Wow I'm stoked!!! First of all, USA is playing Mexico here at Aztec stadium. We can hear the games from our house, so I'm way stoked to see who wins. I love Mexico but I was born American. I could never route against my home blood. But this week was way long, it felt super long compared to normal. It actually felt like 7 days instead of 7 hours.
Monday Elder Mathis and I went around saying goodbye to people. All of our baptisms and less actives that we brought back to the church were crying to hear he was leaving. Two menos activos (two less active) are going to get married the 5th of April and sealed in the temple soon. I'm soo stoked they told us that we had to make time and go and watch them get sealed. That would be sooooo coool. It was a good day and for some reason I've never seen people so close to missionaries. Everyone was crying. One lady didn't understand that He was going to leave forever. She thought it was just another day change, but when we told her, she started to cry, but after all the crying we had our last district meeting and took a photo. I'm sad that Elder Feliz(Happy) is gone too, but an elder named Elder Sanabria is coming in his place instead who is way cool, and the coolest part of it is that he was in my area for months when he first started too.
Tuesday came and I met my new companion: Elder Chronister. I've met him before because we had sunday meetings together. He has a lot of energy and Animo (Encourage), we returned to the house and to my surprise he wasn't the same guy as I thought I knew. Where as I love it here in Contreras, all the hills, losing weight, the sun burn, and trees, it's like living in Oregon just with garbage and drunks and graffiti everywhere. He doesn't like it here, for the last week all he did was complain about how hard it is and how much it sucks.....But oh well, he's a missionary He can suck it up.
We are really cool together though when were just walking and talking and in the house and stuff, he's kind of rebelios with the rules which makes it really hard on me to be obedient when your comp isn't, but there is definitely a reason that He is a senior comp and district leader. He only has 12 more weeks than I do, so we both can't speak spanish that well. I thought I knew spanish really well, but then I realized that when you don't have a comp that's been here for a year and a half,there is more pressure to learn the language.
We had a lot of success this week. We have 12 investigators with baptismal dates, all for this change, but a lot of them are super flaky, I would feel terribnle to baptize them in their current state. We have a lot of work to do, but we had intercambios (exchanges) for one day and Elder Sanabri came to my area. We had such a good time. He's way cool and I think it's awesome that he's returning to the same ward just different half of it. I hope one day I can do the same with this ward. We now have a whopping 200 that come every week. Third biggest ward here in our mission. (soon to be the biggest when I'm (I mean the lord) is done here) We are doing really good work, but I have to show my huge area, so he just follows me around everywhere, and I have to make all the decisions. There are a lot of things that we lack, but I won't rag on my comp, I'm sure he's ragging on me right now to his family. I feel humbled though I feel bad for calling catholics what I did. They ruin my life, but without their church I'm sure this country would be straight dead right now.
We had a good week, with lessons and new investigaters. and this week was ward conference, there was like 300 people there and the Stake President gave our investigator/recien converso/menos activo class (less active), and it was soo cool. we have 2 baptisms planned this week as well, but I honestly don't think it will go through, the last like 10 dates we had fell through and it is heart breaking, I love the people here but the investigators are soooo flaky, it kills my heart,literally kills my heart. I got a dear elder sent two months again, hahaha, maybe dear elders aren't all that fast, but it's all good. I loved the candy and bubbles and shampoo sent from Harrison and I just had run out of the old spice, so the re-supply was in perfect timing.
Tomorrow I will be 6 months into my mission and 1/4 the way through . That literally blows my mind how fast it's gone. I don't know about you guys, but time is shooting by. I'm really good at conserving my money now. I actually have money to buy things from the shops in the road. I got over my sickness, but sickness here for a missionary doesn't mean anything. You have to keep working anyways. It's now like in school where the first cold that comes around and half the people leave for a week. you get sick every other week here, but my immune system should be strong as an ox when I come back. It's been warming up here, we don't have to sleep with our little heater thing now, just in the cocoon of blankets. Elder Sanabria showed me what it really is to be a misisonary, in the way he works and teaches, the spirit is so strong. I've learned this week that the spirit can't testify of things that aren't true. I tried bearing my testimony of obedience when I first got here, but the spirit wouldn't testify of my words. Now that I've humble myself a little and am almost completly obedient I have a huge testimony of how God is wanting to bless you, but he literally can't if we choose not to accept it with our disobedience. Now I can bear a wicked testimony.
