March 28, 2016

We had another pretty interesting week here in Ixtapaluca. It was Semana Santa and the Catholics do a bunch of crazy things during the week. On Friday we were not allowed to leave the house after the food. We were allowed to work in the morning until 2:00. We saw a huge group of people standing outside one of the catholic churches and they had a bunch of straw shavings in the road and a bunch of palm leaves and we walked past and one of the people standing by asked us what we did during the week to celebrate the death of Jesus. We just explained how we don't focus on his death but more of the resurrection. We then returned to the house after the food and watched some church movies and ordered pizza... it never showed up though so we ended up having to make some soup.
On Wednesday we did divisions with the zone leaders. I stayed in our area and my companion went to the area of the zone leaders. It was a pretty neat experience. We found a guy in my area that speaks English and he wanted us to talk to teach him in English but it is almost impossible for us to teach gospel topics in English. I tried saying a pray in English a couple months ago and it was soooo hard! I will probably be saying prayers in Spanish the rest of my life hahah! We were able to encounter two new investigators that day.
On Saturday we thought it would be a pretty hard day to find people to teach but we were surprised how much success we actually had. It was the first time ever in my mission that our plans before the food all worked out. Usually somebody isn't home or something like that but we were able to teach everyone we had plans for. We also had 9 lessons throughout the day. We usually get like 3 or 4 per day.
Sunday we were able to get 3 of our investigators and 7 inactive members to come. It was another amazing week to see all the hard work pay off. Hope everyone had a great week!
Love Elder Ivie

March 21, 2016

We had another amazing week! We had the opportunity to go to the temple with the ward and invite some investigators on Friday this week. Earlier in the month we ran into an old investigator of the missionaries before us. We put down his address and the day before the temple we had the

impression to go to his house. His name is Ricardo. We talked with him for a while and invited him to come to the temple with us the next day. He was a little skeptical but after a while accepted the invitation. The next day we passed by his house so that we could all go to the church together. We also had a less active and her two kids show up. Ricardo is someone that is pretty hard to talk to. I would ask him how he has been and he would say ´´Bad...´´ It was pretty hard to reply. Once we got to the Temple it all changed and it was a really amazing experience. We started off going through the little tour of the

visitors center with the Sister missionaries. Ricardo really liked the things that they were teaching especially about the family. After it all I asked him how he felt and he said he was happy! Me and another missionary Elder Carrasco my district leader were talking to him and explaining more about the temple and stuff and he had a bunch of questions. We were talking about how we can be forgiven of the things we have done and start over through baptism. He didn't think he could be forgiven of the things he has done. We took him into the room with the Jesus statue and started talking more in depth of things. He told us how he had been praying and asking God for help in his life and then the 

very next day we knocked on his door. He told us he wanted to be baptized but when he feel like he

has been forgiven for the things he has done. We just kept explaining that it is through baptism that he will feel like that. He also had told my companion that he had been having dreams about the rooms that were in the temple and the visitors center but he didn't know where it was. Then he was there and saw the Jesus statue and all the rooms and it all clicked! It was an amazing experience to be teaching in the visitors center, we even felt it was right to put a baptism date with him. He accepted and had an amazing experience at the Temple.

Along with the temple we had a pretty good week. We had a lesson with a member that got baptized as a little girl and then stopped going. We taught her whole family and they all seemed pretty

receptive to what we were teaching. It is amazing how many people we have found in our area that are members and the ward does not even know about them. One day this week we walked around just asking anyone we saw if we could do any kind of service for them. We went to one of our investigators stores and we helped her fill up the machines and wash the floor and a bunch of stuff. I actually have fun doing stuff like that.
Today we went to the offices to get the packages and letters for our zone. 

We then came back and I did a photo shoot with Elder Hernandez! It was pretty fun and we got some really nice photos. He wants to send them to some companies because apparently I look like a clothes model hahah! It was a fun p-day! Hope everyone else had a good week! 

Love Elder Ivie

March 14, 2016

We had another great week here in the mission! On Wednesday we did divisions with the district leader. I went to his area and stayed the night there. In the morning his companion wasn't feeling very good because it

was cold the night before and was shivering the entire night. We had to go to the offices to change the sim card in our phone because it wasn't working, but when we got back we just stayed in the house all day. My companion and our district leader went to a part of our area that we have never been to before to try and find some contacts that we had done. They actually found a couple of people. Then on Saturday me and my companion went out there again. Our area is like three or four separate mountain ranges! It gets pretty tiring by the end of the day having the walk up and down the streets.

We had a pretty successful week. We were able to get back in contact with one of our first investigators. She had started working and we could never get a hold of her. One day we were walking past her house and I just had a feeling we needed to go to her house. We went and rang the door bell and she was there! We went in and talked to her for a little bit and she told us she had been watching a bunch of the church videos and she liked them a bunch! We then invited her to come to the temple with us on Friday. This Friday we will be going to the temple as a ward and some people will be going to do baptisms while others will be going to the visitors center. It will be a lot of fun! We also were able to teach

her daughter in-law. She is sort of interested in what we are teaching but isn't quite sure. We got them both to come to church and put some baptism dates and also got Miguel to come to church. We even had 4 less actives to come again and they seemed to enjoy it a lot! It is always a great feeling going to church on Sunday and seeing all your hard work come together! I hope everyone had another great week!
Love Elder Ivie

March 7, 2016

This week me and my companion planned to go to Teotihuacan again because he has been here for a year

and has never been. We were then told that we were going to be going to a place called La Guarda which is a ranch that the church has up in the mountains where they have EFY and stuff. It was really nice!

We planned to take food and cook up there and everything. We then rented a van and had a member drive us up there to meet up with the other two zones. While we were there we played kickball, basketball, volleyball and some soccer of course,   we're in mexico haha! We then had some zone conferences and came back to our area to write real quick.

