Do I have an accent?

Breaking OUT of the chapel! (They locked us in!)

luchadores

The Lopez Family

The Metro...empty!

Silvia, Susana's mom

Wow, it was good talking to you all. You all sound so different; especially Brigg and Sheldon. Do I sound different, like with an accent or anything? I hope you all got home safe and well. It was definitely a memorable Christmas. On Saturday we had the ward party started with a little show, dinner, and then they cleared the floor for the dance! Man, me and E. Roylance were going crazy we wanted to dance so much, some of our converts came up and asked Roylance to dance and he said no puedo, so we just hung out. Man these people know how to dance really good here. Every one dances salsa, and all that other stuff, regatone, they even put a swing dance towards the end, that’s when we had to grab Elder Barrera and throw him around a bit. Before the party we taught and older man, Juventino, and challenged him to get baptized. And he did. It was pretty crazy he just fits in really good in the ward. He showed up to church a couple of weeks ago cuz some members invited him and he went for like three weeks but we could never teach him, just one time. But he accepted baptism and the commandments and had a wonderful baptismal service. I’m starting to feel my time is up in this area. Changes are in 2 weeks and I’m sure I’m going. It stinks cuz I’ve really grown to love the people here in this area.

Well, I’ve only got the book of Moroni to read to finish the Book of Mormon before the end of the year. (in a few days) I’ve enjoyed it so much. I’ve gotten to the point where I love the scriptures in Spanish. They seem just a bit simpler to me. For example I was reading in English in Doctrine and Covenants the other day and could not understand a scripture so I whipped out the Spanish ones and it made sense. I’ve also been marking a lot the BoM. One theme that has been made really clear to me is the role of God and the role of Satan. It talks so much of Satan in the Book of Mormon I never really realized it before, he, like Christ, has many names, one of my favorites is the author of all sin. Like it says in Helaman 6:30And behold, it is he who is the author of all sin. And behold, he doth carry on his works of darkness and secret murder, and doth hand down their plots, and their oaths, and their covenants, and their plans of awful wickedness, from generation to generation according as he can get hold upon the hearts of the children of men. All bad things come from him! When we are fighting with someone, when we aren’t doing something right or aren’t doing something we should its cuz Satan is sticking his little fingers in our lives! And then the part in bold, he does all this stuff according to how much he gets into our hearts. I don’t know if you all have heard of this story but it’s pretty famous here. A man was going across the desert with his camel when a sand storm was coming up. The man set up his tent and the storm hit, but he was safe in the tent. But the camel pleaded with him, “just let me stick in my nose, the sand hurts so and my nose is raw and I can’t breathe.” The man told him no but the camel insisted until he finally let him stick his nose in. after a bit he pleaded again but this time for the whole head, the man gave in and so it went on little by little until half the camel was in the tent. By this time it was really crowded in the tent and the camel tried to get all the way in and shoved the man out of the tent into the storm. Well something like that. But it’s the same satan just sticks in little by little until he has taken control of us. I really liked these verses from Ether when the people began to work in their secret combinations. Ether 8:15-26 but especially 25 and 26:

25 For it cometh to pass that whoso buildeth it up seeketh to overthrow the freedom of all lands, nations, and countries; and it bringeth to pass the destruction of all people, for it is built up by the devil, who is the father of all lies; even that same liar who beguiled our first parents, yea, even that same liar who hath caused man to commit murder from the beginning; who hath hardened the hearts of men that they have murdered the prophets, and stoned them, and cast them out from the beginning.

26 Wherefore, I, Moroni, am commanded to write these things that evil may be done away, and that the time may come that Satan may have no power upon the hearts of the children of men, but that they may be persuaded to do good continually, that they may come unto the fountain of all righteousness and be saved.

Well, be careful, he’s pretty dang smart, and relentless. We’ve got the advantage with the knowledge we have but all the knowledge in the world doesn’t help if we don’t put it to us. There are only two sides Gods and the devils. God wants us to have faith and fill our lives with light. Satan wants us fearful, out of hope, and grouchy. Doubt and fear are the opposites of faith, just like darkness is the absence of light, cold the absence of heat, fear and doubt are the absence of faith. If we do things for any motive other than faith, hope and love it is through doubt and fear, and we lack faith. If we are rebellious against our leaders and parents we lack faith. If we are disobedient, we lack faith. If we aren’t completing our callings and magnifying the priesthood, we lack faith. Now, we all have need to fortify and cultivate our faith and repent. Those two principles never cease to apply to us. How do we fortify our faith, first by hearing the word of God and secondly by acting upon it, that’s the only way. You can’t run down to Wal-Mart and by a pound of faith. It doesn’t work that way.

