In the water

Hey all, I hope you're doing well. We're doing well and we had another good week. It's strange to think that we are starting another transfer. Time goes by very quickly. Yup. I feel like that's a pretty cliche start to one of my emails haha. 

So on Monday we had a normal day. We played soccer and basketball, cleaned the house and in the evening taught a new guy named Luis and also Steve and Noemi. Luis is cool, he sells tamales and lives in the rural part of our area. On Tuesday we had a busy day. In the morning we taught Genoveva and then went to the other Elder´s area to eat. Oh, I'm not sure if I mentioned it last week, but Elder Carreon had changes and now Elder Sarver is here with Elder Cifuentes in Xicotencatl with us. In the afternoon we were running around San. Bartolome and then we went to Tetla in the evening. We had a good lesson with Carmen and her family and we also contacted a few references that are awesome. The only thing is that the guy is a truck driver and is never home :(.

On Wednesday we went to Tlaxcala and had a transmission [broadcast] from Salt Lake about missionary work. Apostles and Seventies talked about the 8 Fundamentals of Preach my Gospel. It was a really good transmission and I learned a bunch. They didn't make any big changes however. That evening we did splits and my companion went to teach a less active guy named Ethan and we taught Noemi and Steve and repassed the baptismal interview questions with Noemi. Thursday we did weekly planning, ate really far away in Tetla and taught some lessons. Noemi had her baptismal interview and passed as well! Also when we were in the chapel for her interview some students came in and asked if they could interview us in English for their University. It was kind of strange to talk in English to them haha.

Friday was normal. We did splits again in the evening, and a guy named Ricardo accompanied me to visit Jesus and Geraldine who are recient converts. I found out that Ricardo trained 5 times on his mission. That's crazy. Saturday was a good day. We taught a bunch of lessons in the morning and in the afternoon Noemi was baptized! It was a great service and Steve was able to baptize her. We also got the Bishop to come which was good, because he's always in his taqueria haha. We also went and visited Edgar and Vicky, some investigators that we hadn't seen in forever. Edgar also told me he's thinking about going to Salt Lake. Kind of a weird conversation. On Sunday we had a fair amount of investigators in the church. We had Carmen, Guadelupe, Angel, Edgar and Vicky. Oh also Cristina was there. Geneveva and her kids didn't go. We´re going to see if we can find her but she kind of got disappointed after we taught her about the law of chastity and that she would have to get married.

Yup, it was another good week. This next one should be pretty normal. Also we heard that in a few weeks an apostle is going to come to Puebla! It´ll be awesome! They haven´t told us who it will be yet. Maybe one of the new ones. Who knows. I´m rooting for Elder Holland! Anyways, have a great week everyone!

-Elder Hartvigsen

Cold (Relatively)

Hello everyone. Hope you all had a good week. We did well here in Xicotencatl, ending the transfer. Strange that another transfer has already passed by. Time goes by way too fast. I've also said that many times. Cool. 

Staying together

So on Monday we had a good evening. We dropped an investigator that didn't want to change for her family, and we visited Noemi and Steve. On Tuesday it also went well, we found a new investigator who was really interested. However the next day when we went to look for him he wasn't there because he had gotten a job in Puebla. Oh well. Wednesday we had a zone meeting in Tlaxcala. It was very cold that day. This whole week it got pretty cold, I know it´s not Utah cold but from what I've been used to here it was really chilly and rainy. It also doesn´t help that there is no heating in any houses. The zone meeting was pretty normal but spiritual, and the President showed up at the end to give us the flu shot and give us an announcement. So the missionary department made a change to some rules and changes meetings are no longer allowed. So in the mission when we have changes [transfers] they will advise us to which area we are going to and on Monday we´ll have to go directly there. It's a little sad but also a good thing as well. We'll lose less time in changing areas and be able to be more focused on the work.

On Thursday we helped a less active member move down the street. I was very grateful that almost everything was packed up when we got there. It's the worst to have to help pack as well haha. After that we ate, went home and did weekly planning. Went to two appointments, one with Genoveva and one with Melissa (the deaf recient convert). Friday we had a normal day, powled around our area and visited some people. We also found a new investigator that lived in Michigan. The same thing happened with him, he found work and we haven't been able to find him haha. On Saturday we visited some recient converts, Fernanda and Juana who are really powerful! We also visited Guadalupe with Hno. Serrano and had a really powerful lesson with her about the gospel of Jesus Christ. We also taught a less active and his family who own a bar. His family is pretty receptive but he's pretty closed.

