Week 71- 16 months completed

Another Hectic Week

   Before I start, I went to the doctors to get my ear checked out, because it was only getting worse...in spanish the ear doctor is called "Otorrinolaringologo" maybe the hardest word in spanish to say. But when I got there he told me that it was never an ear infection, but that I had some junk built up for YEARS, that had been smashed up against the the ear so long that it was like a rock. He then went into a very painful process of sticking a long needle scrapper in my ear and ripping it off. This was a problem in both ears, one just worse than the other. I can't express over email how painful the extraction was, but let's just say that my comp ran out of the room when I was screaming. I feel like I can understand a little bit more on how painfu must of been the atonement for Jesus. I feel like I want to be even more perfect, so that Jesus suffers less for my sins. seriously after all, I was a very spiritual experience, and the best part of it all, is I can hear now. I can hear better than I've heard in all my life I think, it sounds like I have microphones up to my ears.

  We've been working really hard this week, contacting a lot of people in the street and looking up old investigators. The worst part is we don't have a lot of time in the area to work, as we are always going to meetings and the mission offices. I feel really good though about my mission, I'm working way harder than I've worked before and I'm soo much more obedient than I was in the past. Elder Johnson is now working in the first area and he told me that everyone there still remembers me as the elder that couldn't speak spanish. He said it's weird for them to see my "son" in the mission. I gave him a special task to visit all the families that almost got baptized when I was there.

  We also were given a special task by the president to have interchanges with 4 Elders this week, 2 of the 4 are very disobedient and so the president wants a full report on their progress and every interchange is at least 24 hours, so from wednesday morning to Sunday, Elder Seañez and I aren't even going to be together. haha. We're going to miss a lot of lessons, but after this week, we will have 2 weeks to do 2 interchanges more, so things will be more calm.

  I completed 16 months this week and so I'm 2 3rds the ways through. We fixed the light in our house and were still bathing with a bucket, which I've gotten used to now. I asked my comp why the shower doesn't work and he said that since the elderes owned this house the shower didn't work, so I'll probably be bathing with a bucket and a cup for the next 4 months. 

I'm very happy. Elder Ordway

Week 70- Ear Infection

   Well I've been suffering all this week from an annoying ear infection. I don't know how, but I'm not surprised. We've had to take the metro more than often which in very unsanitary. This week I was smashed up against the wall in the metro , there was soo many people. which so many people crammed into one metro, you don't even need to grab onto anything because there is no falling over...haha... But I can't hear anything out of my right ear, I was given some drops, so let's hope they work. 

   So Miguel Angel went in for his interview with the mission president and I don't know what happened, but he didn't pass. I feel like he just has soo many sins that he's got to wait a little more without smoking and stuff. Sadly.....he called us that next morning and dropped us, he was sad that " our church accepts some and not others" We've not seen him since, so that leaves us with a total of 0 investigators....On the bright side, Elder Seañez and I have been working harder than ever, we've worked lot with the members, and the members are coming through with their part. We've been contacting a lot more by the spirit and have been filling our agenda with a lot of work.

  A recent convert of mine, from my lsat ward, made me a hand made croshed tie. Which is really awesome, that means that in every single one of my wards, I've found an herman a (Sister) that has made me hand made ties....Elder Johnson got special changes too. He's leaving culhuacan and he's going to...…Contreras!,  my first area!!! he's going  to be able to visit everyone that I visited and what's the coolest thing of all, is that he's my son in the mission, when I was in that ward, I was just a simple junior comp, but all of the members are going to meet my son!!!

   There has been a lot of disobedience in the Zone , and sooo Elder Seañez and I took care of the situation personally. We went up to all the disobedient elders ,and lovingly we talked to them and resolved the problem, we had to talk one on one with a couple and I really think that they are going to change now. There are also some elders that aren't getting along with their comps and so we might have to solve this one ourselves as well if the district leader can't do it. 

  I truly love my new position and my comp, even thought the nothern mexicans tend to have a problem with "pride" Elder Seañez is a boss.

