Smells like something died...

Hi mom (sorry i didn't write last week kinda),

I am officially in the phase of the mission where they start making fun of me every time they hear how long I've been out. They say things like, "Smells like something died." when I walk in and stuff so I guess I like it.

They asked me to speak in church this week, and not just 5 minutes before! I think that means they like me here. 

Our area is on fire! We had 4 people come to church this week and all 4 should get baptised in the next 3 weeks. We have found some new investigators with a lot of potential too. The guy I'm most hyped on is R. He's like 55 years young and he lives in a little shop that he owns because he doesn't really have a house and he doesn't have money. We always teach him in the church because he doesn't want us to see where he lives and he doesn't have a phone. But EVERY time he is there 10 minutes early before the appointments and church these last 2 weeks. He always reads the BoM and is super humble and willing. The ward is helping him out a bit with the money sitch, and I feel like that kind of person is who it's intended for. 

There is another 17 year old girl that we are teaching and her BF is a member but her parents don't want her to be baptised. When we arrived, they didn't leave us much info about her, so we just had to go knock her door which was hard to find, her angry dad opened up, and then we heard later on that she got grounded because her dad thought she invited us over. OOPS! She came to church though this week (not sure if her parents knew) and she said the sitch is a bit more calm now and she will turn 18 this month and wants to be baptised ASAP when she turns 18!

MILAGROZ! 

My compa is super funny and kinda lost still hahah but he's getting a lot better honestly. He's just like super innocent.

I am getting better at letting him speak more in lessons so that he can learn, even though it doesn't always go too good. 

We are going to move out of our (haunted) house this week because the dueña (landlord I think) wants us to be cleaning 3 houses and gardening every week, and President Nelson (mission prez not the prophet) didn't like that. 

Anyway, sounds like all is well back home. Loving the mish and trying to expand my vision every day!

Love

Elder Lethaby

P.S. This week I got like 10 letters from like October and stuff, a few from May hahha so thanks to everyone!

When people fight hard to get baptised.

Hi mom,

This week the area is still on fire. We had more investigators in church this week than I've had in my whole mission! We will have two baptisms this week! One of a little girl named R whose mom is a less active member that's gone through a lot as a single mom with 3 little girls, one of which is special needs. She is so excited and passed her interview with Elder A (Otto Comins boi that was with me in the mtc and is now my ZL). Also M who is an 18 year old girl whose family just got baptised the week before we got here. She didn't feel very ready so she wanted to wait, but we helped her understand that waiting won't make it any easier, when do you want the blessings? Now or in another month? No reason to wait if your worthy. Elder A killed it in the interview with her as well. R was all good but then this week he told us he wants to wait until APRIL! Why? Not sure, we gotta figure out what happened :(

Lots of miracles in the district and in our area. 

This week we will have intercambios with the ZLs and also the zone conference! First time in almost a year that I can just sit back and enjoy the zone conference without having to direct or train or anything haha. Elder S had emergency transfers because an Elder went home and so he is no longer an AP either. He has been saying a lot lately "Pop´s still got it." He is the missionary with most time in the mission now haha so everyone kinda makes fun of him and says he's the grandpa, but then again he only has one transfer more than I do. 

My companion is kinda starting to get the hang of the mission life now and he really invites the spirit a lot to the lessons. We had our first lesson this week with a girl who will turn 18 this week and then get baptised next week and her parents don't want her to but she has a very strong testimony and has read the whole Book of Mormon and is pretty much already a member. My companion was baptised when he was 18 as well after 4 years as an investigator and he was able to share his experience and his testimony that through his example his family (which was totally against him being baptised) slowly changed. 2 years later his mom was baptised and another two years after his sister as well. It was super spiritual and I am so excited for this girl to get baptised! So rewarding to see people fight so hard to get baptised and finally do it. I also got to see a convert (marisol) from Totolac this week at church and she is doing awesome. 

All good here in Tlaxcallan.

Love

Elder Lethaby

Questions answered:

What was your last minute talk about? What did you pull out of your hat last minute to talk about?

No this time they gave me time to prep but it was about service in the church. Shared the story of when we cancelled part of the bike trip to clean up the forest fire. 

