CAB RIDES!

 Hey Guys!!!  I will be on in two sections today.  Forty-five minutes this first time.  Things are going good we are trying hard.  The investigators are great and the Lord knows what is best for this area and we are trying to do our best.  The ward is doing better, we are still working on attendance and re-activation.
I just got a haircut today!  It looks much better now.  We went shopping this morning and had Dominos' for my birthday.
It was awesome to see you guys for Christmas, and see everything was okay at home.  I will be eating birthday cake at the Cruz's house for my birthday.  Hope you all keep doing what your doing.  I am doing fine and trying to stay focused on the people not the numbers.  I really feel like I have gotten older these last few months, all for the Lord's purpose I am sure.           I love you and will continue to fulfill these next two years to the max!!! LOVE YOU ALL!!

Sweet Members caring for Hunter.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! ELDER DERVRIES!! 19

Looks Yummy!!

Members are great to feed them.

Christmas Morning!

Christmas morning the missionaries and some members bought hot pastries at the store and took them around to the people who were in the hospital for Christmas and sing hymns and Christmas carols.

  This gospel is true, I have been blessed to witness a miracle once again. My dear brother Domingo from Frontera just found out that he doesn't have cancer anymore and the doctors don't know why! I cant wait to see him in the temple. The Lord makes a way to complete every requirement to enter into the Kingdom of God! Mom I love this mission and honestly done want to leave! 

 So excited to see everyone for Christmas!!!  Invite everyone.  I will try to call around 11 your time.  Can't wait to see everyone.  Tell everyone thanks for all the Christmas packages, money and cards!!!  That was awesome everyone is so nice!

Such a great blessing to see lives change as they accept and live the gospel.  How blessed we are to have been born into this amazing gospel and been able to live it and receive the blessings our whole lives.   LOVE YOU ALL! Talk to you soon!!!

District meeting and dinner.

Got my Christmas package!!!!

Free ride from our sweet members.

I had a fun and interesting week. First off, I am not getting transferred and staying in my area for another 7 weeks, and honestly don't know how I feel about it. The companionship is great in the work we just need to work some things out.  I am doing great but not progressing the way I want in the language my companion wants to work on English and I want to work on my Spanish, bit of a conflict.  During the week we had a lot of falls in the work, but we will try to fix it this week. We had a lot of investigators not come to church but we will be working on them. Brother Fernando  is really sick and we don't know if we can baptize him if he starts Chemo therapy. I am really wanting to see him take the step of faith and be blessed beyond imagination. We had to stay in the house on the 12th from 6 pm til 9 pm because people her in Mexico have a holiday that includes much alcohol indulgence and so I studied Spanish from 7 to 10 15. It was awesome!!!! This week we had a lot of rain and I have loved the temperature. Hope that everyone is good at home! Mom thank you so very much for all the blessings that you have ever given me with you mothers' love that I overlooked. Dad thank you so much for always being with me through my boyhood years, baseball, scouts, young men's, and  basketball in the driveway. Bailey for always being the one that I could tease and finally learned in High School is my best friend. Shelby for being a miniature me and laughing at everything. Luke for being the little brother I always wanted. Thanks to all the family everyone!!! Love you guys! 

The excercise is really working!

I only got one of the Christmas packages but it is fine, if it comes it comes.  I am sure it will show up in the offices.  I can wait till January, it is all good.  I am just so excited to see you guys!!!

Christmas here is super dull...my companion doesn't believe in Santa Claus either... I am in the land of misfit toys!

The President will hopefully bring down any more packages that come, when he comes for our Christmas party.  We are going to get together with our zone for Christmas in the afternoon.  I have already bought the gifts for the party and for my companion for Christmas.

See ya in 9 days!!!

Happy Thanksgiving at Domino's!!!

 Well our new house didn't have hot water yet and no electricity when we moved in last Tuesday but we now have them both since yesterday! Sounds like you guys had a great thanksgiving! Mine was eating Dominos' and having a great lesson with our investigators. We have a lot of investigators progressing they just need to get married or get well enough to attend church. One of ours investigators has cancer and he really wants to be baptized but he has to attend church so we are praying he will get enough strength to do it. This week went really great and super fast! I reached my 6 months exactly in the mission and I was super shocked that I have six months. But I am getting over it now and making the best of my time because I don't have a lot left. The companionship is doing great working together! I hope all of you enjoy the Month of Christmas and discover the true gift the savior has given us, which isn't below the Christmas tree. How are you mom? 

Just like the pilgrims!

Merry Christmas!!

