Christmas!

Hello everyone, I hope you all had a great Christmas. We had a good one over here in Resurgimientos. We honestly didn´t have a ton of work that we did this week, but it was a very spiritual one nonetheless. There is something in the air around Christmas, and it´s great!

So the week started pretty normally, we had a lesson with our investigator Javier which was a good one. He´s very receptive, and he likes to talk with us about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We just got to get him coming to church more often! That Tuesday night we went with the other Elders and bought two kilos of Tacos Arabes and ate a ton. It was a fun little Christmas celebration. 

The next day, we ate so much as well. We had a really good district meeting and after we made cookies and had desert that the hermanas brought. After that we went to la comida and ate some pretty good sopa de broccoli, after that we went with that Fam. Andrade, that fed us Chiles en Nogada, cake, and fish. It was very good food as well. 

Christmas Greetings - 2014

That night for Christmas eve we were invited to another house where we had a family home evening and then ate another full meal. All the food was great, but we ate so much it was ridiculous.

 For Christmas we were invited by Javier and Jokabeth to have breakfast which was a chicken dish with bacon. I think that was the first time I´ve eaten bacon in Mexico, it was super good. After that we went to try and find a few investigators to see if they were home and search out a few contacts that we had. We couldn´t find anyone and there was hardly anybody in the street so we made our way to la comida that day. So then we ate again. 

Elder Hartvigsen on Skype Christmas Day

 That afternoon talked with our families with skype! It was great to see my family and be able to talk with them, a little weird as well. It doesn't feel like it, but it had been about 6 months. Kind of strange. They were doing great, and I´m very thankful for the opportunity I had to talk with them. So the day after Christmas that Friday my comp, Elder Garrido got pretty sick so we didnt leave the house all day. It was alright though, I did my wash, cleaned the kitchen and watched The Testaments. Alright day, but its the worst to be stuck in the house! 

The Saturday and Sunday after were pretty normal, we had some lessons with members and less actives and on with one of our investigators who is 9 years old. She´s great, and wants to be baptized pretty bad, but her mother doesn´t want her to. Its pretty rough, but we´ve been trying to work with her mother and teach her as well. Yup, pretty good P-day as well, we played futból, did some wash. 

I also turned 20 today which is kind of strange. Weird to think I´ve been alive for 2 decades. No longer a teenager, more of an adult. Cool stuff. Anyways, this week should be good, we're going to find out who has changes this Saturday, should be exciting. Well, everyone have a good new year, and enjoy the last week or so of your winter break! 

Con amor -Elder Hartvigsen

Almost Christmas

Hello everyone, Merry Christmas! Well, in a few days anyway. 

We had a pretty good week, we didn't have a ton of stuff though. We only had a few appointments with Investigators and a fair amount of lessons with members and less active members. We also had intercambios with the other elders, and a ward Christmas party.

Christmas Carols

So on Wednesday we had exchanges with the Zone Leaders. Elder Burgess and I worked in my area and Elder Garrido went with Elder Mendoza to work in their area. We had a really good day. We had a really good lesson with a partial member family, I might have already mentioned them but the Hermana is a member of many years but is inactive and her husband (not actually married though) is our investigator. We taught a lesson to them about the Santa Cena (sacrament) and later he started asking us a bunch of questions about things he´s heard when he´s gone to church. Such as what are the Gold Plates, who's Joseph Smith, things about the Restoration. Its was pretty awesome, and we left a pamphlet for him to read and write down his questions, and we are going to teach the Restoration next time. He was pretty excited to read it and write down his questions.

That day we also went to visit a less active member, and when we went we found that part of her family from Canada is visiting them. It was pretty cool to meet that family, the parents are both from Puebla and thier kids can speak fluent spanish and english. They attend a spanish branch up in Calgary. It was pretty sweet, they fed us tacos arabes, we taugh part of the restauration to the other daughter that isn´t a member. Oh also they gave us a bunch of cookies and milk and gave us a ride home. Pretty sweet. We have another appointment with them tonight as well.

