A picture of me signing the marriage papers as a witness for the marriage of Elia y Federico. 7-30-11

 A picture of the zone waiting outside the capilla right before a meeting.  This is the old zone in the last combio. 8-2-10

 This is a picture of the baptism of Iseil. She got baptized on the 8th. Also, I'm in the picture and Elder Higuera and the bishop. 8-8-10

A picture of us in the capilla (chapel) waiting for the call for combios (transfers).  We were eating some food a member brought to us. 8-8-10

A picture of us as we waited for the call for combios we were playing volleyball slash soccer, haha.  It was fun.  You could only use your feet or head like soccer but you had to get it over the chairs like volleyball and it could only bounce once, haha.  It was fun. 8-8-10

 

 This is a photo of me and Elder Higuera with the family Zurita.  The dad is the first counselor in the bishopric.  They are a great family. 8-9-10

The baptism last week with Elia, Federico and Liset.  I baptized Elia.  7-31-10

 

The baptism this week of Iseil and Hugo is the guy in all white because he baptized her and the other girl in the picture is the wife of Hugo and then in white is Iseil and then me and my comp and the bishop.  8-8-10

The whole zone playing a game of kind of soccer kinda volleyball, haha.  It was fun.  This was when we were waiting to find out about who was getting changed and then after we slept in the church, haha.  It wasn't very comfortable but, haha, its all good.  8-8-10

Aug 9, 2010

Hey Family

Thank you for all your letters and emails, they are great! Mom and Dad Happy Anniversary today!!!!!!!!!! Thank you for all that you have done for me! Thank you for being such wonderful parents. I couldn't ask for better parents! Also Happy Anniversary Julie and Bret tomorrow! Well I love you! You all are great! Well this week was a great week. We had one baptism, her name is Iseil and her brother Hugo is a member. It was great. Hugo was able to baptize her and it was such a great experience for both of them. It was Hugo's first baptism and it was just great! I love this gospel and for the opportunity I have to bring people the happiness of this gospel. It is truly amazing! Well we finished this combio or this 6 weeks and we went to a church in Molino like 20 min from our area last night and we waited there as a zone to find out who would get changed and stuff. We found out that we got a new zone leader it is my district leader Elder Agular so now he is the zone leader and then also my companion got moved to a different zone and different area. I will stay in my area constituyentes and I will get a new companion his name is Elder Lopez. I don't know him but I will meet him tomorrow, other elders said that he is a pretty cool Elder! I am a little nervous because it is his last combio in the mission. I am worried he won't want to work because a lot of missionaries don't want to work their last combio but I am hoping that he will want to work. I am here to work and if he likes it or not we are going to work, but it will be a lot easier if he wants to work. I am a little nervous for that but I think it will all be good. Well this week was good and everything is going good with me. Still having a little trouble with our Bishop. We have a investigator who is ready for baptism and everything and has had an interview by our district leader and everything, but the bishop says he isn't ready for baptism. The mission president said that if this next week he doesn't let us baptize him, that we can do it anyway because we hold the keys to determine who is ready and not the Bishop. So ya, that is a little interesting but we will see what happens this next week. Everything else is great with me. I love you all. Thanks for all you do for me. Love you all.

love

Elder Despain

The family of Elia and Federico right after their marriage.  I don't know if this picture will send or not because my camera died half way through loading it and also I will have to send the pictures of the baptism next week because my camera is dead.  Sorry. 7-30-10

Happy Birthday Mom

Hey Mom,
Thanks for the email. I loved it! Happy Birthday this week on the 3rd. I hope you have a great day! Felicidades!! You are one year older and wiser too! I love you so much and I am so grateful to have you as a mom. I am very very lucky. I couldn't ask for a better mom! Thanks for all you do for me. You're amazing!

Love your son,
Elder Despain

p.s. please get yourself something for me for your birthday! I love you!

Aug 2, 2010

Hey Family!
Everything here is great! This week we got two couples married and 3 people baptized Elia, Federico, and Liset!!! The husband of Liset is already a member from when he was a kid so we didn't baptize him but we did reactivate him along with baptizing his wife. He has been inactive since he was ten and he is now 25 and his wife is 19 and they have 2 kids and another one the way. This baptism was really great because I felt like it really completed a family with the marriage and helped them on the path of righteousness by her baptism and his reactivation and also started a good path for their kids to be strong in the church and it was just great. Also, Elia and Federico it was great because they have kids and it really brought their family closer together. It was great.

