Usted es misionero, verdad??

December 23, 2013

Hello everyone!!

Ah man, the mission is literally the best. I am absolutely loving every single day of it. Things are going really great here in Morelia :) We still don´t have water but yesterday I told our landlord that we are going to move if he doesn´t get us water today, so hopefully we get water.. if not, I´m not exactly sure if we are aloud to move. But it sure got him moving, he came to our house this morning to talk things over and promised that he would send a plummer our way. We have lots of hope!! Since we can´t use the bathroom in our house, the plants out back get plenty of watering. And two times this week while we were out in the street I had to take off running for the closest bushes. Nobody in Morelia is going to have to water their plants if we don´t get water back soon!!

We are way stoked for our investigators right now!! Pedro gave up smoking and drinking and will be baptized this Saturday. Ramon decided to leave his girlfriend and is still planning on being baptized the following Saturday to start the new year off right :) We are so happy for Pedro and Ramon. They have truly become converted. Ramon told us that everyone keeps asking him what happened to him because he looks so much happier. He tells people it´s because he got a haircut! hahaha. Pedro is still planning and wearing a tunic for his baptism. we will see what happens this week haha.

We were in a store today checking out watches and we were chatting with the guy and he asked me "Usted es misionero, verdad?" or "you´re a missionary right?" and I was like yeah we are missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, have you talked to missionaries like us before or something? He said "no, I knew becuase I could hear your american accent". I said ahh the name tag and white shirt wasn´t what gave it away?? We both had a good laugh. Hopefully by the end of my mission my accent won´t be what gives it away that I am a missionary.
Feliz Navidad to everyone :) may you remember the the most important gift that we have received, the life of our Savior, Jesus Christ.

Love,

Elder Del Toro

 Our gifts wrapped up and ready to be gifted at the gift exchange... Out of 50 elders who were there from our two zones I received Elder Bowen's gift!!! I was so pumped! It is a rice heat pad :)

 The district, with two elders missing

Feliz Navidad de los DelZalez :)

December 16, 2013

Hello family and friends :)

Oh man, Mexico is so great!! I think I am starting to get some serious mexican pride. I am loving the culture and the people more and more each week.

So we are at day 19 without water or something like that. We had water last saturday and sunday but other than that we have been enduring our trials :) This week we got to do a lot of service! We painted a gate for an hermana in our ward and friday we swept our street for almost a whole block. We have every friday now to do community service for two hours. And it´s the only time that we can contact people in the street so I really like that part about it too :) People were way confused of why we were sweeping their part of the side walk and asking them if we could sweep their entrance. We got to know some of our neighbors a lot better. Service just opens peoples hearts! This week we were at the bishops house teaching his him and his wife and we started to hear screaming. It was his daughter locked in the bathroom haha. The lock was jammed from the inside and the outside and poor Caren was stuck in there. After about 10 minutes elder G and I were able to bust the lock with two screw drivers. Our bishop was just about to have me kick the door in hahaha. Caren thinks we are the best now, and wants to be a missionary some day.  We made gifts today for a gift exchange that we are going to have this week as a mission. I made a pretty good looking pillow case :) It is blue with white starts and moons and on the side it says "Did you pray?" in spanish :) Our relief society president helped us with our projects. She said that she might be able to help me make some shorts with the left over material next p-day :)

This week we had such an awesome lesson with Ramon. He has a girl friend that he stays with sometimes so he knew he wasn´t ready to be baptized but we talked about the law of chastity and how he needs to either marry the girl or start living the law of chastity and he said he was going to figure everything out. He said the closing prayer and after he finished, he stood up and said that he would be the first baptism in our church in 2014!! Elder G and I almost cried. haha we were so emotional. we have been teaching Ramon for so long! like 3 months Elder G got here. Ramon is such a good guy, he has attended church 9 times already and has an awesome testimony. That day when he accepted to be baptized was one of the happiest days of my life. Ramon has been one of my favorite investigators and we had gotten really close with him. I wrote in my journal that night, "my joy is full". I have never in my life felt so much joy. I absolutely love serving the Lord as a missionary :)

Hope all is well with everyone :)

Love,
Elder Del Toro

Querido Juan

December 9, 2013

Hello family and friends!

Elder Gonzalez and I had another good week in Mexico. A lot of really good things happened this week! We got our water back yesterday!! And we now have a brand new boiler! But even better, we received a bunch of references this week and Pedro and Ramon are just about ready for baptism. They are both clearning up a couple things but they have been progressing so much and they both said they want to be baptized pronto. They funniest thing is that Pedro wants to be baptized in a white tunic, like the greek gods wore. hahaha he has some crazy ideas but we will try to make every accomodation we can to help him feel comfortable. My poor companion received the "Querido Juan" (Dear John), or in other words his little lady called it off. He has handled it like a man, but we are still going to burn the tie that she gave him. I think that will make us both feel better :)
This week I was also asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting. We called our Bishop saturday night to see if he needed anything and he told me that I would speak in church. I was asked to talk about Activation in the Work of Salvation. I read the first line of the Hymn "The Spirit of God"... Like a fire is burning apears the Holy Spirit of our Grand Creator (rough translation). I related this to my days in Tacoma steel.  I worked with a torch cutting scrap for the whole summer and learned quite a bit about steel. I spoke about how are a lot like steel haha. Steel has to be heated to about 2000 degrees celcius before it can begin to melt, this is done with the flame. When it reaches that temperature it turns bright red and at this point you pull the trigger for the oxygen. It is much different than air because air only has about 97% oxygen and the rest is other gases. When you spray the pure oxygen on the melting steel, the steel basically starts to burn itself because the oxygen is feeding it the fuel that it need to continue to burn. The steel keeps melting as you spray the oxygen where you want to cut, you don´t need to keep burning each spot on the steel. Oh man the congregation looked so confused after I got done telling them that. Members of the church are like the spot in the steel that we begin to heat up. The flame is what we need to build our testimony, reading the scriputres, praying every day, attending church, etc. And when the steel begins to melt in that one spot, or when that one person has built up their testimony of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you spray the oxygen, or you share your pure testimony, you give the other people what they need to feel the spirit and begin to burn in their hearts of our Savior. The thing is that if you spray pure oxygen on steel, it doesn´t do anything, and if you heat up every part of steel along where you want to cut it just doesn´t work, but when you have heated up one spot and then begin spraying the oxygen, it is all just so beautiful :) It is the same with us, we have to have our own testimony before we can help out those who are around us, and when we have that testimony we share it with others to help them grow in the gospel. Activation :) By the end, I think the majority of the people got it haha. You might wonder how but maybe it was just a "you had to be there to get it" kind of a thing.
I love this whole mission thing :) I know that I am a son of God and that He loves me. I know that I am sharing the Gospel with other children of God to bring them eternal happiness.
Thank you all for the support you give me.

