Investigator from Haiti

Monday, November 29, 2010

Hola Familia,

Hey Everyone, sounds like it is nice and cold back in Benson. How much snow is on the ground? It sounds like there is 4 feet haha, seems like it snowed every day this week! Here the weather hasn't changed hardly at all, it is still pretty warm haha. Well sounds like Thanksgiving was an ok day haha, i wish I could have been there to see all the crazy stuff go down, haha what was odis doing during all that!?

Well I finally feel like a missionary!! Yesterday we had 3 baptisms!! My first baptisms!! Haha It was Azucena and her two daughters. It was really cool I got to baptize all three of them, but it was all in Spanish haha! Their confirmation is next Sunday, I think Elder Castro is going to confirm them all. This week we also had a little more luck with investigators. We had 4 new investigators in Church yesterday, we are hoping to baptize a little girl named Fernanda this coming Sunday. Then another guy named Lasaro, the following Sunday! So the work has picked up, I'm glad that I got to baptized with Elder Castro, we don't know if we will be staying here or if one of us will be leaving on the 13th. Who knows! I sent a picture of us and the family, The oldest girl is named Brisa and the younger Abril, and the little boy is David.

Other than that not much else has happened this week. Spanish is coming along more and more every day, at first I would get so frustrated because I couldn't understand anything!! But now it is alot better! I still have a long way to go before perfection but little by little. This week in Church there was only about 20 people or so in Sacrament meeting, and for some reason here they don't give the sacrament to the foyer, so after the sacrament we opened the doors and about 40 more people came in!! It was wierd, everyone gets to Church late here, including the piano player so we sing the opening and sacrament hymns occapella. No me gusta haha.

Oh ya this week was Thanksgiving! It was just another normal day here, we did work as usual, but then around 9 at night we went for the Tortas!! I sent a bunch of pics of my progress with my torta!! I also ate a piece of pan with it. It was alot of food!! But I got it all down in memory of Thanksgiving! Castro only finished half of his hahaha!! In the pictures is my progress of the Torta, the pic of me and the ceiling is me needing the bathroom after the Torta haha! Then the pic on the couch is how I felt after the bathroom haha. It was a lot of food but definately not the same as the Thanksgiving dinners back home!! I missed them.

Well, Oh ya we had a really wierd lesson this week!! We went in and it was some older dude, we talked a little bit then it was time to go. Then he started pulling out all these religious books that he has read! He had a Libro de Mormon, Biblia, Un libro de los Testigos de Jehovah, and others. He told us he was addicted to reading religious stuff. Then we stood up to leave and he kept looking at me all wierd and stuff. Then he told me I had un noble corazon!! Hahahaha I don't know why!! He didn't say anything to my companion! Then he continued to tell me I had un noble corazon about 5 more times!! hahahaha alright dude!! It was kind of awkward, I didn't know what to say back to him except Thanks! Haha then after that we left.

This week we also had a wierd experience, we were contacting a street knocking all the doors. Then we knocked on a door and the guy that lived there wasn't all there mentally, you could tell he had some problems, so we moved on and knocked on the next door, out came this lady that could barely walk, I think she had fake legs! She didn't like us very much, she was telling all about how our Church is wrong, alright whatever, so we knocked on the next door, and out comes another guy that could barely walk and had a mental disability! 3 houses in a row!! We named the street the calle de problemas. When we meet people like that I always feel really sorry for them but it was a little funny that we contacted 3 in a row!

Well, I think that is all for this week I sent un buen de fotos para ustedes! Espero que les gusten. I'm still working on my package for you guys, I hope the mail people at fed ex told the truth and it can get to you guys in 3 days! I'm trying to have a small letter for every family in the fam on both sides, in the package, I still have to write more haha! Well gotta go have a good week!! Love you guys!

Elder Chambers

Monday, November 22, 2010

Hola Familia,

Well another week down in the mission haha it really is going faster and faster, it seems like we just had P-Day. But it sounds and looks like winter is startin up in Benson, hope it isn't too cold for ya. The weather here has actually warmed up a little from the previous weeks. Every day this week I was in a short sleeve shirt haha it was nice.