Mom to answer some of your questions from your letter. First, it is crazy that Tate is already done and please tell him hi for me. My companion is great and we are working hard. Combios (transfers) are this week on Sunday but I don't think that there will be many changes. We had a zone conference with the president this Jueves (Thurs.) and he said that he didn't think there would be many changes. He wants us to have more time in each area, so I think I will keep my comp. My Spanish is okay but I wish it was better. It is a million times better then when I got here so that's good, haha. About your Spanish, my advise for you mom is use it and get the practice. For me the books don't help much, it's the practice. When you use it, you learn and when you make mistakes you learn faster. I want you to know that I am praying for grandma and I hope that she will be able to have the strength to finish out their mission. Also, please tell Randa thank you for the post card. I loved it and tell her I love her and thank you. The weather here is good. It was rainy all last week and half this week. I used my sweater, haha, but the second half of this week has been way hot. It's weird. The weather changes so much every day. It's hot then it's cold then it's hot and rainy and then it's cold and rainy. It's weird. I have never been in weather that changed so much, like it changes within the day from cold to super hot. It's weird but it's all good. The food here is great. I love it. My favorite things so far would have to be chili rellenos, or I really love tacos de pastor*, they are amazing. I couldn't tell you what kind of meat the pastor is but I like it and it is good. I will have to send a picture some day of what it looks like. It's kinda crazy. It is like a big hanging thing of meat and they just cut some off when you order it and then they grill it and then put it in a taco with pineapple or onion or sometimes both but its great. I love it. The tap water is not good here. The people don't even use the tap water because it is so bad. There are people that drive up and down the streets daily and they sell big things of water so everyone buys those for their houses. My daily schedule - I don't know what to say because it is different every day. One thing that is always the same is lots of walking but its good, I don't mind it. Yes. Satan works very, very hard on those that are about to be baptized. I have seen that with like every investigator. A problem always comes up right before baptism, but the Lord has His ways of always helping it to work out when we have faith and patience. Mom just so you know I might have to use my card this week to get money out or sometime soon because me and my companion helped pay for one of the marriages so I might not have enough mission money so if I use it, that is why. We are having a little trouble with the Bishop again but I know that if we bear it with patience that it will all work out. It can be hard because we don't understand why, but sometimes I think the Lord tests us to see if we will turn to Him and do what He wants even when we don't know why. So that is a little trial right now but with the Lord's help, we will get through it and the people will be able to be baptized. The Lord has prepared a specific time for every person. Oh ya, this week it hailed once that was weird and crazy. The street was all white and it looked kinda like it snowed but it was just hail, weird haha. Well, I love you all and I thank you all for everything that you do for me and for your prayers. I can testify to you that the Lord hears and answers prayers. He wants to hear from us and when we ask, He answers. I have a testimony of this and also that this church is true. Do all that you can to live this gospel and you will be blessed. I love you all and I miss you all.
Love
Elder Despain

*Note from Kimi - I looked up tacos de pastor.  It is actually tacos al pastor (Shepherd Tacos) which is the Mexican version of a Shawarma or Gyro. It is made of pork that is marinated and then cooked on a stick. It sounds yummy! Here is a picture I found.

Advice For Pre Missionaries

Note from Kimi: I wrote to Randall and asked him what advice he would give to pre-missionaries and this is the e-mail he sent back.

Tell them that I wish I would have listened more in seminary and learned more of the Scripture Mastery scriptures. I wish that I had studied Preach My Gospel, that is a big one that will help them so much if they read through and study every page in Preach My Gospel. Also, I wish that I had read the Book of Mormon all the way through more times. So just tell them read every day and get through the Book of Mormon as many times as possible before their mission. Also, study and apply as they read in Preach My Gospel and also in the scriptures.

Elder Despain

Picture of me and a church in a different area.  It isn't the church that me and my companion go to, but it is big and cool so I took a picture. 7-12-10

The Zone playing football (soccer) in the rain! 7-19-10

26 Lunes, Julio 2010

Hey Family!

I hope you are all doing great! This week was good for me! We didn't have any baptisms, but it was still a good week. We got all the references for this area for the last 6 months from our leaders and were told to go and check them all out. There was about 22 references, which is a ton! It is super hard to find addresses here because the house numbers make no sense and I am pretty sure they just pick a random number when they move in and there are a ton of duplicate numbers on every street but we were about to find most of them. It made for a good week and we are about to get a lot of new investigators, which is great! This week we have two couples getting married so they can be baptized. The husband of one is already a member but is inactive, or was. So that means we should have at least 3 baptisms this week, which is great!

I got my hair cut today for the first time in Mexico. I was nervous about it, but I found a member who cuts hair so she did it for free and it looks pretty good. It is a lot better than I thought it would be, haha. This week, the month and a half of being in Mexico finally caught up to me, haha. I had diarrhea all week, haha. Not fun, but I was able to get through it and was lucky enough to not even have an accident, haha, which a lot of the Americans aren't that lucky, haha. They all say they got sick and I thought I wasn't going to, but I finally did. But it was just diarrhea, nothing more and only for a week, so that is pretty good. A lot of the Americans got it a lot, lot worse, haha.

