July 29th, 2013

I don't have a whole lot of time today--I was writing Timo.  But it's been a good day and a good week.  We're still working with all the investigators I talked about last week, and the little kid, S, is getting baptized this week.  I had to fail a baptismal interview this week for some other missionaries in the district.  That was kind of hard.  But we all realized it was a good decision when he didn't show up to church on Sunday.  We're hoping he gets baptized this week.

We're planning the greatest activity of all time for next Saturday.  We planned it with the missionaries from our ward and from another ward, along with our ward mission leader.  Basically, we're telling all the members it's going to be a Hawaiian dinner.  When they show up we're going to stick them in a plane and tell them we are flying to Hawaii.  Then the plane is going to crash, and angel is going to come aboard and tell them they've all just died.  Then they'll go through the Spirit World, judgment, and the Kingdoms of Glory before we give them their food.  We've planned it out super well and if it all goes as planned, it's going to be an AMAZING experience for everyone.  And the members are all excited and set on bringing investigators.  SWEET!

Today we played volleyball in the park.  The problem was, there isn't a volleyball net in the park.  But there are trees, so we pulled down a couple vines from a big, weird, hairy looking tree and fastened them to two other trees to make a volleyball net.  I feel like all the six missionaries in my district and the other two sisters from the other ward that always hang out with us would have fit right in with my high school and college friends.  The Celestial Kingdom's gonna be a party.  

I don't have any time left, but know that I'm doing great, I love the mission, I love my life, and I love the gospel.  Have a great week!!!

Elder Pew

Letters from July 15th and 22nd

July 15th, 2013 Letter

Somebody asked me if I was from South America this week, because of my accent.  These Colombians and Peruvians (he has had 2 Peruvian comps and 1 from Colombia) have really gotten to me...

Responding to things I have yet to respond to:  Erin's ENGAGED?!!! (his cousin) Congratulations!!!  No I hadn't heard.  That's great.  Muchas felicidades.  

I love Mexico, in case you were wondering.  I'm really, really in love with this country.  

Can you tell I have nothing to write about today?

This week, we had a lot more success with less actives than what we had been having.  They've been letting us into their houses and listening to us and everything, and 7 came to church this Sunday.  Which was great.  Also, L was there again, which was comforting.  Her sister still is working on Sundays, so we'll see what we can do there, but hopefully she'll get baptized this transfer.  As far as investigators go, things are still pretty slow.  But we have referrals to contact still and I am sure we will find someone who wants to listen this week.  A few extra prayers would be nice.  Thanks!

Today we went to the Parque Metropolitano, it's basically Central Park but in G.  We rented a quatricycle.  What? Yeah.  It was awesome. 

We did have a cool teaching experience this week:  We had everything fall through one day.  We ended up near our apartment so we decided to knock the door of a family we had already met there who had already listened to the missionaries because they are friends with some members who live in the same apartment.  ( I am aware that was a run-on sentence, but my English is really just struggling right now.)  Anyways, the 21 year old son opened the door.  His name is E and he has arthritis (coincidence? I think not).  He let us in and we started talking to him.  He didn't seem super interested--since he'd already listened to the missionaries and rejected them once.  But we kept talking and just had the impression to find something he would be interested in.  It was way cool to see how the Spirit guided the conversation, and we were able to discover that he was really, genuinely interested in finding out about what happens after we die.  So we told him the answer was in the Book of Mormon and left him with Alma 40-41 to read.  We then used that to make a little bridge to the restoration, challenge him to pray to know the Book of Mormon is true and be baptized on August 4th, and he accepted!!!  It was way cool, and it really impressed me to see how the Spirit had really changed his desires in less than an hour of talking to him!  We haven't seen him since then, but hey, it was a cool experience, and we're going to keep looking for him.  He'd can't avoid us that long since he lives 2 floors under us...

One day this week, it rained so hard I couldn't see anything.  I looked out the window and everything was just white.  I'd never seen anything like it.  

Timo, hang in there!!!  Be like a little sponge in the MTC--it's lots of information in so little time!  Be focused and do what you are supposed to but have fun while you're doing it.  It's always hard to find that balance in the MTC, but you'll get there.  The mission field is great!!  You'll love it!!!

Oh!  More good news!  Elder A was able to baptize J before he left S.  FINALLY!  Always makes me happy to see people I taught get baptized after I leave the area.  

