Hola familia. Well, this week was pretty crazy haha everyone is getting geared up for Christmas here. But despite all the distractions, the work must continue haha. On Tuesday we went on divisions with the zone leaders. So that was pretty cool. One of the zone leaders was in this area for a while so he showed me some of the people he was working with and also some less active members that I didn’t know about. So that was a really good experience and was able to learn alot with him. One thing I learned was how to contact a bus more effectively. What you do is stand up and say you are missionaries and then will go around and ask for the people’s addresses and then you talk to everyone individually and try and get their address. So that is pretty fun haha. On Wednesday I went back with my companion and was with him until Friday morning when I went to do divisions with some of the elders in my district in a little town called Pavellon. This is definitely a very different area from any that I have ever seen. It is about a quarter of the size of the state of Aguascalientes and is made up of just little farming towns. The transportation between the different towns is by way of vehicles called "combis" which is basically a combination of a bus and a car. They actually look alot like little VW vans. Also, the church is just a branch there with a house of prayer. Friday night, the branch had their Christmas party and the missionaries were in charge of the spiritual thought so we went to the party for a while. Ward parties are definitely alot different down here haha. The branch president danced with his family and they all had levis, cowboy boots, and cowboy hats so that was pretty funny haha. There was another party apparently in the town as well and they played really loud music until about 4 in the morning so I did not get too much sleep haha. Saturday morning we had a really cool experience though. The day before, we had knocked this door where a handicapped girl in a wheel chair answered and said that her mom wasn’t home. Saturday morning, the handicapped girl came up to us and told us that her mom was home and we could go to her house. So we knocked her door and her mom came out. We started talking and told her that we were missionaries and wanted to share a quick message with us. She told us that she couldn’t because she was preparing food for a Christmas party. We told her that as well, we offer service to the people and that we would love to her out. We battled with her for like 5 minutes because she said it would be embarrassing if we helped her. The whole time we were joking around trying to get in and finally I said ok, we’re helping you if you want us to or not. She laughed and finally let us in. We helped her wash the dishes, make salsa, and cut lettuce and turnips for about 40 minutes. While we were doing it we found that her family was having alot of problems. When we had to leave we told her that we would like to share a brief message. We both felt like we needed to teach the Plan of Salvation and it was a really good lesson. We promised them that the plan of salvation would bring their family happiness and committed them to go to church. And the awesome thing was they did!! So that was really awesome because that area has been really struggling to find people to teach. Then later that night I went in divisions with Elder Preece and did my first baptismal interview. It was a really cool experience and the lady passed the interview perfectly. She and her husband will be getting baptized on Thursday. Oh and Sunday Octavio was also able to get confirmed. So that is pretty much my week in a nut shell haha. It was really cool to see the Lord’s hand in finding that family and also working with other Elders in my district.
Right now in Mexico, the weather is really weird. It has been getting below freezing and night, and in the day it gets up to like 70 degrees. So usually what we have to do is wear a sweater in the morning, take it off in the afternoon and put it back on at night. At night it gets really cold in the houses as well because there is neither insulation nor heaters. I did not expect that it would get this cold in Mexico haha.
Well, the scrip of the week is in Mormon 9:3-4. “Then will ye longer deny the Christ, or can ye behold the Lamb of God? Do ye suppose that ye shall dwell with him under a consciousness of your guilt? Do ye suppose that ye could be happy to dwell with that holy Being, when your souls are racked with a consciousness of guilt that ye have ever abused his laws? Behold, I say unto you that ye would be more miserable to dwell with a holy and just God, under a consciousness of your filthiness before him, than ye would to dwell with the damned souls in hell.”
This scripture is kind of a self test. It says something to the effect of would you be able to stand in the presence of God with a consciousness of your guilt. Sometimes we need to look at out life and ask ourselves this. If we don’t like the thought of being before God, we need to look at our lives and change the things that we know we shouldn’t be doing or do the things we know we should do.
Love you all, and Merry Christmas!!
Elder Price
December 13, 2010
Day of the Virgin
Hola familia! Happy December 12! yep that’s right; down here December 12th is a holiday and a pretty big one too. It is when they celebrate the birthday of the virgin Mary. So that is something big that happened this weekend. Saturday night they had a pretty interesting parade. There were a bunch of semis and pickup trucks decked out with balloons, Christmas lights, and giant pictures of the virgin of Guadalupe. I really was wishing I had my camera because it was pretty crazy haha. They were going pretty crazy with the fireworks during the night as well. I was glad that I had earplugs haha. But the Christmas preparations are in full swing down here. We even bought us a Christmas tree! yeah! It only cost us $3.50 so it isn’t anything too special but it makes our house a little bit more Christmassy I guess. More news of the week is that Asucena didn’t get baptized because she ended up getting a job on Thursday and has to work Sundays. The good news of the week is that Octavio now doesn’t have to work on Sundays. We talked to Victor on Saturday and found out that he ended up seeing some t.v. program about the Mormons in southern Utah so he had quite a few doubts about that so we spent like 2 hours clearing up all the doubts. The good thing is he committed to read the book of Mormon from the beginning and also was able to attend a stake activity yesterday. We actually spent alot of time this last week visiting members and inactive members to invite them to this activity. The activity was a Christmas program where the stake choir sang. It was actually really well down and there was a really good turn out with quite a few investigators and inactive members. It was a little different to hear "the Messiah" in Spanish though haha. At the same time it is really cool because we can know that it doesn’t matter the language spoken because Christ was born for all people. It might sound a little different but it is essentially the same message. Christ’s life was a miracle from the beginning and the miracle has not stopped. This is a really awesome time of the year to be a missionary because the people are more likely to be receptive to the Spirit and take a few moments to listen to a message about Christ. Christmas will sure be different this year, but it will sure be a good one as well.
Random comment: my companion talks in his sleep quite a bit. Sometimes I’ll wake up and he will be teaching a lesson in his sleep haha. There is nothing like hearing the first vision from someone who is sleeping.
Scripture of the week. John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”
God’s gift to us was his son. What will be our gift to God this year? This is a thought that I have shared quite a bit this past week with people and it is really something that makes people think. This year will we give him our time? Will we be obedient to his commandments? What are we willing to give to God is really what matters the most during the Christmas season.
I love you all!
Elder Price
Tamales
Definitely a missionary Christmas Tree!
Oh, Christmas Tree, Oh, Christmas Tree
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