what a weeeeeek.
things are moving fast and now faster. we had a ton of work to do this week and got most of it taken care of.
Tuesday they called a capacitation and we were down half a day for it. it was presidents birthday so we got to eat cake and sing songs and all that. wednesday WAS going to be a normal day but the zone leaders called and told us about a new assignment we would have. they sent us out to a tiny little speck of a town named San Cristobal where we will be working 2 or 3 days a week to open a branch. i went out with one of the ZLs and got lost in the wilderness. haha. half of the people there live in mud huts with palm tree roofs. it is cool and definately a challenge working out there. the peopl are very simple and it is fun to teach them the "milk" of the gospel so that soon they will be able to take the "meat". they are all soooo humble and are open to the truth. there are usually about 20 mambers who attend Church in the house of prayer. we had to ride on boats and stuff to get there and back. ill try and get some pictures this week. its a beautiful place. thursday we worked in our area but were busy ALLL day cleaning up the chapel and preparing for our christmas activity. it went well and we were able to get everything together. we presented our ward choir and all were very impressed i played piano in concert for the first time in my life and i was definite not up for the task. haha. i practiced but not enough. we had 11 investigators there and should be seeing some baptisms soon. should means maybe if they want to get married. haha. we are in the process with a young couple who and working hard to help their testimonies grow. friday we went on splits with some elders of my zone here and the day went by SUPER fast. saturday i had baptism interviews which is always fun. i did one that helped me a lot spiritually. the cool part about interviews is that the interviewer represents the Lord. i could feel the spirit strong an i could promise her blessings and i felt the Lords forgiveness. such a great experience. the Lord Jesus Christ is the only Savior and Redeemer. Sunday i went to the services in San Cristobal and i got to help direct, bless and pass the sacrament, and i gave a talk. oh and i taught priesthood. haha. it was awesome to see the humble learnings of the people there. i am happy to be working in their area and to be working to open a branch there. i know that in the future it will be a ward. also we are in plans to go to the farther out groups of Los Robles and Hidalgotitlan. there will be a stake out there in 10 to 20. haha. i love the gospel and i love being a missionary
i want to have a barbeque when i get home.
dad. make it happen.
haha.
thanks for everything.
see you on skype SUNDAY
lovelvoelvoevoevevloelvvovelooeoleevoeolevolelvoe
ELDER ELREY
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
e-mail 12.12.2011
one more week...
it was a really fast one. the days are flying by and the weeks as well. as far as news goes... i will be able to skype for christmas... haha. not really much else. we are working hard and strive to complete with the goals we set for ourselves and we are finding it difficult to SEE the success. i think it that way because almost everything we do has apositive effect on somebody and it must always have results and successes its just that we are not there to see them. they happen, just not always in the way we expect to see it happen. i am learning a lot about diligence. my companion is the most diligent Elder i have ever met. He has told me a little about his youth and his was a lot like me. the kid that somehow ended up breaking or ruining almost everything. haha. he told me this week that that very reason is why he decided to be a super missionary. here no one know who he was in the past. here we have the oppourtunity to put our best foot forward for the Lord. He trusts soooo very much in is servant youth and hopes all of us can be like Him. Elder Castellanos is a lot like Him. loving and diligent humble and kind. i very much respect him and Him. My companion has helped me elevate the level of my service. when he arrived i realized that i had been vary selfish in my way of working. it was work and it gave results but i wasnt giving it ALL to the work. i have seen what it means to give it all and now i am trying to give it. i only have 8 weeks togo and i want to make the best out of these weeks.
this last week was very normal. contacts and lessons. i got sick because of the rain and my comps lack of desire to hide from it. (yes i wanted to shelter myself and hide from the cold wetness) but good ol Castellanos wasnt having it and we walked around for the days soaking wet and cold. so now i HAVE a cold. i dont blame him. WHY AM I SOOO WEAAAK??? haha. i am now getting over my cold and we are getting back to work at full steam. today we went to go play at the stake center and i was about to mess myself so we stopped by some other missionaries house to ask for their bathhroom. while we were there we noticed that they were helping the members next door demolish a concrete wall and my comp almost messed HIMSELF: haha. before the mission he was a construction worker with his dad and its all cement and block here so he wanted to get in on the action. so i left him there with an elder and went to play with another the the comp of the other elder. we played soccer like always and i made a sweet goal like always and then we played basketball were i dominated under the hoop but still lost. it was fun but i couldnt hack it because of the sickness(and the fatness) and then we played MORE soccer. after i was destroyed and tired we went back to the house of the members where i had left my companion and they had made lots of progress. so IN my missionary clothes i decided to help a little. i grabbed the 12 pound sledge hammer and started swinging it around above my head to take out the upper part of the wall the these little guys cant reach with out a ladder and went until i couldnt feel my arms. haha. i was dying and now i can barely scratch my head. we got almost all of it taken care of and then we went to the supermarket to buy food which we didnt do.. peculiar... oh yes!!! an elder from my district from Wyoming invited us to Burger King for lunch. then we got home and started pulling weeds and washing clothes and that brings us to this very moment. when i came to the internet to write my dear family and friends.
quite the eventful day and now i am just ready to crash out and sleep but we have to go to work. its 3 til 6 and at 6 you know its time to get to crackin catholic skulls.
--
ELDER ELREY
p.s. today is the day of the Virgen here in mexico and so everybody is freaking out and lightin fireworks and no one went to work and they cancelled school.
HOW REDICULOUS
SHE IS JUST A NORMAL LADY!!!!
and she isnt even a virgen!
it was a really fast one. the days are flying by and the weeks as well. as far as news goes... i will be able to skype for christmas... haha. not really much else. we are working hard and strive to complete with the goals we set for ourselves and we are finding it difficult to SEE the success. i think it that way because almost everything we do has apositive effect on somebody and it must always have results and successes its just that we are not there to see them. they happen, just not always in the way we expect to see it happen. i am learning a lot about diligence. my companion is the most diligent Elder i have ever met. He has told me a little about his youth and his was a lot like me. the kid that somehow ended up breaking or ruining almost everything. haha. he told me this week that that very reason is why he decided to be a super missionary. here no one know who he was in the past. here we have the oppourtunity to put our best foot forward for the Lord. He trusts soooo very much in is servant youth and hopes all of us can be like Him. Elder Castellanos is a lot like Him. loving and diligent humble and kind. i very much respect him and Him. My companion has helped me elevate the level of my service. when he arrived i realized that i had been vary selfish in my way of working. it was work and it gave results but i wasnt giving it ALL to the work. i have seen what it means to give it all and now i am trying to give it. i only have 8 weeks togo and i want to make the best out of these weeks.
this last week was very normal. contacts and lessons. i got sick because of the rain and my comps lack of desire to hide from it. (yes i wanted to shelter myself and hide from the cold wetness) but good ol Castellanos wasnt having it and we walked around for the days soaking wet and cold. so now i HAVE a cold. i dont blame him. WHY AM I SOOO WEAAAK??? haha. i am now getting over my cold and we are getting back to work at full steam. today we went to go play at the stake center and i was about to mess myself so we stopped by some other missionaries house to ask for their bathhroom. while we were there we noticed that they were helping the members next door demolish a concrete wall and my comp almost messed HIMSELF: haha. before the mission he was a construction worker with his dad and its all cement and block here so he wanted to get in on the action. so i left him there with an elder and went to play with another the the comp of the other elder. we played soccer like always and i made a sweet goal like always and then we played basketball were i dominated under the hoop but still lost. it was fun but i couldnt hack it because of the sickness(and the fatness) and then we played MORE soccer. after i was destroyed and tired we went back to the house of the members where i had left my companion and they had made lots of progress. so IN my missionary clothes i decided to help a little. i grabbed the 12 pound sledge hammer and started swinging it around above my head to take out the upper part of the wall the these little guys cant reach with out a ladder and went until i couldnt feel my arms. haha. i was dying and now i can barely scratch my head. we got almost all of it taken care of and then we went to the supermarket to buy food which we didnt do.. peculiar... oh yes!!! an elder from my district from Wyoming invited us to Burger King for lunch. then we got home and started pulling weeds and washing clothes and that brings us to this very moment. when i came to the internet to write my dear family and friends.
quite the eventful day and now i am just ready to crash out and sleep but we have to go to work. its 3 til 6 and at 6 you know its time to get to crackin catholic skulls.
--
ELDER ELREY
p.s. today is the day of the Virgen here in mexico and so everybody is freaking out and lightin fireworks and no one went to work and they cancelled school.
HOW REDICULOUS
SHE IS JUST A NORMAL LADY!!!!
and she isnt even a virgen!
e-mail 11.28.2011
well i dont have much time because i am here in Villahermosa waiting for my bus to head back to Minatitlan. i had to come all the here to go to the migration office to get my green card and to figure out all of the details with my VISA and for the flights. the paperwork is all in and i will be getting hom the 6th of Feb 2012. i get on the flight at 6 am... who knows when ill get there... its been very stormy but not very rainy, for the first time in my mission i put ona sweater to go outside. haha. it actually got i a little cold last night. all is well... my comp is crazy diligent and is very straightforward with all who are in his path and so it is interesting to work with him. i am still learning everyday and progressing. i knowthat i have theLord's confidence to go and do all that He has commanded us. it seems i never have time anymore to get a good letter sent. but i will just get off my testimony.
i know that He lives and one day will walk among His children in peace. i hope to one day be among His elect. i know that the church is true and that by staying faithful to the covenants that we have made with the Lord we can be lifted from the dark past to a bright and loving future. DO NOT FEAR! HE prepared every step back to the presence of the Father. Trust in His redeeming love and we will prevail. Repent and make yourselves part of the divine hosts of the Kingdom of Heaven. By His Grace and our courage all shall be set in order. i believe in Christ. there is no doubt that He watches over me. if we are faithful to Him He is bound to us and the saving covenants made. i love you. HE loves you.
--
ELDER ELREY
i know that He lives and one day will walk among His children in peace. i hope to one day be among His elect. i know that the church is true and that by staying faithful to the covenants that we have made with the Lord we can be lifted from the dark past to a bright and loving future. DO NOT FEAR! HE prepared every step back to the presence of the Father. Trust in His redeeming love and we will prevail. Repent and make yourselves part of the divine hosts of the Kingdom of Heaven. By His Grace and our courage all shall be set in order. i believe in Christ. there is no doubt that He watches over me. if we are faithful to Him He is bound to us and the saving covenants made. i love you. HE loves you.
--
ELDER ELREY
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
e-mail 11.21.2011
well a week went by like a very slow whirlwind. haha. it seems that every transfer is like that. you get your comp and it is the longest week ever but when you get through it it seems like nothing. my comp is very hard working and very focused on the work. it has been cool to see his perspective andit has helped me with mine. it was like getting a little cold water splashed in my face. my last comp was really REALLY passive and calm and really didnt know how things needed to be done, but this Elder is a Beast. haha. he is always looking for oportunites to teach and edify the kingdom. we arent focusing so much in baptize baptize baptize but we are trying to establis the kingdom of God in Hidalgo. our ward is warming up to the work and we are seeing result in the attendance and in the referrals they are giving us and i know that we are going to have success. i suppose that He is going to be my last companion. strange that itr is all wrapping up... this week is tahnksgiving and then in a couple more weeks we are goig to be having our Christmas conference and then we will be at Christmas and then it will be done... unbelievable... but i know that we will take advantage of every moment. i am enjoying the work and with my comp we are pondering and opening channels of revelation. we are learning in everyday and we are looking to give God the glory for all that we do and say. i am feeling more and more love for the people and feeling that inside me God is making changes. it is hard sometimes to think that in the grand spectrum this mission and this life is just a blink of an eye... i know time is short. i really dont know what to say today because all this week me and my companion were singing hymns and teaching and contacting all day every day. haha. it all seems so normal. getting ready for christmas we are starting a ward choir and the only person who knows anything about music is me so i am the piano guy and the director haha. it is fun to direct and sing and play music. it is the first time in the mission that i have worked with my little talents. i hope for next week to have a little more exciting stories... this week was definitely a strange one but its going smooth. i am glad to see that the family is fine and that all is well at home. i would like more fotos and updates on family stuff and SPORTS!!!! especially u of a Bball. i love you all
i know that loving God and honoring Him give Him power in our lives. i am learning a lot about His nature and it is helping me to look toward Him for guidance and for inspiration.
Grow with His love and His vision in your lives.
i know that loving God and honoring Him give Him power in our lives. i am learning a lot about His nature and it is helping me to look toward Him for guidance and for inspiration.
