The pictures he talked about which didn't get sent at first

baptism day!

Futbol

the ants before the incineration

 

EJ, the ward mission leader, EJ's companion

Sept 24 2012

[Mother's note: all spelling is his. Also, the pictures he talks about at the end were never sent. So just pretend you're looking at what he is describing]

Hola!

Thank you for those pictures!

This was the last week of transfers and so there was a lot of saying goodbyes to the members, investigetors, otro misioneros, and not to mention we still work a full week. With such a busy week it went by really fast. The news about transfers is that Elder Pena is leaving for some other place in Tijuana and i am staying. I am going to pick my companion up at the Center de Transportation at 11:15. Its been a great transfer and we have worked really hard. 

Ok so early this week we had an ant infestation! It was rediculous how fast these ants find food. What happened is i was at my desk when i saw a cockroach moving accross the ground and so i steped on it and sweeped it aside towards the trash can to get rid of it when i am done studying. Like 10 mins later i look back and see that there are hundreds of ants in like a 2 foot circle of where the dead cockroach was and the cockroach was completely covered. So me and my companion sprayed down some axe deoderant spray and light the floor on fire to kill the ants. Dont worry it wasnt a big fire or anything and there was nothing around us that would catch on fire, so i would say we were being pretty save.

Basically this week was spent running from appointment to appointment with not much time to spare, it was a good week in terms of teaching and everthing and it ended pretty sweet too! We had 4 baptism this sunday! Rosalva, who has been listing to us elders for about 4 months, got baptised before the church survice. She is the tallest of the 3 woman to get baptized, the one whos not in the photo with the rest of the 3. To prepare and do everything for her baptism was crazy, me and my comp were running around like crazy because we had to do it before our church service while the other ward was having their classes. Not to mention Rosalva and her family showed up a little late too haha but all in all it all turn out pretty good. 

Then after our church survices we had 3 more baptisms, that was a lot less stressfull because we actually felt like we had time to think set it up without rushing. Those other 3 who got baptised are Tatiana, Oswaldo, and Jocelyn. Tatiana is the short Puerto Rican with the curly hair. Jocelyn is the woman in the dress. And well Oswaldo is the guy...of course :) I had the oportunity of baptizing them! 

The other foto is of us with our ward mission leader. He is pretty awesome, and he knows a ton about the scriptures. Hes also the guy that gives the classes ever sunday those investigators and recent converts.

The other pic that i am sending is those of us playing football in the rain for pday activity.

Ok Love you all!

Elder Evans

Sept 17 2012

Its really cool hearing all about those in Minnesota!

So this week went by really fast! Losts of important appointments and lots of missionary meetings and stuff, so i got to see those thoer missionaries in the zone a whole lot. 

First off, my mission president with the stake pres. held a meeting with us missionaries in the zone and with our ward bishops and their counsalors. He talked about how the missionaries and the wards could work better together. They talked about how it is very important that the membors help with references and how it is actually a responsibility of the ward members to help find people for the missionaries to teach. There are actaully places out there where the missionaries dont knock on doors, or they only knock on the doors of members. A few of the wards in my stake accepted to take on that plan. I find that would be really interesting and fun to be in an area where i dont have to knock on doors.

Secondly, the 15th was the day of independence here and there was an activity held at the stake center with food and activities and all that. oh and the missionaries in my district werent allowed to go. At first they said that it was fine if we went and then they said no. I think they just didnt want a whole bunch of missionaries spending alot of time at activities. So all the missionaries in my district got together at the house of the district leader to have tacos and stuff. 

It was pretty fun to spend time with them. All of us in the district are pretty great friends. It will be interesting to see who stays and who will go for transfers this coming monday. I am probably going to stay seeing how i only have one transfer here.

So dia de independencia here is pretty different then ours. I am pretty sure that fireworks are illegal here because no one was setting them off. Instead every just drinks and watches wrestling or boxing. 

This sunday was really great! We had one of our old investagators go to church. His name is Oswald and he is pretty awesome. He love talking about the Plan that God has for his children and the atonement of Christ and how he can be cleansed from sin. The only problem is that he never actaully went to church and now this sunday he went!

Oswald and a few others have plans to get baptised this week. Hope all goes right this week. We will see what happens.

Love you all Bye!

Elder Evans

Ps Any pictures would be welcomed. Like maybe the last holiday family picture we took with everyone there :)

Sept 10 2012

Buenos Dias

Another week has past... pretty fast actually. This week wasnt as crazy as last week with plans and all but we managed to keep busy. Oh and its finally starting to cool down here. This last week was probably averaged in the high 60s or low 70s and i am starting to see clouds here. I miss the random changes in weather soo much and the different seasons in general! Here it is always perfect and sunny.... :/ haha 

So this ward i am in is really small but yes they have semenary for the youth but i wouldnt doubt it if it was combined with another ward.

