T-t-t-transferred

Alright, so guys, I got transferred. I am now in an area called Pakal-Na. Its just outside of the city of Palenque, in the state of Chiapas. Aparently, ´Pakal´ was some Mayan God, and translated means "King of kings" and Na means "house" so my area is "The house of the King of kings"  or something like that.. Pretty cool right? 

Anyway, I got here last Wednesday night, my new companion is Elder Jimenez. He and I are the Zone Leaders here in the Zapata zone. Its been pretty sweet. On Thursday during my first day working here in the area, I almost got bit by a dog, we got drenched by the rain, and I slipped and fell on my butt.... I love Pakal Na. I really do. Its just a tiny little place, and I mean, I love it. 

Oh another funny experience, last night we were trying to figure out where some members lived and so we asked this random guy. While we talked to him there was this drunk guy that joined the conversation. The drunk guy wanted us to teach him, but I gave him a pamphlet to read and told him we would talk to him later. So once we were about to leave, we shook the peoples hands, and as Elder Jimenez shook the drunk mans hand, the drunk guy says "You are beautiful. Beautiful like a grassland animal." I´m not sure if it was a compliment or not, but the drunk guy said it with with all the sincerity he could muster... that doesnt change that it was weird though.

We have had some success finding new investigators, the Members have been really helpful. This week we found an investigator named Jose. He went to church with us and is pretty excited. After church I think he just wanted to spend the rest of the day with us because he asked "Now where are we going? Are we going to preach the word, or what?"

I´m really excited for my time here in this area. It will most likely be my last area, which is kind of sad to think about but I am determined to work my hardest and trust that if I do my part then the Lord will do His. I know that it is His work and without heavenly help, there is no way that we could do it. I love you guys! Hope you´re doing well!

Sat December 6, 2014

Uhm...

Alright, so this week was super busy guys. We had a leadership council meeting on Tuesday, then a District Leader meeting on Thursday, and in between we had a bunch of other little things that did not allow us to have a whole lot of time in our area this week but with the time we did have, we had some really great lessons!

 We are teaching a family of four. Its a daughter, her parents, and the grandma and they are awesome! They have been investigators for quite awhile I guess and the missionaries had stopped visiting them because they were not  progressing much, but on Thursday we went and taught them about faith, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. It was a really awesome lesson, everyone felt the Spirit and they were amazed. We invited them to be baptized and they committed themselves to start preparing themselves to be baptized! 

Anyway, sorry I don't have a lot of stuff to write this week you guys but I love you! 

I will write you all again Next week!

Sat November 29, 2014 I did it!

So I mean, I don't know if anyone remembers but at the beginning of my mission I discovered that my last name (Rios) should have an accent (Ríos). I mean, that's just how it is, English robbed me of my birthright. But after quite a time, I was able to get a name tag with the accent in my name. I feel accomplished.

 Anyway, this week has been really awesome. We have been working with a new video that the church just released called He Is The Gift (http://www.mormon.org/christmas) and it has been pretty cool. We have a little portable dvd player and we use it to teach people. You guys should all go watch the video, its really cool. President had me make another video with it and we are going to start showing it in some of the Churches to try to find more investigators. I had never made a video before really but it turned out really good. Well, I mean, I think so at least, I am going to show it to President Morales tomorrow so we will see how it goes! 

This week was really awesome! Monday and Tuesday we were super busy with the new missionaries that got here to the mission so I didn't actually change companions until Wednesday and out of the few lessons that we have been able to teach together they have been really great! I am really excited for the rest of this transfer I know it will be a successful one! I know that this is the Lord´s work, and that its necessary that we look to Him to know how to do the things He has asked of us. Without revelation, we would be lost. Revelation has always been fundamental in God´s plan and its marvelous to know that He communicates with His children and tells us the things we must do. I know He is my Father, and I love Him. I love serving Him, and even though I may not understand all things, I know that all that He does is for my benefit, and all that He has me do is to help me learn and grow. 

I love you guys and I hope all is well! 

Here's a picture of my name tag and my companion and I took a quick picture... so there ya go!

I did it! Sat November 29, 2014

I did it! 

So I mean, I don't know if anyone remembers but at the beginning of my mission I discovered that my last name (Rios) should have an accent (Ríos). I mean, that's just how it is, English robbed me of my birthright. But after quite a time, I was able to get a name tag with the accent in my name. I feel accomplished. 

Anyway, this week has been really awesome. We have been working with a new video that the church just released called He Is The Gift (http://www.mormon.org/christmas) and it has been pretty cool. We have a little portable dvd player and we use it to teach people. You guys should all go watch the video, its really cool. President had me make another video with it and we are going to start showing it in some of the Churches to try to find more investigators. I had never made a video before really but it turned out really good. Well, I mean, I think so at least, I am going to show it to President Morales tomorrow so we will see how it goes! 

This week was really awesome! Monday and Tuesday we were super busy with the new missionaries that got here to the mission so I didn't actually change companions until Wednesday and out of the few lessons that we have been able to teach together they have been really great! I am really excited for the rest of this transfer I know it will be a successful one! I know that this is the Lord´s work, and that its necessary that we look to Him to know how to do the things He has asked of us. Without revelation, we would be lost. Revelation has always been fundamental in God´s plan and its marvelous to know that He communicates with His children and tells us the things we must do. I know He is my Father, and I love Him. I love serving Him, and even though I may not understand all things, I know that all that He does is for my benefit, and all that He has me do is to help me learn and grow. 

I love you guys and I hope all is well! 

Here's a picture of my name tag and my companion and I took a quick picture... so there ya go!

