Merry Christmas everybody! (today is not my P day but all of the internet places were closed yesterday so we have permission to email today and then get back to work) I hope you all had a great Christmas yesterday and were able to spend it doing something fun. For us it was pretty great. First of all, I got to talk to and see my family and that was easily the highlight of my day. After that, we had nothing else to do, and it was P-day, so went back to our house and took a nap. Sidenote: I don't know if any of you watched those videos of when the earthquake hit us here about 3 months ago. If you did, I don't know if you noticed the siren in the background. They have a super loud siren that detects and goes off when an earthquake is going to come so we can run out of the house on time and survive. Well, I was sleeping all nice and peacfully when that alarm went off. Talk about a rude awakening. I honestly didn't have too much of a rush to get outside. I figured that if our house survived the last earthquake, it was going to survive whatever was coming yesterday. It was nothing too bad though, you could hardly even feel it. I guess they said that this time it was centered in Guerrero. That gave everyone a nice scare for Christmas.

The streets were pretty dead all day so it was pretty hard to get any work done. We had some appointments set but they weren't there. We ended up just going home about an hour early and did some comp study.

Today we had a good start to the day though. We taught a mom and her daughter at 7:00 this morning. We taught them the restauration and they both accepted to be baptized on January 27. We are pretty excited for them.

those are about the only stories I've got for this week, but next week I should have a lot more.

Christmas dinner with the Velazquez family

The sunrise this morning

Our christmas breakfast

Well, last week was slow and this week was crazy!

We did a lot of exchanges this week with other missionaries and on Wednesday we went with Elder and Elder Gee. Elder Gee is just starting his mission and is super excited. We had some appointments and taught some people. Later though, like all missionaries have experienced, nobody was home. So I noticed that Elder Gee had a fat stack of about 150-200 "light the world" cards and I told him that I bet you couldn't give out all of his cards before the end of the day. Well he took the challenge and we just went crazy. We got to the point where almost everybody in the area we were at had a card. It was really fun actually and we found some awesome new people to teach as well. Now we have a bet with them this week to see who can find the most investigators. Whoever loses, buys the other companionship a pizza.

We also had been collecting clothes to give to the people in our area because it is really poor. Saturday had the theme of giving clothes to the poor so we thought it was a perfect fit. Well, thursday came and the ward had donated a lot of clothes and food. But then we realized that we hadn't really talked to anybody about giving them the clothes. So we had a lot of clothes and no specific people to give it too and we started to get pretty worried. So we went to an extra poor area of our area and asked a member to introduce us to more people who would like some clothes. Well she talked to just about the whole neighborhood, and later brought us to another neighborhood. In about 10 minutes our worry of not having anybody to give the clothes to turned into a worry of not having enough clothes. Well saturday came and the activity went super well. We also brought a a box of copies of the Book of Mormon and gave out every copy. My comp and I had to stand up in front of the crowd of about 30 people and we were almost preaching about the Book of Mormon. It was a pretty cool experience and now we are teaching a large majority of those people.

We are seeing so many miracles here and it is amazing. Elder Grimshaw and I are having a blast and enjoying every day. We had an interview with President together and he told us that he is expecting a lot out of us so we are a little overwhelmed with all that we have to do, but these have been some of the best weeks of my mission. I love you all, have a great week!



--
Elder May

Elder Grimshaw getting his ingrown toenail taken out by a lady in Itzapalapa (no anesthetic)

I found Elder Vargas again!

Dec. 12, 2017

This week was a little slower, I'll be honest. We only had one full day to actually work in our area due to a bunch of meetings and stuff. But we had transfers last week and I am staying at least one more transfer in Hidalgo and i couldn't be happier. This is seriously the best place I have ever lived. My new companion is Elder Grimshaw and he is awesome! I may have mentioned him before because when I was in Espartaco he was in my district and we had some awesome exchanges together. President knew we were really good friends and I just asked him a few weeks ago if he would send Elder Grimshaw to be my comp and he did! I honestly didn't think it was going to work but we are super excited.

