well alot has happened in these two weeks. we had our interviews with president this week, but sadly my package didnt arrive in time... ever since monday night, elder cardenas had been sick, but we continued working. when we had interviews, president spannaus said that he needed to stay in bed for three days and sleep, so i got put with an {hermano local) its just that a member goes with me on splits. i dont know what its called in inglish haha. the good thing is that he was actually willing and wanted to work! he is preparing for his papers and not doing anything with his life right now, so he came with me. we did a lot of contacting, and had some appointments, but not many. i really enjoyed my interview, we talked about the companionship, obedience, experience, the area, and then about my questions. it was funny, because president knew right away that i had more questions to ask him. i like to go to him with some of my questions about how to improve, or doctrinal questions. we talked about making scripture study better, and understanding them better through prayer, more reading, meditation, and fasting. the first two are easy, but the last two are tough to do, i wish elder snyder was still here to help me meditate. haha. i will definately try to apply those things. also we talked about the atonement, and he gave me a little homework to do in mosiah 12-17. i really enjoyed it, and think it was the most descriptive i have read about the atonement. i felt bad, because i have read that part many times, but never got anything out of it.
we have sadly struggled to find people willing in this area, but its tough. we really need the help of the members. later in the week, we started to get some, thankfully. it has been unusually hot this week too. we havent had any rain in about a month, and because of that, there is a ton of dust everywhere.
yesterday, sunday, we had a great baptism of a girl named yajaira. she was so excited and ready to be baptized, we jsut needed to help her family get excited also. all of her family are members except her and another brother. her parents were sealed in the temple with the family, but sadly becasue of work, went inactive. one daughter got married in the temple to the bishops son, and really helped us out a lot. the mom and sister of yajaira are excited and really want the brother to start listening to us also, i think he will be willing also, because he looked interested and curious in the baptism. she also got confirmed in sacrament meeting. the only problem is that she lives like 45 mins away...... i am sending the photo and a few others right now, i hope alyssa or someone has been able to put them on my blog. i havent seen it, so i hope it is going well!
so yesterday after church, during our dinner appointment we got a phone call to say that elder cardenas is going on special changes monday moring for cuautla morelos to be zone leader. its funny because he was there before this area, and will now return to be a leader. he didnt want it too much, because it means he has be been an example, but i know it will be super good for him, and his companion is elder klein who is an excelent missionary. i will stay here and receive mi hijo.......! my first son. my family in the mission is almost all dead. my brother is zone leader in iguala, and my uncle is my zone leader right now, they are the only family i have alive, so i am happy i can keep the family alive! also they will die soon. i dont know anything about my kid, just that he is american and is coming directly from the US. i am super worried to have a lot of responsibility with him to train him right, but i think i have had sufficient preparation. i realized that most of everything i learned, and that i do, is because of my dad, elder snyder. also by my dad Gary(most importantly) of course! i jsut hope i can be all that he needs, but i realize that the lord does everything for a reason, and that everything will be good. i think it will be good.... i go to get him tomorrow in the morning in cuernavaca.
i was very sad to hear that tara lost the soccer game, but she is right, it was a good experience and she will have other chances. i dont think i ever won anything with my soccer teams except my senior year we won region(tied) but still won! haha. so keep your head up and give it all you got! to counteract the sadness, jeff is getting his call! congratulations bro! im so excited to hear where you are going, and my guess will be new hampshire.(dont worry, it was revelation) youll do great. haha jk. i love you all, and am so grateful for your example and influence! stay strong and stay on the winning side of the battle! im still happy, still excited, and still sadly a little fat( thanks mom for telling me....) but i will drop it when i can!
elder facer
Monday, October 25, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
A Plea From Chilpancingo
hey sorry about last week that i wasnt able to write, everything has been pretty crazy recently. we have had a lot of work, and not a ton of success. thankfully we are still baptizing every week. this week we had the baptism of pablo and his son antonio. they are so great. just a month ago, his other son angel was baptized by elder cardenas and his other companion, and at that time, pablo was still completely against joining. but when we talked about living together as a family forever, he really started to pay attention. his wife has been a member for over 20 years, but sadly has never really stayed active because no one in the ward helped her to remain. for that i challenge all of you that read this letter: IF YOU SEE ANYONE IN YOUR WARD THAT IS NEW, AT LEAST GO AND SAY HI AND FIND OUT WHO THEY ARE. OFFER SERVICE IF YOU CAN. president hinckley said every convert needs a friend. and you are that friend he is talking about! but at least they have all returned to the church and are so excited for their goal to go to the temple on October 17, 2011. i am so excited for them, i know they will go places. they are all super smart and actually are super rich also. that doesnt happen very often in mexico..... jaja.
