Week 2

Hey Family!

As for the weather I am really surprised to that it is that hot and that it doesn't cool down. The winters get down to about 75-80 degrees. For my "birthday cake" we actually just put a match in the carton of ice cream lol Calexico is so poor that we dont even have Taco stands. The City that is 5 minutes away is called Mexicali (funny huh) and it is in Mexico. Supposedly it has all the good food and it actually has a population of about 1.2 million people while on the other side of the border here in Calexico there are only 32 K. So everyone just goes to Mexicali for everything therefore we don't have any of the good stuff! Well hey, we have a Walmart lol! Our apartment is super ghetto, but it stays pretty cool at night after your sweat cools you off lol. We have to put tons of sheets over all the windows in order to keep the apartment cool. What is funny is that we play basketball in this super ghetto park in the morning at around 6:45a. and it is about 90 degrees lol :)

You guys should totally move out to Calexico, everything is super cheap and all the people are super nice. Just get over the fact that it is scorching hot and that there are no white people lol jk ;) I am so glad that you all are doing okay.

Well here is how my week went.

06/19/2013

We met with Brother Thompson and he shared some things that I can't share due to confidentiality, but he has definitely had a rough life. All in all he has not been to Church in about 6-8 years (he can't remember) and we invited him to Church. It was actually kinda bold we promised him some specific blessings as directed by the Spirit.

06/20/2013

Well we bumped into Osvaldo yesterday at a stop light and he invited us over today. We went by around 9:30 a and we definitely had a cool experience. Osvaldo really knows the Bible like the back of his hand. he was pulling scriptures out left and right. It was incredible to see his faith and knowledge, but he misunderstood a lot. I can definitely see him being a seminary teacher for the Church (yes he will be baptized, i just dont know when lol).

06/21/2013

Today we went and saw an investigator named Monica. Let me just tell you something, SHE IS AWESOME! It is kinda awkward though, he boyfriend/ fiancee doesn't know that we are teaching her. The funny thing is...he hates Mormons, idk why, but a lot of people don't like us just because they don't know us lol and the funny thing is is when they do get to know us they end up converting lol :p So we are planning on finding a way for her to tell him.

She wants to be baptized, but since she is living with Oscar and they aren't married we have to wait for her to get married and for him to give us permission for her to be baptized, so we are waiting patiently. She promised that when she is in San Diego she will go by the temple and imagine herself getting married there some day.

06/22/2013

MY BIRTHDAY!!! Well the guys made me a surprise breakfast of pancakes and egg sandwiches. Yummy! We then went and had Missionary Coordination meeting and afterwards they bought pizza and we had some at the house. We had some appointments with some less active families. We also had shrimp cocktail (A mexican dish) it is a cold soup with shrimp, canned kalamari, clam juice, tomato juice, ketchup, cucumbers, onions and you are supposed to eat it with tostados, and it actually tasted good, but we all got sick lol :) Luckily we got fed ribs before hand and they were so good! The Sister missionaries actually got me a present! It was a box of corn muffins from their pantry all wrapped up in blank teaching records. It was the best birthday gift ever!! :) So all in all I had an awesome birthday!

06/23/2013

Today was Church!!! IT WAS THE BEST DAY EVER!! So our ward is really struggling with attendance. BUT GUESS WHAT??!!! Brother Thompson actually came to church along with 3 other less actives AND The WHOLE Garcia family came and stayed for all of it!!! THEY LOVED IT!!! Junior even said that he wants to be an ELDER one day!!! We haven't even taught them yet and they are coming to church again this next week! :))) It wouldn't surprise me if the whole family got baptized next month.

06/24/2013

We went and saw 8 families today! (Record number). All in all we had a good day. We went and saw Guillermo one of our investigators. He is cool, he has gone to every church and religion and doesn't feel that they have all of the truth (Judaism, Islam, Christian (Catholic, Jehovah Witness, etc., Hinduism, Buddhism). Guess what!!!!!!!??? He is getting baptized!!!!! :)))))))) The date is August 11th (but he might get baptized sooner :) ) also.... Juan (our 17 year old investigator) posted a picture of the Book of Mormon on Instagram and told everyone that they need to read this book because it will change their life!
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I HONESTLY WISH YOU COULD MEET THESE PEOPLE!! THEY ARE CHANGING MY LIFE EACH DAY!!! :)

Hey Family!

My first week was awesome! I am actually serving in Calexico, California as my first area. It is 2 hours east of San Diego and literally on the border of Mexico it is about 113 degrees Fahrenheit most days and there are no white people lol but luckily I am serving Spanish and English so I get a good mix. All the food is of course awesome Mexican food. Calexico is an extremely poor town and probably top 5 most impoverished in all of California.
I live in the Mexican ghetto called "La Garra". Luckily I have a car full time and our area is kinda big. It is a really nice car, it is a 2013 Chevy Cruz. My Companion's name is Elder Bone, i call him Papi Hueso lol we get along great. He is from Ogden, Utah and has been serving in Calexico for 6 months and loves it here. Oh and on our first day we went and got a 'California Burrito' which is a huge carne asada burrito with french fries inside of it. YUM! We also had a large thing of Horchata which is my favorite drink in the world by far! It was really cool because Elder Bone paid for it! All in all I absolutely love Calexico and the people are absolutely amazing and I know that God has prepared these people for me and I have witnessed so many miracles all in this past week. We do a lot of work with reactivating less active families and that is what is tough. There were like 20 people in Sacrament meeting started and about 60 when it ended. Oh since I am 150 miles away from the Mission Office I only get mail maybe once every 2 or so weeks :( so email will probably be better. Oh and we don't go tracting in our mission!

 

So June 14th was a pretty awesome day!

     It was about 115 degrees outside, but dropped down to a nice, crisp, 99 degrees around 9 pm. It was freezing! ;) That night we had an awesome ward activity for Father's Day. The food was super yummy and the members are pretty funny. I met a lot of members and they are eating me up lol. What was really cool is that we met the Garzon Family and they are such an awesome family. We then were introduced to their friends the Garcia Family who weren't members of the Church. Junior is about 13 and really likes baseball and math. We got to talking to them and you could definitely feel that they felt welcome. Well we invited Junior to go on a church tour and he accepted. We started to walk around and he really loved it. We walked into the Chapel to conclude our tour. We stood there and we explained what went on in the Chapel. I then felt prompted to ask him how he felt. I asked him and he immediately put him hand to his heart and said that he felt happy and his face lit up and he said he feel a warm feeling going through his body. It was absolutely amazing. We told him how that was the Spirit of God and that when he get that warm feeling of happiness, love, and peace it is the Spirit bearing witness to truth. We walked back and then got his family. We invited them for a tour and it was awesome! We once again ended in the chapel and Junior shared his experiences with his parents and the feeling there was awesome. They told us how they have been searching for a Church and how the dad has known Mormons in the past and how they were really nice and down to earth people. So we are meeting with them this Friday :)

    Yesterday was also really good!

We went and saw Juan, he is 17 years old and he is an MMA fighter and Motorcross racer. He has been reading the Book of Mormon and really likes it. We shared with him a Mormon message with a Jamaican Bishop named Chris Cook. He loved it. He wants to know how the Book of Mormon can change his life. It was really cool because he said that he has been praying about our message and feels that it is true. He also loves the idea of there being a modern-day prophet that can lead and guide him today.

Well I gotta go and please keep me up to date on everything! :) :):):):):):):)

Elder Hays