Back in Dublan

Well I finally made it back to Colonia Dublan. And instead of coming back as a little district leader, I came back to take the whole ZONE. My plan to take over the whole mission is slowly taking place. Just kidding, But being ZL is pretty cool, My companion, Elder Castro, is super cool.  He is 26 years old and a convert of 3 years. He is also hilarious. But he is an awesome missionary.

Our area, Alamedas, is the smallest area in the whole mission I think, and Elder Castro has been here for almost 9 months. He was actually my zone leader when I was district leader in my last area here in Dublan. And it's pretty funny because he knows EVERYONE. We will be walking down a street and he will be naming everything he knows about every house. We contact in the street and he will have already talked to the person. It's pretty funny. But despite the lack of size in the area, we have a baptism planned for this month.  The man's name is Carlos and he is the father of 4 recent converts here in the area, and he is about 82 years old. He is the best. So if any of you think it's too late to change, you're wrong because Carlos is way older than any of you and he is going to be baptized. 

This week I basically got to know the area. I got here on Tuesday in the afternoon and since then we have basically just contacted 24/7, and I love it. Contacting is the best. We knock doors and talk to literally eveyone we see in the street and even though a lot don't accept us, we keep trying so that we can find the people who really need our message. And we have had some success which is a big blessing. Also they just made 200 new houses in our area and in these next two weeks they will be getting filled up, so don't be suprised when in a few weeks I tell you we have 200 baptisms planned. 

Sunday was good.  I went to church, and it's in the same building as my old area, so I saw a lot of my old friends that I made in Lomas. it was a good day. 

Thanks for all you support and love!

Love,

Elder St John

My Last Week in Satellite

My favorte stop sign in Mexico.

So this week was a good week, but a sad week, because it was my last week in Satelite, and also in Juarez. They told us yesterday that im going to be a Zone Leader in Colonia Dublan. So I will be going back to the area right next to my old area with Elder Castro as my next companion! I'm pretty excited to be Zone Leader and I did enjoy Dublan a lot so it wil be good to go back, but it will be sad to leave Satelite. It will be missed. 

Tuesday they told me I was going to be a zone leader so that I could go to meetings on Thursday and Friday. 

Wednesday was a good day, just contacting and enjoying the cooler weather. 

Thursday I went on divisiones with Elder Moya (my trainer) becasue we are both going to be zone leaders so we went to the meeting together. The meeting was super cool.  We learned all about how Preach My Gospel was formed and it was a really cool experience. And it was also cool to be with Elder Moya again as well. 

Elder Moya and I reunited again for one day!

Friday we had another meeting, which was good as well. And later we ended the divisones and I was back with Elder De Olarte. We kept on working hard.

Saturday we had a normal day.  I visited a few members I wanted to say goodbye too. And that's about it..

Sunday we enjoyed church.  We kept contacting and ended up finding a less active convert who had moved here just barely and didn't know were the church was and that was good to see. She seems really excited about the Church and I hope she finds the church and can be active again. 

That's all for the week! I hope you all had a great week as well. 

Love,

Elder St John

Because i dont have a visa right now I have to wear a disguise. Meet Ted.  

Me with a part family, the family Cerezo Santa Cruz. They are the best. 

Dia de Los Muertos

Welcome everyone to another weekly letter from your favorite missionary! 

It was a pretty good week this week! there was lots of walking and I was pretty busy as well! 

Some of the cool things that happened this week:

On Thursday it was cold. But we also did a lot of walking and we also visited a future missionary who sent his papers in last Tuesday! So it will be really cool to see where he goes and when he leaves! We also ate hotdogs there as well.

On Friday we tried contacting a few people and we also carved pumpkins! It was a pretty fun experience because my companion had never carved a pumpkin before, but he did a good job and we enjoyed it! 

All our pumpkins (left to right: Elder Fox, mine, Elder Junco, Elder De Olarte

Saturday was Halloween so we contacted with candy, which didn't turn out all that well but it was still fun! We saw lots of trick or treaters and we even got a little bit of candy, which would have been better if I didn't get a bunch of candy with chili. I still don't understand why the people here love chili so much. 

I stopped to read the Book of Mormon on a really comfy looking chair.

Sunday we contacted in an area where we don't go very much and at first it was a little difficult, because the people didn't accept us all that well, but I felt we should keep trying and we left the area with four new people to visit! I was really happy as we left. 

And that's about it for the week! Mainly just the weekend was where all the action happened. But I hope you all had a good Halloween and dia de los muertos! 

Love, 

Elder St John

Just some of the beauty Ciudad Juarez has to offer. 

Holy Hail

This week was a very good week and I have a great story with the title of this letter so I hope you all are excited to read it. 

So Monday was just your usual Monday, nothing too special. 

Tuesday was fantastic! We taught a less active in the morning, went and ate burritos and cheescake with a member. Taught an investigator about church and at about 5:30 we went and started walking to go paint the inside of the house of an ivestigator, and then it started to rain. We got to the house and they forgot we were going to paint and they had to leave to pick up their kids from school... So we waited for them to get back, and while waiting it rained really hard and eventually started to hail super hard. And I guess the neighbors felt bad so they invited us into their house.  I started to get to know them. The man's name was Ruben and he told me that they are from El Paso, and that he had a lot of family members from lots of religions.  I asked him if he wondered why there are so many, but then he answered with a question of gold. He said no, but he mainly wanted to know "which of all of them was the true one" so we talked to him about Joseph Smith and the restoration and put another appointment to visit him. It was a really cool expierience, and I'm pretty sure that it hailed for a reason. 

