January 1 - Hermanos Heal Me!

Week 9 Oxkutzcab!!

Well to start off the week, it was a little rough. My companion and I got a little sick--but more my comp. We ate at the familia Dominguez home at Wednesday. We had snails and chicken feet with a little dab of habanero and celentro? idk how to spell it.   But it was fowl.  Nastiest thing I've eaten. I ate it with a tortilla chip and the daughter looks at me and she's like 'Elder, no necisita comer esta'. haha   I was like 'No yo puedo'. haha  And then I took another bite and she said 'Really, you don't have to eat it if you don't want'.  And I was like, 'Okay, muchas gracias' and she gave me something else. You could see dirt on the chicken's feet. And then like they break them so it was like eating bones. And it smelled so terrible. Then the snails just---ugghhhh   I can't think about it--it smelled so bad. So I had a little tareesh the next day but my comp ate a lot of it and he had a fever and had tareesh for like 2 days. So we stayed home Wednesday and I watched April General Conference, and some movies. 

I learned some good stuff let me tell ya. I have some killer notes but my favorite talk was Jeffrey R Holland's. And he talked about hope. And here's what I learned:

We can always improve and we always get credit for trying, even if we don't succeed.

So true--perfect example here in oxk this week. We lost three of our best investigators this week. One being Aida y jordy. She had a date and everything and then told us this week she didn't wanna go. Another one was Jesus and his parents didn't want us coming and teaching him anymore.  And another one I'll tell you about later

He also said: 'Everyone falls, and when you fall, call upon Him and He will pick you up.  And may I add--always to the end of that. 

This guy has power when he speaks. Its so amazing to listen to him and all the apostle and prophets.

Keep: loving, trying, trusting, believing, growing. Heaven is cheering you on, today, tomorrow and forever. 

Yesterday my legs started to cramp and I literally felt I couldn't go anymore. Seriously, my knees and my shins just felt horrible and cramping. I kept having to stop and take a minute break but something, not sure what it was kept pushing me and kept telling me puede, puede caminar, puede. and this is what got me through this week.

Just when you think you can't go any longer you just keep moving one foot in front of the other. 

Okay--so it was Thursday and had nothing to do 'cause nobody was home. So we prayed to be guided to someone in that time. And I promise you guys right now (and I promise with everything I have) we didn't know where we were. So we just started walking. And we came to a fork in the road. We could have gone straight or go left. And I just paused and I just said a little prayer and something said 'left'.  So I said 'left' to my comp. So we went left.  It was just a dirt and rock road.   It was pretty steep and no street signs, nothing, just jungle. And we see these little kids running and laughing and pointing and saying hermanos hermanos. And so we followed them and it was legit just walking in this dirt road and it was sick--like something you would see in the movies. So we get to their house and we say 'can we talk to you mom or dad'. And they say 'yes'. The grandma comes out and I was like 'I recognize her.  I've seen her somewhere'.  Well she's a member and then one of the kids is Yaretzi! She's 8 years old and wants to be baptized. So we talk to her and then we went back the next day to talk to her mom about her being baptized. Well her mom thinks she's too young to be baptized 'cause she doesn't understand. Her mom is catholic.  Well we just left it at that because its her mom and she gets to decide. We went to leave and seriously this girl stood on the front cement area and just watched us leave by herself. It was honestly one of the saddest things I've seen while here. You cold see it in her eyes. She wants it so bad and knows its true. She won't go to church with her mom but she goes every Sunday with her grandma which is awesome. Some day she will be baptized. God has a specific plan for her.

Well since its new years and holidays and everything, there's borrachos everywhere. Seriously every corner has a borracho. And some of them talk to us. I love talking to them--its so funny. One stopped us the other day and he said 'Heal me hermanos.  Heal my head'. He put his head down like for us to give him a blessing and my comp was like 'No sorry. We can't.  Its not an appropriate place and he gave us his direcion, and it wasn't even a direcion in oxkutzcab. haha

Oh Penelope--Hermana Chi is making you a sweater. She said she's gonna give it to me when I leave oxk. And then as well hermana villareal is making mom a tortilla servilleta. And one of the sisters gets a purse from hermana Chi also. They are all hand knit so its pretty cool.  

