Monday, April 21, 2014

19 going on 60

Monday April 21, 2014

Hola :)

This week was a pretty crazy one. It was semana santa so there were a ton a celebrations in the streets with lots of bands and lots of toritos. We found a beautiful toro that a family made for their celebration. It`s huge!! And it`s called the "Apocalypto". They let me try it on and dance in it like they do. The best part is that they are 5 families all related that live in the same street and said that we could pass by a day this week to teach them. I think we`ll have to teach from one of the roof tops!!

This week I also realized how much of an old man I am. Not really that I`m an old man but I realized that all of our best friends here are all over the age of 60. I never thought I could be such good friends with people 3 times my age, but we really are best friends. They love when we come over and they always tell us stories about the good days.

Things are going great with all of the people we are teaching. Antonio and Maria (two of our best friends) are so excited for their baptism the 3rd of May. Maria talked to her daughter who lives in Nebraska and told her how happy she is so we are going to contact the missionaries their and send them to her house. Daniel is doing awesome. He hardly swears anymore and his back is doing much better. He is also going to be baptised on the 3rd. The Arredondo family is doing alright. Julio is having a hard time stopping drinking but his family is helping him and giving him lots of support. We are hoping that he can stop drinking and that the whole family can be baptized on the 3rd of May. We have high hopes for the third of May :) haha. We are praying lots and working hard.

Everything is great! We had a little earthquake this week and EVERYONE panicked. And it looks like the rainy season is starting up again already!!

Love you all! Make it a great week!

Elder Del Toro




Monday, April 14, 2014

Animalitos

April 14, 2014

Que pasa mis calabazas?

This week was another good one. We had a lot of sweet lessons this week, I started taking it easy on the soda, and we have a ton of pet cucarachas.

I don`t know what`s up with all the animals here but they are just crazy. The cochroaches just keep invading us and all of the dogs hate us here. But this week we visited an investigator just in time to see him training his roosters how to fight. I had never even heard of roosters fighting but it was crazy, they drew blood!! And then another day we were at a guys house who has a huge dog that looks like it could it people. And it tries!! it loves to play by biting your arms. And the guy was like don`t worry he doesn`t bite hard, he just likes to play. And then he just told us we were a bunch of babies because he wouldn`t let his dog bite us. Hahaha. So I late poly bite my arm!! It didn`t hurt too bad but the picture just wouldn`t turn out right so that dog was chewing my arm for like 5 minutes!! but we got a good photo :)

I think the coolest part about this week was at church this sunday. Our investigator Marìa is just was excited about the gospel and LOVES to talk about how happy she is now that she is learning the Gospel of Jesus Christ. This sunday at church was sacrament meeting for those who want to share their testimony. The wards aren`t huge here so to take up all the time just about everyone has to take their turn. But with about 15 minutes left it seemed like everyone who was going to share their testimony had already done it. So I leaned over to Marìa and told her that she could bear her testimony if she wanted. She was like "you don`t have to be a member to share your testimony??" and I said "no way, everyone is probably dying to hear from you" so she handed her purse to her husband and marched right up there. It was one of the sweetest testimonies I had ever heard. She just expressed how greatful she was to have the opportunity to hear this Gospel and she said how excited she is because she knows it is true and it has changed her life. After her testimony, four ladies all stood up at the same time to walk up and bear their testimonies and they said how much they needed to hear Marìa`s testimony.

Everything is going great here. Thank you all for your support!

Love,
Elder Del Toro




April Fools!

April 7, 2014

Hello Everyone :)

Why hello my dear friends and family!! another good week here in morelia! This week felt a little longer than most. I kind of got robbed at the beginning of the week :( It wasn`t really robbed by definition. But I sure made a fool out of myself. To make a very long story short, some people on the street contacted us, invited us into their home, told us they were less active members of the church, told us a sob story, and asked for money. And I ate every word they told me. It wasn`t until after that nothing made sense that they had said and when I called the President he told me that we weren`t the first to be tricked by those people. I was so sad that someone could do that to us!! And the worst thing was that it happened on april fools day. I was humiliated when the whole mission got a text message the next day to be aware of those kind of people.
But on the bright side I learned an awesome lesson about forgiveness. I was so bitter that night, I hardly slept at all. I just kept running the situation through my mind and I just kept being mad at those people. And then I realized how un-christlike that is. Our Savior Jesus Christ was spat on, whipped, punched, and hung on the cross and his last words were to His father pleading that he forgive those people because they knew not what they did. We can learn so much from our Savior`s example.

