Reforma in Cuahtemoc, Week 6

Darn well I missed Lake Powell once again, and this time by only 1 weeks, shucks well at least we´ve been having a lot of parties here as well, even if I did miss sleeping with over 50 people on two house boats, but I guess I’ll just have to wait until next year. I am looking forward to trying out the wake skate and picking out some "hip" clothes, today Elder Adams and I went to try and pick out my suit style we looked for about 4 hours and I’ve decided that I’m hopelessly lost in fashion or we just went to the wrong places. Most of which just had shirts that say the F word about 20 times and in several fonts and sizes, but hey I guess that is the new hip style here in Mexico. I also spent about 2 hours on Sunday with a youth as he tried to show me how to use the new smartphone software while I tutored him on mathematics, I don´t think either one of us learned very much...

This week was pretty great! (like every week, right? haha) we found a family of a sister that just barely got reactive and well she has 2 kids with the ages of 8 and 9 both of which have a strong desire to be baptized, the best thing is that while she hasn´t been attending church she although she has been keeping up in daily prayer and scripture study and family home evening, and she finally realized that she needs the church in her life and especially the life of her family so that they may grow up with a strong foundation in their lives. And well to make a couple lessons short if all goes well we´ve got 4 baptisms next week, and if not, the future missionaries have 4 baptisms. And that is quite the miracle! 

This week we also had interviews with president Montoya as we do every cycle, he told me that I was going to once again have changes this week (and I did only that we are in a group of 3, so it wasn´t too bad), I asked him why I’ve had so many companions (20) when the average missionary has around 12, he shared with me and I’m a lot like he was in his mission and that I’m a "mechanic" in terms of I get sent to an area to fix it or I get sent with a companion to help them realize their potential and love of the work. It has been an amazing calling that I’ve been blessed to have here that has not only allowed me to change the lives of many people, but also to change my mine. I´ve started to read my old journals and remembered how I used to think that I wasn´t ever going to change in my mission, better said I didn´t want to be changed. But over these past 2 years I’ve come to realize that missionaries that go and return the same weren´t the best of missionaries in their mission and although they may not have wasted their time they definitely did not learn completely what it is to be a disciple of Christ. Learning to be a disciple has been one of the greatest blessing of be on a mission, I’m not nearly close to being someone amazing or an amazing alma the younger story, but I’m happy with the changes that I’ve seen and the potential that I now have for the future. As the missionary that has had to deal with many youth that go on a mission for their parents, but not a strong desire to serve, I can give a great advice to everyone who can serve a mission. And that advice is to do it! Life is going to hard or suck at times, but one day you wake up and love the mission. It is an experience that has no equal, and everyone should serve even the girls, it may be optional but quite frankly the sister missionaries that work here have so much more success than the elders, and are super cool, even if they get super spoiled haha.

These two years have been amazing and I’ve come to realize why they call them the best two years. It´s not an easy experience, you won´t be happy everyday unless you choose to, you´re going to have challenging companions, you´re going to have frustrating leaders, you are going to meet confused people that dislike you, you´re going to have times where everything falls apart, you´re going to have times with sickness or danger. But that´s the mission! And with every sacrifice that one has there is a miracle you just need to open your eyes and count them. There is no other experience that brings someone greater joy then giving everything to help someone knowing that you will receive nothing and maybe even rejection. But it is amazing and I wish every person could have the chance to serve a mission and learn what their true potential is.

The best is yet to come,

Signing off for the last time,

con mucho amor,

-- 

Elder Kaden Thomas Bunch

La misión maravillosa

México Chihuahua Misión

Reforma

Reforma in Cuahtemoc, Week 5

Well this week was just great! My new companion is a white guy that doesn´t know much Spanish and quite frankly is super goofy and well I’m goofy as well so we have fun together here in the desert of Chihuahua. He studied in Utah State for a semester and lived in the same building as Scott (one of my friends that Maren knows well). We basically just spend the days messing around talking to everyone and teaching just about every creature that moves (this includes animals, we have become quite the dog and cat whisperers recently, unfortunately they don´t count for too much besides buddies).  It is honestly just super fun every day, this poor elder just says the most awkward things to people sometimes and then I just break out laughing and the poor people just get creeped out. One of the most recent ones was when it was his turn to contact (we switch off so that I don´t do everything) and a guy and a girl were walking in front of us and so my comp contacted them by saying "good afternoon, I’m a missionary, can I marry you two?" they both turned super red, and told us to give them a bit to think about it and ran off quickly.  My comp turned to me asking what he did wrong, meanwhile I was laughing so hard and then explained what happened. Turns out he was going to try and tell them that their marriage could last for eternity. Unfortunately, that is not what came out... and that was just one of the daily experiences we have, best companion ever!

Another fun experience was that today I was going to go to Chihuahua to buy my suit. Due to leaving my zone I had to ask permission from President so I talked to him and everything went well and he told me that it was fine and thanks for notifying him. About 2 hours later at about 9:30 in the night he calls me again and asks me "Elder Bunch I trust in you a lot, do you trust in me?" and of course I told him yes, he then proceeded to ask me why half of the missionaries in Chihuahua were asking permission to go to the same place I was heading to. This was news to me and they were all using the excuse to buy socks or underwear, so something was clearly up. I later realized that last week I mentioned that I was planning to buy my suit today and well to put it in a humble way, I’m pretty well known here in the mission and this would be the last time many would see me so they all wanted to come haha. The mission has been a fun one and even though I’ve been blessed with a couple blessings, the thing I’m most proud of has been the chance to help those in my zones, my districts, and especially my companions.  And well a lot of the missionaries I’ve met wanted to group up one last time, but I guess today was not the day, maybe in the future or Facebook, everyone uses that here.

