Villahermosa: Week 37 "Triste Chilangos"

28 de julio, 2014

Hey Family! 

Wow what a week. This week was crazy. Crazy. Elder Gomez and I have been working our behinds off. 

So if I have not said it already, Elder Lacefield, my companion in the MTC, was here before I was. I am taking his spot. He was in the area since the beginning of his mission. 9 months. And I have heard that missionaries stay forever in this area. So I might be here for a lifetime. But that is ok. I love it here.

So things started getting crazy towards the end of the week. On Thursday, we had our weekly English Class. And of course I had to teach. I really did not plan anything because Elder Gomez told me no one ever shows up. So we went and there were like 9 people there waiting. I punched Elder Gomez in the shoulder. So I gave the class and after everyone was like WOW, that was the best English class ever. I do not know what I did, but I am going to try to keep it up. 

Friday was a crazy day. Me and Elder Gomez are machines. So earlier this week in the street, Elder Gomez had this impression to contact this lady in the street but she had already passed. So we turned around and ran to talk to her. We introduced ourselves and we put an appointment to go to her house. The appointment was this day. So we went and we got there and she looked surprised because she had forgotten. She told us to hold on. While we were waiting, her husband came up to us and started talking. He was kind of rude to us. Not interested at all. But the woman came back, her name is Antonia. She said that her niece was sick and asked us if we could come in and say a prayer for it. We accepted and went in and by the time we were done, the whole family was in tears. The spirit was so strong! Even the father at this time was crying. So we taught a little more and set a appointment to come back. It was great. Family of 6.

Saturday we went out to visit with a member. He has one of the biggest, scariest German Shepards I have ever seen. And it hates us. He always has it on a chain. Well we picked up this member and we started walking down the street when I just heard the sound of chain dragging on the ground. I looked back just to see this giant dog booking it right towards us. So I just take off. However my companion did not hear it and the dog went straight for him. It did bite, but it bit his backpack. And then the member tackled his dog and got it back to the house. My companion views his backpack as some sort of sacred object now. 

This week has been great. We have had lots of success. I love this place. And my companion. I love you all. Have a great week!

 

Elder George

 

My little cactus that I bought!!!

 

 

My companion after his hammock broke in the middle of the night. It was very funny.

Villahermosa: Week 36 "Dos Bocas"

21 de julio, 2014

Ok so as some of you know, I have indeed been changed back to Tobasco but I will get to that at the end.

This past week was very awesome and kind of sad. Sad because I had to say goodbye to Elder Rios and the people here from Acayucan but it was also very good in some ways. It was very hot. We have entered into a period of the year where it should stop raining until August or September. I can already feel the difference. It is ridiculously hot. Especially here in Tobasco. 

There were a couple of funny events I would like to share this week.

So this whole time I have been in Acayucan, there has been this older man that we always see in the street. Always. And when we see him, he points both hands to the heavens. And he stays in that position for like a minute. It is really funny. The other day we saw him and he actually come up and talked to us. He usually did not want anything from us but this time he asked us some questions. The first one was, Who is Christ? My companion answered, Christ. He said ok. Then he asked, Who is God? I answered God. He yelled yes really loud and then just walked off. Those were the two easiest questions I have been asked in the mission. It was very funny.

Second story was when me and Rios were walking through the street and there were some kids playing soccer. And they were saying some pretty foul words. It kind of shocked me that they were saying them for their age. So we were walking by and I do not think that they knew that we knew Spanish. So one of them said, Hey stop cursing in front of the.... the..... what do you call those guys? Then me and my companion answered him at the same time and said Mormones. They all just stopped and stared at us while we just walked away laughing. 

Ok anyway about the Transfers. Right now I am in Dos Bocas, Tobasco. There is coast and beach in my area. However, we have to get special permission to go there. So we might. Oh and my new companion is Elder Gomez! A Mexican from Mexico City! He is super awesome. We get along great. My Spanish is about to get 10 times better. Oh and before I came, he was companions with my MTC companion, Elder Lacefield. He had actually been in this area since he started the mission! 9 months. That's a long time. 

Next week I will send pictures of my new area. It is super awesome. I can not wait to get working. Love all of you. Have a good week! 

Elder George

This is one of my favorite families. Matilde, Carlitos, and Hermana Dolores.

 A member of the ward invited us to eat with them Sunday night and this is what it turned out to be. The poster says we love you in English. These people really treated me well. And I am sure in my next area it will be the same:)

That is me and Rios, Elder Bingham, and Elder Narvaez. Bingham is from Idaho and Narvaez is from Las Vegas. This is when a sister invited us to tacos and a cake on Saturday. It was very good!

This is a little church right next to a bar. For the people who want to go get drunk after church.

Villahermosa: Week 35 "Pastel y un bautismo"

14 de julio, 2014

So what a week.

