November 25, 2013

HOLA...

     Was this last week Thanksgiving or is it this week?  I don’t even know anymore… haha.  Nobody talks about Thanksgiving down here in the Bronx.  

     I’m way excited to Skype with you guys too…it should be lots of fun to talk to the familia. I hope you guys have some good stuff to say haha;) Can you believe this is going to be my 2nd Thanksgiving and Christmas in the mission…wow. How awesome is that hehe!!!

     So it sounds like you guys had a pretty great week this last week. I also had a pretty good week! But it seems like all these weeks out here in the mission are good because I’m always learning something new.  I have seen so many examples of good solid families and other families. There is a great difference when a family is living the gospel and when a family isn’t.

     So I think my companion is bi-polar.  He started acting way different for like a couple days and then returned back to normal haha it was kinda weird.

    So this last week was super good for us. We had a lot of success! 60 people or so attended church and 26 of those people were less active members. Isn’t that great?  It is so good to see the work of the Lord progress here in Martaredonda.  We also had our Ward Council meeting so that was good too. Everything is starting to get organized here and the progress is awesome. I am pretty happy about that! We have had so many good experiences here. Well, I always have good experiences. Lot’s of experiences…always.  I’m learning and growing so much...not only in my height but spiritually also hehe;)

    So a 16 year old girl that we teach got pregnant but the good thing is that she showed up to church this last week.  A 15 year old girl that we teach is getting married in December…can you believe that? It’s pretty crazy stuff here.

     There’s a lot of mud in the streets here because it has been raining and it has been super cold. I really don’t like the cold at all... haha.  Well anyway, I hope that you guys have an amazing week and do some fun stuff and read the scriptures.  I can tell you that if you do read the scriptures you will be blessed. I know there’s probably not that much time there but here in Mexico the people have endless amounts of time.

     Well this next week we have a goal to put some baptism dates. So we will see what happens. Have faith right? Well, I love you all so much!!!!  Have an excellent week! Adios

Elder Lawrence

November 19, 2013

HELLO!!!!!!!!!!!

     So this week was super duper fast... like I really can’t believe that I am sitting here writing to you guys again. This week went pretty dang good. I hope that it went supa good for you guys too! We had the opportunity to contact so many people.  We also had an activity at the church that went good. It was definitely a success! The members really helped out with us.  It was more of a really big family home evening.  25 people went and we played missionary games and stuff. It was really fun. 

     This Monday we went to the temple also... I have been to the temple sooo much. I am lucky to get all these chances to go to the temple. I am super blessed…I guess that’s what that means haha.

      So we are changing our house because the water really doesn’t work that good there and the house is super small….it’s not a good house. So we will be changing this next week I think.

     I am enjoying the work here so much. I love seeing the progress… it is so great. The people here are the bomb haha!!! We got the chance to eat pan- cakes and they were pretty good.

    So I bought sunflower seeds the other Monday here. They now have those in the Walmart’s here…isn’t that great?

     Well,  I love you all!!!  I love the church…it is true!  Read the scriptures say your prayers and have an excellent week. Adios:)  

Elder Lawrence 

Doing a service project for someone in the ward

Elder Cisnado & Elder Miller & Elder Lawrence

at the Tampico Temple

November 11, 2013

Hey, what’s up family!!

     This week was pretty good in Martaredonda. Even though I was a little sick in the stomach. I had some stomach aches for a little bit and I threw up once and other stuff in the toilet that I don’t want to mention;) hahaha but nothing to worry about, I am totally back to normal and I feel good now.

     So there was less people this last week in church. That was a little bit of a bummer. Only 10 less actives went to church... well I guess those numbers are better than past areas that I have been in… haha remember Valles;) we had like 0 people that went to church I remember haha.

