June 10, 2013

Baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!;D we finally got Juvel and Louis baptized so ill send a pic of that and we had our bishopric change the old bishop is 36 has served since he was 25, so 11 years! So its good to have someone else in. We had 117 people at church which was a miracle but that was with people who don't usually come from the stake and families but compared to the other week when we started with 10 people it wasn't too bad. haha we usually have like 60 but ya super cool. Then we had our plan of salvation activity to get references for us which was awesome the ward was willing to help us out but ill send pics but we had rooms representing the glories and had 37 new people in total which was awesome so were hoping to get more appointments so we can start getting all their references that came but that was awesome Elder Smaller said that's the first time a wards ever done anything that big to help them before which was super cool!

So sometimes its so hot and humid you'll blink and your eye lashes will stick to the top of the skin its nuts haha and you feel glazzed in sweat cuz ya are haha its unreal the heat and it hasn't even started yet in august it gets up to 125 degrees!!!! its crazy, so all of the members call me Elder Impossible like Ethan Hunt the guy in mission impossible I guess haha I never saw it but ya thats fun hah,
hahahaha so another great drunk guy story, so we were talking to a family and their drunk neighbor waddles over, he starts talking to Elder Smalley just having fun with it and the drunk guy starts talking about his bike(elder smalleys) and then gradually starts really wanting it so he starts commanding elder smalley to get off so he could have it and then elder smalley was like no take his his is way faster so i was like ya watch well race and show you mines faster and we almost did it but we both started cracking up then the drunk guy when elder smalley said no again gets this crazy drunk smile and winds back his fist like he was gona hit him but hes this tiny guy, about everyone on the street died laughing im still laughing picturing it in my head just his face of oh so you're not gona give me your bike are ya?!? lol (He didn't even try and hit him)
so at Navolato pizza the nicest restaurant here in Navolato we met a black guy whose half Jamaican half welsh and he's playing here on the prof basketball team but he was super cool and it was so weird having someone yell out to us in English hey what up brah!!! haha and here the cool thing is to have a Carl's junior cup since there are two in Culiacan which is the richest part obviously the more poor parts don't have any so you're super cool if you have a Carl's junior cup some people have em outside like trophies next to their virgin mary shrines.
I have heard from lots of members this mission is one of the two hardest Mexico missions there is which was fun to hear haha,but it was super humbling after church one of the kids Julio was so excited to show me he could do a lay up it was something I showed him at mutual without a second thought but he was so excited to practice it, its just little things like that where he realize how much we really have, or the pic of the super cute little girls that are so excited to see a camera when i took a picture with them we really are so blessed and we don't even realize it!
so I got an ear infection that was exciting haha and my stomach is starting to act up again so idk what the deal is with that elder smalley thinks I'm just having a little harder time than usual adapting to the environment so mom what does that say about the house;) it was always very clean!!! but ya it was a great week!

Elder Drew is the top second one on the left

May 20, 201

Dear Family,

dude Jake  you're a stud thats so awesome about everything the ward, Jake especially he's my hero I wanna be like him when I grow up!!! My comp grew up on a farm, is a very hard worker he's got a big heart and loves the Gospel,  we get a long really well we've had some moments but who doesn't  were working really hard last week was basically introducing him to the ward and investigators so last week and this week will be setting us up for a kill the next week(like that lil volley comparison;) haha but ya Javel and Louis they'll be baptized we hope this week, we have to go through red tape to get these things done sometimes. Jeffery R Holland  is such a sweet man, I got to shake his hand and he just said  buenas dias to everyone haha but it was  neat! when he was bearing his testimony about Christ his translator started crying describing Christ in Gethsemane and Elder Holland leaned over and gave him an arm hug and kissed him on the cheek it was really cool he just talked about working hard now so we can have the stories to tell to the new generations and how we don't have the right  not to work hard or damage the image of a missionary. I got to see all my buds from our district in the MTC which was a lot of fun getting together after a month and hearing each others stories!!  

