Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Well, some of you have heard that there have been some more earthquakes here lately. We have been asking around if it is normal to have so many earthquakes but they all say no. So we just decided the fact that Jesus is coming really soon. there is also a volcano out by us that has been puffing smoke lately. But they say it always does that, but it is kind of cool. They also opened some missions up in the middle east so that is another sign of his coming. It is getting exciting.

Well I will start off with the highlight of our week....

on Saturday Carlos and Adriana got married! That was a huge miracle. Carlos has been preparing for a baptism for a long time and the marriage was the last test of faith. He also had his interview today and passed so he should be good to go to have his baptism this saturday. He has changed so much. I will share the whole story of their family in next week's letter after the baptism. The wedding was pretty crazy but we got it done. First off, it took us forever to get there. It was about 2 hours in the metro system to get there and back. We were exhausted. Secondly, it was only supposed to cost about 700 pesos but I've learned something about mexico city.... Prices for things just change all the time for no reason and nobody tells anybody. So it ended up costing them 1000 pesos. We felt really bad and offered to help pay the difference but they refused. They were still really happy about the marriage though and were taking all kinds of pictures and having a great time.

Yesterday we had a lesson with them and they gave us dinner as well. I felt bad because they gave us some pechugas rellenas. (chicken with ham and cheese, super tasty) but after that they had nothing else left for food and had 0 pesos for anything. They had spent all of their savings on the wedding. It was kind of awkward but they were happy and willing to feed us. They also don't take no for an answer. Carlos used to work as a taxi driver and in construction but had an accident about a month ago and got hurt so he hasn't been working. The only money they earn is from Adriana and she works by selling quesadillas and gorditas 3 days a week. She makes a weekly profit of about 200 pesos. ($10). So I was feeling pretty worried for them and the whole night you could tell that they were worried about it too. But... Miracles! While we were with them, they got a text from somebody that owed them money and they were able to receive it and now have money again. It was a cool little blessing for all of us to see. They have been paying their tithing lately so that was a testimony to them I am sure about paying tithing.

I will hopefully have more pictures of Carlos's baptism next week. I am pretty sure I will also be transferred too so I am finally leaving good old Hidalgo. I might cry but that is okay.

Elder May

pictures of the wedding




the contreras zone


Friday, February 16, 2018

Hello everyone! We had another great week in el Barrio Hidalgo.

We did exchanges with Elder Rosales and Elder Oliphant and that was pretty fun. We did exchanges with them last transfer and when I was with Oliphant we ended up contacting this 14 year old kid and talked to him about the book of mormon. Well, this time we had a lesson with him and his whole family and we taught the restauration. I have never met anybody that just understood so much from the very beginning. they all accepted to be baptized and are willing to stop working on sundays to be able to come to church. The family consists of the mom, Maru, and the 3 kids, Fernando, Paula, and Tiffany. They are all so awesome and just fun. At the end of the lessons we teach them some English words and they love it.

We have been teaching a family for a while and they have been slowly but surely progressing. We baptized the kids in December and the mom was already a member. We have just mainly been focusing on the dad lately. They aren't married so we are finally getting them married this saturday. We have an appointment with the judge and everything. So that should happen this week, and then the next week he will be baptized. We are super excited for him.

Funny story. We woke up une morning at about 5:00 to the sound of a dog barking outside of our window. We got up and checked but their wasn't a dog in sight so we went to bed. Well, in the morning we heard it again and we went outside and looked around. Well, there is a huge hole next to our house where someone started to make the foundation of a house but never finished. We found that a huge dog had fallen into the whole and couldn't get out. We just turned into firefighters and helped get him out. It was kind of fun. It was a big dog too.

have a great week!

--
Elder May

We made cookies but didn't have oven mitts so I used our ties



The dog in the hole


Friday, February 9, 2018

Hola everybody. Sorry it has been a while since I have written. I'll be honest. We really don't have a whole lot of time on our P days anymore and I am also getting kind of lazy about emailing. But I have the personal goal to be better!

These past two weeks have been awesome. We were able to see 2 of our investigators be baptized and that is always a happy experience.

juan was baptized two weeks ago. His whole story is a straight miracle. We were exploring one end of our area that we hardly ever go to in hopes of finding some more people to teach out there. Well we had no luck. That whole side is pretty rich so they didn't want anything from us. We were walking back and we got a text about a guy named Juan who wanted to meet with the missionaries. First miracle: He lived on the exact street that we were walking on so we found his house in about 30 seconds. Second miracle: He was home and was super excited when he saw us. Third miracle, He had gotten a Book of Mormon when he visited his wife in Veracruz a month ago and was already reading in Jacob 5. He said he knows that it is true and that he wanted to be baptized. He willing gave up drinking wine and working on Sundays like no problem and hasn't missed a sunday since. He is super awesome. He is also  75 years old but acts like he is like 17. He told us that he locked the keys in his house and had to climb to the second story of his apartment complex to get in. He also did a 4 days fast last week. We didn't teach hime that. In fact, when he told us he was going to fast for 4 days we told him that he was probably going to die and that it wasn't a good idea. He did it anyways. however, at church he told us that he ate 10 raisins for breakfast so that was reassuring.

Daniel was also baptized this last saturday. Daniel is from Minnesota and is so awesome. We taught him everything in English and it was actually pretty weird. His wife understands English and he understands Spanish so he just talks to her in English and she replies in Spanish and they get along great. they have a pretty great relationship. We did half of the baptismal service in English and it was a little weird. We sung the hymns and I baptized him in English. It was fun. He is moving back to minnesota this week so we got it all done just in time. He wanted to be baptized here so that the rest of his relatives and evrybody could be here.

The work is going great here. I am loving Mexico City more and more every day.

Have a great week!

--
Elder May