April 25, 2011

Elder Malan and Elder Clark in front of the Mexico City Temple! (not in the combio)

Herman and President Nancollas and Elder Malan at the Mexico City Temple!

Christian and his family and Elders Malan and Clark!

Hey Mom!
Thanks for the birthday song! But no, I haven't heard your voice for a long time so I can't really hear it. For my birthday plans, I think I am going to buy a cake or something cool like that or a pizza from Domino's. And for the letters and packages, yes I got them! Everyone was jealous of all the letters and packages I got haha. But it's fine. I was surprised about that. I ate one of the packages of Peeps in like two days. Now I am trying to slow down on the next one. I hung up that birthday sign in my room. I'm just waiting to take a picture under it when it's my birthday! The letters were really cool and I enjoyed them. Sometimes they arrive sooner. The cards you sent me came on the 8th or something. Sometimes it goes fast and sometimes really slow. But it's always slow when I send them it seems haha. As for Easter, we didn't do anything. We just worked and there was a play that they showed through satellite. It was lame, but hey what can I do. As for the people, all the Catholics just get crazy. On Friday, they crucify people. I have heard in some places they really crucify people and in other places they just tie the dude to the cross. As for what they did here, they just tied him up. They had a parade sort of thing with a fake Christ with a cross and some people carrying the thing he was on. There were about 500 people in the street marching, it was weird. Then it sounds like Easter went good for you guys. What did the Easter Bunny bring to all of you? To me he brought garments! haha But I needed them. So it's alright. And some candy of course. That's fun Ash is going to the dance. It's his last one, pretty crazy, huh! Man, mom and dad, you are getting old...but it's alright and I really liked that little JibJab thing. Made me laugh haha. I wish I could dance like that. Then as for here we found a lady and her son the other day. They came to church and the mom really liked it. I think the kid did, too. but I'm not sure. Her name is Magdalena. She is pretty cool and she does nails for her job. I think she will get baptized this next month. Then as for me and Elder Larranaga, we are doing good. He is a little different from the other comps I have had, but he is cool. Elder Olsen is still here in Prados with me. We both thought that we were going to leave but we didn't. haha Then for Berta and Polo, they are still iffy. We aren't sure if they are going to get baptized or not so we will just see what happens this week and then if they don't want to we will have to leave them. Christian is really cool He is really excited about everything. I got to be one of the people giving him the Holy Ghost. It was cool, and to ordain him a priest. It was a cool experience. He is 16, yes. I hope he goes on a mission, that would be awesome. He is a good kid. He is one of Polo's kids, yes also. We stay in the same house normally, unless we want to change, but it is a hassle to do that and the house that we have right now isn't bad. So I don't mind it. Then for the weather, it hasn't rained for awhile. I want it to rain again soon. When it rains, it rains pretty hard here. Last week it rained and the wind was going good so it tipped over some trees! And man, grandma, she just wants to see her family! But yes, it is still a little trunky haha, not gunna lie. I really like the bro's emails. It's fun to see how they're doing. I'm still missing Ben's emails, but I'm sure you're on that. As for milk, it comes in a box, so it's not like that at all. We aren't ghetto here in Mexico haha. You can tell Morgan y Taylor Happy Birthday for me, too. I'll write it in their letters but it won't get there until June, I think. The temple, we took a combi. They are just little buses that we use for transportation. They are all over the place here in the estado. They are crazy drivers sometimes, too. That's really cool Uriel is getting baptized! He is a good kid, too. Hopefully, they can keep doing good in the work there in the ward with all the returned missionaries that are there now.

Christ lives. He is the head of our church. Pres. Monson is the prophet. He receives revelation from God. I'm so glad I know the truth and I'm not confused and worship the Virgin Guadalupe. haha. I love you all and I hope you can remember all that our Savior did for us so we could have the opportunity to return to the presence of God as a family. Keep working hard and doing what you are supposed to. We get to listen to Elder Cook here on the 18th of Mayo. I'm stoked for that, to hear an apostle that close to me!

Love you, les amo.

Elder Malan

Pictures: one is in a combi, the other one is me and Pres. and Hermana Nancollas. The other is Christian and his family!