This week was pretty normal in terms of the great work, we are working hard to find the future baptisms here in Reforma and we´ve found several that although I might not get to see I will have joy having the first opportunity to find and meet them. Most people get a little nervous to speak to us and will speak in Spanish because they think that we don´t understand. In reality it is kinda like when the cleaning ladies would come or the sprinkler guys and would talk in Spanish so that one can´t understand. The only big flaw is that they don´t realize that I have 23 months here in Mexico and even though I have a weird Texan Mexican accent when I speak (I have no idea in the world how I got that, but I’m known for it), they learn very quickly that I know Spanish and those that talk bad about us or those that talk about how good we look both learn very quickly that gossips in Spanish doesn´t work and they blush pretty hard or get angry, it´s great! 

In reality the area is growing great, now that I have a companion that is very obedient and that tries his best to give everything we have starting to see miracles instantly, we have been blessed with references that want to get baptized, we find people in the roads that want to change they lives and accept baptism and the book of Mormon on the spot, it´s been great! I guess we shall have to see how these last two weeks go!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Bunch

México Chihuahua Misión

Reforma

Reforma in Cuahtemoc, Week 4

Well we have now entered my month of departure.  I guess we´ll have to see how this goes haha. Well as always it was good to hear from everyone and everything that is going on.

It was great to hear about the farewell of Spencer and my Farewell! That´s fantastic that everything worked out in the end and I can attend his before doing mine.  I´ll have to start working on my talk to see if I can top Seminary graduation speech. On Sunday I gave my last testimony (a tradition here for one´s last fast Sunday), although it wasn´t quite a gem it still uplifted the spirits of many haha.  I sure hope that my siblings enjoyed their Rocky Mountain Oysters, sadly I have not yet tried that dish of food, maybe one day far away haha.  It sounds like the road trip was great! I look forward to the future vacations, and to go boating again, it´s going to be great!

Well this week was a bit surprising, because there were changes! and like every time there is changes I got to take part.  My companion was unexpectedly taken out of the area and a new Elder arrived, his name is Elder Adams, and he is a white guy. It´s always fun to meet and share in the life of another missionary and if you get to baptize in the process...even better! I was a little sad to say goodbye to my previous comp though.  He was struggling with why he was on a mission, but started to realize that he wants to be someone better when he returns home, and in order to do that he set several goals we were working on together.  

This week was super fun, but a little hard physically. The great part is the season of rain has finally arrived! Every day is cloudly and it sprinkles all day! It is amazing! I´ve never been one for the heat, so this cool weather is a game changer that allows me to work at a whole new level. The bad part of this week was I got a bad case of gastritis, well I wouldn´t say case because I guess it may be permanent... Anyways we aren´t sure what I ate because my comp was fine and well I’m the one that has higher resistance to spicy foods than my comp, so who knows. Anyways the first day was the worst it was just a constant pain in the upper part of my stomach that wouldn´t leave. I talked to the mission president´s wife and she treated me for a stomach ache, and well it worked! for a bit... then we were visiting an investigator when it returned, and I had to add to the discussion my stomach ache (he asked why I was using his bathroom so much hahaha, hard life). He told me that he had the same thing. Yep... great times, luckily I rarely get stomach aches now due to controlling how much I eat and how spicy. I always wanted to take a bit of Mexico home with me and now I have something to remind about Mexico forever! it also basically means it is easier for me to be skinny! So that is a major perk! Score!

This week we also had a branch activity for the missionary work.  It was going to be super cool, we had all the church organizations prepare a room for a church open house where the less active members could get to know the members and clearly the investigators as well. Anyways everything was prepared, we invited many people to come and many came, but at the hour that it said on the invitation. And well as we all know, Mormons are the best at arriving on time, especially here in Mexico. The activity was at 6, all the members decided to arrive at 7ish, it would have been fine, only that a lot of the less active and inactive members that came got super depressed and now they don´t want us to visit them, that was pretty painful. But it is all good because we are going to keep knocking on their doors until they let us in and let us help them out in their lives! The mission work is awesome! It´s hard, it´s fully of sadness, sickness, and deception, but there is nothing that brings more happiness than changing the life of just one person forever. The time here is short, trials will come, but there is an eternal reward that only comes when we give our all!

Have an excellent week, con mucho amor
-- 

Elder Bunch (new and improved losing weight by the day! Awesome!)
México Chihuahua Misión

Reforma

Reforma in Cuahtemoc, Week 3

Well the first thing I should say is in response to Caden´s worry about spicy food, well the best we I can put it is that he is going to learn to eat spice.  I don´t talk about it much because I’ve never had problems with spicy food, but to be clear the food here is judged delicious if it is spicy, and the more spicy, the more delicious it is. So be prepared when one comes to Chihuahua they should always carry a roll of toilet paper on them, and get used to standing up, because for the newbies it hurts to sit down. Well that´s your little tip on Chihuahua for today.  Well besides that it´s great to hear about the farewell of Carter! He´s going to have a great time on the mission and will return home a lot stronger for it. That is crazy that Keaton finished! Wow 2 years sure do pass by quickly (I feel weird thinking that 2 years have past...creepy). 

