Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Week 10

We had a pretty solid work week here in Ojinaga.  We have decided to start searching out all the old investigators back from 2012 and 2011.  For the most part we have been finding new people living in their houses or they now have no interest, but every once in awhile we would find someone who had been waiting for us to come back after all this time.   These latter events were some pretty fun moments! This week we did splits within our district so that the district leader could see how the area is going, and if Elder Marx is learning all that he needs to.  It was fun and I got to see my old investigators in my old area before.  It was fun, even if I had to sacrifice some of my time working in my area. Except the second day of splits E. Brindis broke my bike to the point that I have to buy a whole new rim and gear set.  I am not exactly sure what happened to him to develop so much damage, but he pulled it off ha ha ha. So Saturday we had to walk about 2 hours to reach some of our investigators and that was not the funnest of experiences I have had ha ha ha. 

This week we got to through a birthday party for Juaquin, the uncle of the baptism from last week.  So all of us elders put our money in and bought all the ingredient to make a 3 leches cake, and we made it.  It ended up like a cake that 4 missionaries made.  The cake and the milk sat on top of cake instead of sinking in, and then we mixed the milk with the frosting and stuck it in the fridge for about half a day, and although it wasn´t the prettiest looking cake, it ended up tasting pretty good, and we had a fun birthday party with a few members of the ward and the president.  Next time we decided that we will probably just buy a cake ha ha ha. 

Elder Marx and I got quite a few compliments on our hair by a lot of people. Usually how it went down was they would say that I didn´t look half bad with short hair, but that they thought that Elder Marx shouldn´t keep his comb over going because with his widow peak he looks like he is balding ha ha ha. The youth that we got to teach liked to mess with Elder Marx a lot and then in turn he would mess with them by speaking in English or other things. One day we were returning after a long day of work when a security guard called us over, usually when a security guard calls you over they want to see your green card, so I was starting to pull out my green card when he asked us what security agency or military group we were with. We got really confused and told him that we were missionaries, and then he told us that he assumed we were military with our short haircuts.  So now we just tell all the members when they asked we cut our hair so short that we are soldiers of God, and then they can´t say anything after that ha ha ha. 

That was basically all that happened this week, but next week we have a missionary broadcast Wednesday that is exposed to be pretty cool so I´m looking forward to that this next week!

Talk to you guys next week, hope you have a good one!

Elder Bunch

Ojinaga, Chihuahua

Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Week 9

Pues estoy escelente, su español, estoy seguro es bien fluent ja ja ja. Mexico is a pretty fun place and an awesome culture as well! Well this week was awesome! We spent most of the time preparing for the baptism of Itzel, the girl I talked about baptizing when I was still in Ojinaga 2.  Well she finally got baptized on Saturday and that was super cool to see! Now the next step is to get the mom to follow in her daughter’s footsteps.  We all believe here in Ojinaga that her baptism will happen very soon as well! The baptism ended up being pretty unexpected because when the other elders asked her to baptized, and asked her for a goal date, she told them that Saturday.  They only asked her on thursday... So it ended up being a big struggle to get everything together, and some of the members are a little mad because of how sudden it was, and that they couldn´t get time off of work, but all in all we were able to pull it off and it was a super cool event.  Afterwords Hermano Juaquin (the uncle of Itzel) made us a polsolle out of a pig head.  It was super good and the best part was that I was one of the two lucky people that got one of the eyeballs.  The eyeball just tasted like jello, but meat flavored. The other parts of the pig head were pretty good as well, but the eyeball was the most memorable ha ha ha.