On sunday we had a family home evening with the Velazquez Guzman family that we baptized a while back and it was awesome. We wanted to do something with the Light the World initiative and we came up with the idea of bringing cookies to people's houses like we do back home. Nobody does that here and so it was going to be something new for them. Well it turned out really well. They told us that they have a lot of family that live close by but that they really don't get a long. We convinced them to let us bring them some cookies and it was a miracle. They invited us all in and we shared a little message about Christmas and said a prayer with them. We later invited them to have another Family home evening together next week and they all accepted! when we left, the mom (concepcion) told us that she had never seen her family smile like that before. We were able to testify to them about the power of Christ to heal families. Just like they were able to see changes in their immediate family, we promised them that if they keep showing little acts of love for their family, that they are going to see more miracles. It was a really cool experience for all of us.

those are kind of the highlights of this week. Like I said, we didn't do a whole lot of work this week due to a bunch of meetings. I also fogot my camera so I can't send any pictures. I will update you all next week. Adios!


--
Elder May

Dec. 4, 2017

Hola every body! This week has been fantastic and full of miracles.

 We were able to baptize Naomi, Fernanda and Berenice on saturday and they were confirmed yesterday. We were pretty scared that the baptisms weren't going to go through because of certain circumstances but it all worked out. Berenice is 17 and I explained a little bit about her situation last week. Well, during the week we went to visit her and plan her baptism more. We also needed her mom's signature because she isn't 18 yet. When we asked her mom for permission to sign the baptismal record she said "I won't be singing anything" and was pretty upset that her daughter was going to be baptized. That alone was pretty frustrating because her mom was with us in every lesson and knew perfectly well that we were planning a baptism. She said that her daughter has no respect for her and is really rude and that she wouldn't be supporting her in this decision. (side note: we were in exchanges and I was with Elder Ceja) Well, Elder Ceja and I magically turned into family counselors and tried to work with them. The mom said she wanted her daughter to change and show her some respect. Berenice shared that she wanted to take this step because she wants to change and start over. She said she feels really good about what she is learning and wants to improve. She also said that whether she signed the form or not, she would continue going to church and trying to improve. That really impressed us and brought the spirit into the room. We testified with all of our hearts that baptism and following Jesus Christ is the only way to really make a definite lasting change in our lives. The appointment lasted about an hour and a half and was really intense, but the spirit was really strong. By the end of all of it, her mom signed the form and we could all breathe again. We always try to get her mom to pray but she always refuses, but this time we invited her to say the last prayer and she accepted. That alone was a shocker. We all knelt down and she said the prayer and by the end, she was crying. It was a really spiritual experience for all of us. A little intense, but spiritual.

Being a missionary has given me many opportunities to help people make changes in their lives. That night with Berenice I was able to strengthen my testimony even more about the power of Christ that can heal all problems. It is because of him that we can all leave behind our difficulties and challenges and be changed. All of us have many faults and shortcomings, but we have all been placed here to be redeemed. This is God's great plan of redemption and all we have to do is follow Jesus Christ. President Ezra Taft Benson said "When you choose to follow Jesus Christ, you choose to be changed."

Have a great week!

--
Elder May

Cool bottle someone gave me

Well, I don't have much time today because we hiked a volcano all day so this has to be fast...

We are still teaching some awesome families and should be having some baptisms in the next few weeks! We are pretty excited for all of them. We have actually been finding a lot of new investigators that we don't have enough time for all of them. My companion and I thought of an idea of passing a calendar around in the elders quorum and having people sign up to do splits with us to help us be able to teach all of these people. We were pretty nervous about if people were going to write their names but to our surprise, almost every day for the next 3 weeks has 2 names. There are some days where 3 people wrote down to come with us. We are really excited to see what kind of success we can see with this much support from the ward.

