26 Enero 2015

This has been a weird week. I feel like I say that every week but this week it was true.

First of all, we had a break from our normally rather cold weather. which means one day it was 90 degrees. But then the next day it was back down to about 35 or 40. I thought Idaho weather was extreme. Nada que ver con Monclovita la bella.

investigators: Carlos Gutierrez didn't come to church on sunday. Apparently he stayed the night over with a friend and woke up after the friend had already left. Which means he was locked inside the house (with the locks here, this can actually happen and does with surprising frequency.) The reason he was staying over with the friend was he was kicked out of the Mera's house. The reason he was kicked out of the Mera's house was he and Nivia are going to get married and the mom doesn't think it's appropriate for them to be living in the same house now that they're in a relationship officially. WHAT?! I mean, yeah I'm happy for them. But this seriously gives us a big moral dilemma: is he or was he investigating the church just for her or for his own interest? Whatever his reasons, we're going to keep visiting him and teaching him until he gets baptized (and for a year afterward as well) or until he decides that this isn't for him. If his interests are something other than honorable, it'll be his condenation. I don't think he's doing it just for her, though. He says he loves the church but he's still not sure yet. To me, he seems more hesitant to get baptized than he was to get married. Whatever. I don't have anything to do with that as long as they're not breaking the law of chastity.

ANd Carlos Moreno and Rodrigo came to church! Again! He's already downloaded basically the whole church library on his cell phone and apparently he stays up late reading such that his wife can't sleep. But she's fine with that because he's actively investigating the church.

WE MET JACKY FROM TROPHY WIFE! holy cow, we met her and taught her a lesson (which was soooo hard to understand what was going on because she just talks without rhyme or reason) and she very enthusiastically accepted the baptismal invitation. She said that she always wondered what our message was but had never asked until we met her. She also said that she and her family hadn't ever been able to settle on a religion but now they need one really bad because he slipped back into his addictions. Then she prayed for us and the spirit was really strong and she kept thanking god for sending "her brothers" to help her and her family. And then we stood up to go and before we could say anything, she just wrapped us up in a big hug. Then later we were walking along the road and i was thinking about who she reminded me of. then it occurred to me: Jacky from Trophy Wife. She even looks and sounds like her, just in spanish. Anyway, it will be fun to teach her. The problem: she works all day, every day at her flower shop in the city center so it's going to be really hard to find her to teach her.

It's very frustrating right now, and apparently it's not just me but the entire mission. They even lowered the baptismal requirement of 5 times attending church to 4 so we could get more baptisms in January (i thought that was kind of funny). The problems in this part of Mexico: The Christians and Jehovah's Witnesses don't want to listen because they've already "been saved" and they do know the scriptures (there's an apostolic church here that has twelve apostles and follows the same pattern of church that Christ set out, the only thing they lack is the actually authority) and the Catholics don't want to have to sacrifice for the gospel. They even tell us that you can do whatever the heck you want and be considered a good catholic, you don't even have to go to church. And so when a religion comes along that requires sacrifice, they don't do anything about it even if they want to. Besides the religious complications, EVERYBODY works. EVERYBODY, even the kids a lot of times. We've had to drop SO MANY investigators that were SO INTERESTED just because they work so much that we never see them. Pero así es.

Well I talked in church this week on Covenants, and I was going to include part of my talk here, but now I don't have time. Covenants are important, basically. Very very important. Do them.

And we met another great investigator this week named Miguel Angel and he was going to be a Catholic priest, realized he didn't believe in that, then quit his education. Then he was being visited by some Christian missionaries but after two visits they demanded that he go out with them to preach and he said he didn't feel ready so they stopped coming by. He says he'd always seen us passing by but had never spoken to a mormon.

And HILARIOUS story. SO we went to get our haircut last week after I wrote you guys with Paula, the mom of an investigator (she's the one who says Don't talk to me, I already know everything. But talk to my daughter, she doesn't know anything.) She told us about an experience she had where she went to watch a movie with some christian friends at their church. Actually, the movie was Fireproof, the one about the firefighter and his wife and his dad. She said she liked the movie but then afterward the preacher stands up and starts passing around the collection basket and says "what you throw in the basket is what your life is worth." And to "start the bid" or whatever he throws in 20 pesos. So she stands up and shouts to him from wherever she was sitting in the congregation "I want five. I have 100 pesos here, I want five of you. One to do the laundry, one to do the cooking, etc. If your life is only worth 20 pesos, I want five, because MY life doesn't have a price." And of course he got mad and everyone else fell silent before the ushers just kinda ushered everyone into the other room for the dinner. Afterward the preacher offered her a church of her own, telling her that she could become very rich by doing it, but she said that she'd rather be poor her whole life than do it.

