Map of my new area, Huixquilucan, 7-22-11
My new area 7-22-11
My shoes, haha, after working just one day here. Well, half a day the day I got to this area. 7-22-11
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Hola Familia 7-25-11
Hola!!!!
So I hope everything is going great for you guys! Things have been really crazy this last week, haha, really crazy! First, at the start of the week, we went to a members house to see if she could let us use her washer. But, it ended up when we got there that she was having some big problems and needed our help. I felt really bad because a lot of bad things have been going on in her life. Well anyways, it was one of the moments that you just don't even know what you can say because it's just really hard and there isn't much comfort you can give well... Through this experience I came to love the spirit and the promptings of the spirit a little bit more. First a few scriptures in the Bible came to my mind, so I shared them with her and then she asked if we could say a prayer for her. Normally that is when I would look at my comp., because most of my mission I have had Mexican comps and they can say and put things in better words that can help more. But this time, my comp is also American and speaks less then me and he looked at me. So I was like "Okay, I'll say it" and I really didn't know what to say. But, I was just praying the spirit would guide me and I said the prayer. Well, I don't know what I said in the prayer but the sister was crying at the end. It just made me really love the spirit more and be very grateful that I can rely on the Lord to put the words I need to say in the time I need to say them!
Then, we had a Zone conference this week and that was really good! Our mission the last two months has baptized more then any other mission in Mexico and I think in May we baptized more then any other mission in the world, so that was kinda cool! Well then, on Wednesday I got a surprise call from the president and he just said "Elder Despain, I have been praying and I have received a confirmation that I need to do a special change. You and your companion, Elder Ross, will be going tomorrow morning to Huixquilucan and you will be a district leader out there. But, it won't be the same as any other position as district leader because you will have the biggest district in the mission!" So, I said "Okay President, I will do whatever the Lord wants me to do." So that was at about 8 at night and so we had to pack up all of our stuff and be ready to go by 8 in the morning.... We didn't sleep much that night, haha.
Well then, we got here to our area and our area is so, so, so, so big! It is just all mountains and little towns like some are really, really far away. In our area book, it has names of people but there aren't any houses that have numbers on them, so you just have to find that street and then just ask everyone on the street if the know that person, haha. And, you go off of that, haha. It's really hard to find the people! Haha, so we are pretty much starting from zero here and just contacting everyone we see and knocking lots of doors. Although the people here are really, really Catholic and some times are really mean, but there are also great people! I love the people here, even the mean ones, haha. We found this one lady on Saturday and she is really cool. We were just asking her if she knew some person that we were looking for and she said no, but we contacted her and said "Well, we can't find this lady but we would like to share the message we have about Jesus with you." and she said yes! It was a cool lesson and she is a super cool lady. We think she will probably get baptized, not this Sunday, but the next!!! My whole area is just hills but it is really pretty. Just full of like pine trees and just really pretty!!! Although we are kinda dying going up and down all these hills, haha, more my companion then me but, haha, it makes you tired! Some roads are like straight up, haha. I have found a couple houses here that in the place of a guard dog they have a lamb outside and they can be kinda aggressive, haha. We call them Garden lambs, haha. Some times they try to attack you, haha! Although because its a pueblo (small village or town), they don't really always give us very much food. So, I am starting to cook a lot more in the house, which means I have to buy a lot more food, which means I'm spending a lot more money! Plus, the transports are really expensive and we use them so much to go from pueblo to pueblo!! And, the area is just kinda a hard area. Not very many elders baptize in Huixquilucan, but I know that the Lord put me here for a reason and that He will provide for me and we are going to have success and baptize!!! We are just doing what the president told us to do and that is to find escogidos or the choosen people and we will and are finding them and they are the people that progress very fast! Although, the ward here is great! It's the biggest ward I have ever had. There are lots of active members! Sacrament meeting was so big, haha. It was awesome! It still doesn't compare to our ward, but for Mexico it's huge!!! I talked on Sunday, so that was cool. Although he only told me like 2 min before the meeting was going to start, but it was good! I'm glad I'm here. I know it won't be easy, but I know I'm here for a reason and that there are many people here waiting for me and my companion! I love this work and I'm so grateful to be here!!! I love you all. Thank you for all you do for me! Thanks again for the money, it will be of great use!!! I love you all so, so much and I hope that all is well back at home! Know that I love you all and that I'm doing great and I'm staying safe! Although, I would love to give you all some of the rain we are getting, haha. It rains everyday and we get so, so, so wet every day. I am using two jackets and an umbrella and I still get soaked, haha, but it's okay! It helps to get people to open their door because they see that we are gettting really wet, haha! But I'm doing great !!! I love you all and miss you all as well!