Love,

Elder Del Toro

 Mexico has their OJ Simpson too

 I got my shoes shined :)

Basically Thanksgiving

December 2, 2013

Hello everyone :)
I hope everyone had a wonderful thanksgiving!! To be completely honest, I forgot it was thanksgiving until 9:00 at night when our american zone leader called to wish a happy thanksgiving. How ungrateful am I?!?!?! It was just another day in Mexico and I forgot all about it. I didn´t realize it but my thanksgiving feast was pozole and tacos de chicharron. my pozole had chicken which is basically turkey and chicharro is fried pig skin which is basically like a spiraled ham. happy thanksgiving from mexico :)  This week has surely been an interesting one. I received karma for not being thankful on thanksgiving, our water shut off on friday. So it´s been a little tough. We realized that we didn´t receive the bill in the mail so we went and paid it at the water place on saturday. And then I guess we just thought everything would be fine. But we returned home and nothing changed. So if you think it´s hard to talk to a real person on the phone in the US, you better think again. It is impossible here. We went in today to ask what´s up and they said they would try to send someone to check it out tomorrow. In the meantime, we stink. Haha just kidding we walk to the other elders´ house in the morning to shower. But it´s real tough not having water in the house.
This week our ward had a sweet activity. Everyone invited their friends to a tour in the church. It was very well organized, there were four different stops where they went and listened to different topics of our church. There were snacks, beverages, and quite a few people who came. We also had an awesome lesson this week. We have been teaching this lady named Lucia and we went to teach her and she was like look guys, your really sweet and all but I don´t want to waste your time because I know that I´m not going to join your church. We told her that we aren´t just there to make her get baptized. Our purpose is to help others come unto Christ. And we talked about how before we started teaching she didn´t know how to pray, she didn´t know that she lived with our Heavenly Father before this life, and she wasn´t studying the scriptures. Right now she is studying the bible, praying every day, and knows where she came from, what she is doing here, and that one day she can return to live with our Heavenly Father. We had an awesome lesson after our little chat about the sacrifice that our Savior made for us. It was a very spiritual lesson, and Lucia was very touched by the spirit. At the end she was crying at said that she would like us to keep teaching her. I believe her 100% when she says she knows she won´t change religions, she has what we call a "corazón muy duro". But that´s not what is important. She is growing closer to her Saviour each time. I told her that we aren´t there to change her religion but we are there to change her life. And that is exactly what this message does :)

Love you all!

Elder Del Toro

 "sopa feliz"

 We went to the zoo this today! they let you get really close to the animals here! ;)

One of Pedro´s puppies

Say it how it is Brotha Cruz

November 25, 2013

This week was so awesome!! For sure one of my favorite weeks :)

Cosme got baptized!! We are so excited for him. His family was able to to come from out of town too so that was sweet to see him with his mom and sisters. The water was cold and I had to dunk him twice but all went well :) He was confirmed yesterday and received the priesthood and yesterday in the church Elder Gonzalez and I noticed how different Cosme looked! His countenance is just diferent and we told him and he said that he feels better than he has ever felt in his life. Cosme is the man.
This week we had some really funny experiences. We were eating the other day with a family and the Hermana was telling me how well my spanish has gotten. I was so excited, but like 5 minutes later she asked me a question "so are you elders still showering with cold water" and I was like, well Hermana, we still dont have a boiler but we bought gas and we heat up water on the stove and use that. She looked at me super confused so I kept explaining that I pour the hot water on myself with a big cup and I was acting it out and then everyone just started laughing. I have no idea how I understood her question how I did because she really asked me if I had ever been in their dining room to eat.. Ah man. spanish level back down to zero. I still question how in the world I interpreted her question like that. She said oh elder del toro don´t worry you can share your problems with us anytime. haha. how embarassing now the whole ward is going to know how I bath myself.
We got to do some sweet service this week! we were the moving crew for an Hermano in our ward. He called us up and said he need to move a couple things from his old house so we were happy to help. Holy smokes there were more than a couple things. He had a huge gas tank, a bed, a table, and some other stuff. And the best part is that he didn´t have a truck. We carried all his stuff like a mile across town by foot. haha. I got volunteered to carry the gas tank. I was sweating like a pig when we arrived but we got it done.
The last funny thing that happened was by our good friend Martin Cruz. He was asked to say the opening prayer in sacrament meeting and was super nervous because he just became active again and was asking me what he should say. I just said to pray for the things that came to his mind. He got up there and did just that. The funniest thing is that he said "please bless the people who haven´t woken up yet because they are lazy, that they can come to church today". And would you believe it, our investigator Pedro showed up about a half hour later. The power of prayer... Thank you Martin Cruz.
Elder Gonzalez and I are doing awesome. We will miss thanksgiving this year but that´s alright because Elder G doesn´t know what it is and I always had to diet for wrestling during the hollidays anyways. I am so greatful for the time I have to be serving the Lord.

Love you all,

Elder Del Toro

Mexican Chinese Food

November 18, 2013

Hello everybody :)

This week was another good one here in Morelia. There were some really awesome things that happened. First of all, the whole Montes family attended church this week! we were super excited for that, and especially because Pedro helped us with a role play in sunday school because we taught it this week. He basically feels like a missionary. He has come with us a couple times for lessons with really old sisters in the ward and for the role play he gave to ward lots of insight on how they should go about finding people. What a great guy. He needs to attend church a few more times to be baptized but he is definately making progress :)
Our investigator Ramon is way ready for baptism but he still feels unprepared. Honestly, I have never seen someone so prepared. We fasted this weekend and the poor guy looked like he was going to pass out. He fasted for like 35 hours!! His baptism date was for this upcoming saturday but he wants more time to prepare so we just keep supporting him and helping him prepare for his baptism.
Cosme´s baptism is this upcoming saturday. His family is going to come in from out of town to be apart of it. He is very excited and very prepared :)
We are very excited because we have a lot of less active members of the ward coming again and making lots of progress. The best thing is when we lose a less active because that means they have received a calling in the ward and are back to being actives. That is our goal with all the less actives that we teach.
We had divisions for a day with the other Elders and Elder Gonzalez forgot is flip flops at their house. Poor guy had to wear grocery bags on his feet for his shower.
We also found out this week that there is only one thing worse than bad american chinese food... bad mexican chinese food. We had some real bad chinese food this week that tore us up. In one of our appointments the bathroom was right next to the living room and Elder G had to go.There were some terrible sounds. Those darn barking spiders.. We made a promise that the next time something like that happens the other companion will ask the family to sing a hymn with 4 verses to help our companion out.
Everything is going great with Elder Gonzalez and I. We have got to be the happiest pair of missionaries in Mexico.

