Sunday, March 29, 2015

Chapala "Riconcito de Amor"

March 28, 2015

Hola mis queridos :)

This week went great. Last Saturday we showed up to the baptism a little bit late but we did get to see the ordinance and got to share their food with them afterwords ;) The kid who got baptized is in the blue. His name is Jesus. It was so much fun to get to see the Gutierrez family again!

This week we stayed busy with exchanges with some zone leaders. I went to work with Elder Hernandez in the city of Chapala. Its beautiful there. It is a very popular place for Americans to retire. Their ward is about half Americans and half Mexicans. We went for a run in the morning to the lake before studies. I think I`m going to try to talk grandma Allen into retiring there so I can go visit after the mission!! :)
I also went on exchanges with Elder Creason. We had some sweet lessons and the best part is that he is a harmonica player too!! We played some sweet harmonica duets.

The work is going alright here in our area. Monserrat is still pretty unsure about being baptized so we are going to give her some space and wait until she tells us she is ready. The five people we found have kind of lost their excitement and aren't progressing but we found a few more people to teach this week and we just keep on a workin' our little hearts out. I keep losing weight! I`m down to 178 pounds. Looks like I`ll be either a 165 pounder or 174 pounder after the mission!!

The mission is great :) I`m loving it.

Have a great week!

Elder Del Toro












a little sicky

March 21, 2015

Hello amigos and familia :)


This week flew by. We got back from Michoacán last night from the zone conferences and it sure is a relief to have those over with. I got a little sick earlier this week :P we ate same chicken in Lazaro Cardenas on our way to Uruapan and that night I felt sick and in the morning I felt a little worse and during the conference President Camarillo told me I looked miserable and then about half way through while I was writing on the white board while my companion was talking I just ran out of the room and barely made it to the sink before I threw up. A couple of Elders came in and rubbed my back while I threw up some more and then I walked out and kept on writing on the white board :)

Monse is still preparing for her baptism. She is doing good. The Elders from one of my old areas here in Guadalajara called me earlier this week and said that one of the sons of a lady I taught is getting baptized today and he had asked if I could come back to baptize him. Elder Gonzalez (who was my second companion) is there in that area right now. I said I wasnt going to be able to make it but we are going to show up there tonight for the baptism for a surprise!

I finished reading the Book of Mormon again this week. BEST BOOK EVER!!! It strengthened my testimony that this is Christ´s church. I know without any doubt that He has restored His Gospel in its fulness and that this is His work. I love preaching this Gospel. Its the best.

Love you all!! Have a great week!

Elder Del Toro




Saturday, March 21, 2015

BROTHERS AND SISTERS!!

March 14, 2015

Hello Everyone!

This week went great! Last Saturday was crazy busy but we ended the day with Rosa`s baptism. It was a great baptismal service and she has been super excited to share the gospel with all of her friends. Her daughter, Monserat is planning on being baptized next Saturday.

We finished up the zone conferences here in Guadalajara and on Monday we will be headed to Lazaro Cardenas to start the zone conferences in Michoacàn.

We had a sweet lesson the other day. We went to visit a lady we had talked to earlier in the week and when we got there there were 7 other people visiting her and they were all religious so we were excited to share a message. We taught the message of the restoration and WOW it was a very powerful lesson. After the lesson we were saying that we felt like some of the first missionaries of the church gathering a bunch of people in a house and testifying with such power. There was a point in the lesson when it was dead silent and I swear their jaws were to the floor and we were borderline yelling "BROTHERS AND SISTERS... THE BOOK OF MORMON IS THE WORD OF GOD!!" It was one of my favorite lessons l have taught in my mission. At the end of the lesson there were only five of them but they all accepted to be baptized.

In two of the zone conferences this week we had visiting with us the director of the MTC in Mexico City. He was soo excited when I told him my brother was there. I wrote Elder Del Toro a little note and sent it with the director and he said he would find Ethan and give it to him.

Love you all!! Have a great week!

Elder Del Toro






Double Del Toro

March 7, 2015

Hello Friends and Family!!

I´m still alive, working hard, and having the best time of my life. We have a baptism in an hour! Rosa Arellano is being baptized and hopefully her daughter Monserat the next week. Zone conferences start here in Guadalajara next week and the week after in Michoacán. You can definitely tell the difference here in Mexico now that there are two Del Toro boys doing the work of the Lord ;)

Have a great week!! Love you all!

Elder Del Toro (The Older)


Face Plant

February 28, 2015

Hello friends and family!

What a busy couple of weeks!! Last week on our preparation day President Camarillo sent us a text at 6:30am that said he was going to Morelia and that he would pick us up in an our. So we hurried and got ready and headed to Morelia for the day. We went to show the movie "Meet the Mormons" with all of the missionaries of Morelia and then got back to Guadalajara late at night. We planned on writing on monday but a ton of stuff came up this week and didnt have to chance to write home. But everything is ok, Mom :)

I loved the movie "meet the mormons". Its showing in movie theaters here in Guadalajara and in Morelia this week. We have had a lot of meetings and have been doing divisions with a lot of zone leaders.

Today we went mountain-biking!! There is a brother in our ward who really likes mountain biking and when I told him I like it too he invited us. My companion said he had ridden a bike before so we took him up on the offer. When Elder Balbuena said he had ridden a bike before I think he meant he had ridden a bike once in his life. We got up there and had no idea how to work the gears. He couldn´t get up the little hill to get out of the parking lot either. I dont know why we thought it was a good idea but we said he would learn along the way. A little while into the trip he got going down a hill and fell of his bike, face planting into the ground. It looked aweful. The first thing that went through my mind was that President was going to kill me. haha. But we brushed him off luckily there are no scrapes. I think that will be the last bike trip we take.

We have got some great investigators right now. They have been having some tough family problems but the Arellano family is preparing to be baptized in a couple weeks.

Things are great! Im loving my mission.
Good luck to Ethan, who is starting his mission next week. I pulled up his mormon.org profile while we were in the mission offices this week and took a picture with him. Welcome to the war, Eth :)

Love you all!

Elder Del Toro







"That we should waste and wear out our lives"

February 14, 2015

Hello friends and family!!

I'm back in Guadalajara! And I am absolutely drained. It was one of the best weeks of my mission but also one of the hardest. Monday through Saturday we traveled and gave trainings, sat through a lot of meetings with President Camarillo, and worked with a lot of other missionaries. It was a blast. We took the bus ride home last night at 10:30pm and the bus broke down halfway to Guadalajara and they had to send another bus to take us the rest of the way. We got to our house at 9:00 this morning and layed down and woke up 5 hours later :P

 Yesterday during the training in Lazaro Cardenas I was reading this scripture in Doctrine and Covenants and it made me think that I am exactly where I should be right now..

D&C 123
13 Therefore, that we should waste and wear out our lives in bringing to light all the hidden things of darkness, wherein we know them; and they are truly manifest from heaven—
14 These should then be attended to with great earnestness.

I read it in spanish and the way it says "waste and wear out our lives" is just awesome. It made me think how tough the mission is sometimes but that is exactly the way it should be. Teaching the message of the restored gospel is the most important duty of this dispensation. I feel so blessed to be able spend every ounce of energy on bringing to light this message and I everyday I feel the confirmation that this really is Christ´s church.

Did I mention I love being a missionary? :)

Love you all!! And thanks for all your love and support.

Elder Del Toro