Week 23 (1/27/14)

Its a cold 75 so the beanie's come out!!

Familia,

hahah thats funny to hear about grandma, I hope that she is alright. I hope your alright too hahaha I saw the picture and it scared me a little haha I hope dad got my email. And I hope that his birthday was awesome!

Well this week was just another one of those good ole weeks. Well more or less. First off We did it we burned the piñata with all the clothes it was awesome. That means that my companion has now completed 2 years! haha 

Second off Elder Restrepo got really sick on Tuesday, so we tried tracting but ended up going home a little bit early so that he could rest. I was like, well thats just a bummer I hate being sick haha. But then came the next day. Wow whatever he had hit me so hard! I was feeling so terrible Wednesday, and to make things better our district leader Elder Grossman payed a little visit and told us that we were going to be having surprise splits. ahhh It was probably the worst day ever to have splits!! But all is well haha. So we were like OK Vamos! and so I ended up going with my bud Elder Angeles to his area and Elder G stayed here. It was actually a wonderful day! We had some very powerful lessons with people in their area! 

So then we came back and went with Emmanuel to the bishop ( he is a doctor) We ended up getting an infection from some uncooked pork a sister gave us Monday. So he prescribed some pills and now we are all better :) well I am, Elder Restrepo still feels sick. So that was fun. Then the next day we went to teach English class and as we were walking home we were stopped by a man in a terrorist gang. He was asking me all these weird questions like ´Why are Americas killing Mexican children´ and stuff like that. My companion signaled at me not to talk and I'm glad he did because the man ended up being armed haha so for the next 5 min he told me how he was going to sneak into the U.S and kill our president. So that was weird and a first. All is well though don't worry mom!! haha Then we had to go to a conference in Minatitlan Mexico. It was a meeting for all the stakes in the state of Veracruz that were also in our mission. So there ended up being about 96 missionaries there hahahah. It was really good, They focused of how we as a ward counsel can do more to help the missionaries in the work of salvation. Elder Walker from the 70 was the speaker. He is from Argentina so he had a weird accent haha. Then We went to eat at Pizza Hut and Dairy Queen. hahah So weird eating at places like that. Then we went to Office Depot to buy a new notebook haha. There is a little bit of American influence here. 

That was pretty much our week. We are still doing good with all our investigators. We are having a hard time getting them to church because of our time. 8 in the morning. But we will get there. As far as my companion. He leaves next Monday. I hope to be finally getting my first transfer but who knows. The ward is really sad because I'm leaving haha they say I have been here so long they feel like it is impossible to move me now I have to finish my mission here haha. but we will see.

Love you all!! Talk to ya next week!!

Elder Parduhn

Wow! He looks so tall!!

Week 22 (1/20/14)

Familia,

First off, sorry to hear about your uncle. Was he your dads brother?? That is so funny to hear about what you guys did hahah. Its funny because that is our life down here too hahah we are late for something so we just pay some dude in a bike taxi to take us places haha. I want to see a picture of her new hair! Is it alot different?? How did the hunt turn out?? I remember kadens first time haha. How is aunt chris?? You have glasses!!!!!! I want to see a photo of this too! 

As far as my week goes, it was really good. We are continuing to teach Norma and Sofia, our new investigators, they are doing very well. We hope to have them commit to baptism in one of the next few lessons. As far as our other golden Investigator Marcos, we are still waiting for him to get back from his christmas vacation. haha. In the teaching aspect this week was pretty much normal. This week passed my 6 month mark and so according to tradition I had to burn a tie haha It was great. 

*6 months* He burned a tie!!! 18 months to go!

My companion Elder Restrepo completed 2 years this week so tonight we will be burning a piñata with a shirt pants and tie haha. I officially decided that I dont like having companions that are leaving home. All they do is talk about what they are going to do when they get home, and it makes me really homesick. But oh well haha. Also this week we helped Emmanuel make a cake for some guys wedding. The cake turned out so cool!! Emmanuel is so good at making cakes. 

The cake he helped Emmanual make!

Also this week we had a baptism. It wasnt an official baptism for us because the boy we baptized (Luis del Angel) his parents have been members for more than a year so he counts as a (i dont know what its called in english but un niño inscrito) i think it is like a kid member?? who knows haha. It went really well, we ended up doing everything so I counted it as a baptism. We went all out on this kid!! If you remember he is the kid from the other letter a few months ago that is pretty much the reason his family is active, so spiritual!! We made a video with some pictures we have of him, it was so cool and we had all of his family in tears!! It was a special baptism. 

Then after the baptism we had a ward activity with the other missionaries in our district. It was called ´´Trip to Las Vegas´´ Im so excited to do this with our ward when I get home. What we did was take three small rooms and decorated them according to the plan of salvation. One room covered in white with cake and mormon messages playing (Celestial), The middle with the room light and cookies, (Terrestral), and the last with candle light and toast haha. then we loaded the gym with different games and gave everyone 20 tickets and let them play for about an hour. We had missionaries (the youth) who were walking around asking if they could teach people, and if they accepted they would earn another 5 tickets. After about an hour we simmulated a plan crash and depending on the number of tickets you had, you would earn a kingdom of glory haha It was soo coool it ended up working really good and we ended up teaching so much from it. It was so funny the telestial kingdom was loaded haha so us the elders and all the youth missionaries and like 2 members ate the cake in the celestial room. haha It was a great lesson! 