And the other great thing was conference!! I LOVE HEARING THE PROPHETS VOICE!!! I absolutely loved all of the talks that were given this weekend. I learned so much about how I can improve both as a person and as a missionary. And the other best part is that we had eight of our investigators come to watch conference with us!! I just kept thinking stuff to myself like... "I am so glad Julio is hearing this" or "this is EXACTLY what Antonio needs to hear". I am so grateful that we have a living prophet called by God to teach us the will of our Father in Heaven.
Being a missionary is great :)

Have a great week!! love you all!

Elder Del Toro

here is a picture of our district :) I like to call it the "distrito torito"



Another 6 weeks!!

March 31, 2014

Hello my friends and family!!

This Elder Del Toro is one happy missionary!! I got another 6 weeks in this area with Elder Ormeño!!! I was thinking back to when I first got to this area 3 months ago and how negative I was about everything when I really it`s like the best area ever and my companion is a man and a half. I have really grown love Elder Ormeño. I think he is my favorite companion I have served with so far. I realized that you can grow to love everyone, you just have to get to know them first. I am so glad that I have the oportunity to serve another transfer here with Elder Ormeño. We have big goals for these next six weeks.

This week we had the baptism of Melquisedec and Judad. It was a sweet baptism. The two brothers were super excited for that day. After Judad was baptized he told Elder Ormeño and I that he felt like God had dunked him right in the water and gave him a big hug. It was such a sweet baptismal service.
We found a super cool new investigator this week. We talked to Antonio the other day in the street and he told us that he has always wanted someone to explain things to him about God but he had never had the chance. We visited him the next day with his wife and they told us that 8 years ago Antonio almost died from an operation and they doctors had told them that there is no way that he should be alive. He told us that he had a dream of Jesus Christ coming to him with a lamb in his arms and telling him to follow him. He told us that when we showed him a photo of Christ with a lamb in his arms, he remembered that dream and he knows that the reason he is still alive is to follow Jesus Christ. He came to church with us this week and liked it a lot.

Life is good :) I am super excited to to hear the words of the prophet and his apostols this weekend!! I feel like a little kid the week of Christmas!! :)

Love you all!!

Elder Del Toro


Tuesday, March 25, 2014

What a weird week...

March 24, 2014

Hola mi familia y amigos :)

This week went pretty good!! It was a pretty wierd week this week because nothing really wierd happened! So I don`t really have anything cool to say this week.
This week we had the baptism of Brandon!! It was an awesome baptism. His whole family came, including his grandma who has been a member for a long time but none of her other family members have been baptized. She gave a talk in the baptism and her and her grandson both cried and were very emotional. I was so excited for them. And after Brandon got baptized his little sister asked her mom if she could be baptized now. haha it was super cute.
Daniel is another investigator of ours that just keeps surprising us. He seems like he was such a rough guy before but now he is way into the gospel and is like 40 pages into the book of mormon.
The Arredondo family is still doing great! We have plans to make them french toast the morning of general conference because they ALWAYS give us a ton of food when we visit them.
The "niños escogidos" are going to be baptized this week. They are the two brothers, elias and juda. They are super funny. One of them kind of looks like he could be my son and the other kind of looks like he could be Elder Ormeño`s son.
Everything is great!! A bunch of Elders went bowling today for p-day. I think the americans had a better time than the latinos haha, a lot of them had never played before and had a lot of gutter balls.
Elder Ormeño and I are hoping we don`t have transfers next week. We are both really content here and neither one of us wants to leave.
Thanks for all the support! I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Elder Del Toro




Sunday, March 23, 2014

Milk...?

