Primogenito, Transfers/Training, Pacheco Cancelled, Museums Closed Mondays

Firstborn. On Saturday I got a text message from our mission president, asking me to call him. I called him and he told me that Imma going to train a new elder, fresh out of the oven from the MTC. There are only 2 elders coming into the mission this week, so it´ll be one of them. And for today and last night I have been with Elder Hernandez, he is the other elder who is going to train. So the next week I will have all the information about my firstborn child. I am really excited to train. He will probably be latin, and we is gonna have a party, I can feel it. We have to get up at 4:30 in the morning to take 2 buses to the mission offices. We will have a training, and then receive the new elders.

King Kong on da tires

Sam totally shattered his bone, he showed that bone who is in charge, but poor kid that doesn't look like that much fun.

General Conference this week. All the information I've got is that it will be in a different chapel. Our chapel is super tiny, and we are going to a large one to watch conference. Almost everyone watches it in their homes or in the church. I don't know if I will be able to watch it in English. I would prefer to, but now that I speak the both of them it makes things easier, but let's be real, the translated voices lose a lot of their power. I am super excited, especially because in the past few months I have learned a lot more about the power of  the words of the prophets. It makes me wish I hadn't slept during General Conference in years past, well at least not through the talks of the big dogs. 

We drink plenty of juice in a bag. This one is just called "Fruit". It has tons of sugar and mashed up fruit and is tasty stuff

This week we had a big old bummer. We had lessons with the Pacheco family. On Wednesday, the night before the baptismal interview, the mom was expressing a lot of doubt, and saying that she was not ready. She has the concept that to be baptized you have to know a ton of stuff, but we explained to her that you don't need a ton of knowledge; you need to be willing to follow the commandments. But she was still just a stresss bucket.

Then on Thursday afternoon she called everything off. We have a feeling that she talked with one of her family members convinced her to not be baptized. I know that God is going to help us how, in the near future, to save these souls, but it was a huge bummer.

Yesterday I spent 5 hours on buses. wahooooooooo. We had to go to the mission offices to bring Elder Hernandez here just to work with me. But it was cool because we talked with 16 people on the buses.

Today Elder Hernandez and I went to search for the museums. The bad news is both the National Ceramic Museum and the other one we went to close EVERY MONDAY. So that is just fabulous, but we live. We walked up this hill called Cerro de la Reina which is at the top of Tonala, where you can see all the city. The only bummer is that the air quality is pretty scummy right now.

Mom and dad, its crazy that you guys are growing up to be empty nesters.

That is all for this week. I hope you all have stellar weeks. 

Elder Hulme. Son. 

The Ex-Zone

Elder Hulme, Elder Cruz, Elder Hernandez. I am with Elder Hernandez today while we wait for the delivery of our children.

On top of the world

Cerro del la Reina. The temple-like building is the one that changes colors at night.

Hit the numbers, dog bites, all the Sundays of my life, bakeries & shoes

March 24, 2014

Unfortunately there was no mole this week, but once you have a little bit of time in the area, some of the members start to pick up on how much you love vegetables, and so sometimes I get to eat those as well. Those are some of the best days.

This week was really a good one. Saturday was I think one of the best days of my missionary life, right now we have a standard of excellence in all  the things we do, for the number of lessons we have to teach, the amount of people to talk to//contact, to put new baptismal dates and a whole bunch of other statistics. All of these numbers are incredibly high, but Saturday we were shredding up a storm and for the first time we completed everything.

With the Pacheco hernandez family, we are trying every thing possible to get them all set up to be baptized, they are doing super great. We have tons of help from the ward with them, and every time we get to teach them it is the best. Their youngest son is 4 years old, and he is about as hooligan as they come, we are convinced that him and the other munchkins are going to set the church on fire, sons of Mosiah style.

This week, Elder Cruz and I both had dogs bite us. Luckily only about 1 drop of blood in total was shed, but semi-ironic that dogs are slowly leaving my list of things I want in life.

Mexico is a lovely country with lovely bakeries and shoes, and with those two things, is there more you could ask for?

Yesterday was a heartbreaker, our investigator is passing through some massive problems in his life right now, and just took up a new job, in which he has to work all of the Sundays of my life. I have never met an investigator who reads his Book of Mormon so much. He has been reading consistently for a month and a half, and is already in Alma 37. He is a champion. But we have to figure out a way to bring that boy to church. Getting people to come to church is the hardest thing to do, but we are getting there.

Missionary work is kicking right a long, we are teaching tons and that is my favorite thing in the whole world. There is not a better feeling than the feeling that you are helping people in the world.

Do Service

Sure love you all so much and you guys get lots of prayers from over here.

E.H.