I'm going to miss Thanksgiving, I have to say it is probably my favorite Holiday! I'm sure there is gonna be football games on and a bunch of food haha!! Eat a few bacon water chesnuts for me! But this week I got your first package, I also got a Dear Elder from Mom and a letter from Grandma Chambers. Be sure to let her know that it got to me. But thanks for all the candies! I miss the American candies! Especially the laffy taffys, I think I have Elder Castro hooked on them already. He also likes the Mike N Ikes, haha they have candy like laffy taffy and mike n ikes here but they aren't very good. So I expect to get your other packages the next pouch which will most likely be in 3 weeks, so fairly close to Christmas.

The other week in Church I passed a bulliten board with a bunch of missionary pictures on it. And I found a picture with someone that I thought looked familiar. So I pulled the picture off and looked on back and sure enough it was Elder Beorchia. Ace from the soccer team, I think he is serving in Monteray or somewhere like that so I dunno why that picture was in our Church haha.

Also the other week we had to go to Migration services or somethin like that to finish up my visa. So we got to go into the City. It is so huge! We had to go on the Subway!! Hahaha that was the first time in my life that I had been on a Subway, so that was kind of cool. When we got there all the missionaries that arrived the same day I did were there, so I got to talk with Elder Anderson and Solheim again! I guess Elder Haskell had back problems again and had to go home, but it was nice to talk to them!

So ya I got your letters that talk about Duke getting ran over by Dad hahaha! By now I'm sure he's all healed up! After all the stuff that has happened I can't believe he still chases the 4 wheelers! He definatley is a lucky dog to be alive! He's been shot, deathly sick, hit by a car, and now ran over by the 4 wheeler haha.

So the work is still going slow, if we were going to baptized a new family before transfers they had to be in church yesterday and once again nobody showed up! Pretty sure that transfers are in 3 weeks or so. So there's a chance that I will be in a different area with a new companion for Christmas. But the good news is that last Monday we went to visit Azucena and her family, I guess she didn't get the job, it was a 3 day test or whatever to see who would get the job and she didn't. So she is still jobless, and Friday her brother in law died so they were out of town this Sunday. But we visited them last night and Azucena and her two daughters said that they know that the Book of Mormon is true and that everythings alright for them to be baptized this coming Sunday. So they will have an interview this week with our District Leader. If everything goes right we will be able to baptize them Sunday but not much goes exactly to plan here in Mexico so we'll see what happens. We are hoping for the best.

I don't know how to explain where we are any better than I have. Simply we live in La Providencia, Fraccionemento San Angel, Calle del Angel. Another street kindof close to us is calle de los santos. I guess we are fairly close to the freeway.

And no they don't have siestas in the middle of the day here. But the big meal is lunch around 2 or 3 o'clock everyday. After I always feel like having a siesta but we gotta work haha. Oh be sure to tell Grandma Chambers happy birthday for me when you see her this week! And tell everybody else in the family Hi and that everything is good! I'm hoping to have a small letter for every family in the family in the package that I send. It is alot of letters to write!! haha well gotta run but I love all of you! Talk to you again next week! Oh and I dunno how it all works for calling on Christmas, we'll see when it gets closer!

Con Amor - Elder Beanz

Monday, November 15, 2010

Hola Familia!

Well another week down already haha. The time is going really fast here, before long it will be Christmas!! Haha my first Christmas without snow!!! It is going to be pretty weird!! Everyone here likes to hear about the snow, lots of the people have never seen it their whole lives!! Utah is an awesome place, we get the best of both worlds, the cold and the hot.

Spanish is coming along poco a poco. This week my ability to understand the people has really increased! I can't understand everything that they say but I can get the jist of it. As far as talking goes, I am improving but it's still gonna take another month or two. I can say alot in our lessons and stuff, but everyday stuff, i've got a lot of words to learn haha.

This week we seen the reality and power of Satan. He really is doing all that he can to stop the work from progressing. We didn't baptize the family this week! What do you know the Mom who has been looking for a job for months found one thursday. And it is on Sundays!! So we really don't know what we are going to do about that, she had to work this Sunday so we couldn't do the baptism. She is trying to ask for Sundays off, but down here Sundays are one of the busiest days of the week so not many get Sunday off! Other than that we have had to drop lots of our investigators because they are just simply lazy and won't come to church for 3 hours. It is frustrating at times. We found a lady that is less active and has a son that is 13 years old and needs to be baptized. So first he needs to come to church just two times. And yesterday she came but not her son, we asked her where her son was and she said that he was sleeping and he didn't want to wake up! What the freak! haha To be honest right now we are just simply not having success in our area. We are going to start working in a different way. We are going to be working with the less actives and the members alot more. Hardly any more contacting, we are going to find people through references, because the way we have been working just isn't working. So we will see how it goes this week but we don't really have any progressing investigators right now so who knows when I will get a baptism!!!

