Feliz día de amor y amistad

This week was full of love. Especially Friday and Saturday.

Those two days were the days that we used the balloon arch to get references. And it was awesome. I had two whole days of talking to strangers and I loved it. we took a ton of pictures and got a ton of references. 300 to be almost exact. And that's like the highlight of the week... but I'll see what else I can squeeze out.

Time here is getting faster. I really feel like if I blink the day will pass me by. And that's really how it is. We'll be walking to a lesson and I realize that it's like 8 o'clock and that the day is almost over and it's super weird. 

Also I hope you guys are still reading the Book of Mormon because I am. I've actually read it three times since I started my mission, and it's the best thing ever. Our president is trying to get us to read it once every three months and it's a huge blessing to have this challenge. I hope you guys are all reading daily. And if you're not. Please start.

Umm there isn't anything big going on right now soo.. I'll talk to you guys next week! Love you all. Bye!

Love, 

Elder St John

Three Weeks in Juarez - Still Surviving

So today marks the beginning of week 4 in Juarez and last week I completed six months as a missionary. It's super weird to look back and see how much time has passed. Missionary time is super weird. But this past week was pretty gr8.

We had a mostly normal schedule but Thursday we had Elder Piper, the Area 70 come and give us a conference. It was super good and I learned a lot. He taught us how to have more lessons, find more investigators, and get more baptisms. He also told us in his mission he baptized like 1000 people so we joke about how we are reactivating all his converts. But it was a really useful conference and I will be working hard to put into practice what we learned.

Clara, our only progressing investigator for the moment, is doing great! She still is coming to church and is still amazing.

This week we came up with a plan to get more investigators. The idea is that for Valentines day we are going to set up a huge thing for the holiday and we are making a balloon arch and taking pictures of people in front of it, then we will hand deliver the pictures and have a million people to visit. This is the plan. Wish us luck.

Today I'm writing a little late, but it's because I had to go the the temple with another elder to translate something for the temple store. So I FINALY GOT TO GO TO THE TEMPLE! I didn't get to go inside but I got to see it from outside and it was beautiful. I have pictures... but don't have an adapter so I can't send them... But next week you will all see. 

Well that's all for this week. Love you all!

Love,

Elder St John

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!