 I just reached 6 months in the mission and yet I have only 18 months to go but I would like to tell my tale... so far. :) I have been blessed beyond belief at the knowledge and faith that I have gained from serving my Heavenly Father. The land in which I was born is so different from where I live right now, but the people are still the same. They are sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father and I am humbled by how they live everyday, and blessed to call them my friends. I am where charity has not died because we always have someone giving us food or drink. I have never thought I could love these people in which I do today. They have there errors and mistakes but don't we all. They have the opportunity to grow into the potential that our Father in Heaven has for them. I love you guys so very much and I hope that you will make everyone you meet feel this love I have felt! Blessed be the ones who are found with charity in there hearts at the last day!

Cows' Head for tacos!! YUM!!

Hey, Good Morning!

Hey, Guess what day it is?

What day?

 You have six months in the mission.

WHAT?

 Love You Sooooo Much!!!

Elder DeVries

Well how are you guys? I had a great week we have a lot of investigators progressing, we have a new house and I am super excited to move into it this week! I really am doing great, the work is progressing and we are trying to have six baptisms this month. We have investigators but we need to find more families to teach. We are really getting it going! Me and my companion are clicking and using English and Spanish to learn together. I am using only Spanish now to study to get the language down even better. We now have Noche de Barrio which is a night which the ward can come and enjoy a movie and play soccer after to bring investigators and it is working! We have quite a few coming for the activities. We had a great week of rain and luckily our areas have not been flooded. I have been enjoying the high 80 to low 70 weather and everyone else is in a jacket or coat! Love you guys and see you in a month! 

Our New House!!!

 Our apartment is really nice and it has hot water!!!  It is really close to the church and is soooooo nice!  It is only 1800 pesos a month.  It is just for me and my companion!  We move in this month!!  We don't have any furnishings!! ha ha We don't n couches or any stuff like that.  We are here to work not relax.

Well mom here we are again and I didn't write a long letter but I will say this much Mom the time is not mine and I loving every minute of it. I  am doing something bigger than every person on this world but rather everyone who has, who is, and who will live. The salvation and eternal life of man. I am grateful to spread this joy with everyone and I work on it everyday. Love you soooooo MUCH! I will see you soon! Hasta pronto! 

Patience

 Patience
I really don't have a good story this week but I will literally tell you what I think of the word Patience from my experience in Mexico. I love the culture and the people but the language is a thing of patience and something that challenges me everyday. I had a rough time with my last companion but I learned that when you show patience for people, good things happen. I was blessed to have 6 weeks and have 3 baptisms with my last companion. We didn't agree on a lot of things but I knew that I was here to learn and grow from the attributes that he had that would prepare me to become a better person, future husband, and father. I learned a lot in my time and I learned that we must show our patience and endure well and Heavenly Father will always bless us.

 I have been blessed with a new companion in which he knows a little English but wants to know it for a second language to study at BYU. I told him that I will help him and talk slowly in the house in Spanish. We are becoming very close and the work here is improving. When we show patience for others it is act of love. I love when the members show patience and help me with my Spanish, so when I am with a  investigator I can speak better. Patience is one of the Christ like attributes I am learning everyday and loving it. Love you guys and hope to hear from you soon!

Sounds like you had a fun week! I am early because that is how it is going to go on now. But anyways I love my companion we have a lot of new investigators that we are getting ready to have a date for baptism because our goal is to have 5 by Christmas. 

We are really working as a team, he can speak English and is really receptive and amazing. His name is Elder Juarez and he is from Guatemala. Our week went really bad from the numbers stand point but we are looking for a house and there has been a lot of flooding so we have been giving service. But everything is good where we live right now! I am doing great and the Spanish is coming little by little. The members here don't want me to leave so I am super happy about that. This transfer is only 5 weeks but I think I will stay for two more transfers. I hope so because I love my area. Tell bailey to break a leg that way people wont see her as a hotbox dancer. Sorry to hear about Luke!!!!! Love you and hope to hear from you soon! 

We have been helping move their things out of their houses, I gave them some of my food to eat. Our apartment is on the second store exactly for this reason of problems with flooding. My companion is awesome, he is super smart, wants to study at BYU  so I am getting him ready. His family all are members and he is the youngest. He is really chill but on the ball and wants to help me. 

Two ways

Two Ways.

 

Alright, let us go on a journey or what I like to call a spiritual Candy. So now I will use a little example. There are two different candy shops that offer free candy! Yes free candy and one looks like it has delicious candy and the other has candy that looks normal but is known only to those who try it. One shop holds candy that is very pleasing to the human eye but once you taste it you have a sour taste in your mouth after one second of flavor. The other is a shop that holds ordinary candy to the eyes but holds candies that last for ever in your mouth and are sweet and never loses it flavor.

