March 12

Woo hoo!
lol one month here in mexico down, only..... 21 to go! lol yeah, it's
a little daunting to think about, so I generally try not to lol. Just
one day at a time and I'll be a missionary before I realize it,
preaching teaching and doing all the things that missionaries do. :)
Nah just kidding, I already do all that stuff, just pretty messily,
and Elder Templin fills in all the gaps of things I forget. :)

The lessons are all coming a little bit easier, not a whole ton, and
I'll be struggling for words for a long time lol, but it's always fun
to talk to people and well, mostly listen to people. :) Everybody here
has great stories, don't get all th ejokes, but I catch the important
parts of the story haha :)

We have some cool investigators, some really interested, some that are
a bit more difficult to teach, like edith, she listens well, and her
sister is good too, but boy are they hardcore catholic, they do not
want to change. lol and edith doesn't like america all that much.
she's annoyed by the fact that the gospel was restored in america and
not mexico. bummer. lol she brings up interesting questions though.
it's pretty hard to really get into their heads and unerstand
investigators, how they feel and what's really important to them. once
we can figure these things out we can plan a little bit better and the
spirit will have more specific things to work with. working on it one
day at a time. one investigator at a time :) we baptized sister blanca
this week, saturday night so nobody else could come. lol she had some
pretty serious fear about that. she's known everthing for about a year
now, gone through several sets of missionaries, and now, she conquered
the fear of being baptized by submersion, and of being confirmed in
front of the ward. :) woo hoo lol, it was an accomplishment for elder
templin, lol i was just there to do some scripture sharing and my
testimony. lol did what i could though. :) good stuff.

met two families the past week, sergio and maribel, and mario and
elizeth, pretty cool people, interested and everything. they both said
they'd come to church though, bleh lol nope. sergio and maribel
listened a few times to the misionaries before in another town, and
they loved it, we don't have another appointment until next sunday
though, kinda stinks not getting to teach more during the week, but
people just aren't home a ton here. :P mario and elizeth, pretty
interested, and we should talk to them sometime this week, they're
interested and all, and everything is going well with them. I like
these two families, lol everytime i mess up, or get all jumbled, i
apologize, and they so don't worry yourself, this is your house. :)
take your time. and it is just such a relief. :) that's the saying
here though, you are in your house or a version of that. the people
who are open are definitely open and those who aren't lol aren't....

we have been making more of an effort to talk to less active members
this past little while though, and it's going pretty well. references
are still hard to come by, but that should come with a little more
time. we passed around to try and talk to some of the members we don't
see too often in church, and set appointments with some that are very
friendly, not sure why they're not at church exactly but yeah. well
one she told us about why, some sisters were kinda being bad church
members, the word here is spelled something like grosarilla, or that's
how it sounds at least, basically not friendly people, and she got the
blunt end of a joke, so she stopped coming and just got caught up in
being a single mother. we'll talk to her this week, try to help her to
come back, she's really awesome though, gave us some snickers and
elder t a free glue stick cause he asked how much it costs. :)  after
her we passed by to see if one sister was home to talk to, she wasn't
but it turned out that her mother, who had been a member for a long
long time, and now is stuck in her bed was home, obviously lol
yeah.... but yeah she wasn't even on our list. she is pretty frail, so
we talked with her for a bit, great spirit about her though, strong
testimony, and the one book on her bed was the book of mormon :) hard
for her to read though, but she still does every day and her prayers
are good too. :) probably pass by to talk to her every now and then
and get her some visiting teachers and the sacrament everyday. :)

yeah, i'm sending home some pretty fantastic pictures. lol no not
really, just some fun ones

we've got the baptismal font full of water, which i had to jump over
to unlock the door for blanca's baptism,

then a big ol mexican bacon pinapple burger, covered in hot sauce mayo
mustard ketchup onions and cheese
good stuff :D spicy but i'm getting used to it :)

then elder templin, rocking the missionary world.

