November 24, 2014
Dear
All:
This
week was really good, but my companion will be going home. I don’t know what my
companion situation will be like, but I really really hope I get to keep
training someone. I love being a papa. But we did have a lot of good success
this week. Edwin came to a baptism with us this week to see what it’s like, and
he loved it. I asked him if it’s something he’d like to do, and he said yes! He
chose to be baptized 13th of December! Now we just need to work on his wife. She’s
a little bit tougher.
Also I’ve been like
inadvertently learning some really deep doctrine of the Church, which is really
exciting. I don’t think I’ll post my thoughts about it because I figure people
need to figure some of that out for themselves because just straight up hearing
it doesn’t work. But that’s sort of what comes with studying the scriptures all
the time, especially D&C.
One day all of our
appointments feel through one day so we decided to look for people who live
close to our house because that’s what president told us as a mission. I
started talking to this lady in our street for about 5 minutes, and I had
talked to her kids a lot before. She invited us in and corralled all her kids
and we had an awesome first lesson, and they all accepted baptism! Now we just need
to put dates with them. But it was so awesome because she was like “my kids
were just baptized in the Catholic church like a few months ago, but I feel
like we should all get baptized in this church, this sounds really true,” and
she was like paying a lot of attention in the lesson so that was awesome.
Obdulia is still coming
to church so she’s on track to be baptized. We also put a baptismal date with
her daughter Jessica, but she didn’t come to church because her husband wouldn’t
let her. I’ll have to talk to him.
Things are really picking
up. Sometimes I wish our success was more rapid but like mom said, I’m a fisher
and I have a lot of friends who are hunters, but I’m really glad to be a fisher
because reading emails from the U.S missionaries makes me really happy to be
here where people really want to listen. But there are lots of trade offs: we
get more investigators, but they get cars, ipads, clean water, washing
machines, bikes, and they don’t get diarrhea as often as we do, infections in
your toes from investigators digging out a ingrown toenail, etc. ahhaa It’s
really not bad at all here. I love it there aren’t many days where I actually
feel what I’m doing is hard because I love being here and I love what I
do.
I’m gonna share a
spiritual thought in Spanish now, I guess.
como les dije he leído
El Libro de Mormón, Doctrina y Convenios, y Jesús El Cristo, entonces ahorita
estoy estudiando la biblia (nuevo testamento) porque el antiguo seria bien
difícil. Pero hace mucho tiempo encontré una escritura que se encuentra en
Marcos 6: 5. que habla cuando Jesucristo fue a predicar en Nazaret pero la
gente le rechazó, y en 5 dice ¨y no pudo hacer allí ningún milagro, solamente
sanó a unos pocos enfermos, poniendo sobre ellos las manos¨ pues podemos
ver que Jesucristo mismo no pudo obrar ningún milagro entre las personas que no
creían, entonces, aprendimos que Jesucristo, el hijo unigénito de Dios no puede
hacer milagros cuando las personas no tienen la fe suficiente. Entonces hay una
razón porque fe es una de los primeros principios del evangelio, Porque sin la
fe no tenemos nada y no podemos recibir ninguna bendición.
(i wouldn’t put that
into google translator because its translates in word for word which will mess
up the meaning in English)
Things are awesome here
I love the mission, but time goes by really fast which is kind of sad because I
love being here. I’ve got a Josh Groban Christmas album on my ipod so I’m
getting ready for Christmas already. Thanksgiving isn’t really a thing here
ahha. I miss you guys a lot! I hope everything is well. That’s crazy Josh will
be back so soon. I’m excited for him. Also I forgot my cord for my camera this
week so photos will have to be postponed again!
Love you all!
Elder Latimer
December 1, 2014
Hey! That’s
awesome that the Seahawks, Dawgs, and BYU won! Great week for football. I was
in a trio for only 3 days with the other Elders and a super cool RM who has
only been back for a month offered to be my companion for these next 2 weeks
until we have transfers. AND I CAN’T SEND PHOTOS. They’re all here on my camera
but it doesn’t show up on any computer because some guy that works at these
internet cafes like killed it. I might just mail my memory card or something
like that. I can see the pictures when they’re on my camera but not on the
computer.
This week was pretty
great. We started this really cool church initiative that you guys probably
know about. In Spanish it’s called “Él es la Dádiva.” It’s a video about Christmas
and why we celebrate it. And for this video were supposed to have like 10
street contacts every day and report on the numbers. Also the Church bought
YouTube for one day to advertise the video and also a huge screen in Times Square
for all of December. It’s estimated that if we have these 70 street contacts a
week well have 15 converts this month.
We taught Rigo last
night. He’s super awesome. We taught some of his friends with him, and he’s
basically a missionary and helped us teach a lot. He’s been going to institute,
and stuff like that, and he wants to be baptized 13th of December so we’ll be
seeing a couple of baptisms soon! President almost closed my area because I
couldn’t find a member to be my companion. He called me and told me that, then
immediately after this RM offered to be my companion! It was awesome, but it’s
kinda weird because his girlfriend is in our ward ahah. I think I’ll get to
train again. I really hope I can train Kaleb. That would be the coolest thing
ever.
Thanks to this new
church initiative we’ve had a lot of new lessons, and awesome contacts. This is
like part of the second coming. How the whole world will know who Jesus Christ
is. It’s cool to be a part of it. Not a lot of crazy stories this week. Except
for it’s a new rule in the mission that we have to wash clothes by hand so that
sort of sucks but it’s really not that hard. I did eat cow stomach soup this
week. It doesn’t taste bad but its uncomfortable chewy. And this morning I ate
cow stomach and throat tacos. It was actually really good haha.
It’ll be weird this
first Christmas away from home but the time goes so fast I’ll be home soon
haah. It’s just weird being here because it doesn’t feel like Christmas because
there’s not like a lot of lights and music, and snow like there is at home, but
that’s okay, I’ll get used to it.
Miss you all take care.
Elder Latimer
December 8, 2014
Dear
Everyone:
That’s
super awesome that Josh came home. I was thinking about that a lot this week. It’s
so crazy it seems that he just left. But I’m also approaching the halfway mark
soon. Time flies here. I don’t know it if does there. But it’s a pretty common
thing to work with a member when your comp goes home here. Lots of missionaries
have done it apparently. We are having lots of success in our area!
We have two baptisms
programmed for this Saturday, Rigo and Edwin. Rigo is super freaking awesome. I
was nervous we weren’t gonna be able to teach him all the lessons in time for
the baptismal date he chose, but I went with a member to teach him (because my
comp got permission to go play with his fam that day), but we went and he learns
so fast. He just kept saying “what more should I know, I want to know more?” So
I taught him ALL the lessons in like 2 hours. It was super awesome. I’ve never
taught a lesson like that before. And one of his friends from institute is
gonna baptize him so were really excited for that!
Edwin is progressing a
lot. It’s kinda sad because his wife is kinda shy and isn’t progressing a lot,
but I think his baptism is the thing that will get her going. He is also going
to be baptized this Saturday too!
President says we have
to wash by hand so that were not a burden on the members, but the other Elders
in our district are changing their house soon to a house with a washing machine
so well get to wash with them! ahah. I have a lot of funny stories this week
that I forgot to tell you guys.
1: There’s this drunk
guy that’s like always unbelievably drunk, but he actually knows a lot about
the bible so it’s really funny to talk to him. I’ll list some of his priceless
quotes here
·
“If anyone ever
disrespects you tell me, and well come shoot them up! (makes ridiculous drunk
pistol actions with his hands)”
·
MEXICO AND THE U.S
TOGETHER! THE CANADIANS CANNOT CROSS THIS LINE! (draws a line in the dirt) AND
IF THEY DO WE PULL OUT OUR PISTOLS AND WE KILL THEM!”
