Elder Oliver: Party concert bus, part time spouse rental, Abinidi shows who is boss

June 8, 2015

Hello Family.

Tlajomulco is a great place. It is far away from Guadalajara the city, buut it is a pretty poor place, and pretty much everyone that lives here, commutes to Guadalajara for work, which means the buses get packed packed packed. The average bus in Mexico has about 26 seats, and you can usually have about another 20 people standing up doing monkey bars on the ceiling hand rails. But here in Tlajomulco, you take more of the sardine can routine. These buses get jam packed, and they pass by about every five minutes, but packed. We usually look like the little kids as they stare into the different flavors at cold stone, smashing our faces to the glass. AAaaand, sometimes the bus drivers put a whole bunch of crazy dance party music, which therefore makes it a PARTY CONCERT BUS. It’s mainly just uncomfortable.

We had a stellar experience. We have been working hard to be able to have investigators in church. On Saturday, we went with a family that we have been working with, and we got them all excited to go to church. We told them that we would go to their house in the morning, and show them the ropes (the church is a good 30 minutes away in party bus.) When we got there, these two little 40-year-old women got all of their young kids ready to go to church. Us two missionaries along with a family of 8 people got on the party bus. IT WAS AWESOME. I LOVE THIS WORK.

We have been able to find a lot of new investigators, buuut the trouble out here is that everyone lives with their boyfriend/girlfriend. It is troublesome, because no one has the desire to get married; they think of marriage as too big of a commitment and prefer to have their husband/wife more like a part time rental. Yesterday every person that we found to teach was not married to their boyfriend/girlfriend. HELPz.

Elder Hernandez and I are just working really really hard out here. So that is good. I´ve been studying a little bit in Mosiah 9+-13. Pretty much Abinidí just shows the world who is boss. But it makes me reflect a little bit about how if we are really living the gospel as we say we are. In chapter 12 the priests of King Noah say they live the law of Moses, and Abinadi, with a simple question, just shatters their whole universe. Reflection. We say we are Mormons, but do we really live in such a way that the rest of the people can notice it?

I sure am enjoying my time over here. Today we went on a nature hike. It was the best. I got dirty, I spent energy, and afterwards I ate a large sandwich. So THE GOSPEL MUST BE True.

I FEEL ever so grateful for Christ, his comforting spirit that is sent in times of need, in times of remorse. Christ has suffered so we don´t have to suffer. Let’s use the atonement.

Love you all family. You guys are the best

Elder Hulme.