Pictures: June 29, 2013

Iguanas, crocodiles and birds

Buenas Noches!

Well, its obviously really late but we had a blast today! It was P-day so president took us to the Tuxtlas for the day!! How cool is that! Its the first time i´ve been back since I was there in Cerro de las Iguanas. We went to this place called Nanciyaga, its like a resort/tour in the middle of the jungle where they have a bunch of cool stuff to look at. They have iguanas, crocodiles, and birds. They have a bunch of cool statues and a bunch of stuff built out of stone like little ruins and what not. They also have this place where you go and they put this special clay stuff on your face and then you wash it off later with some mineral water stuff thats supposedly really good for your skin...who knows but we just liked it because we all looked funny with mud on our faces. There are a bunch of pictures that I´m sending, and because dad and Parker are with Pete and his wife, they will have to show all of the pictures to them, I know how much they love the tuxtlas, haha. Im sure they went to this place when they were there. So it was a fun day and it was fun to be with everyone in the offices and with president for the day. After we went to Nanciyaga we went to eat some Memelas, they are like giant burritos that they make with hand made tortillas and a whole bunch of meat, yum. All in all, it was a good day and we ended up getting back pretty late so we just got right to work and just barely we have time to write you guys! 

I loved the pictures that parker took of Cali, it looks like they are having a fun time and It looks like Parker bought me a sweet new car for when I get back. Thanks parker, thats very thoughtful of you! Haha tell Pete and JoElla hi for me and that Im just loving life here in Veracruz!! Oh and just to answer dad´s questions, I am serving in a ward called La Laguna in the Reforma stake. We live in a house that we rent in our area, but alot of times we sleep here in the offices. 

We´ve seen Eli and Amparo this week and they are just happy as can be! Amparo already signed up on the food list to give us lunch on monday, should be a good time. They are a fun family and they always get us laughing pretty hard. This week was really busy but really good at the same time. On monday we went to the airport to pick of the new misioneries. They all look really excited and we were with them all day on monday and on tuesday morning. We got like 5 misionaries from Peru, 7 from Mexico, and 3 from the States. Its always fun to see the american missionaries when they get here. The always have the most confused look on their faces because the shock has started to set in that they´re in mexico and that nobody speaks english. President brought them to the mission offices at like 10:00 at night and when they got out of the van and we asked them how they were doing, they were all just like "oh, uhhhh, good. Ya, ya just uhmmmm, just doing great."  It always reminds me of the first day that I got here and I felt exactly the same. Feels like it was just yesterday, the time goes so fast!! We also sent two misionaries to their houses on Wednesday morning. They finished strong and we ate lunch with them and president with them 

But ya the week was busy, we get phone calls 24/7 because there is always a little bit of confusion with the changes and we have to help everyone coordintate everything. We had a great week of work in the mission field. After baptizing Eli and Amparo we didnt have hardly anymore investigators so we spent alot of time looking for new people this week and we had some cool experiences. On Wednesday morning I said a prayer asking Heavenly Father to help us find 4 new investigators. We started working after lunch and we found 4 new investigators, and we found them all by doing things that we didnt have in the plans, but stuff that we just felt inspired to do. Like knocking a random door or one time we just stopped by the house of an hermana to use her bathroom, haha and we found an amazing investigator named Milagros who was in the house of the hermana. She is 16 and has a couple of defects that she has had from birth and so she has been in a wheel chair her entire life. She doesnt have alot of friends and the church is going to help her so much with the young womans program and everything. The next morning I asked Heavenly Father to help us find 2 new investigators and when we went to visit Milagros, her little sister and her mom where there and accepted everything and they are all going to come to church on sunday! So it was a good week and I´m really greatful for the power of prayer and for the spirit that guided us to be able to find such great people this week!

Well its really late and I gonna get ready to go to bed but I love you all so much and hope you have a great week!! Dad, parker, Pete, and JoElla, enjoy yourselves in Cali!!

Mucho amor,

Elder Eastmond

Pictures: June 22, 2013

Eli and Amparo and mission conference

Que hubo familia?? 

