Wednesday, February 26, 2014

"I got a haircut. I said 5 on top and 3 on the sides...I guess that's pretty short!"


"The food I've been making for breakfast!!! Eggs and something called Chorizo!!! It's so good, and we always eat everything with tortillas :)"


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 26, we give our praise to God, who has helped us all the way long. When I started my mission, as you guys know, I struggled, but now we have found the secret. We just have to find the chosen people...the people that have already been set aside to hear the gospel, and there are a super lot of them! Like right now we have plenty of other investigators also that we are working with. Along with all of this success are more stories that are super weird and funny and everything. We have encountered a lot of things all the way from thousands of drunk people talking to us every day, to a 12 year old girl 6 months pregnant. Also, this last week I almost pegged one of the other elders, not my companion, because he has been bugging me ever since he got here, and yesterday he slapped me really hard for no reason on my back, and I was already tired, so I almost pegged him, but held it in. Just like everyone says, there are always those elders that just bug you to the point of anger. I'm just glad he's not my companion. But yeah, you really learn traits that you want in your future spouse from the elders that you encounter in the mission. But yeah.....The mission is filled with a 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!

February 17th, 2014 - Water balloon fight in Delicias.


Monday, February 17, 2014

"WASHER :D"


"Teeny tiny banana, haha, there's a lot of these here."


"I don't know about this one."


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

"Me teaching Elder Hansgen the area...this was a while back, haha."


"Wedding pic...but it didn't turn out too well."


"Day of the wedding...I'm pretty tan now...wow!"


"Jelly Bean Game"


"Day of Service"


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

Today, February 4th, is Zac's 5 month mark!! Only 19 months to go!! Yeah!!


"Some ruins we found."


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