Hoo Rah!
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
12.26.11 -- Huatabampo
Friday, December 23, 2011
12.19.11 -- Huatabampo
Tuesday, December 13, 2011
12.12.11 -- Huatabampo
Monday, December 5, 2011
12.5.11 -- Huatabampo
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
11.28.11 -- Huatabampo
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
11.21.11 -- Huatabampo
Bleh,
Tuesday, November 15, 2011
11.14.11 -- Huatabampo
Hey,
Saturday, November 12, 2011
11.7.11 -- Huatabampo
Other things--I ate the fattiest tacos I´ve ever had in my life this week. I had to perform minor surgery on my toe with a pair of toenail clippers and hydrogen peroxide (it´s healing nicely). We have bikes now--no gears, really heavy, but they´re nice. One of my best friends in the mission (a member from Aeropuerto in Navojoa) baptized one of my old investigators and one of his friends this week. He got sealed to his wife in the temple the day before, a little more than a year after his own baptism. I am so happy for them. I miss Taylor, Asher, Luke, Zoey, and Gwendolyn, even if I haven´t met her.
Wednesday, November 2, 2011
10.31.11 -- Huatabampo
Boo,
School buses from the US are constantly being shipped down here because they get too dirty for school kids. But city bus drivers are fine with them. Also, they don´t get confused with the school buses here. . . . oh wait. Mexican school buses don´t exist.
I would send more photos but Firefox is being difficult. The other photos were of a little kid I met in Navojoa (I was helping him pose for the camera when I told his family goodbye) and of the district. The photo is horrible, since there are a ton of people with their eyes closed and looking weird, but there´s E. Ramirez and E. Perez (in Etchojoa), E. Cruz (my comp), E. Mooney and E. Rivera (the other companionship in Huatabampo). Almost all of us are brand new in our areas. E. Cruz is the only one that knows the area, and everyone else is opening up their areas. It´s going to be a little different now, since we´re in branches instead of wards, and we have an even greater effect on the Church here. We´re working hard and we have the goal of making our branches the most united in the church district. But it isn´t a competition.
Mexicans don´t normally celebrate Halloween, but they do celebrate Día de los Muertos (or Day of the Dead) the first two days of November. I don´t know what´s going to happen, but I bet there will be even more people drinking than usual. Also, more food. That was not an implication that everyone in Mexico drinks. Although there are many people that do so.
Huatabampo is tiny and the furthest south in the mission. A few of the tiny villages we visit are almost on the border with Sinaloa. But it´s not as hot and the city is nice because we only have to walk about 5 minutes before arriving downtown. Okay, that´s an exaggeration, but it´s almost true.
E. Cruz has got to be one of the funniest Mexicans I have ever met. He´s also very driven. He broke his foot in the mission and has a limp because it healed the wrong way. But he still works. Good stuff.
I´m sorry for not having much material this week, but I promise more next time. I hope you´re all doing well, and I love you all.
Elder Humbert
Monday, October 24, 2011
10.24.11 -- Navojoa
Hey,
The first photo is for Andre. I had to take the picture while walking, to avoid looking like a tourist, and that´s why it´s not that great, but hey, a reference to Superman.
The second is an old man that LOVES the missionaries. E. Villa and I visited him one time a few months ago, and he´s loved us ever since. He´s getting kinda old, but he´s awesome. I saw that he was sitting alone in sacrament meeting, so I went to go sit next to him. He greeted me, and shook my hand. And then he never let go (for Ryan--"never finish a handshake"--Andy). By the way, he has a FIRM handshake. He sat there the entire hour slowly moving my hand up and down while staring at the speakers and saying "Buenos días" every time that one of the speakers started their talk. He also said "Amén" every time someone said "en el nombre de Jesucristo," even if it wasn´t a prayer. My hand was entirely red by the end of the hour. But it was cool. I love this guy.
And I´ll miss him. And a lot of other members. Becuase I´M GETTING TRANSFERRED! Yeah! I wasn´t expecting it, but I´m going to another area in my zone to be a district leader, in Huatabampo, the southernmost area of the entire mission. It´s a tiny city, about half the size of Navojoa, and I´m going there with a few other new missionaries to help out. Haha, it was funny how E. Mila (he´s an assistant now) told me that I was getting transferred. I could tell he didn´t want to hurt my ego, but I´m good with it. Being a zone leader doesn´t mean too much, and I´m apparently needed in Huatabampo. Although I will miss going to Hermosillo every month.
