April 7th, 2014 - Weekly Letter

Calling in from my new area: Chihuahua, Chihuahua. This last week was quite a crazy week, but a good week. A week of a lot of learning. So I guess I'll explain all that happened:

So just like how I said last week, I was sick on Sunday, and it continued on through Wednesday I think. Last Monday I didn't feel that sick, but my first day here in Chihuahua on Tuesday, after I arrived I had to wait at the house for a few hours because I felt really sick in the stomach. Wednesday I also felt a little sick in the stomach, but not enough to stay back at the house. So I made such a good impression my first day right?! ;)

But yeah. So on Tuesday morning last week we had the transfers, so we had to leave at like 8 in the morning because it's two hours from Camargo to Chihuahua. We arrived and I found out that my new companion would be my very first zone leader: Elder Mendoza. Two zone leaders always are together, and I knew I wasn't going to be zone leader, so I found out that he is now a district leader. Elder Mendoza is from a place in La Ciudad Mexico called DF. He has 19 months in the mission, and is a super good worker and really funny. He also plays the guitar and sings really good, so he sings for me! haha....My new area is called Lagos 2. We are in a smaller ward called Lagos, and so there are only 4 of us elders in this ward. The other two elders don't live with us though, they live in a different house. When I changed areas....I changed completely. I went from the poorness of Camargo, to the richy rich of Chihuahua. Everybody in this new area is really rich, and has all kinds of fancy technology and they all have cars....yeah a lot different than Camargo. Here in our area we actually live right by a popular university....like a ton of people come here to study, so it's really crowded with people at times...but at times not so much. We also live right by a huge sports park. It's a really nice area.

Because of the richness of this area, I have heard that baptisms aren't as common. In Camargo, everybody was super humble because they didn't have much, and for that reason we had a lot of investigators, but here we visit a lot more members. We have tried contacting on the street, but it is not giving us as much success. I have seen a LOT more people reject us here, but, on the bright side, the members help a TON here. In fact, an old member of the Quorum of the Seventy lives in our ward...how cool huh! His name is Brother Carlos. So yeah.....not as many investigators, but the members help a ton...and their food is super good :) Right now we do have some investigators though that are super cool, and two have baptismal dates for the end of the month, so yeah!

So for General Conference we had a separate room for the 'Gringos'. We just went to the local church building and they put conference on for us in English in another room. So I was super grateful for that. I can understand Spanish sure, but it's so much better in English, because it's their real voices and what not! But I just loved this conference. Second conference in the mission! My favorite was priesthood session, because all of the speakers just put the men in place....very powerful. One of my favorite talks was from Elder Bednar on Sunday. He gave the example of the truck, and how with the more weight the man was able to get traction and get out of the snow. He talked all about the Atonement, and how if we yoke ourselves to Christ, he will help us with our burdens, and at the same time we will help Him with his burden. Just all the details of that talk were amazing. I also liked Neil L. Andersen's talk when he said, yes, God loves you more than a tree. I also liked the talk, don't remember who it was, when the lady jumped out of the truck with the baby because she didn't know what was going to happen, when the husband did know. I like how it talked about each person in a marriage should know the other person's side before 'jumping out of the truck'. It applies to us in the mission too because with both of our ideas we can accomplish a lot more, and a lot better. I also liked how Elder Oaks in the priesthood session told us that there are two priesthood keys that are not on the earth, and those are the keys to Creation and Resurrection. That was super cool. And the very first talk from Elder Holland.....man I just liked all of the talks!!! But yeah, conference was amazing! I realized that every one of us can literally take at least something from every talk and apply it to ourselves.

So yeah, thanks for everything....all of the support and love! I council you to all study the talks from general conference again, and I know that you all will find even more information that will help you in your lives! I love you so much...every one of you!!!

-Elder Loveless