      So I’m excited for the Christmas package haha.  I hope that I’m in Martaredonda for Christmas. Yeah, it has been cold here lately. Lots of rain and stuff and I get super cold easy. Everyone in Mexico thinks I’m a vampire because I look like Edward or I did before I got my hair cut haha. They say my skin is super white and stuff, but I feel like I am super tan…hahaha who knows.

     Tomorrow we have our interviews with the President...so that should be good fun hehe.  That's why I got my hair cut.  We started up the Consejo de Barrio here this last week.  So we are now going to have Ward Council meetings and everyone is going to do their Visiting Teaching and Home Teaching. 

     We talked in church this last week and it was perfect… I feel like what we said really touched the ward. I talked about the Atonement of Jesus and Repentance and Temple work and blessings and my companion went by the spirit and it was really great. I thought what I talked about was good for the time of the year.

     Yeah mom, I always write Joe Tyler and Adam like every week. They are doing good.

Well, I love you all so much and I hope you have an excellente week. Love you!!!

Elder Lawrence

November 4, 2013

Hello!!!!!!!!!!!

      How is everyone doing?? I hope excellente!!!  Yeah, like you said it’s so crazy how fast the time is going. 14 months… wow, don’t tell me that haha! That makes me sound old in the mission. 

      I can’t believe dad is 49 years old!! Oh man!!  Now that really is old;) haha jk. Sounds like you had a really good time celebrating the birthday of dad and Halloween. I sure hope so! 

      Everything here in the mission is super legit.  Everything is going super great!! I really do love my area.  It is definitely my favorite area that I have been in. So my new companion is Elder Garcia.  He is way cool and we work really good together.

     This week we had 45 people in the church!! It’s a new world record haha. 16 of those people were menos activos that we are teaching and two were investigators. So we are doing really good here and our numbers are some of the best in the zone…but that’s not what is important. It’s that the people really are changing and the people that we are teaching really are having a change of heart.  It’s so beautifully awesome to see people change for the better.  I love being a part of this work…it is bomb.

     So right now we have 4 investigators that could be baptized before Christmas. They just need to go to church 5 times in a row. That is a rule. All 4 have been once. So I guess we will see what happens right:)  So the other day I had a very strong feeling when we were walking…a feeling that we needed to visit this family. So we went and visited this family…the family Carmen.  It happened that they had a kid that was super sick.  He was in a lot of pain. Well, he’s not a kid he’s an adult but he was in a lot of pain for his mouth that he had some sickness.  So we had a lesson with them.  I really felt like we needed to visit them to give him a blessing. So then I asked if he had faith in the priesthood and in receiving blessings and all that good stuff. He said…OH YES. So we gave him a blessing... then we didn't see him for about a week. They came to church this last Sunday. This Sunday was testimony meeting and Sister Carmen bore a really special testimony about the power of the priesthood, faith and those missionaries.  The doctors had told this guy how sick he was and is was in so much pain but now he felt good.  It was awesome to see the power of God and the Holy Ghost.  It was great to be a part of a miracle and to see how grateful Sister Carmen was.  So it is a dang good thing we followed the Spirit and went to this poor family's house.  Well that's one experience for ya.  I do have so many ya know haha! I am just full of these great experiences haha. But really it’s the truth.

     With another sister we visited we gave a super spiritual lesson about faith. Her name is Elizabeth. She was crying but it was more tears of joy. She was telling us how she is going back to church now and how she received her answer again. So it is so awesome to be a part in all these blessings and miracles. 

     So yeah, this last week was really good. We are going to clean our house supppppper good today!  Because a lot of bugs are biting us and we are getting itchy haha. Well I hope that you guys have an amazing week.  I love you all so much. Best family ever!!! 

      I’m going to attach the photo of all my companions that I have had. My new companion is the Elder on the very left. 

Elder Lawrence 

Happy Halloween

Last day with Elder Santeliz

 Elder Garcia, Santeliz, Rodriguez, Lawrence, Leon, Rodas, Martinez 

My new Companion Elder Garcia