Well this week was great! We had a surprise baptism so that was pretty cool! It is a 15 yr old girl named Elizabeth.  She is from a remote mountain village where the missionaries can´t go, but luckily she moved over here and the missionaries before me were led to find her. We taught her a couple lessons and she realized that the church truly had the authority to baptize and that her baptism didn´t count.  She read the Book of Mormon and prayed and got her answer. Even though she has many friends who are against our church (gotta love those Christian pastors convincing their people the Mormons are the worst). But in the end, everything went well and she got baptized and confirmed! It was awesome! And she´s got a lot of friends and family members that have a whole new view on the church and have accepted for us to teach them, we should have some great coming weeks visiting them!

Another miracle, Mexico won against South Korea! For all those soccer fans out there, now that the United States didn´t qualify, I´ve had to shift my alliances.  Also for my personal health because quite frankly if I say anything against Mexico soccer, they will probably stone me. So go Mexico! 

Right now, in the area we´ve been finding lots of people but because of the other Christian pastors they don´t last too long.  On the bright side the weather is finally starting to enter the rainy season which means lots of fun in the rain and cool weather all day!  Everything starts to get super green, it is basically a paradise for one that walks all day in the sun, maybe not to find people... but we´ll just trust God on that one haha.

Well that was our week, Oh and I got the packages from you and Grandma Bunch, so I should be set for this next month! And that is too bad about the temple, but Wednesday sounds good as well, hopefully I can get set apart early then so we can have some fun when I get back haha.

Good to hear from you, have a great week,

con mucho amor

-- 

Elder Bunch

México Chihuahua Misión

Reforma

Reforma in Cuahtemoc, Week 2

Well to start out this week we saw a huge miracle! One of the biggest that I have seen since my changes, and that was Mexico beating Germany in the World Cup!  I think my presence somehow ended up blessing Mexico and allowed it to beat Germany hahaha. Do you remember the movie Rio or really any animated Mexican movie where they are always watching Soccer, well that basically sums up my life right now.  The people here let us in their houses often but right now if there is a soccer game on, they won`t let us share a message until the game is done, and well this global championship is going to last until I get home so we are going to have some interesting coming weeks.

Besides that, this new area has been great! In this last week I’ve probably had 5 people say no to our message when we contacted them, and well we had close to a hundred contacts so we`ve got a lot of people to visit! My mission son is super cool and super excited.  He contacts everyone and is good at teaching as well! He likes to mess with me a bit about my Spanish (like I mentioned in the last letter I understand about 50% of what he says), the good part is that the people understand me more than my companion so that helps me out a bit haha.  He is a good guy, he is my first companion that enjoys doing exercise.  So every morning we wake up a bit before 6:00 and go running up a mountain that is about 30 minutes away running, it has a cool lookout on top where you can see the entire town. It`s fantastic, my companion isn`t to use to running at high altitudes so he drags behind a bit but he works hard and doesn`t quit! We have been running with a little speaker in my hand listening to EFY songs, it`s a bit weird but fun!

This week was great but a bit hard in the end. We had 13 people prepared to go to the church after working the entire week, and well we got 3 that came and well they weren`t the 13 we had planned on attending.  I`ve seen that God likes to test us a bit before we achieve the great miracles, and if we keep working as we did this week we are going to see great miracles and great fruits even if I may not have the chance to see them, but right now the goal is to help E. Flores (my mission son) become the missionary that I have slowly become but a little quicker.  Hopefully this will happen so that he can achieve great things and have some fun experiences as well.

Today I taught the zone how to play ultimate frisbee, one of the best perks of the mission is that when you play a sport for the United States you don`t have to worry about being the worst, because with the knowledge of the sport you already have a head start and if all else fails you change the rules to your advantage and nobody knows. That is the perk when about 20% of the mission are white guys and the rest are Latinos!

Well that was our week here! Con mucho amor,

-- 

Elder Bunch

México Chihuahua Misión

Reforma

Reforma in Cuahtemoc, Week 1

Well first of thanks for the money to buy the suit! Odds are it won´t be the highest quality of suit but it´ll be a fun experience to grab either way haha. It sounds like the construction has started in the house in Logan and that it will be a fun project.  It’s a shame I’ll arrive for the end of it, but at least I’ll get to enjoy the end result! Oh and the other cool thing is the challenge from the prophet about social media.  A whole bunch of youth here are super into it and have used it to be missionaries. Due to the fact that when their friends ask them why they aren´t on Facebook or Twitter they can explain about a living prophet and what our church believes! It has been an awesome opportunity!

Alright well the biggest announcement of this week is that I got changed! And dang was this change intense...  I´ll start from the beginning when I was still in Del Norte. The biggest thing that happened is a golden investigator that we have her name is Mari, she is a sister that we found the first week that I arrived in Del Norte (the first week I didn´t write), we contacted her in front of a grocery store, when we first made an appointment with her she was not in her house. The thing here in Mexico is that everyone talks to you and tells you that you can visit them, so you make appointments to know if they actually have interest.  When she wasn´t at her home we took it as a sign that she didn´t want anything.  So we went on our way, however about a week later we felt the need to return back to her house, and good thing we did when we got there we had an amazing lesson in which she committed to go to church. That Sunday we passed by her house to give her a ride and she came outside with her spouse and they both came to church for the 3 hours and they loved it! We continued to visit them and this Tuesday we set a baptism date for her for the 23 of this month, and although we got changed out and there aren´t missionaries right now and for a long time, the members stepped up and are working hard with them. And this past Sunday they went to church! And have a great desire to be baptized!

