Sunday, December 28, 2014

28 December 2014- Memorable Christmas in Mision Mexico Pachuca



"If we keep Christ in our heart. Christmas has no end."

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 Jose Luis (he is blind) on his baptism day - his mother is being baptized in January. What a wonderful day...


 The baptism of a very powerful youth (14 yrs old) in the gospel... his parents have been converts for one month.

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"The picture (above) is with the Sanchez Ortega family taken the 11 of October 2014. They are that "golden family" you dream of finding. Then one day we were walking up and down a street lost and looking for an address when the father in the picture below was trying to push a stalled Surburban vehicle into his driveway. We asked him if we could help him and he said "yes". We then asked him if we could share a message to which he agreed. Another "golden family"! The exciting thing was that the father from the first family was so excited about his families conversion that he went above and beyond in helping the Sanchez Meneses family (below) work towards baptism. On Saturday the 20th of December Marco Antonio Sanchez baptized the Sanchez Meneses family. It was a truly amazing experience, and now the Sanchez Meneses family said that they are going to help us find another family, so they can help them like the Sanchez Ortega family helped them."  The Best Christmas Present Ever for us as sister missionaries in the Pachiquilla Ward.



 Well haven't these Hermana's been busy?!

This family of four was a miracle. They were a reference from another sister in the ward who had been praying for a long time that they would accept the gospel and be baptized. They listened to many companionships of missionaries but wouldn't be baptized because they needed to be married first. After three months with much prayer, the council of the bishop, much patience, and never giving up- they were married and baptized. What a sweet experience for all of us involved! 

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Let us start the Review of the Week with Sunday Night... 21 December 2014

The last night of performing for the Christmas Choir/Program of selected missionaries from the four zones here in Pachuca. Thank you to Hermana Garcia and the Garza Family for all their efforts, for the participating missionaries, and for all the other missionaries who brought members, less actives, and investigators to enjoy the musical programs through these 3 performances.


You gotta have at least one photo of complete mayhem!


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Monday  (December 22nd) 

full of office meetings, reporting, medical billing/charting, P-Day prep, and organized activities. 


Sitting on the floor in our house giving report...

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Zone Activity Day in Tulancingo: "Working as a Team"

We had a few different games. The first was an obstacle course in which they had to find candy that was hidden in whipping cream, stack cups, use a straw to put candy in a cup, hula hoops, spinning in a chair, jump ropes, and catching marshmallows in their mouth.  They then had to eat 30 marshmellows in under 1 minute.  






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Presidente Egbert,

Todo que puedo decir sobre esta semana es: wow.

Pues, dije la semana pasada que no estaba viendo milagros en la misión. El Señor me humilló mucho... Vi milagro después de milagro después de milagro. Y empezó con trabajo. Los lideres de zona nos llamaron martes y nos dijeron que tenemos una asignación especial de presidente a encontrar 7 nuevos personas esta semana. Hermana ______ y yo estábamos un poco nerviosas? asustadas? porque este fue de usted. Espero que usted sepa que tiene mucho poder! Pero sabíamos que necesitábamos trabajar duro esta semana a encontrar 7 personas. Contactamos todos las personas que vimos! Y decidimos a contactar y tocar puertas por una iglesia católica (de todos los lugares). Hicimos una oración para encontrar personas antes de tocamos las puertas. El primer puerta tocamos: nueva investigadora. Hicimos otra oración para dar gracias por la nueva investigadora. Y otra vez, tocamos otra puerta, literalmente la segunda puerta que tocamos eso día: nueva investigadora. Y después de eso contactamos una familia que afuera: 3 nuevos investigadores. Entonces, en la duration de 2 o 3 horas, encontramos 6 nuevos investigadores! Fue un milagro. Y todo esta semana tuvimos éxito y en total encontramos 15 nuevos investigadores. Fue un testimonio a mi que todo es posible y al encontrar nuevos investigadores no es muy difícil. Vi muchísimos otros milagros esta semana!! No puedo empezar a contar todo!

Pero, esta semana fue incredible! Y no puedo esperar para ir y trabajar esta semana también! Feliz Navidad!

Hermana L
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Terrific Tuesday 

(We are going to post all our photo Gallery under this day)




 Los Pinos Ward Christmas Party... 

Our missionaries filled a table with investigators and less actives. "Let the Party Begin"



 "Seriously, Hermana Sosa? Did you trade in your mission bike for this speedster?!"

 Santiago District ... Elder Stewart are you OK with this group?


 I always tell the missionaries I'm not a fan of "selfie" photos...I prefer the ones of service provided and working as missionaries. So I personally like these two photos- Hermana Sosa so proud of her "strong" companion Hermana Afualo helping strangers push this stalled truck to their closest destination. And (below) Elder England and Elder Vasquez washing dishes for an investigator.

 Hermana Cuc helping this little boy who wanted to sweep off his families car...




 At this point we still weren't sure who was on Santa's Naughty or Nice List...