So this we tried really hard to marry people. Ok i will explain. So first of all to be baptized you have to beliving the Law of Chastity, and here in Tijuana no one is married. Everyone here just gets together and either after a year or after they have kids they just call themselfs husband and wife but because its expensive and difficult to get married legally here in TJ they just dont. I think its like 600 pesos or 50 dollars and you have to go to a judge to do it, religious leaders cant do it here like they can in the states. But anyways, everyonce and a while Tijuana does this marrige collective thing. Were they marry a whole bunch of people all at once. Its a lot cheaper, 150 pesos (12$), and you only need to bring you ACT of Nacimiento (i think its like a Birth Cert.). We had two families that we were planning on marrying there but everthing fell apart last second. We planned to met one of the families at their place but when we went they wernt there and then later told us they couldnt find their ACT of Nacimiento and decided to go somewhere for a little while. The other family, the mom really wants to get married and baptized and everything was working out great until the dad said...yeah i dont want to get married yet, i need more time to get to know her first. haha funny thing is they have 6 years together and 3 kids. So yeah, no one got married, but oh well :/

So on a more happy note :) Tatiana (who i mention in the last letter) is pretty awesome. Tatiana has been reading the Book of Mormon faster then any of my past investigators, i think shes in Alma right now. Shes doing everything she can to be baptised. Oh and even more, so she crosses over to San Diego about 2 times a week and this week she surprised us with a big bag of Peanut Butter M&MS! Oh yeah there selection of MMs here is very pathetic and they only have the 1doller size bags. It was the first time my companion had ever tried those mms, he loved them. 

PICs:

Tatianas son and interesting wall art

Well love you all!

Elder Evans

September 3 2012

Dear Home

To answere your question mom, yes Elder Mayo is my Zone Leader and no Elder Bryce isnt in my ward but is in my district. 

Ok so i forgot to mention this about my appartment......we have a cochroach problem. They live in our walls.... and in one of our kitchen drawers. They are pretty gross, i havent seen any giant ones yet, they are all about the size of a nickel.

This week was pretty sweet and pretty hectic at the end. We were teaching this man Enrigue, and he had a baptizmal date set for yesterday (sunday). I believe i have mentioned him a little bit in my past letter. Anyways he is a really awesome guy who believe in the Book of Mormon and that God has given us a Prophet in this day and that he needs to be baptized but everytime we talked to him about baptizm he would tell us that he still doesnt feel repented of his sins and that he needs a little more time to mejorar su vida (better his life) before baptizm. We told him that if he really has a desire to change his life and live the gospel then he is ready. But we also told him to pray about it and ask Heavenly Father if he is ready and if he sould be baptized this week. Well we came back the next day and his whole personality seemed to have changed, he seemed a lot more lively, happy, and pleased with life. He then told us that he prayed and feels completely ready for baptizm and wants to be baptized this week. 

Well sunday (day of his baptizm) came around and we all showed up at the church at the same time to find that someone had drained the baptizmal font of all the water.....Nooooooo!!!!! We had one hour to fill the font and hold the baptizmal serivice before our sacrament meeting. We (4 of us missionaries, 2  of which were from the ward before us) did everything we could to fill it as fast as possible. Idk if you know what a Garrafont is, but its like a giant water bucket/thing that holds there DRINKABLE water. Well we even filling those up with an outside hose and then dumping it in the font. Well 45 mins after we had it filled and i directed the baptizmal service and my companion baptized him. He was then later confirmed and recieve the Espiritu Santo in sacrament meeting. He was really happy that day :) and so was I. In the picture he is the guy right next to me. The guy next to my companion is his step-son who is a member.

Now about Tatiana who I also mentioned in my before letter. She went to the baptizmal service and she said she would like to be baptized and asked me would she needs to do to be baptized and well like it says in the Bible (Acts 8:36-39) all you need is to believe in Jesus Christ as our savior and have a desire to be baptized. Tatiana is really awesome, we are going back to teach her tomorrow and we are going to make this lesson really sweet!

Well Love you all!

Elder Evans

Oh yeah ps i have collected 2 club cards of the 3 major stores around here... I have Calimax, Comercial Mexicana, and all i need is Soriana.

[From email to his dad]

Hey

Im doing really well.

No i havent seen that movie but hey if the twins dont have a chance welll i hope the best for the As this year. And thats awesome that you get to go down to Cali and visit Granddad, tell him hello for me and tell me how hes doing.

My spanish is pretty good, my biggest problem is when people talk quietly or dont speak clearly. But yeah i can hold conversation with just about anyone and i can keep up with conversations too. Its not a whole lot different as senor companion but i do like it. And the ward is pretty cool, i dont know the members all too well still but those that i do know seem pretty cool. As a smaller ward i find that me and my companion are the only ones that wear suit coats to church haha. I have been to the boarder wall once but the other side doesnt look too interesting, i can only really see open area and then hills. But yeah we are still using lots off taxis.

It feels wierd that it was a whole year ago that its been more then a year sence ive been to Rex.

Well Love you

Bye

Elder Evans