Please tell Mac "Happy Birthday! and Felicidades!" Well I love you all and thank you for all you do for me! And for your prayers! Also, I got more letters last Monday night so that was great. Thank you Mom for the letters. I loved hearing about everything! Also, tell Bro McIntyre that I got his letters. Tell him thank you so much. They were really great and tell him I will try and write him back very soon!

About the Bishop thing, it was really a great experience and I really learned that when we are patient and ask our Heavenly Father for understanding and for patience, He answers and everything turns out good. This goes for a lot of things that we don't understand. It helps to pray for patience and understanding and He will help. The Lord is amazing and He hears and answers prayers! I love this church and I know it is true. I know that it has the power to change lives through the atonement of Christ! This gospel is amazing and when people live it, it is a true blessing. There is no greater happiness than that, that comes from living this gospel! I love you all and thank you all for all you do! I couldn't ask for a better family and I couldn't ask for better friends. You are all amazing. Stay strong and remember the Lord in all you do and He will bless you! Love you all.

Oh, I forgot to tell you all this, haha. This week I started teaching English, haha. It was weird but went really good and it gives us another opportunity to teach. What we do is we have classes for English and I teach English for half the time and then we have a lesson about the gospel for the other half. It is really great! But it is weird to teach English and it is weird to talk in English, haha, because I try to never talk in English, even with the American elders in my Zone. We just speak Spanish so it is weird when I am teaching, haha, but it's good.

It also rained every day all day this week. Oh, cool story... so the Lord answers prayers. We had Jennifer and Jacquelin and we asked if they were going to come to church this week. Their mom said no because it has rained all week and it would probably rain Sunday morning. She didn't want to go out and go all the way to the church in the rain. But me and my companion promised her it wouldn't rain on Sunday morning and then asked would she go and she said if it didn't rain, yes. So we prayed hard that it wouldn't rain. And the Lord answered our prayers and it didn't rain. They came to church and we got to confirm Jennifer and Jacquelin and then about an hour after church got out and all the members were home, including Jennifer and Jacquelin and their mom, it just started pouring and didn't stop the rest of the day, haha. It was great and I know the Lord answered our prayers and made it possible for them to be confirmed members and receive the gift of the Holy Ghost! Which is such an awesome gift and is amazing! I feel it daily and am led, guided and kept safe because of the promptings of the Holy Ghost. When we live worthy, we are blessed with this great gift and it is truly amazing! The Lord hears and answers us. All we must do is pray and have faith. Pray, believing and having faith that He will answer and He will answer! I love you all. You are amazing! Thank you for everything.

Love,
Elder Despain

 Picture of me and Candy, who we baptized, and her kids and also Moses and Juan Carlos who we baptized. 7-11-10

Picture of me and the city at night! 7-11-10

 

A picture of me and my whole district. The one on the far left is the Zone leader and then the one bending down in the front is my district leader/companion to the Zone leader. It is great to have them in my district. 7-12-10

The baptism of Jenifer and Jackilin 7-18-10

Another of the baptism and on the right is the bishop of our ward and on the far left is his wife. 7-18-10

Pictures of the city 7-18-10

July 19, 2010

Hey Family, 19 Lunes, Julio 2010

Kimi asked me to put the date on letters so I did! I hope that works out for you all, haha. This week was great! We had two baptisms Jennifer, 13, and Jacquelin, 8. It was great. Their mom has been inactive for a lot of years and so we taught her along with her daughters, baptized them and reactivated her. It was really great to see the happiness this gospel brings to the lives of those who live it! I got to baptize Jennifer, and it went really good! Also this week, we ate with this family and they had a little boy about Jayden's age and he reminded me so much of Jayden. It was so funny. His parents went in to wash dishes from our lunch and he sat and told me stories. I didn't really understand his story because it was pretty far out there, just like a Jayden's stories, haha. He probably didn't stop talking for like 30 minutes and then he only stopped because we had to leave and the funniest part is I only said like 2 words in the 30 minutes of talking, haha. It all started just because I asked if he liked Spider-man because he was wearing a Spider-man shirt, haha. It was really funny and just really made me think of all the kids, but really a lot about Jayden, haha.

