Forjadores

Hello once again everyone. So we now have I guess just over a week been here in the Bario (Ward) Forjadores, and things are going all right. We honestly haven't had a ton of things going on this week. Before we arrived the Hermanas that were here had to open the area as well (which means there both came at the same time to the area and both didn't know it) so they hadn't become really established and therefore didn't leave us many investigators. Things have been good, just a little slow and frustrating at times. We do however have one really solid investigator named America who has been receiving lessons from the missionaries for about 3 months now. Honestly she just needs to start coming to church regularly (which she has) and she is ready to become baptized. We have a few other investigators that we have taught but we´ll see what happens with them.

New study companion!

So we got to know the two other elders in our District (and ward) better. Their names are Elder Lochmiller and Elder Santizo and they are both great elders. Elder Lochmiller is from Idaho and Santizo is from Guatemala, and they´re some pretty funny elders. So our District is just us four right now, so District meeting was pretty small but it was good. I always like district meeting, because it gives a chance to analyze our contacting and teaching skills, and really gives us an opportunity to recieve feedback. You can´t really ask your investigators what you could have done better to teach them a principal haha. 

Evidence that the sisters lived here first!
("I am Mormon; I know it; I live it; I love it")

 Last night we also had the program I mentioned in my last email and it was pretty good. They invited the whole stake and a lot of people showed up, they filled up almost every seat and they had a ton of seats! They showed off that diary thing I mentioned that is basically a diary of a persons conversion that a member can fill out while their friend is investigating the Gospel and give to them after (or if) they become a member. It is a good thing, and it has the potential to really get the members involved in the missionary work, and really invite their friends to come and see. We have hopes but we´ll see how well it is implemented. All the Missionaries in the Estaca La Libertad also sang a rendition of Praise to the Man, and it was pretty powerful. All in all it was a good meeting. 

At the Great Pyramid of Cholula

Steps of the Pyramid of Cholula

That was pretty much our week, just getting to know the people that are in our area, getting to know the area. We also went to Cholula today, which is a ancient pyramid with a Catholic church on top. It was pretty sweet, and the Cathedral is pretty bueautiful. I think it is actually the largest pyramid in the new world. Pretty cool stuff. It is really interesting to learn the history of Mexico, and the people here. There is also a really cool story about the Volcano Popocateptl and the mountain next. It is really Romeo and Juliet-esque, I´m sure you can find it on wikipedia or somewhere.

Church at Cholula

Popocatépetl and Izaccíhuatl

 Anyways, con amor -Elder Hartvigsen

Elder Hartvigsen - Overlooking Puebla from Cholula

Forjadores District

Changes

Hello everyone. I hope you all had a good week full of excitement and interesting things. I definitely have.

So right now I am writing from Puebla in the stake La Libertad, Forjadores Ward. So last Tuesday we were having a normal day until we received a call from the Assistants who told us that we were going to have emergency transfers on Friday. So we had emergency transfers, and we are now working in Puebla and no longer in Tlaxcala. If you want to see where this is use the Church´s maps and search for barrio Forjadores or search for the neighborhood Momoxpan. We´re on the west side of Puebla right now. The reason that we had these emergency transfers is that apparenty the Hermanas that were here had a stalker, so they changed us because Atempan is a really quiet tranquilo place. It´s kind of funny, this was actually Elder Delgado´s first area where he served for 5 months, so it has been fun for him to see all the members that he knows.

Some of the last views from Tlaxcala

So this last week we also had Zone Conference on Wednesday (in Tlaxcala before we changed) with President Christensen. It was awesome! We talked about the state of the mission, how to teach with power and the spirit, and also in depth about the atonement. It was great and I definitely learned a lot. The spirit was very strong and definitely helped me understand everything that was being said since it was all in Spanish. It was great, and I always love seeing the other missionaries that are serving around us. I also saw a couple of the Hermanas from the MTC. They were doing well, but the past week had been in the hospital because they got Salmonella! Yikes! So far I´ve been blessed not to get too sick. Hopefully that keeps up. We also ate together too and the food was great! Sister Christensen provided it and they were meatball sandwiches and cake from Costco! Its funny to see all the stores that are familiar to me, today we ate at McDonald's and there´s and Auto Zone in our area too.