 

These two different shops are the World and the Gospel. They are on the same Street that you walk on or the same life you live. You can have either have candy for free but one is the true flavor that will never end. The gospel gives you the joy and pleasure in your life when you get your daily dose of scriptures, prayer, and sharing the gospel. The great thing is there is no daily dose, you can take as much as you want and you will not get fat! :) I love you all and I think of you often! Remember the lord is always with you!

 

 

My companions Halloween costume.

 

 Love you Guys!!!!  Had a great week! Just sitting in a Mexican cyber café with pouring rain outside.  We have transfers but I am staying and my companion is leaving.  I helped confirm the Holy Ghost to a young boy in our ward.  It went really well!!!  We will see what this transfer brings.  I am excited and nervous.  Hope that all is well at home. Love you!  I really want to study more but I think with this new transfer I will have more time to study. 
This game was so much fun!  President was awesome to hang out with.  Someone in our zone made our shirts, they really turned out Amazing!! 
    This will be the first time I will be showing an area.  It has been six weeks in this area.  I know my new companion a little bit, he is super chill and he knows one of the Peruvians in our district.  Every six weeks we have a transfer, the next one is on December 24th.  Crazy huh! 
Talk to you later.  Love you guys!!

 

 

 

 

Come What May and Love it! 

This post will be short and sweet! Alrighty, well this week went amazingly well in all. It rained everyday, all day. We had two baptisms. But now is my story. I baptized Hermana Martha, she is amazing. The problem is she kept kicking up her foot every time I baptized her, and the whole body has to be under. Every time I just looked at her and said in Spanish, Alright we have to do it again, you ready? With  a big grin of course. Now this moment could have been a moment of frustration but it wasn't for me because I knew this was not my moment and I just needed to make it the best I can for her to remember. That is my thought of the week. Sorry I am not perfect but really just enjoy life. Oh and it took four baptisms! K CYA! 

 Mom,
Love you!  It was a rough week but it gets better day by day.  The language is really coming, thanks to Heavenly Father.  We had both our baptisms this Saturday.  I baptized Sister Martha, she was an investigator I first taught when I got here.  She is amazing and super nice and blunt! ha! ha!The new apartment fell through, we are still looking!!  Nick Wray  is going to Mexico, Awesome!  I don't need any clothes, no garments, or socks.  But so here is what is going on, we now have to order our own supplies off the internet for our areas.  Weird right?  So could you send me some good LDS DVD's for teaching, and can you send my CD case to put them in, and more crystal light.  All the DVD's need to be in Spanish.  So anything from the church supplies website for the missionaries.  The Joseph Smith movie, and anything else you think would be great.  I miss Luke I am so excited to teach him Spanish when I get home.  Try to learn pronunciation and grammar.  Teach him Te Amo!  It is I love you personally! and chamaco, it means rascal.  Tell Luke I love him and can't wait to see the scary pictures of him being a pirate.  We are playing a big baseball game next week,  Mina Mex against Mona Tec.  I am excited President might come.  Things are going great!  Love you!

Love, true love. Alright now that we got Princess Bride out of the way let us talk about love that is not mushy and gushy. I learned that this week Heavenly Father wants us to work for the greater things in life. Now I am only 18 year old kid, in another country, trying to learn a language, for I might add is a cause I would do all over again. But I know that Love is not always seen, heard, or talked about. Now where am I going with all this you might ask, well let me tell you!

This past weekend we had a baptism. We were going over to the church to drain the water and wash it down before the baptism at 11 am. Usually you can just drain it and wait for 40 minutes and you are good. Well we did not have that opportunity, the machine was not working. So I literally started grabbing a bucket and just started throwing it outside of the church. Well my companion caught on and we soon went to work. Three hours later being soaking wet in very dirty water, it was empty and clean. Now we got to fill it right? Wrong, the water didn't work.

Oh what a wonderful world! The water in the whole church wasn't working, I love Mexico! I really do! Then we are freaking out because we have only 3 hours to fill up a whole baptismal font without any water. Well we went to the apartment changed into clean clothes came back and just hoped for a miracle. The miracle came because Heavenly Father always fulfills his promises when we do our part! Three men who maintain the church came, fixed the problem, and we had a great baptism. 

This life is not easy, sometimes you show your love for a person even if they will never know. But there is two people that will always know your actions Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. When you put in your love filled work he will always bless you. I hope we will follow the example of King Mosiah, in Mosiah  Chapter 6. I love you all and I pray for you daily! Hope to hear from you soon! 