So on Friday we had the Christmas party of the Ward which was good. Us 4 sang a little arrangement of Cantan Santos Angeles and En la Judea en Tierra de Dios. We sang pretty well, or at least as well as 4 Elders who don't have much experience singing can. Elder Burgess has a video of it, I´ll try and get a copy of it. The rest of the party was good. We had a bunch of less actives show up, a few of our investigators which was great. We ate a ton of food as well. It was a good night, but we had to go home before santa came :(.

Yup, that was my week. Well, every have Merry Christmas. Its a great time of year to remember the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. If you haven´t already seen it, I invite you to watch the short video at christmas.mormon.org. We've been sharing this video a lot with everyone and its a great video. 

Well, Merry Christmas!

-Elder Hartvigsen

It's Beginning to Feel a Bit like Christmaaaaas

Buenas tardes a todos. How´s it going? I hope you all had a good week, we had a pretty good one here. 

Elder Hartvigsen's District, decked out in their Christmas ties

We honestly didn't have a ton of lessons with investigators, but we did have a ton of lessons with less actives. That seems to have been the case in all of my areas a think. There were good lessons however, and I remember one time someone told me that it is just as important to activate less active members as baptizing is. There are also some really good finding opportunities through less active members. For example we have started teaching a woman from Oaxaca, Mexico who hasn't been to church in a few years and her husband is a non-member. So we've started to teach them and the husband is very accepting. We´re going to try and put a baptismal date with him, but the only thing is that they aren't married. We also seem to get more references from less actives than active members which is a little weird if you think about it.

Creativity at the Missionary Christmas Party

This past week on Tuesday we also had the Christmas Zone Conference. It was great! It was really fun, all of missionaries from the states Fuertes and Amalucan were there. We did a lot of things. We had a sort of reading of some scriptures from the Bible and Book of Mormon about the birth of Jesus, and sang hymns. The president talked (led a disscussion) about how to recieve revalation trough the Holy Ghost, and we played a game called Bunko, and ate a ton of food! I learned a ton, ate a lot, and had some fun. The food was great as always. Hermana Christensen always buys from Costco so it was pretty familiar to me. It will probably be the closest thing I´ll have to an American holiday dinner this year haha, but that's alright. I really like the food here, too.

"Please take only one dessert"

Other than that we had a pretty normal week. It went by really fast to be honest. This week we are going to have a ward Christmas activity which will be fun, and us four elders are going to sing, too. Well, I hope you all have a good week this week. Still no snow here, but I´m hoping! :P

Love you guys!

-Elder Hartvigsen

The Gospel can change hearts

Hello everyone. Well one week down in December. It was a pretty good week, it was fairly normal one. We did have a few things that were out of the ordinary, we had a meeting with the President, Assistants and all the District Leaders in the Mission and then we also had the opportunity to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. Other than that we had a District meeting and worked all week.

A missionary's tools

As with every meeting I have had with the President I learned a lot and felt the spirit very strongly. It was a great meeting. It also surprised me to see how many District Leaders there are that are new. There are about 20 or so District Leaders that are new from this transfer or the last. It´s great to know that even when we don´t know a ton, or if we don´t have a lot of experience we can still magnify our callings with the help of the Lord. It was also good to see people I don´t see very often at that meeting. I saw some Elders from my generation and also both of my old companions. Our district meeting was also pretty good, we practiced a lot how to contact with Él es la Dádiva [He is the Gift] and also how to teach with it. We have actually had some really good experiences with this initiative. We've had some really good contacts and received a couple referrals from it too. We hope to continue working with it and finding more people!

Around the neighborhood

So in terms of Investigators we don´t really have any that are progressing. As always we are having trouble getting people to attend church. We do have one nine year old girl that has been attending church but her mother doesn´t want her to be baptized. Its been a little rough to not see people progress, but we´ve been working with a lot of less actives. There is actually one less active named Roberto who has been coming to church and changing a lot. We worked with him a lot but he moved to the other side of the ward where the other Elders worked. He bore his testimony yesterday and it was really powerful. He recently retired from the Army and we´ve seen a great change in him. He told us that now he just has a desire to attend church and be with his family more. Its great and has been a testimony to me of how this gospel can work a great change in our hearts if we let it.