The church is true!  I love you all!  Have a great week.  Be excellent to each other.  Party on dudes!!!

Elder Pew

July 22nd 2013

Sounds like you all had quite a week.  That`s good.  Enjoy your summer.  

Good to hear that Timo's having a blast in the MTC.  I can't imagine only being there for 2 weeks before being shipped off to the field.  The Lord has a lot of confidence in this new generation of missionaries, and in the ones who will be their trainers.  

Let's just say that all the hard things I went through in S are paying off.  There is definitely a reason why it happened, and why I'm district leader here right now.  I've been able to help a lot of people who are going through things I've already gone through.  The church is true!

We had a great week.  It started with an epic district class on Tuesday.  I felt like I had to be a little bit President Wagner-like in calling us to repentance for a loss of focus.  It went really well, and gave fruits.  We were able to contact a basketload of referrals from members this week, and we finally found some people who wanted to listen!  Meet our new investigators:

A:  A guy who sells tacos.  We taught him the Restoration right there behind his taco stand while his assistant was packing up for the day.  He has 3 kids, a wife, and seems pretty great.  He was super interested in the Book of Mormon, and accepted a baptismal date for August 10th super easily, on the condition that he receives an answer that Joseph Smith was a prophet and the Book of Mormon is true.  

C and J:  C was a referral from the same member who introduced us to A, and the lesson with her was going really, REALLY well until her husband, J, showed up, interrupted us midsentence, asked questions to try to trick us.  But we answered all his questions--unfortunately he didn't like all the answers, and by the time he had finished his wife had already left to open the shoe store they own, so we are going to go back with her to this week to see what happens, because she seemed golden.  

G:  Actually the same G we were teaching the first few weeks I was here, but we finally found her again and she's still super cool.  She doesn't have a job right now, so she told us she'll have more time to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know it is true.  Also, she has a little pug dog that always has his tongue sticking out, even when his mouth's closed.  He's the funniest looking creature I have ever seen.  

S:  7 year old kid who turns 8 next week.  Lives with his mom and his grandparents.  His mom isn't a member, but his grandparents are and they take him to church every week.  Since his parents aren't members, he counts as a convert and has to listen to the missionary lessons and pass a baptismal interview with a missionary before being baptized.  So he's basically just a free baptism that we'll have on August 3rd.  

We're still teaching D, L's sister, and we had some cool experiences with her this week.  We taught her about the plan of Salvation, and it really stuck in her mind the idea that "nothing impure can dwell in the presence of God." (Alma 40:26...I think)  She asked us how she can become pure.  We explained to her that through faith, repentance, baptism, and the gift of the Holy Ghost she could be clean from all her sins.  She told us she didn't really feel ready to be baptized.  We said that's ok, because baptism's step three.  We asked her if she had faith, she said yes, we explained that the next step is repentance, and then she'll be ready for baptism.  I don't know what it was about this lesson, but the Doctrine of Christ finally just clicked in her mind.  She understands now that she needs to repent so that she can get baptized.  And thus we see that when people really understand the Doctrine of Christ and what it means to them, they progress a lot faster.

We had another lesson with her that went really great.  We had left her with the Introduction to the Book of Mormon to read, and when she told us she hadn't read it, we read it with her.  At the end of the lesson, we invited her to kneel down right then and ask God if the Book of Mormon was true.  She got her answer!!!  She sat there in silence for about 2 minutes after the prayer, and she told us that she felt an overwhelming peace, like she could forget everything else that was going on in her life and just feel God's presence.  It was sweet.  The catch:  She needs to find a new job, because where she is working, she doesn't have a day off during the week, so she's working on sundays.  That's this week's project.  

Best news of the week:  I have parasites!!!  In our interviews, Sister Wagner told us the symptoms of parasites, and I had almost all of them.  My stomach has been hurting me almost every time I eat, and food goes through me way too fast.  So she gave me a pill for it, and said if I really have a parasite, they'll get a little resistent to the pill and I'll get sick.  I took the pill yesterday and today I woke up with a hurricane in my stomach!  So I'll be living off straight up guavas until my little friends have all left.  Cool, right?  I still love Mexico.

That's it for this week!  Thanks for all your prayers!  Good luck this week, Timo!!!  I love you all!