We just got out of an amazing baptismal service!!! Eli and her mom Amparo got baptized at 11:00 this morning! We had more members than we thought we would have and it turned out to be very spiritual. Eli and Amparo enjoyed it and the members showed them so much support and love, it was great! The thing that just makes me so happy is that all of this started from Abdiel from Magisterio, and its just been a big chain of people over the past couple of months who have accepted the gospel. I am grateful that Heavenly Father has put me where I have been to be able to teach these amazing people. Its such a privilege and I will never be able to thank Heavenly Father enough for all of the blessings that he has given me on the mission, Im just gonna keep working hard so more people can accept the gospel and can return to live with him. 

The conference that we had on wednesday went great! Elder Ortiz and I talked about gaining confidence from the missionaries, motivating them, and doing efective divisions. It was really fun, we did an example of "what not to do" while you´re on divisions and it turned out pretty funny, but it was good because lots of the things we did wrong in the example, the Elders do in real life. So we hope we got the point across and that they learned something good from it. It was fun to be apart of the conference and see all of the "backstage" stuff that went into it. I respect President and his wife soooo much, there is really an endless amount of work and planning that comes with the calling to be a mission president. 

So this week we did all of the changes in the mission with President. It was really interesting to be there with him and to analize everything and watch how the spirit worked so that he could put everybody where they needed to be. As for us here in the offices, nobody is coming or going, we are all going to stay the same. This week is going to be crazy because we are getting like 15 new misionaries, so we are going to be going to the air port, teaching the newbies all the stuff that they need to know, and getting everything organized for this next transfer. Im excited, the last time we did this it was really fun. Its a huge blessing to be able to participate in stuff like this. 

We didn´t end up going bowling last week because they shut the bowling alley down for some reason... we were pretty disapointed, haha. But we ended up going to this place called the "buffet de tacos" and they give you all you can eat tacos for like 50 pesos. Not too shabby! So we ate tacos until we were sick and then came back to the offices to take a little nap, haha. 

I can´t believe what happened with the water in Lehi! That´s crazy how they didn´t even tell anyone about it! I laughed when the lady that mom called freaked out but mom had never even heard about the emergency or anything. Imagine how it would be if you didnt have water for a couple of days... haha keep me updated on whats happing!!

The pictures are from the baptism and the others are just of us being dumb. We went to teach this lady the other day but turns out it was her daughters birthday, so she gave us sunglasses and a bunch of other goofy stuff that we put on. 

Funny thing that happened this morning. We were going to the church to fill up the font, and a couple of guys in a little cart/buggy type thing that was being pulled by a horse passed by. They had a mega-phone hooked onto the cart and it was playing the song "vanilla ice." Let me tell you, they looked just as happy as could be. Hahaha it happens alot where they are going with their horse and there cart selling something but its a first that I have seen them going along with their rap music. It was a good laugh!

Well, thats what went down in the week. It was a great week and we are going to be crazy busy this next week so I´ll let you guys know about everything on saturday!!

I love you guys and hope you dont run out of water!!!

Mucho amor,

Elder Eastmond

Pictures: June 15, 2013

Do you like our pink ties?

This is a tarantula that was in our house.... it was pretty creepy because it could jump...so we killed it with a broom. 

This is a fruit here that's called lichi. Lichis grow where its a little bit colder so I havent seen them forever. They import a ton in Poza Rica so while I was there I ate a bunch but I havent hardly seen them since. But we went to the store on the corner this morning and they had a bag of them,

 I was pretty happy.

They look disgusting but they taste really good!!

Pruebas (Trials)

Hola Familia!! 

Hows everybody doing?? I hope everything is good at home.We are excited here because we are going to go bowling with the gang and with President at like 12:30. Should be a fun time we are all pretty pumped! 

