It's all about love

Hermano Tom making corn dogs, but with cheese and pineapple.. its' good!

Me and Elder Acosta high on the mountain top

Elder Roylance and Elder Weston (from Mesa, Az) at Chili's celebrating my ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY!

Goliath found and open door while we were filling the font!

Baptism of Guadalupe and Daniel

Iguana!

Dia Del Nino fun!

Steaming tamales

Elias, son of Tom

Elvira and 3 of her kids

Everyone in a big baptism service

Well, let me tell you about my week... another long one. Tuesday we had the district leader council. It was super good, as always and they took us out to eat at a Brazilian restaurant. I sat by the President and talked to him a lot and got stuffed full of meat. It was really good but I think I liked the Argentine restaurant better. We got home at about 11:30 from that. The next day we traveled to Tlalnepantla, my comps old area for a baptism, and ended up staying in the zl´s house there because it was late. We’ve got into the rainy season, which means it just comes down every afternoon. And all the mud and crap with it. But anyway. The off thrown schedule lately and the gym we’ve been going too had really worn me down so I got sick. Saturday afternoon we had to stay in the house while I slept it off. I hated that because we couldn’t go to a lot of appointments... that night we played basketball in the freezing rain. (What an idiot, I know.) I felt better on Sunday. It was stake conference and we were going to baptize a family of 5 a lady and her 4 sons of 15, 10, 9, and 8. The last three are every missionary’s dream come true. But... the 8 year old didn’t wake up on time so he didn’t go! We had the baptism there in the stake center with another ward so it was pretty packed... 8 baptisms. So we decided to baptize the 8 yr old later that night in our own chapel. So about 4 o clock we started to fill the font. In the font here you have to put a little plastic cover over the drain, so the water doesn’t drain. And while I was bent over doing that my smart a comp turned on the water valve all the way and shut it. Obviously scaring the snot out of me and by standing up so fast I pulled a stinking muscle in my lower back!! For hours it hurt so stinking bad I had to sit stand or lay down. It still hurts, but not near as bad. Ok, well we were back in the house waiting and 7:00 came and went. And the family never came. So we started getting ready to report the numbers and go to bed. About 8:15 they finally came. But without their mom... and we realized we needed another witness... what a mess. Lamest baptismal service probably ever. Only by chance the 2nd counselor in the bishopric passed by the house and went with us. Whatever. Pray - hymn - baptism with clothing so big it was falling off the kid. Got all changed and it was about 9 o clock so we took them all home. Story doesn’t end here. Coming back home we saw a lot of weird stuff. One kid so stinking hi off plumbing glue. A drunk picking up bottles of the street and drinking out of them, just a lot of weird stuff and turning the corner by our house two men ran up to us. At first I had no idea what was going on. They demanded my companions cell phone (it was a crappy one from the mission), and mine too (not so crappy) and his watch and searched us for our wallets. (Which we never have) I wasn’t about to give up my phone but one of them had a pistol in his hand. I'm still not sure if it was real but for the sake of the doubt I gave it up. Really bad robbers these guys. One took my agenda out of my back pocket and while they were running away he dropped it and tried to pick it up but couldn’t. Through all this, my heartbeat never got excited I never got scared or anxious. It was rather weird. My comp actually said "I'm a real missionary now! " We walked to some member’s house to call the assistants and report the numbers. And went to bed. I thought of something dad told me. If they are going to the extent to steal. They must need it worse than I do. The Lord protects His servants. Well, that’s about it. I slept in till 8 today trying to recuperate from the week. I’m not sure I’ll be able too. But anyway. Pray for my health. I'm praying for you all. Be safe and love each other. Oh ya, I forgot. That family that got baptized has had a lot of problems between themselves. About Wednesday when we visited them we were going to talk about baptism. But they were fighting so much and just pointing fingers. We decided to sing a duo of I am a child of God to invite the spirit and in the prayer I received the impression to do an activity I used to hate. I shared a scripture about charity and love and we all went around and said good things about the rest. It was a bit hard for them to only say "nice things" but it was so good. The atmosphere changed and the result was a greater dedication to say 1 nice thing about someone every day. And a baptismal date=) . Mom I know I’ve got a long ways to go on developing a more pure love but thank you for what you’ve taught and are teaching me. I'm trying. Love you all ---Elder Solomon

Eventful week

Well, it was an eventful week! The only bad part is I lent my camera to someone so I can’t send all the pictures... next week. To start the week it went a little slow. We had a really hard time finding new investigators, but we had a baptism. Her name is Guadalupe. I found her my first week here with Elder Valdez. She is such an incredible lady with a ton of faith. When we first started she wasn’t able to get off work Sunday at all. So we continued visiting her and teaching. Finally, she got a day off then came the influenza. She decided to get baptized this last Friday with her son. It was a super spiritual experience even though we didn’t have very much support from the ward... =( I was fully expecting her not to go to church for her confirmation because she couldn’t get off, but she showed up. It was a good day. Thursday to celebrate my 1 year mark (and to obey my mother) we got together with Elder Roy lance, Elder Weston, and their comps and went to Chili's. It was really good and a good time. I spent a lot because my comp is a manipulator. Saturday was an eventful day. Elder Rodriguez, one of the Elders in my district, asked me to do some baptismal interviews for him, so we went to their chapel early and what was “a couple”, was 5! I did the interviews and they got baptized right away. It was a god experience and the best part about being a leader is that their successes feel like mine too. After that we went to see a doctor for my comp. Since about Tuesday something was bothering him in his side. It looked like a rash or allergic reaction that kept growing. Turns out it is herpes, gross. The conclusion, not a sexual transmission. The covers on his bed don’t stay on too well and from direct contact all night with a dirty mattress... that’s what happened. Well, now its better. They gave him some cream and pills and we disinfected the -blank- out of that mattress. Poor guy! Then we did another interview for one of the district leaders. And went to the dia del niño (kids day) celebration. It’s a holiday they have here, as if birthdays Christmas, dia de los reyes (celebrated in January when supposedly the kings visited baby Jesus), Halloween, dia de los muertos, and all the other holidays aren’t enough! Anyway, there were a couple of skits and we helped the Elder’s quorum dance to "the lion sleeps tonight". It was really funny and I’ll have to send you the pictures. Plus, the activity was a really good opportunity for the investigators to talk and be with the members while their children played. I played basketball till about 10. They play really dirty and I'm sure it’s worn off on me. So you all better watch out! Sunday, well, my comp did his call home. Well, he did it on Skye and they had the Internet camera deal. It was funny to me to listen to how the Argentines talk. It was pretty funny. Ok well, I ran out of stories. Mom I really hope you are saving all my letters home cuz they will pry be better than my wimpy journal I've got. Who is that girl Brighton went to prom with? She’s a piña, like they say here. Tell her to wait for me =) Love you all more than words can describe. Let God teach you. Don’t ever let yourselves be beaten by anyone. Take care. ---Elder Solomon P.S. I sure hope that package gets here this week... oh, and dad’s pictures made me laugh out loud!

Best Mission in the WORLD!

Well, I talked to you all yesterday! It was so good for me to talk to you it helped me a lot. Everything is back to normal. Working with all we got. So I'm back to normal. The swine flu deal turned out to be a very minor thing blown up huge for political distractions and motives. (They passed a law legalizing the transport of drugs...) according to the Mission President, the only reason we stopped working is to be obedient to the law.

 Thursday we had the zone leader council, it was so good and we talked for nearly 10 hours on the Book of Mormon. Holy cow I've always had a strong testimony of the Book of Mormon but I learned so much and the spirit was so strong.

 I apologize to all the other missionaries but very soon in where it says, "best mission in the world" it will say "Mexico City West". We’ve found the keys of success. We call it the system. We’ve already dethroned the Eastie beasties ;) sorry  Elder Reed. The President is so incredibly directed. Every now and then he’ll say "last night I dreamed a dream"· Maybe someday I’ll have time to explain it all, actually doubt it. But let it be known that we are moving forward and not backward, upward and not down. I love the work I am the happiest I've ever been in my life .

 Yesterday I realized something. My family is the most important thing in my whole life. After hanging up I wanted to run, scream, cry, shout "hurrah for Israel" the Lord has been good to us and mostly me. It’s amazing what happens when you try to live the gospel how it should be. The Lord is great, he is good. I love Him. 

I love you all too.  

Elder Solomon

Zone Leader time

Well, after such a short run with Elder Valdez they are going to move him out. They are splitting the zone I'm in right now, and my new comp will be Elder Acosta from Argentina. And we’ll be the zone leaders so, yes, I got moved up again. I still feel I wasn’t that great of a district leader and now zone leader... oh well. Everything is good.

 We are super limited as to what we can do. We can only leave the house to go to set appointments with people that we already know and for food. So we are still a lot of time in the house. Thursday and Friday I stated getting a bit depressed not being able to work full out, but Friday night a thought came to me – “how did Joseph Smith survive liberty jail?” Well, I decided to count my blessings instead. My life aint so bad.  In fact, I got to say it’s been pretty ideal. Other than that we can’t bring people to the church because there are no services so they cant get baptized! Hoping that everything cools down by next week.

 Well, I don’t know what else to say. I have received so much spiritual knowledge thanks to the long hours of study. I love that part. Ok I love you all.

 Take care,

 Elder Solomon