Juarez Missed Me

So this week was fantastic! I ended my last week in Lomas the best way possible. 

Elder Gomez and me with Angelica and Stephanie before the baptism.

The highlight of the week was for sure. Saturday and Sunday. Saturday afternoon at 3 o'clock we started the baptismal service of Angelica and Stephanie. They were later baptized and it was an amazing experience. I'm so glad I was able to be a part of the conversion of these two daughters of our Heavenly Father. But Sunday was even more special--when they recived the gift of the Holy Ghost. Angelica was crying when she was getting blessed and I could feel the spirit soo strong. Later that day in Gospel Principals class Elder Gomez and I taught about temple work and that was an even more powerful experience. Angelica talked about how beautiful it is that we can perform the saving ordinances for ourselves and our ancestors. It was a beautiful experience that nearly brought me to tears. 

That was the biggest part of the week. But there is more news for you guys. 

Soo.. i guess that Ciudad Juarez missed me because yesterday the zone leaders called and told me that I'm going back! My new area is called Satelite. And my new companion is called Elder Lopez. And I'm still going to be a District Leader. 

I'm super excited to go there and I'll let you all now how it goes next week!

I love you all and hope this week is amazing for you!

Love,

Elder St John

The bishop (the tall man) with Angelica and Stephanie and Hno Rodriguez

Hno Rodriguz Angelica and Stephanie

Casi Soy Mexicano

 Academia Juarez, the best school in Mexico. (Because it's from the Church.) 

This week was just your average ordinary everyday week. We visited some members, investigators, less actives, and everything else. 

The highlighs of this week were when we taught Angelic and her daughter Stephanie about the laws and comandments of the Church like tithing and the Word of Wisdom. They both accepted to live the laws and hadn't really had problems with them before. And their baptism is this week and I'm suuuppper excited--as are they. 

Another highlight was that we found a new family to teach! And they are super cool and I hope that they can progress. 

And the last highlight is that this morning we went to Colonia Juarez which is another colony seperate from Dublan where more Americans live! It's also were the Academia Juarez is and the TEMPLE! 

The temple of Colonia Juarez, the worlds smallest temple.

This morning was amazing and I loved every second of it. One of the members of the ward is a bus driver and he said that he could give us a ride (it's about a half hour away) so we hopped in and were there from about 7:30 to 10:30 and I tooks pics so you can know what it was like there. 

The beautiful town of Colonia Juarez. 

But that's about it for the week! I love you all and hope you have a great week/July!

Love,

Elder St John

 

There is a story about this river. It is said that the Mormon settlers lived in a good town with a nice river and where kicked out by protesters so moved to Colonia Juarez and needed water so they prayed and fasted and then the old river changed its course and became the river where I'm standing. 

Journal Entry Number 3,298

Working hard as a district leader taking in dats en real inn.

This week was great! 

Tuesday afternoon i got on a bus and headed out to Juarez AGAIN! And it was super fun, especially because Elder Riding and I reunited and got to share the same hotel room. We had a great time! 

The dream team back in action for one day only. 

Wednesday we had a training meeting with the President for District Leaders and it was pretty good. We learned a lot and later got on the bus for another four-hour ride back to Casas Grandes. And it was a good time!

Came back to this little surprise waiting to greet me. 

Thursday we taught Angelica and her daughter, Stephanie, about the gospel and then Stephanie asked us when she could be baptized! So we put the date of July 4th as the baptismal date! I'm super excited for this day and I hope that everything goes well for them!

Friday there was a baptism in the district from the sisters in Huertas. 

Saturday there was a baptism in the district in Alamedas - and another meeting with President.

Sunday Angelica went to church with her daughter. And we wathced a member give his dog a shot in the bum. 

That's about all that happened this week! But it was a pretty good one! I love you all so much and I hope you have a great week!

Love,

Elder St John

P.S. Happy Fathers Day!!

Another Week in Death Valley

So putting the fact that it is summer and a bajillion degrees here behind me, this week was awesome! 

The best part of the week was Wednesday. Wednesday we had a lesson planned with Angelica. She works till seven with her husband and so we had it planned to go to visit her at 7:30. Then she sent us a text that said that she wasn't going to be able to make it home on time and was going to cancel the appointment. I wasn't going to give up so I aksed her what we could do to help. We ended up deciding that the only way to get her home on time would be to help her close down her store for the day and take her home with us, we tried to find a member to help us with the plan. But it turned out that she got home on time and we didn't have to do anything but go to her house. And when we got there we met her daughter, Stephanie. Who also seems interested. And YES! They both went to church yesterday. It was an awesome week.

Other than that experience the week was normal: contacting, visiting, teaching, eating. It was all good.

I love you all so much, Thanks for all the suport and I hope you all have great week!

Love,

Elder St John

P.S. Here is a picture of Elder Gomez and me.

10 Months as a Missionary

This week I hit my ten-month mark and that is super cool to use two full hands to tell people how long I've been a missionary. 

This week was a great! 

Tuesday and Wednesday I did divisons with the zone leader, and he came to my area in Lomas. I ate green enchiladas Tuesday and they were delicious. Then we tried contacting and went to a few appointments that we had. 

Wednesday we went to Hidalgo and later found a super cool investigator named Lourdes. 

Thursday we went back to Hidalgo and ate, then came back to Dublan and visited a few more people. 

Friday was a normal day.

Saturday was also a normal day. 

Sunday we went to church. ( Angelica was out of town so we didn't get to see here there but will see her this week!) And we also had an appointment with someone who lives in the middle of a cotton field and while we were looking for his house we found a cemetery where a lot of the original pioneers who came here are buried.  Attatched are a few pictures that I liked from the trip. It was really cool and unexpected. The cemetery is seriously out in the middle of no where. I had no idea it existed. But it is a cemetary from our church!! 

That's abut it for this week! I hope I have more to tell you next time! 

Love you all a lot!

Love,

Elder St John

LOMASBONITO

This week was good, there were a lot of changes but the week went well.

Elder Riding left Tuesday and I went to the bus station to get Elder Gomez. So that makes me the Elder with all the knowlege of the area... I managed to do pretty well around the area alone though!

We did a lot of contacting and had a little bit of success. We probably knocked about 20 doors and we found a few people who told us we could come back, which was good! 

There isn't too much to say about this week, its a little weird being with a different companion in the same area, but I'm sure I'll get used to it! I'm learning a lot more now that I do all the planning and make all the decisions!

A little about My comp:

He is from Oaxaca. 

He is the only member of the Church in his family.

He has 14 months as a missionary.

Thank you alll for the love and support! It means a lot! 

Love,

Elder St John

Pioneer Children Sang as They Walked

I found Mater. Feat. Blackie.

This week we walked a lot. And we didn't sing and we aren't pioneers so the title is only 1/3 true but we did walk so that's the best I could come up with. 

This week was super good though. This tuesday we woke up bright and early at 4:00 am so that we could catch a bus to go to Juarez because we had a mission conference and the ENTIRE mission went to Juarez to listen to Elder Christensen (from music and the spoken word) and Elder Valenzuela talk. They are super awesome people and I learned a TON. We came back the same day so we spent 8 hours on a bus that day. 

Wednesday was pretty normal. We walked to Hidalgo and on the way Elder Riding hit me in the face and gave me a bloody nose, so we went to a gas station to get napkins (see picture)  and then visited a few people. 

Elder Riding and I fist-fight all the time.

Thursday we had another normal day..... with lots of walking.

Friday we had a meeting with the president and learned about health and about lots of other cool stuff. After that it was a normal day...... 

Saturday nothing special happened so it was also a normal day...