Love,
Elder Del Toro

Smile :) Families are Forever

November 12, 2013

Hello fam and friends :)

First of all, thanks for all the birthday wishes. The birthday was different but I think I like birthdays on the mission more than at home. I think it was the first time I have ever really been grateful for a birthday. It wasn´t about presents or singing or anything like that, I really realized how blessed I am to be born into such a great family, to have the Gospel in my life, and to have 20 awesome years!  It was a kind of a long day because we had to travel to Guadalajara for a meeting. It was 4 hours there, a two hour meeting, and 4 hours back. It was a really long day, but it was cool to hear from the President and to talk to Elder Gonzalez for 8 hours about life as we know it for haha. And yes, he did sing to me (in espanglish) and bought me an ice cream when we got back last night.

Elder Gonzalez and I had another awesome week here in Morelia :)
He keeps telling me that I am becoming more mexican each week. We had lunch with a family this week that had some chiles that they said were the hottest. So like most missionaries would do, we took them to the test. It was us two and the other two missionaries in our ward. We each took our turn with the smallest and most red that we could find. Those are the ones that kick the most. The chile drew tears from Elder Harris and Gonzalez. Elder Medrano was sweating so much he had to walk outside for a little. But my chile didn´t really kick that much so they picked another one for me and the same, it didn´t kick much. I have been noticing that I can handle some serious spicy food lately! My tongue is definately mexican I guess. Elder G told me that I am the man and that now he knows why I have so much hair on my chest. haha.

We had some really awesome lessons this week. My favorite was with the Careño family. Hermano Careño was baptized a year ago and his wife 9 months ago. We had them planned for the last lesson of the day on Sunday and holy smokes it was the only lesson sunday. All of our appointments fell threw and we were walking around all day just to find people not home. It was way rough and we were way tired and discouraged so when the Careños were home we were so excited. Our lesson was on temples and we talked about how they can be sealed as a family with their two kids here in the near future. They have plans to travel to the Salt Lake City Temple to be sealed there but are having problems getting their visas and they are sacrificing a lot to have the money to make the trip. It was such an awesome lesson, we talked about how great a blessing it is to be able to be with your family for time here on earth, but for time and all eternity. We told them how happy our Savior must be that they are making that decision. Hermano Careño got super emotional and started crying and then I lost it when I started talking about how grateful I am that my parents made the decision to be sealed in the temple and then Elder G was tearing up sharing his testimony about the temple and Hermana Careño was crying because everyone else was way emotional. But it was such a powerful lesson. The spirit was so strong and I think all of our testimonies were strengthened about families and the temple. How great a blessing it is to have this Gospel in my life. It is lessons like those that make the mission all worth it.
We are very excited for our investigators Cosme and Ramon. They are planning on being baptized the 23 of November.

I am one happy missionary :)

Thanks for all the love and support

Elder Del Toro

Día de Los Muertos.. A killer holiday

November 4, 2013

Hello family and friends :)

This week was Día de Los Muertos. It was pretty cool to see a different tradition, and best of all the sweet bread they sell during this time. mmm!! Pan de muerto is to die for.. no pun intended ;)
They also kind of celebrate halloween here. It was cool to see some scary costumes and some trick or treaters. I experienced my first attack this week too! Not really, but kind of. We were walking back home at night and there was a little girl and her little brother trick or treating and they were outside our gate so I said if they waited a second I would bring out some candy that I had. I grabbed my bucket of candy and dropped a couple pieces in their bags. A couple other kids saw and came running. A few other kids saw them and followed behind them. There were like 20 people outside our gate with there trick or treating bags. Kids with costumes, teenagers without costumes, parents with kids, parents without kids.. It was like when you feed one seagull at the beach and then 30 seconds later there are a ton of others that come out of nowhere. It was super funny though. I was happy to share my american candies with them :)

We also had some awesome lessons this week. We are teaching this boy named Miguel who is 10 years old. He is the son of a lady in our ward that hadn´t been to church in a few years. He loves soccer. That is all he talks about, all he does, and all he lives for. He is a way cool kid. So we started teaching him a few weeks ago with his mom and these past couple weeks we talked about the blessings of going to church. At first he said there was no way he could come because he has soccer games on Sundays. We kept teaching him the importance and kept inviting him and this past week he decided that it was the right thing to tell his coach that he couldn´t play on sunday because he was going to come to church. We were so stoked to bring him! It´s way funny because we go pick him up and ride a combi back to the church with him and I think everyone who sees us thinks that we are his dads. hahaha. It´s way funny. Miguel is such a good example to me of how important it is to sacrifice for the Lord what you love most. It really made me think about what I am going to do when I get back when I have situations like Miguel. I think I have learned more from him than we have been able to teach him.

Elder Gonzalez and I are doing so good. We are getting along great and are trying to work our hardest every day. He wants to learn english super bad. We have been trying to talk english in the mornings and nights when we are in the house. My english has been improving as well. At first I said things really wierd and had to translate from spanish to english every time I spoke. It´s super hard to speak english when you are speaking spanish all day every day. I speak, think, and dream spanish. Sometimes I feel like english is my second language. I love it! :)

Hope all is well with you guys :)

Love,

Elder Del Toro

Elder D and Elder G at a zone meeting

It´s late, they´re old, and it cannot be

October 28, 2013

Hello everyone!

Sometimes I feel like life just can´t get any better and then each week I feel more and more content!! Life is so great :) This week was so awesome. Elder Gonzalez and I are learning a ton, teaching a ton, and having a ton of fun.

We had some good times and some rough times this week but the good times definitely outweighed the rough. This week I really learned that obedience is everything. We had a lesson scheduled for 8:30pm so we got permission to get home at 9:30 and we brought our Bishop. Things got real spiritual real quick and we needed to go but the bishop and our investigator kept talking and we ended up getting back at 9:40 so we had to call the President. I was super nervous and I explained what happened and everything and then he started to talk to me in English. That is the worst.. He said that we had made a promise to get home at a certain hour and that we had broken that promise and were disobedient and that I need to be more responsible as a senior companion. Ah man, I felt so bad after that conversation. It was broken English and very to the point and it hit me. I just felt like crying!! haha I don´t know why I was so torn up about it. So I was kind of moping around during planning and then after, Elder Gonzalez set me straight. He was like look Elder, we were working hard and doing our best and we arrived late. The Lord knows we were trying our best, we know we were trying our best, so stop worrying so much, we are going to wake up tomorrow and keep working hard! He told me that he still had a ton of respect for me and knew that it wasn´t my fault. Wow, what an excellent guy, that Elder Gonzalez. He really picked me up and we had a great rest of the week.