I also felt like I did my part in Aeropuerto. I left the area stronger than it was, and we finished the transfer baptizing the young son of a formerly inactive family. His older brother got to baptize him, and they will NOT go inactive.
By the way, we only go to the temple if we baptize 5 people in a month. But I´m going to be honest--I´m not a crazy baptizer. And I will never baptize for a number. That is a sin.
But I really miss the Sacramento Temple. So awesome.
Anyway, adios. I´ll fill you all in about what Huatabampo is like next week.
Elder Humbert
Monday, October 17, 2011
10.17.11 -- Navojoa, Mexico
We´ve been working super hard lately. Well, we´ve always worked hard, but now it seems like we finally have the investigators that can match our level of desire to learn about the gospel.
We´ve had a lot of members helping us lately. One is a recent convert, a guy our age, and he is GREAT. Members are much more effective missionaries than we are.
HELP THE MISSIONARIES
ALSO, NO TIME
Really quick. We got ready to study one morning, I had just stood up from kneeling and praying to begin my personal study, and suddenly, someone knocked on the door. At first I thought it was the Jehovah´s Witnesses again (haha, that happened my second week. It was interesting), but we opened the door and there was the 1st counselor of the bishopric on our doorstep in normal clothing. "Elders, I came to visit you two. Also, to invite you to breakfast."
Awesome. The first time anyone has visited ME in almost a year, and he arrived with a breakfast invitation.
Great week. Many blessings. I have to go now. Praying for you all.
Adios
Elder Humbert
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
10.10.11 -- Navojoa, Mexico
Speaking of work, these past few weeks have been much different than the past few months. I´ve always worked all day, every day, but the first months were still kind of tough. I didn´t waste time, I never have, but I have never had the desire I have now to keep working ALL day. I wake up anxious to work. It´s awesome. The only downside is that time goes by faster.
But we´re finally having more success here in Navojoa. The first person in almost half a year got baptized on Saturday. Let´s just say that the person we gave a blessing to a few weeks ago was healed and eventually accepted baptism. Their life is also noticeably improved.
But I will tell the story of how we got delayed for a while. On Saturday, we got to the chapel to clean and fill up the font. We started cleaning but soon discovered that there was no running water in the entire chapel. We found a water (. . . I don´t remember the word . . . valve?) and opened it up. We went back to fill the font. No water pressure whatsoever. Nada. The font had filled up about 1% after an hour.
People started arriving and we had to tell them that we would have to go to the other chapel to perform the baptism. We went, and had to clean the font there that for some reason attracts crickets and cockroaches. Gross. But the water was clean. We cleaned EVERYTHING, a LOT.
The font was filled. At the last moment, the person that was going to get baptized changed their mind. Then they changed their mind again. A member of the Bishopric wasn´t there to preside, so we had to wait a little longer, with me worrying the entire time about another change of opinion on baptism. The Bishop arrived. With almost no one there, we started the service. They were baptized after I had been going nuts and preparing the service for 6 hours.
That was the first weekend in a while that I just wanted to sit down and yell like crazy until it all stopped. But it all worked out. Gah.
Pte. came this last week for another Zone Conference. We´re having those pretty often now. He talked a lot about E. Scott´s conference talk, "The Tranforming Power of Faith and Character." It was awesome. I would say more, but time is running out. I´d recommend that talk for everyone.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
10.3.11 -- Navojoa, Mexico
How some people travel when they can´t afford bus tickets.
The shoe horns are awesome. I can smell my shoes now. And the Odwalla bars too. Although I didn´t get to enjoy the Chocolate Walnut one. That deserves a story.
We went to an OXXO (like a Mexican 7-11) to ask for change for the bus. There was an old homeless man out front. We went in, went out, and went to the nearby bus stop. I sat there for a moment, thought, "Na, I obviously can´t give him money, because he´ll buy beer or tequila, and I don´t have anything to give him." I then remembered the Odwalla bar in my backpack. My mind went through a split second of "no, yes, no, yes, ah, but they taste so good and I haven´t tried that one yet and it´s the only one I have" followed by one part of my mind telling the other, "You`re an idiot. Give it to him."
Oh, and I guess this could also be characterized as the whole angel on one shoulder, devil on the other thing.