It was a good week and I still have to get used to how Elder Chron teaches becasue we don't have the spririt anymore like Elder Mathis and I had, but all in time. I'm stoked and blessed to always have been companions with district leaders and in the same ward with zone leaders. We cleaned the house super good today like We've never before, and for how fast time flies here, the house gets so dirty with two 20 year olds only living in it at nights. Things are going good, and I don't have too many cool stories except for one this week.......one night Elder Chronister and I were chilling writing in our journals and wW received a message from a no name number..... it was full of spanish cuss words and it said that we needed to leave Estela alone or he was going to get a gang of people and shoot us.......................saying that he was the husband of Estela. the only thing is, is that we have two Estelas, both with baptismal dates and one is like 80 and is in the hospital, the other is dead......or so we think.....anyways I'll let you guys know if I die or not this week, but I'm not nervous.
I love you all and I love your letters. I'm glad no one is sick and all working hard. I hope mom that everything is cool and settled down at work and dad:the scouts are progressing, like progressing investigators. You've been given a calling from God to receive revelation for them. I'm almost in tears to think that a lot of my friends are on their missions and I only hope that one day I can see Geoff Yoon and John White do the same, and Lucas and Harrison and Kevan and Chris, and Clay and everyone else. Keep pressing forward. and remember alma 26 27. *-' Elder Ordway
Hola familia!!
So yeah, three baptisms fell through. They told us monday that they weren't prepared yet and so we decided to put another date and push it back, between that time they talked with some people and now don't want to listen to us.... It was one of the most heartbreaking moments of my mission. I loved this family and their dad had died and they loved the idea or the fact that they were going to be able to live with him again. I wanted to throw up for a while when we heard the news about them, but it's ok. If they can talk with catholics and lose their testimony like that, they weren't ready for baptism, no matter how much I loved them.
This week was rocking though. We had a lot of success and it all started with our p-day that we had on tuesday. We had the wonderful opportunity to go to the temple here in mexico, and it was awesome. It's one of the biggest that I've seen and the coolest. Inside and out has a aztec theme and it was sooooo cooool to do a session in spanish. I understood almost everything, except the part right before the celestial room. hahaha. I felt the spirit and I was edified like no other. Having temples here on the earth is one of the most underrated blessings that we have, to renew our testimonies and it's a blessing to be worhty to enter and take advantage of such a miracle. Truly this work is marvelous.
So all of my converts are strong in the church and one actually is giving a talk this sunday. I'm so stoked. She is already making plans to go to the temple and do the sealings with her son since her husband died. Also we heard from a primary child in church. She gave a talk in front of everyone and rocked it. It was literally the most informational and spiritual talk I've heard here. from a PRIMARY KID. WOW, I was so ignorant when I was in primary. I would never be able to give a talk like that, let alone, I don't think it's allowed.. but that's just how Mexico roles around here. We have one more week untill exchanges again so there is a huge chance that I'm not going to be with my comp, which is a shame because we are absolutely dominating our area. It's so ripe already to harvest; in fact we found a couple of new people. One of which, we passed by their house and she said that she already read the resturacion folleto (Restoration pamphlet). We asked her how she liked it and she said "me gusto bastante", which means I liked it a ton. Which was weird for someone who is 17. So we left her a plan de salvacion ( Plan of Salvation) and told her that if she like that, she is really going to like this. We had a good humbling experience when we lost those investigators so close to baptism. They had 8 weeks to prepare and I feel like we falied them, which we probably did. I have this unproven philosophy that if we can teach so well and bear testimony so well that we can take away their abililty to say no, becasue they know that its true. In reality that doesn't work at all, but me and my comp are super good friends. best... naw jk. es broma, but I've decided I want to enter the temple with all of my comps. I feel like God has blessed me with the gift of "falling well" (as they say here in mexico) with people.
I'm absolutely boss with trompos too. I have blisters all over my hands from spinning them on my hands and rapping the string around them. It's hard to explain but I would youtube it. It's like a top that you wrap a string around. then you throw it with the string attached to your hands and if your good you can throw it through your legs and around your back, have it role down the string into your other hand. I'm practicing a lot when it's p-days. Today after we deep cleaned our house, I practiced for hours while Elder Mathis shined his shoes and shaved and what not. I have a lot of funny pictures that we took this week. We contacted a mom and her daughter in the street by offering to haul her bags, and I mean haul they were so heavy. We learned that her daughter is deaf and so her mom taught us a little sign language in spanish. Possibly the most useless language to learn spanish sign language, but me and my comp are learning so that we can teach her the lessons in sign. I don't know how far we will be able to go, but that would be so cool to feel the spirit in sign language. whoaaaaaaa....so I've heard about all Eric's success in Africa, that's crazy that he's having like 55 investigators at church. We have on average 4 and I'm super happy about that, but this week I've been feeling the pressure to learn my area better because there is a huge chance that Elder Mathis is gonzo (gone?). He's been here 4 transfers and his time has come. I made some more pancakes and I'm actually really good at making them now. I always make them for people when we have interexchanges with other elders.