My  comp said my Spanish is coming along better than most when they learn and he said he's never seen any missionary as new as me participate so much or be involved in trying to carry on conversation with the members and he said one thing he admired was how hard I try to communicate even when I know its not right and that the people are just going to make fun of me for it.                                                                     So Elder Smalley in his last area they had a war right out side his house they just laid on the ground for like 3 hours while grenades and guns were being shot he said it was nuts!!! Crazy area but we are blessed right!

So churros are the equivalent of 80 cent for like 5 which is great! We were at mutual and everyone was chanting our last names as Missionaries. It is great that they want us there.

I NEED A NEW SCRIPTURE MARKER TOP PRIORITY HAHA i gave mine to our zone leader. he's one of the most humble, Christ- like people I know and he's from Mexico and doesn't have a lot so I gave it to him but hes so nice I just told him hey nice tie bam he takes it off I want you to have it ahhh he's so nice so I gave it to him my scripture marker and he was beaming he was very grateful!!! but ya so I need one bad,  but its crazy how tired you get here the weather is always sooooo hot I dream about cold showers and swimming and lemonade haha but what else..

Cooking....tortas de papas take potato and cook it mash it and cook it with egg and its so good its like a potatoes omelet ahhh put the potato with the white first mix it up then put in the yoke. 

They have so much American stuff here most people who wear sports stuff have like Chicago bulls hats or lakers shorts haha its honestly very similar to the USA in a lot of ways its just culture and a lot more poverty but  people still have a lot sometimes it just depends, like how people burn their trash on the side of the road haha  but idk what to write there's so much different here.

We  found some people to teach, Gema y elza came to Jeffery R  Holland and liked it . We are  hoping to have her baptized in two weeks Thomas y Fabian were working with their parents because if the parents dont support them they'll just go inactive but we have a lot of people to teach Navolato is really big and we can never seem to have enough time, the bikes help a ton but the pedal keeps falling off so we always go by our ward mission leader whose starting to come back to church again wahoo!! 

Elder Smalley and I get along really well and laugh a lot. 

 oh, the dogs always bark from the roofs and it makes me laugh cuz its like ok jump come get me... and break every bone in your body  and get me. lol. Last week I was down to the peso 178  exactly the amount I had for groceries it was nuts haha the cash register was pretty blown away! But, I had enough for what i needed.  The members tell me Ilook exactly like Jim  Carry so my nickname is Elder Carry my other nickname is Elder Si SI, cuz I always said si si with one family and yup now thats just what they call me haha.  oh they put drinks in cheap sandwich bags cut off the corner and drink it and here being dehydrated ALWAYS it was so nice when Hermano Frank gave us like twenty bags of gatorade ahhhhh man haha, were so blessed though a new convert Cristo whose 11 walks like 3 miles just for mutual every week its so sad how blessed we are and have no idea!!! The members are so nice, Hermana Suzy would give us rides whenever she drove by and saw us and we walked so much so it was always super nice when your exhausted.  I've never appreciated the intrepid (our old car) so much in my life haha. 

So were having the ward activity the 8th of June and the members are bringing friends an d were going to teach the plan of salvation which will give us tooooons of people to teach so I'm stoked for that! We saw another drunk guy chaseings us down to tell us he was looking for Noah's ark in the canal haha people are crazy, but we love them.

Love you all!

Elder Drew

May 13,2013

Answers to questions
1. zone leaders said I can skype any Monday for Mothers day so see when John can.

2.ya  I have a new comp. Elder Smalley is my new companion from Levan Utah  he played football, basketball and ran track he's pretty cool! lots of personality, he seems like a really hard worker. I am staying in Navolato

4.My hip is alright we got our bikes so well see how that progresses

5. I eat yogurt, tortillas beans and idk whatever the members make us everyday for lunches. Apples and bananas at night its hard to cook cuz we can only eat after we get back so after planning at 9:30 but its hard to write in my journal and prep for the next day and eat. I am so tired 

ive been contactng a lot of people and i talked to one on the bus which is hard in broken Spanish her name was Alma and I taught her the plan and how she can live with her lil baby again and she seemed deeply touched and I passed the ref so well see how that goes but its intimidating how many peoples lives we don't touch by just relaxing on buses you never no when they ll listen like that.

