Alright, this week from San Juan Xiutetelco, here's the news!
First, I had to say goodbye to my comp. Elder Vazquez, he's all
grown up now! Ohhh no. Anyway, so I said goodbye to him on Tuesday at
like 5 am and my new comp. and I were off. I am now with Elder
Colmenares, who's actually from Veracruz (but the southern part), so
he's pretty close to home. He's got 5 months in the mission and was just
barely with Elder Billings (my MTC comp.), and now we're in San Juan,
which I don't know if I mentioned, but it is the area where Elder
Billings and Elder Johnson (also from our MTC generation) were together
as CO-Senior companions. Well, I took Elder Johnson's place as District
Leader of Teziutlán, and got to know a few people around here that were a
little familiar, seeing as how we'd seen each other from being in the
same stake about 6 months ago.
First impression of San Juan... I think I might gain weight here.
NO! It's cold (love it), the bishop owns a really delicious taco place
and charges us half price (and gets mad when we DON'T buy tacos from
him every once in a while), there is sweet bread all over the place that
is SO good and really cheap, there are giant quesadillas for about 75
cents comparing aaaand the members are all very loving with the
missionaries, especially when it comes to the hour of the food. So yeah,
I'm going to be watching things a bit, but hopefully I can keep a
steady loss of weight up. About 4 months ago I bought a new and
smaller belt that I put on with the first hole, and now I'm on to the
last hole, so we'll see if I need to buy another smaller belt soon, but
I'mma wait and see what the food does to me here first. =P
What else...
Ah, so in my district it's me, Elder Colmenares, Elder Garcia (21
months in the mission and my former Zone Leader, from Sonora), Elder De
la Rosa (1 month counting the MTC and trainee of Elder Garcia, from
Puebla), Hermana Hernandez (7 months in the mission and from Tijuana),
and Hermana Fabregas (7 months in the mission as well and from
Honduras).
We had district class on Wednesday, after which I was told by the
Zone Leaders to show Elder Garcia and his new comp. around my old area
in Pinal, as they arrived new just like my companion and I. So, I showed
them around as my comp. went with a young man on splits to work in our
area in San Juan.
That day we ate with my old bishop from Pinal and it was really
cool to visit again and talk about experiences and such. I had really
missed that ward, it was awesome! Then I showed them where a few old
investigators lived to visit them and see if it was about time they
accepted the gospel, and showed them how to get to key places and
members, etc.
THEN I went about another 30 minutes away to an area called
Teteles, where they have also closed the area and so we have been
working there as well. We cover a LOT of ground. But anyway, I went
there with a young man from the branch there and he showed me around and
we taught a few people, and there are 3 or 4 to be baptized this
Saturday. We think that Pinal is going to take charge of that area
though, because they're closer.
In our area we've got pure miracles with 3 people to baptize this
Saturday and 1 for the next with another couple that we found last night
for the 18th. So we're pretty happy with things so far here. Seeing a
lot of happy people, ready to accept the gospel, is just like fresh
water to someone who's been in the desert a few days. Not to say that
Poza Rica was a desert, but we sure worked hard and got rejected a lot.
It's something to do with diligence though. Read Daniel, chapter 3. It's
a story about the bad king (not gonna try to spell his name here) that
tries to kill Shadrac Neeshack and Abednego (no idea on the spelling
there either because it's different in spanish) for not worshipping his
gods and his golden statue. Well, he threatens to kill them and I love
their reponse:
(paraphrasing) ''Our god will deliver us... And if not, you should
know, oh king, that we will NOT serve your Gods or bow before your
golden statue.''
I love that answer. It's like in my past area, I was always saying
to myself, ''I'm working hard and being obedient, people will accept me
and be baptized, just like it's happening with the other missionaries in
the zone, AND IF NOT, I'll just keep working and being obedient!'', and
when the moment came where we just kept getting rejected over and over,
I kept thinking of that chapter of Daniel, and now I'm seeing that,
just like the story there, God DID give the blessings that come with
obedience, and here they are!
I'm super excited to be here.
Well well well, I don't have much time left now, and I know I
haven't said everything that happened this week, because there's a lot,
but it's been pretty cool. We also had a stake activity here in our
church building which we dropped by to in order to meet the bishop of
our other ward we haven't been able to visit, and there I saw a ton of
people from my old ward in Pinal. It's really pretty interesting, and
they all say the same, ''Just couldn't get enough of the cold, right?''.
Haha, it's true. I'm loving it right now, I don't think I've
even sweat(ed?) once since I got here, and I sleep without a fan or
anything, nice and warm under my blanket. Wooh!
A'ight, so is there anything else?
Oh, a shout out to Drew Daybell. Is that Brennan Shchulzke in those
pictures? He looks nothing like himself! Maybe it's a brother of his or
something. Explanation in the next email, please. Haha
Love you all a ton, any more questions and just shoot me an email
or a letter or somethin'. You all should have the new address of the
Xalapa mission.
Looove,
Elder DeFreese
1. My family from Poza Rica. We found them and were able to witness
the reactivation of the mom, the baptism of the daughter after teaching
her less than 2 weeks, and the very catholic dad that now goes to
church regularly with a white shirt and tie we gave him. I choked up
saying goodbye to them, to be honest. I told them thanks for being my
family in the mission and for being so kind and loving to us. They said
the same and everyone was crying. Oh gee. =P
2. Our house in San Juan. Yep, that's all of it. And it is DIRTY. We're changing houses next Monday. =D
3. Zoom in on them socks, what's that you see? POKEBALL SOCKS!?
Yeah, Elder De la Rosa gave them to me when I complimented his that I
saw on divisions. He has a few pairs still. What a nice Elder!
4. This is my area. And that's not all of it, either. We also have
other parts that are about 40 minutes away on the bus and another ward
that we haven't been able to visit yet. Oh boy.
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