Week 49(July 28, 2014) HAPPY BIRTHDAY THIS WEEK!!!! This Saturday Aug, 2nd

He leaned into a freshly painted door!! Whoops!!!

Fam,

I’m going to be honest and say that this was a very different week. First off I thought that my companion E. Hunt was going to stay with me for one more transfer, but Tuesday morning, while in the bathroom, E. Hunt received a call from from the AP’s. They told him that he had special transfers and that he had 3 hours to pack his bags. So he got to work. We had a little time to go a visit a few more members before we left. Then we headed out for Coatzacoalcos. That is when I met my new comp. E. Navarro. He is another Mexican companion from Mexico City. He is really cool. I am a little sad and also a little glad that E. Hunt left because with a new Elder in this area, we are working alot harder. We were also able to meet our new district this week. The 2 zones that were here in this city combined to make 1. So now we have a new district. Our district is really cool. The Sisters are super funny haha.

We were able to find a bunch of new investigators this week. We also had a cool movie night last night. We all went to the church to watch Ephraims rescue. It is sooooo good. You guys need to watch it. We also had a cool Young single adult activity in our church this week. This is how it went. As the YSA washed cars we would take the investigators around showing them the church. All the organizations had a set up room and a representative that would explain all about what they do. A ton of investigators showed up, and a ton really enjoyed the activity. We got a whole bunch of references from this activity. They might actually do it again in the following weeks.

The Young Women Values!!

The Missionary set-up for the activity!!

The Car Wash!!

Not sure why they are sitting on the ground!

More of the car wash!!

Also I have my little garden here haha. I planted a pineapple plant today. We will see how it grows.
That is about it from this part of the world. Hope all is going well with you guys. Love ya’ll!!!!!

Elder Parduhn

Things never change, he loves gardens and this one is his!!

Week 48 (July 21, 2014)

Family,

Yes shoes from back home would be nice thanks mom. If you could please send some Visine too please.

Today was a great week. Happy Pioneers day to you all as well. We actually celebrated that here too. We had a stake program which was really cool. All the Ward put on like skits to watch.

There was another catholic holiday this week, so the whole city was partying again. Some other Virgen haha. Nothing super special this week. It got sooo hot I really wasn't able to sleep some of the nights this week because with the concrete walls the heat just intensifys!! We were contacting some of our contacts this week when we ran into a few of their friends, long story short they ended up being our new investigators. This week was also the last day of this transfer. We both ended up staying the only transfer was that the new guy E. Conforme left! we are all sad haha. They joined the two zones here in this city and so now the whole city is one huge zone!! It will be fun. We now have a new district. 4 sisters I think haha. My companion is like depressed right now because he is going to finish 9 months here in this área. I hope all goes well. (I sent a Photo of my last District) We have some super fun activities planned for this week!!

Talk to yall next week Love yall


Elder Parduhn

Week 47 (July 14, 2014)

Family,

hahah Mom I love ya to death but I have been out for like 370 days now hahah BUT YES I AM NOW HALF WAY DONE!!! And can I say it was a pretty epic week!! Really it was just an epic weekend. It all starts with Thursday. Thursday was my halfway mark and yes mom I did burn stuff haha.

Happy 1 year!!!!!!!!!!!

It was a very interesting day. We started walking around trying to find people but really didn't end up finding many people, so we just started contacting people in the roads. 6:00 Pm as we are walking we receive a phone call. We look at our phone and it is a unrecognized number, so of course we answer haha. It ended up being the stake president here in our stake. He told us that the stake patriarch was not feeling so good and that we had to go to the stake center immediately (our church). So we start running to the stake center. As we get there the stake president shows up. Remember this is my 1 year mark day. He tells us that we have to go give him a blessing. The stake patriarch lives in the sisters area so we were the ones he wanted. So we show up to give him a blessing. Guess who ended up giving the blessing. Me! It is the weirdest thing giving a blessing to a patriarch haha. But all went really well. It was a super cool experience. One I will not forget. Our stake president is super cool.

Now comes Friday. That was my companions B-Day hahah another day of partying. So we go out and do our normal teaching. But we were planning a surprise B-Day party at the exact same time. We all bought a Ice cream cake from dairy queen. UMMMMM So we show up to Luis house (the young man that teaches with us every day.) his family is super cool, they are all investigators but they know everything so are pretty much members.

They wanted to do the party there. So we showed up at like 8 o clock in the night, he was surprised he didn't know what was happening. This family actually bought another cake and so we had to eat 2 huge cakes. We were stuffed when we left the house haha. But it was a super fun night.

Saturday was spent preparing for Catarinos baptism. He finally felt good enough to go for a swim hahah. He was telling us all week that God was calling him and that he is ready to answer the call hahah So Sunday at 8 o clock we had his baptismal service. He is the sweetest old man ahaha and he is so funny. He is like almost def so when bishop was welcoming him to the ward he stood up and like gave his whole life story haha. After, we had the services I was the one who ended up confirming him. It was a cool experience. That was the first confirmation I have ever done.

That was my wonderful half mission week. Sounds like everything is going good back home except for zack. Tell him i hope he gets better!!


Love y'all tons!!!


Elder P

Week 46 (7/7/14) ******** 1 YEAR MARK!!! *********

Family, 

It is weird to think that I am halfway finished with my mission!! It is going by so fast!!! The earthquake hit in Guatemala and the southern part of my mission. I didn’t feel anything. They said that it hit here as well but I never felt anything. If you want you can send ties and some shoes. Sounds like you all are having tons of fun back home. HAPPY MURICA DAY!! July 4 hit!!. Thank goodness we have 3 Americans in this house. We burned a box filled with paper and sang as I played Amazing grace on the flute hahah it was super funny I will get the video.

It was kind of a boring week here. We just walked around alot and never found anyone. Sometimes the people here are just lame and don’t want to talk to us. We did have a zone conference this week though. That went very well! That’s about it. 

Love yall!!

Week 45 (6/30/14)

Family,

This was a super awesome week. First off Mexico lost in the world cup yesterday :( on the bright side the shirt prices were cut in half hahah :). We had a super cool conference with president this week. He came and talked about the importance of contacting. Because we aren’t allowed to knock on doors, we just have to contact people on the street. President has now said that we have to find 2 new people to teach every day!! We have been doing it!! You know me I get like super shy talking to people, you won’t believe it, it is like a miracle I changed a ton ahha. Now it is like nothing to walk up to some random stranger and just start talking to them. I can really see the blessing that has come from our new rule. We have gotten super close as a zone as well. We live in apartments and our neighbors are the elders from the other area. We are getting so close. One is from Idaho and the other is another one from Equador. I don’t know what it is but the Elders from Equador are becoming like my best friends. We had a zone baptism this week, it was super fun. While the other elders and sisters were taking pictures with their converts, me and Elder Conforme (equador) were jumping in and stealing photos with their converts haha Ohh we are having so much fun here. I honestly love the mission.

Also we had a talent show activity this week haha me and my companion played “ Nearer my god to thee” on the flute, two parts, and Luis sang hahah when they called us up the crowd went wild hahah it was a super fun activity.

On the investigator side our Investigator Catorino who got sick like 2 days before his baptism had now gotten better (thanks to alot to fasting and prayer) and we hope to have him baptized this week if we can.

That is the update from Minatitlan Mexico.

I hope you all are doing well!!

Elder Parduhn