June 25 2012

Hola!

Ok so i will first start off with talking about that family that i mentioned in my last letter. Well this past week we helped them out with cleaning their house. Now before my time here in mexico i would have thought "cleaning someones house" basically just ment vaccuming, sweeping, cleaning windows, shelves...ect. Well with their house its a little different. I do not have pictures right now but another elder does and i will get them from him so right now you all will have to do with me trying to describe it. Basically there house is like something you would find at an abandon barn/field. The house is big and in the shape of a simple square. Walls are made out of cement blocks up until about 15 or 20 feet and the ceiling is basically a metal sheet. Inside there are broken or moldy wood shelfs and tables that look soo dirty and dusty that you wouldnt even want to touch it. There is scrap wood all over the place and damp muddy cardboard too. In that "house" they have two seperate room complete with walls, door and all. One room is a where they all sleep and the other is a bathroom (i think). Well the cleaning was basically collect all scattered wood and put them in a pill and tare apart the broken tables and add them to the pill. All the tables that still held their shape we moved to and pilled them in the back of the house. And after all that we cleaned all the trash and sweet and all that kind of stuff. Luckally we had about 6 missionaries and some youth from the ward there to help. While we were cleaning, the whole inside of the house felt like a dust storm. There was more dust in there then i had ever seen before. Well in the end it felt really good to help the family out.

Then later that week on sabado they got baptized! Gabriel, Elder Castro, and I got to do the baptizing! I dont have any fotos to send right now but i will send them later today.

Now to answer a few of dads questions.. Yep my shoes are holding up pretty great! And yep my spanish is getting better, i still dont understand everything and sometimes i find myself talking to someone and i just cant understand a single thing they are saying. But my spanish is good enough were i can hold a conversation with most people and when i dont know what things mean i can ask about it.

Well i should be on a little more later today so i am going to end with that.

Love you all bye!

Elder Evans

Later:

Ok im back and here are some pictures.

One is a picture of what some of the nicer public transportation busses looks like.

I picture that Gabriel Mercado drew of some of us missionaries.

A pic of the room that we hold baptizms, Elder Castro throw in a few of those water purifier tablets for toilets and turned the water blue..... It looks pretty cool i think.

Other rooms in the church, so you can get an idea of the inside of it.

And Elder Castro, Gabriel, the part of the family that got baptized, and me.
Ok well love you all.

Transfers are next monday.

ELder Evans

PS i will try to send those pics of the cleaning that one families house when i can.

Tijuana bus

Elders in Los Pinos rendered in caricature

blue baptismal font water

chapel and cultural hall

a baptism!

June18 2012

Dear Everyone!

Its really great hearing that Paul is off in college now and wish him the best of luck. But yes i must agree that it feels weird that Paul is old enough for college!

 

So this week has been pretty interesting. In both my prosolyting life and life at the house.

First off, that family that i mentioned in the last letter... well we are still working with them, their testimony is growing and they are really liking and i believe understanding what we teach every time we go to visit them. The family is reading the Book of Mormon (the mom more so then the kids, but thats alright and was kind of expected) and praying. I think the most excelent thing is that they went to church this week! We talked to them last night and though they said they like everything and you can tell that they can fell the spirit when they read and pray and do all that stuff but i believe they are still really nervous about making the decision to be baptized this week. So we will see what happens. I know that if they make the decision, they will be blessed so much in their lives...but right now they just need to know that, believe that, and act on that.

ok i am going to continue this later today. We like to split up our hour of computer time into 2 parts depending what we have going on today. So i will continue this later.

Con amor

Elder Evans

Later...

Ok im back.

so basically that family that i talked about in the other half of this letter is the family that we have really been focusing on this week and yes we have taught others but yeah they has really been the big focus of this week.

So the changes that have happened at my house. You guys all know that there are 4 people living in the house i am in now and it gets a little cramped at times but now there are 5. And this person number 5 isnt even a missionary. Basically what happened is we got a call in the middle of the night from a young man in the ward. He called to tell us that his mom has kicked him out of the house or something because of an arguement they had about religion. This young mans name is Gabriel. He is the only member of the church in his family and he is leaving for a mission on July 4th. We let him stay the night at our places and then after that we talked to the Stake President and our Zone Leaders and supposidely they talked to our Mission President. And the final choice was made that he can stay with us until around the time that he leaves. Yes it is a lot more croweded but he does like to cook, so im guessing our blessings of letting him stay with us come in the form of food. He also likes to go teaching with us and well basically does everything with us. Hes getting the oppertunity to live the missionary live and learn and all that before actually entering into his mission. Its really cool teaching with him because he is a convert, only been a member for about a year and half or so and he has a really strong testimony that the Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias is the true church of God and that the Book of Mormon is true and that we have a living Prophet here on earth today to guide us. I have a testimony of those things too but it is cool hearing him as a convert talk about it in our lessons.

Ok well love you all!

Elder Evans

ps transfers are only in 2 weeks. time has gone by pretty fast!

Jun 11 2012

Ok this week... what happened this week. My time here is starting to blend together.

Well every morning missionaries are supposed to wake up at 6.30 am to exercise. Well the missionaries that i live and i have started going to the church in the morning and play basketball. Basketball is actually popular here in mexico...i did not know that. Out of the 4 of us i would say Elder Ramirez is the best at basketball.

