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