August 30, 2010

1. We got a ride in the back of a gas truck. These trucks drive from neighborhood to neighborhood with their loud speakers screaming EL GAAAAAAAAS! Followed by the trumpet sound just before you usually yell CHAAAAAAARGE!

2-3. The construction pics. The man thought it was just HI-larious that I was trying to use that sledgehammer. I love those pictures :P




¡HOLA MI FAMILIA!

Hahaha, ya, I´ve changed color a bit. There is another Elder from Utah that is in an area called Apatzingan that is in the same zone as Uruapan, and he is now blaaaaaaack with hair as white as snow. Apatzingan is like Utah in the summer...but hotter...and all year long. Not to mention humid. They never turn on their boiler, because the sun already makes their water to shower super hot. Someone has been there now for 9 months. Poor guy.

Thanks Mom, we certainly are working our tails off. We had 30 lessons this week, 5 every day, and had 8 investigators this week at church. We totaled up our numbers and found out we have talked to almost 1200 people this month about the gospel. In my time here in Uruapan I have invited nearly 6000 people to listen to the gospel. It´s a lot of work, but it is rewarding in more ways than I can describe, and it really forces one to grow into new areas they didn´t feel possible. I know that the mission is honestly the best thing someone can do for their life. I heard someone describe it like a 2 year fast for the rest of your life, and it´s really true.

That is something I miss here in Mexico, museums. There is the park here, but nothing else. The cultural centers are more like a room with a couple of paintings, which are nice and interesting, but not quite the same as we have in Utah. Sorry to hear that all your plans went kaput. I told Elder Rojas about the curse, and he didn´t really believe me. I said he needs to go to Utah one day and we´ll go camping.

Wow, Grandma´s birthday is soon? Well...for ideas from Mexico...the usual is carne asada with lots of drinking. The parties here are super heavily focused on dancing and music. The mexican people LOVE their music. Maybe people won´t have cars, some walls, doors, or other things, but EVERYONE has a super nice stereo. Piñata? Yes, they really do have those here, I thought it was something we made.

Thanks Effie otra vez for keeping the blog all nice and updated. I can´t wait to see it when I get back! It will be such an awesome resource for ME to remember how my mission was. Honestly, this counts for all Christmas and birthday gifts for 10 years. Maybe 9. I need to do some calculations...

Thanks for being so generous Mom and Dad with the money, I know it isn´t easy. I have about 1000 pesos waiting for me in reimbursments, but they are being really slow to send it. I was wondering if I could charge breakfast to you guys, we barely eat anything in the morning, and don´t eat dinner. Usually missionaries are fine, but our area doesn´t have buses, pure taxis, so it is pretty expensive to get from place to place. I´m going to go buy food for the week, if it is too much, PLEASE tell me in the letter so I can pull it back. The last thing I want is to be more of a burdern here, and it isn´t a big deal, we eat sufficiently, I just don´t get really full when we leave the house. Honestly, if I spend too much I want you to let me know. Also, I need to get a new backpack...ya...I don´t like the idea either. I need one that is small, but the only small ones are supposedly super posh and cost a lot. We´ve been searching for a couple of weeks here and I might have found one here that doesn´t cost 300 dollars. No, I´m not exagerating, we found a bunch that were 300 dollars.

But our week has been great, and will be even better this week! We didn´t have a baptism though. We had 3 planned, but through various problems they fell through. But, we have one slated for tomorrow! Rogelio. He was a contact we made knocking doors, and he invited us to share our message. Throughout the process we found out that Rogelio, according to him, was a terrible father. He drank, beat his kids, and yelled like a fiend. He says that he has since repented from all that, but his wife left him with their kids to live with her parents. We´ve been talking with him now about how he can truly repent of his sins through a baptism that is valid before the eyes of God by someone holding the proper authority, and he is super excited. He studied the Bible a lot, so everything we said he said, Oh, ya, just like it says in such and such scripture in the Bible! He has made a lot of changes in his life, and has been talking to his wife about them. They want to be here for his baptism tomorrow, and now they are very interested in the church, to see what helped their father/husband turn his life around. I am so amazingly humbled to be blessed by God so much to see this family start to heal itself, and take the first steps towards being an eternal family. I have seen the effects of the Atonement take place in this man´s life, and it is miraculous.