We had a really funny experience this week. We went to Hermano Corona´s house to watch the Restoration video with him and his family. We started the video at 7 and they are a bit old so it didn´t work out so well. He was so excited, he invited all of his kids to watch it and everything but about 15 minutes in people started falling asleep. Every single one of them fell asleep at one point in the video. We just put our palms to our forehead and said "no puede ser". We find ourselves saying that a lot. "It cannot be" haha.

We also had some very spiritual lessons this week. My favorite was with a guy named Miguel. He is brothers with a guy in our ward and lives in a different state but happened to be there when we stopped by. He believed in God but not that we lived with him before this life or that we can return with him one day. We talked about our relationship with God and he just kept telling us that we cannot know that. We shared the scripture in Abraham 3:22-23... such a classic. it talks about how God showed Abraham the inteligences that were organized before the earth and how we lived as spirits with him. He read it putting his name in place of "Abraham" and then just stared at it for like 3 minutes. We just watched him and waited. He finally looked up and then said "wow". The lesson was so much different after that. He wanted to know so much more of what we believe and he was so shocked that we had another book like the bible that was a record of the people of the Americas when Christ came to the earth. Unfortunately he doesn´t live in our area but it was such a great lesson and he is going to start meeting with the missionaries where he lives.
We have a baptism scheduled for the 16th of November for Ramon, and Cosme the following week. They are doing awesome :)

Everything is awesome here in Morelia :)

Love you all,

Elder Del Toro

Dame tú gelatina

October 22, 2013

What a great week in the Mission :) Elder Gonzalez and I are best buds. We have all sorts of energy and enthusiasm for the work. We work like dogs every day and are usually running home at night to get in on time. We are always laughing and having a good time along the way.

This week Elder Gonzalez got robbed for the first time... Not really, but kind of. We were visting a member in the ward who owns a bakery and she had given us a gelatina (jello). We were standing there talking to her at the front of her little shop and this drunk guy came up behind us and told us to give him our gelatina. It was some good gelatina so I played the ol gringo trick, I said "Mi no hablar spanish señor" and so he looked at Elder Gonzalez and Elder Gonzalez just said no, so we turned around and started talking to the member again. He just stood there for a while and then tapped Elder Gonzalez on the shoulder and said "Dame tú gelatina" (give me your gelatina) and we just kept talking. The guy stood there and then tugged on Elder Gonzalez´s sleeve and said "Dame tú gelatina!!". By this time I was shoveling down my gelatina and laughing at Elder Gonzalez. The sister told him to hand it over to the guy so Elder Gonzalez gave him his half eaten gelatina and the guy went away happy. Poor Elder Gonzalez, getting robbed his first week and all haha :)

This week was pretty awesome with the work. I had to go to two days of meetings but I learned a ton and President Camarillo, like always, said some really inspiring things. He really stressed that we should be talking to everyone. He said that we shouldn´t be talking to every person but that we should be talking to everyone. I really like that. There is a big difference. We don´t run every person down that we see and try to share a message with them but whenever we have an opportunity like in a taxi or combi we try to start conversations and share our testimonies. It is super hard at first but we have been practicing and trying to talk to a lot more people. The thing that I have realized is that I´m not talking as Kadyn Del Toro, I am talking as a representative of Jesus Christ and there is no need to be scared of someone saying no or anything like that because we do as we are told and have faith that some people are going to accept the message.

We also had some great lessons with investigators and Elder Gonzalez set his first baptismal date. We were with a guy named Cosme who was an investigator before I got here but had a tough situation so stoped taking the lessons. We went to visit him and he had changed a lot and was super receptive to our message. And the end of the lesson we started talking about baptism and how it is so important in the Gospel of Jesus Christ and then I gave Elder Gonzalez the nod. The nod means to ask him if he will follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone who holds the Priesthood authority of God. So Elder G asked Cosme to read a scripture about baptism and then started whispering to me to extend the baptismal invitation. I just shook my head and gave him the A-OK. So he asked him the question and Cosme said yes!! Elder Gonzalez looked way surprised and then just had a huge cheesy grin on his face. Elder Gonzalez was super excited after the lesson and said he is never going to forget that day.

I´m loving life right now :) I am so happy here on my mission.

Love,

 Elder Del Toro


photos: how Elder G and I stay awake during weekly planning... also, I slept in my hammock 3 times this week!

It's a Boy!!

October 16, 2013

Hello family and friends,

So a lot has changed this past week! I finished four month´s in the mission, I finished "the first 12 weeks infield training program", and I had a son.

Last Saturday I got a call from the Mission President congratulating me on finishing up my in field training. He then informed me that I would be doing it again, only this time the Lord had called me to be a trainer. I had to make sure he was talking to the right Elder.. I said "President, this is Elder Del Toro... Are you sure I am going to train?". He just laughed and said he would see me Tuesday. Oh boy. I was in shock and the next two nights I slept terrible because I could not stop thinking about it. So I went to Guadalajara Monday and stayed the night there with some other Elders and then Tuesday morning we had a training before we received our new Elders. President Camarillo talked about how some of us might be wondering why we were there. He said that we would not be there if the Lord did´t trust that we could accomplish the assignment that we had been given. He said a lot of other wise things and I felt like he was talking directly to me. By the end I felt confident and ready.. still a little nervous, as I am now, but I know that the Lord will be there on my side every step of the way.

We met up with all the new missionaries that just finished up at the Missionary Training Center and then had another meeting with the President. He started announcing the assignments and I could not keep my hands from shaking. Finally he announced my name and then announced that I would be serving with Elder Gonzalez. We gave each other a big hug, sat down, and I knew that everything would be ok. Elder Gonzalez is way cool. He comes from Guanajuato, Mexico. He played american football at the LDS school in Mexico City before it became a new MTC. He loves the outdoors. He likes to fish, shoot rabbits, and exercise. He also loves the drive his Jeep. He said he won a video contest with his Jeep. It was a 30 second video of him driving his Jeep and he took 5th and won a bunch of cool stuff. He is overall just a way cool guy. We get along great so far, and I can already tell we are going to be good buds. He is super ready to work. We are both way pumped to start working together.