The week was great up until Wednesday night, when we learned that someone did not want the missionaries around and went to extreme measures to show us his dislike through phone calls.  The following morning another incident happened that required the president of the mission to act and remove the 5 missionaries that were in this ward out of the city of Chihuahua! (I’m going to save the details until I get home, because I think mom will come and drag me back to Utah). But to share the best part, I was able to see first hand the power of God, it´s honestly a miracle to be able to still have the chance to write and breath... it´s honestly such a great story I can´t wait to share it when I get home, but right now is not the time or the place especially for those that are going to serve future missions, especially in Chihuahua. But I now know without a doubt the missionaries are super protected.  You just have to be sure to follow what the spirit says otherwise you probably won´t get as lucky as I did haha. Anyways for this reason, I got changed! And I’m training! Best changes ever! My kid’s name is Elder Flores and he has 2 months in the mission I only arrived to finish his training.  He is from Bolivia and I honestly understand about 50% of what he says, his accent is strong and he uses vocabulary from Bolivia, but he´s a great guy and we are going to see miracles together!

Right now, we have 5 people prepared to be baptized, 4 are members of 1 family, and the other is a girl who is an Indian from Chihuahua, she is super cool! a little crazy, but so am I, so it´s going to be great!

Well that was my week here! oh also my new area is called Reforma in Cuahtemoc (a.k.a the promised land)

Con mucho amor,

Elder Bunch

México Chihuahua Misión

Del Norte, Week 1

Well the biggest update of these past few weeks was that I got made a zone leader again... I was not super excited for that update when the president made it in a special conference, and it was super unexpected. Here in the mission Mexico Chihuahua missionaries don´t ever finish the mission as zone leaders.  The last one that did was about 6 months ago and before him about 10 months ago. It´s not something common and quite frankly I was really hoping to train in my super cool area in Cuahtemoc, but instead they sent me back to Del Norte the area I was in before I went Cuahtemoc. Every time I eat with the members they always ask where I’ve been because they thought I got changed, but here I am after 4 months. On the good side I’ve got a lot of good friends here in the ward, and well my zone... it´s pretty darn cool as well. They are a little disanimated, but i´m pretty good and getting rid of that!

These past few weeks have been full of work. My companion it a great guy but he changes with his companion, and well his last companion was the type of missionary that got our emailing privileges revoked for 2 weeks…. every day after eating he would take of his clothes and put on regular clothes so that my companion couldn´t make him work.  That took a toll on my companion and more than anything on the area and the zone because this same missionary was here for about 3 months.  So when I arrived my comp and I started to work super hard and we asked for miracles daily, and we´ve seen it! We´ve found people that in the first lesson they committed to be baptized and then come to church the following Sunday! It´s been amazing! The best part has been the ability to call down miracles, my personal favorite is that we prayer in the same way that the servant Abraham did when he looked for the spouse of Isaac, in other words specific prayers.  We pray for help knowing which people are ready to be baptized by asking for them to respond in certain ways. It´s been awesome, we found the strangest people that the Lord has chosen this way. Right now I have 7 weeks left, and we are going to see what we can achieve in such a short time.

Well it was great to hear from you all! Have an excelente week with the first weeks of summer!

Con mucho amor,

Elder Bunch

México Chihuahua Misión

Del Norte (part 2)

Cuauhtemoc, Week 13

Well first of all it was great to see you all! I can´t believe that was my last video call... yep that is a little weird to think about, it is also weird to think that I am now the oldest missionary in my zone.  I feel like I’m not that old hahaha.  I’ve only got about 22 months now haha. It’s alright though I’ve just got to make the best of these last 10 weeks to get a few more converts here in Cuauhtemoc so that when I come back to visit I’ve got a few people to see. Also, although it was disappointing to hear that everything fell through with the house and the new house, I guess we will just have to see what God has planned over there in Arizona and in Utah, we just need to keep praying and go to the temple (those of us that can...darn mission haha).. On that note I think it would be super cool since I’m getting back pretty early if we can head out to lunch, and then off to the temple so that I can visit it at least one time more as a missionary (I only had the chance to do it in the mtc in Mexico once). And that Monday is a relaxing day, and then Tuesday the 24th starts the party haha.

Alright well onto the week, well my companion is now in his house, he finished this week and at 10 this morning left on the plane.  Meanwhile I did not receive a new companion, this week I am going to be in a trio with Elder Dustin (my mission son) and his comp. Elder Pacheco, 2 missionaries that are in my district and ward. We think that I may get the chance to finish the mission training someone due to the fact that all the new missionaries are going to arrive next week, and technically speaking I don´t have a companion for a week.  I´m just piggybacking on these other missionaries so I’m not breaking any rules haha. But I guess we shall see who my new companion will be this next week. But it is alright meanwhile while I’m here I’m going to help these 2 missionaries to baptize a few people! It´s going to be great!

On that note we baptized 3 people this Saturday! It was great!  One of them was a sister we have been teaching for about 4 months now, she is a little different, but it was really cool she started going to church because her 7 year old kid wanted to get baptized.  So they came and the members instantly befriended her and she has stayed ever since.  The only big problem is that her memory isn´t the best, but we are going to keep teaching her and soon she will be an awesome convert! The other two baptisms where the mother and daughter that I explained in my last letter.  They are super cool, and know everything, they were true golden investigators that were prepared by God! It was an awesome experience for my companion to leave his mission with these last 3 baptisms, as that is the goal of every missionary, to baptize their last week. Great day!

