September 16, 2013

Happy Independence Day!  

a sign they found

The T trips start this Saturday.  Elder V is going to stay with a member in the ward.  And boy am I excited.  I'm not sure if it's fattening but I think it's a little watered down... (quote from 3 Amigos about T)

The conference with Elder Johnson went really well.  He talked about a lot of things that we really needed to hear.  He talked about planning with love, improving our relationships with the members, and serving for the right reasons.  One thing that stuck out to me was when he read Mark 12 28-31, which talks about the two greatest commandments:  Love God and love thy neighbor as thyself.  He explained why the phrase "as thyself" is part of that scripture.  If we really love ourselves, we will do everything to gain our own salvation and exaltation.  And the way to gain our own salvation and exaltation is by loving God enough to keep His commandments and losing ourselves in the service of others.  Kind of cool, huh?

We found a few new investigators this week, but they aren't really interested and we aren't planning on going back.  C told us he would be busy all week so we haven't been able to teach him, but we did stop by a few times to see how he was doing and looks like everything's going well.  He's reading his Book of Mormon and saying his prayers.  He still doesn't know when he'll have his operation, but we're going over in a second to see him so we'll see if there's more news.  

Current companion

We have made plans in district class to gain the confidence of the local leaders by visiting them and teaching them short, powerful lessons.  Wednesday, Elder Johnson's wife shared an experience that also gave us ideas. She said that the missionaries called her one day to ask if they could stop by that night.  She was annoyed all day thinking "they're going to come asking for referrals, and I don't have any to give them."  But when the missionaries got there, they opened up to the "Attribute Activity" in Preach My Gospel, told her and Elder Johnson to pick one attribute they would like to study as a couple, and then did the evaluation and read all the scriptures that went along with that attribute.  She said it was such a great experience that she felt a new desire to give referrals to those missionaries.  So we've tried it a couple times and it's worked really well. One leader told us he has had troubles finding work and that they are short on money, so he decided to study patience.  We went through the evaluation and read all the scriptures about patience, then invited him to say the closing prayer.  He asked God for patience and started crying and thanked him for sending the missionaries to his home.  It was really great.  

Also, this Sunday the Bishop got up in sacrament meeting and spoke about how missionary work is the member's responsibility, not the missionary's.  After church he thanked us for all that we do, told us he loves us and that he is ready to support us in our work.  He also asked us to help the members feel the importance of doing missionary work.  I was about to cry with joy when that happened.  We may not be teaching investigators or baptizing anyone right now, but if we can get this ward more involved in missionary work so that the next missionaries can have success, we've done our job.  Also, L and S are still active and come to church every Sunday, rain or shine, so that always makes me happy.  

His area, which he said that he loves

Speaking of rain, you may have heard there are hurricanes around here.  Even though Guadalajara is about 5 hours away from the coast, we have had nonstop rainstorms and hurricane winds for about a week now.  Last year it stopped raining at about this time, but now it's still going strong.  I have been very wet. 

Friday we had a stake activity--a Mexican Independence party.  It went SUPER well!  We visited a member from our area the day before and asked him about a referral he had given us that we still hadn't contacted.  He said he would invite his friend to the activity, and when we got there there he was with his whole family!  The guy's name is S, he has a wife and 2 or three kids.  He told us he is interested in receiving the lessons and gave us his number so that we could call him this week.  Yes!  

Little boy from last weeks letter

Today, to celebrate Independance day, we went to the Centro (Half of it is part of our zone) and found the most glorious place on earth.  It's a Taco Buffet and it only costs 75 pesos (about 6 dollars)!  I ate 8 tacos and a Torta Ahogada, along with horchata.  Someday I'll take you all there...

That's about it for this week.  Go Cougars!  Cheer extra loud for me.  I'll probably have forgotten about it by tomorrow, but I'll be excited to hear the news next Monday.  Have a great week!  I love you all!

Elder Pew

September 9th, 2013

This was the weirdest week of my mission.

Last Monday night we visited a member family.  Their grandma lives with them and she's about 90 years old and hilarious.  She started telling us that "evil spirits" have been bothering her the last few nights.  She said "One of them came in dressed in all black.  His face was white and he was missing an eye!  He came in and shook my walker and grabbed my foot and moved it over here and when I woke up my body was all purple.  I think they sucked my blood..."  That was about when we all lost it.  It sounded pretty scary until they became vampire spirits.  So anyways, we gave her a blessing and went home.  We stopped by again Tuesday and asked her how it all went the night before.  She said "they came in the house again, but I left them a note by my bed and when they saw it they left me alone."  I would love to know what that note said.  

