August 15, 2011

Baptism of Mauricio and Emiliano

Hey mom!

Well, this last week was pretty crazy, too. Lots of things happened. It was a up and down week and luckily, at the end of the week we had a good week. So we had two baptisms of Mauricio, the dad, and his kid, Emiliano. His other two kids didn't want to do it. The other Mauricio was going to do it but his brother, Christopher, talked him out of it! So it was a real bummer. He knows it's true. But oh well. But we will start out at the start of the week. So we had really nothing at the start of the week and the leaders were not happy with us. They came over and told us that on Thursday. I'm just going to keep doing what I know I should do and we will have results like we have been. We ended up bringing 4 new people to the church so it went really well for us. I think all four have a really good chance of getting baptized, so I'm really excited too for them. Two of them are a mom and daughter. Their names are Rebecca and Sariat. They are cool. We found them doing a street contact. They are doing really well and completing with reading the Book of Mormon and they went to Stake conference with us yesterday! So we are excited for them. Then another one is a lady named Laura. We found her knocking doors and she has a lot of questions, but we are answering them and she went to church with us, too yesterday. I think the speakers did really well with their talks and I think they helped her a lot. The last one is a reference from a lady. Her name is Suzanna. She had to come here from Hildago to get an education. She is ok. She is home sick because she lived there and she can't see her parents. But I think she could progress if we work with her. Those are the four people that we brought to church and I think they are all good. I think this week will be good, too. Today I have an interview with Pres. Call. I'm excited for that, too. He spoke in the stake conference here yesterday and it was really good. He is a good guy, really spiritual, too. That's sweet that you guys went to dinner with Pres. Nancollas and the hermana. They are cool, huh? Then we even have the same dog name, that's pretty crazy. haha How was the food? You should have gone to a steak house, but oh well. We will just have to go when I get back. Then I hope, mom, you got all your questions answered. Then about the worms, I ate a worm. It just tasted like dirt. I didn't like it very much. I wouldn't want to eat it again. I haven't seen Elder Olsen for a long time. But we have changes this next week so we will see what happens with everybody. Where everyone goes and where everyone stays. As for writing Ash, I don't have that many cool stories, really. There is just a couple of things. haha But I'll try to have some more scary stories now mom, that I have your approval. That's cool that we are having more missionaries from our ward go on missions. How many missionaries do we have out right now as a ward? Like 7 or something like that I think. Not sure. Mom, are you still the teacher of young single adults? Or what. You have had that calling for awhile now, no? Like almost 2 years or something, right around there I think. That's crazy, mom! And yes, you need to get on inviting people to hear the missionaries! Help them out if they are good. If not, don't give them anything. I just copied my photos on my flash drive so I will send the flash drive so I will send my flash drive home soon. The next package you send, send a yellow envelope that has the little cooshing inside so I can send it to you. So you can see everything. Well, I'm getting close to 13 months, Ethan reminded me and that's crazy how time flies. I remember thinking before the mission, when Ben and Israel are home I will have 15 months. Man, that time is coming quick! I know the church is true and that we always need to keep striving to keep the commandments and endure to the end and help everyone out so that we can accomplish that as a family, like you say mom. That's the important part, that we can be a family in the temple one day. That would be awesome. I know that we can be together forever if we keep the commandments and complete and honor the covenants we have made. I love you all and thanks for all you do for me.

Elder Malan

August 8, 2011

Mas by the Catholic Cathedral

Mas by the Catholic Cathedral

Hey Mom!

