Zone Conference Training

Selfie in front of the the Tijuana Temple

Dear All,

When I put that date in the subject line it hit me that we are freaking in 2016. Oops. Also 6 months from today will be my last day in the mission. Double oops. Where did the time go.

But yeah this week was pretty cool. We had our Zone Conference, and my companion and I decided to do something different than all the other trainings we give. So we called President Garcia and asked him to be an investigator for an extended practice that we did. It was probably the funnest training I have given. President Garcia is awesome. He kept telling us that he worked gathering soda cans on the roadsides (which is actually quite viable in this pàrt of Tijuana), but the at the end we simulated a phone call to see how the investigator was doing with his Book of Mormon reading, and he answers the phone "Good afternoon, Happy Dog´s Meat Market" which is funny cause here in Tijuana it´s famous for meat shops to secretly sell dog meat. So we all about died. It was all in all a very fun day.

We had a ward FHE, which was going to be really cool, and it was, but when we got to the activity, we were going to play that game where you hang donuts on a string and you have to eat them without hands, but then we realized that there was no place to hang donuts, so we just gave them out. Woo party! 

Other than that, we spent all day today with a family that my companion knew from Mexicali, so I got up to speed on all that is going on there with Nacionalista and everything. So that was pretty cool. 

Speaking of that, remember how last week was Hamburger week? This week was Chinese food week. We ate chinese food on Thursday, Sunday (long story) and today. I'm pretty done with it for a little while. And to make it worse, we spoke in Sacrament meeting on Sunday and the my companion thought it would be funny to, jokingly, tell all of the ward that they should give us lasagna. I swear if we eat lasagna all week this week... Not that I don't like lasagna, but every day? Ehhh.

But yeah this week was really  not that exciting. I tried to be more loving when I contacted and taught and stuff and it was kinda cool how people reacted better. We also made it a point to, instead of introducing ourselves as "Missionaries", we introduced ourselves as "Reprentatives of Jesus Christ" because pretty much every church has missionaries, but we are the only ones who are authorized and comissioned by Him. So that was cool. That took us to a lesson we had where a lady told us that she had been born and baptized catholic, but then she switched to Jehovah's Witness, and then Christian, and now she didn't know what she was. When we taught her the Restoration, she was like "holy cow this is literally what I have been looking for ALL my life. It's so simple to see now." It was almost as if she was an actress paid to be perfect. But yeah. We left that lesson smiling.

I only have 6 months left. What the heck. I can't say I feel like I just got here, but I can definitely say that I don't feel "old" in the mission. It's weird seeing new missionaries and being like "who the heck are you when did you get here" and it's weird thinking of them seeing me as like a seasoned veteran who knows it all. But yeah that's just how it goes.

Hope you guys are all doing well, read you scriptures every day, pray always, and keep the sabbath day holy 100%.

Los quiero mucho!

Elder Rawlings

PS no hahahahahaha "armas" means weapons but it is also a last name. What she said really translates to this: "Hi I am someone who knows about you guys through the Gamboa Armas family from Tijuana" HAHAHA google translate don't worry I'm definitely not involved in weapons deals hahahaha

Blessings of sacrifice

Elder Alegria (Jenson's former  companion) posted this picture on his Facebook page after he returned home from his mission a couple of weeks ago

Dear All,

First off, congrats to Sadie and McKay for having great seasons in basketball and getting one year older. Congrats to Payton Manning, going out with a win. And congrats anyone else who needs it haha.

This week was pretty funny. This area might be the most fun I've had so far. There's just so many crazy people and dug addicts and its just a weird combination. Lots of deported dudes too so I get to practice my English quite a bit.

But anyway the family that we found last week knocking doors is probably one of the funniest experiences I'm going to have on the mission. I don't even know the words to describe them. Their life is a ridiculous story full of conflict, high-level drug deals, murder, everything this city has to offer. I'll make a movie about it one day. It'll get an oscar.