We have had a lot of crazy stuff happen to us this last week. Some good and some bad but thats the mission sometimes. I will start with the bad. So Gabriela was all ready to be baptized and everything this past week. She passed her interview and was excited but when we passed by her house on saturday to bring her to the church, she came out and told us that she didn´t want to be baptized... she said that she was fine in her catholic church and that she didn´t want to change religions.. What?? we were so confused after all that had happened to her, and after the huge and obvious change that she had had in her life, she didnt want to follow through with her decision. We talked to her for a little bit and she was saying that her family wasnt going to support her at all because they are all catholics and she didnt want to be the other member of her family to join the church. We read scriptures, shared our testimonies, asked her a ton of inspired questions, and she wouldnt budge. We really dont know what happened. We have a hunch that it was just an excuse and that there is something else that is going on. Because when we were talking to her she was back to her normal self... like really sad and quiet and how she was before we had that experience with her. I really dont know but we felt like she might have gone back to what she was doing before. (she had mentioned that she had participated in witch craft and what not before we got there) but we really arent sure. But she doesnt want anything. I cant believe that after all of the testimonies that she saw and experienced that she denied everything...It hurts because we love her and saw her change so much but she is free to make her own choice. I hope she gets another chance further down the road.

So that happened and then this week we were teaching someone named Lilia who has a liver disease and doesnt have much time left. she went to church with us on sunday and loved it, it was the second time that she had been, and she said that she felt like her heart was going to jump out of her chest because she could feel the spirit so strong. So her baptism date we have moved a couple of times for her health and some problems that she has had but this weekend everything was all set up. She has received alot of answers from God but told us that she doesnt want to join the church yet. She says that she is scared and that she wants to be absolutely sure about the decision but she has had so many testimonies, and we explained that we can never be sure of anything, because god wants us to exercise our faith. But she told us that she was just too scared and that she doesnt want to. So it was kind of hard, because with her and Gabriela we have felt the spirit in the lessons and in the church and we know that they have felt it too, but the influence of the enemy was strong and there wasnt anything more that we could do to help them... 

I feel good at least knowing we did all that we could do. One time dad wrote me a letter and he said that even if we do everything that we can sometimes the investigators will still decline the invitacion to join the church, but its something thats between them and Heavenly Father, and some of them just aren´t quiet ready yet. But the seeds are planted and I pray that they will have another oportunity further down the road. 

But we have also been able to find some great knew people this week. We are teaching a great family, a young lady named Eli who is a friend of a convert in Magisterio, and her mom and her sister are also listening to us. Eli and her mom went to church this past sunday. We Eli wants to be baptized and we are going to schedule her baptism for this upcoming saturday or sunday. Her mom asked if the Book of mormon was true and says that she had a dream where she saw Jesus and he told her to follow in this path... not bad for an answer huh? So we are going to continue teaching them so they can act on their answer. 

this week was fun becuase we did divisions on Tuesday, thursday, and friday so we felt like we could help out some of the misionaries and we were also able to learn from them. 

the pictures that i sent are of us four with pink ties on, haha and the other is a picture of elder Perez from Guatelmala, he was with Elder ortiz and I for two weeks in Magisterio and he stopped by the offices this week for some stuff and we got to see him, it was fun. 

We are preparing for a conference that we are going to have with all of the zone leaders, district leaders, and trainers, like 70 misionaries in total. We are going to have it on wednesday and we will share lots of messages and techniques to help the misioneraries have more sucess and be better leaders. It should be fun, I will let you guys know how it went next saturday!

I love you guys a ton! Behave yourselfs and stay out of trouble, haha!

Mucho amor, 

Elder Eastmond

Pictures June 8, 2013

Pictures: June 1st and June 8, 2013

Sorry I'm so late with posting last week's blog. The last 2 weeks are now posted for your reading enjoyment.

Que calor!

Que dice familia? Hows the weather in Lehi? We are burning up here in Veracruz, it is sooooo hot!! But we are loving life and finding tons of great people to teach in the area. I sent some pictures here of the offices just so you guys have an idea of what they look like. 

So I will start out with the good news.... Gabriela is going to be baptized today at 5:00!!! We are soooooo excited!! She is amazing and has progressed so much in the short time that we have known here. i know that Heavenly Father sent us and wanted so bad for us to go and teach her the gospel. It was actually a miracle that we found her in the first place because Elder Fox had gone and done divisiones with a companionship in another zone like two and a half weeks ago. He ran into a member there that knew Gabriela and had talked to her a little bit about the church and the missionaries and everything so when he found out that Elder Fox was working in the area where Gabriela lived, he gave us the reference. When we got there at first she was super quiet and just looked horribly sad and depresed and everything. (But how could you not be after what happened to her...) But since that day that we had that experience with her she has just looked happier and happier every day. She went to church last sunday and loved it and all of the sisters have been so good to her to be her friend and help her feel welcome. Joining the church is absolutely going to change her life, everytime we go to teach her, her face just lights as we talk about Jesus and about the gospel. Her interview was yesterday and she passed with flying colors so today will be her baptism. I feel so blessed to be apart of her conversion and help her totally change her life. 