More weird things people said to us this week.  There's this 58 year old recent convert in our area.  While we were at her house this week, she told us "I'm still waiting for a Mormon boy to marry so I can get sealed in the temple.  But not you guys, you´re still really young..."

We were with another member family and the mom asked us why we hadn't come over to wash our clothes in their washing machine that week.  We told her that we had taken them with another family, but they ended up washing it who knows where and didn't get it back to us until Tuesday, so we had to wash our clothes from Monday by hand and wear it again on Tuesday.  And she asks us "Did you wash your clothes naked?"  Why are you asking me that?!

This time from the sister missionaries.  I get a call from them during language study one day, which is normal because they usually call me with questions about English.  But what I wasn´t expecting is that they would ask me "Elder, how do you say 'you're pregnant' in English?"  

Another one from the sisters.  In the middle of weekly planning on Thursday, I get another call from them.  "Elder, we have a question.  Are we allowed to have sleep-overs as missionaries?"  When they called me as district leader, never in my life did I think I would have to answer that one.  (To clarify, they wanted to have a sleep over with the other sister missionaries in the zone. I said no.)

Saturday just got out of control.  In the morning, a member took us to an old lady's house to teach her.  We had already contacted her in the street the week before, but she didn't remember us at all.  But she let us in.  The member that went with us brought her 1 year old grandson, and he was wandering around the room during the lesson.  It turns out that he found a mostly empty beer can, and the next thing we know we look over and he's drinking the rest!  It was SO funny!  He had his two little hands around the can and the beer was running down both sides of his cheeks.  His grandma grabbed him, took away the beer, and tried to give him his bottle of milk but he just chucked it out the door.  Who ever said just once won't hurt?  Anyways, we weren't in the lesson very long before we realized that the old lady was more there than here and wasn't really going to listen to us, so we decided to invite her to say the closing prayer however she wanted and that turned out to be a mistake.  Her prayer was easily longer than the lesson!  It just went on and on and on and on...she was saying "thank you God that I could wake up today.  Look!  I can move my hand (while wiggling her hand in the air), my foot (doing the same thing with her foot..."  I was holding it in pretty good until I noticed that Elder V had already lost it.  But later I felt bad because I'm sure Heavenly Father loved that prayer and was really glad to hear her.  To top it all of, the prayer finally ended and a rat had appeared behind her!  That was another ordeal.  

In the afternoon, we had a lesson with M, who we had visited a couple weeks ago. Her mom was there who didn't seem to like us so we told M that we weren't going to be able to teach her the message we wanted to share that day and put another appointment for a day when her mom wouldn't be there. It was hysterical.  After that experience, we were thinking "What is going on?!"  I was a little scared to see what would happen next.  I think since there's not a whole lot going on in our area this week, Heavenly Father gave us all these things to laugh about to keep us sane.  

But we actually ended the day with a really good experience.  We went to teach an older less active couple, the V family.  We had been trying to visit them for about 3 transfers now but one thing or another had always kept that from happening.  But everything worked out so that we made it over Saturday night and taught them the restoration.  It was a really great experience and they committed to come to church and read the Book of Mormon.  It was a good way to end the madness.  

C is still doing great, but we had to postpone his baptism because he is going to have surgery soon.  He has an open wound in his stomach and it makes it really uncomfortable for him to go to church, so he told us that he wants us to still visit him but that he would feel better about being baptized afterwards.  So pray for him so that he can stay excited through the whole process.  We are going to try to take a lot of different members to visit him so that he knows the whole ward and so that they are all involved in his conversion process.  

J went to the woods to pray but we haven't had time to really sit down and talk to him about it.  We're going to go over there in a few minutes.  I hope it goes well.

We're hoping to find lots of new investigators this week because we got a lot of referrals last week.  Also, we have a conference with Elder Daniel Johnson of the Seventy on Wednesday, so that should be pretty sweet.  

The stake presidency met with President Wagner to make plans about T.  They've decided that started on the 21st, Elder B and I are going to go every Saturday and Sunday to teach the investigators we found the other day and to find more people.  Once there is enough work to do, they'll send their own set of missionaries there.  I'm pretty excited about that. 

I had a bunch of pictures I wanted to send, but this computer is not getting along well with my camera.  We'll try again next week. 

That's great news for BYU!  Sweet!  And my companion is fine, his pills work really well.  We've been able to work without problems this week.  What the tornado?  The weather's been pretty nutsy here too.  It's rained almost non-stop all week.  

Congrats Emily on making drama council, and Izak for scoring goals, and Micah for almost scoring goals.  And tell the Zanzibarbarian that he's a pompeeface.  As if he didn't already know.  Gwen, ¿dónde estás?  Te voy a hablar en español hasta que me escribas.  Castigada.  Te amo.