Final days in Antempan Ward

So it was really tough in those last days in Atempan to say goodbye to everyone. Our investigators were sad to see us go, and we were sad to have to go too. It was especially tough to say goodbye to some that we had taught a lot like Hermalinda and Joel, and this other investigator that worked in a bread shop. It was nice to see that they actually liked us too haha. I really hope that our old investigators keep on progressing and make it into the church. We had a couple that were really close, one investigator was completely ready but just needed permission from his mom!  It was also rough saying goodbye to some members and the Hermanas that we shared the ward with. We´ll miss working with them and seeing them around.

Pizza farewell

The Thursday before we left we went and blessed a home (and pizzeria) of some investigators that the Hermanas have. It was great and we had some good Pizza too. The Investigators are a couple with a daughter who is a member and we were going to be witnesses at their wedding so they could be baptized. It was pretty tough saying goodbye to them and the Hermanas that night. It was a good experience none the less.

So then that Friday we finished packing and cleaning our house, helped the new Hermanas bring in their bags when they got there and then got a ride with the Bishop to our new area. It was a pretty strange day, with the new area. It is pretty different here but not a ton. It is totally city with more people. Our last area had more rural parts with some corn feilds but here its just houses and buildings. Its good here though, the members are strong here as well. The ward isn't as big as Atempan but its still the same spirit! I also met a really awesome member who is totally stoked on missionary work who was a Cristiano (different prominent religion that proselytes here) for 40 years before he converted. He is a really awesome guy and is going to help us out with our work. I think that this area is going to be more tough that in Tlaxcala because the people in Tlaxcala area a little more relaxed and humble but here they don´t really want to stop and talk. This area only really has one solid investiager but none of the investigators here have attended the capilla yet. It will be good though, and we are planning on trying to work with the members and getting as many referrals as we can.

Now in Puebla

Also yesterday (Sunday) we had a meeting with the Stake Presidency here about a new program that they are going to start implementing here. It is to help get the members more involved and it is basically a little booklet that is a diary for the members to keep track of their friends progress in their conversion and the gospel. It is pretty comprehensive and has places to record feelings and pictures of stuff like their first lessons and the first time they attended the church, their baptism and stuff like that. It looked pretty good and streamlined, so I would imagine that the church is trying to implement this all over the world. It seems really good and a great way to the the members involved in the misisonary work every step of the way. Also so that the converts can have a really concrete way to look back at their conversion and how it happened.

After that we also practiced singing for a program that the stake is going to have next week. It is a rendition of Praise to the Man and its pretty cool. All the missionaries and the stake are singing and it´s pretty powerful. Also after that meeting when we were walking home we almost got robbed. There were a couple guys that started following us that looked pretty sketchy and then they stopped someone else and we think they robbed him. Crazy!

My Spanish is good, I think I´m am actually doing well in comparison to how other Americans are. I actually have been getting some compliments and people are surprised when I say that I've only been in Mexico for two months (yesterday!).

Anyways things are good. We´re sad that we had to leave our old area and we miss it and the people, but we are also looking forward to working here in Puebla. Espero que ustedes tengan un semana con divertido y éxito en sus esfuerzos. ¡Les amo! 

-Elder Hartvigsen

¡Feliz día de Independencia de México!

Hola a todos, and happy Mexican Independence day! At least I think its today. They might just start celebrating tonight. We actually have to go home early tonight because there will be a lot of drunk people in the streets, or at least that's what I understand haha. Also it seems like all of the drunks here can speak English. It's kind of strange. Anyways it was a good week here in Tlaxcala. Still a lot of walking, and a lot of rain this week too. We also had some great lessons and taught a few new people.