Elder Pew

July 1st & July 8th 2013 Letters with photos

Two more weeks and I'm no longer the center of attention.  Haha!  That's good, Timo deserves it for once.  You're going to LOVE the mission!!!  Sounds like it was a super special week for all of you, and it's only going to get more and more exciting.  I hardly even remember the last few weeks before I left...but whatever.  

I also had an awesome week.  Tuesday and Wednesday I went to the Zone Leader's area with Elder D, who is from Chicago and he's 6´6.  He also has 8 transfers in his area and is going home in August, so it's looking like he'll end his mission with one year in P.  It was super fun. I love splits because I always learn a ton.  Also, their area is pretty cool.  It's the whole businessy section of G centro.  Good times.  

Friday I had to do my first baptismal interview because the sisters also had a baptism on Saturday.  Their investigator's named G.  She's 37, single, and showed up at the church during the Saturday session of stake conference a week ago wanting to know more.  A nice little gift for obedience, I think.  I was kind of nervous.  But it went well.  Very spiritual experience.  She was super excited and super ready to get baptized.  L also had her interview that night and passed, so we started with the preparations for Saturday.  We had 2 baptismal services, G at 1 and L at 7.  They were both super spiritual and ended with the recently baptized member crying her eyes out.  About 40-ish people went to the L's baptism--we couldn't fit everybody in the room with the baptismal font, but since there was a stake dance going on in the Chapel, we couldn't do it there.  Among those 40 people were 6 investigators, 2 from the other elders here in E, 1 that the sisters from another ward in the zone brought, L's niece's husband, who lives in a different ward here in the same stake, and 2 from our area.  1 was Lupe's sister, D, who has listened to the missionaries for a long time but never has wanted to get baptized.  Now she does.  But she works in the afternoons, and because of that we wont be able to visit her until Wednesday, because yesterday we had church, today was P-Day, and tomorrow we have District meeting.  We were worried that the excitement would wear off between now and then, but the cool thing about this area is that there are a bunch of returned missionaries here, so we sent one returned sister missionary to visit her today, who called us this morning and said that she had taught her the restoration and that she's super excited.  She even left her with an assignment in the Book of Mormon.  Yes!  Tomorrow our ward mission leader, J, is going to go visit her and put a baptismal date.  Love this ward.  

Anyways, back to the baptism.  The other investigator is a 17 year old girl named A, who's boyfriend is on a mission right now.  She's listened to the missionaries before, but never got baptized.  We saw her teaching record and called her this week, but she told us she didn't have time.  But it all just worked out perfectly, because the music from the stake dance was super loud during the baptism, so Elder T and I left for a second to tell them to turn it down, when a young man from our ward comes walking down the hall with a girl.  We stopped to talked to him and the girl abruptly asked me if I had called her that week.  When she told me she was A, I said yes and invited them in to the baptism.  They were at the stake dance and were just about to leave, so it worked out just perfectly.  We're going to try and visit her later this week.  

Baptism of L

Elder D baptized L, but since she has arthritis and can't bend over that well, he had her sit in a chair and just tipped it backwards to baptize her.  It was kind of cool.  Taking advantage of the fact that there were 6 investigators there, I taught the restoration to the crowd while Elder D and L were changing.  It was sweet!  I think a lot of people are going to get baptized as a result of this baptismal service, because it just went perfectly.  The other messages were really great, and it was really spiritual.  To finish it off, we did a musical number with our assistant ward mission leader, J.  He is literally the best guitarist I have ever met in my life, so he and I played a little guitar duet and we sang "Come Thou Fount" in a mixture of English and Spanish.  Coolest musical number at a baptism that I've ever seen, if I do say so myself.  Then to top it off, one of the members who came had brought a basketload of tostadas with ceviche (look this up on the internet if you want to know what it is, I couldn't tell you in English--a seafood dish).  It was delicious.  One of the best nights of my life!

Good news, L showed up for her confirmation.  The ward is super excited to help us and we've started to gain their confidence.  Everything really seems to be going well.

By the way, we climbed up a volcano today and took pictures of ALL of G

On top of a volcano on P-day, The volcano itself is decently ugly, but here's the view from above.

It's officially enormous.  I love this city!

Love you all!  Enjoy your last few weeks of Timo while you can!  Prepare yourself well!  