Do you guys remember Abdiel and Diana? Well Abdiel has a sister named Karla who I was teaching with Elder Farnsworth in Magisterio. She got baptized last week and a couple of her friends went to her baptism. One of her friends lives in our ward and went to church on sunday with Karla. We went to her house and contacted her and she is amazing! We taught her, her sister, and her mom and they are all going to come to church with us tommorrow. They have all been praying and have expressed to us that they have felt the spirit really strong after asking Heavenly Father if the Book of Mormon and the church are true. I will keep you guys updated on that!

Yesterday we had a ward activity. We had a talent night and a bunch of people from the ward sang and danced, and the 6 of us that are in the ward did a little skit, it turned out really funny. We acted out that I was directing a movie and there are two actors that do a scene and another misionary is filming. We do the same scene like 5 times but each time I make them re-do it because I didnt like it. But in between the scenes the misionary that is filming keeps trying to tell me something but I never let him talk. At the end the actors do the scene perfectly and we are all excited but then the one who is filming tells us that there isnt film in the camera. (he was trying to tell me the whole time but I would never listen to him.) It turned out good and several investigators came and got to know some of the members. 

Well, thats what went down this week! I will send pictures of the baptism next week and tell you guys all about it! I love you guys and hope that you are enjoying summer vacation!!

Mucho amor, 

Elder Eastmond

The new mission tie

Que tal familia! 

It´s getting pretty hot here! I think I said that the last week too but wow, everytime we get done with lunch at like 3 and leave to start working, the sun just about kills us, haha. But its soooo much better than the cold. 

We have had a great week! We found alot of good people who want to come to church with us tommorrow, so we hope that everything goes well. Last sunday we had two baptisms! As you can see in the picture, we baptized Alondra (the young lady, she is only 17 yrs old, looks alot older huh?, and Angel (the little kid) They have looked really happy and content as we have passed by this week to visit them, and they will get confirmed tommorrow. Alondra is really sweet, she decided to join the church super quick and we are trying to find lots of friends for her in the ward. The baptism service was great, we hardly fit in the room because there were so many members there. 

We had our monthly leadership council with the zone leaders on thursday. It was really good, I was a little bit nervous because every month President gives the 4 asistents a topic and we prepare like a 20 minute lesson give to all the zone leaders, (first time Ive done that) and so I talked about how to get quality references from the members, inactive members, converts, etc. I think it went pretty well, but I was a little nervous talking in front of 18 zone leaders, haha. It was funny though because we went and bought 5 bright red ties before the council, and when we got to the offices we gave one to president (he just started laughing and got super excited) and then we all put ours on, so when we all walked into the room everybody just started laughing and president was like "here we have the new mission tie." and then pointing at us said "these clowns over here picked them out!" haha it was a good laugh.

We also had interviews with President Treviño this week. Its always great to be able to talk to him one on one so that he can help us with our doubts and challenges. I asked him alot about how I can fulfill all of my responsabilities and he gave me alot of great advice and pointers so that I can help him and the other missionaries out. He also answered a bunch of other questions that i have had without me even having to ask him... Really really inspired man. 

We have a ton of great investigators right now. We are teaching a lady named Lilia who has a baptism date on June 9 and has a liver disease. We hope so bad that she accepts the gospel because it will bring her alot of comfort in these difficult moments. We also found a couple name Rosío and Gregorio. They want to have more peace and unity in their home, they aren´t married so we taught them why it´s important to be married and we left them with the comittment to talk about it. We are going today to check up and see if its something that they want to do. We are also teaching Gabriela and her little son, you will read a little bit more about their challenges in the other letter that I sent, but they are great and we are doing everything we can to help them. 

Well, thats about all that happened this week! Please pray for our investigators and have a great week! I love you guys!!

Mucho amor, 

Elder Eastmond