This is what pretty much happened this week! A week I probably wont forget! haha 

It was really good hearing from you! Hope that you all have a wonderful week!!

Love Elder Parduhn

The bread he loves in Mexico!

He loves little things!!  I am pretty sure he wanted to take this home!

Hunter loves little kids!

This is the year pinata for his companion that is going home!

This bread is the bread they make for Three Kings Day, January 6th 

Week 21 (1/13/2014)

Familia,

Wow alot did happen this week. Ahh I wish is was there to see her talk!! haha alot of good things happened this week. It crazy how many people are leaving on their missions!! Is there anyone left at home?? haha. 

We had another great week. Elder Restrepo is like my best friend, I hate that I only get 1 transfer with him. He invited me to visit him in Columbia. I might have to hit that up with Brennan or something. We had another wonderful week. We have been told that we need to teach 40-60 lessons each week. So E. Restrepo and I worked really hard this week! We ended up with about 36. We will beat it this week!  This week was a harder week because alot of the people here are still on vacation. We did find a few new investigators this week. We found these two, Norma and Sofia. Norma is the mom and Sofia is her daughter. They are special we have been teaching them this week. We watched The Testaments with them last night then bore testimony, it ended up being such a powerful lesson!! I hope they make the decision to be baptized.

 This week was Dia de los Reyes. Day of the Kings. Ohh it was great. They have this food and it is called Rosca de Reyes, it is like a big loaf of bread it the shape of a huge oval doughnut. Look it up in google. And in the middle, cooked into the bread, there are little plastic dolls of baby Jesus. haha. We had an activity this week in the church and so Wednesday night we went to Emmanuels house to make 2 of these. Ohh they were so delicious! We filled them with cream cheese and fruit.oooohhh soo good! I would like to let you know that I am saving recipes to make when I get home. Speaking of recipes, because Emmanuel likes to make stuff  I suggested that we make banana bread! So we did! It was the first time that they have ever tried it. Also this week we had zone class so again we traveled to Coatzacoalcos. It went really good. It was a pretty normal week. But it was special because my teaching has been getting alot better! I have been really trying to become better.  It actually turned out to be a great week.

Well I got to go. Love you all so much!! Talk to you next week!!

Love E. Parduhn

Week 20!!!

Familia, 

 I decided that the holidays here in Mèxico are way better than back home haha. The mexican people know how to party!! This week was new years.  And just like last year we didn't get the opportunity to teach a whole bunch.  Again the streets were completely empty! We were the only ones walking in them haha. Yes we did stay up until 12 haha but dont tell president haha. It is crazy here! At 12 o clock to celebrate the new year, they make a ``viejito`` it is like a scarecrow and dress it like an old person to represent the old year haha then they fill it full of fireworks and light it on fire in the middle of the street!!!! There were about 5 around our house!! Those things just explode for about 30 minutes strait!! It is so fun to watch!! Then we tried to work the next day and that didnt work out well. pues, we did me a bunch of drunk people. haha Ya there are so many drunk people. haha you will see cars parked in the middle of the road, they all drive drunk, and we dont take taxis because alot of the time they are drunk to haha.

The Taxi's in Mexico (They are smaller than Hunter)

 But then it calmed down alot. We were able to find some people that really are interested in hearing the gospel. Friday night we went to teach the Ocaña family. And if you remember they are the family that all the kids are members the oldest is on his mission, but the parents arent. The mom is soooo ready but we are just waiting for them to get married. The dad never wants to listen to us. But friday he decided to listen to us! He had so many questions. We ended up teaching the plan of salvation in great depth. It was such a great lesson. We hope to have a good week this week because everyone is returning home from their vacations. ohh ya happy kings day!! Today in mexico is their second Christmas. The kids receive more presents haha. They also have this food called `Rosca de Reyes` It is like a bread cake made into a circle and they put little plastic baby jesuses in it. ahah it is so good! I absolutely love the culture down here!

I hope all is well at home. Talk to ya next week!

Elder P

Week 19 (12/30/2013)

 MERRY CHRISTMAS from MEXICO!!!

Well first off it was so awesome getting the chance to talk to you this week! It makes me miss home a little bit, but all is well. This week was really a calm week. Because of christmas we really didn't find many people to teach. So we ended up just doing alot of walking haha. It has been raining all week! It feels so good right now! I am honestly scared for the hot time of the year. Ohh my gosh we had something happen to us this week. We set a family home evening with this family, the family Rodriguez, we expected it to be just their family so we really didnt plan to much, just a little activity and a story. We didnt know this, but apparently she had invited her other 3 daughters and they brought their boyfriends so we ended up having about 12 people in that family home evening! We got so scared right before it happened! All went well though we acctually did a very good job. That was really the only thing special this week. We no we acctually went to a baptism in the other ward. It was so special, you could tell that she had been waiting for this moment for a long time. She and her 2 kids were baptized. I wish I knew more about her story because she was a very special baptism.

Yes new years is this week and I am so excited! They tell me that it is really crazy down here at this time of year. One of the things that they do, that I am really excited to see, is make a straw dolls in the appearence of a old person and then they fill the thing full of fireworks and then burn it in the middle of the street. I am so excited to see that. I will try to get a video of it so I can show you.

It was so wonderful to talk to you guys this week!! Sorry for the short letter! I love you all a ton!!!

Elder Parduhn

Christmas Jammies!!

BEFORE!!

AFTER!!!!