But anyway the family consists of a lady who is 52 years old and about 3 times my size. And her mom. They are HILARIOUS but its not like they try to be. For example. The other day the daughter burned her finger on the stove, and then proceeded the next 10 minutes to lick her finger as if it were a lollipop trying to make it feel better. Or the mom one time answered the door and on her shirt there were a few beans that had fallen off her spoon and found a resting place there. A few minutes later she went to scratch and wow hey look some beans and to my surprise (not really) popped those suckers right into her mouth and started to chew. About died.

But the best part is this. We show up at their house on Friday, and the daughter answers the door. We ask her how she's been, and she says sad. We ask why, and she says, "well, my mom had a heart attack yesterday." Woah. I was speechless. But then she kept talking. Good news, mom was still alive, she was in the hospital all night, but when she woke up the first thing she remembered was that we had appointment to visit them that day. So she convinced the nurse to let her go home so that she could make the appointment. Wow. That was pretty cool. They went to church on Sunday and that was also a pretty solid experience. 

But yeah. We invited a few people to repent, some quite directly and strongly, and overall it was a pretty special week. Lots and lots and lots of trials of patience, not with my companion or anything, just with appointments falling through, lots of rejection, the usual. But yeah this is a good time of year. 

I don't really know what else to write about, except for an experience I had about 2 weeks ago that I forgot to tell you about.

So we were having a terrible day. It was one of those days where you plan the night before and see appointments every hour on the hour and with people that have lots of potencial, and then you wake up and there's a message cancelling one appointment, then a call cancelling the other, and then the rest just aren't home so you knock hundreds of doors and not one lets you in and your feet hurt and everything and yeah. One of those days. We all have them. So at the end of the day we had about 2 lessons (our daily average is between 5-8) and tons of contacts and doors and not a whole lot of success. So I was like "alright finally it's 8:50 let's go home" and we passed some hot dogs and I wanted a hot dog. So we go buy hot dogs, and when I went to pay, the guy next to me was like "hey man don't worry about it it's on me." I was like wow. "hey dude are you a member?" and he said "Nah, I'm catholic, but my wife and I always see you guys walking and we think it's really cool that you guys make all these sacrifices and stuff just to preach the Good Word. We felt like we needed to buy these for you guys. Thanks for all you do." And it was like wow. That's what I needed to hear. It was really cool. Moral of the story: I'm gonna go buy hot dogs every night before going home haha.

Hope you are all doing great, love you lots and don't forget to read the scriptures every day.

Los quiero mucho,

Elder Rawlings

The Work is moving along

Here's a pic of the Tlayuda

Dear All,

All in all, not a bad week. It was pretty solid food wise. I ate hamburgers Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday, so that was good at first but increasingly bad. I feel like the Lord sometimes answers my prayers TOO well, cause on Monday my companion told me to pick what we were gonna eat, and I said I really wanted hamburgers. So that turned out well.

BUT THEN TODAY GUESS WHAT I ATE. So my companion is from Oaxaca, and there is a Oaxacan food restaurant here in our area. So we went. I ate something called a Tlayuda (Tlayooduh), with Tasajo (tasaho) and chapulines (you can look up what chapulines are on google) and I drank tejate (tayhatay). It was waaay good. Tlayudas are like giant, giant quesadillas with cheese, meat, lettuce, and beans, and in this case chapulines, which btw are super good. It was probably the most expensive meal I have paid for here on the mission, about $10 haha. But so worth it. Way good.

But yeah this week was pretty good. We were knocking doors one day, and we entered into a little apartment complex (just so you know, this area has a ton of those, and some of them are super hidden, like on top of warehouses and factories and stuff and the fun part is trying how to figure out how to get up there.) So anyway we were knocking doors and we hear coming from one of the doors a couple yelling at each other. Really loudly, and with lots of swear words. Jokingly, I said to my companion, "That familly needs the gospel." Next thing I knew we were knocking their door. Funny how that works out. But anyways the lady that came out was pretty friendly, she told us to please come back, and so we set an appointment and yeah. When we get there, we find out that the family was super, super chosen. They accepted everything, super fast and super commitedly (I don't know if that's a word). But anyways it was super cool. We left and my companion was like "Dude, they really did need the Gospel." So that was kinda cool.