At the end of the meeting we had together, we sang "I´ll go where you want me to go" in Spanish. It really touched me. The words are so great and I was just thinking how willing Elder Gonzalez is, 15 days into his mission to go with some white Elder who does not know Spanish. I know I am still pretty new, but the new missionaries just really inspire me. When they arrive here in the mission they are so unsure and scared, but at the same time, so ready and excited to go wherever the Lord calls them to serve. Elder Gonzalez threw his arm around my shoulder after the meeting and said "sé que esté el compañero para mi Elder Del Toro" or "I know you are the companion for me". In the mission when you become a trainer, you become a papá and the elder you are training is your hijo. I´m way excited to be with my nuevo hijo. I´m thinking we will be more like brothers because he will be training me just as much as I am training him.

I love being a missionary!!!!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Del Toro

¡Puedo tratar ésta?

October 7, 2013

Hola Todos :)

This week was another good one! Conference was so good!! There was something special about being a missionary and listening to conference. It was different than any other conference I have listened to. For us missionaries conference is like a rock concert. We were pumped all week and showed up early, tailgated, and had an after party. Ok maybe not all that, but we did have a ton of mexican food from our ward in between sessions. There are 5 American Elders from our stake and we all watched conference along with one Mexican elder who understands english well enough to watch it in english. Almost all the American Elders and the Mexicans who know good english watch it in english. There is just nothing like hearing the prophets voice. I did watch half a session in spanish and understood everything, but its just not the same. Wow!! All of the talks were so good!! I kept thinking, "if only the whole world could watch this...". I had a lot of favorite talks but one that really stuck out to me was Elder Bednar´s talk about tithing. There were so many about missionary work but I just really loved his talk. He talked about how the Lord blesses us in small but significant ways. That was what I liked most, how sometimes we don´t really see the blessings that the Lord puts in our lives that are so significant. Sure, there are those huge blessings that come right all at once and are easy to notice, but there are so many others that sometimes we just don´t realize. I know that the Lord blesses each and every one of us with small but significant blessings, and I am trying to pay closer attention to the "tender mercies" that the Lord puts in my life.

So we were doing a little shopping for preparation day today and we always have to stay in our "church clothes" when we do stuff like that and this guy came up to me and said, "Puedo tratar ésta?" which is like can I try this on? and I was super confused and whenever I am super confused I say either "si", "no", or "está bien". So I chose "no" and he looked at me like, "are you kidding me?"... so I said, "oh, pues si, está bien" and he said "gracias" and then just stood there looking at me. Then I finally realized that he thought I worked in the store because I had my dress clothes on. I started laughing and explained to him that I didn´t work there. Elder Elizondo and I thought that it was really funny that people could just be looking at us in stores like wow what a lame worker, he is just looking at all the stuff.

Our investigators are doing pretty good! Alejandro and Martha came to one of the sessions of conference. We are hoping that Pedro can still keep getting fired up enough about the Book of Mormon to read it. And we have some really awesome investigators who are making a lot of progress in the gospel. Martin Cruz, my favorite inactive, hasn´t missed a day at chuch since we visited him. He has been asked to serve in the Elders Quorum presidency, so we are super excited for him.

This may or may not be the last week Elder Elizondo and I serving together. He thinks he will get transfered and I´m not sure.. We will find out this weekend and if he does get transfered, I will get a new companion a week from today.

I´m loving life here in Morelia :) Serving a mission has been the best choice I have ever made.

Love,

Elder Del Toro

The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ

September 30, 2013

This week was probably my favorite week my mission. We had some of the most spiritual and uplifting lessons that I have ever been apart of. Elder Elizondo and I are getting along great. We have really made a 180 in our friendship/companionship. I think it just took a while to figure out our differences and we both had to adjust a bit but now we are two peas in a pod! for the most part! haha. But it has made such a difference in our teaching and all aspects of the mission. I can honestly say that I would love to serve another transfer with Elder Elizondo. We have two weeks before transfers. Elder E has been in this area for almost 7 months so is likely that he will get transferred either this transfer and if not, almost for sure the next. I think I will be here in Prados Verdes for a while. But we still have two more weeks to see what happens.

I feel like I don´t really have any funny stories or crazy things that happened this week, but we had some amazing lessons and overall it was just a spiritual week. One of the lessons was with a guy names Pedro. Pedro is 23 and is the step son of one of our investigators. He had been in one of the lessons before but after that he usually just went and watched TV whenever we came over. This week we went by to teach Alejandro and he Pedro answered the door and told us that Alejandro wasnt home. So I said Pedro, would you like us to share a message with you? He hesitated and didn´t really know what to say and then said I guess if you want. So I said great, and I walk right in and sat down on the couch. The lesson started out a little rough. He has a hard time keeping on track with the lesson. He knows a ton about the Bible and sometimes will just get on a tangent about stuff that he has heard or something. But we started teaching the message of the Restoration and he was hooked. He loved the history of the life of Joseph Smith and everything just made sense to him of why a restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ was necessary. I have never in my life seen someone so excited about hearing about The Book of Mormon. We started reading the introduction, we asked him to read the first paragraph and he was like wow!! and then he just kept reading. He read line by line, reading each 2 or 3 times to completely understand it before he would move on. He read out loud and we just watched and listened to his expressions. By the end of the introduction he was bouncing up and down in his seat because he was so amazed. We read the promise in Moroni 10 and he said the he new that the Book of Mormon was written by Prophets of God and that it was translated by the the power of God through the Prophet Joseph Smith. WOW!! Pedro was so prepared to hear about the Gospel. He asked us when he could be baptized at the end of the lesson. We had another lesson with him on Saturday and a separate lesson with his step dad that same day and both lessons were so great. And then they attended church along with Pedro´s mom and cousin! Alejandro felt right at home. haha. He was going up to people shaking hands and asking how they are doing. He was just so happy!! Marta, Pedro´s mom was amazed that the Prophet of God and his Apostles are going to speak next weekend. She said she isn´t going to miss it for anything. That family is so awesome. I am so excited to continue teaching them and help them come unto Christ.

