Bautismos!

So this week was awesome because Friday we were able to have the baptismal service of Jocelin and Frida! The service went really well!! Friday morning we headed on over the the chapel with our ward mission leader, Sergio, to get everything ready and cleaned up. We had to clean the baptismal font because it hasn't been used in a bit and the last time it was used the water didn't fully drain... it was pretty bad.  It took three hours but we cleaned it up and left it sparkling haha. The baptism itself went smoothly.   I got to baptise Jocelin and Elder Kirkham baptised Frida. They were super happy afterwards, it was a great little baptismal service! Now we just have to work on finding someone to cover the shifts of their mom, Rosa, on Sundays so that she can be baptised as well!

This week was also awesome because we received a couple really good referrals of people who wanted us to visit them! One is named Thelma, she is living with a less active member (named Mosiah #definitelymormon), they have two kids, one who is 8 and the other is 5. The two boys are super cute and the parents are awesome as well. Thelma and Mosiah are trying to get married.   We brought the Bishop to visit them and he has contacts that can help haha, so he presented them with a plan. Thelma wants to get baptized, and she has already talked with a lot of missionaries before, so she is ready.  So we are planning her baptism in mid May.

Tacos al pastor party with Hermano Serigo!

Playing with Joceline and Frida's kitten.  (We will have to find out the story next week why he
is wearing an Elder Flores' missionary tag!)  

The other referral we received is named Victor.  He is a taxi driver who lives alone and has had a lot of challenges in life. His parents threw him out of the house with just a carton of eggs when he was just barely a teenager... he found a decent job and was able to make a decent living. He has recently stopped drinking and for his health, about a week ago he stopped smoking. So we want to keep working with him and preparing him as well.

That is all of the most noteworthy things that happened this week! Elder Kirkham and I are doing well! We are having a great time! Hope you all have a great week this week!!!

Love,
Elder Gurney

Sandstorm

HOLA!!!! Sorry I haven't been the best in my big email sending the past few weeks! But all is good here in Veracruz! My area, Tecnologico, is awesome and Elder Kirkham and I are getting a lot done! 

District Meeting with Elder Kirkham!  

This last week we had the opportunity to go on a couple visits with President Palmer again! We brought him to our golden family, Rosa, Joseline, and Frida. They are progressing well.  Rosa just has troubles with keeping the Sabbath Day holy.  However, we are trying to see if she can talk with her boss to let her off work for one hour to come to church. In our lesson with President Palmer, we focused a lot on God providing a way to keep His commandments, it was a great lesson. As for Joseline and Frida, they are all ready and we have their baptism planned for this Saturday which we are excited for.

We were also guided to a very prepared investigator a couple weeks ago. His name is Saul and he is from Mexico City.  He was taught all the lessons in his home because his wife is a member.  The only reason he didn't get baptized up there is because he worked on Sundays. However, he is here in Veracruz for a couple years to find a better job and he is living with his uncle right now. We were walking home a couple weeks ago when he called to us and told us his story. We were super excited and he has come to church the past two weeks.  We are working towards baptizing him this next Saturday! He has also become pretty good friends with our awesome ward mission leader, Sergio, so he is super prepared! 

P-day Pancake Breakfast with the Ward Mission Leader, Sergio!!

This week we did have a few up and downs.  Saturday is the day we use to visit as many investigators as we can. We read the Book of Mormon with them and make sure they are all ready to come to church the next day. However, this Saturday was about the windiest day that I have seen in my life. I felt like we were walking in a sandstorm! I had to walk around with my arm over my face all day so I could protect my eyes from the dirt flying at them! So that day nobody was in the streets and nobody was answering their doors, so we were not able to get a lot accomplished... we did get a few lessons in towards the end of the day though so it didn't turn out as bad as it was looking in the beginning. We really saw the power of being diligent, and how if we stay positive and faithful even in the trials, a lot of doors open up (literally) at the end of the trials.  But yeah, that was a quick catch up of my past couple weeks! Miss you all and thanks for all the birthday wishes! Hope you all have a great week this week!!

They have a tradition that the person celebrating their birthday has to take a bite of the cake and they all try to slam your face in the cake ... so this is me getting my bite before anyone could slam my face!!  

Group birthday celebration! 

A cake a family that we ate lunch with on my birthday gave me! 

Elder Gurney

April

No group email but lots of information in his letter to his mom!

Dear Mom,
We did not get to watch general conference in English.... but I actually understood most of it! It is a lot harder to understand though because they use big words and all the translators talk differently, with different accents, so it was interesting!   It was a super awesome experience to watch conference in the field, we didn't quite achieve our goals this week but conference was totally worth it!

The squad of members that go on splits with us!

Selfie!

As for the wards I cover, we have Barrio Tecnológico, Uribe, and 5 de Mayo. As for the sacrament meetings, they all are in different chapels and at the same time, so we do divisions. One goes to Uribe and the other stays in Technologico, we haven't been able to go over and work in 5 de mayo yet, but we are planning on going tomorrow with the ward leader (they don't have a Bishop right now... just someone in charge... so we shall see tomorrow).

Our Zone!

As for our area, it's going pretty well! We put 7 baptismal dates for April these past two weeks which was awesome. They're two families of 3 and one 19 year old boy (Luis). The two families Élder Kirkham and his last companion found and were teaching, and Luis we found contacting. However only one of the families came to church this week... the Vazquez family, a mom and two daughters (14 and 13 years old).  They're way awesome and have a baptismal date for the 21st! The Rullan family has three kids: 14,12, and 10.  They've been coming to church for a while and have an older brother that's a member and wants to serve a mission. They haven't been able to be baptized cause they haven't been reading the Book of Mormon... but they did this week and they passed their baptismal interview and are going to be baptized this Saturday. They are very fun and were actually born in Utah! The 14 year old got sick this week though so none of them came to church.  As for Luis, we don't know what happened... but he is a cool kid and I'm sure he's got a good reason for not coming.  Those are our progressing investigators! We're super excited, especially since we just got two references this week that look promising too! So yeah we are doing great! 

All is good here! We're having fun and working hard! Love you and miss you! Élder Gurney