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!

 Transfers this week!!!            
  Saying Goodbye to all my ward members and
friends in Frontera!Hey I am doing great. I am in Minatitlan across,and to the side of our mission in Veracruz. I took ADO,it took four hours going high speed. I am exactly in Hidalgo part of Minatitlan. My companion is Elder Zuniga. He is from El Salvador and has been out for 14 months. He is very calm but we will see. The apartment is pretty rough, I am about the bucket shower life some days ha ha!!! Crazy huh! The city is very nice and busy but it is a little more north so it is a little less safe but our area is way out from the city. Our area is tiny! but it has four missionaries in it. General Conference was great, I saw three of the four in English. I watched it in the stake center and Spainsh in our ward. I am kind of nervous for sure and I have practically no time to study and my companion is all about numbers and he doesn't even really know it but I am going change that and make our goal conversions. He is amazing don't get me wrong but he just pushes the gospel on people sometimes. He really is great and outgoing though. We didn't link up last week ha ha! The transfers are crazy with President Morales usually I am suppose to stay in my zone for at least 3 transfers but he has changed everyone out of their zones. Pretty crazy! I saw elder Smith when I got off the bus it was really good to see him. I will be hear til November 10th at least if not til Christmas.

Goodbye to good friends and companions.

Saying Goodbye!

Primary in Hildalgo.

 I have two Americans in my apartment while they are looking for a house because their area got split and the sisters got their house.  No, not even the church has hot water.  Our fridge here is the size of carry on luggage.  So I just keep my milk and tomato juice in there.  Mom my apartment will get changed this month, I am just enduring to the end!!! ha ha!  It is fun but the bathroom schedule is messed up.  The members here feed us lunch and dinner.  The Relief Society sets our meals up.  There is also a return missionary who does our laundry. I love it here!

The roads here are not nice for my shoes because we walk on gravel, trash, cement and everything else under the blue moon.  They will last though.  The weather is amazingly cooler here, it is raining right now.  The city has more people, our area is like 1/20th the size of Frontera or less.  It is really small town but the church is bigger now than in Frontera.

The best part about General Conference was the promise that if members prayed exactly for people and acted then we could bring millions in by Christmas.  K CYA Love you!!!

What can I say about this week? Honestly I just wanted to die but I just thought to myself I know I am not going to die…. Alright let me explain. So we had a great week full of ups and downs but yet I cherished every moment. Tuesday was filled with appointments and Wednesday was the same in which we put down a date of baptism for a young man named Yoshmar, taught our last baptism lesson to a young lady named Alma Ruth, and taught two parents of a young man who aren't members.

Honestly, everything was going so great and smoothly which is usually when lightning strikes. That night my companion and me got some kind of virus or infection from some substance from one of our lessons through the water or food they offered us. At about 12:30 AM my companion was throwing up and I gave him a blessing and thought that we would just wait it out til morning but sometimes the Lord wants us to be cured by seeking wisdom in others. So around 1:30 AM my companion had thrown up and had diarrhea at the same time 8 times. In which I was starting to feel sick also, I called my Zone Leaders and they told us to talk to the former Bishop and his son. I called them up in my very broken Spanish and they said they would be on their way. I then called my Zone Leader again starting to feel extremely sick and said “I called them and you don't have to worry but I will have to let you go now because I am about to throw up.” Then I threw up and how great of experience that was. Then as I was trying to use the best of the few minutes I knew I had to grab everything we needed to go to the hospital before they came. I then looked out of the apartment door and saw our best friends in Frontera and truly knew that these men weren't only members of the gospel but were living the gospel as members.

