Subject: man I miss having a Chiropractor..
my back is killing me right now. haha. but i am survivng and looking forward to an awesome week. this week was really mas o menos. because monday and tuesday and pretty much wednesday my companion had a killer ear infection and fever and we were house bound. so i didnt do much this week. haha. sounds like things are settling nicely at home and i am happy to hear form everybody. i love you alllllaaalalalalalalalaaalaalll.
so this was the first week of Mision Mexico Villahermosa and it was quite a confusing one. we didnt know anything or here anything from the president or the asistants until wednesday and we still dont know anything except that there are going to be changes in the middle of this transfer in most of the mission. thats got me a little worried because i never want to leave Los Tuxtlas. San Andres is my home. haha. but tommorow my buddies the Zone Leaders are heading out on the 5 hour bus ride to the mission office for the Zone Leader Counsel and i gouess we will know more in a couple days. what ever happens i am super excited.
THE WORK... came to an abrupt halt in behalf of my pobrecito companero being sick and so now we have a rousing number of 1 solid investigator and she is really hesistant to get baptized. we are gonna work hard this week even if i die doing it. haha. might be nice to die in the Obra Misional. isnt that like a pass to the front of the line??? haha.
anywayyyyy...
the sisters of the branch have treated him like a princess all week and i have been reaping the benefits. food and soda and foooooood and a mountain of Mangos. ha.
Mango season here is great for about 2 weeks and then there are just hundreds of rotten mangos eveywhere and it smells horrible. haha. but i would kill for a cold mango right now... mmmm. haha. it didnt raaiiiin at all this last week and i have been roasting. but strangely the breeze has been like a kiss on the cheek and it takes the bite out of the sun. it is a whole different type of sun here though... your first step of the day you feel like you are either super fat or just dying very rapidly. haha it just presses down on you. and it is huuumid like you wouldnt believe. it is green as green can be here and every tree tries its best to ruin my day by producing all the humidity possible. :) the fun part is that this zone is the freshest climate in all of the new mission. haha. so i am going to enjoy it while i can. the best way to sleep here is in a hammock, curled up like a baby, and a fan blowing full blast. :) half way through the night i actually needed to put a sheet over myself because i was COLD!!!! ha.
i am thinking in spanish a lot now so writing this in english is getting progressively difficult. also i have been getting a lot of complements on my spanish lately. that has helped with my confidence in the streets and with knocking doors. it is just tough to have days where you are teachin 8 or 9 lessons and finding a lot of people but not a single one wants you come back. especially when it is for like 2 weeks consecutive. i think we need to have a companionship inventory this week. companionship inventory is pretty much telling eacother their faults in the most loving way you can and talking about how to change the companionship. i thinki am going to call it tonight after work. we need it bad. i am starting to lose patience with everything he does but i know we can fix things and i know we are friends and i love the death out of him. its wierd to be 21 with a senior comp who is 18 always teliing you what to do and treating you like a little kid. not the most enjoyable but it is a learning game.
anyway... today for p-day we went to a members home and did absolutely nothing while the sister did our laundry and it was.... AWESOME! never in my life has doing nothing been so amazing. just played with the kids and did nothing... i was thinking about writing but i find it pointless because i am just gonna email later. haha. i have seen the sites here and its to freaking hot to play sports so nothing was the perfect solution... i want to go back to the beach... next time i am taking my camera... it was awesome. beach and jungle. haha.
i know the church is true. and that it is only through the restored gospel that we can return to live with God the father and our families for ever in eternal life. i have no doubts that i will be there. that you all will be there. i have so much confidence that all the people i love with stay faithful and for those who are not members eventually accept the everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ.
en pocos palabras yo puedo decir mucho pero yo quiero decir solo esto..
LES AMOOOOOOOOOOO
CON TODO MI CORAZON,,,
ELDER ELREY
p.s. MI PALABRA ES LA LEY
Y
SIGO SIENDO EL REY
in a few words I can say a lot but I mean only that ..
I love them
WITH ALL MY HEART,,,
ELDER ELREY
P.S. MY WORD IS THE LAW
and
I'm still the KING
Tuesday, July 6, 2010
Monday, June 28, 2010
e-mail 06.28.2010
Here you go! Again, I love him! :)
Subject: Tengo Hambre
[I'm hungry!]
seriously i am so hungry right now. i just bought new shoes and all i am thinking about is Memelas and a cold Orange soda...
THE END
naaaa...
life is good and we got the transfers this last weekend. I am staying here in San Andrés for my 3rd transfer and i couldnt be happier. i love this place. being white in mexico is kinda like being the one red ant that is in a jar with like 100 black ants. haha. everyone seems to think its funny to make all their comments about me being racist and they like to laugh about how the US lost in the world cup and i like to laugh at them for liking that wretched sport. they honestly get offended when i say its for girls... POR FAVOOOOOR.. anybody that would roll on the floor pretending to be hurt to get a little gain is no man in my book. they need a sport like rugby here so they can learn what its like to have fun. and be men... i am begging for someone to want to pass the ball around.... aaaa... i love mexico... haha.