And now I have to go. We have a birthday cake to pick up because we're going to go surprise a less active family for the birthday of the granddaughter. well, they already know we're coming, they just don't know we're bringing cake.

OH! and before I forget, please pray that the ward activity that i'm planning and running goes well this friday!

Elder Taylor

19 Enero 2015...16 months left

I don't have a lot to tlk about this week. By the wy, the A key isn't functioning ll the time, nd it's not worth it to go back nd correct every dang time it doesn't jala.

So the weather has been weird. Either it's been so dang cold that nobody wants to even get out of bed and so ll the appointments fell through or it's been super nice such that everybody's taking advantage of the warmth to wsh clothes or the car or go to the park or whatever, such that all the ppointments fell through. But oh well. This week was the worst as far as numbers of lessons that we did but we had 4 investigators in the church which is a new record for this area in a very long time. Carlos Gutierrez, the guy who lives with the Family Mera. He has an indefinite baptismal date set for 28 of Febrero and says he wants to do it, but he just wants to be absolutely sure that this is right for him. And Carlos Moreno and his son. He's the guy that is married to Ericka, a member who hasn't gone in almost 12 years to the church but they're awesome and he's reading the book of Mormon. He says "I'm Catholic, but I really do want to know." Which is better than what most people say to us, so I'll take it. And the husband of the Hermana Facio, who says he doesn't want anything to do with the church, but he comes when she comes...so we'll see que onda with that. (by the way, que onda means literally What wave? and more like What's going on).

And we have someone we relly need to give a stern talking-to about the law of chastity. His nme is Odie. He's Carlos and Ericka's poodle. He humped my hand this week. I thought he ws trying to steady himself by grabbing my hand until I realized what was going on. My compnion thought it was super funny. But then Odie went for my scripture bag while we were saying the First Vision to Carlos. Somehow we managed to maintain the spirit in the room.

We haven't seen Leonardo all week because he started school and he's been busy. So we're going to have to hunt him down. The Hernandez Hurtado fmily called us and told us that she took a turn for the worse aand so she can't leave or see nybody until she gets better. So they're going to cll us when they can meet with us again. And we haven't seen a few others for a long time. So our investigator pool is dwindling. But we found some awesome new ones this week! Jazmin who was a referral from El es la Dadiva but was out of town for basically all of christmas. But she's read from the book of mormon before when she was a little girl and says that she only remembers the relly strong, good feeling that she got by reading it. She accepted the baptisml invitation but didn't come to church. So we're going to go pull on some ears, namely those of her father and family so that they all listen to us and maaybe we can get them ll out to church. We've actually already met the father and already made  good impression with him, so hopefully it won't be too hard. And the other AWESOME group. We just knocked on door that we saw was open and said that we had a message nd entered and shared it with the family, basically la abuela, una tia and a young mother of about 22 years. Her husband hd to leave for something, but he's not disinterested. They told us the abuela, Maria Concepcion, had just barely come out of the hospital where she had died and they'd resucitated her. She says that she believes that she was spared to fulfill some purpose in her life. And of course we arrived about 10 minutes after they got back from the hospital. so we said "well, here we are!" she tought it was funny and they all accepted the baptismal invitation. The bad thing is that the aunt and uncle live in Cuatrocienegas and there aren't missionaries out there. We're not even sure there are members out there, but there is  church in San Buenaventura (Saint Beatitude) so we'll see what they can do. They couldn't come to church because they had a doctor's ppointment at the same time, but this week.

Sacrifice I didn't realize I was mking when I cme out on the mission: OBAMA IS COMING TO BOISE STATE; THE BND IS PLAYING FOR HIM AND IF ONLY I'D STAYED AS DRUM MAJOR ONE MORE SEASON I'D BE SO CLOSE TO HIM ON THE STAGE! AAAAH! But oh well. I made the right choice. I'm closer to God out here nd being closer to God is more important than being physically closer to Obama.

