Monday, December 17, 2012 - Transfers!

Hola Mi Familia! Well, another week has gone by and I know you all are just hanging on pins and needles waiting to know where I am-- if I stayed in Nacozari or left. We will get to that in a bit.... Sounds like Sunday was quite a busy day with talks and home teaching and firesides and choir practices. Good Heavens, the day of rest is not much of a day of rest is it? Haha! Well, this week, I can barely remember what happened. Energy and all that was down for all the mission this being the last week of transfers and all. Everyone seems to kind of shut down week 6 with not know what will happen the coming weekend with transfers and all. And as always, thanks mom for the Christmas goodies! Elder Alvarado and I immediately decorated the Christmas tree and really enjoyed having decorations to make us feel more like it was Christmas. He was really jealous of the gifts and stocking that you sent for my comp at Christmas and he hoped that we would not be changed so that he could have it. This week we did happen to have a few Christmas parties. The elders from Esqueda invited us to go with them to their Christmas party and so we went with them Friday night and stayed the night with them. Their party wasn't really that exciting. They just had food and then after set up the Xbox kincect and had everyone play Dance Central. It made me really jealous to see them playing and I wanted so bad to get up and show them all up, but that would not have been very missionary like. The next day, Saturday, we had our Christmas Party and we invited the elders from Esqueda to come with us and so they did. Earlier that day we went with Hermana Parada, the branch president's wife/my Mexican mom, and we helped her make food for the party that night and she taught us how to make Frijoles Puercos--which are a really special way of making refried beans and they are so good-- and we also made atole, which is a hot drink here, like hot chocolate, but they us cookies, cinnamon, cocoa, and clove to make it and it is quite delicious. It all turned out quite fantastic and delicious! This woman is absolutely amazing with cooking and just everything she does! She reminds me too much of my own mother! :) Home away from home! After making that stuff, we returned home and I made the cookies that Grandma and Grandad had sent me for to take to the Christmas party. They turned out quite lovely and I think everyone like them. Our Christmas party was way better than Esqueda. We actually had a spiritual message with it. Ha! We also ate and the kids had a piñata. It was quite a fun night. Well, yesterday morning we received the phone call with transfers. Unfortunately, the mission decided to close Nacozari to missionaries for a time. This was really sad. I didn't want to leave! The thing that gets me the most is that they closed Nacozari, but they didn't close Esqueda. Esqueda still has missionaries and it is much smaller and has less work. That is what I don't understand. The whole time at church was quite sad. Everyone didn't want us to leave. We had the primary program which was really neat and was very spiritual. After church we had a luncheon and ate left overs from the Christmas party the night before and spent time saying our goodbyes. The hardest goodbye was the branch president and his wife who really became my Mexican parents. It was so hard to leave them and there were tears between the both of us. They gave me some very nice complements and gave me words of encouragement as I moved on. We then went home and spent the afternoon packing and left that night for Agua Prieta. Now the moment you all have been waiting for. This morning I woke up and got on the bus and headed for Hermosillo! Yup, that's right! I'm here in Hermosillo and I have been promoted to District Leader. The area is called Nuevo Hermosillo and it is the like the very south bit of Hermosillo. Kind of in the ghetto/boonies or Hermosillo if you asked me. I am currently in a Trio with Elder Searle and Elder Medina, but in 10 days Elder Searle will have completed his mission and will head home and it will just me Elder Medina and I. It has been kind of a rough and long day today 5 hours on the bus and getting used to the fact that I won't be going back to Nacozari. I am excited, though, to finally be in a city and have a ward to work with! I am hoping I will adjust quickly and that things will be okay. I always hate changes and don't do well with change. It always is hard and takes me a while to adjust and get to know people. But here we are and so that is what is up. So I'm sorry if this was short this week or scattered, but it is because of all the changes. Just think, ONE WEEK from TOMORROW, we will get to talk on the phone! How fantastic is that!?! I am super pumped. Well, I hope you all are well and survive this last week before vacations. Good luck with examines and all! I love and miss you all tons! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner

December 10, 2012 - Pictures of Nacozari Apartment

Elder Joyner made pancakes!

The famous "Haircut"! - Ooops!!!

Monday, December 10, 2012 - Hola!

