¡AL FIN!

Mon 12/10/2012 5:01 PM

Well first off, I want to thank you all for your many prayers, they have not gone to waste. As you may have seen in the picture, we had a baptism, and man was it a miracle and a half, but more of that later :) Anyways, I don't really remember all of your questions, but, Ill try to respond to the ones that I remember haha. Also, thank you all for writing me, especially Brookie and Tanner, it is really good to hear from you two! I am so excited for you Tanner for starting the cello, and yes, if you are careful, you can use mine :) To be honest that is one of the things that I have been missing the most lately is my Cello, it is definitely something that I am going to work at again when I get home with this new found love and work ethic. 

Ok, so Ill tell the story now, at least the shortish version, and the answers to questions will come later because I want to make sure that I get this in. So to start off, this guys name is Vincent, and everything that happened with him is a pure miracle. I can't remember if I told a little bit about the story behind him, so I give the quick version. Anyways, so he has been investigating the church along with others for about 9 months now, and the reason why he started is because his girlfriend is a member (flirt to convert eh;) ). Anyways, so he went to church one week with his girlfriend in the building of the AP's of this mission about a monthish ago, I am not sure. Anyway, they sent us (well, my comp and his last comp.) his name, number, and address, but for about 2 weeks they couldn't get a hold of him. Well, my first night here in Loma Hermosa we went looking for him, and when we found his apartment building he was just looking out his window, talk about a miracle! So he came down and we talked to him a little bit to find out what he knew, and ya, that 9 months paid off cause he already knew everything. So I asked him how he felt about baptism, and he said that he wanted to be baptized! It was awesome! The only problem was that this last Sunday he could go to church cause he had something that he had to do, I didn't really understand it, but that Sunday night our district leader and his comp had a baptism, so we thought it was a good idea to bring him to that one to see a baptism and 2 to have his interview, and ya, it was a good idea. I think I mentioned this last week, but after the baptism and interview I asked him how he felt, and he said that he knows that this is the true church. It was pretty powerful. Anyways, so that is the background, he comes this Sunday haha. So we had talked to him about bringing him to church with his girlfriend in the morning, and he was totally fine with that, so we show up to his house, and he isn't there. We waited like 20 minutes cause we could see lights on in his apartment, but no one came. So we went to go call him and low and behold, he was already in the chapel. So after the sacrament services, we talked a little bit, but we also had 2 other people who showed up randomly to church, so we also had to talk to them to find out who they were, and well, the next thing I know he is walking outside to the gate. So we hurry and run over to him to see where he is going, and he said ´´well, I've been fasting a lot this week and I'm really hungry, I'm going to go get something to eat real quick and come back.´´ Ya, this kid is amazing. Anyways, so all of the services end, and he still hasn't come back, so yet again we call him to figure out where he is. Well, he was at the gate waiting for his mom who wanted to see the baptism. Talk about close. So after waiting we all went inside to start the baptism, everything went great, and he got baptized! But, after the ordinance, we all found out that he forgot to bring a change of cloths, cause he had worn white pants and a white shirt to church, and was baptized in that, but totally forgot to bring a change of cloths. haha so when everyone was saying congrats and welcome, he was soaking wet. It was funny. But, he was baptized! Honestly, this was one of the biggest miracles that I have seen yet, mostly because this ward hasn't seen a baptism in over 3 months, and my companion hasn't been able to baptize anyone his entire mission, so is really is amazing that I have been blessed so much to have been able to be an instrument in the Lords hands to start to change this area around. More miracles, we are also going to have another baptism this Sunday  but that is another long story that will take a whole email to tell as well, but keep in your prayers that he, Carlos, can be baptized this coming Sunday.

Ok, so I have a little time for answers. So a little bit more about my companion. His ´´full´´ name is Adrian Alvarez, he is from Mexico, the city actually. We live like 40 minutes away from his house, so having been in the MTC for 2 months, living 40 minutes away from our house, I know how it feels haha. We really don't know when he will be leaving, for all we know he could leave tomorrow. We have heard that the changes in his mission are 6 days before ours, so we very well could be companions until the last week of this change, which is what I am praying for haha. We are actually pretty close to a lot of things, but most importantly, we are really close to Costco, a Panda Express (one out of 2 in all of the mission), a Carl's Jr., a Wendy's, and a Burger King. Oh, not to mention Walmart too. Right next to the Costco however there is a way awesome museum that I want to go see, so hopefully we will have some time next week. So I forgot to tell you that if you are going to send a package to do 2 things. One, put a picture of the Virgin Maria on it, and 2, seal it with plastic all around it. I haven't heard of anyone's packages getting stolen, and usually they only take like 1 week to get to the offices, which means for mean it takes 1 week 1 day to get to us haha. Oh, Christmas, we don't know when, how long, or what, we can do for Christmas yet, but our zone leaders said that they are going to tell us everything tomorrow at the usual meeting, so I will let you know next week.

Ok, well I need to go. I love you mom! I am excited for the packages!

With love,

Elder (papa) Noel

p.s Here is a scripture for everyone Alma 13: 27-30 and one for Brookie, Alma 27:28

Oh Boy

Mon 12/3/2012 4:32 PM

Well, the first week of the city is over, and boy was it an interesting week. So as many have asked in their letters, yes, my new area is in the city, smack dab in the middle, and mom, yes, there is a Costco  and I am a new member of this wonderful business haha :) It really is great because we were able to get pop-tarts and Costco chocolate muffins  which you know I am deeply in love with, so that is really nice :) also because I have a card now, we can go eat in the cafeteria there for the days that we receive money or pdays, which is what we did today.

Ok, now on to this week. So as I may have mentioned, the way that we are working here in mexico is completely different, we don't knock doors anymore. The way that we will be working from now on is purely by references from the members in our ward, which this past week took a little bit of thinking because well, we didn't have any haha. Since we didnt have any names from our members in the ward and we couldn't go knock doors to find new people to teach, we looked at the ward directory of all the recent converts and less active members to go re-activate them as well as ask for names, but that didnt go as well as I would have hoped. To be honest, this past week was one of the worst weeks lessons wise, we hardly taught anyone compared to my last area, solely because 1; 1 out of almost 3 people that we tried to go see ended up being just right out side of our area, and 2; 1 out of 2ish people that we went to go see werent home, so it was a little difficult the first couple days cause we really didnt know what to do some of the time, so we defintely have learned how to plan even better for this area and new way to work in  the Lord´s vinyard, but this past sunday was really good.

So as I said before, this area hasnt baptized in 2 changes, so when I got here there werent any possibles to baptize on sunday, which was really weird for me. But, we found this one 18 year old guy named Vincent my first night that well, to put it simply, is golden. His girlfriend is a member (flirt to convert right?) and he has been investigating the church for almost 9 months now, along with several other churchs. It actually turns out that he went to the ward of our AP´s but lives in out area, so the first night we went to go try to find him and low and behold another miracle, we find him just looking out his window, so we talk to him, ask him how he feels about getting baptized, and he says straight up yes, I want to be baptized. To me that was awesome, but my companion, who unfortunately hasnt had the opportunity to baptize yet, was stunned. First it was a miracle to find him, then to have him say yes to baptism, and then this past sunday we had our district leader interview him and he will be baptized this coming sunday! I am soooo excited! So I was talking to him after the interview how he felt again about the church and baptism and what not, and he said something along the lines of that he has investigated a lot of different churches, catholic, christian, jew, JW, and the LDS church, and he said that he felt a peace and tranquility in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints like he didnt feel anywhere else, and he said he knows that this is the true church of Christ. It was sooo amazing and so powerful! After he said that I was a little caught off guard and didnt really know what to say haha so I just agreed with him and bore my testimony about it, and oddly enough found out that he didnt even have a Book of Mormon, so of course we taught him about that and gave him one so he could continue to grow and prepare to be baptize (that that he really needs any more).