Wow your summer is already over?! That's crazy it's already been that long of a time since school got out. That's cool you went to Park City. I think you guys should change your location of doing that thing to somewhere cool. It's not that cool there. This last week was pretty crazy. So Tuesday night, I called our district leader and he told me that Elder Logan had changes! So he had to be at the offices at 3 on Wednesday. So we were like wow let's go visit the people that you want to visit. So we went and visited everybody. A lot of people liked him here so they were all kind of bummed. But that's how it is. Then I got another Mexican comp named Elder Navarro. He is from Sinaloa. He has 8 months in the mish and we get along alright so far. So we will see how it goes. Then Mauricio is part of the family. They are doing well. I think they will get baptized here soon. Or at least I hope and pray that they will. This last week we didn't really find that many people so it was tough. We are trying to get the members more involved. We are working with them to get it all good to go. So we hope they go well. Then the mall here is like the mall in the U.S. It's big, has stores, but nothing like American Eagle or anything like that. Then as for the jerseys, I couldn't get them on Saturday. We weren't close to the place where I was going to buy them so I think this week I will get them. Then for the DVD players, all the missionaries got them. The First Presidency wants all the missionaries in the world to have them. And no mom, there aren't Red Boxes here. It's a lot cheaper to buy movies because they pirate them all and sell them. haha So if you want movies or music here it's legal to pirate it. haha That's sweet that Ogden got Jantz. He seems like a good coach. They need some good coaches. Are they going back down to 3A? I thought I heard that. But that's sweet this Friday you will be eating with them (Pres. Nancollas)! That will be a really cool experience for the four of you, I'm sure. You can tell them hi from me. haha I don't know, you can just say that. Then for the card, I think that would be good. Then we don't run the risk of having someone take it and go spend all the money with it. So I'm fine with that, mom. I can take a little bit of money if I need it, too. I don't think it will be that big of a problem. Then the conference went good. Pres. Call taught us about how we can help more the investigatores have more faith in Jesus Christ. So it was cool. I learned a lot and I'm trying to put it more into the teaching and planning. Who is Anderson?? But no, Clark isn't in my zone. haha The zone leaders are Elder Montes and Elder Lawrence. The district leader is Elder Barreda. Then for Elder Nowack, actually he is in my zone so I see him once in awhile. He is doing good. I think I could send my card home with Elder Clark, I bet. I don't see any problems with that. Right now I don't take too many pictures. We are in an area where it's not that good so I don't take my camera with me a lot. So here I don't have many pictures and really there isn't anything cool here to take pictures of. haha So that's another reason why. Then yesterday we were teaching an old investigator and she has heard the missionaries for like three years and we were teaching her and we just felt the spirit strong. It was cool. She said she would pray about baptism and all that. So we are hoping she decides to get baptized. But then right as we left, we saw some people making out all nasty and I felt the spirit go away like that! It sucked. It just goes to show how Satan doesn't want us to work by the spirit and always puts things like that in our way to distract us. But we just need to keep thinking good and then the spirit will be with us. That's what I try to do. That's a bummer about Ash. Hopefully he can get a job. I was thinking something in food, a waiter or something. That would be good for him. Well, that's about it for me. Pres. Call asked that we write our comps parents so here is what Elder Navarro wrote for you. Dad can translate it for you. Love you all and thanks for your support.

Elder Malan

August 1, 2011

Baptism of Leticia

One year mark with pizza!

Hey Mom!

Your Spanish is getting better already. So that's a good start. Now, as for people getting married... that's crazy and pretty cool. I bet almost everyone I know will be married by the time I get home if people keep getting married at this rate! They must be listening to the prophet. haha Mak and Mic got a doggie? That's cool, too. I hope that they can put up with her for as long as dad has with Misti. haha But at least now Misti has a friend. Well, hopefully they can be friends. Now for Pres and Hermana Nancollas. That's sweet you are going to go eat with them. That will be a cool experience, I'm sure. They are cool. Pres. Nancollas and Pres. Call are both really cool. Different in many ways, but they are both good people. You go ahead and talk to them about what you want to. haha I don't care. Then as for panista, it's the stomach of a cow. It's not good at all. It smells bad and tastes bad, too. I don't want to eat it ever again. Last week we didn't eat with her because we had a zone conference so we went to that. It went good and they gave us a dvd portable player! We can watch some missionary videos called "The District". We can see what they do good and what they do bad. So it's cool. We can watch the church movies so me and Elder Logan watched The Testaments one night. It was cool. Back to gross things and getting sick. I don't really get sick. So I don't have to take pills. So it's fine. My comp gets sick once in awhile. I'm going to try to send my flash drive home soon. My comp got a virus on his memory card and I don't want that to happen to mine. haha I would just copy them on to the flash drive so they could be on both and send home the flash drive then you could send it back. Oh, my debit card it going to expire this next month. So I will need another debit card if you could do that for me. That is way crazy about Israel and Ben coming home right around the same time. The time goes fast. I was thinking about it and Sammy will be home in December, too! It goes by pretty quick that's for sure. As for this last week for us, we had a baptism! It was good. We baptized Leticia. She is cool, a little crazy, but she is cool. haha We baptized her kid, Norman, but he is 8 years old so he doesn't count for us. But oh well, it still went good. Then this week we brought a family of four to the church. We brought Mauricio, he is cool. He is a cop and like the head cop, I guess. Yesterday in church at the end he was like, "Can I pay tithing?" We hadn't even talked about tithing so we were like, "Yes, you can if you want." haha We taught him the Word of Wisdom and he was like, "Ok, we won't drink coffee any more and I won't smoke." He is really cool. I'm excited for him and his fam. I think they will get baptized within these next two weeks. Other than that the week didn't go so good. We had a hard time finding new people to teach, so I hope this next week we can find more people to teach. That's what we need right now. Then the hardest thing that happened, for the baptism I'm guessing. At first the hot water wasn't even working so we had to fill it up with cold water fast and then the hot water was working and we just turned it to really hot. At the end of the day we got it decently hot. If we don't have hot water sometimes people get sick of the water because they aren't used to cold water! haha It's funny. Here everyone complains that it is hot or cold. They are never happy or feel good, temperature wise. I laugh at it. But ya, this last week was boring. Then today we went to a mall here. It was ok. We ate Chinese food and it was weird because the lady could speak Spanish and Chinese. I'm not used to seeing that everyday. haha Then this Saturday I'm going to buy some sick jerseys that we found. They are cheap and real. So we are excited for that, too. I hope I answered most of your questions. Here, I like it. It's a lot more organized than my last ward. So I am stoked to see what we can do here. Oh ya, Pres. Call wants to get microwaves for everyone! So we are excited for that, too, and maybe even blenders. So we are hoping for those two things so we can eat better. haha But this last week I was able to think and learn more about the atonement of Christ. It's hard to understand, but once we understand it we won't want to sin anymore. That's the truth and we will want everyone to understand it as well. I know this is the true church. Love you all and please check into the debit card. If you are going to send a package, poptarts would be nice, too. Thanks fam. Love you and take care!

