Week 92 in Mexico, Week 15 in Sahuayo

Hi everyone, so far this week was pretty good.  It was Easter break, so there weren´t that many people here but it was alright.  We had splits, and the other elders in the district came here for 2 days.  We also had a zone conference Friday.  It was really good, but it lasted a long time.  We got back to our area at like 10:20 that night.  They also gave us some pretty good food.  

All the young single adults went to a conference they had, and Saturday night they got back.  They all liked it a lot.  Alfonso and Oliver said that they had fun.  They also asked us if we could show them how to use the pamphlets to teach their friends and stuff.  Now they are excited to have more activities with the YSAs in the branch.  Actually tomorrow we are going to have a sort of game night, they really liked the last one.  So that should be good.  We are also working with their aunt still, she didn´t go to church, but we are going to visit here Wednesday to see how she is doing, so we are excited for that.  

So here are all of the pictures for this week.  The first ones are at zone conference.  The food was really good.  President and Sister Egginton came to church at our branch yesterday and took a few pictures of me and my companion.  It was Easter, and a very beautiful day.  My companion took a picture of me walking, and the last picture is of my companion sleeping in the morning when we went to the conference.  We were all pretty tired, and it was pretty funny ha ha.

Elder Carey

Week 91 in Mexico, Week 14 in Sahuayo

Hi everyone!  So this week was pretty good.  We started off the week contacting a referral from the US Monday night.  We were actually able to find her here in Sahuayo, which is good because she lives in a different city a little farther from here.  We weren´t able to teach, but we were able to make an appointment for tomorrow, so that should be good.  Tuesday we were here working, and well not much happened.  After that, Wednesday we had the district meeting, and we started splits, so a zone leader would be able to do the baptismal interview.  We got back late Wednesday, and Thursday we had the interview, which was good, because they both passed ha ha.  

Saturday we had Alfonso´s and Oliver´s baptism!  It was really nice.  I baptized Oliver, and my companion baptized Alfonso.  OK, so here are the pics from the baptism.  The first pic is from when we started filling up the box, after that my companion took a selfie with my camera, and the box.  After that are the pics from the baptism.  Oliver is the one with longer hair, and Alfonso has the beard.  There is also another young adult there.  He is their friend, and also a less active member.  So he is starting to go back because of his friends.  Alfonso and Olivier told him they are going to stop by his house every Sunday to take him to church.  Sunday we confirmed Alfonso and Oliver.  It turned out very nice.

Besides that, here they also celebrate Easter, and this week everyone is having vacations, but its cool.  They don´t do egg hunts or anything, so we will have to see how they are going to do things here ha ha.

Elder Carey

Week 90 in Mexico, Week 13 in Sahuayo

HI everyone!  How is everything going out there?  So far everything is going great here, its a little hotter now.  So today we are going to go play frisbee again.  We are sort of doing it everyother week.  The activity of Lehi's dream was pretty good, at first there weren´t that many people, but towards the end more people showed up.  My birthday went pretty good.  We ate pambazos for luch with a sister, they were really good, then some members made me this kind of cake.  It wasn´t the orange cake, but it was really good.  It was this kind of cookie in a bath of sweetened condensed milk and lime juice.  It was really good.

As far as I know they don´t celebrate Saint Patrick's day here. The meeting for my companions training was really good.  It was very different from the other meetings like this that I have been to.  It was more like a zone meeting.  And yes, our cup tower was the bigest the first time around.  Then after that, everyone sort of copied us to get big towers as well, but it was good.

It did get pretty cold here for a couple of days.  So basically this week, we had the zone meeting, which lasted a very long time.  We got back to our area at like 8-8:30 ish.  Then Wednesday, we went to Morelia, another city in the mission, actually, basically the only big city that I hadn´t been to.  It was super windy there, and when we left it was also a little bit rainy.  

So after that, on Friday, It was pretty good.  Quite a few people told me happy birthday.  Then in the night we had the activity, and at first there weren´t that many people, just the normal's.  So we called some people, and they started showing up.  At the end, we had the iron rod practice, and it turned out really good.  It was funny to see what people did when they were tempted and stuff like that.  I thought it was pretty cool.  