This Sunday I was also asked to give a talk in sacrament meeting! I was a little nervous but once I was up there I felt much more comfortable. I think it went alright! I hope everyone understood me!!
Everything is great :) I am having a blast sharing the Gospel with the people of Mexico

Love,

Elder Del Toro

Muh Cow

September 24, 2013

Hello Everyone :)

Another great week in the promised land!! I was in Guadalajara all day yesterday signing my visa and got back late last night so I didn´t get the chance to write. But all is well! I left Sunday afternoon and stayed the night with some other Elders in Guadalajara and then the next day we had to go take pictures, fingerprints, and sign. It would have been pretty boring but Elder Bowen was also there!!! It was so nice to catch up and see how he is doing. We talked for hours! One of the first things I asked him is how his family is doing.. He said, "ah they´re doin awesome! Babysittin a muh cow righ now and she´s givin em trouble, so they´re stayin busy" Hahahahaha. Elder Bowen is the best. I was also able to retrieve my alarm clock that I forgot in Guadalajara the first day of the mission. They only bad part was that I forgot my flip flops there this time :( This morning I put grocery bags on my feet for the shower. It actually worked out pretty well, they got filled with water so I poured a little soap in there and did a little dance. Probably the cleanest my feet have ever been!! But I am planning and buying more flip flops today.
This week I learned so much!! We had zone conference with the Mission President as well as all the bishops, mission leaders, and stake presidency members. We really bonded with our leaders and worked together to set some new goals. President Camarillo spoke to us about finding people. He said that we as missionaries don´t really do the finding and if we take credit for finding people we have it all wrong. He spoke to us about how if we are working are hardest and doing all the right things the Lord is going to put people in our path who are ready to hear the Gospel. I loved that so much. As we put our faith and trust in the Lord and are obedient we are going to have people to teach. This week we gained 2 new investigators! We went to visit an inactive member in the ward and her father and 10 year old son were there are interested in our message. Lucia is excited to come back to church and her father and son are very prepared to hear our message.
I am loving every day of my mission. I can´t imagine myself anywhere else at this time. Love you all! thank for the support :)

Elder Del Toro

 Elder Bowen and Elder Del Toro eating some donuts!

 Elder Del Toro in the auto on his way home from Guadalajara

"Splash flip flops TM"

Bulls Eye

September 16, 2013

Hello friends and family :)

It is crazy that I have been out for over 3 months now!! 1/8 of the way done already and I feel like a just got here. This week was pretty awesome. We taught a lot of people and had some good times along the way.

I find my self saying "Clasico" very often. There are just so many classic moments here in Mexico! You just don´t see police armed with paintball guns for crowd control anywhere else. You just cant find a family of 4 on one scooter anywhere else but here. Things like that crack me up all the time. But this week there was one of the more "clasico momentos" that I have seen here in Mexico. We were in a camion, which is basically a public transportation bus. There were no more seats so I stood holding the rail and I looked down and saw an eye looking right back at me. I just about puked. This guy had a baseball cap with a cow or pig eye sitting on the brim. It had been cut out and still had the flesh attatched the back and was just sitting there on his hat.. (picture attatched)... I couldn´t believe it. We were with the other Elders in our district and poor Elder Medrano the new missionary just about lost the pan dulce that he was eating. It was an instant classic. Flies swarming around and everything. I took the picture from the hip without flash so it´s not great but I think you can get the idea.

This week was so great. I think my favorite part was noche mexicano. It was a stake activity and it was so cool to see all the outfits, mustaches, and a bunch of dances. Before the activity started we gave tours to people who had never been to one of our church buildings before. The chapel in our stake center is the most beautiful I have ever seen. It is absolutely gorgeous. That was my favortite part of the tours, when we walked into the chapel and the whole mood just changes. There is just a sweet spirit when we testify of what we believe in the chapel. The rest of the night was a lot of fun as well. There were performances of mexican dances with the big colorful dresses and tight mexican pants for the men. It was so fun to see how spirited everyone was with their red, green and white. Overall I gained a lot of love for the Mexican culture.

My favorite lesson this week was with a guy named Rodo. We went to teach a family of siblings in the ward, there are 3 brothers and their sister who live together while they are studying here in Morelia. Rodo was studying for an exam with the oldest brother when we came over so he joined in with us. The lesson turned into a lesson completely for Rodo. He had never heard of God or Jesus Christ and was super interested in what we had to say. It was so interesting to hear his beliefs and he had awesome questions. Things that I had never even thought of before. It was a very powerful lesson about how God is our Heavenly Father and how he sent His son to atone for our sins. Most people we teach have a belief in God, but Rodo didn´t so the lesson was so much different than any other I have taught. We promised him that he can know that there is a God who loves and knows him personally. He doesnt live in our area so the other Elders will teach him but I was so thankful to have that opportunity to teach him.

All is well, all is well :)

Love,

Elder Del Toro

Good Health

September 9, 2013

This week has been a rainy one. It has rained every day for the past two weeks :P I thought I got out of the rain when we left Washington but I´m right back with it. Better rain than scorching hot i guess! I am still losing weight, I have lost about 15 pounds since the MTC. I might just come back a 125 pounder! haha.
Everything is going so great in Morelia, Michoacan. We are working hard and having some fun. It seems like a lot of funny things happened this week. One thing that I thought was really funny happened at English classes. It was all members who showed up so we were learning how to pray in English. One of the things they wanted to learn how to say was Te agradecemos para buena salud, or  "We thank thee for good health". The only problem is that they dont really have the "th" sound in Spanish so they were saying "We thank thee for good hell". I dont know why I thought it was so funny but they just kept practicing saying Good Health and chanting "Good Hell! Good Hell!" By the end of the class they were pronouncing Health perfect.
We had the baptism on Saturday! She was glowing, she was so excited and so happy. For whatever reason while we were filling up the baptismal font the water shut completely off and would not come back on. There was about a foot of water in the font so we had to make do. Elder Elizondo did the baptism. It took 5 times for her to finally go completely under the water. The final solution was her sitting with her legs straight out and Elder Elizondo on his knees dunking her back. Everyone who was there was getting into it. "her knee didnt go under!" "Her foot!" In Spanish of course. It was a relief when she finally went completely under. Its a good thing she is a tiny 11 year old, or I think we would have had to have people sit in the font for the water level to raise.
My favorite lesson this week was with Martin. He is doing so great. He has come to church the past two Sundays and just loves when we teach him. We taught him about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, especially about the Sacrifice that Jesus Christ made for us and how we can repent and be clean once again. Everything is just making sense with him again. He had forgotten a lot of things because he hadnt been to church in a really long time but during our lessons he will start remembering things and just start teaching the lesson himself. One thing that he said that really struck me is that he can always feel the Spirit enter into his home whenever we come over to teaching. That just really touched me that we have the help of the Lord every time we teach. I have been learning the importance of the Holy Ghost the past couple weeks. Our whole goal is to help other people feel the comfort of the Holy Ghost because that is what changes peoples hearts, not us.
I am learning so much every week. I love Morelia and I love being a missionary :)

Elder Del Toro

 Everybody loves churros!