The devil part than said, "Na, he deserves to not have anything. He´s a drunk." The angel part then pulled out the big guns and completely destroyed the other part by using King Benjamin´s address from the Book of Mormon. It was like the angel-stereotype-thing recited every verse in my head. I pulled out the Odwalla Bar, walked over, and gave it to him. Things that like that are becoming progressively easier to do. I like it.
Want to know how to say cheesy, corny, or melodramatic in Spanish? Cursi, pronounced cour-see. I can use that a lot here.
The meeting with Pte was awesome. I don´t miss homework, but I loved being a student again.
I also unfortunately missed a lot of Conference because we didn´t have any way to watch it on Saturday, and we spent Sunday preparing a baptismal service for the other elders in our district. But we´re just about to sacrifice a few hours of P-day to watch a few speakers. Elder Holland is first on the list. I love that guy.
Let me tell the story I wanted to tell the last week. We´ve been teaching someone recently. They love the Book of Mormon, but has had trouble lately with the fact that they can be completely cleaned of their sins. Apparently the feeling of shame was just too much.
We prepared the lesson, with every scripture of the Book of Mormon that speaks of Christ´s infinite Atonement. Apparently the Bible had given them faith in Christ, but not enough. We read the scriptures. The Spirit came. It testified. Their heart was softened. Tears came to their eyes. "Do you really think I can be cleaned?" Their voice was pained, but there was some hope there. I looked them in the eyes. "Yes. And it´s just not me that knows that. God knows you can do it. And you do to. You just don´t want to accept it." They looked back down. E. Cheron testified, then I did. At the end of the lesson, their faith had grown enough to believe in an infinite Atonement. Yeah. Good stuff.
Adios,
Elder Humbert
Thursday, September 29, 2011
9.26.11 -- Navojoa, Mexico
Hey, First off, thanks to Bishop Weight for emailing again. Second, I´m sorry for seeming a bit arrogant the last week. I had had a lot of spiritual experiences, and I felt really good about it. But once again, I didn´t do anything special. God just decided to help me for some reason. Two things, if I have time. The bus to Hermosillo leaves really soon, so I have to be quick. We´ve been teaching someone these past few weeks, and they had the idea that they had committed so much sin that they couldn´t be forgiven. We´ve been teaching and testifying every lesson, but they haven´t accepted it yet. But this week was different. Using the Book of Mormon, we looked up a bunch of scriptures on the Atonement, and it´s infinite nature (Alma 7:11-14, Alma 34:10-14, etc.). We shared them all, testifying the whole time. They kept telling us, "No, I can´t. I can´t do it." I looked at them, and without thinking, told them that believing that whatever sin besides denying the Holy Ghost is unforgivable was a lack of faith. I realized what I said, thinking, "Crap, they´re going to get offended. But the Spirit told me to say it." They looked at me. "Do you really think I can?" "Yes." They reflected for a few minutes. Ah, I can´t put in all the details, but it was incredible to see a person´s faith grow in the course of an hour. They (it´s only one person, though) now believe it. Gah, I can´t put in more details. Elder Humbert |
Monday, September 19, 2011
9.19.11 -- Navojoa, Mexico
Hey, Here´s a pic of E. Cheron (great comp, by the way) and E. McKenna. E. Mckenna is the guy that was with E. Rivas when my family got baptized. Yeah, I call them my family. When he showed me the pictures, I actually did bawl my eyes out. But not too much. Haha, he also said it was hard for him to win over the members in Hermosillo after I had been there for so long and had known so many people. Mexican Independence day the 15th. Check out the other elders. This is also what happens when you have a bunch of cut out pictures and too much time on P-Day. I go to Hermosillo and the mission home once a month now, for Zone Leader´s meeting with Pte. We´re going next week, I think. I´m glad to hear all the news from home. I read everything, remember, I just don´t respond. Thanks for always writing, Mom. And other people would do well to write too. A few experiences. We had Zone Conference this week, and I talked for almost all of it--I´m "training" E. Cheron to be a ZL. But it doesn´t mean anything, remember. It´s very strange to have 16 other missionaries looking at you and thinking you have answers to their problems when I don´t know the answers to my own. In fact, I don´t even know some of the questions that I have . . . yeah, it´s abstract, but it works. But it was cool. Having the Spirit teach through you in Spanish for almost an hour straight is kind of awesome. And it happened again on Sunday. E. Cheron and I both talked, and when I got to the pulpit, I looked down at my notes, looked up, and started talking. I didn´t use half of what I had prepared. The Spirit was present the whole time. I talked of how love is the motive of missionary work, like how you (mom) always took us to Church every week as kids because you loved us and knew it was for our good. And like in missionary work, because you really loved us, it didn´t matter how much you had to do to bring us to the Gospel. That doesn´t mean we should obligate anyone, and we shouldn´t, but it also means that if really love someone, you won´t have the fear to open your mouth and introduce them to the Gospel (Moroni 8:16). One more thing. I shared my BYU experience of praying before and after every test with a different youth this week. He told us he remembered my experience one of his tests in the week, prayed, and got a better score he had dreamed of. He then continued to bear his testimony of the Book of Mormon. Gah I was happy after that. Unfortunately I don´t have time to include the other details Elder Humbert |
