Dusty's Email -- 1/29/09

Hey there,



This last week was really awesome. We had our Zone conference, and before that I had my interview with President which is always awesome. I had to give a part of the ZC and I only had 10 minutes and so I got started and after about 3 minutes the one Zone Leader raised his hand. I called on him for a comment but he took the rest of my time. Teaching everything. so ya....I wasn’t too happy but I couldn’t let it show. I just bore my testimony about planning and sat down.

All the missionaries really couldn’t believe that he did that. President knew, and he turned around and told me good job and patted me on the leg. But the talk by President was powerful. He talked about how Mexico is fulfilling prophecy right now, and he had all these scriptures. He said that in their last meeting with the regional leadership, that they told him that the Prophet announced that he’s going to start to send more missionaries to Mexico, and less to other missions that aren’t baptizing. It was powerful and motivated everyone.

The week went well. We worked our butts off again and didn’t really bring that many to church. I feel like we’re working harder here than in Neza and bringing about the same to church and baptizing about the same. But all is well.

I didn’t feel real well yesterday, it was kind of a bad day. Seven of our investigators told us in the morning that they couldn’t come to church, 4 of them had to go to a funeral and the others had something else to do. The guy that we were going to baptize left for work early in the morning and tried to get back in time for church but didn’t make it, so we have to wait a week. I wanted to baptize him because he is ready, he knows everything. He has a goal is to get to the temple with this family and all. Its just awesome.

The whole day I had a bad headache and my body was just really achy and my head is a bit sunburned. But I did sleep well last night.

We almost had a “run in” with the Jehovah’s Witnesses. They were knocking our street yesterday morning, but didn’t knock our door. We are coming to the end of another cycle and its looking like the 2 elders that are in my district will be taken out and 2 new ones put in. The President said that we are going to get a ton of Americans here soon, and that other Americans will be training them.

This morning Elder Tanner called me and we talked for like 40 minutes. They had their activity for the cycle as a zone, so he called me to see how I was. The way the phones work is that you can talk to anyone in the mission for free for up to 10 minutes. So every 9 1/2 minutes we hung up and he called me again. haha. It was great to hear from him.

I’m going to attach a picture from our Zone Conference. I’m in the process of making a photo CD to send home. Oh and can you guys get the address of my Trek Ma and Pa? I have a letter that I want to send them, but I threw away the paper with their address.

Money wise, we are short this month. We have only about 300 pesos for this week but we get more money next week. For some reason the mission home shorted us this month. So today I might take out some money.

Also can you get an address for Bro, Mallard?

I got your package today, with everything inside.

I’m glad that everyone is doing well and not sick. Tell CJ to dominate in volleyball and to tell me how his season goes.

tell him ‘todo se puede’

Love Elder Howard

Dusty's Email -- 1/19/09

Hey,

This last week was a bit of a downer. It was freezing all week long and we didn’t really find anyone new even though we knocked on a ton of doors. It wasn’t only us, the whole zone put up not so good numbers. But we are pressing on. We do have a baptism for this week though, so we are excited for that.

We have zone conference and interviews with President this week. So it will be good to hear from him and his wife. I know that the zone leaders are just going to mow us over. But the zone is starting to improve little by little, which is what it takes. Just steps at a time. We have been able to talk to those families that the one leader offended, but one of them I think that we are going to leave behind for now, because they didn’t come to church again and they aren’t doing their homework - like reading and praying. We are going to go and talk to them this week. The other family couldn’t come again this week, so we will see. All we are waiting is to baptize them, they have done everything else. That Elder is just like that, not alot of the other Elders like to work with him because he’s just a bit difficult.

I did hear that the Cardinals made it to the Superbowl, a member texted me, the one that loves the Steelers. He wants us to eat with him that Sunday so I can watch the Cardinals get beat. hahaha. Funny if the cards spanked them.

I was cracking up when I read that Mike brought the game by (Are you Smarter than a Fifth Grader) and said that he feels stupid when he plays it. haha.

About the whole eating on the street thing is.......well.......what had happened was.........yes I do every now and then. Thank goodness I haven’t gotten really sick, but it’s just so good. Those tacos in Neza were so,so,so good. I get to take the parasite pills this week so we will see if I have a parasite. I don’t think so though. But anthing is possible.

I’m excited to someday see this dance by CJ and the Priests. It’ll be easier just to wait until I get back, just get a copy...and wait 17 months....hahaha. That sounds ugly. hahaha.

But other than that we are all well. We’ve been working hard and are trying to change things in this area. It’s a difficult area but all is possible. I got to do a baptism interview this last week, and the only problem was that the lady didn’t want to get married to her spouse. So I talked to her and asked her why, and yeah...the answer surprised me.....about 29 years ago the guy that she’s with now kidnapped her, and brought to where there at now. It’s not like she loves him, and she can’t leave, because he used to beat the snot out of her alot and he still hits her every now and then. She thinks that if they get married that hell do it again, because that paper will signify that she’s his property or something. so.....ya.....welcome to Mexico. We can’t get involved with legal matters....so it was a bit tough to want to leave. but she’s not getting baptized, and neither is her husband.

We will keep working hard. I hope that all is well with you guys and I look forward to your letters.

Love
Elder Howard

Dusty's Email - 1/12/09

Family,

I’m glad to hear that your enjoying my favorite show without me:( But anyway I’m glad to hear Mom is feeling better and up and moving around. Thanks for mailing out a blanket so quickly. I’ll probably get it here soon I hope. Dad, I’m excited to here that you passed your test and that your going to go for the harder one now. atta boy.