As far as the work goes... still a little tough. i am still pretty new and i am not very good at taking the initiative and it just so happens that my comp is the same way. so when an appointment falls through and we are sitting there thinking about what to do we usually end up teaching a lesson with a recent convert or a less active... both are ok to do they just arent efficient for progression in the work... this week i think that i am going to start making decisions and start knocking more doors and contacting more in the street. our weekly goal for contacts is 140 persons. i want to hit 200. our weekly goal for lessons taught is 30. i want 40. i want to succeed and exceed but i need to start doing 2 things.
1. i need to rely on the Lord and the Spirit for guidance.
2. i need to take the initiative and start making decisions.
instead of these two things i have been waiting for my companion to make a choice and just following his lead because he is senior companion. but this week i am going to push for more... more work and more success. in this area in this town and in this zone we should be baptizing every saturday. this is an amazing place. all we need to do is work with diligence and faith. sheesh i have been so fristrated and impatient this last couple days. haha.
IN OTHER NEWS.
ELder Moeller my buddy ol' pal got transfered out of the house... as some of you know he is from Tucson Arizona and he saved my life in my first few weeks. he will forever be one of my best friends. he was supposed to die this change but he is extending to help open the new parts of the mission veracruz. he is going home in 4 more weeks and he is gonna come by and visit. he wants to meet everyone and especially dad(in the office)haha. so he left and i am here now with some strange characters... haha. there is a ZL in the house ELder Gumeta who is from mexico city and he is 25.. OLD for a missionary and also there is a little ZL Elder Bowen from Utah. they are special people... and they absolutely loooove living with me. haha. i make every day an exciting day and we are all always laughing. also in the house now are me and my companion Elder Rosales. we get 6 more weeks to turn our companionship around. haha. dont get me wrong we get along great and we are always having a good time but we are just not working very well together right now. i know we can change for the better.
:)
other than that i am having a great time here in San Andres. loving every minute of it and the time is flying. i cant believe that i have 2 changes done here... 3 months in the field. by the end of the next change Elder Joseph H. Elrey will be in the MTC and almost the field. haha. how sweet is that. i am so pumped for you brother. the MTC is a special place and it does wierd things to a man. and the field... its a blast. everyday in this place and all over the world people are growing and accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ.
i know that it is only through this Gospel that we can live in the presence of God our Father after this life. It is through obedience of His commandments and through the sacrifice of His Son. the Atonement of Jesus Christ in all 3 parts is something very special... Christ suffered so much so that we could have the opportunity to be clean in this life and then He marked the way and set the path of the Resurrection so that we can return to live with our Father in the form of Families.
IT IS ONLY THROUGH OBEDIENCE AND THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST WHICH WAS RESTORED THROUGH JOSEPH SMITH
i dont have any more time...
ahorita quiero decir algo a todos.
les amo mucho.
a mi familia y mis amigos tambien.
El Evangelio de Jesucristo el el unico manera a regresar a Nuestro Padre Celestial.
El nos ama mucho.
[right now I want to say something to everyone.
I love them very much.
my family and my friends too.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ the only way to return to our heavenly Father.
He loves us very much.]
con todo mi amor,
Elder Elrey
Subject: Tengo Hambre
[I'm hungry!]
seriously i am so hungry right now. i just bought new shoes and all i am thinking about is Memelas and a cold Orange soda...
THE END
naaaa...
life is good and we got the transfers this last weekend. I am staying here in San Andrés for my 3rd transfer and i couldnt be happier. i love this place. being white in mexico is kinda like being the one red ant that is in a jar with like 100 black ants. haha. everyone seems to think its funny to make all their comments about me being racist and they like to laugh about how the US lost in the world cup and i like to laugh at them for liking that wretched sport. they honestly get offended when i say its for girls... POR FAVOOOOOR.. anybody that would roll on the floor pretending to be hurt to get a little gain is no man in my book. they need a sport like rugby here so they can learn what its like to have fun. and be men... i am begging for someone to want to pass the ball around.... aaaa... i love mexico... haha.
As far as the work goes... still a little tough. i am still pretty new and i am not very good at taking the initiative and it just so happens that my comp is the same way. so when an appointment falls through and we are sitting there thinking about what to do we usually end up teaching a lesson with a recent convert or a less active... both are ok to do they just arent efficient for progression in the work... this week i think that i am going to start making decisions and start knocking more doors and contacting more in the street. our weekly goal for contacts is 140 persons. i want to hit 200. our weekly goal for lessons taught is 30. i want 40. i want to succeed and exceed but i need to start doing 2 things.
1. i need to rely on the Lord and the Spirit for guidance.
2. i need to take the initiative and start making decisions.
instead of these two things i have been waiting for my companion to make a choice and just following his lead because he is senior companion. but this week i am going to push for more... more work and more success. in this area in this town and in this zone we should be baptizing every saturday. this is an amazing place. all we need to do is work with diligence and faith. sheesh i have been so fristrated and impatient this last couple days. haha.
IN OTHER NEWS.
ELder Moeller my buddy ol' pal got transfered out of the house... as some of you know he is from Tucson Arizona and he saved my life in my first few weeks. he will forever be one of my best friends. he was supposed to die this change but he is extending to help open the new parts of the mission veracruz. he is going home in 4 more weeks and he is gonna come by and visit. he wants to meet everyone and especially dad(in the office)haha. so he left and i am here now with some strange characters... haha. there is a ZL in the house ELder Gumeta who is from mexico city and he is 25.. OLD for a missionary and also there is a little ZL Elder Bowen from Utah. they are special people... and they absolutely loooove living with me. haha. i make every day an exciting day and we are all always laughing. also in the house now are me and my companion Elder Rosales. we get 6 more weeks to turn our companionship around. haha. dont get me wrong we get along great and we are always having a good time but we are just not working very well together right now. i know we can change for the better.