This week I saw two rats that were big enough that I think they could easily eat a cat. We were walking next to where there was a lot of trash and they were running through the trash. They were so huge and ya it was kinda crazy because they could eat a cat, haha. This week was kinda different because we had the baptism all ready for Sunday and the girls had already had interviews and everything and then on Saturday the Bishop just randomly said he thought they shouldn't get baptized this week, which was weird. So anyways, we had to call our leaders, the zone leaders, and tell them this. They were very confused and so were we, but we were praying that it would just work out. Then just after we got off the phone with our zone leaders the Bishop called and said he thought about it more and he thought that Sunday would be okay now. It was very strange but also a very good experience. I know that when we rely on the Lord to help us make things happen smooth and right and have faith, that it will work out the way He wants it to. It always works out. We were praying very hard to understand why the Bishop thought this and to understand and respect his decision and as we did this the Lord helped us and blessed him to change his mind. It was a small thing but it was very big to me and I grew a lot and learned to trust the Lord more! I love this gospel so much. It is truly amazing. I am so grateful to be here doing this work. I love to see the happiness this gospel brings. Thank you so much all of you for all you do. Thank you for blessing me with such a great family. You all are so great and I couldn't ask for a better family and better parents! This church is true and will bless us with peace and happiness as we live the gospel and follow the prophet! I just want to tell you all that I know that the Book of Mormon is true! I can promise you all that as you read it daily you will be blessed and I can promise that your day will go better when you read in the Book of Mormon. You don't have to read a ton, just a few verses a day, and I can promise you will be blessed! It is the word of God and I know it to be true! Thank you for all you do. I love you all! and I miss you too! I am doing great and staying safe! Love you all!

Love,

Elder Despain

The baptism on Sunday of Moses and Juan Carlos.  I got to baptize Juan Carlos and my companion baptized Moses.  It was great.  This baptism was a lot better for me because I actually knew the words, haha. 7-11-10

This is the baptism of Candy. 7-9-10

 Just a picture of me and a beautiful view. 7-9-10

Great view at night from the top of Candy's house. 7-11-10

All the primary kids. 7-11-10

Love You!

Hey Family!

So I did get letters in the pouch this week!  I got the first ones from you mom so I am hoping I will get letters every week now through the pouch.  But please put the dates on the letters so I know when they are from.  It looks like they are taking about 3 weeks to get to me, haha.  But it was great to get letters and to hear about how everything is going!  Everything here is still going good!  This week we had 3 baptisms.  It was great!  We had one on Viernes (Friday) and 2 on Domingo (Sunday) after church.  Friday was Candy!  Sunday was Moses and Juan Carlos.  They were great.  I will send you pictures of them.  The work is going good here and we are working hard to get more investigators and get all of them closer to baptism.  It is so great to be able to see how much this gospel blesses those that we teach.  This gospel is truly amazing.  I love it so much and I am so thankful that I have had it in my life, my whole life.  I'm so happy that I have the opportunity to be here and bring these people that happiness that I have had my whole life!  So I told you about last Sunday and how it rained really hard and I sent you pictures of it.  Well, my shoes that I was wearing that day are still wet, haha.   It has been over a week, haha.  But my other shoes are really great and are super water proof and it has been fine just wearing those.  If any other missionaries that are going out ask about shoes, tell them to get Hush Puppies beause they are way better then my Eccos.  But this week has been crazy.  It has rained a ton more then normal.  It pretty much rained all day, every day this week. 

On Saturday, we were walking from a lunch appointment in Zopate and it is like a 10 minute walk, but it was pouring rain and the road was like a river.  So we were walking on this wall and on one side of the wall was the road that was like a river and the other side was a big really steep hill.  So we are walking on this wall so we don't have to walk in the river of water.  I was like 5 meters in front of my companion and I turned around to see if he was still keeping up.  When I turned around, I started leaning way too much to the side of the great big hill and I was like about to fall.  I was doing the waving arms thing, trying to get my weight back centered.  It was crazy.  I was like half bent backwards but I saved it, some how, and got my weight back centered.  It was crazy and it would have been horrible if I fell, haha.  My companion said he saw it and was like praying I would not fall, haha, but then after I saved it and was all good, we just busted up laughing.  It was great.  We got pretty wet that day too.  But ya, haha, funny story.  Probably isn't that funny to you all, but if you were there you would have laughed and thought it was crazy, haha. 

This week we were in charge of the noche de hogar (Kimi's note - actually translates to Family Home Evening) it was like a ward activity and the part we were in charge of was about Lehi's dream.  So we made like a tree and a great building and stuff out of cardboard and then we got like yarn for the road.  Then, we blind folded some of the kids and then there was one person trying to guide them to the road and to the tree and then the rest of us were all saying to go other places.  It was super funny and went really good!  Then on Sunday, we got to be part of the program and got to sing a bunch of songs.  But there were only like 6 of us singing and ya I am not the best singer, haha.  It's even harder in Spanish because I don't know the words perfect but it went really good.  I was glad that I could help out in the program. 