That's all for this crazy week.  Hopefully you've been entertained.  I sure was.  But anyways, the mission is great. Keep being the great people you are!   See you soon!

Elder Pew

September 2nd, 2013

I think by this point I'm about as Mexican as Benito Juarez, because I don't get nearly as excited about BYU football as I did a year ago.  I totally forgot that their first game was going to be this week until about 10 minutes ago when I read your letters.  But thanks for the updates.  ¡Arriba, pumas!

Well, the big news of the week.  Friday at about 9:30 at night we got a call from the zone leaders telling us that Elder D had special transfers and had to be in the offices at 10 am the next day.  Just like that.  He's in another ward in the city, but in a different zone.  (For your information, zone means stake in missionary language.  There are 6 stakes in Guadalajara, 3 belong to our mission, and 3 to the Guadalajara East mission.  I started in I, and now I'm in U, and Elder D got transferred to the other one, L.) He wasn't too sad to leave, but it definitely is not the same without him.  Everything's more...quiet.  Funny guy.  

Elder V and I are both senior companion.  It's basically like being zone leaders but without the extra responsibilities.  It's nice being with a companion who also has a lot of experience and is excited to work hard and have success.  We get along really well, we have a lot of fun together.  It's going to be a good transfer.  

Did I mention the new rule we got from the Quorum of the 12 apostles last week?  Now all the investigators have to go to church 5 times before they can be baptized.  Basically, they have to go every week for a whole transfer and then get baptized and confirmed the last weekend.  I think that means that we'll all be staying a very, very long time in every area to help out all the investigators in this process.  Also, all the converts from here on out are going to be a lot stronger and  it'll be a lot less likely that they go inactive.  It really has been a historic time to be part of missionary work in Mexico.  Everything has changed completely since I got here.  

Details about the activity.  It went something like this:

We started out with everyone in the cultural hall.  Once we were ready for the first group (each group consisted of about 25 people), Elder M went in and told them their flight to Hawaii was ready.  He gave them their tickets and told them they would first pass through the "market" where they could pick up 5 free items for their flight.  In the market, there were 2 tables: one full of missionary materials like Books of Mormon, pamphlets, posters, pictures of Christ, etc., and the other was full of snacks.  After selecting their 5 items, they passed by the cashier (Elder D) who marked on their ticket what they had bought.  Elder C, one of the assistants, filmed this whole process.  Then they boarded the plane (the relief society room).  When they first got on, the flight attendants (the sisters) asked them if they wanted water or wine (grape juice) to drink.  The Pilots (Elder T and Elder S, the assistant) collected their tickets.  We had made an awesome audio recording for the plane, and we played it on big, powerful speakers that made it seem pretty real.  Or so they tell me, I never actually saw.  Basically, it included take off, a warning of turbulence (during the turbulence, the flight attendants were turning the lights on and off. it was pretty intense), and the crash.  The lights stayed off and since the blinds were down, it was pretty dark.  Suddenly, a door opened and an angel, dressed in all white, walked in (Elder R from the other ward).  He announced to all the passengers that they had just died and pulled up the blinds to show them their dead bodies (Elder D, Elder C, Sister B and Sister A playing dead in the grass outside).  Then, he led them to the Spirit world (the hallway).  A curtain separated prison from paradise.  Those who had chosen water went to paradise, and those who had chosen wine went to prison.  Elder R stayed in prison and his companion Elder K was in paradise, where they explained briefly what happens in the spirit world.  The Spirit prison had the lights turned out and was full of garbage strewn all over the floor.  Paradise was bright and full of fluff (clouds).  Then they went into the next room to be judged.  Elder V was there waiting for them and explained that they had just been resurrected and that they would all be judged for their works.  Meanwhile, the pilots had put all their tickets into three piles--those who chose 4 or 5 spiritual things in the market went to the celestial kingdom, those who had chosen 2 or 3 went the the terrestrial kingdom, and those who chose 0 or 1 to the telestial.  After explaining the doctrine of judgment, Elder V showed them on a little TV screen the video of them in the market that Elder C had filmed.  Pretty genius, right?  And then three different angels (the ward mission leaders from our ward and the M ward) took them to their corresponding kingdom of glory and taught them about each one.  The ward mission leader from M had asked me to help him in the Celestial Kingdom.  The Celestial Kingdom was in the chapel, and he had me play hymns while they were walking in, and then at one other point in the presentation when he asked them to think for a minute about what is most important in their lives.  So I was there for the whole activity.  It was a great experience and everyone loved it.  Afterwards, we served them all Hawaiian pizza.  Our ward mission leader, J, was in charge of the Terrestrial kingdom, and he said that in one of the rounds a little girl started crying and asked "Why did they separate me from my family?!"  He said everyone in there started crying!  It was a very real experience for everyone who came, and a lot of them really felt a little bit of what it would be like to not end up living in an eternal family.  Overall it was a huge success, and we are going to try and do it again but as a whole stake in a few months.  Now that all the members from our ward and from M know how awesome it was, we're pretty sure they'll bring a ton of investigators if we do it again.  

What else?  We had zone conference this week on Tuesday.  It was great, as always.  President Wagner put a lot of emphasis in teaching the Restoration more centered on the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We use the word "gospel" a lot as missionaries because it's an easy, pretty word that all the investigators have heard in the Catholic Church.  But everything is more effective when we explain to them time after time throughout the whole lesson that the Gospel is having faith, repentance, baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.  We've been applying it and it just works better that way.  Explaining to them from the beginning that God is their Father, he loves them and wants them to return to live with him, which is why he has sent us to their home so that they can have faith, repent of their sins, be baptized by someone who has the authority, and receive the Holy Ghost.  If they learn to have faith and repent, and if they are baptized and receive the Holy Ghost, they are going to have a happier family and be able to live together for eternity.  God has always taught these principles to the family of all the earth since the beginning.  He called the first man, Adam, as a prophet and gave him authority to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ to his children (Moses 6:55-62).  But Adam's children eventually rejected the Gospel and fell into apostasy.  So God called Enoch and gave him authority to teach about faith and repentance and to baptize and give the Gift of the Holy Ghost.  But the majority of the people rejected Enoch also and God took him and his people to heaven with him.  Then He called Noah and gave him authority (Moses 8:19) to warn the people that if they didn't have faith, repent, get baptized, and received the Gift of the Holy Ghost, they would be destroyed in the flood (Moses 8:24).  But they rejected Noah also. The same thing happened with Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, and all the prophets until Christ, who came and suffered for our sins so that we can be clean through faith, repentance, baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end.  He gave his authority to his apostles to preach the gospel and administer the ordinances of baptism and confirmation, but the people rejected and killed them also.  They fell into apostasy, and the doctrines of faith, repentance, and baptism were changed or forgotten.  The authority to baptize and give the gift of the Holy Ghost were no longer on the earth.  But in 1820, God called another prophet named Joseph Smith and restored His Gospel through him.   Joseph Smith received the authority to baptize from John the Baptist and the authority to give the Gift of the Holy Ghost from Peter, James and John.  The Book of Mormon was given as evidence that the Gospel had been restored and that through faith, repentance, baptism, and the Gift of the Holy Ghost we can be cleansed from sin and return to live with God.  When you invite the investigator to get baptized after this lesson, they are not going to be surprised.  We always talk about "finding the investigator's need" as missionaries, but really, their biggest need is to be clean from their sins.  If we explain to them through the whole lesson how to do that and that the authority to help them to that has been restored, it all just makes more sense.  Just a thought.  

We had a nice lesson on Wednesday with C.  We taught him the second half of the plan salvation, in other words, what happens after death.  We found out at the beginning of the lesson that he is a widower; his wife died 10 years ago.  So we focused the whole lesson on that and it was a really beautiful experience.  At the end of the lesson, he told us "I've always asked God that if there's a resurrection, why can't he show me my loved ones who have died or let me be with them again.  But you guys helped me answer that question today and now I know I'll be able to see them again."  I about cried at that point.  He's still super willing to get baptized, but we're going to have to move his baptismal date because he didn't make it to church this week. We went by Sunday afternoon and explained him about keeping the Sabbath day holy and he is committed to do it from here on out.  Love that guy.  

