Puerto Vallarta whirlwind.

February 1-20, 2017
    So to continue my catchup journal entry…. I got up extremely early on “p-day” which was also transfer day with only 2 hours of sleep, not that it mattered a ton because I had a 5 hour bus ride to Guadalajara.  Then I had another 5.5 hours to Puerto Vallarta.  It was a long day and a very expensive day.  My reserve fund is running low. I took a few pictures of my trip to Vallarta.

      Finally, I got to our house in Vallarta at 7:30 PM, maybe later, I can't remember.  But there, that fateful night on a cool Vallarta evening, I met my first (and possibly last) two mission sons.  Elder Custodio (from Pomona, California) and Elder Mickleson (from Tremonton, Utah). Elder Custodio is really good friends with my mother’s best friend’s kids, the Ross family. It’s a small world.  These two Elders are great missionaries who are on their last 3 weeks of training. 

     The next two weeks of my mission are a blur.  I will tell you straight up that I had the lowest numbers of my entire mission so far.  Vallarta is slow work.  Four years ago it was hopping busy, like 20 lessons a week.  Now it is very different.  When I showed up, there were no progressing investigators.  There is one family where the teenaged daughters are progressing, but their parents weren’t and they would not allow the girls to be baptized.  There were several weeks where the elders were not in this area which meant that their “current” investigators have disappeared.  So we had a lot of work to get to and we were all pretty lost in the first week.  But I feel more comfortable at finding my way around now.  I was feeling like we were making some progress with our teaching until tonight when two of our stronger families both told us that they were going to be moving next week.  People move around a lot in Mexico to find and keep work. Que triste. 
    The ward is interesting here.  There is a ton of less actives because people  in the ward gossip and make fun of and exclude people.  It’s not just members either.  They also make fun of investigators.  I understand why people stop taking the lessons.  I don’t even want to bring people to a place where I think that they will get ridiculed.  It’s a problem, but what can I do about it?  The ward mission leader is pretty cool though and there are members to accompany us, so that is cool.  The area itself is really nice and extends up into the mountains.  One day we will make our way over there.  It is not hot at all, actually it has already rained a couple of times. Everyone says that it is going to get unbearably hot, but not like Manzanillo which is the second hottest area of the mission.
         These past couple of week have been interesting in terms of companionship changes but pretty uneventful with the work.  I feel like my Spanish is getting worse, or rather that my English is coming back.  I am not learning nearly as much as before.  That is one thing that I am missing about Elder Agustin, the Spanish and the incredible spirit that he had.  Elder Agustin was always so intensely in tune with the Spirit that I didn’t feel like I had to worry much about anything.  He knew a TON of doctrine and was a scriptorian.  I wish that I had a picture of his scriptures!  I learned a lot with that little Guatemalan!  That is not to say that I am not learning a lot now with my new companions, just different stuff.  I don’t have nearly as much time to study during the day, and at night I take the reports and eat.  Then in the morning there is the usual personal study plus the new responsibilities of training and planning district classes.  We have also had another zone conference and interviews with the President.  

       So yeah, it is an adjustment.  But it is all good.  My companions were actually companions in the MTC so they get along well.  I don’t have any problems with getting along with people usually so it’s pretty fun.  Actually, sometimes it is a little too much fun, but it is better to laugh a little too much than to be depresses.  Still, we could focus more.  Elder Custodio is a recent convert and at 24 years old he is making a real sacrifice to serve his mission.  I respect him a lot for the difficult choices he made to be here.  Elder Mickelson is a really nice 18 year old sincere elder from a very strong LDS background. 

Vallarta Conference

SISTER CLAYTON, "We had a wonderful several sessions Saturday and Sunday with the Vallarta Stake Conference.  They were blessed to have an Area Seventy join them this weekend, Elder Reyes. We were blessed by his teaching as well.

Here are our missionaries after the conference on Sunday.

I know, it's crooked.  The brother who took the picture, instead of backing up, just turned the camera sideways to get everyone in.  It's all good :)  Here we are!"