Delicias Mexico Part 2, week 1

Well this week we had changes! And well, it ended up with good things and bad things. I`ll begin with the bad news, first as customs say. Well I ended up having changes and I was taken out of the Junta.  Also, I have a new companion in my new area. The worst part of it all was that we won`t get to baptize 3 families that we had set for the month of November that had finally started to come to church and even have special callings in the branch because they are so cool! And well that is the bad news... The good news is pretty sick! My new area is in Delicias and is the exact area in which I began the mission (panamerico)! So I will get the chance to help my first convert to complete his mission papers and if his calling arrives early I`ll get to see him leave as well! I`ve also learned that another convert I had there recently returned back after studying in the states for a while so iIll get to see her as well! It`s going to be awesome! Another cool part is that my companion, Elder Merino, was moved to another area in the same ward as me! So we basically see each other every day whether it will be for food or for missionary tasks.  That is going to be pretty cool as well! My new companion is named Elder Lopez and he is from one of the areas in the Dominican Republic that I visited when I lived over there for HEFY,  I`m going to try to be best buds with him so I have a place to stay if I visit the Dominican Republic hahaha. It should be a pretty cool cycle and if all goes well we should find a lot of success! Oh and Delicias is super hot right now compared to my old area so that should be interesting to adjust to haha.

Well in terms of my last week in the Junta we basically just prepared all of our investigators in the chance that we were to leave.  We did a whole bunch of service with a weed whacker (amazing tool by the way).  We probably spent about 60 percent of our time in the day just cutting weeds of investigators and members. We gained a lot of trust and had some amazing lessons because of it. I ended up using the 2 boxes of caramel apples and popcorn balls that I received to have 2 amazing family home evenings. Especially the popcorn balls we went with a super cool family that just wouldn`t go to church and we had a sick family home evening with them all about Lehi`s dream and the fantastic white fruit (popcorn balls).  The children loved it and understood more why we desired that they go to church.  In the end they came to church! Afterwards they asked when they could be baptized, super cool! I don`t remember who sent those boxes, but thanks! They worked magic with these investigators and a young less active girl and all her friends as we taught them about the parable of the seed that grows in the heart (like an apple tree), super cool lessons! The secret to reaching the hearts of people is through the stomach, especially when they are young haha. 

Another super cool experience that we had this week was the opportunity to eat half a kilo of ribeye steak! My zone leader, Elder Loftus, leaves this week so we partied a bit. We went to a place in which we previously only ate pizza, until a member told us some of the best steaks in Chihuahua are served there.  So we tried it out, and dang it was probably the best steaks I’ve eaten in my mission. Super super good, only problem was that you have to save money all week to afford one... But it was worth it! And it was a great send-off for the missionary, he is a cool guy and we are going to meet up to play lacrosse after the mission (he`s going to play for Weber).

Super good week here in the mission, and these next few months should be great as well! 

Con amor del infierno de Chihuahua,

-- 

Elder Bunch

México Chihuahua Misión

La Junta 

La Junta Mexico, Week 8

This week was pretty crazy not in terms of work, but in terms of what we did! We road the train! And not just any train, we rode the first class train! Almost all that happened was a mistake, but it was super cool! This week I also had the chance to return to san Juanito to visit the Elders over there and the giant festival ended this week so we are hoping that all the people get back to repenting!

Well this week we decided to go to San Juanito because the elders have been struggling a ton with several issues. Anyways, we decided the day before that we wanted to go on the train because for missionaries that can´t do much, riding trains is super cool! And right now I think we are the only ones that have accomplished getting on (it´s super hard as I’ll explain soon). Anyways we learned that the train left from Cuauhtemoc at 8 am, so the following day we woke up at 6 in the morning, left our house, and hitchhiked to arrive in Cuauhtemoc at around 7.  From there we had to wake up a taxi driver and take a taxi to the center of Cuahtemoc.  When we finally arrived at the station they told us that the only train that was leaving today was the first class train (it´s like an airplane where there is first class and economic only that sometimes that train only leaves with first class) so we decided there was no turning back, so we paid a lot of money and hopped on the train (it was super cool so it´s worth eating ramen all month hahaha).  We spent the entire trip eating in the food cart, and hanging out between the carts.  I took a ton of video but it isn´t easy to send videos through email or I would send them.  It was literally like a ride on a train through Yellowstone, it was amazing! On the way home from the division we took the bus to save a bit of cash hahaha.