Sunday was alright, not as good as last Sunday. We only had Noemi, Steve, Carmen and Angel in sacrament meeting. Genoveva, her kids and Guadelupe didn't show up. It was sad, but we'll get them to church this week! Yup, so tomorrow there are changes. Elder Carreon, from our ward is going to Amalucan and Elder Lopez our district leader is going to Aquiles Serdan to be a zone leader! We're excited to be working this change. Oh, today we also made a typical food from El Salvador with a family and I saw Hno. Checa Lara who was my first mission leader in the mission. It was great to be able to talk to him. Everyone have a great week!

-Elder Hartvigsen

Milagros (Miracles)

¡Hola a todos! I hope that everyone is doing well. Time just keeps on ticking into the future, doesn't it.

This week we had an awesome week! On Monday in the evening we had 3 lessons which was sweet. We taught Noemi and Steve who are doing well, also we found another recient convert that we didn't know named Adrian. He's and elderly guy who lives alone. On Tuesday we visited a lot of people as well. We saw Carmen with her family. We also were able to find some less actives at home. On Wednesday we had district meeting which went well. Also we went on exchanges with Elder Lopez, our district leader. This time I went with his comp, Elder Dansie to Huamantla. I always like going to new areas. Huamantla is actually a big town, I thought it was going to be a lot smaller because there is only a branch out there. We had a good day, and it was fun to just follow Elder Dansie around.

On Thursday, we had a bunch of lessons. We also taught one of our investigators, Genoveva who is awesome. She is an awesome investigator, she told us in that lesson that God put the words into our mouth to answer her questions. We also taught Jesus and Geraldine, two recient converts. They´re doing well. On Friday we had a fair amount of lessons as well. We ate with a cool older couple in the ward. The Lopez Ponce family. The brother and sister were some of the first converts here, and the brother worked in the railroad for a long time. Whenever we see him and ask him how he is, he tells us "I'm older!" (it works better in Spanish).

Saturday was also good, we were just running around a lot. We planned a bunch of appointments kind of far apart from each other. Sunday was great! We had 7 investigators in church and they all have baptismal dates. It was really cool to see as well, because they all had spiritual experiences. That was a really good day. Today we´ve just kind of hung out. We played basketball a little bit. Well, everyone have a great week!

-Elder Hartvigsen

¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

Happy New Year everyone! As every year, it is hard to believe that another one has gone by. Now we have to pick up the habit of writing 2016 haha. That´s always hard. We had a good week. Not jammed packed but we got by. It´s kind of hard to work around the holidays because everyone is out of town, many of the people that were here weren't from here, and everyone was in a rush. We did find some work though.

Great way to begin 2016

On Monday we had a lesson with Balsaltar, a new investigator that we had found and also found 3 new people. A mom and her two kids. They are really open and the mother really loves when we visit her especially when her kids are there. We actually found her when we went with a member to give Christmas gifts to her neighbors. That was a cool experience. Tuesday was a good day. I turned 21 which was pretty weird. I can now buy alcohol in the US and own a pistol. What power I now possess haha. We had a pretty low key day, Jesus, one of our investigators had his baptismal interview which he passed. The other Elders had a baptism and an Elder that is now in Zacatlán actually came to preform the ordinance, which almost never happens. I´m not sure if he asked permission, but I also saw Elder Pantoja which was awesome. That stayed in our house that night because Zacatlán is far away. On Wednesday we had a fair amount of appointments and also did splits for the first time with my companion. He did great. We also dropped Baltasar that day because he couldn't accept the Book of Mormon.

On Thursday it was New Years Eve and we only had lessons with members that day. We ate dinner with the Salado family and the food was awesome. That night is was hard to sleep for all of the fireworks and music. It was pretty crazy in our street. It´s funny because we live right next to two liquor stores. There were a lot of drunk people around. On the first of January, we taught a few lessons, one with Jesus the day before his baptism, and we also found Carmen and her family who had gotten back from their trip. On Saturday we had the baptism of Jesus which was great. We honestly did all the preparation for it in the morning because the mission leader didn't help us out. The service was really good. My companion was able to do the baptism and it was very spiritual. On Sunday we went to church, had a few investigators there. Jesus was confirmed. In the evening we also visited Carmen and Guadalupe again. They´re really solid investigators. They have a date for the 6th of February.

Also today we had a fun zone activity. We played a volleyball with water balloons and towels. Two people were on both sides of the towel and you had to toss the balloon back and forth. The only thing is that they didn´t tell us to bring an extra change of clothes and today has been a little raining in the afternoon haha. Well, everyone have a great week!

-Elder Hartvigsen