Grow with His love and His vision in your lives.
Monday, November 14, 2011
e-mail 11.14.2011
First letter in two weeks! He could be home between anwhere from 73 to 84 days. Like he says in the letter, we'll know more soon! I'm sooo excited I can hardly stand it!
long time no write. haha.
things have been good here in Mina. long days cold rain and finally a baptism. it has been interesting getting to know such a place as this but i am settling in. the members like me and i kinda like them haha. i really do like them. we are getting their love and support as the days go by. as far as news goes... i got sick and bled from places that i had never bled before... i got better... i miss you... and we had a baptism. we had not had anything all transfer but this week our investigator Doris who has been progressing throughout these last three weeks. we found her last months knocking doors and she seemed to be the normal contact. o sure im busy right now but come by later... same ol story. but we put an appointment and went for it. at first we listened a LOT about tv and radio preachers and her whole Christian history and i started to wonder... haha. but we taught the lessons one by one and she was always home and always ready for the appointments. she was very aprehensive in accepting commitments for her busy schedule and because of that wasnt progressing. when we introduced the book of mormon she acepted it like she had everything else... and we tried to leave her a chapter to study... for the next appointment she had read half and that was major progress. we went over it with her but she still didnt want to accept a date for the waters. we kept on with the lessons and then left her the homework of reading Alma 32 about Faith and the seed analogy. for the next appointment she had read and was excited to go over what she had learned. we didnt even talk about seeds... haha. we got as far and verse 16 and she said she wanted to be baptized... SATURDAY. haha. it was amazing. i had forgotten a very important part of the work... the Spirit is always working in the investigator and always in me. i didnt even think about what chapter to leave her. just a common "nice" one... and turns out that it was exactly what she needed. she accepted her baptism and has learned and progressed so very much in these weeks. a transformation. today we will be having a "noche de hogar" or family home evening in her house with a few members. should be a great building block for her testimony.
aside from that we have transfers.. my comp elder Miller is going to Villa to my old zone but a different area. and i am gonna get an elder named elder Castellanos. he is great. he was in my district when i was in comalcalco. a great elder. i know we are gonna do great together. just the normal... work work work.. there is no other i am all but finished so there is much to do. i am hearing rumors that our generation is gonna be heading out anywhere from jan 26th to feb 6th. ill keep you posted. they should call the house when the plans are set.
i love you all a lot and i know that the work is true. i know that the driving force of this is Christ Himself.
PARTICIPATE
--
ELDER ELREY
long time no write. haha.
things have been good here in Mina. long days cold rain and finally a baptism. it has been interesting getting to know such a place as this but i am settling in. the members like me and i kinda like them haha. i really do like them. we are getting their love and support as the days go by. as far as news goes... i got sick and bled from places that i had never bled before... i got better... i miss you... and we had a baptism. we had not had anything all transfer but this week our investigator Doris who has been progressing throughout these last three weeks. we found her last months knocking doors and she seemed to be the normal contact. o sure im busy right now but come by later... same ol story. but we put an appointment and went for it. at first we listened a LOT about tv and radio preachers and her whole Christian history and i started to wonder... haha. but we taught the lessons one by one and she was always home and always ready for the appointments. she was very aprehensive in accepting commitments for her busy schedule and because of that wasnt progressing. when we introduced the book of mormon she acepted it like she had everything else... and we tried to leave her a chapter to study... for the next appointment she had read half and that was major progress. we went over it with her but she still didnt want to accept a date for the waters. we kept on with the lessons and then left her the homework of reading Alma 32 about Faith and the seed analogy. for the next appointment she had read and was excited to go over what she had learned. we didnt even talk about seeds... haha. we got as far and verse 16 and she said she wanted to be baptized... SATURDAY. haha. it was amazing. i had forgotten a very important part of the work... the Spirit is always working in the investigator and always in me. i didnt even think about what chapter to leave her. just a common "nice" one... and turns out that it was exactly what she needed. she accepted her baptism and has learned and progressed so very much in these weeks. a transformation. today we will be having a "noche de hogar" or family home evening in her house with a few members. should be a great building block for her testimony.
aside from that we have transfers.. my comp elder Miller is going to Villa to my old zone but a different area. and i am gonna get an elder named elder Castellanos. he is great. he was in my district when i was in comalcalco. a great elder. i know we are gonna do great together. just the normal... work work work.. there is no other i am all but finished so there is much to do. i am hearing rumors that our generation is gonna be heading out anywhere from jan 26th to feb 6th. ill keep you posted. they should call the house when the plans are set.
i love you all a lot and i know that the work is true. i know that the driving force of this is Christ Himself.
PARTICIPATE
--
ELDER ELREY
Thursday, October 27, 2011
e-mail 10.24.2011
what frustration... i cant seem to stay away from the bathroom and the left click on my mouse doesnt seem to function.. AAAAAAAARRRGGG.. . well another week went by here in mina and the sun finally came out.. once. haha. thanks for the letters. i know that you all love and i feeel your prayer vibes entering my body. haha. i dont think that is doctrine the whole prayer vibes but i do recognize that i am greatly blessed by your efforts. this week we saw a few miracles. we havent had any one in church on sundays despite all of our work but this sunday 3 investgators and a few less actives rooled in on their own. makes a missionary proud to see their progress. also because of the whole no investigators in church thing we didnt have any solid baptism dates. so this week we went to talk with the secretary about the ACTION LIST i usually say like it comes out of a comic. its a list that is all non baptized members and futere priesthood holders and stuff. so we had a meeting with the ward mission leader to see if he knew anybody from the list. he said that half the people disappeared a long time ago but he could direct us to a few houses. and at the very bottom of the list there was a little girls name that he recognized... she is active and they baptized her at 8 years old but the goofed up ward here didnt fill out the paperwork on it. so to fill in all the gaps and be sure that she is baptized we are going to have to baptize here over again. haha. its funny. because we werent going to baptize this month and our Zone leader was all sorts of mad and i kept telling him to have faith and he got all mad and i told him to just ait and see... so this weekend we are gonna baptize her and i am gonna love it. haha. she is a sweet little girl and already know basically all of the missionary lessons. its just a little mercy from God. and we are seeing a lot of progress aside from all that. new investigators and people in church. we are going to be able to put dates this week and help a lot more people. its always hardest when you get to an area and there is nothing there. just getting the first baptism takes a while sometimes. the elder that was here before me finished his mission here and left me with 0 in every category. haha
today was the first monday in months that it didnt rain a ton so we got together as a zone to play some volleyball and futbol. even though i am gorgeusly fat i could still crush it on some ffooools. haha. made some sweet goals and we had some fun. got about 100 days left and so its gonna start picking up. pray for our success. send me money. haha. it seems every end of the month i am hungry and i walk a lot. i have enough to get by though... just cant have enough at this point. gotta start keepin my eyes peeled for sweet stuff for my family and pals.
i love you all so much. i know that the church is true and that God has a place for all of His children. we are all sons and daughters of God.
act like it.
i gotta go to the bathroom.
again!
so be good and to count the days too hard.
if you want something specific from down here hammocks jerseys bootleg music etc..
gotta tell me.
and send me money through my mom.
ya huuurrrrrrde
--
ELDER ELREY
today was the first monday in months that it didnt rain a ton so we got together as a zone to play some volleyball and futbol. even though i am gorgeusly fat i could still crush it on some ffooools. haha. made some sweet goals and we had some fun. got about 100 days left and so its gonna start picking up. pray for our success. send me money. haha. it seems every end of the month i am hungry and i walk a lot. i have enough to get by though... just cant have enough at this point. gotta start keepin my eyes peeled for sweet stuff for my family and pals.
i love you all so much. i know that the church is true and that God has a place for all of His children. we are all sons and daughters of God.
act like it.
i gotta go to the bathroom.
again!
so be good and to count the days too hard.
if you want something specific from down here hammocks jerseys bootleg music etc..
gotta tell me.
and send me money through my mom.
ya huuurrrrrrde
--
ELDER ELREY
Friday, October 21, 2011
e-mail 10.17.2011
Mina is a rainy place... it has rained almost everyday since i got here. not constant but sunday it DUMPED... and our house has a tin roof so when it rains it sounds like the devil is on the roof and he wants in. at night it wakes me up and i just lay there. its not just noise but its deafening... you cant think straight. but its cool because ill never have this again. in tucson it doesnt rain like this. also when it rains i like to walk by the forest where the sound of the rain on the leaves get really loud. here ther are lots of almond tree (i never knew almonds grew on trees) and the are skinny trunks with long tall branches that give lots of shade. and it is always cool to hear the rain on them... i like my area but things are a little stiiff. turns out that a few years a go a crazy lady killed her children and was screaming about how she had had a vision and Jesus told her to do it.. she was a member and said to have recieved such a revalation in the temple. haha. so basically i listen to that everytime a find a new investigator. but we are starting to make some progress with a few. my comp and i are getting along great. we basically make eachother laugh all day long WHILE we are working.
aaaannnd oh yeah
on sunday i had a nice experience. we went to church and it has been poring here so we had 50 people and NO investgators. lame. but in sac meeting the bishop anounced that a sister had passed away and that the was to be a service for her at 5 a clock that same day. then after the meeting the leader of high preists came up and asked me to give a talk at the service... WHHHhhhat? isnt that the bishops job??? he persisted and i accepted. so odd. anyway so i had no idea who this lady is. i have 2 weeks in the area and she was inactive. we show up in the pooring rain to a tiny little shack made with cinderblock and a tin roof and cram packed full of like 100 crying mexicans. i dont know if you know but pooring rain on a tin roof makes deafening noise. we couldnt hear the director or the opening prayer but when they made the motion for me to take the word i stod up and anounced myself as a representantive of Jesus Christ and the rain slowed to a sprinkle... i gave my talk with devotion and bore what was to me a powerful testimony of the redemption of Christ and said amen... and the rain came stronger then ever. couldnt here another word that was said. it was rad... i still dont know who she is but i got to testify to a whole neighborhood of no members about the divinity of our Savior and i felt as if the very winds were listening to my words.
this helped a lot to reaffirm my testimony of my mission as HIS representative.
--
ELDER ELREY
aaaannnd oh yeah
on sunday i had a nice experience. we went to church and it has been poring here so we had 50 people and NO investgators. lame. but in sac meeting the bishop anounced that a sister had passed away and that the was to be a service for her at 5 a clock that same day. then after the meeting the leader of high preists came up and asked me to give a talk at the service... WHHHhhhat? isnt that the bishops job??? he persisted and i accepted. so odd. anyway so i had no idea who this lady is. i have 2 weeks in the area and she was inactive. we show up in the pooring rain to a tiny little shack made with cinderblock and a tin roof and cram packed full of like 100 crying mexicans. i dont know if you know but pooring rain on a tin roof makes deafening noise. we couldnt hear the director or the opening prayer but when they made the motion for me to take the word i stod up and anounced myself as a representantive of Jesus Christ and the rain slowed to a sprinkle... i gave my talk with devotion and bore what was to me a powerful testimony of the redemption of Christ and said amen... and the rain came stronger then ever. couldnt here another word that was said. it was rad... i still dont know who she is but i got to testify to a whole neighborhood of no members about the divinity of our Savior and i felt as if the very winds were listening to my words.
this helped a lot to reaffirm my testimony of my mission as HIS representative.
