Week 11: February 23, 2015

Hello y’all,

What a crazy week!! We had a day and a half of service and a day trip to the ruins of Izapa.

A bit on the culture:

There is no cultural diversity down here; the only diversity is from us missionaries. Besides us Todos los personas son Mexicano.( All of the people are Mexican) There is a virus going around called Chinkungunya, its transmitted by mosquitos and when you get it you get a fever and then a rash and it hurts to move because your joints lock up. I don’t have it but a lot of the Mexicans do. Americans are immune to it. So that’s rad!!

Meal of the Week: Again the winner goes to Hermana Tita. This week she made us the best quesadilla, with pork and cheese and some sauce. Soooo gooood!! She loves to make us food. It’s great. I thought I would be eating less down here but I am fuller every day than in the CCM which is weird. Oh and I finally had beans and rice together. 

This week we had three days that were not normal.

The first was a kind of trip day. The mission president came down with the assistants. We got to wear a t-shirt and shorts. YES!!! So both zones from Tapachula got on one bus, that’s like 60 people! First we went to the Ruins of Izapa. Apparently these ruins are about 4000 years old, from the time when the Jaredites were in the Americas (a group of people in the Book of Mormon). They were really cool and had something to do with the alignment of the stars. It was really sunny this day and so everybody was trying to stay in the shade. They had some rocks with carvings on them but you really can’t see the carvings. We then went to another ruins sight, where they had a bunch of rocks with carvings on them and a big jaguar head. One of their rocks has the carving of Lehi’s dream on it , with the tree of life, it is really hard to see but that is true evidence right there that the Nephites and Laminites were in the Americas.

Ruins of IZapa

After this we went and played Futbol as both zones. Apparently I am not so bad at soccer and played a lot. Elder Ibarra one of the assistants, is really good at soccer. He played two years of professional soccer in Peru, but decided to go on his mission instead. He is also chucked.

We then ordered like 30 boxes of dominos for every one and watched Conozca a Los Mormones (Meet the Mormons) in Spanish. It comes out in theaters down here on the 27th of February. It was really cool to watch it in Spanish though.

On Friday we had our first real opportunity to serve down here. So our whole zone came down and helped clean up the local park. The hermanas picked up trash while us elders got to hack weeds out of the ground with machetes (not very effective) but anyways, that took a few hours and a few chunks of my skin. But it was well worth it. 

Saturday

We were told we were going to be building a roof in Morelos. About 20 minutes outside of Tapachula. 20 of us elders piled into the back of a truck and we went over there. We got there and found out that we would be working with concrete. YAY. This day turned out to be the hardest day of work ever!! We had a concrete mixer but we had to fill buckets of concrete then haul them up a make shift ladder and then pour the concrete on the roof. It took a good 6 hours. We used just about all the concrete. The combination of the hot sun and heavy concrete made it very grueling work. Near hour 5 I threw up from exhaustion. I was also completely covered in concrete and pretty sure I had heat exhaustion. The next day I was so sore, it hurt to move. I did not want to go out and tract. But I found that as I worked and taught lessons I found energy I didn’t know I had.

When we give our all and serve our god, the Lord will give us energy that we did not know we had. He will make the burden a feel like it is nothing at all. Like in Mosiah 24:10-17 where the Lord takes the burden from the Nephites who were in bondage. Turn to the Lord and he will give you everything you need.

Love you all,

Elder Pugmire

Week 10: Feburary 16, 2015

Beunas,

This week was phenomenal!! Many things did happen here.

Elder Prows is amazing. Just saying. I can’t believe it’s already week 5.  The first two weeks crawled by. Then it picked up the next. And these past two weeks have just flown.

Meal of the Week: This week we ate real good. The meal of the week was made by the amazing Hermana Tita. She made us TWO hamburgers. They were so good. I would say they on the top twenty list of burgers I have ever eaten. She has a gift for making food.

So much has happened this week I can’t even remember it all. Thank goodness for journals.

Let’s start with this morning. This morning I had a few disasters. So this morning I grudgingly got up at 6:20 and was very very very tired. We then ran to the soccer field, which woke me up pretty good. I was kicking the new soccer ball around, that we just received from our zone leader. So I kicked it pretty good, and it hit the wall and it exploded; the stitching just fell apart. So yeah our soccer ball is now a peanut. On the way back we were kicking it all the way back and it accidently rolled off the road into the river, so yeah there went our broken soccer ball.

This morning for breakfast, I had cooked Elder Prows two pancakes, and I was cooking myself a hardy omelet, I had flipped onto my plate, and I was cleaning up and somehow a chain of events led to the destruction of my omelet and it splattered on the floor :( so after mourning for my omelet, I cooked omelet 2.0.

There are a lot of stray dogs here. You can’t go outside without seeing a mutt on the side of the road. So yeah...

This week we contacted alot!  We contacted 170 people! And it wasn’t that hard. We maybe talked to a third of the people that passed us.

We had two really cool experiences this week.