March 17, 2014

Hello everybody!!

Another great week in Morelia Mexico!! I hope I serve my whole mission here. I have big dreams of a new mission opening here.. "Mission Mexico Morelia" Ah man that would be the best. The stake president and I were talking the other day and we decided to give it all we got and he said maybe before I leave, this state of Michoacàn would have enough members to open up the new mission. I`ve got big hopes :)

So at the beginning of my mission it seemed like I always had bathroom stories. I think I`ve pretty much got that part of the mission by now, but recently I`ve had lots of food experiences. This week I had my first experience with leche de vaca.. for those of you who don`t speak in espanish, that means cow milk. And like yeah almost all milk comes from cows right? but we are talking DIRECTLY from the cow. This stuff doesn`t come in the gallon containers. So on my mission I have learned to never turn down stuff that people offer you, they think it`s super rude. I`ve never been a fan of milk but I have learned on the mission to drink it. But oh man, this milk is diferent. It`s not really white like I`m used to and it`s just got a super bad texture.. it was like I was drinking milk with cottage cheese in it!! And it was warm!! and this was no glass of milk, this cup was huge!! But I drank it all. I almost had tears in my eyes, but I drank it like a champ. They figured out I was a first timer with leche de vaca and they said I was done for. They didn`t tell me until after that the first time you drink leche de vaca, it really messes you up. Great. So we walked out of there and a half a block later I was throwing up. And the next day was a little tough on the bowels. But I`m convinced that now that I got the first time out of the way I can handle it.

The work went great this week too! We have been blessed to have a lot of work and a lot of sweet investigators. This week I remembered a couple magic tricks, too. I can make a peso dissapear and I have a pretty cool card trick. They all love it!! It looks like we will be having a baptism this weekend with Brandon and another 2 next weekend. The Arredondo family didn`t make it to church this sunday so we are hoping that they will be baptized in april. Daniel Zamora our 76 year old investigator has been to church twice now and reads the book of mormon every day!! He has changed a ton. The first time we taught him he swore like a sailor, but now he is like a little choir boy. Awesome things are happening here in Morelia :)
Love you all!! Hope you have a great week!

Elder Del Toro

Can I get an "Amen"??

March 10, 2014

Hola familia :)

Another good week here in the motherland. Weeks just keep flying by for me!! It`s like every week is a day for me. But things are still awesome here.

This week we had the long awaited tacos de cabeza with the Arredondo family. Best tacos I have ever had. Seriously, I ate until I couldn`t breath anymore and then I had one more taco. They offered me the eye, but I said that I`m taking baby steps. I just didn`t like the idea of looking down at the taco and having it looking right back up at me.

Wow, I had quite the experience this week. Probably the coolest experience I have had on my mission. On thursday in the street we stopped and talked to an old guy who was trimming his tree outside. He told us that he has a little group of his own that meets in his house to study the bible every saturday so of course we had to invite ourselves. Saturday we showed up and even though everyone looked at us a little wierd, we sat there content as ever. So they started with a prayer which was a little different than I have ever seen. There was on guy saying the pray and then everyone else had their hands in the air and were saying stuff in violent whispers. I decided to say my prayer in my head. So after that we sang a song. They didn`t have books though, so we just had to clap our hands with them. That was the hardest part, we literally sang and clapped for a half hour straight. I was sweating pellets!! I thought the guy with the tamberin had the cooler job but I didn`t have the nerves to ask if I could take a turn. So all that passed and we studied the bible a little bit. We studied the miracles of Jesus Christ and his Apostoles. The preacher guy didn`t allow comments so I just sat there and prayed the whole time that he would give us a chance to share our testimonies. At the end I raised my hand and asked if I could say something. He had no problem with it so I bore my testimony that we have the Priesthood Authority once again on this earth. I shared with them how God has called another Prophet to guide his church with twelve apostles and the same authority that Jesus Christ and his Apostles had. I explained that we have been called by this prophet to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ. It was super cool because they say "amen" a ton there and I got like ten "amens" and "halelujahs". I think that is the strongest I have ever felt the spirit on my mission. We gave a Book of Mormon to the leader and he said that he is going to read it. They said that we could come back anytime we want. What a cool experience.
Have I mentioned that I love my mission? :) It`s the best.
Have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Del Toro




