Monday, February 24, 2014

POR FIN!!! BAUTIZAMOS!!!

(FINALLY!!! BAPTIZED!!!)

This week was quite the adventure... and the adventures really just never seem to stop ending... ya know is it just to much to ask for a normal week? one that I could come here to the computers and just tell you guys that nothing happened this week? hahah well... maybe that day will come but...ya never know:D 

But to start out I would just love to explain what the title is of this week:D:D ya i'm pretty sure that you could figure it out because ya know this last sunday Elder Benitez and me finally broke a 6 month no baptizing streak here in the good ole area of Pantitlan:D So ya know you could take that as a success that happened this last week:D:D hahah and so on saturday i had divisions with my DL and we went with the family that we were going to be baptizing the next day and everything went so well and they are ready and it was just to swell eh? but we decided that we were going to make elder Benitez think that everything just fell through that in realized that we are not going to baptize this girl tomorrow and we had everything worked out in our story and so we fed this lie to Benitez and i thought that i had lied to very very well right? but after like 2 hours of us playing him i finally just told him and he was like " i knew it!!! haha you lier! i knew you were lying from the start elder Anderson because you stink at lying man" BAH!!! WHY DO I STINK AT LYING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yeah... well... i tried... ya know... its what counts... maybe one day i will be good at lying... but... up until today... still i cant lie worth crap.... hahah yupp:D:D:D:D 

Lots of people have the chicken pox here so after a few days of thinking I have zits on my back and on my chest and now up my neck and that there seems to be more after I pop them i know i don't need to go on accutane again cuz...... I have chicken poxD:D: even though I got the shot:D:D maybe it will keep some of the dangerous people away.....i wish:D:D:D  still out teachin:D:D:D 

So... yeah and the next thing that ya know was quite a surprise that happened was when me and my comp went to look for this contact that we did in the street. and when we knocked on the door no one came out at first and so we were just about to leave and then i just had the feeling that i should knock one time more and right when i knocked on the door the door flew open and this guy was just there (and ya know just to set the mood this guy was one of the scariest men that i have seen here in mexico:D) and so he had his left hand in the doorway and the door was covering his right hand and his right shoulder (an important piece of information) and he just jumped straight into this little speech of how he was a cop and how he was not just only a cop but a cop of investigation so that means that he has worked so hard to become this person and how it was really strange that there were to boys knocking on his door and that we needed to have respect for him because its not easy to become someone who has as much power as he does and many things like that but he said all of what i just typed and more in a matter of 1 minute so this man was just flying with his words and the power and force that he was speaking this words just struck fear into my soul (you know what i am trying to say... i hope...) and then he just changed his focus directly at me and just said "hey you are not from around here why are you here and what are you doing at my door" (in words it sounds such weak sauce, but this man could have been the son of satan i'm tellin ya man... i probably wet my pants or something like that..... ) and the only thing that i said to him was and i quote "i'm from the united states, were are missionaries and we preach the gospel to help other people have a better perspective in live, please don't kill me." (yeah... the please don't kill me probably was not necessary but... in the moment i felt like he was going to shoot us or something...) and then he responded very firmly like he still wanted my soul (Potato, patato right?) with "ok... well you don't need to fear the police because we are only here to help" (and i could only think yeah bro you with you last words you kinda destroyed every bit of confidence and trust that i would ever have in you right there at the beginning.) and then I reached for the pocket in my shirt to grab a card that had our number that he could call us if he ever needed anything and when he saw me putting my hand in my pocket he was like "what are you doing!?" (all forceful and still very scary like... scaring the freakin crap out of me scary) and I just told him that here was a card that we have that has our number on it in case you ever need help with anything or would like to hear a message (but at the same time i was thinking ya bro i'm reaching for my SHIRT POCKET, am i really able to hide an explosive or a gun in this shirt pocket?!?!? sheesh cool your jets) and then that is when my comp just said ok... well... nice to meet you but i think that we need to be headed out.. and he extended his hand to shake this mans hand and the dude said "ok one moment" (brought his left hand from the door way and reached behind him and then stepped out a little bit with his right hand and said "ok... sorry i just had to change hands with my gun" BAH this brohomie had his gun in his hand ready for what ever and was ready to kill sheesh... i mean.. do we look like assassins? with a gafete that says the church of Jesus Christ? but... yeah... after that we got out of there as fast as we could because.. ya know... i don't really want to be shot and i would like to live to see the sun rise tomorrow... but.. ya know we lived and it became quite a fun story right?

