Semana Santa

So this week was a little interesting. Because it's Easter, and here they don't just celebrate on Sunday, but the whole week. And they don't celebrate by remembering Jesus. They celebrate by drinking alcohol. So... we basically didn't have very much work this week. Most people were gone on vacations, or drunk... so we worked with what we had.

Knocking door by door is always fun, because you never know who will answer. But yesterday we knocked a door and a man answered and let us in.  He had tatoos and looked pretty buff, but he wasn't scary. We talked to him, and his wife came in the room also (at first I thought it was his sister, but after further investigation I found out they were married).  But we got to know the both of them and we showed them the video of #aleluya and they loved it.  The wife also told us that she and always wanted to be a Mormon. So we told here we could help her and we will be visiting them tomorrow! I'm excited.

Also last week we were walking down the street and a man stopped us and told us he wanted us to baptize his children, so we started teaching them and they seem like a cool family, but we wil see how things go further along the road. 

Also on Saturday we had a baptism, because a member lost his membership account and it's like he was never baptized.  So we did the favor of baptizing him under the direction of President. It was a good experience. It all worked out well. 

I hope you all are as excited for Conference as I am. It should be a good one! Plz watch it and take notes.  I learned that that helps me a ton. But enjoy the week, and enjoy the snow (cuz i heard it snowed over there).  That's all for this week! No pictures because I don't take very many, but I'll try harder for next week! Luv you all.

Love,

Elder St John

Week One in Liberated

So this was our first week in our new ward, and it went pretty well! We started off basically by contacting everyone that we could and that went pretty well. We put a TON of appointments for the weekend and a few for this week also, we got changed so that we could be in the area in the zone with the most baptisms, and this area has a lot of work. 

But while contacting we visited an investigator that the Elders before had contacted. The investigator wasn't there but her daughter, Marisol,  was and we started to contact her. We eventually showed her the video of the Easter initiative (watch it if you haven't) and she really liked it. We then invited her to church, gave her a pamphlet and left to go contact some more. And the coolest part is that she went to church!! It was good to get to a new ward and bring an investigator to church, and the funny part was that she was one of the few people that we knew while sitting in sacrament meeting. But she enjoyed church and we are excited to see her progress.

Contacting is one of my favorite things right now, because all we basically do is make friends. We learned that the best way to contact is first make a friend so that they open up to you, and once they open up and tell us their problems, we show them how the restored gospel can bless their lives. It's really, really fun. 

I really, really like my new ward, and I hope I finish my mission here because it's such an amazing ward! The area is really cool as well. But I hope you all had a good week! Happy Easter! That's next Sunday right?? l hope so. I love you all and.. yeah... bye.

Love,

Elder St John

Spencer Translating Video

I hope this works because it is so fun.  

Liberty

So this week was very good. The zone meeting on Monday went well, and on Tuesday we had a normal day of contacting and working hard. 

Wendesday Ivonne and her 2 kids got interviewed for their baptisms! And on Thursday we went to Ascención, a small town like an hour and 15 min. away from Casas Grandes by bus, to interview someone for their baptism. We stayed there the night and had a good time with the two Elders over there. And on Friday we got back to Alamedas! 

Spencer, Ivonne and children, Elder Camacho

Ivonne and her children

Saturday was a very good day because Ivonne and her 3 kids were baptized!! It was a great expeirence I got to baptize Ivonne, and my companion baptized her 2 kids. And on Sunday I confirmed Juan Pablo, her son. It was a very cool expierience because I have never given anyone the gift of the Holy Ghost! I was very happy to see this family progress and enter the baptismal waters.  

 Saturday we also had a meeting with the President here in Casas, and he talked to us about the new Easter initiative called #Aleluya. After that he took us home but on the way wanted to buy us tacos but we were fasting... :( so no tacos.. 

That's about it for the week.  Yesterday night we got the transfers for the zone and Elder Camacho and I are going to go to a different ward called Libertad.  It's still part of the stake and it's actually the area right next to ours... But its okay, because I'm excited to go over there! It will probalby be my last area! So i will have to make good friends with the members so they all give me dinners before I leave.

But now I'm done. I hope you all had a good week!

Love YOU. 

Love,

Elder St John

We Went to Juarez! Again

So this week we went to Juarez.. Again.. So in this transfer we have gone to Juarez 4 TIMES. Almost once every week... It's fun, but I miss being a normal missionary. It usually takes all day Thursday and Friday becasue we leave early Thursday and come home late Friday.. but all the things we have been learning are important.

Tuesday we did divisons and I went with Elder Wilson from Spanish Fork, and we had a good time. He is kind of new so we tried contacting and other things like that. 

Wednesday Elder Wilson and I went to go running to a river. And when we got back home I was dead tired and for the rest of the weeek was sore.. But also on Wednesday we found a super cool investigator! He is a shoe shiner and he is awesome. We taught him a little about the restoration and invited him to stake confrence. We even offered him a ride! When Sunday came we went to his house to pick him up and he had already left walking to go to the conference! I was very surprised when I heard that. Especially because the church is like a half hour walk! But he made it there and I was very happy!  

Thursday and Friday we learned about contacting, being friendlier people and stuff like that. While in Juarez I ate green enchiladas (my fav tipe of enchilada) and then we did lots of other things, like wait in the offices, walk around Juarez and stuff like that while waiting for the meeting to start. 

Saturday, we had to deliver a cell phone to an Elder whose phone broke. He is in a little town like an hour away from Casas Grandes.. and we had no way to contact them. We only had their address. So we left Saturday morning and got there at about 11:30. We looked at the address and asked people if they knew where it was. We were lucky becaue the house was like 3 seconds away from the bus stop so we found it super fast. But.. the only problem is that the Elders weren't there... Luckily we had a knife and Elder Camacho knows how to use it, so we broke in.... We left them their phone and then left to eat some chicken while waiting for our next bus. It was a fun day. 

When we broke into the house of the Elders in Buenaventura. 

Sunday we had stake confrence and because we have some only English speaking members in the stake a translator was needed. and.. I and two other Elders from the Zone were lucky enough to do it.. I was scared but in the end it turned out well, and I realized that I am slowly forgetting English.... 

So that's about it for the week! I hope you all enjoyed and have a great week this week! 

Love,

Elder St John