I love you all. I’m so glad you are being blessed. Take care and let your light shine… most of all be happy, cuz that’s why we are here.

-Elder Solomon

Who are we going to baptize?

Well, I was in divisions all week. It was nice to be with my District leaders and learn more about them and instruct a little bit. We had a surprise ZL council on Wednesday, which was a bit of a let down. I thought there was gonna be some new stuff but it was a bit boring. I was also pretty sick so I didn’t want to be there, but I’m better for it!

So, this week me and Roylance were saying, “ who are we going to baptize this week!?!? “ No one has been progressing, and we have been knocking a lot of doors lately. It’s just no one will go to church, which isn’t usually a problem here. But on Saturday, there was a baptism in the chapel. We invited a few people and one family went. This family, Ricardo, Veronica, Fanny, and two little kids, David and the other one I don’t remember his name. They went to church quite a few times and we taught them lesson one but the Landlord got angry and wouldn’t let us in so we tried putting appointments in the chapel but they never showed up. So we kind of gave up on them. But, they went to the baptism and we grabbed them and taught lesson 3 (the gospel of Jesus Christ) and challenged them to baptism. Knocked out a few doubts and they said yes! They asked, “ when”, and we said, “tomorrow”! We taught the rest really fast and the next day, Sunday, I was waiting for something to go wrong but... no! Everything was perfect and smooth. (Except for the food... the hermana was all excited for us to come over and made tacos of… well looked like dog guts all mashed up and cooked in a pot. We all got sick). The service was beautiful and the room was FULL of members which always gives a good environment. The Lord Lives ands loves his servants, that I’m sure of. Well, and everyone else too. My testimony was confirmed this week that God rewards hard work and he is the one in charge.

Susana’s mom also got baptized this week, but Elder Flores and Elder Barrera were teaching her. I love Susana. Her countenance is brilliant! When she walked in to church yesterday Elder Roylance whispered to me, “she looks like a molly mormon”. I laughed cuz it is so true. What an incredible blessing it is to see the Lord’s converts progress especially when you had something to do with it.

Have fun in the snow. It’s like 60 here and I am freezing. The temperature finally dropped this week. Have a wonderful day (London’s gradutation to the next life day). Remember memories are like April flowers in the Decembers of our lives. And there is no field of flowers like the mission field. May the memory of London stir us all to get up and do something more than dream of our heavenly mansion above. Fill the world with light, that’s what she did isn’t it? Without knowing it she was following the Saviors example because that’s what He did isn’t it? I love you all; ill wait your phone call. Thanks for all your prayers and thoughts on my behalf.

-ELDER SOLOMON

The Virgin's Birthday

Today we complete 19 months! In the words of Elder Roylance “I can’t wait to go home!” This past week was a bit of a tough one. The “Virgin’s Birthday” was Saturday and so that means party and idol worshiping all week long. We had a super hard time getting any one to church cuz even the people that don’t believe in the Virgin wouldn’t pass up and opportunity for all night partying. It sounded like a war field with all the fireworks going off and the usual music loud as can be. They take their hick Banda music and crank it up, or the gay techno stuff. It’s like if your gonna keep me up all night at least put on some good stuff! So we had almost no one in the chapel which means very little chances for a baptism this week… except one old man who showed up to church and is friends with some members. We taught him lesson 1 right there in the chapel and told him. “Well baptism is the door to enter into Gods kingdom, would you be willing to follow His example getting baptized?” yup. So well see how it goes. Not much to report it was a boring week. I knocked a lot more doors than usual. I kind of don’t like doing it because I feel like I condemn them if they don’t accept. I give them so many chances with promises and testimony that they really know what they are rejecting. Oh well, that’s just part of the work.

