12.26.11 -- Huatabampo

We made little wooden cars and painted them for a few investigators of E. Mooney and E. Tovar for Christmas. Also, I look kind of weird in the picture, but I gave a tie to the mentally handicapped son of one of the families in Huatabampo. He was happy when he went to Church. E. Gonzalez and E. Mooney did as well.

I have to write about 2 things. Let´s see if I have time.

We got a call in the morning 2 days ago from a member in Hermosillo. A youth there had died of leukemia and was going to be buried in his home town, 1 hour away from Huatabampo. He told his mother that he always wanted the missionaries to be at his funeral. So, we checked with Pte, he said ok, and we got a ride from the family (they had come all the way from Hermosillo with the body) to the town.

We arrived, and everyone turned to look at the 4 people in suits, 2 of them American, with the family surrounding an open white casket beneath a few tarps in the backyard of the family. I´ll have to tell the entire story next week, but the mother of the deceased looked at us. I had no idea what to do. I stepped up and asked her if it would be okay to sing a few hymns, say a few prayers, and bear a few testimonies. She said yes. For some reason, she had complete confidence in us. The other elders and I went off to one side and I had to organize a funeral service there on the spot. With the ENTIRE family looking at us, we then came back, and held a funeral service. Details will follow. But it´ll just have to suffice for now that each of us bore our testimonies of the Savior and His Ressurrection. I shared Mosiah 16:7-9 near the end, and looking in the eyes pf everyone there, I testified.

I know that Christ lives. I know he was born more than 2000 years ago. I know that we will die not as He died, but we will live as He lives, for what He did so long ago.

I don`t know if they felt the Spirit as I did, but I know that My Redeemer Lives.

Merry Christmas. The complete story, and the other, will follow next week. But I´m 20 years old. And for some reason that I cannot fathom, people trust in us to do things that so many people would never do. I´m 20 years old, and I just conducted a funeral service. God works in some mysterious ways.

Adios,

Elder Humbert

12.19.11 -- Huatabampo

Hey,

Check it out. We have El Pollo Loco here too. But it´s a little different. Also, check out some of the fields behind Huatabampo. We were going to a food appointment in one of the little villages on the outskirts of town, and it is beautiful out there. Also, check out the typical Mexican taco stand. You can see the carne asada, the instestine, peppers, green onions, and the other miscallaneous organs in the lower left hand corner (including the heart, kidneys, and other strange meats).

Anyway, news of the week and a few spiritual experiences. We don`t have a fridge. Ours died last week and we´ve survived. Although I really miss having milk with my oatmeal in the morning. Water isn`t as tasty.

We went to go eat with a man this week that has only recently been coming to church. The other elders have been working with him, but we got a chance to help him out too. After eating, I pulled out my scriptures, and we began to talk about repentance. I obviously will not repeat everything, but pretty much all of the questions and answers all centered on the redeeming power of the Atonement. So many people believe in Christ, but sometimes feel that they`re so weak that Jesus´ sacrifice can`t help them entirely out. That`s what I was telling myself at the beginning of the mission as well. But that`s where the faith comes in. Anyway, we kept talking, and Isaiah 1:18, Alma 36, and D&C 58 especially helped. As we finished teaching, we all could feel the Spirit, and I could see in the man´s eyes that he could too, and even if wasn`t completely confident of his ability to repent, he was helped enormousely. He asked me, "How old are you?" "20." I didn`t ask him why he asked me that, and I honestly don`t know why, but that still surprises me a lot. There is no way that 19, 20, or 21 year old boys would be able to do this work if it wasn´t true.

We had a leadership meeting in the Church a few weeks ago (when I was still with E. Cruz), and we were the two people that were teaching in the meeting. The branch president passed it off to us, and we began to speak of the importance of preparation, and what one can do when the circumstances change and there´s no more planned material to use (bear testimony--see D&C 100:5-8). Everyone in the room shared a short, one line testimony. The Spirit came. All felt it. It was awesome.

Adios. Feliz Navidad and Happy Hannukah

Elder Humbert

12.12.11 -- Huatabampo

Hey o,

I also miss all of the organization of the Church. What normally happens when there´s an activity here is that when we get there, everyone is all over the place, a few people know what´s going on and are trying as hard as they can to get everyone ready, and then we get there and speed everything up with a few more hands. And feet.