Also, his Nephew, Jorge is ready for a baptism. The first discussion we had with Rogelio, Jorge came in half way through, and sat far away while we talked. Jorge has about 14 years, and seemed a little rebelious. When we started to explain the Book of Mormon, he came a little closer. We came by the next appointment, and told him we had a gift for him, his very own copy of the Book of Mormon! He immediately snatched it from our hands and started reading it. Since then he has gained a love for the scriptures, both the Book of Mormon, and the Bible. Rogelio says that he never read the Bible before, but now he is reading them every day of his own free will. I have seen young Jorge change from an insecure teenager that wants to fit in, to a son of God, filled with the confidence of the knowledge of who he is.

We also had a miracle yesterday! A couple weeks ago we were talking to some women investigators outside of their house, we can´t enter if there isn´t a man present of 18 and older. Someone called for our attention, and Elder Rojas left to go take care of him while I continued the lesson. Later he told me that this guy wants a Bible in English, that he knows how to read English but not very well Spanish. A couple days later we dropped of a Book of Mormon in English, pretty sure that is what he meant when he said Bible, and left. Yesterday we were by his house, when Elder Rojas remembered him and said we should go by his house. When we knocked the door we heard, "They´re here!" Uh-oh I thought. He actually wanted a Bible...this is going to be awkward. He starts running down the stairs with the Book of Mormon in hand, hurridly he tried to open the door, threw the padlock into the bushes, and opened the book to 1 Nephi 12, where it talks about the church of the Devil. He asked us, "Who is this church!?" We responded, well, we can come in for a few minutes if you like and talk about it. He enthusiastically responded, ya!
We went up to his room and started to talk with him and his aging mother, and he was asking us all these questions about what happened in these chapters and everything. We explain it all, and give a description about the Book of Mormon about how Jesus came here, and this event is recorded in the book, and he responds, "OOOOOH! I HAVE ALWAYS WONDERED THAT! WHY WOULDN´T HE COME OVER HERE!?" He already has a firm testimony in the Book of Mormon, and is so amazingly child like it is hilarious. I can´t wait to keep meeting with him and see him progress to baptism. In the United States he got in a car accidnet, and they had to surgically reconstruct almost all his face, but now he is grateful to God that he is fine, and that he can work again.

So, it´s time for, ONLY IN MEXICO!!!!!! (I think)
So, on almost every block here in the centro, downtown, there is a place where you can buy and sell dollars for pesos. In total there are probably about 1000 stores that do this here in the small part of the businesses. Before I came here, I didn´t think many people went to the United States, but I have been shown wrong time and time again.

Well, I think that´s all for this week. Talk to you all in 2 more months!

¡ADIOS MI FAMILIA!

Elder Joseph Neil Newell

PS: That book cover is awesome! Way to go Dad!

August 23, 2010

Familia Zuñiga Gaona now, right before the baptism.
Familia Gaona. Elder Lopez snuck in the picture...if any of you see a missionary try and pull a thumbs up or anything during a baptismal photo, tell them Elder Newell kicks them in the shins.

Mauricio signing the papers.


¡HOLA MI FAMILIA!

I have hard copies of the demolition pics, I`ll try and get them over there digitally next week. But we went back with this family yesterday to help them out. They are there every week on sunday trying to get the house livable, so we decided to go help them out. This week we didn`t do anything since it was raining, but we were able to do what missionaries do best, talk about Jesus! Is it wrong that I just remembered Jim Gaffigan`s bit about talking about Jesus and the Pope off-hours?