Bishop told Elder Toomey he can tell the difference between the wards excitement b4 and after I got here and he said I have excited a lot of people to come back to church that have told him that. haha bishops ring tone is gungham style and I have heard that song more here than there in the states. We here just about everything here even some country. It was better when i didnt understand mariachi haha now its that mych more anoying! Were having a ward activity the 24th and pres Cantu, the Stake President are both coming and they're bringing tons of people to teach the plan of salvation and ultimately to get us around 50 referrals which would be incredible. The elders quorum pres told Elder Toomey he made the act because he saw how hard we were working to get the ward going which was way cool.

Love yall

Elder Drew

Air Conditioning!!!

Ward Mission leader (also par-Olympic athlete)

What I call home :)

I've grown a foot or two

May 6,2013

Hola Familia!!!! 

Como estan? Its good to hear about the family and Coy thats so cool! Im doing better! Every day last week has been really good!  My infection seems to be gone haha well see how that goes but ya last week was awesome we set two more baptismal dates but only two of our 10 investigators with dates came to church which was a huge disappointment. 

Well Culiacan is still hot lol, we spent every day for at least a little bit in Culiacan again haha, but I was talking with my friend whose a secretary in the offices today were writing on the computers in their since were getting bikes for my hip, cuz I had an x ray and I have three small spurs starting up and the specialist said that it wouldn't be good to have surgery now but that having a bike would help significantly! So that will be a blessing to bike.

At night your always drenched in sweat for planning and you're literally glazed its the grossest feeling! But at night its so nice walking around the streets it feels soooo good!!! One old man we were teaching Jesus they live in a house by the canal which means its super poor, their neighbors live in a tent and a person were trying to reactivate sleeps in a chair under a tree and calls it his house its crazy the poverty but Jesus I honestly was worried he was going to die during our lesson. Usually how you pray for the spirit well I prayed for his welfare of living through that lesson. He has really bad health. 

I can say dc 4 fast in Spanish now which was a great boost with Spanish! Everyone always waves to us hear and says god bless you which is a cool feeling  but its surprising how many members are a inactive and b there in general like one house in every few streets has a member but most are inactive we started sacrament with 10 people and half were the bishops family, the ward is really struggling so watching the district and a strong ward in the U.S. makes me jealous cuz our bishop is like the only person you can count on being there. It makes our ward super hard when were supposed to be getting references as the base of our work and not door approaches but we have more street contacts in a week than references because everyone is waiting for someone else to get their calling done. So ya church is rough but I bore my testimony yesterday and its amazing the gift of tongues i didn't even have to pause and all the members said not only that they felt my testimony but that they understood me so much better in my testimony which is a testimony to me of the reality of the spirit.

 oh they also water their dirt so it doesn't blow around,  one person were teaching starting crying when we taught the word of wisdom shes 20 and doesn't even drink coffee more than once a month and promised to live it .

Lots of were not in kansas anymore experiences,

In "Despicable Me" they have the giant beer can as a joke well here they have giant beer cans on poles so in Utah we have steeples well here thats the sign of the nearest tecate(beer place) and while on the topic i saw a guy super drunk try and ride his bike oh my gosh I have never laughed harder he fell and tried again,then he ran into the curb and fell and eventually the tecate owner came out and took his bike away form him ah man,  lol.  The blue eyes here are so cool lots of people have them its weird their super dark with blue eyes its cool! one of the sisters here she uses her tongue a lot which makes her sound like shes from Spain with a super thick listp,. Then the only thing creepier than a clown is a Spanish clown I learned that one, lots of people buy inflatable slides for parties and for dia de niño they bought one for their school system is a little different with water slides and all haha,

I gave my first talk three weeks ago and I made a lot of people cry so I think I went well haha no I was happy with it I bore testimony of the atonement that was my topic and its always a special one for me. They said the spirit was really strong

Jake- I have jello a lot they have basically all our food down here mayo to bread to chocolate milk to potatoes, I like to make fries haha with tomatoes and meat and put it in a tortilla for breakfast and eat flan at night,!! I have no idea how I'm not fat I think its all the biking and sweating. I had my first chile rellenos ahhhhhh sooo good and I always focus on complimenting the members and she was beaming after I ate a lot. 