We also have a new elder in the zone from St. George. He´s fresh out of the MTC and hardly knows any Spanish. Ah, I remember those times. They sucked, even if I appreciate how much I learned. Also, he´s the first member of his family to go on a mission. He likes the mission, and is being trained by E. Cheron in Villa Juarez.

E. Gonzalez is doing well. He´s a good elder, even though at times I´m surprised at times by how much different he is than me. He´s really new in the mission, and lets me see how much I´ve progressed. It´s crazy. I feel the same, really, but . . . I don´t know how to describe it. Maybe a picture would help--one from the beginning and one from this week.

As for what we did in the mission for Christmas is that we all went to Obregón for a multi-zone conference/party thing. We all watched special numbers or sketches from every district. But seeing as how I found out 2 hours before the conference/party, we all just got up on stage and sang "Hark, the Herald Angels Sing." Yup. It wasn´t that great, but hey, at least I now know that I have lost almost all fear of embarrassing myself doing dumb things in front of other people that aren´t very well organized. That will be very useful in the future.

We also had a piñata. That´s apparently always done at Christmas. This elder had no idea where the piñata was.

And this picture is just awesome.

Finally, we had a lesson more in depth about faith with one of our investigators that has learned EVERYTHING, but just needs to wait a little bit more. Everyone knows the normal definition of faith (believing in something that can´t be seen), but that´s not it. Faith isn´t obeying and receiving blessings. It is not give and receive. It is give everything, always, not receiving anything, and continuing on anyway. Not because it gives results, but because we know it´s true. I would write more. But there´s no time. I wrote the P.S. thing before this, strangely enough.

Elder Humbert

12.5.11 -- Huatabampo

Hey,

Pics first--we had a family home evening Monday night with one of the families here. Awesome. Although the Grandma likes acting like she´s mean. But she´s nice, as long as you really know her. And the roof in our house is really low at points. We also found a few kids one day playing baseball in a dirt field. An appointment had just fallen through, along with our backup plan, so we went, played 30 minutes (I had two runs), and invited them all to mutual. Awesome. And . . . I enjoyed the Christmas devotional in English, alone in my little room with the satelite receiver.

There was also a little typewriter sitting in that room. I wanted to take it, but I didn´t want to take it all the way back to our house from the chapel in my lap on my bike.

And by the way, E. Cruz got transferred. He went to Caborca, and E. Gonzalez arrived in his place. He´s from Puebla, and I´m his second companion in the field. I´ll send pictures next time.

A few things . . . Pte. is thinking about making another zone out of all the little villages in the southern part of the mission (Huatabampo, Etchojoa, Villa Juarez, Bacobampo). Who knows what´s going to happen.

We started having mutual here again. We (the missionaries) run almost everything, and I feel like I´m prematurely turning into a Young Men´s President with all the youth here. Unfortunately, I´m still horrible at soccer and everybody destroys me. Even the little kids. It´s funny, really.

We were in Gospel Principles class, and it was E. Cruz´s turn to teach. But about 20 minutes into the class, he looked at me and I could easily read his expression--he had no material left. That was interesting, teaching 20 more minutes with zero preperation. But it was cool. One of things I´ve learned in the mission is how to keep on talking about the same thing for a long time, using different scriptures, different interpretations, and a lot of unecessary words to say the same thing but still teach. Although I can switch back to the other method of teaching pretty quick too (teaching things quickly and directly). That´s cool.

I´m still learning a ton, and that´s what I´m liking a lot about being in a branch. We do more here, even if at times it´s a little intimdating. But it´s all good.

I don´t have as much material this week because I didn´t have space in my planner to write down the notes of all the things that I was going to write. But it´s all good. Adios

Elder Humbert

11.28.11 -- Huatabampo

Hey,

This sign is a lie. "Mexicans also live the passion of American football." Na. Just fútbol.

