HAPPY HALLOWEEEEENNN

So first off: HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOTHER !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and a HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

Second: sorry for not being able to respond to everyone last week! We were running late and the 

district leaders called us wanting to meet with us before the actual district meeting to talk about upcoming divisiones. 

Third: This week:  So yeah this week we had divisiones again! This time with our zone leaders.  This is not very normal at all, normally divisiones are only once a month and only with the district leaders.  We were worried about why we were having these divisiones with the zone leaders, but it's all good.  It was just because we have an upcoming zone conference with a member of the seventy coming so they went on divisiones with every companionship in the zone.  So regardless, Elder Mendez went off to Tierra Blanca with Elder Lazaro and I stayed here in Tres Valles with Elder Uribe.  It was super fun! Mainly because Elder Uribe is from San Diego California and speaks fluent English! So it was way fun being able to talk in English with him and to have a translator for when I don't understand.  Also almost every family we visited fed us food! We visited with four investigators and a family who are members ... it was great.  First we went to Arturo and Soleda.  They are two investigators that just accepted baptism this week.  They fed us these chincharon tacos (or something like that) they were amazing. Then we went and bought pizza for lunch. After that we went and visited Juan and Lucia, they are the investigators with the rice fields and cows and massive tractor.  They just recently sent off their own missionary.  So we talked for a little while about the CCM and missionary life because they had a ton of questions. Then Hermano Juan took Uribe and I on his "rice field and cow" tour which is always fun.  But yeah that was basically divisiones this week! I learned a ton from Elder Uribe about what to study and how to teach in general, so it was a good day!

Splits with Elder Uribe ... eating coconut!

Hermano Juan

Trying to pet a cow but they always run away from me!

Regretting chasing the cows ... it was quite muddy!

Giving up and just taking a picture with them again!

The coolest thing about this week though was just seeing our hard work start paying off.  Seven of our investigators accepted a baptismal date!! It was awesome! However, only two were able to come to church this week, but we are working on that.  I´ll talk more about them next week! 

The worst part of this week was that we had a nice mosquito infestation in our casa (some food was left out and went bad, but yeah) and we´ve been having an ongoing battle with them.  We are losing.  I'm getting pretty good at killing them though! Also the good thing is they aren't biting us at all... just annoying us... so stay tuned until next week for how that battle goes.... Also a quick update, the cockroach kill count is now at 5 so I'm staying true to my one a week pattern. 

My attempt at being artsy!

A family in the ward's dog had lots of puppies!

Spiritual thought: This week I've been thinking a lot about how anything is possible with God.  One of the scriptures I memorized in the CCM is Mark 9:23 

"Y Jesús le dijo: Si puedes creer, al que cree todo le es posible." 

It is basically just saying that with faith, anything is possible.  I love this scripture cause it is super simple but way powerful. With God´s help we can do whatever He needs us to do; whether it is learning Spanish, or learning how to teach, or anything.  With God, all is possible.

So yeah that was my week, more or less. Love you all and miss you all! Enjoy Halloween tomorrow! 

Elder Gurney

2 months!

October, 23, 2017

Ayyyyyyyy so yesterday was my official 2 months in the mission mark! So crazy that I´ve been a missionary for two whole months, time flies! But anyways, here was my week!

Divisiones- So on Wednesday we went on splits with the district leader and his companion.  What this means is that on Wednesday our district leader came to Tres Valles with Elder Mendez for the day and I went to Temascal with his companion.  We woke up at 6:30 AM, like usual, and got ready super fast so we could arrive on time! We got to the meeting spot 10 minutes early and we waited for the other companionship... and we waited... and we waited... and we waited... after about an hour we called them to see what was going on, and turns out they forgot... But regardless, they finally arrived and we went our separate ways.  The day was pretty fun.  Our district leader´s companion, Elder Ramirez, is pretty funny.  He´s almost finished with his mission, Temascal is his last area so I learned a bit from him. I learned one word specifically... lomas... or hills in English... Temascal is all hills and they are outrageously steep! By the end of the day my legs were killing me.  I wish I had taken some pictures of them cause they really were crazy.  But it was a fun day, we taught a few lessons, one lesson was to a kid from Canada who is also still learning Spanish so that was way fun talking with him, and then we went to their house.  I am very grateful to be in Tres Valles.... because the house there is well.. interesting.., so it was a good thing I was so tired because I fell asleep super fast. So that was my divisiones experience!