Well this next week should be interesting as I am in this trio, but we are going to work great miracles! And if everything goes well we should be able to baptize as well!

con mucho amor,

-- 

Elder Bunch

México Chihuahua Misión

Cuauhtémoc

Cuauhtemoc, Week 12

Well first of all, Happy late birthday Mom! Sorry that it was a bit stressful and that I missed it once again... but next time I’ll be there haha. Well this week was great here.  We had the piano recital in the end and I played Faded (some electronic song that sounds amazing on piano) and perfect by Ed Sheeran. Not the most hymn songs but they are a few songs that I’ve learned that I’ve gotten well known for. But don´t worry I also know a solid number of hymns and those that I don´t know it takes about 30 min to an hour to learn. It´s been fun to learn a lot of songs.  I look forward to finally taking advantage of the piano in the house with some actual music. I am also super excited for the move, the new neighborhood looks amazing... so I hope everything works out well and the negotiating goes well.  I´m not sure which house is the Tuscan house (quite frankly my house buying terminology is a little rusty) but from what i´ve seen for the houses for sale, it looks like a great area! And a 1 hour plane ride isn´t too bad.  I´ll come to visit and we can leave Maren in Utah studying haha (nah just messing). But either way I look forward to being home to help out in the whole process because it is going to be quite a large process indeed with all the animals and items. And before getting into my letter I want to say I’m genuinely impressed that Maren found a prom date with longer and better kept hair than her own :p hahaha. And tell Nate after he drowned his iPhone, welcome to the Nokia phone life. I have a very strong testimony that they are nearly impossible to break, I’ve thrown mine, knocked doors with it, lost it several rivers, thrown it off of bridges, and yet through it all it remains working and with minimal scratches.

Alright, onto what we did this week, the biggest accomplishment was that we committed 3 people to be baptized this next week. The first was a sister that we have been teaching for a while, but she has been a little nervous about getting baptized.  About a month ago we talked to her about baptism and she said that when my companion is about to go home she will be baptized, and well this week is the last week with my companion! So she finally consented for Saturday... Not the most exciting commitment to baptism that I’ve had, but hey! It´s a baptism so that is what matters. The other 2 people were actually a lot cooler. They are a reference from Chihuahua City from a missionary who baptized the daughter/sister of these 2 sisters. So, we finally had a moment to organize an appointment and when we arrived some members led by the spirit had arrived an hour earlier and talked to them about the church and offered to take to church and the activities. They were just leaving when we arrived.  The investigators freaked out when we arrived with happiness and the mother (she´s like 60 for reference) said that she was angry that the missionaries in Chihuahua didn´t let her get baptized because they told her that she wasn´t from their area, so when we arrived she told us that she wanted to be baptized yesterday (Sunday).  The daughter (she is 30ish) said she also wanted to get baptized but wanted to wait a week to understand for herself, not to get an answer solely because saw the change in her sister who got baptized.  They wanted that light in their lives.  So we taught them the baptism interview and put the date down for this weekend! It was a complete miracle that my district and I were praying for!

The other great part of the week were my interviews with President. This day was pretty intense, the president arrived at 9 in the morning and left at 10 in the night just because how long the interviews of the zone took and for temple recommends for the members of the branch.  Anyways to give a bit of background I have started to study a lot on revelation and "calling down heaven´s powers".  I can´t understand revelation unless I’m obedient with exactness to the rules of the mission (easier said than done haha). So this past month there was a certain subject that was coming up in the mission that has been severely bugging me so I’ve been praying to receive answers.  I wrote down all answers and feelings in a book.  So when I finally had my interview with president, I discussed with him what I had received, and to make an hour and a half long interview short we both left with answers we were looking for, on my part questions for why I was put with a missionary that is considered the most difficult in the mission. And on his part questions and plans on how to develop the mission to improve success and new opportunities. There have been few times that i have felt the spirit as I felt it in that interview, I am honestly so glad that he will be living close to our house in Arizona when he finishes in a year, he is a great guy, i love the opportunity to help in whatever way I can.

Well that was my week here! I believe i will be calling about 5 or 6 on Sunday, it is going to be interesting though because my companion needs to go to Chihuahua that day so... well I’ll keep you updated!

con mucho amor!

-- 

Elder Bunch

México Chihuahua Misión

Cuauhtémoc

Cuauhtemoc, Week 11

Wow, I just realized I have entered my last 12 weeks. This means that they could be buying my plane ticket any one of these days, and I start a program that is more or less the MTC in reverse that prepares one to return back to the non-missionary life, weird.  That is crazy that people are already placing bids to buy our house, I guess you guys better start getting a house over in Arizona because time is running short! That is a little weird to think that I might return to Arizona (on that note when they ask for my plane ticket they ask for where I am returning to, so I would really like to know that information when you have it haha). Also I can´t believe that mother’s day is in two weeks, I’ll get everything sorted out next week with skype, just send me an email with my username and password because I once again forgot it hahaha.

Alright, well this week passed by super fast which made it very pleasant, due to it being a week full of work. We found several people who are super cool including one in which we had a 6 hour lesson with him, in which the 6 hours involved him talking and me nodding my head in agreement about every 5 minutes.  We probably spoke about 5 times and not longer than 10 seconds at a time. It is great to see that my patience has improved and my ability to stand in one spot while my comp tried to cut the circulation in his legs to make him faint, unfortunately it did not work... maybe next time haha. Besides that investigator all of our lessons went well and almost every one of them offered us food.  I´m not sure if it has been a blessing or a curse but my entire mission I have been dramatically blessed with food, it is rare that I don´t get randomly offered food from someone on the street or that an investigator doesn´t offer us food.  It´s a miracle that I have withheld my incredible handsome body frame.

