Pictures: March 18, 2013

How do you like my sores that showed up on my lip one morning. They got worse and worse for a couple of days and my lip was all swolen up so I went to the doctor and she gave me some stuff to put on it that numbs it and heals it. She said it was from my body trying to fight of some sort of bacteria or something...

We had a zone class and the sisters brought cake and apple cider.  

(Notice how Tyler's companion is scrunching down to be on the same level. Who thought he'd go to Mexico and still be the short one...I think he has the sisters beat though...)

This is a service project that we did as a zone this morning. A family in one of the wards here lost their house so we went to help them clear up some land so they can build one. We chopped a couple of tree down with axes and machetes, it was pretty fun.

Lotsa great investigators!

Hola familia!

Well we just got some crazy news! Elder Fox (one of the asistents) just called me and told me that Elder Ortiz and I are going to train a new misionary from Peru for 2 weeks! Haha its going to be really weird, Im not sure why but I think that their are just so many weird situations with the new misionaries and everthing and their are lost just waiting for their visas that sometimes we have to be flexible with stuff like this. So it will be fun, kinda hard at the same time to be in a trio/train a new misionary/be a zone leader but I know that the Lord has his purposes and that we will learn something good from all of this and be able to welcome a new missionary to the mission field.

This sunday was AWESOME!!! We had 5 investigators in church, and Gizelle, Nayeli, Fernanda, and Ricardo all got confirmed in sacrament meeting. We brought some youth, 3 of them that have a baptism date for this week, and they are all sooo cool! Two of them are named Casandra and Alan, their mom was a referenece from an ex misionary in another ward. We went to talk to their mom and she said that she wanted us to teach her kids, so we did and they are great, they love to learn and they are excited to be baptized and to participate in all of the youth activities and everything. They absolutely loved church on sunday and their mom is interested too, she has just been really busy and hasnt been able to go to church yet but she says that she will be there this sunday. We are also teaching a young man named Jorge who lives with his aunt and his cousins (who are all members) The misionaries have been teaching him forever but his moment finally arrived and he wants to be baptized this week.

After church we had a baptism for a young man named Alejandro! His is waaay cool, a reference from the asistents, (they contacted him in their area and passed us his direction) He was into some bad stuff when he was younger but got out of it all like a year ago, hes 16. He has done alot of repenting and had a huge desire to be baptized, change his life, and enter into the church. He lives with his sister and his nephew, and they both came to church and went to his baptism and loved it! His little nephew is named Nelson and he was just so excited after going to primary, it was great, haha. We werent expecting them to come so it was cool when they showed up. We had taught them before but they never went to chruch, so we hope that they felt something special and they will start going alot.

Its good to hear that everything is going good at home! Glad to hear that john is tearing it up in work, that Parker is loving tennis, and that Dad is getting the hang of his new calling !! I love you all a ton!

Elder Eastmond

Pictures: March 11, 2013

Tyler eating cake with Elder Alien about to attack...

Stake Conference

Que hubo familia??

Another great week!! (I think the past 10 emails have started like that, haha) This week was stake conference, and it was through satellite, we heard from Elaine S. Dalton, Elder Bednar, and Elder Scott. (It was cool because Elder Scott speaks spanish so nobody had to translate for him) The conference was broadcasted to like 50 stakes here in Mexico, according to the needs and problems that some of the wards and members are having. This week, almost every companisionship in the zone had a baptism date, so we had a baptism service with the whole zone after stake conference, it was incredible!

We had five wards that were going to have the baptism on sunday so we all met in the sacrament room to say the prayer and listen to a couple of testimonies about baptism, and then one at a time the wards went into the room with the baptismal font to watch the baptisms of their own ward. It was super spiritual and so cool to have the whole zone together in the baptismal service.

We baptized three people in the service, Nayelli, Fernanda, and Ricardo. They all have a great story behind them, I hope I have time to tell you guys everything. So Nillely came to church a couple weeks ago with her friend, who is from another ward but brought her to our ward because she lives here in the boundaries (she actually lives 4 houses over from our house) She loved church and we contacted her and started to teach her about the gospel. She grew up catholic and lives alone with her mom, her dad is in the military and she hardly ever gets to see him. She told us from the start that if she felt an answer to her prayers, she would join the church. So we have been teahcing her and she is really really receptive to the spirit, she regonized right off the bat an answer from God and learned to listen to the Holy Ghost. This week as her baptism date got closer, she was worried about some things that had happened in her past but we taught her about the atonement and that helped her to understand that baptism is how we can receive all of the blessings of the atonement. But then her mom started to get kinda mad. She said that her mom didnt agree one little bit that she was going to get baptized (Nayelli is 21 so she doesnt need permission, but its nice to have the support of your family) We kept teaching her and helping her realized that her mom would see a change in her and that she should follow the answer that she had received. The day of her interview, I was on divisions with Elder wirthlin, and while he was doing the interview I was in the other room talking to Nayellis mom. She was getting pretty worked up. She had alot of doubts and excuses of why Nayelli shouldnt be baptized and I tried the best I could to share my testimony and share scriputes with her to help her, but she wasnt really acceptting anything. Nayelli passed her interview and came back in, we talked a little bit with her mom, and when all was said and done. Nayelli told her mom that she knew the Church was true and that she was going to join it whether her mom like it or not. She was baptized on sunday and looked as happy as could be :)

