Chicken Feet

Hmmm this week went by well. We had a good amount of people in the church.... like 7 investigators or something like that, and we are going to have 2 bap. this next sunday which should be cool. One of the is a guy named Jose who was a pentacostle preacher but started dating a lady from the church and has now decided to become mormon haha, so Im cool with that, he prayed and got his answer thats the most important part. Also the other guy  his wife is a returned missionary. Inactive for the last 7 years decided to come back to church 2 weeks ago. He also one day while he was driving to work decided to pray to see if it was all true. Well he sayed that all the cars went silent and he started to worry if he has deaf the he felt a huge peace and assurance that it is all true. So thats super cool when something like that happens and your investigators have those kinda experiences.... God is our heavenly father... and he answers our prayes... always.

     Yesterday we played basketball in the morning then football in the afternoon and so that was pretty fun. Im getting old and my body hurts but I guess rocks and waterfalls make you feel old fast haha. but im actually pretty good. just alittle stiff. One of my elders in the zone got super sick this week and went to the hospital haha. lame. But he also threw up on the ladys food. So that was a success. I ate some good food this week jajaja. well kinda. We had one day were we ate aton for lunch and so i felt alittle sick then in the night time we showed up at the house of a member and she had made for me chiken feet soup and pig feet in salsa verde. Also she had made chilaquiles. which is like tortilla chips... hand made with a really hot salsa ontop... just straight up california chile with onion and garlic blended up and poured on haha, sometimes they put in tomate, depending on how you like it. .... which are super good and even better with an egg on top. anyways I thought I was going to die, I was super full and she gave me three plates of food.... weird thing about chicken feet is that the bones are hollow so you just chew them up. My comp wouldnt eat them. And the pigs feet you eat the cartlige which is like gum and is super sticky. The only bad part is when they dont shave it well enough and there is still hair on it haha. they are actually super good. Then after that we went to another house to finish of the night and they gave us   rice pudding and bread... wow it was terrible. So I spent most of my night in the bathroom haha. But all is well now. No problems haha

    What else happend this week. Oh we had the a meeting with the zone leaders and the pres wasnt going to be there so we brought sodas and a cake for Elder Llanes because it was his Bday and well haha that was fun too. Im going to play billard this week, we met a biker gang here and they have a table in their club so this week im going to make it a priority to go play... dont worry mom they are good guys. I asked them if I could use there bathroom, and they asked my comp. if I went in there to do coke. they said I looked that way. I hope not but whatever. Anyways they invited us to come play pool so Im going to go back to play.

  Anyways I also completed 19 months this week and so Ive got 5 more haha. Which should be cool. I had a nightmare last night that they werent going to send us home the 24 but the 7th of jan. haha. anyways Im keeping my mind focused on the mission but its hard my comp even counts the days and is always reminding me of it ....

I love you all tons

Peace, Love, and go eat chiken feet. you actually can suck all the juice out of the bones and its quite tasty

Obedience

 Alright so the photos look really cool, it seems like it was super fun there. The funny thing is that the foto I liked the most was of you on the bike up Grandview.... It brings back good.... and well bad memories but all in all it was a fun time up there. And with Morgan there in the background haha, man haha we will have to do a hike like that again, this time though, Im not bringing any pansies haha.

      This week was good. Mom thanks for the squirt guns we had alot of fun with them this week. We would shoot all the dogs that barked at us. And then we started having wars with them. So right before we would enter in the house of somebody we would try to make it look like they wetted there pants haha. It was super funny. We got in a house and my comp forgot his squirt gun. So while we were walking out of the house, I had the both of them. I waited till he got on the stairs and there was no were to run and unloaded on him.... haha, It looked as if he had had a full blowout, haha, it was terrible.

Other then that not much happened this week. It went by well. Kinda slow but it has been fun. Today we went to the offices and I was sitting there talking to the sec. when Sister Carreon came in.... the presidents wife... she shook my hand and then saluted me, military style haha... and said that I should always be saluted like that haha...... I was so confused and still am confused haha. then she started to say why, more or less it was because of obedience and the way I carry myself down here. But it made me laugh and feel good. The sister is super cool..

Bummer note. Elder Castelan went home today.... I trained him and well he never really was a good missionary. Well when he was with me he was but ya no. Anyways he did alot of dumb things here in the mission. He had his comp. and ipod and telephone. They took it all away and well he bought it all again. So yeah, he also used to smoke when he was training apparently. Anyways, I felt like I did a good job with him when he was my comp and then well, I had to bring him down haha. So that was lame but whatever. Its Gods work and Ill be loyal to him.

 Anyways, I love you all tons, and Im glad you are all doing well there, and talking about the mission. That will help everyone out alot.... I really like the new site the church came out with. Thework of  salvacion you should check it out. It has some really powerful stuff.

 Love you all.

Peace, love, and the bike looks fun pops.

No hablo engleis.

Here we go again.... no regrets... just friends...

Whats up fam, hows life going up there in Utah. Sometimes I miss Utah...... aight I always miss utah, the people dont get why we always say that it is so great there.... but they just dont understand... It really is the best there is.

    Alright. This week Ill write about me, or try to. Deb. Thanks for the food it is super good. Right now im in Central Tij. right next to the border. There is alot of really cool things here... and by really cool I mean alot of really bad stuff that bad people do haha. But it makes for alot of really interesting conversations.