Mexican Independence Day - (Actually September 16)

So with our two newer investigators Joel and Hermanlinda we are making good progress with them. We taught a good lesson about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and talked about baptism and attending church. It was really good, and Hermalinda actually showed up to church! Joel coudn´t because he was working, but it was very nice to have a her and another ´´investigator´´ (9 year old son of a member) at church. Now we just need to get all of our other investigators attending! It´s especially tough for us, because our investigators need 5 weeks of attending sacrament meeting before they are eligible for baptism, so if we don´t have investigators attending baptismal dates fall, and then they can´t get baptized until the next change even if we feel that they are ready. But we are making progress, which is good.

So also after that lesson that we had with Hermanlina y Joel we had to walk back to Loma Bonita (the area that we live in) from El Rincon (where Joel-Hermanlinda live) for another appointment. It was a half hour walk and it started dumping soon after we started walking! It was the most rain we´ve gotten since I´ve been in Mexico! It was also pretty crazy because in our area there isn´t very good drainage on the streets so the water just kind of flows with them. We were soaked, but then our next appointment fell through so we had the opportunity to go home and change. Also a couple days later it rained pretty hard in the early afternoon but then stopped. However later that day we had an appointment in El Rincon and when we got out there one of the streets was completely flooded! It was litterally a like a little river! Since we didn´t want to wade through it we bushwacked through a some corn and fields to get to our appointment. That was pretty exciting, we saw some pretty big spiders on the way, too.

Sunday was also pretty exciting. Apart from having 2 investigators at Church we had divisions as well. I had the opportunity to teach two lessons with new investigators by myself and members. It was a good experience and it really put my Spanish to the test. It was good however, the spirit was there and the members helped me out too. That´s another thing, we have been working a little more with a Hermano that lives near our investigators in El Rincon and he has been so helpful. He has a combi (van) and gave Hermanalina a ride to church because its a long way to walk and she´s pregnant. The members here are very good, they are very upbeat always willing to help out. I feel very blessed to be serving in the ward I'm in.

Well, I hope you all are still doing well and enjoying the end of summer and beginning of fall. They tell me the rainy season is almost over here, but we´ll see. Con amor

-Elder Hartvigsen

Walking, Walking and More Walking

First week of this change went well. The only change that happened that affected us was that we received a new Hermana fresh out of the Provo MTC. Other than that things have been mas o menos the same. I think that a lot of times Atempan (our ward) is used the train new missionaries. I know two or three other Elders whose first area was in this ward as well. Interesting to think about.

This week was pretty normal, a few good lessons, lots of contacting and walking, lots of appointments falling through. We´ve been trying to contact more the past couple weeks and because of that we have been getting more appointments. This is a great thing, but many times it seems like we show up at the house and the person is never there. It´s frustrating but there isn´t much we can do about it. Just need to keep working with what we have.

Also this week my rock climbing skills came in handy ha ha. On Saturday we stopped by the house real quick in the afternoon, and when we left and shut the door behind us Elder Delgado realized that he locked the keys in the house! Luckily our house has a balcony with a sliding glass door and this kind of ledge thing below it. It wasn´t that hard to climb. For all you climbing people our there I would rate it a 5.7 or 5.8. However once I got up to the balcony I realized that the door was locked. Also luckily there was a pre-existing hole in the glass door that was just covered by some tape. So I ripped through the tape and used a stick to unlock the latch. It was actually pretty fun, I felt like McGyver or something.

The Elder's Apartment

Success!

"The Hole"

We also had some pretty interesting food this week. On Tuesday one of the members that was going to feed us had to cancel and gave us some money to go get food and we went to this Chinese place in the grocery store. It actually wasn't that bad, and also interesting to hear the Spanish of the Chinese family that run it. 

On Friday we had a pretty normal la comida, but at the end they brought out these worm things. They showed them to use when they were alive and it was pretty knarly. I thought they were going to eat them live for a second, but they cooked them. They were alright, kind of a neutral flavor and crunchy. Elder Delgado wouldn't try them though haha. 

We also had the chance to have Chiles en Nogada which are very good. It is actually a dish that originated in Puebla and is a kind of national pride food becuase it has all the colors of the Mexican Flag. It is a chile that is stuffed with some fruit, meat and some other stuff and covered in a cream sauce and pomegranites. It was really good and you get a chance definitely try it!