Anyways, my area is Pachuquilla, this covers a bunch of cities, one is La Providencia that is where we live. Hope that cleared things up, if not oh well haha. Kayd isn't in our zone, but his companion in the MTC is, his name is Elder Castillo. I've seen him a bunch already haha he was also my zone leader with kayd in the MTC. He told me that Kayd has gained a little weight especially in his cheeks hahahaah. I can't wait to see him! My comp is from Guerrero not Guerro. It is like 6 hours from where we are. My comp has been a member all his life, that is pretty rare here. Muchos are converts.

Last Monday I went to send my package and we got robbed and all the stuff got stolen!! Hahahaha no just kidding we didn't get robbed. But the people said that it would get to our house in 3 days! I am going through fed ex so I guess that is how fast it goes, they said that is their slowest speed is three days. So I guess that I am going to send it closer to Christmas. I am still going to put the letters in the package because I don't want them to get lost in the regular mail.

This week during la comida with one of the members we got talking about thanksgiving. They don't have thanksgiving here in Mexico. I told him that on thanksgiving I was going to buy a Cubana Torta. It is the biggest one with all sorts of different meats on it. haha it is the one in the picture that me and Elder Castro have to split. But this time I'm going for a whole one haha. And the Hermano was like I want to celebrate a Thanksgiving! I never have before haha so he is coming with us and is going to buy the Tortas hahahaha!

Not much else has happened this week, next week I will try to get a few more pictures sent. I hope Odis is doing better he's got to make it 2 more years!! I want to see him again haha. If he doesn't make it you have to wait till I get back to get a new puppy! haha well gotta go! Thanks for all the support! I love you guys!!

Elder Beanz

Monday, November 8, 2010

Hola Familia,

Hey everyone how are you, thanks for all of the emails, i read them all, it nice to hear from you all, I don't have time this week to reply to everyone sorry, maybe next week. But it sounds like everything is nice and dandy back in Cache Valley. It has been actually really cold here this last week, It has been sunny but with a cold wind. So when the sun goes down it get really cold, I am going to have to buy me a sueter today.

Well Tuesday we had a Zone Meeting, there was a bunch of changes just barely so are zone is almost all new people, and we have new zone leaders but they are chill I like them. But I got Dear Elders from you guys on Tuesday at the zone meeting, two from mom and one from Grandma. So whenever you guys sent them that is about how long it takes. I am hoping to get my package for you guys sent off today, we'll see what happens, I need to buy more stuff to put in it today.

This week has been a little more successful than last week. We had about 12 investigators tell us that they would be going to Church with us on Sunday, but only 5 were there haha. This next Sunday is the baptisms of the Family Carillo Jimenez, this is that family I have been talking about! They are pretty excited haha. We have one other family we are teaching, there son is a member but that is it, but they didn't show up to Church so we'll see how it goes. Our other investigators are all solos, like one person here and one person there. Hopefully we start having a flood of baptisms haha, it is really hard opening up an area. But its cool.

Last week I had my first experience with Tiangies! They are crazy, they are just a whole street of tents with people running around selling stuff! It is really cheap but you have to be careful cuz a lot of the stuff that they sell is fake or doesn't work haha. But its awesome their is just a bunch of people running around yelling prices for stuff!

The food continues to be great haha. The thing that I am eating is called a Torta. It is something that you buy off the street, but it is huge and cheap! It costs 40 pesos for the biggest one called the Cubana. So that is like 4 bucks and me and Elder Castro have to split it to finish it haha. They are my favorite thing here. This week we also tried out a street vendor taco shop haha. They were super cheap like 2.5 pesos for one taco, they weren't the best tasting though haha. A member also fed us enchiladas this week they were pretty spicy. The hottest thing i've eaten here yet, haha my nose was running. But they were delicious. The only thing i don't like is sometimes for a side they give you a mountain of lettuce with big ole slices of tomatos on it. It is a challenge for me to get all of that down but somehow i do it haha.