:)
other than that i am having a great time here in San Andres. loving every minute of it and the time is flying. i cant believe that i have 2 changes done here... 3 months in the field. by the end of the next change Elder Joseph H. Elrey will be in the MTC and almost the field. haha. how sweet is that. i am so pumped for you brother. the MTC is a special place and it does wierd things to a man. and the field... its a blast. everyday in this place and all over the world people are growing and accepting the gospel of Jesus Christ.
i know that it is only through this Gospel that we can live in the presence of God our Father after this life. It is through obedience of His commandments and through the sacrifice of His Son. the Atonement of Jesus Christ in all 3 parts is something very special... Christ suffered so much so that we could have the opportunity to be clean in this life and then He marked the way and set the path of the Resurrection so that we can return to live with our Father in the form of Families.
IT IS ONLY THROUGH OBEDIENCE AND THE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST WHICH WAS RESTORED THROUGH JOSEPH SMITH
i dont have any more time...
ahorita quiero decir algo a todos.
les amo mucho.
a mi familia y mis amigos tambien.
El Evangelio de Jesucristo el el unico manera a regresar a Nuestro Padre Celestial.
El nos ama mucho.
[right now I want to say something to everyone.
I love them very much.
my family and my friends too.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ the only way to return to our heavenly Father.
He loves us very much.]
con todo mi amor,
Elder Elrey
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
e-mail 06.21.2010
This week is good. Have I mentioned that I love him? Because I totally do. :)
alright so i am a huge fan of rain and it just so happens that there is a lot of it here. well this week it rained almost everyday. :) and the rain here is awesome.. it just dumps. but the sad part it is always happening at like 3 or 4 in the morning and there is a leak in the roof right above my hammock... haha. but i love this place. this coming saturday we are going to find out the changes and i am pretty confident that i am not going anywhere. i will get another 6 weeks in San Andres Tuxtlas. which i am happy and excited for. i love this area and dont really want to leave. but i think after another 6 weeks my time will come. Elder Rosales and i are good. we are working kinda hard and laughing really hard. haha. this last week was really out of focus because i had a cold and everytime we sat down for a lesson i would a not be able to pay attention or b fall asleep sitting up in my chair. i had nooo energy. but i am fine now and this week we are gonna work hard and set the pace for the upcoming 6 weeks. we baptized 3 this change and that matches my number from the first change. not too happy about that because i want to be able to progress. i think i know how to do it. i just need to work harder. i need to get off my lazy butt and work harder than i am now working. dont get me wrong i am working plenty but i am not working hard enough. there are people who need me and i want to be able to find them before its too late. also i ahve been having some trouble getting out of the hammock in the morning which i think is affecting every aspect of my success. i cant expect to progress or succeed without perfect obedience..next week i get a new mission president and i finally get to learn my new mission info which i now do not currently have but will be recieving/sending out soon. but yeah... i am excited because the new mission is all of Tabasco and all of the dirty south where conviently it is hot all year round and there are more historical Lamanite sites!!! YAY...
fun fact about Los Tuxtlas... Historians say that the culture here dates farthest back than any other mexicna culture and there is evidence of it. the tribe is refered to as the Olmecas but i like to refer to them as JAREDITES... yeah thats right. this is where the jaredites lived and died. i am always thinking about that. and the Olmecas carved giant stone heads that are pretty awesome and there are tons of statues and crap in the museums around here but museums are boring... everybody knows that. haha. tres zapotes is where a lot of the artifacts were discovered and we were there last week or the week before. its pretty cool to think that i am living where they lived.
but today we didnt do anything really exciting. the ZLs went to climb the hill cumorrah near here in Santiago which is stated to be the actual hill cummorah of the BoM but i didnt feel much like a hike this morning so we played some Futbol instead and i am awesome and scored 4 goals. id like to make a reservation for a Hat Trick +1 por favor. :) i hate soccer. such a garbage sport. but it is fun when we played to run through people and then fall over crying like a little frenchman holding his ankle... haha such a lady sport...
i got one picture of bill in one of the new OP threads and nearly pooped myself... i need me one of those. and i miss the pitch so bad. no one here understands a single thing about rugby and it is killing me. haha. when i get my new address out i want a package that is going to include my o.p. hat. :) and like two of everything. dress shirts18 neck, dress pants38 tall preferably pleated so i can have some room for my giant butt/thighs, costco gold toe socks more than 2 please. and if at all possible some more G's. tall please...
also something quite sad is that i have already walked the soles out of my shoes and am going to have to resole them or buy new ones. it might be best to resole them and if at all possible have a new pair of something better sent down from my loving family... haha i will make do with what i can for now because i still dont know the address to Villahermosa. i am told that packages US to Mexico using USPS are safe and secure so it shoud be alright.
also i would like to add a happy birthday to AFFEE and to SLOPPY JOSEPH happy birthday and all that. i have your birthdays written fisrt thing in my agenda and i thought about you guys alot on your days. also today is Nicholas Van Nye´s Birthday
so make it HAPPY.