Well Tuesday we had divisions. I was with Elder Salazar from Mexico City. They call the people from there Chilangos. He talks different but I could still understand everything. We had a interesting lesson with a man that we found Sunday while we fasted. His name is Benjamin. We went to his house and started talking. He talks very poetically. It is weird. But he is a good guy. He lived in California for 7 years but he can not remember a lot of the English he learned. We kind of got nowhere in the lesson so we left him the Book of Mormon and invited him to read it and pray. He did not say he would but he looked a little interested. 

Wednesday, we decided to go and visit an active Sister in the ward who is kind of elderly. She has been a member of the church for a long time. Like 40 years. So this was the first time we had visited her. We got there and she received us good. Then we pulled out the Book of Mormon and asked if she had been reading hers. She asked us who we were to ask her if she had been reading. That's when we got kind of shocked. We told her we just wanted to read with her a little. She then asked us if we could answer a question for her. Where is talks in the Bible about the Book of Mormon. So we showed her a couple prophesies but that did not satisfy her. she wanted to see the names of the prophets and the civilizations. We told her we could not but there is a way she could know of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. By praying and asking. She said she had been doing that for many years but the answer she feels is to read the bible and find it there. So we then all got on our knees and each said individual prayers to see if the Book of Mormon was true. We asked her what she felt when she prayed. She said peace and joy. We asked her if she believed that that was her answer. She said she did not know and she would have to continue studying. We asked her about the prophet and Joseph Smith, but she does not think they were prophets. Just inspired men. This visit just really shocked me. A member of 40 years that still has doubts. She said she only joined the church because we offered a bible study class that she liked. We will continue working with this woman. I wish you could see my journal entry that day. It was like 20 pages long. 

We saw Benjamin again on Thursday. When we got there he had his Book of Mormon on his lap with a smile on his face. We asked him where he was in the Book of Mormon and he said in the Book of Jacob. Me and Rios just looked at each other and smiled. Almost 50 chapters in 2 days. He had been going to town. We were just in awe this whole lesson. He explained to us the whole story of Nephi and we helped clarify somethings. He said he wanted to go to church Sunday. So we passed for him. 

On Friday we started off the day in low spirits because we were not having a lot of success. It got to about 6 and we had had 2 lessons. Then i had the idea to go and see an old investigator who owned a cake shop. So we went and passed by his shop to get to his house when a woman stopped my companion. I did not see it because I was walking in front of him, so i kept walking. I got like a block away when I heard the whistling. This woman was from Cuatza and she was a member that was going to be here for a couple months. Then she told us that we needed to baptize her husband who lived here so that he could baptize their son. She said that her husband really wanted to be baptized. We were just stunned. Then to make things better, she bought us giant pieces of cake. God really does know how to lift our spirits. That is what we needed. We had a good rest of the day. 

Sunday was great. Benjamin came and loved it. A good amount of people showed up. It was just a good day. 

That's it for this week. A difficult, but rewarding week. I love you all and I love this work. Stay firm. Love you all. Till next week.

 

Elder George de la Selva

 

 

Me and Rios with our fresh haircuts.

My turtle friends that were eaten later that day...

Villahermosa: Week 34 "¡Nueve meses!‏"

7 de julio, 2014

So let's just dive right in.

Tuesday was very awesome. I had divisions with Elder Puruncajas. He is from Ecuador. At night we were just talking and I realized that Grandma and Grandpa served there. So I mentioned their last name, Dawson. He stopped and thought for a second. Then he started to talk about this White couple he remembered in his ward when he was a kid. A Sister with short hair and a tall bald man. I was like no way. I showed him a picture of them and he confirmed that he had seen them before. He lived super close to the Galapagos Islands. So what a small world. Crazy. 

So skipping to the 4th of July! We had a Zone Class in the morning and I got 7 letters. No big deal. Everyone was jealous. From there my companion had to get some shots because he has been having stomach problems and they wanted to see what was wrong with him. turns out he has some weird infection from eating too much fat. So he is on a diet. We met up at night with some missionaries from a neighboring area and we got hamburgers. They were not very American but they still tasted good. And to make it better, there was a member that showed up and paid for all of our food. 

Sunday was a really great day. We were in Priesthood and there was a young man getting ordained to the office of Teacher. He was asked who he would like to do it since his father was not member. He chose me. It was special. It was my first time and it went smoothly. His name is Claudio. I love that kid. Last night we were invited to eat cake with a member because it was her birthday. The cake was alright. It is just not the same. 

Well I hope everyone had a great 4th and that everyone has a great week. Can not wait to hear from everyone. Pictures on the way!

 

Love you all

 

Elder George

 

Me and Puruncajas from Ecuador.

I made Bacon on the 4th. It was so gooooooooood.

The zone.