Its so cool being creative with the work, I thought it was a set in stone type of thing but you and you're companion have a lot of different things you can do everyday depending on how hard you work and how dedicated you are I got up on the bus two weeks ago and bore a quick testimony and asked if anyone had questions about religion or this life to come talk to us. I was super scared but it was a cool way to show my faith! My comp said this is the most success he's ever seen on his mission and he said that there weren't any miracles happening in Navolato till I came which that was a big boost! 

People here are super nice you can talk to anyone except for the drunk people haha and you can talk about god with anyone its awesome!!! Well have two baptisms this week hopefully  juvel y louis who are 8 y 9. their step dad is active and so hopefully it will all work out.

They have agua de frutas and anything from jamaica which is like a nut fruit which is alright but they love it and then agua de guava which I think is heaven but they think its alight haha agua de orange pinña cantalope its pretty good ice cream cake ya they have a lot here of the same stuff we do im gona write faster now cuz i need to wrap up, drivers are super crazy haha every day in the streets is like frogger haha we've had choir every Monday and Friday for Elder Holland so we've had a lot of time away from the work but mas que nada Spanish is coming really well people tell me I speak better than most new and have really good pronunciation and last week I taught awesome and am doing a lot better!! sorry about pics next week!!! i love you all ttys!

April 29, 2013

(So when we happen to get on  the same time Elder Drew is we write more personally stuff and we don't get a long emails. So here is small pieces of his letters)Dear Family and Friends, Sorry I don't have a lot of time, we had to send a lot of stuff today with our new president and what not but ill send my list of stuff I have been keeping track of with pics next week sorry i haven't had time yet, next week! Love you so much and know I am sooo grateful for all you send, i don't have enough time to respond to everything you say but i read it all and write notes down with all of it it means so much! It really does. I am so grateful for how much you're here for me. I think about you all so much and have a pic of our fam in my back pack i show everyone.I have had an infection del intestino for the last two weeks which has drained my energy like crazy takes away muscle strength and affects pretty much my whole day but I am hoping once that goes away everything will get easier.We will probably have 10-15 baptisms here soon Tomas y Fabian are progressing super well and the lady who had the dream about the tree my first night she read the story of the tree of life and said it changed her life and wants to get forgiveness for her sins and come back to church!! I've come to find missionary work is baptisms but so much of it is the church in general helping members activation.. but thanks so much i love you SOOO MUCH!

April 22, 2013

Dear family and friends we have like a four hour practice to sing in the choir for Elder Holland so I get to type for like five minutes after reading letters so here is my top ten items for the week:

10.So I can listen to any lds artist, so please send some music.

9.We spent 4 days in Culiacan last week 2 for choir for a General Authority Jefferey R Holland is coming the 16-18 of May!!!! 2 for splits and 1 for district meeting it was a weird week we were in Culican more than are area. haha.

8. One of the recent converts asked us if he can preach to people now it was pretty funny lol and we had to have a careful thoughtful response lol.

7.There is another man named Jesus a 70 year old man were teaching, he has really bad health, I don't know if he could get baptized. We will see how it work out.

6.We were super blessed having a car and church so close to us at home, here they have a van that they pack like 20 people in to go to church including us haha walking all the time to church makes you grateful for lots of things.

5.stop signs don't exist here no one follows them and I am scared out of my mind every time were on a bus lol it really is like in harry potter lol.

4 .I had my first dog experience wahoo and jumped like 7 feet and im out of time haha so next week im going to write my letter than respond so i can answer your questions lol adios!

3. kids here play soccer a lot play in the streets with each other run around they are always outside, I think how I was when I was little. Just give a kid a ball.

2. the members are awesome its so fun we eat every lunch with a member except p days but i eat fruit a lot since I had that stomach infection.

1. I have had pigs foot and cows foot and my stomach doesn't like either.

I have to watch my head everywhere I go

I can never get enough cold drinks on these hot days