Back to Week 1

Joseph, this is the best i can get for your birthday, because it takes too long to send a letter and i cant email home later in the week. so HAPPY BIRTHDAY ¡FELIZ CUMPLEAÑOS!

so p day will be on mondays. and i found out i get an hour to email, so please do email me, because it takes 6 weeks for any letter or package to make it to me. i am in a little pueblo in Morelos called Cuautla, but i also go to many other small pueblos around here, we have about 10 pueblos in this area. dad, if you want to find my house on google earth, i am on gil muñoz, just below calle real.( sorry i dont have the house name) we are just out side of the city of Cuautla, and my actual city name is Anenecuilco.my companion is so incredible. His name is elder snyder from farmington utah, on his 20th month, has been zone leader, is white, and is a wonderful worker. you dont know how hard i prayed for someone like him to be my first trainer!! he is very diligent with his time, and strives to never slack off. my first day here, the other elders who knew who my companion was, said i was so lucky to get him.

Mexico is definately not how i expected it. it is so tranquilo here, except for traffic and having an awful government, but also very hot and humid. for some crazy reason, everyones house is made out of cement, which makes everything even hotter! everyday, i am sweating like crazy and walking up and down big hills! it stinks, but everytime i say that, it makes me love all this so much more for some reason. everyone is friendly here, and very poor. i love being able to say buenos días or buenos tardes to everyone, and they always respond! i love it here!!!we dont have a mamita, because our ward is big enough to pass us around. the relief society feeds us everyday at 3(a different family) the mamitas are only for tiny pueblos, that the branch cant support the missionaries. the food didnt affect me until yesterday actually, then i started getting the squirts.....elder snyder says he has got some of every color of the rainbow! haha. so far im still brown. speaking of brown, i am getting tanner! haha.

the elders before us didnt work too hard as far as we can tell, the area book was practically blank, and no one was really progressing. the most recent date we could find was back in april.... so we had to do it all ourselves. (of course the Lord too) but so far, we have made great progress! we had 17 new investigators in our first week, and already have 4 with a baptismal date, shockingly, the baptism question is always in the first lesson. i wish i could have realized that while i was in the mtc to practice it more.

we got 6 of our 9 progressing investigators to come to church yesterday (happened to be stake conference) and it turned out to be a wonderful experience. one family is the moore family (gringo name for some reason), the dad is a lawyer who lives in the city, and only comes here every weekend. he cheats on Karina (the mom) and sadly she knows it... she has 3 kids, alejandra, luis, and juan pablo. they all love us, and have been so accepting of the gospel. the only problem is that the dad is a big time jerk, hard core catholic, and still claims to have feelings for Karina.. we are working really hard for them right now. please help pray for them. and all of our other investigators, and also the people of anenecuilco to have soft hearts.

i am speaking a ton of spanish, and elder snyder is so understanding of my innocence. he makes me teach a part or two of the lesson everytime. the members give me a hard time sometimes, because im very slow compared to them, but at least i do understand pretty well what they are saying! sorry i need to get off now so i can still have time to write to the presidente. love you all so much and cant wait to hear from you next monday!

much love
elder facer

May 12, 2010: Final Week at the MTC

First off. my plaque quote is mosiah 4:11-12. thanks for the dear elder the other day, im a little sad its the only one i received the whole week, if you give the account to other people, they can write me through it, and not have to pay postage for a regular letter, please dont send me any more letters or packages! i will not receive them after today, and i dont want to have them sent back to you and you have to deal with the hassle. mom: if you do happen to see rees', please thank them for their support and packages. just the other day, clarissa sent me some of the cake she made for mothers day with a real nice note. it was good to hear from her and her family.

but how is everything with MY family? i dont know if we are getting the same weather, we rarely have a sunny day.... i blame dad. i think he is praying for rain for his garden....

congratulations joseph on another good battle of the bands! its good to hear you're keeping up with shows and getting your name out there.

so last night was probably the night that made my entire mtc experience: elder jeffrey r. holland came and spake to us! it was completely unexpected, because we had an apostle only two weeks ago! he is such a phenominal teacher when he directs it all at missionary work. i will send my notes home with a package of stuff i dont want to take to mexico and things i want to keep looking somewhat nice etc. speaking of going to mexico, we signed for our visas last wednesday, and got our travel plans on thursday. we go to the travel office at the mtc at 3:00 am, and our flight out of slc to dallas/fort worth is at 6:00 am. we get into dallas around 9:45 am, and have a three hour layover. i will call you at that time, so it will be about 9:00 am in utah when i call. i will just plan to call the home phone. well, after the layover we get on our flight to go to mexico city at about 12:40, arrive around 2:40 and then have an hour and a half bus drive to cuernavaca in our suits...... but im so excited!!!!