Hola Mi Familia! Sounds like you all have had quite the crazy, busy week! Nuts! I hope it slows down soon with vacations coming soon, no? ! We have our Branch Christmas party this coming Saturday. We are going to have BBQ, piñatas and a bunch of other stuff! I am rather looking forward to it! Well, this week was a bit dry except for a few neat lessons and some new investigators that we added to our small teaching pool. Haha! So I have to tell you that the pudding mix and pie crust that you sent with my Thanksgiving dinner, mom, well, I made the pie and was so happy about it and everything and I found whip cream in the can in a small store that imports various stuff from the US. That night we had a slice of pie and it wasn't too bad I thought and I put those Reeses in as well! Well, the next day, I decided to take it to lunch to share with the Branch President and his family. Haha! Mistake! Apparently down here they are just accustomed to pie that has fruit filling and not like we have with banana cream pies or pudding pies. Well, the sister knew about pudding filling pies, but the Pres. didn't and so he was kind of skeptical looking and was asking if I had cooked it and if it was fully cooked. Haha! He says he was just joking and kidding around and kept on joking like that for a while which made his wife mad that he was joking around and making me feel bad, but not really. The sister asked if he wanted another piece and the Pres. said no and everyone else said no and so she ate another 2 pieces or so. I'm thinking she just did that not to make me feel bad. And she kept saying how good it was. HAHA! I was just dying inside laughing! So they didn't like my pie....never again will I be making food to share with people! On Wednesday night we went with Hermana Maru (the one who worked in the DIF and always gives us references) and we went to visit a former co-worker who also works in DIF and was very impressed with Hector's progress. Her name is Cristian. When we arrived, she wasn't there, it was just her husband and young daughter and so we chatted with him for a bit and then Cristian arrived and we got to know the family more and we taught them The Plan of Salvation. We really focused on the importance of families and the importance of doing what is necessary here on earth to be able to live with our families forever. They are a young couple in their early 30s I would say and they have a young daughter with only 4 years. The lesson seemed to really speak to them and they said that they were willing do do the things necessary to live with their family forever. The lesson was really great! I really liked having Hermana Maru with us! I think she really enjoyed it too and was reliving her days when she was a missionary! She helped us teach part of the lesson and was just a strong testimony of forever families with her father dying suddenly just a month ago. We invited them to church and put another appointment for yesterday, but we when passed by, they weren't there. So we will see if we can't find them again this week and teach them more. This past Saturday we had another lesson with Hermana Mari and Lulu and Ricardo. We taught them "The Restoration" I absolutely LOVE teaching this lesson, but always get nervous before teaching this lesson especially if I know that the people we are teaching are quite strong in another religion. We started and thankfully with Heavenly Father's help, I calmed down and was fine. We taught the lesson and bore testimony of the Restoration of the Church and of Joseph Smith. We also introduced the Book of Mormon and invited them to read it and pray about what we had taught. Throughout the whole lesson Lulu seemed so interested and like there was a spark in her eyes from interest while we were teaching this message. The trouble started when we offered the invitation to pray about this message. I totally should have asked Lulu first, but made the mistake of asking her husband, Ricardo and he just began speaking for all 3 of them. He said that they