Olintla and Thanksgiving

Hello everyone. I hope that you are all well. Things are well in Zacatlan. Its getting a little colder but not really that cold. I´m just a wimp because I´ve gotten used to a 80 degree climate. This week was pretty awesome. 

Elder Hartvigsen with the Branch Primary

Lunes we had a few lessons in the evening. On Tuesday we went to cut wood in Hna. Paulita's house. We also helped her with other things like feeding her sheep. Wednesday was a good day, also normal. We had district meeting, visited a few people. 

Thursday was a crazy day. So on Thursday we went to a town called Olintla, which is 3 and a half hours out of Zacatlan. We went to go look for a reference that we had gotten from the reference system. So we left our house at about 7:30 and got there around noon. The ride is pretty rough. The roads are pretty bad and are super windy. Also the combi drivers drive super fast around every corner to be able to get there in a reasonable time. So after the 3 hour roller coaster ride we finally got to Olintla. It´s a pretty town, and it´s also really warm there since it´s almost in Vera Cruz. So when we got off the combi we asked someone in the street if they knew the guy or where the direction was. The person we asked didn't know anything and said that the street didn't exist. It was pretty disheartening after the 3 hour combi ride. However we asked someone else and they said they might know him and sent us to ask in a store in the next street over.

Travel Day

We went to the store and the lady that answered us said that she might know him, but we started teaching her a little bit about the restoration. After a minute or two a guy passed by outside the store and she told us it was him, so we went to talk to him. He was actually happy to see us and told us to come by his house when we finished talking to the woman in the store. When he went he was very friendly and open. He told us that his siter that lives in Florida had sent the reference but he doubted that we would come. He was really suprised to see us. His sister had recently been baptized and gotten married with a member. His mother who lives in another part of Mexico also is going to be baptized in a few weeks. His name is Alfredo and is from Chihuahua, he lived in the south of the US for like 10 years when he was in high school. There he met his wife, and returned with her to Olintla where her family is from. We had a super awesome lesson with him. He was stoked to read the Book of Mormon. Also his wife got home at the end of the lessons with his two kids and her mouth dropped open when she saw us. They were both very happy that we went. We´re going back this friday to visit them, but we´re also going to teach them more frequetnly throught Skype (even though it´s a little town in the middle of nowhere, they have internet!). We also talked to him by phone saturday and he was super syched. He was reading the Bood of Mormon and said that he was having nightmares but says its because there´s something that doesn´t want him to read it. It was a super good trip and we ate some really tasty stomach pork tacos.

Saturday we had a bunch of lessons and finally did splits with some members! Its really hard to do splits here, one because there aren't a ton of members and many times they cancel with us when we ask them to accompany us. Saturday we also had a bunch of lessons.

Celebrating Thanksgiving??

Sunday was the primary program and I played the Piano. I did pretty well considering that I didn't have too much time to practice some challenging songs. At least they were challenging for me haha. 

Today we had a little Thanksgiving celebration. We made instant mashed potatoes, bought rolls and chicken and watched The Prince of Egypt. It was fun. Also a member from a ward in Apizaco came and he has a tradition of cutting the ties of missionaries. Right now I have half a tie on haha. My companion too. He said he´s collected like 400 ties that he's cut from missionaries. Yup, pretty good week. Everyone have a good Thanksgiving and remember of all the blessings that you have!

-Elder Hartvigsen