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

Making cookies from home

Elder Joyner with Elder Melchor (Trainer)

Happy Birthday - November 16th!

The New Comp #5! Elder Alvarado

Monday, November 19, 2012 - Another Year Older...YIKES!!!!

Hola Mi Familia! My, my...what a busy week you all have had! Mine was....sort of the opposite unfortunately...dead! So, like I said, we left last Monday night for Agua Prieta for the interview with the President Tuesday. It was pretty fantastic! We got there and called our district leader and he assigned us a companionship in Agua Prieta to stay with. Arriving in Agua Prieta, it was FREEZING!!! It is much colder there than her in Nacozari! Oh it was chilly! When we arrived at the house, we knocked on the door and who answered, none other than my "pa": Elder Melchor! I mentioned a few weeks ago that during transfers he was put as Assistant and they were there in Agua Prieta with the President. They stayed in the house with the other companionship and us. It was so good to see him, finally and catch-up. I've wanted to see him for the longest time! We talked a bunch with them and after a while the companionship whose house we were at arrived with pizza. All 6 of us stayed that night and talked a good bit. It was fun to talk with the Assistants (Probably since one of them was Elder Melchor!)! The next day we got up and got ready and all for the interviews and left for the church. We had the interviews and all went well. I love interviewing with the President and tell him all my thoughts and everything that is going on. It was also nice to be with the whole zone and see everyone. One of the other missionaries told me that the Pres. said they want to make Agua Prieta a stake and to have that, they need to have wards obviously, and to have a ward, you need to have at least 20 Melchizedek priesthood holders, and well, we don't have that so what they may do to create a ward is combine Nacozari and Esqueda and either the members in Esqueda would have to come here, or the members here would go there. Interesting things happening. I also heard that for the small areas not to close this next transfer, the branches need to have a complete branch presidency with councilors, a mission leader, and a family history program. Well, we don't have ANY of that so I guess we're gonna be closing then...Afterwards we were on our way to the bus station, but I wanted to stop at a department store, Coppel. We stopped and I purchased myself a new tie for my birthday. It is a lovely various shades of blue and black, it is quite awesome and I wish I had more money with me to buy more presents for myself...oh well! Maybe we will have to go to Agua Prieta again sometime and I can stop by again. When we were in Agua Prieta, I picked up my other two packages! Thanks Cole for the paper figure of Darth Vader, My name plate, and card as well! Unfortunately, Mom, my Thanksgiving package wasn't there, so maybe the family didn't come to Agua Prieta this past week. Also, the District leader didn't go to Agua Prieta yesterday because they didn't have a meeting, so it could be there waiting for me. Btdubs, thanks for my cookies and brownies and ingredients for cookies, and cereal, and all the other goodies! I'm enjoying them! The day before my birthday, the 15th, was the birthday of Hector's sister, who we have been teaching for a while too. We were thinking of what we could get her for her birthday, but we couldn't think of anything. I then remembered the ingredients that mom sent me, and so Thursday I made cookies! My, was it a chore! Let's just say I don't like to make things without machines, like beaters, to help me. I didn't have any vanilla and so we went one street over to the cake shop to ask the sister for vanilla. I was hoping that she would offer us her kitchen to make the cookies and use her machines, but she wasn't there, just the house help. So we still got the vanilla, but I had to make the dough using my hands and cook the cookies in a cake pan. They turned out delicious of course! My comp LOVED them! Everyone else enjoyed them too! Thanks for sending the stuff, mom! Now we get to good ole Friday the 16th....I woke up and put on my favorite grey dress pants, a good looking long sleeve shirt (thinking it would be cold, but it wasn't...) and my beautiful brand new blue tie I bought for myself! During study time, I received a phone call from President and Hermana Hernandez wishing me a good day. Elder Graves in Esqueda also called and he wished me a happy birthday, and I wished him a happy one year in the mission! After