This is the hard thing about being a missionary here in Monclova: the people are super religious. Almost everyone says "I'm Catholic/Christian, but the word of God is lways welcome in my home, doesn''t matter the source." Almost everyone is fine with listening, but sacrifice they aren't willing to do. This gospel requires scrfice. Without Sacrifice, there is no progress. Thaat is why Obedience is the first law of heaaven. If we're not willing to obey nd sacrifice for these bsic laws here, how are we going to abide by the laws beyond this life?

Okay, they're kicking us out of the ciber because they're closing right now.

Cuidaos! and somebody go to the Obama event and take a picture.

Elder taylor

12 Enero 2015

wow I have a lot to write about this time.

First, I went to Saltillo this week to pick up my new companion, so it was a little weird and slightly disappointing to have to take out three good days of proselyting time to pick up the new guy, but I suppose it's necessary. The great part: I saw Hermano Alvarez! He was waiting outisde the mission offices with his daughter Julietita for Elder Carpio because Elder Carpio had asked a ride to the offices and from there to the Central de Autobuses. He got excited and hobbled out of his car (he had broken both feet and a leg in a car accident which we all knew was coming considering his bad driving and sleeping habits and was also the reason why they hadn't been going to church recently) and we hugged in the street, almost crying both of us. He told me that his wife and he had been thinking about me the night before and about how much I meant to them. It was just one of those moments of "this is EXACTLY why I'm here." Too bad I couldn't hug Julieta as well, but we shook hands.

And Elder Carpio is here in Monclova with me in the next area over. We actually share a colonia (neighborhood). He told me all about what's been going on in Aurora. The person that was baptized last week was not someone that I know. Apparently she just went the five weeks in a row to church and got baptized. That doesn't normally happen, but that's cool. Normally it ends up being about 10 weeks from the first contact with the missionaries if they even get baptized. But other news: some investigators stopped progressing or the missionaries stopped going, but Graciela and her kids are going to get baptized and Nadia as well this next month. Proof that I really was sowing seeds. And I passed the address as a referral to the new elders in the area because they were at the conference of the trainers and new missionaries.

And I talked with Elder Alcalá this week. I have to say, it was actually pretty nice to talk to him. I think we would be better friends now that I actually speak a whole lot better and after I've changed so much. Really, I must have been a hard companion to get along with.

Which leads me to talk about Elder Vasquez. He's my new companion from Oaxaca, which means everything he says is in Up-speak. Here in the North, we start up and go down. He starts down and goes up and because of this it's often hard just to figure out what he means by what he says. Is that a question. I'm going to the bathroom? Yeah.

His first day, woke up super early and turned on the light and was moving around and I was like "whatever, that's cool. I'm going to enjoy sleeping." Then he told me "Elder, It's already almost 6:40". I looked at the clock.6:27. "Nope. Your clock is super ahead." "Oh." But it's great that he wants to be so obedient.

A few things about investigators: Carlos came to church again! which is great because we hadn't been able to find him for two weeks. That's the thing: we see him and invite him and he doesn't come. We don't see him and hence don't invite him and he comes. I think we're just going to have to stop seeing him. But seriously, he's moving to Saltillo this week to live with Hermano Mera down there and they're going to come back every weekend. So we just have to teach him every Saturday and Sunday until he gets baptized and then afterward as well. He Says he wants to get baptized and we just have 3 sundays of church attendance left and then we can dunk him. But seriously, he's awesome.

And Leonardo is progressing awesomely! I don't remember if i've talked about him. He's about 17 and works in a Tortillería (tortilla shop) and has tons of questions about life and God and what happens after death. We FINALLY got to him in his house. Now we just need to teach his family. We need them to support him if they don't want to join him. But we're already endearing to members of the family. We saw the little sister in the street later and waved at her and her friends and we heard her say "No, they're waving at ME. They know ME." So it's cool.

ANd we have a cita with Dr. Mello tonight. He was an old investigator that called us and told us that he's been reading the Book of Mormon and wants to know more about this Joseph Smith guy. So we went to him that night and taught him and his son and his wife. But then they couldn't meet with us until tonight. So we're going to go and teach them about that Joseph Smith guy.

