thursday was the day they had to go to the premarital lecture.  Let me just explain the process of marriage in Mexico.  They do it all through the government. Basically, they have to get together a bunch of paper work--birth certificates, ID, medical checkup, and a document saying they went to the premarital talks--and turn it in in the city hall.  Once they turn it in, they give them an appointment to come in and get married.  Simple enough, right? Well, Wednesday night after planning we got a call from C saying that they didn't have enough money for the premarital talk the next day.  The first thing I asked them was if they had paid they're tithing on Sunday.  They said that they did.  From then on I knew everything would be fine.  So we invited them to pray and ask God what they should do.  

Thursday:  They had to be at the lecture at 12:00 and at 8:30 we get a call saying they're still 100 pesos short and wanted us to ask the branch president if the church could help them out a little bit.  He said that the system hasn't been working lately and that they haven't been able to take any money out the last few weeks.  It was such a crazy morning.  We were calling them every few minutes to see what was happening and give them ideas about who could lend them 100 pesos.  At 11:30 they still hadn't found anyone to help them, so they went anyways hoping that they would let them pay later.  They got into the lecture, but they wouldn't give them the document they need until they had paid.  On top of that, they had to get their medical checkup done so that they could turn in all the papers before 3:00 when the civil records office closed, and after running all over C looking for a doctor, they finally found someone who would do it.  They ran over and turned in all the papers they had, hoping that they would give them an appointment to come in the next day to get married, even though they still didn't have the document from the premarital lecture.  Luckily and miraculously, they did and gave them an appointment for Friday at 9:00 to get married.  Whew.  So now it was just a question of getting a hold of the money they needed so that they could pick up that document in the morning before their wedding.  That night, they found a member who lent them the money they needed and we could finally sleep in peace.  

Other than all the craziness, we also found a ton of new investigators on Thursday, 7 to be exact, of whom will be made more particular mention a little later. 

Friday:  Well, we were asked to be witnesses to their wedding, so at 9:00 we went to the city hall, only to be told that we couldn't be their witnesses because we're not Mexicans.  Whatever, we stayed there with them for moral support.  They grabbed two random people in the building to be their witnesses, and then it turned out that we could have been after all, I guess the lady we asked must have been in a bad mood.  Or just made a mistake.  But whatever.  They finally got married and I could hardly believe it!  What a sigh of relief.  I know that it's because they fasted and payed their tithing--if it wasn't for that, who knows what would have happened.  That night they passed their baptismal interviews, along with E, and we had a cake to celebrate their marriage.  Such a miracle.  

Saturday morning we visited a family that we had found on Thursday--M, her daughter in law H, and her grandkids.  Basically they have a huge family and they all live right there close.  We taught them the Restoration and invited them to be baptized and S and L accepted without a problem.  So we invited them to the baptism and to church on Sunday and they both came!  We're going to work a little more with the adults in that family this week so that they all come to conference this weekend.  The girls loved the baptism and church, so that was sweet. 

This was easily the most memorable baptismal service of my life.  The entire branch came--everybody!  L gave the opening prayer, Elder C gave the first talk on baptism, then M gave one on the gift of the Holy Ghost and rocked it!  You never would have guessed that she only has 2 months in the church!  Then I did a musical number with A, the first counselor in the branch presidency, who also plays guitar and sings and writes and records his own music.  Basically we're best friends.  We sang a mix of "Abide with me" and that cheesy song we sang in the missionary activity in Guadalajara a few months ago (Te hallaré me querido amigo).  Everyone was crying.  Then came time for the baptisms.  A baptized C and V, and R was supposed to baptize E, but he didn't get home from work in time, so I had the privilege of baptizing her.  It was the happiest night of my life.  They were all so happy and all three bore their testimonies at the end.  They're going to be a big help in this branch.  I have been way too blessed!  I am so grateful for this chance I have had to serve the Lord and to meet this family.  I love them so much.  The mission is the best!

I love you all and we'll see you soon!  Have a happy conference weekend!

Elder Pew