Happy new year!‏

January 2, 2012
Well, it has been a pretty good and interesting week, family and friends.
Let's get into it!
So, firstly, going from when I last wrote everyone. From there, we said goodbye to a few people, went to the house, and also said goodbye to the family in front. They're members that give us food every week. So anyway, we went there and Elder Lyons said goodbye, and then they mentioned that they have a guitar, and brought it out and made me play some, and then insisted that I take it to the house with me. So, as my family asked last week when we talked if I play the guitar much here and I answered no, well that's changed a bit. I only play for a few minutes at night before bed sometimes and on P-Day of course, but it's a lot more than before. My fingers are babies though, and they get sore after a bit. Haha
Anyway, so from there Elder Lyons packed his bags, we went out to some appointments and more goodbyes, came back home and went to sleep. The next morning, we got up early and were at the bus station by 6:45 am, and Elder Lyons left at 7.
That's when I found out that my companion apparently wouldn't be getting to Teziutlan until 10:30 at night more or less. So I had to hang out with some other Elders until about 3 or 4 in the afternoon, and THEN they told me that I had to travel part of the way to pick him up. So, I had to go on a two hour bus ride to Martinez de la Torre and hang out with another few Elders, then with the Zone Leaders, and then my comp. got there at about 9:20. Oh, but to travel there I had to travel alone, by the way. It was WEIRD. I mostly just tried to sleep, because Elder Lyons and I hadn't slept much. But yeah, still pretty weird being alone.
So anyway, once my new comp. got there, we took the next bus which left at 10:45 pm, and got back to Teziutlan at about 12:30. We got to bed around 1 am, woke up at 6:30, showered and did everything and studied like normal.
I get along with my companion pretty well. He's Mexican, so it's interesting getting used to speaking Spanish now 100 percent of the time, but it isn't too difficult. He's from Monterrey, and he's actually from part of the mission that Adam is in, Monterrey East. The place he's from is called San Nicolás, so who knows, maybe Adam knows more or less where that is.
As I told you all, we both had the same trainer, so it was definitely interesting hearing a few of his stories and how we had some pretty similar experiences. We both quote him a lot and laugh about it.
Anyway though, this week we've actually seen a lot of success and some pretty cool experiences. We've put baptismal dates with 5 or 6 people, 5 of which are almost 100 percent sure to get baptized this month in January, and then another one or two that'll probably get baptized next month. So we're seeing the area pretty much exploding right now and we're both pretty excited about it.
Also, the other day we were walking around and contacting and things, when along comes this interesting looking dude with a book in his hands. He looked kind of mean and not like the type I usually enjoy contacting, so I wasn't going to do it. But as we got closer to him, something changed and I suddenly had a strong desire to contact him. So I did, he gave us his address and we set up an appointment. Well, when we went the next day to visit him, he sure had an interesting story to tell us.
He told us about how before in his life he's seen God putting him back onto the right path multiple times. Once, he was feeling sad and he was walking by a dumpster and saw a bag in it. He felt prompted to take out the bag and found a bible. Then, later on in life he was stressed about everything in general and somebody from a christian church visited him and talked to him about God and prayer, etc. And then, the day we contacted him, he was walking around with a bunch of thoughts and worries in his head when he saw us in the distance. He'd seen us before and knew we were missionaries, but other missionaries had never stopped him to talk to him. So, he figured we wouldn't, but then as he got closer, he said he got the strongest feeling that we were about to talk to him, and that we would be visiting him later.
So, you know the story. We did contact him after all, and visited him. Now he's starting the learning process and seems really excited, and we are too. Giant testimony builder though. What if we had let him pass like I first had decided I would do? It would've been pretty bad. So now we have even more motivation to contact everyone we see.
Anyway, gotta wrap it up for the week, hopefully you all are doing well, I know I am! =)
Love you all,
Elder DeFreese
p.s. No pictures this week, the internet where we're at doesn't have a place to put my memory.