Casa Abierta (Open House)

fHola a todos, we've had a fair week here in Aquiles Serdan. It´s been getting pretty hot here (not really, it´ll get to about 85 sometimes) but we've been working hard. 

This week we started out with an alright Tuesday. We had a lot of appointments that fell through that day. We were out in the street all day looking for people that we could visit. That night we also had a meeting with President Christensen and stake President Quintero. It was a really good meeting, sometimes President Christensen can be direct and he was pretty direct in that meeting. Our Stake leadership is super solid however, we might have some of the best stake leaders in the mission.

On Wednesday we had the district meetings which went well. We also had interchanges with Elder Maxfield and Elder Estes. I stayed here in the area with Elder Maxfeild who is a solid new Elder. He´s from Utah, is in his second transfer, is battling to conquer Spanish and works hard. We had a good day. We found a couple new investigators, one who´s the boyfriend of a less active member. We also taught a few less active members that live here in the ward. It was a good day.

Thursday we had our weekly planning which is always just a period of 3 hours of pure excitement. After we had a baptismal interview for one of our District Leaders Elder Jarmon. Its always great to have baptismal interviews because you get to see the progress and preparation that someone has made towards making a covenant with God. Also while my companion did the interview, Elder Jarmon, Pineda and I taught one of the friends of the investigator who had the interview. Its pretty strange teaching in trio but it was fun.

"Statistics of the Church" poster for Open House

On Saturday we only had one lesson with a member who fed us and in the night we had our weekly correlation meeting. That was also a tough day, all of our appointments just fell through. Sunday was our Ward Conference which was also very powerful. We also had an investigator come to church named Ivon who is the mother of a less active member and she felt the spirit strongly. She told me after one of the classes that she wanted to be baptized and asked what she has to do. It was a really cool moment and we are working with her to help her prepare to make that covenant with God.

On Friday we had a open house for our ward because they had to rededicate the chapel because it had been remodeled. It was awesome, there was a great choir, every organization had set up a room to show what they do and there was food! It was a great activity and the spirit was there very strongly. There was also a ton of people who weren't members there too which was awesome! It really was a successful open house that we had. 

Yup, and today we had another choir practice of what we are going to sing when the President leaves. Its going to be a really powerful song. I´ll see if I can take a video of it. Everyone have a good week. Bye!

-Elder Hartvigsen

Asistencias!

Hello everyone, I hope you´re all doing well. I heard there was a pretty knarly snow storm in Salt Lake. Sounds like fun. 

The other week it hailed really hard. It was pretty cool. In that afternoon it was really how without clouds, but after a few hours it started hailing with hail the size of nickels (or pesos). It was pretty exciting. My companion has never seen snow so he was pretty stoked.

With "Mission Tan" from collar line up

We had a good week! We started out with a normal Tuesday. We had a really good lesson with some members and we talked about missionary work. They got super into it and the spirit was very strong. They made some plans to invite some friends from the university to a family home evening which is tonight. We are also going to bring a new investigator so that will be great. On Wednesday we had interchanges with Elder Jarmon, our other district leader and his companion Elder Pineda who is brand new. I stayed in our area with Elder Pineda who is a super solid missionary who only has three weeks in the mission. He´s from Chiappas Mexico. We had some good and interesting lessons that day. We have one 16 kid who we visit who is from the church, La Luz del Mundo, who always tries to fight us with the bible. We had an interesting lesson with him. If he doesn't start reading the Book of Mormon we´re going to have to drop him.

Thursday was good. We started off by finishing the interchanges by watching their weekly planning session. The only thing worse than weekly planning, is watching someone else do their weekly planning. They have a really good companionship though, they are both great Elders who are working really hard in their area. On Friday we did our weekly planning, and had some appointments as well. We also had a lesson with some of our new investigators who basically said that they aren't looking to join a church right now. Its always really sad to see investigators stop progressing, or decide to stop investigating but that's just the way that it is sometimes.

Roof of Apartment / Laundry facilities

Saturday was a good day as well. Everyone from the ward went on a temple trip so no members were home. For lunch the Hermana that was going to feed us gave us money, so we decided to chip in some of our own and try out a brazillian meat buffet restaurant. It was super good. We ate a ton of meat! It was super tasty but afterwards we started a fast and we were both really thirsty because we just ate a bunch of salty meat haha. Not the best decision but oh well. Also on Saturday we had a lesson with some of our newer investigators that went really well. It is a family of a mother and 3 children. We have a lot of faith that they are going to progress, and we think that the children will progress fast.

Sunday was great! For the first Sunday I've been here we had some new investigators in church from our area! Two of the children I just mentioned, Jesus and Veronica went to church, and a contact that we've met in the street a couple of times came with us too. It was great to see that. The contact, Andres, is also going to come with us to the Family Home Evening tonight as well, so we are pumped for that.

Yup, that was my week. I hope to see even better ones to come. Every have a good week as well!

-Elder Hartvigsen

It's Monday again already

Hello everyone, I hope you are all doing well. 