     We have acouple people we are teacing right now. We droped almost all of our investigators and so are starting back up. We had some good people but then I dont even know what happened and everyone went to trash. But this week we had a bap. planned for Joel, well we taught the law of chastity and hes not married... super cool. Anna is also ready to bet dunked but is not married. We found 2 new families this week. One came from a member reference. They asked her for money... anyways it is a family of 5 or 6 and slowly they a progressing. Also we have a 16 year old girl named  Ani who was trying to carry some platic drwers I have no idea how to spell that and I think I know say that word wrong to but I hope you understand... anyways she came to church this week and the young women were super good with her so I think shell be back next week. She should get bap. next saturday. For the most part the lessons and the people are all the same. We do have a new member Veronica that comes from..... Im not even sure what part of Mex. but her husband was highly abusive and kept her from going to church and now is trying to find her to kill her.... anyways thats a long story short but the amazing part is how the lord has protected her and the difference that the church has made in her life. When she came here she was way sad and worried now that she goes to church she is super happy and doesnt worry all that much about life. She knows that if she completes with the lord... he will complete with her. Its amazing how the lord works.... He really is a loving heavenly father... I hope you all can see that and feel that now that there is a new little one running around there.

It makes me super happy to hear that little hudson is alright and that my sis. is doing alright. I was alittle worried for the both of them, especially being a little uniformed on it all. But Im just glad that God has his plan for us and he is always helping us in life.

I love you all and Im so happy that your all doing alright. I hope JB knows that next time he goes sailing its going to be an all mans trip :) If we cant make it sailing we will have to go white water raft something .... I miss the clear water.... man was that fun.

Love you all tons

Peace, Love, and taking life one step at a time...

Migra

 Hey fam

I hope the week has been good. Today we are having transfers so that is fun and lame. elder alfaro was a good comp. but I wont miss him all

that much to be honest. Anyways, Elder Cruz will be my new comp which should be fun. Sorry if this letter is alittle short but Im tired.... super tired. we got to sleep at 1 and got up at 6. not a good idea. But life is good. This week has been interesting. the whole week I didnt have the chance to study again and I really do feel drained. I need to study so I can have the spirit. But Im super glad that you guys have been going that makes me really happy. I just know that when I was at home I never did take advantage of having the temple so close. I hope that that changes when I get home.

Mom Dad I love you tons and worry about you out there in the sea but I know youll be alright.

Jay. I love you tons to and your going to be just fine dont worry. god loves you and he wnats a new boy here in the world. You going to be a mother of 2 now.... thats kinda cool huh. And Im gonna have a new nephew.

Anyways, here are some pics

the guy in orange well we bap. him last week. this week he tried to cross the border. Basically sat at the fence for 3 days wathcing to see if the migra left. and well there is 2 fences one you can just jump over...climb and the other is life 20 feet high and so you need a ladder. well. he got sick of waiting and so he climbed the first fence and weighted till the migra came and got him.... hmmmm kinda weird but apparently if you get caught and you have a legal family member on the other side they can bail you out.... or something like that. So right know he is tryig to do that. I think they have like only 2 days to do it though If not they well send him back to honduras and he will have to cross illegally into mexico... super easy, just tack a bus across the river. Then jump ontop of a train. and ride ontop of a train for 4 days and then take an acutall bus up to here. haha. to try to cross again. What a pain right.

Love you all, and your super blessed to be in the states haha. I hope this next week is a super great week for you all.

Alma 31

hey fam, whats up

Alright, this week was super good

Our baptism that we thought was going to leave, didnt go. He stuck around. he comes from honduras and is trying to cross the border. It costs usually 5 to 10 thousand dollars for someone to take you across. Aight well thats alot of dough. and usually they get caught anyways and if they dont get caught the coyote turns out to be a kidnapper and then makes them pay 20 thousand to get out which is alot of cash for someone that has no money haha. But its interesting all that goes on here.

Anyways the lord kept him here this week and his bap. was super spiritual we had the ward choir there and it turned out super well. We worked hard this week but didnt have much success actually our whole zone turned out the same. we bap. 8 this week and know have 4 bap. date in the zone... usually we have 15 or so. so anyways  we are in trouble. But we are doing good, we will pick it up this week. next monday we will have transfers which will help us also, we have some Elders here that need to get out of the zone and away from each other, we have 2 very feminine Elders here, actually they go to the same ward.... there are 4 there, and the members have started to complain saying that they seem to be Gay.... Im sure they are not, the peruanos are jsut really feminine or so ive seen here in the mission so far. but they are passing the line alittle bit. But everything is getting better here. Im still getting alittle skinier.... I think and hope so. I drink protien in the morning after we play basketball and I lift, and am eating less. My comp. hates it. He wants to eat more haha, he is a big boy. But everyone is telling him how skinny he looking and I think it is helping him alittle.

the stake went to the temple this week, and my convert maria went.... that made me super happy. Alot of the people we have been working with went to the temple and they all came back super pumped. Its crazy that they  bused 13 hours there and 13 back just to do 5 bap. a piece. but the temple is the house of God and is an amazing place... I really do miss it alot. this week I didnt do so hot studying. we had stuff almost every morning so that always is lame, if you dont study in the morning the day just doesnt seem to go as well, the spirit isnt there and life just gets you down. But Im still doing good, we also had a meeting with all the bishops of the stake and they were super mad at us haha, my comp started to fight with them and it was a pretty big show, but I stepped in and told the bishop that we would handled the problem personally and that he does not need to worry about it anymore. Many times people dont understand how to take responsability and it hinders them in every aspect of there life. The same happens with people in the church they dont take resp. and never repent of what they have done, always denying it.

Alma 31 is an interesting chap. we see the zoramites, who are members of the church by desent of there fathers but have gone astray from the pracitices of the church.... like many of the less active membes now aday... in the end of the chap. God helps them change and the last verse says by what means he did this great maricle " Now this was according to the prayer of Alma; and this because he prayed in ^bfaith." Pray for those that havent been wit us and arent in the church visit them and serve them..

Love you all tons,

Peace, and love