haha.
love you all so much
the church is true..
i know that it is the only true church on this earth and it is only through the power of the Resurrection and the ordenaces of the church that we can live in happiness here in this life and after.
be safe my beloved friends and family.
con todo mi corazon,
Elder Elrey
alright so i am a huge fan of rain and it just so happens that there is a lot of it here. well this week it rained almost everyday. :) and the rain here is awesome.. it just dumps. but the sad part it is always happening at like 3 or 4 in the morning and there is a leak in the roof right above my hammock... haha. but i love this place. this coming saturday we are going to find out the changes and i am pretty confident that i am not going anywhere. i will get another 6 weeks in San Andres Tuxtlas. which i am happy and excited for. i love this area and dont really want to leave. but i think after another 6 weeks my time will come. Elder Rosales and i are good. we are working kinda hard and laughing really hard. haha. this last week was really out of focus because i had a cold and everytime we sat down for a lesson i would a not be able to pay attention or b fall asleep sitting up in my chair. i had nooo energy. but i am fine now and this week we are gonna work hard and set the pace for the upcoming 6 weeks. we baptized 3 this change and that matches my number from the first change. not too happy about that because i want to be able to progress. i think i know how to do it. i just need to work harder. i need to get off my lazy butt and work harder than i am now working. dont get me wrong i am working plenty but i am not working hard enough. there are people who need me and i want to be able to find them before its too late. also i ahve been having some trouble getting out of the hammock in the morning which i think is affecting every aspect of my success. i cant expect to progress or succeed without perfect obedience..next week i get a new mission president and i finally get to learn my new mission info which i now do not currently have but will be recieving/sending out soon. but yeah... i am excited because the new mission is all of Tabasco and all of the dirty south where conviently it is hot all year round and there are more historical Lamanite sites!!! YAY...
fun fact about Los Tuxtlas... Historians say that the culture here dates farthest back than any other mexicna culture and there is evidence of it. the tribe is refered to as the Olmecas but i like to refer to them as JAREDITES... yeah thats right. this is where the jaredites lived and died. i am always thinking about that. and the Olmecas carved giant stone heads that are pretty awesome and there are tons of statues and crap in the museums around here but museums are boring... everybody knows that. haha. tres zapotes is where a lot of the artifacts were discovered and we were there last week or the week before. its pretty cool to think that i am living where they lived.
but today we didnt do anything really exciting. the ZLs went to climb the hill cumorrah near here in Santiago which is stated to be the actual hill cummorah of the BoM but i didnt feel much like a hike this morning so we played some Futbol instead and i am awesome and scored 4 goals. id like to make a reservation for a Hat Trick +1 por favor. :) i hate soccer. such a garbage sport. but it is fun when we played to run through people and then fall over crying like a little frenchman holding his ankle... haha such a lady sport...
i got one picture of bill in one of the new OP threads and nearly pooped myself... i need me one of those. and i miss the pitch so bad. no one here understands a single thing about rugby and it is killing me. haha. when i get my new address out i want a package that is going to include my o.p. hat. :) and like two of everything. dress shirts18 neck, dress pants38 tall preferably pleated so i can have some room for my giant butt/thighs, costco gold toe socks more than 2 please. and if at all possible some more G's. tall please...
also something quite sad is that i have already walked the soles out of my shoes and am going to have to resole them or buy new ones. it might be best to resole them and if at all possible have a new pair of something better sent down from my loving family... haha i will make do with what i can for now because i still dont know the address to Villahermosa. i am told that packages US to Mexico using USPS are safe and secure so it shoud be alright.
also i would like to add a happy birthday to AFFEE and to SLOPPY JOSEPH happy birthday and all that. i have your birthdays written fisrt thing in my agenda and i thought about you guys alot on your days. also today is Nicholas Van Nye´s Birthday
so make it HAPPY.
haha.
love you all so much
the church is true..
i know that it is the only true church on this earth and it is only through the power of the Resurrection and the ordenaces of the church that we can live in happiness here in this life and after.
be safe my beloved friends and family.
con todo mi corazon,
Elder Elrey
Monday, June 14, 2010
e-mail, Monday, June 14th, 2010
Here it is! Enjoy! And just so you know, I LOVE my Brother! :)
Oh! He sent pictures. I'll add them later. Just be sure to check back to see them!
Subject: ¡You know i dont speak spanish!
oh but i dooooo... haha. its quite the enjoyable experience to have a conversation in spanish. haha. this week has baaen pretty awesome. we have worked pretty hard and had some success and right about now it is picking up and moving on towards the baptismal font. I will start with our activities from tuesday.