We are now teaching three different families english, and were are not good teachers. We only know how to speak it. Dogs haven't been a problem for a long time. I don't know what happened. Although Elder Mathis still freaks out every time a chihuahua
comes up to us. (I'm serious its not stereotypical) there are huge amounts of chihuahuas
here. I saw a puppy laying on the ground just barely had been ran over, still alive and the mom was trying to lick it back to life. I almost threw up again when I saw it twitching. I'm sorry if you guys didn't want to hear that. I got to write three letters today, one to Kevan Bendt, Mom, and Meg Whipp. I hope they arrive in good time. there was a ton of work to do this week and so I didn't have much time to rest or walk. It's so funny to think that we know this area better than the taxis and people. people ask us for directions and we know all the short cuts that are super dangerous, but you gotta take what you gotta take, even though I don't think God would protect us for being stupid. My legs are bough and I can climb a mountain hill in like 15 minutes. Which is fast. It's so true that if you have unity and love in your companionship you have the spirit in the lessons. I don't know if I've already said this but it's as if our area is a wet rag and me and Elder Mathis are each hand, wringing it out of it's chosen people. That is a bit prideful but the Lord is blessing us so much and now that I can speak the language it's so easy to find people's needs and hit them with the spirit fist.
My testimony of the apostasy is really strong and I feel bad about what I said about a catholics last time. It's a huge thing here though that the catholic pope resigned and people now are losing their faith in the catholic church, which is good and bad,. it's helps us with how we have a Prophet today that lives and doesn't resign, but if it wasn't for the catholics than we would have start from scratch with the lessons. Everyone here believes in God. I haven't met anyone that doesn't believe in God here. Which helps a ton. I love the work I'm doing and I only feel bad that I'm almost 1/4 done. It's going by way to fast I wish it would slow down. I miss everyone and I spend a lot of time at nights thinking about how cool my life was before and how much I dreaded that eagle project, which helped prepare me for my mission so much. Honestly growing up in the true church of God, is the best, because now I have an eagle scout, great friends and support from the ward. I'm serving a mission and learning spanish which is such a useful language it's relic and I have a unbreakable testimony of the restoration.
I had and have the best friends and leaders and parents and family and mission. Seriously this mission is rockin'. Our mission baptizes a new ward every month. I still have so much to learn but what I'M most stoked for is my birthday tomorrow. I have literally no plans because we are packed from 10 till 8 so maybe I'll enjoy a cup of noodles at night or something. I got a package from Harrison just barely. I have it in my arms now but it's unopened. So maybe I'll wait till tomorrow to open it for my birthday. What ever it is thanks Harry and thank your family. I don't have my journal with me, which I normally read and write from it so I don't forget, but I don't have it with me today.
I love you all and I'm sorry that I always sound prideful in my letters. I just get really excited that I can talk with you guys. Keep up the good work everyone and go manchester united. I hope to dominate people in soccer when I return, that's a threat. Alright I'm off.
Elder Michael guadelupe hernandez sumeria godninez the thrid 3
What a great week, seriously, the weeks are going by too fast. Time here is flying, which is good and bad, it means less time before I'm home again, but I don't like to think that I'll be 20 in 7 days!!! One week and I'm not a teenager in Mexico anymore. Naw it's all good though.
I learned a ton this week. I really learned how to receive revelation. It's awesome when your just sitting in bed or studying or in a lesson and God is telling you something directly. I now carry a notebook on me wherever I go so that kids can draw with me and keep themselves busy, and so that I never miss a opportunity to write down what God wants me to hear. Seriously though I have one half of the notebook for words or cool frases and the other half for what God tells me. My testimony is so strong now in the gospel and how it can chagne people if they let God into their lives.
Me and Elder Mathis have filtered out all of the chosen chosen chosen people and are now working hard with those that need to get married and drop beer or cafe or stuff like that. Every single person here without fail has family problems and needs the gospel, just the traditions of the fathers is what keeps them from getting baptized and making covenents with God. We only have 2 more weeks of the cambio (transfers) untill one of us goes. maybe we will stay but normally you don't stay with your trainer for 4 cambios (transfers). I learned the hard way that planning in the mornings is too important to just forget about, however badly you don't want to do it. If you want the spirit with you bright the day, you need your studies and planning session.
I also heard and I might have already told you guys but they are going to open 8 more missions here in Mexico that's more than any other country in the world. 7 in brazil and 58 new missions total. I seriously feel like a boss that I am in the mission when I am, because when everyone arrives that are 18 and they open all the new missions I'm goign to have 10 months and it really touches me that the Lord is accelereating his work, before the second coming and all. We have been working really hard and it feels good to drop dead on my bed at 10 and be fast asleep till 6:30 the next day. I've never ever been tired at 9 before, but we hike and walk and run way too much here. I feel exhausted every day, but I feel good that I'm serving the Lord with all my strength, might, mind, heart, or however that goes. I'll admit it too, I'm scared to find out that some of my investigators are prepared to receive the gospel. They just want us at their house to be with the missionaries because everyone loves the missionaries once you get to talkin to them for a couple minutes.