Sunday was super good! Angelica went to church again! And we taught her the plan of salvation and she seemed super interested. We are going to put a baptismal date with her next time we visit her. And Sunday night we found out about transfers!!

The transfers: Elder Riding is leaving to Estacion, a ward really close to Lomas, and he will still be in my Zone, and he will be a distrct leader there.

Elder St. John is staying in Lomas!! And my new companions name is Elder Gomez. I have no idea who he is so I'm pretty interested to find out. 

I will have more next week! But I hope you all are doing well! I pray for you all all the time!

Have a great week! 

Love,

Elder St John

We also bought a pie of mango and Guyaba (guava) and it was AMAZING.

 Found a dead bunny in the road and took his foot for good luck. 

Me and my WHole district. 

Except the three sisters in the middle aren't from my district, 

and the sister in blue goes home tomorrow. :(

The Middle of May

This was an awesome week!

One of the counselors in the stake gave us a list of young single adults awhile ago and we spent a lot of time this week contacting them, and it turned out pretty well. We found a few people and went and reported it to him yesterday. He is from the Dublan Ward, and is a fluent English speaker, and we had the meeting in his house, and his house was stunning. But we reported the list and he said we did a good job. 

This week we also had a really good lesson with Angelica. We taught her lesson 1 and she understood it all and was really accepting! The bishop was also there to help us and he did awesome! We invited her to be baptised and she said yes! Now we just need to set a date and teach her the rest of the lessons. And she even went to church this Sunday! We are really proud of her. 

That's about all for this week, nothing too exciting happened this week. Thanks for all your emails and support, I love all of you! 

Love,

Elder St John

A cool chicken shaped bush featuring my comp.

The beautiful landscape of my area.

The dust storms here are vicious.

Feliz dia de mamá

This week was pretty normal, and I basically told you all what happened yesterday.. 

But it was really good seeing all of the people I did yesterday, you all looked happy and that was reallly good to see! The only thing that has changed since I was talking with you is my hair, I got it cut, but that's not exciting.... ..

But anyway... the news for this week is:

Its getting hot, I'm going to melt or look like a lobster everyday... 

There is lots of dust here from the wind, so all my shoes are brown... 

The food is still delicous. 

The members are awesome.

My Spanish is doing well

Last week I made tortillas. 

Last week we found 3 super cool people to teach.

And that's about it... Sorry for the boring email.  I'll try harder to have a good one for next week! 

Love,

Elder St John

Stay Away May

So you guys should be excited to read this email, becuase unlike most weeks this week was..... weird... super weird. As you can tell by the sneak peak I sent you guys. 

The birthday cake for the April birthdays.

Then they smashed my face in the cake.

The other elder with cake on his face´s name is Spencer too, and we have the same birthday. CRAZY!

Everyone with the birthday boys (and girl). 

So Monday, the whole district and another district celebrated the birthdays of April, which was really fun. We had a tres leches cake. And that would have been awesome IF they didn't shove our faces in the cake... It's some weird tradition here. If it's someone's birthday you tell them to take a bite out of the cake by going face first and then pushing them ears deep in the cake. I may sound bitter but it was HILARIOUS. I have never actually had a cake shoved in my face before and it was actually a pretty funny prank. So I'm glad for the experience, but sad for the delicious cake that was innocently harmed during the prank. 

Tuesday was even better than Monday because...... I got suuuuuupppperrr sick for 24 hours. It all started when we went to visit a less active after eating a huge meal. I was stuffed and felt nauseated. But while we were at the less active's house he gave us both a HUGE piece of chocolate cake and a big glass of milk, which would have been awesome if I didn't feel like exploding inside. I ate half the cake and then we went outside to look at his garden. We walked around and looked at his trees and flowers. While I was walking I didn't think I could hold it anymore. So they started to leave; I spotted a garbage can and bolted. Luckily I made it to the garbage can in time and threw up for the first time in like 5 years.... I felt awesome after that so we finished the tour and left. Later we started walking again to find someone else to visit.  When I told Elder Riding I was going to vomit again.. So I ran to a wall (see picture) and threw up. Again. 

