Week 18 in Mexico

This week was really interesting, Firstly, we had a baptism!  It was great, his name is Jorge, and we found him one day when we were coming back to the house.  He lives like right outside of our house.  He asked us what we believe in and what we teach, and so we taught him, and when he had all of the lessons, and had come to the church enough times, we baptized him.  That was one of the big things that happened this week, the other thing is that I got changed!  My new area is called Cruz del Sur, and we are right here in the city.  This area has a lot more things then my other area.  We have a Dairy Queen, McDonald, and other stuff like that.  I also am training a missionary.  Its a little different, because he already has finished half of his training, but I am going to finish the other half of his training with him.  I wasn't able to write yesterday because we were helping get all of the new trainers to our house, because our house is extra big for when other missionaries come for a meeting or something because the mission offices are like 15 minutes from our house.  My new ward consists of my companion and I, the secretaries, and the sister training leaders.  It definitely is a big change from my other area to here.  I will have to send pictures of my area next week, and this week, I have some pictures from the baptism and other stuff.  Good Luck everyone.  Elder Carey

Week 17 in Mexico

This week has been good so far.  We should have a baptism this week if everything goes well.  We have 2 baptisms set for the next 2 weeks, but we still have to make sure that they are ready to be baptized.  This is the last week of this exchange, and we´ll have to see if I end up somewhere else next week.  Not much else has happened.  We had divisions with the district leader, and I went to his area.  It was good to be with another american, its the first time in 2 months haha.  I don´t have much more to right, but good luck everyone!

Elder Carey

Week 16 in Mexico

This week was good, it was a little different from last week.  We got a lot of references, mostly from the other elders in our ward.  When we went to go find them we found out that some of them aren´t married, but we are trying to help them get married.  We got a couple more baptismal dates set.  So far we have some baptisms ready and if everything works out, we will have a couple in the following weeks.  Some of our investigators are a little tough though.  The mom of Fernando, my first convert, now has a baptismal date, but it is like the 5th one she has.  She hasn´t been praying or completing the commitments.  She says that if she recieves an answer she said she would be baptized.  She has come to church with us a few times, but not recently.  Her son is helping her work and read some.  Our other investigator that wants to be baptized, we found out that he did some things bad, and can´t be baptized for now.  He had an interview with the president of the mission, and we have to get permision from the first presidency to baptize him.  He is a really good person, and our president thinks so too.  He wants to serve a mission, and our president told him to prepare, and he is excited to for his baptism.  

Hope everyone has a good week!

Elder Carey

Week 13 in Mexico

This week has been really good!  My new companion is a good elder, and we are having fun together.  This week we talked with a lot of people, and found 22 future investigators.  We also had a zone conference here this week con presidente.  It was good.  It lasted from 9 to 4 in the afternoon.  We got food, and learned a lot.  My companion and I both bought these tops called trompos, all the kids here use them.  The goal is to hit the other top enough times to break it.  It is hard to get the hang of it, but we are trying it out and the kids in the ward are helping us.  Not much else happened here.  We have another investigator with a baptismal date, but he is a little weird.  He did come to church with us, so we are hoping that we can help him partake of a baptism.  I don´t have any more pictures for this week, but I will be sure to take some this week.

Good Luck everyone!

Elder Carey

Week 9 in Mexico

Wow time flies fast here!  I only have 3 weeks left in my training!  So far everything is going good here.  We have had a little bit of trouble with our investigators coming to church, but today we are going to visit some future investigators, and try to get a baptismal date, and commit them to come to church.  

This week we went to explore the other part of my area.  It is about 30 minutes in bus to one part of my area, and then who knows how long to the other part, walking.  It is very far away, and there haven´t been missionaries there for about 5 years.  We went and didn´t get there because it was taking to long, but we are going to go again a different way that will be faster. We ran into the state police because we were walking around a juvenile detention center, but we explained what we were doing, and where we were trying to go, and they helped us a little. That took up a lot of time so it should be faster next time.  There are pictures of the other part of my area.  Lots more fields and open areas, it is quite beautiful. 

Good luck everyone!
Elder Carey

Week 8 in Mexico

How is everyone doing?  So far everything here is good.  We have had some trouble with investigators coming to church.  One of our investigators can be baptized this week, but she won´t accept a baptismal date because she doesn´t feel ready.  We are working with her to help her feel ready.  All of our investigators need 5 asistencias or to come to church 5 times before they can be baptized.  This week we are going to work especially hard in finding new people to teach.  We did have lots of the less actives that we are teaching come to church yesturday, which was cool.  Otherwise not much happened.  Best of luck to everyone!