April 18, 2011

Hey Mom!
Sounds like your week went pretty good! Here this last couple of nights it has rained pretty hard. It was pretty fun and interesting. It also sounds like the dinner with the missionaries went well. I'm glad it did. Then as for your temple experience, it sounds like it went well also! Mine was really cool. I'm still here in Prados. I'm excited to be here one more change. But Elder Clark went up to lider de zona. So I got a new comp. He is Mexican from Sanora. His name is Elder Larranaga. He is cool, a little weird, but I think we will get along good. That is funny about grandma. Of course she would do that. She is a cute lady. That's crazy they are already getting in the field this week! Only in the MTC for a week and some days. But I think they will be ready to work. They are always ready it seems. And it sounds like you are getting some rain! That's cool. Here it has rained a lot these last couple of nights and I think it might rain tonight, too. But we will have to see how it goes. As for the earthquake, no, Veracruz is pretty far from where I am at. So you don't need to worry about that one, mom! We are all good here in Prados. Then Olsen, I told you he was good. I already knew that he had signed with BYU. He signed with them about a month ago. He is pretty stoked to go there. I think he will do really well. But I think he is going to red shirt the first year then he will start his junior and senior season. So that would be really cool. I can't load up pictures on this comp for some dumb reason. I have a couple cool ones that I wanted you to see, but I guess till next week. Ash did email me, it was cool. He sounded pretty excited for the snake. He even sent me a picture with it haha. I'm glad he is happy with it though. I didn't know it ate mice! That's pretty cool, how big will it get? Here I still haven't gotten anything, but I might get some stuff tomorrow because a couple of the elders from my district went to the offices so I might get some letters, I hope! That would be nice and my package haha. I don't know that girl that he is dating. I hope she is cute. But oh well, if she isn't. Thanks for the emails of the boys. I am going to enjoy them so I can see what those fools are doing. It will be cool. As for last week for us, it wasn't the best week. But we baptized Christian. He is really cool, he is 16 and I bet he will go on a mission. We are still working with Polo and Berta. Polo is a little shaky, but Berta is good. But I don't know if she will get baptized if Polo doesn't. We will have to see. Oh, and to help Polo quit smoking, cause he smoked 20 cigarros a day, we made him a cigarro shake! Put some 4 cigarros in milk, blended it and he drank it all then he threw up! Elder Clark got it on video, it was cool. It leaves a bad flavor in their mouths so they have that flavor every time they smoke. Then the week wasn't the best, but I think this week will go really well. It's semana santa. All the Catholics celebrate this week. They crucify somebody and do a bunch of weird things during the week. It's weird. Yesterday they had marches with palm tree leaves and blessed the leaves. It was weird, but that's what they do. The baptism of Christian went really well. I'm getting really good at conducting the baptisms cause I always do them! haha Our lider misional is inactive haha. So we are trying to get another one. That's why it is important to fulfill your callings and accept all that the bishop or stake offers you! So I hope you all can keep doing your jobs in the church cause I know that Bishop Halverson appreciates it. Tell Karson and Chase to write me. I ain't heard from them for awhile. We get to talk in a couple weeks, I'm excited for all that, too. It's going to be cool. Our bishop here told us we don't realize all the blessings that Heavenly Father is giving us. I hope you can recognize them and I will try, too.
Love you all and I hope you can keep doing what's right and God will bless you even more!
Love you,
Elder Malan