And we found ANOTHER member that doesn't even realize he's a member. Apparently his family were the first members in Oaxaca and endured so much tribulation and his mom was a pillar of faith to everyone around her because of it. But he's Catholic. And so basically we told him and his wife (in a very friendly manner) that we would keep visiting them until they decide one of two things: that they don't want us to come back or until they get baptized.

Something that I've been thinking about especially this week: This gospel is all about action and about What I Can Do. Other churches teach the principles of Hope, Love, Purity and Belief, but they lack the Action part. Faith is Hope in action, Charity is Love in action, Virtue is Purity in action, Testimony is Belief in action, Repentance is Wanting-To-Be-Better in Action and Sacrifice is Obedience in action. And Conversion is Faith, Charity, Virtue, Testimony, Repentance and Sacrifice in action. We'll not be ready to enter the Celestial Kingdom and DO the things that that do there if we're not willing to DO the things that God requires of us here. It's not enough to say the things but really do them.

A guy with a broken hand and obvious mental problems asked me for money today in the Falluca. I told him I was sorry but they didn't let us give money. Then he asked if I could just buy him a beanie to keep his head warm (because it does get stinking cold here). So i bought it for him. And I feel good right now for having done it. It was about thirty pesos, like two dollars. But two dollars is worth my conscience I think.

Well, I think that's all this week.

Cuidaos de la tentación y todo el resto de la escritura que ahorita ni siquiera me sueña.

Elder Taylor

5 enero 2015

And...I forgot my list of things that I was going to write about. Oh well, I'll do it by memory.

Someone was baptized in Aurora this week! I don't know who, all I know is it was one person and that I probably know them. I'm super happy right now and I'm going to do everything I can to find out who it was.

And the family Hernandez Hurtado. They told us they're afraid that something bad will happen to them if they directly ask god if they should be baptized in our religion. They're afraid to cuestion how they were raised. But they keep keeping the commitments (except attend church) and they LOVE that we keep visiting them. When we told them that Transfers were coming and that we didn't know who was going or who was staying, the Hermana Raquel told us that she was going to have a stern talk with God that night so that we would both stay. (There should be a Facebook friend request from one of them this week, i think Diana Maria.)

EVERYTHING in the house broke these past two weeks. The space heater works for about 10 seconds before quitting, the stove sometimes works but it has more to do with the alignment of the celestial bodies than it does with if it's turned on or not, of course the hot water has never worked, the DVD player that we were using decided that never ever again would it recognize the existence of a disc and the other one just goes blank 100% of the time when it even turns on, we ran out of Book of Mormons and almost out of Pamphlets of the Restoration, and then the fridge just kinda...stopped running. Well, that turned out to be because the outlet is defunct. We're pretty sure the resident mouse chewed through a wire. All this just in time 1) for the cold and it's STINKING COLD in the mornings (I'm pretty sure this is my comeuppance for skipping out on winter campouts as a scout, they even say it's going to snow this week and we don't have insulation, imagínense (pronounced imagínensen here in Monclova, super rancher accent)) and 2) for the new missionary. Because apparently i'm actually training this transfer. I have no idea who it is or where he's from. I assume it's a he, but other than that, nothing. I don't even know if he speaks Spanish and if he doesn't, we're in for a rough ride for at least six weeks.

So I'm going to Saltillo today and because of this, I'm writing a little earlier than normal.

Well this week was productive. We decided that we need to focus on strengthening the members. They've told us that this ward used to be superward with activities almost every week, regularly high numbers of assistence and a lot of getting-together of the members. But a few things happened and now we have about 35 members that assist regularly, the members don't even hardly know each other, the ward has had about 7 baptisms the whole year but only one of the converts still comes to church (she was baptized a week ago), and we have a plethora of non active members. I saw the statistics of the ward today for the year and they're pretty miserable. So this week we started visiting more frequently the active members and giving them a lesson on Baptismal covenants and the meaning of Zion and the reaction has been almost the same in all the houses. "I know what you guys are saying is true, I haven't been doing my part, I'm going to do better." this week we're going to do a lot of follow-up to make sure they're actually doing it. We also told Hermana Chayo about it (She're the President of the Relief Society and could be Eliza R Snow reincarnated if we believed in that sort of thing) and she said it was awesome and she's started working with the organization to get the sisters organized to help us in this. Now we just need to see about the YMYW and the Priesthood... 