Elder Pew

Photo:  Another advantage of this area:  baptismal pictures outside the temple.  Awesome!  Look at all those members that came to support us!!!

Elder Pew with a young man who lives in Mexico where Elder Pew is currently serving  but he attended high school in the states, at Lone Peak High School where Timo (Elder Pew's brother was his TA!) Small world!  See last letter in June.

Seriously laughing my head off with almost every letter I read this week.  Thanks!!!  

That's cool that it was the fourth of July.  I didn't even remember.  The Mexicans had to remind me!!!  I'm becoming one of them.  My Independence Day is September 16th.  That's the kind of weird reality we missionaries live in.  But don't worry Timo, I don't think it'll be possible to forget the 4th of July in Texas.  

It's not hot anymore.  It's officially rain season!!!  It rains every day now for a few hours at least, and the rest of the time it's cloudy and nice out.  And everything's green again, like when I first got here.  I love this place!

We had a decent week.  We keep getting referrals but they usually aren't interested.  But whatever.  Keep trying, I guess.

We had a super sweet lesson with L .  She didn't come to church and her sister didn't either.  So we went over after church, and decided we should talk to them about sacrifice, which is not one of the lessons in Preach My Gospel, but we felt like it was what they needed to hear.  So we did, mixed in with the sacrament, and I learned SO MUCH in that lesson.  (The whole thing was based off of Luke 22, which I had studied in my personal study the day before.  To put emphasis in what I said to Timo)  It was super cool. I now understand how the sacrament is essential to help us progress as people, and the better thing is that L and her family does too!  We committed them to think of something in their lives that they can sacrifice to God, and then to come to church with that in mind on Sunday when they take of the sacrament.  And then to think of a new one for the next week.  I think it'll go well.   

Packed up and ready to go

I never told you that we moved out of our house.  We're living in an apartment now, but we have been living without a fridge, stove, hot water, beds, a fan, and chairs.  Fun stuff.  The other day we went to the mission offices to pick up all our stuff, and the photo attached is our form of transport.  We made it intact, miraculously.  

Note about the other picture:  Yes that is a real snake.  

Elder Pew and a snake, what the???

Yesterday were transfers.  No changes in the district, as expected.  But some unexpected news from S:  They took out Elder A and his companion and sent an Elder who goes home in December to train and be the new branch president.  So that will be good.  

Today we went to a Golden-Corral type restaurant.  Yep, in G.  It's called Sirloin Stockade.  It was amazing!  We went as a whole district, plus two other sisters from another ward in this zone.  It was way fun and we were all laughing hysterically the whole time.  I love this district a lot.

I'm loving my life, and I'm super pumped for Timo join me in the mission!!!  Don't cry too much, it all seems kind of ridiculous to me now :).  Thanks for everything!  Have a great week!!!

June 24th, 2013

I would like to start off by announcing that I met someone who knows Timo yesterday.  There is a family here who sent their son to the United States for High school.  We ate with them a few weeks ago and they asked me where I was from.  When I said "Utah" I was surprised when they asked me what part.  It's usually a miracle that they've even heard of Utah.  But when I said "Cedar Hills" I was more surprised to find out that they'd been there!  They told me their son was living in Alpine and attending Lone Peak but that he was coming home soon for the summer.  They told me his name, but I didn't recognize it.  I asked them if they had seen the wal-mart in front of the school and they said yes.  I asked if they saw the chapel behind the wal-mart--also yes.  I told them I lived on that block.  Everyone freaked out.  Their son came home this week but I still hadn't met him when a young man walks up to me after sacrament meeting and asks me if I miss Lone Peak.  What?  He asked me what classes I had taken, what teachers I had, etc.  When I told him I had Señorita Taylor, he told me that he had taken Spanish 4.  I asked him if he knew Timo and he said yes, that he was the TA for his Spanish class!!!  His name is R A, I think.  Not sure about the first name, but the last name is right.  What a crazy, small, Mormon world we live in, right?

More craziness.  We went to visit a less active couple last week, and had a similar conversation.  The husband, E, asked me where I was from.  "Utah."  "What part?" "Cedar Hills." "That was my first area on my mission!!!"  Crazy.  He served in the Provo mission and his first area included Cedar Hills, Lehi, Alpine, AF, and Highland.  The only baptism he had there was a family from Ecuador that lived in Cedar Hills.  He's been to the Timpanogos temple and wants to get sealed to his recently-baptized wife there this December. Maybe he'll invite you so you can meet him...