Is your companion’s family active? Can’t remember what you’ve told us!

Mom and sister yes, dad isn't a member

Do the people in your new area remember you (ie. at church in the other ward)?

Some of them, but not much honestly hhaha.

More pics?

We need to find a place to write that accepts the card from my cam, don't know where the cord went. :(

Is the food a bit different where you are?

A little, more traditional and handmade stuff here because Puebla is more modern. 

Did you ever go to the far ends of your mission with President Nelson? When we look at the map, it’s a concentrated area you’ve been really.

No hahaha not really, the furthest I ever went was to Tlachichuca, you can check on the map, but the furthest parts are Tetela and Zacatlan. 

The only video he's sent...crazy kid!

PJ lady update and transferred to a haunted house?!

Hi mom!

I am now going to be working in the Tlaxcallan ward which goes to the same building as Totolac on Sundays aka I can see my converts and friends from that ward every week! Also I seem to be getting so lucky because we just switched to 12:00 church, and when I was there last year it was also 12:00 church. I am training Elder V from Peru. He is a 26 year old convert and his middle name is MacGyver, literally. I guess his dad really like that show so he named him after him hahha. Should be fun. 

Our ward is in the center of Tlaxcala, where that big bull ring that I sent pictures of a while ago is located. I am also the district leader and opening an area which is a pretty hard combo of things to do, but I will learn a lot. 

Last week we had the best week of the whole time I was in Hueyotlipan, we were able to leave the area with 7 baptismal dates and 5 of them went to church! Isabel is going to get baptised this week, and I have a district leaders meeting in Puebla that day I might try to get permission to go! She is so excited! I can honestly feel like I left that area better than I found it. That's the goal. I didn't get to baptise much there, but knowing that now they will brings the same feeling :)

So so so glad to hear about the Taggs :) 

My son (what missionaries call someone they are training) is currently contacting the guy in the Internet shop on his own while I write home on his second day in the mission, so I'm not worried about him hahaha. We live in the biggest house in the mission (it's actually 3 houses that we can use) that they let us live in for free because it's haunted but so far I don't feel like it's haunted. It's like super "fresa" (nice/modern/new). The elders that were here before us baptised 3 people on Saturday and there are 5 more members of that fam that we want to baptism but we haven't met them yet. The bishop is cool and so is the ward mission leader. 

Should be a great few months here.

Happy new year!

Elder Lethaby

Questions Answered:

Any resolutions?

Baptise a lot of people and finish strong! I honestly hadn't thought of it much, but this last stretch of the mission will determine how my whole life goes, so I guess just be better than yesterday.

Did you ever notice that the big pack of Tic-tacs had little Canadian flags on them?Don't think I got a pack of tic tacs with flags :(

What did you do the rest of Christmas day? Dinner?

We made waffles, hung out in the offices and then did office work at night haha the mission doesn't rest!

Does the ward invite you out for dinners/lunches even if you’re office elders?

Ya! We try to avoid the offices if we can, so they still feed us. 

Where is Elder S going to go? And you?

Elder S is training two new APs Elder B and Elder B, both really good guys. I am here training, opening area, and being a district leader in Tlaxcallan.

Reyes magos coming up. Watch and learn and let us know what it is all about!

Will do.

Serve your companion…be kind and helpful. Be a bit more observant and watch for those little things that you can help with.

:)

1 Week to Christmas- Christmas pics as a Treat

Wow that is the best news ever about Caleb and Michael. I am honestly so happy to hear about that. Can't wait to see those guys! 

I (PJ lady) is still hyped and everything but when we stopped by on Sunday she wasn't home and we don't know where she went, but we should be able to find her pretty easily again. She's killin it. 

This week I went on interchanges 3 times and every time I stayed in the other area aka I only worked one day in our area, but it seems like it's doing good still. We had another new investigator come to church for the first time, lots of support from the ward, and some other little miracles. 