Kyle...geez, I don`t remember them. Have our neighbours changed at all? It was sooooo weird to see those photos of the back yard. So many memories came flooding back. Not to mention I was distracted with how gosh darn handsome I am....*cough*

Ya, I want to have some of Dad`s salsa please. We have salsa in every meal here, but it isn`t Dad`s salsa. Salsa also means sauce in Spanish, so it is basically anything suacey that also usually has chili in it.

That`s awesome that you`re coreographing now! Congratulations! There is a toooon of Zumba over here, and apparently the dad of Elder Rojas is big into it too. I can`t wait to see all your great works when I get back!

Ya...guns...not fun. The cops here walk around with a lot of them. I`ve never seen anything used, or even pointed, but still. DONT WORRY! There`s no danger here, but the cops have to have a strong influence in certain parts of town. We don`t go to those parts of town :)

Well, this week...hijoles, it was pretty intense. This familia Gaona, they are the investigators I talked about last week. The problem is that they are super humble, and they don`t have any documents. Like, at all. Mauricio, the husband, cuts avacado from the trees, where he climbs up with nothing more than a stick with a knife on the end, and a sack. He is up in these super tall trees with no sort of safety equipment. People like him are called changos, or monkeys. anyways, we went with them to get some studies done, so that they could start the process to get married. I coached them through getting blood drawn, thanks Mom for all your help in getting me poked so many times, they were really nervous. We got all the papers we needed except one, which is the most important. We needed to go to the civil offices in order to obtain it, but both had to go, and it only opens in the morning on weekdays, when Mauricio works. He asked his boss to miss work, but he said no, and that he could do it this wednesday.

The problem is that we had a super special baptismal service planned with President Jersperson, and we needed to do everything we could so they were baptized. So we told him to go talk to his boss again after we all said a prayer. He waited for his boss from 7 until 9, but he never showed up. When we arrived he told us what happened, but said he had the cell number of his boss, so we called him using our phone, and passed it to Mauricio. He said, "Hey, I can`t work tomorrow, I`m getting legaly married." The boss said it was OK. So that was miracle number 1. Honestly, I probably won`t have time to get to all of this today...it`s gonna be a series! WOOOOOOO NEW FEATURE! We went to the offices the next day, and something AMAZING HAPPENED! BUT YOU ALL HAVE TO WAIT UNTIL NEXT WEEK! Hah.

Outside of that, the week has been really good to us. We have seen much success in our efforts. Oh, sorry about withdrawing so much money Mom and Dad, there was a bit of an emergency, I even had to dip into my reserve fund. We can count that as the money that Aunt sent for me. I have to take out just a little more today so I have money to live this next week, but after that I should be OK for a while.

So, Mexico continues being interesting. The more I am here, the more I feel bad for these people. In America, we have our culture. We took what we felt was the best from everyone, and there we are, our own little world. Mexico isn`t like that. Everything has to do with the conquistadores. There is a constant clash of culture between the indians and the spanish and the catholics. All of the cultural heroes are spañards that came over to conquer their land, or catholic priests and nuns. The only american hero I have seen is Monctezuma, the last Mayan(?) king, and it`s basically a simbol of desperation. I have thought a lot about how it would be if America were conquered by Japan or something 400 years ago, how would it be? Weird.

Anyways, it`s time for ONLY IN MEXICO!!!!!!

So, everybody here has dogs. The problem is that nobody has a pet cemetary or anything, and there`s about 8 dogs on every street corner. So, what do people that have no money do when a dog dies? Yep! Put it in a sack, go down the road a bit, and throw it as hard as you can away from your house. It makes for interesting smells, sights, feels, and sounds. I have yet to taste it except to smell it, but I feel like the 4 are enough.

Anyways, I think that`s all for this week fam. Hope everything goes well for you all this next week.

¡ADIOS MI FAMILIA!

Elder Joseph Neil Newell

August 16, 2010

Baptism of Jose.
TACOS! Those are real tacos, and they are sooooooooooooooooooooo good. About 3-4 inches in diameter and *Homer sound*. They are called tacos al pastor. They are tortilla, meat, celantro, and onion. You put a salsa and salsa de guacamole, which is NOT guacamole, pico de gallo salsa, and if you want, lemon and pineapple. Amazing.

