The pictures are from Cempoala, the place with cool ruins where we went last saturday!
Saturday, July 27, 2013
A pain in the tooth
Hola familia! Como estan todos?
We are almost finished with this transfer, can you guys believe it? This is the last week before changes, we are going to have a leadership counsel and we are going to do the transfers with president on Thursday. I feel kinda weird because I will be the only one that stays here in the offices. Elder Chico, Fox, and Ortiz are all finishing their missions. Elder Ortiz is the first companion I`ve sent home, haha it will be kinda weird.
We found an amazing lady named Tomasa this week. Check out how we found her, it was pretty cool! When I was in Magisterio with Elder Ortiz, we taught a young lady named Nayeli, and she ended up being baptized and to this day she is really faithful in the church. Well she started dating this guy while I was with Elder Farnsworth, and she brought him to church one sunday. The other two elders that were in the ward met him (his name is Ismael) and they taught him and he also got baptized. So a couple days ago we were going to get on a bus and we got on and saw Ismael. (Hes a bus driver and he always lets us on free, haha) So we got on and he started talking to us about his mom, who lives in our area. He told us to go visit her so we went and found her, taught her, and she is really really prepared to join the church. She accepted everything and we are just loving being able to teach her. Turns out that Nayeli and Ismael want to get married in the temple in a year so the whole family has benefited alot from Nayeli`s example. I love seeing stuff like this on the mission. I call it "the chain" because someone accepts the gospel and because that person joined the church a bunch of their family and friends join because of their testimony and example, its pretty great.
Elder Ortiz has had a pretty rough week. Yesterday his molar started hurting him super bad so we basically went running to the hospital and they said that he had had it filled before but that it had opened up again. So they did some stuff with his tooth for like 45 minutes but it still hurt him all day. Then at night a sister in the ward who is kinda crazy got super mad at Elder Ortiz for a misunderstanding, something that wasnt elder Ortiz`s falt at all but the sister chewed him out anyway. And then today in the morning we had to go to the dentist again and he was there for an hour and a half, and he has to go back on tuesday, haha poor guy. It reminded me of mom and how she hates the dentist so much.
Milagros and Consuelo are really happy. We visited them this week and have tried to find their mom but she has been working a ton. We will continue to look for her so we can help her join the church too.
Today we are going to have a "going away lunch" with hermana Amparo and her family. (they joined the church like a month ago) We are going to help them make a bunch of mexican food and then all eat together, it should be a good time!
The pictures are from Cempoala, the place with cool ruins where we went last saturday!
I love you guys and hope you all have a great week!
Saturday, July 20, 2013
Pictures: July 20, 2013
Here are two fotos of the amazing baptisms that we had this week. Milagros is the one in the wheel chair, she was really nervous but it was a great act of faith and everything worked out good. She got baptized on Sunday, and the top one is of Consuelo, she got baptized on Thursday!
Milagros and Consuelo
Hey fam!!
So I have a ton to tell you, I will see if I can fit everything in! First of all, we had two unbelievable baptisms this week. On sunday, Milagros got baptized. The church has just absoluetly changes her life and she looks really different than when we first got there. There is a special light in her eyes and she seems happier and more sure of herself. The baptism itself was kindof tricky because we had to life her out of the wheel chair, bring her down the stairs into the baptismal font. She weighs alot so it took three of us to baptize her. She was just nervous as can be, it wasn´t something that was easy or simple for her but she had a lot of faith and everything turned out well. He sister was kinda scared to be baptized on Sunday, we aren´t really sure what she was scared of, she would never tell us, but after seeing the baptism of her sister she got really excited and so we planned her baptism on thursday. Everything worked out great, and her mom came to watch her. Her mom has been to church one time and she was happy as can be after watching consuelo´s baptism. She accepted to be baptized next sunday after church, she hasn´t been able to church for the second time yet because of her work, but shes trying to get everything all worked out with that. These two experiences really were two of the sweestest moments of my mission, I´m grateful that The Lord guided us to be able to find this family.
This week we had zone conferences. It was really really diferent this time around becuase I was participated instead of just listening, but I absoluetly loved it! On Wednesday, Elder Ortiz and I went to Orizaba and Córdoba and spoke with President and his wife. On thursday, we got together the four zones of Veracruz (here in the port) and Elder Fox and Elder Chico spoke (the other two assistents) Then on friday Elder Ortiz and I got up super early and went over to presidents house, we all drove down together for the conference of Tuxtepec and Tierra Blanca. That was fun because Tuxtepec is actually in the state Oaxaca. So now I have been to three states in Mexico. Mexico city, Veracruz, and Oaxaca, haha. We spoke there and today president is in the Tuxtlas with Elder Fox and Chico, we stayed here. I was kinda nervous at first but once you get standing up there in front and start teaching, the nerves leave. It´s fun teaching a large group of misionaries because they LOVE to participate, so with a couple of good activities and lots of questions, they learn alot and it makes it really easy to teach. I talked about how to detect the needs of our investigators and how to apply what we teach to those needs. It was kinda funny being in three of the conferences because we get to see how President shares the same message with the same jokes in every conference and he always just brings the house down. Hes a really funny guy but also a very very inspired man. After he finishes teaching, the room is always really silent and everyone can feel the spirit sooo strong.
Today for P-day we went to a place called Cempoala, its like a mini Tajín, that place where I went at the first of my mission. Its a bunch of ruins and pyramids and stuff like that, it was really interesting, I dont have the pictures with my right now but I will send them next week!
