Tetela de Ocampo

New custom-made suit

Hello everyone. How are you? It´s kind of strange that it's the 29th of February. If someone is born today, next year when do they count their birthday? Anyways, I´m doing well. Today is technically the first day of another transfer. This is my penultimate transfer. That's crazy. Also yesterday the assistants called and I have changes. Tomorrow I go to and area called Tetela de Ocampo, which is a little town pretty far away and there's only a little branch with a few members. It's the most remote area in the mission haha. It´ll be good though, I'm really looking forward to serving there for my last two transfers.

So on Monday we had a good day, we went to Huamantla, and visited a few members in the evening. On Tuesday we had our weekly planning session, and we visited Edgar and Vicky. Also a youth from the ward named Alan accompanied us who got his mission call to! We´re pumped for him! We also did divisions with Alan and his brother David who's an ex-missionary. On Wednesday we had our district meeting, ate with the Lopez Ponce family (awesome senior couple), visited Melissa (the deaf recient convert) and we had an activity in the evening for recient converts. It was a good night.

On Thursday we visited a fair amount of people, Friday as well. Pretty uneventful days. We did see a dead dog though. On Saturday we also visited a lot of people as well as Carmen. Sunday we has stake conference. It was great, President and sister nelson spoke, also a councilor from the temple, and President Reyes. We were a little upset because no investigator or recient convert showed up after they said they would. Oh well. Así es la vida. We also ate with the Landeros family who very graciously offered us food because our lunch appointment fell though.

Final days together

All in all it was a good week. I´m sad to say goodbye to the area but also happy to be able to go to Tetela. It will be a one of a kind experience. I´m also sad to say goodbye to Elder Cornejo, we've enjoyed working together here. Well, everyone have a great week!

-Elder Hartvigsen

Last week's conference with Elder Oaks

Elder Oaks

Hey everyone, how's it going? I hope that everyone is well. We had a pretty normal week other than Elder Oaks was here! It was awesome! Elder Clayton, Elder Valenzuela (Presidency of Area), and Elder Walker (Area 70) also were there. I'll get to that in a bit.

Monday was a tough night, we had almost all of our appointments fall through. Tuesday was good, we found a bunch of new investigators, however we also dropped most of them later on in the week because they liked that we visited them but didn't want anything other than that. That evening we also visited Carmen and Guadelupe who were doing great as normal. On Wednesday we had exchanges with Elder Ramos, our district leader. I was in Xicotencatl with him and we had a good day. We ate with a member who works on the train, that was interesting to talk with him about trains. We also had the ward mission correlation meeting which went well, not a whole bunch of members showed up but oh well.

On Thursday in the morning we went to Tlaxcala to donate blood because there was a member that needed it, but I had a little cold so they sent me away :(. After that we went to eat and then ended the exchanges. That day we visited a good amount of people. On Friday we visited a bunch of members and a fair amount of investigators. Also for the meeting we had with Elder Oaks, the elders from Zacatlán came to our house to stay the night so that they could be on time to the meeting in Puebla. They sent us Elder Dominguez and Elder Pastor. It was really cool to be with him again. I had my two mission sons in my house haha! So Friday in the morning we left at 5 to get to Puebla at 7 to take a bus to a stake center in the other mission. So like I said, we were the two missions in Puebla, and Elder Oaks, Elder Whitney Clayton of the presidency of the 70, Elder Valenzuela of the seventy, and Elder Walker an area 70. It was a pretty sweet meeting. We learned a lot. Elder Oaks and his wife are amazing. They taught us a bunch about how to teach, about how to work with members, Elder Clayton taught about commitments. Elder Oaks also took questions. It was a great morning to be a missionary in Puebla.

On Sunday we had a good day. I always enjoy playing piano in church even if I don't play perfectly. We didn't have any investigators in church though. It was a bummer especially because we were expecting quite a few. We're going to be working on that this week. Well, I hope that everyone has a great week! Adiós!

-Elder Hartvigsen

3 Nephi 27:20

Hello everyone. Good afternoon. I hope that everyone is doing well. We had a good week this week. Pretty normal apart from the baptism of Carmen, Guadelupe and Angel which was great! However I'll get to that right now. 

So Monday was good, we visited Carmen and her family with Hno. Serrano. It was a pretty powerful lesson, we talked about the Temple and passed over some of the baptism interview questions. On Tuesday we went to Puebla so that I could renew my temple recommend with President Nelson. In Puebla it was warmer than here in Apizaco. That evening we came back to Apizaco, saw the other Elders from Xicotencatl, and then we went and taught Carmen and them. It was also Angel´s birthday! He turned 12 and we brought him a cake. It was a good time. On Wednesday I went to Huamantla with Elder Dansie in exchanges. It was super cold. I´m pretty sure it hit freezing but Í´m not sure. It was a good exchange, I enjoyed the company of Elder Dansie, he´s a funny guy. Also I got a cold from being there that´s stuck with me haha.

Happy Birthday!