hahah and i would just like to type something of an update of the english classes that i am giving:D:D hahah soo.... i have just continued to teach these english classes right? and so... this last week i taught them how they are able to conjugate verbs and put them into simple sentences. and as i was teaching them to write i was helping them with their pronunciation. and hahah let me tell you. when a mexican speaks that is trying to learn english it is one of the coolest things that i have ever heard in my entire life!!!! I just told them "Why can't I have an accent like that? I want to speak english like you!!:D haha. teach me how to change my accent!! :D:D" that gave them a good laugh to say the least:D:D  but yeah.. that is really all i wanted to say about my english classes because they have awesome accents and they say they want to speak english more like me and i just tell them that they should not want that because they speak english so cool that i want to speak english more like them:D:D:D

oh yeah.. um... well... i'm pretty sure that its pretty obvious to everyone that i'm not the best spanish speaker in the world or the best teacher in the world so.. this is going to come as a shocker to everyone.... I just found out today that in 8 days i will be receiving a newbee.... yeah... i'm pretty sure that you can assume with those words that i will be training someone in  8 days.. oh great... well... we are going to see how this goes right? 

well... these are some of the  coolest things that have happened in my life in the last week:D:D:D I hope you ejoyed them and I look forward for this next weeks adventures:D:D:D

Monday, February 17, 2014

El Guardia
(The Guard)

Well... I really don't have very much to say this week... but... yeah.

So.. the most exciting thing this week has to be the fact that i am now teaching english classes (but like for reals. i know that i have said i have been teaching english before but those times were only at the houses of investigators and members). Its pretty sick, i'm not going to lie. How did i get this opportunity? well... my district leader is going to be headed out at the end of the transfer, and he has been teaching these classes for the last 4 months. so he just came to me and said "bro. ya gotta teach this." so.. yeah... this is how i got here:D:D and my district leader has been teachin what ever he could think of week to week. so i took the book that my comp uses to study everyday and i started the class over from step one and going to build them up step by step. but... yeah... we are hoping for a showing of at least 8. and... yeah... 

and haha my comp found this sign in the road that said no proselyters (haters gonna hate, but my spelling is the way it is:D) so... clearly we just had to take a picture in front of it:D:D in the picture is my comp on the right and the comp of elder greenwood on the left:D:D:D.

haha ok... and the other picture just about killed me. so i first have to explain something about mexico city. so... always in front of mcdonald's, a market, a bank, a baby toy store, and just about anywhere else you can think of there is a man with either a shot gun or just a huge machine gun. and so elder greenwood was taking out some money and there was a line of like 20 people outside and the comp of greenwood just goes inside with him and poses like all of the ridiculous men holding the shotguns and i just about died and in this moment i just had to take a picture. because this was one of the funniest things that i have seen here in mexico:D:D sorry if there is a bad glare... but... i didn't want to get robbed:D:D

the last picture like i'm fouling him but..what eva... this is our zone playing soccer against another zone and we kinda kicked trash. 

um.... yeah.. and all of our baptisms fell but 3, so we are hopping that we can keep them going strong. because out of 7 progressing only 3 are of the chosen:D but... yeah that is all of my life... here in the mish. 

so... have a great week:D:D

PHOTO OF THE WEEK...Monday, February 17, 2014

E S C A L E R A S

(S T A I R S)

Monday, February 10, 2014

somethin in english please?

