No water in Coatzintla

Awesome week. The start of the week was slow as Elder Reyes was sick and that meant lots of scriptures and church movies... for a day and half he was pretty much only in bed with "dolor de cuerpo." lol and although it was boring it allowed me to do a lot of reading.

My investigators are all progressing some faster than others and this week was planned for two baptisms. The days for the interviews came and one didn't show... the other did and this Sunday was gonna be the baptism.. and then Sunday morning she had something come up in Poza Rica and couldn't go.. we pushed it back to next week but the cool thing of the week was the missionaries who are in my district have been teaching this mother and her son. The mom was baptized last week and the son was being baptized this week. He went to all the activities and church as well where I got to know him and spend some good time talking with him. During his interview he asked if I could baptize him. So this Sunday I was able to have my first baptism who wasn't even my convert. Crazy and weird but it all happened from just talking and getting to know him during the church activities.

Today we went in to Poza Rica for a couple hours and that meant Walmart, Little Caesars, and lots and lots of little street side tiendas. Not much more to talk about but this week is General Conference and I know it's going to be a good one. New apostoles and awesome talks. WOOT HOLLAND.

My last thing to say is be thankful of where you live. Here in Coatzintla every couple months the city has a water shortage to the point where for 4 days.. our house has not had water. That meant no shower, no bathroom, no cleaning dishes... nada. Luckily we were able to shower at the other missionaries house but man let me tell you walking 20 minutes for a shower and the bathroom is bien chafa. Love you all and watch all of conference! Enjoy the pics (:

Love,

Elder Babcock

Two months down

Two months down. Wow! The time is flying by and I'm loving the work more and more. Nothing necessarily amazing happened this week, but even that it's been one of the best weeks. It started early with Mexican Independence Day. We had to be in our houses at 6 p.m. and with that time my district waged war in six continents with RISK, while outside there were parties and gun shots. We played RISK and drank "jugo de durazno". Throughout this week we have had lots of lessons and lots of contacting in the street and such. There are two investigators who we might baptize this week so look out for that! We had Mexican night both for the ward and our stake.. wow.. the songs, the dances. just wow. lol It's different.. but there was plenty of horchata and AC so I didn't complain too much.

This week we had a lesson with an hermana in the ward and she isn't endowed and only has one child who lives at home. Her husband isn't a member and he works for two weeks and then gets one week home, and then two weeks away again, and it's really hard for her. The other night she had my companion give her a blessing. She told us she feels alone and that there's no one there for her and that turning to the scriptures helps but only so much. Afterward I felt like I should pull out my Ensign from this last general conference in April. I didn't know the talk I was looking for I just knew it was Elder Holland. It was in English but we searched it on her TV and we started to watch this talk in Spanish. Afterwards she said thanks and we left. Not much. She seemed a little happier but not too much. Well! The next day she asked us to come in for a drink. Then she told me she had watched the talk a little more than 10 times since the first time, and every time it got better and better and that this talk brought peace to her through Elder Holland's message.

We also had a conference with our mission president a little while ago and he talked about D&C 18:10. ALL souls are great to God. Not just baptisms or new investigators and he talked a lot about how we should help the members too not just the people we can baptize. Anyway yeah this week was good and the Spanish is getting better everyday (: love you all and who is excited for general conference? Because two days of modern-day scripture sounds amazing to me (:

Love,

Elder Babcock

Week 2

This week has been awesome. There is never really any down time but I'm fine with working all day as the time flies. For Sept. we have 4ish dates for baptism and October almost 7. I'm loving the work and the Spanish is coming more and more every day. The gift of tongues is real, people.