We had another cool lesson with a guy named J this week.  If you don't remember him, see my letter from July 22.  Basically, our first lesson with him was a complete disaster and he just wanted to fight, but we left him a Book of Mormon and as we all know that book does wonders.  We hadn't gone back to visit him since the first time, but the other day he invited us back over to talk to him.  We knew he had been reading the Book of Mormon because his wife had told us, and as we had expected, he had gotten to the part where the Spirit command Nephi to kill Laban and he was a little upset and confused about it.  We got there and listened to all the apostasy he started to tell us, and after trying to reason with him for a little bit and convince him that God really can command people to kill other people (which didn't work) we changed our game plan.  Before the opening prayer, we had asked him if he would like us to ask God for anything special, and he said that he wanted to be illuminated to know the truth.  So I asked him why he had such a strong desire to know the truth, and explained to him that all the knowledge he wants is knowledge that God has, and since God loves him he is willing to give it to him.  We stopped talking about Nephi and Laban and started talking about J, and we learned a lot of things about his past that helped us to know where he was coming from.  The whole spirit of the lesson changed.  We invited him to pray to know that the Book of Mormon is true, and he said that if God responded his prayer, he would believe that Nephi was commanded to kill Laban.  He even told us that he was going to say his prayer in the mountains so he could be more alone and focused.  He also committed to go to church the next Sunday (this coming Sunday).  And thus we see that the spirit does miracles when we let him into the lesson with us.  This investigator who seemingly wanted nothing but contention is now one step closer to finding the truth.  I feel like even though I have almost 15 months in the mission, I´m just barely figuring out how to do this missionary work stuff.  I'm really starting to feel love for the people I teach, feel the Spirit tell me what to teach them and see the difference it makes in their lives.  I'm finally figuring out how to teach people, not lessons, and really do things the right way.  In my personal study this week, I had a thought come to my head.  Most people, when they get more knowledge, become more prideful.  But really, if we recognize that true knowledge comes from God, the more we get, the more we should realize how much knowledge He has and it should help us actually be more HUMBLE and trust more in what HE knows. I feel like that has happened in my mission.  The more time I have, the more I realize how much I don't know and how much farther I have to go.  But that's why I've got a whole life to live and improve.  This church is true and Christ is our Savior!

I love you all!  Thanks for the letters and your prayers.  I'll try to send pictures next week because now i'm out of time.  Adios!

Elder Pew

Photos from Zone Conference 

Two letters August 19th & 26th

August 19th

Transfer day and...I'm in a trio.  Elder D and I are still together but we got a new companion today, Elder V.  He's got 18 months, he's from P, and I met him in Ciudad G where we were in the same zone for my first transfer in S.  He's cool.  I'm still district leader, but Elder V is also senior companion--who knows how that works.  I kind of don't think we'll last very long like this...like one of us will probably be training once someone gets their visa and makes it to Mexico...but we'll see what happens.  It'll be an interesting experience but we're excited.  As for the rest of the district, Elder M and Elder T are staying together, Sister L went to V, and Sister L, who was just across the street in a different ward in the same stake for the last two transfers, is here now with Sister B.  So that'll be fun since we're already all basically best friends.  

When we went to the offices to pick up Elder V, I saw everyone.  Elder R is going to C...but I don't remember with who.  R is going to be with someone who was in my zone the last few transfers.  Elder J is still in T, his child is going to be with Elder D in T (a teeny little branch in the same zone as S), Elder E is zone leader now, Elder B finally escaped from A, and Elder A is in his house.  Don't ask.  It was pretty fun. 

Keeping up with the S flashbacks:  We had a lesson at the temple on Saturday Morning.  As we went walking up to the temple, I saw a green mini-van pulling out of the parking lot way too full of people all screaming as if Justin Bieber had just walked by.  Upon further examination, I realized it was everybody from S who were just leaving from their monthly temple trip.  I didn't get to stop to talk to them but MAN were they screaming when they all saw me!  And then on Sunday, Elder Q (who took my place in S) had to come to the offices because he ended his mission that day.  And since he was here before and we live close to the offices, he called us to see if we could find someone to give him a ride from the bus station to the mission office.  And I guess he was with J at the time, because before I knew it I was talking with my convert!!!  It sounds like he's doing great.  He's still active and everything and he's learning how to play the guitar I gave him when I left.  That was a nice surprise.  I was half-worried they were going to transfer me back there after all these strange ocurrences.  Some day I'll have to go back and visit.  

Yes, E's sister is a member.  

This week we found some awesome investigators again.  A member family gave us the referral of their neighbors, so they took us over to meet them and they let us right in!  Their names are C and C.  He told us that he was in prison in the US 9 years ago and while he was there he started to read the Bible and became converted to Christianity.  (When they say Christianity here, they're talking about any religion that's not the Catholic Church or the Jehovah's witnesses).  He got baptized in some church, but he's not active.  His wife is Catholic and they have a little 2 year old girl.  We had two great lessons with them this week, but for some odd reason they didn't come to church.  We also found a new investigator named C.  He's about 55 years old, lives alone, and absolutely loved the message of the restoration.  He couldn't come to church, but he committed to come to the activity this Saturday (plane crash) and begged us to not forget about him and to come back and visit.  If you insist.  Also, we contacted an older lady named M that one of the members knows, and she invited us over to her house Saturday.  We got there and her daughter and son-in-law were also there.  They live within the boundaries of the Guadalajara east mission, but we taught the restoration to everyone there and I think we were there more for them than for M.  They understood everything--the son-in-law even explained to his wife that the Pope can't really have authority from God because he was chosen by other men!  Finally someone who gets it!  So we're going to pass that reference on and I'm excited to know what happens with them some day.  