Answering a question from last week:  The zone I'm in is called U.  There's three zones in G that belong to our mission.  I started out in I--which is more on the north side of the city, and right now I'm on the west side.  I took pictures of the shoes, but this blessed computer doesn't have a port for my memory card.  Someday...

Happy Birthday Mom!!!  Thanks for being the best Mom ever!!!  Enjoy your bike!

Tuesday in District Meeting the Zone Leaders had asked us to come up with a focus as a district and set goals to achieve it.  We really should be able to have a lot of success in this district--it's the most tight-knit district I've had in my whole mission and we are all 6 part of the same ward.  So we did.  One thing that had been worrying me is that we are not recieving referrals.  The week before we had recieved a total of 6 as a whole district.  In the biggest ward in the mission, that's just not acceptable.  So we talked about how we could improve.  The Zone Leaders and Elder A were there, making it a grand total of 9 missionaries, the biggest district meeting I've ever taught by far, but it was a big help having them there.  The Zone Leaders, because they're zone leaders and they're awesome, and Elder A, because we were in a similar situation in S and ended our time there together receiving 30 referrals in one week.  So we set some goals to improve.  We decided to set the goal to receive 15 as a district every week for the rest of the transfer, and talked about a few things we could do to acheive it.  The Spirit was definitely guiding the meeting.  It went well.  This week we recieved 28 as a district, and it's only going to go up from there.  

You may ask what happened with all those referrals.  Most of them are not interested.  But we'll keep looking I guess.  We had a cool experience with one of them in particular.  Her name is A, and she's not Catholic.  She's from the Apostolic church. 

Needless to say, we got there expecting a challenge.  She started out the lesson saying that there are no other scriptures and no living prophets, that everything we need is in the Bible, and that she has more years in her church than we have alive, in other words, what are these two little children going to be able to teach me?  But as we explained to her the restoration and as she started to see that we do know the scriptures just about as well as she does, she was a little more open.  When we were sharing her the First vision, the impression came to my mind that the salvation of this daughter of God was in that moment dependant on my personal conviction that Joseph Smith is a prophet.  When we had finished relating the First vision in Joseph Smith's own words, the Spirit flooded the room, and I was really grateful for the testimony I had.  Later, she asked me how I could say that the Book of Mormon had changed my life if I had been a member since birth, and in that moment I was really grateful to also have an answer to that question that she could not contend with.  At the end, she said that if she came to know the Book of Mormon is true, she'll be baptized July 20th.  She didn't accept another visit, but we've done our part and we'll be hoping she reads that book.  It's so good to know that Heavenly Father trusts in me enough to let me share my testimony to people like that, who's salvation is in jeopardy and need to hear what he has revealed to me to get back to him.  Remember that, Timo, when your out there in a few weeks.  Every lesson you teach needs to come from the heart.  There doesn't need to be a difference between sharing your testimony and teaching a principle, if the conviction is strong, you'll do both and the same time and the people will feel the power of the Spirit and will know what you are teaching them is true.  If you follow the Spirit, the promise "ye shall not be confounded before men" will be fulfilled.    

The good news is that L went to church again, has accepted everything we teach, is keeping all her commitments, and is getting baptized this Saturday!  The sisters are also baptizing on Saturday, so it should be a really special day for the ward.  Pray specially for them so that everything goes through and they can be baptized that day.  It's been exciting.  

We did get to see the training broadcast and it was SWEET!!!  I was sitting next to Elder M
during the meeting, and during one of the music videos he leaned over and told me "I guarantee my mom is crying right now if she's watching this."  I thought to myself "I guarantee my Mom is crying right now if she's watching this!"  But really, it was so good. 

Leadership training, they had an activity with a stick relay.

I feel like I was going to say something else, but I can't really remember.  Sounds like you all had a fun, busy, scouty week.  Have a great experience tomorrow, Timo (going through the temple).  Take it all in, and think about why they want all missionaries to make those covenants before leaving on the mission.  Love you, bro!

Elder Pew and a fellow Elder friend at the leadership training

Have a great week, everybody.  BYE!!!

