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

Casi Navidad

Hola Familia!

Well this week was pretty dope because Friday we had our christmas conference and on Sunday Samanta was baptized and confirmed!!!

Earlier in the week though, there were transfers in the mission and my executive secretary trainee Elder Tingey and I went to the airport to pick up a new missionary, Elder Fullmer. Then on Wednesday we headed back to drop off the valiants (missionaries finishing the mission). Among the group was Elder Tilley, who I trained in Jamiltepec, and Elder Schmitz, the guy that trained me to be the exec sec. It was kinda like a fulfillment of that scripture that says ´and the first shall be last and the last shall be first´ lol.

The christmas conference on friday was almost the whole day! We had a short talent show, played some games, ate food, watched videos that each zone made especially for the conference, and we had a gift exchange!! I ended up with a nice new tshirt from an sister named Hermana Guzman hahaha.

Saturday, we had our ward christmas activity and some of us missionaries planned a sketch that turned out great. There´s a cool new video on the church website called ´Samuel and the Star´ and our sketch was pretty much based on that. Speaking of which, I´ve seen a couple really good spiritual christmas videos lately, especially the Light the World videos. The Church is just so awesome and so true!!! The ward elders quorum showed us one about the time in the trenches of WW2 when german and British soldiers sang silent night together and even played a soccer match on christmas day! I suggest you all check it out.

Now for the baptism... we had to plan it early for Sunday morning at 8am, but it turned out great because a ton of members showed up and it was honestly one of the most powerful baptisms of my mission so far. Samanta was a reference from a device we sometimes use online called referral manager. It organizes all the referrals we get from anyone and anywhere in the world. Samanta is a 23 year-old single girl who lived in Canada for a while, knows english, and investigated the church a little bit. The first time we met her was actually at church about a month and a half ago because we called and invited her and she showed up. From there she immediately progressed, reading everything we left with her, praying, attending church, learning and understanding, asking questions, and even participating in a ton of young single adult activities. We actually got a lot of the YSA to participate in the baptismal program which i think was perfect. Elder Vakapuna baptized her and I confirmed her shortly after in sacrament meeting. She was so happy and is going to make a great member of the church!!!

This is the best time of year. The Cuernavaca weather cant be beat right now. And I´m so excited to Skype you guys on Tuesday! Can´t wait to hear more about whats goin down back home. Countdown is a little more that 5 months baby, woohoo!

Love,

Élder Tucker

Photos of the Missionaries in the Mision Cuernavaca

Quick Note This Week

Hey mom! Sounds like a fun thanksgiving, I LOVED that video of Wes driving the toy car and almost crashing into the palm tree! I had a good Thanksgiving, we just ordered some tacos hahaha. I´m so excited to talk to you guys soon! Love you

I enter into the 4th quarter of my mission this week!!!! Here´s some pics of me rn.

Élder Tucker