·
“I’m not gonna lie...
(looks ashamed), I’m a little bit drunk...” (no voy a mentir, ando pistiado)
·
GIVE ME A WORD! (we
start to teach him) NO SHUT UP I KNOW EVERYTHING”
2. There’s this
hilarious kid named William, who is 4 years old who is the kid of a member family.
He always runs out and screams “LATEEEMERR” when I come to their house and hugs
me. This Sunday I asked if his grandpa was home so I could talk to him. William
said, “yah, follow me!” We went to the back of the house and his grandpa is sleeping
in his rocking chair and William smacks his grandpa super hard on the chest and
screams, “ABUELO!!!!” His grandpa just about had a heart attack and feel out of
his chair ahahah.
3) I had to fart really
bad after eating in the house of a member, and I told one of the Mexican elders
when we were washing to dishes, and he was like, “dude just do it.” I said, “no,
it’s gonna be really loud,” and he was like, “be a man, do it.” So I did this
really horribly fake cough to cover it and I probably lit off the loudest fart
ever in their kitchen hahahaha. It was so funny but no one heard because we
were laughing so hard ahha. Not very missionary of me but it was very
necessary.
I’ll send my memory card
home soon because it’s frustrating that I can’t send the pictures. The mission
is going by really fast, and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll get to
train Kaleb. I’m not sure what else there is to tell here. I want to send
Christmas gifts home to you guys but I’m not entirely sure how to here, and if
there’s any specific things you want? I’ll probably send some really cool Mexican
tops, you can to way cool tricks with them like pick them up and stuff.
It was an awesome week
though. Miss you all. Love you all!
Take care!
Elder Latimer
December 15, 2014
Dear
Everyone:
I’m
training again! His name is Elder Lindeman. He’s from North Carolina. He’s
pretty cool, so I’m excited to train again. As you can see from the pictures,
Edwin got baptized! It was awesome. It was a super awesome experience. Hopefully
his wife will follow soon. I think so. She just doesn’t like pressure and
ultimately has to make the decision for herself.
Were gonna have some
more baptisms really soon. Rigo said he knows that the church is true and everything
and he wants to be baptized but he wants to wait a week or so more to do it
because he wants a stronger testimony about the prophet and the Book of Mormon.
So thats okay.
I do have access to
skype here. I just have to figure out which member family were going to visit
to do it. A couple have offered so it’s a possibility. Just send me your skype
address, and I’ll call you guys. I’ll figure it out later on exactly what time
I’ll call. But it shouldn’t be a problem.
This week was pretty
cool. We went to a huge mall and sang Christmas hymns for like an hour there
were a lot of people there. It was an awesome experience. There was like 100 of
us, and that’s only the missionaries here in Culiacan. It’s crazy, I already have
8 months and I SPEAK SPANISH. I had that realization today when I woke up. I’ve
been able to speak Spanish for a while now for like 5 months. But I just had an
epiphany, and was like, “Wow, I speak 2 languages so that was mind blowing.”
I want to send stuff to
you guys for Christmas. I have stuff I’ve bought. I just have to figure out how
to do it, so they will probably get there late so forgive me. But I have these
really cool tops that have these really long strings you wrap around them to
make them spin. They’re super sick and I can do super awesome tricks with them
like throw it up in the air and catch it in my hand and bounce it off my knee
and a whole bunch of jazz.
I miss being home in the
cold for Christmas with all the lights and music. Christmas is different here,
so it’s easier not to miss home because there’s not a lot that reminds me of
home so that’s good I guess.
Nothing really crazy
happened this week. It’s always really fun though. Just thousands of little
things I love here that I can’t list. I love being in the mission. It’s
unbelievably fun. It’s just awesome being friends with all the missionaries.
Thanks for writing and I’ll
keep looking out for the packages that you sent.
Love you all! Take care!
THE Elder Latimer
