Week Two in Juarez. Still Surviving

Me in front of our Church.

So this next week was pretty good. I'm starting to get used to this area and the people and the city and everything about this place. I think my Spanish is getting worse... because we have an American Elder who I speak to in English a lot.. But it's okay. I'm having a good time here.

We had Elder Webster and Elder Canseco (zone leaders) serve us breakfast in their house.

We enjoyed the meal together.

The weather is still really weird here... Monday-Wednesday was super hot -- Thursday-Friday was super cold then Saturday and Sunday were normal... 

Me and Elder Mellad enjoying the snow. 

This Saturday there was a baptism of an 8-year-old in the ward and I got to make the handouts and give a small talk, then we got candy so it was super good. 

Oh, and do you guys remember when I had that lesson with the president? Well the investigator that we were teaching that day now has a baptismal date for March 7th which will be super exciting. Her name is Clara and she is a sweetheart; she always gives us fruit after our lessons and yesterday she was the second person at Church. So she is already more faithful than all the members. Including the Bishop, who didn't even show up. 

But that's really all the big news for this week. Sunday was the Superbowl so Elder Mellado and I tried to avoid all the borrachos.. But we didn't do as well as we thought because one of the less actives was super borracho when we talked to him that night, and we visited another family and the brother of the dad was there and he was also super borracho and also had a potty mouth.. But it was in Spanish so I hardly understood. 

But all in all this week was good. But pretty normal. 

Love you all lots! 

Love,

Elder St John

The view from my new house.

The first mall I've seen in half a year. (called Las Misiones)

My New Life in J-Town

So this week was super duper duper awesome! I don't have much time to write today but I´ll tell you as much as I can:

Monday: we cleaned the house in our old area and got ready for transfers.

Tuesday: We left the house at 5:30 a.m. to catch our bus to Juarez. We arrived at about 11:00 and then we got a ride to the mission offices where I met my new companion, Elder Mellado. We went to our area and I left my stuff there and we went out and taught. And HOLY COW my area is GORGEOUS: I feel like I'm back in America. All the houses here are in private neighborhoods so we have to talk to a security guard to enter. Our apartment is alright, we live like literally two seconds away from the zone leaders so that is super convienent because my comp is the district leader. But that's about it for Tuesday.

Wednesday: There was a training for the district leaders by the president and because my comp is a DL i got to go too! It was super cool and I learned a lot about commitments. Later that day we had a lession wiht an investigator named Clara, this lession was super special because the mission President was there. I was super nervous when i found out we were going to be teaching a lession with the mission president but the lession turned out great! The president even said i have great spanish!

Thursday: It was freezing and it snowed.

Friday: It was freezing and it didn't snow.

Saturday: It was freezing in the morning, hot in the evening, and didn't snow. An investigator told us our jackets smelled bad so he washed them for us. (He is a sanitacions specialist.)

Sunday: By Sunday I was feeling pretty good about myself because all the people we had visited told me I had good Spanish. And this week I overcame my fear of talking to people. SO Sunday was great, church was good. We taught a little in Sunday School about baptism. Then we contacted a little and it was a good week.

Summary: This week was really good. I LOVE my new area and Elder Mellado is great. Everyone told me my Spanish was really good so I felt awesome the whole week. I had a lession with the President and it sounds like he likes me more than I thought. The only problem is that our ward is like ours at home, everyone has been a member since birth and no one knows how to do missionary work. So we hardly get references and have a small pool of investigators... But we are working hard to fix that problem. 

I love the mission and everything about it. I love you guys lots!

Love,

Elder St John

P.S.  ALSO, Saturday I went to the border (because it's in my area, ya. I'm that close to the USA) and I looked out over El Paso. It was beautiful.

I'm Going to Juarez

With our new mission leader, Hermano Vazquez, and his family. 

SO this week was pretty average but a few cool things happened this week!

FIRST:  I'm not sure if you guys remember Cristal Hinojo but she is this 14 year-old-girl who used to live in Minnesota but her parents got deported so she has to live here with them. But in Minnesota she took lessons with the Jehovah´s Wittnesses and had a ton of questions and we have been teaching her for like 3 months and haven't been able to set a baptismal date for her at all. UNTIL NOW! We taught her with Elders Almaraz and Gonzalez and Elder Almaraz finally set a baptismal date! Feb. 21st!! SO that was a huge blessing!

