Aug 27 2012

Dear Todos

Thats really cool hearing about all those wedding plans for katie. And if you want to send me a matching tie you will probably have to send it a month and a half in advance lol but that would be pretty cool and if you would like to get me a matching vest too and just save it for me for a year and half that would be great too lol. So yeah i finally got the packages with my suit and candies and they tie. Thank you very much for all of those things. i will have to find a place where i can make a cake. Perhaps at some members house or something. Oh and i also got the birthday letters from Grandma and from Granddady. Muchas Gracias por las cartas, Grandma and Granddady!!!!
Ok so i am starting to get used to my new area. I can get myself to a lot of different places and a lot of peoples house haha. I am also getting to know the missionaries in my Zone. So one of my Zone leaders just happens to be Elder Alvarez my first companion. Its pretty cool to see him again! And as a matter of fact my companion from the MTC is in my district too, Elder Bryce. So for those who dont know the terms... The whole Mex Tijuana mission is made up of like 200 missionaries. Those 200 are splite up into zones. Zones generally have like 18 missionaries in each one.  Of those 18 missionaries they are split into 2 districts of like 6 to 10 missionaries.
So there we go.
Ok well i will be back to continue this letter...bye

Excerpt from email to Jim:
 yeah there was an earthquake yesterday but i didnt get to feel it because i was walking around the capilla, but i taked to this person in my ward and he told me that he was just sitting in his car and he
felt it for a few seconds. Yeah im still getting used to this area, here i have to take buses or taxis everywhere. The church building is in a differnt sector and the people that we are teaching all live on the other side of my sector. Los Pinos my capilla was in my sector and it was the stake center.
Oh so i was at a house of a members eating lunch and the papa de la casa le gusta béisbol y estaba mirando ESPN y yo lo vi y en ESPN estaban hablando de los MN Twins. It was really interesting to see twins related stuff here in TJ and i was walking down the street and saw a target add too... there are no targets here and the add was in english haha.  [Mother's note: I got the shivers reading the sentence where he suddenly switches to Spanish in medias res and then switches back. He's speaking Spanish!! Translation roughly amounts to: and the father of the household likes baseball and he was watching ESPN and I saw it and they were talking about the MN Twins]


 ok im back.

so this week went by pretty fast. We are teaching a man named Enrique and he is pretty awesome. I love talking about the book of mormon with him because he really enjoys talking about it and soo it makes the lessons all the more fun. I was also really surprised when we asked him about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and he said he doesnt believe that a man or Joseph Smith could just write something like the Book of Mormon, and believes that the Book of Mormon really is ancient record from those Prophets here in the americas that was translated by Joseph Smith with the help of God. So yeah its really great working with him and has a date set to get baptized the end of this week.

We also found a person that has really accepted us with welcome. Her name is Tatiana and her husband actually died a year ago or so and she has 2 little boys to take care of. When we first ran into here and asked if we could share our message with her she said yes and so we talked for a little while but we had to go after just a little while and we but another cita (appointment) to talk with here the next day. The next day when we were talking with her she told us that before we swung by for the first time she was really in a horrible mood but after talking to us she feel pretty good or more tranquila (relaxed) and when we talk with her she feels that same peacefull feeling. I know that feeling she felt was el Espiritu Santo and we told her that she can have those feelings with her siempre when she prays and reads the scriptures. I am excited to continue visiting her.
Well today we played soccer for our pday activity. I am actually getting really good at soccer.... or atleast better then i was before :) oh and heres photos of my comp, Elder Bryce, Elder Hernandez, y Yo at the best Panadaria in Tijuana, Panadaria San Diago, with the best donots in Tijuana. They cost a hefty 7.50 pesos EACH! 

Well got to go!

Thanks again Mom and Dad for the packages and Thanks Grandma and Granddady for those Birthday cards!

Love Elder Evans

Best donuts in Tijuana!

August 20 2012

Hola
Ok so now i didnt get my package yet. I am hoping we have a zone conference soon because that is when i will get them. But i know that the packages are at the offices becasue one of the elders told me when they had to go to the office for something.
My new sector is pretty interesting. Los Pinos wasnt a huge area but it was wey concentrated with houses. Here it has a lot of houses but also more main roads and factories and stuff. Most of the people that we visit live on the other side of my sector (Nido or 10 de Mayo) and so we take a taxi that that part of the sector just about everyday. I was told here that you run through your qienceña (the money we recieve on the 1st and 15th of every month) really fast because of the transport fees. So i really have to manage my money well here. The ward is also a lot smaller here too. Idk if it is average or less then avarage but it doesnt help that i started in a ward that normally has 260 people attending every sunday. That is a ton here for one ward.
Yeah senior companion isnt too much of a change, only difference is that i have to report numbers every week to my leader and that during the day i have the last say in what we do but because i still dont know that area very well and the people here we both just work like there isnt a senor or not senor companion.
Elder Pena is pretty cool, I forget were he is from but yeah he understands a good amount of english and can speak a little less then he understands but we both just speak in spanish normally. Unless were are around others and dont want them listening in on us we can speak  n english haha.
Where i am, the missionarys got to go to one of the Church Buildings to watch the ground breaking of the temple. It was pretty cool.
So this week Elder Pena got to baptize this girl named Erica. Elder Pena and his last companero have been working with her for about 2 weeks and now i got to come here for those last lessions and the baptizm :) We have been really working hard with teaching as many people we can each day. There are a lot of investigators here. Oh yeah and there is one area that we spend most of our time in and all the roads are dirt and it rained a few days ago and all the streets were mud!
Ok well got to go.
Love you all!
Elder Evans

Goodbye Los Pinos

Well hello again.