Speaking of running. Me and Elder Mathis were booking it down the mountain of ocotal, when I stepped on a rock and twisted my ankle. It hurt like no other but we had to continue running to get the appointment. For 4 days it's been hurting but I don't have time or the patience to baby my foot. Sometimes in the nights it's really painful, but now it's almsot healed. I also had a really awesome experience with fast offerings: in church I only had 200 peso bill and didn't want to give all of that away, so I put 100 on the slip and wrote change on the envelope, after church, they normally go around giving people back their proper change. Well during fast and testimony meeting I heard a testimony on how when we trust in the Lord and give him temporal things we can be promised a recompensation. I felt impressed to scrible out the change and give all the money to the fast offerings. I turned it in and at the end of church the 2nd counsler gave me back change anyways. I didn't understand at first, but then I realized that I already wrote 100 on the fast offereing slip. although it's a little experience I learned that when God asks us to sacrifice a lot, and we trust in him to do it, well, he just wants to see that we were willing to sacrifice. I got my change back, but yet I was still willing to pay it. I thought at least it was a cool experience.
Also a menos activo (some what less active) sitting next to me felt the spirit super strong during fast and testimony meeting ( or just testimony meeting because not everyone fasts here, in fact hardly anyone. He ripped off his lip ring in sacrememnt meeting and said that he wanted to turn his life around and serve a mission. I was nearly crying, being able to see the spirit work miracles in people. I don't have fotos (photos) this week becasue I forgot to bring my card reader and usb drive, but I receive everyones letters and I got the two packages which was awesome. Sadly I have to much desire to give away all my stuff to people. I love butterfingers but I can't resist see the smile on someone's face when I say that I brought them american candy, but I've been craving some war heads and skittles. I am now a champ at making butterfinger peanut butter pancakes, literally the most delicios thing I've ever eaten. The language is still coming along nicely, but slowly. People really don't have troubles understaning me now and I now don't have fear to call people and try to understand them through all the terrible reception here. It's soo cold here that our gas tank doesn't work. All the gas goes to the bottom and so we have to warm up a bucket of water with a little water heating thing, I don't know how to explain it, but it's the worst. It doesn't matter how hot you can get it, because the instant that your not pouring water on you, the cold hair reacts with the water on your body and your freezing again. I never thought it would be cold here in southern mexico, but we are so high up and it's so dry here that you walk around and feel like it should be snowing. Also if it's too cold, people just decide to not go to church, becasue the church isn't heated so it's even colder than outside. It's as sunny as a summer day, so you get burnt while freezing, it really is the worst of two worlds put together. naw jk I love it here.
People are so cool and people aren't so afraid to give me spicy food. There is also a toy here called a trompo that they don't have in the United States. Me and Elder Mathis have been practicing and now we're really good we can catch it in our hands and do a couple of tricks. Maybe i'll video it or something. I'm sure you can find it on youtube. I feel like I have so much to learn and so little time, really the gospel of Jesus Christ doesn't end on how much you can learn and apply to your life, but like Eric Robinson said; the mission changes a man for the better, he adapts all characteristics of Christ and loses all the bad ones but keeps his personality. God doesn't send missionaries to their proper missions so that they can change their personality, and sorry for all my bad typing today, my fingers are soo cold and I don't want to waste any time trying to fix thigns that you guys would understand anyways. I've learned a really awesome way to eat an orange becasue you eat like an orange a day here and you need to be skilled to eat it with out a knife. Also there have been less drunks and people passes out lately. Only like 4 times a week now when it was every day before. I think it's because the holdiays are over, but not for the catholics. Uggg when I think of catholics I think of Satan, I'm sorry if anyone catholic is reading this, but really apostacy on steroids. They have a holiday every week, day of the virgen, day of the shoe day of the mule ( that one is real) day of the day, day of the day again. also every saturday is party day, where everyone comes out and parties and no one has school or work so everyone is drunk.
It really is the best mission in the world. We should have 3 baptisms this week but they didn't come to church and so me and Elder Mathis had to make the tough decision to push back there date a week, even though they pass all of the needs to be baptized. I can't think of the word in English. if they dont dar frutos de su arrepentimiento (they don't repent) , then they really shouldn't be baptized, we have to think of the Lord's will than ours.
Really I love you all and I'm sorry that I'm not personal, now that I have stamps though I'm going to start writting more to you all. Keep up the good work and one day we will all walk through the temple together.
Love MIchael!!!