I threw up last Tuesday so this is Elder Riding standing next to where I did it. 

Then we went home. I texted the sister who is in charge of health and I laid in bed. We took my temperature and I was at about 100.1 degrees so we figured I should probalby just stay home and rest.. which I did. 

Me lying in bed dying from the stomach flu. 

Wednesday I was super tired but not sick which is good. Even though I fell asleep in like every lesson... But something cool did happen. We fould a new investigator whose name is Wesly and she is awesome. She told us she would read the whole Book of Mormon in 2 months. And she gets out of school pretty soon so we have high hopes for her.

Thursday was SUPER HOT. It's starting to heat up here in Chihuahua. and that's the best thing ever. It's like 95 degrees and I'm dying of heat stroke. (Not really but it feels like it.) But this day we took the hour long walk to Hidalgo to visit a future investigator who is also AWESOME.  He is a cow rancher and is super great. We are expecting a lot from him to. We just need to figure out how to get him to church because he works Sundays...

Friday,  the sisters in the Dublan Ward had a baptism and that was cool to go to, especially because I was the one their investigator chose to baptize her.. And this time went a TON better than the first time. I got it done the second try. (You can't be perfect at everything :/) But the Baptism was super cool and there were cookies after. 

The sister's flooded the baptismal font and our church.....

I thought people should know that there was a flood in the church.

Saturday, If you saw the pictures before this I'm sorry for the spoiler alert, but the sisters from Huertas, another area in my district, had a baptism this day also! and they flooded the font... and the church. Elder Riding and I were walking when I got a phone call from them. They said the church was full of water and Elder Riding and I sprinted to get to the church to help them. We mopped up for about an hour and then we were ready for the baptism, which was also really cool! 

Church flood emergency clean up crew.

P.S. The picture of the clean-up crew is actually my whole district. #funfact

A live picture of me walking in the street.

Sunday was the only normal day this week, and that was kind of a nice break from the week I had. 

I love you all and hope you all enjoy this week! 

Love,

Elder St John

I'm 19 Now

 We put a party sign up in our house for my birthday, but no one came :(

This was a pretty average week so be prepared for a pretty average letter. 

For this week one of the big highlights for me was that our Bishop took us to visit the Menonitas!!! (the Germans who moved here and have farms and make the best cheese ever) They live like 45 minutes away from Dublan, but because there isnt any church closer they are all a part of my area! We pretty much just drove around and looked at everything and then went and visited some stores, also I got some of them to wave at me, which doesn't happen because they only wave to other Menonitas, so the bishop said they thought we were Germans... 

A house from the Menonita Camp.

Later that week, on Friday I turned 19 years old, which was pretty cool, but a very normal day. Me and Elder Riding had to celebrate in the house by eating pancakes for breakfast. But the coolest part about this birthday is that i get to spend the entire year being a missionary and that's the best present I got. 

This sunday our investigator, Angelica, came to church and that was such a blessing. She lives about 20+ minutes away by car from the church, and didn't know where it was. Elder Riding and I had about given up waiting for her to come, because it was about 2 min. till the services started. But then I got a text from her that said, "estoy perdido" which means I'm lost. Elder Riding and I sprinted out of the church called her and in about 10 short minutes she was at church. It was great to see her there! And it seemed like she really enjoyed it!. 

That's about it for this week! I hope you all have an awesome week this week!

Love, 

Elder St John

We watched a chicken fight at a member's house because its the closest thing to a Jackie Chan movie we can watch.

Milestones

Enjoying a delicious chicken.

This week has gone by soo fast, I feel like yesterday I wrote you guys about getting transfered to Lomas and I just finished a month and a half here! But i have just hit a few big milestones I´d like to tell you about. 

So I've seen 2 of my 4 sessions of general conference.