This week we had our zone conferences with president Montoya.  As always it was a great experience and he focused a large part of the talk on the new prophet’s message from the Sunday morning session regarding revelation and the new beginning for our mission. Our mission has been trusted with a pilot baptism plan that if all goes well could change how the missions in Mexico baptize and should heavily increase numbers of converts that remain in the church. Guess we shall see how it goes.

Well right now I’m off to a piano recital.  We promised a member that teaches piano we would help her out. I believe that i will be playing perfect by Ed Sheeran.  I guess we shall see how it goes. Beautiful song I just never get to practice it. But I’m playing with other people who are learning just basic piano so I think even if I mess up a little the parents will just be happy to hear something that sounds like a real song (not to say anything bad about those learning instruments), but it is painful to hear the same 5 songs for 2 hours).

Have a great week, con mucho amor,

Elder Bunch

Elder Bunch

México Chihuahua Misión

Cuauhtémoc

Cuauhtemoc, Week 10

Well it is great to hear that the decision to move has finally been made.  In the end I’ve known for a while now, and it seems like everyone I’ve been talking to talk about how great Arizona is as a place to live.  It´s been cool though, my most recent convert visits Arizona 3 times a year and wants to enter the temple with me in one year. So that will be an awesome experience! I´ll also be down there when my mission president returns home to Arizona, so in the end I’ve felt it coming know for a while. Besides that, I look forward to my classes at USU, and I look forward to the challenge! it will be a busy year, but it´ll be a good year, and with my weekends more or less free I think it should all work out and allow me to have more or less social life. It sounds like everyone is doing good.  Maren is sending memes that I don´t understand, Nate is getting beautified, Ella has her horse, and Henry and Charlie are wimpy, yet sounds like everything is back to normal haha.

Well this has been one dramatic week here in my district that ultimately ended in changes for one of the missionaries within my district. Well let´s start at the beginning.  We know that the church is run on revelation, right? Well, whenever one gets changed to an area, part of the "fun" in that experience is to know why God wants you in that area. This week was one of those weeks.  We had some challenges with a companionship that led to their transfers despite trying to help.  We had the opportunity to work with each of them on their relationship and mission goals. It was needed because they have 11 investigators ready to be baptized.  Today arrived the new missionary, he is a super awesome missionary that has a lot of experience in the mission and will help a lot in the district, which is going to be necessary because our district has the goal of baptizing every week.  We are going strong!  Now we just need to keep it up! But yep in the end although it was hard to transfer someone I’m just glad that is was for the good of all and as long as the people here get baptized I’m happy haha.

Well the other more fun experience of this week happened today! I found a volleyball net and a grill while cleaning my house here, so... we organized a massive a volley BBQ with the zone. It ended up being super fun because we don´t do too much zone activities here and the zone was getting a little depressed with only writing every week. So, we decided to mix it up a bit. We charged everyone 50 pesos and we had a massive hamburger feast with cake! Everyone played volleyball while I cooked the burgers, that was a little sad, but that is what happens when you organize the event haha. 

Well that was my week, learning a little more about charity and ministering. The sister missionaries also dressed up the district with their respective personalities and style, i´ll send some pictures.

The mission is awesome! But the experiences are what makes it that great!

con mucho amor,

-- 

Elder Bunch

México Chihuahua Misión

Cuauhtemoc

Cuauhtemoc, Week 9

I´ll am waiting for someone to find those pictures of Maren and after her wisdom teeth, those will be worth gold pretty soon haha.  My classes in the school look pretty nice! Lots of science, math, and a bit of business to spice up life a little, it´s going to be a fun experience that is coming up fast! I only have 2.5 cycles left in the mission! That is crazy!  And in terms of the heat over there in Arizona, looks like we are both suffering with that, but it´s all good I can start to lose the thousands of tortillas (still counting but in my journal I’m around 2735ish) I’ve eaten by walking in the scorching heat.

Well this week was a bit crazy, but it was full of great experiences that ultimately ended with a baptism! Well I’m not sure I have commented it before hand, but I’m in charge of an Area called Anahuac where there are only sister missionaries right now.  This area has only been recently opened after 2 years (if you want to know why just google missionaries in Anahuac, Chihuahua, third result). Anyways the sister missionaries have finally prepared someone to be baptized this week. As their leader I was in charge of helping to prepare everything. Alright now to go into the step by step process.  First no one knows why but the water had been cut for the last 2 weeks, and well to save a long painful experience, the bathrooms were not the cleanest, best smelling thing that I have experienced in my mission. In reality it was probably the most potent smell that has every stained a church... Well we went with the man that is in charge of the building maintenance to Anahuac and we turned on the water and opened all the windows, the following day we returned with the Sister missionaries and about 4 gallons of cleaning liquids. We then spent the next couple of hours deep cleaning every aspect of this building. And we pulled it off! Although I now have great respect for the people that clean the portable bathrooms, that is something that I will never get into. After cleaning the building I did the baptism interview for the an investigator (Ruby).  Then we headed off to eat! Afterwards I contacted everyone in the zone trying to find baptism clothes and somehow there were no clothes in the entire zone... this was strange because our zone is baptizing more than any other zone, but hey I don´t judge haha. So in the end I had to use my recently gained taco money to buy a baptism dress, it´s alright though I consider that I’ll be blessed for the sacrifice haha. Big problem though is that we have a baptism planned that could result in more than 10 people being baptized at once!  Hopefully we can find some clothes by then haha. Alright on Saturday we arrived for the baptism along with half the zone, and the mission president! That was a surprise haha.  In the end it ended up going really well.  The water was warm and I didn´t mess up on the prayer, miracles happen haha.  Also, I learned how to play the EFY medley, which ended up being our special music number for the baptism, great times!