On Thursday we visited Juana and Fernanda, some recient converts who are going strong. We also saw Edgar and Vicky in the evening. That night Carmen and Guadelupe had their baptismal interviews which went great. However Carmen told us that her work had asked her to work until 9 in the evening and her baptism was planned at 7, she was going to ask her boss for permission to leave early. That night and next day we prayed pretty hard that she´d have permission to get out early. That was also the only day that her work asked her to stay late. There are always obstacles at the last minute with baptisms. However, apart from that everything went smoothly for the baptism. Carmen did get permission and just got there late, but a bunch of members showed up and it was a very spiritual service. One of the best of my mission.

On Saturday we passed by with Angel and Carmen to read the Book of Mormon a bit, we also passed by with some other investigators and visited Steve and Noemi. They´re doing well as well. Sunday was good, however we almost didn´t have time to proselyte due to church and studies. Angel, Guadelupe, and Carmen were confirmed at church, We also had Edgar there, Vicky was at home with their sick daughter. That day we also ate with Carmen. We´ve really seen a huge change in their lives and it has been great to be able to witness it. Today we played some sports, soccer, and ultimate. We´re also looking forward to this week. On Saturday we're going to have a conference with Elder Oaks! It´ll be sweet! Have a great week!

-Elder Hartvigsen

3 Nephi 27:20  Now this is the commandment: Repent, all ye ends of the earth, and come unto me and be baptized in my name, that ye may be sanctified by the reception of the Holy Ghost, that ye may stand spotless before me at the last day.

Moroni 8:3

Hello everyone. I hope that you are all well and that it´s not too cold where you are. It´s been warm here during the day which has been awesome! We had a good week. I can´t believe that it already went by.

On Monday we went to Teltla and visited Carmen with Hno David. It was a good lesson. On Tuesday we visited a bunch of of investigators and had our weekly planning. Weekly planning is pretty rough on Tuesday morning. We visited Edgar and Vicky who are doing great, we found two new investigators, and in the evening we visited Noemi and Steve. It´s always the best to visit them, they're super excited to be in the church. They have interview with the bishop this week to receive callings as well!

Wednesday we had interviews with President Nelson. It went well, I learned a fair amount. That would be tough to have to interview the whole mission in just a couple of weeks. Wednesday night we also had the correlation meeting with the ward. It was interesting, everyone showed up except the ward mission leader so we ended up directing the meeting. On Thursdaywe visited a bunch of less actives and also Carmen again. In the moring we also had district meeting as well with Elder Ramos. Friday we visited Edgar, and also found a great new family of investigators! They´re really awesome, but the sad thing is that they didn't go to church after committing to go. Saturday was a normal day. We visited some members and some recient converts. Sunday was good but we were expecting more people in church. We had 9 people committed but just had Carmen, Guadelupe, and Angel. It was a bummer, but we had a good time with them.

Also today in the morning when we were studying there was a lot of music. We thought it was the neighbors but when we went outside the street was blocked off and there was a bunch of people in tribal type costumes with feathers dancing. It was surreal. Well, everyone have a great week!

-Elder Hartvigsen

Moroni 8:3  I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end.

Febrero

Hola. Como están todos? Espero que bien. I can´t believe that it´s already February. I didn't even feel January. This was a good week. We worked pretty hard. 

Volcano always in view

So on Monday we did some visits. We had a family home evening with Geraldine which was great. A bunch of members from the ward came so that was really fun. Jesus wasn't there because he was working at his job in the Coca-cola factory.Tuesday we visited a bunch of people. We saw Carmen, Guadelupe and Angel, we also had a family home evening with Noemi and Steve. They're doing awesome! They're both really happy! The Relief Society president also gave them a picture of the temple and they already have it up on their wall. 

On Wednesday we had our first district meeting of the transfer and the first one with Elder Ramos. It was good, the Zone leaders were also there. Also took a Spanish test thing, which I crushed. That evening we also had our ward missionary correlacion meeting with our ward mission leader, Hno. Adán Chamorro. He's a good guy. He owns a bunch of cows and sells milk. He started passing by our house give us milk and it's super good.

On Thursday we visited a bunch of less actives and recient converts. That morning we also started an exercise program that Elder Dansie lent us because my comp has been gaining a fair amount of weight. It´s called tapout and we started with legs. It wasn't the greatest decision haha. Our legs were dead for two or three days! It´s alright now however. On Friday we taught Edgar and Vicky and put a baptismal date with them. They're doing great, and are a lot more constant now. On Saturday we found a bunch of new investigators. Many are really good, but almost all are active in their respective churches. They have a lot of potential but it'll be hard to get them to attend church because their churches all start at the same time as our ward.

Sunday was good. We only had Edgar and Vicky in church. We have no idea what happened with Carmen and her family. They told us on Saturday that they were going to be there. However Steve blessed the sacrament in a shirt and tie we gave him. It was awesome. Yup, also they announced in church that an apostle is coming to Puebla in three weeks or so and it´s going to be Elder Oaks! We're way excited for that! Well, everyone have a great week!

-Elder Hartvigsen