Also, E. Cruz looks weird when he paints. It was worth the hour of service in mission clothes to take that picture. Bahaha

A few things. We worked our butts off in the week again, but we didn´t see very many results. That was kind of annoying, but we were blown away in Sacrament Meeting. A ton of people came, twice as much as the other times. I t´s awesome to see recent converts and less actives come, and realize that they were actually missing something. It´s what I´ve learned to recognize in the mission. The Spirit is so easily felt in the homes of people that do what they´re supposed to, and it´s obviously absent in the other homes that aren´t so . . . I don´t know what the word is. I love that I´ve learned to do that. It´s cool, to say the least.

Also, the other family we found in Navojoa a few months ago were baptized. I felt like crying again. But I didn´t. But I really, really wanted to. I love my converts.

A funny experience with a drunk--we got onto a bus to go to a little town on the outskirts of Huatabampo. A drunk guy saw us and called out, "Hermanos!" He then asked me some question about the last thing that Christ did in the Bible when he . . . I don´t remember. I didn´t understand him too much because of his drunk accent, but I responded that I didn´t remember. He then got up and sat next to me the whole 20 minute bus ride, and began to tell me all the things that he´s learned from the Bible that I don´t know. I just took out a Word of Wisdom pamphlet and a pocket Book of Mormon. I handed him the pamphlet, read the BoM, and didn´t say a single word the entire time he talked. When he got off the bus, everyone looked over at me (something like 25 people). "You have a ton of patience," they told me. I just laughed. That was weird. But I felt sorry for the guy.

Adios

Elder Humbert

11.21.11 -- Huatabampo

Bleh,

Just a quick look of one of the tiny towns on the outskirts of Huatabampo that we visit.

For Andre--thank you very, very much for the email and you were right about the laughing my butt off. Gah. And don´t worry about rambling. I love to hear from home no matter how strange it is. I miss you man. Unfortunately, my response will be a bit slow in arriving. And did Shaun get his letter as well? Also, my comp says that yes, you do look Mexican. And I say hi to everyone else from home, and JD, thanks for reading my blog.

And another thing--Grandma reminded me that it was Thanksgiving. So here´s my list, a part of all the things. ALL of my family (every single person, especially the nephews and nieces), the true gospel that has the entire truth, the Book of Mormon, an awesome family again, for being able to speak English, for shoes, for feet that don´t blister too easily, for friends, for BYU, for my leaders, for shirts that don´t turn yellow in the sun (Stafford is a really good brand), for air conditioning, for Preach My Gospel, for the ability to speak Spanish, for Mexican food, for American food (but not for American food in Mexico), for a lot of things. For prayer, for General Conference talks, for patriarchal blessings, for personal progression, for personal revelation (I taught about that in district meeting this week), for my converts, for my chance to be a missionary, to finally have electricity and hot water in our house, for metal pens that can be used to knock doors, for post-its, for books, for a ton of things.

A ton of things. But unfortunately, all I´ll be able to do to celebrate is probably eat a few turkey hot dogs (just to say I ate turkey, even though I really don´t like hot dogs) and reread Pres. Monson´s talk of "The Divine Gift of Gratitude." I love General Conference Ensigns.

I will enjoy attending the Spanish Branch at home. It´ll be interesting seeing the difference between Sonoran and American Spanish.

And the best spanish hymn is "Te hallaré mi querido amigo." Look it up.

One of my converts bore her testimony in Navojoa this last week in Sacrament meeting. The other elders there called to tell me. Awesome feeling.

Something cool this week--we all talked in Sacrament Meeting, every elder. I had prepared a talk, but every other missionary talked about weak things becoming strong. We hadn´t organized a theme or anything, but they all talked about that. I listened, said a little prayer, and then felt like I needed to leave my notebook in my seat. I got up, and like Nephi, went to speak, "not knowing beforehand the things which I should do." I don´t remember if that´s the way it´s said in English or not. I also spoke of weak things becoming strong, and it was so strange and cool to feel the words coming without thinking.

Good week. Enjoy Thanksgiving for me. And the football. Ah, football.

Adios,

Elder Humbert

11.14.11 -- Huatabampo

Hey,

Yeah, Thanksgiving. Eat pumpkin apple pie for me. "Día de Acción de Gracias" doesn´t exist here. But really, enjoy it. I don´t say that bitterly. At least I´ll eat better this Thanksgiving than my last one. Although Elder Holland in the MTC on Thanksgiving Day is pretty hard to beat.