Monday, March 3, 2014

March of the Toros

March 3, 2014

Greetings from Sunny Morelia :)

Things just keep on getting better!! This week, the Arredondo family came to church with Julio looking just like a missionary. We gave him a short sleeve white dress shirt and a tie. That guy walked in like he was the prophet. He is always so happy to be there at church. We also had "the niños" come to church with us. They are two brothers Judà and Melchizidec who we found from some of their older siblings who are members who haven`t come for a long time. But the best was that Javier and Javier Jr. came to church. Javier is one strange dude. He recognized one of the members in the congregation and walked over there and grabbed him by the cheeks like a grandmother grabs her grandkids by the cheeks and shook his head back and forth, grabbed his hand and kissed it, bowed to him, and then came back and sat down. Wierdest thing I have ever seen in sacrament meeting. Ruben, the husband of a sister in our ward came with his wife and then when she left after the first hour, he stayed for classes and bore his testimony about how he wants to change and how he just loves coming to church. Best Sunday ever.

This saturday was a celebration of toros!! There were a bunch of people wearing masks of bulls and marching around the streets at night with people following behind playing music and yelling and what not. It felt like the homecoming parade or something!! I asked some kids in the street if I could take a picture with their toro mask. The little punks charged me 5 pesos, but it was an offer I could not refused. They did a little dance after too, so I guess it was worth my 5 pesos. I had never been so proud to be a Del Toro.
Things are going great here with Elder Ormeño and I. Last night I wrote in my journal, "The Lord is working miracles in this ward. I can`t believe I have the oportunity to be apart of it". I am so greatful that I have the chance to serve as a missionary at this time and to serve the people here in Mexico. It`s the best and most important thing I have ever done.

Love,

Elder Del Torito




La Rata

February 24, 2014

Hello friends and family :)

This week was such a great one!!! We are workin real hard and seeing some great progress. So this week our landlord passed by our house to take some of his stuff out from under our stairs. He came with his mom and so we were talking to her while he was taking out his stuff. All of a sudden a fat rat ran out from under the stairs!!! Elder Ormeño and I may be the hope of Israel, but definately not when there are rats involved. Elder Ormeño ran out of the house and I was three feet in the air. But this little old lady took action. She took her purse off of her shoulder and swung that thing down like Thor. The rat was still scurrying so she stomped on its head twice. Holy cow this woman is crazy!!! She picked up the rat by it`s tail and tried to hand it to me. I just put my hands into the air haha. So she walked outside, saw a dump truck and ran over there and threw it in there. What a hero.

As far as the work goes, I don`t think we could ask for more. We have had a lot of people to teach and this week 9 or our investigators were able to come to church! We started teaching a family last week, the family Arredondo, and they were there at church!! It`s the first family I have taught in my mission. I don`t know why I haven`t had the chance yet but I couldn`t be happier. They have three kids, Hasani (16) Joselin (12) and Erika (8). They are so cool!! The mom signed up to feed us next month, they said they are going to feed us tacos de cabeza... I`m a little nervous for that. I had one oportunity to try cow brains in my mission and I turned it down. Everyone gets a second chance though,right? haha. We are a little disappointed because our investigator Angel is having some troubles. He came to church on sunday but when he got home his sister got super mad at him for going to church with us and she told him if he gets baptized in our church he`s got to move out. He is 76 and his sister is the one who takes care of him so he is in a tough situation. His baptism was going to be the first of march but he said that he can`t. We are going to keep working with him and keep praying for him and his sister. This may sound terrible but his sister has cancer... so it could be possible that Angel doesn`t have to make such a tough decision here in the next few years. Everything is going so great here. The weather is getting hotter and hotter :P I`m guessing that mexico didn`t do so well in the winter olympics, it`s never winter here!