This Friday I will have my first of two birthdays. 

In a short month I will have used two of my four video calls to my family.

This Thursday will be one year from when I opened my mission call.

All these things and probably more are happening right now, and it feels like i just left the MTC. It really is crazy to believe how fast time is going here. I just thought those would be cool to share with you all this week to show you how much I've accomplished. 

This week was a very normal week, we are still trying to find more people to teach and still trying to bring them to church. But I know that soon the Lord will bless us here in Lomas and that it will all start getting better. 

This Sunday I had a cool experience, so I was feeling a little down yesterday because we had a really good investigator not show up to church and later cancel the appointment that we had later that day and I was feeling a little discouraged and started focusing on the negatives. Then I started feeling even more down, realizing that that was not ok I decided to say a prayer and try to change how I felt. A few seconds later we contacted an old man walking in the street.  He later let us into his house to talk to him, and even though he didn't really seem like someone who could progress or that even wanted to progress, visiting with him cheered me up a ton. Then right after we left his house we saw his neighbor (a member) watering her plants, and we talked to her for a little bit and she made me feel even better! I know this isn't that cool of a story but it was a HUGE blessing that I saw this week.  It was God giving me exactallly what I needed to help me keep going. 

I'm sorry this was a short letter, but I love you all tons and will try to have something even cooler happen this week to tell you about. 

Love,

Elder St John

A house I thought looked kind of cool. 

Another house I thought was cool, feat. Elder Riding.

Lomas Pt. 2, Featuring Elder Riding

The wind was really strong on Saturday.

This past week was awesome! We had a lot more work than usual and found some super awesome people! 

Monday was just a normal P-day. 

Tuesday we had a Family History activity as a district and we brought a lot of people to the Family History Center and it was super cool! 

Wednesday we did the contacting activity again in a different area. and we also contacted a few references we got from when we did it in our area and found some pretty good investigators.

Thursday we found another awesome person to teach and he is awesome.

Friday was just a normal day and we had pancakes for breakfast.

Saturday was super cool because we found two new investigators that are super cool. And the whole day was really good. In the morning we went to go contact the house for a reference but ended up contacting the wrong house. But it turns out that a member lived there and she gave us three references in the five minutes we were there. We decided that we might have been led to her house for a reason, so we went and contacted them right away. The first house there was no one, but the second house we found a really nice old woman whose husband had died about seven months ago. She let us in and we talked to her for a little, and Elder Riding and I both agreed that she was the reason that we had been lead to the wrong house. 

Sunday we contacted ANOTHER reference we had received. Do you guys remember how Section Hidalgo is like an hour and a half walking distance; this reference is about 3 km away from there.. so it's really far... But we got a ride, and had a member help us teach her, and she is AMAZING.  We think she is really, really ready. Even though she lives far away from the church she stilll wants to go and wants us to visit her EVERY Sunday (her only day off of work) and she is great. Her name is Angelica and i cant wait to see how it turns out. 

Also Sunday we found out that we DON'T have transfers so I will be in Lomas with Elder Riding for another cycle. What a relief.  

Also Sunday I got my Easter/birthday packages and have never seen so much candy in my life. And I am soooooo grateful for my family. I don't know how I got so lucky to have you guys. 

Love,

Elder St John

People use fires to kill their weeds. 

  

I ate candy till I passed out.

Weekly Letter #87819

We live by the Law of Moses out here still,

so we are looking for sinners so that we can wear this title.

This week was pretty good, we started off Monday with the regular writing, cleaning and shopping which went well. then Tuesday we walked a lot trying to contact people and visit people.. 

Wednesday we decided to do a district activity with the new initiative. #GraciasaqueÉlvive or #BecauseHeLives. We went to my area in Lomas and we went all over the place contacting people for 2 hours and we found about 16 new people! It was awesome, Im the best district leader ever.

Thursday we just had a normal day of contacting and visiting.