April 11, 2011

Hey Mom! Sounds like things are going well there except for the snow in Utah! haha Here it is still hot and I sweat a lot but that's fine. That is also crazy that grandpa and grandma are already leaving! They are probably in the MTC as we speak. How was your spring break? Ash told me he didn't enjoy his so much because he had to deal with all the snow! haha As for my week, it went ok. I wrote a letter to you today and I'm going to send it. So it should be getting there in a couple of weeks. But last week was a mas a menos week. We have 3 more baptisms getting planned for this week of the kids of Polo and Berta. They are Christian, he is 16, Geovanny, and he is 13 and Esmerelda is 11. We have to wait a little bit to baptise the mom because she only has one time in church. To baptise we need to have 3 times in church, then we can baptise them. So maybe we can get permiso from Pres. Nancollas to baptise Berta, too. So we are excited. But other than that the week went decent. We don't find that many people, but when we do usually they are really good people that are going to get baptized in three or four weeks. As for the package or the letters, no, I still haven't gotten them yet. They might be in the offices, but I don't go the offices very often. So we will have to wait a little bit. Hopefully I get them soon! Oh and as how the Mexicans celebrate Easter, it's not called Easter, it's called la semana santa, which is Holy Week in English. They celebrate the whole week! They do some crazy stuff. One of the things that they do that I have heard of is they crucify a guy!! He gets a surgery in his hands so they can put the nails through his hands and they put a real thorn crown and put this guy on a cross! It's pretty crazy how they do stuff down here cause they can do pretty much whatever they want. So that is one of the things that they do. But it's the Catholics that do it and since almost everyone is Catholic, everybody celebrates it. So it's pretty insane. As for grandpa buying his salt, who knows why but he always has a good reason for buying stuff like that. haha I hope you go visit them. That would be cool and I'm sure grandma would love it. Then today for P-day, we played some football and it was fun. Then we also made some brownies! They were delicious. The only time we get something like that is from the Hermana Nancollas, but we had some mix and it was fantastic. Now me and Elder Clark are going to go rest and clean the house a little bit, so it's a chill P-day today. Then me and Elder Clark don't argue mucho. And if we do it's about something dumb. We get along really well, I think. Right now I don't really go on splits. I don't know why, but we really haven't this change. And I hope you know what you are doing when you go on splits, mom! Just keep it basic and bear testimony. The missionera should teach you what you need to do so just do what she says. haha You will be fine. As for cooking for them, I don't know, maybe some mole. It's real Mexican food. haha I don't think you guys would like it that much, or some papaya. No American likes it haha. I don't mind too much, but I don't really want to eat or drink it. As for eating the tacos, we don't really eat much tacos. There aren't many places here that are good. and we don't have much time for them so we don't eat them. Yes, when we want water it is all bottled. I wouldn't dare drink the water out of the sink. Then as for washing the clothes, we have an hermana that has a washing machine so we just take it to her and she throws it in there for us. We have to hang it out to dry, but that's fine. As for money, I'm excited I got some more money for when I get home! And I'm doing good here. I bought a hammock the other day so I was stoked for that. It looks cool and it's big. I'll have to put it up when I get home in the backyard somewhere. Who is Chase dating? It's weird how they are already home, man, for like 6 months, too! Pretty crazy stuff. But here I'm doing well. It's hot, but I like it. We are all doing well and trying to save all of Gods kids here in Prados. I think I might get transferred next week. And Elder Clark thinks I'll go up to Mayor. But we will have to see what's up. I'll be nervous if I do. haha But I think I will be ok if that really happens. I know the church is true. Libro de Mormon is the word of God. It's the most correct book on the earth. We have a profeta that guides us in these days and 12 apostles. Everything points to that, this is the true church and when you get an answer from God it's even that much more convincing. I hope that you all are reading, praying, and listening in church. Happy b-day, Ash!! 18, now you are an adult. Be careful with the things you do now haha. Oh one thing that I would like, if you could get the emails of Jeff, Ethan, Israel and Ben that they send to their moms and send them to me. Then I can see how they are doing. Elder Clark does it and it looks like he knows exactly how his friends are doing. So if you could do that I would like it. Well, thanks for all that you do and we are going to the temple this Wednesday in the morning! I'm so stoked to go haha. I'll send you pictures. Love you all and cuidense! Les amo, Elder Malan

April 4, 2011

Baptism of Lucia and Karen.

Baptism of Jose and Yazmin.

Baptism of Oscar, Sachiko, and Karina.

All the people that were baptized on April 3rd!!!

Hey Mom!

April Fool's... we didn't even think about that one, haha. I'm glad you were able to pull off a joke because usually you don't do very well, like me, in those situations haha. But they don't do anything for it here. haha

As for conference , we watched the two Sunday sessions in English. We got a tv and had our own room for the white missionaries. It was really cool. It's is so much better in English than Spanish. haha As for the MTC, I'm glad grandma is stoked to go there. I didn't like the food. Here it's usually much better except for a couple of times haha. I don't like Marshmellow Matey's so I don't eat them. haha As for the baptisms, you will be able to see the pictures here that we did. The first picture is the baptism that we had a week ago of Lucia and Karen. The big guy baptized them. He is her future husband. The second is Jose and Yazmin. They are cousins, and I baptized Jose and Elder Clark, Yazmin. The other one is Oscar, Sachiko and Karina. Elder Clark baptized Oscar and Sachiko (mom and dad of the family). Then I baptized Karina. It was really cool. The last picture is all the people that we baptized yesterday. We baptized 5 and the missionaries from Tultepec baptized 3. So it was a really cool experience. I was really stressed to get them to church, then the other new family that we found, then to fill the font and to get everything ready, it was really hectic. But we got it done and I felt a lot better haha. The retention in this ward that I have baptized is going really good. I think only one of my converts has missed a week since they have been baptized. So we are doing good with that. As for the members, they do ok for greeting the members, not the best, but we are trying to get them more friendly with the people we bring. Then we found another family this last week of 6. They are really cool. The dad is Polo, mom is Berta, and then their kids. All the kids went to church and the parents couldn't so we are hoping to get the parents this week to church. Each zone that we have is one stake and there is one set of missionaries in every ward usually. Sometimes missionaries have to cover two wards because there aren't enough missionaries. As for the the priesthood session, I couldn't really go. They didn't let us. But that's how it is. Then my talk that I like the most was of Elder Johnson, I think. It was about the trials that we have in our lives. I really liked that one. Then the one by Elder Holland was really good, too. And of course Pres. Monson always talks really good. He is a sweet man. Conference was really spiritual because our church is the true church and all the people that pray can know for themselves. Share the gospel with all and don't be afraid to do it. It only blesses you and everyone else.

Gotta go. I love you and I hope you are all good.

Take care!

Elder Malan