Thanksgiving in Mexico!

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving!!!!! I spent my thanksgiving coughing and sniffling because I caught a cold... oh and my thanksgiving dinner was crackers and tuna!!! Hahah Thanksgiving isn't really celebrated in Mexico... but it's fine because the rest of the week was good (besides being a bit sick of course).

 

A member invited us over for breakfast last Monday so we enjoyed a nice p-day breakfast!

These past two weeks have been pretty crazy because of the weather, it dropped down to 55 degrees here and everyone was freezing for a couple of days. The rest of the days its been hot or super windy, so I think that's why I got sick. But it's fine cause the work continues!

Wednesday was Zone Conference and the focus was on the basics because there are so many new missionaries that have arrived and that are arriving. There were a few stations and we rotated through them learning about a basic principle in every station. It was interactive with a lot of practices so it was really fun! They always give us Costco pizza as well after the zone conference so that was also a big plus.

Zone Conference Selfies!

Sunday my companion, one of the sister missionaries, and I gave talks in Sacrament Meeting. I talked about the Book of Mormon and how this month of December is a great time to gift copies of the Book of Mormon to friends. My comp talked about his conversion to the gospel and how it changed him and it went really well, especially because we didn't prepare anything haha. Sunday was the fireside with President Palmer in the chapel next to the temple with the recent converts and investigators. It was my companion's turn to lead the fireside so we got there early to help set up and to finish up the program. The firesides are always fun cause we get to see a lot of the missionaries in the port.

Tomorrow is transfers! But Castro and I are staying together! We´re pretty happy because there is a lot of work to do in Magisterio and were excited to Light Up December! Hope you all have a great week!

Elder Gurney

Trio once again!

So this week was super fun. There's an Elder in our zone (Elder Starkey from St George Utah) whose companion was transferred in special transfers which left him without a companion! So he came with us in a trio for a few days. Luckily there are two sets of missionaries in his area so he sent them to visit a few of his investigators and the other days he would go out with the members for a few hours. It's weird teaching in a trio, but besides that it was fun having two companions, especially cause they're both hilarious.

A funny sign we saw when we were knocking doors.  (Apparently it says something about the shop in front of the Mormon church ... but it isn't anywhere near the church!)

We had a few funny experiences this week. We visited a member that had a few referrals for us, and he started talking about when he was on the mission in Guadalajara Mexico. He started telling us how he had many experiences with witches and spirits and things like that. He started telling us how he was teaching an old lady that was possessed who threw a table at them and jumped at them, but she jumped like 6 feet into the air! He said that he was lucky that he was prepared spiritually cause he resisted her and gave her a blessing and the spirit left her. He told us a few other stories that I'm not sure I completely believe but they were definitely entertaining. From then on we started calling him Naruto because of all his battles with possessed people and evil spirits.

To celebrate Elder Starkey's year mark, we visited a less active member who owns a taco stand and ate tacos with him to celebrate. We also disposed of a picture of Elder Castro's ex girlfriend because she sent the dreaded Dear John letter last Monday hahaha.

The taco party!

I also made pancakes to celebrate Elder Starkey's year mark!

As for our investigators, we have been able to find a few new people to teach and we have a family that we are teaching, the Fernandez family, we have high hopes that they can progress. They are a family of 5 and they are good about reading and praying, however, they have difficulty going to church because they work a lot and the parents are always busy on Sundays! However, we´re hoping to focus on the two sons because they do nothing on Sundays haha. We were hoping to see a bunch of investigators in church yesterday but they all had something happen that they weren't able to come! It was rough but we´re going to get them to church next week! I'm doing well and hope you're all doing well! Have a great week!


Elder Gurney

Temple!

This week was a great week!

On Saturday, Elder Castro was invited to go to the temple sealing of a convert he baptised in his first area and since I still hadn't entered the temple for my year mark, I asked permission to accompany him. So Saturday morning I went with Elder Castro and his trainer (and his companion) and we all entered the temple! It was a great experience.

 

Temple!!

After the temple trip we went to eat,  did a couple visits, and then we went to the church to help the sister missionaries in the ward with their baptismal service. Their convert is an older lady who has tongue cancer and can't talk, however she is a very fun woman despite the trials she has had.  Because of her health, we had to be very careful during the baptism so even though Elder Castro baptised her I also got into the font to help.

Lourdes' baptism!

Sunday was also a great day because after church we went to another area to do a few baptismal interviews for this upcoming Saturday. Afterwards we all piled into a taxi and went to a fireside given by our mission president for all investigators and recent converts. We went with a convert named Adrian, he is 19 and has about three months as a member and even though I only met him two weeks ago he's already become a good friend. 

 

with Adrian!

The rest of the week was the normal missionary grind; teaching, looking, and a lot of praying. We found a few more people to teach this week and we have a couple of people who we´re hoping to help prepare for baptism in November. But yeah that was the week! Miss you all! Have a great week!

A bird flew into the chapel and hurt its wing.  A member put it in a box so it could recover and brought it into
Sacrament meeting.  Halfway through the meeting, it recovered and started flying all around the meeting room!

DIA DE LOS MUERTOS

Well this week flew by.
Tuesday we had the Consejo de Lideres which was super fun for two reasons: they gave us waffles for breakfast and tacos for lunch! I haven't had waffles in over 14 months and it was amazing, and well tacos are tacos and I can eat them everyday. We were able to talk about the needs of the mission as well ... so it was good.

Thursday we had a zone activity for the day of the dead! I guess it is the tradition here that missionaries go to a massive cemetery, sing hymns, and pass out pamphlets of the Plan of Salvation. It was pretty successful, we got a few references for other areas and other zones. One woman I contacted actually started to cry listening to the hymns and as we talked about God's plan. She told me that she lost her two grandsons and her son-in-law in a car accident and she went to the cemetery to see her two grandsons (The belief in Mexico of the day of the dead is that November 1st the spirits of the children that died come to visit and November 2nd is when the adults come to visit). It was a nice experience to testify of God´s plan for us and how she can see them again. The only problem with the activity was that us gringos got roasted by the sun, we were out there for a little over 2 hours.

 

Saturday was a stake activity about family history, so we invited all of our investigators to come to what we thought was going to be a party in the church. Three of the families we invited came! However, it was not a party at all, it was a program of people telling stories of the things they found in their family history and a few people sang songs from Coco.

All in all it was a really good week!

Elder Gurney