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

So this Week:

1. I bought a six pack imported root beer from Chedrauis Last Monday (they don’t have root beer here) we went back and I also made German pancakes for our neighbors, they really loved it, then I shared my root beer with them, and even though they lived in the US for years this was their first root beer, and they looooved it!! So that was fun.

2. I bought Popcorn flavor Blueberry and it was sweet and salty and pretty good.

3.  I ate something bad on Monday and got really sick Tuesday. Tuesday I stayed home all day, and all I ate was a PB & J and 10 pretzels, everything just went through me, so that was fun. In the evening we went down to our neighbors and they let us watch Meet the Mormons in Spanish!

4.  Friday Elder Garcia (our zone leader) accompanied us. He’s been in the mission 16 months so he knows a lot. He kind of planched me in the morning that I need to Study my Spanish with more efficiently. But we had a really good day of learning with him. He is always saying Elder Puuug, Elder Puuug, He thinks my name is just brilliant and that I should marry a pug, Kind of odd but whatever.

5. Friday night our ward had a talent show, and the performances were really funny. A bunch of our investigators showed up, and people we had never met so that was good.

6. Chari: We have had a difficult time teaching Chari, because sometimes she just doesn’t understand what we are saying, but finally this past week she accepted the invitation to be baptized this upcoming Saturday!!! We held the interview on Friday and everything went smoothly!! So we are super excited!!

7. Gabriela: She is just gold, pure gold. We found her 2 weeks ago and in that time she has come to church twice, come to three church activities and performed in our talent show!! Wow Just wow!

8. So the other day our neighbors the Pozo´s asked me to prepare a musical number with my ukulele for the former president of the mission. That made me kind of nervous cause I suck at ukulele and can hardly sing at the same time. But I practiced and practiced and got it down. The next day I preformed my one verse of Brightly Beams our Fathers Mercy. It went pretty well, I only messed up once.

This week I really liked the General Conference talk by Linda K Burton, here are three quotes,

“There is so much more of happiness to be had when we can rejoice in another’s successes and not just in our own.”14


"When we seek to “complete” rather than “compete,” it is so much easier to cheer each other on!"

“Thee lift me and I’ll lift thee, and we’ll ascend together.”

This talk is really amazing of how we can work better with our spouses, companions, or just friends I encourage all of you to read it, here is the link https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2015/04/well-ascend-together?lang=eng

I love you all and wish every Father and future father out there a Happy late father’s day!!!

Love,

Elder Pug

Elder Garcia

Talent Show

What a Wonderful Week

Buenas Todos,

Woah so much happened this week, its feels like it’s been a month since this past Monday. 

Cool story of the week:
So Tuesday we get back from working and our neighbor downstairs Omar asks if we would like to split a 2 for 1 pizza deal with them, of course we took the offer. We went out for another 20 minutes to finish the day and come back and the pizza hadn’t come yet, Dominos here has a 30 minutes or free policy, so we waited another 20 minutes and it finally came, so Omar was very intent on getting a free pizza, so he went out there to get our free pizzas. Being a lawyer he went and used his negotiating skills, 5 minutes late he came back in with 2 pizzas and a huge smile on his face, free pizza is sooooo good!!!

It has been raining nearly every day here and overcast, which is amazingly better that the sun! But since it has rained there has been a transformation here in Tuxtla. It used to be slightly brown everywhere, but now everything is green, anywhere a plant can grow does grow, so yeah nice and green. 

This week we finally received the Liahona from May, the edition of conference talks, so I have started to read a talk every day, it is modern scripture and is specifically applied to you and your family. So I encourage everybody to read the conference talks every day and study them thoroughly!!

So this past Monday we had a huge family home evening in our neighbors house, 17 members came and 3 investigators too!! It was a little cramped but it worked out. We talked about how missionary work is done by the members with the assistance from the missionaries and not the other way around. 

