October 21, 2103

Hey Everyone!

Well another week down! Seems like just yesterday that I was here writing you guys! Time is flying here! Were already in the last couple weeks of October! Where has this year gone?? It was overall another pretty good week! Really hot and a lot of walking! haha.. We have worked so hard the past couple of weeks! We have been able to contact a ton of new investigators and have found a bunch more less active families to start teaching too!  So the last Monday after got done writing we went to this store called Big City. So its basically a Costco with a different name! And it is packed with anything american that you could ever want!! It was the best!! I found skippy peanut butter haha... and I even found toaster strudles!!! Best day ever! Then we went and had a family night with a family that are recent converts of about 4 months! They are such a good family! Family Figaroa. We sat and talked with them abouth the importance of having your family night and being together with your family and being able to leave everything else behind! It went really well! They are a super excited family and love to tell stories and share experiences and things! 

We have still be visiting Hermana Yarelli, The little girl that we are going to be baptizing this week and we have been working on reactivating her family! It has been going really good with all of them! They all came to church this past week! The little girl is super excited about her baptism and haha is such a good influence for her mom and her whole family! Shes the reason why they all came to church that day! Later that day I got a call from a sister in our ward asking me if I could come and help her with her english homework that she had! haha ...We had an appointment in that area so me and my companion went and helped her out! Pretty funny! She had to read from a magazine and translate it to a piece of paper! So I sat there fixing her translations!

For the past couple of weeks we have been working with a guy called Felix. He is a Grandpa of a girl in our ward. He has been kind of hard to teach! haha ..All he wants to talk about is work and things like that! We have been helping him fix his lawn mower that he has. haha.. Lucky for him Ive been around those for a while and kind of have an idea of what to do! We have taught him lesson number 1 like 50 times! I just think he is too old to really understand all this stuff! But he loves to listen to us he says!

We have also been working with another recent convert, Marbella. She is 24 and just got baptized like a month ago! But she has a boyfriend that is not a member of the church! But he has been coming with here to church for the past little while!  He is super interested in the church and wants to learn more before we do anything with him! So this past weekend they got married!! The ward threw them a huge party in the church for their wedding! haha... It was so fun! My first marriage as a Missionary!!! So we got them married now! He is ready for baptism! We just have to convince him that!!

Everything here is going good! Just working!! This week it is going to pay off! My companion is still learning every single second!! haha.. but he is doing the best he can! I need everyone to be prayin for one of my best friends, Elder Berry will be having surgery this week and I need him back in shape to get back down here to Mexico! Thank you all for your help!! I love and miss all of you!!

Elder Liljenquist

Skippy Peanut Butter and Toaster Strudels make for a VERY happy Elder:)

October 12, 2013 - 10 Months!!!

Hey Fammmilyyy!!

Well it was another good week here in Parrilla! So we have been working really hard this past week just on getting to know the área and finding all of the less active members and old investigators that are in the área book! So basically, we have walked our freaking butts of this past week! We have a huge área! but its an área with a lot of potential! there are so many people that are ready to get baptized and hear about the church! This past week we have been walking around with a Ward directory and basically walkin from neighborhood to neighborhood finding people and contacting! It has been ok! Not my favorite thing to do but someone has to do it! Haha. My Companion asks me all the time "why do we walk so much" and says haha  "its so hot". Well this heat that we have right now is NOTHING compared to what is to come! And well we do walk a lot. I do feel kind of bad about that but its all about learning haha.

Well we have found some pretty good investigators this past week! Our first one is Yarelli. She is 10 years old and her family is an inactive family. We have been visiting them the past week and Yarelli has done nothing but say how much she wants to get baptized! So we talked with her mom and the bishop and the first thing that has to happen is they all need to come back to church! So we have been putting goals and things with them so they can have something to work towards! Yarelli has a baptizm date for the 26th of October!

We have another investigator, David. His wife just got baptized and he has been coming to our church I guess for a long time! Im not reallly sure why he has not been baptized. He is a good guy. I have only talked with him a couple of times at church activites and yesterday during church, but the Bishop told me that he is really prepared and is ready to be baptized!!

This área has so much more too! Just a Little bit more time and I think we will be seeing some real progress! Something that I have noticed the past week here working, is that our diligence and obedience is everything! We have been so exhausted lately! It has been so hard to get out of bed sometimes! But we have noticed a difference in the days that we do everything in the right time and the days that we get up late or do something else. It is something so small but it can have the biggest difference! The Ward that we are in are all really good people! We had a really good Sunday turnout. We had 140 people at church! Thats the most that I have had since I left Utah!! When people ask me how many do I have in my Ward! haha.. they about have a heart attack! If you have more than 100 here, you are massive!