 Baptism!

A home of one of the members in the area.

Man bag

September 2, 2013

I experienced an awesome miracle this week that strengthened my testimony. We have been teaching a 12 year old girl named Alexa who has a dad who would not sign the babtism papers. Alexa´s mom is a less active member and wanted her daughter to be baptized but the hold up was the dad. Elder Elizondo has been teaching her for 5 months but never had the chance to talk to her dad. His wife said he didnt want his daughter to be baptized and he didnt want to talk to us either.  Finally this week we ran into him. He walked in the front door and walked past the room we were in. I just about jumped out of my chair when I saw him! I was way pumped that we finally had the chance but Elder Elizondo told me to calm down. We finished the lesson and he was in the shower. His wife said that he was going to go somewhere after he got out of the shower and Elder E was like dang maybe we can come back another day.. ANOTHER DAY!?!?! We had a chance of lifetime right in front of us. Elder E was terrified of this guy. He said oh well we can have the bishop come talk to him later today, and Alexa´s mom was like yeah thats probably better. A thought ran through my mind. It wasn´t you are a full grown man, you can do this.. It wasn´t oh no my spanish isnt good enough. It was "You are called by a Prophet of God to be a representative of Jesus Christ". I told Alexa´s mom just that, that we are called by a Prophet of God and that we have the authority to say what the Lord wants. So we waited in the hallway inbetween the shower room and his room. He stepped out and I walked up and shook his hand and introduced myself. He was a little taken back. He only had a towell around his waist. So he said he would get changed and then we would talk. It seemed like forever but he finally came out and Elder Elizondo made some small talk. I think for one of the first times Elder E ran out of words to say and looked at me. I told him about the importance of baptism and how his daughter is ready for that step. I talked to him for about 5 minutes. My spanish wasnt perfect but it was better than I had ever talked. When I asked if he would agreed to let his daughter be baptized he replied, "Claro que si". I think all our jaws dropped. I am so thankful for that experience and that I was able to have the words and the courage to talk to him. I am so thankful for the guidance of the Holy Ghost missionaries receive to know what to say. Alexa will be baptized this saturday. After what seems like a zillion lessons, she can finally make that baptismal covenant with her Heavenly Father.

Everything is so good. My spanish is starting to improve very rapidly. I feel like I understand just about everything now. I think I am just about fluent in the Gospel. I am half way done with my infield training! 6 weeks down, 6 to go. I am loving every day of my mission.

Our president informed us that we will be using side bags starting in October. I bought a nice leather bag today. I really like it but I am still getting used to the idea of having my little purse. I will send a picture next week when I am a little more confident about it.

Love you all,

Elder Del Toro

Lucha Lord

August 26, 2013

Another awesome week in Morelia :) I love this place so much. This week was one of the tougher weeks we have had but you gotta taste the bitter before you can know the sweet, right? Elder Elizondo and I had a little talk again in our weekly planning session. I had been making a list of all of the names of members in the ward and organized it by colonias (sections of the city) and he said we arent going to use it because we have plenty of members to teach. I had been working on it every extra minute I had so I was a little upset when he said we arent going to find inactive members like that. So we are trying to find a happy power balance right now. I think we are both trying to take the bull by the horns and there is only room for one, so I´m kinda taking a back seat right now. I love to work though. I swear every night I fall asleep within 5 minutes of my head hitting the pillow. We are just dead tired at the end of each day.
Earlier this week we found some members in the ward that havent been to church in a few years. They are by far my favorite lessons. We found this guy and when we knocked on his door, he invited us in and then walked out the door. We were super confused. So we just went and sat down on his couch. He came back with ice cream sandwiches for us and was so happy to have us in his home. He showed us his new sound system too! Hahaha he blasted some American music for a little bit. Once we got going with our lesson he remembered that he had his Book of Mormon upstairs. He went and got it along with a journal that he had wrote in. He had notes from every single sunday at church for like a year. His books had a lot of dust, it had been 3 years since he went to church, but when he was reading through his journal I could just see that he missed the light that he had at one time. We just watched him for like 5 minutes flip through pages and smile. I love visiting inactive members. When we visit them they remember the happiness they had and I think more often than not, they just kind of stopped going, not for any reason. My testimony has grown so much this week. No matter how long it has been, someone can always get back into the Gospel. They can feel that same happiness that they have been missing.
So I am kind of a Lucha Lord down here. It is super funny because when I say I used to wrestle, people automatically think sweet mask, spandex, and hitting people with chairs and baseball bats. So I have to explain that its kind of like that but a little different haha. At church there are like 4 guys who always get in their wrestling stance and start circling me. I keep telling them they are lucky that I dont have my Lucha mask.
I have been working hard on walking on my hands. Elder Bowen and I started to learn the last week we were in the MTC but we could only make it a few feet. I try to make my morning workouts fun so this week I held the olympics. I was the only contender but every morning I would compete in a few events. My highlight event was definately the ¨"Walking on your hands for as far as you can go event" This one is for sure my favorite. I made it from the baseline to the free throw line on the opposite side of the basketball court. I cant wait to tell Elder Bowen.
All is well with me. I love every day of the mission and I think I am starting to speak some decent spanish :)

Love,

Elder Kadyn "The Lucha Lord" Del Toro

Lechera

August 20, 2013

Hello family :)

Yesterday we went to Guadalajara for a training. It was for all the new missionaries and their traininers. We had to wake up at 5am and we got back late so last night we only had time to check emails and our President told us to write today. The training was sweet, the best part was getting to see Elder Bowen again!! I love that guy. we got to catch up and tell some mission stories and all that good stuff.
My spanish has improved a lot. The first day in the mission we had a meeting and I hardly understood anything. This one went a lot better, I understood almost everything and our Mission President is just the best. He just says the wisest things and is so inspiring.

The Baptism went well! It was very spiritual and she was so excited. I think baptisms are the best. It is amazing to see people have a chance to start a new life and make covenants with our Heavenly Father.
We are starting to turn our focus to the ward a lot more. There is A LOT of reactivation to do. It is a lot of work. There are 800 people in our ward boundaries and only 100 our active. We are trying to visit a lot of the inactive families and bring them back. I am going to learn the area very well the next few weeks. It is a lot of tracking down addresses.