Anyways, so that was the main miracle that we found this week, but along with that, during the last hour of church my companion and I talked with our bishop to see if we could do a little ´´activity´´ with the Elders Quorum  and the relief society, and well, it went really good. We shared some scriptures from the BOM and DC about helping others come unto Christ and that it doesnt matter what their religion is, and then asked them to write down on a piece of paper someone they knew who isnt a LDS, and well, we have work to do this week, finally, in fact, we recieved 29 names in total from doing that.

Well, I dont have much time, but here are the pictures from the last sunday in Santiago Tianguistenco with the 5 baptisms (Martin and Miguel in the first, Antonio Nacy and Carla in the last), as well as a picture of me and my new companion Elder Alvarez. I love you all so much and I am so grateful for all you do. Grandma, I got the one talk you sent from President Uchtdorf, but not the others yet. One really good thing about this area is we receive pouch the first in our zone, so I get mail one week earlier than usual :) Mom for Christmas im pretty sure I get to skype you, so if you can one send me information with an account that I can use and an account that you will be using that will be great. Oh ya, the mission address changed, so please put this up on facebook and let everyone know:

Misión México Ciudad de México Oeste

           Avenida Fuente de las Pirámides No. 1, Piso 1

Lomas de Tecamachalco, C.P. 53950

Naucalpan, Edo. de México

Well, thank you all again for your prayers and support, I love you all so much!!

Much Love,

Elder Noel

 

Cambios!

Monday, November 26, 2012 5:02 PM

Well, just like I thought, I got changed this week, and low and behold, I have a Mexican companion! His name is Elder Alvarez and he is from here, D.F. He is waiting for his visa to go to Argentina  and well, I'm finishing up his training..... I'm not sure if I feel all that ready to be training someone when I just barely finished my training, like this last change, it has definitely made me realize how much more I need to learn and how much I am going to be relying on God to make sure I don't screw up training this elder, cause he really is tan bueno! I don't know how well our lessons are going to go and what not, but one thing I do know, we are going to change this area around (apparently they haven't had baptisms here for 2 changes, if anything, that gives me more drive to baptize!).

So we don't have a lot of time cause I took me a long time to get here, so I am going to keep it straight to the point this week. My new area is called Loma Hermosa and it is in D.F., so I am pretty excited about that, as well as we have a Costco here :) Our house is really nice, we have a fridge, a stove, a shower, everything but a washer, but our district leader has one so I'm not too worried about that.

So this last Sunday  well, it was definitely interesting. So we had 6 baptisms planned to do in the morning before church so they could get confirmed during church since it was the last Sunday of the change. Well, 4 of them fell through because 1 boy Luis is deathly afraid of water, and the other three, well that is a whole nother story. So this family of 3 is really amazing, but the parents weren't married (again), so we went to go marry them Friday (again). So we had the papers for them to sign in the chapel Sunday morning, but the youngest daughter got sick so the mom had to take her to the hospital  so she couldn't go to the church to sign the papers, so her husband couldn't get baptized either. Well, we talked to them and they said that they would come at 12 to do everything, and at 12:30 they finally showed up, we married them, and then baptized them right after church. So out of the 6 baptisms that we had planned, we were able to have 5 of them, which was an amazing way to end the change! (sorry i don't have any pictures, for some reason this computer is letting me see my pictures, but i know they are there cause i can see them on my camera, oh well next week I guess) To end the change, we went to the family Santiago (the really big family that we have now baptized 9 of) to share a scripture, the end of Alma 7, and to say goodbyes. I didn't expect it to be as hard as it was. I have really understood what it means to serve God with all our heart might mind and strength, but mostly heart, and I like to tie this scripture in with the one that says when we are in the service of our fellow men, we are in the service of our Lord. I never knew it was possible to love another family so much, in such a different way, than I do this family. As i have grown in that area, teaching them a ton, giving many blessings of comfort, health, and actually performing all the baptisms in their family, it was harder to say goodbye to them than any of my friends (yes, any of my friends, sorry guys), and almost harder than saying goodbye to my own family, mostly because I will probably never see them again, but, I definitely have gained a family here in Mexico, so I can now say i am part Mexican :) I will miss them dearly, but, I know I have too much to do here to focus on that, and the Lord has shown me that in a very quick manner by making me a trainer so flippin' fast.... Well I guess we will see if the phrase ´´The best way to learn is to teach´´ is true or not haha.

Bueno, pues no tengo mas tiempo, pero les amo muchísimo! Sí mama he recibido su carta con los ´´stamps´´ hace como 1 o 2 semanas, entonces mucho gracias por eso. Usted envio la regalo para navidad? Si sí, gracias, si no, gracias jaja. Les amo much!!

Week 12!

On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 3:46 PM, Chase Noel <chase.noel@myldsmail.net> wrote:

OK really quick before I forget, I am going to answer your questions mom haha.  So from what I understand we will be getting a conference issue of the ensign, but I am not really all that sure. I hope so because I really want to start studying those talks that I never got to hear haha. So we can listen to music, like motab and what not, but the player that we have in our house didn't play the types of cds that you sent, so I gave them to my last comp. when he left, so if you could send some cds and maybe a little cd player with small speakers that for sure play music that would be nice. So we walk almost every where except for when we have to go to another city, we take a taxi. This coming change all of the areas that have bikes aren't going to have them any more, I think this is a change that is happening in all the missions in mexico. I am pretty set with stuff here, all I really want is just some good old German candies, like ferrero rocher ;) Most of my clothes are holding up pretty well (just small holes in my pockets that I have been able to mend), and my shoes are doing really nice, I try to shine them 3 times a week so they still look really nice, and the bottoms are doing just fine as well. The weather is getting a little bit warmer during the day, but at night it is still pretty cold. haha we have recently found a small little hearte with a fan, so we have that going during our studies and planning at night so our room is really warm haha.

Well as you mentioned in your letter mom, this is the last week of this transfer, and boy has it gone by soooo fast! I cant believe that I will probably be leaving this area in one weeks time, and I really don´t want to leave. I have been blessed with success here, but more importantly, friends who I love here. As I was sitting with one of our new investigators during priesthood yesterday, I told him that I will probably be leaving this area next week, and he almost cried, along with this frito here haha. I have grown to love the people here sooo much, I honestly cant imagine leaving them knowing that I may just never see them again, but I guess we are going to find out this next week what will happen, so I am not going to focus on it any more.

¿Bueno, pues donde debo empezar? This last week has been a really good week! We had intercambios this week for 2 full days to try to interview all the people that we are going to baptize, so I got to spend quite a bit of time with our district leader Elder Ferrera, which was a really neat experience. This Elder has 22 months, so just one more change and this Elder is going home, and boy does he know his stuff. It was really fun to go contacting with him and to learn how he teaches and what not, I was definitely able to learn a lot of new ways to present us and to just start teaching about the restoration without asking if we can haha we have been able to teach a lot more that way and have gotten even more new investigators.