The other two that we baptized were two siblings, a brother and sister. Fernanda´s mom is an inactive member and her grandparents are members and Fernanda (11 yrs old) has gone to church for a year and just loves the church. She hadnt been able to get baptized because her dad never wanted her to. Her little brother ricardo also wanted to get baptized for a long time (8 years old, we dont have the responsability to teach him because he is 8 so we just set up his interview and everthing with the bishop. Well we went to their house to talk to their dad and we have a great lesson, the spirit was really strong, and we got him to give them permission! When he told his daughter that she could get baptized, she just starting bawling so hard because she was so happy that she was going to be able to join the church. Ricardo was also really excited and it was special to be able to help them out.

It was a great week, we have been soooooo busy helping out the missionaries in the zone when they are having trouble with something that we havent reallly been working here in our area as much as you would think, but the lord has blessed us a ton for everything, and we have some great people that we are going to be teaching this week!!

I love you all so much!! Be good and enjoy your week!!

Mucho amor,

Elder Eastmond

March 4, 2013

The Joy of Service

Hola familia!

We had another great week!! I am just loving the mission. Im glad I still have so much time left but at the same time I realize that I have more time behind me than ahead of me. Im doing everything I can to enjoy every minute and just dedicate everything to the Lord.

We did a fun activity this week with the zone! In one of the areas of the sisters, a family that they are teaching had their house catch fire and they lost almost everything. So we went with the zone on thursday morning to help them clean the walls and the roof, the house was with before, but as you can see in the pictures, the smoke had just turned everything completely black. So we scrubbed the walls down with soap and brushes and brooms and got it as clean as we could so they could paint the house again. It was really fun with the whole zone, we were all soaking wet by the time we finished becuase they brought in one of those pressurized water guns and were constantly spraying the walls down. Halfway throught we started singing fun himns at the top of our lung, haha it was really fun and we all felt the joy of being able to serve a family in need.

So Elder Ortiz is great! I already knew him pretty good before but I have gotten to know him alot better. He has 19 months in the mission and has been a member his whole life. His parents were both converts when they were like 16 years old. His dad is a seventy, one of the area seventies here in Mexico. His parents actually came to talk to us with Elder Alonso a couple months ago and they are pretty powerful! They gave great talks and we all enjoyed their messages alot. His dad also served as a mision president a couple years ago in the Oaxaca mission. Elder ortiz is really really happy and likes to joke around alot but is really focused at the same time. He kinda reminds me of Elder Serrano. He has been a zone leader for a long time and really knows what hes doing. He has a way of making friends really fast with all of the members and investigators so they trust us as misionaries. He is always singing something and he gets along great with everybody in the mission. He lives in Guadalara Mexico and I am really greatful for the chance I have to be his companion. I really have been soooo blessed with the companions that I have had. Every one of them has been so great and helped me to learn so much about how to be a good misionary and how to help and love the people.

For the past couple weeks we have been teaching a young lady named Gizelle. She is 19 years old and had talked with the missionaries several times a couple months ago but it wasnt her moment yet. Her mom is a member who was inactive for a while but has come back to the church and is way cool. So we had the oportunity to help Gizelle join the church this week! She is really excited and her and her mom are going to help eachother a ton to move forward and stay faithful in the church. We baptized her on sunday after church so there were a ton of members there, the room was packed! I think its interesting sometimes how the missionaries sometimes teach a person but for some reason or another they dont end up joining the church, but then a couple months later something happens and the person has the desire to get baptized because they are more receptive to the spirit. We have found a bunch of people like that lately. I feel blessed to be a misionary in this time because I know the Lord is pouring out more of his spirit and pressuring his work and so we have been really blessed to find lots of people who are ready the join the church and change their lives. I read a scripture in Doctrine and covenants the other day that talks about how in the last days "the lamanites would flourish like a rose" or something like that. And I just feel really greatful and happy to be able to watch this personally with my own eyes. I am literally here in the land of the Lamanites and the Lord has given me the chance to be an instrument in his hands to help his children accept the gospel. Theres nothing quite like it!

I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!!! Just know that I couldnt be happier and Im working hard!!

Mucho amor,

Elder Eastmond

Pictures February 25, 2013