My companion and i were talking and walking on the way to an appointment and he asked me what the name of an area was... i replied with an exhuberant... yo no se. after our appointment conviently wasnt home or was avoiding us... who knows. we turned back to walk the 3 miles to our plan b. but wait. WHAT IS THE NAME OF THAT PLACE??? lets march on down into the valley and ask someone.so we do exactly that. just marching along and marching along.and we come to a river. and we follow this stream up through a neighborhood and then the houses stop... and the JUNGLE starts. :) so we are marching along and marching along and then we are lost in the jungle. but then we found the river and we were ok but we were still in the jungle. fun fact about San Andres is that the water in the city rivers is poop broen and it smells like...well... POOP. but here in the jungle it was crytal clear and so cool. but anyway me and my companion got a little carried away playing with our cameras and snapping fotos. haha. i love the jungle. still havent seen any monkeys which is buuuuummin me out but i am sure i will find some in Tabasco. but after about an hour of jungle trekking we got back to the houses and found out that the colonia is named San Martin. i have attatched a few fotos of this and ill send more in another email. but anyway it was so humid in the jungle that i was soaked head to toe with sweat after this. quite the excursion just to ask the name of the area.
after that we aorked really hard through the rest of the week. we have been focusing on our street contacts in hopes of finding a family to teach and it has been helping us find a lot of people to teach and eventually baptize. we contacted a lady who accepted an appointment the next day and in her appointment we taught her about the Restoration and about Joseph Smith and the whole first lesson and she told us how grateful she is to be talking to us and how she met with the missionaries once before but then she was living in a union libre(living together and not being married) but now she is single. i leaned in a little and whispered... NOWS YOUR CHANCE... haha we taught her about baptism and how it is for 2 things. Un Bautismo es para ser limpio de sus pecados y es la puerta para regresar y vivir con Dios para siempre.we taught her that a baptism is be clean of your sins and it is the door to return to live with God again. we also taught that it has to be done by someone who has the autority of God which we know as the Priesthood which was restored through Joseph Smith. That it is only through this power and recieving the gift of the holy ghost by the laying on of hands that a baptism can be valid before God. She accepted a baptismal date for 3 weeks and is getting ready for the water. its awesome to see people who are missing something in their lives and then we give them the Gospel, and it fills their lives to the top with love and joy.I am so happy to be a missionary and i love the work that i have the opportunity to do. I know that th Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only true Church and it is the same Church that Christ established in His life, with the same organization. with a Prophet, the Priesthood, and 12 apostles. Christ established one Church. there is only one Church and for those of you who don't know... this is His Church. There is know doubt in my mind and if there was i wouldn't be able to do the things that i am doing.
something else kinda cool. i helped prepare i cows head to be cooked... i was with a member family but their uncle who is not a member got mad at us for taking pictures and playing with the eyeballs and stuff but it was gnarly. Mexico is so fun.
today we had our Zone Activity for the transfer which i again failed to take pictures of. but we rode in the back of a ford ranger pick up for 2 hours to get to the Montepillo beach and played american footbal and football soccer. we couldnt swim but i definitely found ways to get wet. this beach was beautiful... jungle mountains all around and the water was perrrrfect. luckily it rained heavy last night and the weather was nice and cool and cloudy this morning so it was awesome to play on the beach. we fit 18 missionaries in a ford Ranger for 2 hours both ways. haha. oh and the cool part that made it worth it was that we were all alone on the beach. playing like goobers. it was awesome..
but now i am out of time and i gotta get back to work. i love you all so much. keep me posted and send me fotos of everything that is going on. you all have my email and my address so stop being so dang lazy... :)
love,
Elder Elrey
Oh! He sent pictures. I'll add them later. Just be sure to check back to see them!
Subject: ¡You know i dont speak spanish!
oh but i dooooo... haha. its quite the enjoyable experience to have a conversation in spanish. haha. this week has baaen pretty awesome. we have worked pretty hard and had some success and right about now it is picking up and moving on towards the baptismal font. I will start with our activities from tuesday.
My companion and i were talking and walking on the way to an appointment and he asked me what the name of an area was... i replied with an exhuberant... yo no se. after our appointment conviently wasnt home or was avoiding us... who knows. we turned back to walk the 3 miles to our plan b. but wait. WHAT IS THE NAME OF THAT PLACE??? lets march on down into the valley and ask someone.so we do exactly that. just marching along and marching along.and we come to a river. and we follow this stream up through a neighborhood and then the houses stop... and the JUNGLE starts. :) so we are marching along and marching along and then we are lost in the jungle. but then we found the river and we were ok but we were still in the jungle. fun fact about San Andres is that the water in the city rivers is poop broen and it smells like...well... POOP. but here in the jungle it was crytal clear and so cool. but anyway me and my companion got a little carried away playing with our cameras and snapping fotos. haha. i love the jungle. still havent seen any monkeys which is buuuuummin me out but i am sure i will find some in Tabasco. but after about an hour of jungle trekking we got back to the houses and found out that the colonia is named San Martin. i have attatched a few fotos of this and ill send more in another email. but anyway it was so humid in the jungle that i was soaked head to toe with sweat after this. quite the excursion just to ask the name of the area.
after that we aorked really hard through the rest of the week. we have been focusing on our street contacts in hopes of finding a family to teach and it has been helping us find a lot of people to teach and eventually baptize. we contacted a lady who accepted an appointment the next day and in her appointment we taught her about the Restoration and about Joseph Smith and the whole first lesson and she told us how grateful she is to be talking to us and how she met with the missionaries once before but then she was living in a union libre(living together and not being married) but now she is single. i leaned in a little and whispered... NOWS YOUR CHANCE... haha we taught her about baptism and how it is for 2 things. Un Bautismo es para ser limpio de sus pecados y es la puerta para regresar y vivir con Dios para siempre.we taught her that a baptism is be clean of your sins and it is the door to return to live with God again. we also taught that it has to be done by someone who has the autority of God which we know as the Priesthood which was restored through Joseph Smith. That it is only through this power and recieving the gift of the holy ghost by the laying on of hands that a baptism can be valid before God. She accepted a baptismal date for 3 weeks and is getting ready for the water. its awesome to see people who are missing something in their lives and then we give them the Gospel, and it fills their lives to the top with love and joy.I am so happy to be a missionary and i love the work that i have the opportunity to do. I know that th Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only true Church and it is the same Church that Christ established in His life, with the same organization. with a Prophet, the Priesthood, and 12 apostles. Christ established one Church. there is only one Church and for those of you who don't know... this is His Church. There is know doubt in my mind and if there was i wouldn't be able to do the things that i am doing.