So the main highlight of this week (since all 5 of our baptisms got postponed till this coming Sunday  was we had a member of the 70, Elder Alonso, come speak to us about the new focus that we are going to have in our mission since he is in the area presidency for mexico, and wow......talk about powerful. This zone conference was really something special and different than anything I have ever seen or experienced, ever. His main focus was tying in the plan of salvation in with Lehi´s dream, and it really is incredible how true this church is haha. The main part he focused on was the tree (árbol) and the fruit (fruta), which the tree represents the love of God, or Christ, and what is the fruit of Christ? The atonement. He said that if we really want to help our investigators come unto Christ, we first need to partake of the fruit, or be using the atonement in our own lives, tasting of the fruit that is most desirable above all others. If we wish to have converts stay in the church, we need to help them understand the importance of the Atonement, and how, when applied correctly and often in our lives, we will be the happiest that we possibly can, because we will be partaking of the love of God. After this he opened up for questions, but no one dared say anything to ruin the spirit, so he continued on and talked quite a bit about his calling as a seventy and what it meant. Like it is cool that they don't have any priesthood keys, but, under the direction of the apostles they have the authority to hold the whatever keys they need to do what they need to do. Also, he defined what it meant that they are a special witness of Christ. It means, he is a special witness of Christ haha, so who knows exactly what that means ;)

Well, here is a quote in Preach my Gospel that really hit me yesterday, ´´Regarding one´s testimony, that which one willingly shares he keeps, while that which he selfishly keeps he looses´´ President Monson. I have really learned this principle here for sure. When ever I learn something in the morning, like a scripture or what not, and I use it throughout the day and share it with either my comp. or investigators, I remember it much easier and I find that I can remember the scripture when I need to use it in a different day, but, if I don't use it and I just say to my self, wow, that's a cool scripture, I forget it when I need it the most. The same, just like what President Monson says, is with testimony. If we aren't sharing our testimony with someone EVERYDAY, we are going to loose it, and one way that we can share our testimony is in the way we act. I have seen it happen to several people where they fall away because they don't share their testimony, they don't act like they have one, so they loose it. But just like what Brookie said in her letter, when we have a testimony and know something is true, like the gospel, we want to act differently, we want to share with people what we know. I have been so blessed with the opportunity to share my testimony everyday, every hour, every minute, that I am here in Mexico, and I am learning how to strengthen this testimony daily as I help others do the same.

¡Bueno, pues yo creo que este es todo! Muchísimas por todo que ustedes hacen para mi, estoy muy agradecido por ustedes. Les amo muchísimo, y estoy bien animado para escuchar a ustedes en un mes sobre teléfono! Recuerden, les amo y ustedes son en mis oraciones!

Con amor,

Elder Noel

¿Yo se que vive mi Señor!

Big Week!

Monday, November 12, 2012 12:57 PM

So to start off, thank you for all of your amazing emails this week, really, they all mean a lot and have helped ´´rekindled´´ my fire so to speak. So I don't really have a lot of time this week because there were so many really good emails (which is totally fine, I´ll still get the good stuff in, so don't worry about writing long emails).

So this week, as you can see by the pictures, was a really amazing week! The first picture is the family that just showed up to church this past Sunday, and boy are they a miracle and a half. So to start the story, we were contacting in this one Pueblo Xalaclaco, and we knocked on this little some-what old ladies door and taught her about the restoration. She seemed really interested, but the only problem was that she works on Sundays all day, so we dropped off a pamphlet (in Spanish folleto, i forgot how to spell it in English haha) with the information of the church and told her where it was and at what time, and then left without thinking that something was going to happen because of her job. Well it turns out that the sister who was baptized, Catolina, is the sister of this lady that we met, and the lady that we met told her about the church and so Catolina went with her son! So after that miracle  happened, finding their house was another one haha. They lived off a tiny little cerrada, or private lane like ours, but the entrance to this cerrada is smaller than the area in between our house and that the brick wall (where we back the boat up), its about the size of the concrete that we have and it winds around, so after looking for almost 45 mins, we finally found it. After we taught them one lesson, they wanted to be baptized, the only problem was that they weren't married......another couple in Xalaclaco that isn't married, what a surprise. So we taught them on Tuesday, then on Wednesday we had our district leader come and interview them, they still wanted to get baptized, so on Friday my district leader and I went to the one place, Tequisquiac, which is 6 hours from our house, but, they can marry people that same day, so obviously we went. We did all of the paper work, and got back in our area around 8:30 that night, and we baptized the mom and her son right after we had a ´´marriage ceremony´´ in a room in the chapel with all of their family and what not, it was so awesome!! They were both so happy, and it was so amazing to be a part of helping them one get married and 2 be baptized. We are going to hopefully baptize the dad this week or next, the only problem is he wasn't at church this last week and he has weird hours for work, but we are going to get him baptized with the other members of their family (a total of about 18 that all live in one house) baptized before I leave this area! :)

So the second picture with the three kids. So these three kids are family friends of the huge family that was baptized last week, which really is the reason why they were baptized. We are currently with their mom to get her baptized as well, but she had no problem with her 3 oldest kids getting baptized, we just need to talk to her to baptized her and one more kid that she has that is 8 years old. Cool story with them, the oldest one, Betzi, I got to confirm, and it was my first confirmation. The last change I didn't do any blessings or confirmations, pretty much because I just wasn't comfortable enough with my Spanish to give someone a blessing, but this change I have already given like 2 or 3 blessings, but the confirmation was totally different. The spirit seriously was so strong during it, and the words really just flowed out of my mouth. I didn't have to think about what I was going to say before hand or anything like that, I just talked, and I knew it was the spirit cause it was things personal to her that I would have never been able to think of on my own, so that was really really special. 

So some info on the missionary life. So today we had to go back to Tequisquiac to finalize this marriage, so that is where we are at now, making sure that we get our letters out before 6, because we probably aren't going to get back home until 8ish....yay, but at least I get a long nap :) We just had tortas, which are basically the equivalent of burgers here (but honestly probably better) and I had this HUGE one! Honestly, it would put tanner to shame ;) it was 1.1 kilos, which is about 2.5 lbs almost all meat, with eggs, pineapple, and goodness haha. Along with that I had a 1 litre coca-cola, so I am a happy missionary haha :) I honestly cant believe that this change is already over, we really only have 2 more weeks together, and time has seriously just flown by! I guess it is true, the harder you work as a missionary the faster the time goes by. ;) So to answer the questions, I shower just like a normal person Taylor, thank you very much. I use soap and shampoo, hopefully just like you  ;) haha jk, I know what you meant. So we have a ´´normal´´ shower head, it it basically a pipe with a shower head to disperse the water, so it really isn't much different, there just isn't as much water pressure. We also have really hot water, which is soooo nice haha. We also do have a cell phone, one for each companionship, but it is blocked so we can only call/text other mission phones, but, our investigators can call/text us, we just have to use a public phone to call them back. Also, today I am going to pick up my shoes for soccer, so next week you will be able to see them, I had to get them ordered cause they don't carry my size of shoe here haha, but they are sick! They are this bright blue with orange at the top, so I am pretty excited about that. Also with the scripture cases, the Brother who is making them is going to start on them, but it is going to take 3-4 changes to make them, so I will have those in a little bit (btw, thanks for putting in the Christmas gift). I still haven't gotten any letter from mom yet, we didn't get pouch for some reason last week, but I should get it tomorrow. I have found out that if you send it on a Tuesday, I will get it 2 weeks after that (if we get pouch), but if it is after that it will add on another Tuesday, so just an fyi.

Again, thank you for all of your support and letters, they really help out and are answers to prayers!! I wrote letters last week, but I totally forgot to send them off, so ya. I love you all so much, you really are the best family that anyone could ask for!! You have taught me so much, even if I didn't recognize it before, you really were meant to be my parents to teach me the things that I needed to learn to help these people here in Mexico. Thank you for all of the amazing letters that you sent me in the mtc tambien, I read them over last night and there were a lot that really touched me and were an answer to prayers, especially the hand written one from you mom and the poem that Siera Sudburry sent me, so thank you! 

Con amor,

Elder Noel

4 Months

Monday, November 05, 2012 10:56 AM

¿Pues, pues, pues, que tenemos aquí? 

haha 4 months have already gone by since I have left for my mission, and I honestly cant believe it, time has just flown by. I've been blessed to have learned so much from my 2 companions here already, been blessed to have met so many amazing people here, and so blessed to have been the Lords instrument (i like that word especially, and instrument in the Lords hands, because sometimes we have to go through ´´ pressure ´´ to be tuned exactly right to be used how HE wants, not how we want) to proclaim His gospel to so many people here. A lot of families have asked me this week if I miss my family, especially this family that was baptized last week because there are sooooo many more of them and so many of their friends that want to here the gospel, so we are with them quite a bit. Any-who  of course I miss everyone, especially you mom, but, there is honestly no other place that I would rather be than here. I have made life long friends here, and they have had an impact on my life as I hope I have on theirs. I'm sure some of you RMs can relate to how I feel, but then again you cant haha I love these people so much, 2 years is not going to be enough, so I have been praying that there is going to be another change while Im out here (hey, if you think about it our family has really good luck with major changes of missionary work). 