This week...well, i'm not going to lie...it was pretty smooth. chosen what we find in the street, teachin english, some muggings...and, yeah what ever the hecka else i can think of.

So today i am going to start with the escogido (chosen) that we found in the street. So.... just to start we were talking with a sister and just trying to suck a reference out of here but... we just ended up talking about the movie night that they were going to have. right as we were just ending, this man comes up behind me and grabs my shoulder (and needless to say, if someone comes up behind you and grabs you like this man grabbed me...well, it means one of 2 things: 1. that some angry racist mexican saw you and is coming to murder you and your hopes of being a successful garbage man or 2. it is a member that has a reference for you that is a fechin escogido (chosen)!!!!!) and so... thanks to God that it was a member that wanted to give us a reference because i really didn't want to die. but needless to say it really scared the rayas out of me. But then the man turned me around and asked us if we were the missionaries for this area and i just told him...No sir we are the jehovah witnesses... haha nah, not really, but i wanted to because what kind of question is that? i already have the badge and there are two young kids dressed in nice clothes in the slums of mexico...who else could we be, drug traffickers?  but yeah he continued to tell us that he had a reference for us and took us right at that moment and we walked probably like 500 ft. there was this lady just standing on a corner and he walked us up to her and presented us to her and she was so shocked to see us. As she said "this must be a sign from God". so we set an appointment with this lady. the guy told us that he would be there for when we set our appointment with her :D 

now i want to jump to the moment when we were giving this lady a guided tour, or when we show the investigators the church when there are not any members there. So we show up and i start with the dia de reposo (day of rest or somethin). she is the type of lady that works like crazy, and needless to say, she is a very very successful woman. she always says that she has her most success over the weekends, but as i was explaining the day of rest and how it is a commandment and all the blessings that she is able to enjoy. when it came to the point where i needed to commit her to do guard the commandment i asked her and she just accepted it with such ease and really that was such a humbling experience. but that was not even the craziest thing. so at the very end we took her to the baptismal font and we put a date with this woman:D:D FOR THE 1st of March!!! at the very end she was not very sure if she would be ready for that date because it is really soon and there are a lot of things that she needs to learn (words of this woman:D). but that is when my comp invited her to pray about it every night and we assured her that she WOULD receive an answer. but on top of that he invited her to pray about it right now in front of the baptismal font and she finally said that she would offer the final prayer. as she started to pray the spirit was so freakin strong, and at two points in the prayer she stopped for what felt like for 5 minutes as we just sat there soakin in the spirit (i'm pretty sure if i was wearing glasses i would have had to de-fog them from the thickness of the spirit:D:D) then finally when this lady finished her prayer she looked up at my comp and then me and said... well... i'm getting baptized on this date. I would like it to be sooner but i know that the date that you guys have set for me is the correct one. she told us that 3 or 4 times during the prayer she tried to open her eyes and look at the baptismal font, but she couldn't because it was just an overwhelming white and that she just could not get over her feelings of the peace and quietness that she felt. but... yeah.. that is my experience that is really short of the chosen lady that found us:D:D