Cool experience from interchanges with Elder A (from my mtc district): We were knocking doors, and a lady opened up and we contacted her with the book of Mormon and he asked her if she had ever thought of what Christmas eve was like in the Americas and she just like freaked out and said like "Why didn't my priest ever ask me a question like that? Is it really true that he came to the Americas?! What was it like?!" Just like super super hyped on Jesus being born in the Americas. 3 Nephi 1 talks all about it. It really is a huge blessing to have the BoM to teach us about how much God loves all of his children and how literally the whole world needed to know he was going to be born. 

I'm loving this Christmas honestly, it's a lot of fun being in the offices at Christmas because we get to see all of the missionaries and give them packages from their families and go to the Christmas conferences. Should be a great week. I think I have all of the boxes now hahah I've gotten a ton! No Christmas baptisms, but it turns out the mom of that little guy Cesar that we baptised a few months ago isn't registered in the church system so we may baptise her. 

Sounds like a great experience for the youth with David Archileta and stuff. Good work west stake ! :)

Here's some treat pics, Merry Christmas!

Talk to you soon!

Love

Elder Lethaby

Tree and Presents

Conducting Joel's way

Secretaries, AP's and the Mission President and Wife

Another quick one...PJ lady update

Ok so the wifi in the offices is down, so we are just writing from a hotspot on Sister Nelson's phone, but they need to go so I need to be quick!

Elder Barfuss is now here in the offices and is being trained to be the new secratery, looking awesome. President says he's bringing the Canadians into the offices so that he can keep a closer eye on us haha. We are calling it the #Canadiancreamchristmasdream

PJ lady came to church again! But just so you know her name is I haha. She's doing good and has some friends already!

Sounds like everything is good back home, sorry that I can't write too much, but I'm excited to talk to you in a few weeks! 

Love you all! Doing better than ever.

Elder Lethaby

Questions Answered:

Did you get any more boxes? There should be 3 from me, and 1 from Oma and me (with the maple syrup)?

I got the syrup one and the one with the beef jerky and kinder eggs and stuff. In that box there are also some cards in envelopes, what am I to do with them?

Did you put up the tree I sent…you can. And the other “branches” need to be put on (I left them loose so they wouldn’t get all folded up.

Ya I set it up and read them all, including the one you sent in the other box! Loved it, thanks!

When will we be talking Christmas day? We are so flexible…but would like to know. Will you Skype from the mission home?

I will call home on Christmas day I think, it will most likely be from the offices, but we are low key waiting for the evite to the mission home, so we will wait and see.

What does a secretary do in a mission office? How long will the 2 Canadians be there together?

A secretary is in charge of reimbursements, referrals, materials, and a whole bunch of other things that nobody understands. We will just be together for 3 weeks. 

Tell us about some traditions you have observed around Christmas.

Well they are into the "reyes magos" and not Santa, they come to give presents in early January, forget the date. Different songs, like that one the Velazquez´s sang at the ward party like 6 years ago. I will keep observing and let you know!

The cookies actually arrived…as cookies? Or something that gets sprinkled over ice cream because it’s crumbs?!

It was more crumbs, but it worked well that it was in that bottle because we could just drink them! 

Tell Elder S that he is welcome in our home anytime (he's good at service!)! We need him to be an example to some other boys who shall remain nameless!!!

I will tell him...

PJ lady and thanks to everyone for the "Tree"

The #ILUMINAELMUNDO (#LightTheWorld) thing is really going well so far, the members get so hyped! We ran into J, that homeless guy who we paid for him to go get his hair cut, and we were able to go buy him a bottle of water on the water day. It's been good. We have also started the "Hora de oro" (hour of gold), an hour that we are dedicating as a mission every day from 5:00-6:00, to drop everything and just contact as many people as you can, look for service opportunities, and just go find miracles. It has been so awesome. Every day we have found at least one new investigator when we have done it, and we have seen a ton of miracles. 