So i will first say that i have been transfered :( Bye Los Pinos. I have been in Los Pinos for about a little over 4 months and i have really began to love it. Now i am in Sector Industrial, Tijuana. Its right below california. Los Pinos was at the bottom of TJ and now im at the top but the same distence from the ocean so it is still pretty hot here. Oh and i am Senor Companion. My new comp. is named Elder Peña and has 3 months on the mision. I am a little nervous to be senor and in a new area but im also a little excited.

So this past week has been pretty great. First off we spent a lot of time visiting Rocio and Pedro. I have mention a little about Rocio but idk about Pedro. Pedros family was baptized like a year ago and he has been going to church with them and all but he has never been baptized. I guess he just hasnt wanted to. This week we worked a bit with him and he told us that we wants to be baptized. His family was all really happy, and of course so were we. So yeah this week was spent with mainly Pedro and Rocio. Those fotos of me, my comp., and the bird where taken at the house of Rocio. 

Satuday the date of their baptizm came around and we spent quite a bit of the day cleaning the church and prepping for the baptizm... and a little bit of goofing around with the other Elders in our ward. 

Everyone was just really excited that day becasue of the bautizms and because that night we find out whats happening with transfers. 6pm came around (time of the baptizm) and no one was there. After a little while Rocio showed up and then the ward mission leader but still there wasnt really anyone there. At like 6:40 Pedro and his family showed up and then we started. Right as we stopped waiting for more people and started, like 30 more people from the ward showed up. Everything went really well :) Actually this return misionary flew in all the way from Paru to be there. His name is Elder Roque, he was the one that baptized the rest of the family. 

Then later that night my whole district got to gether to wait for the call from the Zone Leaders. Thats when i found out that i was getting transfered.

Suday, Rocio and Pedro were confirmed a member of the Church and recieve el Espiritu Santo. Right after church a big party/open house was thrown for Pedro by his family. Much of the ward was invited and there was a lot of food. It was a really great time and a perfect last day of my time in Los Pinos. I got to say all my goodbyes.

But yeah now i am here and still in a bit of shock that i am not in Los Pinos anymore. 

Well i will talk to you all later next week with a little more news about were i am now. 

Love you all, Bye!

Elder Evans

Ready to go to Sector Industrial

Bird!

no information as to who EJ is with

Another new member!

silly elders

August 6 2012 (2 days shy of 6 months completed!)

Hello, dear everyone!

First off thank you all for the birthday wishes! And no, i have not recieved that package with my suit or that other package you sent, mom :(

So i have sent you a few pictures. Those first few, of the field, is were the Temple will be built. A lot of the Elders in Tijuana were ask to help out with cleaning the grounds before the start of the building of the temple. The whole feild was filled with thorning deserty bushes and stuff. We had to rake and then bag up everything. One of my fellow missionaries believes we could have cleaned the feild faster if we just use a tractor and i agree, it would be faster but i am just glad i got to be a part of helping out with the Temple.

The other photo is of today. We had a taco buffet come to the church to serve us and the other missionaries in the zone. We each had to chip in about 100 pesos but the tacos tasted really good. We also played a lot of soccer. Today is really pretty hot out so we are all like sweaty and tired now. Tijuana may get like perfect weather all year round but would i found out is that i am just bearly on the outskirts of tijuana so its a little hotter here then what the weather reports say for tijuana.

The language is getting a lot easier, i am able to understand a lot more then the beginning of this transfer. Speaking of transfers, transfers are this week on the 13th. I am probably going.

So this week we have been working with this lady named Rosio, she went to church this past sunday and shes planning on getting baptized this saturday. I am really excited about that. A few days ago we talked with her about the Plan of Salvation. She really liked hearing that God has a plan for us after we die. One of her dudas was that she doesnt want to believe that after death there is nothing. I guess i have always grown up hearing about Gods plan for us and the answeres to: Where did we come from? Why are we here? and What happens after this life? I cant really imagine would it would be like to not really have a clue.

This week i am probably going to make cake for my birthday/family home evening with a family of recent converts.

Well the next time i write i will probably not be in Los Pinos.

Bye

Love you all!

Elder Evans

The field clean-up for the Tijuana temple

This is where the Tijuana temple will be built!

EJ's MTC mission companion, Elder Bryce, EJ, EJ's first Mexican companion, Elder Alvarez, and EJ's MTC district leader, Elder Fjeldstrom

The taco buffet--who let the elders have big knives?

 [EJ's birthday is tomorrow. Everybody take a minute tomorrow to offer a "happy birthday to Elder Evans" prayer! I'm so glad he's spending his 20th birthday in the service of the Lord, and I'm glad to hear he'll get cake, even if he's the one who makes it]