so the story of the mugging and teaching english kind of go hand in hand. So me and my comp found this investigator that is old and that she has not been taught in like 6 months. we go in just to visit her and see if we can get her to come to church and all that jazz...right? then she turns to me and says... you speak english right? (and again why do people ask me these questions? 1. i'm white 2. i speak spanish like an american 3...... i'm white. :D:D ) ((i know there are white people in mexico that are mexican. i live here so i have seen them.)) and so i told her.. why yes. yes i do speak english. she continued to tell me that she has been studying english for the last 5 years and she spent a year in the states and she still knows so little. and then she asks me... how long have you been studying spanish? and.. well.. lady... i have been speaking for about 4 months... that kinda shocked this lady...i'm not going to lie. but then she asked me how she would be able to learn or apply her english. and you know what i told her. "sister... i'm not going to tell you this because i think you should pray....but, really the best place you can practice your sentences and what you want to say is in prayers and start to try and think in english because you have to take out the middle step of translating." and "a great place that i have learned a lot of spanish is in the book of mormon. I have one in english that you can start to read if you want." (double thumbs up for a sick way to give this lady another book of mormon:D:D:D) and yeah.. so i was just teaching this lady and helping her with this book that she had of english and all of the sudden all of these huge guys just started to run by her door. they all started to tackle this guy and began to beat him up. that is when the lady that i was teaching english to ran over there then turned around and screamed at my comp and me that we need to go back into her house and i was like...yupp lady you don't need to tell me twice, because i don't want to get the crap beaten out of me like this dude.:D:D but after like 5 minutes, everything cooled down and the kid didn't die (always a plus to live another day). we finished up with the lady, i taught some more english, and she said that she wants to come to church and that she has some more time to listen to our lessons!! yes!!! awesome!!!

well... yeah... thats about it... i'm in a pretty calm area... so.. nothin too crazy. 

but i just want to explain these pictures:D:D so one of them is the photo of the week. but we went to the mall for the birthday of elder Olds and we found this box that was probably the coolest thing that i have seen this week:D:D:D so clearly we all jumped in and had these random people take our picture. then i was just like "what the heck greenwood hold me!!" then he and I took the other picture:D:D:D hahah good times... good times.:D:D:D yupp that has been my week:D:D 

PHOTO OF THE WEEK...Monday, February 10, 2014

B U S C A N D O 

(L O O K I N G)

Monday, February 3, 2014

Miedo de agua?
(Fear of water?)

Hahaha alrighty.... so... this week was pretty good. Ya know... just getting into some contacting, some more justin bieber jokes (will they ever leave? ;D some birthday joy, and a baptism. yeah thats just bout it.

So here in the south east mission we have been asked not to contact people for any reason what so ever. but over the last few months our idea of that we will "work with the members" has gone down the drain. So they just have introduced how we need to be contacting people again. And... i'm not going to lie. Its kinda scary. But yeah so... we have been dropping in the amount of new investigators that we have every week so when we picked up contacting was pretty freakin' sick cuz we have just turned it into kind of a game. Like one of the people that we contacted we just walked up to them and said. "Hi we are missionaries and we are here to show you how you can have a better relationship with your family and to baptize you. We would like to pass by your house tomorrow at 5 is that good?" he said yes and we just have to work out some marriage issues and he is ready to be dipped. hahah yeah.. but contacting is the way to go ladies and gents. (i'm not saying that you should just go up and declare that you are going to baptize people... it was just kinda cool that it worked in this occasion.)

and... i really don't want to focus to much on the whole justin bieber and ken hunka junk that has been flowin' around cuz.. yeah... it ridiculous. but... so i was going to go on divisions with the new son of the district leader and right before we started our divisions he was telling me about a lady in his ward that we were going to eat with tomorrow that cant move one hand and really spends every bit of money that she earns to make sure that the missionaries eat well. (i'm not kidding... it kills me at how humble and how much the people here put their faith in the Lord. Because i thought that i had faith before i came on the mission and that i was going to come here to find people and change their lives... but now that i have been here i can only see just how freakin' wrong i was. the amount of humility here and the amount of pure knowledge that these people have about the book of mormon and the bible blows me away. Every time i enter a lesson I know that i should not be the one doing the talking because these people are studying doctrine more profound than i have ever even tried to think about. but... yeah all in all... these people have the same amount of testimony that i had before my mission in their fingernail clippings. :D) and this lady cooks the best food that i have ever eaten in my whole life. (mom... i love ya... but... this lady can cook pretty darn good:D:D) but when my DL told every person that we were going to go visit that JB was going to be coming this friday... yeah... i still cant believe that he said that... but ya know.. whateva.  (great... this joke is just not going to die down...) and so i went working with the new kid who just came and we did pretty freakin' good for the day but when we came to the food the lady was just flippin' bricks. Like for the first 10 minutes that we were in her house i just had to keep telling her that i was just a missionary and i am not justin bieber and.. clearly i ask her if there was anything that she needed help with to prepare lunch. but yeah.. so after she had calmed down a bit we helped her prepare what was left to prepare for lunch and man... it was so freakin' good.. i don't know if it was just the pure love that the food was made of or... or... yeah.. who knows.. but this lady is the nicest person that i have ever met. and yeah.. that was kinda a lame story.. but.. yeah.. 