Elder Pew

June 17th, 2013

Guess who I'm sitting next to.  No, not the prophet, Elder A  His child (a missionary) is finally getting here , and since we're the closest area to the mission offices, they sent him with us for today and tomorrow.    It's been AWESOME!!!  And keep writing him, his family stopped writing again. 

It was a pretty awesome week.  We had the leaders training meeting Tuesday and it was incredible.  President Wagner taught us how to put a baptismal date with anyone in the first lesson and we did a lot of practices that ended up helping me out later that day (keep reading for more info).  Also, I saw Elder B (still in A, but he's zone leader now), Elder D, Elder D, Elder D, and Elder E, so it was way fun.  And basically I learned way too many things to really be able to tell you them all.  But it was great.  I got back just in time for our lesson with G, an investigator that we had found last Sunday, who started off the lesson telling us that she had thought about it and she decided that she didn't want to get baptized.  We'll see about that!  We taught her the restoration and she understood it really well, and when the time came to invite her to be baptized we applied what President Wagner had taught us and she accepted a baptismal date for July 6th.  Sweet!

We're still working a lot with members to get them excited to help us.  I think it's been working, along with President Wagner's talk from stake conference, because we have a ton of lessons already scheduled this with new people the members have been talking to.  Yes!  And L finally came to church!!! She's looking pretty good for her baptism on the 29th.  Also we had an activity this week.  We played Mormon family feud and it was fun.  

I don't have a whole lot of time left, but I also don't have a whole lot more to say.  Thanks for everything and have a great week!  Less than a month and you'll be getting letters like these from Timo too!!!  Who's ready?  Love you!

Elder Pew

June 10th, 2013

Big news this week:  This Tuesday they are going to send 2 more missionaries to S.  Yes!

So we have a completely new way of doing missionary work.  I think I've probably explained this earlier, but now we don't knock on doors, we only contact in the street when prompted to by the Spirit, and we work more with members and less active members to find people to teach.  So when the members don't talk to anyone, there's nobody to teach.  That's what's going on here in E.  But it's not going to last for too long.  This week we visited a lot of members, doing exactly what we did in S to try and motivate them to work with us to find people to teach.  It's going to work, but it's going to take time.  The good thing is that there are more members in my area here than in all of S and they are all really willing to start talking to people.  And they'll be good examples for the investigators and the ward will take care of everyone who comes to church and gets baptized

We did find two awesome investigators:  M and G.  M came to church last Sunday with her friend who is a member from a different stake in G.  We went to teach her Tuesday and she was super interested.  She is already reading the Book of Mormon, she's in 1 Nephi 9.  She's 20 years old and has a 1 year old kid and works in a call center (speaking English).  It was an awesome lesson.  Oh, and did I mention there's a former Mission President in this ward?  Powerful!  We taught her in his house and it was sweet.  She accepted a baptismal date for June 29th super willingly.   

G was someone that Elder Q and Elder D contacted the week before I got here.  We finally had an appointment with her yesterday and she's way cool.  She told us that 2 years ago she had 2 different operations for brain tumors and both went really well--she seems totally normal and says she lives a normal life.  And she said that since then she's realized that God has a purpose for her and that she should try and be a better person.  So we taught her about the purpose God has for her and she also accepted a baptismal date for June 29th.  Let's pray that she doesn't disappear.  

I met a 24 year old girl the other day who is a professional soccer ref for a living.  What?  Awesome.  She's the nursery teacher here.  

This week was stake conference.  The whole thing was about missionary work.  President Wagner spoke and was on fire, Elder Holland style.  It was amazing.  He takes every opportunity to talk as a chance to call everyone to repentance.  He started out by saying "You have all been really blessed to have great leaders here who have set the example in preaching the gospel.  But where's their army?  How many of you have visited a less active member in the last 3 weeks?  How many of you have shared a Book of Mormon with someone in the last year?  Imagine how embarrassing it will be to have to answer these questions in public on judgment day..."  By the end everyone's hair was standing on end and they were all holding on tight to their chairs.  It was exactly what we needed.  He said that there are more missionaries on earth today than in any other moment in the history of the world, and that these missionaries have received new instructions: work with the members.  The Lord will find a way to do His work, what's left to decide is how much you want to be a part of it.  So true. 

Tomorrow I have to go to another stake center for a leadership training meeting.  Should be pretty fun.  