President Gordon B. Hinckley taught: “So many of us look upon missionary work as simply tracting. Everyone who is familiar with this work knows there is a better way. That way is through the members of the Church. Whenever there is a member who introduces an investigator, there is an immediate support system. The member bears testimony of the truth of the work. He is anxious for the happiness of his investigator friend. He becomes excited as that friend makes progress in learning the gospel. 

So heed the words of the Prophet and go out there and find people for the missionaries to teach, it could be a relative a friend anybody! The best converts are references from Members!! 
So we ended the lesson by showing them the Church Video The Hope of Gods Light ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2w49_1a9X0Q ) Thanks President Kasteler for that one!

Tuesday was a great day, we had the goal to contact 50 people in the street, which implies sharing the gospel with them. We crushed that goal with 70, time flys when you aren’t just walking around. 

Wednesday was also pretty good, Hermana Itzel went with us for a couple of hours and then we ended the day by helping her start her family history. She had nothing, but after 15 minutes we ended up a few generations back!! Wooo!! It felt so good to help someone start their family history.  I’ve been really excited about Family history lately! I found my first name last week for the temple... But it was a girl so I’m going to let someone else do that one. But I’m going to find a man’s name today so I can go to the temple and do his ordinances. Family history work is the same work as the missionaries!! So get out and start your Family history!!! Here is the Link https://familysearch.org/ Woooo

So I think it was Friday we were with Family Martinez, so we asked them if they had anybody we could share the gospel with, they said no, they had talked a little bit about their land lord, so I asked if we could visit him, They replied " well he’s a grump and is very catholic" so I said we would share a message of Peace and joy with him. 
We went and found him reading his bible. He said he didn’t have very much time, we said ten minutes, Ok! We started to teach a little about the faith in Jesus. He knows a lot about that. I shared Ether 12:6 with him because he has had a lot of struggles in his life! He went to another room and brought us a very old copy of the Book of Mormon! Still had the pictures in the Scriptures, and he said a friend had given it to him a long time ago in a galaxy far far away... But it is cool to see how he could progress, we left happy. 

Saturday a Hermano Charly left with us. He is super funny, has the best facial expressions and served a mission in Guatemala. We went to the House of 17 year old Gabriela. She is gold, the first time we were with her she asked if she could come to church with us!!! (never happens) So we taught the first lesson to her and she was like " yeah I’ve been searching for the truth for a while now" )but more properly because she is very intelligent) we were kind of stunned!! So she came to church with us a though it was really good!!

We had 6 investigators in church!! They slowly trickled in though. At about 40 minutes into sacrament a guy came in that we had contacted in the street, he’s a little crazy, but he walked into the room while we were listening to a speaker and said very loud "buenas Dias" a few members directed him to a seat, but I heard him tell them that he’s a member of our church, which i don’t think is true. In the next class he told us of how he had talked with god and had a story to share with us! Two weeks ago he told us we were in the United States, and we were like no this is Mexico. so yeah a little bit weird!

If I have learned anything on my mission so far, it would be about attitude. Your attitude changes everything. It all matters on your perspective, you can choose to be happy or sad, see the good in someone or choose to see the bad. Your personal happiness is up to you, how you choose to react changes everything!! 

This morning I finished reading Jesus the Christ, I would like to bear my personal testimony, that I know that he is our savior, redeemer, Messiah. I know that through him everything is possible, that through him we can receive a remission of our sins. I know that he lives!

Love you all!!

Elder Pugmire

The Mission is Great

Hello People,

This week was interesting and full of fun!!

Funny story of the Week:

So for my entire life I have been a sleep walker, I will go do stuff in the night, make sandwiches, open doors, do random stuff, etc. So we live in a building with 3 apartments and we live on the second floor. And we have a window facing the street that is usually open and power lines pass right by our window but have a protective cover so you can’t shock yourself. So one night this week I slightly remember going and hanging something out the window on the power lines. So I go back to bed and about an hour later I decided to go check what I put on the power lines, so this time Elder Lambert was awake and he was like, “why are you hanging halfway out of the window... hey those are my ties!!!” Yeah I put both racks of Elder Lamberts ties on the power lines, he was not happy. I think that was my most creative sleep walk so far!