This week i have started to realize how much my spanish has improved. I went on splits with and Elder Hernandaz (splits is when two companionships swap companions for a day) and he doesnt speak any english. I was able to go the whole day with him and not really have any comunication problems. I have also noticed that i can hold conversations with people (to an extent) and not really have to think about translating and just speak in spanish. Its really cool to have those experiences. I have really felt the Lords help in learning spanish.

I also went on splits with a young man in the ward, Gabriel, because Elder Castro had to go and do some interviews. Gabriel and I thaught people, one of them being his friend, and well it was a little different teaching with him. Though he will be leaving on a mission in a month to some place in mexico, i cant remember where, he really hasnt had much experience in teaching. I tried to give him a fair amount of time during the lessons to talk and teach because i knew he wanted to, but it was still different teaching with someone who really doesnt know the lessons very well (kind of like me before the mission).  Everything went well infact it was nice to feel that i can get by just fine without out an older more expierenced companion. I FEEL LIKE I AM LEARNING!

So another thing that happened this week that was really pretty sweet! There is a family that we are teaching, Familia Peralta, and they really dont have anything at all and not to mention the mom is having heart problems. They live in like an abandon farm shed, its actually pretty big shed. In that shed there is one normal room where all 6 of them live. All the kids have between 14 to 21 years old. Well one of them had a birthday this past week and we showed up at their house with a cake. They were all very excited and it was pretty cool. It may not of been a very exciting birthday for here but she seemed to be very happy with the cake. And after talking to them for a little while and eating cake we and two of the girls went to the church for thursday night youth activity and we bascally intruduced them to some others and left them with the youth. They said they had a really good time so that was good. And later that week we invited them to a baptizm and the mom and 2 girls went. We first showed them around the church and it was really cool to hear the mom say she really feels at peace there. I have to agree with her, i have alwaysed loved being at church either for sundays or just for activities. At times i think its even cooler here in mexico because here in tijuana its pretty dirty and lots of noise in the streets and a lot of the buildings (houses, other churches, stores, ect..) look pretty junky so when you are at the church here everything is clean, peacefull, and looks like you took one of the the church buildings from the States and plopted it down here in tijuana. I will get some pics of the church next time i can. Well basically long story short it was really nice hearing the mom, Adriana Peralta, say she felt very peaceful at the church and know that its the Espiritú Santo that she feels and i know that i feel the same way when i am there too.

Well I love you all and i love hearing how everyone is doing!

Elder Evans

 

PS. Buena suerte con BYU, Paul. Y también, felicidades con graduation y me gustara estar allá por su fiesta graduation. 

This was one of EJ's previous investigators who just recently got baptized.

The pic with me and the chocolate is because we literally didnt have any other food in the house to eat and i was hungry

the apartment

June 3 2012

Buenas Tardes

This is my reply to both the letters from you and dad :)

  So Elder Castro and i are getting along really well and we work together pretty well too. I am really glad for the transfer, nothing wrong with working with Elder Alvarez but i think Castro and  I are just a little more alike, and besides i really like changing things up everyonce and a while. Live is also a lot different now that we are living with another pair of elders, its really fun. Just going shopping for food and that kind of stuff is more fun with the 4 of us. The house is a bit more crowded but thats ok. Although i cant tell if having the 4 of us is better or worse for my learning spanish, yes i talk more with the 4 of them then i did with just alvarez but Elder Rose likes to speak english at times so i find i also speak more english in the appartment then i did with elder alvarez.
  So about the other aspects of my life here. I believe i am completely accustom to the food and the culture here. The food here is really good and i am actually working on trying not to eat too much. One thing about the culture i really like here is the Sobres. Basically is like a community garage sale were everyone just set up tables and stuff along the streets and sells stuff. U can pretty much find anything at the sobres for really cheap. And the stuff they sell isnt like garage sale quality, its like new stuff they got from the states. Its really cool. Next time i see one i will take pictures.
  Ok now more about missionary work. With the two new missionaries in my area we had to split it into 2 sectors. They got the part with all the referals, investigators, and cool members. Now i am not complaning, infact i was the one that gave them that section. But, because me sector really didnt have anyone that we were teaching other then Sergio (who is now baptized and still going to chuch), most of our day is spent trying to find people to teach and progress. It was a little dissappointing when sunday came around and all those people who we found and taugh and seemed interested skipped out on church. lol i remember reading something that riley once wrote about how in the mexican culture the people dont like saying no, so when you ask them if you can come by and a certain time the next day and they say yes and that they will be there, often times they arnt there. What happended yesterday was kinda similer. We called up this girl (about 25yrs old with a kid) to remind her of church that morning and she said yes was just waking up and that she was still planning on going. So we told her that we would be over in like 15 o 20 mins to go to church together and she said that was ok. When we showed up at her house 15 mins after having talked to here, the grandma told us that she had just left to some nearby city. Now idk if thats true or naught but we both just figured it was her way of saying i dont wanna go to church today but i dont want to tell you "no" haha.
  That was this sunday, so sunday was a little bummer but saturday was a good day. This lady that i helped teach with elder alvarez got baptized. Though it was technically Elders Rose and Ramirez baptizm, its still cool too know that i got to play a role in her conversion and i got to see the baptizm because she is still in my ward.
  Before i end i wanna say that i have really learned a lot in the role that Jesus Christ and his Atonement has in our lives. Ever day we make little mistakes that we dont give much thought to and sometimes we make really big mistakes that we feel guilty and horrible about, BUT there will never be a point in our life that we canted be cleansed from our sins and perfect once again.
Well I love you all
Bye. Elder Evans