April 25, 2016

We had a pretty calm week this week. On Monday we were told that we had to study Diligence everyday and then report what we had studied. I learned a lot about what it really means to be diligent. Not just in the Lords work but in everything that we do. We need to be constantly doing the right things in order for us to truly be diligent. I think I am going to continue to study one characteristic of Christ every week.
On Friday we had the oportunity to go to the Temple with the ward. We talked to our convert Lucina and got her in with the bishop for an interview to get a recomend for the temple. She came with us and was able to do some baptisms. We went with her but they wouldn't let us do any baptisms because we are missionaries. Instead we did some confirmations and then went over to the visitors center. It was a great experience.
Throughout the week we had a bunch of lessons with a member present. We would call them in the morning and see if they would be able to help us with certain investigators that we have. Lucina came with us to one lesson we had and she shared her testimony of her baptism and it helped out a ton because we were trying to put a baptism date with her. We are going to pass by in the week and hopefully she recieved an answer to her prayer for if she should be baptized on the 30th. So hopefully we will be having a baptism on Saturday. Not much happened this week. I hope everyone is having a good week and getting ready for summer!
Love Elder Ivie

April 18, 2016

This week we had a baptism that went really well! Her name is Lucina De Jesus Moreno. She already seems like she has been a member her whole life! While at her confirmation she had family show up that were members and it ends up that my district leader was in the area of where her family lives! I had the chance to confirm her a member of the church and it was pretty nerve racking cause I had to giver her a blessing in front of the entire ward! It went pretty well though.

Today we went to Teotihuacan for my companions birthday! We got there at about 10:30 and left around 2:30. It was a really fun time. The first pyramid that we climbed was el sol, the biggest.

When we got to the top there was a dog that was sleeping at the very top in the very center. We kept trying to get it to move but it wouldn't do anything. We kept making jokes like it was a sacrifice or something haha. I got a picture laying next to it! I also found a pretty cool knife and a chess set made out of rocks that I bought.

During the week we found a couple families that are going to progress really well. We didn't have time to teach one of them the first time we met but we left her a restoration pamphlet and when we came back, she read the whole thing! That is like the first time that this has happened. She is really interested in our church and told us that it has always caught her eye. We were also able to get another less active to the church. She got baptized like 8 years ago and stopped going and didn't really get taught very good. We are teaching her family all the lessons and hopefully we will be able to baptize her daughter! It was a pretty good week overall!
Hope everyone has a great week!
Love Elder Ivie

April 11, 2016

This week was not a normal week for us. We were hardly ever in our area because of some things we had to do. On Monday we had to go to the offices to bring the packages back to our area and my companion went to sing to Hermana Stutznegger for her Birthday. We got back pretty late and then Tuesday we had our p-day and went to the Temple. On Wednesday we went to the offices again and went with President Stutznegger to the airport to try and meet up with my companions cousin that was going to enter the MTC. I think we got there just as he left because we waited for like an hour and he never showed up. We went to eat Carl's Jr and then came back to our area to work. Sunday was a great success! We had 7 less active members and 4 of our investigators! One of which will be having her baptism on Saturday and another the following! Sundays are always fun in the mission to see how well you are doing.
Pretty funny story, one day we were eating at a members house and she had some habanero salsa. (Habanero is the hottest chile in mexico). We were putting it on the food and it was pretty spicy. One of the elders was joking around and took a big spoon full of it and gave it to me and was like eat it! So... I took it and ate the whole thing. He just looked at me like I was crazy! Habanero is like the best tasting chile that there is. Even though it is spicy it tastes good so it makes up for the spiciness. I then took the jar that was full of the habanero, onions, and lemon juice and told him to drink it! He took the jar and drank the whole thing! I got it on video too but it takes too long to download. He was dying! We got a text from him at night and told us he was in the bathroom all night! Pretty funny but it was super good! We are planning for a pretty good week this week! Hope everyone else does too!
Love Elder Ivie

April 5, 2016

We had a pretty interesting week! It was the General Conference over the weekend and was in the stake center which is about 30 mins from our area. The hard thing in our area is to get people to walk down the mountain to church and then they dont want to walk back up or pay a combi to take them back up. So going to the stake center was even harder to get our investigators to go. We were able to get three of them to come. Lucina which is a lady we met our first day in our area. She had disappeared for a while and we could never get in contact with her but we were able to again and she is going to be getting baptized on the 16th of April. When we passed by her house to take her to the conference she was all dressed and ready but had got a call and had to stay home and tend her mom that was dying. We talked to her for a little bit and said she was going to make a few calls. She came back and told us that someone else was going to come and take care of her so she could come to the conference with us. She is amazing! We also have Marlen and her two kids Iris and Jesus. Iris is 8 and Jesus is 6 so we are working with her and her daughter. We had to come back to our area after the first session on sunday and pass by for her and her kids. We then went back and I sat with them while my companion was watching the session in english in another room. I had to babysit all three of them because the kids would not pay attention or be quiet. It was a pretty stressful session. I will have to go listen to it again in english because that was probably the best session and I missed it all.
Today we went to the Temple. That is why I am writing on Tuesday and not on Monday. We left the house and 6 and got to the temple at 9. We didnt get home until 4! It was a really long day. It was an amazing experience but on the way home we got lost. We were with our zone leaders and they told us we could get out of the metro or train and one stop and there would be a combi to take us to our area. But when we got out it was the wrong one and we didnt want to pay to get back into the metro. We had to walk to where the next station was and it was so hot outside! We were walking along the side of a busy road and a police van pulled up and asked us who was our leader and we were like ¨He is´´ and we all pointed to our leader. He then gave him 200$ and then drove off! It was perfect timing cause we were all dying of thirst and we went straight to a gas station to buy some drinks! It was a pretty fun experiene!
We also have sister missionaries in our area now! This is the first time that I have had the opportunity to work with sister missionaries in my mission. It is not all that different but they work really hard! We just had the Semana Santa and we were not able to leave our house. But in our area right where we have all our investigators they are going to have a carnival come that is for the Santa Muerta religion. They are the people that believe in the devil or the grim reaper or whatever. It is apparently really dangerous for us and we have to let our President know so he can tell us if we have to stay in the house or what we need to do.
It was a pretty great week overall. I hope everyone else had a great week!
Love Elder Ivie