Mexico Week 2: Investigators, Giving Blessings, Interesting Food, and Lunch with Mission President

Hey there everyone!!

Thank you for all your words and support and love :) I really love hearing from you guys :) Brinkley thanks for your love :) Tell Sean to keep preparing for a mission!! He will be a great missionary. Kasey I love you and am grateful you are getting excited to serve. Start preparing now! Read and study PMG and the scriptures...especially the Book of Mormon. The Bible is great but it wont convert or help anyone. Kolby I love you and hope things continue to go well with school and sports. You too can start to prepare. Braxley you too!! haha! I hope your hang nail feels better :) I can imagine how that feels and I know that hurts. I am glad you are loving your books :) And remember, Kasey is a great brother and love him no matter what! Grandma, thank you for your email :) I will answer your questions in the email. I hope your heater is working now!! Stay warm :) Mom and Dad thank you both for your words and the scriptures and quotes you shared. It is really helping.

So let me first tell you a little about my area Huacaltzingo. So we are the only Missionaries in about a two hour radius. We are in the mountains. Actually most of the state of Puebla is. It is about a 7000 ft elevation. The weather is great! So far it has been interesting but nice. The mornings are gorgeous. It is about 60 in the mornings and will heat up to about 80 in the middle of the day. Some nights get cold. Last night was probably about 30, and what is even worse is there is no insulation in any house. It's just brick concrete haha. I stay pretty warm though.

So this week on Tuesday we talked with some members and tried to get some references. We don't knock doors or contact because throughout the day people are either working or trying to find work. They have a tough life out here. Anyways we ended up getting another investigator that day. Her name is Erica. She is the friend of a former investigator who we lost because her husband (who is a member) doesn't like the members of the branch. Kinda stinks. Anyways Erica is really receptive and has been keeping her commitments. It will be hard getting her to church though as it is with everyone. Investigators need to come to church 2 times in order to get Baptized. She is doing very well though :)

That night we went to Puebla and stayed the night with Elders Bencomo and Johnson. Elder Johnson is one of us new missionaries. The next morning we had to take this little van/bus thing for a 40 minute ride to the mission offices. They had like 15 people in it or more. They shove eveyone in there!! It was so uncomfortable!! Anyways we had training for us new missionaries and also for the leaders. My companion Elder Villalba is the District Leader. Anyways I didn't understand harldy any of the first part of the training because it was all in Spanish. But then us new missionaries went to have our own training. We just learned about the mission and things we learned in the MTC that we need to adjust here in Puebla. It was so nice to see Americans and speak English, especially with Elder Hammond. I miss that kid and Elder Walker and Cummock. We ended up leaving at 5:00 PM that day and got back around 7'ish.

We just ended up going to a members house that night and picked up a new investigator. His name is Daniel. He is 16 and is friends with these members. We taught him about the Sacrament and invited him to church on Sunday and also planned another lesson with him for Friday. Thursday we got up and went to Puebla again for our district meeting :) It was nice and Elder Villalba taught alot about the importance of prayer for investigators. We then role played.

Friday we visted Erica and taught her about the Restoration. We then visited Marta another investigator, her husband Abinadi is a member, and we taught her about the law of chastity. During both of these lessons these moms breast fed their kids...it was weird!!! Then we went and visted our other investigator Alan. His mom is an investigator but his dad is not and keeps postponing his Baptism. He is 11 and we taught him that this was a personl choice. Saturday...I don't remember what happened haha but I am sure we were with investigators and members that day. I do remember that night Elder Villalba played a dirty trick on me. He put a fake spider in my bed and I screamed. I hate spiders!! OH!! now I remember we got some new investigators that night with a member named Fernando. He is awesome!! His is 18 or 19 and really wants to serve a mission. I have been teaching him English and just got an English Book of Mormon for him :) I am sure he will love it. Sunday was just like a normal Sunday. We had church. I taught some members/youth to play the piano. Haha it was fun. After church we had a meal with a member and gave a sister a blessing. It was cool.

OH!! another thing I forgot to tell was sometime this past week we blessed a members home. It was very warming and felt so good.


Today is P-day. We are in Puebla right now. We played soccer with our zone and some other Mexicans. I suck at soccer, haahhaaha and the mexicans are way good, lol. After that Elder Villalba and I had lunch with President Rex and his wife at a really good restaurant. We had pork taco type things. So good!!

Food I had this week:

Spaghetti

Chicken with creamy pablano sauce

Fried ham with cheese inside

Chicken is some spicy broth

Tacos :)

Goat testicles with lentiles...I couldn't eat it.

Every meal is served with unlimited tortillas with rice or beans.

Anyways I have to go now! Thank you for everything and I love and miss you all all so much!!! I can't wait to hear from you next week!!

Love,

Elder Brady Lester :)