First P-Day

This is crazy!! haha its crazy hot hard and fun. Senior sol pounds on you all day. its hot!!
Todos sit out on the side walks, roads, sidewalks, or porch depending on what they have but hay siempre someone sitting out especially after seven at night when it cools down just a little bit so they basically set themselves up for missionaries! First contact, first night, pretty close to our house, we came across a grandma,Sera, a mom,Neli, and few kids and started talking and teaching the first lesson, then the mom´s sister,Maria,and Maria´s husband Martin showed up half way through and by the end you just know they were feeling it, even the kids were intently listening to it, it was awesome. We gave them a Libro de Mormon and a folleta and the mom, Neli prayed at the end. The next visit another one of the sisters, Fransesca, came and She talked alot and had a concerened look the whole time and all I could pick up was a few words and i thought she was contending with Elder Bante the whole time, then it started raining so we went inside and talked a while they were tearing up a bit, it was another powerful lesson and at the end we gave a book to each of the sisters so they could read it. We invited them to come to stake conference Saturday cuz Neli works sundays. Despues I asked my comp if they kept the commitments and what was going on with this fransesca what her concerns were and he said no because Fransesca stole the book from Neli to read it cuz she´s been wanting to find a change in her life and after hearing that we taught them before wanted to read the book. He was laughing at me cuz it was going completely opposite of what I thought it was!! And he said Neli told him that she´s always thought the missionaries were handsome but they never stopped and talked with them.
They came to stake conference session with us saturday night all 8 or nine of them however many there is, and enjoyed it. Then sunday session The grandma Sera was there with two kids, We were so excited for them. We have another lesson tonight with them all.
After we ate at the ward misson leaders house and had hamburgers, first time i had eaten something besides tortillas, bannanas and apples in a week. Then we went contacting and came across a wome who first denied us then Bante kept askin stuff and she let us in and we were there like an hour and she wants us back to know more.
We´ve had quite a few lessons and totalled up i think we have 13 investigadores this week 8 progressin and the rest their 2nd appt is this week. Its crazy Elder Bante said his past areas have been rough that most people reject you at the door but for most part most people are open and down to listen to us and Bante does something to make them feel the spirit. I think most people wonder what the Gringos doing in mexico then end up listening to him and want more, i think, its funny.
Haha everyone stairs at me, its funny, yesterday alot of jovens and drunk guys were yelling gringo this gringo that and Bante just tells me there all bad words haha its fun.
Ya things are grody and not clean and i don't like it but have to do it and get over it, we work hard enough by the time we get home at night i don't care how grody the house and beds are I just sleep so its all good. The buses are crazy and everything is. There is no defensive driving in Mexico. The buses shoot the gaps in the road that you would think a car is driving recklous in america haha its fun.
This place is crazy dangerous with cetas crazy and fun, its awesome to get good messages in. Ward members we meet love us already and the niños all try to talk with me then when I can´t reply they get frustrated and run away, its funny. It´s all fun down here. We have 4 missionaries in the ward and our area is huge. Bante says its lots bigger then his past areas.

News from Mexico!

Hola para Mexico familia!!
Wow its different here. Of course you all could assume that, but its different than how different you think it should be! primero item of business, I've only ridin a few times now cuz our area is so big but I just wish all you could experience riding on the buses, its very interesting. Its a cross between how grandpa used to pull out of the fields with a load of hay crossed with a video game in real life and the air'boats skills. esta bien. It so fun riding them, the driver punches the gas hard, and whips around corners, literally does not wait for people to get on and off and just goes like a bat out of you know where... and its crammed packed with the people. Its funny i just laugh the whole time cuz its so scrappy. We have alot at home compared to this, basic things like drinkable running water, not mice, not cockRoaches, a clean house. So far the best way to describe it is simply scrappy. haha its fun. So dang hot too. Today is the first day i'm really out and about. The first day we got in at night, took some pics at some immigration place, ate dinner , did some get to know yous and off to bed. Next day was all orientation stuff, divied out compañeros and took the bus on a 4 hour trip to Victoria, the capital of the state. It was a good bus one of those big charter ones, but the ones that whip around town with no route are the fun ones. On the 4 hour bus ride i talked with some guy in mixed spanish-english we both spoke enough of one or the other to talk. he was going to montery, He said he was catolica and but had a mormon primo at first so i just decided to chat with him about whatever for the whole time on the ride to make him think missionaries are cool and not only out to get people(which we are haha) it took me most the time just talking with him about other stuff and then at the end I turned the topic into the gospel and how it could benefit him and gave him a libro de mormon that i had bought at the mtc, he accepted it and said he would read it to learn more about his cousins religion. I got his name and email and he's got my missionary one so I'm going to give it to the missionaries in Montery. my first missionary experience in the field!