something else kinda cool. i helped prepare i cows head to be cooked... i was with a member family but their uncle who is not a member got mad at us for taking pictures and playing with the eyeballs and stuff but it was gnarly. Mexico is so fun.
today we had our Zone Activity for the transfer which i again failed to take pictures of. but we rode in the back of a ford ranger pick up for 2 hours to get to the Montepillo beach and played american footbal and football soccer. we couldnt swim but i definitely found ways to get wet. this beach was beautiful... jungle mountains all around and the water was perrrrfect. luckily it rained heavy last night and the weather was nice and cool and cloudy this morning so it was awesome to play on the beach. we fit 18 missionaries in a ford Ranger for 2 hours both ways. haha. oh and the cool part that made it worth it was that we were all alone on the beach. playing like goobers. it was awesome..
but now i am out of time and i gotta get back to work. i love you all so much. keep me posted and send me fotos of everything that is going on. you all have my email and my address so stop being so dang lazy... :)
love,
Elder Elrey
Saturday, June 12, 2010
e-mail Monday, 6.7.2010
Sorry it took so long to post this one! I've had a busy week! There'll probably be another one Monday!
this has been an interesting week. well not really it has been quite normal as far as weeks go here. very HOT and very HUMID and i really just want it to rain. we are working but never hard enough(because there is no such thing in the field) and we are having a good time doing it. :)
we had a Baptism this last saturday and it was pretty cool. Pretty small as well but the mission president came and helped us by being a witness. I would send fotos but the batteries in my camera dies and i have baught new ones yet. freaking AA batteries. haha. i am going to buy rechargables today but they cost lik 200-300 pesos. which is like 25 bucks. its a fortune out here. haha. especially becuase they only give us like 1200 pesos to live off of for a month. anyway the baptism was fun. my comp Elder Rosales did the ordenance and i directed the meeting. i WAS going to confirm on sunday but Orlando (the baptism) didnt show up for sacrament meeting... so now we have to wait two more weeks to confirm because this week is going to be conferencia de Distrito kinda like Stake Conference but the area of Los Tuxtlas is a District because it doesnt have enough activity to be a Stake. YET!!! but it will very soon. we are making sure of that. we are working hard to find and reactivate less actives and in the process find a lot of new investigators to teach because instead of finding them we are finding their families or the people who moved into their house. right now we dont have a lot of solid people on date for baptism but i thiink we can turn it around by the end of the change. this week we are going to focus on finding a FAMILY to teach and baptize. when you baptize a family you get to return and take them through their endowment and sealings in the temple! and that would be rad because i love this area. and i want nothing more than to be able to come back here a year down the line. :) but aaaaaaanyways. this week was pretty normal.
today was interesting though.. we went to a nearby town called Catemaco which is the town of the witches. and there is a big lake there with an island full of MONKEYS!!! but we couldnt go because we arent allowed to go in or on the water(except baptisms). its a cool city. we went to a pplace on the other side of the lake called Nanciyaga which is where they have a ton of historical replicas and its a guided tour through the jungle and you get your face painted with cleansing mud and you drink pure mineral water with a leaf and look at turtles and iguanas and im rambling and every year in the beginning of march there is a giant witch festival there and admission is free and in this area(Los Tuxtlas) is where Mel Gibson Filmed APOCALYPTO which is pretty cool and i couldnt take any pctures today because i dont have batteries. it was pretty funny though because every time we stopped at another replica and the lady would explain about it she would add on the end that the origional is in the United States somewhere because they borrowed and didnt give it back. hahahahahaaaa. that was funny. but i am pretty sure the lady didnt like us because we were 3 gringos and 2 natives. but its all good. next week we are planning to go to the beach and play sports but we will see how that goes.
i dont know what i just wrote to all you but i feel like i just barfed it at you. haha. oh i do remember getting sick this week. right after we ate and opened our fast on saturday i threw up all the gnarly chicken we ate. and felt horrible through the whole fast. and after we closed and ate again i could escape the bathroom. it was an interesting time. i attatched a couple fotos from early this week with a bird on my finger and one of a sweet ppeacock that is always in a little park in a little neighborhood called Rodeo. i dont quite know how it gets up there but its a sweet picture. uuuuuummmm... oh and its MANGO SEASOOOONNN::: there are mango trees everywhere here and its awesome. because you will be walking along and a perfectly ripe beautiful mango will drop out of the sky right in front of you and they are soooooo delicious. especially cold. one morning for breakfast we ate like 5 a piece. i love them and they are nothing like the mangos in the states.
i dont got much else to say except the church is true. that God is our loving Heavenly Father and that He Truly Wants the BEST for us. The gospel of Jesus Christ that we have in the churchis the only way to return to live with God Again...