Have a great week!

some pictures of the volcano. It isn't active anymore so we hiked down in the crater and ate tostadas.

Elder May

First off, my mom told me that I sent a picture of a grasshopper instead of the death squad. I couldn't see what picture I was sending and I guess I guessed wrong. But the grasshopper is a different story. We found him in our house and caught him. We didn't know what he eats so we gave him some pancakes and juice. He died the next day. I guess he doesn't eat pancakes and juice.

We had another week full of miracles here in Los Hornos. We have been working with a lot of great investigators. We only have one worry though. Just about all of them need to get married. It looks like we are going to be planning about 4 or 5 weddings in the next month or so if all goes well.

We have been working with a family named the Torres Belmont family. They are so amazing. The mom is a less active and her boyfriend and their two daughters are investigators. They love the church and are progressing so well. They also love to give us food and that is an extra bonus. The mom works selling quesadillas and tacos so she cooks really well. The girls love church and even bought some new shoes to match some of their dresses. They are 9 and 8 years old. We are hoping to get them baptized by December 2.

We have been seeing the death squad more and more and they are doing okay... They are all men except for one. The one woman in the group is named Dominga. It is in front of her house that we meet with all of them every time. She is the only one who doesn't drink or do drugs. She is the one who always invites us because she wants all of them to change and stop drinking. She is really funny and so loving. She is one of the poorest people I have met out here but it is impossible to visit her without her giving us something to eat. She gets mad if we keep refusing. We invited her to church and honestly didn't really expect her to come because the church is about 30 minutes away from her house (walking). But she came all by herself and it made our day. I don't have any pictures of her but I will try to get one this week.

We are seeing so many miracles in this area and I come to love these people more and more every day. Mexico is really one of the most amazing places I have ever been.

Have a great week!

--
Elder May

Hello everybody! I feel like I say this every week, but this last week was pretty great! With halloween and el dia de los muertos we have some interesting stories.

First of all, these people know how to go trick-or-treating. I don't think I have ever seen so many people knocking on doors asking for candy. They had kids in lines waiting up to 30 minutes to knock on some doors. There were also some random horses in the middle of the street with no owner. That made me feel like I was back in Grantsville for a second. Halloween was fun and all, but it actually made it a little hard to work for about 3 nights in a row. However, we were still able to see many miracles this week.

We received a referral from a member to visit a lady who works in a quesadilla shop. We found the shop and everything and found the lady. We didn't really know what to say to her, but I had a cold this last week so we just walked up to her and  I asked her for a napkin to blow my nose. She kind of looked at me funny and didn't really say anything. Luckily though, there was another lady there who is missing half her teeth and seemed a little crazy. She offered me a napkin and we started talking and eventually got a good conversation going. The crazy lady is named Dominga. She lives in one of the poorer houses that I have seen, She has no electricity or gas in her house. She does all of her cooking on a fire pit outside and also warms up her bathing water on the same firepit. She is very humble but one of the nicest people I have ever met. She asked us if we could visit her on Saturday and we agreed. I'll be honest, we didn't know what to think of her. We meet a lot of crazy people here and weren't too sure if she was just going to be another one. We came to the appointment and she had set up in the street in front of her house a little table with a nice table cloth and buckets for seats all around. She had invited about half of the neighborhood and they were there waiting for us. It was her and 5 other old guys whom we have met before. These guys are garbage truck workers and are always drinking and sometimes give us a hard time. We ended up getting to know them and they are great people! They call themselves the death squad. They call themselves by that name because with their drinking and drug habits they never know when they are going to die. I tried not to laugh. We ended up teaching them the power of repentance and that we can all change. During the lesson, every time that someone would walk by in the street they would invite them to listen to us. A few people would come and listen for a while and then some would leave but it was a really cool experience to teach a lot of people in the middle of the street like that. At the end they all left feeling really motivated and excited that they can change. They all gave us hugs and thanked us for helping them. These men are some of the most humble people I have met and we could feel their desires to change. It may not be easy, but we know they can do it. Keep the death squad in your prayers!


