August 30, 2010

Hey everyone,

 

Well im officialy kinda freaked out. THis is my last email I will be writing home from my mission. Well things are going realy good. We met our personal goal of 15 baptisms for the month (My companion and I) As well as we passed up our goal for the zone. We were the Zone of the Month by alot, and we set a few new records. It has been a very fun, and very busy month.

 

It has been crazy trying to figure out exactly what they are going to do with me this last week. The plan was to just send me out to salamanca, but they asked me to do them a favor. I will be staying here in AguasCalientes Today and tomorrow, and then Tomorrow night I will be going to Leon. On wednesday I have to go to consilio of zone leaders to help out giving that, and then it looks I will head to salamanca that night, and head back to leon on Sunday. So it sounds like this week will be busy and intence, so that is good. But, I just cant imagine not being in Mexico. Like they told me that in the USA we dont use sandles in the shower, and there is carpet, and you can drink tap water, I just cant imagine, so it will be a great new adventure!

 

I cant wait to see everyone, just so you all know, hopefully they gave you all the plans but I will be arriving at the Las Veges airport at 12:30 in the afternoon of Monday the 6th of September! I love you all,

and anyone who wants to write feel free to write me at adam.paul88@gmail.com

 

Love you all,

Elder Paul

August 23, 2010

This is part of an email Elder Paul sent to Ken and me:

Hey Mom and Dad,

Well things are going great. I am trying to work as hard as I can, but I wont lie I cant believe how nervous I am to go home. I can easly say it is alot easier for me to talk to 1000s of random in the street, than realy come home and well.... live. It just seems so crazy. So one of my goals I have set is to be much better with my money. I will realy need some of your help and training when I get home. I have a few different Ideas, id like to open 2 bank accounts. I want to put aside 10% for tithing and put 10% into permanent savings in one of the accounts every paycheck. Also any little jobs around town I would love to do. Also I had no idea that Logan is up in Logan. Can you find out if he would be interested in getting a shared room or appartment or anything. i think that would help us out alot! Well I love you tons, thanks again for everything,

Elder Paul

August 23, 2010

Hey everyone,

 

Wow this has been a crazy week, and I am pooped. My companion was in Leòn all this past week, so i was going here and there and everywere. We have a goal in our zone of 42 baptisms this month. It would be a record for our zone. Well as of rite now we have 39 baptisms, and have 15 baptisms planned for this week in our zone. We also broke our record we set last week of 13 baptisms in one week by having 14 baptisms in one week. Our Elders have realy been working hard, and there work is realy showing. I talk ALOT with the Asits. and he told me that this is one of the first times he can ever think of a zone actualy completing with there goal. It has been nice to decide what we want, and just do everything to get it. My companion and I set a goal of 15 baptisms for this month. As of rite now we have 11 this month, and we have 3 planned for this week, so it looks like we may fall a little short of our goal. We are going to keep praying for a miracle like crazy, and then if we give it all and we come up one short, we know we did everything we realy could do. 

 

So I was talking to President del Valle the other day. Since I will be coming home one week after changes, he told me they were thinking about maybe putting me in Leon with them, but after talking he told me he was going to send me out to Salamanca, GTO. I dont know if you remeber but i was in Salamanca for about 8 months, and realy like the place. So it looks like next week I will be headed out there. The Missionaries are realy have a tough time finding inv. so I think I will be able to help them alot. I also have a few convert families who are preparing to go to the temple, so i will be able to see them, and wish them the best. So that should be good! 

 

Well other than that I am jsut trying to work hard, and finish out on top. 

 

I love you all,

Elder Paul

August 16, 2010

Hey everyone,
 

For all you that have asked my eye is doing much better, and actually does not hurt anymore! It does seem that my vision is worse in that eye now, but hopefully it will get back to normal. Crazy huh, last weeks of the mission it happens. Well we are trying to stay as busy as possible. We set a goal of 50 baptisms in my zone for the month. We are pretty close, and I think we are going to be able to reach it this next week. My companion and I had 9 baptisms this last week! Just to put it simply, it was a WAY busy week! Well my comp went up to Leon to recieve the training that I recived last week. So I am going to be traveling alot this week! In the zone this last week we had 15 baptisms. That is also a record for this zone that we are in. ANd if we reach 50 that will be one. It is crazy what all we can acheive when we put down a goal, and do everyhting in our power to reach it. It has all and all been alot of fun!
 

I told you all about a family we were working with, a family of 5 last week. Well they were baptised on Friday, and honestly it was one of the greatest experiences I have had! THey asked me if I would baptise them, and a gratiously accepted. Well the spirit just hit SO strong when I baptised them. And we dont usually do this, but we let each one wait on the steps to see the other baptisms, and at the end we took a picture of all of them in the water! It was rely cool! so if i cant get that picture sent you will get it soon.
 

