Stetson in a Stetson - Monterrey Style!

I was able to be on with him for a bit this week and as always he was in great spirits.  He loves these people so much and they in return love him.  I love the picture in the cowboy hat.   I told him, I guess this is Monterrey's version of Stetson in a Stetson.  He did tell me how his mission president's wife, Sister Swapp knows my Aunt Kathy Burningham and how she treated her just like a daughter and how much she loves her.  He was so amazed at how small the world is and how it does come around when you are kind to everyone.  Things we tell them all through life.  His friend Elder Biggs left the area this transfer and he will miss him, they were good friends.  He keeps telling me how fast the time is going, I guess I believe him, at least on his end.  Enjoy...

So this week was pretty rainy, but it was a great week! Juany and Sara are reading The Book of Mormon, and progressing still, its just that the husbands have a hard time accepting it. Samuel, who has been our investigator is progressing super bien as well as Jose Manuel, who is sick, he couldn't make it to church, but when he does, the following Friday he will be baptized. Samuel has a date of the 12th of July! So the ward is excited for that and his wife who is a member is excited as well, we have a lot of work, and changes are tomorrow, but I am pretty sure I wont be going. I better not haha, I have been working super hard here, but I Love it here. The members love us and love to help us. I love the work and love to see the change in the people. Love all of you, and good luck at Girls camp mom, love you!

--

Elder Clayton

His 1 Year Package Finally Arrives...

Best part of today's email was he finally received his year mark package.  Not bad.  Only took over six weeks to get to him.  Not sure why it took so long this time, but I was more concerned this one as it was the only one that had significant value inside.  But, all is good as it was not touched and everything was there, just extremely slow.  He is always so appreciative and grateful which makes it even better.  More investigators at church and great stories to tell of good humble people ready to accept their message.  Enjoy, another great week.

Well this week was super good, we had an open house on Saturday, the whole ward turned out and we have new investigators!! On Friday, we had a sports activity. it was super sweet, I love this ward, there are a ton of members that just love us, we played volleyball and soccer and just hung out. On Thursday we had a lesson with Jose Manuel, who is sick but wants to be baptized, he has an amazing story that he told us that happened 10 years ago. he had an accident where he was pronounced dead and returned to life. He told us a lot more things and basically he has been looking for the true church for 10 years. So he has Cirrhosis of the Liver and he had an operation on Wednesday, and is in constant pain but has a good attitude and is always joking with us. He is a good man. He told us that he has been to many churches looking for the Truth, and two weeks ago when he went with us for the first day he went to another church, but I swear to you this is true. he said when he entered the gates of our church he felt no pain, not only that he didnt feel any pain for 3 hours. He is a cool guy, and he was going to go yesterday, but was too sick. I feel so bad for him, and he wanted to go but just couldn't. He has a baptism date pretty soon and we are working with him so he can be baptized. Also, Sara and Samuel came yesterday! Samuel's wife is a member, and Sara, I have known since I first got here. Her husband doesn't want her to get baptized, so that is hard. Funny thing is, he is a member!! He was baptized when he was 8 years old. but yeah. its hard but we are pushing along. Elder Clements and I are working hard! Oh and I got the package!! All safe and sound!! Thanks for everything! Love you all! 

hello mom! love you! Well I got the package and want to say thank you so much for everything!! I was so happy to get it and everything in it! Sounds like a really good girls camp thing you had. . We are teaching a lot of people, it was a hard Sunday being Fathers Day, but they are still going along. 

Sweet Hamburger, I thought they just ate beans &rice???

Found Zoie, she looks just like her, although a bit more trim than our Zoie.

With the Zone

Taking Arturo to the ward activity

Lucas, he loves Stetson.  I think it's mutual.

Mission board

With the mission leader

Filling the Churches & a Little Sick from Uncooked Chicken

He and his companion are filling up the church house. They love him which is no surprise. He told me one of the young families bought him a jar of Skippy PB which is like gold there. Oh how I love to hear of his success and you can hear his enthusiasm and happiness in his words. And of course there's a couple of pictures. Enjoy, seriously they just get better and better. 

 

So this week was a great week again, yesterday we had 8 people in the church! 3 were new, honestly, we are working with about 16 people investigator wise, and that isn't even less active or members!! So we are working crazy hard. but I am loving it. We had a reference from a hermana about her neighbor who is looking for true church. She straight up told us t&hat she believes that one church is true and she is looking for it. So we had a sweeet lesson with her about the Restoration of the church and she loved it. So she came to church with her husband and her granddaughter and she loved it!! So we were happy to see them come, also Jose manuel, who is sick with cirroses, came again and he came with his wife! They both loved it, Juany came and was hoping to have her husband and her daughter both come, but they didnt show up. her husband had to work, but has a desire to come, so that is good. This week I got sick again!! An investigator bought us these tostadas with chicken, and basically the chicken is cooked in the morning and sits out all day and yeah I ate it and got sick and threw up like 3 times, but I am fine now! Other than that, the ward loves us, we fill up Doctrine Principles class and we are moving rooms because we dont fit anymore! The ward is happy so I am happy. They give us a ton of support and I am fine with that. I love you all, and I will send a lot of pictures this next week! Got to go to cut my hair! 

This is the kid of one of our investigator he loves us, so we bought him a shirt just like us!

Doesn't that look delious!

Send this to Marc Shafermayer! He was a missionary with him and has him on facebook. He is a lider misional in another ward. 

Filling the Chapels & Karaoke

These are emails you hope for. He is doing so well and as I am reading this I see the chapels are starting to fill and are seeing the light I countenance as well as his companion and they want it too. I love that he has asked us to pray for them I have told him many times. That's all we can do here is pray and this time he sends there names. Love, love, love this weeks email. So will you!  Enjoy....

Hello family! So this week was a super good one. It has been stressful but really good. Elder Clements and I have been working really hard to find new people and we have found quite a bit. On Tuesday a pretty weird story but a miracle occurred. So I sent a picture of me and my comp and two people a daughter of about 20 years and her dad with a mustache, and one of an abuelita, or grandma. So the grandma, she lives in my old area, which is super far away. The girl, of 20 years, lives in my area and I contacted her a month ago, gave her a folleto and our number. Remember that, that is key. We returned to see her, because I felt like she would progress, I invited her to church and everything but she wasn't there the two times we went so we didn't think she was interested. So on Tuesday, I was with Elder Biggs, I get a call from an unknown number and it is her!! I remembered her name and she said that her abuelita is a member of our church and she wants to talk with me. So it turns out this is her granddaughter and her son! Her son, who is about 55 has cirrhosis of the liver and is very sick. But he asked for a blessing and we went over and started teaching him and gave him a blessing. He wants to change and they came to church!!!! So its just crazy how things turn out. The abuelita was there on Tuesday, and it was good to see her and all. She was happy to see me and even happier to see her son and granddaughter being taught by us. So they came to church and they are going to progress bien chido. I was in awe how everything came to be. So basically, I contacted her a while ago, nothing happened but she still had our number and then she called us. These are signs to me telling me I am here for a reason. It was pretty cool. Also, Sara, Juany and the gang are still progressing but we are having a little bit of problems with the husbands. One is a member, and hasn't been forever, but Sara and Juany want to be baptized, have a testimony, they know this gospel is the best thing for their families but the husbands say no. So please pray for them!!! We want to see them be baptized, I have known them for now 2 months and they have changed so much, it is really cool. So that was my week, it was super sweet. Love you all!! Oh and a scripture I liked from this week. Mosiah 5:2 It reminds me of investigators that we don't change them, we change their hearts to do good. Love you all!

--

Elder Clayton

I am far from the Centro de la Ciudad

 La familia Torrez, they are members.

 Karaoke with his new companion, Elder Clements

 Elder Biggs & Elder Clayton

 Elder Biggs, Sara, (investigator) and Elder Clayton

Elder Clayton, Samuel, Cynthia & Elder Clements (Investigators)

 Right now we have a ton of investigators and the sweet thing is that they are all going to church!!! We had 6 yesterday, and hope to have 10 or 11 this next Sunday! I will tell you all a lot more in my letter.

This is the granddaughter of the hermana he talks about in his email.  Such a great story.

 This hermana is from my old area in Mitras and her granddaughter and her son is in that picture I just sent where I am with my comp. It is a really cool story.
 
I missed last weeks, I think I forgot to hit update:  Here it is...

Hello everyone! Well we had some pretty crazy changes in the mission here in San Bernabe! So Elder Perez left on Friday night and Elder Clements from Rexburg came with me back to my area. He is a fairly new missionary here and I am going to finish his training. He only has one change in the mission, so it will be fun to train a little bit more. We have 6 people with a date, and we are working hard with all 6 of them to keep them progressing. All 6 went to church, 4 of them are Juany, Sara, Alejandra e Arturo. I am excited for this next few weeks for them, so I will keep you updated. President Swapp met them, and he wants to come to their baptism, so that will be super good. Not much has changed since Wednesday, just my companion. He is really excited to work, and we will get pictures for next Monday to send. I didnt take to many this last week, sorry about that. Oh and mom spoke yesterday, so did I! I talked to the members how they can invite neighbors and friends to the church. It went alright, and church was good. Today we hung out with Elder Biggs and Elder Sevilla and are just relaxing, but this week that comes up we are going to be working really hard and its going to get hotter and hotter. Talk to you all soon, Love you soo much! 

--

Elder Clayton

 Elder Perez & their spaghetti dinner

 Monterrey in the evening

 Making new friends...