Monday 23 February 2015

Weekly letter

Hello Everyone,

     Hope everyone has had a great week. Must be nice to have a full week off of school. Hope everyone had fun! As for me, well as a missionary I don't get that much time off haha. Only a few hours every Monday. But that's okay, because I am in the Lord's work and the Lord's time. 
     This past week has been good. We ordered pizza one night and it was pretty good! Can you guess what flavor I ordered? That's right. Canadian. Gotta stay faithful to home sweet home haha! And another day we couldn't eat with a member because she was busy. So she gave us money and we ordered "Hong Kong Express" which I've never had before. So we thought we would try it! It was pretty good. But after I my stomach felt weird because I am accustomed to eating Mexican and Yucatacan food. Luckily I didn't get sick haha. One of my favorite types of food is called "Empanadas". It's Yucatacan (or in other words made by the people who live in the Yucatan). I'm going to send a picture of some empanadas too because they are so good haha.  
     Well, other that the food everything is great here. The weather is amazing. "Not too hot, not too cold, but just right". 
     We are progressing with our investigators too. We visited Raul last night and it was awesome. For those of you who don't know, if a person wants to be baptized and they are living with another person, they need to either separate, or get married. We say it in Spanish like this "Separarse o Casarse". Haha. Anyways so Raul told us yesterday that he is going to separate from his "wife" (because they are not married) because he wants to get baptized. Its probably better anyway because his wife is pretty messed up. So we hope that in March he can be baptized!! Yay! Our other investigators are progressing well too. We are working hard with them and we hope we get get about 3 or 4 baptisms this March. 
     Well I'm out of time. But thanks everyone for your prayers and thoughts!! Keep sending them please!! Oh, and no I didn't go to the ruins :/ another day!! Have a great week everyone!

Love,

Elder Strate 



Friday 20 February 2015

update

Received this from a member in Mexico tonight. Love getting updates.

Here's your soldier doing some work,it has so impressive on how well he's adapted to Spanish in the short time he's been on his mission... He says he's starting to forget his simple Spanish jejeje..... Enjoy the photo and be very very proud of him,and my respects to you and sister Strate for having two sons on their mission..... Great job hermanos.... — feeling thankful.


Monday 16 February 2015

Weekly Letter

Hello Everyone,

      Sounds like lots of great things are going on back home!! Because here in Mexico, its wonderful!! The sun is shining, birds are singing, and I'm a missionary!! What more could I want? Haha. Oh, happy valentines day too! Even though it doesn't really mean much to me as a missionary. Or does it...? Haha I'm just joking. 
     This week has been a pretty normal week. We did find a few more investigators to teach. A young couple that we talked to in the street. Jesse and Irvin. We have visited with them once and we taught the restoration. It was awesome. I felt the spirit so strong as I was testifying of Joseph Smith and that through him we have the true Church of Jesus Christ here on the earth. I know that they could feel the spirit too. We have another appointment to visit them tomorrow and I'm sure that we will be able to put a baptismal date for them! 
     Other than that, not much else has happened. But, for your information, I might not have time to write a letter next Monday. Because I think we are going to Tulum with some other missionaries to see the ancient ruins and stuff! It should be interesting! 
     Thanks for all the love and support! And I also apologize for not having any photos to send...but I guess thats okay. Love you all and have a safe week!

     Love,
     Elder Strate

Monday 9 February 2015

Deja vu

Hello Everyone,

     This week has been pretty calm. Nothing crazy has happened haha. I forgot to tell a bit more about my companion. My companion is Elder Mayorga, and he is from the State of Mexico. He has 4 months here in the mission. And me with 6 now, both of us are still fairly new haha. But thats okay.      
     We get along great and we help each other learn different things every day! Okay, well something pretty interesting did happen this week haha. Your not going to believe this, well maybe lol. Ok here goes. 
     So remember when I told you all the story about this guy and another woman fighting in the street with a knife? Well, it just so happens that we had another encounter with the same people this week... Elder Mayorga and I were walking in the streets and this same guy that was in the fight rode his bike up behind us and started talking to us. He said his name was Raul and that he wanted to talk to us. *gulp* lol. Anyways, he started talking to us and he thanked us for what we had done (we called the police if you don't already know). He explained to us that this woman was his wife and that she wanted to cut/stab him with the knife. She wanted to because she was mad at him because he told her to stop smoking marijuana lol. And the reason that he had the knife is because he took it away from her so she couldn't stab him! Then he said that the police helped and it was all good. But if we hadn't called the police when we did, who knows what could've happened. Now comes the awesome part! So we talked to him and he explained that he has a drinking problem and that he hadn't drank alcohol for 7 years until this past week when he had one. He told us that he wants to change and everything. Then he said that he is familiar with the church and he's really interested. So we returned to his house yesterday to teach him and he accepted everything we taught and he also accepted a date for baptism!! WOOHOO!! haha. March 21 is the date we put. But he might be able to be baptized before then because he is so awesome. 
     So thats what happened this week haha! I hope you all like the pictures of me washing my clothes in a bucket with a stick lol. I do look a bit mad in the photo, but don't worry I am happy haha! Thanks for all your love and support! I hope that you keep sending your prayers and thoughts! 

Love,
Dawson
 
 

Monday 2 February 2015

Ocean Baptism

Hello Everyone,

     I hope everyones week was great! Because mine was haha! We had a baptism of a little girl named Yessica. It was awesome! Right now they are renovating the chapel so we have to do the baptisms in the ocean. Hey, I'm not complaining! It's way better to do it in the ocean than in the font haha! 





 
 
 
      Other than that this week has been pretty normal. We found some new investigators, so hopefully we can get working with them and put some baptismal dates. We recently got a new Ward Mission Leader and we are just starting to work with him. He is awesome! He's a returned missionary of about 2 years. And his wife is the Relief Society President too, so that helps us a lot with the work!! 
     We also just found an old investigator that I didn't even know about. She is awesome! Her name is Milca, and her boyfriend's name is Esau. He is a member but has been less active. We are activating him and also teaching Milca which is awesome! The last lesson we had we taught about the restoration and Joseph Smith. We are praying for her so she can recieve an answer to her prayers to really know if its true. I can see a lot of potencial in Her and Esau.
     Haha, also this week we've had some "bible bashes" if you will. There are lots of different churches here in Mexico. But more than nothing, there are a lot of Jehova's witnesses. It's always interesting to hear what they have to say, because at times they say some pretty weird things. But that's okay haha. I have my scriptures and I know how to use them haha. Thank goodness for our study hours every morning!    
     As for the super bowl....wow I don't know what to think. I thought for sure the Seahawks would win, even though I'm not a fan haha. Crazy things always happen in the world of sports. 
     Thanks everyone for all the love and support! I will continue to work hard to build God's Kingdom here on the earth!! What a wonderful opportunity! Love you all so much! Please pray for me haha! 

Love,

Elder Strate