E-mail (Dated: 3/13/2017)

Well Family I have now been in the real work for a little more than a week now. It has been really hard. I´m not going to lie the language barrier is real. The day I got here was Monday around 9 at night. I was called to serve in the SILAO part of mexico, kind of close to Guanajato and this is the more sketchy part of the mission so I was thrown right in.

I have a voice message that I´m going to send with all the details, but I will give you a quick update.

The first week I had some cool moments and some humbling moments and a few funny and sketchy ones.

I´ll talk about the cool moments at first. I don´t speak spanish well at all and the whole week I just just practicing and praying and just asking God for help. I want to tell you that I started being able to understand, not all, but I could start to get the main idea. Not only that but during those lessons I had no idea what was going on, but I the feeling of the spirit in my heart. With that I´ve been able to bare my testimony.

The humbling. The people here have nothing, in fact when I say that I mean it quite literally, we could probably fit ten or more houses in ours and I would have to say that the homes here are actually no nicer that living in our garage at home. But what I´ve seen is all of these people being happy and loving and they feel so happy with what they have. Their church is in a tiny house and they are so proud of it and it has definitely humbled me and opened up my heart and my eyes.

Some funny. Well where do I start. haha we were going to a part just out of Silao which is a ranch. We were going up this sketchy hill where all these houses were when a dog came out of nowhere, it was just one so we started walking. Then the dog barks and all the sudden about ten or more other dogs came out of nowhere and started chasing us down this hill. Let we remind you these aren´t like small dogs, this is Pitbulls, rotwiellers, and labs and man that was funny but scary. But I know we were protected by the lord.

Another story, so we were sitting on a bench just about to get ready to leave and then all the sudden this lady comes up and starts talking to us. After a minute I knew it wasn´t a good conversation, then I got this feeling of darkness and I had the feeling to say to my companion Necesitamos Salir! Which means we need to leave. The we left and I asked my companion what she said and I guess she was telling us that she is God and the Savior and the Holy Ghost and was basically telling us to repent and come unto her and to stop teaching. So I´m grateful for the Holy Ghost in those moments.

My companion! Elder Paez is a good guy. He Has a big heart and a good missionary. He speaks little english, but with my spanish and his english we figure things out. I am grateful for his patience with me. But it definitely is hard because of the language barrier.

Many times this week I had to drop on my knees because I have felt lost and alone and weak, but God has quickly picked me back up.

I miss you all and have been thinking and praying for you all as well.

Audio Recording to Family