--
ELDER ELREY
Saturday, October 15, 2011
e-mail 10.10.2011
111 days!
so last week the email closed me out and i couldnt get in to write... lame i sat there for an houir and a half wait for my comp to finish writing his family. sadness... they took me out of Mercedes and transfered me all the way to Minatitlan; Veracruz. again i am in the holy boundries of the state of Veracruz. the green hillsides and HILLSIDES haha. i was so tired of the flat lands and swaps of Tabasco. in google earth the probably look like pretty lakes but they are just vast mosquito infested swamps... it will probably flood this year... but i am here in Mina workin away. we had a sweet zone conference were i gotto see a lot of elders that i had missed. i lot of frends. its amazing the bonds you can make with people you barely know. haha. i got to see elder Rosales my 2nd comp and we got a letter from a convert in San Andres it was AWESOME. her son is now serving a mission in Merida and her husband and mother are both going to be getting baptized. we were together to read the letter and feel the joy of the fruits of our labors from more than 1 year ago. i love the way the gospel can bless our lives and the great changes it makes in our hearts. we need to hold to the rod with all we got. its been really rainy since i got here to mina and the water is cold. but the plus side is that in our shower the water pressure is AWESOME!!! it comes out so fast. in all of my areas were we have had showers it has been a trickle.... but here. also we live in a house instead of an apartment... we have a washing machine and bedroom to throw all of our random stuff in. its pretty great. also our ward here is pretty big. its called Hidalgo. we had an atendance above 100 this last week and in these parts that sayin somethin!. haha. we are gonna work hard to raise the spirit of the ward. starting with the reverence i think... but we are gonna have a lot of success here. my comp is named Elder Miller, he is from Queen Creek, AZ so we have a LOT to talk about. he is a NERD... so we get along great. we sing at random moments and he tells lame neverending "i guess you had to be there" stories like pearl used to see we have a lot of laughs. i am sure i will only be with him a short time because he has been here for 6 months already... its his first area. he is tired of the same area and same people but we will get along. i remember feeling the same way a little over a year ago leaving San Andres. i love that place. i cant wait to go back. haha. this week a herd of cows came walking through our hood UNCHAPERRONED and the came up on our house and started eating the grass. the came right it the front gate like they owned the place. haha. made me laugh. i think i put a picture up on there. also we have a dog that stays by our door named Jumper... he is black and looks like he is in the beginning stages of MANGE. haha. i also kicked a chicken this week...
i cant believe christmas season is coming up and then 6 weeks after x-mas i will be home... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
i love you
--
ELDER ELREY
so last week the email closed me out and i couldnt get in to write... lame i sat there for an houir and a half wait for my comp to finish writing his family. sadness... they took me out of Mercedes and transfered me all the way to Minatitlan; Veracruz. again i am in the holy boundries of the state of Veracruz. the green hillsides and HILLSIDES haha. i was so tired of the flat lands and swaps of Tabasco. in google earth the probably look like pretty lakes but they are just vast mosquito infested swamps... it will probably flood this year... but i am here in Mina workin away. we had a sweet zone conference were i gotto see a lot of elders that i had missed. i lot of frends. its amazing the bonds you can make with people you barely know. haha. i got to see elder Rosales my 2nd comp and we got a letter from a convert in San Andres it was AWESOME. her son is now serving a mission in Merida and her husband and mother are both going to be getting baptized. we were together to read the letter and feel the joy of the fruits of our labors from more than 1 year ago. i love the way the gospel can bless our lives and the great changes it makes in our hearts. we need to hold to the rod with all we got. its been really rainy since i got here to mina and the water is cold. but the plus side is that in our shower the water pressure is AWESOME!!! it comes out so fast. in all of my areas were we have had showers it has been a trickle.... but here. also we live in a house instead of an apartment... we have a washing machine and bedroom to throw all of our random stuff in. its pretty great. also our ward here is pretty big. its called Hidalgo. we had an atendance above 100 this last week and in these parts that sayin somethin!. haha. we are gonna work hard to raise the spirit of the ward. starting with the reverence i think... but we are gonna have a lot of success here. my comp is named Elder Miller, he is from Queen Creek, AZ so we have a LOT to talk about. he is a NERD... so we get along great. we sing at random moments and he tells lame neverending "i guess you had to be there" stories like pearl used to see we have a lot of laughs. i am sure i will only be with him a short time because he has been here for 6 months already... its his first area. he is tired of the same area and same people but we will get along. i remember feeling the same way a little over a year ago leaving San Andres. i love that place. i cant wait to go back. haha. this week a herd of cows came walking through our hood UNCHAPERRONED and the came up on our house and started eating the grass. the came right it the front gate like they owned the place. haha. made me laugh. i think i put a picture up on there. also we have a dog that stays by our door named Jumper... he is black and looks like he is in the beginning stages of MANGE. haha. i also kicked a chicken this week...
i cant believe christmas season is coming up and then 6 weeks after x-mas i will be home... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
i love you
--
ELDER ELREY
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
e-mail 9.26.2011
Sorry, guys! I've been busy, busy, busy! He's doing well, though! He didn't write this week, I think he was transferred. I'm hoping to hear from him next week! He has 122 days left! It's going QUICK! Enjoy!
well well well ... sounds like things arent going so well for the world in tucson... once a month some one has to die???? i dont like it very much... but there is a reason for the plan of salvation. i am greatful for the love and guidance i can feel through the understanding that the Lord has given us through his prophets. i am excited for the conference and i am excited that it is my LAST conference in the mission. not sure if i am excited or nervous. i am almost hitting that home stretch. next thing i know i willl be in the house sleeping and will think this was all a dream. we have been teching a family recently and have been helping them get to know the church but we have had a ton of set backs. i dont know why people are ALWAYS ready to go to activities but when sunday comes around the cant get up and have a great spiritual experience. meditating in the topic i have thought a lot about the importance of the sabbath day and how i can help the people here realize its importance. my thoughts have frecuently turned to hymns. i think in this week i am going to try to sing more hymns with and for the investigators so they can feel the peace that the Lord is waiting to give them in the chapel and sunday... i know that the Lord is Lord of all things ESPECIALLY the sabbath. if it werent so we would still be sacrificing animals on saturdays... mmmm... BBQ... havent had decent BBQ in a looong time. althought for the first time in the mission i ate a really good T-bone... the bishops wife really out did herself. i ate 2. but getting back to the topic. i honestly think that if we sing more hymns in our day to day lives we can consagrate our time and our thoughts to the work of the Lord. i dont have much time and my comp is standing behind me probably trying to read what i am writing but he wont understand much because he is NOT white. i fell rushed and awkward... haha. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AARON!!! i think... who knowsss... all i know is that next week i am getting transfered and i am ready. President says that this will be my last move. 4 more months... 1 more area. 1 more christmas. 1 more blink of an eye and things will never be the same... i love you all and i am praying for your succes and your spiritual health
ELDER ELREY
p.s. am i missing rugby world cup???
and you arent telling me ANYTHING!!!????
ah man...
i need sports updates and hilights....
college football????
alsñjfhñaslkalskjdf
well well well ... sounds like things arent going so well for the world in tucson... once a month some one has to die???? i dont like it very much... but there is a reason for the plan of salvation. i am greatful for the love and guidance i can feel through the understanding that the Lord has given us through his prophets. i am excited for the conference and i am excited that it is my LAST conference in the mission. not sure if i am excited or nervous. i am almost hitting that home stretch. next thing i know i willl be in the house sleeping and will think this was all a dream. we have been teching a family recently and have been helping them get to know the church but we have had a ton of set backs. i dont know why people are ALWAYS ready to go to activities but when sunday comes around the cant get up and have a great spiritual experience. meditating in the topic i have thought a lot about the importance of the sabbath day and how i can help the people here realize its importance. my thoughts have frecuently turned to hymns. i think in this week i am going to try to sing more hymns with and for the investigators so they can feel the peace that the Lord is waiting to give them in the chapel and sunday... i know that the Lord is Lord of all things ESPECIALLY the sabbath. if it werent so we would still be sacrificing animals on saturdays... mmmm... BBQ... havent had decent BBQ in a looong time. althought for the first time in the mission i ate a really good T-bone... the bishops wife really out did herself. i ate 2. but getting back to the topic. i honestly think that if we sing more hymns in our day to day lives we can consagrate our time and our thoughts to the work of the Lord. i dont have much time and my comp is standing behind me probably trying to read what i am writing but he wont understand much because he is NOT white. i fell rushed and awkward... haha. HAPPY BIRTHDAY AARON!!! i think... who knowsss... all i know is that next week i am getting transfered and i am ready. President says that this will be my last move. 4 more months... 1 more area. 1 more christmas. 1 more blink of an eye and things will never be the same... i love you all and i am praying for your succes and your spiritual health
ELDER ELREY
p.s. am i missing rugby world cup???
and you arent telling me ANYTHING!!!????
ah man...
i need sports updates and hilights....
college football????
alsñjfhñaslkalskjdf
e-mail 9.19.2011
this week was a great one. we went out strong like a pair of sawed off shotguns and worked hard and we are seeing the blessings. we were like a pair of contacting machines really getting things done. after three days and 165 contacts we were walking through a run down part of our area and my companion asked me " when are we going to see the blessings of all this work?" (we hadnt seen much success with all of those contacts) i told that i didnt have a clue and a little boy came up behind us and asked us if we were messengers from God giving out pamphlets. we said yes and asked to see his father. haha. we went and visited the family of the boy and read with them "the family a proclamation to the world" the are a great family. 5 kids and the 2 parents. very very poor but humble in spirit and heart. they are excited to get to know the gospel and to be baptized in the near future. it seems right when things start to seem difficult the Lord completes with the blessing and pulls us out of the doubt. this week i have been pondering a lot in the story of Christ walking on water and how we need to be like the daring and faithful peter to step out of the safety of the boat to take a few steps of faith. i have realized that in ALL things God requires faith of is children. we havent been seeing success and i know it is because we havent been completing with HIS requirements. this week we had to step out of the boat and walk. and three days into the torment my comp started to ask where the blessings were. we stopped looking unto the Lord for the strength to stay a float and started to sink. lost a little bit of desire but as we pressed forward and continued working the Lord was there to pull us out of the furious depths. He lifted us up with the blessings of success that we needed. as it comes in the scriptures is how we she do it. the Lord in His divinity instructs us divinely... we are just blind to it. take the first step of faith and walk on the waters of tribulation. DONT LOSE HOPE DONT LOSE FAITH. The Lord is my Light.
He will carry me through all of my trails pains and tears.
its ALL true,
Elder Elrey
--
ELDER ELREY
He will carry me through all of my trails pains and tears.
its ALL true,
Elder Elrey
--
ELDER ELREY
e-mail 9.12.2011
another week down and another one coming. unbelievable how time is flying. this week is gonna be indeppendence day here in mexico and it should be interesting as far as the work goes. trying to stay out of the of all the drunks and party people.... oh wait thats inpossible because i am in Tabasco and the culture is DRINK DRINK DRINK and whistle at white poeple. haha. no its not so bad but there are a lot of drunks at this time of the year. things havent been going as smoothly here in Mercedes my companion is a very experienced missionary and has the same amount of time that i do in the mission but he is taking a vacation. haha. he loves to talk about his life's history and his past areas but he is much for the work right now. he is a great guy and we get along great but my ears are falling off and i just want to work. this week we will get it sorted out. i keep thinking that soon he is gonna run out of stories but he doesn't. so i listen and laugh and try to stay focused. this is gonna be a good week for the work. we have to get it done because the transfer is coming up in 3 short weeks and president says he is gonna pull me out of this area so i gotta prepare it for the next elder that gets placed here. it is definitely not an easy area but i am sure there will always be success had here if the missionaries are willing to work. as far as spiritual experiences.. this week we didnt have many. or any... it was just a very normal week. i will make sure to get you something great next monday...
let us all press on in the work of the Lord.
I LOVE YOU -- ELDER ELREY
let us all press on in the work of the Lord.
I LOVE YOU -- ELDER ELREY
e-mail 9.5.2011
my heart goes out to the Bentley family... my prayers and efforts will be to bring peace to their hearts. Vanessa was always caring and loving and supportive to all. its devastating... Dad please give Steve a big hug for me next time you see him and send my love to the family. she was always an example of the believers. we were going to get home from the mission almost at the same time. we must always be prepared. i feel the assurance that she is fine. serving the Lord gives one a magnifacent confidence in the power and works of our Heavenly Father.
we worked hard this week and hope to continue working. my heart hurts for the events past but i can only work harder.
its hot. not much new going on.
i dont know what to say....
i love you
--
ELDER ELREY
we worked hard this week and hope to continue working. my heart hurts for the events past but i can only work harder.
its hot. not much new going on.
i dont know what to say....
i love you
--
ELDER ELREY
e-mail 8.29.2011
weelll my comp left and for the first time since leaving my first area i have a mexican companion. haha. he is from Guadalajara, Jalisco, mexico and has the same amount of time as me in the mission. it is kinda weird because we are both in the final stretch and we are together but we are gonna make the best of it. it has been a little awkward because we dont know who is gonna take the lead alot of time and sometimes we dont get a lot done. things are settling down and this should be a good week. i like my area even though i have to clean a large portion of tha church every saturday. i dont like mexican food any more... i almost couldnt get in my pants this morning... and i am tired of chicken and weird tasting drinks.
aside from all that this last week was kinda boring because we were rolling along in autopilot and werent really focused on a whole lot of anything. we are going to start getting down to it soon so we can keep lifting our area up until it is stable. before i entered here the missionaries were little girls who faught all the time and the president pulled them both out and put me and my last companion in. since the last day of may we ave seen quite a bit of progress. i am happy with the success but definitely not satisfied. i think things are going to get a little hard but nothing priesthood power cant fix.
pray for me and my area.
there is not much time,
--
ELDER ELREY
aside from all that this last week was kinda boring because we were rolling along in autopilot and werent really focused on a whole lot of anything. we are going to start getting down to it soon so we can keep lifting our area up until it is stable. before i entered here the missionaries were little girls who faught all the time and the president pulled them both out and put me and my last companion in. since the last day of may we ave seen quite a bit of progress. i am happy with the success but definitely not satisfied. i think things are going to get a little hard but nothing priesthood power cant fix.
pray for me and my area.
there is not much time,
--
ELDER ELREY
e-mail 8.22.2011
pues ya otra semana pasó y no hay mucho qué decirles.
this week is transfer week and i am staying another 6 weeks here in mercedes ward. my companion Elder Thomspon is going to Coatza to my last area so i am excited for him to go and get to know my old ward and to smell the stinky dump that is in his area. haha. i am excited to stay another change i think. i know that my work is not yet over here in the area. i gotta get a few more baptisms and confirmations done. i have been working really hard with a part member family recently to help them get active and to get their 10 year old son baptized and in the process we started teaching the aunt and cousins as well and not have quite a few prospects for baptisms. they went to a couple ward activities this last week and are really enjoying the church.
as far as the work it was a prety normal week. hot hot sun and lots of irritated tabascans... but there were quite a few interesting occurences this last few days.
monday was pretty normal as far as p-day activity goes. we washed and hung out and did all thenormal stuff and then went to sleep haha.