There is also kind of nationalistic feeling right now becaue about a week from today is the Mexican Independence day. There have been a lot of flags around and a lot of sort of Mexican type items being sold at different places. That will be fun, but I´ve heard that on the night of Independence day if you aren´t a missionary from Mexico you have to stay in the house.

Chiles en Nogada - ¡Viva Mexico!

Yup, things are still about the same here, doing well. I hope all of you are doing well! ¡Hasta luego!

-Elder Hartvigsen

Last Week of my First Cambio

Hey everyone! Hard to believe that it is already September. Before we know it, it will be October.

Things are still well in Tlaxcala, we had a pretty exciting week. On Tuesday we had to go to the Oficinas again to do some things for our Visas. They took our fingerprints and had us sign some papers. Real fun stuff. However I did get to see my old MTC district again which was fun. I had the opportunity to talk to my MTC comps about what their areas are like. Everyone is still doing well.

Elder Hartvigsen, September 1, 2014

This week I also had another intercambio with my district leader Elder Benavides. So Wednesday after District meeting he and I came to my area and Elder Delgado and Elder Vela went to their area in Chiatempan. It was really good to work with Elder Benavides. He is a good missionary who really likes to talk to everyone! We had some really good contacts that day, and now we have hopefully some new investigators. We'll see when we drop by all the addresses we received and see if they are real or not haha. Also when I was with Elder Benavides we met with a member to help out with some questions about verses in the Book of Mormon. Turns out she wanted us to explain the Isaiah chapters. Luckily I didn't have to explain much. If you think trying to understand Isaiah is hard in English, try trying to understand it in another language!

That day was fun. It is always good to gain perspective with different missionaries. Also that day we taught two new investigators, and we taught them again on Saturday. They are really solid, and have great spirits about them. On Saturday when we taught the Restoration, we had a really spiritual lesson. It was great, and really reminded why I´m out here is to help people come unto and learn of Christ and his gospel. These two seem really prepared, and I´m so glad that we have the opportunity to help them. They are very accepting, and we actually found them while we were contacting. We have another investigator who we are starting to teach that had  been taught by the old Elders that is also really strong. So that has really brightened up my week.

We also received some bad news this week from a different Investigator. We had felt good about the lessons we were teaching her, but we received a text from her saying that she didn't want to continue talking with us. She also mentioned that it was because she thinks we are just trying to increase the numbers of our church. So that was pretty sad for us that she didn't understand that our purpose as missionaries is to help other come unto christ, and not just to promote the church.

We also found out whether or not we have cambios (changes). Elder Delgado and I are staying in Atempan 2 for this change. There was actually only one change in our entire zone, one of the Hermanas in the other area of our ward (Atempan 1). So we will be getting a new Hermana, who actually might be a brand new missionary. That will be good, and I look forward to at least another 6 weeks in this area.

Sunday was a very interesting day. When we arrived at the capilla (chapel) we found out that there was no electricity and that one of the cables that connected the church to the electricity grid had something come undone. The Hermana´s also had a baptism after church and since there wasn't any power the pump didn't work to pump the water into the font. 

So, in order to fill the font, we ended up getting some buckets and opening the hatch where the reservoir of water was for the font (at our chapel the font water is recirculated). So we had to draw water with buckets in a really tight space and pass it through a window to fill the font. So we did that for about an hour and still didn't have much water in the font. 

Luckily the two that were being baptized were children, so in the end they just had to basically lay down in the water when they were baptized. It was a pretty unique experience. It was good that we were able to make the baptism happen, it seems like there is always something to complicate our work.

Sunday Elder Delgado and I also spoke in Sacrament meeting. That was pretty nerve-wracking and really put my Spanish to the test. It went well though, I actually spoke longer than my companion did. We also had to speak very loudly because there wasn´t power for the microphone.

All in all it was a good week. Some pretty high highs, and some pretty low lows. Anyways, love you all, adiós!