Painful story of the Week:

So this week I decided to go get my ingrown toenail #2 out. So Elder Fackrell and Gillingwater went with us because the latter had one too. So we went to a specialist to get it taken care of. Elder Gillingwater went first and came out and said it hurt a ton, and I thought he was just joking, so I get in the chair, she cleans it and since I’ve had two of these before I was waiting for her to use anesthetic, but nope, she just went and cut out my nail and a bit of flesh too. Boy did it hurt!! I was gripping the chair pretty good, but watched the whole thing! So yeah not going back there again. But she did a really good job and now it’s completely healed!

This week we had a bunch of lessons 24 to be exact, that’s 3 higher than standards of excellence. Let me highlight one lesson.

So usually every Monday we go over to the house of familiy lopez, and have a family home evening with them and their unbaptized daughter in law, Laura. So this week we went and it was their turn to give the lesson, but they weren’t prepared. So they asked us to give it, so we just chose a random topic and started teaching. We were completely guided by the Spirit. I had nothing to share so I asked if they had the Liahona from February because I thought of an article in that edition. Turns out that there were 3 articles directly related to our 3 topics!

So when we are in tune with the Spirit he will tell us all things that we should do!

“Don’t yield to Satan’s lie that you don’t have time to study the scriptures. Choose to take time to study them. Feasting on the word of God each day is more important than sleep, school, work, television shows, video games, or social media. You may need to reorganize your priorities to provide time for the study of the word of God. If so, do it!”

That was a quote By Elder Richard G Scott that I absolutely love and is a quote I shared out of the Liahona on Monday! Reading the scriptures is more important than sleep!! Crazy but true!

So this week we were invited to one of our investigators birthday party. We brought them a pizza and chips because we are poor. But they were grateful. Her name is Anais and her husband Ivan, they both are chosen investigators and their parents were there, who are also investigating the church with other missionaries. But it is so awesome to see how much they have all progressed in a month since we started teaching them! They pray like any other member of the Church and read their scriptures!! Funny story as Anais went to blow out her cake, Ivan went and slammed her face in the cake. Pretty funny!!

I’m so grateful to be a missionary, and serve my God and other people. I have learned how to serve others and to love them how Jesus would!

Love Elder Pugmire

Anais y Ivan 

Elder Lambert playing hymns on a toy.

Average Week

So this week was pretty slow and not much happened, but let me share the highlights!

So on Monday we had Tranfers, but Elder Lambert and I are here to stay! But in our zone of 60 people only 3 companionships didn’t have a change. So the zone is way different and has a different feel, but ohhh welllll!

So this week we ate hamburgers with 3 different people.  Yesssssss! soooo good!

So funny story this week (not):
So the day was Friday, and we had just eaten lunch and I stepped off a sidewalk and rolled my ankle, so I fell to the ground like a looser, Elder Lambert swears he saw the sidewalk move(laughing his head off). Then throughout the day I went on to roll my poor weak ankle 3 more times, dumb Mexican streets!

This week we had a ward mission activity called, "Regresa a Casa" so we invited everybody. We guided people through the Plan of Salvation. We brought them into a room "la vida" and there they were able to choose the Word of God, or worldly things such as board games music, or video games. Then we took them into a "plane" where they then crashed and died! How nice! After that we explained the Spirit world and then showed them the three Kingdoms of Glory after they were judged. We ended in the Celestial Kingdom and we explained that there you could live with God forever. It was a really cool experience for our investigators and a good way to meet some members too.

So yeah not much this week. I would like all of you to know that I know that this Church is True, the only true church, and that if I didn’t know that, I wouldn’t be out here in hot sweaty Mexico. I know that through the Gospel of Jesus Christ you will have more happiness and joy than you would have anywhere else! And also that by reading the Book of Mormon you can come closer to God than by any other book!

Love you all,

Elder Pugmire

A Few Weeks In

Hello All,

Well this week was fun!! But not that much happened.

Let me illustrate Tuesday for you!

Tuesday: So we started the day as usual, but got nothing! So about 12 of the zone leaders called us and told us to come back to our house. We had no clue what was going on so we trekked back to our house to find Elder Giles and Elder Rowland, they also had no clue why they were there. SO we waited a little bit till the zone leaders got there. And they told us that one of them was going to accompany us in each of our areas. SO Elder Perez went with us (he is the trainer of Elder Lambert so they got along really well). Before we left we made a challenge, for whoever had the most lessons, contacts, references and other stuff won, and the losers had to shave one leg. SO we headed out and had a great day! Elder Parez is so awesome. The whole day he gave me tips on how to be a better missionary.

So we had a really good and weird lesson with this girl Melissa. So we arrived and seated ourselves and some of her sisters came out and greeted us and one of them who is about 16 went to give Elder Lambert a kiss on the Cheek as is courtesy in Mexico, but he kind of strait armed her and was with his facial expression "get away friend" and was as far back in his chair as possible. I started dying and Elder Perez was just kind of embarrassed to know him. She walked away a little hurt!

So still in that lesson, it was probably the most spiritual lesson I have had so far. I shared a scripture and then bore my testimony about how the church is true and so did Elder Perez and Elder Lambert, then I felt prompted to share another scripture, Alma 32:28, about the seed and how it will grow inside of you and if it is good you will know that it is good. Then bore my testimony again and Elder Lambert invited her to Baptism and she said yes!! But then we sang Nearer my God to Thee and it was so powerful and beautiful and the Spirit soooo strong!! What a great lesson.

So we continued to work and had a few other lessons and a few contacts. But we got back and Got Destroyed!! They beat us sooooo bad. they had 20 lessons and Like 50 contacts, so we shaved our legs. Yeah bummer.

So that was tuesday!!

It rained super hard this week one day. We got drenched within 15 seconds to the bone, it’s a good thing that my bag is sort of water proof!

This week all of the zones in Tuxtla came together to do some service, we formed teams of 4 and went around the streets only picking up plastic bottles, not all the trash only plastic bottles, good job tuxtla! But it was fun and I got to know a few more elders. But we picked up a good ton of bottles (2000 or more)! It was sooo nice to wear shorts and a T shirt around instead of my normal clothes!

We saw President George three times this week, which is odd. He came a baptism in our ward and to our ward the next day, I hope I didn’t do anything too dumb in front of him. But it was nice to see him.

Well that’s all folks!

Love Ya,

Elder Pugmire

Something from Washington

The Week of Things

Hello y'all,

Wow what a phenomenal week!! So much happened.

So let me start with the food this week, so this past week all I bought for food was a box of frosted flakes and three boxes of pop tarts! So that was pretty dumb, I don’t think I ever got filled from my breakfasts. So shame on me. Today I’m going to buy much healthier food!! This week a member bought us pizza which is always exciting!

Funny Story of the Week:

So this week it finally rained Wednesday, so it rained for a good two hours and we were walking and Elder Lambert decided to walk on a curb that was sticking out of a big puddle and so he got to the end and decided to jump off onto what looked like dry land, but happened to be deep mud. So he jumped into thick mud and trashed his shoes, it was pretty funny and he was really embarrassed cause we were with Hermana Itzel.

So this week the weather turned for the better and started raining. Finally a rest from the endless scorching rays of the hot Mexican sun! So I was rejoicing but Elder Lambert wasn’t. There are two things in this world he fears: bugs and the rain! and girls but that’s with all missionaries! So yeah it started to rain and then it started to pour and within two minutes we were soaked from tie to shoes. So yeah it rained a good amount on Wednesday and a ton on Saturday. It rained the second hardest I’ve ever seen in my whole entire life, and I was ecstatic!! Finally something to relive me from the endless torture of 30° Celsius and above!