I set a goal to read the BoM by the end of the year I’m halfway through 3 Nephi. If I stick to my 7 pages a day ill reach it. The weather here is hot. It’s not really Christmas weather.

Wow, I’m out of stuff to say. Love you all take care. Send them Christmas packages;) see you in a bit.

-ELDER SOLOMON

That's all I got

Hum, k what am I going to write about today? How about the work?

That’s all I got.

Well, with the arrival of another companionship to the area we gave them a handful of our investigators so this last week it was looking for news! We got to do a little knocking doors that I haven’t had time for and some other proselyte activities. We found a lot but not quite the “golden finds” we had been used to. But we keep at it. The new two are new kids with 3 and 5 months in the mission I feel really old compared to them with my almost 19 months. The craziness they have is pretty annoying.

Ok, well the big part of my week was a couple of pure revelations I received. We finally got the conference version of the Liahona and I started right away picking it apart. And right off the bat, Elder Scott. Awesome talk. Pretty tough on the whole pornography thing. They have to and we have to talking strong about that (the most damning influence on earth). Cuz its bad, here it is on every corner and in every home. But the first part of his talk is what helped me a lot. He talked about how to receive revelation and receive the most out of it. I found some steps. 1, create the environment 2, receive the impressions 3, write them down 4, revise the writing to see if all is correct 5, find personal application 6, pray to receive a confirmation of the received impressions 7, ask “is there more I need to know?” Well, I got to try it out. Lately we received the challenge to have every companionship baptize every week. An intimidating challenge to say the least. Well I had my resistances and didn’t want to think about it, but I humbled myself and decided to look for the Lord’s will. I sat down Saturday night to write up a plan and… boom the impressions started. Ideas, I wrote them down as fast as I could then remembered Elder Scotts talk and looked over it quickly and applied the steps. When I prayed a feeling of excitement came over me, then I asked “is there more?” and there was! I repeated the whole process refined the plans and asked again but this time I felt like the Lord saying “that’s enough for now” I am going to present the plan in the zone conference tomorrow. Well see how it goes!

Well, I’ve got stuff to do. Love you all so much. Study the words of the prophets. It’s incredible. If you do it, you will receive personal revelation you will find the exact answers in the exact moment that you need them, and the love of the Lord will reflect in your face. That much I promise you as a representative of Him.

-ELDER SOLOMON

I'm tired!

Wow, that looks like you guys had a great time at the cabin for Thanksgiving! I’ll tell you about my Thanksgiving in a sec. I don't recognize ANYONE!!!! In the picture where you are cleaning the highway I didn't recognize Porter, Cherish, Calvin.. and... what’s her name?!?! I forgot, Brian’s smallest kid....and everyone else. I am so out of it here. I can’t believe I only have 5 month left... its a sobering thought.

I’ve been trying to make time count cuz its running out but.. I don’t know, maybe I'm trying too hard. I work hard and am having a ton of fruits but my body isn't keeping up. I don’t know if I told you but we had to change houses, we found an ok one a little bit up a hill and planned on moving Saturday cuz the assistants were gonna bring the van to help us. But they never came so I called one sister who has a big van and she said she would help us but not till like 6 in the afternoon. I said ok and she didn't get to the house till 8:30! I asked one of the district leaders Elder Garcia and his comp to help us move we moved all the stuff fast in an hour and a half but we left it all outside while me and Elder Roylance cleaned the whole house from top to bottom. Then we started moving in the stuff. We got it all in and started organizing stuff. I got sick at about 12:30. After being in the bathroom for a while I literally collapsed on my bed and stayed there. Sunday I got the rest organized.