So this week has been a really interesting week. We found a lot of families contacting this past week that we thought were really good, but one dropped us Saturday night and the other dropped us when we went to there house to pick them up for church, so you can imagine that it was pretty ruff. So we started off Sunday with no baptisms planned and all of but 1 family drop us. But, the Lord works miracles for those who are diligent. When we got to church, a ward member told us that a family of three just showed up to church completely on their own, and that this other single mother brought all 5 of her kids along with a cousin. I was seriously so relieved and just so happy to see 9 new people show up to church, along with a lot of in-actives  This really is the biggest news about this week in Mexico.

So I feel like sharing my insights on what has been happening at home as well with all of you haha. Brookie and Tanner, you are at huge stages at your life's to where you will be making decisions that will have an impact on the rest of your life. I have been thinking about you two lately, especially yesterday. In church we had a lesson about patriarchal blessings, and I thought about you two the whole time. I want to testify to you two that this will guide you more specifically in your life's more than anything else will, because it is a blessing straight from God specifically for you. I STRONGLY encourage you to think about receiving one, as it has been a guide for me  ever since I received it, and it has been a ´´ shoulder to lean on´´ here in Mexico when I feel like I need to change something. I remember when I was both of your ages and the decisions that I had to make, and I promise that with this guide, along with regular temple attendance, you will be comforted in your decisions and will receive a confirmation of why.
Along with the whole missionary change and the presidential elections, think about this for a moment. The Lord is extremely concerned with His work, missionary work, that is why HE changed the age limit. Just like dad said, having a Melchizedek priesthood holder in such a high office could help soften those hearts of the leaders of China and other countries where missionary proselyting is not allowed. We have an opportunity to make a difference in the history of the world, and more importantly help the Lord move HIS work along. If voting hasn't already happened  I would strongly suggest going to the temple before anyone makes this decision and think about it there :) That is all I have to say about that haha :)
Also, it is really really good to hear that all of the family in NY y NJ are ok, I heard about the hurricane yesterday at lunch with members, and I have been concerned about them, so I am glad to hear that they are doing ok.
So Halloween here is kinda the same, but not as big. The kids go around all dressed up also, but they don't really go house to house, they just run around the town square were EVERYONE is at haha but something different, they don't ask for just candy, they ask for money too. Funny stories with that haha but in general, whenever kids would see us, 2 tall gueros, even if they were 100 yards away, they would run up to us and ask us for money haha of course we cant give them anything, which the first couple times really broke my heart, but it got funnier and funnier because we were able to call it if we saw a group of kids if they were going to come over to us or not.

Oh, so I guess something big did happen this week that I almost forgot,  we had zone conference!!! That was seriously soooo amazing! We are going to be having a new focus in all of the missions in Mexico, with in due time we will not be contacting door to door anymore and we will be working solely with members and references, and honestly I am super stoked about it! We also had some super powerful talks about watching out  for your companion, and what we can do to watch after them. Also, I got to see my old comp. Elder Lefevre, so that was really special :)

Well, thank you all again for all of your letters, and mom I haven't gotten your letter yet but I might tomorrow because that is when we get the mail, but we are going to have some extra time to write today because one, my comp has strep, and 2 I have a cold, so we are just going to rest today and write letters, so 3 lucky people will be getting a letter soon because I only have 3 stamps left haha :) by the way, I want to say thank you to all of my amazing ym leaders over the years, especially those who wrote me in the mtc and forgot to put a return address on theirs...... anywho, all of your lessons and words have really helped me refocus and find new things to do while  I am here. One phrase that stuck out to me in a letter from this one leader that forgot their address (*cough* mark), ´´You have so many people praying for you, how could you slack off with so many prayers behind you? This week I have really been trying to focus on working diligently, and I just wanted to share how much of an impact this has had on me.

Love you all, and may God be with you!

Elder Noel

p.s. if you haven't sent off the package yet, I could use another tide to go pen, and again if someone could send me a conference talk weekly through dearelder (if it doesn't cost anything),that would be great :) oh, and here are the pictures that you said you didn't get, hopefully you do this time.

Un Semana Bueno!

Monday, October 29, 2012 11:20 AM

So this week really was such an amazing week!! I love getting so many emails from everyone and I really love getting those letters through pouch, they really are such a help throughout the week!! So the main thing about this week was getting this huge family ready for baptism, and boy has it been a long process with them, but one that I never will forget in my entire life.

So to start off, this is part of the same family that was baptized 2 weeks ago, Martha, Paulina, and Marcela. I cant remember how much background I gave about them, but they have been seeing the missionaries on and off for about 8 years now. They really loved all of the other Elders, but for one reason or another they just didn't get baptized, and then I guess they ´´white washed´´ the area about 3 years ago and this family got lost. Well thanks to the daughter of our bishop, they were found again. When we first talked to them, 2 of the three that got baptized, Paulina (the closest girl to me) and Marcela (the lady in the back looking down haha), 2 weeks ago said that they wanted to get baptized after the first lesson, but no one else did. As we kept working with them, Martha (the teenager with in the front with a brown jacket) realized that she didn't need to have the faith of a prophet to get baptized, so those three were baptized, but the brother of Martha Santiago (the girl right next to me) didn't want to get baptized, neither did the mom of these two Martha (the mom in white to the far right), and they were both really stubborn about not getting baptized. Throughout this week we talked a lot with them, and on Friday and Saturday we had one of our zone leaders come, Elder Ascencio, to interview everyone in their family. Well, this really was what they needed. 

The mom Martha and her sister Consuelo (the other mom in white) were very sure that they weren't going to get baptized, but just like you said mom, people don't do things because they don't understand or have questions, and this was there case. After talking with Elder Ascencio, both of them when they came out of the room just had lit up faces and were sooo happy, and they both committed to be baptized. What really helped Consuelo is that a little bit before that her son, Edgar (the other boy in white, the younger one) said he wanted to get baptized and was interviewed as well, so what helped with her is the idea of getting baptized with her son. Now onto Santiago. 

To be completely honest, I feel like he is the reason why I am here in this mission, at this time, in this area. After his interview with Elder Ascencio, me and him had some time alone to talk, and I had an amazing opportunity to share with him my testimony. I know that all of the experiences that I have had in my life, the good and bad, the good decisions and bad decisions, have all tailored my testimony to help him. He is a 16 year old guy who is very similar to me, and it was very easy for me to look back and see those decisions that I made in my life that helped me get to where I am now. As I shared scriptures that helped me make the good decisions in my life, it helped strengthen my own testimony as well as I know helped him with what he needed. That night I saw a change in his eyes that I will never forget. This is really why us missionaries are here, to help people change to live with God and their families forever. I almost never want to leave here solely because of this change that I have seen in his life.

Going along with change, there has been a major change, if not more so than Santiago  in the father Juan (the one who is super serious in the back) At first he didn't want anything to do with us, but he started slowly listening to our lessons. When Elder Ascencio came, before he started talking with people, we first taught a lesson about the plan of salvation, and that was definitely one of the most amazing lessons ever. Right after that, E. Ascencio talked to this Juan in an interview for about almost 2 hours, and when he came out, he came out a completely different person, he was actually happy! Ever since then, he has greeted us with the biggest smile and a hug, and there has been a new found light. He will be eligible to be baptized in around 3 months, and I cant wait for that day for him, and most of all, to see this family in front of the temple, after being sealed for time and eternity!!!! 