Thats pretty intense that Dad got to meet and work with Walter Reins on his painting. I agree, I would feel a little weird telling Walter Reins what he can improve in his painting!!
Well, Im just loving the work like always! It´s such a blessing to be a missionary, I´m not sure if I will every come home, I will think about it, haha ,)
I love you guys a ton and hope that you have an amazing week!
Mucho amor,
Elder Eastmond
Thursday, July 18, 2013
A "DRAIN"ing day
Como esta familia?!
I hope you guys are all doing well and enjoying your summer vacation. It still is really really hot here, dad asked me if I have gotten used to it, and the answer is yes. But.... that doesnt mean that we dont notice it or that we don´t sweat at all, haha. Yesterday was funny because I did divisions with the Financial Secretary, Elder Soto. at night we had to go over to his chapel and drain the font. You wouldn´t think it would be that dificult to drain a font but you would be very surprised. In a couple of the old chapels here you have to be like an engineer to figure out all the levers, pipes, pumps, and what not to get the font drained. So we got to the chapel and tried everything we could but it turns out that it wouldnt drain. We decided it was because the pump was broken but deep down inside we realized that we probably just weren´t smart enough. But we had to drain it because the water was really dirty and the secretaries were going to baptized today. So Elder Soto and I pulled out a couple of those big 5 gallon buckets and just went to work. We had the font drained in like half and hour just from using those buckets, haha. By the time we were done we were just soaked to the bone, half water from the font and the other half was sweat, haha fun stuff.
So we are just as excited as can be for Milagros and Consuelo. There have been alot of ups and downs this week, the enemy has been working hard, but we are going to do the baptism interviews today and if everything goes well, Milagros and consuelo with get baptized tomorrow after church. We have continued working a ton with the young womens and that really just has made all of the difference. Milagros has loved having friends and feeling like she is apart of everything. Katarina, milagros´mom, also wants to get baptized but she has been working a ton and we havent had enough time to teach her everything yet so its looking like its gonna be next week. Pray hard so everthing works out good for Milagros and consuelo.
We also went to visit a recent convert of the other elders in the ward and he wasnt there but we talked to his mom. Shes named Bertha and she is really cool! She had talked to the sister missionaries a little while ago and says that she wants to go to church on sunday and looks like shes really willing to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it to find out if its true!
Last sunday we found a rat in the kitchen here in the offices. And it was big too. Let me tell you all, that made a great video. There were like 8 of us in the kitchen chasing the rat around with brooms and mops, trying to trap it with a pot. After like half an hour we finally trapped it and took it out of the kitchen, it was quiet the adventure.
This week we have zone conferences! Its going to be really different this time around because I will be participating but Im super excited. Elder Ortiz and I are going to be teaching together. We are going to talk about how to commit people to go to church and how to committ them to baptism. We are also going to talk about how to regonized the needs of the investigators and how to teach them according to what they are lacking in their lives. Should be really fun we are excited!
Well, my time is up, but I will write to you guys next week! Thanks for the emails and the prayers, I love you all mucho!!!
Mucho amor,
Elder Eastmond
Saturday, July 6, 2013
It's a zoo out there!
Hola familia!
So first of all, I have to wish a happy birthday to mom!!! I hope you had a great day even though you were sick! I love you mom and Im greatful for everything you do for me and for those around you!
I also hope you all had a great day for the 4th of July. We didnt really do anything to celebrate but we listened to the national anthem here in the offices in the morning, haha. I loved all of the great pictures that dad and Parked sent of california. Parker looks so old, its crazy! I hardly even recognized him! The beach there looks really pretty and I liked the picutre of the A's stadium.
Today for P-day we went to the zoo. The best were the lions and tigers and bears...oh my!! haha the lions were really cool, and they also had this howler monkey who screams really loud...Parker and devin would have loved that one. We also saw a bunch of cool reptiles, scorpions, and snakes!
This week was pretty good, we didn´t find a whole lot of new investigators but we are working alot with Milagros, consuelo, and Katarina. They have been progressing really good, and we had a family home evening with them the other night that turned out to be really really spiritual. We invited the President of the young womens and her counselor, and they invited two young women. So we didnt even say a thing the whole time, they all got to the house and started with a song, a prayer, and then started explaining a little bit about personal progress and about the whole young womens program. It was amazing because they all shared their testimonies and later Milagros and her family just started crying and we could feel the spirit so strong. The next day I went back with Elder Jones, hes an american elder who got her a month and a half ago. He works with us in the ward with his companion, but we did divisions. We taught about the requirments to be baptized from Moroni 6 and then Milagros and consuelo told us about some of the trials that they have noticed in their lives since they started accepting the gospel. They are some tricky things that they are going through but the lesson was really powerful and they ended up accepting baptism. They have a date for the 13th so we are going to be working with them alot this next week. Elder Jones was incredible in the lesson, he is still learing spanish but he spoke so well in the lesson and he has such a pure and powerful testimony, it helped the family a whole lot to make the decision. Milagros and consuelo are just excited as can be to be a part of young womens, we are hoping that everything works out well. ¨Please send some prayers their way, I don´t know why but I have just had the impression that there are going to be a lot of trials this coming week, but the Lord will help them overcome them.
I am out of time but I love you guys and hope you all have a great week!
Mucho amor,
Elder Eastmond
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