and to tie into the story of my day with the new kid was the day that i got a call from the other missionaries in our  ward and i receive this call right as we were at the church just about to end our divisions. And when i picked up he tells me that i better  get ready for tomorrow because i am going to be baptizing someone. and i told him that he must be mistaken because i don't have a baptism planned until the 22nd of february. and he just said to me again that i better be ready that i am going to be baptizing someone tomorrow. I honestly am thinking that he is just yanking my chain. so i tell him. so if i call our DL i am going to hear the same thing that you just told me? (thinking that was just a fantastic way to answer this whole joke that is being played on me right now) but.. he tells me. Yeah. you will hear the same thing that i just told you. and so.. in this moment i'm a little confused of how i could baptize someone tomorrow. so i call our DL and i hear the exact same thing that i was just told... So i just told our DL that i really want to hear this in person. So when he showed up with my comp i asked him again is this really happening? and he told me that yeah he just got done with the interview of the young man that is going to be baptized tomorrow and when he got done our DL asked him who he wants to baptize him and he said "elder Anderson" and that sure was a shocker. because my DL asked him if he has ever met me, seen me, or even heard of me, and he said no. and i really don't know why they didn't just tell him that one of the other missionaries were going to baptize him but... yeah they just continued with this and told me that i was going to baptize him. 

and so when it came to the day of the baptism i met the kid that i was going to baptize and he was really cool and we got to the part of where we left the room to go around to the entrance of the baptismal font he told me that he was deathly scared of water. and i just told him that he didn't need to worry. and we did a quick practice right there of what was going to happen and i told him that this is why i exercise everyday so that you don't need to have fear of the water and just can grab on to me (that kinda lightened the mood for him but.. not quite enough) it took me like 5 minutes to guide him down the stairs into the font and once i finished the prayer i started to put him under and he flipped out and broke away from me and ran to the stairs of the font. and just sat there and said that he could not do it. So i just sat next to him for like 10 minutes and just had my arm around him telling him that he could do it and that all he needed to do is put his faith in God and know that everything would be all good. and that after I had finished the prayer that all he needed to do is squeeze my arm as hard as he could and he would be out before he knew it. and so after a few more minutes and words of encouragement he got back into the baptismal font and i said the prayer again and after i finished i told him that he just needed to squeeze my arm. (oh and let me tell you that this kid had a freakin' grip!!! I thought that he bruised my arm or something) and i put that kid under faster than a (insert something really fast here) and pulled him out as fast as i could but still making sure that i didn't have to do the ordinance again. and after that he was a little shell shaken but i just continually congratulated him (how ever in the world you can spell congratulated) and after the end of the service he just came up to me and told me that he was grateful for me to help him over come his fear of water and that he was able to move forward with his baptism. yeah so that was a fun good  experience. :D 

and well.. this was a unexpected surprise. So one family invited me and my comp and Elder Greenwood and his comp to their house for an "activity" and when we showed up they had lunch prepared for us and yeah it was pretty sick. they had a cake with my name and my comp (cuz his birthday was 2 days ago and mine was like a 2 weeks ago) and then after that they had a piñata for us! haha and here are some of the pictures. 

but.. yeah.. that was my week:D:D i don't really know how to describe these things better but.. yeah. :D:D:D Peace.