Well to be honest this week was a testing week--didn't really have many appts and lost quite a bit of our investigators and people we thought were doing really well. But honestly I realized that Heavenly Father has a time and place for everyone. And this week just wasn't their time. But you have to go through this time to get to the time when they are ready, and who knows when that's going to be?

Well I don't know if I told everyone what happened last week. I had a dream last Wednesday night that I got kidnapped in a sonnette. And then on Monday while talking to my family I heard that Penelope wasn't able to sleep that same exact night (or couldn't fall asleep that night cause I was 'lost in Mexico and she needed to come find me').  I really don't think that she had this dream or a similar dream to mine for no reason. Elder Rasband gave a talk last General Conference  ('Divine Purpose')  and it talks about there's no such thing as a coincidence. I really believe in this. It happened for a reason. and something in my body and something else is telling me that I can't go back to that sonnette. Seriously, maybe there isn't anything in that sonnette. But heavens knows I'm not gonna go back. My comp asked me a few times if we can go to our contact up by the sonnette, and I just said sorry, no we can't.

Well our refrigerator is having some problems. It started like this past week. It makes this really weird noises. So it woke me up this one night and I think the fuse is broken but it still works. The place where you plug it is is just burning but it still works so we good.

Well all in all this week was pretty good. This next week is going to be awesome--I know it.  We're gonna teach a lot of people this week. 

K--talk to you guys later. 

I'll send my pics right after this.

Elder Hall

December 25 - Well this week started out a little slow

well this week started out a little slow and a little stressful but turned out to be a pretty good week here in oxk. 

To start out, we went on inter cambios con the lideres de zona Monday. Remember I was sick--well yeah the doctor said the second shot the next day was going to hurt more. Oh and it did. Trust me. I was on exchanges with Elder Quintero for that time and we worked super hard.  The exchange was in Ticul--its about a little smaller than Merida

Well we went to oxk Tuesday to change back to our regular comps and they did an inspection of our house while they were there. At the end Elder Quintero asked us something that I didn't understand, so the American ZL translated it for me and he said 'do you guys have anything that you shouldn't have, like knives or pornography', and I was like, 'Nope'.  My comp just didn't say anything.  Two minutes (after just a silence) my comp went to the room and he gave Elder Quintero the Jehovah Witness book that he reads. I was honestly really proud of him. I know that it was tough for him. Its not easy to do something like that 'cause its embarrassing. But I was proud of him for doing that. 

Well we struggled a little bit yesterday to get along in the morning, because he missed his family. And he wouldn't really help me with planning the day. So I just told him to think of the reasons why he's really out here. I told him that its normal and okay to miss your family but that I needed his help planning. He just broke down. Its was sad, but once we got out and started trying to find people and teaching people I noticed that he wasn't as sad or didn't seem as sad. 

I saw my first sonnette this week. I'll tell you guys the story. I was on exchanges with a new missionary who has 2 weeks in the mission here in oxk Wednesday while my comp and his comp went to Merida for a District Leader meeting. So we were trying to find this one contact from a while back. This person lives on the top of the mountain. and so we climbed it (that was pretty fun).  So they weren't home so we just went walking back down the other side of mountain and we turn the corner and there's just a huge hole in the ground--and you could walk into it. We didn't go in it but we could see water. It looked pretty sweet. Well that night I had a dream we went in it and we got like kidnapped (like the Saratov Approach). I don't wanna go back to the sonnette again 'cause I'm too freaked out. 

I can't remember if I told you guys about Zulma, but she's one of our best investigators we have here in oxk.  She's the lady who has no problem just breast feeding out in the open. Well we taught her yesterday and it was awesome. We were gonna teach and ask her why she wasn't going to church. Wellllllll--it was pretty funny--she said that she didn't wanna go to church or get baptized because she didn't wanna serve a mission 'cause she has kids and a esposo. She thought that by becoming a member that she had to go on a mission and had to be a missionary and leave her family to serve a mission. Wellllll--that's not the case and she was very much relieved haha. It was super funny. Then she asked why we don't pray to Mary, and so my comp answered that. I don't know what he said. but basically that we don't. Well then we committed her to a fecha for 20 de enero which is awesome. I really think that she'll follow through. Then she talked to her esposo about this all and he said that it was her decision and that she can if she wants. She said that she hadn't gotten an answer sobre el libro de mormon but she said that she feels something different when she reads it and she feels peace and just feels something different.   I just paused and I just thought of what to say, and I just said, 'You know honestly, I know what your feeling. And the feeling is that the palabras your reading are true. That's what the Spirit is telling--the book is true'. And she said,  'Yeah, I agree.  I think this is my answer'.