M disappeared this week.  The member that introduced us to him saw him on Thursday and said that he had told her that he wanted us to go over Friday because he needed help (he's alcoholic) but he wasn't home.

Basically, we're super excited for this transfer because we're going to have a lot of success.  The activity this Saturday should be sweet, and we still have a bunch of referrals to contact this week.  Pray that the investigators go to church this week!

I'm out of time, but I love you all!  Have a great first day of school tomorrow!!  Adios!

Elder Pew

August 26th, 2013

Where to begin?  Basically, being in a threesome is a big party.  We've realized that there are so many advantages to having two companions instead of one.  Plus, how many members of the first presidency are there?  3.  How many members of the Godhead are there?  3.  How many sons did Alma have?  3.  How many times did the Nephites here the voice of God before Christ descended among them?  3.  How long was Christ's earthly ministry?  3 years.  How long was he in the tomb?  3 days.  How many testaments of Christ are there?  3.  How many books are in the triple combination?  3.  How many prophets have been named Joseph Smith?  3. How many Israelites ended up in Gideon's army? 300.  How many years will President Wagner serve as mission president?  3.  It's just a more spiritually powerful number.

This Wednesday we found out the reason Elder V is here.  Sister Wagner called and told me that Elder V suffers from serious migrains and that lately they have been getting worse.  He was knocked flat three days the week before they transferred him here.  He's been to the hospital 2 times before but they haven't found anything wrong with him.  So she told me I had to take him to a Neurologist as fast as possible to try and get all this sorted out. So that day we went to the hospital (which is about 40 minutes from our area) and they told him to go to a radiation clinic to have some studies done on his brain.  So we set up an appointment for Thursday morning at 8 am.  We got horribly lost trying to find the stinking clinic, so we ended up getting there at about 9 am.  We were on the right bus and everything, but we got mixed up and ended up late--long story.  They told us they wouldn't be able to fit us in that day, but we took advantage of the fact that we were there and asked them if they accepted our mission insurance.  They said no and that his studies would cost 5,200 pesos (which is WAY more than what we had on hand) so we wouldn't have been able to pay for it anyways.  So we had to go from there all the way to the mission office (which is close to our area, about 1 hour from the clinic) to pick up money so we could go back Friday.  Friday morning we made it on time, he got in and they took a bunch of pictures of his brain.  Then they told us to take them back to the doctor at the hospital so that he could analyze them to find out what was wrong.  So we went back to the hospital and the doctor said that he had some inflammation in his brain that was causing the problem.  He prescribed him a 1 year treatment of pills that make him super tired, and after 2 hours of waiting for them to give us the pills, we gave up and went home, deciding to go back for them Saturday.  As you can imagine, our area kind of suffered from all the travelling.  But this week should be back to normal.  

Despite the madness, we were able to see C twice this week.  He's started to read the Book of Mormon and is doing really great.  He even came to church on Sunday and looks like he'll be pretty prepared for his baptism on the 7th.  Yes!

Saturday was a special day.  There's a little town about 40 minutes outside of Guadalajara called T, which is, coincidentally, the T capital of the world.  There is a tiny little branch of about 6 active members there, and it belongs to our stake.  There haven't been missionaries there for about 2 years, but the stake presidency has been working a lot with the branch to help it grow.  On Saturday, they organized an activity to go visit some less active members in T, and they asked President Wagner if they could bring four missionaries from the stake with them.  And I was one of those lucky four!!!  I went with Elder B, our new zone leader (who knows Marci Johnson, a friend from high school, by the way), Sister L and Sister H, along with about 12 different stake leaders.  The drive there was beautiful.  Full of little agave plants, a little bluish plant that they use to make T.  Also, there were lots of really tall, big green mountains and I was loving it.  Tequila is a sweet little town.  It's a little bit bigger than S, and it's super classy.  It just felt good from the moment we got there.  We had a little devotional with the members of the branch and then they divided us into 5 or six little groups and assigned us a less active to visit.  I was put with a Canadian member of the high council here, the Stake President's son, and a member from Tequila.  We went to the house where we were assigned, and the lady who answered the door told us that the person we were looking for was her daughter, who had gotten married and moved to another part of town.  But she let us right in and told us that she had also listened to the missionaries, but lost track of the church when they left.  Her name is E.  So we decided to take the opportunity to teach her family the restoration.  Her son and her maid also listened to us, and it was a very spiritual lesson.  At the end, they all accepted the invitation to go to church and to get baptized.  It was incredible!  Afterwards, we still had a little bit of time, so they gave us her daughter's address and we went and visited her.  She was also super awesome and told us that she's going to start going to church again.  When we all got back to their little house of prayer, we heard similar stories from the other groups.  Between the 4 missionaries that went, we found 10 new investigators who are willing to be baptized and a bunch of less actives who are ready to come back to church.  It was such an amazing experience to see how the Lord has prepared His children to receive the Gospel in that part of his vineyard, and I was so grateful to have been a part of it.  I hope there are missionaries there soon.  