Love you all,

Elder Del Toro


Saturday, February 22, 2014

Càstulo

February 17, 2014

Hola familia y amigos!!

I`ve got a joke... What do mexicans use to cut their pizza??....... Little Caesars!! Hahaha. Gosh I laugh about that joke every day. So things are pretty good here in Morelia!! Transfers passed over us, Elder Ormeño and I will serve here together for another 6 weeks. This transfer I will be serving as district leader, so I`m pretty excited to get to know the other people in the district better. This week was such a good one!! We went to Guadalajara and had a mission conference combined with the other mission in Guadalajara. We were 500 missionaries between the two missions. It was so cool to be with so many missionaries and listening to a member from the quorum of the seventy, Elder Christianson. He said a lot of good stuff but my favorite thing he said is that we are the hope of israel. I was so tempted to throw my fist into the air and yell "POR ISRAEL!!". I always get way too pumped at conferences.

This week we had such an awesome experience. I think it was my favorite of my whole mission. We were walking in the street and we stopped and started talking to this guy that was sitting on the sidewalk. Long story short, his life is rough. Càstulo has a ton of problems with his wife and kids and he has turned to drinking to get away from it. So we asked the guy, "do you want to change?" and he thought about it for a while and looked up at us and said he did and then he invited us to his house. We sat down and started talking and he poured his alcohol into a soda and started sipping on it. He was sober but said that he had to start drinking. He told us about all his problems and was crying and was saying that his life doesn`t matter anymore. We told him that he`s got to stop drinking if he wants to change but he told us that if he stops he will die because his body depeneds on it so much. I promised him as a representative of Jesus Christ that if he would stop drinking that night the Lord would help him leave his addiction and his body would no longer need alcohol. His wife was there and was saying that he has tried to stop many times before and he would never be able to quit. Càstulo was just crying and trying to tell his wife that he loves her. It was so intense, I swear it could be in one of those mexican television shows! I was like Càstulo, pour out your acohol. And he said he couldn`t. He said the next day would be a better time to quit. He said to his wife that he loves her but he just cant stop. I yelled to him "Càstulo pour out your alcohol if you love her!!!!" I said "You have the Lords promise that he will help you stop!!"... Gosh my adrenaline is pumping just thinking about it! haha... But he looked at us, took the cap off the bottle, and started swearing a ton and poured out the alcohol. he stompped on the bottle and gave us a hug. haha it was awesome. He asked us like five times, "did you see that?!?! I poured it out!!" haha his little grandkids came out of their room and said "look, grandpa isn`t going to drink anymore!". He asked what next and we told him we were going to clean his house and then give him a priesthood blessing. We are so excited for Càstulo. We gave him 3 pamphlets and a book of mormon to keep himself busy and we are going to keep helping him out. He told us that that morning, his wife told him he needed to change or he would have to leave. He said that he left the house looking for someone to help him change his life and when he saw us, he thought we were glowing. He asked us who sent us and the only answer we had was that God had sent us. I know that the Lord put us in the path of that man to help him change. Last night when all that happened was one of the best experiences I have had on the mission. I love this work :) FOR ISRAEL!!

Love,
Elder Del Toro


Heating up

February 10, 2014

Hello Everyone :)

The heat is starting to hit us here in Morelia!! I`m starting to have some nice yellow pit stains!! I really like having the sun though. I don`t remember a day when I have wished for the weather to be different. It`s never too hot and it`s never too cold. Morelia is the best. This week Elder Ormeño and I had some tough times to pass through. Last week we were already looking forward to our March Madness plans and this week it seemed like more of a March Sadness. Not really, because we are always happy as missionaries, but this week we lost 5 investigators with baptism dates. They dropped us like we`re hot!! We also lost our area book, the book with all the people who have ever been taught ever in our area... it`s like the book of life!! so it`s a pretty big deal if you lose it. And we lost it on Friday and this weekend we were soo worried!! but we had a zone activity in the stake center today and there it was!! So we are very relieved to have it back. I was so happy when we found it I almost cried. This week was rough, but I think it`s like riding a bike on a hill, when you ride down a hill and then there is an uphill, you just fly right up it. This week felt like rock bottom so now we are going to head straight for the top :)