Everything is going good! We are gettin there! Just got to work a Little bit more each day and we will start to see results! I love and miss you all!

Elder Liljenquist

October 7, 2013 - Reunited!!

 Hey everyone!

Well, it has been a really good week! So last Monday, we went around and said bye to everyone that was in my last area! I was up until like 12 at night packing and then had to be up again that next morning ready to leave by 5:30!  So we get to the bus station around 5:15 in the morning and end up waiting for an hour before we can go. The plan was to meet the other elders in the other bus station and basically do a drop off and pick up on the way to Villa. But my bus decided to go to the wrong bus station!! So we had to get off really fast and get all of our luggage out from the bus. I had the bus driver screaming spanish at me and I had to help my travel comp because he could not speak the language!!  So we get everything off and we were going to just take a taxi to the right bus station! Then I go to grab my back pack and it's not there! I left it on the freaking bus! So I ran to the front desk and told her to look the bus up and tell me where it was going. Luckily it was going to Coatza. So I called the elders there and gave them the bus number and they were able to pick up the bags!  So glad that I took out my wallett and everything before! Haha... may have dropped some none missionary words during all this stuff! 

We finally got to Villa after a 5 hour bus ride! It was actually really good. I got to sleep the whole way! We stopped in Coatza too, so I picked up my bag there. After waiting at the bus station in Villa for someone to come with me to the offices, we got there pretty late in the day. So Elder Berry told me last week that he had gone home because of his sickness, so I was kind of bummed that he wasn't going to be there. Haha... but one of the first things that an elder said to me when we got there is that my buddy was inside! So I ran in the church building and started lookin around, haha ..The butt was sitting with some sister missionaries trying to speak spanish!! Haha. Same old Brody! It was sooo good to see him! Felt like so long! He is doing good. I shouldn't say so good because he is pretty sick! He says that he can't keep any of his food down and his whole body hurts! But it was really good! We spend that whole afternoon together! After, I got introduced to my new companion, Elder Gonzales. He is from up Northern Mexico. He is a pretty cool elder! haha... just has that "have no clue whats going on" look on his face always! But he tells me that he is ready to work! haha. So thats good! That night we got to our area and its like 10 minutes outside of Villahermosa. The ward that we are in is really good! The area is called Parrila. We have a ward attendance of like 150 every Sunday! That is unreal for down here. The next day, we went back to the offices and spent pretty much the whole day there! I spent the whole day with Brody and the President! It was so good! He took us out to lunch with all the new elders that had just gotten here. Then, me and the President started to talk about some things and he told me that for sure me and Elder Berry would be companions before we end our missions. He just sat and talked to us 3 for an hour or so! It was so good. Me and President sat there and tried to convince Elder Berry to go and get some shots so he can keep some food down! He told me I can go and hold him down while he does it! But after being all day with them, we went back to our area around 7 that night. 

 So this new area that we are in is absolutley blank. There is nothing. That night I went to talk to the ward mission leader and he told me that the elders that were here did not work. The area book that was there was full of garbage and they didn't leave me even a sheet of paper of what was going on in the area. So once again, we will be starting from the very beginning of everything! So for the past couple of days, we have been walking around with a ward directory and contacting members. There are a few old investigators in the area book that we went and contacted. It's hard!!.. Not that it's hard, it's just things that should be already done! But the ward that we have is really good! Our Bishop is unreal and works alot. So I'm sure this week we will have at least a base to work off of! Saturday and Sunday were really good! It was nice to be able to watch conference. All the talks were really good! Made me miss being able to watch it in my living room! 

Today me and my companion went into town and went to the mall that is there! Haha Felt so good to walk into a mall!! I sound like my mom... we ate at subway too!! haha. But everything is going good! I love and miss all of you!

Elder Liljenquist

September 30, 2013 - Transferred!

Hey Everyone!

Well we had somewhat of a better week this past week! We have been working so hard to try and find people to teach in this dang area! Not gonna lie, but the people here are really tough. I'm not sure why! I think it's just becuase the area that we have is super small! And everyone is just used to us walking the same roads everyday! So Tuesday, we were walking the same old roads again when we got a call from some other elders in the area next to ours. They passed along a reference for us and we just happened to be right in front of the house of the reference. So we went and contacted the house. The dad of the family was sitting outside, almost like he was waiting for us. He told us to come in and sit down. We started to talk with him and he said that he came to our stake conference that we had a couple weeks ago, and that he loved it. Then we asked if he had any more family that he lived with. He responded with "his whole family"! So we asked him if he could bring them out and introduce us to them! We met all 8 of them! As we were there, we explained what it is that we do as missionaries and asked them if they were interested in taking our lessons and they all accepted! It felt so good as we walked out of that lesson with them!