I love you all so much.
con todo mi corazon,
Elder Elrey
p.s. i am getting to a point where i am struggling to speak the spanish and i cant remember how to speak the english... its wierd... but i am loving mexico.
¡Livin La Vida Sagrada!
time to baptize the heck out of ´em
this has been an interesting week. well not really it has been quite normal as far as weeks go here. very HOT and very HUMID and i really just want it to rain. we are working but never hard enough(because there is no such thing in the field) and we are having a good time doing it. :)
we had a Baptism this last saturday and it was pretty cool. Pretty small as well but the mission president came and helped us by being a witness. I would send fotos but the batteries in my camera dies and i have baught new ones yet. freaking AA batteries. haha. i am going to buy rechargables today but they cost lik 200-300 pesos. which is like 25 bucks. its a fortune out here. haha. especially becuase they only give us like 1200 pesos to live off of for a month. anyway the baptism was fun. my comp Elder Rosales did the ordenance and i directed the meeting. i WAS going to confirm on sunday but Orlando (the baptism) didnt show up for sacrament meeting... so now we have to wait two more weeks to confirm because this week is going to be conferencia de Distrito kinda like Stake Conference but the area of Los Tuxtlas is a District because it doesnt have enough activity to be a Stake. YET!!! but it will very soon. we are making sure of that. we are working hard to find and reactivate less actives and in the process find a lot of new investigators to teach because instead of finding them we are finding their families or the people who moved into their house. right now we dont have a lot of solid people on date for baptism but i thiink we can turn it around by the end of the change. this week we are going to focus on finding a FAMILY to teach and baptize. when you baptize a family you get to return and take them through their endowment and sealings in the temple! and that would be rad because i love this area. and i want nothing more than to be able to come back here a year down the line. :) but aaaaaaanyways. this week was pretty normal.
today was interesting though.. we went to a nearby town called Catemaco which is the town of the witches. and there is a big lake there with an island full of MONKEYS!!! but we couldnt go because we arent allowed to go in or on the water(except baptisms). its a cool city. we went to a pplace on the other side of the lake called Nanciyaga which is where they have a ton of historical replicas and its a guided tour through the jungle and you get your face painted with cleansing mud and you drink pure mineral water with a leaf and look at turtles and iguanas and im rambling and every year in the beginning of march there is a giant witch festival there and admission is free and in this area(Los Tuxtlas) is where Mel Gibson Filmed APOCALYPTO which is pretty cool and i couldnt take any pctures today because i dont have batteries. it was pretty funny though because every time we stopped at another replica and the lady would explain about it she would add on the end that the origional is in the United States somewhere because they borrowed and didnt give it back. hahahahahaaaa. that was funny. but i am pretty sure the lady didnt like us because we were 3 gringos and 2 natives. but its all good. next week we are planning to go to the beach and play sports but we will see how that goes.
i dont know what i just wrote to all you but i feel like i just barfed it at you. haha. oh i do remember getting sick this week. right after we ate and opened our fast on saturday i threw up all the gnarly chicken we ate. and felt horrible through the whole fast. and after we closed and ate again i could escape the bathroom. it was an interesting time. i attatched a couple fotos from early this week with a bird on my finger and one of a sweet ppeacock that is always in a little park in a little neighborhood called Rodeo. i dont quite know how it gets up there but its a sweet picture. uuuuuummmm... oh and its MANGO SEASOOOONNN::: there are mango trees everywhere here and its awesome. because you will be walking along and a perfectly ripe beautiful mango will drop out of the sky right in front of you and they are soooooo delicious. especially cold. one morning for breakfast we ate like 5 a piece. i love them and they are nothing like the mangos in the states.
i dont got much else to say except the church is true. that God is our loving Heavenly Father and that He Truly Wants the BEST for us. The gospel of Jesus Christ that we have in the churchis the only way to return to live with God Again...
I love you all so much.
con todo mi corazon,
Elder Elrey
p.s. i am getting to a point where i am struggling to speak the spanish and i cant remember how to speak the english... its wierd... but i am loving mexico.
¡Livin La Vida Sagrada!
time to baptize the heck out of ´em
Monday, May 31, 2010
e-mail 5.31.2010
Soo sorry it's been so long. I haven't gotten an e-mail in a while and nobody has told me anything they've gotten. :( but here it is! An AWESOME letter. :) I love him!
hey everyone. this week was a little tough. we arent up to par on our lessons taught and as a young companionship we are often lost. haha. our baptism fell through and for a little while it seemed like nothing was going right. Orlando is the kid we were going to baptize and he was way excited... always asking us what day, what time and who is going to baptize him. and then on the day of his baptism we went to pick him up and he tells us that he doesnt want to be baptized...???????????
we talked to him for 30 minutes about why and he explained that he didnt want to be a part of two religions and that he wanted to be Catholic... where did he get these ideas???? oh yeah his unsopportive mother... 14 year old kids dont think like that. we left. and talked with our zone leaders who were having a baptismal service the hour after ours and they told us to go back and invite him to theirs. we did so and he surprisingly said yes. so we took him to the church and immediadtely our branch president pulls himi into his office for a random interview. he came out and watch the baptism and we sang some songs and he said to me... next saturday is my baptism right?