Cars get wierd here.

Familia Gaona. This couple is going to get married, and baptized this saturday. I am so happy their daughter will now have a secure place to be raised in, a place where she can find true refuge, and an example.


¡HOLA MI FAMILIA!

Haha, no, the knee is doing great, and I`m very careful to not do anything that would hurt it, after all, I can`t invite others to come unto Christ if I can`t walk :). Ya, that was one of the exercises that she gave that I have been doing. The problem is I have to give a call in report every morning during exercise time, but I can at least do that one while I`m in the chair giving the report. Thanks for the reminder, I have forgotten about that today.

I`m happy to hear that all is well at home. Especially Merlin, I honestly expected to hear that you had put him down this week. Ya, that sounds like a movie that Ben would like. Definitely have to watch when I return. That`s awesome that the Facebook thing is finally oging to leave! CONGRATULATIONS! Other thing on the list....this thing is going to be huge really quick. But, I completed 7 months this week. Can you believe 7 months have gone by!? It`s intense.

Ya, there is a very odd culture here that is beautiful and...something else at the same time. They have their traditions of the indians, but then it is mixed with spain and catholicism, and EVERYBODY here is catholic. Honestly, it`s like the entire republic is Utah for catholics. So you`ll see elements of native indians mixed with crosses or bloody Jesuses. They even crucify people here. No, seriously. For certain holidays there are people that are paid to be crucified. Ya.

Well, this week was super interesting. We have an assistant to the president with us until he finishes his mission in 2 weeks, and he is training us all basically. President is putting a toooon of emphasis on Uruapan. In our District Meeting last week, to end Elder Burciaga, the asistant, said we are all going to give each other blessings. So we all gave blessings to the person on our left, one by one, all participating in the same blessing. By the third, everyone`s arms were really tired. By the 11th we had to rest every time. On the last one, I noticed that I was a little less tired than everyone else, I will hold my hands up a little so that the others can rest on my hands, and the person recieving the blessing doesn`t snap his neck. I decided also that this would be a symbol of how I would work in the week, and resolved to not let up. About 5 seconds in, my arm started hurting. I thought, Uh oh. I started praying for strength to keep my arm steady. By the end I was just pleading in my mind, please, please, move your arms. I can`t do this, please, just stop being so heavy! But I endured, the blessing ended, and we were able to rest. I realized afterwards, that is a symbol of the sacrifice of Christ. He was in the Garden of Gethsemane, suffering for us all, pleading, stop! Stop sinning! Please stop, but I will suffer it all. In an infinitely small way, I have understood the Atonement a little more.

Afterwards we worked super hard. Nos negreamos. (We negroed ourselves. Yes, they really say that here. It`s really weird.) But we have seen some amazing miracles.

We had a baptism this week, a teenager of 14. He is the first of his family to be baptized, and his sister and brother in law will join him this saturday. They needed to be at church one more time to be able to do that though, and they told us there would be no problem arriving solos. But they weren`t there when we arrived. After the sacraments, they still hadn`t arrived. I had been praying, God, I`ve done all I can this week. Me and Elder Rojas have worked hard. It is out of our hands now though, help them to arrive. But they didn`t. I honestly faltered in my faith. I started to wonder, I have done everything the leaders have asked of me, I have been obedient, and they told us that if we do it, we will have success, but we have none! I started to think, maybe I could have done more, I don`t know. Elder Rojas came to me asking, what do we do? I said, I want to go for them. I then thought, Seriously? I want to do that? Whatever, let`s role. We jumped in a taxi and went to their house. They weren`t there. We returned to the capilla, had a meeting with the ward and Zone Leaders. Afterwards I told the situation to Elder Barnes, our Leader, asking for suggestions about how we can improve. He just said, I`m sorry. And then, a split second after that, I saw the family leaving from one of the rooms! We ushered them into the next wards sacrament meeting, and baptized Jose an hour later. It was truly after I had given all, that God blessed us to be able to participate succesfully in His work. It was an honestly amazing experience, and lesson on what truly is faith.

