P-Day update week 38, 11/07/2022

 Holis!!!

Well this week has been super good! I feel absolutely drained of energy but it feels so good! I love the work here, and the Lord is doing marvelous things with the people of Xalapa!!

Evan's baptism

Like I said, this week has been super good! We've been working our tails off trying to be diligent for the Lord and for the people here! We have been blessed with some amazing friends to teach, but most of our friends are getting ready for baptism, so that means when they get baptized, there aren't gonna be any more people in teaching. That being said, we know that's not good, so we've been working hard to find some new people, and oh how God has placed the right people in our path this week! We've been trying to just focus on contacting people in the street as we walk to lessons and to members house's, and contacting the people we already have on our phone that haven't been fully contacted and taught yet! One thing I learned very early on in my mission, is that it's great to work hard and knock doors and contact people just in the street, but there are more effective and efficient ways to spend the precious little time the Lord has given us. So we have been trying to respond to our references from Facebook super quickly, our president is always talking to us about how "These people are knocking on our door!" So we try to be there and open the door quickly! But we've also seen great miracles from being diligent in our efforts! I remember one time when we were in Miradores, a little town about 30 min away from Xalapa. And we were walking down the street and passed a man, as we continued on our way after walking past him I felt that we needed to talk to him, so after wrestling with the thought for a bit because I didn't want to have an awkward encounter, I knew I needed to talk with him. So we walked and caught up with him to present ourselves with him, and his name is Henry! He is super cool and he said he wanted to learn, so we set up a time to meet with him this coming week!

Cool flower garden we found near our house!

So this transfer has been my first transfer as a DL (District Leader), well I was DL in the CCM but that doesn't count haha! And with this new assignment I have a lot of new responsibilities. One thing we had to do was to help our district get ready and set up with our new emergency plan! This past transfer, Hermana Perkins and Hermana Day implemented a new emergency plan for the mission so we can be prepared for anything that might happen, especially as we get into the rainy/hurricane season around here. When Elder Parker was DL he delivered all the emergency kits so I don't have to, but I do have to buy big water jugs (five gallon jugs) for every house and hand deliver them so they can have emergency water if anything were to happen! The thought was that we would buy all four of the jugs for the houses at once, then take them all to the house and drop off ours, and then deliver the rest of them with the help of a taxi! So we bartered our way into four 5 gallon jugs for 500 pesos, not too bad! Then came the hard part of getting all four to the house, they turned out to be a lot heavier than we thought hahaha!! We had one in each arm and carried them 200 yards to our house with frequent breaks in between! Once we got them all up the stairs we took a quick break and just sat down to rest our arms. After our recuperation we walked all the way back down from the house to the street to grab a taxi, we waited for longer than we wanted to, but eventually found a taxi! We first went to the house of the secretaries and left it outside their door since they were at their coordination meeting with their ward! Then our taxi driver took us to the house of the Hermanas, one of them is sick right now so we didn't get too close haha but got them their Jug! That's where the fun ended haha! We decided that it wouldn't be cost effective to take a taxi to the house of the assistants so we decided to just walk there carrying the last jug. Not fun. Quite heavy. But halfway there they caught us and took it the rest of the way themselves, then we just needed to get home. It was soooo hard to find a taxi, it's like they all knew that we were out late and decided not to pass! After walking around in the streets for a long time we finally saw a taxi and didn't even try and barter the price, we just got in and that was it! We arrived home absolutely beat! I didn't even have time to write in my journal, just sleep! But it felt good to be able to finally get that done!

So being a new DL comes with its fair share of new challenges! One of those is that every week I have to organize a district council to talk with the district and give them the chance to help each other and grow as missionaries! My first one was really calm, I didn't plan too much for it and just used the time to get to know the areas better and their people in teaching! But this week I planned the whole shabang, it was really cool! The morning of the council is when I actually put myself to plan something and get it really ready (I know I should've planned better, but no matter haha!). As I studied I asked Heavenly Father to help me fill a necessity that the district has, as I began to study Preach My Gospel I felt that I needed to share about the importance of The Book of Mormon! So I prepared a quick lesson, and then we headed out! It turned out super great! It was nice to be able to feel the spirit as we discussed the Book of Mormon and its role in our work, it truly is an inspired book from God! And after my first REAL district council I now have confidence that the Lord is gonna help me fulfill this role the best that I can! I'm excited to see how it stretches me a little more out of my comfort zone!

My comp made Birria quesadillas the other day for us, they were so good I promise haha!!

Cute Mickey cup I found at the store to add to my Mickey collection!

Speaking of the Book of Mormon, our ad for this month is about just that! We put up our ad and hoped for the best! Last month was a really good month for us, but now we need to keep up the momentum! As we prepared for the ad we knew that we were going to receive a lot of hate, usually the ads about The Book of Mormon always get some really spicy comments, usually misinterpreted scripture and very bad words, but there needs be opposition in all things! And we also know that if they are sensitive to the spirit they will want to learn more! So we got it all ready and got it published! Like we thought it has gotten a lot of hate but also a lot of people have put in their data to meet with the missionaries! We hope that this ad can have the same kind of success as last month so even more souls can taste the joy of living the Gospel of Christ in its fullest! I'll keep you all updated on what happens!

Well this week was the baptism of our friend! I also can't remember what we call him so we will call hiom Evan! We have been teaching him for about a month now, and he has been completing commitment after commitment since we met him! He truly has a desire to do what Heavenly Father wants him to do! His grandma told us that after we taught him about the word of wisdom he refused to drink coffee ever again, just the next day he told his grandma that he was done with it! It's been truly special, especially for someone as young as he is, he is only 15!! And the day of his baptism was great! We got up early to fill up the font with warm water, but it turns out the church is all out of gas haha! But he's young so we knew he would be fine! When the time of his actual baptism came up we got everything done relatively fast, not a lot of people showed up, but we did get a couple really good friends who decided to come and support Evan! It was a really nice service and right after in the church meeting he was given the gift of the Holy Ghost! And he was also sustained by the ward so he could receive the Aaronic Priesthood! It all started to fall into place, thanks to our awesome ward and their help getting him ready for that day! He is truly a great kid, unfortunately he is moving to Canada in a few months with his grandma, but hopefully he can learn all he can in these next few months so he can take it with him and keep strong in the faith! I know he'll do great!

Fluffy cat

That's all folks! I wanted to give you all some homework! This week I want you all to study Mosiah 27-29. I read these chapters these past couple weeks thoroughly to find out how I can be converted to the gospel. And who better to learn from than the men who turned from "The most vilest sinners" Into powerful missionaries for The Lord! I invite you all to read and figure out how you all can make the same transition, though I don't think any of you are vile sinners haha! We can all be better and more converted, follow their example and we will see great things! I love you all so very much, have a great week, and don't be afraid to shoot me an email or a text message on messenger if you ever need anything! Bye!