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

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