Monday, November 4, 2013 - Halloween!

Hola Mi Familia! Isn´t it just crazy that we are in November already!? One of my favorite months of the year and not just because it is my birthday month-because the weather is fantastic and it is closer and closer to Christmas! From what you all said and what the Bishop said, sounds like Trunk or Treat was quite a success and a non member magnet! How awesome! Maybe we should have done something like that here...but then again our ward is full of adults so it probs won´t have brought too many kids... Well this week was quite a fantastic week for us! We have had a good bit of lessons and have seen a little bit of progress. Let´s see....a quick update on our investigators.... Our one investigator is just crazy! Haha! There is never a dull lesson with him. Just imagine the most gangsta, ghetto, street kid and you got Him! He is always saying ¨Que Onda Gueros!¨ or direct translastion--¨What´s happening white guys!¨ Haha! He is good though. He has had a rough, ROUGH past and tells us more and more every time we visit him, but he is coming around. We are doing the best we can to help him and he seems to really want to change! I love teaching him because he just pays so much attention to us and is always hanging on our every word and has a ton of questions and is so interested! This week we taught him ¨The Plan of Salvation¨ and he was just MIND BLOWN! Especially when we told him that before this life he lived with God! He was really interested in the spirit world too and just everything really! We need more investigators like this guy! However, he didn´t go to church this week because some family came into town, but we are hoping next week. It seems like the majority of our investigators are fading! They say they will go to church, but they don´t. Sometimes they are at home and sometimes not. They just need to get their acts together or we should just drop them. This next one is one of those. She hasn´t gone to church yet because she says she has to talk to the preacher and resign from this other church she has been going to or something weird like that. She isn´t always there for our appointments either so we will just see how far we get with her. We had put a few appointments this week with a couple others as well, but they have dropped all that we have put. Hopefully we will find them soon. Now some events/stories from this week! Wednesday night we were heading for an appointment with an investigator, but that same investigator found us in the street and told us that he couldn´t that night because his daughter was sick and he was going to get medicine. So another member had invited us and the sisters to their house to carve a pumpkin that she had! It was super fun! Last year I didn´t get to do it and but this year yes! Carving pumpkins isn´t really a Mexican thing so that is why they had to bring it back from Arizonia. It was a lot of fun! I will send pictures! Thursday was Halloween! I wouldn´t say Halloween isn´t as big here as it is there, but it is still done. It was fun to be out in the street at night and see all the kids out in their costumes going from house to house. Except here, they have a little song that they sing instead of saying trick or treat! I don´t really remember how it goes though. The big celebration in Mexico is Day of the Dead. It is the 1st and 2nd of November. The Day of the Dead is a remembrance or the honoring of their ancestors who have died. It isn´t as big here in the north of Mexico because of the US influence, but it is bigger in the south. So it is basically a big party at the graveyard! They usually make altars at the gravesite and they make their ancestors or family member´s favorite meal or favorite toys or whatever they liked and they take it to the cemetery and are they to honor them and to be with them that day. The 1st is the day of honor the youth and the children and then the 2nd is for the adults. It is kind of cool! Saturday we did interchanges with one of our district leaders and his companion. I was able to go to the other area and it was awesome! One of the Elders only has 3 months on the mish but he has been trained well because he teaches like he has had more than a year! It was so awesome being with him! I enjoyed every moment! Their area is a little more hilly and so I am still suffering from shin splints! Haha! We were able to put 2 baptismal dates that day and I was excited to hear that many of the people we invited to church went yesterday so that was good! I really like this part of being a zone leader, being able to help train and help other missionaries although I didn´t really didn´t need to help this Elder too much because he came pre-trained! Yesterday, Sunday, the sisters had asked us to go with them to visit an investigator in their area that was sick and has cancer. We agreed and went with them. It was quite a special experience. We arrived and the lady was in a hospital bed in her room and her sisters that take care of her were there (one of them is a member). The lady has been battling cancer for more than 10 years. The left side of her face was swollen or it was a tumor one of the two and it made it so she couldn´t talk and could only see out of one eye. She was very sick. She was very sleepy because of medicine she had taken and was going in and out of sleep. We decided to sing her a few hymns and there was a sweet spirit there as we sang. After finishing singing we were going to leave, but I got a really strong impression that we should offer to give her a blessing. I would be lying if I said that I almost ignored the prompting, but decided to offer anyway. The sisters agreed and my companion did the anointing and left me to give the blessing. I was really kind of nervous about what to say to someone who probably doesn´t have that much time left in this earthly body, but I felt the spirit with me and knew it would guide me. I gave the blessing and the spirit was still there afterwards. The lady fell asleep and we offered help and service and then we left. It was a special experience and after having given a lesson that day in the Gospel Principles class, the Plan of Salvation was fresh on my mind and I couldn´t help feel close my God in those moments. Thoughts came to my mind about how we are here in this life to obtain a body and pass through experience and that one day it will be over and we will ¨return to that God that gave us life¨. It was also special to be able to promise that sister in the blessing that she would have the opportunity to be resurrected one day and to have a perfect body free from pains and afflictions! It was a very special experience for me. Well, I hope you all have a fantastic week! This is the last week of the transfer for us so next week we will see what happens next Monday! I miss and love you all tons! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner