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

Pictures: 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

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