Tuesday is when it gets interesting... we had district class and because our district is only 4 of us we do it in the house. we finished up and were heading out when we saw a huge crowd at the entrance of our neighborhood. turns out the was an accident and a lady with her two small children got hit by a car... the lady and the baby survived and were taken to the hospital, but the little child got run over and didnt make it... the whole neighbor hood was just watching and staring and taking pictures but i didnt see one person lamenting the death of the child. i felt sick to my stomach to see the tiny figure under a bed sheet and not a single tear being shed. walking away from the scene i cried for the child hoping that somewhere someone was caring abot his little soul. it felt horrible to see but the truth of the matter is that that child is in the presence of the Lord now and lives through the eternal grace of the Atonement. but it cut me deep and affected me greatly... i could hardly focus on the work thing about the images that i had seen...
Wednesday we had interviews with President Castaneda and he saw that i was a little distracted be the recent events and other tragic things that i cant even share because they are SOOOO unbelievable horrible that he decided to give me a priesthood blessing to strangthen me. it helped greatly and i could focus for the rest of the day.
Thursday we had a youth activity and we took some investigators to go to the church and we played some games with them and they liked it a lot. we left to go to an apointment and the stayed behind to keep playing with the youth.
Friday we worked all day and had some successes and a lot of not so successes. haha.
saturday we worked ate and then at we always have to go clean the church and we got 3 investigators to come with haha. cant get em to go to church on sundays but i can talk them in to cleaning the chapel. haha they went because afterward there was planned an activity for the ward. so many showed up that there was nothing to do so i sat down with an investigator and started to play the piano for her... she started talking about her teenage daughters and all of the trials that they had faces and then i stopped playing to really give her my attention and she let it AAAALLLLLLL out... she told me everything she had ever done wrong... full on confessional and this lady has had some hard timesss.. things that i cant imagine doing... but i could look her in the eyes and tell her that Christ heals all wounds especially the types of wounds she has.... i could promise her the blessings of peace and comfort that she can have if she commits herself to obeying the commandments of God and just like that she told me she wants to follow the example of the Savior. doesnt have an exact date yet but this lady is gonna get dunked. haha. and her daughters hopefully. after the confessional we went to get started with the activity. we had tamales and played sports and had a great time. all of the investigators and mamber enjoyed it. but then sunday they all had "emergencies" and couldnt go to church... AAAAAAAAAnd it was raining...
the devil.... ruins everything.
no one went to church. normally we have about 100-110 in the chapel bbut we had 60 this week and no investigators... ñlksdfklsjñflsdkñjaoaowoahiluahs
but its ok... gotta stay posative and keep working on the progression
we have had some good success here so i just have to dust myself off and get back to work.
we cant lose faith...
we cant lose hope.
we must cling to a Celestial Hope that all things are for our good and benefit.
you can learn the strength of the wind NOT by laying down, but by standing against it.
--
ELDER ELREY
p.s. my hammock is coming our pretty sweeeeeet. henry is the man.
and be careful the second coming is in October... haha
some goofy church here is passing out flyers and dvds that have that all over them...
we know that NO man knoweth.
send me pictures and write me please. im getting no good info... except from mom. that was an awesome letter. but for having 6 brothers and sisters and alot of great friends my inbox seems quite sad...
out of my great and huge family only my very busy mother could write me...
thanks.
haha
ilove you
this week is transfer week and i am staying another 6 weeks here in mercedes ward. my companion Elder Thomspon is going to Coatza to my last area so i am excited for him to go and get to know my old ward and to smell the stinky dump that is in his area. haha. i am excited to stay another change i think. i know that my work is not yet over here in the area. i gotta get a few more baptisms and confirmations done. i have been working really hard with a part member family recently to help them get active and to get their 10 year old son baptized and in the process we started teaching the aunt and cousins as well and not have quite a few prospects for baptisms. they went to a couple ward activities this last week and are really enjoying the church.
as far as the work it was a prety normal week. hot hot sun and lots of irritated tabascans... but there were quite a few interesting occurences this last few days.
monday was pretty normal as far as p-day activity goes. we washed and hung out and did all thenormal stuff and then went to sleep haha.
Tuesday is when it gets interesting... we had district class and because our district is only 4 of us we do it in the house. we finished up and were heading out when we saw a huge crowd at the entrance of our neighborhood. turns out the was an accident and a lady with her two small children got hit by a car... the lady and the baby survived and were taken to the hospital, but the little child got run over and didnt make it... the whole neighbor hood was just watching and staring and taking pictures but i didnt see one person lamenting the death of the child. i felt sick to my stomach to see the tiny figure under a bed sheet and not a single tear being shed. walking away from the scene i cried for the child hoping that somewhere someone was caring abot his little soul. it felt horrible to see but the truth of the matter is that that child is in the presence of the Lord now and lives through the eternal grace of the Atonement. but it cut me deep and affected me greatly... i could hardly focus on the work thing about the images that i had seen...
Wednesday we had interviews with President Castaneda and he saw that i was a little distracted be the recent events and other tragic things that i cant even share because they are SOOOO unbelievable horrible that he decided to give me a priesthood blessing to strangthen me. it helped greatly and i could focus for the rest of the day.
Thursday we had a youth activity and we took some investigators to go to the church and we played some games with them and they liked it a lot. we left to go to an apointment and the stayed behind to keep playing with the youth.
Friday we worked all day and had some successes and a lot of not so successes. haha.
saturday we worked ate and then at we always have to go clean the church and we got 3 investigators to come with haha. cant get em to go to church on sundays but i can talk them in to cleaning the chapel. haha they went because afterward there was planned an activity for the ward. so many showed up that there was nothing to do so i sat down with an investigator and started to play the piano for her... she started talking about her teenage daughters and all of the trials that they had faces and then i stopped playing to really give her my attention and she let it AAAALLLLLLL out... she told me everything she had ever done wrong... full on confessional and this lady has had some hard timesss.. things that i cant imagine doing... but i could look her in the eyes and tell her that Christ heals all wounds especially the types of wounds she has.... i could promise her the blessings of peace and comfort that she can have if she commits herself to obeying the commandments of God and just like that she told me she wants to follow the example of the Savior. doesnt have an exact date yet but this lady is gonna get dunked. haha. and her daughters hopefully. after the confessional we went to get started with the activity. we had tamales and played sports and had a great time. all of the investigators and mamber enjoyed it. but then sunday they all had "emergencies" and couldnt go to church... AAAAAAAAAnd it was raining...
the devil.... ruins everything.
no one went to church. normally we have about 100-110 in the chapel bbut we had 60 this week and no investigators... ñlksdfklsjñflsdkñjaoaowoahiluahs
but its ok... gotta stay posative and keep working on the progression
we have had some good success here so i just have to dust myself off and get back to work.
we cant lose faith...
we cant lose hope.
we must cling to a Celestial Hope that all things are for our good and benefit.
you can learn the strength of the wind NOT by laying down, but by standing against it.
--
ELDER ELREY
p.s. my hammock is coming our pretty sweeeeeet. henry is the man.
and be careful the second coming is in October... haha
some goofy church here is passing out flyers and dvds that have that all over them...
we know that NO man knoweth.
send me pictures and write me please. im getting no good info... except from mom. that was an awesome letter. but for having 6 brothers and sisters and alot of great friends my inbox seems quite sad...
out of my great and huge family only my very busy mother could write me...
thanks.
haha
ilove you
e-mail 8.15.2011
this week was one of a lot of.... HEAT!!!
i cant believe that being "rainy season" it hasn't rained in over a week and the heat humidity combo have been absolutely mind blowing. everyday walking miles and miles in the sun and being literally drenched in sweat head to toe... my wife is gonna be gorgeous... they always say that for time spent suffering in extreme weather is time your future wife spends in the gym... hahaha.. so my wife is gonna be in great shape... :)
aside from a lot of heat nothing much happened this week. we just worked and tried to find people who were interested and didn't have much luck. we are practically starting from scratch because all of our progressing investigators progressed all the way and are now progressing converts. getting back to basics has been a challenge but working hard has helped me stay focused on the work... we are going to see the blessings this week and the next. we should be baptising two in the next 2 weeks.
hmmmmm... what did we do this week..
last Monday was pretty much boring it was the Zone activity but we decided not to go because its always the same thing... soccer and food in the stake center. instead we went to downtown to find a leather store to by the special thread for making hammocks. i have been visiting an inactive well i told you guys about him, Henry the tattooed ex con. haha. we are good buddies now even though he has not yet gone to church... anyway when he was at "the big school" as he calls it he learned all about making hammocks and offered to make me one if i bought him the thread. so we went to villahermosa to buy the thread... ran me about 20 bucks... not to bad. after that we worked our few hours and went home.
Tuesday we worked all day in the sun and found a couple new investigators. nothing too exciting.
Wednesday we swung by Henry´s house to see how things were going with the weaving of the hammock and i was half expecting him to have not even started yet but he was going at it like a spider. turns out it takes about a week of daily weaving to make a hammock and he is sacrificing all of that time to make me the hammock. i think i am going to try to pay him a little because it is WAAAAYYYY time consuming... but he is a master. it is cool to see him work the threads. we worked a very normal hot day.
Thursday another Hot day and a looooong one at that.we swung by to visit a recent convert of ours and she was at home in her cosmetic place preparing for the afternoon of work. she is a beauty maker... i cant remember what they are called in English... but we were visiting and she started looking at my nails and just went to work and by the time i noticed she gave me a manicure without nail polish haha. soaking and chopping up my nails and cuticls... it was an interesting one.
Friday we were in divisions because of a ingrown toe operation an elder needed and so me and my best buddy elder Clark were working together which is always awesome because he is pretty fresh out of the MTC and loves to get it done. we walked and worked from our house all the way to the other side of their area which turned out to be 6 KM of highway and we worked in 6 neighbourhoods so that adds about a KM or 2 for each one. it was ridiculous because we couldn't get into ONE SINGLE HOUSE hahaha. we had a great day together and we worked hard.
Saturday tired and over worked we put ourselves to work again and had a good day. found a few new investigators and after food went to help tour ward clean the church... turns out that we were the only ones who showed up and we just got to work and expected everyone to show. after a few minutes they arrived but it is ridiculous how lightly everyone takes their responsibilities and callings around here. there is definitely a lesson to be learned in reverence.
it was a good week and it finished well. Sunday we ate with the Bishop and his family and afterwards we went out and he came with us to do a few visits to recent converts.
i am enjoying every moment and i know that i am anxiously engaged in a good cause. i have recently been engaged in reading Jesus the Christ and that book is changing my perspective on the life and purpose of the Savior. i love Him.
search ponder and pray God will take care of the rest.
i love you all
write me and send me money
being broke is awful...
haha.
lovelvoelvoevleovelveoevlveovelevoevvevlvovelovlvoelvlovelovloevlevloevloelev
ELDER ELREY
i cant believe that being "rainy season" it hasn't rained in over a week and the heat humidity combo have been absolutely mind blowing. everyday walking miles and miles in the sun and being literally drenched in sweat head to toe... my wife is gonna be gorgeous... they always say that for time spent suffering in extreme weather is time your future wife spends in the gym... hahaha.. so my wife is gonna be in great shape... :)
aside from a lot of heat nothing much happened this week. we just worked and tried to find people who were interested and didn't have much luck. we are practically starting from scratch because all of our progressing investigators progressed all the way and are now progressing converts. getting back to basics has been a challenge but working hard has helped me stay focused on the work... we are going to see the blessings this week and the next. we should be baptising two in the next 2 weeks.
hmmmmm... what did we do this week..
last Monday was pretty much boring it was the Zone activity but we decided not to go because its always the same thing... soccer and food in the stake center. instead we went to downtown to find a leather store to by the special thread for making hammocks. i have been visiting an inactive well i told you guys about him, Henry the tattooed ex con. haha. we are good buddies now even though he has not yet gone to church... anyway when he was at "the big school" as he calls it he learned all about making hammocks and offered to make me one if i bought him the thread. so we went to villahermosa to buy the thread... ran me about 20 bucks... not to bad. after that we worked our few hours and went home.
Tuesday we worked all day in the sun and found a couple new investigators. nothing too exciting.
Wednesday we swung by Henry´s house to see how things were going with the weaving of the hammock and i was half expecting him to have not even started yet but he was going at it like a spider. turns out it takes about a week of daily weaving to make a hammock and he is sacrificing all of that time to make me the hammock. i think i am going to try to pay him a little because it is WAAAAYYYY time consuming... but he is a master. it is cool to see him work the threads. we worked a very normal hot day.
Thursday another Hot day and a looooong one at that.we swung by to visit a recent convert of ours and she was at home in her cosmetic place preparing for the afternoon of work. she is a beauty maker... i cant remember what they are called in English... but we were visiting and she started looking at my nails and just went to work and by the time i noticed she gave me a manicure without nail polish haha. soaking and chopping up my nails and cuticls... it was an interesting one.
Friday we were in divisions because of a ingrown toe operation an elder needed and so me and my best buddy elder Clark were working together which is always awesome because he is pretty fresh out of the MTC and loves to get it done. we walked and worked from our house all the way to the other side of their area which turned out to be 6 KM of highway and we worked in 6 neighbourhoods so that adds about a KM or 2 for each one. it was ridiculous because we couldn't get into ONE SINGLE HOUSE hahaha. we had a great day together and we worked hard.
Saturday tired and over worked we put ourselves to work again and had a good day. found a few new investigators and after food went to help tour ward clean the church... turns out that we were the only ones who showed up and we just got to work and expected everyone to show. after a few minutes they arrived but it is ridiculous how lightly everyone takes their responsibilities and callings around here. there is definitely a lesson to be learned in reverence.
it was a good week and it finished well. Sunday we ate with the Bishop and his family and afterwards we went out and he came with us to do a few visits to recent converts.
i am enjoying every moment and i know that i am anxiously engaged in a good cause. i have recently been engaged in reading Jesus the Christ and that book is changing my perspective on the life and purpose of the Savior. i love Him.
search ponder and pray God will take care of the rest.
i love you all
write me and send me money
being broke is awful...
haha.
lovelvoelvoevleovelveoevlveovelevoevvevlvovelovlvoelvlovelovloevlevloevloelev
ELDER ELREY
Monday, August 8, 2011
NEW MISSION ADDRESS
ELDER JEFFREE DELL BURNETT ELREY
Av. Circuito CD. Deportiva No. 206
Colonia Atasta
Villahermosa, Tabasco
C.P. 86100
Av. Circuito CD. Deportiva No. 206
Colonia Atasta
Villahermosa, Tabasco
C.P. 86100
e-mail 8.8.2011
Subject: Black Butterfly
this week was a grand one... we got some work done and had a good time. sadly it hasn't rained in more than a week. that means the hellish heat is on full blast. we have been getting burned almost everyday. ha ha. i don't like it very much. it is much better when it rains because its not hot, it floods easy, and people have sympathy on the poor wet missionaries. ha ha. but we haven't had such luck. just a lot of heat.i would be getting skinny if weren't for so much love... i swear we are eating in every appointment all day long. they make it impossible to watch your diet. it doesn't help that almost nothing is healthy here. Monday we played soccer with they local kids and then went shopping nothing too exciting.
Tuesday we worked an almost normal day if such thing exists
Wednesday we did some divisions and i stayed in my own area.
Thursday we were still in divisions but i had to go to the offices to fill out some paperwork to renew my visa because it expired like... 6 months ago. ha ha. so basically we didn't get anything done.
Friday we got back to our normal companionships and got i little bit of work done in various parts of our area that we hadn't touched before. it was a looong hooot weeek but it all payed off on Saturday....
we spent almost the whole day preparing and inviting people to our baptism. i was really excited because this investigator has been quite difficult to commit. so we wandered around almost all day in the heat and then at 5 went to the church to do the weekly cleaning... normally not many members show up and it is a long lonely process but this week quite a few showed up and were all excited for the baptism. we started working on the font and got all that squared away and then did the programs and all was going well and then............
it was still going well. the investigator showed up with his family and all was ready. the service was the most spiritual service we have had here in the ward. went smoothly and as planned and we knocked em dead with a special musical number. Marcelo went down and under in one try and the ward was great afterward giving him the welcoming... all went smooth and e got a lot of good comments on the spirit that was in the room.
Sunday went well. Marcelo was confirmed and his neighbor accepted her baptismal date.
i think my highlight of the week would have to be when we had lost touch with Marcelo for a few days and while we were on splits with the elder that was supposed to do the interview we found him home and willing to talk. at first he was very apprehensive and then we started talking to him about the blessings of the baptism and how he had already received his answer. he has a strong testimony but always liked to make excuses. ha ha. he accepted his date for Saturday and we went through with the interview. i am now starting to really rely on the miracle touch of the Lord in my life. i have a confident faith that things will come together for me a hope that all is well and all will end well. we should be having a couple more baptisms coming up soon and i know that the Lord is smiling upon us.
be good.
i love you
--
ELDER ELREY
p.s. on Saturday we experienced a Mexican omen in the morning my companion went down stairs to open the door and a giant black butterfly of doom flew in the door and was terrorizing us 4 missionaries. i was scared... i ended up under the table in the kitchen and we left him their until we became restless and decided to kick his butt out. my valiant companion grabbed the the broom and went to work... it started flapping its wings and sounded as if a helicopter was taking off... he managed to force it out a window but it came straight back Ianthe front door... DOH... then we usher him out another window and close up shop and he dis appeared we were OK for a while and then a went up to shave my grizzly face. elder Clark was using the bathroom so i took the mirror into a bedroom to shave in fresh air and peace. haha. but when i looked up from the mirror the giant butterfly was RIGHT IN MY FACE!!!! it had came into the upstairs window and camouflaged itself to one of the elders suites... i jumped like a deer and screamed like a dying rabbit... i swear i had never been so scared before...
haha.
later that day we asked the bishop if he had had any experience with evil butterflies and he says that it is a common belief that they are the sign of bad luck and sorrow. he told us that there will be tragedy in our home soon.
hahahahaaa..
i have been cautious ever since.
:)
this week was a grand one... we got some work done and had a good time. sadly it hasn't rained in more than a week. that means the hellish heat is on full blast. we have been getting burned almost everyday. ha ha. i don't like it very much. it is much better when it rains because its not hot, it floods easy, and people have sympathy on the poor wet missionaries. ha ha. but we haven't had such luck. just a lot of heat.i would be getting skinny if weren't for so much love... i swear we are eating in every appointment all day long. they make it impossible to watch your diet. it doesn't help that almost nothing is healthy here. Monday we played soccer with they local kids and then went shopping nothing too exciting.
Tuesday we worked an almost normal day if such thing exists
Wednesday we did some divisions and i stayed in my own area.
Thursday we were still in divisions but i had to go to the offices to fill out some paperwork to renew my visa because it expired like... 6 months ago. ha ha. so basically we didn't get anything done.
Friday we got back to our normal companionships and got i little bit of work done in various parts of our area that we hadn't touched before. it was a looong hooot weeek but it all payed off on Saturday....
we spent almost the whole day preparing and inviting people to our baptism. i was really excited because this investigator has been quite difficult to commit. so we wandered around almost all day in the heat and then at 5 went to the church to do the weekly cleaning... normally not many members show up and it is a long lonely process but this week quite a few showed up and were all excited for the baptism. we started working on the font and got all that squared away and then did the programs and all was going well and then............
it was still going well. the investigator showed up with his family and all was ready. the service was the most spiritual service we have had here in the ward. went smoothly and as planned and we knocked em dead with a special musical number. Marcelo went down and under in one try and the ward was great afterward giving him the welcoming... all went smooth and e got a lot of good comments on the spirit that was in the room.
Sunday went well. Marcelo was confirmed and his neighbor accepted her baptismal date.
i think my highlight of the week would have to be when we had lost touch with Marcelo for a few days and while we were on splits with the elder that was supposed to do the interview we found him home and willing to talk. at first he was very apprehensive and then we started talking to him about the blessings of the baptism and how he had already received his answer. he has a strong testimony but always liked to make excuses. ha ha. he accepted his date for Saturday and we went through with the interview. i am now starting to really rely on the miracle touch of the Lord in my life. i have a confident faith that things will come together for me a hope that all is well and all will end well. we should be having a couple more baptisms coming up soon and i know that the Lord is smiling upon us.
be good.
i love you
--
ELDER ELREY
p.s. on Saturday we experienced a Mexican omen in the morning my companion went down stairs to open the door and a giant black butterfly of doom flew in the door and was terrorizing us 4 missionaries. i was scared... i ended up under the table in the kitchen and we left him their until we became restless and decided to kick his butt out. my valiant companion grabbed the the broom and went to work... it started flapping its wings and sounded as if a helicopter was taking off... he managed to force it out a window but it came straight back Ianthe front door... DOH... then we usher him out another window and close up shop and he dis appeared we were OK for a while and then a went up to shave my grizzly face. elder Clark was using the bathroom so i took the mirror into a bedroom to shave in fresh air and peace. haha. but when i looked up from the mirror the giant butterfly was RIGHT IN MY FACE!!!! it had came into the upstairs window and camouflaged itself to one of the elders suites... i jumped like a deer and screamed like a dying rabbit... i swear i had never been so scared before...
haha.
later that day we asked the bishop if he had had any experience with evil butterflies and he says that it is a common belief that they are the sign of bad luck and sorrow. he told us that there will be tragedy in our home soon.
hahahahaaa..
i have been cautious ever since.