Oh, the pictures. We ate 2 kilos of tortillas one morning as breakfast, and got creative by the end. But that was too much. We were in the chapel planning a family home evening. Also, E. Murphy (he´s in Navojoa) is from Oregon. I wanted the jacket, but he wasn´t going to part from it.

And another thing--we were studying in the chapel because we don´t have electricity right now. For some reason I forgot to say that last week. We haven´t had electricity for 2 weeks. It´s not very fun showering with cold water, or preparing district meetings and planning to the light of a tiny LED flashlight that E. Cruz has, but hey, another weird story that makes the mission interesting.

As for a spiritual experience, we reactivated an older man a few weeks ago. We got to his house (he lives in a tiny neighborhood about 15 minutes away from the main city), and wow, he was happy. We arrived and it was like a light turned on in his eyes. "No one has visited me for almost a year," he said. He immediately began to talk, and wouldn´t stop becuase he was so happy. But we calmed him down with a hymn and shared a message. When we went to district conference, one of the speakers asked all of us to think of the thing that made us the happiest. He was sitting next to me. He leaned over a little bit and whispered, "When missionaries come to visit me, and other people." He is one good person. But he lacks home teachers.

Do your home teaching. You have no idea how important it is.

Well, most people do, but that was directed at those people who don´t.

Do you remember about my story of the first person I baptized? The little girl, the daughter of the primary president of our ward in Hermosillo? (for some reason she wanted a missionary to baptize her) The water was freezing as well. She was shaking because of the cold. But when she came out of the water, it was as if the entire font had warmed up. I was no longer cold. I don´t know if any of the kids that got baptized felt that, but that was one of coolest experiences I´ve had. Among the many.

It´s very different here, like I said. But we´re working, and the results won´t come too fast. More patience in the process.

One more thing. We´re teaching a MASSIVE family right now. Every time we go, a new son, daughter, or grandkid shows up. The matriarch always tells all the kids to, "Come here! Listen to them! They speak nice!" It´s cool, teaching a family. It´s very different. And it´s so cool when I´m in situations that I can see will obviously help me as a father. Being a missionary is like being forcefully taught how to be a better teacher, father, spouse, whatever in the short time of 2 years. But you all already knew that.

Adios

Elder Humbert

11.7.11 -- Huatabampo

Rough English translation:

It is not possible that the problems of the world will be solved by skeptics or pessimists, whose horizons are limited by obvious realities. We need men that can dream of things that never have been done and ask the question, why not?

Hey,

Nope, I don´t get the ward newsletter.

E. Mooney is crazy. Someone translate this quote, it´s awesome. And my shoes after one year.

Sonora is the only state in Mexico that doesn´t have daylight savings time.

Oh. Yeah. I´ve been out for a year. Weird.

E. Cruz says hi as well. Although it´s said a little differently in Spanish (él manda saludos, or literally, he sends greetings).

The town is about the size of . . . I don´t know. Probably a little bigger than our ward boundaries. It´s not that big. But we know why we´re here. We´re going to make this branch into a ward. But we have to work our butts off to do it. The number of people of coming is about the size of Tempo Park´s Relief Society. Although more than 3/4 of the branch here is Relief Society. What we have to do is relax on the focus on investigators and also strengthen the members. We have so much power here in Huatabampo, and the members depend on us. We have to change that, so that when the hard working missionaries go, the branch stays strong. I´m tired of seeing lists and lists of less actives that were baptized and then forgotten.

We also had District Conference this week. Huatabampo, Etchojoa, Villa Juarez, and Bacobampo. The attendance was a little less than half of the normal Tempo Park sacrament meeting.

Your view on the church changes when you´re no longer in a stable ward. And there´s a lot more work. We have so much to do. The missionaries´ responsablities are so different here, compared to the US. It´s harder, but we learn so much more.

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.

Also, Andre, everyone here loves your Nike bag.

That´s it.

Elder Humbert

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

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

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

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.

10.3.11 -- Navojoa, Mexico

Sunrise.

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

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

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

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

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.