Christmas in Mexico

Hello Everyone,

     This past week has been good. We didn't have much success though, because everyone was busy doing other things. However we did eat a lot of food! Haha which is always good. 

     On Christmas Eve, we got invited to eat in a member's house with some other missionaries in our zone. 

 

     It was awesome! We ate "pizole"(pee-soul-lay). It's one of my favorites! That and empanadas! So good haha. Mexican food is amazing. Just so you know. Anyway, this Christmas was pretty sweet!   

     I got to talk to my family and also to my twin bro, who's serving his mission in Salt Lake! It was awesome. We talked a bit in Spanish, until Derek couldn't anymore haha. That's right Derek, I know more Spanish than you!! Haha. But let's no get competitive or anything... The customs here for christmas are actually very similar to what we do. They have Christmas trees, presents, lots of food, candy and everything. Also, they buy or make pinatas. Which is awesome haha! Who doesn't like a pinata? They eat turkey, ham, chocolate, and lots of other food. Overall, this Christmas was pretty good. Except I miss the snow...it's still not the same without snow!! 

      Things are starting to get exciting here in my area. We have some investigators that we could baptize within this next few weeks! We have 7 dates for baptisms. And a few of these people have been investigating the church for a while. For 2 of them, we need help from President to interview them because they have some mental issues. So all we need is the go ahead from President. We are going to talk to him today to see if we can baptize them. This other investigator that we have been teaching is awesome. His name is Carlos. He was gay, but he has changed his life completely. He was a smoker, drinker, and did a lot of bad stuff. Now he doesn't do any of these things. And he is praying for the power to resist all these temptations. Including the temptation to be gay. He is awesome. I think he is going to be baptized within this next week. 

     Well, thank everyone for being awesome! Love you all and keep me in your prayers please!

Love,

Dawson

 

For Sarah and Bree-

I love you both so much!! It was wonderful to see you on Christmas day! Sounds like you two are improving your skills in many different ways! Which is great, keep it up!! WE HAVE NETFLIX NOW!? I'm jealous haha. At least now when I return I can watch all the TV that I'm missing haha. Love you both to the moon and back!

 

 

Christmas Day

This is mom and dad after the Skype call.

     Today we got to visit with Elder Strate, it was wonderful. Besides seeing his face again, we were able to hear his voice and the change in his maturity. His testimony is so wonderful, he has such a stronger understanding of the gospel now and has the wonderful experience of sharing it multiple times a day with others.
    

     Dawson was able to talk to us for an hour and then called back for a few minutes later to visit with Derek. What a beautiful thing to listen to your sons gab away in another language. Derek, who still teaches some in English in Utah, said Dawson's Spanish is perfect. Derek's companion, who is from Argentina, got on and they had a great conversation. He said Dawson is fluent. He truly has the gift of tongues.
    Here today to visit with him were - Kristine and I, Miranda, Sarah, Bree, Grandpa Rick & Reva, Great Grandma Strate, Grandpa Ed & Faye, Bryce's family- Cindy, Karsen, Cannon and #3 on the way, Rhonda's family- Uncle Scott and Ali.
   It was wonderful for them to see the boys too and feel of their love. Today was what we needed and also what they needed. All is well. Carry on, carry on, carry on boys. We love you, miss you, but know you are doing what you're supposed to be at this time in your lives.
   Love mom and dad

Christmas Party

Hello Everyone,

     This past week has been wonderful!! We had our ward Christmas party this past Thursday. It was so awesome!! We had a lot of members, less actives, and investigators show up! There was lots of food, drinks, and it was a great time! 

     The young kids performed the Nativity, which was wonderful! And the young men and young women each prepared a dance and it was pretty cool. The young men's was better haha. The young women didn't even really plan theirs, they just kinda walked around doing whatever lol. And then a few of the young men did a special dance that was really cool. They started rapping and break dancing and they were really good at it. It was a fun night and everyone enjoyed it!!

     Then last night, we had a Christmas Devotional with all the missionaries in our zone. I think there is about 20 of us, not sure exactly lol. 

     That was awesome too! Some of the missionaries gave talks, and played some special musical numbers. It was awesome!! And I lead the music. At first I didn't really want to, but I did it anyways. It turnded out to be great! I'm grateful that I learned how to lead music, because I am actually using it now!! Everything is going great! 

                                                                  Elder Zambrano

     Please, remember my companion and I in your prayers!! 

      Thanks everyone for being awesome!!

       Love Elder Dawson Strate

Email

Thursday we get to Skype! Hope we can get them both at the same time, that would be awesome. Their P Day is today, so if anyone wants to drop them a line, I'm sure they'd love it. Just in time for Christmas.
Email them at-
dawson.strate@myldsmail.net
derek.strate@myldsmail.net

Ocean Baptism

Hello Everyone,

     This week has been crazy!! I will try to remember it all. This past Wednesday, Elder Estrada was really sick. He was saying that his entire body was hurting. So Wednesday we just stayed inside all day...and it was soooo boring!! I have never been so bored in my life hah. So I just studied and read scriptures for most of the day. And usually we eat at members houses, but we couldnt leave the house. So the member family brought us food to our house. They bought us a chicken with some tortillas and a large drink. But the moment that we opened the container that had the chicken, oh man it smelt soooo bad!! 