Again, this family is why I am here, to help them experience the hope and joy that I have felt in my own family. Thank you mom for teaching me correct principles in the gospel and for truly always being there for me, it really makes a difference in the lives of the children, I´ve noticed that more than anything here (thank you dad too). Thank you for supporting me and letting me have this opportunity to be the instrument in the Lord´s hands to bring these people the same happiness that we have as a family. I hope all is well, I love you all, and tell Pres. O and Pres. Duffin ´´congrats´´ and that they will be in my prayers for the next little bit haha

With love,

Elder Noel

p.s. This is what we did for pday last week, we had 1.2 kilogram tortas, and boy were they good, and today we are going to eat with this family so I am pretty excited about that :)

1 week of cambio 2

Mon 10/22/2012 9:38 AM

Well, I made it through transfers safe and sound, and I have some more information on my comp. So his name is Elder Ty Johnson, he is from a small town outside of Boise Idaho, and he has 10 months on his mission. He did swimming and running in High School, so he is pretty fit. I definitely miss Elder LeFevre, especially when members or investigators ask me if I miss him. I say yes of course, but then I always make sure to say something good about Elder Johnson so he doesn't feel bad, and I have found that it has really helped me stay positive and find all of the good things about him that are different from my last comp. 

So our teaching really hasn't suffered. He is really spiritual and he lets me teach a good amount just like my last comp, perhaps even more so, so my Spanish really has been improving quite a bit, especially since we talk almost all of the time in Spanish haha it is kinda funny, two querros that don't speak Spanish fluently are walking around talking Spanish to each other instead of English, I get a kick out of it. Along the lines of that, it is really funny to see people just stare at us because we are both really tall (I am just a little bit taller I'm sure) and both really guerros, or white. Sometimes people even say outloud ´´guerros´´ when we pass by them, all shocked haha and the best is little kids, because I'm pretty sure we are the first white people they have ever seen in their lives.

OK so before I forget, dad, if you can send me the 17 point talk (the 17 points of the true church) that would be great. I am starting to memorize a scripture a day, and I think it would be really useful to have those on mind. OK for Christmas. So there are these leather scripture cases that one of the hermanos does in the mission (i attached a picture so you can see) that I really want to get, along with some sneakers (because I have a feeling we are going to be playing a lot of soccer here in Mexico) so if you can just put some money in my account that would be great. Also, my pens are starting to run out, so if you could send some of the kind ´´pilot v5´´ pens that would be great. I am pretty sure grandpa Clark uses those pens, or used them, so he should know what they are.

So this was kind of a bitter sweet week. It is the first week when we didn´t have any baptisms, and it feels really weird. We had 10 people that could have been baptized this past week, but all of them feel through and didn't show up to church, and it was really difficult la verdad. I was able to rebound and I am back to normal, but I kinda understand the sorrow that the prophets in the BOM felt for the people that chose not to follow Christ. It truly is amazing how much you grow to love the people here and how badly I want these people to feel the love of the Savior more in their lives, and how sad it is to see them openly reject it when the have felt and known that this is true, that through the Gospel of Christ that the really can have a better life, which is what most of the people here are looking for, but they aren't willing to change their lives, their traditions, or their ways, to receive more happiness, and that really is the saddest part, but it truly is all worth it when there is just one person who accepts the light of Christ into their lives. 

One thing that I have learned this week with Elder Johnson is the power of music. I remember how Bishop asked me before I left how I was going to share my testimony of music here, and I wasn't really sure, but I have found it. We have started to sing before every lesson that we have in peoples houses, and it truly is amazing how strong hymns can bring the spirit into a house. The main experience I want to share with this is with the hymn ´´Oh how lovely was the morning´´. We were going to teach a part member family (the part of the family that are members are the ones who were baptized this past Sunday) about the restoration, so we obviously found it appropriate to start of with this song. As we sang the last verse, the spirit was seriously so strong, testifying of what we were singing about what we were about to teach was true. It was super easy after that to teach about the restoration of the gospel with the spirit already so strong, testifying of Joseph Smith and of Christ. It really helped strengthen my testimony that I know that God the Father and Christ appeared to Joseph Smith and through him restored their Church, Gospel, and authority again on this earth. I know that Joseph Smith was called to be a prophet of God, and that the evidence of this, The Book of Mormon, is the word of God and it really is the keystone to the church and do what we as representatives of Christ are doing throughout the world. I testify that there is a living prophet of God on this earth, Thomas S. Monson, that receives revelation for us in this day, and I know all of the words of the prophets of God are true, because I have felt the influence of their guidance in my life. I love this Gospel so much, and I am so glad that I have been given this opportunity to serve my God, my King, and I strongly encourage all of those that are thinking about serving a mission to start preparing now, to start the process of changing habits now, to be better prepared for what the Lord has in store for you. Thank you mom and dad, and the rest of the family, for supporting me in this decision to serve and for helping preparing me, even when it wasn't the easiest. I love you!!

With Love,

Elder Noel

Cambios!

Monday, October 15, 2012 2:41 PM

So this biggest news of this week is cambios! I cant believe it has already been 6 weeks since I have been in Mexico, it has seriously flown by sooooo much! Elder LeFevre, my padre, was seriously a huge blessing in my mission and life, he taught me so much about being even more animated and helping those who we are teaching trusting us more, like you said mom, it is one of the most important part of teaching and communicating with people is gaining their trust, and he has taught me a lot about that. So my new companion is Elder Johnson, another gringo, from Idaho, somewhere by Boise. He has been in the Mission about 10 months, and he seems like a pretty cool guy. We haven't talked about each other a whole lot because I have been telling him about our area and all of the families that we are teaching that we just haven't had a lot of time to talk about life haha plus we have been speaking straight Spanish since he has gotten here, so it takes me a little bit longer to think of what I want to say. Any-who  life here has been going sooo good!! It is starting to warm up a little bit, except in the mornings, it is actually cold enough to wear that big jacket that grandpa got me almost most of the day, but with all of the walking that we do it gets warm pretty quick haha.

This week was a little bit different than most because we did not have a lot of time to teach because one, we had interviews with the Mission President, and we also had to do a ton of interviews for the 3 baptisms that we had this week. So first, the interviews with the President. So since we live like an hour and a half away from the Stake center, where the interviews and weekly district meetings are, we have to leave super early to get there. Well on our way there, we got a message that our interviews were moved to a later time, but we couldn't go back, so we spent alllll day at the stake center, from 10 until 4. But, it was really good because almost the whole time we had training from the APs and also got to talk to them about the mission and what not, but the interview with Pres. was actually really short, about 10 minutes.

Baptisms! So these three hermanas are seriously miracle baptisms again. The far left one, Martha, is the only one in her immediate family who wanted to get baptized this week. Her mom is really skeptical about the church, her dad doesn't want to even talk to us, and her brother has a novia (girlfriend) and doesnt feel like he is ready to follow the law of chastity yet, but we are working on him and slowly making progress, but their family is so awesome, so loving and welcoming. The other two are her cousin and aunt, Paulina and Marcela, They wanted to get baptized so bad, and they just absorbed everything we taught them. The mom, Marcela, said that after she came out of the water she felt a ´´tranquillo verdadero´´ or a true peace that she has been searching for her whole life. It truly is amazing the change you can see in people as they come up out of the water, even though I have only been here 6 weeks, I can still remember all of the peoples faces as they came out of the water, and the comments that they made afterward. It is truly amazing to see someone come unto Christ and enter into the gate of baptism. I cant believe how much time is flying by, I dont want it to end because of how amazing it is here!

Thank you for your letters and for letting me know how things are going back at home, it really is nice to hear from everyone in the family, brookie, tanner, dad, and of course you mom. It is really comforting to know that you are praying for me every night. I can tell the difference in the families here that do and those that don't  and the ones who do get baptized and stay strong. The retention rate is so so. We work a lot with the recent converts, trying to make sure that they come, but a lot of them have really bad economical problems, and it is said to not see them at the chapel, but again it is so amazing to see those who come for the first time that we have been working with for so long, like this one guy Ruben. He is a carpenter, and we go there often to see him and teach him (it reminds me a lot of our shop in the back and especially of three fountains, I love going there), and he isnt married to his ´´esposa´´.....yet. He finally came to church for the first time yesterday, and I seriously have never been so happy to see someone at church, I seriously jumped! He is such a kind hearted man, and he can speak a little English  and it was the coolest thing when we told him he could be with his family forever, he said ´´together forever, me like it´´, and it seriously was the coolest feeling ever. This really is why we are here, to bring families together forever. I love this work so much, and I love being able to be an instrument in God´s hands, and I am now the Lords missionary  to bring the world his truth.

