Food Miracles

March 10, 2017
    Wow, we got up crazy early in order to be on time for a bus that never showed up! We were supposed to go to Tepic fora a conference.  It ended up that the entire zone traveled together which was a little insane.  We finally got to Tepic super late but that was okay because they still hadn’t started the liderazgo thing.  It’s pretty cool actually. What happens in the President teaches a class to us, then we teach it to the zone/district.  It is like we are the president’s zone and then we apply what he teaches us to our districts.  It was cool.  He taught about the Brother of Jared. When the Borther of Jared asked the Lord for things that he needed, the Lord provided some answers but ultimately asked, “what is your plan for the light?”  So the brother of jared went out, thought up a plan, and presented the plan to the Lord.  As he did this, he said to the Lord,” I know that I am not perfect and that I am weak, so please don’t be mad about my weakness.  Here is my plan, touch these stones and make them bright so they can give us light.”  Then, because of the Brother of Jared’s faith, the Lord made his plan work.  On the mission we have to work similarly to the Brother of Jared by making our own plans and presenting them to the Lord with faith and humility so that the Lord can “touch” our plans and make them work for our good.  

      The rest of the conference was with the mission doctor who was the actor who played Napoleon Dynamite’s father. All the sister training leaders had different health stations.  We got mosquito nets, socks filled with rice, a basic first aid kit overview, and a training on how to make smoothies.  I learned that you can put oatmeal in your smoothies to make them more nutritious.  I got to see Elder Cluff from the CCM days. He is doing really well and speaks a ton of slang Spanish now.  It was cool to see him.  We got home super late that night.  On the bus ride home, I talked to a very nice Jehovah’s Witness.  He wouldn’t take any materials from me, not even a picture of Christ, so I just did more listening than anything else.  I also talked to the taxi driver on the way to our house.  He was much more interested. I think that I am getting better at the whole “talking to everyone” thing. 

March 11, 2017
    Honestly, nothing interesting happened today.  We had to clean our house for the changes and Elder C. went to go pick up his medicine for the parasites.  The only thing that is really notable is that nothing really notable happened today.  I don’t know how many days like this we will have searching for someone to teach without actually finding any.  It is just a little disappointing sometimes.
March 12, 2017
    Well today was interesting.  I got to help a brother teach the youth Sunday School class. The subject was “How can the Book of Mormon increase my faith in Jesus Christ?”  Since this is basically the main topic of all of our discussion, it wasn’t hard.  What was interesting was to see how prideful these kids were.  I just don’t remember Sunday School being like that in the states. I’m sure that there was some sarcasm and that most did not pay attention, but it felt straight up out throat in this class.  Maybe I am over reacting, but it was a little bit scary to see the youth of the church behave like they did.  There is no unity.  Back home there were clicks and stuff like that, but I still felt like I was friends with everybody.  But I don’t know if there were any friendships in this class.
    Apart from that, nothing unusual happened.  We finally had a new investigator but the whole lesson was a disaster because the Mom in the house started yelling at her kid in the back of the house, screaming a bunch of swear words in Spanish and stuff so we had to end early.  What can you do?  But that’s my Sunday.  Super fun.  Tomorrow we start the last week of this transfer.  It is so weird how fast time flies.  I feel like I haven’t had any improvement/success in this area. 
March 13, 2017
    What can I say about today.  Just another p-day.  I’ve decided if I stay here another transfer, I’m going to start to actually do more on the p-days.  Like there is a pretty nice zoo from what I hear.  I also want to go hiking in the mountain sometime if I can.  I found out that ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD came out!!!  I have never wanted to play a video game so badly while on the mission except right now.  Why couldn’t they have released it before my mission? Whatever, I need to focus my “eye single to the Glory of God.” It’s good that xbox is more popular than anything down here.  There are cyber just dedicated to the xbox consoles.  Its kind of odd actually. 
    I am still thinking about how to clarify doctrine to the Jehovah’s witness we taught.  I don’t know how to do it without seeming like a jerk.
March 14, 2017
    Today was interesting.  We went way out to the edge of our area and searched for some people but the streets are so messed up out there so we didn’t find anyone.  We just made a bunch of new contacts and walked around in the sun for many hours until dinner time.  Later we went to go teach an investigator but right as we got there, I got a call from the sisters saying that  there were some American tourists who requested a blessing.  So my companion taught for 30 minutes while I talked to the American’s wife and then my zone leaders to get permission.  The tourist were staying in a hotel that was 10 miles down the coast where it is completely touristy stuff and also completely out of our area.  We ended up getting approval to go because the Elders in that area were in Guadalajara.  We had to take a taxi though - 200 pesos each way!! Missionaries don’t have that kind of money, but I do because I have been very thrifty with my money in my emergency fund.  It was nice to have the money for a good purpose.  So after a beautiful sunset drive down the coast and through the mountains, we got to the Hotel Barcelo.  Nice place - super tight with security.  They wouldn’t let us past the lobby until we pleaded with the front desk who told the guard that wouldn’t let us pass to accompany us to the room. You could easily tell that he wasn’t happy about that, haha! He straight up told us that this is explicitly against the rules.  We were able to give the blessing which was a cool experience.  I could feel the spirit strongly.  The coolest part was that on the way out, the guard was telling us about what HE felt during the blessing.  Pretty much he said that going into the room he was super stressed/worried/annoyed, but afterwards he felt a peace that he never felt before in his life. His while attitude changed.  Pretty cool experience.
March 15, 2017
    Today we got so much food even though we didn’t have many meal appointments on our calendar!  It’s the week before the change, which really bites too because we try to work it out so that we have very little food left at the end of the transfer.  We basically just walked around all morning looking for less actives and finally e went to the last one in Fluvial Vallarta, which is where the really rich people live.  The sister was home so we were able to teach her.  She gave us a TON of food including chicken, fish, spaghetti, fruits, vegetable, tortillas, and PEANUT BUTTER and JELLY! Just as we were walking back to our house, we got a call from a sister inviting us to dinner.  We went home and I made a good meal for lunch.  

My cooking adventures on the mission this week. I'm a little proud of what I threw together even though I know it wasn't even that special haha.

    One of our investigators lost his job which makes it pretty hard to sit in front of him and tell him that he has to get married or move out.  Sometimes the work is simply hard, but I suppose you only have to remember that it was hard even for Christ.


Also I lent a good chunk of my music to one of the hnas in my district so she could have something to practice, and I just found out that she took the music with her when she got changed..... Who knows when or if ill get it back. Thats what I get for being nice.....