Besides that it was just a regular week of work.  We found an investigator of the church of 19 years, who told us that if she can accept Joseph Smith she´ll be baptized.  We taught her an amazing lesson and she should be baptized here in November.  This week will be the last week of the cycle so this next Monday is when we will learn if our little village here gets closed or not.  I hope it doesn´t, but the members here are far too dependent on the missionaries and almost none of them have testimonies for themselves.  So although I don´t want to leave, in the end the village needs the lesson. I´ll probably come back to visit, because this entire zone is amazing in terms of nature, it is a super big tourist place in México, and it would be cool to see a couple of the members here as well hahaha.

Well that about sums up this week, this next week should be the big email hahaha. Have an excellent week.

con amor,

-- 

Elder Bunch

México Chihuahua Misión

La Junta 

La Junta Mexico, Week 7

Well, nothing too dangerous happened this week, but we sure did party! It was a solid birthday week in the mission hahaha. I got a bunch of cool presents, got a lime cheesecake slammed in my face, and got to kill a pig! I can´t ask for much more in life than those types of experiences!

Well up until Thursday it was just a regular week full of work, we ended up finding an investigator whose son was going to complete 25 years on the 6th of October as well! So when she found out my birthday was on the 6th as well, she decided to combine our parties and she told us that her son really wanted to eat a roasted pig for his birthday.  Well that just sounded like the coolest experience ever, to learn how to prepare and roast a pig, so we helped her out in taking it down and preparing it.  We had to leave before they took the insides out and put the pig on the roasting stick (the rod that spins it over the fire for and entire day).  In the end it was a super cool experience and I learned how to make a pig roasting box all I will need is the help of a welder and we can eat roasted pig when I get back (trust me this was the best pig I have eaten in my life, amazing!). After preparing the pig, the zone leaders pretended to get mad at us for being out a little late in a dangerous area, but when we arrived at the house for the grilling we thought we were going to get, they invited us out to dinner at the fair that recently hit the city! We ate massive Gringas (it´s like a big quesadilla with meat). When we finally got back my companion told me I had to open one present so we opened one, and in the end I somehow ended up opening all of them hahahaha,  Then as we got ready for bed we proceeded to eat the cookies, they were surprisingly good for how long I suppose they were in the packet hahaha. 

The next day  ended up running probably 5 miles (we have a massive front porch that  run in while my companion does "excercise").  Overall, I ran about 40 minutes, then my companion came out and said that I had to shower so we didn´t run out of gas, so I took a shower and when I came out the entire district was there and they made me a lime cheesecake!  As Mexican tradition holds I was required to have my face smashed into it hahaha. Weird tradition, but it is basically the equivalent of birthday spankings in the United states.  Personally I like the tradition here more, the bigger your face the bigger slice of cake you get haha. After that it was a normal day until that afternoon when we went for a massive pig feast.  They had it roasting on the rod and you just had to pull off the parts that you wanted to eat,  I ate a ton of ribs and a bit of leg meat, my companion started eating the meat and then decided that the bones themselves were really good and really weak, so he ate a good portion of all the small bones.  I tried one and it was all right, but the meat was the best of it hahaha.  That was how my birthday ended up here in México this year! Super awesome, it´s crazy to think that this is my second birthday here, but I guess I´ll see you all at the party next year!

One of the coolest and weirdest experiences happened this year, when we were walking to church and a huge family of white people pulled up and asked us where the church was!  We showed them where it was and we went to church with them.  It turns out it was a family from New Mexico that came down for vacations (I honestly did not know that people vacationed here).  They said they loved it and that they visited the copper canyon and the Menonites (mexican amish) and said that it was amazing for a 4 day vacation. So who knows, maybe there are cool spots here to visit, only that we as misionaries can´t visit.  The coolest part was that the father served in Chile about 20 years ago and that he translated the testimonies of his wife and his son, both of which wanted to share their testimonies for testimony meeting!  Although his Spanish may not be the best nowadays, it was amazing to see how the spirit helped him convey the message for all the members!  It was an amazing example for the members to see the family attend church even when they were on vacations (the people here put church as their last priority). Super awesome Sunday because of that experience!

That was the week here! They are going to be closing this village from the mission soon due to complete reliance on the missionaries here so if I don´t write next Monday or the week afterwards don´t worry I’m still alive just that I have to haul all my stuff across the state hahaha.

Con mucho amor!

-- 

Elder Bunch

México Chihuahua Misión

La Junta ​

La Junta Mexico, Week 6

Hey well, I guess I´m 20 now, that´s pretty weird, but can´t lie I barely noticed that it was October. The odds are my birthday party will be a day full of work, but in the end those are some of the best days I have here! Anyways, this week it seems like Satan was trying his hardest to make sure I didn´t make it to 20 years or my companion who will be 20 on the 12th of this month.