The Christmas Spirit is alive and well in the Mision Mexico Pachuca...












Merry Christmas from these super elves!

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Hola Presidente! 
Un otra buena semana. Me encanta este barrio! Es chiquita, pero son tan disponibles a ayudarnos, especialmente con los vacaciones. Tenemos miembros con nosotros casi cada lección. Fue un poco difícil este semana a encontrar personas, en estas días festivos. Subimos en una taxi este semana y el nos pregunto si somos misionaras. Decimos que si y el saco su el es la dádiva tarjeta y dijo que lo ha compartido el vídeo en todo y que le gusta mucho. Fue muy padre a saber que este vídeo inspirado esta tocando los corazones de muchas personas. Tuvimos 5 investigadores en el programa de coro domingo en la noche. Todos les gustaron mucho el programa y el vídeo. Quieren ir a la capilla, ellos que no pudieron ayer. Me encanta estar aquí en la misión!
Gracias por todo!
Buen dia!
Hna. N
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Wednesday (December 24th 2014) 

Last Minute Deliveries of Christmas boxes/pouch that arrived to the office on Saturday, Monday and Tuesday. President and I split the mission in half and left at 6:45 am to begin the delivery... we stayed in constant communication all day to update each other on Santa's sleigh status... it was rainy and cold! 

Good thing I had on my Santa Hat as it was a bad hair day... 

A few of the happy faces we found on Santa's "nice list"....



















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...Wow.... Pues esta semana verdaderamente ha sido maravillosa para nuestra área. Tuvimos 6 investigadores en la capilla con fecha este domingo, 48 lecciones, 20 de ellos fueron con miembro presente, y 8 nuevos investigadores por iniciativa propia. Yo aumenté mi fe muchísimo esta semana, y el poder del deseo y trabajo. Honestamente sè que Dios hizo todo de eso. Que maravilloso es ser un siervo del Señor!.....
Elder. P
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Thursday- CHRISTMAS DAY (December 25th) 

The schedule for the entire mission was to have district meetings go from 10:00 am -12:00 pm. Then each district (or companionship) worked together on a service project for a minimum of 2 hours. Afterwards missionaries went back to their areas to eat lunch, call parents for one hour, and continue with their planned appointments. President requested that the district leaders send us on Saturday a few pictures from their service projects to share with you at home- hoping to share with you a glimpse of what your missionaries were busy doing on this holiday. Thank you to the district leaders who responded and provided the following pictures.

"Villas District":  Elder Eusbeio District Leader 

Activity: Assisting a sister with painting her house/ and doors







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"Los Pinos District":  Elder Fox District Leader 

Activity: "Assisting the President of the Elders Quorum with painting his house and we also sanded and painted some bar stools. Afterwards he treated us to some delicious tlayduas- which are really good."






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"Loreto District":  Elder Medina District Leader 

Activity:  They traveled to a very rural and humble pueblo of their area and passed out gifts, toys, clothes and candy to the children.





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"Tezontepec District":   Elder Ellis District Leader 

Activity:  "Soo.... the service we had planned... didn't work out due to a complication ...  So we found a less active member and cleaned up his whole back yard.  The service was changed but we were persistent and could still give service to someone in need!  The best and most necessary lesson we could learn." 




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"Pachuca Centro District":  Elder Lainhart District Leader 

Activity: Assisting a family who was moving into a new house. 





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" Tecamac Tecamac District":  Elder Carlson District Leader 

Activity: Assisting a family by taking out 2 tree trunks and a whole entire tree and we also cleaned out a room full of dirt and rocks so they could continue building onto their home in that spot. That last photo was after we had changed back into our missionary clothes and were ready to return to our areas and start calling family.





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" Bosques District":  Elder Caamal District Leader 

Activity:  Assisting a sister in the ward who does so much for the missionaries. We wanted to show our love and gratitude for her- so we helped clean and organize her house using the "House Cleaning Tips" we have learned in the mission. Her house looked and smelled great and now she is enjoying more fully the environment of her home. 




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" Plaza's District":  Elder Galo District Leader 

Activity:  Painting the house for a family- Who likes the color purple?





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" Santiago District":  Elder Stewart District Leader 

Activity:  "This last week, we had the wonderful opportunity to do two service projects. One was carried out on Christmas Eve and the other on Christmas Day:


On Christmas Eve, my district except for the Sisters from Tlahuelilpan went to the Centro of Santiago and tried painting the curbs that are found under the decorative trees. Unfortunately, after beginning painting, the rain started up and was washing away a big part of the paint that we had already brushed onto the cement! When Pte. Egbert stopped by to deliver boxes and pouch, we asked him politely, to just not ask why we were painting in the rain. It was sort of embarrassing with everyone looking at us like, "Do you know what you`re doing?"
 It`s the thought that counts, right?


The second day of our service on Christmas Day took place in Tlahuelilpan. Sister`s Apolinar and Gonzalez organized it and we went and helped out a member who needed a wall to be painted outside. She also needed some weeds pulled. We had to think of how much salt we had to mix with Cal and water. Nobody knew the ratios but we think we figured it out. Hopefully it looks good 2 days later!

