Feliz Navidad!

No letter this week from Brandon ... but lots of pictures!!

 Christmas Zone Conference

With my companion and Elder Rivera, one of the Assistants to the President  

My companion and his trainer, Elder Seely

Elder Byrne and Elder Jesus (we started our missions at the same time)!

A day in Temascal!

Visiting Members and Investigators as SANTA CLAUS!

Random pictures from the Veracruz Mexico Mission Facebook Page

Almost Christmas

This email is going to be pretty short because not much happened this week.    Last Monday, Elder Mendez and I must have eaten something bad because on Tuesday we were both super sick and we were put on bedrest all day Tuesday.  So that was quite the long day ... luckily the next day we felt well enough to go out and work.

On Friday, we went on divisions with our District Leader, Elder Barcenas.  Elder Barcenas needed to come and do the baptismal interview with Hermana Duke.  So he came to Tres Valles with me and Elder Mendez went to Temascal with Elder Andrade.  However, Hermana Duke's daughter got sick and she had to cancel her interview.  So halfway through the day, Elder Barcenas cancelled the divisions so he went back to Temascal and Elder Mendez came back to Tres Valles ... so basically it was a waste of time!

Yesterday, both Elder Mendez and I were asked to share talks in church.  It went pretty well.  We both talked about Christmas and spoke for about 15 minutes each.  After church, we went and visited a ton of members.  This week is cambios (transfers) so most likely Elder Mendez is being transferred to a different area tomorrow.  We still don't know where but we will find out later today.  So we went and visited a bunch of members and investigators ... took lots of photos and Mendez said goodbye.

Something I shared in my talk was 3 Nephi 27:13-15, 27 which talks about how Jesus came to the earth, suffered, and died for us.  Therefore, as it says in 27, we should try to be even as He is.  In this Christmas season, I encourage you all to focus on our Savior and to try and follow His perfect example and help others.  If we do this, we will find incredible joy!  Have a great week!

Merry Christmas!
Elder Gurney

December

So the biggest news of the week, IT GOT COLD HERE!  Obviously, it is nothing like home but the past few days Mendez and I pulled out the sweaters and yesterday we wore our suits!  It been pretty nice!  This morning it was about 10 degrees C.  It is hilarious to see the people here ... they walk around with scarves, gloves, heavy jackets, the whole show!  Based on their clothes, you would think it is in the 30's F.

Outside of the cold, this week was pretty normal.  On Wednesday, we were able to teach this super awesome family that is investigating the church.  They have come to church the past two weeks.  The mom, Flor, recently divorced her husband and she has two kids, Jose Maria (10 years old) and Salvador (7 years old).  Her kids are crazy smart.  Jose Maria knows the Bible better than we do.  In the lesson, he was throwing out quotes from the Bible left and right .. he is crazy smart!  And Salvador too .. he has the deepest voice I have ever heard from a 7 year old!

On Friday, we went and visited Hermano Juan again, which is always super fun.  Another one of his cows gave birth this week so when we visited, we went to see his new cow.  This time, we actually got photos with it, the mom was less protective than the other one.  We also helped him herd the cows so he could milk a couple.  So yeah ... that was way fun!

Another fun part of this week was ... the food again!  HA!  When we went and visited Arturo and Soledad, we bought the biggests hamburgers I've ever seen.  They tasted amazing too!  The other fun food was when we went with Hermano Juan.  They fed us Mondongo!  Which is cow stomach!  hehe!  It is pretty good ... once you get over the fact that you're eating cow stomach!

Lastly, this Sunday was the children's program and they asked for my help to play the piano for it.  So this week I spent a lot of time with the little kids playing Primary songs which was way fun too!  A bit stressful .. they are all quite wild and crazy!  HA!  That was my week!  Miss you all and have a great week!

Love,
Elder Gurney

Weekly Email

December 4, 2017

First off:  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TYLER!!!!!!

It is too expensive to send cards so hopefully Tyler likes his sign!!

Thanks for the Christmas tree Mom!!

Second off:  The highlights of the week:

Last Monday in our district meeting, we got quite the news.  There are now Hermanas, Sister Missionaries, in Tierra Blanca!!  The zone leaders have known this was going to happen for a little while because they found an apartment and started to it ready for the hermanas.  It was quite funny though... last Monday more than half the zone left the meeting early to go finish cleaning the apartment and getting everything ready.  So that was Monday!!

Tuesday was pretty normal.  The most fun part was that President Rojas (the Branch President and baker) made us a pizza and it was quite amazing!!  I've never looked forward so much to eating the crust!  The bread was amazing!!

Yum!!

Wednesday we had quite the miracle!!  We went to the house of a member for lunch.  (Side note:  they have the biggest dog that I have ever seen.  It is massive!!)

During lunch, she gave us a reference.  Her neighbor had recently told her that she's been wanting to talk to with the missionaries for awhile.  So we went over to her house right after lunch.  Her name is Dulce.  She is 22, divorced, and has a three year old daughter.  She is amazing!!  She knew the answers to almost every question we asked and she accepted a baptismal date for the 23rd of December.  She also came to church yesterday and participated in the classes and everything.  She is quite the awesome investigator!!

Friday was quite the fun day!  We had divisions/splits/whatever you want to call it with the zone leaders again.  So I went to Tierra Blanca for the day with Elder Uribe.  Speaking English we him was quite fun by itself but we also bought and gifted an ax to one of his investigators.  The man literally lives in a shack with dirt floors.  It was awesome to see how happy this ax made him.  We also had a little meeting with all the Tierra Blanca missionaries to plan activities for the Light the World program (for those that don't know what this is, I encourage you to look it up www.lds.org).   I discovered there are a couple comedians in the zone ... which made things fun.  I also met the new sisters.  They seem like good missionaries.  They've already accidentally stolen an investigator from some Elders.  I don't know how they found the investigator, but they ran into her and didn't know that they Elders were teaching her.  They taught her a lesson and then the woman told the sisters that she preferred that the hermanas teach her.  I thought this was hilarious ... the Elders that lost their investigator ... didn't think it was as funny.  Elder Uribe and I also bought about the biggest sandwich I have ever seen (for only 50 pesos).  We also met up with another companionship and a member treated us to massive milkshakes.  If we didn't walk so much, I would be worried about gaining weight!

Sunday we had the privilege to listen to the Christmas broadcast.  One thing that I really liked was the message about loving others and serving them.  In this Christmas season, as we focus on Christ and His sacrifice ... it is important to remember to not just focus on our gifts but also what/how we can give.  I know this will bring us much more happiness!!

Have a great week!!  Enjoy the cold!!  Miss you all!!
Elder Gurney