July 24, 2011

Hey Mom!
First off, it's estoy muy bien. Ok? haha I'll help you out, don't worry. How did the parade go? I just barely realized that yesterday was the 24 of July. haha It's crazy how we don't really remember too many holidays. This last week went ok. It started off really slow and we weren't really finding anybody, then on Friday we had a reference and we went and visited them and we found a family. The dad is pretty cool. He couldn't go to church because he had to go to work and he is a cop. So ya. But his kids went so it was ok. They looked kind of bored because they are boys of 15 and 18 years old. haha But we will see how it goes with them. But I think they will progress. Now as for the flight, that sucks! Seven hour lay over in Dallas. I don't know what I would do if I was in an airport for that long. But that's good you got a little shuttle to take you around. That's cool that you did baptisms, too. I bet it was a cool experience for you three. As for things with my comp, he is cool. As for Vicente, we haven't been able to find him. His family says that his mother-in-law died so he wasn't there for the last week! But we hope to find him soon. We don't know how if he isn't in his house. And now for the lady with the marijuana plant, we are baptizing her tomorrow! haha She doesn't smoke, she just says they look pretty. I don't know why she likes it but hey, if she isn't smoking it I guess it's fine. haha Her name is Leticia. She is cool, she has listened on and off to the elders for like 18 years, Finally she decided to get baptized with her son tomorrow. Then they are going to make us carnitas!! It's a really good food here so I'm excited. And speaking of food, on Friday, a member gave us pansita again!!! Oh man, it sucked, me and my comp couldn't eat it. There are like little hairs on it and it tastes bad and the texture is really bad, too. But the hermana wasn't there to watch us, just someone that was living with her and she didn't care if we didn't eat it. On Saturday we were talking with one hermana in the comida and we told her about it then on Sunday she stood up in Relief Society and told all of the hermanas! haha I think that the hermana that gave us the pansita was in there when she said it. But oh well. The bad part is we eat with that hermana every Friday! So it will be interesting now. Then for burning a shirt, yes, I did! haha It was cool. We took a video of it and I don't think I can send it on here because it's too big. This email we can't really put big attachments on it or it doesn't work. But it was really cool. Then Makelle and Michael bought a house?? Wow, that's cool Does it look good or what? Do they have a garage? That sounds like a nice house for them. Then for p-day today, we had a meeting then we played soccer. It's not as fun here. It was more fun in Prados. haha But it's soccer. We are pretty close to the offices. Like 20 minutes away in a taxi. So it's not far at all. We usually don't see the mission pres. Usually like one time a month around there. And yeah, I'm adjusting more to Pres. Call. We will see him again this week on Friday because we have a zone conference. So it should be good. Then that's cool you talked to Hermana Nancollas! Tell her hi. I bet you and dad will enjoy hearing from them. They are cool. Maybe dad and Pres. Nancollas can start lifting together to work dad into shape. haha Then as for the shirt, you can just keep it there for me. I don't wear that many shirts so when I get back I will have a nice new shirt to wear. haha Then as for what I need, I don't really need anything. But yes, I like candy. I like Reese's cups, the little ones, Skittles, Nerds, the worms, jerky, stuff like that. I couldn't make the brownies! It sucked. Maybe next time if you send one I can make it. Then yeah, the ihome I returned it, then they said that they couldn't return me money so I had to get another ipod and then they gave me a little card with money I still had to spend in their store. So it was gay how it went down, but I can't do anything about it. Well I hope I answered all of your questions and I hope you are enjoying life now in the house and doing all that stuff. Here we are doing good and I am happy to be here. It's crazy that this time last year I was in the MTC. It's weird to think about. haha But now the time is clicking down so we have to poner las pilas. Thanks for your love mom, you're the best. I hope you enjoy the rest of your short summer! Love you and I don't have pictures this week. I was thinking about putting all of my pictures on the flash drive then sending that home. Well, copy them on the flash drive so yo can see all the pictures. I'll see what I can do. Love you all! Elder Malan

