Wednesday, February 26, 2014
February 24th, 2014 - Weekly Letter
Family,
Well, this last week was good! I ended up staying!! It's crazy though, cuz I have almost been in this area for 5 months....in my first area.....yeah crazy.....but I feel like not too much happened this last week, but at the same time we found a lot of new people to teach, and we also talked with the investigators that we already have. We have been working really hard with the family we have, and guess what??? Their baptism is this Friday, the 28th of Feb. The whole family of 5! Man it has been such a crazy ride preparing them for their baptism. We have gone to their house almost every day, teaching and re-teaching lessons so that they can have this information implanted in their heads. And they're ready! So yeah this Friday is going to be an awesome day! But it's even more special then that............dun dun dun...............our investigator Stephanie also is going to be baptized this Friday! With her it has been different because we have only been able to visit her like once a week because she works every day from like 2-10 pm. But we have taught her everything and she told us that she feels ready for baptism. So yeah.......but wait.......the other two elders here in Camargo, Elder Ruiz and Elder Ante, also have a baptism on Friday, and she is super cool too! So in total, we are having 7 baptisms this Friday! All of us are going to participate in the baptisms, so it's going to be a very special and sweet day!
It is soooo good to see the success, and as Alma
tells us in Alma LOT of hardships, but
accompanied with success and happiness. It's awesome.......except for the sun.....the
sun is killer.....and it's only February. But yeah,
Thanks for everything, I love you all! Hope
you all had fun in Disneyland !!!
-Elder Loveless
....So I haven't received any packages, we
haven't really met as the zone in a while, well we did last week, but they
didn't have anything.
Love you all!
Monday, February 17, 2014
February 17th, 2014 - Weekly Letter
Family,
Well this week was
pretty good! There's been a lot of stress, but at the same time not, as with
the more time here the more comfortable and normal it feels to be here. What
happens is that we get in a groove here where everything just seems normal.
Like when I think about how I lived before the mission it is hard, like it's a
faded memory, which is sad. Like I can remember everything, but it doesn't seem
normal anymore. The mission seems normal. But yeah, it's good times!!!
So I say that it was stressful because a lot of, I guess you could
say Disappointments, have happened this week, and it all started with are 'once
was' Golden investigator, our investigator Elisabeth, who started out amazing.
She has almost finished reading the book of Mormon which is awesome, but she
fell this week. I don't think I should give details because of the personal
nature of the situation, but she fell, and we found out a LOT, but at the same
time we are super confused because at times supposedly she was not drunk when
she was, and all that kind of stuff, so when people are drunk they aren't
thinking what they are saying, so we don't really know what the truth is at
this point. But yeah, things get tough. Right when you think the missionary
work has gotten easy, it has just got much, much harder. So now we had to
cancel her baptismal date for the 1st of March to another future date.
On top of that our
other sets of investigators, like our family, and the other lady Stephanie,
couldn't go to church, and they need a certain number of times before they can
be baptized, so their dates were changed too. So now all of our investigators
have baptismal dates more in the future, but not by much. In like 2 weeks Stephanie and the family will
be baptized. So yeah, it's been kind of rough, but there's not much more that
we as missionaries can do. So yeah.
But yeah, besides
that I've had some cool experiences which have helped me grow! First experience
was with the 12 year old son of our investigator family. So we were waiting
outside their house for a taxi to come pick us up, and the 12 year old son was
waiting outside, his name is Francisco, and so we were just talking, and these
3 or so teenagers passed us, 3 boys, with earrings and tattoos and everything,
and I turned to Francisco and I said, "Francisco, never be like those
boys. You have something that they don't have....the gospel." And he just smiled and said thanks. In that
moment it brought me back to the times when mom would tell us that exact same
thing. I didn't realize it, but I'm growing up....whoa. But it was a cool
parent-like experience.
Other than that,
not too many really cool experiences, except I told myself after seeing what
happened with our investigator Elisabeth that I will never be like her husband,
but yeah. One learns a lot while serving a mission! But this week I saw
something that I have never seen. A Roadrunner. Yeah, it was cool. But that
means it's getting hot. I swear it...it's only February and the temperature is
already like in the 80s, almost the 90s if not the 90s. And guess what.......the
people here are still wearing jackets!!!!!!! Yeah....the members have told us
that in the summer it gets so hot that it literally burns people's skin....yeah
I don't know if that's gonna be fun.....that just means a LOT of sunscreen. I
guess it gets to like 120 every day for 2ish months more or less. We sweat everyday....it
stinks sometimes. But yeah, something cool. We got a Washer this week!!! So now
we don't have to wash clothes by hand! Washing clothes by hand wasn't too bad,
but it took SO MUCH TIME. So yeah, President bought us a washer. What a cool
president huh ;)
So yeah, all has
been well, today we find out about changes...transfers. I have here a lot of
time, more than 4 months, so there's a possibility that I change areas, but who
knows...we'll find out tonight!!! So yeah, have a fun week family, Love you all
soooo much!!!
-Elder Loveless
Monday, February 10, 2014
February 10th, 2014 - Weekly Letter
Family,
So
this last week was super fun, and super busy, and was just good!!! We worked
super hard, and our work showed, and at the same time we had a way fun time. So
I don't remember exactly what we did every single day, but a lot
happened....here we go.