studies, I opened my package! I had Elder Alvarado take a video and I tried to send it, but it is too big of a file...sorry :(Thanks a ton for everything! I especially like my new watch and my CD. Unfortunately the DVD player we have just broke and so I haven't had a chance to listen to it until this very second while writing. I brought all the cake ingredients that you sent me to the lunch on Friday to have the family that we were eating with make the cake for me....MISTAKE!!!! Haha! I should have just made it myself! Supposedly this sister makes cakes to sell, but she is nowhere as good as the sister who has the cake shop. I gave her all my ingredients and the recipe and went to do something and when I came back she had put everything in her kitchen aid was mixing it all. I was a little surprised. I was going to make it all and since the recipe was in English...she didn't exactly follow the recipe exactly. I was getting quite excited to eat my favorite chocolate cake that my mom makes on my birthday, but when she took it out of the oven, it deflated a little and the edges rolled in a little. That was a little depressing. We put the candles on and I blew them out (again, another video, but again, too big to send...sorry!). It is Mexican tradition to bite the cake before cutting it. When I took a bite, it was good, but I thought I could taste a bit of egg or something and it didn't seem like the ingredients were mixed up well. So it was a little depressing. It was still good and a little reminder of home...but just not as good as mom! We later went with Hector and his family and they all gave me presents: cupcakes, mini hostess snacks, etc. It was cute and a nice gesture. Afterwards, we to the branch president's house and shared the left over cake with them. That was really it as far as birthday activities go...kind of lame, but hey, what can you do? But, I am freaking 20 years old!!!! That was the weirdest feeling! Telling myself that morning, "Dayne, you're 20 years old today! 2 whole Decades!" Geez! That is just the weirdest think to think of! I am no longer a teenager! Mind blowing I tell you! Whatever! Life goes on... and is WAY TOO short! As far as missionary work, this week kind of sucked! We really had nothing to do. It is the hardest thing when we don't have investigators and people to visit and your work depends on the members and references, but when they don't give you references, you don't have anything to do....We just visit the same small number of people every other day. There were WAY too many times where we just asked ourselves "what do we do?" So that has been hard. I fear for these remaining 4 weeks of this transfer. Luckily we had a branch council meeting planned for last night. We showed up with the President and waited for like 20 minutes for people to show, but no one was coming. Right when we were about to leave and cancel it, everyone showed up. Only the Elder's Quorum Pres., Relief Society Pres. and Primary Pres. showed, but we had it. I was hoping to talk about a branch mission plan we could implement to get more support and help from the members. We began and the meeting with the Pres. saying that they are going to close the branch and I thought it would lead into how we can prevent that (by helping the missionaries!), but then people started talking and it shifted more into helping reactivate non-members instead of how the members can help the missionaries so the area won't close. We BARELY touched on that subject. So I was a little disappointed in that. Oh well, their choice. But we are still left without work. Just 4 more weeks I guess. So everyone is asking about my nutting comp. Well, we sort of broke the ice and are getting friendlier. He is a hoot. To give you an idea: he reminds me of Urkle from Family Matters, just a tad bit less nerdy, but not too much less. He makes me laugh really hard. Tomorrow is the day to celebrate the Mexican revolution, but today they celebrated it with a parade and all and we went and watched it. I felt a little bit out of place being big, white, and gringo, but it was cool. I got a whole lot of Mexican culture thrown at me, but it was enjoyable! Well, that is about all I got about this week. Hopefully something exciting will happen this week. I will be thinking of you Thursday while you are stuffing your faces! HA! Thanks for all the birthday stuff! I appreciated it a lot! I love and miss you all tons! Have a nice week! Just think...ONE MONTH from this next Sunday we will be chatting on the tele! Woah! How fast! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner

Hector's Baptism Day

Baptismal Font with extremely cold water!

Elder Joyner with Hector on Confirmation Day

Monday, November 12, 2012 - You Won't Belive It! God Must Want Me To Learn Something....

Hola Mi Familia! So it is cold here! Ha, yeah...all of a sudden Saturday was really cold. I have had to pull out my PJ pants and long sleeve shirts and my hoodie. It is a little chilly! And apparently there is a rumor that it is supposed to snow here this week? Not sure if that is true, but we will just have to wait and see. I completed 9 months this week! Wow how time flies! It seems like I just completed 8....crazy! I've begun to realize just how fast the mission goes....sometimes it just feels like a dream. This week was the big party of Nacozari Jesus Garcia. Apparently in the 1800s there was a train with explosives heading for Nacozari and the conductor, Jesus Garcia, drove the train through Nacozari to another town where it exploded and he died, but he saved the people in Nacozari, so they celebrate that every year on the 7th of November. So there were fiestas and bands and dances and all tha stuff. It was cool to pass by and watch from a far. So....you won't believe.....This week, I attended my 4th funeral here in Nacozari. In just the 3 months I've been here, I've attended 4 funerals...What in the world is God trying to tell me!?! What does he want me to learn!?! Most people don't even attend 1 funeral in their mission, but me? I've attended 4! I must say that my testimony of the Plan of Salvation and our purpose in this live has grown tremendously, but I still don't get it. Is there something else I am suppose to learn or is He preparing me for something? I was with an Elder in Esqueda waiting for our comps and we went to talk to a member and they mentioned that this brother from Nacozari had died the day before. Well, since I was in Esqueda, there was no way for anyone to tell us. This member who died is the husband of the sister that has the cake shop. His wife lives in Nacozari, but he was attending church in Esqueda with a daughter and her family because of a family argument that the mom and daughter had about a year ago. The 2 haven't been talking for a year, and well, this event brought them together and now it seems like everything is all good and they have fixed the problems they were having. This brother that died also wasn't living with his wife and they were separated more or less. But just these past few months and this last week before he died they had been together again which is good. When we arrived in Nacozari, we went and my comp wrote his family and then we later went to the funeral home to be with this family. A sister from Esqueda and her husband (Justin knew these 2 really well when he was here) came and she brought her violin. She began playing hymns and after a while, a daughter of this brother who died suggested that I sing while this sister plays the violin. So I sang hymns and was accompanied on violin. It was really beautiful if I don't say so myself. After about a good 45 minutes of singing we stopped (my voice was so tired for singing non-stop for that long) and the family had a little testimony meeting. The next day, we arrived at the funeral home and one of the daughters of this brother that died had organized a small choir of family members with songs to sing during the service. We participated and sang "He Sent His Son", "A Child's Prayer", "I Am A Child Of God", "Families Can Be Together Forever", and a few other children's songs and hymns like that. The service was us singing those hymns, the family saying a few memories and their testimonies, and there was a picture slide show. Afterwards we all walked behind the hearse (spelling?) to the cemetery (spelling?) as such is the custom here in Mexico. At the cemetery, the Elders from Esqueda came since this brother attended church there, and they helped us sing hymns as they buried the coffin in the ground. When it was all covered we all gathered around the grave and they dedicated it. This funeral didn't seem to be as "heavy" and depressing as all the other. I think it made a difference that all the family were members and they had a knowledge of the Plan of Salvation, and they knew that their family was sealed together forever and that one day they would see their father again. The only people there that weren't members were just friends, so I think that that made a difference. Funerals are a spiritual experience. They are sad, but it is always spiritual and you just feel so close to the veil. There are probably 2 events in life were you feel that close to the veil: birth and death. I can't say I enjoy the funerals....well sort of...Ha! They are sad and depressing, but also uplifting. This first week as Senior comp has been a little hard. I have felt quite alone a bit this week and there have just been times when I've longed to be around other people like members or other missionaries. I don't know why, but that has been hard. I think I miss Elder Cruz. I liked how we both worked together and were equals. We have been having a rough time because, since we can't knock doors, we don't know where to get more people. The members don't help and give us references and so we have very few investigators. We have talked to the Branch Pres. and hope to create a branch mission plan to help get more support and help from members. We will see how the next few weeks go. We did have a first lesson with a couple this week that seemed to go pretty well. I always love teaching the first lesson, The Restoration. It is a message that only we teach. Not even the Jehovah’s Witnesses or the Baptists that go out and preach have this message! It is pretty unique. They seemed to understand and accept it pretty well, so we will see where it goes. Yesterday, I had the opportunity to confirm Hector. My first time confirming someone! It was a neat experience and I enjoyed it. Sorry, I feel like I didn't have too much to say this week, but I hope it will suffice! Tonight we are going to Agua Prieta to have interviews with the Pres tomorrow. So I hope to pick up my packages! (since my comp didn't bring them last week....). This week is the big 2-0! Crazy! I've tried really hard not to tell anyone, but I think the family that we eat with on Fridays found out and maybe have something....I hope not. I don't want attention! Ha! We will see! Thanks for the Birthday video! Until next week... I love and miss you all tons! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner

Monday, November 5, 2012 - Changes!