appreciated us sharing the messages and that they have seen us as a sign that they need to come closer to God and all this stuff, but in their own way and their own beliefs. Once he finally got done talking, we asked Lulu and Mari and they said they would pray. When we got done, Lulu offered to give the closing prayer. Oh my heck! She gave one of the most beautiful prayers I think I have ever heard in my life! I wanted to cry it was so beautiful. She asked for help to understand what we were teaching and that they could know if it was the right thing for them in their lives. It was just so beautiful! I seriously think that Lulu will accept this message, but I just hope her husband doesn't influence her too much. He is cool and has family that are members and that live in Utah, but he is just kind of fixed on his beliefs right now and doesn't seem too interested in opening up too much. We will see what happens, we are still going to keep teaching I having faith that they will accept! Sunday was a pretty fun day! We had church which is always wonderful and then in the night we had another Seminary Evaluation, but this time the Branch President's wife who is the seminary teacher wanted everyone to participate, so she the week before she gave us all the questions and we had to study them and there was going to be part of the evaluation for the students and then part of them evaluation for the other members that were divided in to the student's teams so they could get the points. Anywho, the judges didn't show up by the time we started, so we were asked to be the judges. It was fun we had to decide who raised their hand first and tally points and all that jazz. It was a fun little night and afterwards we had refreshments and socialized. Today, I had a hair disaster! I had a sister cut my hair this morning and it was all fine, but her little razor that you know trims the neck and all was broken and so she just said to have my comp shave my neck with a razor and foam. Well, my razor has the small clipper part to clip the small hairs, no? So I decided to try and shave my neck on my own. Well, seeing as how I didn't have a way to seeing the back of my head I was just using my hand to feel and when I got out of the shower, my comp asked what the heck happened. Well, I guess I didn't do too well on my own....see picture attached! I just have to tell about a photo I am sending. I made a little "Don't Eat Pete" game board-you know, the one with M&Ms and you yell "Don't Eat Pete"- to play with the kids that we teach and I called it "Don't Eat Juan". It was fun and I was proud of my little creative game board I made! Just had to put that out there. So mom, you asked a few weeks ago about how they celebrate Christmas here and decorations, etc. Well, I have been paying more attention and there are decorations, but it just so happens that they are of the Virgin Mary. People will put a photo or statue of the virgin in their window and put the flashing colored Christmas lights around it and light up Virgins and all that. It is quite interesting! They have even begun this week to have parades of the virgin. Members of the Catholic church parade the streets with a huge figurine of the virgin and chant some prayer....who knows what! This is the time of the year and a season to remember Jesus Christ and celebrate his birth, yet they are all celebrating more the virgin and it seems like there is no Jesus at all in this season. Apparently this Wednesday is a holiday as well-day of the virgin! I just hate how we are not focused on Christ down here for this wonderful season! I hope things are somewhat better up there! Well, that is all I got for this week! I hope you all are well and can make it through another week! I just realized the other day that Christmas is only 2 weeks away from Tomorrow! That is crazy! 2 Weeks! And the weeks go by uber fast! 2 Weeks and we will be talking on the phone once again! I love and miss you all tons! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner

December 2012 - Pictures of Nacozari

The Goodie Stash from Elder Joyner's "Aunt Sally"

Elder Joyner has received a package!

An American "Thanksgiving Dinner" from a box!

A banner made just for Elder Joyner

Monday, December 3, 2012 - December....Already?!

Hola Mi Familia! Another week gone by and we have entered into December! How crazy! It totally does not feel like it with the warm weather and all. They are saying this is unusual for Nacozari this time of year. This week.....well, let's see... Well, to start, we went and visited Hermana Mari, the lady who helps in the cake shop. She kept telling us that she was going to talk with her 2 daughters who live with her and her son in law and find a time when we could pass by, but she never told us a firm time, so we just popped in! She was quite surprised, but welcomed us in happily and even made us a few quesadillas for dinner. The whole family wasn't there and they were coming and going so we decided just to leave a Spiritual thought and come back another day to teach the whole family. Wednesday I just have to mention that with Hermana Maru (the cake shop lady) we had Chimichangas for lunch and boy were they so good! Apparently they are from Sonora and don't really have them anywhere else in Mexico. So all that time that I was eating mom's Chimichangas, who knew that they were from my future mission! Later that night, we went and met with Jesus, the new kid that we started teaching last week. We taught him about the importance of the Sabbath day and told him that we would come back for him Sunday to take him to church. Afterwards, we sat around telling jokes for a bit! I know quite a bit of jokes in Spanish now! Haha! On Thursday we traveled to Esqueda to give the district leader various things to give to the zone leaders for when they go to Hermosillo this week. We ended up staying with them for lunch and helping them the rest of the day passing out invitations to less actives for an activity that they were going to have. I also picked up my packages. They Elders in Esqueda were complaining how heavy they were and that there were 4. When we got home and opened them all up...my comp about fainted from all the goodies I received! Thanks mom for the Thanksgiving meal in a package! We had it for lunch today and it was yummy! Also, a special thank you to The Simpsons for my Birthday/Christmas packages! I, as well as my comp, about fainted from all the goodies that were packed in! We divided some things up between the two of us and probably won't have to buy goodies for a few years! Thanks so much! Friday was pretty fantastic day! We had a Youth activity and were going to make Pizzas. We went and picked up a few investigators, including Jesus! I think he had a pretty good time! Unfortunately, the oven at the church wasn't working very well and so we just sat around and hung out with the youth for a good bit and played games. It was a lot of fun! And there were a ton of youth! Later on that night, we had a Family Home Evening for the branch with a theme of missionary work. Every family was supposed to bring non members to introduce people to the church and so that we could get references. Well, it turns out that only one family brought investigators--Hermana Maru brought Hermana Mari and her family and we even invited them too. And of course Jesus was there with us. It was sad but there were a few inactives that came a ton of youth so that was kind of cool! The message was given by a brother and he talked about faith and did a neat object lesson. Afterwards, we played some pretty fun games and ate the pizza we made from the youth activity. Another sister made that cheese dip that you make, mom, it is like the pimento cheese, or whatever, that is white and has little red somethings in it. It was good and reminded me of you! Afterwards we talked about good bit with Hermana Mari, her daughter Lulu, and Lulu's Husband, Ricardo, who was the one that I was saying that lived in Provo and Orem for a while. We set up an appointment to visit with them on Sunday, yesterday. Lulu was saying how much of a spiritual hole she felt like she had so that made us excited to help her! Sunday was a pretty great day! It was Sunday of course, which made it fantastic, and it was Fast Sunday which made it even better! We had good testimonies and Lulu came to church! Hermana Mari couldn't because she had to sell things in a yard sell to earn more money. Lulu said she really enjoyed the church and felt like she wanted to get up to bear testimony with all the members too, but felt like she was going to cry, so she didn't. She said she liked the woman's presence in the church with the Relief Society. She said that she wanted to come next week too! That night we went for out lesson with them. We arrived and they had made dinner for us, which I was dreading since I was still OVERLY full from lunch, so I had to force down a few tostadas. Afterwards we chatted a bit and began the lesson. We taught the Plan of Salvation and the importance of families and what we need to do in this life to return with God and live in with our families forever. We then watched a few videos from Mormon.org. I love those videos! They are pretty neat having members give testimony! I wish we used it more in our mission like they use it in the states. Afterwards we dropped the baptism interview and they all were kind of wishy washy about it and said that they have family traditions in the Catholic church and they need to know more, etc... We told them we knew and that we would help them learn more and prepare. Lulu seemed the most interested, so I think if no one else, she will get baptized, but it is just a matter of doing it within the next 2 weeks that we have here. They are really awesome though! Ricardo and I were talking up a storm about BYU and Utah and he has a bunch of BYU apparel and he gave me a BYU coat he had. I guess I was talking about BYU a little too much and how much I loved it and got all excited with his stuff that he had. I really didn't want his coat, and I would rather have had him keep it to remember Utah, but he was so nice and felt bad reject it, so I now have a new BYU coat in my possession! How neat is that! Well, that was the week! It is crazy to think that we just have 2 more weeks here. 2 more weeks and Nacozari may not have missionaries....crazy to think of. Hope we can do all we can these two weeks to get things in order and be ready to leave. I hope so. I love and miss you all dearly and hope all is well. Just 3 more weeks and we will be talking on the good ole phone. Jared said that they get to skype this Christmas, but I doubt that would happen here. Until next time... ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner

Monday, November 26, 2012 - Another week........

