No, that's a bathroom!...[Apr. 27, 2015]

Well... some strange things happened this week.

We contacted two women in the street and after talking with them a bit about what we do as missionaries, we invited them to hear more about the gospel. They said yes and seemed really interested. We gave one of them a pass-along card with the picture of Christ on it and she kissed the card. Afterwards we were just like, -well... that was weird.- We later had an appointment with them and it went really well so I have high hopes for them. The only thing is that they are active Catholics, so we will see how this goes.

We also had an activity in the church that was a Mexican Mormon version of family feud. Even though not many people went, it was still really fun.

We are also teaching a teenager from Veracruz. He talks a little strange, but he is keeping his commitments with reading the Book of Mormon and everything, so overall, things are going pretty well here.

We were also looking for a less active family when a child came up and told us the house we knocked on wasn't a house, it was a bathroom. I asked him why it was for sale then, but he kept insisting that it was a bathroom. His mom then came and when he said it was a bathroom, she just told him to be quiet and that he didn't know what he was talking about.

Also, in church someone told a super racist joke about Americans. I was just like, -whatever.-

Have a great week!

élder Seymour.

My companion's pen exploded on him.

Top of the Hill...[Apr. 20, 2015]

Well... I am not quite sure what to talk about.


This week I had divisions with other elders in my district and we walked around a lot. We got to one of the appointments an hour early and as we were figuring out what to do because all of the backup plans failed, we decided to go up to the top of a hill where a house was to ask for a glass of water. Unfortunately, they weren't there, but we did get some cool pictures of the valley.


Our bishop a few weeks ago told us we should find all the members and teach them to see if he should send home teachers and if we can help them go back to church. I was a little surprised when we found one that wanted us to visit with him. Before this we had gone to many different houses without finding any sort of success. It was... refreshing.


Apart from that, this past week has been a record for me in my mission, it is the first time I have gone a whole week without teaching a lesson to an investigator. We seriously need to find some new people.


That's about all I've got for now, have a good one!
élder Seymour.

Picture of a cloud I took.

My companion getting his hair cut.
Interestingly enough, it is in the same place
where elder Field got his hair cut.

House on top of the hill.

View of the hill we went up.

View of the valley.
 

Preaching to the choir...[Apr. 13, 2015]

Hola,
This week we had a lot of interesting experiences. Lots of meetings and trainings. This also meant I had a little less time in my own area than I would have liked, but that's the way it works out sometimes. I felt like I have been humbled a lot and that I have so long to go still, but with so little time to do it. Perhaps one of the greatest things I learned was how important it is for me to manage time well. It feels like we don't have much success if I don't do it well.


Anyways, in the mission every p-day we have a choir with all the American Elders because we are going to be singing when President leaves. I honestly forgot how much I love singing in a choir. I think that is one of the things I will have to keep doing when I get home.


Thursday we had a special zone conference with President Christiansen where we talked about weekly planning... how fun. It would have been great if it wasn't the same thing I had heard several months earlier. I think I am starting to get old.


Another interesting thing I learned how to say is the phrase to throw under the bus. Things are about to get interesting.


Well anyway, things are going. I will have interesting things to say next week, I promise.


Have a good one!
élder Seymour.

Back to the forest, but for real this time...[Apr. 6, 2015]

Well... that was a strange transfer.


I closed area and my companion went home 2 hours away. It was kinda strange leaving, but it didn't feel as bad as when I left Bosques.


When we went to the transfer meeting, I was waiting forever because they cycle through every area and the Amalucan Stake is last in order. I was like, "well, Amalucan Stake. Guess I'll be in the same stake then." They then told me I was going to Xonacatepec. I was stunned and just thought, "but, like, I was just there." It is right next to Bosques and we even meet in the same chapel. The weird thing is that they are different zones.


General Conference also took a lot of time out of the week, so our numbers were a little low. However, we will seriously go for it this week.


My companion is Elder Carrasco and is my first companion that has less time than I do in the mission. He has 7 months and I just completed 14, so I have double. He is from Panama and has a good attitude about the work, so I can't ask for more.


It is also nice in my new area that we almost never take buses. I found out that that eats up a lot of precious time. Honestly, I am just really excited to get about working.


I hope you have a great week!
élder Seymour.

¡¡¡¡¡¡¡I have completed 14 months!!!!!!!

 I bought some cranberry juice
on the way to the transfer meeting
because I could. It tasted spectacular.