An interesting but cool experience occurred when we went to vist an investigator that we are preparing to be baptized in 2 weeks. We arrived, and we had planned to teach her about prophets (she came to conference), however when we arrived we started to talk and all of a sudden, she started asking us if she gets a divorce can she still get baptized. We were taken back a bit because she had never mentioned something like this to us.  We began to talk and explained that divorce should always be the last option and we started to identify what was the source of the problem. Anyways turns out she and her husband have tried to completely avoid each other for almost a year now due to differences in opinions and because the two of them have a lot of pride and don´t what to admit or accept the other´s point of view. We began to teach over the need of communication and something that we as missionaries do called a companionship “inventory” (horrible stuff but it works haha). That afternoon she and her spouse went off to a park and talked about all the problems they have, and so far it looks like it worked really well! We will see how everything goes with time, and we will try to teach the husband as well.

Oh almost forgot, changes came around, and nobody got changed.  The sister missionaries had one added on, but everyone else is the same. This was great news because our district and zone are strong! So it was a tiny miracle that we don´t have to start over from step 1 again.

Well that was our week, glad that everyone is doing well, and it was good to hear about everyone’s adventures! 

Con mucho amor,

-- 

Elder Bunch

México Chihuahua Misión

Cuauhtemoc

Cuauhtemoc, Week 8

Well there isn´t too much to update this week besides general conference.  My companion was dying from his cold this entire week, and to sum it up, I have learned that it takes two oxen to lead a wagon, but if one of those oxen is half dead, and the other works super hard, he can literally drag the other one to have some success.  That basically sums up my week hahaha, A good miracle that we had was when we were knocking on doors, my companion had decided that he was angry that I wanted to knock on doors while he wanted to rest with the members like we had the other days, but I decided to find new people, so he sat behind a parked car while I worked.  It ended up being a cool experience because we found a youth that had been visited by the missionaries previously and had been waiting to talk to us again.  He let us right in and we talked and taught with him.  It was a good day and my companion got to rest a bit in the house of someone who is not an already active member haha. But that is just how the mission is at times, just means we have to work hard and even though at times we have trials in this life we just got to keep pushing until we win, and as with all obstacles we learn a little and get a little stronger every time. So even though in the mission we have hard companions at times we have to take the opportunity to learn and become better. Because as they said in Conference, we must learn to be meek and learn that everyone has something to teach us.

Well onto Conference, the changes were amazing.  I still am not sure what the new ministering program is, but I assume I’ll learn more about that when I get home.  In terms of the high priests and Elders quorums being merged, that sounds like a very efficient improvement, that will help everyone to learn together in an environment of knowledge and experiences and if everything goes well create a very efficient ward.  So that will be quite the interesting experience to see here in the mission and in the house afterwards. One of the talks that I thoroughly enjoyed was by the Elder Zivic from the Sunday morning session, about how our kayak often can´t be steered because we have a crack we can´t see. Here in the mission there are often times when one can´t see why they aren´t having success or they aren´t receiving an answer, and often it is because they aren´t being obedient with exactness or they have their mind focused on things that aren´t important, as well as several other problems that arise. All of which at times I have seen in myself, and after almost a year and a half of being a leader and missionary, I have seen it in others and have helped them repair their cracks. In the end the most efficient way to fix the spiritual cracks in our own lives is by simply asking God what are causing them and like the prophet said, God wants to talk to us, he wants to hear us, and he wants to help us to improve. Cool Talk.

Well it was great to know that everyone is improving in health, and that spring is in the air, and I’m glad that everything for school is in order so I can stop stressing over that as well hahaha.  Well my companion got over his cold, so this week should be a great week! and end of cycle!

con mucho amor,

Elder Bunch

México Chihuahua Misión

Cuauhtemoc

Cuauhtemoc, Week 7

Well besides the super traumatic Goat birth at home, it sounds like you all had a pretty good week.  As a point of news, my leaving date has been confirmed, it is officialy the 24 of July.  Now that I am within 6 months my date is now official. I confirmed it with my president this last week during my monthly interview.  He also told me he is excited at the chance that we might move to Arizona (he is from Gilbert,AZ). So, I guess that is not new information but now it is confirmed information!

Alright, well by far the best part of this week was the baptism of the family of Claudia, Melissa, and Maria Ofelia. This was by far the strongest baptism I’ve had in my mission. This was true conversion and was a simply amazing trip of conversion! This week we showed up to teach them how to do a family home evening and to organize the last details for their baptism. When we arrived without even asking them they had all the people they wanted to talk at their baptism ready.  They had the hymns picked out and they even bought their own baptism clothes.  They had already invited all of their family members and friends to attend. We then had a super detailed Family home evening about the dream of Lehi, and it was no basic tree of life lesson, she made us literally dissect the entire thing and explain what everything represented and linking scriptures to the point that I learned several new things and I’ve been doing this family home evening with investigators for 20 months now haha.  We then  proceeded to make popcorn balls, and I got to show off my ability to mess up the entire kitchen within 5 minutes.  In the end it turned out well, and they enjoyed the fruit that is whiter and sweeter than anything else.