And now it`s time for my, MICELANIOUS THINGS OF THE WEEK!
I can`t really think of a category for these two things, so they started this new segment.

1. We contacted this lady in the week, and she responded, Oh, no thank you, I believe in God. I explained that we too believe in God, and Christ. She asked, Wait, you`re not atheists? No...Oh, OK, I thought you were athiests. Well, when can we share this message? Oh, no, I`m Catholic...fantastic...thanks...

2. People marry young here. Like, super young. Like, 17. That seems to be the average, 17-18. We have one investigator that is 14 and wants to get married with this 24 year old creep. Think Utah`s bad? Try Mexico. Honestly, these people are so amazing, but they just...lose focus really easily.

Well, I know this Church is true, I know that God wants to give us blessings according to our faith, and that he is very involved in the lives of His children.

And I think that`s all this week family.

¡ADIOS MI FAMILIA!

Elder Joseph Neil Newell

Aug 9, 2010

¡HOLA MI FAMILIA!

Well, honestly I expected something like that. Maybe not quite so severe, but I was remembering Indy and what happened with him. It is the inevitable I guess. Thanks for telling me. Thanks for keeping care of him. If theres something I´ve learned here, it is to trust in the Lord´s timing. If he decides I won´t see my dog again, well, it´s for the best. I´ll wait until the next life.

NO TRICERATOPS!? WHAT!? This is an outrage! Im losing childhood favorites left and right here...(it helps a little to joke about it :P)

Hey John! I´m doing great! I miss you all too, but we´ll see each other really soon! Mexico is a really pretty place, especially Uruapan, where I am now. It´s full of trees, rivers, and old buildings! I hope you do well in school, and that you treat your sister and parents really well!

I hope everything else is going well back home. I can´t wait to try all the fruits and berries and veggies growing when I get home! Which, according to the missionary calendar, should be in about a month. Time flys by so quickly here. I do not joke when I said that I feel like I was home just last week.
Emily, I hope all is well with you too, haven´t heard much, so I assume that´s good. Also that your group is still going strong. Thanks to your courage to speak up first about OCD, I learned about it, saw it in myself, and have been able to help others do the same. We have an investigator that says his mind always obsesses in voices, numbers, letters, and drugs. He says there is always a voice in his head that is telling him to use, or do whatever. I told him, I know how you feel, I have something very similair, just without the drugs. Just as Jesus Christ calmed the waters of the Dead Sea, I know he can calm our minds as well, because he has done it with me. I silently prayed to God and thanked Heavenly Father for putting me in this family with you all so that I could have these experiences, and help others to grow.

Also, I have been having this pain in my knee, I talked to Sister Jesperson about it and she prescribed some exercies to do, and to take my Vitamin I. Or, 12 Ibuprofens in the day. Apparently this is something that happens frequently to long distance runners. So, me and Merlin can share each others pain :)

There was a baptism in my district on Saturday. The following pictures are from the National Park. You see, this guy was a descendant of the tripe of Purepecha indians, and wanted to be baptized in a river. So we took him over there, and got him baptized. After his baptism, he talked a little about the beliefs of the native peoples, and said that he felt like his ancestors were very happy with his decision. He then said that us 4 elders that were there, he felt represented the 4 elements, Elder Rojas being water, me being air, the other two were fire and earth. It was a very interesting experience, and I told him my Mom would absolutely love to talk with him and learn about the ancient practices here.

We are starting to see a bunch of potential success here. We have 13 baptismal dates planned, with at least 4 more to put this week. We are so very priviliged to be here in Uruapan, where the people are ready to accept the gospel. This area has not had much success at all, but President told us we were put here for a reason. That there are such young Elders here so that they had no false conceptions, or pre-fabricated ideas. I know that the Lord visits his children. Even when we don´t recognize him. Better, ESPECIALLY when we don´t recognize him. He is always there, helping us in whatever we let him.