We had zone conference this week and we watched a talk by the Apostle Jeffrey R. Holland and he talked about his mission and how it was absolutely the best two years of his life. He said that every good thing that has happened to him in his life is from a result of his mission!! Holy smokes!! That guy loved his mission. But I think I`m right there with him. I love this work. It`s the toughest thing I`ve ever done, but it`s the best thing I have ever done in my whole life. And I know I will look back on these days for the rest of my life.
The best part about this week was that Angel came to church with us!! He`s like seventy somethin years old but this guy is reading his Book of Mormon, saying his prayers, and coming to church. We are super excited for Angel.
This week the whole mission is going to meet in Guadalajara to have a conference with the other mission in Guadalajara. I think we are going to get to go see the temple too!! I am super excited for this week!!!
Thanks for all the support :)
Love,
Elderrrrr Del Torrrro (I`m working on my "rr")






Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Right back with Dad

February 3, 2014

Hello Everyone!!

First of all, GO HAWKS!! haha. We were walking last night and someone had their door open with the game on... so we decided to talk to them. It was a 21 year old kid who is way cool and I know his grandma because she is a member who lives in my last area. We got to see the score of the 3rd quarter AND we have a new investigator!

I think I could write a script and copy and paste it every week. It would say "Wow, this week flew by" and "I love my mission!!!". That`s what I think every week while I am writing. But this week was pretty special because I got to see my dad, Ed Del Toro!! Ok not really, but this guy Jose Avalos look EXACTLY like my dad. He is one of our investigators and this week I showed his family a picture of the Del Toro family and they couldn`t believe how much my dad looks like Jose!! His 5 year old son was so confused of why his dad was in the picture with my family. Jose and I stand next to eachother and show people the picture of my family to everyone. I feel like I`m right back with my Dad :)

The work is going so great here. We are having more success than I have had in my whole mission. This transfer has been the planting transfer. We have been working so hard and the Lord has put so many people in our path to meet and teach. We are hoping we will both be here the next transfer for the harvest :) We are already planning March Maddness, right now we have 8 people with baptism dates for the month of march. We are working super hard to help them all prepare to make this covenant with their Heavenly Father . Elder Ormeño and I have been seeing so many miracles here in Morelia. The Lord is truly working with us to serve His children. I love the mission :)

Love,

Elder Del Toro


Friday, January 31, 2014

Fanatic

January 27, 2014

Hello Everyone!!

This week went by super fast!! The weather has been hot, our investigators are doing great, and we are staying super busy.
This week we were talking to a guy who called us fanatics.. We were talking to him a little bit and he said yeah he wouldn´t mind hearing our message but he just doesnt want to become a fanatic like us. At first I was kind of offended.. I said no, we really aren´t fanatics, we just love to share the gospel! And he said, "everything about you guys screams fanatic. You leave your houses to do this mission thing for two years! you wear a white shirt, tie, and name tag everyday! and you walk around all of mexico all day every day!!" and then I was like, wow this guy is kind of right.. Who in the world would do all that stuff? I have decided that I am a fanatic afterall. I am a fanatic because I know this message is true and I know that the whole world needs it. I am one happy missionary fanatic :)
This weekend I have been with my two american zone leaders because Elder went to Guadalajara to sign his visa. Its super rare for two americans to be companions together but on top of that, for a third american to be on divisions is crazy talk!! So today has been a pretty sweet p-day. We started of our studies this morning by singing the national anthem. I think I have been speaking more english these last couple days than I have my whole mission!! And we decided to do it right and go out to eat rib eye steaks today. We also went ice skating today. Days like these I just want to say ´Murica!
The work is going great here. We have been finding a lot of new investigators to teach. We have a lot of cool people we are teaching, including a buddist named Eugenia!! It´s pretty cool to talk about what other people believe as well. This lady started hearing from the missionaries in 1992 and said she has heard from over 20 pairs of missionaries and finally this week she said that she would be baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints :) It´s crazy because we ran into her by running into her sister in the street who asked us to help her move some heavy stuff in her house. Crazy how things like that work out. We are super excited for Eugenia to continue to prepare for her baptism.
Man, do I love this whole mission thing :)