This member's husky had 9 puppies. As much as dogs bug me right now, they are the cutest things in the world

Eating after church with the Islas family

What exactly 10 American dollars can get you

Mole, Members Helping Missionaries, Zone Act. in Guadalajara, Spanish is Good

March 17, 2014

My whole first transfer in Tonala, we didnt eat mole, until this transfer and we have had it about 5 times, and it is the best thing in the world.

I would like to hear the talk given by the missionary about how the members can work with the missionaries, I would also like to know what it is like to be a missionary in Utah, because there are so many members, and it probably wouldn't be so hard to find a member to work with you. But really if they ever invite you to work with them, GO WORK, because when there are members it seriously makes a huge difference, With all of our investigators that have baptismal dates right now, we have a ton a members that help us out with their teachings and everything, it helps them feel a lot better and a lot more comfortable. Last night we had a lesson with the Pacheco Hernandez family, we had 2 members with us and taught the law of chastity, the both of them bore super powerful testimonies, and when the investigators see that real people (not just the two goofballs teenagers) live these laws and rules, it helps them a lot too.

This week was a pretty normal week, it went by crazy fast. Unfortunately none of our investigators came to church, E. finally found work and went to work, and the mom of the family got kidney stones and has been going to the hospital with frequency, she also might be pregnant.

We had divisions with the zone leaders this week, I was in my area with elder Mcclellan from POCATELLO, Idaho. He is a cool guy, he finishes his mission in two months, but is still working extremely hard, which I like a lot. A lot of times you run into the missionaries that aren`t really there to work, which frustrates me. Why on earth would you dedicate yourself to one thing for two years if you are not going to give it your all. **If you go on a mission, work your hardest, there is nothing better to do, and it is not worth having the guilt of wasting God's time.

Today we had a zone activity in Guadalajara. It was good, we ate pizza and I brought stir fry, and some other stuff,  we played capture the flag, all a good time, but we lose 2 hours in the bus and 2 hours in the activity, leaving us with not many hours. 

Mom, I think I sent you a list of the items I needed, also I am dominating pants some how, my favorite brown ones have pretty much gone to pot. But don't worry about it, I can buy them here. 

The spanish is really good, I've been about a month where I don't ever have troubles understanding the people, especially in lessons, 

I have been sleep walking a ton lately, mainly when I get up and start getting ready for the day. Last night at 12:28am I got up, started the water boiler, sat down to do my morning business, and that is when I realized that my body was not ready because I had only been asleep for 2 hours. Silly body.

Sure love you guys. 

Do your family prayers dangit.

LOTS OF LOVE FROM THE SON AND BROTHER

In Guadalajara, the church La Luz Del Mundo was formed (The world's light/the light of the world.) They have a huuuuuge temple and they light is up with all sorts of fun colors every night. We can always see it from my area, and let's be real - it's really cool.

Gamboo, Oregon House, New Shoes

First things first. hahaaaa mom, it was super cool to see those Mexican breads, they have them pretty much everywhere. The conchas are super tempting at first look, but the part on top is not very sweet. But yes they have little bakeries everywhere. In Tonala I only know of one, but in Guadalajara there are a ton.

This week I got da gamboo. I was in Guadalajara on Tuesday doing divisions, and in the night I started to feel a bit ill, but all was well. In the morning I felt terrible. I called the mission president's wife to see what was up, took some ibuprofin and we worked all day. That night I woke up at 11:55pm and vomited everything out, brushed my teeth, and have been good ever since. Wahoo. I don't know what I ate, because I didn't eat anything strange. But don't worry. I just have a stuffy nose right now.

I am pretty sad that Grandma's Oregon house will no longer be there. I don't know how I'm going to live in Oregon with Grandma after my mission if she doesn't live there.

This week was good. Oddly enough it went by a bit slow. But we had tons of success finding new people. Every day we try to talk with as many people as we can to find new investigators. Because we don't knock doors, and rarely do we receive references from the members, it is pure finding on our own accord.

The investigators are doing super well. Eduardo has faced a lot of trials in these past few weeks, lost his job, and has been searching super hard for a while. He occasionally finds odds and ends jobs, but only for a day or two.

The Pacheco family is doing really well. Unfortunately they did not come to sacrament meeting, because the mom got sick in the morning and went to the hospital. Also in a releif society activity the oldest daughter was playing with another kid and broke her arm. Poor lil' gal. The investigator from Texas who sells water is good. We visited him today - he is an awesome dude, and has had some of the wildest experiences in the world.

Things with Elder cruz are good, there are a lot of things that must be ignored, but I will be able to say it was a good experience, some day.