dad: thanks for talking with hermana Hanny. she is a really good friend who was in my zone. thanks for helping her out and she might be calling back while she is in dc, to possible get some non-member names in our stake area ( i told her you might have some ideas/ numbers to call) so if you could possibly start praying about that, both of us would appreciate it! also mr. humble, i need some help with that, if you could possibly help me with a scripture chase, or if you have any good thoughts on humility, i would really like to hear about it. its not that im really proud or anything, but i just need/want to be more humble. thanks

tara: good job on your talk! only just now am i having to write my own talks and it is really hard sometimes! haha. but if you pray for guidance, the Lord will give you what you need to say. thanks for keeping me updated on who is getting their calls. its fun to hear about what everyone is doing. have you ever heard where andrew lindsey is going? if you text griffen mcginn, he could tell you. i would really like to know.

so this week has been kinda rough, its our teaching week, and we really dont even have much time for teaching! i think we are only teaching about ten lessons, when the rest of our district is teaching about twenty... we are getting a new district in the zone today, and i have to welcome them in, so that will keep us really busy, and we are also teaching about three new districts how to teach tonight for 3 hours. we are really packed tight with time, but it is kinda nice. i also never realized how hard it is to be a strict leader, when almost your entire zone wants to break rules.. me and elder smith have really had to crack down on some people for quiet time, which can be hard, because they are your peers. but when you put the Lord's priorities first in your life, even for the little things, He does bless you. it has been nice to try to recognize the Lord's hand in my life, but i definately need improvement.

i love you all, and hope all is well, i guess my mission address is in the mission packet, so if you desire to write me, please do in a week... haha. and also please pass it out to any one you see that might want to write me. i am grateful for your love and support. it means alot that you want to keep me out here, and i know we are getting blessed on both ends of this scale. keep up the great work!!

PS tell canyon and savanna and olivia that i love them and miss them:) i guess also lyssa's baby too haha.

elder facer

Elder Facer's District

District Left to Right
Top: Elder Murray, Harley, Nelson, Smith, Jackson,
Front: Christensen, Facer

Companionships: Murray, Jackson & Christensen
Harley & Nelson
Facer & Smith

Group Picture Left to Right
Top: Robinson, Hill, Munoz, Elroy, Shriver, Robertson, Fast, Facer, Smith, Heinhold, Shilhabel, Tomas, Robins
Middle: Neilsen, Coleman, Thomas, Nelson, Doman, Nelson, Seguin (Missing: Hanny)
Bottom: Bean, Reagan, Lundberg, Carpenter, Little, Boyd

Cinco de Mayo, 2010

well i was just informed that i am going to the consolate today to get my visa!!!! only me and elder smith, and elder nelson are going, and two others are waiting to go, and the last two havent even got to sign for their permiso to go. so from today, until probably the end of my mission, i am striving to speak 100% spanish all day. so far, it has gone really well actually, and to alyssa: i dont have a gringo accent! my teachers and investigators say im doing very well for how long i have been here. we are teaching the first, second and parts of the third lesson in spanish already and are learing a lot of scriptures that go with them, and working on memorizing them. my teacher hno. stocking went back to his mission for the past two weeks, he served in equador guayaquil norte, and he brought us all bolsas:) i will probably send it home so it wont get ruined or anything, and then i will get another one from mexico.

we are learning a lot of other useful terms and words. direcciones, deportes, comida, cosas comprar, y tiendas, and how to haggle:) but that is probably the hardest and scarriest part for me haha. im also sorry for those of you who have written me, and i havent written back yet. i am trying, but i can only write on wednesdays, and that can get pretty crazy, but i am trying. and as soon as i get my mission addresss, i will send it out. mom: was it in the mission packet, or was that only my mtc addresss?

i know i say this every week, but can you believe its week 8 already?! i will be gone in less than two weeks in CUERNAVACA! its really scary, but also super exciting! i am already starting to get things packed up and getting a box to send back home to you, of stuff i cant take, or possible some other things.

this week has been a little rough, we are now the zone leaders, and have a lot more responsibilities. we had to get up at 4:30 to see the older district out, and that was hard to function the rest of the day, and it made it really easy for little things to creep in and frustrate me.. this week i have learned so much about patience and charity. i have really come to love preach my gospel. that book was definitely inspired and meant for everyone. if ever you are having a struggle in life, turn to preach my gospel and the scriptures. you can find an answer to any question you ahve from those two books and praying.

speaking of scrpitures and pmg, i ahve got a super effective way to mark and look up scrpitures from pmg. In chapter 3 teaching, each lesson has approximately 7 or 8 principles and there are 5 lessons, with scrpitures after them, on a piece of paper i wrote the principles and marked the scriptures with colored pencils, and the page with a sticker to match the principle. ill send pics so you can see and copy if you like, i would definately reccommend it to any one! i have got 4 elders in my district and others in the zone to do it, because it is so effective! and if you came to the mtc prepared with it, instead of using you time here, you would be so much more prepared!!!

next week is our teaching week, which is in all español, and we only have an hour of class a day and the rest is all teaching! im excited, but i think the schedule will get a little boring... i guess i just need to always feel the spirit during the week to keep me enterjetic. (cant spell any more:]) haha. but really, praying for the spirit and trying to have a positive attitude in everything. i promise it helps so much. for the new district that came in this last week, that was the main thing i stressed, because it really is so super important!

i love you all and hope everything is going well! continue writing for this next week, then dont anymore, because i dont know if i will still be in the mtc or not...:)

elder facer