Rompimos la racha...[Nov. 24, 2014]

Hola,
Excellent news this week: we had a baptism. Two of our investigators, María Elena and Tonio took a leap of faith and were baptized this last Saturday. This was the first baptism the ward has had for over a year.


Sometimes in our life, we experience something that leaves a profound impact on us. I think this was one of those moments. We struggled a long time to get to this point and i just feel so... connected. At times we can feel closer to our Heavenly Father's prescence and at other times, estranged.


On a bit of a lighter note, before the baptism, the church was out of gas - no gas, no hot water. Our bishop came with us at 6 in the morning to fill it up. Later, when we actually had the baptism, the water was a little bit hotter than usual - about spa temperature.


We didn't explain very well one crucial step of the baptism process to María Elena, so when she was baptized, she forgot to hold her breath and close her mouth so she came out of the water coughing, but we didn't have to do it again thankfully.


Although we are teaching the whole family, only the children were baptized for now because the parents still have to get married. This will be our main focus for this transfer. I know we can do it!


Also we received some startling news. A pair of investigators that we have had since I got here just told us that they aren't married... and one of them still has to get divorced :(. However, we also got news that we are both staying here on transfer more, so we will also focus on this.


Have a superb week and make sure to keep hope even in the darkest situations.
élder Seymour.

My companion and I
with María Elena and Tonio



My companion on the roof of the chapel...
we had to check the gas.

Traversing the city...[Nov. 17, 2014]

 

Hola,
Well, another week down here in the dirty city as our zone leader likes to call it. Our investigators have been dropping like flies, so we spent a LOT of time walking. I am starting to wonder how I ever had difficulty hiking 22 miles in a day. That seems to be a pretty normal day recently for us.

Despite a great lack of investigators, we have planned two baptisms this Saturday. They are a family, but we can't baptize the parents until they get married and they just aren't ready yet. I will talk more about them after the baptism.

I cannot think of anything else that happened this week, so I will leave it off there.

Have an excellent week!
élder Seymour.

Cuahutémoc...[Nov. 10, 2014]

Hola,

I find myself at the end of another week and wonder how they go by so fast.

Some interesting things that happened this week:

I got my flu shot. I also found out that my companion is super afraid of needles. It took the mission doctor that lives in our area 10 minutes to convince him to just let it happen.

I had divisions with the zone leaders. I guess it really isn't all that exciting, but we only have it once a change.

We went to Cuahutémoc for the first time. It is part of our area that is even farther away than Tlahuapan. There is only one less active member that lives out there and we tried to convince her to start coming to church again. We also got several kilos of pear out of it.

At one point when we were with the members in a meeting about an activity they were planning, I felt that we were needed elsewhere, so we left and walked as I thought about where it was exactly that we were needed. At one point, I felt like we should talk to some people on the street. They didn't want us to pass by their house and give lessons, but they said that they would come to church next week. I really hope they do.

Sometimes the things that we want in our life is different than what God wants us to have. This doesn't always mean that we will be successful and happy, but we can learn to follow Him no matter what it is and trust in the future.

Have an excellent week!
élder Seymour.

9 Months.

Cement on shoe.

Picking pears in Cuahutémoc.

Part of our area is in Tlaxcala.

Dead Days...[Nov. 3, 2014]

Hola,
This past week México celebrated days of the dead and Halloween. It is quite an experience.

Halloween here is technically one night, but the children ask candy from everyone (this includes people on the Street as well) several nights in a row. As we are quite often in the streets, we got asked for candy quite a bit. Unfortunately for them, we almost never carry around candy with us.

Days of the dead is also super interesting. Although none of the active members celebrate it, we have some investigators that do. Apparently, it is a Catholic holiday here in México where the spirits of their dead relatives leave the spirit world and enter into their homes for a few days. They put some kind of orange flower petals outside of their house to lead the spirit to an offering they make of special types of bread they only make right now, different fruits, and water. They also put lit candles and a picture next to the offering.

One of our investigators also taught us some words in Spanish sign language, so now I can claim I know a little bit when I get back home.

I also had cement thrown on me for the first time this week. We were walking under a house that was under contruction and even though there was no cement under our feet, someone threw cement down below and it happened to land on me. It led to us going back to the house so I could change quickly before the next appointment. The funny thing is that it actually happened 2 times this past week and not a single drop got on my companion.

Also, the missionary work here is slowing down even though we are pushing harder than ever before. At times, it seems as if we aren't really doing much, but I think we only need to put our trust in the Lord and go forward until the success comes.

I'm afraid that I will let you down again with pictures. There is something seriously wrong with these computers

Have an excellent week!
élder Seymour.