We also had two teenage girls we have been teaching and bringing to church. THere parents are not members but asked us to PLEASE do anything that we can do for them! Well the first time we taught them they asked me if I could maybe date them or anything. It was actually a great lead into the lesson. Well they have been realy learning alot and were baptised on Thursday!  They also asked me to baptise them. So well in the pictue we were standing there for the picture, and a member said, well this is your last chance to hug Elder Paul, well they both did it, and they took the picture, before I could say NO! Well you will see the picture!, Ha I think it was how Joseph in Egypt felt! :) Ha. But we explained it to them and they were baptised and confirmed on Sunday!
 

Well I think that is about it for this week, but we will see you all soon,
 

Love you,
Elder Paul

August 9, 2010

Hey everyone,
 
So how is it going? I cant tell you how weird of a feeling it was to relize yesterday was the 7th of August, and knowing I go home the 7th of September! Wow, crazy. So this last week, I went to Lèon on Sunday, and didn’t finish till Friday night. It was a lot of fun, and a lot of capacitations. We pretty much had 6 hours of capacitations each day, and then went out to work. It was realy fun, I ended up doing interviews for baptisms about the whole time. Those are one of my favorite things to do, and maybe even one of my specialties. It is realy fun to be able to get in and talk to someone who is realy scared about doing something new. Be able to explain to them, and help them feel the spirit. In some interviews the spirit is so strong, the people just start to cry. So it was realy fun to be able to do those all week, but defiantly those interviews and so many experiences like those wear ya out!
 
Well there in Leon we were eating a lot of salsa and chilly, well at some point I must have touched my eye, because I woke up the next morning and Not only was my eye HUGE, but I couldn’t see a thing. I had to go to the hospital AGAIN! Well we found a eye doctor, and he took a look, and found chilly in my eye. He was realy a good guy, had heard a little about the church, and I tought him the first lesson. Well He through a patch on my eye, and send me on my way. Well I will tell you what it is sure hard to do things with just one eye. I had such a hard time just doing things like eating. Well the next day I went back and got the eye patch removed, my eye I guess was burnt by the chilly, and got a little infection, but I have a cream to put in every once in awhile. The weird thing is that my vision is getting worse. He told me I may need glasses or contacts, so I may have to set up an appointment with Dr. Jensen at some point. But, the cool part, is That the Doc read part of the Book of Mormon, and He accepted a baptismal date, and Told me he would go to church on Sunday. So that was realy cool. I am going back up to leon on Tuesday so I am going to try and swing by and see how it went.
 
Other than that it was pretty tough starting on Saturday and finding out that the zone fell down a bit. But we have one family we are teaching. The Dad`s name is Miguel Angel. They are Awesome. Yesturday was their second time going to church. They realy like it a lot, and as a family they are in Mosiah reading the Book of mormon. They are a family of 5. We talked to them about temples yesterday and they are realy excited to go.
 
Well other than that there is not much new. Hopefully everything is going realy well up there, and I cant wait to see you all!
 
Love,
Elder Paul

August 2, 2010

Hey how is it going?
 
Well today is another great p day. FOr any of you counting I have 5 weeks left. It is a weird feeling. Well rite now I am sitting in the mission offices writing this. We have a 4 day leadership conference here in leon this week. So I will be heading back to my area in AguasJardienes at the end of the week.
 
We are trying to keep realy busy and keep the zone going realy well. I think that I told you that I got a new companion last week. He is a realy young guy, and realy excited but is still trying to learn everything. We have been trying to stay realy busy, and I have alony been able to work in our own area for about 2 and 1/2 hours. I have worked in every other area in the zone, and we realy are starting to get things going down here. Well my goal was to personaly teach 100 lessons weeks this week, but I fell alittle short. I was able to teach with many different companions 87 lessons. That is still my personal goal by alot! So It has been realy fun, and I have realy been able to see myself getting to know the lessons even better. Well other than that we had 1 baptism last week, we have 6 planned this week, and have 15 planned for the week after that. We are having quite a bit of success in our area, and Im way greatful for that, especially with the little time we have been able to work in our area. Oh, also we had a realy great experience this last sunday. We woke up early, and headed out to see people, and invite them to come with us. Well our goal, was to bring 15 inestegators to the church, well we were able to fine and bring 10 people with us to church. Well just after sacrament they opened the doors, and a Family of five that we had been teaching was there waiting to come in. It was realy cool, and they were all excited to be there.
 
Dad, thanks for looking into the school a bit, that would be great to find out a bit more, and it will help us all out a bunch!
 
