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.