OK, so here are the pics for this week.  The first pictures is from the activity.  Alfonso and Oliver went, and quite a few other members went.  We bought some twine and some candies to be the fruit at the end.  It turned out to be really good.  There were a couple of members that just got stuck half way through.  I think it helped everyone realize how it is now a days. 

OK, So the pictures from this email are from Saturday when we went to go visit a referral, and my companion fell asleep on the bus.  Afterwards we are going to have to work with some missionaries there, because the referral is the mother of some of their investigators.  They said they don´t want to get baptized till their mom receives the lessons.  It is the only part of our area by the shore of lake Chapala.  She wasn´t actually there, but we found out that she is only at home on Mondays in the afternoon/night, so we are going to go check today.  So besides all that, this week Alfonso and Oliver are going to get baptized.  They went to church yesterday, and, they went with ties on.  So that was pretty cool.  They actually went to the activity, and they liked it a lot.  We have almost finished teaching, and their baptismal interviews will be Wednesday.  We are pretty excited for that.  Besides that, we are going to have to fill up the baptismal box, which should be another interesting experience.  Also, a self sufficiency course got started up yesterday at church, so other things are going on.  Usually every week, there are people that go to church, but not on the same Sunday, because some are sick and stuff like that.  But so far things are going good.

Elder Carey

Week 89 in Mexico, Week 12 in Sahuayo

Hi everyone!  So far everything is going good out here.  Actually we are going to go help this sister paint her house later on.  We are healthy and happy.  This week is going to go by super fast, because we have a zone meeting tomorrow, Wednesday is the follow up for my companions training.  Then Thursday we are going to have splits and Friday we are going to be in our area.  We are going to have an activity, and we told a couple members about my birthday, and one of them has a bakery, and so they might make an orange cake.  Then after that the week will be just about over.  So that's the big news for this week! 

So daylight savings time is next week?  I think that here it isn`t till the week of general conference.  So Alfonso and Oliver are doing good so far.  Yesterday they went to church, and they liked it a lot.  Actually some members were asking them about their baptism.  They responded, and they said that they are excited.  Their baptism is going to be the 19th so its coming up pretty fast.  Also, this week we are going to have an activity the day of my birthday, and we are going to do Lehi`s dream with the iron rod and stuff so that should be good.  

So here are a couple of the pictures from this week.  To start off, the first picture if in Jiquilpan, a little city that is close to Sahuayo.  Its a sort of more cultural city, and so we took a couple pictures there.  Also a picture with a cool tree that bloomed blue.  I also took a picture during the splits that we did.  We passed by a nice part in the mountains there, so I took a picture.  Also, the picture from the activity we had last Monday.  So that's the big thing that has happened this week! 

Elder Carey

Week 88 in Mexico, Week 11 in Sahuayo

Hola!  So far this week was pretty good.  To start off I was a little sick, but I was able to get better fast.  This past Tuesday we went on splits with the zone leaders to be able to get to the leadership training meeting faster.  It was pretty fun, the meeting was really cool.  We talked about the difference between administer and minister, and why district leaders are important.  Then we got back here in Sahuayo that night at like 9 o clock.  The next day we went to go visit Alfonso and Oliver, and they introduced us to one of their friends also.  We have been able to teach lots of people because they introduce lots of people to us.  Then Friday, we went with this one brother who gave us lunch, then we went to go visit people.  We were able to visit some old investigators that received us.  And some of them accepted baptismal dates.  They weren`t able to go to church, but we have appointments with them to keep teaching them.  

So the church services were good yesterday.  Not that many people went, just 33, but there were a couple that were sick, others that couldn`t go because they were in other branches.  There were a couple of investigators that went to church, but the only two that are progressing were Alfonso and Oliver.  There was another one that has gone to church here a couple of times, but it turns out he doesn`t live in our area, so we sent the referral.  Also, here in a little bit we are going to go and play Frisbee which should be pretty good.  Then, tomorrow we are going to have the district meeting here in Sahuayo, and the zone meeting next Tuesday, we are going to invite some members to go so we can do some practices with them.  It should be pretty interesting.  

Hey!! So here are some pictures of, the house of prayer, the baptismal box, and me eating popcorn in the morning.  I put hot sauce that they put on pretty much everything here.  It's pretty good.  