i wanted to tell you all thanks for your letters and support in all that you do! it really means a lot to still have your support during this dificult time. everything just hasnt been going the same as it was before in anenecuilco, and i guess im just not adapting super well to it. we arent finding enough new investigators every week, and we dont have many appointments every day. there really is absolutely no one here in the morning. we dedicate the entire morning to contacting, because we cant contact members for references, no one is there for an appointment, and its just really a downer to not be finding success like we did in my first area. if we are lucky, we will find 2 or 3 everyday, and very few of them progress. we really need the help of members. and that is my second challenge to all you that read this: YOU MUST GIVE REFERENCES OF FRIENDS OR FAMILY MEMBERS, CO-WORKERS ETC TO THE MISSIONARIES. WE NEED YOUR HELP, IT REALLY IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DO IT ON OUR OWN. i thought about this yesterday. of all my baptisms that i have had, all but one have been member referrals. thats saying something. remember: if you are willing to talk to your friend and share your thoughts about our church, live the standards, etc the lord will help you in the situation. he knows whats best for your friend, which is salvation, which only comes by one baptism, by one authority of God, and there isnt another church that can do that. Your friends need their salvation, and it should be important to you as well as us as missionaries. please help in whatever way you can.
something really scary happened this last thursday. while i was on divisions in another area, my companion and the exchange elder arevalo almost got assaulted. there were some guys driving in a truck, and they yelled some things at them, but the elders ignored it, and the guys later yelled, ya well lets see how you react to this then! and pulled out a gun and cocked it in front of the elders and two sisters that they were talking to. luckily nothing happened, but this area is starting to get a little dangerous. also the day before i came to Guerrero, 4 mob boss/drug bosses were shot and they killed 4 mexican soldiers almost right in front of our meeting house. its because this is the only way into acapulco is through chilpancingo. so the police and military try to cut them off before they get into acapulco. the drug dealers( narcos) are too powerful in acapulco, and the national military cant take them down yet, so they are trying little by little.
we are really going to need a miracle for a baptism this week. we are preparing yesenia and her daughter melanie, but we sadly havent seen them all last week, so we dont know how this is going to work out. please pray for them, yajaira, and gustavo. sadly we dont have a ton of people prepared, but we are still moving little by little.
i hope everything is well for all of you, my friends and family. i pray for you all everyday, and hope that you are able to turn to the lord in every trial that you face. i am a witness that he really blesses us, just for talking to him in prayer. he loves you, and knows what you need, but first you need to ask. i have been studying d&c a little this past week, and i really like the popular scripture of study it out in your mind and in your heart, then ask Him. also how many times the lord says if you desire to be a great means among the children of men. we all have the potential to do it, we just need to put forth our faith into works! i love you all tons and miss you. until next week....God speed
elder facer
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
i wanted to tell you all thanks for your letters and support in all that you do! it really means a lot to still have your support during this dificult time. everything just hasnt been going the same as it was before in anenecuilco, and i guess im just not adapting super well to it. we arent finding enough new investigators every week, and we dont have many appointments every day. there really is absolutely no one here in the morning. we dedicate the entire morning to contacting, because we cant contact members for references, no one is there for an appointment, and its just really a downer to not be finding success like we did in my first area. if we are lucky, we will find 2 or 3 everyday, and very few of them progress. we really need the help of members. and that is my second challenge to all you that read this: YOU MUST GIVE REFERENCES OF FRIENDS OR FAMILY MEMBERS, CO-WORKERS ETC TO THE MISSIONARIES. WE NEED YOUR HELP, IT REALLY IS IMPOSSIBLE TO DO IT ON OUR OWN. i thought about this yesterday. of all my baptisms that i have had, all but one have been member referrals. thats saying something. remember: if you are willing to talk to your friend and share your thoughts about our church, live the standards, etc the lord will help you in the situation. he knows whats best for your friend, which is salvation, which only comes by one baptism, by one authority of God, and there isnt another church that can do that. Your friends need their salvation, and it should be important to you as well as us as missionaries. please help in whatever way you can.