I am very happy that I have the opportunity to share the power of Christ's atonement with people. It has brought me so much hope and knowledge that we really all can be cleansed and perfected through the repentance process. I know that God lives and that Christ is his son who was sent here to suffer for us. And he suffered for us to give us the chance to be changed and be happy.

have a great week!



--
Elder May

Hola everybody. This week has been pretty great. I explained a little bit about the Velazquez Guzman family in the last letter. They were confirmed last Sunday. We went to their house on Wednesday for another lesson. We were going to teach them about the temple and prepare the dad and the 12 year old son to receive the priesthood. We had it all planned out and when we all sat down and were ready to give the lesson they gave us a nice surprise. They said "so yesterday we went to the church for the young men's activity and the bishop ended up giving us the priesthood. Also Aldahir (the 12 year old) is going to go the temple tomorrow. He even has the information to be baptized for his grandpa.". It was a pretty cool surprise, I'll be honest. They had already taken the initiative of meeting with the bishop and doing their family history.

The next day, Aldahir went to the temple with the young men and he loved it. He actually went by himself. His parents asked us if we could walk him to the church so he didn't have to walk through there by himself. Funny story though... You'd think we'd be responsible and keep him safe as we were walking to the church right? Well I have walked those roads to the church about a thousand times so I was just kind of going through the motions and not paying attention to the things around me. We were walking past this parking lot in an apartment complex and out of nowhere my comp and Aldahir just stopped. I didn't pay much attention and kept walking. Well they stopped because a car was coming and I didn't see it. The car didn't see me either... So I got hit by my first car on Thursday. It wasn't going fast at all and I just kind of rolled off the hood. It was an old lady too and she was freaking out. I just gave her a thumbs up and a smile a kept walking. 


We have been working with another family as well. The Belmont family. The mom is a less active who found us in the street and asked us to come by and teach her family. We went by that same day and had a good lesson with all of them. Her husband's name is Carlos and they have two little girls ages 9 and 8 named Fernanda and Naomi. We taught them a couple times in the week and they came to church yesterday! They had to leave after sacrament meeting because the house of Carlos' sister collapsed in the earthquake last month and they have been spending a lot of time helping her get resettled and back to normal. We are really excited about this family, they have so much potential.

Have a great week!

--
Elder May

Hello everybody!

I am sorry that I have been slacking a little bit lately with the emails. I need to do better at writing them.

These past few weeks have been amazing, like always. The highlight of these last two weeks would have to be the baptism of the Velazquez family. We found them by going through the area book. We saw that the missionaries had been visiting them about 2 years ago but didn't have much success with them. My comp and I felt that we should go visit them one day and since then we have seen miracle after miracle. The mom was able to change her work schedule to be able to come to church. She works from 7:00 am on monday until 10:00 pm. She sacrifices a lot for her family. The dad stopped smoking and drinking to be able to be baptized with his family. They all read the scriptures and say their prayers as a family now every day and are progressing so well. They have the goal to be an eternal family. They have to be members for one year before they can be sealed as a family. They were baptized on October 14, and want to be sealed next october hopefully before I go home from my mission. That would be the greatest experience i can imagine to have in my mission.

We have also been working with a lot of other families and couples. We have a lot of people who need to get married and with my wedding planning experience, we are ready to go.

We had transfer calls last saturday and I will be staying here in Hidalgo for another transfer to finish Elder Vargas' training. I am super okay with that. He is probably my favorite companion and we have been getting a lot done here. I love this area and love my mission! Time is going by way too fast. Each transfer goes by faster than the last and it is starting to freak me out.

I love you all, have a great week!




--
Elder May

Sorry, this email isn't going to be very long, I am a little short on time today.