Hola Mi Familia! Sounds like you all had a nice week with the Halloween happenings and all that jazz! Seeing all the kids here dressed up and going trick or treating made me miss home and the good old days of my youth! So when I wished you all happy voting last week, I was thinking that voting was on the 2nd of November, so I was expecting news in emails today. But it is actually the 2nd Tuesday in November. I think the 2nd WAS a Tuesday last time which made me think that...oops! How embarrassing! Shows what I know about my country's voting system! Ha! So this was a week with a few things that happened and a lot of changes announced. This week on the 30th, I celebrated "Wicked Day" which is the 9th Anniversary of "Wicked" on Broadway! I wore black pants and my green and black tie. I meant to take a picture, but forgot.... :( My sickness has sort of continued this week. My cough worsened and I started to feel a vibration or rattle in my upper chest when I coughed. My nose got better, but the cough was horrible. Saturday was not a good health day for me. I felt kind of nauseous all day and got tired really easily and my body ached. I have not wanted to go to the doctor because I just thought it was a cold I would get over or just a reaction to the flu shot I got. I asked my comp for a blessing Saturday night and then I went to bed. Since then, my conditions have been improving and I feel quite fine today. I have little to no cough and my throat doesn't feel as swollen or hurts too bad. Hopefully I'm on the uphill? With the news last week that they might be closing the area we really pushed to get Hector, his sister and his mom baptized this week in the case that they closed the area and there wouldn't be missionaries here to baptize them for a long while. We had a special lesson discussing the importance of baptism and then we invited them to be baptized. Hector immediately accepted. His mom said that she would, but she said she wasn't ready just yet. His sister once said she wanted to get baptized, but then got scared and said no, and so when we asked he again this time, she was a little wishy washy. With at least one firm yes, the next step was talk to the dad to get his permission. This was going to be hard since he has never wanted to meet with us or listen to us before. But, Elder Cruz wrote him a note saying we wanted to meet with him and Thursday we went and he was working outside and we helped him move some wood and had a little chat with him. We prayed good and hard before hand that this would go well. We taught him a little bit about what we do as missionaries and our message that we teach. We then talked to him about the importance of baptism and that his family had the desire to be baptized. He said that if that is what they wanted to do, he didn't have a problem with that. So we excitedly set up an interview and started getting a baptism ready. On Saturday, the family invited us over for carne asada tacos (most famous and most delicious tacos from Sonora) and cake for Hector's birthday. This night, we also had the baptismal interview and everything went well! Sunday morning we went to the church early to clean the baptismal font which, like Sonoyta, is outside. We filled the font during church, and afterwards, we had a baptism! I directed the services and had a few of the youth give spiritual thought and messages. I also sang "I Know That My Redeemer Lives" and Elder Cruz performed the ordinance. It was a really special day. This kid has made such a change in his life. After being involved with drugs, he started going to seminary every morning and was learning so much and loved to share with us what he was learning. He has become good friends with the youth, and they all love him. And his desire he had to be baptized was so wonderful! He is such an example for his mom and sister and cousin who also want to get baptized, so we are going work hard this transfer and see if we can't have more baptisms before Nacozari closes. This week, the Zone Leaders went to Hermosillo for their monthly meeting with the President. They came back and organized a zone meeting to share with us what the President told them in Hermosillo. Wow is all I can say! There are quite some changes taking place in missionary work! First off, we are going from 6 week transfer to only 5 week transfers. One of the biggest changes is that the church area presidency for Mexico has decided that all missions in Mexico will no longer be doing door contacting! Isn't that crazy! I think that Mormon Missionaries are famous for coming to your door and sharing a message, but we will not long be doing that. Not really for security reasons, although that is a small percent, but mostly because missionary work is with the members! We will be now relying heavily on member references and help from the members. Our work and success as missionaries will now depend more the members and their involvement. But it makes total sense. People are more likely to remain active if they have a friend they know in the church. It makes them feel more comfortable and provides a support system. As opposed to people who become good friends with the missionaries and when they leave, the members become inactive. This is supposed to decrease the number of converts who go inactive and increase the number of true CONVERTS as opposed to just numbers of baptisms. For this reason they are closing smaller areas that don't have complete church organization, because we need the help of complete organizations and members. So today is transfers and we didn't close Nacozari this transfer, but apparently next transfer in December is when it will happen. Elder Cruz was transferred back to his area in Obregon that he came from before and he will be training. I have been appointed as Senior companion now and will receive Elder Alvarado. I feel ready to be senior and then again, not. I'm not sure what how much we will be able to do this transfer not being able to contact anymore and since the members don't really help, us I'm not quite sure where we will get out teaching pool either. And since they are just going to close the area at the end of this change, I don't know how much progress we will be able to make. Oh my....how this transfer will go, I do not even know! It will be quite different to have a companion that has less time in the mission than me. That is a weird feeling to have so many Elders that I know going home and many new ones coming in and that I am slowly becoming one of the oldest in the mission. What a crazy, weird feeling! Speaking of transfers, I found out that "mi papa" my trainer, Elder Melchor was made Assistant to the President this transfer! That is crazy! I am happy for him! I feel like there was one other change that we had in the mission, but I don't remember what it was...maybe that was all.... Well, that seems to be about all for now. I feel like I didn't really write that much, but hopefully enough to keep you all happy! :) This week, I complete 9 months in the mission! Isn't that crazy! Just 3 more and we have 1 year down and 1 to do! It is hard to believe that it is November already! How fast October went! I love and miss you all dearly and hope all is well! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner