Bautismision

Hola mi querida familia!

We had a CRAZY week! Thats the way I like it, haha. We had so much stuff to do and so many companionships to help that we hardly even worked in our area. Here in the mission, sometimes President Treviño chooses a random week and we have something thats called a Bautimision! Its where everyone works as hard as possible to help someone get baptized so every companionship can have a baptism in the same week. When I first got here, I thought it was kinda focused in numbers but then I realized that it motivates alot of the misionaries to give a little bit more for some of the investigators who are haveing problems and doubts that keep them from getting baptized, and the little extra bit of effort is what the investigators need sometimes. It sounds kinda weird but everyone always puts everything that they have into the week and we always see a bunch of miracles with the investigators, its really amazing.

So this week was a bautimision. Everybody in the zone had investigators who could be baptized. So we spent the week running around with the zone and doing divisiones to help them with their investigators. For example, on friday morning, we got a call from some of the sisters in the zone who said that they were going to help a couple get married so they could get baptized on sunday. They were going to get all the paperwork ready on friday and then marry their investigators on saturday, but they call the office in the little town where they were going to have the wedding and they found out that they are closed on saturdays...So the race began, haha. We did divisiones with some Elders who live by the little town and went to talk to a guy that we knew pretty good. We convinced him to let us do a same day appointment if we could have all of the paper work there at 1:00. It was like 10 in the morning. I called the sisters and they were busy getting birthcertificates that were going to take awhile, so we send a guy that Elder Ortiz knows to help them get everything faster. This was basically the whole morning, we were running around making calls and coordinating everything to have witnesses there and get rides from the members and get all the papers and everything, haha. It was hectic but everything fell into place perfectly. But then when the sisters called their investigators to bring them to get married. They said that they were working in their tortilleria and were selling tortillas, and that they didnt want to close the shop.... We called them and told them that the Lord had put everything into place so they could be married and baptized the next day, but they were too worried about the money that they were going to lose... so we had to cancel everything. We were all really sad for them because basically the entire zone had gotten involved to help but we all returned to our areas feeling ok because we at least did all we could do. Then, at like 8 at night, the same sisters called us and told us to go to their area for a baptismal interview. They had found someone that wanted to join the church! We went to their area and I did the interview, it was a young lady who the sisters had taught some time ago who was now ready and excited to be baptized! The sisters were just happy as can be (one of them is new and it was her first week in the mission!) and we were really excited for them!

From this we learned that sometimes we work as hard as we can to do something or solve a problem, and it doesnt work out. But if we have faith and move forward, the Lord will put solutions and blessings in our path so we can acomplish what he wants us to do!

We had the wonderful opportunity to baptize Diana this week!! We brought some kids from the ward over to her house with the primary president and did some fun object lessons and she got really excited to be baptized. Now all of her family are members, the mom has gone to church for like 3 weeks straight, and the father has gone for 2. We are really excited because they will be able to put a goal soon to go the temple, and we are going to continue working alot with the family to help them out.

The pictures are from the aquarium here in Veracruz, its sweet! The others are from Dianas baptism!

Well my time is up, but I loved all of the emails, it sounds like there has been alot of changes and crazy stuff happening in the family. Just know that my prayers are always with you guys and I know the Lord will help and bless you in everything!!

Mucho amor!!

Elder Eastmond

Pictures Feb 18, 2013

Mmmmmm...cow udders

Hola familia!

So we have been here in the area for 6 weeks and its time for changes. Elder Mata got changed to a different zone (I would have liked another change with him but changes are changes). But I am really excited because my new companion is Elder Ortiz, he was one of my zone leaders in Orizaba and we get along really well. He is hilarous and works hard so Im really excited. (And he isnt the one who tries to control the missionaries by chewing them out, haha) So he will get here tomorrow and we are going to have a zone class on wednesday with all the misionaries in the zone so we can get to know the new misionaries and get them all excited for these next 6 weeks.We are going to be getting three new missionaries in the zone and we already have two more who are being trained, so I am really excited. The new missionaries are always really excited and obedient and they work really hard.

This week we were going to baptized Diana, (she is the girl in the picture) but her mom in being weird about her baptism and made her scared to do it. Jenifer (dianas sister) got confirmed this week in church and her mom and dad and sister were all there, so we are happy that they all could come to feel the spirit. Diana was really excited for her baptism, shes 9 years old, but her mom always says stuff to her like "are you sure you want to do this, its a huge step in your life and you better not blow it..." or "this is a huge comitment and I dont know if your ready..." So on sunday morning we called them and her mom said "she doesnt want to get baptized anymore, she changed her mind, I dont know why". Haha her mom needs alot of help so we are going to focus alot more in her this week so she can realize that Diana is 9 years old and doesnt have to know everything in the world to get baptized. We are going to get Diana excited again and everything should be good for this saturday. Once she is baptized the bishop can set a goal with the family to go to the temple. Her mom is really nice just that her testimony isnt very strong because shes been inactive for so long but litle by little we will help her get a good strong tesimony through her actions. If she prays, reads, and goes to church and does famliy home evening she will start to feel the love of the lord and it will help her to have more of a testimony.

The pictures that I sent are of monday night when we went to Dianas house to teach her, haha turns out it was her dads birthday so they invited us to eat with them really quick. We ate "ubre" which in english translates to "cow utters"... I was willing to try it but I wasnt sure that I would like it, but I wasnt too bad, haha. You make tacos with it and put salsa, avocado, and beans on top and its alright. It doesnt replace mom´s fettucini alfredo but thats ok, haha. The other picture is of a squirell that a member caught, and now it is tame and lives in their house. They hardly ever have it in the cage and so its always running around trying to find food and climbing up the table, chairs, curtains, etc. Its named Dumbo, haha. Its alot better than having a dog because it doesnt bark! I can see parker haveing a pet squirell one day...

 This week we found some good new investigators, one of them is almost our next door neighbor, haha. Thats fun becuase we leave the house in the moning and head straight over to her house. Her name is Faviola and she has a son and a litle girl, and she came to church with us this sunday and loved it, so we are exited to continue teaching her this week. The zone has been have a ton of success lately! We have enjoyed it because we have put a lot of time into getting the misionaries really excited and helping them work alot with the members and it has working alot. All of the misionaries are really excited and working hard.

Mucho amor,

Elder Eastmond

Pictures Feb 11, 2013

 On monday, last week, we organized a fun zone activity but only one companionship came. We were kinda bummed and were going to head home but President Treviño showed up with the assistants and took us out for pizza. We ate a ton as you can see from the giant box of pizza in the pictures. We had told president about the activity, because we always have to ask for his permission and I had told him what time it was and everything, and so he decided to stop by and say hi to everyone. (which ended up just being me and Elder Mata and two more missionaries, haha)

The young lady getting baptized is named Jenifer and the little girl is Diana, who will be getting baptized this Sunday. Their mom hasn't been coming but we are hoping her girls can help her come back to church.

Swimming in the Church

Que dice familia?

We had another great week!! The time is just flying by, this week on the 14th I will complete one year in Mexico! Que loco...

This morning I was reading in Doctrine and Covenants and I found a cool part that is so true. I think I was reading in section 50 and there is a verse that talks about how the "lamanites would blosom as a rose" as the second coming of the Savior drew nearer. I thought about it and decided that we are getting pretty close, because we are just finding so many people here in this area that have been prepared to hear the gospel.

This week we were able to help a young women named Jenifer (15) get baptized. Her mom in inactive but she came to relief society this week and they helped her feel really welcome, and we are going to be teaching her little sister Diana so she can get baptized this sunday. It was a great baptismal service, and an adventure at the same time. Jenifer woke up late sunday in the morning and was in a hurry to get to church and so she forgot her clothes for the baptism. So we asked the ward secretary if he could give us a ride to her house really quick after sacrament meeting to grab her stuff. we went to her house and when we got back, we saw that all of the priesthood was in the hallway cleaning up what seemed like a small river that had taken over the church, haha. The ward mission leader has filled up the baptism font but forgot about it so it overflowed, and when we got there everybody was sweeping and mopping to try to get all of the water out of the church. There was a ton of water but with all the priesthood we cleaned up in about 10 minutes, haha it was fun. The baptism was amazing, it was after church and so basically the entire ward was there, packed into the room, and after the baptism the young women sand a song to Jenifer. The spirit was really strong and Jenifer´s mom was crying, so we are hoping that she will make the decision to start coming to church again so she can support her two daughters.