Well, I think that´s all for this week. Sorry it´s short once again, but that´s how things go sometimes.

ADIOS MI FAMILIA!

Elder Newell

PS: Oh well, I have a picture of the baptism itself, but GMail doesn´t want to upload it. I´ll show you when I get back :P

Aug 2, 2010

Burger King is really expensive down here...


Yes. Someone drove a school bus down from California. Seriously.


BERNARDO!!!!

¡HOLA MI FAMILIA!

Sounds like there are a bunch of cool things coming out now, I´m in a ciber right n fron tof a huge movie theater and I can see that the new Karate Kid is out. I heard about that before leaving on the mission, so it was interesting to see that it´s already happened. It honestly feels like I just barely left home...if I had to go home right now it would feel shorter than the time I spent in California.

The picture you attached, I don´t think I got one of the Kraken. I got one of a Rancor, but no Kraken. I´m happy to hear that Clash of the Titans lived up to every single expectation I had for it. Good effects, no substance. sounds like something fun to watch in the room when I get back home.

I´m sorry to hear about Grandma´s cousin, I´m sure that can´t be too easy. But at least it was calmed away by the super buffett of Golden Corral. And yes Mom, I have completely repented of my sins against Golden Corral. We ate like kings in Guadalajara, eating in a place that has the world record for fastest food served twice, and an american style buffett another time. Then I came back to Uruapan...rice...beans...meat in water....yummy. It´s good food, just that there isn´t a lot of variations. I almost went crazy, literally, at the beginning of my mission, WHERE IS THE CHEESE!? They almost don´t use cheese, and I have yet to see cheddar. But I have sicne adapted to the local cuisine, and am learning how to cook. I can´t wait to get back and show some of the tips and tricks they are teaching me. Trick number one: Everything has lime. Trick number two: Everything has chile. If it has those two things, it´s food from Mexico.

Bernardos new job is with his younger brother´s Avacado business. Uruapan is the city of avacados, and everyone here loves guacamole. Yes Dad, I have gained a taste for guacamole. He cuts and delivers avacado, and when we go visit him now, he hands off avacados and mangos the size of my head. Speaking of which, I learned to not trust cell phones very much this week. While I was in Guadalajara, Bernardo was going to be baptized, I called Elder Rojas to see if the needed anything from me before it happened, and he said it wouldn´t happen. I came back, talked to him on Friday, and apparently what happened was that his brother answered the phone, and decided to play a really, really stupid joke. He said, Hey, can I bring my girlfriend that lives with me and my 5 sons to the baptism? Huh? Ya, you didn´t know about her? Basically it was just a stupid, stupid joke that delayed his baptism until Saturday. Also, for that, the member that was going to baptize him couldn´t, because he got sick. So I had to perform the ordinance, but everything is OK now, and we are in fact teaching his brother that is super borracho (drunkard).

The conference in Guadalajara was awesome! We learned toooooooons, and have really progressed as missionaries. Elder Rojas and I are becoming better and better companions, and striving to always be better people. Effie, there is a couple here in the ward that really reminds me of you and Mark. They are weird to look at. Like, mexican versions of yourselves. I don´t know how much time I have left here in uruapan, I already have 4 months here, but I am enjoying it more and more. It is a very pretty place, and the people are quite humble. We´re going to be buying some health shakes to eat in the mornings instead of cereal or breakfast sandwiches. It´s faster, easier, and healthier. I´ll let you know how it goes.

We have this new family of investigators. Their dad passed away about 2 months ago, and they were destroyed by it. They were angry at God, at life, at everything. We have started talking to them about how they can live to see their father once again, and how Jesus Christ has suffered to help them know how to make it thorugh this trouble they are having. Now they are always smiling, coming to church, and will be baptized this next sunday. Honestly, this gospel is for EVERYONE! Not just for those who are consumed in drugs, or those who are destroying their lives with alchohol or cigarettes, but for all that have a desire to know their god, their savior, their king. I know that this gospel saves the lives of those who choose to abide by it´s precepts, and brings us to a newer level of happiness than we can know. I see miracles every week here in the lives of the people we talk to, and I count it a remarkable blessing to be able to be here to see them.

