Hoo Rah!

Hey. Welcome to my mission blog. If you're interested in keeping in touch with me via mail, check out my address(es) on the right side of the page. If you're too lazy to do that, go ahead and read the posts below.

Monday, August 29, 2011

8.29.11 -- Navojoa, Mexico




Hey,

Heat. Bleh.

Although it's okay. We have air conditioning in our room at night. None of the houses here are fully air conditioned, they just have swamp coolers and other things. But we enjoy being cool at night.

Shaun, what's your address?

Hno. Aten-I haven't figured anything out whatsoever. I still have no idea what I'm doing. It's just not as excruciating now as it was before.

I went on exchanges with E. Barragan (from Mexico City) in his area. He's from my generation, meaning he entered the MTC at the same time. His area is super green in parts. Check out the palm trees. We also got caught in a storm on the way back to the house at night. The sky changed in one minute from clear night to a crazy thunderstorm. The whole city flooded and we got soaked within two minutes. It's strange. I remember seeing Hno. Anderson's photos in the MTC (my teacher that served in Guatemala and got drenched a few times as well) and thinking, "Hey, at least I don't have to worry about that." Nope.

Also, we have weird flavored yogurt here. Check it out, pineapple, celery, and cactus. And not the cactus fruit, the "leaves." It tasted pretty good.

We teach a lot more here, but the baptisms are about the same right now. No one has gotten baptized in this area for a few transfers, but we're working on that. The streets are dirt, unlike Hermosillo, there are less drunks, but less street lights as well, more mud, less air conditioned homes, more bugs (I HATE GNATS SO MUCH), more humble people that listen, more lessons to learn about how the US is incredibly blessed, more things to do.

We are also kind of spoiled and have a washer. We also have lizards (desert types, called "cachorras," but they don't go into the shower. They stay in the kitchen. Until we find them. No, we don't kill them. Although E. Villa accidentally cut the tail off of one of them when he closed a window too fast. He didn't know the lizard was there.

We went this week to teach the cousin of a family that got baptized about 6 months ago. We had been teaching her and her 3 small kids for about two weeks, when she told us she would be moving soon to a small village outside of the city, where we can't go. We expressed disapointment, and then shared a message about the Atonement with them. At the end, I began to speak about the family, and how God doesn't want individuals in heaven. He wants fathers, mothers, and children, together, in heaven. I hadn't thought we had done an especially good job stressing the family in the prior weeks, but at the end, she looked at us and said that she had never heard of eternal families before, and that she wanted to continue learning. I was a little surprised, because like I said, I had thought we hadn't done a good job on that. But hey. We did do a good job. I hope she returns to Navojoa at some point. The missionaries will be there to help.

Time. Adios

Elder Humbert

I need to talk more spiritually and less about things, I know. More on that next week.

Monday, August 22, 2011

8.22.11 Navojoa, Mexico

We had stake conference this week, and Pte. (short for "Presidente") came to speak in every session. What he shared in the general session was especially good. He talked about how a lot of missionary moms worry about their sons. He told a story about how he was in his office one day and a mother called. (This is all paraphrased) "Pte, I had a dream last night that my son got hurt. Is he okay? I want to talk to him." Pte. said he called the missionary and put him on speaker phone so his mother would be able to hear. "Elder, how are you?" "Good, Pte! We found a family yesterday, and they all accepted a baptismal date--we were teaching them and I remembered something that my parents taught me in a family home evening when I was still home, and . . ." He continued. Pte. responded, "Very good elder. That´s all." "Nothing else, Pte?" "No, I just wanted to know how you were doing." He hung up and turned to the other phone where the mother had been listening. She didn´t hear Pte. ask how she was doing because she was crying.

That was cool. But it sounded less corny in Spanish. I´ve noticed that. If I literally translated everything I say in Spanish into English, all of it would sound overly dramatic and . . . another word that I won´t use. But that´s cool. I just wonder if the rest of the Spanish speaking world talk the same way.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Sorry if I don´t write so much. I write to everyone (that is a family member) that emails me, so sometimes I run late. ¡Adios!

Elder Humbert

Monday, August 15, 2011

8.15.11 -- Navojoa

A few things, really quick. My last week in Hermosillo, I went with the sister missionaries in my district to teach a less active man from the US in their area. He served in the Phillipines, but had been inactive for a year. We went to his home, and I taught him mostly solo, sometimes translating for my companions. He said he just needed "to be reminded how the Spirit feels," so he could remember what it was like to be in the Church. We began to talk. We spoke of the verse in 3 Nephi 11 when Christ takes time for each and every person of the multitude to feel his hands, feet, and side. We spoke of how God and Christ know him personally, by his first name. We talked some more. After a little while, he looked at me in the eye and said, "What you´re doing is working, you know."

It was raining like crazy the other day. We found shelter on the front porch of random house. The owner arrived. He invited us in. We taught. It was great.

We saw some little kids the other day. They shouted out, "AHHH the gringos are coming!" Another day they yelled, "Gueros! Hallelujah!" Guero is another word for white guy, by the way. They were like 5 years old. Awesome.

No time.

Adios

Elder Humbert

Monday, August 8, 2011

8.8.11 -- Navojoa, Mexico




Hoo rah,

I didn't write last week because I got tranferred and I was in a bus for 5 hours and I had to do other things besides that. I'm sorry. I'm now in Navojoa (nah-bah-HO-ah) in the Aeropuerto area (it's in the south of Sonora), with E. Villa, my former, current, and fellow zone leader as a companion. Don't read too much into that assignment/calling, it doesn't mean too much.

And hey, I have absolutely no time, sorry, we had to clean out our entire house. The missionaries that have been living there the past few years haven't cleaned too much and my standards of cleanileness are much higher than theirs. Please tell Jen to not kill me via email. Also, I'm sorry, I haven't written letters for a month, we've had meetings and believe me, we've been busy.

It's a little less hot, a lot more humid, it rains a lot more, and a lot more humble here. It's awesome. Even if I sweat like CRAZY. Here's some pics of the area, the storms, and our flooded streets.

Sorry, I have to go, apologies, I'm sorry, no time, I promise a lot more the next week.

Thanks for all the emails, everyone, I promise I will answer them one way or another.

Praying for you all,

Elder Humbert