The other day, we were knocking some hora de oro doors, and an older lady opened up the second story window to see who it was, and we just presented the BoM (Book of Mormon) and said we wanted to give it to her. She asked how much it costs and we said, "free!" So she started coming down, but then her brother came home and started talking to us out front, and he was kinda mad, must have had a bad day, didn't want to listen, and when the first lady saw him, she went back into the house. The brother left and didn't want to listen, so then we were just waiting outside of the door, looking at our planners, trying to figure out what to do, and then the first lady opened the door again and said "now I can listen." We had a great lesson, gave her the BoM, invited her to church and felt the spirit as we testified of the atonement. Then, as we were about to leave, someone from the house in front of her´s said "Hey Elders come on in!" Turns out the guy who invited us in was a returned missionary who was visiting his less active GF who's mom wasn't a member. We taught them as well and committed them to go to church as well. On Sunday we passed by for them and both families came! We got there early with the first lady, and we showed her the font, explained what baptism is, and she was very excited to accept! She should be baptised this month! Such a huge miracle, I don't think I have ever had a lesson go so well. 

Now here's the funny part of the story, when we showed up to take her to church on Sunday, she was still wearings her PJ's! We said we would pass by again in 10 minutes to give her time to get ready. When we came back she had changed.... into a different pair of PJ's and lipstick! I think that's just her thing hahaha.

Big bummer about the pieps (Piepgrass family), tell them to stay! Also, that box with syrup didn't show up yet, but a different one with a kendama did show up! Not sure if I am supposed to open it. If you could let me know which ones are to open now, and if there's any for Christmas day, that would be perfect. Thanks a lot though! Love it! 

The Lord has blessed us so much this week, I'm loving it!

Love you guys

Elder Lethaby

Questions Answered:

How much walking do you do in a week?

Depends a lot on the week. This week it was a ton because we were doing divisions all week, and very little office work. Other weeks we are in the office planning things all week and in meetings. Couldn't tell you in kms though.

How was an American Thanksgiving? Same amount of fullness as with a Canadian?! Did you miss anything special that we make? Brussel sprouts?

It was really the same haha just that our mashed potatoes are better (secret ingredient? Plain, creamy goat cheese!). Don't miss brussel sprouts haha

Have you received any other packages? You can open the boxes, but the presents inside have to wait for Christmas? Otherwise…enjoy!

Ok thanks, I guess that answers my question about the box. Thanks for the cookies, they were a big hit with the secretaries. Also the big tree! Didn't read them all because I wasn't sure if I was allowed to, but from what I saw, that was very nice of everyone!

Favourite scripture this week:
Gotta go with Alma 7: 11 because we felt the spirit super strong as we shared it a few times this week with people who were really suffering.

Person this week that you watched exemplify Christlike behaviour?
Elder S, he has been so hyped on service, like at thanksgiving dinner he just got up right away and started washing plates at president's house even though they have a dish washer haha but he's just like that always, doesn't have to be told to go serve.

When we are specific in prayer...

Thanks for writing early mom!

And thanks for sending boxes for the whole crew! :) There are some that I already have in mind who will need it. There are missionaries that literally don't have a home address serving in this mission. 

That quote would have been perfect to hear at the beginning of this week haha, it was a very full one. (the quote: One day at a time. It has been well said that no man ever sank under the burden of the day. It is when tomorrow's burden is added to the burden of today that the weight is more than a man can bear. Never load yourself so. If you find yourselves so loaded, at least remember this: it is your own doing, not God's. He begged you to leave the future to him and mind the present. ~George MacDonald)

We ended up with only half a pday, and about 1 hour to work in our area all week. The mission baptised more per missionary this month than it has since President Nelson arrived 2.5 years ago (and maybe ever, not sure). We feel very good about that. The Lord has blessed us a ton, and there are just so many miracles that we hear about. 

This week we were able to give a few really fun trainings. One of them was about being persistent and we made a fake door and slammed it on them if they weren't persistent. The other was with the ZLs and Sister training leaders and we talked about the difference between the word "minister " and "administer". They are both very important as leaders in the church and the mission, but it's important that as we administer, we do it with the purpose of making the minister part easier. Small but important difference.

I have been able to change the way I pray this week, asking and thanking for specific people, and their specific needs. I feel the spirit with me a lot more as I have done so. 

The new generation that arrived is killing it still, finding lots of miracles and living the dream. 

Right now we are going to go eat Thanksgiving dinner with President and Sis. Nelson, the dream! I keep telling them thanksgiving is in October but they don't believe me. 

Love you lots,

Elder Lethaby