Love,
Elder Del Toro




Spicy in, Spicy out

January 20, 2014

Hello Friends and Family :)

I am so happy!!!! Sometimes I just stop and think to myself, "self, why are you smiling?" I am just always so happy and I´m loving the mission.
This week was so good. Elder Ormeño and I have figured out our diferences and are working great together. I think there are still things that bother us but we put that aside and get along. Poor guy is facing some serious dificulties with the food here. In Peru, they don´t eat chilis so he has been getting used to that. This week we were eating with the Bishop and the bishop and I were eating jalapeños with our hamburgers. Elder Ormeño decided to do the same and he ended up in the bathroom throwing up for a while. I don´t know if this is already a quoted phase or not but I like to say "spicy in, spicy out". haha. Needless to say, he has been having a terrible time in the bathroom.
We have an investigator named José who we started teaching this week. He is struggling with life right now and has been looking for how he can find greater peace. We taught him a lesson on saturday and invited him to attend the church the next day. He said that he wanted to go but he said that he would only be there if the Lord guided his steps there. We offered to pick him up in a taxi or to call him in the morning and anything we could do to help him but he just refused and said he would leave it up to the Lord. I was so frustrated!!! I thought well there is no way this guy is going to be at church tomorrow. But by golly in walked José Guadalupe Peña on Sunday. My jaw dropped. I didn´t believe it!! He said that he borrowed his brother´s scooter and asked dirrections along the way to find the church building. After that, I couldn´t believe how little faith I had. I learned that the Lord really does work miracles.
I am so grateful for this opportunity I have to be serving the Lord. I know I say it almost every week, but I love being a missionary. It´s the best thing Ive ever done.

Love,
Elder Del Toro

The reality of the mission

January 13, 2014

Hello friends and family :)

A lot of new things going on with me. I met a ton of new people this week, with being in a new ward and all. We have an awesome bishop and all the ward members are way cool. Our area is a lot smaller than the last area that I worked in and there are hardly any hills. It`s a little bit different but so far I love it:)
This week we were walking down a street and a guy yelled something in english. We went and started talking to him and he had lived almost his whole life in the US but had moved back to mexico like a year ago. He spoke really good english and I tried to do the same, but I just can`t do it. I was stuttering and struggling for words to say and I just sounded way dumb. After a while he just looked at me and said "ay man, just speak spanish". haha. So I spoke in spanish and he spoke in english and we had our conversation like that. It is the wierdest thing, I feel like english is becoming my second language.
This week we had our zone meeting and I think it changed my mission. Our mission has new goals, and each goal is like four times greater than what we have had before. With our other goals we could hardly meet those so at first I was like there is no way!! But someone said something that just really made me rethink things. Our zone leader said "I know these numbers aren`t realistic. But what we are doing isn`t realistic either.. It`s not realistic that young men and women are called by a prophet of God to leave their homes for two years to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the whole World"... Wow!! It`s so true. Missionaries are not realistic, and they do not do "realistic" things. Missionaries accomplish what the Lord asks, because with the strength of the Lord we can do all things. My whole attitude has changed and I have complete faith that the Lord does not ask us to do something without providing a way to achieve it. We have been working even harder and my faith has increased so much. We got home one day and I could hardly walk up the stairs in our house. I sat down and thought about the day and started to tear up. I don`t know if I have ever been so tired in my life but I don`t know if I have ever been so satisfied in my life either. We didn`t reach all of our goals that day but we had reached the majority. And just the day before we had thought it was impossible. The Lord is truly on our side.
Everything is going well. I love being a missionary :)

Love,
Elder Del Toro

Monday, January 6, 2014

Boulevard de la Salvaciòn

January 1, 2013

Hello everybody :) Happy New Year!!!