So there is this lady in our ward that comes to church every week and her 13 year old son is a member.  So we went and visited her to see why she hadn't been baptized and she said it was because she wasn't married to her husband, or person she is living with.  So then we set up an appointment to talk to her husband-person (Fredrico).  When we met with Fredrico and asked him if he would get married to her so she could be baptized, he said yes.  It was so great.  He is a really cool guy too, but has never had an interest in the church.  But he is fine with his wife and son getting baptized.  So next week they are getting married and then she (Elia) is getting baptized the day after they get married.  But the last time we were at their house and we were talking to her about the baptism after she getts married.  Then out of no where, Fredrico just asks, "What would we have to do to get married in your temple?"  This was an amazing question because he has never been interested in the church.  So we explain all about how you have to be a member and be baptized and then wait a year and all this.  And then he asks about the word of wisdom and so we talked all about that.  Then we asked if he would stop drinking and smoking and be baptized with his wife and he said yes!  It was amazing and so next week after they get married they are going to be baptized!  It is so great!  And hopefully we will have at least one baptism this week as well!  So it's so crazy, yesterday was 1 month in Mexico for me.  It is crazy and the time has gone by so quick.  Well, I am doing great and Mexico is amazing!  Thank you again for all your letters and emails!  I love you all so so so much!  I miss you all!  But I am glad I am here and have the opportunity to be a instrument in the Lord's hands.  This work is amazing and this gospel is amazing.  The church is true!  I love you all, thanks for everything!

Love,

Elder Despain

aka Wedo to all the people here haha
wedo=(means white person)
(Note From Kimi - it is actually guero - the slang for white person which sounds like "wedo" to the untrained English ear according to the internet)

Me and my companion in the rain, haha, waiting for the combi (taxi/van) 7-4-10

I took the metro for the first time this week.  This is the metro.  This is early in the morning so there are no people.  We were on our way to the mission conference with the new president, but on the way back this was packed with people and it was crazy. 6-29-10

Rain, rain and more rain!

Hey Everyone!

No, I didn't feel the earthquake here.  I didn't even know there was one, haha.  Although I have heard about Monterrey, Mexico and I saw some pictures of what all the rain did.   That is so crazy. If you haven't seen it you should look it up, it is kinda crazy.  Things here are great!  I got letters for the first time this week, but they were just letters from like the day I left the MTC.  I got one from Christi.  Tell her thank you so much.  I loved it and it was great to hear about everything going on.  Tell her I love her and I miss her and her family very much!  I love all of you too, haha.  Then I got 2 from Kylee, so ya I didn't get any others.  I'm sure they are on the way, but I don't know how long they will take, haha.  But don't worry, I know that you love me!  So last night was so crazy.  It rained so hard.  My companion and I were teaching a family in Polo Solo Cir. and that is like a 25 minute walk from our house.  It was like pouring, so the family gave us an umbrella and we started on our way.  The umbrella was like useless.  We were still getting so wet so we just closed it and sprinted down this huge hill that was like a river at this point.  We then stood at the bottom of the hill to wait for a combi (taxi/van) because we didn't want to walk the whole 25 minutes in pouring rain.  We finally got a combi then we took that to a place that is about 3 minutes from our house. Then we walked home, but I was so, so, so wet there was nothing on me that was dry.  I had to wring my clothes out when I got home and I probably can't wear those shoes for about 2 weeks because they are so wet.  I'm guessing they will take a long time to dry, just like everything else.  I am going to send a picture of me and my companion.  It was when we were waiting for the combi, haha.  It was awesome!  We were so wet.  It was kinda crazy yesterday. We took 3 kids to church with us 12, 9, 6, haha.  Church was way crazy with kids, haha.  We are baptizing the 9 year old on Sunday but their mom had to work so we took them to church, haha.  Yesterday, I bore my testimony in Sacramemt meeting because it was the first Sunday of the month.  It went great but it was my first time in front of a whole ward in Spanish, haha.  It went good!  So I don't know if I told you this but because of the law in Arizona, everyone here hates Arizona so I have been saying I'm from Utah to all the people I meet in like the street but I tell the members I am from Arizona.  We got our new mission president this week and he is awesome.  I had an interview with him and he told me that I had to tell everyone I am from Utah even the members, haha.  It's not totally a lie because I lived there for 3 months, haha.  I just think it's funny I have to tell everyone that, haha.  This week we visited a less active member and she is very, very poor.  She offered us food and we said no because we could tell that they had nothing.  She wouldn't take no for an answer so we ate.  I felt so bad because she didn't eat and I don't think she had enough to eat.  I'm positive that the Lord will bless her for her willingness to sacrifice, but I felt so bad.  I mean like her house, I thought was going to fall over it was so sad.  My companion and I are hoping to help her fix her house up as like a ward project or something.  But ya, that was very sad and I have never felt so bad for eating in my life.  The baptism for last week didn't work.  Daniel backed out the day of the baptism because he doesn't feel prepared.  I know he is but we have to respect that and I am hoping he will feel ready to take that step to baptism very soon.  This week we have 4 baptisms lined up and I really hope they work out!  Like I said before, we got our new president he is really great.  I am very excited about having him.  He is going to be a great president.  He told me in my interview about a new program that they are starting up for training missionaries in the field.  It sounds really great and I am super excited.  He said that with this new program it means he won't be behind a desk all the time.  It means he will be able to get out in the field and teach with us, which is so awesome.  I am so excited to go out and teach with him!  It's going to be great!  Well, I hope you are all doing good.  I love you all and miss you all!  The church is true!  The Lord is blessing me a ton and He is keeping me safe!  I love this work and I love the opportunity I have to bring happiness to the lives of these people!  I love you all!