Then, we had a Zone conference this week and that was really good! Our mission the last two months has baptized more then any other mission in Mexico and I think in May we baptized more then any other mission in the world, so that was kinda cool! Well then, on Wednesday I got a surprise call from the president and he just said "Elder Despain, I have been praying and I have received a confirmation that I need to do a special change. You and your companion, Elder Ross, will be going tomorrow morning to Huixquilucan and you will be a district leader out there. But, it won't be the same as any other position as district leader because you will have the biggest district in the mission!" So, I said "Okay President, I will do whatever the Lord wants me to do." So that was at about 8 at night and so we had to pack up all of our stuff and be ready to go by 8 in the morning.... We didn't sleep much that night, haha.
Well then, we got here to our area and our area is so, so, so, so big! It is just all mountains and little towns like some are really, really far away. In our area book, it has names of people but there aren't any houses that have numbers on them, so you just have to find that street and then just ask everyone on the street if the know that person, haha. And, you go off of that, haha. It's really hard to find the people! Haha, so we are pretty much starting from zero here and just contacting everyone we see and knocking lots of doors. Although the people here are really, really Catholic and some times are really mean, but there are also great people! I love the people here, even the mean ones, haha. We found this one lady on Saturday and she is really cool. We were just asking her if she knew some person that we were looking for and she said no, but we contacted her and said "Well, we can't find this lady but we would like to share the message we have about Jesus with you." and she said yes! It was a cool lesson and she is a super cool lady. We think she will probably get baptized, not this Sunday, but the next!!! My whole area is just hills but it is really pretty. Just full of like pine trees and just really pretty!!! Although we are kinda dying going up and down all these hills, haha, more my companion then me but, haha, it makes you tired! Some roads are like straight up, haha. I have found a couple houses here that in the place of a guard dog they have a lamb outside and they can be kinda aggressive, haha. We call them Garden lambs, haha. Some times they try to attack you, haha! Although because its a pueblo (small village or town), they don't really always give us very much food. So, I am starting to cook a lot more in the house, which means I have to buy a lot more food, which means I'm spending a lot more money! Plus, the transports are really expensive and we use them so much to go from pueblo to pueblo!! And, the area is just kinda a hard area. Not very many elders baptize in Huixquilucan, but I know that the Lord put me here for a reason and that He will provide for me and we are going to have success and baptize!!! We are just doing what the president told us to do and that is to find escogidos or the choosen people and we will and are finding them and they are the people that progress very fast! Although, the ward here is great! It's the biggest ward I have ever had. There are lots of active members! Sacrament meeting was so big, haha. It was awesome! It still doesn't compare to our ward, but for Mexico it's huge!!! I talked on Sunday, so that was cool. Although he only told me like 2 min before the meeting was going to start, but it was good! I'm glad I'm here. I know it won't be easy, but I know I'm here for a reason and that there are many people here waiting for me and my companion! I love this work and I'm so grateful to be here!!! I love you all. Thank you for all you do for me! Thanks again for the money, it will be of great use!!! I love you all so, so much and I hope that all is well back at home! Know that I love you all and that I'm doing great and I'm staying safe! Although, I would love to give you all some of the rain we are getting, haha. It rains everyday and we get so, so, so wet every day. I am using two jackets and an umbrella and I still get soaked, haha, but it's okay! It helps to get people to open their door because they see that we are gettting really wet, haha! But I'm doing great !!! I love you all and miss you all as well!
Love,
Elder Despain
Monday, July 18, 2011
Different day, but raining really hard! 7-12-11
My wonderful breakfast the other day, haha. 7-13-11
New pants. I have been saving them in my suitcase so that later in my mission I could have a nice new pair of pants. Well, I finally used them. They are great. I'm actually using them right now! Also, my new hat I bought, although, you can't really see it in this picture! 7-15-11
Cool Graffiti 7-15-11
Me and my comp in our cool hats - note our ties match our hats! 7-18-11
Hola familia 7-18-11
Hola familia
This week was great! We baptized this guy named Abraham!! He is really cool. I'm sending a picture of the baptism! I felt like I hadn't baptized in forever so it was really sweet to be able to get a baptism and especially one as cool as this one. He is a super cool guy! My comp got to baptize him and it was the first person he has ever got to baptize in his mission because before his companions always baptized them! So that was a super cool experience for him! It was awesome! So my first day in this area, like Lunes (Monday) in the night time, we went out to work and it was raining really hard. We got super wet and right before we got to our appointment we had to cross this road to be able to get there and there was tons of water. It wasn't really like a road by that point from all the rain, it was more like a river. We crossed the street and the water almost came up to our knees, haha. It was pretty crazy! Then we crossed another street the same and to get into the house where we were going, we had to walk through more water up to our knees because the person lived in this like place were you go in the door and then there is like 8 houses inside that door. Well, the entrance was all flooded so we had to push through all that water to get to his door, haha. It was crazy but worth it because he was the one that ended up getting baptized this week! When we got into their house, I tipped up my shoes and water ran out of them like in movies, haha. It was really funny! Also, this week I was pretty hungry one day and so I got up and made eggs. But ya, some of the eggs had gone bad so I had to throw those out, haha. Then I got some good eggs made them but we didn't have any salt or pepper, haha. So they didn't taste too good but the only thing we had was salsa and pechuga de pollo, haha, which is like chopped up chicken breast in a can, haha. So I made that, haha, and put it with my eggs. But I'm not going to lie, it was pretty gross, haha. I don't know why I did that, haha! In this area, we also get to shower out of a bucket, like I have almost all my mission. It's great, haha. I love nice, cold bucket showers in the morning, haha. They're not too bad, haha. I also bought a really cool hat for 15 pesos the other day. It is neon blue and says Virginia Beach on it, haha. I will send a picture of it! Haha! Well, that is some of the stuff that has been going down, haha! I am loving being here and getting to work hard! I love having American companions, haha. I get to work so much harder and I have a ton of fun doing it! I love getting to be a missionary! I also love getting to baptize and see people accept their Savior Jesus Christ! The man we baptized, Abraham, was so happy after his baptism. He just kept saying "I feel so great! My knees are shaking because I feel so good! I feel clean!!!" It was awesome. It makes the work we do more than worth it! I love this work! I know it's the work of the Lord and I know that Jesus is my Savior and that He truly did suffer and die for me and for every person on earth. And I am so grateful I get to help other people know of the sacrifice and help them to come closer to Him and accept His sacrifice by being baptized! I love you all and miss you all a ton! Stay strong and stay safe! Love you all! Know that I'm doing great and that I'm always safe!! I love you!
Love,
Elder Despain
Monday, July 11, 2011
Hola 7-11-11
Hola familia!!!
I'm doing great!!! I did get changed and I am now in my new area! I got changed to the D.F. (Districto Federal - which is like Mexico City) my area is called Las Armas! There are a lot more people here, haha, then in Toluca, haha! It is a big change, but I'm so pumped to work so, so, so hard here! My new comp is Elder Ross!!! He is from Payson, Utah! He is a cool kid. I already knew him because he was in my zone when he got to Mexico like 6 or 7 months ago. It was while I was with Elder Jamie in Tlalli! I'm so, so pumped to work so hard. It's going to be awesome! I love having companions that want to work and want to do everything the right way!! No fighting, just lots of work!!!!!! :)
I did watch that video. It is really crazy. I can't belive you guys had that big of a dust storm. That is super crazy! I'm glad to hear all is going well back at home and that Kimi got moved without any problem! I'm sure it will be great to visit them! I'm guessing you're there right now mom visiting them??? I hope that you have a great trip!
So it has been raining a lot and they say it rains here in the D.F. more then in Toluca, so it will be interesting to see how hard it rains here! I had changes today! I came from Toluca by myself, kinda weird. Then I got to observetorio, the like main bus station in the D.F., and then I had to take a taxi to a church building. But then it ended up that they told me to go to the wrong building, so I had to take another taxi to a different church building and then I had to take a taxi with my new comp to my new area!! It was an experience, haha, but I got to make friends with lots of taxi drivers, haha. I like talking to them and the greatest part is that when you talk to people, sooner or later the conversation always gets changed to talking about the church and why I'm here as a missionary and then I get to teach them and talk about the church. It's cool! I love being a missionary and I love talking to people about the church! Although I spent like 700 pesos today, haha, that is like a ton, ton, ton! Haha, I'm just really glad that you were able to send me some money because without that I would have never had that much money to pay for all my transports!
