Elder Oaks

So the week was pretty good. We have transfers tomorrow. Still don't know if I am staying or going so who knows. Yes, I got the note from Bro. Gomez...three times, haha! I guess everyone wanted to make sure I got it. I have been close to his family a few times. Right now I'm not really close but my last area in Saltillo was close to some of his family. I might have even meet some of them because the name rings a bell. Also the town where his dad was born is my first area in Mexico. I have also visited Piedras Negras. I will have to keep an eye out the next time I go to one of those areas.

Things went pretty well this week. To put things simply, this is one of the hardest areas that I have had but we are working hard. I am trying to think of what new things I can do this week to pick the zone up a little bit. We had Stake Conference yesterday. It was a broadcast to all of northern Mexico. Elder Dallin H. Oaks spoke and asked three questions and then told us we should always be asking these questions to ourselves to improve. These are my translations from Spanish:

1. What does the Lord expect of me?
2. What have I done/am I doing to live up to these expectations?
3. What can I change to more fully live up to these expectations?

It was a good conference and the questions made me look at what I am doing a little differently.

 

Really not to much more to report this week. I am still trying to figure out why it won't let me send pictures. Hopefully they come soon. I love you all.

Elder K

New Year's Pictures

Bummer

Well it was a bit of a bummer week. The good news is that we are teaching more lessons now that the holidays have passed and we are finding more new people, but the people that we thought were going to get baptized got sucked into some wierd ritual stuff and told us that they will come looking for us when they feel like they should get baptized... bummer. I am hoping that the efforts of this last week pay off in the week that we are starting and that we have a whole ton of people, but we sure have our work cut out for us.

We have transfers next Monday. I am pretty sure I will be staying here another transfer, but in the mission you never know whats going to happen.

Everything is going good here. I am loving the weather and even more when I hear about how cold it is there. I love you all. Have a good week.

Elder K

 

PS I am trying to send pictures still but I think somthing happened to my card reader.

Happy New Year!

We are hoping for two baptisms this Sunday that's coming. We spent New Year's Eve (until 1030) with a family of members with a piñata and all that jazz. I was going to send a bunch of pictures this week but we are having some problems with the memory card. I am hoping that they all didn't get erased.

I had one of the coolest things that has happened to me in the mission happen this last week. I had the chance to interview a Jewish man named Bit-el. He is 100% Jewish with the cloths and everything. He lives 100% of the law of Moses and knows 8 languages and a whole ton of doctrine. I was a little nervous going into the interview. We were talking for almost two hours about how Christ is our Savior to the 12 tribes to the law of consecration--almost anything you can think of. Talk about revelation. There are so many things that I said that I know God gave me the answer. It was nuts and so cool I can't even put it all in words. He accepted to get baptized.

The day after his interview his parents took a flight from Russia just to come chew him out. They took is money, job, house, everything. They disowned him as a son and he is no longer allowed in the Jewish community, but he was baptized yesterday. He knew that this would happen but he go baptized anyway. He said he knew it was right so he had to do it. There are still a lot of things that he has to change because he is so use to the law of Moses but he is willing. It has been a real testimony builder to me.

I am with you 100%, mom. It doesn't matter what others think and do. We stay focused on what God wants us to do and we do it.

I love you all and I hope you all had a Happy New Year.
Elder K

Christmas Day

Well not much to write this week considering I just spoke with a bunch of the fam. It was a good Christmas. They gave us the good old 'Surprise Elders, you get to speak in church today'. They told us when we got done passing the sacrament so of course there was a whole ton of time to prepare. I was thinking about it though--I always feel better speaking that way. There is no time for nerves to build up and you have to speak by the spirit.

It will be interesting to see how New Year's Eve goes here. I am not looking forward to all the drinking that I am sure will happen but holidays sure keep things interesting. I sent a few random pics of the Christmas stash (I think it's even better as a missionary, haha) and some other pics from the week's events and Christmas day.

I love you all. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

Elder K

Thanks for the package. My tie collection is getting pretty big now. The beef jerky is hitting the spot. Thanks for everything. I love you guys very much. Couldn't ask for better parents.