Hola Mi Familia! Another week has flown by....thank heavens! Sounds like you all had a nice Thanksgiving! Thanks dad, for sending the picture of the plate! (Geez! Why would you do that?!?! Make me feel even more jealous that I didn't feel up on that goodness!) I hope you all had a nice little break from school and work! Just a few more weeks and then you are out again for another break! How awesome is that?! I am supes jeally (super jealous) of the Black Friday shopping! Especially since Elise went out (well, the boys too!) I've always wanted to go, but never had gotten to. :( Any good deals?! This week was kind of rough, just reflecting on the time of year and what you all were doing...eating, putting up Christmas decor, etc. A few people here, not too many, have begun to put up decorations/trees as well. Not too many, but a few. And every once in a while there will be a house with lights. I have begun listening to my Christmas music though! But it still isn't the same. I thought I put more "Church Appropriate" Christmas music on my iPod, but I just have this one MOTAB album of lame "Old World" Christmas music...So that is depressing! This is my favorite time of year and kills me that I can't listen to holiday tunes...oh well! It is also weird that it gets to be like 80 degress in the day. This time of year for me shouldn't do that. Weird, but whatevs! I sort of had a little Thanksgiving celebration. I dressed myself in my cafe pants and wore a red tie. For me that was Thanksgiving colors and made me feel festive! Haha! I also drew a little something! I traced my hand a made a hand turkey and colored it and everything! And on the back I wrote all the things I was thankful for just within the past year.....let me tell you being in the mission in a new country, and away from family, it was a pretty long list! I bought instant mashed potatoes and instant gravy and made myself Mashed potatoes and gravy for a Thanksgiving feast! Haha! It wasn't the same as Mama's homemade, but it was something! Of course I thought of you all quite a bit this week. Just a few things I am thankful for this year being on the mish and all: Of course #1 My family and my parents that write me every week without fail. BOTH of them write me every week and I am thankful for that. I am also thankful for the wonderful commodities that we have back in the US including indoor heating and cooling systems and water heaters and just a ton of things! This experience has really made me thankful for soo much! This week, like the last was kind of dry. We did receive a few references from this one Sister (The one who worked in DIF and always gave us references. She does work there anymore unfortunately). She is a returned missionary got so excited giving a references of people to visit. I think it makes a difference to work with Returned Missionaries. They know what missionary work is like and what it is like to share the Gospel and bring people into the church and they are a lot of help. As for all the other members...still nothing! One reference that she gave us was a kid named Jesus. Yes, it is Jesus, but in Spanish it is "hezoos". He is a pretty neat kid. The sister was working with him in DIF. He was supposed to enter the same program that Hector was where he would go to seminary and church and all that, but since the sister has left, he never got into the program. So we went and visited with him and taught him lesson 3: "The Gopsel..." He accepted a baptismal date and so we will see where we get to with that. He was supposed to come to church with us yesterday, but when we went to his house to get him, his dad said he had left to go to work. So that was depressing. But maybe next week! We also received a reference from the Sister who has the cake shop (the above mentioned sister's mother). She has a worker there that loves us! She always greets us as if she was a member and is just so nice. When I first came to Nacozari, I thought she was a member the way she treated us, but after talking to her, found out that she wasn't. I also thought that she had listened to the missionary lessons before, but it turns out that one day I asked her for a reference and she said she would like to listen to us! And apparently her daughter and husband (I met this husband and he lived in Utah for some time. All over in Orem and Provo, and Lehi. It was neat talking to him!) and really interested. So hopefully we will be going with them and seeing what is up. So yesterday we talked in church and I decided to totally "planch" as we call it (I forgot what it is called in English) the members! I basically laid it all down! Haha! It was fun! I found a really awesome scripture in Doctrine and Covenants: 2 But with some I am not well pleased, for they will not open their amouths, but they hide the btalent which I have given unto them, because of the cfear of man. Wo unto such, for mine danger isekindled against them. 3 And it shall come to pass, if they are not more faithful unto me, it shall be ataken away, even that which they have. I basically told them that it is their responsibility and duty to preach the gospel and help in missionary work and since they don't help in missionary work and share the gospel with their friends that, like the scripture says: " it shall me taken away, even that which they have' and I said that is the reason the missionaries are leaving Nacozari. So I laid it down. Later on in Priesthood a Missionary Family Home Evening for the branch was organized for this Friday for everyone to bring non-members. Think I helped?....Maybe! Haha! So that happened...we will see what becomes of it! Nothing else too much has really happened this week. We just keep plugging along. We complete half a transfer this week. 3 weeks down and just 3 more to go. So we will so what we can get done in these next few weeks. Well, that is all I have this week! Sorry, I feel like it wasn't very much and was kind of boring, but oh well! Sorry! Ya, November has gone and we are just a few days from December! That is absolutely crazy! And in just 1 day less than a month, we will be talking on the phone together! How fantastic, no? It will come super fast I'm sure. Well, I hope you all are well! I love and miss you all dearly! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner