Hide and Seek

Well, what’s going on Queen Creekers? (I almost said Queen Creecians but that’s a bit sophisticated). hahahza enjoying the heat? At least its clean air. Come visit me and you’ll be thrilled to return :) Sounds like the summer break is going good, calm. They still haven’t left on summer break here even though examine were two weeks ago. Everything is so corrupt here. Elections are next week and there is so much propaganda everywhere but when you ask someone they all say, "No I'm not voting. Their all corrupt" but one of the ladies on one of the parties is pretty cute so me and Elder Acosta don’t complain:) The work is going all right. Not as fast as I want but we’ll have 5 baptisms this week. We’ve been doing a ton of visits to inactive. We’ve had some good experiences but it takes up a lot of time. They also feed us a lot... last night my comp was laughing at me because of the (temporary) gut I've got. I told him to look in the mirror. This week I passed a lot of days a bit frustrated... with him. He only has 5 months left and keeps saying, "it seems like I leave tomorrow” I say it seems like he left yesterday.

 

Anyway, doing the best I can right? Do you remember Toño? The gay kid we baptized? Well the drama continues... the other day he left a letter in our house about how offended he is because we don’t go and play with him and that we never answer the door when he knocks (never mind that we are never home) and that he’s not going to go to church anymore... drama queen crap. So we said that’s fine. He just couldn’t manage to miss the opportunity to miss seeing Acosta and showed up to church... later that night we passed by our neighbors house (members) late for a bit of dinner and all of the sudden he walks out of their bedroom! My comp jumped and said he thought he saw a ghost. And he did not go home! About 11 they took him home and we went to bed. (I slept super good we opened the window and it rained all night.) I woke up in the morning and my comp was angry. I guess that about 1 in the morning Toño showed up at our house and knocked the door like crazy. My comp woke up and saw him and ignored him but then he started banging on the bedroom window! Acosta was about to let him in when he slipped a note under the door and left. It said that his mom kicked him out for getting home late (we found out that was a lie) and he went and took advantage of the neighbors... in the morning we snuck out and played basketball. For all I know he’s waiting on the curb for us... my comp calls him a "pesadilla" look it up.

 Changing the subject now…

 They asked me to talk in sacrament meeting a week ago and I forgot until they announced my name in the program... I didn’t even have my scriptures. Luckily I was last on the program. I was so nervous but I received a lot of help. I shared about Zion. And talked about being united in heart and will. Forgiving one another, not doing anything to hurt anyone. I remembered about a talk President Hinkley gave about kindness and I love the questions he asked. Why do any of us have to be so mean and unkind to others? Why can't all of us reach out in friendship to everyone about us? Why is there so much bitterness and animosity? It is not a part of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  We all need to reach out to those among us. Do you want to be happy? Forget yourself and get lost in this great cause. Lend your efforts to helping people.  Stand higher, lift those with feeble knees, and hold up the arms of those that hang down. Live the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

Love one another… serving one another with true desire and intentions bring real happiness

 Love you all; I rejoice that you are well.  Have a good week.

 -ELDER SOLOMON

 P.S.  when am I gonna get a package!?!?

 

 

Ay, papanwa!

Hey everyone,

            How is life Queen Creek!? Hope good. Sounds like it. I laughed about the boys getting dinner ready. Mom always made me prepare dinner so  I would be ready for the mission. Haha… all I needed to know was egg sandwiches and cereal... And Dad taught me both of those!!!! Anyway its good for them to do it and to give mom a break as well;) Someone tell Dad to cool down and not work so long of days. There is plenty of time for everything. Remember Mosiah 4:27. And mom, do your part! Don’t be so picky ;)

 OK, well here in Cuautepec everything is good. We had very little time to work in the area this week. Tuesday we had the transfers, which took up half the day. Wednesday a meeting with the zone which lasted till about 12, later, at about 6 took off to the offices for the zl council. Started at 9 am Thursday and ended the same day at 9 pm. We had to stay there over night again. And after traveling home in the morning, we only had the rest of the day and Saturday to work. The rainy season started up again. It rains every afternoon. And hard! All week long we had luck of being in a house when it started. Friday we didn’t have luck... We were about 20 minutes away from our destination when it started. We hid for about 2 minutes and said, oh well... We got soaked to the bone. Got to the house and the sister opened the door with two towels... We taught the lesson (luckily our scriptures didn’t get wet.)  Got to our house, changed fast and, lets go... Luckily we didn’t get sick... I was fully expecting it. Well, that and Wednesday night in the offices we played basketball in the freezing rain for like 2 hours (out of pride.)

 Ok, well, on to the spiritual part of the lesson (I'm tired of writing....)  The council was super good. The President started by reading in 2 Nephi 1. He always reads in the scriptures and explains everything to us. But we got to verse 21 and talked for hours about being men and being united. One of the main focuses was about unity in the companionship. But the part I loved best was talking about the hope. How it is much more than trusting God will fulfill his promises. In  “Preach My Gospel” it talks about how it is shown or manifest by tranquility, optimism, excitement and patient endurance. As missionaries it’s not necessary that we go crazy trying to do it all and wearing out our bodies. There is time for everything. There are so many who knock doors and contact people all day long all month long and get so frustrated because they can’t baptize. There has to be more relax. Visit inactives, visit old investigators, sit down and plan, sit down and plan out stuff. I'm having a hard time explaining it but we have to be calm and optimistic. That is true hope. Everything has its order. The true success is found in the PROCESS. If there is a problem in the results one must focus on the process and not result. Eliminate the problems right when they come up. With better processes come better results.

 I love you all so much. Take care.

 -ELDER SOLOMON

 

 

No pasa nada!

Hey everyone, well another week in the mission. They just fly by faster and faster.  This last week was pretty calm. It was pretty hot and didn’t hardly rain at all. I'm sure its nothing compared to the AZ heat but still saps the energy. We had 2 more baptisms last week, one a 13 yr old kid and another guy. He’s got a pretty cool story. His name is Juan Carlos, and he has met with the missionaries for about a year and half. He never really got interested or wanted to get baptized. We decided to give him another chance. But when we went all we did was read from the Book of Mormon. When we taught something we read it from the BOM and maybe explained a little more it and that’s it. In two weeks he quit smoking decided to live the law of chastity, had a ton of spiritual experiences,... And got baptized. He’s a pretty big guy... Haha, when I baptized him a lot of water splashed out of the font and I had quite a time getting him up. Me and my comp learned some[thing]valuable about  the Book of Mormon.  The prophets off the BoM  teach a  lot better than we do and they are a lot more blunt. We usually beat around the bush promising blessings and whatever while they say, “Do it or you’ll go to hell!” …the cold hard facts. 

Other than that my comps been driving me a little crazy.  He’s become obsessed with basketball and he wants to go play every night even if it means canceling appointments... and for those of you who don’t know, I get pretty angry when I play basketball so I haven’t been enjoying that too much.   Everything is good here.  We are working and baptizing and having fun while doing it. 

Changes are coming up.  I sure hope  I can stay here a little while longer. Cuautepec is like the missionary paradise.  And miracle!:  The Bishop is starting to really get to work.  We’ve developed some confidence and in the first meeting we’ve had with him (yesterday) he got 10 ward missionaries, a committee to update the records, and made a new theme, ( “It is a pleasure to work(in the vineyard of the Lord)) so things are going good here.

It looks like [it’s good] over there too. I cant believe the hole in the backyard! Thats incredible! Do you guys have a cow or anything still? Or just pure farmers now? The green grass and wide open spaces. I forgot there are places in the world like that. :)  The picture of Zack gave me chills, I still remember how scared I was.  Now I feel I don’t get scared of anything. I’ve seen it all here. Group of thugs? No pasa nada. We’ll see what happens when I get home.... well I love you all so much take care. There are so many reasons to be sad. You must look for the good and live for it. 

adios, ¡cuidense!  

Elder Solomon

2 Week record for RM marriage!

So Zack took off [cousin Zack Manis to the Rio de Janero Mission:  www.eldermanis.clogspot.com]. Well at least you guys don’t stop writing! Mom you’ve been slacking lately, Well all of you. jk it’s all good. [Internet problems and the letters don’t get there for 3 weeks….] 

Well, after last week we had a relatively calm week.  Except Friday. We went to the sealing of an elder who was assistant here. A record.  He went home and got sealed in 2 weeks, 2 weeks! It was good, a ton of Elders went. It was just weird seeing him holding hands with a girl! And then he overdid it and almost slipped the tongue, noises and everything over the altar! Imagine what 20 elders would do. A lot of snickering in the background. Then did it again outside! 

Later that evening we had our big activity we’ve been planning all month and... Well it didn’t go all that well. Oh well. I've learned that here you have to shoot really high to get something... its better to shoot for the stars and miss than shoot for the mud and hit. This much is true. We’ve got zone conference tomorrow so there are a lot of preparations to do.

Not a whole lot of news lately. Just same ol. Hope all is well there at home. Be smart with your summer time. I'm sure proud of all of you. Love you! 

Take care.   Elder Solomon 

P.S.  Send me the email of Zack when you get it, thx