Love you all,
Elder paul
 
P.S. I dont know if it will be possible but if mom would be willing to do enchaladas for the homecoming again, that would be amazing! I still remeber those at my farewell, and have been cravig them now for about 2 years! Thanks

July 26, 2010

Hey everyone,

 

Well it has been a realy crazy week. We have had some Missionaries not getting along as well as they should, so we knew there was going to be some changes yesturday. But they didnt just do some special changes, they did complete changes. Elder Su`a was sent to another area for his last two weeks as Junior Companion. Dont worry, I know it sounds like we did something but we didnt. Pres said it is just because he goes home in two weeks, and this way I will have a full six weeks to train a new zoneleader. So that is who I have now, His name is Elder Martinez, he has Ten months in his mission, and is from Oaxacka. He is realy cool, but wow, way young and excited. It is pretty sweet, but he has alot to learn, and Man I have been sick with a head cold for the last like 4 days. It has been raining like crazy over here.

 

Well we have about 4 new Elders Over here now, and since we have only been in this change for about a week, I actualy have about 8 new Elders. We went from being one of the Oldest zones, to a very young one. Im the only missionary with more than a year here in my mission, so its alot but it will be fun. We ended up changing up the groupings of the district today to make sure everyone will be able to help each other. Tomorrow is our first meeting with the whole new zone, so we are going to present a new plan of 6 baptisms per Compañionship in August. This would be realy cool because we have never reached that goal over here. I am maininly going to be traveling and working with all the Elders, and my companion is going to focus and working with the other missionary in the companionship were I will be, working on our area. We have set our goal as 15, and we have 4 baptisms planned this month.

 

Well I love you all a ton,

Take Care,

Elder Paul

July 19, 2010

Hey everyone,
 
Well I have my official date now. The president wrote me a letter and told me it is going to be Tuesday, the 7th of September. I do not know the time, but they order tickets six weeks before departure, so you should get a call sometime in this next week! Can You believe that I only have 7 weeks left? It is realy making me nervous, I cant tell you how fast weeks fly by here in the mission. 

My companion Elder Su´a is going home in just 3 weeks. That means I will be getting a new companion part way through this change. This week was changes, and we just finished getting our new Elders settled in today. We had ALOT of changes this change. E. Su´a and I are the only ones that stayed the same in the zone. So we had to get everyone off realy early this morning. Then we played some soccer, and then We got the new Elders. THe President is realy getting things cleaned up, our two District leaders are now goingto be Junior companions, and our new District leaders are pretty new. But that will be realy good.
 
Sorry I have not got pictures out for a long time. My camera has kinda taken a crash, and I have been trying to fix it for the last few weeks, but hopefully I can have it up and working again soon!
 
Lets see we also had concilio this past week. That is when all the zoneleaders go up to the offices in Leon. It was realy fun, and great to see how things are going to be changing in the mission. THey realy are working realy hard to make sure everything is going to keep going in the rite direction.
Well on the way home we were passing by the State border, when the IMN got on. THey are kinda like border patrol for Mexico. Well They were not too pleased to see me. They asked me for my papers, and my licence, wich I could not give them because they are all in the offices of the mission. They were not happy, told me about Arizona nd what they are doing there, took me off the bus, looked at my licence, and then had me just get back on. They realy were punks, but I think they realized that I probably was not here ILLIGALY! ha,
 
well I love ya all!
Elder paul

July 12, 2010

Hey everyone,
 
Well the week has been crazy busy. We have set alot of goals, and it is getting harder and harder each day. Well we go to hear from our new prisdent this last week. He is realy a very cool different, and WAY different than President Cox. Well our zone meetings are now every 3 months. So this was my last zone meeting. I will be going to Leon tomorrow for zone leader meeting that will be 2 days, and then next week we head up again with all the District Leaders and trainers, and we are going to have a 4 day leadership training. It should be pretty crazy.
 
Other than that, we are now alowed to play sports. We challenged the other zone to a game, so we all got together at about 7 and started playing, and finished at 12. I dont know how many of you have played soccer, but 5 hours of it is realy something, but it was Great fun. Me and my comp are the two forwards, and In total we had 9 goals. And the Goal of the day. We even had people who came and reffed it. And just so you know, We smoked them!
 
Other than that we finaly got sent money to buy a fridge, so we make breakfast every morning again. So far we have had burritos, beans, french toast, and top romin. Thats about all that is new here, hope all is well on that side.
 
ELder paul

July 5, 2010

Hey everyone.

Well First off yes I did get knew shoes. Thank you so much for the money. It was realy cool, I found some shoes called hush puppies for realy cheap (They are some of the lightest and most comfritable shoes i have used) and since they were cheap I was able to buy some tennis shoes as well. They say that they are nikis on the side, but they are actually called Mikis here. They are the runoff version. They are nice though and in dollars cost about 10 bucks! We also had two more baptisms this week. The new president has gotten here to the mission, but my first time gettinig to see and talk to him will be tomorrow.

Our zone has been doing pretty good, we look like we should be doing realy good this week that comes, so we are probably not going to be in our own area much this week. Well Im sorry this is short, but i love you all, and happy july 4th.