Service opportunities

I also had the opportunity to watch the Devotional last night (in English!) and it was awesome! My favorite talk was probably by either President Eyring or Elder Christoferson. They were all great though and I hope you all had a change to watch it, but if not its online!

Yup, pretty good week. I´m looking forward to this one too, to work more with Él es la Dádiva and we are also going to have a Zone Conference tomorow too. Pretty stoked. Anyways, everyone enjoy your week and if you haven´t seen it watch the video He is the Gift! (link)

Love you guys!

-Elder Hartvigsen

Thanksgiving - Él es la Dádiva (He is the Gift)

Hey all. I hope you all had a good Thanksgiving and didn't eat too much. It is crazy that it is already December. It has started to get a little colder, but today it was warm again so it doesn't really feel too much like December. There have been a few mornings and evenings where it has been pretty chilly in a short sleeve camisa blanca, but once I throw on a jacket it feels nice.

This week was pretty good, we didn't do a ton in terms of lessons or finding a bunch of people. We did have a zone conference with an area Seventy (I think), Elder Toris, President Christensen and their wives. It was really good, and the spirit was also very strong. I learned a lot, even though it seemed a little scattered at times. It was also really good to see some of the new missionaries in the zone and other zones that attended. There is also a new missionary that is 6 foot 7 in. That might not be super super tall in the US, but that's huge for Mexico. I can't imagine how he crams himself into the combis (public transit vans). I also saw a Hermana that I knew from my first ward and area which was pretty neat. Every time we have a meeting with missionaries, and especially with the President or other leaders its great! I always learn a lot and the spirit is also there.

Some rides near the missionary apartment

The work has been a little slow with the Investigators. We really don´t have anyone progressing which is pretty frustrating. Also it seems like every Sunday we have a ton of people committed to come to church and then no one shows up! It doesn't help that our church starts at 8 am either... Oh well, we can´t take away peoples agency. We have been working with a lot of Less Actives and our Recent Convert of about two weeks, Emma. It has been good to see them progress and attend meetings. We also had a good-interesting lesson with Emma and her family. So her son is the returned missionary and he´s great. He´s a work horse and he´s pretty bold. We finally got the spouse of Emma to sit down with us, and his son grilled him pretty hard. It was pretty interesting. Also there is cool story that Hna. Emma told us. When she was baptized when she came up out of the water she came up really fast and pretty hard then started crying. She told us this week that when she was baptized and came up out of the water she felt like a weight just fell off of her, and was just overwhelmed. Pretty cool. Baptism really is the start of a new life.

So today we also had a little Thanksgiving activity in our district. We played fútbol this morning and then we all brought food and watched the movie Forever Strong. It was a good thanksgiving little meal, we had chicken, mashed potatos, vegetables, rolls, soda. It was a good little Mexican thanksgiving. It was pretty fun and kind of weird to watch Forever Strong in Spanish but good. I can now understand about everything which is good. Oh, we also have a new sister in our district, named Hermana Meek. She just finished her training and is with Hna. Ramirez.

So we are also starting this initiative called Él es la Dádiva (He is the gift). There is a really good video up about it.

Watch Video Here 

The greatest gift that we can ever receive is the gift of Christ. The joy that he can give is immeasurable. I´m so thankful for everything that he has given me and continuous to give me. This is a time of the year to remember him and to give thanks to him. It is also a really great time to share this with people we care about. We are going to be working with this throughout December and I´m really excited to start contacting and teaching with it.

So good week. Good Thanksgiving. Hard to believe Christmas is just around the corner. It will be strange not to have any snow this Christmas, but that's alright. Well, everyone enjoy your week!

-Elder Hartvigsen