January 28, 2013

Hola Familia,

     OK!!! So today is the day for companion change.  I'm leaving my 1st area, my home and my familias here.  Yep I got transferred to Valles. It’s like 4 hours away from Tampico.  I hear it’s super super hot there.  I will tell you guys everything on p-day. I just thought I would let all you know what was going on today.  It has been so crazy busy these last days with a baptism and packing everything and visiting everyone. It was so crazy but everything is working out.  I will be leaving on the bus at two so I should get there around 6….I hope haha:) can you believe I got changed?

  Love,                                                               

   Elder Lawrence

(A little later on that day….)

Hey,

     So I’m here in Valles with my new companion.  I can already tell you that this will be the change where I learn so much!!!  He has so much energy and so that’s a good thing. The first thing we did when we got to the house was clean it.  He said he loves when everything is very clean.  So I’m sure you are happy about that mom… haha:) I’m super excited to learn the area and get to know the people. Its pretty weird starting over in a new area with all new people. I left behind so many people that I love but I’m really really ready to learn more and keep on progressing.  The name of my new companion is Elder Rodas and he is from Guatemala. He played semi-pro soccer and so he likes to exercise a lot…haha.

     So the baptism was soooo soooooo good so spiritual. Everything went smooth for us.  We were so so busy preparing everything and I was so happy with the way things turned out. Everyone really felt the spirit and I’m sure with no doubt that this will help out the mother of Leo. All the buddies in the ward were there to support him and all the hermanas.  He had a lot of support.  After the baptism we ate at Leo’s house and I gave him a photo with a note on the back. So yeah, what a perfect way to end my first transfer….a baptism for the Lord :)

     So your package still hasn’t gotten here.  I was hoping to get it before the transfer but nope. It’s all good, hopefully it will get here soon.  It’s going to take more time for packages and stuff to get here because I’m far away from central of Madero.

     Oh yeah, pretty much my whole district from the MTC is serving in Valles!  Haha… can you believe that… my district from the mtc!!!! So I was really happy about that!

     I’m really going to miss elder Rodriguez! I was so lucky to have him as my companion. I learned a lot but I’m ready to learn more.  I’m sure that’s the reason I got changed because I know I will just keep on progressing. The people in Valles already seem so awesome and friendly. Did I tell you that we are in charge of 2 areas? So it’s my companion and I in 2 areas and that means a lot of work….And a lot of walking in the really really hot.  I heard that I will be really red or tan.  I guess we will see.  I also forgot to mention that my companion is 23 years old…so that’s cool. I’ll send you photos when we take photos ok:)

    I love you guys sooo much and everyone in the family!!!  I’m always praying for you all…Especially grandpa at this time.

    Love,

    Elder Lawrence

Before the baptism of Leo…he was so happy, excited, and nervous haha:)

The Baptism of Leo

yes yes...it was very sad to leave.  

January 21, 2013

Hola Familia,

     It’s totally chill what happened to my car, because two years from now that thing won’t work anymore and I will have to buy a new one…haha.

     So, I am feeling much better now! It’s awesome because the Sisters here are so great!! They all make me vegetable soup… so all we have eaten this last week is vegetable soup… its perfect!:)

     We have a baptism this Saturday!!! I will be sure to take photos. It’s the baptism of Leo. His brother was supposed to get baptized also but the Mission President said no because his mom isn’t active.  She is a menos activo miembro.  What a bummer!!! Yeah he cried when we told him.  His name is Jesus.  Yeah the work is a lot harder now then before with all the changes. They have to be at least 16 years or older, if the mom is not active.

     On Saturday we had a meeting with the Mission President and all the Elders of my generation.  It was awesome because I got to see all the Elders from my District.  We had to teach lesson 1 in front of the president and the assistants.

     So yeah, this is the last week with my companion Elder Rodriquez. How crazy is that? I’ll really miss him. We got along really good and didn’t have any problems so I was really blessed.  I hope I will be blessed again with an awesome companion!  I think that I will stay in the area for another cambio, but who knows?

   You could send me some Hi Chew candy. Umm, I can’t really think of anything I want right now…make it a surprise hahaha!!!

   Sorry my email was kinda short… LOVE you all sooooo much and you all are always in my prayers:)

     Love,

     Elder Lawrence

January 14, 2013

Hola Familia, What’s up!!!

     So this week the weather has been way weird here also!  One day it’s really cold and the next it’s way hot. For the most part it has been just perfect though.