We were really really busy this week, we have been doing a ton of splits with the elders in our zone to help them with their investigators who have baptism dates and are ready but have some challenges and doubts. This week almost every companionship in the zone was able to baptize, it was really fun to go with everybody and help them out and learn from them/get to know them better. I absolutely love this responsabilty because I have even less time to think about myself and more time to help not only my investigators but also the missionaries in the zone. Its really cool too because we have such close contact with every one of the 16 missionaries in the zone, I have like 16 examples that I can learn from so I feel like we are getting betting and improving every day as missionaries.

Its starting to heat up a little bit here. Everybody is talking about the heat in may and it makes me remeber the first of my mission when I was in Poza Rica in May, and we got home every single night with sweat stains on our pants...haha not fun. Dont wory mom, I try to use sun screen every day, haha.

I love you all so much and hope everything is going great! Did I hear that Parker is going to be going on a date soon? (wooo, wooo, (that was supposed to be that whistling sound that I cant make...) And I hope that Devin tears it up in Jazz band, good luck!!

Mucho amor,

Elder Eastmond

Abdiel and his parents

The story of Abdiel

Hola familia!

We had another great week!! The miracles just keep on coming! haha I feel like i say that every week, but its true! This week we had a young man named Abdiel. Hes so cool, hes 13 years old (he looks and sounds like hes 16, haha) and he has always said that hes a mormon even though he wasnt. His mom and dad are really cool too, his mom was studying for a while with the Jehovah´s witnesses and his dad doesnt pracitce any religion. We found the family like a month ago, they were old investigators that other msionaries had visited so we decided to pass by. We went and the parents didnt was to commit to anything, but Abdiel said that he wanted to join the church. We invited him to be baptized on February 9th but his mom had said that it was way too soon and that he needed to know alot more. But we have been teaching him durning this time and preparing him for the 9th, because he accepted the date and we knew that the Lord was going to provide a way. So This week on tuesday we did divisions and I stayed here with an Elder named Elder Schellenburg. 

We went to his house and talked to his parents to see if they were willing to give him permission to get baptized on saturday. They didnt agree with it at all. The mom was just going on and on and it didnt matter what we said, she told us that he needed waaaay more time to prepare. The father said the same thing, and they didnt even budge on their opinion. But we knew abdiel was ready, he had learned a ton and had the desire and was alot more prepared than lots of young men who I interviewed and passed to get baptized. So we invited them to talk to Abdiel about what HE really wanted to do and how HE felt. We told them about the interview that he would have to pass and that if he wasnt ready, he couldnt get baptized. Then whe bore our testimonies about the church and how it would help Abdiel and we left. That night we prayed really hard so the Lord could soften their hearts and so Abdiel could have the words to express himself to his parents. We went on wednesday and his parents werent home but he told us that they had both asked him if he wanted to get baptized and he told them that he did. On thursday we went with Elder Wirthlin to do his interview and he passed with flying colors. We talked with his parents afterwards and they ended up giving him permission!! IT was incredible!!! I have no idea how they changed their opinion because on tuesday they were very very opposed to it. All I know is that the Lord can do things that arent logically posible and even though we cant understand them or explain them, if we have faith and if its the will of the lord, they happen. 

The baptismal service was incredible, one of our converts bore her testimony and Im pretty sure she will be Relief society president soon, it was amazing. ABdiels parents went to the baptism and loved it and came to church. He got the priesthood and is going to go to the temple on friday, and is thinking about going to EFY! I love the mission!!! I cant wait the see how he puts the example for his family and how the church is going to bless his life!

To answer some questions from Dad and mom, Elder Mata has 17 in the mission. He is from Monterrey and got baptized as a convert when he was 8 years old. He likes to play soccer and skateboard, and hes really funny. I have learned sooooooo much from his so far. He has a lot of faith and he knows there is never a challenge that we have that we cant solve. He really loves the people we teach and can really think outside of the box with the lessons we teach. We have done some fun and creative stuff to teach lessons and its fun becuase it helps the investigators alot. The hardest thing about being a zone leader is the time. We are constantly running around with lots of extra things that we have to get done so we have to plan really eficient. I have loved getting to know all of the misionaries. That is the best part is being able to help them and learn from them. I also feel like Im starting to get to know everybody in the ward as well!

Well Im out of time but good to hear that it has warmed up a little bit there, haha and that you are all doing good! Tell spencer thanks because I just got a package from him, with more peanut butter!! yum.

I love you all and pray for you guys every day!!!

Mucho amor,

Elder Eastmond