We got home just in time to set up for the activity.  It went super well--we had only planned on doing 2 rounds of plane crashes but we ended up having to do 4!!!  Also, a member in our area brought a family of investigators that we're going to start teaching this week.  I don't have much more time to explain it, but some day I'll show you the pictures and videos.  It was sweet.

I'm out of time, but I love you all!!!! Have an excellent week!

Elder Pew

Letters from August 5th and 12th, 2013

What to write?  Other than that I'm only a little bit jealous about you guys going to Disneyland.  Only a little bit.  Because I'd much rather be here.  

This week we became detectives.  We could seriously make a movie about this one family in our ward and all the things that are going on there.  I won't go in to details, but basically we've been teaching--individually--different members of the family to find out what exactly is going on and how to help them. It's nothing the Atonement can't fix.  And this same family has given us a bunch of referrals.  One of them is E, who didn't seem super interested at first but ended up accepting a baptismal date for the 24th after the lesson.  But she didn't come to church and was nowhere to be found on Sunday, so we'll see what happens.  Another one is M, who insists that everything is true, that she believes everything we say, but doesn't want to get baptized, read the Book of Mormon, or go to church.   

We are still working with D.  We had a lesson with her on Thursday.  On Friday I was on splits with our Zone Leader, Elder D. We decided to teach her the Restoration AGAIN, to see if she'd really catch the idea this time.  We focused the whole lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ--really explaining that it means Faith, Repentance, Baptism, the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end.  I've found that we use the word "Gospel" a lot because it's a word the investigators are more comfortable with, because it's something they hear in the Catholic Church.  But if they understand that the Gospel of Christ is Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Gift of the Holy Ghost, Endure to the end, they're not as surprised when we invite them to be baptized after the first visit.  They understand that these principles are ordinances were lost in the apostasy and the need that there was for them to be restored.  It was an awesome lesson--one of those lessons where I even learn a ton--and she was able to commit to go to church this week and get baptized the 17th.  But then she didn't go to church.  Bummer.  Not sure what to do there.  We went by her house and she said she felt sick to her stomach.  But she went to work that day and everything, and her job is literally 2 blocks from the chapel and she entered just an hour after sacrament meeting ended, so...yeah.  I don't know if it was a legit excuse or not.  But we'll keep trying.  As President Wagner said, if it was my child that wasn't a member of the church, I would keep trying all my life until she got baptized.  And when Elder Christofferson was here, he said that when an investigator is still willing to read the Book of Mormon and pray to know if it's true, there's still something to work with there.  

Friday night Elder D and I went for tacos.  We got them to go and when we were eating them in the house I noticed something black and unusually large mixed in with the meat.  After closer examination, I realized that it was a dead beetle!!!  Ruined my appetite.  But luckily the tacos didn't make me sick.  I think after two years in Mexico my stomach will be immune to anything.

Saturday we had a baptism for S.  It was great.  His mom, who isn't a member, and his uncle, who also isn't a member, came and said they liked it.  Someday they'll listen to us!!!  It was a very spiritual service.  His grandpa baptized him and that was really special.  There weren't quite as many members as L's baptism, but it was still good.

Remember that little red VW Beetle (there's that word again, hence the subject of this letter) that we taped a fridge to a couple weeks ago?  This week we brought a family of 5 less actives to church in it, plus my companion and I and the member who was driving.  8 people in all.  That little car has become about as legendary as Buster.

Also on Sunday, our Elder's quorum president pulled us out of Sunday School to tell us that he wasn't feeling well, that he wanted us to teach the class in Elder's Quorum and that he wanted it to be a training on how to use Preach my Gospel.  Elder D made me do it by myself, but I think it went well.  Also, the Bishop asked me to give the opening prayer in sacrament meeting, so it looks like we're starting to gain a little bit more trust from the leaders of this ward.  I hope I can stay here for a while longer to see what happens.  

Have a fun trip!!!  See you in 10 months!!!  

Elder Pew  

What a week.  Good times.  Not Disneyland, but hey, good enough.  