You learn and change a lot in the mission. Some things don't change - I bought some new shoes today, and I already justified it. I have pretty much worn my black shoes every day of my mission, except when I wear my suit (when I wear brown).  But I figured if the black ones can handle 6 months of pretty much every day use, the two of them together can handle every other day use, and then I got some new ones to use with the suit. THEY ARE PRETTTY. Yaayy

I LOVE YOU GUYS A LOT AND PRAY FOR YOU KIDS ON THE DAILY

Elder kid

Alfajor, Investigator from Texas, Cars in Mexico, Studying Holy Ghost

Food of the week: alfajor. It is the best coconut candy treat in the world. I found out about it when I had divisions with Elder Verdugo a long time ago, but it is some tasty stuff. 

This week was pretty different, we had a lot of ups and downs. We still struggle with people that are not married, we had 4 investigators who aren't married in sacrament meeting this week, and it is tricky because they cannot progress if they are not married.

Also we had a family home evening with the Pacheco Hernandez family. At the end the mom asked us if it was a problem If they weren't married. I was about ready to punch a whole in the wall, but as we investigated a bit more, we confirmed that YES they are married LEGALLY. We had clarified it earlier, but she thought she had to be married into the church before.

This week we talked a lot with people on the streets and what not. People are cool and fun to talk with, it is incredible to hear the stories and different ways that people think about Things. We have one investigator who used to live in a mansion in Texas, had a Rolls Royce and a Mercedes Benz, he has a degree in Quantum Physics, and knows 5 languages. He got sick of the greed and the ridiculousness of the people, left everything and now sells water in Mexico. I like to talk to him, because nothing worldly matters to him. Now he just helps people out. He has read a ton of books, and distracted the bishop beyond all belief in the gospel principles class yesterday. 

Mom you asked about the cars. I saw a lot more cool cars in Morelia, the coolest are some of the Peugeots, Audi has a few models that don't exist in the states, as well as Renault, but maybe it is just cool because they don't exist in the states.

Stuff the sisters left behind when we traded houses with them.

I've been studying a lot about the Holy ghost. When we recieve the gift of the holy ghost and when we fullfill our part of the covenant we are promised his company. If we have his company he will always be there ready to tell us what to do, who to talk with, what not to do and what to say. But, being the carnally minded humans that we are, a lot of times we are too dense to realize these promptings. I have been working a lot to be more keen to the promptings of the spirit and to always have the spirit more in my life.

How is the family prayers going? DO THEM!

Sure love you all a lot. And really count your blessings, becasue the Lord treats us well.

lOTS OF LOVE

elmers Glue.

Tejuino, Grow an Ankle, Talk on Love and Charity

February 24, 2014

*Tejuino is a stellar fermented corn beverage that is both healthy and delicious. (yes I checked with the authorities and it is not against the word of wisdom) But tejuino, they have it all made, then when you buy it, they put salt sugar and lime in the cup, and its TASTYYYYYY.

*Today I washed my watch band for the first time, 4 months of mexican sweat does a number, but now it smells fresh as can be, and back to the regular color.

*I am ready to chop off my ankle and grow a new one, like a lizard, I keep on spraining it even though I wear my brace every day, I will send a picture of the roads one day and  you will see why.

*Don't worry about the bed bugs mom, we super killed them all. If you buy this really strong chemical, and soak the mattress in it, they go away, we are fine.

*There is this soap that is made of hay, and it is the best smelling thing in the world. 

This week was marvelous, even though it went by super slow. But yesterday, yesterday was a day. The family of five without furniture (family pacheco hernandez) they all came to church again and loved it. AaAAAND, Our investigator Eduardo came to church, Eduardo is stellar, because he is always reading his Book of Mormon, but he understands everything and thinks about everything and applies everything. Every time we have lessons with him I just want to invite him to come be a missionary with us, mainly just to hang out, because I love him.

We got a new sister missionary in the district this week. Poor little thing doesnt understand a lick of Spanish and got sick in her first week. It is really hard for her and her companion, but I do what we can to help them.

Things with my companion are good. I have to do a lot to avoid contention, and sometimes I have to lay down the law with a lot of love, but it is all good.

I spoke this week in church about Love and Charity. I think it went really well, especially since it was in spanish and I prepared it 1 hour before chruch. 

I'm reading in Revelation, that book is nuts.

Get married  (if you're living with your boy/girl friend) before you tell the missionaries you want to get baptized, it makes things easier.

District leaders have to do divisions with every elder in their district every transfer, which is rough, because we have a district of 10, but 2 are sisters. Still, I have to do 6 divisions, but all the other elders are in Guadalajara, which means I get to go there more, wahoo.

Things are going super well here in the missionary life. As a missionary you learn a lot about patience, which is a good thing, also humility, you really just learn a ton of stuff, and I love mission.

Mom and dad, you guys should start thinking about buying a house here, It would definitely be worth it, homes are cheap cheap cheap and Mexico is the coolest.

Keep on keeping on and do your family prayers!.

Lmer Hme