A Less Active Week

Hello once again everyone. Crazy that next week is November, but it really doesn't feel like it here since the weather has been the same since I arrived here. 

We had an alright week, just kind of getting into a groove here, getting to know the members better as well as the investigators. We really don´t have a lot of investigators here, I think we have about 7 but there are a few that I haven´t seen so we are only teaching like 3 or 4 regularly. They are alright, we´ll see what happens with the majority of them but we do have one woman who as been attending the church for about a year and has a son that is serving a mission in Argentina. I´m almost 100% sure she is going to be baptized but she is just waiting for her son to return home at the end of November. We actually are trying to have her be baptized the same day her son comes home by her son as his last baptism as a missionary. That would be pretty cool. She does have to get married with her husband first though, so we are working on that. A lot of investigators here have that problem, since it is kind of expensive to get married here so they either have a unofficial Catholic marriage or just don´t bother. It makes it tough to get couples baptized. This week we didn't really do a whole lot other than contact people and have lessons with less active members. We had a bunch of contactos y lecciones con menos activos. Which was alright, but it is really hard to plan when you don´t have a bunch of places that you could go. It is also a bummer since we haven´t found any new investigators from our contacts even though we've had a ton.

Now that's a burger!

So I also led my first District meeting this week. It was alright, a little rough in places but overall I feel that it went well for my first district meeting. They should get easier as I learn more Spanish and get more experience with them. It was good, we talked about and practiced challenging people to baptism. Something that one of the Zone Leaders told me that turned out to be true was that I definitely learned a lot too in the meeting. I hope the Hermanas and zone leaders learned something too.

Things have been pretty normal here though. We played soccer this morning with just us and the ZL´s and that was fun. I´m actually getting pretty good. We also wrestled a little bit on the lawn since Elder Mendoza likes to wrestle even though he hasn´t before the mission. Oh, we also wrestled a little bit while we we waiting for people to show up for the mission correlation meeting which was fun. I threw Elder Mendoza around a bit and actually bled on my shirt when he really tugged on my ear. Its alright though, I got the blood to come out haha. Other than that it has been pretty normal. Getting to know the area, eating with members and the other Elders, contacting, same old same old. Its fun though, I really like this area and this district. Its fun seeing the Zone Leaders every day and being around them. 

Elder Hartvigsen's Missionary credentials

Well, I hope you all have a good Halloween, I´m not sure if they do much here for that or the day of the dead. I did see a few people in costumes last night. Pues, hasta luego.

-Elder Hartvigsen

Resurgimientos

Well, it has been quite the week. A lot has happened and a lot has changed. 

The new DL

So last Monday we finished saying goodbye, packing and finished cleaning the house and all of the other things we had to do before we left. On Tuesday we said goodbye to Hno. Ricardo who helped us out a lot while we were working in Forjadores. Then later Elder Delgado, Santizo and Lochmiller and I all went to changes. So in this mission when we have changes all of the people that have changes gather in a chapel and the President speaks for a little, they show a video of pictures throughout the mission of the last change, all of the baptisms, and then they have everyone stand up on the sides of the room and they reveal who is with who, and where they are going. 

A street in new Puebla area

So that was fun to have that meeting, and Elder Delgado and I are not together anymore. I was very suprised when this happened, but I was actually made District Leader of District Fuertes 1. Elder Delgado kept telling me I was going to be a District leader, but I didn´t believe him. It was actually really suprising, but a lot of the missionaries from my generation recieved callings. Hermana Larsen is training right now as well as Elder De´Querois (but he already knows Spanish) and Elder Page is also a District Leader. It is definitely really humbling to come right out of training and really not know that much especially in Spanish and become a senior companion and District Leader. So my companion is named Elder Pluma (pen in spanish) and he is a great guy. He has 17 months in the mission and is actually kind of my trainer as a DL. He has helped me out a lot so far and I´m definitely grateful to him. He is from Cancun Mexico, and he´s pretty goofy. He can also speak English very well which has been fun.

Neighbor "Bobby" and Elder Pluma

So right now I am in the East side of Puebla in La Estaca (Stake) Fuertes. We are in the Zone Fuertes South in the Ward Resurgimientos. We are more in the city that we were in Forjadores and much more than Atempan. It´s really cool though, I like it a lot. Our area is fairly big but it isn´t huge. We share the ward with the Zone Leaders, Elder Burgess and Elder Mendoza. We actually see them a lot because we share the ward, and the members feed us 4 together. They are great Elders and fun to be around. So my district consists of two wards. One of the wards has 4 Hermanas and one of them is Hna. Jensen from the district in the MTC. So our district has 8 missionaries in it right now. We had Zone Meeting this past week as well which was really good. Our zone isn´t huge, it only has two districts. It was good, we talked a lot about how to teach with power and really focus on the needs of the people that we are teaching rather then just teach lessons.

I also had a meeting with all of the District Leaders in the mission, and President Christensen and his asistants. That was also a great meeting where I learned a lot more about how to really be an effective DL and how to help the missionaries in your district. I also got to see actually all of my old companions for a second too because they are all companions of district leaders. That was good. I need to teach the next District Meeting this Wednesday which will be good. I´m a little nervous but it honestly won´t be that hard. District meetings are really a time to just come together and talk about how we can improve and practice things with each other.

Front of new apartment building

This week we've been running around a lot. There was also a talk that the president gave in the stake about the Book of Mormon. Not a lot of people showed up but the spirit was still really strong. Every time I´m in a meeting with Pres. Christensen I´m always impressed by the spirit and the knowlegde he has. He truly is a great man, or rather a great instrument in the hands of God. 

