Hello Friends,

This week has been great!!!!


Monday:
Well we had a fabulous Noche de Hogar with a Bunch of investigators, 6 to be exact and 1 member!! But we had movie night with them, I was setting up and was going to put the DVD in and I opened the case and it was not there!! AGG, So we ran to our house tore it apart and found the DVD under my white shirts. So we had a good tie watching Joseph Smith: Profet of the Restauration. Paola the investigator hosted the event!!!

Tuesday: Time to Party

We went to the Beach!!!! As a zone activity, so we spent the day there,60 missionarys having fun on the beach. We played American Football, Frisbee, baseball, built sand castles, got fed  lunch!!!! And went in the Water up to our waists!! Wooo! The closest I can get to Swimming!!! But we had a phenomenal time. The assistants came and President George!

Then on the way back we went and stopped in Tonala and bought Burger King. And I bought 2 pairs of Pants, so now I have 4 1/2 pants to wear!!


Wednesday:
Ohhh boy was I burnt, I looked like David Davis after He hiked Mt. Adams haha.

I went on divisions with Elder Rosas in his area. We had a good time. Nothing much happen there, we taught a bunch of his investigators. So Thursday night I returned back to my area.

Friday:
I don’t really remember exactly what happened Friday, I bought some amazing sandals and can’t get enough of them, Im jealous of the Missionaries that get to wear sandals.

Saturday: We spent the day preparing for our baptisms. That’s right we had two baptisms. Leydi and Sarahi, sisters got baptized. It was a really good event; un buen of members came to the baptism. I gave the "why is baptism important talk" like they don’t already know that. So that was really good.

We were in a members house and it started raining then it started storming, the lights went out and we had to find our way back to our house by the scattered light of lightning. We got back and our beds were a little soaked and we shoved our beds to the wall so the rain wouldn’t hit us anymore. Fun night,

My dear friend Elder Jones left this morning. I will miss ranger jones un Buen. He is such a great guy and a great example of a missionary so Shoutout to Elder Jones who had almost 9 months in the same town. Great guy!

But I love you all and Hope you have a Great Week!!

Love,

Elder Pugmire

Hello everybody I have had a Phenomenal Week. I think this is the first email in a while that I have put some thought into.

Well the food here is not as good as it was in Tuxtla. But they do have something here called Tlayudas, kind of like a quesadilla  with a bunch of meat, soooo good.

Well here is the hoe-down from this week.

Monday:
So Monday night I went on divisions with my good friend Elder Rosas. He only has 3 months in the mission but he’s a pretty good teacher. We went and found an old investigator name Pricsela and read the Book of Mormon with her. She had a friend over that did something to her knee, she was kind of depressed so we had her read the Book of Mormon with us and I think it cheered her up. So yeah Pricsela really loves the Book of Mormon but never goes to church so I have no clue when she’s going to get baptized.

After that Elder Rosas and I went and bought Tlayudas to finish the day. Good day. Also I found the best chocolate milk in Mexico, so I can finally enjoy myself.

Tuesday:
So here in Oaxaca the children like to play marbles, so Elder Jones and I picked up the game and started competing with the locals here. Last week I sucked and lost my 2 marbles that a kid gave me, but last Monday I bought 30 marbles, and I have been developing my skills this week. Most of the youth here love to play marbles and so we found it’s a good way to get to know some of the youth.

We have an investigator, Paola, she is 13 and a bit timid. She’s been taught all the lessons by other missionaries, but never went to church. So we have been teaching her all over again. She has been progressing really good, she dropped coffee like nothing, and has been to church twice and a few noche de hogars! So on Tuesday we invited three young women to help teach her and make friends in the church. Kelin, Yanin and Aida were a big help. They pretty much took over the lesson and taught really well. Last week Elder Jones gave a really good analogy for the Atonement. He found a ladder and explained that life is like a ladder that we are constantly climbing or descending, with good choices like baptism we go up, with bad choices we go down, but when we go all that we can to the top we find that the ladder is missing a few steps, and we cannot go all the way to the top, and it is like that in life, we cannot return to our Heavenly Father because we are not perfect and nothing unclean can enter in to the presence of God. And that is where the Atonement of Jesus Christ comes in; through his sacrifice and gift for us he fills in the blank space of the ladder so that all of us may return to live with God again. But we must remember that he didn’t just pay for the last few steps he paid for all of them. So I used that in the lesson. It was kind of funny because I got up in the middle of the lesson, took the ladder and just started to climb it, so everyone was looking at me weird. Haha.

We had a good Branch night, with the branch.

Wednesday:
At 4:12 in the morning, the earth started to shake and for a whole minute, Elder Davalos sat in fear. It was so intense that my chapstick on my desk fell over. Wow, so yeah we had a weak earthquake. Elder Davalos wasn’t actually scared at all, more sleepy.

So I decided to be exactly obedient from now on.
We had a Great district meeting this week, led by the amazing and spectacular Elder Jones. We talked about how members are key in the work of the Lord.

I went on companion exchanges with Elder Jones, what a Horse. He is probably the best missionary I have ever met. He’s from Chihuahua, but looks like a Gringo. He’s a boss, like a boss, but he knows how to teach and I learned a lot from this man.

We did some service for a good 30 minutes.

We were walking down the street and we saw a girl fixing a motorcycle, and Elder Jones was like, what the! So we walked over and he said, do you need any help? (thinking she didn’t know what she was doing) and she confidently said, “No, I got it.” So, he looked and said, “Replacing the clutch cable, easy, but still impressive. Where did you learn to fix a motorcycle?” She said she learned from watching and it was pretty crazy! After she was done she started it and drove around to test her work, it worked perfectly. We started talking and it turns out she is a member of the church. So we talked a bit, after as we were walking away, Elder Jones said,” I’m surely going to teach my wife how to repair an engine,( he thinks he’s going to marry my sister ha)  because that was the most attractive thing I’ve seen!”  So that was pretty awesome.

Thursday:

So I was exactly obedient Thursday morning. I got to my studies on time and I felt more refreshed than I have in a long time. Here are some things I learned from my studies.

I really love the Liahona from July. Presidents Uchtdorf’s Message was inspiring. Here’s a tad from his message.
“Happiness doesn´t come from external circumstances.
It comes from the Inside - Regardless of what is happening around us.
It most certainly come doesn´t come from having all of our wishes come true.”

I really love this quote it teaches us about how perspective is key in our lives and how happiness is a personal decision.
Elder Jones shared with me a quote from Neil L Anderson.

“Distancing yourself from the kingdom of God during a trial of faith is like leaving the safety of a secure storm cellar just as the tornado comes into view.”
I also read an amazing article about early to bed, early to rise called Full of Energy and Life. Here’s the link, this is especially for my mom. https://www.lds.org/liahona/2015/07?lang=eng

When we win the first battle of the day against the mattress, we are more likely to win more battles during the day. We are also more likely to be filled with energy and life.

What an amazing article, I encourage all of you to read it.

We went to eat lunch with two investigators, and they let us use their tricycle so that we get to a appointment faster. Throughout the day I was driving Elder Jones around, until finally i realized that I had ripped my pants, it was a huge rip!!! RIP Pants.

Friday:

So we decided to drive the Tricycle 8 km to El Morro, It was fun, we got a bunch of weird looks. I rode it back in 34 min, 1 min faster that Elder Davalos, and the way back is slightly up hill. woo.
We got back and I saw an old lady with a hose and told her me to spray me for a little on my head, but she just started hosing me until I was soaked. Haha

Saturday: Nothing really happened; it felt like nobody was home.

Sunday: We had 6 investigators in Sacrament. Brilliant!

So yeah, that about sums up my week. Love you all and Best wishes for this week.

Journal Thoughts

So this week I was looking back in my journal. And when I look back at some of the things I had written, it brought emotions to my soul, and I could see how much I have progressed in the past few years. I would like to share a few sections of one of my journals.

This is a poem Sister Grover shared with my seminary class almost 2 years ago.

Good Timber does not grow with ease,
the stronger the wind, the stronger the trees,
the further sky, the greater length,
the more the storm, the more the strength.

by sun and gold, by rain and snow,
in trees and men good timber grow.

Well I hope you enjoyed this poem. I know that my Savior lives, that he has a hand in each and every one of lives. And that he works in a way so different for all of us.

I love you all and hope all of you a great week!!

Love,

Elder Pugmire

Well this week has been good. We have a lot of investigators that are progressing. 8 of them came to the church this week. It has been super-hot here. I wore a long sleeve the other day and about sweated myself to death.

I have been sick this whole week, but I still worked.

We taught a cool lesson down by the river.

WELL THATS ABOUT IT.

I want to thank everyone who has taken the time to email me or respond back to my emails. It really means a lot to me when I get emails from all of you.  I also want to apologize if I have not responded, sometimes there does not seem to be enough time on our pdays to respond.

Well I hope everybody has a great week.

Bye!!

Ixhuatan Oaxaca , Wooooo

Hello all,

So emailing here from Ixhuatan, The internet is very ,very slow. So on Tuesday I was informed that I would be working in two areas, so 2 houses, 2 areas, 2 branches, 2 cell phones, and twice the work.

My new companion is Elder Davalos, he is from
Sinaloa , and has been in the mission for 20 months. He was zone leader in San cristobal and has a lot of experience. I’m ready to learn a lot from him.

So the area Ixhuatan 2, is kind of big, there are a few paved roads and a lot of dirt ones. Everything is really spread out here. Since we are opening the area here in Ixhuatan we have gotten lost quite a few times. The house is really dirty and we sleep outside. It’s not as hot as I expected, about the same as Tapachula, but it is super humid!!

Our other area 20 de Noviembre is super small, about 5 streets by 4 streets, I already know it. All the streets are dirt and only about 800 people live there. A lot of the people are members, but almost all of them are inactive. The people are super nice, and almost all of them know us. Our house there is an Oven. Sooo hot in the night.

But I love it here, it’s so much better than the big city, it’s much more relaxed and not as noisy. But I know that this is where I am supposed to be and the lord has a purpose for me here and I will find it and fulfil it!!

so funny story this week, Wednesday we were teaching an investigator, so there were small chilies on the table , so I ate one, and it was really spicy, but not too bad, little did I know that I had chilly juice on my fingers, so I wiped the sweat off my face and my arm, About 20 minutes later my face started to burn and my arm too, and it was burning really good. Elder Davalos started to laugh because my face was so red! So the member that lived there gave me lotion, which just made it worse, and then she fetched from her garden some aloe Vera which helped a lot. But for 40 minutes my face and arm were on fire!! Lesson learned: Don’t wipe your face with chilly stained fingers.

So yesterday I accompanied a member to the church in Ixhuatan, because we have to be at both churches and they start at the same time! So five minutes before the meeting started, the branch president comes up to me and was like Elder Pug you are going to speak in the meeting today, I was like ok thank you. I quickly found like 4 scriptures and gathered my thoughts. I was pretty nervous. But it was a good thing that the 2 speakers before me took a ton of time, so my talk was only like 5 minutes long. But if it had to be longer I know that I could have trusted in the Lord and he would have guided me what to say.

Well I love you all, trust in the lord and he will provide a way!!

Love,

Elder Pugmire

Goodbye Tuxtla!!

Happy Independence Day from Tuxtla Gutierrez Mexico!!!!!!!

Las hermanas in our ward  

the three munchkins Mary, Maria, y marie 

So I’m getting transferred again. I’m really going to miss this area I’m in. The members are so nice and its such a pretty area. But I’m really excited to go to my new area.

I’m headed to Chahuites Oaxaca, and my new companion is Elder Davalos, Finally I get a Mexican companion!!!  So that’s exciting!

This week not too much happened, Tuesday we had a good day, Alex the joven joined us for the day and we had some fun with him.

Then the next three days I got sick with a stomach infection. So that wasn’t too fun.

Our investigator Gabi is really progressing, she really wants to get baptized, but her mom and dad are like "NO" so that’s frustrating.  We showed her President Monson’s talk and she loved it.

So that’s good. I’m really going to miss this ward but i know that our Heavenly Father has a plan for me and I’m going to go with what he says!!

Love you all!!

Elder Pug

Hello everybody,

What an amazing week!!!!

On Monday I was really prudent with my shopping and only spent 60 pesos on food, that’s less than 4 dollars!!! So I really didn’t eat much breakfast in the mornings!

We had a family home evening at a family’s house but for nobody showed up, until like an hour later, so that was kind of disappointing. Turns out that nobody received our text about where it was going to be. So shucks!

Tuesday was really amazing!!
We had a multi-zone conference with President George and the assistants. The assistants had a really good section about how we should invite people to baptism and president George roasted all of us, he told us that we need to clean up our language and that our thoughts and words need to reflect who we represent, Jesus Christ!! But after that we had a few fun activities with the zone leaders and Sister Trainers. It was really good to see my trainer Elder Prows again, he’s an amazing elder and I look up to him a ton, he received a kind of disobedient companion last transfer but it looks like he’s straitened him out! The stake fed us some really good lunch!

So Tuesday night we went over to the zone leader’s house to sleep and the next morning we were going to go plant a ton of corn as service. SO we ordered a pizza, and it came and was missing the Mango sauce, HOW do you forget the mango sauce!!!!! So they came and brought us a new free one WITH mango sauce!! So twice the Pizza. The next morning we woke up and the service canceled on us, so yeah disappointing. But fun sleep over.

Friday we had an amazing lesson with our investigator Gabi, She Told us some amazing news, She Decided to get baptized!!! But that her parents still haven’t decided if they want her to get baptized. (we have not met her parents yet cause they are never home, and are both doctors and work from now to forever) So yeah she told us that she wants to get baptized this coming Saturday the 4th of July and we were like OK Sounds good!!!

Friday we also had a baptismal interview that we needed to do in suchiapa about 35 minutes away, so we went to a spot where all the conbies (bus van things that fit like 20 people in them and are really cheap)  going to suchiapa pass, but ALL of the Conbies were full so i just start flagging down every single car that passed, and eventually about 10 minutes later, a car pulls over, and we hear "Elders!" and then in English he said "where you going" we told him where and he said hop in. So we hitch hiked to our baptismal interview and had a great conversation in English for 25 minutes. He lived in North Carolina for 9 years!

Saturday was Truly Phenomenal
We had an amazing baptismal activity were our zone baptized 9 people!!!
So the activity started at 5 but we had asked the investigators to be there at 410 so we could take pictures and so that they could change and that we could start on time. SO Chari scared the heck out of us by showing up 7 minutes before 5, but we got everything taken care of. It was a really beautiful event, all of the missionaries, sisters and elders were dressed in totally white, and our zone leader Elder Fackrell ordered all the elders White Paisly tiesa that Had our zone name embroidered in gold on the back!! So we looked good! But we had a little devotional before where the stake president spoke and also our bishop, we then proceeded with the baptisms, Elder Lambert baptized Chari and after she finished she was like "That’s all, oh that wasn’t bad at all" pretty funny, but she had a really good experience.

Love all of you

Elder Pugmire

Here’s Elder Lambert and I very high up

And me riding a horse