If there is one thing that i wished that i had done before my mission, it is learn how to play the piano!! Most of the time here we have to sing ocapela and it sounds awful. Even in Sacrament only like one person knows how to play so if they aren't there, no piano! I am sending some more pictures the one of Elder Castro with his hand on his head is right after the incident haha. But ya there is quite a lot of people in la providencia, it is about the same size as benson or smaller only with so much more people haha.

Sounds like everything is good back home, I got the pictures. The cows don't look like they have grown that much haha. Hope they aren't too big of a burden. I am also sending you guys letters today so we'll see how long they take. Gotta run but love you guys!! Talk to you next monday!

Elder Chambers

Monday, November 1, 2010

Hola Familia!!

I have a lot to say this week!! I hope everything is going good!! Thanks for all of the emails. I also am working on a Christmas Package, I just don't know where to take it so that all the stuff doesn't get jacked. In the package I have a letter for each of the four of you!! I am just going to throw them in the package instead of mailing them. But all is well here in Mexico.

I had an interview with President Hicken on Tuesday. It went really really good he is a stud. It was good because I told him that Kayd is my cousin and that he is finally coming here. He said oh really, I'll have to make a note of that and when you both get some more experience, we'll see if we can't make you companions!!!!! That would be so tight!! So that is the good news this week is that there is a good chance that sometime in the mish me and kayd will be comps!

The other day a funny/wierd thing happened. Me and Elder Castro were tracting, actually trying to get to some appointments and he said he needed to go to the bathroom! Only a number 1 so i wasn't too worried we just kept on going! He kept saying Fetch Fetch cuz he needed to go pretty bad haha. Then all the sudden he leans over and in English with the biggest Mexican Accent says Oh Fetch I'm peeing my pants!! It feels so good!! hahahahaha and that is what happened, he peed his pants, so we had to go back to the house so he could change and shower!!

I hear alot of American music here. It is about 50% American so every once in a while I hear some songs. The other day I heard Justin Beiber haha it made me think of Whit. Oh last week I didn't give you the full address of our house. It is in Hidalgo, The Providencia, San Angel, Calle del Angel, the last house on the street.

Stuff in Mexico is a little different! The Circus came to town this week so there is a huge tent set up in the middle of town for that. Also this week we seen this parade type thing where one truck was in front with a Band playing music in the back and behind them was about 50 dudes on Horses!! Just trottin along some random street. The funny part was that all the stray dogs come out to run by them so there was like 30 dogs too!! haha it was kinda cool.

The other day I ate so much that I seriously thought i was going to ralph in the members house. They gave us a huge bowl of soup, heaping bowl of soup and I ate it all, then they asked if I wanted more, I should have said no, but I said sure. Then they brought out another huge heaping bowl of soup. I made it through it but I was hitting my companions leg underneath the table trying to tell him that we needed to go soon or I was gonna ralph in their house. But i held it in and we made it out. Also the other day we ate a different soup, it was chicken and a bunch of jalapenos haha it was kinda spicy but not to bad, my nose was runnin a little bit.

This Tuesday, I got Heidi and Kellys dear elder, so whenever they sent it that is about how long it takes, a month or so i think. Probably the same with pouch so no I haven´t gotten anything yet but that dear elder. That is awful about the Cowboys!! Oh well they just need to continue to suck this year and get a good draft pick!! They will be good again when I get back!

Well, if you could figure out some of my friends emails and send them to me that would be appreciated. Especially Dillon, I have been trying to email him, for a long time but no response, maybe his email got changed or something, see if you can figure out what's going on. The family that we were teaching couldn't come to church this week they are having problems the mom has no job and the brother pays for everything, they had to go somewhere to sort stuff out. We are going to ask permission to still baptize them this week, because we feel that they are ready!!

Dad, here the church is run just the same, but all the leaders are really young because there isn't that many members. The second counseler in the Bishop ric is only 23 years old haha. It's cool though it is practically the same only in Spanish. The hymns though are awful sometimes there is nobody that knows how to play the piano so we sing occapela or however you spell it, and with not to many members it is weird. But its chill.

WEll that is all for this week. I think the best way to get me pics is through an attachment. Thanks for all your support and love. I love all of you so much. Con Amor

Beanz