Well another insane (probably the second coolest) experience on my mission so far. It was the same day as the sonnette experience. I was dropping Elder Duran off at the mayab terminal and we were gonna meet up with my comp and his comp. But Eldre Duran said that he wanted to go get water real quick so we did. We went to the store across the street and he got water.  There was a guy just standing there.   I talked and shared with him the folleto de the Plan of Salvation. The guy's name is Roel, and he's like 25. He lived in San Francisco til he was 17 and knows literally perfect English. So I talked to him in English. I just felt the Spirit insanely strong for some reason. and I asked him if he has ever wondered like where he came from before this life, why we're here on this life, like our purpose, and then where we go after this life. And he said yeah I think about it every day. I asked if he believed in God and he said yeah. He said yeah someone had to give us all the things we have, the food we eat, the water we drink. At that moment I felt something insanely strong, like I've seriously never felt anything like this. And I said,  'IDK, but for some reason I honestly feel that this message is for you. I'm not just saying this cause I'm a missionary, but something is telling me that you need this message'.  And he said, 'Oh really? Well here's my phone number, and here's my direccion.'   And I said,  'Hermano, when can we come by to visit you?'  He said that we could pass the next day. So we went to his house which was in the boonies and we found his house and we asked for him but he was sleeping. So we didn't get to teach him, but this was seriously a crazy thing. It was insane.

Well we had our ward Christmas party this week and we had a pretty good turn out. We had one investigator there Aida. Well the young women did a dance--remember this is in the chapel..and they dance to this song that cussed like 5 times. Presidente just put his head down haha. And then looked at us and we just started laughing.  Well the best part of the whole thing was the Primary. They acted out the the nativity. It was insanely cute

Well Saturday we visited a contact that we contacted like a week ago after asking where someone lived. The guy is like 90 I think.  Well we go to visit him Saturday and come to find out he doesn't speak any Spanish, but luckily one of the members is his daughter and was at the house when we showed up. He doesn't hear too well. We asked how old he was and then said he was 84.  I was like this man is older than that, and then they said well to be honest we aren't sure how old he is. haha   Well he only understands Maya, and so the hermana translated for us.   Well come to find out while talking to him that he's a member, but he can't get to church 'cause he's too weak. I volunteered us to pick him up and have a taxi for him yesterday, and then the hermana just said 'no, no, its fine.  He'll come'. So we just waited yesterday, and I was like 'he's not coming'. Midway through sacrament meeting he walks in, and I just went over and tried my best to talk Maya. I know five words and I said them--basically I said 'How are you brother?'.   He asked me and I said,  'Good!' hahaha,  But it was cool--he's awesome. I just hate seeing these old people that are so lonely that live by themselves.

Well, what else? We haven't had water for the past two days in the house, so we do everything out of buckets.

All is well here in oxk. Its been a good week, and I'm looking forward to this coming week. I try to make 10 contacts a day which makes 70 contacts in a week which is a lot if you think about it and its tough but I did it the other day when we had nothing to do all day and all 10 have return appts. While contacting I noticed that basically everyone here is related somehow. 'Oh my that's my brother', 'Oh yeah, that's my hermanonita', 'Oh yeah, that's my sobrino'.

Oh my gosh--so we have a one less active member who feeds us on Wednesdays and its literally the best food here. So we saw him on the street so we just talked to him and he loves the sisters. He's not active when the Elders are in the ward, but he goes every week when we have sisters here. So he has pictures of all the sisters and with them all, and he's showing us and he's scrolling through his phone, and I'm not gonna say what happened in English but let's just say he said "chispas, fotos de mi sobrino...." hahahahahaha so awkward.