                                             Elder Ordway

 

Week 69

    Well my first week in Iztacalco was awesome, I had no idea that the Zone leaders were given all of the best wards… haha. Iztacalco is a really strong ward, there are 140 that go every week and our bishop is only 30 years old,  had to bear my testimony in church my first sunday. All the members are really cool. What's funny about me being in Iztacalco is that it was Elder Chronisters ( my second comp) first ward. He always said that he wanted to return to the ward as a Zone Leader but he got sent to another mission hahahaha. The last misisonary that I  replaced just went home so he left a bunch of junk in the house, old garments, clothes books, and I've been cleaning the house a lot lately. The area was left a little weak, but not too much, but it's a really big area, the biggest I've had in the mission. There are 4 metro stations in our area alone, and it covers delagacion Iztapalapa as well.

   Elder Seañez is a balling elder, first off he's the tallest elder in the mission and well I'm not that tall, so I'm always sprinting at his walking pace, hahaha he's really humble and very smart, he has a really good idea of how to do missionary work, and he only has 10 months in the mission. It feels weird being junior comp to a Zone Leader, because I don't have the cell phone anymore and I'm not leading the area like I've always done. 

   The area used to be the assistants area, which is funny because all of my old assistants were working in this same ward. So the area book is absolutely full of old investigators and papers. We have a huge map in our house the has every street in the whole mexico city, so almost every night, I eat some beans and look at the map. We have an investigator that has more sins than any other person I've every met, and he should be getting baptised this saturday. We had to get rid of 300 gallons worth of weed. All of his pornagraphy cd's and cigars, I won't go into everything he's done, because it wouldn't be right, but let's just say that he's been hiring prostitutes for the last 20 years. His name is Miguel Angel and the best part about him, is he likes the Oregon Ducks, he's like the only person here in Mexico that knows anything about the Oregon Ducks.

    Yesterday in our area there was the sunday night tiangis, which are little shops that people put up on the street, when we entered into the street at night, there was mountains of garbage, I've never seen so much garabge in my whole life. it was like......snow, people were even shoveling it like it was snow, to make room for cars. 

  I'm really liking my time as Zone leader, reporting to the district leaders is still a bit weird, having been a district leader just a couple days ago… hahaha. We went to the mission offices and collected a ton of materials for the zone, our zone is the richest zone in the mission, but our area for some reason is super ugly.       

   We are going to have a zone conference this week, so Elder Seañez and I are going to have to prepare something. Things are really good here, I'm loving the mission.

                                                       Elder Ordway

Week 68

Soooo....where do I begin, maybe with the transfers.....

   I was changed to Iztacalco 1 as Zone Leader, I don't know what the President was smoking on new years but I'm going to be leaving Culhuacan first thing in the morning tuesday and I'll be heading over to the other side of the mission, it's one of the areas that is furthest from everything in this mission...Elder Johnson is going to saty here with a new District leader that is to be  coming into the area.. Elder Cabrera was called as a DL in My first zone. he's really excited. Of course like every night of changes, Everyone calls everyone, even the assistants called me to congratulate me...I didn't sleep very well, and I hate packing . All morning I was packing and thinking of all the people that I'm going to miss here.

   The baptism of Brenda was awesome. Brenda has been an investigator for the last 4 years and she finally got baptized, she was very reluctant, but simply we were blessed to be the ones to change her mind. It was very spiritual and uplifting. We even had some investigators there.

   The area 70 raised the mission standards as well, right as I am to become a zone leader. We are to know Teach 60 lessons a week and baptize every week. We have to find a new every day and we can't leave a house without teaching a lesson. I feel really pressured...

'

  We worked hard this week, but it was new years so there was soo many drunks outside in the morning, walking over people because everyone is just passed out in the street. New years night was terrible. from 11:00 at night to 11:00 in the morning there was Music blasting and shaking our whole house, we didn't sleep at all. I was soo close to just grabbing Jesus the Christ and reading all night. Even when we got up, I felt dead. When we left the house there was two big bon fires right outside our door and the air smelled like beer, weed, and gun powder. It looked like a nuclear fallout. I'll never forget that night. never....We played volleyball and baseball on newyears for hours and everything was awesome. I'm loving the mission. I've officially only have 6 changes left until I'm done as a missionary.

                 Love,

                          Elder Ordway