 

So Wednesday I went and did splits with a nelder that is in my district, Elder Rivas. He has like 4 months in the mission but he is a really good Elder! It went really good! The area that we were in is famous in all of Mexico for their Memellas!! They were unreal!!! Not only that, but there house is soo nice!! They even have Hot water!!!!!! I think that might have been the highlight of the week!! haha .Having a hot shower was the greatest thing in the world!!! I actaully felt clean when I got out! I took one that night and another one in the morning!! The next day it was back to sleeping on the floor and cold showers! 

 

The weekend went pretty well. We went back and met that family of 8 and had a really good lesson with the Bishop of our ward! The dad of the family told us that he wants to be baptized! Now that we have won over the dad,  the rest of the family should be right behind him! So the whole week everyone has been stressing about the transfers that are happening today!! Haha... Well It looks like I won't be here to see this family get baptized! I am headed to Villahermosa! I will be training a new missionary!!!! Im gonna be a DAD! But I guess that I am getting" white washed" into my area! That just means they take out both the elders that were there and put two new elders in! So I will be training and having to redo a new area.

I'm kinda nervous but I know that everything will be alright! I need everyone to be praying for my Best friend, Elder Berry. He has been really sick the past couple of weeks and is doing his best to fight and stick it out! 

I Love all of you soo much

Elder Liljenquist

September 23, 2013

 Hey Everyone!

   

     Well it has been somewhat of a better week than the last! Well we started of the week in the our district class. It went pretty good. We have been watching the Work of Salvation and how we can change the way we are doing this work to the way the Prophets want it to be! It has been something that our mission President wants us to study really hard and put it into practice in the field.

So we have heard there that there has been a lot of hurricanes going around Mexico and the Carribean. One hit part of our mission. Luckily I was clear on the other side. But later that day, Tuesday, I got a call from our Zone leaders sayin that they just talked to the President and we have a Hurricane headed right in our direction!! He said to call your district and tell them to go buy food for at least 2 days and get more water! haha. I got kind of freaked out! haha. When in reality, we had one of the hottest weeks I have had in the mission in a long time! haha! It came no where close to us! Turns out that they were all around us but nothin too bad!

     The past week was a really hard week in the work. As we started this week off, I was ready to start to see some changes! So Tuesday, we went and ate with the family that gives us food and as we were leaving we asked if there was anyone that she knew of that we could go and visit. She said the family that lives right in front of them. So we went and knocked on there door and their kid that is 16 answered and told us that his dad is sick. Then the mom came and talked to us for a minute. We explained to her that we could give her husband what we call a blessing, like a prayer. She invited us right in. So we went and gave the dad a blessing and talked to him for a second. Turns out they actually have family that are members and a nephew that is a ex missionary. They are a family of 5. Surper nice and have accepted us to come back and start teaching them! We have also been going through the Area book and looking at the old teaching records of people that we could go back and start teaching! We went and found this girl named Nitza. She is 18 and was listening to the missionaries about 2 years ago. So we went and contacted her and she stopped listening to the missionaries the first time because she didnt have any support from anyone or really know anyone in the our ward! We had a really good first lesson with her and got to know her really well! We have an appoinment to come back to see her tommorrow! We also found another new family to teach this week. Well they were new, haha, but they weren't really interested! So we went and taught this mom and her 19 year old daughter for the first time and it went really well! They accepted everything really well and we said we would come back the next day to see them but they werent there. So we kept trying and tryin but we couldn't find them! So we went back yesterday and tried to see if they were there! We found them, so we went in  talked to the daughter and turns out that her husband doesn't want her to listen to us and said that we cant' come back!! Well ....there isn't much we can do there!!

     Overall it has been a little better week! We still have so much that we can do to be better! I talked to a returned missionary that is here in the ward. We talked about his mission and how we are here to work. He said the last night of his mission, he went out and knocked doors instead of getting ready to go home!! It was cool to hear that Made me think about how much harder I can be working right now!!

      Love all of you guys!

Elder Liljenquist

 

Clearly he still has his sense of humor.....;)

 

Central!

September 16, 2013

(His English isn't very good anymore;) Truly converted!!)

 

Hey Family!!

  

  Another week down here! Time feels to be going so fast! We only have two more weeks in the transfer! Feels like that I just got here! But it was somewhat of a good week. We have really had a hard time with the investigators that we have. It's hard to get them to continue to progress! It has been kind of frustrating! But we just need to keep in mind that what we are here to do is to invite and we can' force this upon anyone. So some of our investigators have gotten in a bad rhythm of not keeping there commitments and not wanting to progress. So we have had to talk with them to varify everything to make sure they still understand this process.