Highlight of the week, Yael was baptized! I know I haven't mentioned him much in my emails, but he has been awesome. His baptism was really special. He is 13 years old and is the only member of the church in his family. He bore his testimony after his baptism about how the church has changed him. He wants to be a missionary one day to be able to teach more niños like Elder Vargas and I have been teaching him. After the baptism he invited his mom to say the closing prayer. She is not a member and had never offered a prayer in her life. He walked her through it and whispered in her ear what to say. Usually it is the other way around when parents teach their kids how to pray, but it was a very spiritual experience to be able to see him teach his mom how to pray.

We also went on a tour of the estadio Azteca. It was pretty cool.

have a great week!
--
Elder May

This has been a very interesting week for sure. First off, thank you to all of those who have emailed me asking if we are all okay here with the earthquakes that are hitting us! Everything is okay and all of the missionaries are safe. I don't really have much of a cool story to tell about the earthquake besides the fact that we were in a lesson with Oliver. We were just sharing some scriptures when everything in the house started rattling and gradually got stronger. We all ran outside and all of the houses around us were just swaying back and forth. No houses fell in our area, but there was a lot of damage in the other zones in the missions. Although there has been a lot of damage and sadness, we have been giving so much more opportunities to serve. We had a zone conference on Friday and President Mecham shared this scripture:

6 And now when Alma heard this, he turned him about, his face immediately towards him, and he beheld with great joy; for he beheld that their afflictions had truly humbled them, and that they were in a preparation to hear the word.

I have seen that this scripture is true for us right now in Mexico. The earthquakes are really humbling the people and we have had more success than I have ever had in my whole mission. The people are looking to us for answers and are willing to act on their faith.

We had a really spiritual lesson with a family of 5 named the Olvera family. We met them by offering english lessons to their 12 year old son in the street a few weeks ago. We never got into their house until Saturday. We just walked by and they were outside and we got talking about the earthquakes. They invited us in and we shared Helaman 5:12. this scripture talks about how when we are faced with trials, if we have a strong foundation of faith in Jesus Christ, we cannot fall. This scripture was just what this family needed. We were able to testify how everything will be okay and we can continue forward with happiness and hope as we exercise faith in Christ. The spirit was very strong and lots of tears were shed by them. Yesterday they came to church and they loved it! The ward has been so great to welcome them and everyone is supporting each other in this time of need. There has been a lot of damage and sadness this week, but I have also seen so much more happiness and hope that has come from Faith in Jesus Christ. This week has strengthened my testimony in my Savior a lot more as I have been able to really testify to these wonderful people.

Have a great week!

--
Elder May

Hello everybody!

Sorry that I have kind of slacked on the emails. I haven't had much time lately. We had transfers last week and I stayed here in hidalgo and My new companion is Elder Vargas. He is from Tijuana and is awesome. He is kind of crazy and it has been a pretty fun first week together.

From what my parents tell me, the earthquake that hit us down here has been a big part of the news back home, as well as the hurricanes in Florida and Texas. I'm sure you would all like to hear some pretty cool story from me being in the earthquake, but I slept right through it. I had no idea there was even an earthquake until I woke up and the phone had a bunch of texts wondering if we were okay. The other missionaries in our ward that live across the street felt everything and ran out into the street for safety, but my comp and I slept like rocks through the whole thing.

We have had a really great couple of weeks here. We are working with some really great people and have some good baptisms planned soon. In specific, we are working with a really great family. They have 3 boys and the mom and dad. They all come to church every week except the mom because she works. We are trying to figure out a solution for her to be able to come to church with the rest of the family. They are really great and have a goal to be sealed in the temple.

We are also working with a guy named Oliver. He is 20 years old and is the only one in his family who is not baptized. He is struggling with drinking and smoking and is really trying to stop. He has made a lot of progress in the past couple of months and hopefully he can make his goal of being baptized on the 7th.

