25 Mayo 2015

I was going to send you guys pictures but the computer just ate my memory card, so I don't think that's going to be happening this time. I'll have to ask the people if they can retrieve it for me as I leave here.

I have less than one year left in the mission! AAAAAHH!

And ANOTHER friend sneaked out on a mission without telling me! Alexa Valladolid from BSU is going to the Cuernavaca Mission, the same mission Katherine just got home from!

We met some GREAT people this week. We ran into Mayra Garcia and her family. It just happens that she's the daughter of a less-active member who was baptized about 5 years ago. No one else in the family is a member, but she and her family had been going to church in Monterrey with an aunt of hers or something like that about 10 years ago, and from the sounds of it she was pretty active in the ward, she just never got baptized. She even was going to name her son Moroni Abinadi Barboza when someone told her that it was too cheesy, so she settled for Ramiro Abinadi. Her son's name is Abinadi and they're not even members! We invited her to be baptized and she said if she found out for herself that the church is true, she would be baptized. But then they didn't come to church this week...but next week, we'll make sure they'll come!

We also met Laura Sandoval this week. Actually last week, but she came to church for the first time this week. We met her as we were just walking past to our house and we saw her outside rocking her baby while a man that we thought was her husband was washing her car. We stopped and offered to help and he said no thanks, but I'm already mormon. Turns out he's just her friend and is a less-active member from Pioneros ward across Monclova. And he's less than useful while teaching a lesson with her. We were about to invite her to be baptized when he interrupts us with a useless question: "Sister Laura, will you follow the example of Jesus Christ by being..." "Hey! Where’s the scripture that says that God will never flood the earth again?" Awkward silence. "I have no idea, Hermano. I only know where the useful scriptures are." But she accepted the invitation and came to church this week and brought her less active friend again. Which is good, because he's been gone too long from church. Another quote from a lesson with them: "Every church is the true church as long as they teach good things!" The good thing was that she corrected him on that: "No, there should be only one and you should be able to know it by how you feel when you go." And she really liked church, so YAY!

We had rainstorms this week! WOOHOO! Nothing as spectacular as before, but oh well.

And BAPTISMS! BLANCA WAS BAPTIZED! Which was a close call. We did a practice interview with her for her to know what was going to happen and so we could know beforehand if there was anything we would have to know before we got her in an interview. As a missionary, there are three questions you hope every investigator will answer "no" to: Have you ever committed a serious crime? Have you ever had an abortion (which in spanish is the same word as miscarriage)? and Have you ever had a homosexual relationship? If they answer yes to any one of these questions, they need an interview with the mission president, which always takes a LONG TIME to set up. This was how it went:

"Hermana Blanca, have you ever committed a serious crime?" "Yep, every single one of them." "...Have you ever murdered anyone? or robbed a bank?" "No, nothing like that, but all the sins are serious crimes to God." "Well...yes...."

"Hermana Blanca, have you ever had an aborto (abortion, but also means miscarriage)" "Yes." Then she explained what had happened, it was a miscarriage not an abortion.

"Hermana Blanca, have you ever had a homosexual relationship?" "Yes. Wait, what do you mean? Like, me with a gay man?" "No, you with another woman." "Oh, no. I like my men, and better with a cowboy hat. Or AT LEAST a baseball cap."

Yeah, that was a stressful interview. And then we went and visited her the day after her baptism and she told us about how she went to light a cigarette after her baptism (which made us panic for a second) but then it made her feel sick just looking at it, so she gave it to someone else to smoke. So that was cool. She also said that suddenly she's been able to say no to alcohol, something she hadn't been able to. Yay! Then on Sunday she had to leave after the Sacrament meeting for something and when she got back she said hi to us and then "Hey, I'll have to talk to you later, right now i've got to get to Relief Society." Which was AWESOME!

And then Celeste also got baptized! She was an investigator that I found in Aeropuerto about a week before I left.

And after church we went to a baptism of a girl in the ward. The first time her dad dunked her, he didn't do it right and didn't even put her face under. Then the next time her foot came up. Then the dress billowed up and didn't go completely under. And then she decided she didn't want to be baptized anymore. So she got out and we said the ending prayer and everyone left. I thought about saying "Well, it's a good thing we didn't pay to be here" but then thought better of it.

Scripture of the week: Revelation 12:1-2. It was on a bumper sticker with the virgin of guadalupe. My companion and I read it and our first thoughts: "Oh crap, the Catholics are right!"

