¿Que pasa calabaza? 'Oh--getting pretty good at this whole Spanish keyboard stuff!  So I have to tell a lot of

people that I'm actually Mexican or they won't talk to me cuz they think I don't know Spanish.  It usually goes 

like this (but in Spanish):  'Where are you from?'  'Oh, hermana--I'm not from the USA, I'm actually Mexican. 

I know I'm really white--that's just because my parents are both gringos but moved to Mexico when 

I was a baby.'  Them: 'Oh really--so you know Spanish?   Me: 'claro que si hermana'. 

This week was pretty good as always, cuz hey--I'm in Mexico on the Lord's errand. 

Story one:

Well, its two stories in one.  Man oh man--you guys are lucky. So Jorge Alvarez, who is getting baptized 

this Thursday, had a reference for us.  So we went with him. It was on the opposite side of our area close 

to the hermanas de camino real--like a 40 minute walk on straight camp ground. But anyways she is a pretty 

good lady, pretty religious and all that good stuff.  But what happened is that she was robbed by a bunch of 

guys from her church.  Their excuse for taking everything was that "I'm Christian and God told me to take all 

of this from you." Doesn't make sense, but whatever.  So she went to pray for help and she got her answer in 

our investigator. He was passing by on his motorcycle selling some sort of food (like everyone does in Veracruz) 

when he stopped at this lady's house. Well, they got talking and he pretty much teaches her the entire restoration
lesson and sets up a follow up appointment with her to bring us. So we go and we are just talking about how 

God puts trials in the paths of the faithful to test them and to grow their faith and other stuff. Well, we keep 

talking and Jorge Papa goes off and just shares an unreal story from his life and shares his short testimony, 

but the Spirit was so, so, so, incredibly strong while he was talking and sharing all of this stuff it was great. 

And it was so awesome cuz this guy isn't even a member yet, but he is a better member missionary 

than everyone else in our ward.

The second part of this story is actually pretty sad--and really got the LZ, LD, and myself extremely distraught. 

Same guy--but this story happened yesterday right before his interview for baptism (which he passed with flying 

colors).  So what happened was he was on his moto and a taxi ran an intersection and completely ran the guy 

over and wrecked his bike. Keep in mind this guy is like 54, so he doesn't have too great of shape of a body to 

begin with, but after this he just couldn't walk or really move his body on the right side. On top of all of that, 

his son was on the back of the bike cuz he was taking his son to work in the port. So anyways, they wreck and a 

lot of people saw it--including the bishop!   Thank goodness, right?  Well no.  The bishop pulls over and does 

not help at all. Jorge asked him if he could give his son a ride to work and he said 'no'.  He then said, 'Well, do 

you have like 10 pesos for a taxi to take him?'  He flat out told him 'No', he wasn't here to help; just to see how 

he was. The thing that irked us is the fact that the bishop has a bunch of money and carries a load of money 

at all times, but when someone in his own ward and his investigator dad got ran over by a car, he wasn't 

even willing to give 10 pesos (which is 50 cents) to help for a taxi. Here comes the cool part--we go to interview 

him for baptism and he doesn't say a single mean thing about the bishop and makes reasons of maybe this is 

why he didn't help him and other stuff. And then he just said, 'I'm not getting baptized for the people in the 

church.  I'm getting baptized for the doctrine of the church and the teachings of the church'. This guy's testimony 

is extremely strong and he is the definition of enseñamos arrepentimiento y bautizamos conversos. 

Like you, I too enjoyed conference like no other. Believe it or not, you actually learn stuff from conference if 

you listen and look for answers to your life questions. But boy, was it so incredible?  I believe this was one of the 

best conferences (if not the best conference) that I have ever watched. That could be thanks to the fact that I'm 

on a mission and only doing spiritual stuff (so I'm getting closer to the Spirit).  I just loved how all of the talks 

were so direct and they didn't hit you with a soft pillow but with a brick to the face with a lot of the stuff said. I 

loved all of the Seventies talks--they were the best ones I have ever heard. Also like always Thomas S. Monson, 

and Holland absolutely killed their talks. Also the prophet and Oaks (I believe its him), look a lot better than 

last time. One thing that I loved was the thing said multiple times about how we need to sacrifice short term 

goals for our long term goals (the talk about goals by Elder Ballard).

Some other general information for the crowd. I have transferred the bladder of my Camelback to my Nike 

backpack--this has been a huge blessing and a genius idea cuz now I'm never thirsty and drink close to 

4-6 liters of water every day. I have also traded a tie for a nice little cowboy hat that I now wear everyday (cuz 

its allowed)--this has shielded me from some of the sun. Not all of it though. Fun fact--it has been over 

40 C this week and its only suppose to get hotter--so what's up?!? 

That's all. 

 

Church is true--go be awesome (of course Anne Bagley) 

If you aren't Mormon let's go get baptized in the Church and become Mormon!