This week has truly been one of the greatest weeks of my life. Ramon Cedeño was baptized!! It was the best baptismal service I have been to in my whole life. Ramon, Elder Gonzalez, and I all were kind of babies about it, we may or may not have all cried together. haha. Ramon has truly become converted to Christ. It took him awhile... years of missionaries... but he has finally made the sacred covenant of baptism with our Heavenly Father. We were walking out of the baptismal font and he said to me that it took him super long to get to that point, but he was just waiting for Elder Gonzalez and I to teach him. I know that the Lord puts certain people in our lives for a reason. I feel like I have learned more from Ramon than I could ever teach him. He is an awesome example of how to turn your life over to Christ. Years ago he went to a program to stop drinking and smoking on Boulevard de las Primaveras, and our chappel is also on the Boulevard de las Primaveras. He told us that he is never going to call it that again, he has a new name for it.. "Boulevard de la Salvaciòn". I think I will call it that too :)

So the transfers caught me.. I had to say goodbye to Elder Gonzalez this morning. He truly became one of my best friends. We worked super great together and as I predicted, he became more of a brother than a son to me. I feel like I didn`t even train him, he hit the ground running and taught me so much. I am now transfered to the area "Estadio"... It is also in Morelia. haha. I can see my old area from our house. But I am super excited to meet a new ward and know a new area. We are in the other zone here so I will meet a bunch of new missionaries. My new companions name is Elder Ormeño. He has almost the same amount of time in the mission as I do. We just met eachother this morning but wow, he has all sorts of fire in him. He is from Peru. It`s a little hard to understand his spanish right now because his accent is a little different. One of the first things he told me this morning was that not a whole lot of people like him. haha. He has had 8 companions in 7 months and told me the President doesn`t know what to do with him. But he told me that he really is a good guy. We have gotten along pretty good so far. I think we will become great friends :)
Hope everything is going well there. I`m happy as a clam here in Mexico. And still smilin :D

Love, Elder Del Toro


Que Padre!!

December 30, 2013

This week was so good!! I got to talk to my wonderful family on christmas!! It was the best christmas gift ever :) Christmas and Christmas Eve were so cool as a missionary. We had lessons with quite a few members and we went and sang christmas hymns for people. It felt so good to make some people smile with our christmas hymn and off tune voices. We sure did sing our little hearts out though!!

This week was the baptism of Pedro!! Ah man it was such a cool experience. Pedro never had the chance to come watch a baptism with us and he really didn´t know what to expect. The days leading up to his baptism were filled with so many questions. He thought that when he was in the font someone was going to ask him a question and then dunk him and hold him down for a couple minutes and when he came up he would have to answer it haha. He had so many different expectations of what the baptism would be like, and everything was so great about his baptism. He ended up wearing white pants shirt and tie instead of a tunic for his baptism.. thank goodness!! The best part is when he came out of the water he was sooo happy and started to laugh and yelled "que padre!!!" which litterally translates to "how father!!" haha but it means "how awesome". So many people from his family came to his baptism and to his confirmation the next day at church. Everyone in his family really liked it and are going to start hearing more from us :)

Ramon´s aunt had an accident and he had to go to Guadalajara this weekend so we are hoping he comes back soon and is ready for his baptism this saturday. We are prayin hard!!

We also got water back on saturday!! it was for sure a christmas miracle :) now I just feel all spoiled with showering in our own house and all. I´m just hoping I have another transfer here in Prados to enjoy it!!
Elder Gonzalez turned 20 this week too! The other american elder in our ward and I through him into the air while singing "for he´s a jolly good fellow" the morning of his birthday. A member also gave him a cake! a big cake!!! it served us for breakfast and dinner for 3 days!! hahaha.
Everything is going great :) Never been happier in my life :)

Love,
Elder Del Toro