The Closer...[Mar. 30, 2015]

Well, I recently got some familiar news. My companion is leaving the area... and me too. My District Leader called me on the phone and told me that they are going to start calling me "the closer" because this is the third time in a row that I have done that. This isn't to say that they won't send new missionaries to the area because President always does, it's just what we say here.

It is a little lame as well because we both just got here and learned the area and all the small pueblos very well, but now we have to go. I hope the other Elders can pick up where we left off.

Anyway, this week has been interesting. Tuesday and Thursday, we went to the pueblo that is the farthest away from el Seco that we can visit (it is called Palmarito) without knowing that we would both be leaving anyway. We met some members that haven't seen Missionaries in who knows how long, and it struck me how different it is for them to have Missionaries in their house.

As we were coming back from Palmarito on Thursday, we were passing through Quecholac, where they will soon put a group in looking for a house for the group. As we were walking down the street a kid on his bike yelled "Elderes" and stopped. He asked us to come to his house and meet up with his family. He also had an excitement that seemed strange to me in the moment. We got to his house and he talked with his mom loud enough that we could hear. He said, "Mom, the Missionaries are here." His mom responded and said, "There aren't any Missionaries here in Quetcholac. They weren't Missionaries." He then said, "No, they are outside right now." She was so surprised when she finally saw us. We talked with them for a bit and left a card with our number. In fact, this was the first time they had seen the Missionaries in over a year, and they never went to church in that time because they didn't know where the chapel was.

Sunday was quite interesting to me. To make a long story short because I don't have much time, we went to church and said goodbye to a lot of members and afterwards, as is custom, we went with the members to eat La Comida. They took us to a restaurant to eat and I just got to the point where I said I am not eating this. Honestly, here in the Mission I've learned that I am a lot more concerned about what my Heavenly Father thinks than what others think of me. So, I simply didn't eat and one of the members apologized as we left, so I consider that a success.

Anyways, have a great week and this week that comes, I will tell you where I am going and who I will be with.
élder Seymour.

I got electricuted...[Mar. 23, 2015]

Fun stuff.

Well we had a fun week. Tuesday, we had a Zone Conference with President Christensen and it went fairly well. My companion had the goal to finish his English book before the conference... even though he still had months of material left to finish, but somehow he did it.

 

I forgot to mention that Sunday we finally got a Ward Mission Leader, so now we can work with the Branch even better. 

 

We also started teaching a family that sells onix stuff like statues, chess sets, and lamps, etc. I honestly feel like they have a great deal of potential to progress.

The English class is also doing much better than I expected. We had 18 different students this time and almost all of them are not members. I feel like this could help the area a great deal and that we will be able to see a lot of success from this. Also, I love teaching English so it works for me as well.

Sunday was good because we finally had someone who came to church. The strange thing is that we didn't expect him to come at all. He is less active and desperately needs the gospel in his family now.

That night, I was going to turn off the light to go to sleep when my finger touched an exposed wire instead. It hurt quite a bit and for hours afterwards, I couldn't sleep, but at the end of it all, I am still fine.

Have a great week!

élder Seymour.

 

 

My companion getting a haircut.

My companion and I sewed my pants
while we were in the bus today.

A  fruit I got called Guanábana.
It tastes somewhere between a peach
and a lichi and I really like the flavor.

The typewriter I am now using to write letters.



A zombie whistle that I bought made of onix...
I  don't think it works because
none of my past companions
have come back to the mission.

 

 



The chess set I bought... also made of onix.
My companion and I played a game with it
 and I won.

We don't do anything...[Mar. 16, 2015]

Hullo,
It seems really strange to me that I am writing in English and hearing people talk in Spanish and still understanding everything.
One thing I learned... remembered... one of those, this week is that really we hardly do anything as missionaries. Looking back, all the success that I've had here in the Mission really is a miracle. The people I stress out about the most in the Mission progress the least and those who get baptized really do so without a great deal of effort -- weird paradox, no? We were talking with a member the other day that lives a bit far away with some other members, and she said that she was going less active until we visited with her. Now she goes to church every week. We literally didn't do much more than visit, plan lessons to teach... and that's about it. Really it is the Spirit that does all the work.
In other news, English class is going very well right now. We had about 12 students and only one of them was a member. We also found a new investigator through one of our other investigators that has to leave to Veracruz for work. It kinda balanced out, but he also asked us when he could be baptized because he knows it is important. The only problem is that he doesn't really care what church he does it in. I think there's still a lot of potential.
Have a great week!
élder Seymour.