Merry Christmas

Well baptisms dropped a bit this week but we are hoping to be strong through Christmas. It's a lot harder to find people this time of year here in Mexico but we are doing a ton of work with the Joy to the World DVD. Not many can say no to free stuff. We had a woman contact us in the street on Wednesday and to be completely honest I was thinking that it was just another crazy that likes to talk to people in the streets but when we went to her house the next day it was a different story. She is from the state of Hidalgo and she only has 3 weeks living here with her husband. She went to elementry and jr. high in schools of the church and has been to Utah many times. She has seen all of Temple Square and the whole 9 yards. The only thing is that she has never ever been to church. All this contact throughout all of her life with members and the church and no one ever invited her to church. It made me think about all the people that I know that aren't members that I never ever invited to church even though we live in Utah and the church is everywhere. How many chances have I lost to invite? DONT MAKE THAT MISTAKE. The worst that can happen is that they say no. Invite everyone as many times as you can. I got thinking about what Christ would say to me after this life about the people that I never invited that I spent lots of time with. I have realized how much we fall into the 'Oh I live in Utah, eveyone's a member' way of thinking. So start thinking and inviting!

It's wierd to think that this is already my second and last Christmas in the mission. Time has flown by. It feels like forever ago that I was in Calif giving Santa his Book of Mormon.

I love you all and hope you all have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. Show your true Christmas spirit and your love for our Heavenly Father and our Savior and do MISSIONARY WORK. After all, this is His work and His glory. What better way to show how grateful we are than helping Him do His work?

Love you and thanks for everything,

Elder K

The Walgreens Guy and Other Stories

Well, it was short sleeve weather all week but today has been a little cooler and everyone is saying that its going to start getting pretty chilly but who knows. Everyone here starts putting on big coats and earmuffs when it drops to 50 or 60. Its kinda funny.

Everyone is starting to put up Christmas trees and lights here. In Mexico the 6th of January is a bigger holiday than Christmas. It's when they get all their presents. It's when they say that the three kings came but from what they have told me, here in Monterrey Christmas is bigger because we are so close to the border and it has all been Americanized. The area I am in is a little richer than most areas so everyone can afford trees and the lights.

We had another baptism this last week. I have really felt like these last baptisms we have had I haven't really done much. The Lord just is giving them to us ready to be dunked. It's been cool. I hope we can keep it going. We now have 3 weeks in a row baptizing.

I also put a picture of my zone because we have transfers tomorrow so a lot of them will be changed.

I am glad you got the hand written letter. I had given up hope on that letter. I wrote it in June but hey 6 months later is better than never I guess.

Well, we are entering into one of the hardest months for baptisms. last year in the zone they only baptized 9 this month but we already have 4 and I say we can hit 20 in the month. It doesn't help us much that Christmas day and NewYyears day fall on Sundays but we will do.

This week we went to a store that's called Guadalajara (Mexican Walgreens). We were printing some pics of the baptisms we have had when one of the workers came up to us and ask us ¿Son mormones Usteds? Translation: Are you guys Mormons? We said yes but to be honest I was thinking... Oh great here it comes, no we dont have 7 wifes, Jonas smith was not a God and his name is Joseph Smith and we don't know where the gold plates are. The usual answers we have to give, but I was wrong. He explained to us that he had moved to Monterrey from Mexico City about six months ago and that he hadn't been going to any church for years. He said he got baptized in the Catholic church as a baby and asked us, "Does that realy count? Because I dont think it does." As my mouth drops open he adds, "Do you guys teach about baptism and stuff like that?"... haha well yes we do. We explained a little of what we do and put an appointment for later that day when he got off work.

Later that day as we headed to his house we were feeling good. To help us find his house easier he told us he rented a room behind a green house. He told us the name of the guy that lives in the house because everyone knows him, so with that we found the house in no time but then we knocked.... Out came the owner of the house. Without even giving us a chance to talk he started yelling, "I am Christian, I am Christian!" and slammed the door shut. Talk about going from a super high to a super low. We tried talking to neighbors but no one had heard of the guy we were looking for. So we left sadly with no hope.

The next day we were leaving the house in the morning to go to an appointment when they called us to cancel, talk about salt on an open wond. So we started to walk to go contacting. As I walked sadly I was thinking of who we could visit, out of the corner of my eye I saw a guy walking with some bags in his hand and the thought came 'Oh hey look its the guy from the Guadalajara......Wait a second the guy from the Guadalajara!' He saw us and came over the greet us and get mad that we didn't come yesterday. We explained what happened so he said, "Well come right now then." To put things simply, we taught him and he accepted to get baptized. Story to be continued...

Well, that's it for the week. Love you guys. Hope all is well.

Elder K

Having technical difficulties--zone picture coming soon...