:)
e-mail 8.1.2011
nothing really new this week...
we got to go to do session in the temple and that brought a good peace to the mix... we also had a Zone Conference... but i feel they are starting to teach the same stuff everytime... maybe they are trying to tell me something... haha.. DO BETTER... last week we didnt have a baptism and that is always tough but its ok because we are getting things organized here in our ward to have a lot of success in august. we did very well in July. it was one of the better months of my mission as far and conversion rates. 5 weekends and 6 converts. all of them are settled in nicely in the ward and about to be recieving callings and assignments. i have seen a ton of personal progress and i am excited for the coming 6 months...
thats right.... i only have 4 transfers and 6 months to go....
let us make the best of them...
i am out of time.
but i know that the church is true and i will write next monday with some spiritual experiences.
i love you all more than you know
we got to go to do session in the temple and that brought a good peace to the mix... we also had a Zone Conference... but i feel they are starting to teach the same stuff everytime... maybe they are trying to tell me something... haha.. DO BETTER... last week we didnt have a baptism and that is always tough but its ok because we are getting things organized here in our ward to have a lot of success in august. we did very well in July. it was one of the better months of my mission as far and conversion rates. 5 weekends and 6 converts. all of them are settled in nicely in the ward and about to be recieving callings and assignments. i have seen a ton of personal progress and i am excited for the coming 6 months...
thats right.... i only have 4 transfers and 6 months to go....
let us make the best of them...
i am out of time.
but i know that the church is true and i will write next monday with some spiritual experiences.
i love you all more than you know
Monday, July 18, 2011
E-mail 7.18.2011
Today's is SUPER good. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. Or more. That works too.. ;)
Subject: Charity and Prayer
i love your sins away. that is how it feels to feel Christ´s love for someone. i have been feeling it here. i met a guy the other day who told me he is a member of the church and i almost crapped myself. dudes got tats all over and a cig hanging from the corner of his mouth. ha ha. he invited us over to his shack of a house and we went in and started talking... he goes on to explain that he fell away from the church at the age of 20 because of drugs and alcohol and crime and was put in prison for 7 years and after that was addicted to crack... after the conversation was over i had to pick my jaw up off the floor and i realized that i was with an ex-con ex-druggie beast of a man but i felt no fear... strange... i looked him in the eyes and asked why was it that he fell away from the church and he told me "all excuses aside, i fell away because i stopped praying... i stopped fasting... and i separated myself from Gods presence" it wasn't drugs... wasn't women... wasn't anything worldly... it was the seemingly tiny connection we have with the Father and the love we can feel from Him. if we stop praying we are in danger... this guy said he had sent his paperwork in to go on a mission... our only protection in this life is fasting and prayer. vocally and silently we must pray daily to have the Spirit in our lives, His divine protection, divine love, and divine guidance. but apart from that amazing lesson i learned from the Spirit in that moment i was also realizing the power of Charity(the pure love of Christ) i could look at that big burly hardened man in the eyes without an ounce of fear because i love him. and true love knows no fear. i felt purity generating from my heart. it doesn't matter what we do or where we have been God loves us with a perfect love and we can all be a part of that. we cant let temptation hinder our love. we can NOT afford to sin. we must let our light shine to Gods children to let them know that God loves them. there is POWER in the shameless love that God can instill in our hearts, IF we want it.. IF we let Him give it to us. after all we are His children... He is our Father and knows every need that we have. Looking to the example of Christ as we feel challenged in life, as we may feel at times unworthy to even utter a word of Prayer... When Christ was challenged what did he do? He prayed... when things got hard He prayed harder. when He was pushed to His Godly limits in the Garden of Gethsemane shedding drop after drop of mortal blood for our mortal sins, with an eternity riding on his success and endurance, what did He do? prayed His HARDEST.
It doesn't make a difference WHO WHAT WHERE WHEN or HOW if we stop praying its game over... we are lost without it.
i KNOW that God is waiting on the other end of the line... just waiting... in perfect patience, perfect love, He waits.
pray
ELDER ELREY
Subject: Charity and Prayer
i love your sins away. that is how it feels to feel Christ´s love for someone. i have been feeling it here. i met a guy the other day who told me he is a member of the church and i almost crapped myself. dudes got tats all over and a cig hanging from the corner of his mouth. ha ha. he invited us over to his shack of a house and we went in and started talking... he goes on to explain that he fell away from the church at the age of 20 because of drugs and alcohol and crime and was put in prison for 7 years and after that was addicted to crack... after the conversation was over i had to pick my jaw up off the floor and i realized that i was with an ex-con ex-druggie beast of a man but i felt no fear... strange... i looked him in the eyes and asked why was it that he fell away from the church and he told me "all excuses aside, i fell away because i stopped praying... i stopped fasting... and i separated myself from Gods presence" it wasn't drugs... wasn't women... wasn't anything worldly... it was the seemingly tiny connection we have with the Father and the love we can feel from Him. if we stop praying we are in danger... this guy said he had sent his paperwork in to go on a mission... our only protection in this life is fasting and prayer. vocally and silently we must pray daily to have the Spirit in our lives, His divine protection, divine love, and divine guidance. but apart from that amazing lesson i learned from the Spirit in that moment i was also realizing the power of Charity(the pure love of Christ) i could look at that big burly hardened man in the eyes without an ounce of fear because i love him. and true love knows no fear. i felt purity generating from my heart. it doesn't matter what we do or where we have been God loves us with a perfect love and we can all be a part of that. we cant let temptation hinder our love. we can NOT afford to sin. we must let our light shine to Gods children to let them know that God loves them. there is POWER in the shameless love that God can instill in our hearts, IF we want it.. IF we let Him give it to us. after all we are His children... He is our Father and knows every need that we have. Looking to the example of Christ as we feel challenged in life, as we may feel at times unworthy to even utter a word of Prayer... When Christ was challenged what did he do? He prayed... when things got hard He prayed harder. when He was pushed to His Godly limits in the Garden of Gethsemane shedding drop after drop of mortal blood for our mortal sins, with an eternity riding on his success and endurance, what did He do? prayed His HARDEST.
It doesn't make a difference WHO WHAT WHERE WHEN or HOW if we stop praying its game over... we are lost without it.
i KNOW that God is waiting on the other end of the line... just waiting... in perfect patience, perfect love, He waits.
pray
ELDER ELREY
Monday, July 11, 2011
E-mail 7.11.2011
so last monday we went to a museum park that had statues and rocks and animals and stuff and it was pretty cool n stuff but i didnt mention last week. wasnt tooooo exciting...
anyway we had the goal of 3 baptisms this week and we were workuing hard to get it... we only had 2 with set dates and a sister who ha been going to church for a while with her member children who was on the edge of making a decision. Nicolas and Faustino both were good to go and Faustino got dunked on thursday and Nicolas on Saturday. but with this sister we had no idea what to do becuase she had heard all the missionaries for over a year tell her she HAS to get baptised... so we went and shared a few scripture from King Benjamins talk in mosiah 2:22-24 about obedience and then we went over to 2nd nefi 31 11 and 12 wher the Father commands us to repent and be baptized in the name of His Son and then Christ comes and promises the Spirit as He recieved it( in abundance) then we listened to the testimony of her 18 year old daughter and sang her the primary song about rainbows and baptism and invited her for thursday to be baptized. .... .... she said YES! laid it down. such a powerful moment. she then wednesday had her interview and all was well and then thursday morning it aaaallll went down. Friday morning we go to visit and we were back to square one some how.... :( all the progress that we had made she just erased... Satan knows how to attack and when to do it... it was painful to watch but it was just not her time i guess... we are still working with her and trying to figure the situation out so that she can be baptized soon.
so as i said Faustino the guy in the picture with just me and my comp. he is awesome. just a pure desire to follow Chritst and change his life for the better. he got baptized on thursday and saturday night got sick with fever and wasnt gonna be able to go to church and be confirmed but asked some other elders that we live with to give him a blessing and he woke up feeling just good enough to get to the first hour and then stayed for the second as well. and Nicolas... he is amazing. in three short weeks has gained the respect of every member in the ward. he goes every sunday to church with two small children and with faith gets there 10 minutes early every time. his wife works sundays and doesnt show much interest in the church and he has both the boys to watch after on the weekends. his service was planned as well for thursday with Faustino but our president visited them and the wife showed and interest in asisting the serveces and so with changed it to saturday afternoon. all went smoothly and he showed up on sunday right on time like always with Nico Jr. and Carlitos in his arms. i love and respect those two guys and know that they are inn Gods care and under the influence of His Spirit.
numerous blessings are awaiting me...
i love God with all my heart and i know that i am not perfect in anything i do... but i know that i am doing the best i can to reach the potentialthat He has given me.
i love you,
--
ELDER ELREY
p.s. I accidentally erased ALL of my pictures of almost my WHOLE mission on thursday night....
it happens...
1500 memories lost in the air somewhere....
haha.
that has been my motto recently...
"it happens"
stay posative
anyway we had the goal of 3 baptisms this week and we were workuing hard to get it... we only had 2 with set dates and a sister who ha been going to church for a while with her member children who was on the edge of making a decision. Nicolas and Faustino both were good to go and Faustino got dunked on thursday and Nicolas on Saturday. but with this sister we had no idea what to do becuase she had heard all the missionaries for over a year tell her she HAS to get baptised... so we went and shared a few scripture from King Benjamins talk in mosiah 2:22-24 about obedience and then we went over to 2nd nefi 31 11 and 12 wher the Father commands us to repent and be baptized in the name of His Son and then Christ comes and promises the Spirit as He recieved it( in abundance) then we listened to the testimony of her 18 year old daughter and sang her the primary song about rainbows and baptism and invited her for thursday to be baptized. .... .... she said YES! laid it down. such a powerful moment. she then wednesday had her interview and all was well and then thursday morning it aaaallll went down. Friday morning we go to visit and we were back to square one some how.... :( all the progress that we had made she just erased... Satan knows how to attack and when to do it... it was painful to watch but it was just not her time i guess... we are still working with her and trying to figure the situation out so that she can be baptized soon.
so as i said Faustino the guy in the picture with just me and my comp. he is awesome. just a pure desire to follow Chritst and change his life for the better. he got baptized on thursday and saturday night got sick with fever and wasnt gonna be able to go to church and be confirmed but asked some other elders that we live with to give him a blessing and he woke up feeling just good enough to get to the first hour and then stayed for the second as well. and Nicolas... he is amazing. in three short weeks has gained the respect of every member in the ward. he goes every sunday to church with two small children and with faith gets there 10 minutes early every time. his wife works sundays and doesnt show much interest in the church and he has both the boys to watch after on the weekends. his service was planned as well for thursday with Faustino but our president visited them and the wife showed and interest in asisting the serveces and so with changed it to saturday afternoon. all went smoothly and he showed up on sunday right on time like always with Nico Jr. and Carlitos in his arms. i love and respect those two guys and know that they are inn Gods care and under the influence of His Spirit.
numerous blessings are awaiting me...
i love God with all my heart and i know that i am not perfect in anything i do... but i know that i am doing the best i can to reach the potentialthat He has given me.
i love you,
--
ELDER ELREY
p.s. I accidentally erased ALL of my pictures of almost my WHOLE mission on thursday night....
it happens...
1500 memories lost in the air somewhere....
haha.
that has been my motto recently...
"it happens"
stay posative
E-mail 7.4.2011
Subject: Happy 4th
well its kinda happy. as i stumbled out of bed this morning i muttered it to my companion and he gave me a cordial grunt of appreciation. haha. i miss the states... so many ugly dogs here that i just want to go where there arent any running around the streets. haha. sunday i completed 17 months in the mission and i think june was the fastest of them all. i think it is picking up. i cant believe it... i am happy where i am and i know i am here because this is where the Lord wants me.
This week we have been tossed around by all sorts of interviews and meetings a wedding and two baptismal services... on tuesday morning president wanted t see me in his office and i felt like a kid going to the principals office in elementary school. hah. so i went and hung around the offices for acouple hours until he arrived and we talked for a good 45 minutes in his office. the whole purpose of the metting was for him to tell me how much he loved me and to give me the oportunity to share some of my spiritual experiences with him. we talked a lot about the family and the blessings we have seen from all of our service in the church and i expressed with him that i would serve 5 mission s back to back to see the progress and changes i have seen in all of you. it was a sweet moment.
Wednesday we had to go to a near by towns court house to finalize oall of the paperwork for a wedding we were helping get organized for an investigator and so we were there all morning and then thursday they called us back in and we had to do her baptismal interview and then an activity with the youth in the church which is conveniently 20 minutes away in a little bus van. and then Friday morning we had the wedding and then friday afternoon we went to the church to prepare the font for the baptism which turned into a mission in and of itself. turns out it was still full from our last weeks baptism and there were crickets and lizzards having a pool party in there so we had to empty it. but the plumbing here isnt the same as home and to drain something of that magnetude you have to have pumps and sisternas and all sorts of stuff. kinda like in coatza when i had to go in the cemnt water box and open the valve... but in this church the pumps dont work and the water box is HUGE and was also full of water. what happens is the water from the font goes into the big cement box and then a pump sucks it out and waters the grass... buuuuuut the system is crappppp P. doesnt work. we had to call the bishop who called maintenace who was in Comalcalco 1 hour and a half away and we didnt start draining the font until 630. Baptism was scheduled to start at 7... shortly after we start emptying the beast it starts to rain HARD and we lost power. a crazy member starts going to it with a bucket and then the power came back and the left again and then came back........ so we got it emptied cleaned and filled and started the baptismal service at 8 ish... it was sweet becausewe baptised the mom of a family who are all members and she had been waiting for a long time to be baptised because they werent married... thats why we had the wedding in the morning... we got it done though and it was amazing. the two kids prayed and the dad gave a talk and all of them touched the chance they have of going to the temple in a year to be an eternal family... after that we went home and were happy... saturday we had no where to eat and so we went to eat with some other elders in their area close by the church and spent a lot of time in that because of the travel. then we had an appointment with an investigator named Nicolas i have mentioned him to a few of you. he is one of the Lords elect and has a true testimony of the church. we have been teaching him just two weeks and heis ready to be baptised this Thursday. we didnt really teach anything, we just stood in front of the ward bulletin and answered questions about family history and stake events and how he will be able to enter the temple and fulfill the will of God in him family. also talked about the priesthood authoruty and how he will be able to baptise his boy in a year when he turns 8 and all sorts of good stuff... then we went to a baptism of the other ward and supported their convert. a young girl who had no family who found love in the truth of the gospel as she explains it. she only wanted the missionaries and a member of the bishopric there. it was a sweet service and she cried basically the whole time.
sunday was bomb as well. we went to church and had 5 investigators with us there. it was great.
it made me happy to struggle through this week and feel the spirit and love through it all.
i know that the Lord is keeping his children.
the Lord loves us and the church is true,
Elder Elrey
well its kinda happy. as i stumbled out of bed this morning i muttered it to my companion and he gave me a cordial grunt of appreciation. haha. i miss the states... so many ugly dogs here that i just want to go where there arent any running around the streets. haha. sunday i completed 17 months in the mission and i think june was the fastest of them all. i think it is picking up. i cant believe it... i am happy where i am and i know i am here because this is where the Lord wants me.