Well I hope everyone else is doing well up there in Utah. Don´t worry Mom, my shoes are fine. They are still practically brand new the ones that Dad bought me. I have been using them almost exclusively for the last month and a half and they are doing just fine. They are starting to get some wrinkles in the leather, but nothing serious. I am buying new insoles every now and again, thank you very much mom for your concern. I know I always have at least one person at home worrying about all the little things :)

I´m super sad to hear that merlin is starting the fall down the stairs phase. I remember when Indi used to do that...not fun.

Anyways, I think that´s everything. I´ll talk to you all next week!

¡ADIOS!

Elder Newell

July 26th 2010

¡HOLA FAMILIA!

Wow, sounds like you are all just super involved in activities now that the couch potato is in Mexico :P

Sounds like everything was fun though. Sleeping on the picnic table didn´t hurt? Sounds like that paradeis one of those things that´s really funny, a week or so afterwards.

Well, things in Mexico are doing fine. Oh, by the way, the Missionary Handbook, (at least in spanish and english) says nothing about cutting your own hair. This week we had 6 investigators at church this week! Woooooh! Things are doing fine, we have these investigators, Jennifer, and Yuritzi. Their 2 teenagers, 15 and 19, who are going to be baptized pretty quickly here. Yuritzi, the 19 year old, is going to get married in two months. We asked her if her husband is going to accept and support her in her decisions, her response was, "Tiene que hacerlo." Or, He HAS to do it. We responded, he sure does!

Bernardo is going to be baptized, today! Wooooh! He is such an amazing miracle. He was a drug user/seller, drinker, smoker, everything, and after our first visit and reading and praying about the Book of Mormon, left it all behind. It is amazing to see how this gospel consistently changes the lives of the people who choose to live it. The first contact with him we were thinking, OK, how can we get out of this situation as soon as possible and away from the borrachos? He really wanted to meet with us, so we went there one day, and gave the first lesson saying things like, "The Gospel of Jesus Christ requires a lot from us. Salvation isn´t easy. What are you willing to do to recieve these blessings?" Thinking, nothing. But no, immediately he dropped everything, and has a super firm testimony in the Church of Jesus Christ. I can´t even explain it.

The problem, is that I WILL NOT BE HERE FOR HIS BAPTISM NOOOOOO! At 4 today I am going to Guadalajara for a week long conference for leaders! Almost half of the mission is going to be in Guadalajara, learning the new way that we train missionaries, and working over there. It´ll be intense.

But all this week we were running around the whole area trying to get as many people as we could in the capilla. So, because of that not many things special happened this week.

I do believe it´s time for another edition of, ONLY IN MEXICOOOOO!!!
We just barely passed by a fiesta of the Santo Santiago, this is another fiesta of the neighborhoods, and they close off almost all the streets. While we passed by, every single person had a beer in their hand. Yes, even the children. I don´t know if it´s only in Mexico, but it came to my mind as a way to help you all feel grateful for living in Utah! I smelled alcohol maybe 3 times before my mission. Now it´s every day. New experiences for sure.

Anyways, I think that´s all I´ve got this week, sorry it´s short.

ADIOS FAMILIA! UNTIL NEXT WEEEEEEEEEEK!

Elder Newell

I learned another new skill. How to catch, by HAND, flys. I´ll never have to buy another flyswatter again! I feel like I´m in Tombstone.

Since all the doors here are metal, I use my key to knock the doors. Yesterday I dropped it, and it rolled down a large garage...this picture represnted my desperation. We eventually got it back, but my clothes got really dirty and I don´t think they´ll forgive me.

We ate at a restaurant this week. For desert, they gave us Dad´s worst enemy. Can you guess? Eh? Can ya? Yep, FLAN! It tasted really good. Almost like a really smooth/gelatinous cheese cake with syrup.


Uruapan