Week 3 - Deming isn't exactly a big place.

What's going on reality?? Finally got online after 30 freakin' mins..bleh! So today is my first pday in the mission field and it's definitely starting to feel like a mission now haha. We got to slow start since we opened an area and Deming isn't exactly a big place. Yesterday we have a couple appointments with investigators but had to go reschedule them because my comp. has Bronchitus and a couple ear infections hahah, so we've had a couple days of lots of free time and more to come. While visiting Christene Martinez, we've learned some interesting things about her and her family. We got there and two of her sons were HAMMERED out of their minds and one was smoking week about 1 foot from us, the other was saying how he read about all the "revelation crap" in the bible since he just got out of jail, and then her daughter apparently just got out of jail (pretty sure she broke free) and was supposed to die on the electric chair.....let's just say we have some progress to do with that family. That's a good example of a lot of the investigators and lifestyle out here. We can see the patrol blimp all the time and it's funny to be so close to the border haha.

Two of our investigators have schizophrenia majorly and bi-polar...we talked to our Bishop and he basically told us it's almost pointless to go out tracting in this city and that we need to work through the members. The members love us and we almost have every single person in the ward down by name....maybe because there's only like 50 hahah. Funny to think I've had triple that amount of people at my house hahaha. Anyways, we're going to be teaching about 2 members a night along with contacting and teaching our investigators. Finally we're getting some work to do and everyone says work here is WAY different than Tucson work. Tucson is more of a city feel and here....is definitely not.

There's been some challenges the first week, one is that we don't have a car for just me and my comp. so we have a car share between 4 elders and our mission covers about 80 miles...so there's some frustration, but luckily the members here love us and don't mind giving us rides everywhere.

The weather here usually sucks, during Winter season, it basically means cold and a crap load of wind usually between 30-50 mph all the time...tons of dust...and snowed for like a minute yesterday but usually doesn't get cold enough. Summer here is similar to Tucson, just not quite as hot. We're here until May (most likely) so we have to make the best of it and are going to convert the crap out of this freakin' place!

We ran into some J-Dubs (Jehovah's witnesses) and tried to get them to take a BOM. We explained to them that we DO believe in the bible and so we decided to try and make a trade. They left and then turned around and tried to convince us again, she just said she wouldn't read it....okay have a nice day!! There are literally churches on EVERY corner here, baptists, Lutherans, other types of religions, lots of people with good hearts which is what counts because we know that the Lord will open up their heart and mind to us if they have a chance of listening to what we say.

My blessing says "..many nationalities and people's." which fits this mission perfectly...we rarely see white people hahah. Trying to learn Spanish is hard on your own.

Send letters and packages to the main mission address "939 w. Chapala Drive" or whatever and they forward us everything. Send all packages via USPS :]. It takes about 3-4 days for them to get mail to us from the mission home...so it's a little slower, but we'll get it and I'll reply to every letter every PDAY!

It's been a challenging week the past week, finding out about what my brother and my whole family are doing back home makes me feel that I could help out back home. It wasn't a homesick feeling as much as it was a more worthless feeling because work took twice as much effort to get things started down here. Now I'm starting to see 'our purpose' come into play. Guess I'll just have to get used to small town people!

Wow this computer sucks.

It's crazy to know that our Savior knows EVERY single one of our sorrows and pains. You pray like 50 times a day here, but you never feel like you pray enough. Life is different down here...it's probably a mix of Venezuela, and Mexico....hahahah. 

Wow I hope this email sends, it's stupid how slow the internet is here.

Time to go shop at the only place around here....WALMART. It's the 'cool' place to be down here. Since Elder (Flinty-cent) Flint is feeling like crap, we probably will have a couple chill days. Just means more study time.

It's a little overwhelming thinking that it's two years of this, but I know that my purpose is to be fulfilled down here. Two years is nothing for the sacrifice our Savior made for us..

mind=blown

Why should it be easy for us if it wasn't for Christ?

I really want a Monster....dangit. Thanks for everything! Can't wait to hear what people are doing in their lives!

Peace out homies! :]

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For my brother James (Jimmy):

“The gift of God is amazing. As people are faced with different trials in this life, they are often looked at differently because their faith is becoming strong. Our duty on this earth is not to judge, but to love everyone. We will strive to push forth, like my brother, to successful outcomes along with the potential of future comfort. If we serve others consistently, our love and tolerance for everyone will grow. There are reasons for trials, just like there is a reason for everything. My Bro Rocks!”