We had a fun experience this week! We were walking on our way to an appointment and this is how our conversation went with the guy:

"Hey, are you two mormons?" Yes sir, we are. "Repent sinners because your religion is going to hell and if you don't repent you'll go to hell too!" That's nice sir, do you think we could pass by your house to give you a message about how much god loves you? "Why aren't you listening to me? I'm already saved but you two young men still need to repent! THat's what I'm doing here, calling all the people to repent!" Yes, sir, you really are doing that sir and you're doing very nicely. We'd love to give you a pamphlet that talks about how Christ restored his church on the earth. "Why don't you understand? Go home and repent and turn your soul over to christ!" Yes sir, I think we'll do that sir. Actually we try to do that every day. Repentance should be a daily process. "No, Listen to me! You're actually going to hell! Repent repent!" Very lovely. Is there anyone that you might know that might be interested in our message? "What for? So you can drag them down to hell with you? Look, I love you, I'd love to hug you but I can't because you're all going to hell! Repent!" Well, it was nice talking to you. We'll see each other around.

Yeah, that was basically the condensed version. It was pretty fun.

And then we had a lesson with an old investigator and he said that he used to be skeptic but now that he's read most of the Book of Mormon he wants to know all he can about God and our Prophet José Smith. His son was there as well. He said that "if my dad was skeptical about God and everything, you can imagine how I feel about all of this. But your message is interesting to him so I want to know all I can about it. He never was interested in Religion or anything." Then we proceeded to load them up with the Lesson 1 which is the Restauracion and the spirit was super strong, then we invited them to church and the skeptic son said "Yo voy." but then they reminded him that he was moving to Monterrey the next day and wouldn't be able to until the end of the semester. But they also didn't know the address so when we go back we're going to get the address from them and continue teaching the father and the mother (who says "I'm Catholic" but LOVES the missionaries and is reading the Book of Mormon.)

Yep. I'm looking back on this transfer and I feel really content. We didn't baptize a single person, we hardly got anyone to come to church but it was not for lack of trying. We worked super hard. When I arrived, we didn't have anyone that was really progressing, three or four "eternal investigators" and that's it. Now we have chorros (oodles) of people that we're teaching that want to know more. Now we just need them to go to church and like it. I feel like Ammon in that yes, I can look back and see the physical fruit of my labors. But I know I can't...i'm sorry I can't remember the word. Boast. that's it. Because I know I didn't really do anything. I just obeyed the rules, did what I was supposed to and never gave up. THe ward trusts us a whole lot more (the word they use for the anterior missionaries often is "medio fritos" or medium fried) and are giving us a whole lot of references, a lot of them repeats (as in the missionaries were going but then stopped for some reason, often because they did something stupid and were asked to not return). It's great.

Well, my companion has to say goodbye to all the ward before he leaves (and the hour is already wrapping up) and so I'm going to say goodbye to ustedes.

Cuidaos!

Elder Taylor

29 Diciembre 2014

Ya se nos va acabando el año. wow.

AH! the Familia Hernandez Hurtado are so AWESOME! At first Hermano Daniel had told us that he had doubts concerning Joseph Smith and his prophethood. But after studying (including underlining scriptures and reading as a family), he says he's repented of having doubted. Hermana Raquel said she was convinced from the beginning because now in her home, she feels more peace and loved. Now we just need to find out what's thinking the daughter, Hermana Diana Maria. She hardly never speaks (the parents talk a ton in typical Monclova fashion) but when she does, the questions are clear and direct and out of genuine curiosity, "what does 'stiff neck' mean (in spanish they use a word that is actually more of a technical word for a muscle in the back of the neck)?" or "if i'm baptized in the mormon church, i'll no longer be catholic?" They have an official friendshipper, they're doing everything right, except they didnt come to church on sunday! no! but there's this week as well.

