April 17, 2017

Last Tuesday were the changes. I am still here in my area. My new companion is Elder Torres, he is from Tamauliplas, Mexico. He is 27 years old. He is really cool! We get along great. We didn't have all that much success last week because I had to show my companion around so he could get to know the area. We were only able to find 1 new and usually we have a lot more. We expect to find a lot more this week! So this week wasn't all that crazy for us but for other missionaries it was pretty crazy. Here in mexico they celebrate Easter by walking around and acting out the Crucifixion of Jesus. They have a guy all dressed up like him and they walk up and down the streets and are hitting him and whipping him and all kinds of stuff. We are not allowed to leave the house on that day. It was Friday afternoon, so on Friday after the food we had to go home and stay there the rest of the day. During all of that there are other people that go around soaking people with water. So... my last companion Elder Roberts is in an area where it is a little bit more common that they do this and he told me that ten people showed up with buckets of water and tried to soak them but they escaped in time! Pretty crazy!
Yesterday I had to give a talk about Easter in sacrament meeting. It went really well. I talked about what it was all about and then talked a bit about the gospel that Jesus taught while he was here. I then explained a little bit about the sacrament and the meaning of it and then I read a couple scriptures in Alma 62 that talk about how we need to make changes in what we are doing. Then I explained how our mission president wants the members to work more with the missionaries. It went pretty well. After the meeting I had people asking me if they could help, and have some cards to give out. I also had a young girl come up to me and ask me for the scriptures that I had shared because it had answered a lot of questions that she had. It is an awesome feeling to know that you are helping people out in their lives!
This Saturday we are going to be having another baptism, it is a lady that was a reference from a member. Her name is Lourdes. She is going to make a great member.
Today we went to the gym with 4 other Elders. We are now 6 in the same gym. They let us in for a bit cheaper now as well. We came back home with 2 of them and they stayed at our house for a bit. I have been asking around for the best way to grow facial hair and they all say that putting chili's on your skin helps. I can't grow my mustache haha so I figured I would try it and another elder, Elder Boyer did it with me. So we went to the store and bought a Habanero. It is the spiciest chili in Mexico. So we cut it up and put it on our skin. I just put it on my top lip and he put it on his top lip and then on his cheeks as well. We waited for a bit and nothing happened. The other elders then told us hey put on some vicks and it will work more. So I put on some Vicks Vapor Rub and it immediately started to burn! It was sooooo spicy! We left it on for as long as we could and then we ran to the bathroom and washed it off. Then we tried to put milk on our lips to get the spiciness to go away. It was so spicy that my teeth and gums started to burn! I didn't even eat it! It was one of the craziest things we have done haha! It took quite a while till it all went away! We will have to see if it works haha. Well hope everyone is doing good and has a great week!
Love Elder ivie

April 10, 2017

So we found out about the changes here in the mission... and... I am staying here in my area and my companion is going to be having changes! He actually had asked to stay in our area! They never respect your requests here in the mission hahaha. I am fine staying here in my area. I am really comfortable here and there is a lot of success. We have a routine here in our area haha. We wake up and go to the gym we have at the end of the street and then we come home and we start studying while one of us is running on the treadmill and then we switch. I have actually been trying to gain some weight in the last couple of months. I eat a ton of pasta now haha. I think I have gained around 10 lbs now! We head out and work and then come home and run on the treadmill some more! We love it where we live cause the sister always invites us to eat! She is amazing!
We confirmed our convert Luz Maria yesterday at the church services cause she could get confirmed last week for the conference! Today we went to the stake center and had a zone activity. We played foosball, ping pong, soccer and a couple other games! It was a lot of fun. We then payed a member to make us food. She made us some grilled steaks... it was called carne asada. It was really good! She had nopales (cactus) and stuffed baked potatoes! It was a pretty fun activity that we did! So tomorrow I will be getting a new companion here in Neza! It will be a good next six weeks here! Hope everyone else is doing good!
Love Elder Ivie

April 3, 2017

We had an amazing weekend here in the mission. We had the opportunity to watch the General Conference at our stake center and we even watched it in English... well I did, my companion decided to watch it in Spanish. If I watch it in Spanish I always can hear how they start off in English so then I try to hear what they say and then I miss what they said in Spanish haha... so better if I just watch it in English from the beginning! This was probably one of the more special conferences for my companion and me. We had the amazing opportunity of baptizing one of our investigators in between the first and second sessions of the Sunday conference. A couple weeks back we baptized a kid named Angel Miguel. He is about 13-14 years old and his mom came to his baptism. After he got baptized she said, ´´well if my son is getting baptized and my daughter is already a member, I think I will get baptized also.´´ She was a golden investigator. She already seemed like a member before she got baptized. It was pretty strange baptizing her in the Stake Center because we are use to doing it in our church. The baptismal font in the Stake Center was really badly designed. It is a room that opens up a curtain in a hallway and on the other side of the hallway opens up another curtain so they are two rooms with the hallway in the middle. So during the program there were people walking by constantly which was pretty annoying, but there was a pretty big show out for her baptism which was exactly what she wanted. It was really special!
It was a great week and loved the sessions of general conference. Hope everyone else is doing great and has a great week!
Love Elder Ivie