Friday we did the contacting again in another area in the district and finished the night with a visit to a less active who gave us MOLE.  I love mole with a passion so that was the highlight of the week for my stomach. 

Saturday we had Conference and that was 10/10. I especially loved the talk given by David A. Bednar in the afternoon. And Eyring's talk for the Preisthood session. Also this morning there was a parade by the Catholic church right by our house and they had a man dressed as Jesus. I didn't see the whole thing but I'm pretty sure that they hung him on a cross? It's a tradition here to do that I guess, but to me it sounds kind of scary... and painful... and I´m just glad that Jesus did that so I never have to suffer like that. 

Sunday we had MORE Conference and that was 11/10 It was awesome to hear about the new temples and all the cool things happening around the world in the Church. I took a TON of notes for all the talks and will try to apply them every day. I hope you all took at least one thing from Conference to use every day in your lives to change and get better. And I hope you all had a great Easter! 

This week was a blesing, and the week starting is the last week of the cycle, so pray that I get to stay here with Elder Riding for another six weeks! Love you all!

Love, 

Elder St. John

The long hour and a half trail to Seccion Hidalgo.

P.S.  Conference was amazing. I was able to listen to the English talks in English and the Spanish talks in Spanish and i understood all and learned a ton. It's always a huge blessing to watch Conference and hear from the Lord's apostles and Profet. 

March Madness

This week was super busy.  Monday I went back to Juarez for another meeting and got to stay in a HOTEL.  It was awesome.  Needless to say I showered twice and they were the best showers of my life, hot water and a lot of it. And I also slept super well on my own queen-sized bed. And I watched TV all night! (That last one was a joke I read the scriptures all night) but the next morning I woke up bright and early to go to the meeting and there I learned a lot about how to be a better leader, and how to not be afraid of finding new people. One thing I like that the President said was "el amor siempre quita el temor" which means love will always get rid of fear. And that’s one thing I’ve been working on this week was learning how to love EVERYONE.

I got home Tuesday and we shopped for the week and then visited a convert from the area named Liz.  She is marvelous.

Wednesday-Friday we contacted, taught and enjoyed increasingly hotter weather..

Saturday we taught a new investigator we have named Alejandra and her mom America. They are super awesome and seem super duper excited about the lessions!! Later that day we had interviews with the president and I passed with flying colors.

Sunday was super cool because I had the opportunity to give my first talk in sacrament meeting since I left home!! I was super nervous but my Elder Riding said I did a good job, so I feel pretty good about it. The topic was missionary work with members, and it was a super awesome topic because the ward I’m in (Lomas) is full of people that always help!

This week was really good and I’m extremly excited for Conference weekend! Thank you all for your emails, prayers and support, everyone is a huge help. I hope you all have an awesome week!!

Love,
Elder St John

Stayed in a hotel this week. 

The sunrise in Juarez from my window.

The front of the first LDS church in Mexico.

Feeling Like Rango

SECCION HIDALGO!!!!

Just another average week in Casas Grandes. This week we basically contacted and walked and taught. But there is one quote that came to my attention this week.  It's "de cierto de cierto te digo que estamos en un desierto" (ask Katelyn what that means): but that also explains the title if any of you have seen the movie Rango. Because I feel like Rango...

It's starting to get really pretty here in some parts, spring is starting so the trees are getting leaves and there are a few orchards here that are super pretty. They are full of peach trees and super pink, and I get to see them every day. Also in seccion hidalgo, the farming area of my mission, the fields are super green and the cows are all over the place. 

I don't really have much left to tell you guys.  Sorry. This week wasn't too eventfull.. But we are working harder here and having more success! So I think your prayers and mine are being answered! I love you all and think of you all the time! I hope you all have a phenomenal week! 

Love,

Elder St John

The wagon in front of the first LDS church in Mexico. 

Beautiful Hidalgo

The beautiful desert of Casas Grandes.