I don't know if all of you remember Juan Carlos from my old area in Espartaco? He was the old guy who I met by playing basketball with him in the street and he also painted me a picture of a turtle playing soccer. Well, the missionaries from that area let me know that he was finally baptized last week! I was super excited to hear about him. When I met him he was smoking 14 cigarettes a day and was one of the most Catholic people I know. That was just a little testimony to me of how anybody can change and apply the atonement of Jesus Christ. I know that Christ lives and guides his church today, and there is nothing that he can't help us do.

Have a great week!

Elder May

First off, Lucy and Wendy were baptized on Saturday! We were pretty excited for them. It was a really neat experience and they were pretty excited. I had the opportunity to baptize the daughter, Wendy. Me and her are pretty good friends. They kind of scared us a little bit because they didn't show up to sacrament meeting until right before the sacrament. We didn't really know what we would have done if they never showed up. But they were confirmed and are officially members of the Church.

We have been working with an investigator named Hector. He is 13 and he is awesome. He is just kind of a quiet guy but he reads everything and he just gets it. After our last lesson I was about to leave a chapter from the book of mormon to ready until our next visit. Right before I told him what it was, his uncle (who is less-active) threw him under the bus and said "you know what? we both need to be better at reading. How about we ready the whole first book of Nephi before the next appointment" (which would be in one week). I thought it seemed a little crazy because we usually leave only one or two chapters at the most. However, Hector accepted it no problem. Yesterday we saw him again and asked him how his reading was going and he basically told us everything that happens in First Nephi. Needless to say I think he did his reading. We are still working on helping him come to church. His dad doesn't really like the idea of him coming to church but we are working on it.

We have also started giving English classes every tuesday and even teach english in some lessons one-on-one with investigators who can't came on tuesdays. I didn't know that so many people would be willing to learn english. I don't even know how to teach English but they like it so we keep doing it. We basically just throw some words on the whiteboard and have them write sentences with the words. It is a fun time.

I really love my new area. It is very humble and very exciting. I don't have time to tell you all the little details and stories that happen every day but there are very many. I feel so blessed to be in this area and in this mission. It is crazy to me how fast time is going, it really just needs to slow down.


--
Elder May

cathedral in coyoacán

I bought a poncho

I slept in an uncomfortable hammock 

Lucy and Wendy's baptism

the area

Elders of Hidalgo​​

Hello everybody!

Once again we have had another great week in Los Hornos. For those of you who don't know what Los Hornos means, it means "the ovens". I feel like our area is appropriately named because it is so hot here. We are up in the mountains and the sun just beats on us all day. However, every now and then we get a random rainstorm. It isn't just a few drops either, the streets basically turn into rivers and no matter what we do, we always get soaked. It is fun though.

We went on exchanges with the zone leaders the other day and that was a great experience. I went with Elder Santos. Their area is pretty big so we had to take some busses to get around. I've mentioned a little bit how crazy the buses are here, but I have basically gotten used to it by now. A lot of times people will just hop on the bus and play their guitar or something for a few minutes and try to earn some money and then later hope off. Or they might try to sell candies or something. It is pretty common. However, on this particular day a clown got on the bus. If any of you know me well enough, you might now how much I don't like clowns. They are just weird to me. But this clown came on and started telling jokes and being weird and everything and I was just dreading because I knew he was going to say something to me. I stick out like an elephant in the room wherever I go and people love to harrass us "güeros"... Anyways, this clown started talking to me and saying some jokes about the USA and then started speaking some english to me and everyone was just laughing and watching to see what I would do. I Didn't respond and just looked at him and eventually said (in spanish) "sorry I don't understand english. I am from Russia" and everyone just stopped laughing and turned around as if I had ruined the whole thing. The clown just said sorry and went on his way harrassing the rest of the people. I guess sounding like a russian comes in handy sometimes.