On Sunday we had a pretty interesting lesson at the end of the day! We contacted a family and said we could pass by at a certain time on Sunday. We showed up and they forgot about us and had friends over. They still let us in. We started talking and found out that the dad works for transportation and gave a ride for free the other day. We then taught them about the Restoration and they talked a lot so it was a really long lesson. Afterwards they invited us to eat dinner and so we said yes not to be rude. We were talking about how we were going to be having a party up in the mountains with a bunch of other missionaries and were going to be making hamburgers. They then asked what we were going to do for drinks. We told them that we were going to buy some water jugs with flavor packets. They then told us to take some of their drinks because they have a store. We told them we were fine but they wouldn't take no for an answer. They have us 125$ (pesos) worth of soda! They are an awesome family and we ended up getting 5 new investigators that night. We are going to be going to their house sometime this week to help with some things around the house to work off the sodas!

We had another pretty interesting lesson with a less active. She had been having a lot of problems with her ex husband and was telling us a bunch of the things that has happened and so we kind of had an idea on what she was going through. She then started saying how sometimes she doesn't think God listens to her prayers and that she doesn't know what to do. She had a friend over also during the lesson. My companion shared a scripture in 2 Nephi 2:24 and explained how all things happen for a reason and that God knows what she is going through. Then I felt impressed to share D&C 101:6-8 which explains that there are always going to be hard times in life, and that sometimes when we aren't doing the things we should God is going to be slower to answer our prayers. I didn't really focus on the part about when we are doing the wrong things but I focused more on how it says he will be slow to answer our prayers. It never says that he will just leave us hanging out to dry. He will always answer us but sometimes it just takes longer than we want it to. It was a really spiritual lesson. She was tearing up the whole time. We then finished with a prayer and I looked up afterwards and saw that her friend was crying. I could tell she felt something during the lesson. I asked her if we could share a message with her and she was a little scared at first but said she would talk to her friend about it.
Overall we had a pretty great week! I hope everyone else had a great week and will during this week too!
Love Elder Ivie

February 29, 2016

This week was a pretty exciting week! Some other Elders in our distict had three baptisms on Saturday. The first one was at 11 and the others were at 6. They were not really prepared at all. The first baptism was all misionaries and one member present.After the first one the emptied the water so they could put warm water in at 5 for the next one. We got there at 5:30 and they were about finished filling the font up. They didnt start until like 6:30 which is pretty normal in Mexico. They had a pretty big show up with a bunch of members. When they started they sang and all then they went back for the ordinance. They guys opened the door and were like, there is no water. After the first one they never plugged the drain so it was filling up and being drained at the same time. So me and my companion ran out and plugged the drain and there was enough water for them to sit down on the floor and lay on the ground. It was pretty interesting.
We found some new investigators this week. One of them has a bunch of animals. They have around 7 dogs, a parrot, little tiny birds, then they have two huge tanks of fish! Some of them are like a foot long! They had like three pitbulls that were huge! We havent taught the husband yet but she said he is a really tough guy to get through. We had another appointment with them but they werent home. We will pass by again this week. We found two other new investigators and one of them works for movies and for tv shows when the capture footage. She knows like all the big stars here in Mexico and some from the united states.
Today for our p-day we went and played soccer, basketball, and frisbee at a big park. We played soccer against another church members soccer team... and we won! I thought it was pretty funny because we are a buch of white kids playing soccer and they were and actual team. My companion and I were playing basketball for a while and he set his camera down on the side in a little bag. When we were finished we ran back to the soccer field and he came back looking for his camera and someone must have stolen it because it wasnt there anymore. I hope someone just misplaced it or something. We then went to the plaza and ate there. I got fome malaysian food again. It is pretty much like panda express but they had octopus. That is what I got! It was really good! I also tried mango for the first time this week. It was super good!
Well I hope everyone had a great week!
Love Elder Ivie

February 22, 2016

We had a pretty good week. It seemed to go by pretty slow and it seems like we are slowly losing people to teach. We have found a bunch of old investigators of other missionaries just by contacting in the street and stuff. One day this week we were walking in the street and someone yelled to us. It was some drunk guy that could barley walk. He came over to us super slow and shook our hands and we talked to him for a second then we decided to take him to his house. I grabbed his arm and my companion took a plant that he was holding. We started walking down the hill to his house. We got to his house and he asked us to come in to his house. His sister was there and thanked us for bringing him home. He then grabbed by hand and dragged me into his room. He told me to sit down so I did. He then had my companion sit down also. He then just started crying and kept saying that he was a drunk and wanted to stop. He wanted us to share something with him so we said a prayer with him and his sister. We then tried to leave but he kept yelling to us. We then talked to his sister and she happened to be an investigator of other missionaries. We plan on returning there and teaching them.
This week we did divisions with the zone leaders. One of them came to our area and it was us three in our area. We asked the bishops son to come help us in the morning so we could get to more appointments. I went with Elder Lopez in the morning and my companion went with the bishops son. It was really neat to be with a latino because they speak really good. I learned a lot of things that I can share while I am teaching certain lessons. We were in one lesson with an investigator and we were teaching about the restoration and he was explaining the Book of Mormon. He asked him if he was the oldest or youngest in his family he said he was the youngest. He then was like so since you are the youngest does that mean your parents talk to you less than your other brothers? He said no. Then he explained that god loves the whole world and has prophets in the Americas also. He then said if you moved to another country would they still talk to you? Then he said no, because my parents don't live with me and they don't talk to me at all. We both just looked at each other and we were like .....CRAP...... it was pretty awkward but he was cool about it. It was a funny experience. I really like doing divisions. I hope everyone has another great week and stays safe!
Love Elder Ivie