First Christmas in Mexico!

 Beautiful warm sunny day in Madero Mexico on Christmas Day!

 A ward member gave them this cute little Christmas tree.

 Elder Lawrence was excited to open his teeth whitener for Christmas!

 Skyping with Elder Lawrence was so great!  We actually got to Skype with him on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day.

 His Companion Elder Rodriquez wanted to say "hola" to us too.

It was so much fun to Skype with Bryson!!! He looked great and sounded great!  He even had a hard time thinking of some English words because he is so used to speaking in Spanish. It's such a blessing how fast Bryson has learned to speak in Spanish....we are so proud of him!

December 17, 2012

What’s up Familia:)

     Ok I’ll start off the email with the good news!! The good news is I got the package that mom sent!!! Thank you so much… I’m glad it arrived! I am doing really really great!! Like always;) I don’t think you even need to ask that question now...haha! The investigators are doing great! We did drop one of them kinda though because he wasn’t progressing, but the other 4 all progressing!!

     So today is the day for the changes of the companions!! I’m so glad I get another change with Elder Rodriguez.  He is the best…I love that guy. We get to watch a Disney movie for the Navidad!! Pretty cool I would say!!!

      So I’ve got some more pictures for you guys… it’s of Elder Rodriguez and me, estamos guapos haha;) I decorated the house for the Navidad and we have a little tree, its sweet. All of the presents are under the tree and stuff.

     My area isn’t that poor of an area, it’s actually pretty nice. Well, I think it’s nice… haha! Oh ya I do receive all the dear elder letters  you write too!! I received Ethan’s letter but then I lost it when I was walking home:( I was pretty sad about that.

      I can’t believe it’s another Monday wow! Seriously crazy how fast the time is going.  I guess that is a good thing. So, I’ll probably have 6 months in my first area. Elder Rodriguez has been here 4 months and by the time he leaves he will have 6. So I’ll probably have the same, so that’s pretty crazy! It’s a quarter of my mission! That’s a pretty long time…haha. I love my area and all the families so it’s a good thing:)

     So mom, it sounds like you are pretty stressed out kinda about all the stuff going on…you sound like you have been really busy.  Haha… I remember those days;) well like I always say just remember to ctr and chill then. Umm ... haha, no but for real.

     I’m pretty excited for Navidad! It’s going to be awesome to be able to talk to all you guys through Skype :) I love you all, you guys are all in my prayers always.  Well keep it real famila mucha amor para toda adios.

 love ya:) Elder Lawrence

   

December 10, 2012

HOLA Familia,

     Wow the weeks go by so fast these days…the weeks really just feel like days haha! It seems like I’m always writing letters, it’s crazy:) Ya so I probably won’t get your package because you accidently mailed it to the address for letters not packages… No big deal, who needs presents on Christmas anyway, it’s all about giving;) haha like the experience me and dad had where we helped the old lady out. That’s what’s it’s about right there:) Hopefully I get the package though, I kinda would like to have something I guess…hahaha;) I don’t go to the office to pick up mail, It’s the Zone leader and his companion so it just depends when they go.

      That’s great Blake doesn’t have to work on Christmas!! You guys should definitely go to the cabin then. The cabin is the best on Christmas!  I’m pretty excited about being able to Skype the whole family, that will be pretty fun.

     So you want to know about the people we are teaching? Well, we teach everyone. Missionaries are always teaching by example so I don’t really know the names of everyone that sees us in Mexico. But Elder Rodriguez and I do have two really good investigators. One of them has a baptism date set for December 30th that I am really excited about. His name is Lao, he has a strong testimony and he pretty much is a Mormon already…he is awesome! He wants to serve a mission and everything. He started attending seminary already. He was so ready for the gospel and he is definitely a blessing from God for us. Then another is a boy who is 11.  He is really excited about the church and really likes it. We are going to try to get a baptism date for him today.

     Here is another experience I had this week... So I got to do another exchange with an Elder.  Elder Johns was my companion again.  He was not feeling good and was feeling pretty sick, so I pretty much took the lead and taught the lessons. Later that night he asked me to give him a blessing. So I gave Elder Johns a blessing.  Hahaha my first blessing was Elder Johns…the Elder that mom reads his blogs and I read before my mission…how funny!

     Yesterday at church was the primary program…so that got me thinking about mom and how much work she puts into those things…haha. It was pretty crazy though, during the primary program one of our investigators passed out and hit floor.  Everyone was like what the?  All the Brothers ran to help her out at once, but the program kept on going… it was pretty crazy. It was just a little different than your program but it was good, maybe even better hahahah Nah jk;)

     Well the weather is still perfect pretty much all the time it seems like… I haven’t felt the humidity yet which is good. This is definitely the mission for me. I feel so blessed:) Love you all. Talk to you next Monday:) Peace and love, peace and love…and a Merry Christmas to all:) or shall I say Navidad haha 

      Love,

   Elder Lawrence

December 5, 2012

Hello, Hello, Hello!!!

     Sorry I didn’t send an email on Monday, our p-day was Wednesday this week because we had a big zone meeting about the security for missionaries in Mexico. It was really awesome because I got to see a couple of my old district members… haha those guys are my amigos!

     So this week has been really awesome already!! We have been working really hard and it’s paying off. We are receiving the blessings for our hard work. I know this because on Sunday a member that we reactivated invited a friend to church. We went and talked later to him and set up a time to go talk to him more. Well, we taught him the first lesson and he accepted baptism so now we have another baptism date. It is set for December 31. It’s crazy how the Lord blesses us for our work:)

     Today for p-day we went to the beach… it was way fun!  I’ll try to send you some new photos. I hope it will work…I don’t know if it will because the computer that I’m using is being really slow.  Let’s see another experience we had…. We taught this family and everyone in the family was  a different religion. The lesson was 3 hours or longer!! We ended up teaching every lesson but the law of chastity…haha. It was crazy! So I started saying the closing prayer and when I started praying all of a sudden all of the other people started in on their different prayers…hahaha it was really crazy.

     Everything is still really good here!!! I love working with the members, they are all my amigos. I can’t believe I will have about 4 months in my mission at the end of December.  Wow time flies when you are working hard loving the gospel and having fun:)

    Well, I love you all & miss you all tons especially around the holiday! Oh yeah, I’ll be able to Skype you. I’m pretty sure it’s the 24th of December, so I can’t wait to see ya all adios:) 

       Muchas Amor,

         Elder Lawrence