This week we had the opportunity to help a less active sister in our ward. When we asked if there was anything we could do for them she said that she really needed help in her bakery getting some orders done. Haha that was far from what we were expecting but we were way excited to help her in the bakery. It was so cool to learn a little bit about making cakes! they are a little different than in the U.S. They pour milk, cream, and LECHERA into the cake once it is baked so it is saturated with all that stuff. Its a little different but its pretty good! So this is where I discovered Lechera. Lechera is basically sweetened condensed milk. Oh man that stuff is so delicious! I ended up buying a can of it on our way home that night along with some cookies. I kind of went overboard on the Lechera.. I put that stuff on the cookies, and some bananas I had, and just ate it by the spoonful. The can was halfway gone that night and I had a huge stomach ache. I finished of the can the next day for breakfast and dinner. Now, whenever I think of Lechera my stomach hurts :P
I am kind of the baby of the ward right now. It is kind of cool though, everyone is trying to help me learn spanish and they are super understanding that I am trying my hardest. Everyone calls me "Elder Torito". They are taking good care of me :)

Hope everything is going well with all of you!

Love,

Elder Del Toro

Gueras

August 12, 2013

Another great week in Mexico!

This week was full of adventures, hard work, and some good times. I cant believe Im already two months into the mission, it feels like I just left.

So our English classes were... mas o menos. We had 7 people in attendance both times haha. But it is super fun and we have a kid in our class who makes me laugh so much. He is 8 years old and his mom drops him off for the class and he is always trying to get me to help him beat levels on his Play Station Portable.
I had the opportunity to go on exchanges with the zone leader this week.. Wow, what an awesome missionary. I learned so much from him in that day. His name is Elder Wilhelm.. He is way tall, another white missionary, and such a spiritual guy. It was nice to speak a little bit of english too. I did have another crazy bathroom experience while I was in his area. We were at a meal appointment and after we ate I asked if I could use their bathroom. I walked in there and started unbuckling and the shower door slid just a little bit. I was like woah.. thats wierd. But the glass looked like if there was someone behind there you could see them. So I unbuttoned my pants and it slid a little bit more. I just stared at it for a minute and then slid it open and their daughter was in there playing hide and go seek. It gave me quite the scare. So I went and got her dad and he pulled her out of there. Thats not even the worst part though. I was so frazzled that I didnt even check if there was toilet paper. so when I was ready, I looked at the roll and it was completely out. My heart sunk. I kind of squated over to the sink and under it I was able to find some baby wipes. Whew. What was a terrible bathroom experience turned into one of the best bathroom experiences I have had since I was a baby!!

Great news! We have a baptism this week!. I am so excited for her. It is set for this upcoming saturday. She is so ready to be baptized, she loves the gospel and has such a love for our Savior and his Atonement. It is amazing, we hardly did anything as missionary. Really, we just introduced her to the gospel and she just took off from there. A couple other people we are teaching a ready for baptism too, one is a girl who has a dad who wont give her permission. The other one has a testimony of everything but is having a hard time making a commitment. We invited both of them to the baptism and I am hoping that gets them excited about the Gospel.

I also had an interview with the Mission President this week. What an awesome hombre. He is so nice and just talking with him made me want to keep working hard. And my spanish was at its best in the interview too! He told me he can tell that I love my mission and that I am working hard.

So about the email subject.. We held the family home evening for the ward this week and it was super fun. At one part it was my turn to explain a little bit about the book of mormon. I was feeling pretty good, my spanish sounded ok and then I started talking about the Nephites and Lamanites and how they faught and said, "Los Lamanitas y Nephitas tuvieron muchas gueras"... All of a sudden the whole ward burst into a laugh and I was standing there in front of everyone super confused at what was funny. So I just gave them a cheesy grin and when they stopped I finished up my part. After, I went over to Elder Elizondo and asked what was so funny. I meant to say they had a lot of wars. wars in spanish is guerras. What I said, gueras, means fair women... back to being a gringo. I dont think they are going to let that one go for a while.

Hope everything is going well back home! I love and miss all of you!

Love,

Elder Del Toro

P-day at the zoo 

Elder Del Toro's favorite caption for this photo, "Who wants to get baptized?"

Royal Flush

Hello everybody!

Another great week in Morelia Mexico!! I love this place. This week started off with a ton of rain. We were walking in water up to our ankles on our way home. And the worst thing was I fogot my raincoat that day. That is the most rain I ever been in for that short amount of time. There was also hail that hurt my cabeza too.
Patience is a virtue. I am working on it every day.  Since that Wednesday we got so much done. It made me realize how much it really matters getting along with your companion. We are teaching a lot of lessons, I am grateful for all the people who are willing to hear the good word.

I love my family! This week my favorite lesson was with Hermana. She is about 60 and her husband has been a member his whole life but she still hasnt been baptized. During the lesson I remembered I had my photo album. I pulled out the picture of the Del Toro fam and told her about each of us and how much I loved each one of them. I then pulled our a picture of the temple. I explained how much comfort it brings me knowing that since I am sealed to my family with the Priesthood, I can live with them even after this life. I am such a baby when I talk about my family, Im sure it was hard for her to understand my Spanish before, but once the tears came Im sure it was a struggle to understand me. I explained to them that her getting baptized is just the first step to them being able to be sealed for all time and eternity. I hope she can come unto Christ.
I swear I will never comment about anyones driving in the states. Holy smokes! The other day we were riding in a combi and I had to stand cause all the seats were all taken and while we were driving he came to a sudden halt and I got slammed into the front of the combi. Those drivers are wreckless. Everyone is wreckless, I cant believe there arent more accidents.

We have english classes this week! the first week I was here I was saying a word in english to Elder Elizondo and a man stopped us and asked if we were doing english lessons. We look at eachother and back at him and said yes. We have been getting things organized and wednesday and thursday will be the first classes. Hopefully it goes well!

So today we were eating at an investigators house and I had to use the restroom. I didnt know if they had one or not but I really had to pee so I asked and they led me to the bathroom. It was a curtain for a door and they handed me a couple wads of toilet paper. I went ahead and peed in the toilet and then realized that there was no flusher!! I then realized that this toilet wasnt even hooked up to plumbing!! so I found a bucket and filled it with the hose and poured it in... nothing, just more full. So I tried to wash my hands, the sink wasnt hooked up to water either. So I walked out and asked Elder Elizondo what to do. I then heard someone go in there and pour a couple more buckets in. Im still not sure how it works but I am grateful that I didnt have to go number 2.

Im loving the work. Time is going by fast and Im understanding more and more spanish every day.

Love,

Elder Del Toro