So things I ´´need´´. one of my suitcases broke, ( the handle) and my umbrella broke as well. They should be covered by the 2 year guarantee at missionary mall, so that is why I am sending a picture of them, but I will have to do so in another email to you because it wont let me send more pictures.

I love you all so much, thank you for teaching me and helping me become who I am and who I need to be. haha i remember grandmas saying, who are now becoming who you need to be, yes I do pay attention ;)

With Much love,

Elder Noel

His house!

Martha, Paulina, Marcela

Conference Weekend/Bautizona!!!/Mon 10/8/2012 3:59 PM

Oh boy was this week a good one. So to start off, we didn't go to the pyramids. Since we had a baptism at like 4 last week, we didn't have enough time to go to the pyramids, so instead we spent the day around here in Santiago actually preparing for the week, so we got our shoes shined, and man did I feel like a boss haha. So the baptism was way awesome! Their names are Alberto, the father, Emilio, the son, and Elizet, the mom. Elder LeFevre and his old companion found them about 8 or 9 weeks ago now, so we have been working with them since the first day I got here, and boy was it a lot of work. First, we had to get them married, which is what took so long. His mom wanted to keep waiting and waiting, finally Alberto said this is enough, we are getting married this week, which was awesome! So we had their baptism date set for last Sunday and everything, and low and behold they don't show. So we go over to his house and like 6 to go talk to him and bring him to the church to be baptized, but he wasn't there, and my comp. wasn't about to just let him go, so we spent the next 2 hours trying to find them,and it turned out they were in the house the whole time, but just couldn't come to the door because his son was super sick. So he let us in, and he had some weird dudas (doubts),like why are there 12 oxen under the baptismal fount in the temple and what not, so we spent 2 hours almost resolving everything and trying to get him to go to the church, but he said that the next day would be best. Well, we go to pick him up the next day (last p day), bring his family to the church, and get the cloths for them, and then he thought it would be funny to pull a prank on my comp. (because honestly he is such a worry wort, it is kinda funny at times) and said that he didn't want to get baptized. Ya that, I'm pretty sure, scared the poop out of Elder Lefevre. Anyways, we were able to finally baptize him, and it was so awesome for him. Bishop gave the talk at the beginning, and he talked about all of the doubts that he had the night before, and you could just see in Alberto´s eyes that everything made sense to him. It was so awesome!

So the bautizona thing....well our zone was the most baptizing zone in the entire mission for the month of September, with a total of 57 baptisms and 58 confirmations,and i guess this is the second month in a row. It really is amazing to see how much the Lord has been blessing us because of our hard work, seriously I'm pretty sure we work harder than any other mission that I know of. It truly is so awesome to be apart of this amazing work here, for all of you that are thinking about going out that can now go (*cough* Siera and Mackenzie*), it is the most amazing thing you can do in your life and for your life.

Now on to general conference! Well so first off, since we have so much work to do, we weren't able to watch any of the sessions on Saturday, including priesthood, but I did find out about the big news from one of the members, and I was totally blown away, you should have seen my face! It is SO amazing!! On Sunday we brought a family to the  morning session that hopefully are going to get baptized this next Sunday, but we had to watch the session in Spanish so I didn't get a whole lot out of it, but the second session we got to in English, so i got to watch Bednars talk. anywho, my main question and request at this time is if you can have some one, like you or grandma, send me a different talk through dearelder, because it costs me 1 peso per sheet to print, once a week so I can read them and study them, that wuld be great.

Well, that is all for this week, I love you all so much!! Thank you for writting me emails letters, and remember the promptings you recieved during conference, they will bless your life beyond conprehension, only if you follow them.

Love,

Elder Noel :)

The first month!/Monday, October 01, 2012 9:02 AM

Hola!! I cant believe that it has already been a full month since I have been in Mexico, it honestly does not feel like I have have been here that long. We are just constantly so busy that it is hard to keep track of time here, but luckily I have been writing in my journal everyday so I will be able to remember what actually happened here haha because time is just flying by!! Thank you all for your emails again, even though I cant reply to them, they mean a lot and I will eventually respond by mail :)

So this week was a very sweet but a little bitter week. To start off, we really worked our butts off this week. We had more lessons then my companion has ever gotten before, something like 52, and then we finally were able to get the standard of contacts with 140, so we were super busy all of the time, and we really learned how to make the best of all of the taxi riding that we do haha. Last week for pday we went to San Mateo Atenco because they sell pretty good shoes there for super cheap, and my companion needed new shoes. Well long story short, I got some super good looking brown shoes (for Sundays only mom, don't you worry) for like only 300 pesos, which is mas o menos 20 bucks. Today we are going to go to some pyramids, so I should have some pretty cool pictures for next week.

Now on to the good stuff. So why this week was only a little bitter was because we had 7 baptisms fall through for yesterday, but three of those 7 are going to be baptized a little later tonight, but the 4 that were baptized this week seriously are another miracle. So they have taken the lessons from missionaries before, and their grandma is a member, but they never wanted to get baptized. Well last week they moved into our area and went to church, and so we went to go talk to them. The oldest child, Tanya (far left), told us that she really wanted to get baptized, and so we set up a time to go meet up with them. When we got their, the mom, Virginia, Tanya, and the son Jose had just barely left, so it was only the grandma, who was already a member, and Cynthia, so we decided to teach her about baptism and then come back later that night. Well during the lesson, the spirit was super strong, and by the end she really really wanted to get baptized. On our way back to the taxis, the one that we were going to get into had the family that we were looking for and they were just coming home, so we went back to go teach the rest of them. After we taught the whole family, we asked them if they wanted to get baptized, and Cynthia was nodding her head like nuts, it was so awesome to see! They all said yes, except the mom, because she was in the middle of a divorce because her husband was not good at all, and wanted to wait until the baptism, so we asked her to pray about it and we would ask her what she thought when we had our district leader interview them for baptism. Well, low and behold, 2 days later after he interviewed her kids, she got the answer that she couldn't wait, and she wanted to be baptized with her kids. Fast forward to Sunday, as we are sitting there and the services are about to begin, I look over and see their whole family in white. It helped me remember why I am here, to help families become an eternal family, to help those who are looking for more unity in their family find it, and to help bring the same happiness that I have felt in my own family. It touched me so much to see them all sitting there all with smiles on their faces!!! Even though we had 7bail on us for lots of different reasons, I was thinking this morning how God knew that was going to happen, and yet again since we have been diligent and working hard He has blessed us  yet another week with success and another miracle baptism. I love this service so much, and it is seriously so amazing to see families enter into the gate to become an eternal family, there really is no greater feeling than to see the change in people, no wonder why it is God´s work and His glory, ´´to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man´´, and He has blessed me to be a part of it. Remember, you never know what kind of an effect our actions have on others, because our strongest investigators that have been baptized have all been friends or family members of members of the church, so we need to share the light that we have given! My comp. has a good analogy, if you had a huge cake, you would want to share it with all of your friends and family, well the gospel is even better than a cake!! 

Answer time: The most common food here is the cereal. They pretty much have everything here, cereal wise, as we do in the states. That is about it, oh, and the chicken, i have chicken about every day here haha

In our ward we have about 100 people that come, yet everyone comes late, around 30 mins late haha and we are the only missionaries in our ward. There is a pair of missionaries for every ward here, and there are 11 wards in our stake, and that is our zone. Our area is seriously so huge, it takes about 2 hours to go from one end to the other.