Well that's about all for this week. Hope you guys are having an awesome Christmas. I'm talking to my family later and am super excited. I'm not really nervous. haha   My comp was pacing for the past two hours in the chapel while waiting for his family to call. I'm just here chilling out haha. I'll send pictures next week. I don't really have any good ones from this week and this computer isn't too high tech, so sorry for no fotos. 

K--love you guys. 

Keep being awesome. 

¡Feliz Navidad!

Elder Hall

December 11 - I love these people

Let me tell you guys--I love these people. Its been an awesome week here. Its flown by, and I honestly can't really remember what's happened this week.

Well, where do I wanna start?? 

Let's talk about the pólice for a bit. We were in Centro trying to find one person on one of the days and so we asked the police officer if she knew him, and she was like, 'repito por favor.' And so we said the name again and she said, 'Oh, that's my novio (boyfriend)'. And we were like, 'Oh, where does he live?'  And she said he's working right now and he's a police officer as well. So we went to the police office to teach him a lesson, and so we asked the Chief for him cause we wanted to teach him a lesson. So he calls for him and he was in the back and he comes out and this guy was as high as a kite.  He was so stoned out of his mind. His eyes barely were open. Well that's one problem Mexico has I guess. haha  Love it though

Well I got a new companion today. Elder Eguia. He seems pretty straight forward and knows what he wants to do. I honestly think we're gonna be picking up the work a lot more. Me and Elder Garcia had a crazy successful week this past week but I honestly have a feeling its gonna pick up a lot more with Elder Eguia. We got two new awesome investigators this week. Jarold who's 13 and Shirley who's like in her 20s. I'm super excited for them both and its awesome to see their testimonies grow in this short week as we taught the both.

Well mom and dad--when you guys come down here there's another place you guys need to visit. Its called Loltun--they have sonnotes, which are the caves with water, and they have a pretty sweet waterfall as well.

Oh my--we ate at Presidente Villareal's house yesterday and he has a farm. He grows all kinds of fruits and so we got our own coconuts with milk in them, and then as a little snack before lunch we got to eat the meat inside the cocos. Its something different let me tell ya. It was pretty tasty

Oh my gosh--listen to this. So I think it was Yuesday night or Wednesday no se, pero I wore shorts and a short sleeve that night.  Well let's just say that was a huge mistake. Like a huge mistake. I got 18 bug bites in one night. One on my neck, one on my forehead, 5 or so on my back. and a ton on my legs and arms. I'll send you guys some pictures later, but wow I was in some pain.

Well the feria naranja had a car show Saturday and Sunday. and we were tracting one day and I see these bugs that looked pretty cool and I was like,  'Sorry Elder, we need to stop and contact these people. The Spirit is telling me I need to contact them'. Not really, I just wanted to see these cars. One guy had a 59 oval window, and the others were 60s. VW's. Oh my they were so sick. The blue one had a ginormous engine in it and it had a nitrous tank in the back. The red one was pretty stinking nice as well. And then the oval window one was just pretty, and I couldn't stop looking at them. Well I talked to the owner of them all and he said you cant find these cars anywhere. Well that made my week, its always nice to see nice cars that don't look like they're about to blow up..

Well our new investigator. Shirley. She's in her 20s or so and she was a reference from our branch president. and so we met her on Saturday and we taught her and everything. The lesson was awesome and she listened very well. She said she wanted to get baptized but that she didn't wanna set a date cause she wants to know for sure. She came to church yesterday and you're not gonna believe what she did. She kissed my companion!!  Its normal to do it here if your like friends, but she kissed him not knowing and he was like uhhhhhhhhhhhh hahahahha we were laughing so hard.

Jarold is our other investigators. He's 13 and he's awesome.  Comprehends everything super well.  He loved the part of the Restoration that God loves all His children, and that's how we have the Book of Mormon. He said that he felt our message was true. He said he wanted to get a baptized as well, but we have to still meet his parents cause that's kinda important. His mom told him that he can do whatever with religion.