The District and Brayan who always comes with us to our lessons.

SECOND:  (Refer to the title of this email.) SO if you couldn't guess from the title of the email I have transfers. I'm going to serve in the Frontera Ward in the North Stake of Juarez. My area is called Frontera 3 which means there are three sets of missionaries in that ward. And it also means that my house with probably only have like 2 beds, a desk and a sink. Because the higher the number of your area, the less stuff you will have because it means your area is newer... But it doesn't matter because I'm super excited. Elder Moya said that I will be in THE richest stake in the mission and that I'll be in one of the richest wards too. I'll be like 10 minutes away from El Paso, USA and my companion is Elder Mellado (pronounced may-ah-doe). He is from Puebla, Mexico and I have heard he is super cool (because he was in Elder Moya´s district in the MTC). I'm super excited to know a new area and a new companion, especially because I hardly know Ciudad Juarez. But I'm also super sad to leave my investigators, and the members of this ward and especially Elder Moya. I have four months in this area and have gotten pretty comfortable here. But change is life so I better get used to it.

ALSO we got our transfers Saturday night, but, they got changed this morning. I just gave you my final and real transfers. But saturday night they told us that I was going to stay in laguna and be in a trio! And laguna had 2 areas but they were going ot merge the 2 areas into one big one. I wasn't too excited for that.. because I didn't want to live with three people and because I would be the only one who knew the area.

But all in all my emotions are super bitter-sweet because I'm excited to know a new place, but I will miss everything about my old area, Laguna 1.

Love you all so much and I hope you enjoyed this letter! This now ends chapter two of my mission: Laguna 1. Time to start chapter 3: Frontera 3

Love,
Elder San Juan

The last picture of the beautiful valley of Casas Grandes.

The Coldest Week

So as you can tell by the title of this email this week was super cold. From like Thursday to Sunday it was like 15 degrees and now all of a sudden the sun came out today and it will probably be like 80 again... but other than the weather this week was super good!

Pretty much every day was normal. Study till 11:00 then go out and teach... There isn't really any big news. There is one sad thing, and it's that hardly any of our investigators are progressing so we have to stop teaching a lot of them and finding new ones which is sad. But we started their conversion and I know some day a few lucky Elders will come and finish their conversion.

We find out if we have transfers this next Sunday at night and I'm super nervous. But I know that what ever happens the Lord will put me wherever he needs me and with who I'll be best with.

Umm that's about it for this week... Sorry it's super short and super boring. I'll try harder to have an exciting week this week so you can have a better letter to read next Monday.

But since I have a little more room I'll just take a little time to say how much I love my mission. I have learned so much in this short 5 months I've been away from home and I'm super excited to learn more these next 18 or so months I have left. I'm super greatful for all your support and love and prayers and just know that you guys all have my support, love and prayers too.

Love you all lots!

Love,
Elder San Juan

New year, New life... no... wait, everything is the same...

SO New Years was super crazy this year, Elder Moya set an alarm at 11:59 so we´d wake up before New Years. So I woke up at 11:59, watched the second hand on my watch till 12 and said to Elder Moya (who hadn't woke up from the alarm), "Happy New Year".  (He still didn't wake up.) Then I went back to bed. So this New Year is definitely one of the top 18 of my life, well considering I was a baby for like 5 years, it's the top number 12.

Ummm New Years was about the most excititng part of this week because Elder Moya and I were imprisioned in the house most of the week... We had a few good lessons the days we could leave. We ate some super good tortas this Sunday and that was awesome!  And uhh well that's about it.

The only eventful thing this week was a training we had with the President of the mission on Saturday. So I got all my packages (I almost cried when I saw them). Sat through the training and learned about how to be a better missionary, then at 4:00 we had interviews and they were boring also... But the last one with the president was amazing. He gave everyone a blessing for the new year. Words can't describe how amazing my blessing was. I swear our Mission President is like bffs with the Holy Ghost or something. But in my blessing he told me that I´d be a temple worker so that's awesome. So that's my new goal after my mission and I'm super excited for that. And another thing he said that was probably the coolest of them all is that he said that God has given me his authority, and that as I go throughout my mission that people will recognize that authority. That hit me hard. I never really thought about it like that. That God has given me his authority to preach his gospel to his children. It made me think more about the Priesthood and I realized that I shouldnt take it for granted; that I should always be greatful for this power that I have. As I was riding home that night in a taxi, I thought about what the president had said to me. While I was thinking, I had this incredible feeling, I knew it was the spirit, but it was different. I had never felt like that before. It was stronger than anything I've ever felt. And with that start to the year, I know it will be a great one.