The miracle neice from last week has been going great, she already recieved an answer that the Book of Mormon is true, everything good there. 

Also I should probably fill you in on Lucila, the little old lady who used to be a JW. She's probably the best person in this world. One time we went to visit her, and her daughter and granddaughter were there. Long story short both her daughter (about 40 years old) and her grandaughter (19) think I'm cute. And so Lucila keeps asking me if I think her grandaughter is cute. She told me the other day that she wants us to get married. But that's not even the best part, the other day she was talking about her and BOOM in walks granddaughter. That was about the most awkward moment of my life. But don't worry I'm focused and we always tell Lucila we can't think about things like that right now. But she's rather old and quite forgetful, so it doesn't help much. But yeah she's awesome.

During this week all of the sudden our area got super dangerous, but don't worry those stories are for after the mission ;). I'm safe and that's what counts, right?

I hope you guys are all doing well, good luck in the playoffs McKay and Sadie and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Los quiero mucho,

Elder Rawlings

This is His work

Jenson's mission district

Dear All,

Pretty freaking good week. My new companion likes to work, I like to work, and we are doing well. It's been fun so far, even though we aren't as tight as some of my other companions, but we both know why we are here and we are both ready to do it.

So yeah. Highlights of the week were these:

Wednesday there was a worldwide missionary training broadcast called "Teach Repentance and Baptize Converts." It seems like we as missionaries have forgotten the second principle of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We talk about faith and baptism a lot, but we skip the step in the middle. So basically the training was just about how we can help people repent and be better, so that they want to get baptized for themselves. Elder Bednar had a pretty awesome class about how to use the Spirit, Elder Oaks talked about what we need to do as missionaries in order to have success, and there were other talks about leaving commitments, working with Less-active and Active members, everything. It was way cool. And then afterword President Garcia called on a few people to bear their testimonies. That was pretty cool too.

On Thursday we had a "Consejo de Liderazgo" (Literally translated: Leadership Council, but I'm not sure if that is what English speaking missionaries call it.) It was a meeting with all the Zone Leaders and the Sister Training Leaders, about how we can be better leaders. It was way cool. We talked about the ability we have to promise specific blessings to people and then to help them keep their commitments so that the blessings come. We all shared experiences about how we have done it, and it was a very spiritual meeting. It was pretty cool. 

On Saturday and Sunday we had Stake Conference, presided by an Area Seventy from I don't remember where. It was pretty cool. I was asked to share an experience and my testimony about missionary work. I don't know if I have have told you guys about the story I shared, but if I haven't, remind me to tell you about Lolita when I get home. It's a good one. But yeah that was cool. Then the rest of the meeting were about keeping the WHOLE Sabbath day holy, not just 3 hours while we are at church. It was pretty cool. We talked about the duties of the Presidents of the Quorums in the Aaronic Priesthood, and then we talked about bishops and temples and self-sufficiency and pretty much everything you could ever imagine. It was a pretty dope Stake Conference, and we were able to bring several investigators. Like I said, we have been working well.

Also on Saturday we had an appointment with a lady we are teaching. She says she feels alone here, cause her whole family is either in Columbia or Los Angeles, and her nephews that live with here are super rebellious and stuff. So we've been trying to teach them too (the nephews) and on Saturday we finally did. It was the one we thought that would never listen, but he was there, and he liked it. And then at the end, he said the closing prayer. It was the first time he had prayed out loud in his life, and it was amazing. His aunt was bawling. It was so cool.