Well we have one investigator named Armando and he's an awesome guy, but at the same time he annoys me to my limits. I love the guy, so here's the story. We went to visit him and he let us in and he lives in a Palapa. I'll send you a pic. We 'taught' him a lesson. We honestly tried teaching him the Restoration, but we got to second section page and that's it. He just doesn't stop talking. He talks about stuff that's like Apostasy stuff and I'm just like k. So I got to a breaking point with him and I just said, 'Armando, as a representative of Jesus Christ, we help people come unto Christ through his true Gospel on the earth today. Armando, I have a sincere question for you.'  And he said, 'Yes?'  And I said, 'Do you truly wanna come closer to Christ and listen to our true message we have been sent here to teach you?' And he just ignored my question and I was like we got to go 'cause we're wasting our time here. Well my companion feels bad for the guy 'cause he's not married and lives alone and only has two cows that he hangs out with every day. So he's pretty lonely. Anyways, at the end Armando was like, 'You guys wanna go get pan and leche?'  And I felt bad so I just said, 'Yeah really fast--we have an appt.'   So we ran to the store and he picked out pan and the cashier said 70 pesos and he pulls out his wallet and he only had a 50 dollar bill, and then he started to scramble in his pockets for coins. He emptied his pockets and he had literally one peso left after buying this food for us. It was awesome.  Even though I struggle with this guy I love him. He's awesome. Some day he'll join the Church and it'll be awesome.

Oh my--listen to this.  So I think it was Friday and all of our appts weren't home so we had nothing to do.  So when we don't have anything to do Presidente Ruiz says to pray and then follow the Spirit to guide you to a person and then teach them.

So we were just walking aimlessly and I was like elder we need to pray.  So we stopped on the sidewalk and I said a prayer and I just asked Him to bless us with a person that needs our message right now. And I said 'Amen' and we both walked the same direction and I saw a man painting his house. Mid 20s and I didn't say a word to my companion and I just started walking towards him and I opened my mouth. and I talked to this man. His name is Jose and he has a 1-1/2 year old daughter and a wife (which is very rare here). Anyways we talked to him and at 6 we're teaching him. I honestly got a feeling on Friday that we needed to talk to him for a reason, and I think its gonna be great.

Although we haven't found many people this week, we have been working super hard and it feels awesome to just come home (seriously) at the end of the day and just fall into my hammock and just feel like I can't get up 'cause I'm so tired. I love coming home and having my shirt be brown 'cause I walked that whole entire day and found the people I needed to talk to.  My shirt's brown 'cause I sweat so much.  I love when people look at me like what language are you even speaking, but it means I'm trying.  I love it here.  I love the weather.  Its starting to get a little chilly which is nice. It makes me feel like I'm at home.  Its like mid 60s-low 70s. so that's nice.  I've been wearing my sweaters.

Alright you guys--I've got some big news for you.  I might have become a real missionary this week. hahaha Well, we had just finished lunch at Presidente Chi's house and I think the food just went straight through me.  I ate habanero with it so that wasn't good either!  So we were walking to go to the appt right after and I just got this feeling in my gut like its coming and you best run for your life 'cause its coming fast!  I was like 'Elder--yo tengo tarreesh (diaherrea in maya)!'  Oh my--we were walking and I literally had to stop 'cause I was gonna (mess)  myself if I walked anymore. So we waved down a taxi and we hopped in haha and my comp gave our direccion to the driver and I said,  'muy rapido por favor!!'hahaha Oh my I was so ready to just let it fly. I honestly had the thought that I could just take care of 'becoming a missionary right now so I don't have to do it later, but I couldn't let myself haha. The taxi driver was driving so fast!!  i was millimeters (I'm telling you millimeters) from just letting it blow. And we get to the house and I said, 'Elder, you pay! I need to tarreesh'. And so I ran in and oh my--our water didn't work in our toilet!! So I just let it fly.  And because we don't have water in our toilet, I had to sit to one side and lean into the shower and fill up a bucket to flush so I didn't clog it!!  It was a close one let me tell ya. 

Well that's all I got for this week

Love you guys--talk to you guys next week. 

Elder Hall

December 4 - Wow seriously weeks are just flying by here its insane

Wow seriously weeks are just flying by here its insane. Transfers are this week and I have a very strong feeling I'm gonna be leaving.