We had some really good lessons this week. We are working with a man named Javier. He is in his 50's and has a wife and 3 kids. There is a drug here that is really popular called monia. It is basically just fingernail polish with some weird chemicals in it. Well, Javier has been addicted to monia for about 30 years and is now going on 8 days without his monia. We had him write down on a piece of paper the reasons he wants to stop drugging. He wrote down a lot about his family. He really wants his wife and kids to respect him. He told us a few days ago that he was at a party with his friends and they all started drinking and pulling out the monia and he told us he was about to join them but he remembered his goal and is still going strong. It is really hard for him but I have no doubts that he can do it. you guys should all keep Javier in your prayers.

We were also looking through the area book and thought we would go visit some old investigators. We visited a mom named Elivia and her son, Jesus, aged 15. The mom told us that she had just quite her job on sunday so she could start going to church again and bring her family. Jesus said that he wants to be baptized so that he can go on a mission. He really wants to go to Japan, and speaks a little japanese. They are both really awesome and very faithful. They also have a pet pirrhana that is HUGE and they told me one day I could feed it a live fish to watch how it eats. I am pretty excited for that day.

I love being a missionary here. Every day is full of new experiences that are changing who I am as a person. I am learned what it is like to serve and love people as the savior served them. We are currently teaching a lady named Xochitl. She works just about all day every day so the only time we can teach here is at 7:00 am every tuesday. she lives more towards the back of our area so we have to leave at about 6:25 am to get to her house on time. She is awesome too. I wish I had more time to tell you all about the amazing people I meet here every day. Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers, have a great week!


--
Elder May

First things first.... Lucy got married! I honestly wasn't so sure it was going to happen. She changed her mind about 3 times just this week about wanting to get married. I was the one planning it and setting up the appointment with the Judge and everything and I didn't really know what I was doing. She seemed pretty unsure about it. I don't blame her though, I was pretty confused about the whole thing, but we got it done. I know how to plan a wedding now so the next time it will be a breeze.. I hope. We had to go out of the mission and into a completely different state of Mexico to do it. The judge we went with helps the missionaries a lot and it is a lot easier to go to him apparently. It was a pretty fun trip though. We went in the metro (subway), buses, and even moto-taxis (motorcycle taxi). When we got to the judge's office, we still had to wait about 3 hours. It was pretty long and boring. They are officially married though and should be getting baptized this week!

That was about the biggest thing that happened here this week. This area has been a little harder to find new investigators just because of how the people live up here. We really have to work with the members a lot more to find people to teach. The members here are really good though and give us referrals quite often.

Aside from all of that, it has been a little bit of a drier week here. I have  been studying charity a lot lately. As a missionary, Charity is one of the biggest things that helps you in the mission. For me it is really easy to get frustrated when people don't keep their commitments we leave them. We have heard all of the excuses and I have to hold myself back from calling them out on there excuses. Needless to say, that is why I have been studying charity lately. I found a quite by President Monson that I really liked. It said "Charity, like Faith, requires action." We teach people a lot that to have effective faith, we need to act. But it wasn't until I read that quote that I had thought about charity in that sense as well. We have to work towards charity and exercise it, just like our faith. As we give to others and really focus on showing that Christ-like love, eventually it will become part of our nature as well. In moroni 7:48 it says that we should pray with all of the energy of our heart that we might be filled with this love, because if we don't have charity, we are nothing (something like that, I don't remember the wording in english). We are all representatives of Jesus Christ. We all take his name upon us when we are baptized. If we represent Jesus Christ, I think the best way to do that is to have charity and be kind to people. Christ was the perfect example and teacher of charity. I hope and pray that each of us can be a little more loving towards one another. In my mission I have really been able to see the difference it makes in some of these peoples lives when they feel like someone cares about them. I know Charity makes a difference in each of our lives regardless of our circumstance. Have a great week!