This week was one hardworking week for my companion and me.  It turns out his old companion never taught an actual lesson with him or at least very few.  So we worked super hard catching him up to where he should be. He is doing very well and can now give lessons with only a little help from me explaining his Spanish to the investigator when he makes mistakes.  The only big problem we are working on with him is being a little calmer when he talks with people. One fun example was Wednesday we were talking with an investigator and planning to slowly start to lean into teaching the word of wisdom. So we were talking for about 10 minutes and the investigator (Abundio) and I were having a conversation about his family and his work and then out of nowhere Elder marx more or less said “you know if you smoke you´re destroying a temple of god”.  I wish I could describe the face that Abundio gave me the minute that Elder Marx said that ha ha ha. Luckily I was able to save our relationship with Abundio by explaining a little more, and then we transitioned back slowly into the word of wisdom.  It was a little rough but we pulled it off ha ha ha. 

This week we also had the opportunity to help an investigator gut some cabritos (goats).  We once again arrived after the part where he actually took them down.  It ended up being quite the experience because when we first arrived on our bikes we thought that he was skinning two dogs.  It became somewhat better when we learned they were goats because we eat a lot of goat meat here ha ha ha.  It turns out that being a goat butcher is his side job.  He then took us to the back to his house where he had about 20 goats to be taken care of the next day.  He then sells them to restaurants in the states for cheap apparently. He kept asking us if we wanted to go with him to go pick up some more goats for the next day, or if we wanted to help skin some more goats.  We told him that instead we were going to teach him the plan of salvation.  So that´s what we did while he cleaned the meat.  It was quite the interesting experience ha ha ha. Afterwards on our way home we passed by a house and a guy started yelling at us trying to get us to stop.  When we stopped he came up to us and told us that he was a return missionary and didn´t know that they brought missionaries back to Ojinaga. He spoke perfect English but had a really weird accent.  It turns out he accent was because although English was his first language, he spoke 8 other languages and apparently that´ll give you quite an interesting accent.  It turns out I met him the first or second week I was in Delicias when I began my mission and he recognized me.  He was impressed with how well I can speak the language now, and then he told us to give him a reference card and he would give us a reference with the family that he was staying with while he was in Ojinaga. It ended up being a cool experience, and now we have a new investigator!

And that´s how my week went! See yáll next week!

Elder Bunch

Ojinaga, Chihuahua

miracles 214

tortillas 773

Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Week 8

This week was probably one of my more frustrating, but awesome weeks in the mission! E. Marx forgot where his investigators lived so we spent about 3 days of this week just trying to figure out where they were all located. The main problem was that we did it all on very destroyed bikes that bruise you just by sitting on them.  I´ve only just started to recover from the injuries that I endured in the saddle during this past week. Luckily we have now figured out where they all live, and I have decided that we are going to only use the bikes if we really need to use them.  Instead we are going to contact as many people as possible. In the 2 days we had to contact, we contacted more than E. marx and his previous companion contacted in 6 weeks. Everyone was pretty impressed that we were able to pull it off. Turns out we are kind of a experiment companionship due to the fact that gringos don´t train other gringos.  So far we have been proving them wrong!

It has been a super awesome experience to train someone.  I used to tell E. Vargas (second companion) that i would enjoy being a district leader or training a latino, but I also told him that i would never want to train a gringo...Turns out he recommended me to be a trainer of a gringo, and the president agreed ha ha ha. But surprisingly it has turned out to be a lot better than I thought. E. Marx has some quirks due to bad habits learned from his first companion, but he knows that I know what I´m doing and has a desire to improve in all aspects except waking up early.  We are working with him there as well ha ha ha. I have taken up a manera (way) of forcing him out of his comfort of zone and making him do things that he thinks are impossible, like giving the entire gospel principles class solo ha ha ha.

Anyways this week was a bit chaotic.  The government here did something whacky and all the prices went up super high this Friday.  Luckily the president told us to buy our food before then.  The only problem was that everyone received this same news.  I don´t think I have ever seen a grocery store with so little food after everyone had bought stuff by Thursday, it was crazy!