Alright, so where do I start?  To be honest this week flew by so fast I cant remember much. so the 'v' on this computer doesn't really work so I apologize if it doesn't make sense.

Well it really sucks to lie in oxk cause I have used all my allowance in one week. I literally only bought one thing and it was cereal. And the rest of my allowance went to traveling. It really sucks. I got 800 pesos at the beginning of the week and I used it all. So yeah by Saturday I had 4 pesos and so I had to go to the bank and get money from my personal account which sucks. So sorry Mom and Dad. It was only 500 pesos. Still sucks. I'm gonna ask for more cause we travel so much and to get around in our area we have to take moto taxis or we wouldn't be able to go places. 

Well its honestly beautiful here. There's so many palm trees and so much nature. Everyone has chickens. There's dogs all over the place that bark at you. You just act like your gonna get them and they get all scared. I did it to one dog and it charged me and I just started running and a natie saw and he just started laughing. I wasn't about to get attacked by that dog. So scary. Well I saw my first scorpion since being here. We were in Ticul and long story short I hear my new ZL say,  'ven ven ven', and so we all run out there and this thing was huge. So we grabbed the broom and we hit it down onto the ground into the yard. Not totally sure where it went after that. I think it died.  I got a picture though, so that's good.

Well its blazing hot here but, I've come to get used to it. I used to soley wear short sleeves but some days I can wear long sleeves cause its cooler and its just more comfortable and I don't get as many bug bites. I think I walked out of this week with only 6 bug bites--which is pretty good from last week. 

Hey, so when I get home I want a palapa. Look it up. Its about 50/50 here with the houses--half of them are just concrete and then the rest are palapas. The pictures of oxk on the internet are a lot different I imagine then what its really like. They're pretty cool. 

I have lots of stories from this week so here we go :

Story one: So we had to go to Peto this week. It is in our district and we had to go for an entrevista and so we left around 3 and its about an hour from oxk, so we have to take mayab. Its a bus service. Kinda like bolt, but more people use it. Anyways, so we got on the bus and I've been trying to work on my contacting this week, so I was like I wanna sit by someone and teach them. So I sat by this one guy and he looked a little down. Smelt a little weed, but not sure if it was him--I don't think it was. I got super nervous all of sudden. I just couldn't talk and I couldn't get the strength to talk to him. I got super shy. But the Holy Ghost told me I needed to talk to this man. I got super shy again and super nervous. Something told me that I needed to talk to this man a second time. And I said 'No I cant'. I thought that in my head and I got super shy. And then I got a feeling that I have never gotten in my whole life, and it said you need to talk to this guy. And I feel a lot in the scriptures when he has to tell you three times to do something you should probably do it, so I just swallowed and I just said I'm gonna do this; I can do this.  I know my Spanish sucks but I can do this. And so I talked. and I cant remember his name and I asked him where he was headed and he said Takash, so I knew I only had like 15 minutes to share something. So I asked him about his family and all that jolly stuff. Then I whipped out the ole folleto and I taught him the Restoration and taught him about Joseph Smith. and I bore my testimony and this guy was like solid. I don't know how much he could understand but he like listened so hard. Not many people do that around here. A lot of them just say I'm fine, I'm catholic, which is fine, but its like 'Bruh, just let me teach you.'   Anyways, we arrived in Takash and I let him get up but I wasn't done teaching, so he was walking towards the front and I was still teaching and he was still listening. Well I gave him a Book of Mormon and told him to pray about it and to read it cause I know its true. Well he said he would. The worst part was I couldn't get his address. but I'm telling you guys when the missionaries in Takash find that man, he's gonna be an awesome member of the Church. 

Story Two: Welllllll, on that same bus ride we arrived in Peto and I went on splits with an elder from Peto. And so we went to this one investigator's house that's getting baptized, and we gave her a blessing and the elder asked me if I had my oil.  So I went to go check my bag, and I couldn't find it. Luckily he had a tiny bit left in his little thingy and so I set it apart and I couldn't really think correctly, and I was like,  'The keys are still on the bus and the bus was going to Cancun, so there's no way we were gonna be able to get them!'   And so we went back to meet up with the other missionaries and I told them about it and my comp was just like, 'It's all good we can figure it out,. We're fine'.   So we started heading back and we just stayed in Takash for the night with the other missionaries cause we had district meeting the next day. The next day we got extra keys made and it ended up turning out fine and we were able to get into our house. Kinda fun--kinda stressful.

