August

8/30/2013

... Es todo que tengo que decir... This week has been interesting. I no longer have a proselyting area... That is definitely the biggest change. President has asked us to go around on splits every day to help the mission improve on teaching. So until the transfers the assistants don't have a proselyting area. And in those transfers i will have transfers. I have been talking a lot to president and he told me to get back for school, and i could pick between Dec. 11, 19 or 23rd (but he told me to please not the 23rd with holiday travel traffic etc.) So i will be back Dec. 19. Saying goodbye to the converts and less actives that are no longer less active has been tough. Nataly just got called to be a seminary teacher, which was really exciting. Elizabeth was crying when we said goodbye, and i gave her kids a few little gifts, they are awesome too. And were clinging on to me as we tried to leave. We sang "God be with you ´til we meet again" with Dulce and her family and they were also pretty emotional, it was sad to say goodbye, but there's a saying here that all change is good... But I've been in this area since January 2nd, so a bit of time. I realized last week i feel like i even know most of the non-members. The ones that go outside at least. I'm going to really miss this area. Tomorrow i will be in my area again just to show the new missionaries where everyone lives, etc. Pretty interesting week. On top of talking to president about the day he'll be sending me home, i talked to him about how i asked to finish as a junior. He told me no. I will be training. Starting spetember 17. I'm actually really excited. There will be a large need in the mission for trainers in september, october, and december. Lots of missionaries will be getting here. Also, the Elder Tovar that is my companion now is not the Elder Tovar that was my companion before. THe last one finished his mission with me, the current one still has a while left. President keeps asking me if he'll be ready by the transfers, and we're going to have to work, but he is awesome, so i'm sure he'll be ready. I'm really enjoying being with him. My last companion and i were very different. He is a lot like me. Though i feel bad, i've been taking him to the doctor a lot lately. Last time i talked to a doctor they told me i needed an x-ray. So finally we had a p-day and i got one. The doctor then told me i probably had a problem in the rotator cuff from tennis, and to check it by ultrasound. So now i´ve gotten one of those, and apparently the doctor that looked like that doesn't agree, he says it is another tendon (no idea what it's called, i'm understanding almost all of the medical words, but certain tendon names are still a bit much, even if it were in english). So i have another doctors appointment tomorrow. Depending on that one they should tell me if it really is that bad and if i will be able to play tennis again (in 4-6 months). Though we'll see if the doctors can help here. not exactly inspiring a lot of confidence so far... But that's life right now. Love you all! Elder West

8/23/2013
hola todos, otra semana loco, ya no creo que se calme... así es la vida. This week started a bit crazy. Monday we got up at 3:30 AM to get a missionary (who had to go home for sudden health problems) to the airport and then pick another up from the benemerito, the new ccm, but when we got there they started looking for him and found out someone had taken him to the embassy and he was actually probably going to get his visa, so we headed back finally getting to chalco at 11 AM. That was a pretty tiring day. And then we got back to work out some special changes. I now have a new companion. Elder Tovar, he's from Hidalgo, Mexico. My old comp was having a bit of a tough time, he's had a very long time in the offices, so president decided to give him the assignment as a traveling assistent, he goes from area to area in divisiones with another missionary, no longer has an area. And now Elder Tovar is the new assistant. This new change means i can definitely be out of here in september or october, we'll see what happens there. Then tuesday night/wednesday morning Elder Durham and I got up at 1 AM to head to the airport again to drop someone off, and after lots of lines, etc. we finally got back at 7:45 AM, and just crashed for a couple hours. That one definitely left us pretty tired... And now starting again in the area. Today to relax we are going to go to Temazcales. Pre-hispanic saunas. THey heat up volcanic rocks and put them inside and then put them inside and pour water on them to make the steam. President was going to come with us but he has a family situation he needs to take care of... But maybe we'll get a few normal days later on. I heard a quote that mission presidents are mission presidents for three years because they can't survive it one day more. I don't know if that is quite true, but he definitely has so much work and people to worry about. This is God's work, he really does protect and help us. There was also another 6.0 earthquake, that happened right when i got home from teh airport at 7:45 or 8 am. Volcanos and earthquakes, not gonna lie, it's a cool place here, never a boring day.