     Thursday I went and did my first divisions with the other elder that lives with us. We went to his area and we actually had a pretty good day! We had some pretty good lessons and we went and taught this family that has a kid that is a member and everyone else is not. We had a really good lesson. We taught them about how the gospel blesses the family and at the end we commited them to be baptized and they accepted! Its such a good feeling to have people accept this invitation! Even though they're not my investigators! It was still really good!

    Wednesday here, the skies went dark as ever and it poured rain!! I have never seen it rain so hard! We have been soaking wet all week! The rain here is really on and off though. It will pour rain for like 10 minutes and stop, then come back and do it over and over again. We put our scriptures and things we dont want to get wet, in a plastic bag from like the grosccrie store and then in our backpacks cause everything just gets soaked! 

  Saturday we had somewhat of a better day! When we went to visit people and they were actually in there houses/ haha, We have a investigator named Norma. She is progressing really well and from what I can see, doing really well. We went and saw her and taught here about the Book Of Mormon. It was really good! We had a good time explaining it to her strong cathlolic family!! haha but it went really good! 

  So we live in a house that has two levels. A big family lives below us and we live on the top floor! Saturday night, we show up to our house and one of the teenage daughters is out there with a group of her friends. She stops us and says to us before we go in, that they are  sorry for the noise that there's going to be! They had planned a party that night! So around 10:20 ish the stereos just get blasted with this electronic music! Our floor was shaking!! So we go out on the balcony of our house and down below the beer man is making his drop off at this house!!! haha. You can order your beer for delivery here! 3 carts! I look at the other american that lives with us and tell him we are not going to sleep tonight! haha. Sure enough we did not go to bed untill 1:30 in the morning!!  haha. o we had to use our time wisley! ...So me and Elder Urbina went and spied. Peeking through the windows! haha. It was ridiculous!! A solid 12 people there! haha. The kind of party you walk in and walk right back out! Made our house smell like beer and cigarettes though!! I was so exhausted the next day! Sunday nigh,t was the night that they celebrate their Independence Day here too! So there was a huge party going on in Central! I got a call from our zone leaders telling us that we had to be in the house at 8:00 that night because it was going to be so crazy!

  Everything is going good here! Having patience with me had really been a test! I have taken a lot of time this past week to just think,  "how we can be better so we start to see more success?" When I dont want to, I still do it. When I'm tired and want to rest, I'll still go....just pushing and not letting disappoinment bring me down has been the biggest help for me! I love you guys and thank you for all your help with everything! Especially the Elder Holland talks! 

Elder Liljenquist

September 9, 2013

Hey Family!

How is everything going there at home? Not gonna lie, this past week, I  got a little Mexico'd out!! Haha. I miss the states!! But everything is going good down here! We have had a little better week! So we started off our week visiting a ton of people! In this area, there is work to be done! The only hard thing is to get people to keep there commitments! So, I have been studying really hard to try and find a way to help these people that we are teaching to keep progressing. I have studied and studied and I think that I have found a way that should help. haha! So, we have an investigator named Ontoniel. He is 23 and just working and going to school. He loves the missionaries and loves to joke around and have a good time! His family is from another church and don't really support him listening to us, but haha, he doesn't really care that much! His girlfriend is actually a member, but inactive! So we have been teaching him for the past couple of weeks and he actually had a baptism date but he has yet to come to church with us! He likes to listen to us but likes more to just hang out and talk to us more than anything. ( were coming back to this) So we had a zone class this past week and we talked about how we need to change the way we teach so that the investigator can understand better. We talked about how everyone is different, and we need to adapt our teachings more to the investigator and less in the order of the lessons. So I have been thinking of a new way that we can teach him, Thanks to the Best Mom in the world, I have some Mormon messages that I have just watched in the house but we took them and put them to work. It went really well! Being able to be taught from the Prophet's voices themselves doesn't get much better! It went really well. We showed some videos of Christ and really refocused our teaching on him. After the video, we reexplained our purpose as missionaries and recommitted him to be baptized for the 28th.

 We have two other investigators that are moving really well and progressing! In our Zone class, our goal for this month of baptisms is 43 for our zone!!! We were all kind of shocked when they told us this number! But I know that we can do it. As a goal for me and my companion, we have a goal of 5! I know that we can get it! We just need to be more persistent with these people!
So.... we are still sleeping on the floor and sharing one fan for all of us! Haha. But it's not really that bad! I have kind of gotten used to it. One of the other Elders is from  Arizona. Elder Urbina, haha.. he is pretty cool. I am glad that there is another American there in the house. haha. It's just nice to be able to talk in english sometimes! So  at nights, we call this place that delivers the best tacos! haha and we sit out on our porch and just chill! I miss and love all of you guys!

Elder Liljenquist