Our jet to Tampico was small and clostrophobic, i think i got motion sickness after 9 weeks of mtc life not moving anywhere to going fast in an airplane killed me.
i just got fed by some familia in the barrio, i think we get fed every day at 2 oclock but don't know for sure its todavia my 2nd day or 3. Our house is scrappy as all get out, its above some business and the stairs to get there are more like ladders through a tunnel, we barely got our luggage up them last night. You know you can't expect a 5 star apartment in mexico, but ours is bad enought they might switch us somewhere else LOL its fun, i hate the ants that are everywhere and how grody the bathroom is but thats mexico, do what you can and what you cant get used to haha
My companero is a native from Ohaca, somewhere down south. Ya he doesn't speak much english but its good. I thought my skillz were ok til I got here and they speak so fast. I just have to laugh how much i can relate to Grandpas testimony about landing in Denmark, wonderin what the heck I got my self into and what language they taught me. everything is funny and fun. a big eye opener pero esta bien my comp is great he's helped me with alot. there is another companion ship that has helped us get familiar with the area and one of them is from colorado and has helped explain how things go
and wow its hot, my comp that lives in a differnt part of mexico thats hot says this area is really hot haha

My president is cool, they're taking care of us
and our visas that they got us in the country with is the new program they{re starting, they're like temporary visas for 6 months until the really permant missionary visas come through i guess thats what one of the lideres said.
but ya its mexico scrappy, yet cool and fun
we taught the niños at the house we ate at, they are members, one of them is getting baptized soon and my comp wanted us to practise the first lesson with them so we did. those kids are so friendly they were all over us and trying to talk with me i felt inferior to 9 yr olds saying ''no entiende?'' haha Yep i dont know much spanish yet haha i stick out like sore thumb everyone gazes at us its awesome! my comp told me I'm really tall, I'm defintly alot bigger than the average mexican, but it probably won{t be long until i sweat 50 lbs off here and shrivel up, haha its good. I really think God has helped me overcome the dirtiness a little bit cuz theres no way I could force myself to sleep in that nasty bed and shower in the nasty shower. I just wish you all could see it's soo scrappy haha I love it
p days will be on mondays, but pres wanted us newbs to email parents asap to assure you that were okay. soo anyways ya, have fun at home, I'm in mexico trying to handle things haah its great. We go to the temple every other transfer on pdays i think , unless our zone wins the most baptisms, then we get to go for a freeby with the pres and wife.
okay, bye love you all be good

Mexico!!!!!

Sammuel left this morning from the MTC to head to Mexico. His is the first group to get there on schedule for about 2 months now. He was able to call us from the Houston airport and was very excited to be able to head out. His group of 10 arrived at 7:00 pm in Tampico, Mexico.

Week 8 MTC

So Elder Jeffrey R Holland just spoke last night at the fireside, it was neat. They do the firesides in the gym but the gym courts have been closed for 6 weeks cuz they've been putting in the bleachers and during the firesides they've been broadcasting it into other buildings where we have to gather to watch it and they just opened up the gym for everyone to come in yesterday so we made sure we ran to the gym to get a seat in case if someone with higher authority in the church was speaking and sure enough Holland walked in, it was awesome. He gets extremely emotional and its cool.

Anyways we got flight plans Friday, but don't know for sure if we have visas. They give flight plans whether you have visas or not and if we don't get them by this Friday then they will delay the flight plans and figure out what they're going to do with us. I'm not for sure when i'll talk to if i get them but if they delay us then we'll call home and tell you. Our flight is at 7:50 am Monday morning, we meet at the travel office here at 4 so I might be sleeping till we reach Houston airport. Supposedly when it all works out I'll call from Houston cuz we'll be stuck there for 6 hours and then suppose to arrive in Tampico at 7:45 pm. we were so excited to get those plans but we don't really know if we'll be delayed until Friday. I love you all be good read the scriptures-bye

