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