March 27, 2017

This past week we had the baptism of Everardo. He is an 84 year old man that we found knocking on doors. He had listened to the missionaries before but stopped because he didn't think it was his time. When we got there, he invited us in and we talked for a bit. We made another appointment and he wasn't there so we practically forgot about him for a month. We then went back and he accepted our message and wanted to be baptized because he took it as a sign that it was now his time! He is a really neat man!
We went and played soccer today on a full sized turf field with about 26 other Elders. It was a lot of fun! It is also pretty funny to see  how mad they get over a simple game hahah. We came back home and washed our clothes and the Sister that we live with gave us some tuna fish dip and then some fried bananas. They were really good. It is pretty weird how they fry bananas here. At the beginning of my mission I hated them but now I know how to make them taste good... you have to put condensed milk and cream on them! She is awesome and always makes food for us. She also has started making German Pancakes more often!
Changes are coming up pretty soon. They are in two weeks. We are not sure if either of us will be having changes, but if one of us do... it would most likely be me cause I already have 4 months here in Neza. I like it a lot though. Everything is going pretty good though. Hope everyone has a great week!
Love Elder Ivie

March 20, 2017

We had a really interesting week! We started off the week in divisions after our district meeting with one of the three assistants. He came to our area and worked with us for the day. At the district meeting we found out one of the Elders went home because he was sick. So we had a new Elder in our Zone. At night we got home from working and my companion was jogging on the treadmill. I then got a call from President. He asked me how long it would take to get to this Elders house and some other stuff and said we had to go there right then. It was 9:30 already. We called an Uber and got there as fast as we could. The new Elder that got to the zone has anger problems and didn't get along with his companion. So we ended up taking him back to our house and my companion stayed at there house with nothing. The next day we went to the stake center and he was able to talk with President and he stayed with us for the whole day and then on Thursday he got moved to another zone. It was a lot of work and we barely could do anything the whole week! We were planning on baptizing Saturday but his brother got sick in Oaxaca and so we had to postpone his baptism until next Saturday. He will definitely get baptized this weekend!
We live with a member and she has an oven so this week we decided to make something with her. We made German Pancakes! They were so good! They don't really make stuff like that here and so when she tried it she liked it a ton! She makes us food a lot and it is soo goood! I think she cooks the best out of any other member in the ward! Everything is going pretty good so far. We are planning on having a couple more baptisms this month and actually are going to have one on General Conference! It will be really neat! Hope everyone is doing good!
Love Elder Ivie

March 13, 2107

This week we had a lot of time walking around in the streets contacting and knocking on doors. It is really tiring but its whats got to be done sometimes haha. We didn't have all that much success. On Sunday we only had 2 investigators come to church. One of them was for the first time and the other is an 84 year old man that is going to get baptized on Saturday. He is really excited about it. He was some guy we ran into knocking on doors. He said that he had been visited before and had gone to the church before. We got him to start going again, and he placed himself a baptism date. It was really neat. Tonight we are having a ward family night in the church. It is going to be really fun! I hope we have a good show out with investigators and members! Not much happened this week but I hope everyone else is doing good!
Love Elder Ivie

March 6, 2017

We had a great week here in the mission! This Saturday we had two baptisms! One was of the man we have been teaching that is in a wheel chair (Adolfo). It was a really interesting story with him haha. His wife doesn't want him to get baptized.... He really wants too and has been reading the Book of Mormon everyday. The day of his baptism we went to pick him up and he had his towel and his underwear all ready. His wife answered the door and said ´´Whats this that you guys are going to do?¨ We said we are going to the church for a baptism. She was then like, My husband has already told me he doesn't want to be baptized. We were like, Ok well can we talk to him? We went in and asked him if he wanted to be baptized and he said no, but as he said no he was smiling and nodding his head yes. His wife was like, So if you don't want to get baptized why do you want to go with them with a towel and stuff? He then replied, I am going swimming!!! HAHAHAH It was the funniest thing ever! We decided that we wouldn't baptize someone if they weren't going to say they were gonna get baptized. So we left and went to the church in a taxi and got ready for the Hermana Martha Alicia. Once we got to the church we decided we needed to go back and get Adolfo. We took a taxi back and got to his house and we saw him outside alone. We asked him if he wanted to get baptized and he said yes because his wife wasn't there. He said it in front of his daughters and they were fine with it so we decided that it was alright.
His baptism was pretty funny. Me and my companion both baptized him. We carried him into the water and I had to hold him myself while my companion said the prayer. After he said he could change himself... After he came out he had his pants shirt and sweater all on backwards hahaha! It was a funny day! I baptized the Hermana Martha Alicia. It went really well. On Sunday we went to take Adolfo to church and right as we walked up he was coming out the front door and his driveway is pretty steep and bumpy and the way he comes out is just rolling down. So right as we walk up we see some old man in a wheel chair come flying out of his door and bouncing into the street hahah! It was the funniest sight ever! Was a good week all in all and hope everyone else had a good week!
Love Elder Ivie