Week #7 MTC

So the big event that happpened this week was a little trip to Salt Lake. 5 of the 7 of our district, my comps and another companerismo got called Thursday afternoon to the travel office and they said come back tomorrow your leaving at 2 to go to the consolate, so we rode up on a bus to SLC. It was weird seeing things outside of here and riding in the bus at first was almost comparable to a roller coaster ride. There were 12 of us total that went. anyways we got pictures taken and filled out permismos or whatever it was to prepare to enter the country and if all goes well our visas should come in the next little while and when we get flight plans we get to call home for 5 min so let me know what number to call when I find that out, so dearelder me today cuz rumor was we should find out Friday but it could be before next week. Then while we were gone the other two got called for the same thing and just went this Monday, things are looking bright for us. I guess they were taking 12 random mexican missionaries at a time for this. The district that was 2 weeks older than us that were mexicans just got reassigned last week while we were going to the consolate and they all left by Monday so we're closer to getting into Mexico than they are. Apparently the most likely rumor why things have been ruff gettin in is Mexico has been undergoing a new proccess of processing visas and they're trying to pick it up now 0r something i'm not entireley sure but things just seem to feel and look more promising for us than those who've gone before.

Thats cool about Jessica going to Haiti, one of my teachers went down there like a month ago for two weeks and said how bad it was and just some of the problems people go through. I think I want to do that kind of stuff after the mission, not neccessarly Haiti but service stuff, it'd be cool way to serve your fellow beings. I think I'll probably live in a spanish country for a little while after my mission too or maybe Brazil I don't know.

I love you all, be good continue to read the scriptures im on pg80 since tyou told me about it bye

Week 6 MTC

Why grace-ias for the info, I like to hear about all that is going on. The fair IS fun, but it won't be as cool for you all with out any pigs to get in for free and to watch run around and stuff. I'm hoping to go to my mission temple when I'm in Mexico, I can't wait to go through a Spanish session and understand it all, that will be awesome. Wow look at all the blessings going on in our family with Saren and I out, Mom's heart was softened and Maisie got a new cellphone! and Jake got mine ahaha.... It's hard to think that your school year is starting, or I just haven't thought about it. It seems like a never-ending summer here, until I started realizing if our visa stuff works out we got 3 weeks-ish til I can walk down the streets of Mexico and start dunking some folks and save their souls.

AAAAAAAahzhhhhh it's not bad here but I feel like a caged pitbull that is ready to go eat it up! My Spanish isn't great, but I could be ready today to be emerged in 100% Espanol for two years, we all got a pretty strong base. I really am just constantly excited about every aspect of the work, from studying, speaking and teaching. I want to go plant some seeds and watch that sucker grow and save some people from satan’s chains. I want to see their eyes light up and feel the spirit I just want to do it. But till then I'll practice and prepare for it and keep studying the language and gospel, you can never be too prepared for the work, alot of times it doesn't seem like there's enough time to get everything done in one day I want it all and I want it now. But I'll bear with patience mine afflictions alma 27:17 and run with patience I guess Hebrew 12:1..... I just want to go get r done and do some good. ... I just can't express how much I want to progress as fast as possible and leave and start preaching the gospel. I almost don't want to do anything else, I'd definitely rather feast on the words of Christ than the food here I can tell you Hwhat.

I encourage you all to read the BOM every night, I remember I never 'loved' doing that but its so essential and I feel bad now I was mopey and dragging my feet to the gospel cuz now its like I just want to run to it and burry myself in it, it's so amazing. Just like Lehi's dream of the tree of life and wanting to share it with his family, You'all should want to share that fruit with whom you love and with everyone around, k? k! I love you all, be good, keep up the good work I'm proud my family is working towards eternal life keep it up!!! Bye bye now

Week 5 MTC

Hola my Family,

I can say that I'm blessed to have grown up the way I have, to be blessed with attributes I can bring to the table with the Lord. Things seem to come easy and it's because of being raised by my Grandfathers farm with so much family and great friends around and having both sides of my family so strong in the gospel and great examples of attributes I want to develop. I also know of a surety how both sides of the veil are working hand in hand with me. I think I can almost say there's not a day goes by I don't think that and maybe that’s what encourages and influences me to become better and don't let anything get me down, so I don't. People say how hard this is and what a struggle it is but I would be lying to say it's been rough for me and I think it basically comes down to I know what I'm doing is right, and because the Lord is on my side I can do it. I've never really felt overwhelmed with learning the language or struggle with aspects like others have and it basically goes down to those points. Well that’s all in case anyone was wondering, I guess part of my testimony.

The Temple was nice to go to last week, were planning on going to eat down in the cafeteria tonight after the session so were really lookin forward to that.

Elder Priests dad is a counselor or something here and is always around, Elder Priest handles it really well I really like him, His dad brought us a fan a few weeks ago and I've been blessed to be sitting right next to it and keep cool all day in that classroom. His father came in and taught us an in depth discussion about the apostasy it was amazing how much knowledge he has and how surreal it really was with events that went on that destroyed the organized church Christ established.

Well, see ya later