Well, have an awesome week everybody!

Elder Taylor

Blanca at her baptism

Flowers that her drug-addicted son drew in my daily planner

18 Mayo 2015

Well, I actually don't have a whole ton to say this time. Nothing much happened this week but what I've already told you all yesterday in the call.

One thing we've been struggling with is finding new investigators. I don't know if you've noticed, but it's all the same names over and over again. Which is great that they're all more or less moving forward, but it would be better to augment our pool of teaching. Good news is we found some pretty great people this last week including some families but the bad news is they all work really terrible hours so we're hardly ever going to be able to visit them.

Some things about the place of Mexico: We just finished blackberry season. The blackberries here are really sweet and grow on tall trees, which was nice having a tall companion during that time. But now all the berries are eaten or are on the ground rotting and smelling bad and attracting a lot of flies.

And I forgot to mention earlier the orange blossoms! Normally the streets around here smell like, you know, streets. But for about two weeks before I left Aeropuerto, the orange and lemon/lime blossoms were out and it was always glorious to walk outside and just smell the air. Unfortunately, they don't have as many trees here in the Zona Centro de Frontera and anyways all the blossoms have fallen or are being replaced by fruit.

Dora was confirmed yesterday! WoooOooo! And she brought two friends to church with her, so that's cool.

A family came to church this week without an invitation. A man, his wife and their two daughters. Apparently his mom is a member from another ward in the stake, and without anyone inviting them they just kind of decided "let's go to the mormon church today!" It was AWESOME! And then we found out where they live: in the area of another companionship that maybe isn't the most obedient companionship. I have to admit, I was disappointed and I let jealousy into my heart. Why on earth were THEY getting this blessing of a family just ready to accept the gospel (number one indicator here in Mexico someone's ready for the gospel: they come to church, especially without an invitation since most members don't come even with one) while WE'RE the ones breaking our backs to find people? But then the parable of the day laborers came to my head. Who am I to choose who should receive what blessings? I've just got to trust God that whatever I do and whatever happens to me, if I am obedient and cheerful, will be what is best for me.

Spiritual thought: the grace of God is like a sunrise. WE DO NOT EARN OR DESERVE A SUNRISE, but we do have to wake up in time to see it. We cannot earn nor deserve the grace of God; it's available to everyone. We just have to do what's required for it to take effect in our lives.

Les quiero a todos bastante!

Elder Taylor

11 Mayo 2015

I complete 11 months in the mission today. And in a year and a week, I will be making preparations to come home.

Also scary mile mark: Katherine completed 18 months this last week. She's going home today.

Well I don't have a ton of news from this last week. Dora didn't come to church so she didn't get confirmed. And then calling you guys......basically dealing with a Mexican sense of punctuality and Mexican standard level of internet connection. Sorry about that. But we already asked another family to help with it next week and they talked with the brother this last Sunday, so they know it works, camera, internet, everything. Ojala.

I found out something this last week. My friend Aubrey sneaked out on the mission without telling me! She's in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She wrote me and said, "Hey, check out I have this same nifty myldsmail address too!" I shouted in the ciber (computer lab).

Okay, no I didn't but I almost did.

Elder Stensrud is nuts. We ended up having a pillow fight last night and now we're making plans on how to scare Elder Stockman who's going to be sleeping with us tonight because his companion is going to Saltillo tonight. But it's a good thing we like each other, cuz we're going to be stuck together for another 6 weeks. Today we got the transfers for tomorrow. And I'm staying here in Frontera. And since he's been here for more time, he's likely leaving after this transfer and I will stay for one more, so the next 3 months are almost secure. Dang. Because i'm going to be here for the dreaded Canicula. We got up to 104 degrees this week. And nobody even winced.

For those who don't know, the Canicula is where in Northern Mexico, it doesn't drop below 100 degrees even at night for about 2 and ahalf months straight between May and August. I'm going to die.

We contacted a reference this week, a super Christian lady. She laid into us as if she were expecting us, all about how Only the Bible, No Prophets, No Dancing, Only God and Jesus. I'd heard that spiel before, but I have to say she impressed me with her presentation. Rather impassioned.