8/16/2013
Hola todos. This week was still a bit crazy, but things are going a little bit smoother. We had mission conference on tuesday and president asked us to speak to the mission. I am really excited. lots of changes. lots. There has definitely been a probelm in mexico with missionary work in the past by looking at the numbers, but in the last year it has changed 180 degrees. Now it isn't just knock and baptize. Now there is a ton of focus on members and strengthening the wards. I'm really excited. And the mission atmosphere is changing a ton too. The leaders, the attitude, the goal, everything, i'm really excited. The best of both missions. We finally got some time back in our area this week, and i really felt like we were just being led by the spirit. I was on splits with a zone leader when and we got to so many houses in the moment they were going through a really rough time. It was awesome. This is the Lord's work. Love you all, Elder West
8/9/2013
Estas meses han sidos... unicos... We had a pretty crazy week again... Monday we went to the new mtc really early. The new missionaries that got here were great. We took them on an awesome contacting activity, President and i took the two sisters (we got the stake counselor to be their first contact to help them gain confidence. we forgot to tell them after...) It rocks getting the new people, they get here with stars in their eyes, so excited about everything. I took one of them with me to work in our area for a little minutes. It was cool. Tuesday morning we had a changes meeting, lots of new changes in the mission. President surprised us with a lot of those... Though it was weird how much he relied on us for the changes. I guess it makes sense. He still doesn't really know the missionaries in meyehualco (the zone from the south mission) and Elder Milner does, and I know those from the other five stakes. But we're very excited about the changes. Though it was really sad to see Elder Vazquez and Elder Medina go. They were some of my best friends in the mission. Wednesday I went with Elder Durham, one of the secretaries, to take the missionaries who are going home to the airport. On the way in shuttle bus we rented we got hit by a semi-truck... Though after waiting for a new shuttle to get there while the insurance company was debating things with the semi truck driver, we were able to get to the flights on time. It wasn't a bad crash, just clipped the back end and broke the light and damaged all the fiber glass etc. But it was cool to take my friends to the airport. One Elder's family was waiting for him there. that was weird. We did have some visa problems getting the missionaries out of there. One Elder was literally days away from being arrested and deported. Finished just in time... But finally it all worked out and we ended up back in chalco around 5 or 6. Definitely an exhausting day. And Thursday was the mission leadership council. There were so many changes, it was ridiculous. Changes from the president of the area of mexico, and from President Crickmore. We'd been talking for a while on how we were going to present this to help the missionaries see why and want to do it. The largest change was that we are now going to require 5 times attending church before baptisms. President talked to us a lot about that one before. We told him we would love it. he was originally thinking 3 or 4, but we talked about the ridiculous numbers of inactivity in some wards, and decided for so many reasons more than 3 would be better. The next day he called us and said he agreed, but not just 4, he wanted 5. The statistics of activity of people who went 4 times to 5 times skyrocketed. So we are going to be putting a ton of emphasis in that. I'm very excited. Lots of changes. There are definitely several missionaries who are a bit worried, but we're excited. And starting next wednesday we should finally be back on a more or less normal schedule, and be able to work in our area!!! We have basically had to abandon it. 10 ish hours a week, but we finally should be over the just start up phase of the mission. Now it's going to be a lot of putting it in practice and helping the missionaries to do the same. It's been a few really tough months. Several of the zone leaders have mentioned these have been the hardest of their missions, but we're hopeful we are getting out of it, with a focus on just complete conversion of investigators, members, and less actives, and most importantly of the missionaries. i am really excited. I just wish that we had made these changes at the beginning of my mission. it is going to be awesome. Les amo, Elder West