 

     We checked it out and it was so rotten haha. We didn't eat any of it. We threw it out in our back yard and some cats enjoyed it. So we ordered pizza instead. It was pretty good actually! The pizza place is called Mario Bros. Pizza. Which is awesome haha! I'm sending a picture of the fridge magnet that came with the pizza lol.

 

      This past Saturday we had a baptism!! And because the church is being renovated right now, we had the baptism on the beach!! It was so cool!! As missionaries we are generally not allowed to go to the beach. But for baptisms, yes! So I took a good amount of photos and I will try to send them all! The man we baptized is 94 years old!! His name is Felipe Campos. He is so awesome! I'm so happy that he decided to get baptized! He has a wonderful testimony of he gospel! His example shows that anyone can change! No matter how old you are, or how out of reach you feel, you can always return to the right path with our Heavenly Father's help!! 

 

 

     My spanish is coming along really well. It helps when I have a spanish speaking companion! I really like it here in Playa del Carmen. Its beautiful and the members here are awesome!! They have a ton of food for us always. I actually think I'm starting to gain a bit of weight now...yikes!! I hope not! 

The way that we contact people is a bit different here in Mexico. We don't go around knocking on doors unless there is a specific person that we are looking for. Like a reference from a member or something. And right now we have a few so we are searching for their houses. There are always people walking in the street so we just talk to everyone. This is how we do most of our contacting. Its good. However, the majority of our sucess(in terms of baptisms) comes from references from the members. All of my baptisms that I have(which is now 6) have been references. But thats great, as long as the work is progressing, I'm happy!! There are a lot of less active members too. So we spend a lot of our time trying to re-activate them too. This is something really important. President Hinckley said that missionary work is not worth doing if we don't hold on to the fruits of that effort. We have a responsibility of members of the church to share the gospel with everyone and to help thos that are in need. Especially our brothers and sisters who have fallen off the path. We can help them in many ways! One of the most important of these ways is setting a good example for them. How we need to be strong faithful members of the church. And to look for ways to share our joy of living the gospel with those that need it!

     I love you all so much!! Keep writing and sending prayers!! 

     Love,

     Elder Strate

Pillow pics

Dawson sent these the other day. No details, hopefully I can tell you more about them later.......... UPDATE
Okay, I will try to explain all the pillows haha. So, in the MTC they have what's called the pillow room. And It is where they store all the pillows in the MTC. And you cannot go in unless you are a staff member. And no one knows where this room is. Until me and my district were in the MTC haha. We found the pillow room and its awesome!! It's about the size of my bedroom back at home, but filld with pillows. And I mean filled!! like 5 feet tall filled with pillows! Its so awesome! You can literally swim in the pillows! Its amazing. Yes, we went in even though we were not suppposed to. So don't tell anyone...lol.

Transferred!

Hello Everyone,

     Just so you know, this past week has been kinda crazy! So I´m going to try to remember all that happened and write it! 

     Okay, so this past week, I found out that I have an infection in my stomach. Yikes! These past few days have been really painful for me. But I have medicine now so hopefully everything will be okay! So please keep me in your prayers, because I need them!! 

     Sounds like everything is going good back home! It´s good to here from some family members. 

Well, today I´m officially done my training! And also, we had transfers this morning! And I´m in a different area. Playa del Carmen!! My new companion is Elder Estrada. He is Mexican, and he´s great! We have a baptism lined up for Saturday which is awesome! This man that we are going to baptize is 94 years old!! And we are going to baptize him in the ocean!! I´m so excited!! I will take pictures of the baptism for next week so you all can see. Oh, and the beach too! Haha. I´m going to try to send a bunch of photos today, to make up for the last few weeks. 

     Anyways, I am doing okay here!! Yes mom, I have received the Christmas package!!! But now I have to wait like 2 and a half more weeks until I can open the presents...lol. I think I can wait... I should be okay haha. I have learned to have a lot of patience here in the mission so I will be fine. As of two days ago, I completed 4 months as a missionary!! Wow time flies. Only 20 more to go...haha.   

     Also, I did receive the pants mom. They are a bit tight, but they should be okay. I saw my father (Elder Webb) today. Today is his last day here in the mission. My father is dying...lol. That´s what we say when a missionary is leaving, he or she is dying. And when they are gone, well, ya they´re dead. And Elder Webb is my ¨father¨ because he trained me. And Elder Tito was my step-father because he finished my training. But anyways, everything is going great!! We have more baptisms lined up for this month too, so I´m super excited! 

District pic with Elder tito and I

 

     I think on Christmas day, we can talk on Skype. So Dad, if you don´t have an account on skype already you should make one. You can through facebook. It´s easy. Then maybe you could send me the info and your address so I can find you. I think we are going to use the computer of a member. And I don´t know exactly what time on Christmas day, but I can let you know when I do!

Thanks for everything!! Love you all tons!! 

New place in Playa del Carmen and Elder Estrada.

Love

update

Hello Everyone,

     Sorry for not writing yesterday. None of the computers had internet yesterday, so I couldn't write. But now yes, so I'm writing today. Mom, we have a portable DVD player in our house to watch videos of the district so I think I don't need a CD player, but it would be nice to have enough money just in case! 

     So, everything here is going good. My health is getting better. Sometimes its hard to focus on the work when im hurting. But I'm doing my best!! And with the help of the Lord, that's all we can ask for!! Well, I don't have much time to write. But thanks everyone for being so awesome! I'm doing okay here. But these computers are not working...so I'm having a hard time trying to send photos. 

got to go, mucho amor!!

Love,

Elder Strate