      I would like to start this letter with explaining how happy I am because I am pretty sure my ears are now used to all the different accents and stuff here in Tampico. So now I really feel totally comfortable with the language.  It’s like my first language is Spanish, it’s really amazing!!!  I now think in Spanish so it’s freaking awesome!  I don’t have to think of what I say before saying it either.  I can fully speak and understand everything. I truly feel blessed and feel like it’s the gift of tongues. All the hard work has paid off. Before the mission I heard that it usually takes about 6 months before you become custom to all the Spanish… but dang I guess I just got lucky or something haha jk!!! I have been blessed to learn it really fast!!  You have no idea how happy I was when I woke up and could understand all people…I’ve had a smile on my face all day:)

     Ok, well enough bragging about how much God is blessing me with.  Now with the really juicy information... so this week started off with me being stuck in bed for pretty much 3 days. Yeah 3 days!!! Turns out that stomach ache wasn’t just a stomach ache… yup, I got the infection!!! Not fun!!!  I threw up a couple times and was doing the other you know also. I went to the doctor and they gave me some medicine and took the medicine but I threw it up. So then I went back and they gave me some shots…and I tell you what the shots here in Mexico kinda hurt!!! Here’s better news… When I finally was able to leave the house guess what happened?? Yep!! I was blessed from Heavenly Father again and we put a baptism date on our brand new investigators. Actually it was a reference.  He is a menos activio and his girl friend is catholic.  On the first lesson with them, we got a baptism date set….they are awesome!! They both showed up to church on Sunday too. Also, both our other investigators showed up to church on Sunday and so my companion and I are really happy!!!  Not bad for not being able to leave the house for about 4 days. I say 4 days because on the 4th day Elder Rodriguez was sick in the throat and couldn’t talk. So his voice is pretty feo right now…haha.  But yeah, it was a really good week:)

     Oh, I bought some new pants at a rodante and a mochilla at the store.  They are pretty sweet they were really really cheap…haha. I’ll send a photo. 

Love you all!!!

Elder Lawrence

January 7, 2013

Hello family!!

      How is everything going at home?  I love to hear about all the interesting and new things that are happening…even though it’s not really that important haha.  I’m doing pretty good, except for my stomach has been having a little bit of problems.  Every morning it hurts and than I go to the bathroom and it doesn’t hurt anymore. But it’s also that weird thing again, where none of the food sounds good to me and when I eat I just feel sick.  I’m not worried because this happened a lot when I was living at home. But I don’t think the Hermanas like when I don’t eat much food because the missionaries usually eat so much food…haha.  I think I need to take more vitamins because my immune might be down. It has been freakin way really cold, my body cant get warm for some reason… well mostly my hands and feet. The Hermanas always say….oh your manos so frio… haha but what do ya do? So I’m going to buy a lot of vitamins and yogurt so I can get my immune system up.

     Other than that my week was pretty great….kinda.  I’m really mad because we have been working so hard with Jesus and Leo but Leo didn’t show up to church these past 2 Sundays. So I’m bummed about that.  But I’m way mad because Jesus has all the requirements and has gone to church and everything but the Mission President won’t let us baptize him until his mom goes back to church too. The mom is a menos ativio.  So now we are going to start to work with the mom.  Hopefully everything works out with her!  I’m sure it will… its all about that faith right:)

    Hopefully this next week it will be hot again… haha!!!!

Well I love all of you so much:) hope I wrote enough in this email.  Can’t believe another week has come and gone. WOW 4 months out…that’s crazy huh?  Love you and thanks for everything!!! You are always in my prayers. Adios ctr always… Have fe in everything you do:)

Love, Elder Lawrence 

January 1, 2013 Happy New Year!!!!

Hola Todo Familia!!!!

    It was really great to Skype with all of you! And for the others in the family, I felt your love through your prayers:) Well, Happy New Years!! Can you believe that it’s 2013… how crazy is that? This year is going to go by really fast, I bet! Well, that’s awesome that you had some family over for a New Years Eve party. We also had a big New Years Eve party here...haha! If wearing my sunglasses and listening to efy music count... hahaha, no it was really fun:)

    We had three of our investigators show up to church this Sunday. Leo couldn’t because he had to work, but he has showed up 3 times. Jesus showed up and this was his second time. And Alejandrina and Janyal both showed up. Also two of our menos activo families showed up. So Elder Rodriguez and I were pretty happy about that!  Not happy that Leo wasn’t able to show. We’re teaching him tonight, so we will have to talk to him about that. He knows what is most important…haha.  A family that we really enjoy teaching and are hoping to reactivate is the family Barrios. They are a really awesome family and they have a girl about 11 years old.  We are going to get a baptism date for her. 

   Well, everything is going really good!  Sorry I didn’t write yesterday, but p-day was moved to Tuesday…I don’t know why. We played volleyball this morning and went to Walmart, ate at a members house and now I’m writing you guys.

    Well, I better go…Elder Rodriguez is waiting. Thanks for everything and all of your love and prayers. Love you all so much Adios... CTR

Elder Lawrence

 Yeah, we get pretty crazy haha;) jk!! Especially with the nerf guns!