Weird, weird, weird experience from this last week: we contacted another reference that we were told was a believer in the Santa Muerte (major religions here: Catholics that believe, Catholics that have no idea, Jehovah's Witness, Pentecostal/Evangelical Christians, Normal Christians, a few Mormons and Creyentes en la Santa Muerte. Supposedly because Death conquered God on the cross, we should worship Her so that She will carry us to happiness after death because God is still on the cross, so He's not going to do anything for us. The Santa Muerte looks an awful lot like the grim reaper.) And she said that it was fine if we came back, but that the other missionaries were already visiting her. So we thought maybe the Jehovah’s Witnesses, because sometimes they get us confused. But she said that no, the missionaries that had passed by earlier that morning were two Güeros (or pale Americans) with ties and nametags just like us. We thought that was weird, but maybe she was just confused or thought she had seen the nametags, maybe it was another Christian Church. But then she told us the address of the Church that they invited her to. And it was ours. Either some other unidentified missionaries from the zone were proselyting in our area on Monday in the morning (not likely) or something REALLY WEIRD is going on. So then we went back to see her again and her daughter of about 15 years old was there in the door sitting down. But when she saw us she turned her head and wouldn't look at us and didn't respond to anything. Until we asked her if we could come back another time, when she slowly and creepily nodded her head, still not looking at us. We're pretty spooked.

And we started teaching a blind man this week. His two sons were running around naked, the house is a mess, they don't have glass in the windows, the three year old son was playing with a steak knife and a bar of soap and obviously had some sort of speech impediment more than a normal three year old. It's a sad situation to see, but it was good to see how happy the kids were even without basic necessities. And their dad says he's willing to come to church and learn. We're going to have to get the Elders Quorum and Relief Society in on this because there are some really staring, obvious temporal needs here.

And Marco Antonio came back to church! Yay! We were just about to drop him, but he came back!

Well, I'll talk to you all next week! Sunday at 4:30 or 5? That's the only time again that's really going to be possible.

No se olviden de ser padre! (don't forget to be awesome!)

Elder taylor

4 Mayo 2015

 If you guys don't eat something Mexican tomorrow, that would make me really, really sad. But here there's going to be nothing special. I only know one person that's even really mentioned it, and he's one of the other missionaries in the ward. Elder Lopez, and he's from Puebla.

Well, i don't have a ton of news this week. We had two zone conferences and a ward activity as well as divisiones with two different areas, so we actually haven't done a whole ton of preaching this week. And that's where the stories and news come from.

But....Dora got baptized! The only thing is that apparently her grandpa got mad "because she didn't tell him and didn't ask for permission." Whatever, he'd been in lessons, she and her grandma had both told him a million times and even invited him to the service. Martha sat us down and explained the problem. Basically (apart from bad communication skills), he's Catholic. The family is Catholic. He's never read the Bible, he doesn't go to Mass hardly ever. But that his granddaughter would do an affront like that to the Virgin of Guadalupe was just a little too much for him to handle. So....yeah.

Bad news: it turns out that Lucy and Martha can't be baptized because of certain individual circumstances. That's the hardest part of missionary work. I can walk all day, be sorer than ever, not find anyone at home, it can rain rivers in the street, but whatever, I'm fine. But when someone who wants this change in their life, they know exactly how happy it will make them, but they themselves can't partake of it, and to make it worse you love them...well, that's when the happiness is difficult to find.

We had a Children's Day carnival at the church with a bunch of fair-type rides and cotton candy and apples. And tacos. because mexicans will NOT have a party without tacos.

I went on splits with an Elder from Guatamala named Elder Flores. He taught me a little about using the pronoun "vos," something that in Mexico isn't done but would probably be understood just because it's basically the same as using "tu." mom, you should ask Marie Andree if she talks in vos with her family.

And here's what's going on with the call: the only time that I will be able to do it will be between 4:30 and 5 on Sunday, Coahuila time, so like 3:30 and 4?. Let's do it through Hangout just like last time. We will have an hour and half to talk instead of just an hour. But yeah, that's what's going on on my end. I hope that works, because I'm not going to be able to check with you guys before then.

Dios bendigaos! (he empezado a hablar a los elderes en vosotros. se me hace muy divertido.)

Elder taylor

The view of the Cathedral in the square. The bell tolls on Sunday mornings.

Typical Mexican food: that's a club sandwich with papitas a la francesa.

Those are my feet after a day of a lot of sweat. The dye in the socks came off and yeah.

Dora's baptism. The older lady is Martha, the girl not in the baptismal dress is her friend and the older girl is the friend's cousin.