Elder May

Making Tortillas

Making Salsa

Riding in the Mototaxi

waited 3 hours in the judges office while Lucy and gerardo got married.

outside the judges office.

streets in my area

Hello everybody, as you know I was transferred last week. My new companion is Elder Uhlig, another gringo. I like having gringo companions. My new area is in Colonia Hidalgo, and I love it here. We live in hidalgo, but really our area is up the mountain in Los Hornos. (the ovens). It is up there in the mountains a ways so we have to take a pretty steep hike every day just to even get into our area. This area is pretty poor too and it was quite a shock. Some of these people really just live behind a pile of rocks or under a blanket fort looking thing. It has been a very humbling first week here. It is pretty different than my last area but I already love it here.

There are a lot of really good investigators and met some really great people this week. We are working with an investigator named Lucy. She is trying to get married so she can get baptized and that has been a stressful time. I am basically planning the whole thing. I don't really want to get married anymore, it is a lot of work.

The members are really good here and for the first time in my mission I attended a sacrament meeting with more than 60 people. It was pretty great. There are about 200 active members and they are really great at giving us referrals. We were given two referrals last week and the both seem pretty golden and we are pretty excited about them.

I really like this area and am super excited for what this next transfer will bring. I expect to have a lot more stories for you all while I am here. Just as some background information, there are dogs literally everywhere. If you want a dog, just come to Mexico City and pick which on you want, they have all different breeds and sizes. The other day we saw a dog whose ear had somehow been torn off or something and somebody just taped it back on with skotch tape.

Have a great week!

--
Elder May

I felt like Po from kung fu panda climbing up these stairs

 the house of one of our investigators

los hornos

 Elder Uhlig and I

view of mexico city

We have had another really eventful week in this area. I learned that I have transfers today so that was really sad to hear. It was really hard to have to say goodbye to everyone yesterday. The members here are some of the greatest and most faithful members I have ever met. We had some appointments with some less active families who we have been working with and each of them gave us some food for my last day.

We had an activity for the youth in the stake that was really fun. We made a "mini MTC" for all of them. It was an all day activity and there were basically just classes that missionaries taught and the youth rated from class to class all day. My companion and I taught about goal setting and planning. It wasn't the funnest subject but we made it a good time for everyone. We had a lunch break at 1:00 and we all just got a plate full of tacos. Back home whenever there are ward parties the food is usually spaghetti or soups or something, but here it is always tacos guisados. Tacos guisados are basically just like 6 different types of tacos. They have tacos de chicharron (which is just pig skin. super gross), de mole, potatoes and sausage, rice and chicken, and beans. I like all of them except the chicharron. But anyways, everything was going good until someone stole someone else's phone. So us missionaries had to line up everyone and pat them down to try to find it. It took about 2 hours and we never did find the phone. It was kind of a weird twist to the "mini MTC".

We also met with a family of investigators and had a pretty good lesson with them about the restoration. They are really nice and love us. They are also one of the richest families I have seen here. They wanted to give us some shrimp for lunch so we let them. They were really big shrimp and I thought it was actually pretty good. I am usually not one for seafood but I really liked it. My companion had never eaten shrimp before and didn't know how to eat them so he just ate the whole thing--legs and all. It looked pretty gross but he seemed to enjoy it. When we left and were walking down the street he all of the sudden just started to throw up all of the shrimp we ate. It was pretty nasty but funny at the same time. I didn't feel sick at all so it must have been because he ate the legs and everything with the shrimp.

I am really sad to have to say goodbye to this area. I have come to love so many people and have made so many memories. I am also very excited to get to know more people and learn more about Mexico. I know the work is the same where ever I go so I am excited to find out where the Lord needs me to serve next.

Have a great week!
--
Elder May

 the teanguis where they literally sell anything you can think of.

service with the member who fixed my teeth

shrimp

more shrimp

the bishop and his family

Miliar family. the little boy next to me gave me about 9 hugs

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mini MTC