-Elder Hartvigsen

Honestly, A Busy Week

Hola a todos! Como estan? Yo espero que ustedes estén bien.

Still the rainy season

Yeah, it was actually a pretty busy week. It seems like last Monday was a really long time ago! Where to start... So this week we got a new district leader. Things are definitely different with him. He seems a little more focused on how we can improve our numbers and help our areas more which is definitely a good thing. Our numbers haven't exactly been the best these past couple weeks, so we are going to need to step it up. We also didn't have any investigators at church again, which was pretty disheartening. This week we are going to really try and push for that I think. So hopefully next week we will have some come. We are actually speaking this week, so I get to really put my Spanish to the test!

Exchanges this week

So this last Wednesday we had exchanges and I went with another Elder to his area in Chiaotempan which is about a twenty minute ride in a combi (more on those in a bit) away. I had a really good time with him on that exchange. We actually taught a lesson and taught two or three members a thought too. I really enjoy working with him. Chiaotempan is actually a really cool area with a really sweet central marketplace. I think that it is actually better than the Central of Tlaxcala where we went last P-day. I´m going to have to go there and see if I can a find a cool poncho haha! So yeah, their area seems pretty sweet. They have a pretty nice apartment too. I actually had a hot shower! It was awesome! I will never for as long as I live will take warm showers for granted. We should have a working water heater with gas next week sometime though because we have to change our house, so I´m looking forward to that, a lot actually.

So we only had exchanges for a day, then it was back to normal with Elder Delgado. We had a pretty good week with some really spiritual lessons. Really when we teach the right way, it isn't us that is teaching the lesson, it is definitely the spirit. I always feel privileged to teach with the spirit when we have a good lesson. We have investigators that are progressing very well with our lessons but we can´t get them to come to church. It is pretty frustrating and we are going to hit that hard this week. It is also really tough in this mission, because even if someone is ready to make the covenant of baptism, they need to come to church 5 times before baptism.

So this week was also Elder Delgado´s birthday. He turned nineteen on Friday. I think he had a good birthday, it was honestly a slow day. However Friday night was great! We had Little Caesars pizza that night for his birthday. It seems really weird to me to eat Little Caesars pizza in Mexico, but even bad pizza is good right? Elder Delgado loves pizza too, so that was a great meal for him. That night we also had a kind of talk discussion with President Christensen (our mission pres.) about the Gospel of Christ. It was really spiritual and he interacted with the audience very well. We actually had an investigator show up to that and she really liked it. She even asked us when she could be baptized, which was awesome! Now we just need to get her to come to church!

Reunion with MTC companion

The next day we also had a meeting in Puebla at the offices with the president and all the trainers and new missionaries. It was really good, and I got to get some perspective on our companionship, and see the things that we do well and the things that we need to work on. It was fun to travel into Puebla and to see all of my MTC buddies.

This Sunday was good as well. We were actually told Saturday night that we were speaking, so we prepared talks and we had a class that we thought we were going to teach as well. I was actually excited to talk and teach a class, but we actually didn't speak and no one came to our class. We are speaking this week however, so I´ll have the opportunity to write another talk. It is honestly good practice for my Spanish to prepare a talk.

So some other things about my area and this mission in general is that there are a ton of dogs! A lot of them are strays but they're everywhere. Most of the time they will just leave you alone, but every once in while they kind of follow you and bark at you. So that´s always fun when you have to go down a street and a dog is right behind you just barking.

Also when we need to get around and it´s too far to walk we take these vans that are like little busses. They are called combis and they are always interesting. Another thing is that the drivers are crazy down here! Everyone drives really really aggressively and the speed is only really regulated by the many speed bumps. It´s pretty crazy, especially when you're crammed into a combi with like 15 other people and the driver is flooring it around the little streets and taking turns quickly. Honestly though, it´s pretty safe because everyone is very alert when they drive. I've never seen an accident and the President told me that he hasn't either. So some missionaries in Venice get to take those boat taxis around, but we get to take crazy vans!

Anyways, it was a good week. I hope you all are doing well with school starting and all. School is starting here as well, and all the kids have to wear uniforms. Anyway, love you all!

