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

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