I can't belive that Braxton is already learning to crawl. He must be so, so big now! Well, I'm sure that all the kids are so, so big! Tell them all I love then and that their Uncle Randall misses them like crazy! That's super cool that Tate got married. It seems weird for me but it's super cool! And please tell him congratulations for me and that I wish I could have been there!
I am also very grateful for our Heavenly Father's plan for us and I know that as we live as He wants us to live that we will have all the happiness we need in this life and eternal happiness after this life! I'm grateful to be a missionary and to be able to share this plan that I love so much with all the people I serve here! I love you all and I miss you all!!! Just know I'm in the Lord's hands and that I'm safe and doing great!
Love,
Elder Despain
Monday, July 4, 2011
Hola Familia! 7-4-11
Hola Familia!!!
Well, not much is new, haha! I'm doing really good and me and my comp are working really hard! I had two baptisms in my district so that was super cool because I have been trying to help them out a lot so that they could be baptized so I was really glad they finally did! Today we went to pyramids. They were ones I went to like 2 changes ago but they were cool to see again! We are hoping to have some baptisms in our area this week but we will see what happens!! We have been working really hard and I know the blessings of that hard work will come. At times, God doesn't give us the success that we wish but in His own time it comes! Tell Ayla "Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Other than that, everything is pretty much the same!! Our cambios are this Monday!! We should find out our changes on Saturday! I think I'm ready for a change of companion and area but who knows what will happen! I am ready to go wherever the Lord wants me to go! But I do think a change would be nice, haha. I have like 4 and a half months in this area! I have only been in one other area this long and that was my first area! Haha, I love it here though. I love having the opportunity to be a missionary! I miss you all a lot but I really do love what I'm doing!! I'm glad that I am an instrument in the hands of the Lord to get His work done here on earth! I'm so grateful to have this wonderful gospel in my life! We are truly lucky to have the knowledge of the plan of salvation and the happiness that comes with knowing our purpose here on earth and where we are going after this life! And more then anything, we are so lucky to know about the atonement of Jesus Christ and be able to use His atonement daily in our lives! I am so grateful for the atonement. I know that I make mistakes daily, but I know that with faith in my Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ I can overcome the mistakes I have made and any others that I may make! We are truly lucky to have this gospel in our lives! I'm also so grateful for the amazing family I have!! I love you all so much and miss you all a lot! Although, I'm so grateful to be here on a mission! I hope you all are doing good and staying safe! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Despain
Well, not much is new, haha! I'm doing really good and me and my comp are working really hard! I had two baptisms in my district so that was super cool because I have been trying to help them out a lot so that they could be baptized so I was really glad they finally did! Today we went to pyramids. They were ones I went to like 2 changes ago but they were cool to see again! We are hoping to have some baptisms in our area this week but we will see what happens!! We have been working really hard and I know the blessings of that hard work will come. At times, God doesn't give us the success that we wish but in His own time it comes! Tell Ayla "Happy Birthday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Other than that, everything is pretty much the same!! Our cambios are this Monday!! We should find out our changes on Saturday! I think I'm ready for a change of companion and area but who knows what will happen! I am ready to go wherever the Lord wants me to go! But I do think a change would be nice, haha. I have like 4 and a half months in this area! I have only been in one other area this long and that was my first area! Haha, I love it here though. I love having the opportunity to be a missionary! I miss you all a lot but I really do love what I'm doing!! I'm glad that I am an instrument in the hands of the Lord to get His work done here on earth! I'm so grateful to have this wonderful gospel in my life! We are truly lucky to have the knowledge of the plan of salvation and the happiness that comes with knowing our purpose here on earth and where we are going after this life! And more then anything, we are so lucky to know about the atonement of Jesus Christ and be able to use His atonement daily in our lives! I am so grateful for the atonement. I know that I make mistakes daily, but I know that with faith in my Heavenly Father and His son Jesus Christ I can overcome the mistakes I have made and any others that I may make! We are truly lucky to have this gospel in our lives! I'm also so grateful for the amazing family I have!! I love you all so much and miss you all a lot! Although, I'm so grateful to be here on a mission! I hope you all are doing good and staying safe! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Despain
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