This week we have been tossed around by all sorts of interviews and meetings a wedding and two baptismal services... on tuesday morning president wanted t see me in his office and i felt like a kid going to the principals office in elementary school. hah. so i went and hung around the offices for acouple hours until he arrived and we talked for a good 45 minutes in his office. the whole purpose of the metting was for him to tell me how much he loved me and to give me the oportunity to share some of my spiritual experiences with him. we talked a lot about the family and the blessings we have seen from all of our service in the church and i expressed with him that i would serve 5 mission s back to back to see the progress and changes i have seen in all of you. it was a sweet moment.
Wednesday we had to go to a near by towns court house to finalize oall of the paperwork for a wedding we were helping get organized for an investigator and so we were there all morning and then thursday they called us back in and we had to do her baptismal interview and then an activity with the youth in the church which is conveniently 20 minutes away in a little bus van. and then Friday morning we had the wedding and then friday afternoon we went to the church to prepare the font for the baptism which turned into a mission in and of itself. turns out it was still full from our last weeks baptism and there were crickets and lizzards having a pool party in there so we had to empty it. but the plumbing here isnt the same as home and to drain something of that magnetude you have to have pumps and sisternas and all sorts of stuff. kinda like in coatza when i had to go in the cemnt water box and open the valve... but in this church the pumps dont work and the water box is HUGE and was also full of water. what happens is the water from the font goes into the big cement box and then a pump sucks it out and waters the grass... buuuuuut the system is crappppp P. doesnt work. we had to call the bishop who called maintenace who was in Comalcalco 1 hour and a half away and we didnt start draining the font until 630. Baptism was scheduled to start at 7... shortly after we start emptying the beast it starts to rain HARD and we lost power. a crazy member starts going to it with a bucket and then the power came back and the left again and then came back........ so we got it emptied cleaned and filled and started the baptismal service at 8 ish... it was sweet becausewe baptised the mom of a family who are all members and she had been waiting for a long time to be baptised because they werent married... thats why we had the wedding in the morning... we got it done though and it was amazing. the two kids prayed and the dad gave a talk and all of them touched the chance they have of going to the temple in a year to be an eternal family... after that we went home and were happy... saturday we had no where to eat and so we went to eat with some other elders in their area close by the church and spent a lot of time in that because of the travel. then we had an appointment with an investigator named Nicolas i have mentioned him to a few of you. he is one of the Lords elect and has a true testimony of the church. we have been teaching him just two weeks and heis ready to be baptised this Thursday. we didnt really teach anything, we just stood in front of the ward bulletin and answered questions about family history and stake events and how he will be able to enter the temple and fulfill the will of God in him family. also talked about the priesthood authoruty and how he will be able to baptise his boy in a year when he turns 8 and all sorts of good stuff... then we went to a baptism of the other ward and supported their convert. a young girl who had no family who found love in the truth of the gospel as she explains it. she only wanted the missionaries and a member of the bishopric there. it was a sweet service and she cried basically the whole time.
sunday was bomb as well. we went to church and had 5 investigators with us there. it was great.
it made me happy to struggle through this week and feel the spirit and love through it all.
i know that the Lord is keeping his children.
the Lord loves us and the church is true,
Elder Elrey
E-mail 6.27.2011
last week was a lame monday and i hardly had any time... kinda like today but today was cool because we went to some sweeet caverns and went under ground. this place is sweeeet
hot but sweeet
i have been really good. we had a baptism of a sweet little girl this week and have just been working... its seems hard to write because eveery thing seem so normal now... on sunday we had 8 investigadors come to church and a ton of less actives. it was cool to see rows and rows of people that i taught in the week. we are having a great effect with our lessons and family home evenings and the most important part has been the presence of the spirit. i have felt His power within me. i remember in last area after a baptism we were cleaning up a little in the church and the son of the convert came down with a fever and they asked me to give him a blessing to heal him. i was shocked they even knew to ask me. so we went to the sacrament room and i administered a blessing to the kid and almost imediately the fever left him and he was running around like normal. that day was special for me because i was blessed with the oppourtunity to baptize and to use the healing powers of the priesthood. i love being a servant of the Lord. i have felt the spirit strongly recently testifying in the lessons that the church is true. and that Jesus is the Christ.
there is no doubt...
Elder Elrey
hot but sweeet
i have been really good. we had a baptism of a sweet little girl this week and have just been working... its seems hard to write because eveery thing seem so normal now... on sunday we had 8 investigadors come to church and a ton of less actives. it was cool to see rows and rows of people that i taught in the week. we are having a great effect with our lessons and family home evenings and the most important part has been the presence of the spirit. i have felt His power within me. i remember in last area after a baptism we were cleaning up a little in the church and the son of the convert came down with a fever and they asked me to give him a blessing to heal him. i was shocked they even knew to ask me. so we went to the sacrament room and i administered a blessing to the kid and almost imediately the fever left him and he was running around like normal. that day was special for me because i was blessed with the oppourtunity to baptize and to use the healing powers of the priesthood. i love being a servant of the Lord. i have felt the spirit strongly recently testifying in the lessons that the church is true. and that Jesus is the Christ.
there is no doubt...
Elder Elrey
Saturday, June 11, 2011
e-mail 5.16.2011
we are working hard but we only worked ONE DAY in the whole week. monday night i got sick with some stomach poroblems and i was down almost all the way through wednesday. we worked friday and then saturday morning the two elders that moved in with us had to go buy bed close by and i as their DL went with. we had no truck to bring em back so we decided to carry them... not too heavy nor too far. so we head out. its hot... the plastic is making me sweat profusely... we were walking alooong walking allooooong and then SLAM-OOOOO i went down... i was confused for a second but then i relized that i had just fallen into an OPEN MAN HOLE!!!!!!! is that even possible? YES! i fell in but the good thing is that it was only like 3 feet deep ish... but i landed with all my weight on my left shin bone on the edge of it.... oh it hurts... haha. and i couldnt walk... so i didnt know if my leag was broken or what had happened... we went to the closest members house and they helped me with the bleeding and we checked everthing out. got my strength back and hobbled home. laid down and put it up but it swole up nasty... so i called the presidents wife and told her and she FREAKED. and sent me the the red cross to get an x-ray... this is when i realized that there was a chance that i was gonna get sent home. so i started praying that there was not the least bit of a fracture.... went and waited for the Xray tech to show and taught a lesson on Baptism in the waiting room... haha. always looking for the chance to teach. and then finally took the x rays..........................................................................................................
NOTHING!
whew...
now i just have to deal with the swelling and the pain but i am good to go ...
turns out the the President had called every zone in the mission and told them to pray for me. haha. and this week we have a mission conference and everybody is going to be staring at me all wierd... haha
we are working and i am loving it...
Elder Elrey
This is the manhole he fell into!
NOTHING!
whew...
now i just have to deal with the swelling and the pain but i am good to go ...
turns out the the President had called every zone in the mission and told them to pray for me. haha. and this week we have a mission conference and everybody is going to be staring at me all wierd... haha
we are working and i am loving it...
Elder Elrey
This is the manhole he fell into!
e-mail 5.2.2011
Sorry, folks! Been kinda busy and Jeff hasn't really been writing too much about what he's doing. But alas, here I am catching up! Enjoy! He's still awesome and I still love him to deatthhhh! :) He'll be home in 7 and a half months! WOOHOO!
1 big interesting week.
we had zone conference on tuesday and everybody sang me happybirthday and we ate pizza. that was nice. at this point its hard to pull out new information but there always inspiring thoughts and words that get me excited. haha. after that we just worked and worked but it seemed we werent having a lot of succcess. but sunday everything has changed. we had a great day saturday and almost doubled our work of the whole week. lotss of lessons and contacts. and then sunday we had some big experiences. we were about to start the first hour of church(sacrament meeting) when an inactive sister calls us crying and asking for help so we decided to leave church to find out what had happened. turns out she had faught with her husband and the both of them were angry and distraught from the experience. we had to be marraige counselors for almost 2 hours and we had them calmed down and ready to move on. we left them with the home work of giving eachother a hug and told them we would pass by later on in the afternoon. we caught the last hour of church and put appointments with the investigators that had gone. after the meetings we had lunch which took a while and we passed the weekly numbers to the zone leaders so we didnt really start working until 6. we passed by a house and visited a less active family and then went back to check on the couple who had had their little scuffle... to our surprise they had read a chapter of the Book of Mormon together and had just finished praying when we arrived. the change we saw was AMAZING. they were not yet all patched up but their hearts were in the right place and her husbadn is now working towards baptism.
after that it was 830.. gotta be home at the latest 930 so we were runnig out of time and we had one more visit planned. we went by to see an investigator named Rodrigo who has gone to shurch with his less active but faithful wife the last to sundays. we went and gave him a personal copy of the Book of Mormon and i asked him how he had felt about baptism and he told me that he and his wife had talked it over and that he wanted to be baptised. YES YESYESSSSS.. i asked him if remebered the goal that we had put and he said no so i told him that he was going to be baptised this saturday (7 of May) and he said it was good. haha. so now he is content and progressing towards his baptism. i
it was a sunday full of miracles. haha.
probably the most interesting sunday of my life.
and today we got up early and played some ball and then played RISK
haha. not quite the most exciting day but fun none the less.
i love you all and i know that there is power in obedience to the Lord and his Commandments.
Love,
Elder Elrey
1 big interesting week.
we had zone conference on tuesday and everybody sang me happybirthday and we ate pizza. that was nice. at this point its hard to pull out new information but there always inspiring thoughts and words that get me excited. haha. after that we just worked and worked but it seemed we werent having a lot of succcess. but sunday everything has changed. we had a great day saturday and almost doubled our work of the whole week. lotss of lessons and contacts. and then sunday we had some big experiences. we were about to start the first hour of church(sacrament meeting) when an inactive sister calls us crying and asking for help so we decided to leave church to find out what had happened. turns out she had faught with her husband and the both of them were angry and distraught from the experience. we had to be marraige counselors for almost 2 hours and we had them calmed down and ready to move on. we left them with the home work of giving eachother a hug and told them we would pass by later on in the afternoon. we caught the last hour of church and put appointments with the investigators that had gone. after the meetings we had lunch which took a while and we passed the weekly numbers to the zone leaders so we didnt really start working until 6. we passed by a house and visited a less active family and then went back to check on the couple who had had their little scuffle... to our surprise they had read a chapter of the Book of Mormon together and had just finished praying when we arrived. the change we saw was AMAZING. they were not yet all patched up but their hearts were in the right place and her husbadn is now working towards baptism.
after that it was 830.. gotta be home at the latest 930 so we were runnig out of time and we had one more visit planned. we went by to see an investigator named Rodrigo who has gone to shurch with his less active but faithful wife the last to sundays. we went and gave him a personal copy of the Book of Mormon and i asked him how he had felt about baptism and he told me that he and his wife had talked it over and that he wanted to be baptised. YES YESYESSSSS.. i asked him if remebered the goal that we had put and he said no so i told him that he was going to be baptised this saturday (7 of May) and he said it was good. haha. so now he is content and progressing towards his baptism. i
it was a sunday full of miracles. haha.
probably the most interesting sunday of my life.
and today we got up early and played some ball and then played RISK
haha. not quite the most exciting day but fun none the less.
i love you all and i know that there is power in obedience to the Lord and his Commandments.