Sunday - So this week went by super fast and nothing super noteworthy happened.  However, yesterday was very interesting... we had three investigators that had committed to coming to church this week.  However, yesterday, none of them showed up, which was disappointing.  One, Hermana Angelica, could not come because a recent surgery has kept her bedridden for the past few weeks and she was in too much pain to come. But yeah so it was disappointing that none of our planned investigators showed up, however, when we were opening up the chapel on Sunday, a random man showed up and asked if he could come in! Obviously, we said absolutely! He isn´t a member, and I can't remember his name, but regardless we told him a little about our beliefs and the church and he stayed for the first hour which was awesome, and we set up an appointment with him. Later the family of a member showed up and stayed for 2 hours, and we set up an appointment to visit them too! So we had 4 unplanned investigators show up which was way cool!   Oh and the son of the Stake President just got back from his mission to the Dominican Republic so we talked with him a lot and he invited us to his house for cake! So basically I got cake for my 2 month mark! Which was way fun!

A horrible selfie with my girls, Kimberly and Melanie!

But yeah that is all that I can think of really noteworthy from this week... oh my cockroach kill count is now at 4! One for every week basically! hehe. But yeah love you and miss you all!

Ok so according to Elder Mendez we have to leave now for some reason ... so for all that I wasn´t able to write (which is everyone) I'm so sorry but I miss you and love you all!

Love,

Elder Gurney

Second week in the field...

Holaaaaaaa!

So this week was a whirlwind... We started off by having interviews with the mission president on Tuesday. Usually the interviews aren't for another couple weeks, but an Elder broke his leg last week so I think the president wanted to check up on him, so he moved the interviews.  Regardless, the interviews went well.   We just talked about the adjustment and how I am doing, how the language is coming and things like that, it was pretty nice!  After interviews it was basically a usual day, lessons, lessons, and more lessons. Haha, I'm finally starting to talk a little more in the lessons cause now I can kind of understand what is going on! So that is super nice. Obviously I am still learning how to teach and still have A LOT of work to do on my Spanish but at least I'm improving.  There is a member in the ward, Hermano Julio, who got back from his mission in Tampico Mexico last year who is a big help.  He has accompanied us on a couple lessons (with the harder investigators) and his knowledge of the scriptures is awesome, so he gives us a ton of pointers. So yeah some things that happened this week:

The food incident Pt 2: WE HAD PIZZA! So yeah, we have these two investigators, Hermano Arturo and Hermana Soledad, who always feed us when we come (they are the same people from the first food incident...) and so they decided to make us pizza and it was so good! Nothing like american pizza but it was still good! Photo to be included below

PIZZA!!

Piano: So the Elder who was here before me was named Elder Flores and apparently he was amazing at playing the piano.   He always played during the meetings on Sunday and he started piano classes.  So when I got here they asked if I played, I said that I know 3 hymns, and they said oh perfect! So now I play my three hymns during the Sunday meetings and I give piano classes to the three people that show up. It's actually been pretty fun but I am kinda getting tired of my three hymns so I am trying to learn some more with the 15 minutes I get everyday to practice.  The Tres Valles area has both a branch and a ward so I play during the ward meeting at 9 and again at 2 for the branch. Sundays are pretty long,.. we have six hours of church... but it's awesome. However, there aren´t a lot of members still (like 40 in each) so we teach a class, I play piano, and one of us has to give a talk basically every other week. And this week it was my turn!

My talk: So yeah, I was playing the piano while everyone was coming in and Elder Mendez comes up to me and says that I have to give a talk today... when the meeting started I was searching for scriptures and preparing my talk, thinking that I wouldn't be the first speaker....  but I was. So with the five minutes I had to prepare I shared a talk about following the prophets and it was actually pretty okay so I definitely thank God for that cause I would not have been able to do that without His help! 

One of our investigators has a farm and he really wanted us to take pictures
of his rice field ... so here it is!

He owns about 20 cows ... this was as close as I could get because the field
was all flooded!

I finally saw an Iguana! I had been told before that there were iguanas all over Veracruz so I was super excited to see some when I got here and I finally saw my first one yesterday! It was quite awesome, it ran away before I could get a pic but yeah it was wild!

That was all really noteworthy that happened this week! Just as a side note, it is recommended to use DHL to send packages cause with FedEx they can open them and take things, or something like that... The two packages I've gotten seemed to have everything but just as a fyi! Thank you for the packages I really appreciate them! But yeah thats all I've got for this week! Love you all and miss you all!

Love,

Elder Gurney

Semana 1 en el Campo Misional!!!!

October 2nd and 9th

Holaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!

So yeah this past week and a half has been a whirlwind! Saying goodbye to the lifelong friends that I made at the CCM was extremely difficult.  

Watching General Conference ... see if you can find Elder Gurney!

Friends from the CCM

with Hermano Vazquez, he's the man, best teacher at the CCM!

District 9C

the trio with Hermana Velazquez ... the other best teacher at the CCM!

with Elder Barnum!

with Elder Wallace ... sweater gang!

with Estaban!