This week I also went head to head with a native Mexican in a chile dare.  He bet me that if I would rub a chile habanero on my face, he would do it as well and would also buy me a kinder chocolate in the oxxo store. There was no hesitance after that, and that was when the most painful experience of my mission began. Turns out it didn´t really affect him, but me on the other hand I was pretty darn swollen for about 3 hours and it felt like I had stuck my face to a hot pan.  It wasn´t a fun experience to say the least, but now when I eat other peppers that taste like candy, compared to that experience.  So I guess it was a blessing in disguise ha ha ha. I´ve told Elder Marx I´m going to rub a habanero on his face if he doesn´t wake up ha ha ha.

One cool experience we had this week was that we were visiting an investigator and we were on our bikes and while on our way we passed by a guy fixing a car and he was making fun of us for not having any winter clothes on when it was so cold out. After that I turned to Elder Marx and told him that if the guy was still there after the visit that we were going to contact him, and he told me the same thing, so we went to the house of the investigator and turns out he wasn´t home.  So we hurried and turned around and visited this kind of crazy guy. He turned out to be super receptive and when I asked for his address he gave me his drivers license, because he wanted to let me know that he wasn´t lying when he said he wanted us to visit him. So that was a pretty cool experience!

Well that is all for this week! Nate, don´t get mauled by any mountain lions.

Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Week 7

Well this week we had changes, and I got them as well... I have been moved from Ojinaga 2, to Ojinaga 1, and I have been put in charge of training a missionary, and not just any missionary a gringo (which means that I will be the only one talking and training someone in a language that I´m still not top notch in ha ha ha).  My new companion´s name is Elder Marx (aka lava boy)! The president called me personally yesterday and gave me a pretty good talk that I have to fix everything that went wrong with the first half of Elder Marx´s training, like sleeping until 800 ha ha. I´m pretty excited about it, but it´s going to be quite the challenge not having someone who can speak the language.  I thought I would be safe because gringos never train other gringos, but I guess there are always exceptions in the mission ha ha ha. My old companion Merlo is still in the house, but he is now the companion to the district leader.  Unfortunately, he is the younger companion, but he got to keep his area so I´m a little jealous of that, but elder Marx has given me a 70 percent chance that he can find most of our investigators ha ha. 

Tuesday Elder Marx brought a cat home to our house because he didn´t know the rule about pets.  The cat immediately ran inside the house and pooped on the floor and then on the mop.  We took it as a sign that Elder Marx needed to clean the house.  Elder Marx then kept trying to just throw the cat out, but Elder Merlo loves cats so he would keep bringing it back telling elder Marx that he needs to find a house for the cat. A little later we also found that Elder Marx has allergies to cats and it makes his face puff up really bad (photo). All in all, it was a really fun experience for Elder Cruz and I to watch as the two of them fought it out, in the end Elder Marx won by using the mission rules and we left the cat outside when we left the house.  Thursday when we returned in the night the cat was gone. We thought it all worked out in the end, but the kid that gave Elder Marx the cat now wants it back.  So we aren´t sure how we are going to break the news to him. 

Saturday we had a new years party.  We went to an investigators house named Juaquin who cooked us a 30 pound pork leg.  It was super good and we only were able to eat about 15 pounds of it ha ha ha.  Before and after the dinner we had a dance party, I was able to show off my awesome dance abilities and then Elder Marx got some confidence and helped me out and in the end we were the hits of the night.  Now all the little girls have crushes on us and keep asking us to dance with them when we come over. They still haven´t quite learned that we can´t dance with them, so they keep grabbing our hands and then just spin.  Our investigator encourages it so we just let it slide because when we say no they all start crying.  Anyways at 1200 everyone in mexico shot off their guns and then it rained bullets for a little bit.  The police started going through the streets with their sirens telling everyone to settle down.  It was cool to see it all, and then after about an hour of waiting Juaquin took us all home.  That´s how we celebrated our new year holiday. 