We had a really cool chance to be a part of the rededication of the Mexico City temple. There were three hour and a half sessions of like mini-conference in Spanish. All the talks were centered on the temple and its importance. Elder Holland and Pres. Eyring were there and both gave 3 amazing talks about temples and their personal importance to them. Elder Holland talked first and his story was about how amazing temples are, when they aren't close or when they are being renovated. His story was about his son when he was getting ready to go on a mission. Their temple in London was being renovated and there was no other close temples. So his wife and son flew to Utah and decided to do his first temple session in the St. George temple. They planned so that his wife and son would start the temple session at 11 am in Utah and at this same time he would be home from work at 6 pm in Europe and would clean up the room and have his own little scripture study with the temple and his family in mind. He talked about how before 6, it felt like a normal day. But as he concluded his opening prayer at 6, the feeling of peace and love came over him as he new the at this time his son was starting his first session in the temple. He said while reading the scriptures he couldn't help but wonder. Was my son okay? Was he lost with what was happening? What if he got worried or made a mistake? And then the same calm feeling of peace came again. He knew that not only was his wife there, but that all the temple workers that day were his personal "angels" "sentinels" "guardians" and so forth that day. He said that one of his best temple experiences was a day he wasn't even in the temple. He said some days the temples are very far from us and we can't always go when we want to... but that we should keep our temple covenants close to us always so that when the temple is far physically, it's right with us always spiritually.

I'm sad I don't get to go to the temple in this mission for two years.. but I know that the peace and love we feel at the temple is here with me in Xalapa as I keep and think of my sacred covenants I've made. I love this gospel and I've seen families become closer here in 2 short weeks by the lessons taught to non member families. President Greer believes missionaries have 5 purposes: find, teach, baptize, reactivate, and get them to the temple. I know that the temple is the best place on this earth we can go to be close to God, but whens it's far away physically, it doesn't have to be spiritually (: now Pres. Eyring gave an awesome talk too. But it was on temple marriage and that's not on the mind until July 2017 :) Anyway I love you all and Xalapa and specifically Coatzintla is awesome (:

Love,

Elder Babcock

Weekly recap from Coatzintla

Wow! First week in the mission has been one for the books. It started in Xalapa in the mission office with lots and lots and lots of paperwork. After that came the mission house where I got my companion, Elder Reyes. He's from Sonora, Mexico. He's super chill and also our district leader. He's quickly become one of my best friends and we get along really well. We spent the night in some huge apartment for the assistants and then in the morning we left for our area. My first area is Coatzintla, and it took me like four days to learn how to pronounce it. Anyway it's a small town just south of Poza Rica. It's hot... super hot. Like 90s all day as well as 80%+ humidity.. Everyone here carries little wash cloths to wipe their faces and hands because everyone just sweats so much.

In my area we have had lots of success in the past and that's continuing right now! We already have four planned baptisms for this month of September and another two for October. My first day we didn't do many lessons but the second and third I only helped a little. Giving my testimony at the end or sharing a small scripture. But on my fourth day we had this new investigator, he's 15, lives like 2 miles from the city and his house has like maybe two rooms and tarps covering the open roof.. We sat on little stepping stools as we taught him and this was the first lesson that I started. Through the bad Spanish I could tell he understood and about 45 minutes later we began to explain baptism and why it's important. I gave him the invitation to be baptized and who would have guessed it he said yes. We have lessons with him every other day until then but I'm super excited to get to know him and continue to help him with progressing in the gospel. 

The members here are are amazing, especially "cookie mama". Anytime she sees us or we go and teach a small lesson to here. "Elders want some Coke?" "How about some bread for the road?" "We just finished cooking a chicken want some?" "I bought two kilos of bananas take some" I swear if it wasn't so hot I'd be like 20 pounds heavier because of her.. Besides that there's not much else. Everyday is wake up study for a couple hours and then go teach the people of Coatzintla. The food is amazing. Haven't had a weird meal yet but I'm sure that's soon going to change. But the members are so nice and friendly and everything is super cheap so that's nice too. 3 liter Coke=$1.75 full sized hamburgers=$1.20 its a dream come true (; expect the perritos... hijole. Every street has like 10 stray dogs all of them a different breed and everyone is more nasty and dreadlocked than the last. It's sad.. I used to like seeing dogs. 