They soon came up stairs and walked in the door and found that my companion was very dehydrated and that we needed to go the hospital. As we quickly and weakly left the apartment we made our way down the unoccupied street at 2 AM and walked towards the street corner in which the church sat. There my companion and me meet well our first test of patience. I went into the church to have my first go at the toilet while my companion was literally lying on the street because he didn't have energy while the former bishop was trying to find a taxi at 2 o'clock in the morning and his son looking after my companion. I came out and he asked if I was alright, I responded by saying “YES” and then throwing up 3 times for each letter. We finally got a taxi and made our way to the scariest hospital I had ever seen. It was painted in white and looked very inviting but that was soon dismissed when I went to throw up in their bathroom and found that their was no soap, no toilet paper, the toilet that does not flush, no air conditioning, and the bugs the size of a quarter. That is on top of waiting for twenty minutes in an emergency room. Then once we got called back they told us that we would be helped… Boy did I feel the exact opposite.

First of when you get a call to a foreign country, especially a third world you are like I hope I never go to a hospital. When it happens you think well hope they don't stick me with a needle. This is what happened to me right off the bat. They open my mouth and within seconds are getting a needle and IV thing ready. The IV was full of a fluid called Suero. It is like gatorade, full of electrolytes. Well I didn't know, so I was like what are you doing to me? Then I was like is this clean pointing to the the needle unwrapped from a new container. Honestly I still don't know if they rest was clean, so I pray I don't get anything ha ha! They stick the needle into my arm and they put two full IV bags full into my body. I was just laying there thought to myself  “What a Wonderful World.” To be completely honest I had to go to the bathroom, now I am a Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints so I can only tell the truth so please bare with me when I say I can't tell you. But let me describe the situation. There I was once again holding my IV with one hand, and with the other trying to use the bathroom in which I was blessed that my Ward Mission Leader brought me toilet paper. Somehow Louis Armstrong came into my head again and was singing that same song. I then returned to my bed and finished my IV and loved life. We were released at around 5:30 AM and our great friends of Frontera got our medicine and took us two exhausted missionaries back home.

Now you are thinking, well that is it all, right? Wrong. Ha ha for the next day we were literally confined to our beds, only having a enough strength to use the bathroom or drink more suero. It was the worst day ever, pointless, boring, tiring, and humbling. We wanted to study, we wanted to clean, etc. but we couldn't. We were literally told by our doctor to stay in our house for two days. Thursday turned into a very pointless but humbling day in which we hoped we would laugh about later.

Friday was a great day to be alive. We were able to have strength to eat, to walk around, and to be able to study. We were told not to leave the house but we wanted to make sure that everything was getting ready for the sister missionaries that our coming to our area. We wanted to thank the former bishop and his son for his help. We wanted to try and do something instead of being confined to a two room and bath apartment. But we soon found that we were still very weak. Friday wasn't the greatest successful day in the mission.

Now what are you are probably thinking, Why are you still on our mission and not coming home? Well to all those who thought this, my answer is because this mission isn't about me. I have been set apart to be a missionary or a representative of Jesus Christ for two years. What was the purpose of Jesus for his three year mission, nothing but to serve other which ended him bearing the sins, pains, afflictions, and sorrows of the whole world who has ever, will ever, or is right now living on the earth in Gethsemane and ending this Atoning Sacrifice on the Cross. How can I complain? I did not die, I did not suffer for more then myself, and I did not do it alone. He did, our Lord and Savior bore the pains of the World alone. In which He asked the Father in Mark 14:36 “And he said, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me:....” The Christ in this moment asked the Father if he could take it from him because of the pain he felt but finished by saying. “....nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.” He did not complain but rather said I will do what you want me to do. He did know that I would go and suffer in a hospital in Mexico and he did comfort every second of it. I can not help but plead that you offer thanks for this some call “Ultimate Sacrifice” but for me I call the “Ultimate Gift”. Do not ever, ever, ever, ever think that  you are alone. That you must bare this difficult time in our life alone. That is Satan, be a willing to receive help and if you have fallen into sin then all you have to do is ask and you will be forgiven. Now you must sincerely want to change, to literally tear away that former life, and start a new one with Christ in it. This is humble prayer and I know that he will help you! 

--

Sincerely,

Elder DeVries