So with all of the places we´ve been going we´ve been taking a lot of buses around Puebla, and the buses are crazy! Literally all of the bus drivers think that they are race car drivers. They weave in and out of traffic, they stop just long enough to let people on and off. It is honestly like riding a rollercoaster. It's actually pretty fun.

But yeah, that has been my week. Learning this new area, my new responsibilities, meeting our investigators and members. It has honestly been a really good week. Pues, hasta proxima semana.

-Elder Hartvigsen

Changes...

Hello everyone. I hope that you are doing well. I´ve heard that it is getting colder, at least in Salt Lake City. The weather here is still pretty consistent in the mid seventies every day, so it's still feeling pretty good here! We still are getting rain too, usually at least a little every day. I have no idea when the rainy season is supposed to end, but I´m pretty sure it is pretty soon.

Still raining every day

So the biggest thing that happened this week that we found out is that Elder Delgado and I both have changes. and we have been closing the área which means that we are getting everything ready for the next missionaries that are going to come and serve here. So that has been a little more work than usual. We don´t know where either of us are going, but we will find out tommorrow in the big changes meeting. So in this misión, when people have changes and they are close enough they all gather at a church in Puebla where President Christensen reveals where everyone is going and who are the new Leaders. It is pretty fun, but it also means that we have no idea where we are going, and who with. So that will be good to find out tomorrow. It is very likely that Elder Delgado and I will not be companions in this next change since he has been my trainer and my training is now technically over. That will be a large change too.

This week was pretty good. We had interchanges again this last Wednesday and I went with Elder Santizo to his área this time. It was fun, we taught some lessons and actually played soccer a little with one of their 9 year old investigators before he would let us teach him. It was good, and you always get more perspective when you teach and spend the day with a different missionary.

New haircut

Other than the intercambios and the notice that we have changes things have been pretty normal, pretty slow around here. We did have some pretty good lessons and we have one investigator that is progressing well, actually attending church haha. But the lessons we have had, while good, have been few and far between. We also contacted a lot more this week, but we still have the majority of our appointments fall through. That is never fun, but there really isn´t much you can do about it. It has also been little weird just knowing that it is our last few days here too. It has been a little sad saying goodbye to some of the members, but we honestly haven't become really established here since we've only been here for 3 weeks.

P-day Soccer 

So yeah, that was my week. Who knows where I´ll be next week, and who I´ll be with. However, I know that everything will be fine as long as I trust in the Lord! Have a good week all!

-Elder Hartvigsen

Last Week of My Training

Crazy that it is almost the end of another change, and even crazier that in one more week I will be out of training and technically a full blown missionary! Not that anything will really change dramatically except for a new companion. At least I think so. Elder Delgado keeps telling me that I´m either going to train someone, or be made a District Leader, but we´ll see haha.

P-Day Fun

Things were good and pretty normal here in Puebla, the area is still pretty tough but our efforts this last week weren't that great either. This week we are planning on working a lot harder. We did have some really good lessons this week with our few Investigators.

We also had interchanges with the District leader and his companion. That was actually really interesting because Elder Santizo (the district leader) came to our area with Elder Delgado and I went with Elder Lochmiller to their area. It was really interesting because Elder Lochmiller only has one more change than I do in the mission, so we were two Americans wandering around Puebla with our less than superb Spanish haha. It was good though, we actually taught about 3 lessons that day and we also had a member with us to help us out. It was good, and it was also a testament to me that the Lord really does help us out with the language, and that honestly the really important thing is to speak with the Spirit. There have definitely been times here, and in my old area where I´ve come out of lessons and realized that I couldn´t have said the things I said on my own. The church is true!

Church building in new area

So that was fun, and we also had General Conference! It was awesome! I actually had the oppertunity to watch the conference in English because our Mission President told us to watch it in whichever language we feel more comfortable with. We did watch the first couple talks in Spanish however, while they were setting up the TV for us. It honestly really is better to hear the actually voices of the speakers, however the messages are just as powerful in every language. 

At the back of the church

I never thought that I would ever look forward and enjoy general conference this much, but here I am. It was really good and there were a lot of really powerful, emotional talks given. I hope you all got to at least watch a session or two, but if you didn´t, thats OK, you can still repent! Seriously though, all of the talks that were given are up on LDS.org to watch, read or listen to. One of my favorites that I would definitely recommend would be Elder Holland's talk on caring for the poor and needy (Here). It is a masterfully given talk with much emotion. Or, another great one by President Uchtdorf about how we can know truth for ourselves (Here). Or, if you happen not to be member of our church and want to know why we keep bothering you about our beliefs, watch Elder Bednar's talk (Here). There is much wisdom to be had from these great talks, and I would encourage you to study them in the months to come until the next conference.

So another thing that actually happened last night, is that we had a great lesson with a new family. There were a reference from a member and it is a father and mother, with two daughters that are older and study in a Catholic seminary class type place. The spirit was very strong, and the two daughters especially seem prepared. We were actually talking about thier beliefs, and how they don´t really like everything the Catholic church does, especially with the worship of Saints and the Virgin Mary/Guadalupe. They said how they don´t it sort of puts something else above God and Jesus Christ. They also said how they believe that we can pray to God everywhere, and how the sacrament is important to remember Jesus. We were smiling so much. The Lord really is preparing people to receive this gospel, especially when those people are seeking to find the truth. If it wasn't for this referral from that Hermano in the ward, we probably never would have found them, or gotten inside their home. So don´t be afraid to share the gospel with your friends!

Yup, that was my week. It was a pretty good one when you lood at it. Conference was great, we had a lessons that were good too. It´s crazy that it is October already, before you know it, it will be November and December with Thanksgiving and Christmas. ¡Hasta próxima semana!

-Elder Hartvigsen

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