Catch up month - October / Transfer to Manzanillo Zone

 October 1- October 23, 2017

        Well you could say that I have been slacking a bit….it has been an interesting 4 weeks.  First of all the changes came early because President had some important meetings in Mexico city.  We spent the last week of the change working with H. and J on divisions.  As far as I know H. did indeed get baptized on October 14th as planned, but I am not sure about that.  

        We also went to Teocuitatlan with the zone leaders.  The members there were great, and they threw a little party for Elder M’s birthday and even bought him gifts.  I worked with Elder M and we organized a family night with everyone and found out that one of his investigators really likes him a lot.  It was fun to work with him one last time before he went home.  I will miss him a lot. I don’t know of any other missionary with so much heart and desire to work. He was a good leader, one of the best I have had on the mission honestly.  

        Now I am finished with my work in Tamazula with Elder F.  I still can’t help but feeling like I could have done more there.  I am still sort of shocked that I was called to be a zone leader.  I was so sure that I was staying in Tamazula. Elder Long called us to tell us and I thought he was joking.  That day was a mess.  We didn’t plan very well so we didn’t visit everyone we should have, but oh well, we called them later on. 

        Every transfer I lose things I think. I can't find the USB memory with music on it from Levi’s mission and I forgot my filter water bottle, but somehow I have the filter, just not the bottle.  My companion here in Barra de Navidad is Elder Angulo from Ecuador.  He is a professional soccer player, though he says he is not a bigshot. His cousin is captain of the team in Manchester so that’s pretty cool.  He’s all right, but very different from my other companions.  But, I have decided to laugh things off and be a little more easy going. I know the importance of being obedient, but I also know not the importance of being united.  So with him, I’m trying to find the balance between being laid back and being a nag.  As of now, I think that I am going to nag a little more.  It’s not that he is lazy, but we definitely can work much harder, I feel.  

         So anyway, here was the situation when I arrived in Barra.  Church had been held in a house that some American members were house sitting. But they are leaving on the 8th of November, so we don’t have a place to meet.  In Mexico, these temporary worship places are called prayer houses.  For the past two weeks, we have been looking without much success for a new prayer house.  It’s almost tourist season so all the bigger houses are being snatched up.  But the American family is helping us look and they are a really big help because they have access to information that we do not.  This American couple takes an elderly member who is wheelchair-bound to church every week an they help us out with food on Sundays!  I love it because they fix American food.

        I find most of the members here to be easy going and easy to get along with.  But, my companion doesn’t like them very much.  He says they don’t do anything.  So our area is quite large and it’s all part of the Barra de Navidad branch.  The geographical size of the branch is huge, like bigger than the stakes back home.  Well maybe not that large, but close.  We basically have 5 areas to cover: Barra, Jaluca, Malagua, L Huerta, and Autlan. Someone told me that we also have la Manzanilla, but I really don’t know.  Cihuatlan is also part of the same branch, but we don’t work there.  Because all of these areas are so far apart, we have several different prayer houses, but only one branch president. The exception is the Autlan area, that is a separate branch.  We almost never get a chance to go there because it is almost three hours away, maybe 5 hours in a bus.  But even without going there, we do travel a lot.  They give us three thousand pesos for transportation every 6 weeks, and another three thousand for food.  We get more money because no one ever feeds the zone leaders, except for the American.  I have really learned how to be a good cook!  We eat a lot of rice dishes and salads.  We also buy meat every now and then.  The only problem is that we have to buy food every day and cook every day.  So this wastes quite a bit of time, but we don’t have a choice unless we just don’t eat.  

         We have seen President Clayton a lot lately.  First in the mission leadership conference, which was super good.  Second in District Conference, and then again in Branch Conference in Chihuatlan this last Sunday.  So, that has been nice because we hear lots of good and inspiring messages.  I especially liked President’s message this time around. He has been focused not the importance of keeping the commandments in order for us to receive the blessings promised to us from the Lord and also to be truly happy. He taught that true joy and happiness come from God through the presence and power of the Holy Ghost.  Satan is the great imitator and he can trick us into feeling a form of happinesss or pleasure when we sin, but it’s not eternal happiness that God promises us if we obey.  I hope that his talks inspire people to act.  If you want to go to church just to hear a message then you can find that anywhere, but Christ’s church requires action, service, and sacrifice. It requires us to give up the natural man and give all that we have to offer to the kingdom of God.  Sadly, not many are doing this.  Many members here and probably everywhere have grown lazy and comfortable in their routines and positions, just like the Nephites of old.  We have to be really careful about selfishness and pride all throughout our lives.  The Book of Mormon shows that pride in the church is the first step to trials and hardships as well as spiritual decay.
         Between all the conferences, zone leader jobs, and finding prayer houses, we haven’t had much time to do actual missionary work.  So that has been one of my biggest challenges with this new transfer.  (see pictures in separate entries.)

         We have had a much better week this past week, though.  We did visions in La Huerta which helped a lot.  I’m starting to feel less lost in my area.  It always seems to take me a couple of weeks to figure out where I am and how to work the area.  All in all, I really like this area even though it is HOT!  I am happy to be back in the zone where I started my mission. I am surprised by how many people remember me in the district conference.  Not many could remember my name, but lots asked me if I still eat hot chiles, haha.  I guess that was pretty memorable.  I least I left some kind of impression.  Two of the people I worked with before, A and E, are still active and they are great missionaries.  He makes me so happy to see them still in church and sharing the gospel.  Then all of the other members that I visited with were doing well despite problems in the branch.  People look at me differently now than they did when I first started the mission.  I suppose it is because my Spanish is better, but they actually look to me as someone who has answers and that’s pretty weird. But, I really don’t know anything!  It is all very strange to me. We’ll see if the President keep me here for very long.  I worry all the time about saying the wrong thing.  There is a lot of work to do her in Barra de Navidad.  As Hermana Clayton says, “Hoy es el dia!”