I've run out of things to say this week.  Things have started off slow here, but I'm enjoying it.  The other missionaries in our district are super fun and the members are also way awesome.  I am absolutely certain that we will have a lot of success together.  Thanks for everything!  I love you all!

Elder Pew

June 3rd, 2013

Hey everybody!  Well, I'm going to start by answering questions.  Yes, we meet in the chapel on the same property as the temple.  My new companion? Well, he's good.  He´s no Elder A, but he is obedient, he knows the area, he plans everything out well.  But the first few months of his mission were super crazy since he was an extra missionary in that mission for a while and I don't think he ever really was trained.  So I think I'm going to sneakily train him again.  But he'll be fine, I think.  His family writes him and everything, but if they stop I'll let you know.  Halfway mark package: still no.  And go ahead and write Elder A all you want.  And tell him I miss him and everyone in S.  

Well, this week was really tiring.  It's just been a weird situation in this ward, because there's not actually supposed to be 4 missionaries living in the same house, they banned that about a month ago.  So Elder M and Elder T had to find a house in their area and move out this week.  Also, the sisters from our ward are living with other sisters in a different ward, and we had to find them a house.  The problem is, they gave us a certain budget for it and all the houses in their area are way too expensive.  So we decided to look for a house in our area and let them live where we are right now, since it is right on the border with their area and we never really work with anyone around there.  So by Thursday we found a house for us to live in and Elder T and Elder M moved out Saturday.  But we still can't move in to our new house because there are still people living in it, so we'll have to wait like 2 weeks.  Also, since the sisters are opening an area, they get lost every so often and we had to go rescue them one night because they were about an hour away from their area and had no idea how to get home. At about 9:30 we finally found them--literally 4 blocks from where they are living right now.  How they got there is still a mystery.  But that's just the kind of thing we've been dealing with.  

Not to mention that this area was completely dead.  They had apparently misunderstood the instruction to focus more on the less actives and decided to completely stop all efforts to look for investigators.  There's a lot of work to do.  But this area has me drooling with all the potential it has.  It's a super big ward--we had 195 in sacrament meeting this sunday, 153 more than we had in Sayula last week.  It's also CRAWLING with recently returned missionaries, who make up the ward mission leader, his assistant, and the entire Elder's Quorum presidency.  And they are all SUPER cool and willing to come with us and help us in the lessons.  Not to mention there's an ex-mission president here also.  And all the other members are pretty awesome and helpful too, from what I've seen so far.  They are all super rich and have cars and drive us all over the place to lessons and to pick up investigators.  And there's a bunch of part member families to work with.  It really should not be any problem finding people to teach.  

This week we did have a couple lessons, 2 of which ended with investigators crying during the closing prayer.  Nobody came to church, but we're working on that.  We ended up teaching one lesson in English to a Canadian named W that lives in Puerto Vallarta who was here on vacation with his wife, who's cousin is a member of this ward.  Did I mention that all the members here speak English?  Well, they do.  Our assistant ward mission leader, J, came with us and helped me teach the lesson in English.  He is amazing!  It was a good lesson.  It's not exactly their time to receive the gospel yet, but we left a good impression.  And his wife said the closing prayer and ended in tears.  Pretty cool experience.  Also, a member from another ward here in Guadalajara brought his friend, who lives in our area, to church on Sunday.  Her name is M and she's already reading the Book of Mormon and wants to know more.  We have a lesson with her tomorrow.  Sweet!

Fun facts about the missionaries in the district:

Elder M and Elder D are both from Columbia, but both have completely different accents.  Elder M sounds like he's speaking Spanish in a British accent, and Elder D with a Southern accent.  Really weird.  And Elder M speaks English incredibly well.  

Elder T has 15 months in the mission.  Before E, he was in A. And he got transferred from there because somebody fell in love with him.  Sound familiar? 

The sisters in our district are Hermana L and Hermana B.  Hermana L is from the same generation as Elder A and Elder R, and is training Hermana B, who seems like she's about 15 years old.  These young sister missionaries really are weirding me out.  

Well, that`s about it for this week.  Thanks for everything and all your prayers.  Hopefully we can find some good investigators this week.  Pray for that!  See you later!  Enjoy summer break!  And congratulations Granny for the wedding!  Hope it goes well! Love you all!

Elder Pew