So last Monday we had
our normal P-day, and then we had to go to Saucillo for the district meeting at
4 like normal, so we left a little earlier and went on this epic swing thing
that went out over this body of water that was pretty cool! Later that night
after the district meeting and everything, we got back later and didn't have
much time to do anything, so we just went to a restaurant to eat, which was
cool because it helped me realize that we aren't here just to be robots, we are
here to live too. It also showed how much the four of us are just good ol'
friends helping in the work of the Lord. It was a nice sit-down restaurant and
the food was really good too. So the next day we had a zone meeting and so we had to go to Delicias. There I got two packages..one from the Paterakis family and one from Grandma Val. The package from Grandma Val had a lot of sweet food in it that I have been eating a lot! And in the package from the Patarakis' there was some candy and also this jelly bean game, and oh yeah, the 4 of us played the jelly bean game that night. In this jelly bean game there are quite a few jelly beans, and a spinner. For each jelly bean there is a look-alike jelly bean that tastes horrible. Some examples were vomit, skunk spray and dog food. So we had to spin the spinner and whatever it landed on you were to eat that type of jelly bean, and so you had the chance of eating a really disgusting one, or a really good one. Man was it fun, but there were a lot of jelly beans spit out in the garbage in the end. So that was fun. Also, earlier that day we ate with Hermano Del Real, and like always, they made good food. It was a type of tortellini with cheese in the noodles. That night we were talking with him, and he was recounting a lot of experiences, and when he was talking about his past, and take into account that he knows very few words in English, he said, ''back when I was living the High Life''. Man, we all cracked up so much. He's 80 years old, but man he's still super funny.
Also this last week we
got to do service which was super fun, and different than the norm. We went to
help one of the brothers in the ward fix his roof, and so we got to make cement
and then bring it on the roof to fix it, because all of the houses are pretty
much completely made of cement. We had some funny times during that service,
like there were two different types of powder stuff, and so we put the first
on, and then the second we had to put the bag on the pile to open it, but Elder
Ante accidentally dropped the bag really hard on the powder and so a huge smoke
cloud just blew up and got all over me and the bishop....we were covered in
white, it was super funny.
But yeah, other then
all of that stuff, we worked hard every day like normal, and found another 2
people that are ready ready to hear the gospel. Yesterday we had 8
investigators at the church, and the other 2 elders had 3 at church, so Camargo
had 11 total, which was amazing!!! We have 7 baptismal dates currently, and
yesterday we actually married our family. They ended up changing the dates for
some reason, so we had to run all around town to do everything, but we did it!
It wasn't a big grand thing, but they're married now, and can now get baptized.
This week they're not going to be able to be baptized because they need to go
to church one more time, but the next week is their baptism, the 22nd of Feb.
But yeah, in the next 3 weeks.....baptisms. The people that we are finding to
teach are just literally ready....like ready ready. The work really is
hastening.
So the mission just is
amazing. I have realized that it doesn't need to be as hard as it seems,
because us as the missionaries, we are not the ones living the hard lives...our
investigators are the ones living the hard lives, and we're just here to help
them. There have been so many experiences where the people trust us enough that
they open up and like tell us their life stories. We are more or less
consultants that carry the cure for everything. Also, lately I have been
learning so much about myself, Christ, God, the atonement, everything. This
gospel is amazing, and if any one of you has doubts, ask God....for He will
tell you.
Thanks for everything, I love you all, and
have a very good week!!!! :)
-Elder Loveless
QA
The letter that I got from Layne and Ilene did
have the 20 dollars in it.The weather is getting pretty hot.....but it's weird cuz at night it still is cold.......weird huh
Tuesday, February 4, 2014
February 3rd, 2014 - Letter
Dear Family,
Man does the time fly by!!! I've thought about why it has been going so fast all of a sudden, and I think it's because of the all day work we've been having. We have had so much work to do here in Camargo. Yesterday we set another date for baptism on the 1st of March, and so right now we will be having baptisms 3 weeks in a row :) We should be having our family of 5 baptized on the 15th of February, and an investigator named Stephanie on the 22nd of February, and this new lady, Elisabel, on the 1st of March. Man, the work here is so crazy. At first when I got here we were having nothing, like nothing literally, but now it's like some kind of a bomb went off, but a good bomb, of course! Besides these people, we have our many other investigators, who are also close to being able to be baptized. The joy and happiness you receive from seeing people change is the best feeling in the world, and it just makes me so happy, and just all of us missionaries are so much more happy and what not!
So yeah, other than putting the date with the one investigator that we have, we have just continued with the work! Not too many crazy things have happened, but as I said, we have had so much more fun, and have been having more success at the same time. So Elder Hangsen completed 6 months in the mission, and so we had like this funny ritual thing! Haha, so all of the elders burn a tie at the 6 month mark, a shirt at the 1 year mark ,and a pair of pants at 1 year and 6 months, so we collected some leaves, and then lit them on fire, and Elder Hansgen lit his tie on fire, and we started prancing around the fire saying: 6 meses, 6 meses, 6 meses ogaboga ogaboga. Haha, like I said, we are all just having so much fun, but at the same time doing the work exactly how it should be done. If we are obedient, and work how we should, we will be happy. And, who wants to trudge through their whole mission sad.....not me. It's only 2 years, I wanna work hard and remember these years as the best 2 years!
But yeah, so I'm sorry there's not too much it this email. Not
much happened this week. I just feel that the work gets better and better as
the time gets on. Also last night us 4 in Camargo, made a video, like a video
entry, and it was pretty fun. But yeah, thanks to all of you for all the love
and support, because I couldn't do it without you all!! I love you and may the
work hasten still! Oh, also, in just a little more than a week we are going to
get the dad and mom of our family married, and we are all going to buy flowers
to put on our suit jackets. After we are going to buy some cake and drinks and
stuff and we are going to have a little party thing! Man I'm so excited!!! But
yeah, be careful all of you, and I love you all!!!
-Elder Loveless
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