Elder Carey

Week 7 in Mexico

This week has been pretty good!  It has been a little tough now and then because lots of people are on vacations, and it is hard to find people, members and investigators.  In the begining of the week, we went to go visit the family that was coming to church and everything, and they said that they don´t want to be taught any more because his wife isn´t super inclined, and they want to try more in a different church.  It was really sad, because they were listening, coming to church, reading and everything.  We still are going to try and send over members, one in specific, who is a recent convert, and had almost the same situation before his baptism.  We did feel the hand of the Lord when we decided to go to a members house, and found the member, her son and his wife (who are investigators), and the rest of their family.  We were able to teach a lesson, and talk with them for a little bit.  It was a really interesting day.  We also had a zone meeting, and in zone meetings, we get the letters from the month.  It was great to get letters and hear from people.  Not much else happened this week.  We went to the central of Tlaquepaque today, or the main city that is in my zone.  It is a really cool city, and I have a picture of one of the cool buildings.  It is really interesting to be in a big city in another country, and not as a tourist.  I sometimes hear people speaking English,
and honestly, its sort of weird sometimes.  Time is really flying by, I only have 4 weeks left in my training and it is the middle of August already.  I am grateful for this opportunity to serve, and to learn and grow.  Hope everyone has a great week!

Elder Carey

Week 6 in Mexico

Hey everyone! 

Hope everything is going good! So far, this week has been pretty good.  Sometimes the days are long because lots of people are gone for vacations.  Overall things are still pretty normal.  I finished my first exchange here in Mexico!  My training is half way over.  The work here is going good, but our investigators didn´t come to church again :(  We don´t have any new ones, but the lessons with all of our current ones are going pretty good.  We are teaching an hermana named Jessica, and we taught her about the plan of salvation.  She has some doubts about it because she believes in reincarnation, but we explained to her that if she reads the Book of Mormon, and comes to know it is true, than reincarnation isn´t true. Sometimes the people here are weird with their religions and beliefs.  The ten commandments here says to ¨sanctify your parties¨ and doesn´t mention the sabbath day.  The good thing is that when people understand and agree with us, we can tell that they have been prepared.  We had a change in the zone leaders this past exchange because one of them finished his mission and is on his way home.  I have a picture of him, and a picture of part of my zone that I am going to send.  Time really is going by fast, and it is interesting to see how the Lord works with people of different cultures. Well I´ve got to go, good luck with everything everyone!

Elder Carey

Week 5 in Mexico

This week has been pretty good!  It has been pretty normal as well.  We found another family to teach!  They were a refural of a member, and it was cool because the day we got the refural, we were out and about.  We finished up a lesson, and went to our next, but just about no one was home.  I was talking with my companion, and mentioned that we should go to this house, but it was sort of far away, so my companion thought that we should try and go somewhere else.  Then like two minutes later, the same member called us and told us they found someone who wanted to hear more!  It is a family, and they are doing really good.  We have had  2 lessons with them, and they came to church!  They are catholic, but there are things that they disagree with.  The two parents aren´t married so we can´t get a baptismal date, but they have plans to get married soon so they can be members!  I can tell that they were prepared for us to teach!

This week we also went to KFC twice because members didn´t have time to make us food, so they just gave us money, so we went to KFC!  I also bought a nerf gun at a members house for way cheap. My companion bought 2 nerf guns, and a light saber.  I´m not exactly sure, but it is an interesting souvenir.

So far spanish is coming really good.  Everyone tells me that I´m doing good, but I still have a hard time talking to people in the street, because I haven´t learned a lot of the words or phrases.  I have talked with people in the street, and usually they understand me, and I can understand part of what they are saying!   

I´ve got to go because I don´t have lots of time to write today because of a meeting I had in the mission office because it is my 6th week.  Good luck everyone with everything!

          Elder Carey

Hi everyone!  Hope everything is going well back home!  Happy Birthday Olivia!  Its too bad I'm not there for everything, but I'm there in spirit.  This week, nothing super exciting happened, except for a couple things.  It was pretty much like last week with the same type of lesson schedule.  I did figure out how to put pictures up!  Guess who came for our Tuesday devotional this week?!  Russel M. Nelson came and gave us a short talk about being missionaries, and how we need to teach investigators, or people not lessons.  There was one quote that was super funny, "having character is better than being one".  I thought that it was pretty funny.  During my P day last week, after I was done emailing, we went and played volleyball, and then to the temple.  It was very nice to finally have a day off.

The hermanas that were in our zone left this past Monday for Mexico!  It was cool to have them in our zone, and we got 6 new missionaries this week!  4 hermanas, 2 elders.  One of them is 6'7"! I'm not the tallest person in our zone anymore!  They all seem like nice people, and I'm sure they are.  I also got to see Tevin yesterday!  He was one of my roommates in school, and I knew he was coming in, and I saw him in the Cafeteria, and went over and talked with him for a bit.  It was good to see another person I knew.

Okay, so in this email I have 5 pictures included, I will send another email with just pictures because I can only get 5 to fit.  There are some pictures of me at the temple, and one of my companion.  Oh and by the way, he speaks 5 languages now, swahili, kerundi, french, english, and spanish.  In the next email I will send some pictures of us at the big map.  I'll try to remember to get lots more pictures with the rest of my district today.