So, new transfer coming Nov 22, 2014

And a zoo visit

Sat November 22, 2014

Hey guys, so I got transferred, but I kind of didn't at the same time, so that's pretty cool and stuff. I am still going to be here in the offices, but with one of the other secretaries, Elder Angeles, in a different ward. Strange stuff, but I am pretty excited for it!

So sorry I wasn't able to write last week, we didn't really have time.... my bad. But I am going to send you guys some pictures!

Last week it started to rain pretty hard so the temperature dropped just enough to make the hot chocolate my mom sent me, and later on Saturday we went to a Zoo place that's called the Venta. 

I mean, I´m normally not a zoo-going type of guy but it was really pretty cool... except for the part where I think the Jaguar was sick or something it really just made a weird sound.... ha-ha

Anyway, so this week has gone pretty well, we´ve been pretty busy and we are getting ready for some pretty exciting missionary stuff. 

So this week I started reading the Book of Mormon in English again... which is really awesome! I have read both the Book of Mormon and the Bible more in Spanish than I have in English and so I decided that it was time to break away from my Latin roots and get to reading in my native tongue. Its really cool to read the same thing from a different perspective and learn a whole bunch more stuff. I mean, I´m just saying that I have had a really good study sesh, or two. This week I tried to take a lot of time to study more on the life of Jesus Christ and the example that he left. Its a Christlike attribute that I would like to develop more of, because from charity springs a whole bunch of other things. 

Oh and in the museum, they aren't very good at translating their signs into English.. 

 Anyway, sorry this letter was kind of short and all over the place but I love you guys and hope you are all doing well!

Love, Elder Rios

Well, Life's good and so is this fish dinner, bones and all!

Hey guys, so I mean this week was pretty busy.. It was pretty good. We had the mission leadership council with all of the zone leaders and we had like one day to get everything organized and so it was kind of stressful, but everything turned out really well, and it looked like we were super organized even though we really were not. 

This week went pretty well though, we were able to find some new good investigators and learned a lot from President Morales. As a mission we are working on learning how to teach lessons that are shorter and more powerful. The day of the leadership council, President talked about teaching the message of the Restoration in five minutes to contact people. So I got  to put it into practice with the Taxi driver that night and it went really well. I even got the first vision in there and everything. It was the most interested I have ever seen one of the taxi drivers. A lot of them just brush us off and turn up the music, and later the other ones don't progress, but this guy seemed really interested. So yeah I took down his name and number and now the missionaries are going to go visit him. 

I´m just saying, I can definitely testify about the fact that the church is lead by revelation from God, on all levels. President Morales has really taught us a lot of important things that have helped moved the work along here and I know that he always takes the time to listen to what the Lord would have us do, whether he receives that answer through the leaders of the church or directly, he does what he can to follow it. Its been really cool to work closely with President, there is a lot to learn from him. 

This whole mission thing is awesome, and I´m so grateful to be here. 

Love you guys

Here's some pictures of my house... well part of it.. and a fishy I ate bones and all! 

Dinner time bones and all,,,that's how it's done!

Kind of fishy I know! 

Home sweet home

One bed one Hammock. No AC no problem.

I'm a bald person. October 18, 2014

I'm a bald person! 

So I mean, in Spanish when people tell you that you are bald, they say that you are 'pelon' (pay-loan), and I have heard that a lot this week. So I mean, it’s either because my companion cut my hair to short, or all of Mexico is trying to remind me of some unpaid debt.. Okay bad joke, I know, but it just kind of came to my mind when I wrote how to pronounce 'pelon'. I should do improve.. or maybe not. I wouldn't be very funny. ANYWAY, getting on to why I am bald.. So my companion kind of knows how to cut hair, and so like a month ago, I asked him to cut my hair and he did a pretty good job, but last Saturday night I asked him to cut it, and his hand slipped at one point. And he was using the little buzzer machine thing, so the damage was done, and the consequences followed. It’s really weird, because I forget that my hair is super short but then I walk by a mirror or see my reflection and something and I am reminded. But it’s getting better now.

Actually when president saw my hair, instead of shaking my hand like he usually does, he saluted me, called me lieutenant and walked away haha. 

Anyway, that's my weird beginning paragraph for this letter. This week went pretty well with all of the new missionaries getting to the mission and stuff. I got to be official translator, and so it was fun. We have one of the new missionaries living with us now. He and his trainer were assigned to work in the same ward as us. Hopefully we will see more progress as far as missionary work goes in the ward. It’s fun living with more missionaries though. 

This week we have started working with a newer investigator and when we went to see him, at first it was really weird. Like he was kind of trying to brush us off and didn't want to listen to us anymore, but we just started teaching him anyway, and during the lesson as we read in the Book of Mormon, he stopped us and told us that as we read, we had answered one of the questions that he has always had that no one has answered for him. He recognized that we were guided to be able to do so because he didn't tell us that he had doubts or anything and it ended up being a really great lesson.

 It’s interesting to see how the Spirit works with all of us. How it works in such a way that we may not understand that we are being led. I am not very good at explaining these kinds of things, but I know that we definitely would not be able to do this work without the Lord´s help. He is guiding us to people that have been prepared to receive the gospel, and He helps us to know how to help them. It’s truly a remarkable experience to be here as a missionary. I know the church is true, and that we are led by living prophets of God. The Book of Mormon is proof of it all, and the Holy Ghost bears witness of it. 

I love you guys and hope you are all doing well. I´ll talk to you next week!

Here is a picture of bald Elder Rios with one of the missionaries who just ended his mission. The picture was the day after my companion cut my hair. Its a bit longer now.