This week I had a very spiritual and heart moving experience with a family. They are called the Viatorros, and they are a family of 10 kids and 2 parents,12 if you can do math!:) So on Tuesday we bought a cake for two of the Hermanas in our district, since they both had their birthdays but we didn’t have meetings this week cause we had interviews with President George, so we were stuck with this cake, so I suggested that we take it to the Viatorros and share it with them. They are very poor and most of their children are under age 10. The 12 of them live in one room a little bit bigger than my old room. So we went and took them the cake. It made me soo happy to see there eyes fill with joy as they consumed the cake. The cake was gone within minutes and their mother was so happy and grateful for us that she burst into tears, I almost started crying too which is saying something since I don’t cry! But I’m so glad that we gave that cake away instead of eating it ourselves.

This week we found an awesome investigator! We were walking going nowhere and we heard somone shout "Mormones" so we were like what now, we don’t want trouble. Turns out its a member that Elder Lambert knew from his old area. He was with his son and he suggested that we go and teach him since he was free. So we did and he turns out to be the best investigator ever. When we ask questions he always gives the right answers. He already had Our Search for Happiness and The Teachings of Joseph Smith! So Yeah, awesome, he agreed to be baptized in 5 weeks too! Wohooo

This week I have been listening to a lot of talks on Elder Lambert’s USB. In a talk from Elder Holland he said that "Every worth task take hard work" and "the best things in our lives are worth finishing" so when trials come, stay strong. In a talk from Elder Bednar he said that we should "pray for the strength to endure our circumstances instead of having our circumstances changes." So I really enjoyed listening to about 12 talks and want more. I’m really excited for when the Liahona with all the Conference talks come.

This week in my personal study I was reading in Alma 36:17-20 as Alma relates his repentance process 

 17 And it came to pass that as I was thus ^aracked with torment, while I was^bharrowed up by the ^cmemory of my many sins, behold, I ^dremembered also to have heard my father prophesy unto the people concerning the coming of one Jesus Christ, a Son of God, to atone for the sins of the world.

 18 Now, as my mind caught hold upon this thought, I cried within my heart: O Jesus, thou Son of God, ^ahave mercy on me, who am ^bin the ^cgall of bitterness, and am encircled about by the everlasting ^dchains of ^edeath.

 19 And now, behold, when I thought this, I could remember my ^apains ^bno more; yea, I was harrowed up by the memory of my sins no more.

 20 And oh, what ^ajoy, and what marvelous light I did behold; yea, my soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was my pain!

We must repent, for the joy that comes after repentance is far greater than the guilt from our sins. The healing and strengthening power of the Atonement is always there and I encourage anyone who is in need of love or comfort that Christ is there for you because He has descended below all others!!

I love you all!

Elder Pugmire

Some fireworks!

The cross above our house. 

Mother's Day and Much More!

Hello all!

Well this week has been fun!

Once again we have been walking a ton, but this week we actually entered into a house before lunch at about 2 for the first time in a long time. So that was nice.

Food of the Week: So this week we ate with Hermana Liliana again and this time we hit the jackpot!

She had this huge pan full of rice and meat ,muscles, crab and shrimp!! Sooo good! It reminded me of the good Pacific Northwest!

Funny story of the week:

Today I had a receipt that I need to use and give to the zone leaders. But it was all crumpled up so I was like oh I’ll just iron it with a towel over it. So I did it and I lifted the towel and it looked all good but the other side was all black and ruined :( and it was the side with the important info. I think that’s the dumbest thing I’ve done on my mission.

Yesterday was a really special day for us! Our best investigator Ivan got the Sunday off and came to church with us and he’s only met with us like 3 times. He even bought a sports coat to wear. SO we were really excited that he came with us. We wore our suits too yesterday! We had heard something about an area seventy coming for our sacrament meeting! So we were all waiting for them to walk in and they finally did. Elder Reyes, the area seventy gave a great talk about the family and how we must be united as a family in our purpose!

Yesterday we also got to talk to our families! Elder Lambert was about to call his family when Elder Reyes and the Stake president walked in! So we visited with them for an hour and it was really cool to meet with an area seventy for a while. We finally got to talk to our families and it was so so so nice to see and talk to them!  Those 40 minutes flew by!

Scripture of the Week: 2 Nephi 2: 25 Read it, Ponder it, Pray about it!!

Love ya all

Elder Pugmire

Elder Lambert getting his annual haircut

My companion and I!

Our good friend Rojelio

Here’s me enjoying time with the two little ones Mauricio and Sarita

Hello all,

Not that much happened this week. Lots and lots and lots of walking. Three days in a row we didn’t enter into one house until like 7 in the evening. So yeah, tough week.

This week I bought some new shoes, and I made the silly mistake of wearing them proselyting, so I got two blisters on the back of both heels, we were climbing up the hill and I could feel the skin ripping, worst hill climb of my life. So yeah that has been a pain in the heels this week.

Food of the week: We had these amazing tacos from Familia Jimenez on Friday. That was so good.

So let me tell you about the miracle we had. We received a reference from other elders. So we went and visited them. They were really nice and accepting of our message. We gave them the Restoration pamphlet and hoped they would read it. So we went back a few days later, and we asked if they had read the pamphlet and they said they had and had some questions too!!! This never happens. He also said that he is going to try to get Sundays off to come to church!!! Miracle and golden investigators.

So this week in church the Stake President came and surprised our ward with the announcement that the Lomas Ward would be getting a new building. But we have to have 170 people coming to church so it will be tough be we can do it.

Sorry for the short letter, but we have an appointment with Chilies!

I know this church is true and greatest happiness can came through church attendance and scripture reading and through family!!

Love you all!

Elder Pugmire

Hello all,

What a great week in Las Lomas!

We had some really good days and some really long days with lots of walking up and down hills.

The members here are really nice and willing to help us.

Food of the Week:

Well this week we had to trek up a super long hill to get to two of our lunches. We ate twice with Hermana Liliana. She served us some good chicken the first day. Then the next day she fed us real pasta. Fettuccini alfredo to be exact with meat balls and marinara sauce too!! BOOM!! So yeah that lunch was really good.

Funny story of the week:

So this week Elder Lambert was kind of mad at me for no reason and I was in a really cheerful mood. So I was walking with a spring in my step and I decided to jump over a medium sized rock in the middle of the sidewalk. And boom! All my hand out cards and pens and my agenda fell out of my pocket onto the dirty Mexican street, so that made Elder Lambert Laugh. Really Really Hard! SO yeah

So Wednesday was an amazing day, Let me tell you about it in detail.

So Tuesday night we traveled over to the zone leader’s house to stay the night so we could play basketball the next morning. So we got there and there was like 4 other companionships. We ordered 5 things of dominos and went to bed on the floor. I was smart and lay by the fan. So we woke up at 4:45, a little bit earlier than I would have liked to but we ran to the basketball court and played a good hour. Fun stuff. So then we went back to the zone leader’s house and 10 of us shared two showers. We went to the church building for meetings and in the District leaders meeting I shared a miracle I had the day before.

The Miracle of the Purple Shirts:

So as we were starting the day Elder Lambert asked me to pick a color. And then the color I chose he made me contact any person wearing that color. So I chose purple thinking nobody would be wearing purple. Boy was I wrong. Like every other person was wearing Purple and I had like 22 contacts in an hour. The Lord spreads his word in so many different ways.

So yeah later that day as we were walking to lunch I was telling Elder Lambert how much I hate the sun and he told me something, being somewhat annoyed at my complaining, He said "Venga lo que venga, Disfrútelo" and he wouldn’t tell me what it meant so I got ticked cause I couldn’t figure what it meant. So I asked the zone leaders what it meant and they said " What Comes, Comes So enjoy it." and then after seeing that I figured it our Elder Lambert Said "Come What may and Love it." so I have put that to heart and am trying to not complain about my circumstances anymore but trying to see the good in it all.

Still that day we went with a return missionary named Itzel. She just got back like 2 months ago is such a good asset when coming to lessons. We taught a few good lessons and head home.

What a good week of hard work.

Love you all.

Elder Pugmire

Here’s the view from our house with lightning

The real good food!