Carlos was also going to come to church but his employer decided that he needed him to work to finish the bathroom in the house. (in case i forgot to tell you all sooner, Carlos is working for an LDS family to remodel their home.) We ate with them on Sunday and then pulled out Exodus 20. The hermano quoted to us quite a bit of it from memory, including the part about "not even your servant, nor your ass, nor your whatever it is should work on sunday." and then Carlos (who was listening from the bathroom where he was working) shouted "You have the darn thing memorized! why don't you apply what you know?!" I haven't laughed so hard since the lessons with Laura Garcia in Aurora.

Speaking of Aurora, I saw Hermano Duran in church on sunday. I asked him about the ward. Hermano Barajas has died. I knew he was sick, but he sure did not seem deathly ill to me. I asked him about the family Alvarez and at first he couldn't even think of who it was. Then he remembered. He hasn't seen them at church recently, but he says the ward still visits them. Which is good that they're still going to go visit them but i would prefer that they were still super active like they were. THis is the problem with Mexico (And I'm semi-quoting elder Bednar in this): a ton of people get baptized, but then fall away for question of economics, not feeling welcome in the ward, moving away, death of the person that brought them into the church, etc. and the ward doesn't do anything about it. There are SO MANY that 1) they feel overwhelmed and 2) they feel like they're too busy to do anything about it. And 3) they think it's the missionaries' job. Really, I shouldn't be here to have my own missionary experience. I am here to help the members teach their friends and families in their homes and help them have their own missionary experiences. Yes, the teaching is my calling. But the finding, friendshipping, bringing to church, remembering birthdays, even the Baptizing, EVERYTHING besides the actual teaching should be done by the members. Okay, well, maybe I could do some baptizing too I wouldn't complain. I like wearing the white pants.

Christmas day: It was nice to talk to you all! except i noticed two things in particular: My spoken english is dying. I don't remember how to express myself in speaking anymore. and 2) my spanish still isn't sufficient to communicate everything i want to say. Language has always been a strong point of mine. I want to have two complete languages. Now I only have two halves and unfortunately they aren't two complementary halves. A lot of the time there's just a hole in my head when I try to express something. I try in Spanish. Nope. I try in english. Tampoco. Yeah.......oh well. I'll figure out something.

Christmas day we went to finish a service project and we got there and it was all done! So we knocked and the investigator came out and said that she already finished but she wanted to feed us but she couldn't right then because the baby had just gotten sick and had to go to the hospital so could we please come back later. How about tomorrow or saturday? pause...Well I want to two to come today so you can eat. Fine, that's fine with us. So after talking with you lot, we went and had dinner with Petrita (and I had to use a bathroom without light, door or toilet paper or even the ability to flush the toilet. I could see her shadow in the other room the whole time. And my companion gets embarrassed by asking to use the bathroom of an investigator....oh please.) And she said that after reading the book of mormon for some time, she feels peace and happy which is a huge deal (and she talks less. She was the one that we asked "is there anything else we can do for you?" and we got 45 minutes of heartfelt chatter before I had to interrupt her to tell her that we were an hour late for our next appointment). And she was going to go to church as well but all the kids got sick at once. So we gave 4 blessings to all the grandkids and her son on sunday morning before church. i ran out of oil. and sheesh, what names! i prefer giving blessings to Maria de Jesus Garcia Lopez or Julio Cesar Perez Medina. Yeshuva Abdeel Sales Ortueavigal or whatever it was...sheesh.

And after eating with Hermana Petrita we went and had a lesson and ate with the family Hernandez Hurtado with the Jehovah Witness (still not baptized, apparently they need to wait a year before their baptism as a rule in the church) son and his wife. She helped a lot to explain a lot of the scriptures that we read from the book of mormon. We need to go visit them...hopefully before they get baptized in the Testigos de Jehova...that would be preferable.

Well, that's all this time!

Nos vemos en Mayo! (I guess Mothers day is May 10th, but i'll tell you when we get closer.)

Elder Taylor

The Mendoza Peña Family

Las Chistositas (that's how they insisted we call them, Sulema, Areseli, Laura, laurita, Edwin, and some other kids whose names i don't even remember)

Calle Sin Nombre (street without a name)

Graciela (an investigator)

The Cordova Moreno Family.  People like these, I'm grateful for a promise in my Patriarchal Blessing that says that I'll find a lot of poeple but not all of them will join the church until after I've gone.

Our house here in Monclova

Our Christmas Tree