That's it for this week, I love you all soo much and am sorry I have no pictures this week. There wasn't anything worth a photo.. But I think about you guys every day and am always praying for you!

Love, 

Elder St John

PS: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR ALLL THE PRESENTS! The packages are amazing, and I'm super happy to have soo much food/candy! You guys are the greatest!

The Night Before Christmas

Our snowman.

The beautiful snow.

So this week was alright. It was awesome talking to the fam Christmas Eve for almost 2 hours. That was easily the highlight of my week.  It was good to see all of you guys looking tan from Hawaii. After I talked to you guys, I went and ate and then we went home... while we were home we watched Church movies like the Restoration and the testiments and videos like that. Nothing too crazy. 

Talking to my fans.

Elder Moya with the snowman.

Christmas day was even more uneventful. We woke up and watched a few more movies, read a little, and deep cleaned the house which took like 4 hours... After that we ate a delicious Christmas dinner that was brought to us by Hermano Vazques, whose wife is the best cook here. It was amazing. Then we went to bed. Christmas may have been uneventful, but I was glad to have the time to reflect on what I was doing and what Christmas is all about.

My delicious Christmas meal.

The rest of the week went back to normal, but the coolest thing was that it snowed like 3 inches Saturday night, and it was Elder Moya´s first time seeing snow, so we had a snowball fight in our back yard and made a snowman, and that was super fun. Then we went to the doctor because Elder Moya is sick, and we got some bad news. Elder Moya isn't allowed to leave the house for three days, so we are only allowed to leave for food with the members, and today to write.. So looks like we will be watching the Restoration video a few more times.... but it's all good because tomorrow is our last day of confinement. So wednesday we are free! Except there are rumors going around that the president won't let us leave our houses New Years Eve or New Years... so that might be two more days..  But it looks like I'll have a lot of time to study and I'll probably finish reading the Book of Mormon again this week!

But that's about all that happened this week! Thanks for all your love and support. You guys are the best! I pray for all of you every day and I hope you can feel my prayers and love!

Love,
Elder St John

NAVIDAD

Me as Santa

Hi every one and welcome to another one of my email´s. This week was a good one. 

Nothing too big happened between Monday and Wednesday; they were pretty average.  We taught some Mexicans (with the spirit), ate normal Mexican food like burritos, tacos, soup. And it all went really well. Also I got the package from Dad this week and that was great! Because the chocolates are heavenly and because the new clothes were amazing. 

But Thursday the ward had a Posada (a Christmas party) and that was Great! We had a ton of investigators go and it all went well! Also because I'm the only white person in the ward I got to be Santa.. No joke, I have pictures to prove it. 

The walk of fame to the children.

Santa and his bodyguards. 

But once I walked in the room with all the people (dressed as Santa), this little girl ran out to me and gave me a letter and it was adorable. And I still have the letter. It was a drawing of a hand with a ring on it, so I think she wants to marry Santa.. It was a little weird, but cute none the less.

Me, my comp, and Elder Gonzalez as the tres reyes magos and Elder Almaraz as Santa 

Saturday was good, but Sunday was better. Sunday we had 8 investigators at church, and they all liked it! And all of the investigators that went seem to be progressing a lot and they all have friends in the ward and it turns out that the mother of the big family is cousins with our ward mission leader! And to end the day Sunday we visited Hermano Chavez who gave us a delicious meal.. of Menudo, which is a soup made of cow stomach.. It was as good as it sounds. And I won't say any more, but this soup is famous around here so I was super glad to finally know what all the fuss was about.

Menudo

That's all for this week! Can't wait to talk to you guys this week on Christmas Eve! I hope you all have a good week and I loved hearing the stories of the good deeds you guys did this week! 

Love,

Elder St John