We didn’t have that many lessons this week and I tried to take it more easy but.. we had 8 baptisms this week and... that’s a lot of work. The first one was Esmeralda, she is an incredible lady we met a few weeks ago. She is separated from her husband and her kids live with him. She always has an awesome smile and just as happy as can be, and loves the Elders. She got baptized with Susana Luna and her son Josué. Susana went to an open house a couple weeks ago and put on the reference card that she wanted a visit but we didn’t go for about a week and half. The whole time I knew we had to go see her. When we finally got there she explained how she has been looking for something in her life like this. We filled the need and she progressed, fast. Josue is slightly mentally handicapped and full of energy. They all got baptized on Saturday. On Sunday the Marcos Family got baptized or, as you know them, Juana and her dad. The whole week we were with them. I think we passed by with them every day almost. There were a lot of doubts and indecision. We took Garcia on Saturday and he interviewed everyone (it took forever) and they all felt better. Sunday morning we passed by for them all ready! Juana said she wasn’t gonna get baptized that day (I’m assuming it was that time of the month) we gave her the look like, "you really want to try this?" and she said, "well I think I can." hahaha it was wonderful. The water went out again and we had just barely enough. Good thing they are all short. Afterwards we went to the food appointment and at about 630 I was in my pajamas in bed until 8 when a lot of Elders came over to the house to get their changes. I got to say bye to Elder Acosta over phone. It was sad to know he’s gone. He was one of my best comps but, that’s what happens. The cool part is he gets home one day after his twin brother. Me and Elder Roylance got together again. Even though we are two white guys we’ve had such success together, so they left us together. We had 19 baptisms this transfer cycle or change as we call it, which is phenomenal. I’m so grateful for the success and joy we’ve had lately. We got to 36 baptisms in the zone this month which is awesome too, but I decided I’ve got to start focusing more on the zone and help out the rest more. The two elders that are coming with us are Elder Flores and Elder Barrera both relatively new. This should be fun living all together. Well. I’ve got more to write but I am literally falling asleep over the keyboard. Please pray that I’ll have physical strength, I need it cuz I can’t slow down. Not yet. I love you all and always pray that he will bless you. I’m glad that those prayers are being answered. The gospel is true and love is the motive.

---ELDER SOLOMON

Life as usual

Ok, well, I guess I’ll respond to your questions first. Me and Roylance are legitimate companions, not just hanging around. There are changes in a week but I think well stay together. I guess we´ll see! We’ve also got more news there. We are going to receive another companionship here in this ward. It’ll be cool but the thing is that we have to change houses, and that’ll be a problem. It won’t be a problem finding another one that fits us; the problem will be getting out of the one we are in. Elder Cruz signed a one-year contract there and we have only been there 3 months. Please help us with your prayers to open the heart of the owner so he will let us change. As I was sitting down to write when Elder John Reed called... of course we talk in English! It’s a bit of a pride thing that when possible, the white guys talk in English. It’s like conserving the traditions.

Oh hey Brighton, how is that job with Jerry? I think I want it. I am focused on the work. It’s like two different lives to tell you the truth. The majority is work, work, and work. But sometimes on Monday I let myself think in other stuff… until the meeting. Congrats to Sheldon and mom, head coach, that’s pretty cool. Brigg and Sheldon I’m sure are going to tear it up in wrestling. Is Workman still there or what’s the whole deal with them? and thanksgiving… I’m hoping to sneak out to Chili’s and see some American football with an American burger in my mouth, but knowing my work ethic lately there won’t be time… Well itsounds like you all are doing awesome, keep it up.

Another 20 lesson week, but this time with one baptism. Her name is Leticia. She is a bigger lady and it took 4 tries to get the gut under the water. The good thing is everyone was laughing, so apart from not being enough water and the lights going out halfway through the baptism, the spirit was there. She was happy, and the investigators were impressed. We just had to explain that this doesn’t usually happen ;) we found her a long time ago. Her mom and son are inactive members but a really nice family. Her mom is super strong willed and bossy as all get out. But Leticia always sides with us ;) we’ve got quite a few people lined up to get wet this week. First and foremost Esmeralda, one of my favorite people in México. She always gives us a little dinner after our lessons and is just ready to go! Juana and her family are good. They are still having a super hard time accepting that the virgin of Guadalupe is idolatry. But they will is just hard for tradition and this time of year is when they really celebrate her. The work is moving forward like never.

I’m not really thinking of much to say today. I’m enjoying life. Mom you are right I have grown up. A lot. I feel like I’ve waken up and I know the more I learn the more my eyes will be opened. I just finished Alma this week. My favorite by far lately has been Alma 60. There is so much good stuff there and the way to persuasion! I love this work. I love the Lord, there is no greater work except for the one we do in our own homes. I love you all and wish you a happy Thanksgiving! Have fun at the cabin.

-ELDER SOLOMON