Love,

Elder Despain

 Me and my companion, Elder Higuera, with my bags, haha. 6-15-10

 Pictures of the city. 6-20-10

  A picture of a little girl. She wanted me to take a picture of her, haha. Her family are great members. 6-20-10

Me and my companion in our jerseys. 6-21-10

Me, my zone leader in the blue, and a missionary in my district in our jerseys. 6-21-10 

The whole zone playing soccer! 6-21-10

A picture from the top of our house in the day. I want you to see how many houses there are. It's crazy and they are just all stacked on top of each other. 6-21-10

From the top of our house in the day, right before rain. 6-21-10

A picture from the top of our house at night. 6-24-10

Another from the top of our house at night. 6-24-10 

Me and Rosario right before the baptism!!!!!! 6-26-10

 

Rosario, her two kids and me! Her daughter is a member, now she is, but her son isn't but we are working on that, haha. 6-26-10

Another picture of her whole family, me and and my companion before the baptism. 6-26-10

  A picture of the street in our area and that is Edgar. He is a member. He is cool. He was walking with us to go and visit a family. He is super funny. I traded him that sparkly yellow tie you sent me mom for like 5 ties that he got from a different missionary, haha. He didn't like the ties he gave me but he loved my yellow tie, haha. 6-27-10

  A picture of the city. This is like 3 blocks from our house. The place we are in in this photo is call Zapote. 6-28-10

This is another picture from Zapote. If you look on the left on the side of that hill, that is a cemetery. It's kinda crazy because it is on like the side of a mountain, but then again so is everything here, haha. 6-28-10

1st Baptism!

Hey family,

This week was great!  The baptism we were supposed to have on Friday didn't work out because Daniel, the investigator, didn't come to church on Sunday!  But I still had my first baptism this week.  On Saturday, I got to baptize Rosario!  She is great.   Her 16 year old daughter is a member and we started teaching Rosario like 2 days after I got to the mission.   It has been great to teach her.  We asked her to be baptized on Friday and she said yes for Saturday so it was great.   I only had one day to memorize the words to do the baptism.   That was a little hard because they are big words you don't use in normal talk, haha.  But I did it with the Lord's help and the baptism went great.  Before the baptism, we went to the church and it was so gross.   There were like cockroaches in the font and the water was so gross, so we had to use buckets and carry the water out by hand.  We finally got all the water out of the font and then we cleaned it and began to fill it with good water.   Well it filled really slow and it didn't get all the way full by the time for the baptism.   So haha, ya it was a little weird to do the baptism because there wasn't very much water but it worked!   It was great to see how happy she was after the baptism.   It was just really great!  Daniel is getting baptized on Saturday, so that should be great as well.   We are hoping to also get some of our other investigators to baptism this week, but we will see.

Everything here is just really great.   It was a little crazy here yesterday because Mexico is out of the running for the world cup, haha.  All the people were a little upset about it haha, but its all good now.   So I don't know what the missionaries did here that lost 20 pounds when they got to Mexico, the ones you were telling me about from the missionary mom thing.  I don't know what they did because I definitely haven't lost weight.  I don't have a scale but I do know that I have gained weight here, haha.   I am up a hole on my belt and the pants to my suit that I have had for awhile, the pin-stripe suit that I got in high school, they are pretty tight, haha.  They still work and I don't have to use them much.  I only have to use my suits on Sundays and large meetings so ya, but anyways I think I have gained a little weight.  I love the food so that is probably why.   The food here is amazing!   Some of it I don't really know what it is, but it tastes good, haha, so I like it.  Sometimes I ask what it is, other times I don't think I want to know, haha, so I don't ask.   Everything is great.   We are working hard.   We get our new mission president tomorrow that should be great!   We had missionary changes yesterday but I got to stay with my companion because it has only been two weeks.  There will be different missionaries in the zone and things so that should be good.  I am glad to get to stay with my companion for 6 more weeks.  He is a great companion and he works hard, which I like a lot.   Some of the members say he works like a black person, haha.  It is really funny.  At first I was very taken back by them saying that, but now that I have been here a little I have realized they use that expression here a lot and it is a good thing.   I don't know, it's a little weird but everyone says it, haha.   At first I didn't know if I just didn't get the right meaning because its in Spanish, but I asked one of the older American missionaries in my zone if that is what it meant.   He said that I was right, that is what they mean by it and that they say it a ton, which I know now because I hear it all the time, haha.  Anyways, that was just kinda funny to me.  So it took 6 days for my socks to dry, haha.  So now I have learned to not wait and wash all my socks on one p-day, to wash a few every p-day so I still have some when the others dry because it takes almost a week, haha.  I am very thankful for my microfiber towel because it drys in like half a day and a normal towel takes a long time, haha.  So we have a washer in our house, but it is like messed up and the water won't drain out of it, haha.  You have to scoop the water out by hand after every cycle, haha, and then once you get all the water scooped out then the next cycle will start, haha.  It's funny, but I am very grateful to have a washer, even if it's broken, haha.  Well everything here is great.  I will send you some pictures!  I love you all and miss you all a ton!  But I love it here and I know this is the best place for me!  The church is true and it truly does bless lives!