 

I love you, thank you for your support and prayers!!

Elder Noel

Week 3/Mon 9/24/2012 10:33 AM

I really cant believe how fast time is going by here! It really is hard to believe that I have already been in mexico for 3 weeks now, it seriously feels like I have only been here for a week, at most! Thank you all for you emails, and grandma, yes, i do get your emails, and i got your dearelder letter, thank you so much! I love you!

It is so good to hear that everthing is going pretty good at home, however, i am sorry tanner for larry, he was a good geko, you could maybe have the slug that we found in our sink this morning hahahaha. Anywho, life has been going really good here! Like i said, time has been flying by just because we are working all day everyday! So a typical sunday, we have church from 10 to 1, but we get there at 9 so we can go pick up investigadors for church, and then right after is usually when we have our baptisms, usually. During the week, on p day we wake up at 530 every week just because everything that we want to do is so far away from us that we have to wake up that early to be able to have time to write our families and what not. We get back to work at 6 on p days. During the week, we have our zone meetings on tuesday, and that takes up half the day as well. The other days we start preaching at 1030 11ish and usually dont get back home until aroun 930 or 10 some nights just because we are always soooo busy, we normally teach about 7 to 10 lessons a day, and contact around 20 people, so there is a ton of work to do here!

So this week was an interesting one. Saturday we had one of our families get marrried (the second picture) so that they could get baptized. Interesting fact about mexico real quick, no one really believes in getting married, so right now we are working with 3 other families to get married so they can get baptized. Anywho, since this family got married, they had all of their family there. Well, long story short, they wanted to postpone their baptism till next week. So then we had 4 who were going to get baptized. Well with the other family, she didnt want to get baptized (the mom) because of certain monthly problems, and so we have to postpone her baptism along with her two kids. So we were down to only one baptism. So we went to go pick her up, btw her name is maria, before church so she could get baptized, and low and behold she wasnt there. We went back to her house after sacrament meeting and she still wasnt there, so we were kinda bummed. But, during church the bishop was talking to a member who has brought her mom a couple times to church and she said that she wanted a blessing and to get baptized, so of course right after church we went to their house! This lady, marinela, had been abused by her kids ever since she got really old and stopped working, and she got super sick, so that is why she wanted a blessing. Let me tell you, anoiting oil in spanish is not as easy as it seems haha. But, it was definitely a spiritual experience for me having to rely on my companion and the spirit to help me out with what words to say, and luckily my companion sealed it and gave the blessing so i didnt have to, but i definitely have some work to do in that area. Anyways, since we were there, we taught her about baptism, and she was so receptive and wanted to get baptized last night! Miracle i know! Anywho, for her to be baptized, we had to have our district leader interview her, and luckily they didn't have any lessons planned, so they were able to come that day so she could be baptized. So during the interview, we went on changes to go see if this maria was home and to see if she wanted to still get baptized. Luckily she was there! Even though it was me and our district leaders companion, who got here the same day i did, and we didnt really understand all of what she said, we were able to convice her that it was the best day for her to do it. Meanwhile, while we are walking back to the chapel with maria, my companion and district leader are still in the interview with marinela. Well as you know, we need to priesthood holders for witnesses, and we only had one. So on our way, I call the bishop, but just our luck, he was in DF (district federal) and couldn't go. So as I hung up i said a little prayer to help us out. Right as i finished, we randomly ran into the primary president and her husband, who has the priesthood! So with broken spanish we asked if they could help, and they were glad to come (Take note this is at like 8 at night by now). So we get to the chapel, changed, took pictures and everything, got in the baptismal font, talked her through everything, but right as i was about to start the prayer, maria gets super scared of going under the water and basically runs out of the font.......Talk about luck. Satan really does work hard all the way. But, i had a thought to call my companion to see if they were going to bring marinela before I got out of the font and changed, and luckily they were only another 5 minutes away. So i just stayed in the font (that is why we didnt get pictures this week of us in our whites) until they got there, had another small welcoming/talk thing, and then got her baptized. Marinela (the little old lady in the picture) was seriously a miracle baptism. Everything that happened with her should have just gone wrong, but God made it possible without a hitch, as always. I hope that next week maria will be able to get over her fears of the water, and I also hope that next week we will have the other 6 along with another family we found yesterday who is a part member family will be baptized next week. The work here is seriously on fire!!.

Real quick, answers: Our city where we live is a mix a both rural and urban, most of the shops are just houses combined with the stores, but everyone sells something, and most of the people sell the same thing, it really is no wonder how everyone is so poor here because everyone does the same thing.

However, all of the outlining cities are very countryish, very very old fashioned.

For our grocerys we go to a bodega, which is owned by walmart, so they have coco puffs :) we cook about once a day, sometimes twice, but we sometimes dont really eat dinner because the members feed us so well for lunch.

And no i dont know what the name of the falls are, sorry :/

Love you mom!!

Elder Noel

Semana Dos!!/Monday, September 17, 2012 2:46 PM

Hola mi amados!! Muchisimos gracias por sus emails! :)

So first to reply to the emails a little bit, Dad it is actually really funny that you sold you truck, cause I was talking with my companion about it and said to him that since you got rid of the burb, that you were going to sell your truck and get a lexus...and well, guess what happens haha i just laughed when i read that part! It is also good to hear that things are going pretty well for tanner and his football, that is totally awesome that he is getting some good playing time in, hopefully he will get more and more and maybe even play on jv next year. Brookie, just keep in mind that EVERYTHING happens for a reason, my mission has made me realize that more and more. Even though I don´t know what everyone is saying here, they make me feel like this is my home, and I wouldnt be here if i would have left earlier, and so many other blessings wouldnt have happened if i didnt leave when i did, so keep your eyes open for the opportunities that God has instore for you, or you might miss them.

So this week has been yet again on fire!! We broke my companions former record for lessons, a total of 44 lessons for this week. Ya, we were teaching like nuts. It is interesting to see those who are humble and those who think they know everything. Also, it is interesting to see how in the Book of Mormon it says that people in the last days will say that bad doesnt exist, that there is no sin. Well, we met a guy who thought that yesterday, and talked with him after church for around an hour teaching him how everything has an opposite, that there could be no good without bad, and it was interesting to see when he knew what we were teaching was right, but still wouldnt admit it,  he just left, which was sad in a way actually. Anywho, that happens a lot, when we teach someone who is very stubborn in their ways, and even when they know the gospel is right, and they know they need to get baptized, they wont change for the life of them. But when we find someone who is willing, that is the best feeling in the world. We found this one huge family last week who are all so close to being baptized. The father of the family got baptized a couple months ago, and that is how we found them. He has like 5 kids, and all of them have a family of their own. We have been focusing on one of them more however, Ruben. He is a carpenter, and has a "wife" and 4 kids, 2 of which can be baptized. i say "wife" because here no one is really married, that is our biggest problem here. Like we are waiting now on three different couples to get married first before they can get baptized. It doesnt really make sense to me how they can have kids and still not be married, but this Ruben and his soon to be wife have always really wanted to get married, so when we told them that if they do they can be baptized and then in a year be sealed as a family for all eternity, you could just see pure joy enter into his eyes!! he can speak a little english, so he said, yes i want to be together forever. He was just so happy to hear that he could be with his family, together, for ever, that is what this work is really about, is bringing families together, and baptism is just the first step. 

So the 2 baptisms that we had this week were tonya and guadalupe, and boy were they tuff ones. Even though i couldnt understand them very well,  the spirit was super strong, and they finally realized that they needed to be baptized. The water was super cold because the water heater ran out of gas without us knowing it, so they didnt like that very much, but i think it was still a good experience for them.