There's so much more but it I'll wait until next week. Love you all tons (: and thanks for all the amazing examples you've been to me. The people in Mexico don't know about the gospel that has so completely blessed me and my family and friends so much, and I'm so glad I get to share it with them so they can experience this joy as well (: ALSO I HAD ELOTE (the corn from Nacho Libre) AND IT'S AMAZING. It's like $.75 and I eat like one a night.

Love you all!

Elder Babcock

First apartment

On the way to a lesson

Elder Reyes & Elder Babcock

Xalapa

I made it! So the whole trip started last night with about 2 hours of last-minute packing followed by lots and lots of goodbyes. I got to sleep around 12 and had to wake up at 3:15. We went to reception around 4 and then loaded up our luggage and such into a little bus and headed to an airport for buses. It was really different and weird but there was also McDonalds so that's a win at 5 am (;

From there we got on the bus and the road trip started. It lasted about 5 hours but only two of those were spent sleeping. I spent the other 3 hours with my face glued to the window looking outside or occasionally reading the Book of Mormon. Xalapa is so beautiful. It's called the "city of flowers" and I can see why. Everywhere we go there's lots of really pretty flowers. We got off the bus and next thing we see is President Greer and his wife waiting with open arms to take us to our home for the time being. They are both really really friendly and I'm super excited to get to know them more as the years go by.

I thought the bad driving in Mexico was only in Mexico City but I was wrong. It's a miracle there isn't a crash every couple seconds as people go crazy on the roads. We got to the mission office which is in a small little corner strip mall and it's really nice. There we had lunch and got some mission business taken care of. I don't think I get my comp until tomorrow and then I won't start teaching until Wednesday but I can't wait. My Spanish is still slow when compared to the Latinos, but I know after a little while I'll get the hang of it. Don't have much time so I hope everything is well. I love you guys!! stay safe!

On to Xalapa

My district got an awesome week to leave on as we have had two devotionals this week and still another two on Sunday (: On Tuesday it was a video of Elder Holland talking about missionary work and how as missionaries in the PMG (Preach My Gospel) era we need to be better missionaries than them.....uhhh better missionary than Elder Holland,... i wish (; But it was really a cool experience to hear him talk about how with this book we teach people not lessons, which is the opposite of how he taught as a missionary.

Other than Tuesdays and Sundays there isn't much to talk about as it's all the same. But on Wednesday we had the amazing experience to hear from Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles and his wife. I'll start with what his wife had to say. She talked a lot about charity and how it's something we don't just acquire but that we need to pray about and for. And that us going out into the mission field we will have no success unless we completely love the people. She said "when your invitations are rejected and the saddness you feel is not for yourself, but for your investigators who are rejecting the gospel, that is when you are a true missionary." I loved that because I think I'd take it to easy on people who don't keep commitments or continue to progress in the gospel. But as Elder Holland said in his talk "this is eternal salvation we are talking about" so I'm definitely excited to go and bring others to know of the truth in Xalapa.

Now for Elder Christofferson (: he talked about missionary work and how its a privilege to serve in this time where there isn't major wars keeping a large number of young adults from going on missions. And how while we are serving we need to be direct but loving. He talked about how the Savior was direct in all his dealings but still was able to show perfect love for his "investigators". He shared a story of the CCM President Tenorio who woke one day to the sound of someone trying to get into his house. He walked downstairs and turned the lights scaring one of the burglars but another waited and then continued to try to get in. At this point President Tenorio yelled out "hands up" and amazingly he put his hands up. And then he said "turn and face the street" and he did so. He slowly opened the door and put his fingers in his back as if it were a gun. And walked him out to the street where his neighbors came out and the police came. All this time he hadn't realized this man had no shirt and very torn pants. At this time when the cops were about to put him in the car, President Tenorio's wife came out with a button down shirt and said "we should give him a shirt, it's cold and he might want something to wear." This is where he stopped.... this man had just tried to break in to their house and possible steal or injure their family within... and yet the first thing on her mind afterward was to run upstairs and grab one of her husband's shirts to give to this man who didn't have one... he almost broke into tears when explaining how much love this women had for him... we need to have this kind of love. The kind that when we are spit upon or yelled at or who knows what else I'll encounter in Xalapa. but after all this I'm going to have to show love for the people no matter how I'm treated.