So basically, over there by the Volcano, there's a little neighborhood of people who live in little houses built illegally--because the construction of houses there could cause the volcano to wake up and destroy all of G.  L's family lives there and L's sister-in-law's brother's family.  And the wife of L's sister-in-law's brother knows every living soul in this neighborhood and is one of those people who is "not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ" (Romans 1:16).  And one day this week, in a three hour span, she gave us 4 referrals, brought us to contact 5 others, helped us find 4 new investigators, teach 3 lessons with a member, and put 3 baptismal dates.  Whazzup!  So basically we spend all our time up there on the hill, because the rest of our area is full of apartment buildings and condos and people who generally don't want to listen to us.  

One of the new people we met this week thanks to that one member was a family of 6.  The dad is an excommunicated-Jehovah´s witness, the mom doesn't claim to be part of any particular religion but is very religious and loves learning more about God, and they have four kids, all under the age of 12, 3 of which are baptismal age and also are very interested in the Bible, religion, and all that.  We still haven't met the dad, but the rest of them seem pretty golden.  The bad thing is that we can only visit them 1 or two times a week, but we're excited to go back to teach them.  

Another one of those people was M.  She introduced us to him on the street. We put an appointment to visit him on Sunday and it went really well.  He told us that he thinks he should be baptized now that he's older and responsible, that he wants to change and be a better person and that he'll get baptized on August 31st!!!  So the plan is to have a "Volcan del Colli" branch by the end of the next transfer. (just kidding, but it would be pretty sweet).  

We found another new investigator this week named E.  She is our neighbor and lives in the same apartment building.  We met her a few weeks ago and she had told us that we could visit her this week, because her brothers were coming from out of town to visit and she was going to be busy.  So we called her Friday night and she told us to come over Saturday in the afternoon.  We had an awesome lesson with her.  She told us that in the past few years, she has lost her mom and two of her brothers and that those experiences have helped her feel the presence of God more in her life.  I felt like I should ask her "What does it feel like to you when you feel the presence of God?" And she responded with a powerful story about how she had an amazing spiritual experience a few nights before her mom died.  It was amazing and completely changed the tone of the lesson.  She started crying and the Spirit was really strong.  We taught her a little about the restoration and baptism and she accepted!  She couldn't come to church yesterday but she is going to come this week.  

I think the coolest experience this week was a baptism Saturday night. Remember the baptismal candidate I had to fail the other week?  He got baptized this week.  His name is V and he is 15 years old.  The other Elders have been teaching him for almost two transfers now, but after going to EFY about a month ago he decided to get baptized.  His parents aren't members--they're actually from a little town in Oaxaca and their first language is a dialect called Zapoteco.  They listen sometimes when the missionaries go over but have never really progressed.  They live in a little neighborhood full of other people from Oaxaca and they are all related somehow.  The cool thing was that V invited all his little friends to his baptism--5 kids from his neighborhood came!  His parents also went and loved it!  They were both crying the whole time and his dad told me at one point "There's a really beautiful feeling here.  Now that I'm here, I'm going to come back every Sunday!"  After the baptism, I asked him when he was going to be baptized, and he said that after a few weeks of coming to church he thought he'd be ready.  It was quite the experience.  He came to church with his wife yesterday, and they were crying the whole time again.  Another young man from the ward baptized V, which was awesome.  Also, they asked me to give a "missionary message" while they were changing after the ordinance, so I pretty much made up a 7 minute talk on the spot and it turned out pretty cool.  Someday I'll teach the same lesson in family night :)

You may be wondering about the subject line to this email. These are the reasons:

Yesterday I come walking into the church when I look over to the right and see someone strangely familiar.  E from S!!!  She had stayed over night with her twin sister who lives here in the city and she decided to come to our ward just to visit me!!!  She's so great.  She also brought be Sayula pan (bread).  Yum.  Sounds like everything's going well there with the change in Branch Presidency.  

Reason #2 We had a zone activity today.  We went to the chapel to play basketball, eat pizza, etc., when who should I see but Elder Al!!! What?  Apparently, he had special transfers a few weeks ago and is in a little town outside the city that belongs to the same zone.  Also, he's with Elder A's trainer, and was Elder R's companion for the last three transfers...so basically we've had all the same companions, just in a different order.  Elder A hasn't changed a bit.  

How do I feel?  Allergic.  I'm taking Claritin and a cold medicine (it's the best remedy I've found down here so far) but they still bother me a lot.  Especially when I'm around horses, cats, dogs, and gerbils.  One day this week I felt a little druggy--like there was too much medicine inside me.  But I'm surviving.  My little amigos are all gone, as far as I know.  My stomach hasn't bothered me lately.  

This week we should be finding lots of new investigators, and we've made it our goal to work harder on bringing them to church.  We'll see what happens.  It's the last week of the transfer, so who knows where I'll be or who I'll be with next Monday.  I really don't know what to expect.  A dónde me mandes iré.

Have a great week everyone!  Love you!

Elder Pew  

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