But the coolest part was this: Saturday night, when we planned, we said a prayer and prayed so that all the people we committed to come to church could come. And then we asked for a miracle, that someone living here in our area could show up, ready to receive the gospel. But then we kind of forgot about it. Anyways, Sunday morning comes, we finish Priesthood Session, and in between that and the regular session, we went to go bring a sister we are teaching. When we get there, we take her to the front, and then I went to go find a sister from our ward to go and sit with her. I went and talked to one sister, and she said she would love to, but she needed room for three, which was weird cause I though it was just her and her husband. But then she tells me she brought her niece who wasn't a member of the church with her, and that after the meeting we should go talk to her and set up an appointment for this week. But then when the meeting ended, they left fast and we were busy with other people and yeah. They left. I tried calling, but she didn't answer, and so we sent her a message. An hour or so later she replied that we could come in the evening. So we show up, turns out this niece has been prepared for this moment to get to know the Gospel. We were able to testify of everything this Gospel has to offer, and then she told us that the night before, she was in the bus station, about to grab a bus to go to some other part, but something told her to go to the airport. So she went, and ended up buying a ticket to come to Tijuana. She said she didn't know exactly why she came here, but then we remembered about the prayer we said the night before, and we told her about that. We all cried. It was awesome. I love the Lord. 

I hope you guys know that this is His work, not mine and not yours. This is all true.

Los quiero mucho,

Elder Rawlings

I love training

Jenson and Elder Alegria with the Bishop, and his family, of the ward in Lago

Dear All,
Yes, transfers came, and yes Elder Alegria went home, and yes, I stayed here with my new companion Elder de la Torre. He was my Zone Leader when I was in Lago, and he's a great guy. Pumped to get to work with him. Also we found out that our entire zone is going to be training, all 7 companionships. So that is going to be waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay fun. I love training with all my heart.

But yeah this week was definitely a tough one. I think all missionaries (and their companions) have rough last weeks. Thinking about families, thinking about what's going to happen in just a week, stuff like that. Point is we spent a lot of time saying goodbye to members and not a whole lot of time knocking doors. But oh well. It was fun anyways.
We decided to go to the wax museum this week, which was weird. The pictures will tell all that is needed about that experience.

We also got to baptize again this week, which was a good feeling. Our excellence standard is one baptism a week per companionship, so I feel good and know the Lord feels good because we've been maintaining that standard pretty well these past few weeks. 
These two kids that we baptized are so awesome. They were references from a member who took them to the temple, and then to the primary program. It was way cool. It was just so easy how it all happened. We went to eat with the family, taught a little lesson, and then asked who they knew that could be interested in our message. The girl sent a text to her friend, he said yes, and we set an appointment right there. From then it has all been smooth sailing. It goes like it says in D&C "mine elect hear my voice and harden not their hearts." They accepted all of the teachings, received answers through the Holy Ghost, everything. Literally golden. So much fun teaching them. And then on Sunday when the guy got confirmed, they ordained him to be a priest (cause he's 16) so yeah. That's pretty dope. And his little sister is 10 and probably the coolest 10 year old I have ever met. She's pretty much a professional roller skater and she is so freaking smart it was easier teaching her than most adults. Point is they are awesome and I love them.
But yeah now we are starting again with a new companion. Hopefully everything turns out just dandy. 

Los quiero mucho,
Elder Rawlings

PS the photos are from the baptism and from this morning with the bishops family (with my hot new suit)

Baptisms

Wax museum with statues of Mexican Revolutionaries

Funny experience

Dear All,

Not a bad week. I feel like it went by really fast and so that was cool. But at the same time I don't remember a whole lot of stuff that we did.

It did rain all week, and yes we did get quite wet a few times, but hey that's just how it is. Also got a surprise birthday party in the District Meeting, so that was cool. 

Pretty funny experience, so we were eating with a sister and of course, we asked for references, and she sent us to her neighbor in front. She told us she was a viejita, and that she was always home and looking for a church. Sounds good. So we go, knock the door, and out comes this lady so old like I'm pretty sure she was baptized by Peter himself. I have no idea how she was still walking. It was kind of funny. She couldn't hear really well so we basically shouted who we were and what were doing (maybe someone else heard on the street too and secretly was interested, who knows) and she told us to come back another day, but that she wasn't really sure if she was going to be there because she likes to take walks. Ok cool.