But regardless here is my week:

Leaving the CCM: So Monday morning, we woke up at 1 am to go weigh our bags and so we could get to the airport on time. However, since it was 2 in the morning, we got there smoothly and there was no line, so we had a nice 2 and a half hour wait... and we were all too excited to sleep! Some of the Latino missionaries went and shared the gospel with some people... us gringos did not have the courage to go do the same.  But yeah so the flight was way cool! I got a window seat and Mexico is gorgeous! The flight went by super quick, it was only an hour. And soon enough we were meeting our mission president, President Palmer, and the assistants.  They are all incredibly nice and seem super fun.  After landing, we all crammed into different cars and drove to the mission home. Oh and when I say crammed, I mean CRAMMED! We had six missionaries in the back seat of a truck.... It was quite the hoot.  So yeah we got to the mission home, ate food and then had orientation. It was hard to stay awake during that with only two hours of sleep .... but it was good! Oh and thanks for the package Mom!!!!!! Getting to the mission office and having a package waiting for me was super awesome! I have a couple letters I was going to send to you (for your bday) and the fam but I forgot to send it and we can only send mail from the mission office... So it´ll be a couple weeks before I can send them! So sorry! But yeah, after orientation, we had interviews with the Mission President, and then we met our companions!  

Arriving in Veracruz

After the ride from the airport ... six Elders in the backseat of this truck!

In front of the Veracruz temple

My trainer: Elder Mendez! He is latino, from Monterrey Mexico, and speaks ZERO English!!!!! Hahaha but it's all good cause he is super outgoing and laughs at literally everything (which can be super difficult when I´m speaking Spanish and he just randomly laughs....). But he is way nice and the members and investigators absolutely love him.

My area: My area is called Tres Valles, it's in the very west of the Veracruz mission and apparently it is one of the hottest area in Veracruz ... which is one of the hottest places in Mexico! So as you all can probably guess... It is WAY hot here! It's not even just heat, it's also the humidity... Right now it is the rainy season so it´s not the hottest it gets but it is the most humid it gets.... The first day here it was pouring rain, and yet I was still sweating a ton! I was literally drenched from the rain and sweat, it was bad. It is not the richest area either, there are stray dogs everywhere!!! The second day here I was curious how many so I started counting them...I saw 43 dogs.  When I told my companion this he thought it was hilarious that I counted them so to humor him I count them everyday now! Haha and everyday I count more than 30. But regardless, the people here are extremely nice, and they LOVE feeding us.  The food is way good too! So it's awesome! However... since my Spanish isn´t the best, and since I´m partially deaf... I don´t always know what is being said...

The food incident: So yeah we were at an investigator's house (I'll tell you more about them next Monday) and they offered us some food after our lesson. So we said sure! I had already eaten breakfast but by then it was like 12ish so I was hungry.  They fed us this way good soup with noodles and chicken and it was great! When I finished I was pretty full and the investigator asked if I wanted more... but I thought she was just asking to take my bowl... so I lifted it up and said oh gracias! And sure enough she came back with a second bowl with two chicken wings.... I looked at my companion and he just gave me the, "you have to eat it" look.... So bite by bite, I was barely able to finish it off! But I did! Only for her to take away my bowl and bring out dessert.... I thought I was going to explode! But yeah, after meeting with them, we were walking away and I asked what we had next, and my companion turned to me, and with a massive smile on his face, said that we have lunch with the Bishop and his family next.  I was crushed. So yeah, I didn´t have dinner that night!

The Spanish: The spanish is way hard.... The people of Veracruz have an accent and they apparently talk faster than most Latinos... So most of my time is spent just trying to understand what is going on. I'm coming along well and I can definitely feel God helping me cause now I can have a decent conversation with people and for the most part understand what is going on during our lessons! Which is a huge improvement ... the first couple days I just smiled and said sí to basically everything! 

My testimony: I just wanted to finish this email off with a quick testimony, in spanish: Sé que esta Iglesia es verdadero.  Sé que Jose Smith es un profeta que trandució el Libro De Mormon con el poder de Dios.  Sé que Dios nos ama y que Él bendicenos cuando seguimos sus palabras. Sé que he sido llamado por Él para declarar su palabra a las personas en Veracruz.  Estoy muy agradecido por este llamado. Les amo mucho y comparto esto en el nombre de Jesucristo, nuestro Salvador, Amen (Have brianne fix that up if anything is wrong plzz) (We decided to now have Brianne fix it ... so he can see his progress!)

But yeah, all is good here! Sorry this was so long but this has been a wild week so yeah! Love you all!!!!!! And miss you all!!!

Love,

Elder Gurney

P.S.  Real quick, I thought I would share how I'm now giving piano lessons every week and how I play in sacrament meeting... I'll share more about that next week since I'm out of time, but yeah tell the boys to practice their hymns cause it's a huge help on the mission! If you have any easy hymns I could learn quickly please share, I'm learning one right now for next week so Ill let you know how it goes! Got to go! But I love and miss you and thanks for teaching me piano!!!!!!!!