Some fun stuff, last week we went to some waterfalls for pday and it was so awesome! This week as a zone we got jersys  and had an awesome game of soccer, mexicanos vs. americanos, and who would have thought that the americans, which only 2 of us had played since we were 10, would be the mexicans 5 to 2 haha :) 

k answers: My area is Santiago Tianguistenco (which litterally translated means smelly market)

cities near : metapec, kinda, it is like an hour away

The food is sooo amazing!! The members here feed us so well, it is kinda difficult for me to finish it all, but it is getting easier and easier, but it really isnt that spicy, only if you want it to be, and i like to taste my food haha.

We actually have one of the nicest homes in the entire mission, so we have a laundry machine that we can do laundry with, so that is kinda nice. 

We only have one ward in our area actually, there are a lot of inactives, but soooo much work to do, like we have 6 baptisms planned for next week if all goes well.

Love you all, thank you for the support and love!!

 

Love,

Elder Noel

Mexico, week 1/Sept 3-10, 2012

Mon 9/10/2012 10:49 AM

Hola mi famila!! Thank you everyone for sending me emails and what not, I really love hearing from everyone!! The only thing is that I can only send 1 email a week here, but, I still would love to get emails from everyone so I can write you all back! The work here is seriously on fire, probably has something to do with our mission being the most baptizing mission in the world, last month there were over 400 baptisms in our mission alone, and this next month our goal is 500! Right when we got to the mission home, President said that it is a rule of diligence (there are rules of obedience, diligence, and desire, it is a really cool system) is to have a baptism per companionship per semana (week), and well, my companion and I are already way ahead of the schedual, but more of that later!

So first, I apologize for my spelling and what not, I have to use a spanish key board and it is a little weird at the moment. Anywho, so the flight to mexico went totally fine, really no problems at all. So when dad asked me if I had placed a book of mormon yet it really got me thinking. So when we got to mexico there were these two american teenagers that were going to Chile for ´´retirement´´ because his mom gave him 50,000 bucks for college but instead is going to live in chile with his cousin (a little crazy i know), and neither of them know a lick of spanish haha. Anyway, while we were waiting in line for custums in the mexican airport, me and a couple other missionaries got talkin with them about religion, and someone asked them if they had something to read in chile (since they had mentioned that they just wanted to live in the jungle and read, Im pretty sure they might have been crackheads haha) anyways, they said no, so i pulled out one of my extra BOM´s and said something to the effect of if you really want to know more about what we believe, here is a book that has no flaws and has the true doctrine of Christ, he seemed pretty interested because as soon as we left I saw him open it up and start to read Boo ya!

When we got to the mission home, it was already pretty late so we just had dinner at the mission home and slept there. They really dont believe in carpet here at all....it is kinda sad haha. anyways, they next day we had a mini devotional and then headed up to the mission office. Thet me tell you something, they said they walk with a purpose here, it is more like take a slight jog with a purpose! I have really never seen someone walk as fast as the a.p.s haha but when we finally did make it to the office, we had a quick interview witht the president and then got assigned to our companions (that is right when I called you and we had to leave quick so we could get to work). So my companion is elder bryce lefevre, he is from las vegas (so he is an american) and he has been here in mexico for only 4 months, but he also served in texas waiting for his visa for a month, but he speaks waaayy good spanish! we are already such good friends! we have a lot of the same characteristics, and we seriously have such a good time all of the time!! He is such a nice missionary, super spiritual, and I dont know if anyone knows the bible better than him.

So onto the work! It really is super crazy here! the ´´floor´´ of excellence, not the bar of excellence is 140 contacts a week, 10 new invesitgators a week, 4 people with a baptism date, 6 people at church, 30 lessons a week, and 1 baptism, and boy is it hard work!  We the only one that we havent gotten is the contacts (only 100), but we have about 10 lessons a day, 4 new investigators a day, so we are açALWAYS teaching, it really is crazy! The way the lessons go are kinda different than in the mtc, cause we teach the third lesson, the doctrine of christ, a lot more than anything else, like so far we have only taught the restoration once. but it is because that is the common ground that we have with all the people here, because seriously everyone is catholic, it is nice sometimes because a lot of them arent devote catholics, but it is frustrating when you get someone who is just so stuck in their ways, like when this one guy said that he believes what we taught him is true, but there is no way he is every going to change. It really is quite sad.

So some really special families that we have been teaching, and ill end with the ones who got baptized. So my first family, one that we found one of my first days here, is the family of this mother by the name of Miriam. I cant really understand most of what people say what they do for work and what not, so i dont really know much backround about a lot of people, but i have been learning like nuts so i can know more about the people i am teaching. anyway, i really felt like we were directed to teach this family. she has a 12, 8, 7, 5 and 3 year old, and everytime we walk up this MASSIVE hill to get to their house, they all run down to say hi to us and try to race us back up, it really is so awesome! anyway, our first lesson with them was just soooo awesome, and we invited them to get baptized and they all said yes! our second lesson with them we taught the restoration, and when i gave the first vision, the spirit was just so strong, and you could see the spirit in her eyes, and you could just see a change in the whole family. That really is the most amazing feeling!! The next lesson they brought up that they didnt ´´baptize´´ some of their kids becasue they didnt have a lot of money and they didnt like how you have to pay for a catholic baptism, which was perfect! so we taught the law of tithing and you could tell that it was the answer that miriam and her mother were looking for a long time because they were just so happy and a weight was lifted from them!! soooo awesome!!

Ok now to the big news of the week! so yesterday (sunday) we had a total of 2 confirmations and 3 baptisms!! It was such an amazing day! one of the confirmations is part of the family that got baptized as well, but she had gotten baptized a couple weeks ago and was what started the process for the rest of the family. It was so cool to be able to stand in on my first confrimations, even though i didnt really know what was being said haha. So the baptisms were so amazing! I got to baptize the mother Irma and her second oldest evelin. I was really worried about messing up their names all day (because here in mexico everyone has like 4 or 5 names in their full name), but as soon as I stepped in the water with them a peace came over me (obviously the spirit) and I was able to say the baptismal prayer (in spanish mind you) without any problems, and the words just flowed!! When each one came out of the water, you really could see a change in them, and they were sooooo happy!! i will never forget their faces and smiles, they were just so filled with the spirit and soo happy!! This is what makes the mission a privilage, not a sacrafice. I love this work so much, and I love the people here already!! 

So i dont have much more time, but here is my mission address so people can write me letters :) (if you could put this on fb that would be great)

Elder Chase Noel

Mexico, Mexico City West Mission
Sierra de Las Vertientes #310
Col. Lomas de Chapultepec
Del. Miguel Hildalgo
11010 Mexico, Distrito Federal, MEXICO 

I am going to try to write letters as much as I can.

Again, I love you all so much and thank you all for your support and prayers! Remeber, I love to get emails from all of you, and escpecially hadn written letters! Love you

 

Love, Elder Noel

 

Monday, September 3, 2012

We had an amazing talk with Chase today!  He called during his layover at the LAX airport.  Thank you to the good elder that let him borrow his togo phone!  He had waited almost an hour to call from a payphone and time was running short.

He sounded amazing!  He had a great peace about him and was very excited to be on his way to Mexico.  There were 15 elders that were traveling together.  I bet that was quite a sight to see :)

We are so grateful as a family and as his parents for his willing to serve a mission.  A great change has come over him and my heart swells with love and gratitude to a Heavenly Father who knows and loves each of us individually.  I know Chase will be watched over and protected and led to those who are searching for something more to complete their lives.  I am grateful Chase has the opportunity to teach the great people of Mexico, the wonderful people spoken of in the scriptures.

Thank you again to everyone for your love and support of him and our family.

Here is the Mission Home address where you can send letters.

Elder Chase Clark Noel
Mexico, Mexico City West Mission
Sierra de Las Vertientes #310
Col. Lomas de Chapultepec
Del. Miguel Hildalgo
11010 Mexico, Distrito Federal, MEXICO

You can also send a pouch letter through www.dearelder.com
Just select the Mexico, Mexico City West Mission and then select write a letter.

You can also email him at chase.noel@myldsmail.net

He can only write letters, but has promised to do so to those who write him.  I know he would love to hear from you!