-Elder Hartvigsen

Agency

Hola everyone! I hope you are doing well as this summer winds down. School is probably starting in just a few weeks. Wow! Crazy how time flies!

Interesting House in Tlaxcala

Things in Tlaxcala are still going pretty well. We have some good days and some tough ones. Our investigators are doing well, but it seems like not many are progressing the way that they could. We were pretty disappointed Sunday when we had none of our investigators come to church again. We had gotten some really solid commitments but still none showed up. It´s tough when you do all that you can do, but people choose not to keep commitment and come closer to Christ.

We did make contact with a very solid investigator however. Her name is Carmen and she was an investigator that the Elders that were in our area before us had taught. We had been trying to find a time to teach her since she works a lot, but we finally dropped by when she had some time. We taught the Plan of Salvation and the spirit was very strong. She gave the closing prayer and started to cry because the spirit was so strong. It has been the best lesson we've had here so far. It was really just a testament to me that the Lord really is preparing people to receive this gospel and make a change in their lives.

We also had Zone Conference and Interviews with the President this last week. They were both very good experiences and I love meeting other missionaries that are serving in this mission, especially when I have the chance to speak English!

District in Tlaxcala

The next day we had Interviews with the President and that was also really good. Our mission president is a great man, and is also a person that is nice to be around. I had a very good interview and also talked with Hermana Christensen. She actually knows some other Hartvigsens from the Salt Lake area which is pretty cool. It was a good time also just talking with other missionaries and seeing how they were doing and how their areas are.

I also found out where my MTC companions ended up. Elder Wilkey is in the eastern part of the Mission where it is more farmland. Hermana Christensen said they actually try to not send Americans to that part because it is less sanitary with the food since they just eat out of their gardens. I have actually been fortunate to be healthy so far. Pres. Christensen told us in our orientation that usually it is just a matter of time before we get really sick and have to get medication to flush our system. So I´m looking forward to that.

So I´ll try and give more description of what it is like here. We don't drink the tap water here and I´m pretty sure the locals don't either. The infrastructure here is totally different than in the states. In many of the places you buy water at the store or the tiendas that line the streets. There is a truck that drives around selling natural gas for your house. And every 2 or 3 days a garbage truck drives around honking its (very loud) horn to let people know to bring out their garbage. It really has shown me how nice things are back home where things are pumped directly to your house. I also haven't had a warm shower in a while because we don't have gas in our house right now.


 So we also have to change houses and look for a new one because our house didn't pass inspection. I´m not sure exactly why but we've been having problems with our water tank on the roof, and I think another reason might be because it is so big. Our house is actually very large for just two missionaries. It isn't exactly very nice but we are blessed with some nice things. We have a sort of clothes washer, but we still have to scrub our clothes and then hang dry them on the roof. The rain makes it tough to dry our clothes sometimes too.

The people here are very nice. The atmosphere is more laid back, but that also might just be because our area is

residential. There are lots of little tiendas everywhere amongst the houses that sell food and drinks. There are also lots of Tortillerias and Pandarias. Oh! I don't know if I´ve mentioned the Pan (bread) but it is great! It´s really more like cake, or donuts but it is soo good. It´s pretty cheap too so it makes a good snack or treat.

Yup, things are well here. It is tough sometimes, and I do wish that we had more investigators but it is still great to be a missionary. It´s great to have the Spirit so abundantly in my life. I have learned a ton these past couple months about the gospel and many other things. It´s crazy to think that cambios (changes) are in a couple weeks. Also one of the assistants called and we have to go to the mission offices in Puebla (an hour away) for something this Saturday. We don't know what it is for, but we might be changed. I heard from another elder that they are thinking of putting more Hermanas in Tlaxcala because of how safe it is here. It´s funny, I´m in the safest mission in Mexico, in one of the safest areas of the mission.

Anyways, I love you all! Enjoy your week!

Elder Hartvigsen

PS - Check out a video our zone made for Hermana Christensen's birthday. LINK HERE