The second picture is of all of us and the member`s dog after finishing the service with the wall painted white behind us."

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"Revolucion District":  Elder Hernandez District Leader 

Activity: Assisting a sister in the Pachuca ward who is getting ready to move. We helped her paint her new house, do the yard work, and move the big furniture. We also took out the two foot tall grass in her yard. The houses were about 10 blocks away from each other. We moved the big furniture by balancing it on a wheel barrow, one person pushing and the others balancing everything on top. 






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"Tecnologico/Constitucion District":  Elder Mendoza District Leader 

Activity: Assisting a less active family in their area by cleaning the car and lifting buckets of sand up to their second story with a garden hose hooked around one bucket and a strap on the other. The sand will be used to make cement that they will use to build onto their house. The physical work of shoveling and lifting those buckets worked muscles we never use... and boy- we sure all were sore the next day! The sisters worked just as hard as the elders! 






 "Last bucket finished!!!"


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" Huachinango District":  Elder Kearl District Leader 

Activity: Assisting a family. 

"The family that lives here is a recent convert family. They have been having a lot of difficulties. We went and cut the grass that is in front of their house and in Mexico the only efficient way to cut grass is with a machete. We had been planning it for a while but the 24th was a super cold and rainy day in Huauchi and we were thinking that we weren't going to be able to do it- so we started to pray super hard. Christmas morning we woke up and it was still raining and we thought that for sure it was over, but we were in the chapel for the district class when we saw that the sun was shining through the windows. We looked outside and there were blue sky and it was warming up. When we got to the job site it was warm and the grass was more or less dry. We worked there for a couple of hours and then we ended and right when we had finished and everybody had gone home except our companionship the clouds and cold came back. A little Christmas miracle." 



Grass two feet high and missionaries with machetes! OH MY!

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"Montes District":  Elder Esteves District Leader 

Activity: Oh I loved this creative one!!!  

Visiting a hospital in their area and singing Christmas Carols to the patients!





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"Guererro District":  Elder Castano District Leader 

Activity: Painting Topes in their rural area was the original plan but because of the rain the back up plan had to be used.... making cookies and singing Christmas carols to random people in their area.


Before District Meeting while everyone was taking language exams I whipped up some waffles and we had a little breakfast snack! Then district meeting started promptly....






I think we ate more cookie dough than we baked, but it tasted so good!  They did make 4 batches and so we had plenty in the end!

These missionaries were good little bakers! I was quite impressed...


This little lady in the tienda (store) got emotional when they sang her a Christmas song...


This young woman, (19yrs old) a single mother to four children under four enjoyed the unexpected visit and cookies... she lives in a very simple/ humble home (no door).

 President and I thoroughly enjoyed our day in this district with these great missionaries. We wished we could have been in attendance to every district meeting and service project to be with them during the holiday and feel of their great spirits. We love all of your children- thank you for sharing them with us and the people of Mexico this Holiday Season.


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Dear President,
Such a good week! We got to have inter-cambios again this week and i got to work with Hermana G_____! Super fun :) Haha, we worked super hard but had tons of fun! She helped me learn how to be able to combine those two things a little more!

Well, all of the Familia Reyes are set on their date of January 3! We had a super great lesson with them this week and Brother and Sister Flores came with us, so it was super powerful! And when it came down to asking each one of them personally if they wanted to be baptized, each one of them said "YES!".. well, technically "si"... But wow, it was awesome! They are so ready! Also, Lordes is going to be baptized on January 3! She is SO stoked! We had a lesson with her yesterday and she said she just couldn't stop smiling because she was so excited! :) Precious. She is so prepared.

This week we set some high goals, but guess what?! We reached them! One day, we had 8 lessons and yesterday we had 10!!! WHAT? It was amazing! We have started just teaching people in the street. The guy that sells tamales, the taxi driver, someone in the park, etc.. we say we are missionaries, ask if we can share a message, and we start and end with a prayer. Its crazy, but its awesome. NO FEAR here in the "Reales"

So this week i have been studying a ton about the Sacrament! Wow.. i have learned so much and i never truly realized how important it is. We need to never take it for granted. Its our opportunity to start over this week.. to recommit ourselves to do better this week.. to think of all the Lord did for us.. to think that one day, we too can be glorified and perfected... to accept the Holy Ghost more fully in our lives (because we really need his help ya know). We need to make the sacrament the most important thing we do every week!

Well, I just want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas from here in Tecamac! I know that God gave us his only Begotten Son because he loves us more than we can ever understand. He wants us to return to Him. And our brother was willing to make that possible for us. He loves us that much. I know that My Savior, Jesus Christ lives. That he loves us. That if we do all that WE can do, HE will help us to enter in the kingdom of God and recieve all the many blessings that await us.
Thank you and Sister Egbert for all you do for us and for the amazing Christmas Devotional!
Hna. Y