something really scary happened this last thursday. while i was on divisions in another area, my companion and the exchange elder arevalo almost got assaulted. there were some guys driving in a truck, and they yelled some things at them, but the elders ignored it, and the guys later yelled, ya well lets see how you react to this then! and pulled out a gun and cocked it in front of the elders and two sisters that they were talking to. luckily nothing happened, but this area is starting to get a little dangerous. also the day before i came to Guerrero, 4 mob boss/drug bosses were shot and they killed 4 mexican soldiers almost right in front of our meeting house. its because this is the only way into acapulco is through chilpancingo. so the police and military try to cut them off before they get into acapulco. the drug dealers( narcos) are too powerful in acapulco, and the national military cant take them down yet, so they are trying little by little.
we are really going to need a miracle for a baptism this week. we are preparing yesenia and her daughter melanie, but we sadly havent seen them all last week, so we dont know how this is going to work out. please pray for them, yajaira, and gustavo. sadly we dont have a ton of people prepared, but we are still moving little by little.
i hope everything is well for all of you, my friends and family. i pray for you all everyday, and hope that you are able to turn to the lord in every trial that you face. i am a witness that he really blesses us, just for talking to him in prayer. he loves you, and knows what you need, but first you need to ask. i have been studying d&c a little this past week, and i really like the popular scripture of study it out in your mind and in your heart, then ask Him. also how many times the lord says if you desire to be a great means among the children of men. we all have the potential to do it, we just need to put forth our faith into works! i love you all tons and miss you. until next week....God speed
elder facer
NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
A chat through email...
Today was pday; we played soccer and ate with a member for breakfast. Hope you enjoy the pictures. i know its so sad that i have gotten fat.... i still work out almost every night doing 100 pushups, and 20 pull ups, but it just isnt enough to conquer the tortillas. elder cardenas has a little device that i only need my memory card and it attaches into the usb port so I’m finally able to send pictures. i know, finally when you send my camera cord, i get another way. our house is shockingly nice. the first counselor in our ward is an architect and its his house construction. we pay 1500 pesos, and the ration is 11 pesos to 1 dollar. do the math. we could get up every morning to run, but we are lazy, i usually write in my journal that time too. ok sorry, its not that i am a lazy missionary, but just that i use that time for something else, and do my workout at night, so i am tired. i am definitely not a lazy missionary, dont worry. also if you notice in the last picture, i have new shoes. sadly they are brown. but one of our investigators is really rich, and he owns four shoe stores, and had an extra pair of boots that he didnt like. they are way comfortable, but its bad because i dont have a ton for brown. i would like to wear them more, but its ok, they should last my entire mission. elder cardenas has some boots, and he has had them his whole mission. im sorry that i wasnt able to write a weekly letter today, i was really busy with the pictures and i had to write president. i will be sure to include everything next week and our great baptisms. if you could please pray for yesenia, melanie, pablo and antonio. they are all great and preparing for this week, also a little girl that is the niece of the bishop, and wants to get baptized, so we will get her done this week too. thanks for everything, i love you so much mom. well talk next week!
elder facer
elder facer
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Moving Forward
well another good week. we had another baptism of a 17 yr old boy named camilo. he was so prepared, he received everything and did everything we asked, he also lives in an apartment complex with a solid memeber who has given us a ton of references, a recent convert named mario received the priesthood last week, and baptized camilo this week, they are really good friends.
conference was really good, but also really hard to understand. first of all they wouldnt let me watch it in english, mostly because they were lazy, and the signal was really bad. so sunday in the afternoon i didnt see the first half of conference. did elder bednar speak? i didnt get to hear him. elder holland and elder christofferson were really good, but i was most impressed with elder uchtdorf and elder eyring in priesthood. i would really appreiciate it if you could send me a copy of conference, because it isnt completely sure that we will get the conference issue. and that it might also be in spanish. also in conference there was this guy that came up to us, and started confessing his whole life to us, and that he want to go to the temple. he was baptized in 1996, and hasnt gone to church, but has been reading the book of mormon and reads it to his dad. he lived in the us(before his baptism) and was a bigtime drug trafficer. he went, and got sent back three times, and the third time he talked with barrack obama or some thing like that and had to make some deals with him that he wouldnt come back. he hasnt done drugs in a long time, but is still pretty crazy from doing them before.. and because he speaks poor english and wants to practice, he tried to talk to me almost the whole day.............