Yep, people get baptized in that box. The house of prayer say the church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints on the fence.  There are some class rooms, its actually pretty cool on the inside.  There are 2 bathrooms, a kitchen, and like 3 other rooms, and the branch presidents office.  The baptismal box is on the outside and the baptisms are also outside.  Actually, the door that on the upper right hand side is an apartment for a non member family.  

The last picture is at the leadership training.  It was fun to see one of my old companions, and people I know from the mission.  

Elder Carey

Week 87 in Mexico, Week 10 in Sahuayo

So far this week has been pretty good.  Lots of things happened.  The week started off with the district meeting that we had Tuesday.  After that everything went by really fast.  We have been working with Alfonso and Oliver a lot.  Sadly they weren`t able to go to church this week, so their baptismal date got set back a week.  We were able to see them last night, and they told us it was because their parents were there.  We were able to talk to them and to their parents.  They really want their parents to get to know more about the church, it was a cool experience because they were sharing their testimonies and stuff.  Besides that during the week we went with some members that showed us to some of the less active members that are here.  It was pretty good overall.  We didn`t have a lot of lessons, but we did get some stuff done.  Besides that, one of President Egginton`s counselors went to church yesterday, and said that he is going to start going to church more often here, so that should be good. 

So also, when we were teaching Alfonso and Oliver their aunt was there and she seemed very interested.  We are going to see them again this Thursday so we hope she can listen to us as well.  Besides that, we visited other investigators, but they just talked a lot and a lot, and we lost a little bit of time with that, but we are going to try and get better at that, because people here talk a lot.  Besides that this upcoming week I am going to go to Guadalajara for a leadership training meeting, which should be good. 

I woke up this morning with a stomach bug.  Actually I think it might be food poisoning.  We ate something called carnitas.  This member invited us to eat yesterday.  Basically, its pork meat that they cook the whole pig at the same time, and its sort of meat, sort of fat.  Its not my favorite, but we had to eat it.  It wasn`t actually that bad, but today in the morning, I got a little sick.

Here is a picture of our district meeting.  When we have district meeting every Tuesday we have to get up at 4:00 am to catch a bus that is a 3 hour ride.  Sometimes the meeting is in our area.  This meeting was in Guadalajara.  

Elder Carey

Week 86 in Mexico, Week 9 in Sahuayo

Hi everyone!  Hows everything going out there?   The big news, is that they finally talked to me about the flight back home.  I told the secretary that I wanted to go by Utah, and the said that she would try get one like that for me.  Besides that, valentines day was pretty good here.  They do celebrate it here, but we didn`t really do anything.  I think that they just had a gift exchange in the young women.  But that was it.  

I`m doing pretty good, we are both healthy, and happy, actually here in a little bit, we are going to go play Frisbee with some of the youth from the ward here, so that should be good. 

Other big thing that is happening now, is that the pope is here in mexico, and tomorrow, he will be in the mission.  So that should be pretty good.

The family that was going to get baptized on March 12 isn't going to be able to now.  They thought the dad had a heart attack or a stroke or something. They told us that he is now doing better, and that nothing really bad had happened, but they couldn`t go to church because the father was working.  We were able to find 2 other investigators, brothers that now have there baptismal date for March 12.  They went to church and everything yesterday, so they are progressing pretty well.  They are pretty good, other missionaries actually taught them like a year ago, but they say that they want to be baptized and that they already have testimonies of Joseph Smith, which is great.

We were able to go and have splits with some of the members in the branch here too, and visit some less active members.  Some of the visits went really well.  The inactive members were very talkative.  One of the inactive members my companion went to use to be the branch president, and he went off about there is nothing you can teach me.  He know everything because of all of the callings he has had.  He is one of the members that is stirring the members up, so there is a lot of anger.  We are going to have to work on that. 

We have been visiting lots of inactive members, and we have several investigators that are progressing nicely.  We are working with the branch bishopric to organize something for the young adult.  There are a lot of young adults here, and if we could get them involved that would be awesome.  Things are going great.  We are staying very busy.  

The first picture my companion tried to take of me sleeping, but I woke up just as he took the picture.  The 2nd one is of my companion sleeping.  The last picture is of our zone conference.

Elder Carey