Guadalajara- Week Eight

so this past thursday was a day that i officially titled as "spirit day" haha and this being because thus far in my mission it was one of the days where i have felt most guided and directed and that literally everything i did was led by the spirit. so let me begin to tell you about this day, or at least some of the more stand out experiences. 

yea thats right we have the prison on our area, i have an interesting story ill have to tell you about at a later date haha

so we tracting and contacting some people we had met with previously during the week, and during our tracting we got a text from the mission office with the address of a reference, and well seeing as how tracting isnt necessarily the most fun activity haha and it was deathly hot outside, we decided to put our tracting on hold for a little and to head off and contact this reference. so we hop on our bikes and head over to the colonia where this reference lives, we scored because it was only like a 10 minute bike ride away haha but anyways so we arrive to the colonia and we begin to start  looking for the street, and we start to ask the people if they know where this street is (because streets in mexico barely ever have a street sign that you can read to find out where you are, or at least in my area thats the case haha) and everybody is telling us no sorry, mostly because were missionaries and they dont want to talk to us haha, but then we come across a man sitting on this wall, and we ask him if he knows where calle yada yada is, he says no, we say thanks have a good day and head off to continue our search. 

party at a member friend's house

as we were leaving the shouts wait wait, are you missionaries; and he said it in english so it immediately caught my attention, so i stopped turned around and was like why yes we are, and he was like yes! i knew it, i knew you were missionaries. youre the only guys that would be out in shirts in ties on bikes in this kind of heat, and i used to be a mormon too. and anyways so we got to talking and turns out this man was born in Mexico but when he was a kid him and his family moved to the US (legally), lived in fresno, and was baptized about 10 years ago. he had a family, business, and an awesome life he said in the US, however he got in some sort of trouble in the states and they took deported him. 

picture of the smoke from the fires that have been going on nearby

he began to tell me about how he lost it all, he lost his family, his business, he lost everything he had. he nows live in guadalalajara and sells couches and just happened to be in the neighborhood that day and was waiting for his coworker to return from a dropoff. he then asked us if we had a copy of the book of mormon, because the one that he had was back in the US and so he didnt have one with him in mexico, and so we gave him one, and then he began to ask us how he could find a chapel for his kids to go to church. he began to tell me that the past couple weeks his son had been asking him about the church he used to take him to because he wanted to start going there again, and so we gave him the number of the mission office and directions on how to find a chapel for himself and for his kids to start attending church. he told me how hed been praying for some way to help his kids, because he wanted them to receive those same blessings and to be baptized, and then we showed u`p. he told how even though ya he had messed up in his life and lost it all, he still had the Lord with him through everything. we continued to talk for a little bit more until his coworker showed up and then we went our way and he went his.

party at a member friend's house

 after this we eventually found the lady, apparently shes a member and was just looking to talk to the missionaries and find out where the church was and what time it started because she just moved here. so we gave here the information and we started to ask her about her family and waht not, and she told us that she actually had a son who lived close by who wasnt a member and if we wanted we could visit them. so we said of course we would love to and we went over to meet her son and his family. turns out the daughter in law had already asked about the church and the lady we contacted had given her her copy of hte book of mormon to read. so we were like sweet, this rocks, and so we started talking with her and their family and wow there awesome. we had a great lesson with them, and we invited them to attend church on sunday, and they said sure theyd try but no promises, but sure enough they showed up :) 

party at a member friend's house

and so im way stoked to make some visits to them this week. and those are just a couple of the cool experiences from that day, im not sure my words are able to quite do it justice but it was such an awesome day, its funny too because its not like we even had these crazy s`piritual impressions to do these things. it simply just happened, and it reminded me of a talk that was given by elder bednar while i was in the mtc where he said basically, when it comes to following the spirit, dont worry about it! just be a good boy, be obedient, work hard, and be true to your covenants and the Lord will guide your steps and take you where he needs you. and basically his whole was talk was just an awesome talk really, a talk i think every missionary and member should hear, because in fact i think sometimes we spend too much time waiting for that spiritual impression to come when in reality all we have to do is just get to work and act! ill share more from his talk at a later date with you all. also this past wednesday we had basically a gringo conference haha a conference for all the new missionaries and trainers. 

party at a member friend's house

the best part of the conference was getting to see all the elders i was in the mtc with. it was the first time since we all went our seperate ways in the beginning of march and so it was really cool to talk with them about how their missions have been going, how the reassignments were and all that jazz. sadly tho elder turner wasnt there :( but we found out that he got here this past friday! woo hoo. 

district 38-c in mexico minus elder turner :(

also this past week elder briz and i got invited to birthday party of one our investigators dads bday. lets just say mexicans party crazy ahha. good food, loud music (mariachi of course haha) and just good company. the family is awesome, a few coins short of crazy, but just straight awesome.

party at a member friend's house

 one of the coolest experiences was after we sang we him happy birthday they all suckered me in to singing a solo of happy birthday in english, and so i did and they all started cheering and doing there crazy mexican cat call things and ya it was funny haha they love me because im a gringo. 

party at a member friend's house

however though, i dont consider myself a gringo anymore because i ate a chili that night at the fiesta taht elder briz wouldnt even touch, yes it made me cry, but none the less it made me feel proud ahah. also ive already done a couple things that qualify you for not being a "green" missionary in the mission, those being bitten by a dog, i got bit by a pitbull this week so its official because the cihuaha doesnt really count, this one was official haha. but ya so it was a great week for me here in mexico, i really enjoyed it haha. 

party at a member friend's house (eating a pepper!)

and also i would like to point out another significant event this week. this wednesday, ryan maccarthy entered the mtc, and so this is the first time in history that there have ever been two elder maccarthys in Gods Army at the same time. and im stoked because its awesome to know that im serving with him and the great blessings that our family will receive through our labors. i gotta go now though, sorry folks. have a good week all of you and may God be with you till the next email! LOVE YOU ALL!

 

much love from mexico,

Elder Maccarthy