The next day at church there was about 15 people again, and everyone bore their testimony and we still had 20 minutes.  Elder Cruz and I basically each gave a short talk, and after us the counselor was able to close the meeting. Because there wasn´t any people, we just had one meeting. After church we took photos with the members and said goodbye in case we had changes, and then we returned home and cleaned and packed up a little. When we got changes at 800 pm, we then all moved around and got everything ready for the next week. 

And that is how my week went! I´m pretty excited for the holidays to end though because no one is at his or her homes these weeks.  Now we can get back to work and hit it hard!

Hope you all had a great new year!

Elder Bunch

Ojinaga, Chihuahua

Ojinaga, Chihuahua, Week 6

Hey, it was fun talking to all of you yesterday even if you were all fuzzy blobs for most of it ha ha ha. After the call my companion´s parents didn´t answer his emails for about 2 hours, so we had to wait for them to finally look at their emails.  While we were waiting the president turned on a marathon of Xmen for his family, which apparently is one of their traditions.  So my companion and and the other elders spent our time watching wolverine origins while waiting for my companion to get his parents to answer and start his skype call. 

Today we went to the canyon to hike.  Which really ended up being cool.  It was a massive canyon with a river that ran through it.  It looked a lot like Lake Powell, except with a little more brown rock.  The hike was really cool but I kept making the President nervous because I was climbing up and down the cliffs and rolling rocks off the mountain. I thought it was pretty fun, even if all the Spanish elders were feeling a fear of heights through my antics.  Especially when I would pull off a crane pose on a overlook cliff. After being on top of the canyon we went to the bottom and skipped rocks in the river.  Apparently Mexicans don´t ever learn how to skip rocks well so I was able to show off my skills a little by skipping rocks across the entire river.  I was getting numbers above 10 on my skips.  Now all of them have videos of me skipping rocks ha ha ha. The whole hiking trip ended up being really fun because usually we just clean the house on P day and sleep.  I will usually make a desert or some food for lunch and the next week.  So although we don´t have any food to reheat for the entire week, we all got some cool photos and were able to actually do something for once. 

Anyway, this week was pretty fun, we basically just had parties everyday.  It ended up being really hard to find people in their houses, especially near the end of the week and the holiday, so we just spent our time helping members and a few more of our more committed investigators with their Christmas plans.  One of those I was talking about in the skype call was that we helped prepare a pig after they had killed it.  That basically just meant shaving the hair off and cleaning out the intestines. It was a pretty cool to check out the anatomy and to have the opportunity to see the whole process. Afterwards it made me very thankful that i can just go and buy the meat at the store, even if it is a little expensive at times ha ha. We ended helping the president of the branch a lot as well with all of the members.

We then spent about half of our week in Chihuahua for our mission Christmas party with the president.  It was a fun experience just because I got to see my old companions and my buddies from my generation in the CCM. The food wasn´t the best nor the festivities but just seeing all the missionaries that I knew was really fun.  I also learned that a lot of missionaries know of me, mainly because I enjoy writing on their packages that they send through Texas.  The missionaries in Ojinaga are responsible for looking through the packages when the President isn´t able and sometimes we tape the boxes shut. Anyways at times we will call the missionaries that they have a package and what is in it, or more often we will make fun of them, like an Elder the past week who received a pack of water bottles for his Christmas present ha ha ha. 

Saturday we spent almost the entire day in the president’s house.  The first 5 hours we just played a scripture trivia game, and then family feud, at about 1100 we finally brought out the food.  We ate until 130 in the morning, it was awesome!!! When we finally got home it was about 2:00 am in the morning and elder Marx opened his only present which was a snuggie and slippers and a camera (I sent you a picture).  We have all thoroughly made fun of him and his snuggie ha ha ha.

And then Sunday we went to church with the 10 members that came, and then lunch where we had Polsolle with chicken feet, and then we skyped.  I am learning to love Chicken feet so keep a few alive for me when I return.

And yep that sums up my week! It was awesome talking with all of you, have a great new years!

Elder Bunch

Ojinaga, Chihuahua