then both of us in our sunday proselyting attire. ;)

me just being me :)

a mango, given to me by a member we went to teach with. :)

our white board full of all our investigators that are progressing in
one way or another. :)

all our awesome teaching materials and our stack of fresh libros de mormón :)

mexi version of frosted flakes, (all i eat for breakfast down here :)

random food, lol, boxed milk and my stash of coke. lol sister blanca
gives us one each time we go over, but i haven't actually drunk one
yet, lol i get way too much soda during meals here. it's either soda
or some fruit juice, and generally the juice is good. i had one from
flower petals though, that was kinda weird.... lol but yeah, the juice
here is good overall. :)

also, we have dominos here lol

pic of our makeshift benching bar, lol it's tough when the weights
slide around.... so i don't use it much, besides olivera and serrano
use it during our morning time.

shopping bag from the only local supermarket some good stuff there,
they have a cool pricing system here, if you buy a certain amount of
something, they give you a discount, and there's about three levels of
discounts. cool beans though, buying a lot of the smaller quantities
actually saves money here. lol weird right?

some things i've discovered i should share with you or just don't
think i have yet :)

dogs, there are hundreds here, everywhere lol and they leave more than
their share of messes. nobody cleans it up either... :P lol yeah....

lunches here, soup main meal and then a dessert. :) gotta love it. lol
three different things to try and enjoy every day, lol breakfast and
dinner are pretty lame generally, but i enjoy the lunches with
members. :) yeah, one lunch though this week, whole different kind of
experience.

I have eaten pig skin.

and that's about all i desire to say about that. lol it wasn't too
great, but, i've learned some things, you get to about bite sized
pieces, pop it in your mouth and just swallow to avoid the taste. lol
some things, just no other way to get it down. if you're lucky you can
keep it on your teeth and not your tongue, but yeah, that takes
practice i'm not willing to risk. :P

laundry is all done by laundromats, not many do their own laundry here
where we are, nobody really has room for a washing machine. so, about
four bucks a week we get our laundry done. :)

i decided, i want fish when i get home, cool and simple, lol easy
pets, then a turtle, aaaand, a gecko lol just cause i've always wanted
to have those two animals as pets. :) lol random woo hoo i have those
random thoughts i just write down in the agenda just to tell you
random things :)


oh and one other thing, if you can use my phone to talk to lee
skolmoski, and get his email or give him my email, i've been wondering
how his papers are coming along.


and last a scripture for missionaries, lol and considering that every
member is a missionary it's for you too, how all trials, be they
physical, emotional or spiritual are to help us, and we suffer these
trials to help others know of the goodness of life, to bring to others
the gospel and blessings with it. lol it's a tough life, but God is
always here to help us, and through the Atonement, Jesus Christ knows
exactly how we feel every minute of our lives. all the sadness, and
the difficulty and the worry we feel, He is by our side.

cool poem :)

Footprints in the sand
One night a man had a dream. He dreamed
he was walking along the beach with the LORD.
Across the sky flashed scenes from his life.
For each scene he noticed two sets of
footprints in the sand: one belonging
to him, and the other to the LORD.

When the last scene of his life flashed before him,
he looked back at the footprints in the sand.
He noticed that many times along the path of
his life there was only one set of footprints.

He also noticed that it happened at the very
lowest and saddest times in his life.
This really bothered him and he
questioned the LORD about it:
"LORD, you said that once I decided to follow
you, you'd walk with me all the way.
But I have noticed that during the most
troublesome times in my life,
there is only one set of footprints.
I don't understand why when
I needed you most you would leave me."

The LORD replied:
"My son, my precious child,
I love you and I would never leave you.
During your times of trial and suffering,
when you see only one set of footprints,
it was then that I carried you."

Right now, I know that my Savior is carrying me, because I couldn't do
this on my own. I couldn't struggle everyday, be away from my family
and loved ones for years, without Him to walk by my side, and on those
day's I just can't do it, He'll carry me every step, till I gain the
strength to do it once more. It's a the work of the Lord that is going
on in the world, and I have the blessing of being a part of it for
these two short years. It's tough, but the best things in life aren't
free and a soul is worth everything to try to save. :)

love you all family and friends,
talk to you next week, i'll look for fun things to tell you :)
Elder Andrew Austin

Pictures March 5

 

   

First Baptism!  Brother Mario Ibarra is now a member of the church!

 

Treats,  of course