Spanish is coming along pretty good so far.  We did this thing on Monday, where we meet some volunteer members who let the missionaries teach them a lesson in spanish, and it was pretty cool and fun.  Our teachers also pretend to be investigators during the first hour of each class, and 2 companionships are assigned to teach them.  I think those are coming along well.  We can understand the questions that they have for the most part, but the hard part is responding in spanish.

I realized I might need a couple things in the package you send me.  I could use some more socks for gym time or P day, some of my socks disappeared, and they might be in my room but I don't think so.  I could also use some eye drops, I don't know what it is out here, but my eyes get itchy a lot.  Also, send lots of pictures of back home.  Some of the elders in my district got pictures of them, and their families and should them to us, maybe you could send some to me like that.

Thanks for all of the letters, keep writing lots!  Thats great that other people want to know more about the church because they hear that I'm serving a mission!  Tell lots of people to write me!  Getting letters is the best.  My time is almost up, so goodbye!  Happy Birthday Olivia!! don't have too much fun without me!  Good luck with school, its almost summer!  I'll email again next week!

Love- Elder Austin Carey

Hi everyone!  Sorry I haven't been able to write yet, today is my first P day, because they didn't want to give us a p day right after our first day.  First let me tell you about my district.  There are 4 elders and 4 hermanas.  We only have 14 people in our zone.  It was funny because when I got to west campus (where all the spanish speaking missions are, I walked off the bus and one of the hermanas in my zone was a friend of mine from BYUI!  My companion is Elder Habonimana, and he is from east Africa, Tanzania.  He has lived in Salt Lake City for 6 years.  The elders in my district are Elder Cummings and Elder Slade.  They both are from around here and are great people.  Sorry, I don't have any pictures for today, I forgot to bring my camera with me to the computer lab, and I only have one picture on it anyway, but today, we are going to the temple and will get lots of pictures.

  So far this week has been very good, on my first day, when I walked into the class,  the teacher was telling me to do something in spanish and I had no Idea what she was talking about, but now, I think I am learning spanish quite well.  How is everything doing back home?  Be sure to send lots of letters, dear elder works great so far.  Thats cool that you and Dad were able to see a general authority!  During Sunday evening devotional we watched a movie called the Character of Christ.  It was a talk given by Elder Bednar two years ago in the MTC.  It was REALLY GOOD. Then at the end of the movie, Elder Bednar walked in!!!!!!!!!  We were able to have an awesome question and answer session with an apostle of the Lord!!!  It was so cool, he answered all of our questions perfectly!  It was cool because he always had a scripture or a talk from somewhere to relate to the question.  He made some very cool analogies about faith and the gospel of Christ. It was one of the coolest experiences ever!

My whole district also decided to be in the choir for Tuesday devotionals, and this week we sang Where can I turn for peace, and it was great!  the only problem is that the seats for the choir in the auditorium are horrendous, and are possibly the least comfortable chairs I have ever been in.  We were sitting there for so long!  Oh, and for Tuesday devotional, the speaker was Elder Evans of the Seventy, and he taught us about teaching people, not lessons, and that now is the best time to be a missionary.  It was a very good talk. 

Ok, so on our 2 day, one of our teachers told us that on the next day when he came back, he would be Jose, and investigator we were supposed to teach.  The hard part was that it all was in spanish!  This was on our 3rd day!  we were able to understand a little bit here and there, but for the most part, it was just reading spanish scriptures and telling him stuff that we had already translated.  But as we progressed, we gave him 4 lessons, the last one being yesterday.  Each one I feel got progressively better, but now our teachers, both of them are going to be new investigators for us to teach, with 20 min lessons before each class.  Our first lesson with these "new" investigators are tomorrow.  It is pretty good practice to teach someone in spanish.  There are also people who live on the campus and pretend to be investigators.  We weren't sure if they were members at first, but we talked to one, and asked him, and he said he was required to tell the truth, so he is a member, but gets to stay here and help new missionaries practice  giving lessons to him.  He isn't the only one, there are lots of these people, and we are supposed to talk to them and have them let us give them lessons like we would an investigators.  My companion and I have already talked to two of these people besides Alan( the one who told us he is a member) and they said we could teach them!  One of them, his name is Jorge, said we could once we learned the language more, but he has been helping m companion and I get the hang of spanish.  The other, whose name is Mercedes, said she had a friend who wanted to here from us, so we will go teach her friend next week sometime.  It will be cool to get to teach them all.  

     As for things I need, I was told that I couldn't use my backpack, so I need a shoulder bag, I also wouldn't mind some good snacks!  :)    As for the shoulder bag, you can either send me one, or I could just wait until I get to Mexico, and get I nice one for cheap.  So far I have been able to make it without too much hastle without my backpack, but we will see.  I can't think of much else for you to send me, but if you think of anything, let me know.

Yesterday was the one week mark, and was when all the new elders and hermanas came, none of them are in my zone, but it is nice not to be the newest group anymore haha.  I hope that next week, we get more missionaries for our zone.  I will let you know, but now, my time is just about up, be sure to write lots, dear elder is probably best for now in the mtc.  Can't wait to here from you next!

-Love Elder Austin Carey