Yes Dad I was actually at a members house yesterday eating while he had the Steelers game on and he was telling me that the Cardinals destroyed the Panthers. He’s in love with the Steelers and said that he hopes that the Cards and the Steelers make it to the super bowl----because he said we’re going to eat at his house and he’s will bring investigators for us to “teach”. hahaha.

Here in Pachuca it’s been nice. We had a baptism this last week. Kinda funny story though. He was a reference from another set of missionaries, they called me last week and said that an investigator had moved into our area and that he’s almost ready for baptism. So we went to his house on Tuesday to visit him, and he’s been an investigator for 5 years. He has had various dates for a baptism but is real insecure so when like a challenge came and he got scared and didn’t get baptized. But we visited him and answered questions that he had. Then we talked about baptism with him and he looked at his watch and his planner and said, can it be before 4? haha. His family, who are all members, wanted to come so we pushed it to Saturday. But his response cracks me up.

So Saturday came and in the morning I had to go out to Tulancingo which is about an hour away, to work one of the Zone leaders for a part of the day. One of the leaders, Elder Flores, has a real strong way about him....real blunt. While he was with my companion he visited 2 of the families that we have. There are in total, 9 people between these two families. I felt like something was wrong when I returned, and sure enough there was. On the way back to Pachuca I got a call from this elder and he told me that the Bishop wasn’t going to allow us to baptize this guy. So I tried calling the Bishop but his phone was off. As this was going on, Jorge, the man we were going to baptize, started to show his insecure side, even with his family and friends there.

By the time I got to the church I was a bit frustrated, but we did get a hold of the Bishop. There had been a bit of a mix up at fault of the Ward Mission Leader, and Jorge was still able to get baptized. All was well.

But these other two families that this Elder visited are different story. They are just awesome families that have baptism dates and everything. Well, they didn’t come to church on Sunday. We went by the house of one of them and the wife made a comment about this other Elder that visited them yesterday and about some of the things that he said. They were real strong. The other family we couldn’t get a hold of, but we’ll keep trying. I wasn’t happy with this Elder, so I called him. He just had a bunch of excuses and tried to put the blame on me....I wasn’t happy because its two families....families that could be sealed together forever, and he mowed them over and made them feel scared. We went by last night, and I talked to them and apologized and sure enough they all said that they didn’t like the way this Elder treated them. We talked and answered their questions and they are all good again. They are excited for their baptisms and all. Unfortunately, this same Elder will interview them for their baptism. So we’ll see. But the family is just awesome.

My companion and I are doing well. We are teaching well, working hard and seeing the benefits.

President is beginning to raise the bar with the leaders and their responsibilities. But I love it out here, it’s so awesome.

I have to run. Oh yeah the son of President Bulloch is the Assistant to the President in the Milan, Italy mission, so I am pretty sure that we would know Todd.

Love ya
Elder Howard

Dusty's email -- 1/5/09

Sorry this is late. We had computer problems and were down for a couple of days.

JH


Hey all,

I’m here in my new area, it’s a city called Pachuca. It is about 3 hours from my last area. So for transfers I had to start at the Mission Home, then take a taxi with the zone leaders to a bus station and buy a ticket. Then I left with them and a few other Elders out here. It took about 2 hours to arrive here in Pachuca. But we got here alright. The area is a ton different than Neza. It’s much, much more calm. There isn’t graffiti everywhere, and there aren’t many dogs runny around. There really aren’t people in the streets. It is pretty nice.

At the transfers President goes zone through zone. Elder Reed, my friend from back home, also had changes. He is going to train a new missionary. So we were sitting by each other, and President started naming off the changes and all. He didn’t call us until the last zone. So he’s not in my district but we are in the same zone. At least I had someone to talk to on the bus ride. There were a lot of changes this time around. My 2 companions from the MTC were there. Also my papa (trainer), Elder Mora was made a Zone Leader. It was great to see all them.

My new companion is so awesome. His name is Elder Panoaya, he’s from Puebla, which about an hour and half from where we are. Haha, it’s kind of funny. But he is such a hard worker. He has 3 months in the mission and this is his first area. We are both real young, but he’s awesome. We saw a ton of success this last week and I’m really looking forward to this cycle, because he wants to work and we hit a ton of doors every day. We have 5 baptisms for this week and I hope for 5 in the next week too. But we have to talk to the people, because I’m not as sure with them. It’s so awesome.

It kind of stinks being a leader, because, for example, on Wednesday, I had to go out early in the morning to where the zone leaders live for some training on being a district leader. Which is fine. But to get there area it is an hour bus ride, or two hours roundtrip. So with the bus ride and then the training we didn’t have much time to work that day. But the Lord blessed the little time that we had this last week.

My district is awesome, and so is the zone. There are things that the last leader did a little bad and so I’m going try and do better. But I’m so excited for the opportunity to work here.

President Bulloch has raised the bar for us going into this year, and I’m excited. We have a great opportunity to accomplish many great things, and I know that my companion and I are going to be part of it.

It’s really, really cold here. Oh man, its freezing! It’s getting down to like 40 degrees at night. So it’s a shock, because in Neza it never got close to that.

Thanks for the letters and I hope that all is well. I hope that mom heals up quick and good which it sounds like she is.

I really liked the picture of Todd. I was happy and glad to see him. Dang, he’s grown up a bit. haha.

Things are great, and the new area is a lot different from the other one and is a ton bigger. But I’m getting use to it and loving it. The members are awesome. There is an returned missionary who comes out with us all the time. He makes me laugh because he’s gets out in the street with us contacting people and everything. It is obvious he loved his mission. He served in California and of course loved it there.

Look forward to hearing from you next week.

Love
Elder Howard