January 28, 2019

Hahaha not too much to report on this week either other than Leticia and Florentino´s baptism on Saturday!!! Such a miracle that it could happen. The whole ward was there! Heres some pics of the service and an iguana that lives outside our house

January 21, 2019

Hola Familia!

Another good week out here! Transfers are today and I´m staying in San Andres with Elder Laredo!! Only 18 weeks left!

I was thinking about random things to write about that I haven´t mentioned before and a couple things came to mind:

In every city, town, village in Mexico and all of latin america really, there´s a catholic church. As we know, a little over a year ago some earthquakes happened in this part of the country and literally all of the catholic churches have been damaged, some severly. Meanwhile, our church´s chapels are all just fine lol. #catolicos #iglesiagrandeyabominable

Also, the mission has taught me just how much a missionary can effect the life of his own family even though he´s far from it. Particularly here in San Andres, eveyone knows about the local kids that are out serving the Lord right now, Elder Castillo and Elder Peralta. And it´s crazy to see how much they talk and appreciate what they´re doing. Many are inspired to be better more obedient members of the church and others who arent members are more willing to listen to us and learn more about what their brother, cousin, son, or friend is doing. It all makes me remember my family back home and it motivates me to be the missionary they think I am.

Pueblos/Villages in Mexico are all so unique. Every one of them has their own traditions, stories, or beliefs. Just this week, Elder Laredo´s eye was swelling up and hurting and some members told us that it was because how covered up an ant hill and the ants sent some bad energy towards him. So they had their nonmember brother come on over to light a cigarette and blow smoke in Elder Laredo´s eye to make it feel better and put the swelling down and it actually worked!! haha.

The traditions/beliefs in each pueblo in Mexico can cause some contention sometimes though because we´ve also heard of members getting sick and asking for a blessing and when that doesn´t work, they instead go to the local witches or the elves that live  by the rivers for a healing.

Our investigators who are getting baptized on saturday, Leticia and Florentino, have also received a lot of opposition from their catholic family members who don´t want them to join the church. It´s so cool to hear Leticia say ´no me importa lo que ustedes digan, esta es mi vida y mi familia y nosotros nos vamos a bautizar.´ Every active member in San Andres has had to face some type of opposition for being a member of the Church. It´s inspiring really, but also makes me grateful to come from a place where I´m so loved and supported by my friends and family for being a member of the Church.

Anyway, hope you all are well. Love you all so much.

Élder Tucker

heres a pic of me with the pancakes and bacon I made this morning for the zone leaders, elder belknap, elder laredo, and I

January 7, 2019

Hola Familia!

Well this new year has just gotten off to a great start, mostly because Elder Laredo is already my best friend and my favorite companion so far in the mission! We've been working so hard and so in synch lately, but we also have a bunch of fun.

The investigators that we've been working the most with lately are a middle-aged couple named Leticia and Florentino. Their sons were baptized a couple months ago, but when I first got here to San Andres, I thought that the parents, Leticia and Florentino, didn't seem very interested. But the hermana that gave us the reference for them told us to be consistent and very direct with them, so this week, Elder Laredo and I visited them together every single day, teaching, reading chapters in the BOM wih them, and leaving assignments to read each night and guess what? They did it! They read every single thing we left for them this week, so we topped it off with a movie night on Saturday (Joseph Smith: The Prophet of the Restoration) and they all went to church on Sunday as a family. Leticia and Florentino´s baptismal date is for the 26th of January and the Lord is makin' it happen!!

There´s also a young adult sister in the ward named Betsabé which is Bethsheba in Spanish.... her family thought the name sounded pretty but forgot about her story in the Bible lol #KingDavid #Adultery. Anyway, she´s been whipping my comp and I into shape in the mornings by training us and giving us workouts to do on a court by her house. But its been a little more exciting way to get up and work out in the morning before studies.

But the last thing I wanted to talk about was how awesome the new Come, Follow Me program is! I've been studying it a little as well and its powerful. It reminds me of how great and revelatory the New Testament is. I encourage you all to study it everyday this year and I promise it will strengthen your families tremendously as well as your own testimony. It will also, like the Prophet says, make our sabbath day more of a delight!

Love,

Élder Tucker

Nuevo año y ya no estoy en las oficinas: San Andres de la Cal

Hola Familia!

Well its been great! Tuesday I got to Skype call you guys then on Thursday, President finally took me out of the offices and assigned me to a new area, San Andres de la Cal, with a new companion, Elder Laredo.

San Andres is this small pueblo in the state of Morelos. It kinda reminds me of my first area in the mission Jamiltepec hahaha. The weather is pretty cool all day and cold at night. They say theres only about 1500 that live in the whole village, and a ton are already members. I was happily surprised to see about 100 people at church yesterday! I think the key to have success here is to work a lot with the less actives, render service, and have a lot of activities with the ward. Its what my companion and i have been doing.

Elder Laredo is from Mexico City and has about 8 months in the mission and is awesome, already one of my best companions. It feels so good to be proselyting all day again.

Hope everyone is well, I'll try to write a little more next week and send some pictures!


Love,
Élder Tucker