Love your missionary,

Elder Despain

Week 2 in Mexico

Note from Ann: Randall sent this email as a reply to the one I sent him. No one else sent him one because we are writing through the pouch. We want him to have time to send an email, not use the whole time just reading emails. In his first email he said he couldn't print off the emails. We really aren't ignoring him!

Dear Mom,

I didn't get any emails from you, but I know you still love me haha. I haven't gotten any mail and I have no clue when I will get mail, but ya, haha.  I love you all so much.  I miss you a ton but I am doing so great.  Mexico is amazing, although their computers don't do exclamation points, haha.  I don't know why, haha, but anyways is amazing here.  I feel like I have been here a year but it has only been a week.  My companion is great and he is a very hard worker which is great because some missionaries in the mission aren't.  He is awesome.  We have been doing tons of work to get this area up and going again.  The members are so great and always make sure we have food and just are amazing.  It is so crazy here though, haha, just people everywhere and cars everywhere and houses on top of houses on top of houses.  It is pouring rain right now like it does every afternoon at about this time, haha.  The day can be so hot and then boom it still rains, haha.  I don't mind it though although it rains every day.  I haven't used my rain jacket, haha.  It kinda feels good to get wet after being hot all day.  We finally got gas for our apartment on Thursday, haha.  I was glad to not take a cold shower any more.  Although Wed. we used an iron to warm up a bucket of water and used that to shower so that was not cold.  I liked that, but the gas is a lot easier, haha.  I am just loving it here.  The work is hard but great.  The language is hard, but I love it and as long as I do my best the Lord helps me.  I have grown so much in this week in both my testimony and in the language.  I am getting a lot better at understanding the people.  My ears are getting used to hearing all the words so fast, haha.  We played soccer today as a zone.  It was a blast.  I loved it, although I got a little sunburned because it was the first time I wore a short sleeved shirt here.  It doesn't hurt and it will be a tan tomorrow and then I will look a little less white, haha.  We have 6 progressives(investigators) now which is great because we started the area with none.  One of them, Daniel, has a baptism date for Viernes, Friday.  It's awesome.  We only taught him two lessons and then we asked him and he said yes.  His friend, that is a member that was in the lesson here, dropped her jaw when we asked him to be baptized so soon.  Then he said yes and she went from shocked to amazed and happy.  It was great and funny.  I love the people here.  They are so poor, but so humble and sweet.  I love this work and I love this gospel.  I am seeing the happiness it can give people and it makes me happy to be an instrument in my Heavenly Father's hand to bring his children closer to him.  I have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is true and that this church is true.  I love this work and I love the people I am serving.  We have a family and then Rosario, the mother of a member, that are both very close to getting baptized and maybe it will even happen this week.  It's great.  Well, I love you all and look forward to hearing from you.  You can write me short emails or long ones but if they are long I will just print them and get back to you on them the next week.  I love you all.  Thanks for everything.  I have such an amazing family, thank you.  I hope you had a great Father's Day, Dad.  I love you.  I am about to go give a blessing to a member with my companion.  I'm sure he will give the blessing but it will still be my first in Spanish.  I am guessing I will anoint which may be very hard in Spanish, but the Lord will help me.  It will be great.  Well I love you all, thanks for everything.

Love your missionary,

Elder Despain

1st Week in Mexico

So ya, I have an hour to email.  I don't really know if I can print stuff.  We just go to little like road side places but I think I can print things out.  But then it would be a week before I could answer back to the things I print out.