April Leadership Council!! (Elder Hartvigsen second from far right)

I only have a few minutes to write this so it`ll probably be short and I also forgot my agenda so I won`t be able to remember everything either! So as far as I can remember it was a pretty normal good week. We did however have a special zone conference with Pres. Christensen which was great! I`m am really going to miss him, but am also excited to meet the new Pres. and work with him. We talked a lot about planning, and it was good. To be a successful missionary (and person!) you need to be able to plan well. It you can`t or don`t plan for success, you probably won`t receive it. So we have the opportunity to improve in that. We also had a zone meeting that we gave after the conference with president. We have a good zone, everyone is pretty young in the mission so they are excited to work (most of them at least!). We really focused on how to find new investigators and how to teach about baptism because that's such a crucial principal for an investiagator.

And the boring version

On Sunday we also had a meeting with the stake that was really great. A member of our ward that is the Stake Secretary (I think) gave the meeting. It was awesome, all of the missionaries of the stake were there with the ward mission leaders. We make some great plans and everyone is more excited to work and work together!

Well, we had a good week, sorry for the short email, but everyone have a good week!

-Elder Hartvigsen

General Conference!

Hello everyone! We had a petty good week. It was a busy week. We had transfers, a meeting all day with the president, and of course General Conference! It was a good week, even if we didn't have a ton of time to proselyte.

So on Tuesday we had the changes meeting. It was a really good changes meeting. They are started to have music numbers as part of the meeting and some elders and hermanas sang a song accompanied by a guitar that was really good. Then we found out the changes which was fun. Its fun to see the changes when you already know where you are going to go. You aren't nervous so it makes it more fun haha. It was also very strange to see some people that I know well go home. Really weird. So far all the companions that I have had in the mission are still here, but the first one to go home goes home this change that is coming. It will be pretty strange. We also received a few new people into the zone. Everyone here is really young in their mission except for my companion. He is the oldest with 16 months. The next closest person has about 12.

On Wednesday we had district meetings and interchanges with Elder Estes and Elder Giraldo. It was fun, I went with Elder Estes to his area in Manatiales. They walk a ton in that area! Its kind of crazy. Its a bunch of enclosed neighborhoods with fields inbetween. It was a good day, a lot of walking haha. Thrusday was a pretty normal day. We worked here in Aquiles. On Friday we had the all day meeting with President which is always awesome. We talked about how we can improve as leaders to improve our own area and in turn our zones. It was great, I learned a ton and received a lot of promptings about how I can improve as a mission and as a leader. Its kind of strange that in a few months we will have a new president. I`m 100% sure that President Nelson will be great, but it will still be sad to see President Christensen go because his it another level.

On Saturday and Sunday we watched conference! It was awesome! There were amazing talks given! Much revelation received by many! If you missed out you should feel bad, repent, then go watch the talks on lds.org. Some of my favorites were by Elder Holland, a 70 about not only dancing but hearing the music, and by Pres. Uchtdorf about the grace of Jesus Christ. Go check them out!

With companion at Cholula

So today we did a lot of things as well. The American elders are preparing a choir for the president to sing a missionary medley in the last changes meeting before he goes home. So we went to that and I practices and my comp played soccer. Also because of that, the president gave us all of P-Day, because we took a lot of time to do that. After we went to Cholula with Elder Estes and his new comp Elder Maxfield (they had emergency changes today) and a member who knows a ton about archaeology and the Book of Mormon. He gave us a tour of Cholula and explained that it is very possible that the Jaredites built the pyramids here because there is stories about the tower of babel and brothers who emigrated here in boats in the petroglyphs and historical record. It was pretty cool. There is also a mural that depicts the natives history, and it talks about a white bearded god that came here at around 30 AD and gave the people laws. Hmmm. Who could that be?

Cholula Pyramid

Anyways, we had a very spiritually nourishing week. I am so glad that I have a savior that makes it possible for me to keep improving and trying over and over again even though I sin every day. Thanks to his grace I have the chance to improve, and so does everyone if they accept the gospel of Jesus Christ. Everyone have a good week, and remember the sacrifice that Jesus made, especially to give you second chances!

-Elder Hartvigsen

Changes and Crazy Bus Drivers

Hello everyone, this is going to be a shorter email because I don`t have a lot of time right now. 

Trip to Mexico City last week 

But it has been a good week. Pretty normal. We did find out who has changes in the zone. Both Elder Carrillo and I do not have changes. There are a fair amount of people in the zone that have changes, but not a huge number either. Oh, also the bus drivers here are crazy. We just took a bus and they literally race each other sometimes. Its nuts!

Look who he found in Mexico City

So I mean the week we had was really pretty normal. I really can`t remember anything that was out of normal except for that we found 6 new investigators! We found some really good new investigators that are prepared and some that have accepted baptism. We hope to continue finding this week and get the ones that we have found progressing. We have also had to drop some investigators that weren't progressing, and that is always really sad but you have to do it sometimes.

The National Auditorium in Mexico City

Yup, we had a good number of lessons this week and really had time to work well here in the area. This week it will be a little bit harder because we have the changes meeting and a few others but it should be a really good week. It is also crazy that here in about 2 changes we will be getting a new mission president. Wow!

Mexico City

Well, I hope that you all have a good week. Cuídense!

-Elder Hartvigsen

Elder Hartvigsen's Zone