haha. so frustrating and yet so relieving. he is on date for a good dunking if its the last thing i do.
also this week we had our last conference before the split and i got to see my whole MTC district and hang out like old times. haha. we are still a little district unit. it was awesome to be able to share stories. i love those guys like brothers and we have the unity of a family. there is a foto attatched of us at the VERACRUZ temple and one of me and my old comp Elder Robertson. it was a cool sonference and also it was kinda nice to spent a day in the beautiful chapel up there in veracruz. it is seriously amazing. kicks the garbage out of ours at home. i think it is because it is attatched to the temple grounds. but it was awesome. i am still looking forward to the mission change though. there is so much work to be done here and in Tabasco as well. the Los Tuxtlas zone is the furthest north in the new mission so after here i imagine i am going to get to go down south. i am excited for the future here.
the days are picking up again. these last couple weeks have dragged a bit but things are turning around and are starting to fly by again. today for p-day we went to a place called Tres Zapotes were were origionally found some olmeca ruins. i forgot my camera and the museum was closed. haha. but we went out to the fields and found some pyramid ruins and played around out there. IF YOU GOOGLE MAP THAT AREA YOU CAN SEE PYRAMIDS AND TONS OF COOL STUFF. they are just big lumps of grass in the valleys because the government doesnt have the funds to excavate all of them. haha. there are a lot around here. but we just played around with the 3 ZLs and the other 2 elders in our district. it was over all a good time but also a bummer that the museum was closed.
the work is going good. but it can always go better. i am progressing in my language abilities and forgetting how to speak english. which right now is a blessing. i am having tons of fun and i am finally settling in and starting to act like myself. which is good for the Elders in the house because the never stop laughing. :) it is fun to live in a house with 4 other guys.most of the time... haha. keep praying for me and tell people to get some letters in the mail. or to just email this email. send me a box USPS because it is safe, direct, and secure to the mission home. i love alllllll of you and i am grateful to have such an awesome family. keep me updated and ask me anything you wanna know about mexico.
love
Elder ELrey
p.s. The hammocks here are AMAAAAAZING.
The sign says "Protected" :)
Him and Elder Robertson, his Comp from the MTC. :)
His district (from the MTC?) at the Veracruz Temple.
hey everyone. this week was a little tough. we arent up to par on our lessons taught and as a young companionship we are often lost. haha. our baptism fell through and for a little while it seemed like nothing was going right. Orlando is the kid we were going to baptize and he was way excited... always asking us what day, what time and who is going to baptize him. and then on the day of his baptism we went to pick him up and he tells us that he doesnt want to be baptized...???????????
we talked to him for 30 minutes about why and he explained that he didnt want to be a part of two religions and that he wanted to be Catholic... where did he get these ideas???? oh yeah his unsopportive mother... 14 year old kids dont think like that. we left. and talked with our zone leaders who were having a baptismal service the hour after ours and they told us to go back and invite him to theirs. we did so and he surprisingly said yes. so we took him to the church and immediadtely our branch president pulls himi into his office for a random interview. he came out and watch the baptism and we sang some songs and he said to me... next saturday is my baptism right?
haha. so frustrating and yet so relieving. he is on date for a good dunking if its the last thing i do.
also this week we had our last conference before the split and i got to see my whole MTC district and hang out like old times. haha. we are still a little district unit. it was awesome to be able to share stories. i love those guys like brothers and we have the unity of a family. there is a foto attatched of us at the VERACRUZ temple and one of me and my old comp Elder Robertson. it was a cool sonference and also it was kinda nice to spent a day in the beautiful chapel up there in veracruz. it is seriously amazing. kicks the garbage out of ours at home. i think it is because it is attatched to the temple grounds. but it was awesome. i am still looking forward to the mission change though. there is so much work to be done here and in Tabasco as well. the Los Tuxtlas zone is the furthest north in the new mission so after here i imagine i am going to get to go down south. i am excited for the future here.
the days are picking up again. these last couple weeks have dragged a bit but things are turning around and are starting to fly by again. today for p-day we went to a place called Tres Zapotes were were origionally found some olmeca ruins. i forgot my camera and the museum was closed. haha. but we went out to the fields and found some pyramid ruins and played around out there. IF YOU GOOGLE MAP THAT AREA YOU CAN SEE PYRAMIDS AND TONS OF COOL STUFF. they are just big lumps of grass in the valleys because the government doesnt have the funds to excavate all of them. haha. there are a lot around here. but we just played around with the 3 ZLs and the other 2 elders in our district. it was over all a good time but also a bummer that the museum was closed.
the work is going good. but it can always go better. i am progressing in my language abilities and forgetting how to speak english. which right now is a blessing. i am having tons of fun and i am finally settling in and starting to act like myself. which is good for the Elders in the house because the never stop laughing. :) it is fun to live in a house with 4 other guys.most of the time... haha. keep praying for me and tell people to get some letters in the mail. or to just email this email. send me a box USPS because it is safe, direct, and secure to the mission home. i love alllllll of you and i am grateful to have such an awesome family. keep me updated and ask me anything you wanna know about mexico.
love
Elder ELrey
p.s. The hammocks here are AMAAAAAZING.
The sign says "Protected" :)
Him and Elder Robertson, his Comp from the MTC. :)
His district (from the MTC?) at the Veracruz Temple.
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