Wednesday It hailed again, and the hail helped us get into the house of another investigator that we have had but who had never let us in his house before. So that was also cool! 

Thursday, I went on divisones with my zone leader, Elder Temple, and that was really cool, because I got to go back to my old area of Frontera again! And also because I had a great experience. We contacted the whole day, but got lots of food in return. Like burrittos, cajeta, hamburgers and even tacos. Needless to say I saw that contacting pays off.  We found a few cool people and I learned a lot. 

Friday, I was still on divisions in the morning and we continued contacting. That ended and I was back with Elder De Olarte, and we contacted and visited a few more people. 

Saturday. We ate lots of pizza, and we taught an investigator that we have slowly been working with over the past few weeks. and he seems to be progressing pretty well. He said a while ago that he decided to stop worshipping idols and stuff like that so that was good to hear. 

Sunday, ROSARIO WENT TO CHURCH!  Rosario is an investigator that we have had for a while, and he finally went to church on sunday, He said he lliked it a lot and we hope he continues going! 

And Monday or today I guess. The only cool thing is that we had three cats come into our house while we were cleaning. So we played with them and then kicked them out because we can't have pets. 

Spencer and his three cats.

My view as I study.

5 Mice

This was a good week. It was pretty normal. I just walked around a lot while Elder De Olarte followed me around. We talked to a few drunk people who said we were super handsome and they called me David Becham and Brad Pitt. But I'm pretty sure they only thought I was good looking because they were drunk... but 

We caught 5 mice in our house this week so I think we will call an exterminator. 

I did Divsiones or splits or interchanges or whatever you calll it with Elder Fox and that was really fun. (i was with him when the drunks called us good looking) and on Sunday night we ate with Garhett and me and Elder Fox had a very romantic dinner lit by tiki torches. 

But that's about it for the week! Sorry for the short letter! I still love you all lots!

Love,

Elder St John

Border Crossing

This past week was a pretty good week!

We had a normal week, just visiting less actives, recent converts, and our investigators. We focused this week on commitments, and obedience and it worked out pretty well.  We even used examples from the last Conference. We met a few new people who have some potential and on Sunday the family that we ate with invited a friend to eat with us, so we got to meet a new investigator, who has friends in the Church! 

Also, this Wednesday, I went to the border to get my fingers printed, and by the place we went to there is a bridge that crosses the border.  We went all the way to the middle were it divides Mexico and the US, and we went to the US side! SO for about 2 minutes I was in the United States. It was great. But then we went back and I was back in Mexico.

But that was my week! Love you all!

Love,

Elder St John

La semana Extraña...

So this was a pretty strange week.... but it was a good week too! So don't worry about me. 

Wednesday was probably the strangest day this week, but basically put an appointment for Wednesday afternoon with someone we talked to in the street earlier that day. When we got to the house her son was outside and told me and my companion "come in Christ" which was pretty strange. But we went in and were welcomed into the house by an entire congregation of Christians, and it turned out we made it just in time for their class or meeting or whatever it was... So they invited us in, talked about Faith and than sang a bunch of songs and prayed. Then gave us cantelope and then we left... It was an interesting experience because I'd never gone to a different church in my mission but it was also really strange... But the woman who invited us in has an interest in the Church so it was worthwhile. 

Thursday: we painted park benches for service, and later that night on our way home we were stopped by a drunk man that we had talked to before named Isaias. He talked to us again for like 10 minutes and then as we left we shook his head, and he pulled me in and kissed me on the cheek and left saying, "That was the kiss of Judas." Needless to say I walked home laughing the entire way trying to understand what happened. I am now 100% convinced that I will never try one drop of alcohol when I get home because it ruins lives. 

Friday we taught a really good lession with a family who had a son leave on his mission about a month ago, and we made plans to do a lot of mission work with them so that they can have experiences like their son. 

Saturday and Sunday we enjoyed Conference and visited a few investigators and went to a BBQ.  

It was a good week, and I'm glad to be a missionary! 

Love, 

Elder St John

P.S.  The following is from an email Spencer sent to me today.  It was so good, I want to share it with you:

Confrence was really good and I really did enjoy the talk about mothers and women from Elder Holland. It was really good! But I also really liked the testimonies of the 3 new apostles. Even though I didn't really question them being apostles before, the spirit testified to me in each of their talks that they were chosen of God. It was a really good Conference. Priesthood session was really good too, and the only session I watched in English. So I really liked it. 

I'm really good! Sometimes I get down because not very many of our investigators go to church now, so I'm working hard on how I can fix that, but the agency of other people is probably the most frusturating part of being a missionary, because WE HAVE everything that anyone could ever need to be saved and to have eternal life. But the people have to accept it, and that's the hard part. I'm trying to help others realize how truly important and how much value our message has. But in the end it's up to them. 

We eat lunch everyday with the members and they usually give us chicken, rice and beans, or anything else with rice and beans. I really like the food here, even though it's not very healthy I'm keeping down the weight by walking. haha I'm glad you think I look sharp. That's always good to hear. And I'm glad you like the ties too! Lots are gifts.