July 18, 2011

Elder Logan, Esteban, Elder Malan

Elder Logan cleaning the house.

Hey Mom,

I'm doing well here in my area. It's called Cuautitlan and the ward is Aurora. So it's good. With the comp, we are doing pretty well together. Here it's a lot different than my last area. It's bigger and a little hilly, but we have more cool stuff to do on p-days when we want to do something. Like today, we went and played bowling and it was fun, and also we played pool. I did ok, a lot better than I thought I would for not playing for a lot of time. But the members here are good. This ward is a lot more organized than my last one. So I'm excited about that. I think we will have more help from the members. I'm excited about that one because in my last area we didn't have much support. We had to do everything and I think here we will have more help. They even welcomed me in sacrament meeting, so that was nice. The investigatores, we had one baptism this last week. It was crazy this last week. So the person that we baptized wouldn't get baptized until one missionary left, they had an argument. So he left, I got here and all we needed to do with him was get his marriage paper so he could get baptized, but the place we needed to go was 2 hours away. So we went to the place and we got there and the lady that was helping us told us that the marriage was never paid for by the other missionary, and supposedly he paid for it. So we were a little mad, more my comp because the other missionary had said that they had paid for it and my comp had paid 350 pesos. So my comp was really mad because this means the other missionary took his money. So we came back that day and had the interview with our investigator and he passed, but we were going to have the baptism the next day. So we had to go back to the place that we had gone to get the paper of marriage so we left in the morning. I had to pay for the marriage and we got the paper, went back to the church and got the stuff ready for the baptism and we baptized him. It was really hectic, but we got the job done. haha But before we left the first time to the marriage place we had to get the full name of our investigator, Esteban is his name. We were at his house for like 30 minutes and he wasn't there so we decided to ask his neighbors if they knew his name. So we knocked one door and they weren't there. We knocked another door and a guy answered and said, "No I don't know what his name is, but do you want to come in?" We were in a hurry, but we decided sure why not. So we went in and he told us I have been reading this book and I like it and it goes right along with the bible. He had the Book of Mormon. haha It was tight. He had the book for like one week and he was already in Jacob! Needless to say he came to church and he wants to get baptized. So I hope we can keep him going. It was a cool experience. His name is Vicente. What else happened this week? Oh, we taught a police officer and when we got into his house we saw his gun with his ammo, that was cool. He let us hold his gun. Then we are also teaching a lady who likes marijuana plants for some reason. She has one in her back porch! haha It's crazy how some people think. She said she would give us a leaf sometime. haha Those two experiences were a little crazy. Then in one spot in our area, there is an idol that's called La Santa Muerte, which means Holy Death. It's a huge idol in one spot and it's really crazy. It's a skeleton with a world in his hand and a huge sickle thing like the grim reaper. That's an easy explanation of how it looks. It's ugly and a lot of people in that area worship it. So we have to be careful in that area. It's crazy how people have these crazy idols and other things because they believe in them. It just shows you how Satan works. He works in all sorts of ways. Now returning to your questions, do little kids run around here naked? Not really, but sometimes they do. And yes, we cleaned a part of the house today. It looks so much better! We still need to clean a little bit more, but we will do that next week. And yes, the other missionaries never cleaned the house. Just buy me something cool from the DR and keep it for me until I get home. Whatever you think is cool. We are all seeing the blessings that our Heavenly Father is giving us. It's cool to see how He works in all of our lives. If we keep doing what we should and keep working hard, He will always help us. Well, that's it for the email. I hope you are all good and enjoying your last couple of days in the DR cause you won't be going back for awhile, I think. I love you all and talk to you in a week!