Story Three: Well I ate a habanero. They eat habanero with everything down here. So I just say I can't eat it. But I decided to be a little rebellious this week and kinda put too much on a taco I ate. My mouth was on fire. I drank some orchata and it turned out to be fine. Or I thought so........ welllllllllllllllllllll, not so! hahaha   We were in Takash for an activity and we stayed the night . And I felt super hungry and like my stomach was cramping cause I was so hungry and hadn't eaten basically all day and it was 9 at night.  So I was like,  'Pizza on me--I need something to eat'. So we got this garbage pizza and I downed half of it with a big loaf of french bread. It did absolutely nothing. I was still feeling hungry so I concluded I was not hungry. I brushed my teeth and just thought maybe laying in my hammock would work, so I set my hammock up and tried laying in it. I couldn't lay down, but everyone else was going to bed and so I just went to where they study and I sat in the chair with my blanket curled over, because that was the only half way comfortable way to sit. It still hurt insanely bad. So one of the ZL came in the room and he was like, 'Do you want a blessing?'  And I just said yeah just please hurry, I didn't really feel too good. And so they gave me a blessing. I just waited like an hour and a half more and it didn't go away. So they were still awake and one of them went outside, and he said 'en en ren' and we went and the scorpion was there. Then I just tried walking to get my camera to take a picture and oh my my stomach hurt so bad. I had to get a picture though, so I got my camera and got a pic. Anyways, I waited till like 12:30 and nothing really happened. So I was like, 'I need meds'.  So the elders ran and got me some mexican medicine, which I didn't really care cause I just needed something to make this pain go down. So I popped one of these pills and drank this leche stuff and literally no more than ten minutes later I was perfectly fine and I slept so good that night. Sometimes the look of medicine doesn't matter, as long as it works. All I care about! haha

Well I went on exchanges with Elder Nielsen. He has the same amount of time in his mission as me. But he spoke Spanish since he was 2, so he's super good. And everyone is super impressed. Well we taught a lot of people and we taught so good together. Everyone we walked passed just laughs, I think its cause we're white. Its kinda funny to walk past the little kids cause their all like whispering to each other, but they look at you, so you just smile and laugh with them. 

We had a stand at the Feriade Naranjas. Fair of the Oranges. We showed the 'Light the World' video. We got lots of people and taught lots of people. We got 3 new people that are futuro. One of them is in the area where no missionaries have gone before. In Teab. So I'm super excited to go there when we visit him. 

My language has come a long way this week. I told Elder Garcia at the beginning of the week I wanted to speak only Spanish. So we did, and if I didn't know we tried to figure it out with the dictionary or having him put it in other words in Spanish. I carry a little notebook in my bag that I write new words in. Seriously its coming so fast. I can't really describe it. Its not a whole lot better but I feel its a lot better.

I bore my testimony yesterday in Church about opéning our mouths and talking to people. and I challenged the ward to just invite--all you have to do is invite and God will take care of the rest. He can't force the Gospel on someone.

So my challenge for each of you this week is to simply invite. Invite someone to read the Book of Mormon and to pray with real intent and a sincere heart to know its true, then bear your testimony about it. Invite someone to watch the Light the World video. The video is not soley for the members of the Church, but probably more importantly its for the others. 

And to my friends that aren't LDS, here's my invitation to you. I'm gonna count how many of you are on this list......5 people on this list. I invite you 5 to listen to the missionaries, one time. ask them to share the special message of the restored gospel to you and your family. Ask them to show you the Light the World video. and if you're scared to talk to them talk to me and go to YouTube and watch the video. 

Well its been a good week here in oxk. I love it. Its hot and its humid but the work will go on. Transfers are next week so that's pretty exciting. Well I'll send pictures. 

K peace

Elder Hall