November 28, 2016 Uncle Nick

This week was a very special week! I was able to get a hold of the number of one of the converts of my uncle Nick. I let the president of the mission know that I had her number and what he told me was that I had to go and look for her. He gave me special permission to leave my area whenever I needed to to go and find her. I called her up and we put up an appointment and we went out to look for her. We were able to meet up with her at a store and she then took us to her house. It was an amazing experience! They shared a bunch of stories of when Nick was teaching them and how he tried crickets for the first time with them. We also ate some coconuts from Veracruz. They opened them up and everything and we drank the water and ate the meat inside. I showed her the list of all the converts that my uncle had in this area and she knew half of them. She called one of them up and I was able to talk to her. I told her I would go to her church services on Sunday to get to know her. On Sunday I did divisions with the Elders in her ward and went to the services and was able to get to know them. It was such a special experience! They shared their experiences with me as well. We took some pictures and she also told me she went on the mission!!! She went to the Chiapas Mexico Mission.
The rest of the week went alright. We weren't able to get any of the investigators we have to come to church! We are going to have to work twice as hard this week to get them to come. We are super close to having a couple baptisms. I hope they come through! Hope everyone else had a great week as well!
Love Elder Ivie
***If some of you don't know Colton's Uncle Nick was killed on the Boarder Patrol 10/2/12. And Colton went to the same mission that his uncle went to.  We feel very blessed that Nick is watching over and protecting Colton.

Nick 2002

Nick 2002

November 21, 2016 Hit by a car with the Holy Ghost

We had a pretty interesting experience this week with feeling the promptings of the Holy Ghost. A couple weeks ago we ran into a lady in the street and she told us she was a member of the church and she just moved here a couple weeks or months ago. She gave her us her direction and so we could pass by one day. This week we decided to go and visit her. I gave her a call and she told us she was up on the mountain but would come down to her house right at that moment to meet us at her house. We got to her street and we saw some guy in the street that kept looking at us and so we just walked by and called the sister again to see where her house was exactly. She said it was the house with the wooden doors. It was the house where the guy was standing. We started walking over there and the guy went inside. I heard him say´They are coming.´ He then came out and asked if we were from the church or something like that and we were like yes. He let us in and told us that they had been waiting for us. As I walked in I saw a shed on the right of me that was made of wood and there was a dim light inside. He told us to enter the house on the other side. When we got passed him he turned to the door to lock it. My companion at that moment told him that we had to make a phone call and that we forgot something. He didn't feel like we should be there right then. Then the guy turned to the door to open it but he took forever. I heard someone inside the shed talking and they said I am in here. It was the old lady we contacted in the street.... I think. Then she started talking more saying she was not feeling good and she was really bad and kept saying it. Right at that moment was when a feeling came over me that was super strong. It is like when you almost get hit by a car and your heart is pounding like crazy. It was a feeling that I will never forget. I knew we needed to get out right then. We left and went to a members house that was close by and didn't go back.  I asked myself what would have happened if we stayed there... but after thinking for a second, I realized that it doesn't matter. What matters is that we responded to the feeling that came to us. It was a crazy and powerful experience we had.
We were planning on having a baptism yesterday but the sister we are teaching got  off work late and wasn't able to make it to church. Also the other investigators we have weren't able to make it either. It is way different to work with three people. We had to move all the other Elders stuff to our house and that took a whole day. It was a really long week. He is actually going to be getting moved to a new area again this Wednesday. It was a good week all in all with some great experiences. Oh yeah we had our interviews with President. I really enjoy them and being able to share the experiences we have and he is able to give us a lot of advice! I hope you all had a great week!
Love Elder Ivie

November 7, 2016

It was Halloween here this week. The people here in Mexico celebrate Halloween pretty much the same way that we do in the United States. They dress up and go around asking for candy. The only difference here is that they do it for the 31st and the 1st and 2nd. It is a three day celebration.
We had our Stake Conference this week. A member of the Seventy Elder Ulises Chavez came and talked to the Stake Los Reyes. It was a great meeting. He talked really directly to the members. It was crazy some of the things that he said. He told a story about a cow that was dying or something like that, and they had to puncture a hole in it so that it would live. He then took out a knife and said that sometimes we need to be hurt to get better. Then all the things that he said to the members that were hard to hear he held up the knife. It was a crazy Stake Conference hah!
After the Stake Conference we had a baptism. It was a 75 year old lady. We had some food before her baptism. It was Tostadas de pata. They are chips and feet or something like that. It is pretty much pure fat that tastes really good hahaha. Her baptism went really well, one of the best baptisms that I have ever had. We asked the bishop to perform the ordinance. We had one of the other Elders do a special number and it was great!
We had a great week and not much else happend. I hope everyone else had a great week!
Love Elder Ivie

October 31, 2016

It was a pretty great week this week! I got asked to do some interviews for some little kids that the other Elders in the ward were teaching... and actually I taught them too. There were three of them and two of them wanted me to baptize them. I accepted and Elder J which is the companion of Elder P would baptize the other. When the day for the baptism came around Elder J went first and it was his first baptism. He was super nervous and had been practicing a lot before. When he was about to walk into the water he asked me... What do I do then...? He was really nervous. He did it the first time and the kids head didn't even go under water. He did it again and the foot came out... so on so on. He did it 8 times and he couldn't do it. The little kid was even on his knees and he still couldn't do it. They then asked me if I could go in and baptize the kid to show him how to do it. I walked in and did it and then the next kid and the last one that I was going to baptize was baptized by Elder J. The little kid didn't want to be baptized by him because of what happened with his brother... and the same thing happened hahaha. He had to do it 5 times with him and the worst part was the water was cold. The dad of the little boys was not very happy after the baptism. It was not a very good baptism haha.
Today I went to center with one of the zone leaders and I was able to buy a mask for Halloween that was pretty cool! I also bought a watch and some ties. We went and ate a torta de pastor. It is like a taco de pastor but it is just a sandwich. It was really good! We came back to our area and we went to a birthday party and then we went home. We were supposed to be home at 5 but I never got a chance to write home so they gave us permission to write right now to you guys and cause it is right outside the house.

Love Elder Ivie