Mateo in MEXICO: Fiesta, Grace, and THANKS Patriarch Higginson!

Alrighty I guess I will write something now. I was lazy and read all of my emails first and now I am tired and want to fall asleep. But you know what? I will write you something...

Okay so this week was pretty fun and good and went fast. Last night was like the fourth of July for Mexico so I kept like having spaz attacks when I would hear fireworks going off and everyone just laughed at me because I am "that" gringo. I KNOW OKAY.

So first... what happened. OHYAH. Okay so Tuesday we ate with the Modern Family and I was like woohooo. And since this week was a holiday week everything was super festive and hilarious. Also it was my comps birthday Sunday so this family went all out for us and we had an authentic Mexican Fiesta. It was funny. I have pictures with lots of big sombreros and cake and stuff. hahah this family makes me laugh all the time. Seriously. I just die and they are like "what's so funny?" and I am like "YOU". And they just take it as a compliment - I hope. It is hilarious because they have their neighbor who also got baptized with them (a 17 year old boy) and he just hangs out with them all the time. Mainly with the mom of his bff. And they had this really funny story Sunday when they went to a supermarket to find a missionary that is going home this week to say goodbye. So they were there like waiting in the parking lot and this random woman comes and starts talking to them about all of her problems. Like weird problems with family members throwing knives at her and being possessed by the devil and just strange things. So O. was like like uhhhh WHO ARE YOU and M. has this great idea to bring up the church and have a missionary opportunity. TEN POINTS TO GRYFFINDOR. And so she starts talking about how she really just needs to start praying to her Padre Celestial and start mending her relationship with Him. And she invited her to come to our church and listen to the missionaries. So then to introducee the church she called it La Iglesia de los Santos de los Ultimos Siete Dias.............. (The Church of the Saints of the Last Seven Days) JAJAJAJaaaa. And O. was like AYYY M. and then told the woman what the church is actually called annd I was like crying tears of joy and laughter. I was so happy and proud of M. (a recent convert) for trying to do her best and invite someone to church. What a cute attempt. And then O. saved the day and told the lady all of the right stuff. Hahaha they are just so great. Apparently the first time M. prayed she started it off with "Buenos Tardes" and the other companionship started busting up laughing and it was super awk. But now they laugh about it and are just good members that are trying to do the right thing. Gramps didn't come to church so we have to put his date a little bit later. But he will get baptized soon. No worries. Gramms was sick this week and I didn't get to see her.

So we had our interviews with President this week and it was a super good chat we had. We started the interview with one of my "favorite scriptures" and I was like ahhh i don't do good with spontaneaty Pres but I found one that I really liked. It was Moroni 10:32-33. It talks about the Grace of Christ being sufficient for us when we do our very best. It was a really good thing to talk about. I love thinking about the Atonement because it reminds me that I am really not worth anything without Christ.... But with Christ I can be worth a whole lot! I just have to choose. Through my personal devotion to Christ I receive his Grace and his Grace is sufficient to help me where I am weak. Which is like everywhere. But it's all good. It was also an interesting thing to see that Christ was faithful to every single covenant he had with God. And that's where Christ got all of his strength. It is a perfect model for us. We can really be so strong through our personal humility and submission to the will of God. Because when we do that.... well we recieve the strength from the Atonement, we receive blessings from God, and we see the love of Christ in our life. It was interesting and I will study it more later. President and I have a good relationship so I am grateful for that. He also said my Spanish has improved alot because I speak alot more fluent than I did in our last interview. haha. He also told us to look for a new house because our house it like death. So I was like OK.

We are going to baptize a great guy named J. D. There were problems because he basically lives where he works which is in our area. Like he legit has a bedroom and a bathroom and stays there sometimes. But his family lives outside of our area. But he is never home so he can't be taught there. So we have to teach him. We got permission to baptize him and take his office and the address in the ward registry. So that'll be great. He is a large man so I hope we can find a member to baptize him. I have a legit phobia of not being able to pick my investigators back out of the water. This phobia needs to be treated. Haha but I LOVE HIM and he is progressing and so stoked to be baptized. I really think he is in the mafia though. I think it adds character. It will add alot to the ward. Haha.

SPEAKING OF THE WARD. Like no one attends. There were like 40 people there and I was like UHHHHH WHAT THE HECK. It worried me. I spoke about missionary work and connected it to the atonement to pump up the members and I think it worked. I really do love them all so much but they just need to help us a little bit more and be more excited about the work. If the members aren't helping the missionaries... well the ward won't grow. SO HELP THE STINKIN' MISSIONARIES.

Okay so about the package. It has arrived but I haven't gone to pick it up yet, and because it contains food I am really stressed that they have already thrown it away because it has been 5 days today but it was closed because it is a Holiday so we couldn't go to pick it up and I am like NOOO that had important things in it. So we will go tomorrow and if they say they threw it away, well I will just offer to go dumpster diving. I have done it before, and I WILL do it again.

I also got a GREAT PACKAGE from Patriarch Higginson and just to let you know it was like my favorite letter and package EVER. I love you Patriarch Higginson and your family. Seriously. Love the tie- and love the letter. I can tell that you put much thought into it. So perfect. SO THANKS. Love yaaa!

Umm you guys should send me a voice recorder because I went to Walmart today to find one and they didn't sell them. That was my only hope. So just find a cheap one. And send it whenever you want. PS I also watched the District in Portuguese and I was like HAHAHA OMG I AM FLUENT IN PORTUGUESE TOOO haha. Not really. But I did understand like 60% of it and I was like HAAA I'M SO SMART. But not really. I decided it is a weird mix of French and Spanish. And I wanna learn French after the mission so I think I will be fluent in 4 languages some day. So that's funny a little. Maybe I will just learn all languages. I wanna learn Hebrew too so I can study the Bible in Hebrew someday and find secrets and be super intelligent. Just a thought. Well I think that is all. This took forever and I am exhausted. jk. It is raining still and WON'T STOP. I think the sky is leaking just like my house. It is rude.

Oh yeah we ate a BUTTLOAD yesterday since it was a holiday and it was just really amazing food. Pozole and other stuff. Look up Pozole and make it. It is yummy. Okay. LoVE yaa

Me aman,

Elder Macdonald