Mom,

I'm here!  The computers stink here.  I am doing great!!  We had another baptism.  It went really well.  The young man we baptized is 13, his mom is a recent convert and he makes the second member of the Young Men's presidency.  

The Spanish has been getting better thanks to Heavenly Father.  I bore/gave a talk on Sunday for seven minutes and people said they understood 85% of it!  Pretty Sweet!!!

We just got approved for a new apartment that is bigger, cleaner, newer, and with a huge fan!!!!  I LOVE LIFE!!! Hopefully we will be in at the first of the next month.  I am doing great here in Mexico, still can't believe how time is flying!  I love it!  It is so different here, the food is just really weird.  Ha! Ha!  The weirdest thing is Iquana and Monkey.  I can't help it, I have to refuse the Monkey.  Sometimes they make me feel bad but I just can't do it.  I am going to buy a hammock soon they are super nice and great to sleep in.  We save money on food here but we spend more money on taxis! Crazy!

We have two baptisms this weekend and we should have one more before transfers!!  I'm pretty excited :)  I'm am going to miss winter so bad, I'm probably going to buy a  Christmas tree here.  Just a small one of course but I am excited!  How is Luke, Shelby,Dad and Bailey?

It has been raining a lot here and very hot, so the weather hasn't changed.  Oh, i went to the hospital again!! I punctured my head doing a pull up onto a nail.  But I am doing good, Yeah I got stitches!  Three!  It cost 200 pesos to sew up.

Glad to here bailey is having fun at work.  The Cottam's are amazing!!!

I love you and I got to go,  Talk to you soon.

-- 

Le Amo Mucho,

Elder DeVries

SIN

Now before you think that I am all calling you to repent, hold on and hear me out. Sin in Spainsh means without. Now when you think about it in English it is very closely related. When you SIN you are WITHOUT the help of God. I do not think that, that is a rare circumstance, I believe it is a hidden treasure from our Loving Heavenly Father. We must cast of the Natural Man, because it is a enemy to God. Now I am not saying I am perfect, but I will say that we should all try to progress and continue to shed off the shell of who we can become. It is simply knowing that you are in the wrong and wanting to change. It is not easy, it is never easy to change but when you sincerely have the desire and work with Him, every thing is possible.

 I talked to a man today, that has been in and out of jail since 15. Luckily he lived in the US, so I was able to talk to him very well in English. I told him that if he needed anything, just call us and then I felt prompted to share more. I taught the Restoration and he truly sees the importance of it. One of the greatest things that we must do is be able to look at the best in everyone. Now this man has been in out of prison, but he is still a son of God. Always look for the best in everyone. Now I am not saying that I am perfect in this aspect but it is one of my goals I have had since Day 1 of my mission. But it also something that I know I will work on for my whole life, because things are not just given but rather maintained. You must have goals in your life or you will never progress. 

Now were am I going with all this you might wonder, well I will tell you. Do not every give up on yourself, on your goals, on your potential, and sin. Yes, it is very blunt but it is very true. The desire of Satan is to bring you down and be comforted in this world of worldly things. The desire of Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and many others including a missionary in Villahermosa Mexico is for you to be not apart of the World but simply upon it. Do not ever think that it is easy, but it is easier through the gospel. I invite you to read the words of John 15:15-20. Ponder upon and it and pray for the strength to be above the world and help your friends also to reach your unlimited potential. I guess that is why if we try our hardest in this life we are given an eternity to progress. I love each and everyone of you and I testify that this Church is true, that Jesus Christ is the Head, that their is a Prophet named Thomas S. Monson and 12 apostles called of God to fullfill his work. Until we meet next Monday, Peace! 

The new apartment. The kitchen.

The Porch

Lunch at Dominos, best day ever!

My week went pretty good, we have a baptism coming up and we have two others which will go through hopefully and one really shaky one in November so we have time to change that. I am in Minatitlan in a colina called Hidalgo. it is in Veracruz. The elders haven't found a place and they got extremely sick so we stayed with them Saturday and got them medicine. They slept all of Sunday, and they are feeling a lot better. The members are way cool and they feed us a lot. I still don't know if that is a good thing.... We had Stake conference Saturday and Sunday. Saturday we had Zone class and I got my package and  your letter!!!!! The best thing in it was my picture that Luke drew. I love it and it is in front of my folder. But today I talked to a man who lived in the USA for 23 years and he really is interested, hopefully I get to baptize in English. Ha ha. Tell Luke happy birthday again.

Lovin Life!