me and elder cardenas have talked a lot and have come to a few conclusions about how we work and all. we really do get along well, its just that he is lazy and has had bad examples his whole mission. we talked and we are going to work harder and try to be more obedient, especially with the girls... but he is improving and i think we will see some changes in the next few weeks. by the way, if you can tell dan that elder dominguez, his companion in acapulco, is my zone leader and is so great. he talks alot about dan and his example to a lot of the elders. his companion is elder ramon. haha. we have received a lot of love from the members, everyone is willing to help us and give us all the food they have, its crazy, and its hard because they want to give it all, but cant.
not a whole lot is happening here, we are having good weather and not too much rain. everything is super green still and from the roof of our house you can see almost all of chilpancingo. and we are just preparing for a few baptisms to come. please pray for the bravo family, xochilt(socheel for all you gringos) lupita, yesenia and melanie. they are progressing but all have a few problems that they arent completely willing to give up yet, so we heed some help. the next time i will receive packages is the 20th of november. so if anyone would like to send letters or packages, that is the time to send it. it takes about 2 1/2 weeks to get here, so plan ahead. thank you all for everything, for your prayers and support. every member a missionary!!! do your part to talk to friends and i promise you, you will be able to see the blessings the Lord had prepared for you. this isnt my plea, but the plea of the prophets, do your part, so that we can do ours. i love you all so much and am so greatful for all you do.
take care family and friends. until next time.....
elder facer
conference was really good, but also really hard to understand. first of all they wouldnt let me watch it in english, mostly because they were lazy, and the signal was really bad. so sunday in the afternoon i didnt see the first half of conference. did elder bednar speak? i didnt get to hear him. elder holland and elder christofferson were really good, but i was most impressed with elder uchtdorf and elder eyring in priesthood. i would really appreiciate it if you could send me a copy of conference, because it isnt completely sure that we will get the conference issue. and that it might also be in spanish. also in conference there was this guy that came up to us, and started confessing his whole life to us, and that he want to go to the temple. he was baptized in 1996, and hasnt gone to church, but has been reading the book of mormon and reads it to his dad. he lived in the us(before his baptism) and was a bigtime drug trafficer. he went, and got sent back three times, and the third time he talked with barrack obama or some thing like that and had to make some deals with him that he wouldnt come back. he hasnt done drugs in a long time, but is still pretty crazy from doing them before.. and because he speaks poor english and wants to practice, he tried to talk to me almost the whole day.............
me and elder cardenas have talked a lot and have come to a few conclusions about how we work and all. we really do get along well, its just that he is lazy and has had bad examples his whole mission. we talked and we are going to work harder and try to be more obedient, especially with the girls... but he is improving and i think we will see some changes in the next few weeks. by the way, if you can tell dan that elder dominguez, his companion in acapulco, is my zone leader and is so great. he talks alot about dan and his example to a lot of the elders. his companion is elder ramon. haha. we have received a lot of love from the members, everyone is willing to help us and give us all the food they have, its crazy, and its hard because they want to give it all, but cant.
not a whole lot is happening here, we are having good weather and not too much rain. everything is super green still and from the roof of our house you can see almost all of chilpancingo. and we are just preparing for a few baptisms to come. please pray for the bravo family, xochilt(socheel for all you gringos) lupita, yesenia and melanie. they are progressing but all have a few problems that they arent completely willing to give up yet, so we heed some help. the next time i will receive packages is the 20th of november. so if anyone would like to send letters or packages, that is the time to send it. it takes about 2 1/2 weeks to get here, so plan ahead. thank you all for everything, for your prayers and support. every member a missionary!!! do your part to talk to friends and i promise you, you will be able to see the blessings the Lord had prepared for you. this isnt my plea, but the plea of the prophets, do your part, so that we can do ours. i love you all so much and am so greatful for all you do.
take care family and friends. until next time.....
elder facer
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