Alright, it all started on Monday, we had just bought our third tank of gas after 3 weeks (the tanks usually last a month for each fill), so we knew that something was up.  We were almost sure that there was a gas leak but the only problem was that we didn´t know where it was. So as we connected the new tank my companion was working on turning on the boiler so we could bathe in hot water.  Meanwhile, I went in the house and the entire house smelled like gas (we didn´t notice it until afterward due to the fact we were living with this smell for the last 3 weeks), Anyway, I went to put on my tie and felt a bit of pressure on my leg, and as I looked to see what it was I saw a tiny crack in the wall that a ton of gas was leaking from. We called the house owners and it turned out that the previous house renters decided that instead of putting a cap on the gas line they would use wall putty to block it up so that they could make their wall look better (they built the wall in front of the open gas line). So, in the end, the owner fixed it and was very surprised that nothing happened due to this gas line being in our bedroom.  The worst part is that my companion can´t sleep with the door open so he would close the door each night as the gas seeped in. Here´s where the miracle came in, in our room, we have a window that is broken and every night my companion would try to close it and due to the window being broken it wouldn´t close.  Every time my companion would fix it again, it would break again not allowing him to close it.  In the end, this saved us from ending up like the elders in China where it didn´t up quite as well...So that was a super cool experience, and an experience to be learned from as well hahaha. 

However, the best part of this week was by far the conference! That was probably one of the best conferences I can remember! The entire Saturday morning session was getting on the youth about what they are doing is unacceptable, and they did the same with families. One of the best lines from that session goes something like this (translation from Spanish version), Salvation is a personal matter, and Exaltation is a Family matter. We can try to be best alone but that is only going to gain us our own Salvation and the highest you can go with that is to be a ministering angel, but if you want to gain Exaltation that is a family matter, the family must progress together if one member is lacking all will be held accountable.  A super awesome talk by Elder Oakes I believe talked about how we are lacking in our obedience to the Family Proclamation, or worse that many support those who don´t guard it. And awesome talk about how we are a people that will be peculiar to the world, but a people that have found a peculiar happiness! I would recommend watching the talks of Bonnie L. Carlson and Dallen H. Oakes, don´t know why but I really like those talks hahaha

Have an excellent week!

Con mucho amor!

Elder Bunch

México Chihuahua Misión

La Junta 

La Junta Mexico, Week 5

This has been a pretty solid week.  We got some great invesigators, found a lot of new people who are interested in the message, I taught my comparion how to pin insects, we found a lot of sick grasshoppers and a massive praying mantis, we bought two live chickens, and we ate them today, it was awesome!

Well in terms of mission work we´ve basically been given the name of the masters of the drunks.  We have convinced several previous drunks to accept to be baptized (that part isn´t all that hard hahaha) and then we´ve helped several to come to church and now all of them arrive solo and are improving a ton.  The best part is that all of them know one another (it´s a small village haha) so they often help one another to improve.  This week I also learned that I have about 6 weeks here in La Junta, therefore 1 cycle.  This has probably been the fastest cycle of my mission and the most fun I’ve had in a long time due to my companion and how much success we´ve had here! We talk with everyone and by the end of the contacts it seems like the night has already begun and we have to be back in the house.  It worries me a bit because before I know it I’ll be back home and I´m still not ready for all that hahaha. But until then, I´m going to enjoy my Mexican lifestyle!

On the note of living the fun life, well my companion apparently has been super depressed recently and I didn´t notice it until I asked him what was happening and he explained a whole lot of items that made me decide to never be a psychologist.  In the end it was basically that the mission was boring him a little and that everything was the same always. So I made a plan and sought for a little guidance from revelation and boom, I had it! We started doing things that no one in the mission does, not because they are against the rules, but because it is just a bit weird. So I taught my companion how to do an insect collection and he loved it! He was a natural! Now we contact super fast so we can see all the insects that may be awaiting us. The other part we did was that we bought a couple chickens (this was something I was a little against but my companion really wanted to do it so we did it) so we spent this week contacting every house that had chickens and we then asked for the price of the chickens and in the end we bought the fattest and cheapest ones that were in good balance! And well in the end of the story, I learned how to clean a chicken (it is surprisingly easy to do it, maybe I´ll practice a bit when I get back hahahaha) so now I know how to skin and clean a goat, chicken, and fish.  In the end they are all basically the same, and taste so much better than the store meat hahaha.  Now my companion has been improving a lot and we´re planning our next wacky plans now all we need is for the new month to come so the monthly money arrives, it´s going to be great!

Well that´s the weekly update here, another great week! Conference is going to be awesome! 3rd one in the mish! That´s crazy!

Con mucho amor,

-- 

Elder Bunch

México Chihuahua Misión

La Junta