So like two days later, we were knocking doors around there, and a we met a lady, she was nice and friendly and told us that of course we could come back and share a message with her. And then we asked her for a reference. And she tells us that we should probably go visit her mom, a little old lady who lives next to a store on the main street and we were like "Wow hey we already know your mom!" And she was all surprised like "Wait what?" and then told us that we please go visit her so that she stays in her house. Turns out her "walks" take her all over the city and she gets lost a lot and her kids have to go find her. Silly old lady. Me cayo muy bien.

Also another old lady story, we knocked a door and lady came out, easily around 90 years old, and tells us she can't open the door because her dad has the keys. I contained myself, but my companion laughed out loud. It's normal to hear that excuse from a little kid, but it was just so weird coming from an old lady. Like, I don't know if you've noticed, but you're a grandma and probably a great grandma. You should probably have your own keys by now. Haha people these days.

But yeah we also got to baptize this week, that was pretty nice. It was a looooong battle getting this lady in the water, because her husband is inactive and didn't like my companion and didn't want his wife to get baptized and lots of things. Not really, but pretty much. It was a nice service, solid talks, everything good. So yeah, that was nice.

Hope you guys also had a great week. Remember to read your scriptures and your handbooks every day. Keep it real.

Los quiero mucho, 

Elder Rawlings

Celebrating 2016 in the mission field

Ward Christmas and New Year party

Dear All,

I wish I could put numbers in capitals to emphasize that it is now 2016. Holy cow does time fly by. I remember last year like it was 4 days ago. Weird.

This week was pretty cool, lots of parties, lots of teaching, funny testimonies (because this is Mexico) and yeah. Solid week.

The highlight of this week was obviously New Years. We worked like normal in the morning, and then spent the evening eating. A sister from Veracruz made us tamales South Mexico style. OH MY GOODNESS. Wow. So good. I'm gonna tell her to teach me. Cause dang. So good.

BUT WAIT. On Wednesday we had a combined Christmas/New Years party with the ward, with live music, pinatas, too much food, disorganization, everything that a Mormon church party needs. It was pretty fun, even though we can't dance or party or really do anything of the sort. It was nice to have a break from everything every once in a while.

So yeah New Years Eve was pretty fun. After eating tamales, we went to go visit another sister that invited us to eat, and when we walked in we sensed danger. Not really sensed it, but we could plainly see it. Right there, on their giant flat screen TV, was a re-run of Star Wars IV. It was so hard to not watch. Satan works hard a lot of times, and he knows right where to hit you. But yeah we left pretty fast.

Then we went and chilled with the Bishop and his family, eating tacos and doing magic tricks and telling jokes. It was pretty fun.

We get home, and like I told you last week, our neighbors are real pachangueros. About right when we got home, the music started. When I woke up (after a rough nights sleep) The music was still going. And they were quite a ways under the influence. They had the same song on repeat, and they were singing to it as loud as they could, repeating in over and over again to get it right. I even took a video because it was so obnoxious. But yeah.

On New Year's Day, the whole city literally shut down. There was nothing open, nothing to do, nothing. We ate pizza with the Bishop's family, then hung out with them pretty much all day, cause we had the whole day free. Pretty chill.

Other than that, it was a normal week. This morning I had to help the bishop translate for a sister in our ward who died's family that came to work out the funeral and don't speak any spanish. And I think I do have an accent, because they talk weird. I really hope that's not how all americans talk, but who knows.

So yeah, what a week. I started reading the Book of Mormon again; I finished it literally on New Year's Eve and started it on New Years Day so that was cool. I love listening to the talk from Elder Holland called "Safety for the Soul" and then reading the testimony of Joseph Smith and the scripture in Hebrews "Donde hay testamento, necesario es que ocurra la muerte del testador." (Translation required). What a powerful witness of the divinity of that Book. I testify of its power in our own conversion and that of others.

Hope you all have a great week, thanks for the birthday wishes, and see you guys sooner than I want ;)

Los quiero mucho,

Elder Rawlings