Well Hey family!
So it has been a full week here in Mexico! As you have probably figured out by now, mondays are my p days, but it definitely doesnt feel like a pday thus far. So i have been assigned to the city of queretaro, which is the furthest away from the mission home and offices. so yeah i dont receive mail until someone from the office brings it up here, which sounds like that happens only about once in a blue moon (3 months to be exact!) so it doesnt sound like i will get too much, but if anyone does want to write, i would suggest dear elders because supposedly those come every week to the office and then they just hold them until someone comes to queretaro!
Ok I want to start off by saying happy birthday to humongous Lee and to Cbear! btw’s sweet arm christian! way to go you tool! Make sure all of the girls take really good care of you though! haha. I hope you both have a great bday on wednesday.
Alright so i arrived here on monday and we went right to the presidents house for interviews and dinner! they are great people and all went well there. the next day we went over to the church and had a little training and then received our new companions. mine is named elder castillo. yes he is a native. and yes it has been a pretty quiet week for me! haha. there were four natives in the group and 9 other americans and i ended up with one of the natives! i guess the lord knew it would be good for me, huh? so we then took a three hour bus ride up to our mission and got to our house. On the way up my companion was telling me how nice our house is and what not and then when i got there i was like really this is considered nice? haha. but i think it is pretty nice, i mean the bathroom sink has been ripped off the wall and i have killed at least one cockroach everday so that is real nice. the first thing i saw when i came in was a cockroach running over all the food! that was really comforting! haha.
We went out tracting that night and we met some really nice people and what not. The people here are way nice and literally every single house feeds us. we are definitely not going hungry and i am probably gaining even more weight. so this last week we were supposed to have 8 investigators at church and we had set 2 new baptismal dates for these two awesome people that we ran into. but come sunday, we only had 1 person in church. at least it was our baptism that we have lined up for next week. the goal of the mission is to baptize someone every week and have 3 new baptismal dates and 3 new people attending church everyweek. it is definitely possible but you need to work really hard, that is for sure.
Well this week sure has been a pretty tough adjustment. i feel like the awkward missionary who just kind of creeps in the corner because i literally have no idea what they are talking about like half of the time! I just want to talk so bad sometimes but i dont know how. i feel that my spanish is coming along though. I study with one of the ladies who is in our ward who also speaks english. She is a pretty good help for me but there are so many stinking words in spanish and so many rules! haha.
This was my letter to the president where i explain some of the things we did. I’ll include it so i dont have to type it twice: "Well this week has been quite the adjustment but i have had a good time with our investigators and teaching people (well as much as i can at least). I was able to extend the commitment for a baptism this week with two of our new investigators and they seemed like they were just golden. We called them on saturday night and they had read everything we told them and said they were going to be ready for us to pick them up the next morning. the next morning when we went to pick them up, however, the mom was with her mom, who was sick in another town. I hope that is the truth because they seemed really interested and i knew they felt the spirit. We also have been teaching a lady named Xotchitl who is way awesome and is going to be baptized this upcoming sunday. I was able to share testimony with her about Christ and also share some scriptures with her. My contacting is coming along as well! I have contacted a lot of people and most of them have said we could come share a message with them! we are doing well but we need to figure why most of our investigators didnt come to church!"
While we were in the MTC, we watched a video by elder bednar, who told a story of some missionaries who came to his house and stayed there for almost two hours, and then at the end asked for references. Bednar said, "i would never give my references to you missionaries". he then went on to explain how they weren’t obedient and are spending way to much time in the members houses. he closed by saying you need to always ask yourself "how is this adding to your purpose as a missionary". i decided then that i would never be that missionary, that i would be focused and do what i am here to do. i just know that when you are exactly obedient, then miracles will come.
Well it has been hard but a good kind of hard. i feel awkward and cant really talk at all, but i try, and i am happy, so i guess thats all you can ask for. without the lord's help i wouldnt be able to do this work. the gospel literally changes peoples lives!
and yeah my stomach will never be normal again! The food is pretty dang good though. We are in like a rich city i think! i love you guys a lot and i sure do miss everyone! i need all the prayers i can get for my spanish so keep me in your prayers each night! haha.
Love,
elder holmes
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