Love,
Elder Elrey
Monday, April 18, 2011
e-mail 04.11.2011
felt my first legitamate earthquake this week. and i am proud to say that i survived. haha.
i think it was thursday morning in our study hours we were in our second story room house thing and it started to wobble around and i thought i was drunk or something... so then i look out the window and the whole city was dancing around... haha. i felt awesome... and personally i dont think it lasted long enough... they say it was like a 6 on the scale. my comp says it is the second one he has felt in his time here in Coatza so mabe there are more coming. im watching out because i have been warned of earthquakes in diverse places before... haha.
defitintely something that i wont be forgetting.
wow... my first earthquake.
Elder Elrey
i think it was thursday morning in our study hours we were in our second story room house thing and it started to wobble around and i thought i was drunk or something... so then i look out the window and the whole city was dancing around... haha. i felt awesome... and personally i dont think it lasted long enough... they say it was like a 6 on the scale. my comp says it is the second one he has felt in his time here in Coatza so mabe there are more coming. im watching out because i have been warned of earthquakes in diverse places before... haha.
defitintely something that i wont be forgetting.
wow... my first earthquake.
Elder Elrey
Tuesday, April 5, 2011
Pictures, e-mail 4.4.2011
This guy was baptized this last confrence weekend.
These girls were baptized the weekend before confrence weekend.
This is the dump that caught on fire from the heat of the sun.
Sunday, March 20, 2011
e-mail 03.17.2011
Subject: goood times in COATZACOALCOS pronounce that one right. i dare you...
LETS GO CATS!!!
i am pumped that ew are once again on our way to basketball powerhousing. it makes me think of the good ol days. there is no replacing Lute but i just love a winning season and DOMNATING THE PACK.
my new area is sweet. i was worried about leaving Comalcalco but Coatzacoalcos is sweet and my area is on the beach. my comp is a super hard worker even though hes white. He is from Tahoe, Nevada and we are getting along great. another bonus is that my new house has an AC unit and so we sleep nice and cold. and we live with members so we are always eating and they do our laundry. this area is a paradise and i am looking forward to a good 4-6 months here. we had our stake conference this last sunday and we did in the convention center here in Coatza... place was a humungous auditorioum. i felt like i wass in the conference center. especially because we had our conference directed by 2 of the 70. Elder Christiansen and Elder Aguila or something like that. they reorganized the stake and then we had a broadcast conference from salt lake and listen to talks from Elder Ballard and President Monson. it was sweet and super powerful. got to listen to a message from the Prophet and also had an extra hour to get some work done. i still feel wierd working on sundays but then i have to remind
myself that it is the work of the Lord and He went about His Father's work on the Sabbath as well. i am fairly certain that we are gonna have a great change here. my Comp Elder Johnston is a hard worker and i am learning from him. i am still District Leader and in my District right now are the Zone Leaders and one other companionship so i really dont do anything... the ZL's do it all. its nice.
today for p-day went walked 10 minutes to the Beach and played some catch with a local kid name Fernando. had a great time, got sun burnt, saw a flock of buzzards destroy a dead catfish in less than 30 seconds. aside from that there were a lot of beached Jellyfish. it was a blast. i thoroughly enjoyed it. the beach here has a loottttt of trash but t is pretty. if it were only a little bit cleaner. hmmmmmmm que mas?
i am now studying all of thhe major works of the church. the Bible, Book of Mormon, and D&C.
i am focusing on the new testament in English and i am learning a ton about Christ. everyday i feel edifeid to be in the Service of our FAther in Heaven and to be able to take the GOspel of Christ to every heart the i can make it to. i am grateful for the sacrifices that have been made for me to be able to be here and for the sacrifices that i have had to make. i know that the Church is true and that God is our LOVING and ETERNAL Father. be obedient and all will go well in the last day.
i love you all soo much and appreciate your support and valor,
keepeth it real,
Elder Elrey
LETS GO CATS!!!
i am pumped that ew are once again on our way to basketball powerhousing. it makes me think of the good ol days. there is no replacing Lute but i just love a winning season and DOMNATING THE PACK.
my new area is sweet. i was worried about leaving Comalcalco but Coatzacoalcos is sweet and my area is on the beach. my comp is a super hard worker even though hes white. He is from Tahoe, Nevada and we are getting along great. another bonus is that my new house has an AC unit and so we sleep nice and cold. and we live with members so we are always eating and they do our laundry. this area is a paradise and i am looking forward to a good 4-6 months here. we had our stake conference this last sunday and we did in the convention center here in Coatza... place was a humungous auditorioum. i felt like i wass in the conference center. especially because we had our conference directed by 2 of the 70. Elder Christiansen and Elder Aguila or something like that. they reorganized the stake and then we had a broadcast conference from salt lake and listen to talks from Elder Ballard and President Monson. it was sweet and super powerful. got to listen to a message from the Prophet and also had an extra hour to get some work done. i still feel wierd working on sundays but then i have to remind
myself that it is the work of the Lord and He went about His Father's work on the Sabbath as well. i am fairly certain that we are gonna have a great change here. my Comp Elder Johnston is a hard worker and i am learning from him. i am still District Leader and in my District right now are the Zone Leaders and one other companionship so i really dont do anything... the ZL's do it all. its nice.
today for p-day went walked 10 minutes to the Beach and played some catch with a local kid name Fernando. had a great time, got sun burnt, saw a flock of buzzards destroy a dead catfish in less than 30 seconds. aside from that there were a lot of beached Jellyfish. it was a blast. i thoroughly enjoyed it. the beach here has a loottttt of trash but t is pretty. if it were only a little bit cleaner. hmmmmmmm que mas?
i am now studying all of thhe major works of the church. the Bible, Book of Mormon, and D&C.
i am focusing on the new testament in English and i am learning a ton about Christ. everyday i feel edifeid to be in the Service of our FAther in Heaven and to be able to take the GOspel of Christ to every heart the i can make it to. i am grateful for the sacrifices that have been made for me to be able to be here and for the sacrifices that i have had to make. i know that the Church is true and that God is our LOVING and ETERNAL Father. be obedient and all will go well in the last day.
i love you all soo much and appreciate your support and valor,
keepeth it real,
Elder Elrey
e-mail 03.07.2011
hey heyhey heeyeyuheyheeyhe
so last night the ZLs called and informed me that i am getting transfered... NOOOOOOOO i am in love with Comalcalco and wanted at least another tranfer here. but they are sending me back to the state of Veracruz in the BIG city of Coatzacoalcos. i am half excited and half not so much but we´ll see how things go. apart from that i am bummed because i am leaving 2 people here with baptismal dates for this Saturday and one for the next. right when i get things going they always pull me out. but i half other things to accomplish i guess. the lord has it alll planned out. i know that so ill be alright. i am going to be some white guys second companion and keep being a DL so it is gonna be fun. i will make sure to send pictures soon its just that all of the computers here are lame and dont have the conections to get it sent off. aside from that there is nothing much going on. sunday i bore my testimony in our ward and i gave thanks for all of the foods and love and support that the ward had given me and everyne told me that i was leaving. and i wouldnt believe it but now i am getting kicked out of the glory that is Comalcalco. i have made tons of friends and founf lasting relationships here and i wont be able to forget the chocolate land of Comalcalco.
i know that the Lord has purpose for all things that we are commanded and sent to do. just find your purpose.
love
Elder Elrey
so last night the ZLs called and informed me that i am getting transfered... NOOOOOOOO i am in love with Comalcalco and wanted at least another tranfer here. but they are sending me back to the state of Veracruz in the BIG city of Coatzacoalcos. i am half excited and half not so much but we´ll see how things go. apart from that i am bummed because i am leaving 2 people here with baptismal dates for this Saturday and one for the next. right when i get things going they always pull me out. but i half other things to accomplish i guess. the lord has it alll planned out. i know that so ill be alright. i am going to be some white guys second companion and keep being a DL so it is gonna be fun. i will make sure to send pictures soon its just that all of the computers here are lame and dont have the conections to get it sent off. aside from that there is nothing much going on. sunday i bore my testimony in our ward and i gave thanks for all of the foods and love and support that the ward had given me and everyne told me that i was leaving. and i wouldnt believe it but now i am getting kicked out of the glory that is Comalcalco. i have made tons of friends and founf lasting relationships here and i wont be able to forget the chocolate land of Comalcalco.
i know that the Lord has purpose for all things that we are commanded and sent to do. just find your purpose.
love
Elder Elrey
e-mail 02.28.2011
love you all so much. i forgot my camera so there are no fotos right now nad inot much has happened. we gotta get to work because we havent baptized in a month.
i am good.
gonna go put 4 baptism dates.
the Gospel of Christ is the ONLY way.
Elder Elrey
i am good.
gonna go put 4 baptism dates.
the Gospel of Christ is the ONLY way.
Elder Elrey
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
e-mail 02.14.2011
Subject: there are 239 chapters in the book of mormon....
well it is still overcast and rainy. pretty much tired of that. i find that i could not be a missionary in a place like seattle where i would have to be wet more than dry. haha. i am almost ready for the heat again. i have become accustomed to the rediculous humidity and heat that a little rain and wind and i feel cold. haha. it is going to be rediculous to go home in early february and be COLD:..... haha. i am a little worried about that one. but i have some time before i get to that point. this week was a good one despite all the rain. they called a capacitation for new missionaries and their companions and that meeans i had to go with my kid who is now more like an adolescent because i have been with him for so long. haha. we get along great and we just gotta keep our heads up and stay diligent in all things. there are times when it is almost too easy to slack off. but they keep giving me more and more responsibilities so we will see how things progress. i am happy here in my area but we are running out of people to teach and have a hard time finding new people. i think we are going to focus in the members this week. and find baptisms there. haha. with the members there is always success. reference are the well known most affective source for success. so you all need now to think about one friend or family mamber that needs the gospel and find a way to get in contact with the missionaries and the friend and set up an appointment to help them accept the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. be the best friend they have ever had and give them eternal life. also ... we must all be examples... examples of the believers. these weeks i have been noticing that EVERYONE in comalcalco stares and comments... just because we are WHITE(and handsom) but they all just watch us go by... so i think we have to always be like Christ because His name is next to ourson our nametag. we present ourselves as His representatives. if people see us acting like Ding-DOngs in the street they are going to think that we dont take what we do seriously. in the same way if you are out and about breaking rules and being disobedient to the laws and commandments of God people who know that you ae members of the Church and going to think that you dont take it seriously and that bedience must not be that important. we are watched and people take note of our actions. if there is anything we must do it is OBEY. God gives us commandments to protect us. if we obey we are happy. and to the obedient few god gives even MORE COMMANDMENTS! so we can be even happier and even more protected from the evils of this life. He loves us in a perfect way. i plead with each and every one of you to be better.
i love you
its ALL true.
Elder ELrey
well it is still overcast and rainy. pretty much tired of that. i find that i could not be a missionary in a place like seattle where i would have to be wet more than dry. haha. i am almost ready for the heat again. i have become accustomed to the rediculous humidity and heat that a little rain and wind and i feel cold. haha. it is going to be rediculous to go home in early february and be COLD:..... haha. i am a little worried about that one. but i have some time before i get to that point. this week was a good one despite all the rain. they called a capacitation for new missionaries and their companions and that meeans i had to go with my kid who is now more like an adolescent because i have been with him for so long. haha. we get along great and we just gotta keep our heads up and stay diligent in all things. there are times when it is almost too easy to slack off. but they keep giving me more and more responsibilities so we will see how things progress. i am happy here in my area but we are running out of people to teach and have a hard time finding new people. i think we are going to focus in the members this week. and find baptisms there. haha. with the members there is always success. reference are the well known most affective source for success. so you all need now to think about one friend or family mamber that needs the gospel and find a way to get in contact with the missionaries and the friend and set up an appointment to help them accept the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. be the best friend they have ever had and give them eternal life. also ... we must all be examples... examples of the believers. these weeks i have been noticing that EVERYONE in comalcalco stares and comments... just because we are WHITE(and handsom) but they all just watch us go by... so i think we have to always be like Christ because His name is next to ourson our nametag. we present ourselves as His representatives. if people see us acting like Ding-DOngs in the street they are going to think that we dont take what we do seriously. in the same way if you are out and about breaking rules and being disobedient to the laws and commandments of God people who know that you ae members of the Church and going to think that you dont take it seriously and that bedience must not be that important. we are watched and people take note of our actions. if there is anything we must do it is OBEY. God gives us commandments to protect us. if we obey we are happy. and to the obedient few god gives even MORE COMMANDMENTS! so we can be even happier and even more protected from the evils of this life. He loves us in a perfect way. i plead with each and every one of you to be better.
i love you
its ALL true.
Elder ELrey
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