And like all baptisms, the day of the baptism was pure chaos. In the morning everything was calm, we got a few visits in, we started filling the fount.  We even got KFC for lunch so we were super good on time. However everything changed when we went to print out the programs.  My computer somehow ended up being the only one not connected to the printer by the time we finally got everything printed out and after paying double the amount of what I should, it was now about 4:30 (the baptism was at 5).  We then had to run back to the house to cut out the programs and to iron the baptism clothes, the iron decided to break in this exact moment and spewed out a ton of brown water staining everything, in this same moment my nail somehow ended splitting a bit, but somehow spewed blood all over to (it was literally a paper cut!   I have no idea how it happened.  Well we switched the clothes and took the other pair, un-ironed, and we arrived at 5 and only 1 family was there... luckily after about 15 minutes everyone had arrived (Mormon time will honestly be the death of me one of these days), in the end we had more people than space in the room and the family that got baptized felt a lot of support, love, and loved the experience even if the water was super cold and the smallest one started crying because of how cold it was (that just helps them remember it better) :). We also ended up using all the water in the church... it was alright though, it wasn´t my branches turn to clean the bathrooms. Yep good times.

Well it has also been confirmed that in this minute the plan is that I will spend my last 4 months here in the branch Cuauhtemoc! That was good news, this branch is super cool and we have started a major new program with the members becoming missionaries. Now every Sunday, when an investigator comes to church all the members come to greet them (sounds a little like the ward in Arizona), they have also started to put us in contact with all the neighbors and family members. If we keep going strong we will achieve the branch goal of one new member every week! Man I love missionary work!

Well that was our week here,

con mucho amor,

-- 

Elder Bunch

México Chihuahua Misión

Cuauhtemoc 

Cuauhtemoc, Week 6

To the Maren’s friend Kaden called to my mission, I wish him good luck.  The odds are that he will arrive after I leave, but he is headed to quite the amazing mission! Well this week can basically be described as a week of theaters and musicals. And once again taking out my soprano talent! It was quite the surprise for all the missionaries especially the sister missionaries (it was awesome!).

Well before explaining my acting skills, I´ll start by explaining the work week. This week we unfortunately didn´t get mugged or fall into sewage rivers, but we did get caught in some nasty dust storms, which in reality are honestly the worst things in the world because literally no one lets you enter their house.  In the end it is understandable because when you open the door long enough to listen to the missionaries your house is now full of dust and dirt.  In the end most have decided to not let the two missionaries that look a lot like the friend of Charlie brown, pig pin, in their house.  The good part was that we relied on the members to do our work.  We have started to visit several and teach them how to be a member missionary and we have seen so many miracles.  We have seen just how many of the members here have actually baptized some of their best friends and most of the ex-missionaries here baptize their wives or the other way around! This branch is simply amazing and their desire to work with the missionaries is fantastic! The only thing is that the missionaries in the area just has to look for the right members! These past 2 weeks we have received around 20 references to put that in reference my previous zone combined in one month to receive around 15 references. I feel like I’m a missionary in Salt Lake City! It´s great, I never knew how the mission could be! 

Alright onto the theater, well to explain it better I’ll divide it into two parts, the theater and the musical.  The theater program was called "the Book of Mormon" it is very different from the anti-Mormon play made by the south park guys, so don´t get confused.  Anyways in this play in the beginning I was given the part of Igor, and I was the best Igor ever, so they decided to promoted me to Igor.... and then to a dog that chases the sinner! Best promotion ever!  Well the play centers around a youth that commits a sin (represented by a chair) and he can´t get out of it, he then starts to resort to several means of getting rid of his sin, including; a doctor, psychologist, mad doctor and “super cool” companion Igor, and some witches. In the end the missionaries find him and help him change. my job as the dog was to chase the missionaries off the stage (this actually happens a lot, dogs hate missionaries, true fact!), in the actual play I decided to spiff it up a bit and peed on the missionaries (true acting improve, I should apply for studio C), I know Mom would appreciate the in the moment additions. Anyways between my dog acting winning the hearts of the children, and my Igor acting as I got electrocuted winning the hearts of the adults, I am ready for a new career on Broadway! Well after the theater we began with the musical it was the same musical we did over in Del Norte. Not too much to update there, just a couple of duets and singing some awesome soprano notes to surprise all the members that Elder Bunch can do.

On Monday, or I guess today, we finally got to play soccer.  I played the first game and then afterwards they decided that if was just too good so they promoted me to “coach/ref”.  I channeled my talents from years of playing as defensive lacrosse captain, I yelled, intimidated the opposing team of youth, and we ended up victorious.  The other team taught me several swear words.  That´s called success! Even if I currently can´t talk...good times.

Well this week is going to be awesome! We are going to baptize a family of 3 that a guy from the United States gave a Book of Mormon.  He is heading down now from Wyoming and is super excited to baptize his friend...he wants us to teach this single mother and her 2 kids the law of chastity, personally I think he wants us to teach her about the aspect of eternal marriage and getting sealed in the temple...but those are just my thoughts haha.

Well that was our week here! Don´t do anything to exciting next week! and I’ll update you all on how the baptism goes!

p.s. i took a pic of one of the breakfasts we made, we have been eating well, I’m not sure where you found that marshmallow cream but that was some good stuff.

-- 

Con mucho amor,

Elder Bunch

México Chihuahua Misión

Cuauhtémoc