Monday, September 12, 2011
9.12.11 -- Navojoa, Mexico
Hoo rah, Hey, the birthday was cool. Guess what we celebrated with? Missionary work and teaching lessons! YEAH! Also, we had more success this week, so I think God chose to give me a birthday present. That´s cool. But we did celebrate another day. It was nice. But my camera doesn´t want to upload pictures. Lame. We´re teaching a youth right now. When we first got there, he was a typical rebellious teenager, but it´s amazing how fast his appearance has changed. Every time we visit, we leave a story from the Book of Mormon and he reads every one. I love that. Especially when he tells the story back to us. E. Villa got transferred to Nogales. I´m now with E. Cheron, my old district leader a few days ago. Good guy. I got bit by a dog for the first time this week. A mutt about the size of my thigh, it pretty much just applied pressure to my Achille´s tendon until I kicked it off. No damage, although it did freak me out. Remember the family I found in Hermosillo with E. Rivas? I got the news yesterday. They were baptized on Sunday. I am not ashamed to say that I cried (hey, but not like bawling my eyes out crying) when I found out. Gah, that made me feel good. Sounds like everyone is having success--awesome. I still remember 9/11. I was at Pershing when I found out, even if I didn´t understand. The world is still messed up, but hey, we knew that that was going to happen. But it´ll improve dramatically when He arrives. But who knows when that is going to happen. I don´t have much time (again, I´m sorry, I know, but we had to do a bunch of stuff for transfers today), but one more thing before I go. I read my patriarchal blessing a few days ago, and I saw something new. I obviously won´t go into too much detail, but it said that the "counsel of the brethren will have a special ring, a special meaning" to me. I took that, thought about it, and started to read one conference talk every day. It´s amazing how much I´ve learned in just a few days. Read your patriarchal blessing. It works. Adios Elder Humbert P.S. Shaun Kouriri, I still need your address |
9.5.11 -- Navojoa, Mexico
Hey, Quick quick quick. Lots of emails that I had to write. A massive grasshopper. Strangely, they can´t jump too high. And they are SLOW. By the way, there´s Chinese food here too. It tastes exactly the same, and strangely reminds me of home. Yeah, the Book of Mormon is kind of powerful. That´s what happens when it comes straight from God instead of through everyone else´s hands first. The family that I found in the last area were the same. The mom was testifying of it after just reading the Introduction. I talked with my old Zone Leaders last week--they´re getting baptized soon. Awesome. I´ve been thinking about that lately. The whole "found" thing. Almost every single person that I have helped convert (I didn´t do the converting) would have joined the Church no matter who would have taught them, as long as they weren´t really bad teachers. At times, that reminds me of how I´m just a tool in the Lord´s hands, and nothing special, and also reminds me of how prepared some people are. But then again, maybe I did do something else. I don´t know. But it doesn´t really matter, as long as the work is done and people are helped. I got sick this week, again. And it wasn´t from being dehydrated. I had a fever, and couldn´t eat anything. But I asked E. Villa to give me a blessing, and he did. During the blessing, I received a strong impression that I would only be sick for that day. I physically felt exactly the same (not too great), and still had a fever. But I kept reminding myself of that throughout the day. We went home, and I rested, sweating even with the air conditioning, and being hot but not sweating when I was outside. It wasn´t too fun. I woke up the next morning, sprang out of bed, and then went and worked as though nothing had happened the day before. Yeah. Cool. I wondered why I got sick, but I then had a chance to give a blessing to someone else later in the week. I gave one to a young woman who had recently been having siezures. We gave her the blessing, and I once again felt the same feeling. The Spirit was felt. The next day we went back and she was completely fine. God had given me a chance to strengthen my own faith in order to help another person. Awesome. Time. Elder Humbert |
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. |