So my companion is Elder Higuera.  He is a native and he speaks no English, haha, so sometimes it can be a little interesting, haha.  Everything is going way good.  We opened an area that has been closed for a little while.  The area is called Consituyentes.  I live in the Col. Federal Burocratica.  I was going to send you some pictures but I haven't taken very many and this computer is like ancient and is going really slow, so it would take forever.  This city is so big, it is crazy.  I have never seen so many people in my life.  There are cars and people everywhere.  So because we opened this area, we had nothing to go by and no investigators.  It has been a little slow getting started, but it has been good.  The first day we were here, Saturday, we went and we taught a girl that was working at the tienda, the store, next to our house.  We taught her the first lesson, well mostly my companion.  I taught a little but it's hard because everyone talks so fast here.  It is super hard to know what they are saying but anyways, this is nothing like the MTC, haha.  I was used to the MTC teaching in like a quiet room, haha.  When we taught this girl in the store, her name is Monse, it was way loud and there was a tv on and like people coming in and buying things.  One man came in a bought beer like right in the middle of our lesson, haha.  It's way different teaching here, haha, but it is good and I love it.  There are houses everywhere, haha.  So then after teaching Monse, we were walking to go visit a person who we thought was a member.  We found their name in the area book which, by the way, is horrible.  The missionaries last in the area didn't write down anything, haha, so that makes it tough.  But anyways, we were walking to this member's house and you walk in the streets.  There really isn't like sidewalks so you just walk in the street.  We were walking and then a van was coming up behind us.  It's like a van, like VW busses, and they are like taxis here.  That is what everyone rides everywere so there are tons of them everywhere.  Anyways, so one is coming up behind us and we are to the side so he could drive by, then he starts honking.  I look back and there is a little dog in the road, so this bus-van-taxi is honking at it.  The dog was just walking slow and then the driver just got sick of waiting, just guns it and runs over the dog, like right next to us.  So that was like one of my first experiences in the street, like only two hours into the day, haha.  The saddest part about the whole thing is no one even cared, not even a little, haha.  I mean there are tons of dogs everywhere here but still, it was a little weird for me seeing that happen and no one caring.  Oh, another thing about those vans, they are like taxis so we take them lots of places but almost all of them have like oldies American music playing, haha, like super loud.  It is really funny cuz they just rock out to like 60's, 70's, 80's music, haha, and it's all in English so I don't think they even know what it is saying, haha.  It's funny but the streets are so crazy.  There are millions of cars and I honestly don't think traffic laws exist.  They just make their own lanes and go wherever they want, haha.  They just cut each other off every two seconds.  It's funny, haha, but ya speaking of American music, I am sitting here emailing and the guy working here just turned on Blink 182, haha.  Mom you probably don't know what that is, but I used to listen to them at home and he just turned it on and he has no idea what its saying but he is listening to it, haha funny haha.  It's so crazy how poor the people here are.  They have hardly anything but they are willing to give us anything and everything.  They are so humble and amazing.  After going to church on Sunday, we went with a member to their house and ate.  The food was great.  I love all the food here.  After we eat, the member whose house we went to, went with us for the rest of the day to visit members.  We did tons of walking, but it was awesome.  Here it is like hill after hill, no mountain after mountain.  There is no flat ground.  Our house is on a hill and so is everything so you walk down a hill and then go up a hill haha its funny, but I love it.  Our apartment was so trashed when we got there on Friday night haha.  There was graffiti all over the walls and stuff everywhere.  The bathroom is so gross but its all good haha.  We cleaned it Friday night some, but just the main part of the apartment, and then today I attempted to clean the bathroom, probably the grossest thing I have ever done haha.  I got it a little more clean haha. There is no gas at our house because it has been so long since missionaries lived there so Saturday, Sunday and today we had ice cold showers, haha.  It keeps our showers quick, haha, but we are going to go buy gas today so hopefully then we can light our water heater haha, if not, it's all good.  We live on the second floor above someone and the water heater like hangs out the window over the other persons living room haha.  So, I hope it never breaks haha or they would get a lot of water in their house haha.  But ya, it's great.  I love it here.  I haven't gotten sick like people said I would haha, so that's good.  I just love the food and I guess it loves me haha, so no problems there.  Everything is just great.  My Spanish is getting better every day.  My companion always says "poco un poco," little by little, haha so that's how it is.  I am learning a little more every day.  I feel like by the end of yesterday, my ears were starting to adjust to the speed of talk and ya its just all coming along.  I love this work it's great.  I love you all so much.  Thanks for everything.  Thanks for the emails.  The girls can write me short emails for next week and I will try and print them and get back to them.  The church is true even in Mexico, it's great.  Church was great.  I passed the sacrament and my companion blessed, haha.  So it was good and then we taught a class too, haha.  I love it.  I love you all and I will write more next week.  I wish I had time for more because I could talk all day about it but I don't have time.  I love you and miss you.  Stay safe and know I am doing great and the Lord is blessing me a ton.

Love,

Elder Despain
(Haha, no one can say my name here, haha.  Everyone asks me how to say it, haha. It's funny.)

Note From Ann: He wrote Kylee that he has to say he is from Utah. Arizona is a bad word there.