J.J.'s Mission

25 January 2010

Hi family,

This last week went by pretty quick. We've just been busy busy here. My companion had one change here before and so he knows his way around a little. But now I've got it down. It usually takes about a week or two and then I know the area really well and can get anywhere I need to. When I got here there were already some investigators here which is nice, but we're still looking for more. We have about 6 people who are ready for baptism here, but they're not married! It's a pain. Nobody is married here, they all just live together. So we are helping them with that. One family told us yesterday that they were able to get the money together (1000 pesos) and so now we can get them married and baptized. We went with another boy who is about 14 and we challenged him for baptism. He said yes and he wants to, we just had to talk to the mom to get her permission. But she said that he isn't ready yet and so we won't be able to baptize him for a little bit.

I like my new areas a lot. But I miss some members from my last ward. Actually, Sister Barajas emailed me today to see how I was doing and to say hi. That was really cool.

Pool B-B-Q at a member's home with Brother Bueno in the background (top photo).

Sounds like it'll be a good Super Bowl this year. I'm going for the Saints, I like Reggie Bush. Thanks Mom for getting the package out. I'll let you know when it arrives. I'm guessing about 2 or 3 weeks from now. I really like the new Liahona that came out. The new style is much better and more organized. Had some great articles as well. Mom, Dad said that he watched the video on my blog, and I watched it after I posted it. So maybe try again, or try on Dad's computer because he said it worked.

I don't remember my SLCC student number, so if you could find that Mom then it'd be a great help. Thanks.

Elder Arrecis and Elder Green.

One of my areas right now is really rich because it's right next to my last one, and that's a hard area. But the other area is a lot more poor and humble and that's where we have most of our investigators. There's a huge hill covered in houses and that's where we work a lot of the time, I'll send you a picture of it. Yes, I have the same DL as last change. One of the ZL's left but the other one stayed in this zone. How many areas in my mission? Lots. I think there are like 10 zones, but who knows how many areas.

Member cooking the steaks.

I don't have my basketball shoes here Mom, remember? I sent them home when I left the MTC. So I hope you have them because I will need them in about 5 months. :) My zone conference was much better this time. We have them every transfer, every 6 weeks. The President has been doing the interviews differently lately, he does them with the whole district together. And then if someone needs to talk to him alone they can. He shared some stories about when he was called to be president and how he met the apostles and stuff, so that made it more interesting. I like when he shares stories. I'm really starting to love my mission president, he seems to get better each transfer. He only has 5 months left also, so he's gettin' ready to finish, you can tell. haha.

Lookin' out at the city at night from the top of a huge hill in my area. (Really pretty view)

So I'm sure you have the new Gospel Principles manual, it's really great. I like it a lot. There is a member in my ward who had back surgery like 3 months ago, and he has been bed ridden basically. He can get up and walk now but not for very long, he's still in recovery. So the elders started to read the Book of Mormon with him each day, I think the Bishop assigned them. And last night, we finished it! When I arrived here we were in 3 Nephi, and last night we finished it. It was really cool. The members are great, their son is in the mission right now. And on Saturday then invited us to eat with them. We had a way good BBQ and ate some delicious steak. And they have a small pool so we ate outside by the pool, it was great. I love pool barbeques. It is the first house that has a swimming pool that I've ever seen in Mexico. It was a fun afternoon.

"Huge hill in my area covered in houses."

Well, I think that's about all from this week. Thanks for the emails. Love you all very much. I'll send you some pictures from this past week. Have a good week.

Love,
Elder Green