He shared a lot more but my email is already really long so oops... (; hope everyone is doing well and sorry about the lack of pictures. Next week will have a lot as tonight and tomorrow will be the times we take lots of pictures. The last thing I want to end with is about my ties I brought. It seems weird at first just wait a second (; so I brought a lot of ties. And most the people I'm rooming with don't have too many. We decided to do a little trade where everyone grabs some ties and then we trade them and write little messages to each other. Well it comes time for me to offer ties up and I literally grabbed this black knit one my brother gave me (love you bro) this whale tie I have (shout out to Conner Baldwin) and then this nasty tie that I traded with a Latino Elder my second week in a believe. Other than that I offered pretty much to anyone who wanted. Now in my room most the kids have really cool ties. But some of the other Elders came over with like four ties saying this is all they had but that they would trade them anyway. I had them all pick one out and then wrote little letters to them on the back and then snuck them into their room when they were out. One of the Elders came in holding the tie and said "Babcock.. umm did you leave this in our room?" and I told him it was for him and to read the message I wrote on the back. Within a couple minutes he came back with tears in his eyes and all he did was walk in and hug me... and then said thanks and I love you and left.

And I've come to feel that cool clothes, cool ties, cool shoes, it's just cool. It isn't until something has meaning until it becomes special to someone. When he put that tie on for lunch and walked around he had nothing but the biggest smile and a light in his eyes I havent seen in a while. That tie was cool. To me that's all it was. But once he received it, it became special to him and I love making a small change like that in people's days (: im hoping I can serve the people of Xalapa in the same manner (: love you guys!! I leave for Xalapa on Monday in the morning so the next time you hear from me I'll be in Xalapa baby! love you guys tons and miss you all (: go away! read some books!'

Love,

Elder Babcock

Off to Xalapa on Monday

 

Last regular week in the CCM

This week is the last regular week in the CCM. Next week we have devotionals Sunday, Tuesday and Wednesday as well as in-field orientation. The field is creeping up on me and I'm so pumped to get out to Xalapa and change some lives and be able to eat true Mexican food because this "comedor" Costco food with beans and rice just doesn't cut it for me.

We are officially the oldest district in the zone now as well as yesterday we had great-grand children. Most from Cali and a couple from Hawaii, however only one from "la fabrica" (that's Spanish for "factory" and it's what the Mexicans call it when you come from Utah). Yo soy de la fabrica. The Spanish is coming great and the teacher our teachers is even better. I finally feel like I can communicate everything I want to in Spanish and not be held back by the language.

Two days more and I will have been out for a month and it's crazy to think that. It hasn't felt long at all and I actually feel like we just got here. My comp and myself get along great and we spend hours upon hours studying together and preparing lessons. One of the best parts of this week was finding Tarzan in Spanish on my flash drive and listening non-stop during our computer time. Me encanta (;

Besides that not much has happened this week. Today we went to the Mexico temple open house. It's the largest temple outside the U.S. and let me tell you I've never been in a temple with escalators to get around. It's an awesome temple. We toured the inside and got to take pictures all around it. I really hope in Xalapa we can venture over to Vercruz and visit the temple because the spirit you feel there is truly amazing. I'd encourage all of you who read this to attend the temple as often as you can and do so with friends and family. Don't take having one or even ten so close for granted.

For the rest of my P-day jugaré futbol con los latinos. They never want me on their team until I score three times and then they all argue over who gets me. And if you think arguing in English is funny it's tons better in Spanish. Love you all and stay safe (: Only one more week and couple days until el campo está mío. Sorry about not much to write but it's difficult to do things that are worthy to write about in a maximum security place like the CCM. Hold tight, knuckle white!

Love,

Elder Babcock