1. As we were walking one day around the Colonia San Hose, we passed this house and I had this really strong feeling to go and knock at this house even though we are not usually supposed to contact at houses. So I was a little hesitant at first, and plus I didn’t think Elder prows would like it. But I told him anyways. So a lady came to the door and said she was occupied at the moment, but she would love to have us later. So we came back later that day and she and her son were there. They ended up being super receptive to our message and even told us that they thought the Book of Mormon is true. It was pretty awesome. And plus they gave us the best Agua de Limon!!

2. We were teaching a lesson with a part member family. So the member Slavador, told us his conversion story. One night like 20 years ago, he had a dream where he saw that all the churches were either destroyed or burned down and there was only one church that wasn’t destroyed. A man was standing in front of this church; he said his name was Thomas S Monson, and that this was The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. For ten years Hermano Salvador never saw this church or did anything. Until one day 10 years later, missionaries came to his door and he knew their message was true and was converted. Then the other day, we watched the Restoration with him and his wife and daughter, and after the daughter said she had a dream also and that she had saw a light and that a voice said unto her that it will be alright and to wait 5 days. That day we were there was the 5th day and the light she saw in her dream was the same light as in the video of the Restoration. Soooo cool.

So ALWAYS listen to the spirit. The Lord works his ways differently for everybody.

Love you all,

Elder Pugmire

So here is Phineas, Ferb and Perry. I don’t know why Phineas is so sunburnt.

Elder prows and our dominos!

Week 9: Feburary 9, 2015

Beuno Tardes,

What a good week in Tapachula! So the "winter" finally ended here, meaning that it went from 80 degrees to 90 degrees. For some reason this week was ridiculously hot. They rarely have a thing called overcast, which I now appreciate more than ever. I think Washington probably has the best climate on earth…so yeah. 

Here is my desk, featuring my Ferrari Book and Elsa and Anna. 

This week we somehow got 14 new investigators!! The past two weeks we only got 3 and 5 new ones so that is a lot. My companion was freaking out over it!! A miracle and I know it. Maybe it’s because it is so hot here. Who knows. We worked really hard this week and I think that’s why. This week we had an interesting experience with some Missionaries from Jehovah witness. They somehow found our house and told us they admired our spreading our gospel, then they went on to share their beliefs with us and we didn’t want to start arguing with them, so we just nodded our heads and said ok. I think we should have a soccer game between the Jehovah witness missionaries and our missionaries. It would be very one sided cause because we are so much younger.

Meal of the week: This week the best meal we had was at Hermana Leo's Casa. She served us white rice!! And some stew with beef, very American. Oh and then she gave us ICE CREAM!!! YESSS! I’ve been craving ice cream since I got here. It was so good to put something so cold that tasted so good in my mouth. So I was very happy about that.

I also discovered that the oranges are different here. They aren’t orange. They are kind of green and brown with a hint of orange. They taste the same though. But the people eat them different here. They peel them roughly with a knife and then cut them in half. Then they pour some weird spice on it, then they suck the juice out and really don’t eat the orange. So I showed them the American way, and peeled it with my hands and ate them by the slice. They were in awe!

So on Saturday Elder Prows got sick and we stayed home the whole day. I watched like 7 church movies. And had plenty of time to think.

So I came up with my own parable.

THE PARABLE OF THE ICE BATH

So as a Missionary we walk a lot! And all that walking makes my feet soar after a long day of tracting. So a few days ago I decided to take an ice bath for my feet. As I was slipping my feet into the ice bath it was shockingly cold, but as time passed my feet became numb and the water started to gradually warm. At one point, I couldn’t even notice that my feet were in the water. I would like to apply this to our lives. Do not let yourself be numbed to the waters of temptation. Do not lower the bar of your standards just because everyone else is doing it, or because that movie only has a few sexual scenes, or just because that song only has a few swear words. Do not let yourself warm to the waters of temptation of the world. As you say to yourself oh it’s just a little sin, Satan has already started to wrap cords around you and if you keep up this attitude those cords will soon be strong chains. The only way to stop the spiritual numbing of our souls is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, or a dry suit. "Be in the world, not of the world." Your testimony and faith in Jesus Christ are what keep us dry from the waters of temptation. As we attend church every week and attend the Temple, we are lifting our feet out of the waters of temptation. And as we read the scriptures and say our prayers, we are adding cubes of ice to that water to keep it cold and foreign to us. If your spiritual dry suit has leaks, patch them with repentance through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Do not become comfortable or tolerate temptation or sin and remember that trials are here to lift us up and not bring us down, "remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our redeemer... that we must build our foundation." Do not let yourself be numbed to the waters of temptation.

So that’s my spiritual thought for the week. I have really stated to read the scriptures in depth, and find them far more interesting than I ever did before. I am so thankful to be here serving our savior.

Miss you all!

Love,

Elder Pugmire

Week 8: Feburary 2, 2015

What a weird week, so much has happened and I think I’ve gotten into the normal routine of a missionary!! I am sad to hear that the Seahawks lost the super bowl :(, but that doesn’t matter to me right now.

So health wise this week wasn’t the best. I got sick twice. Once on Tuesday and again Saturday. It sucked having to sleep all day. Before my mission I would have wanted to sleep all day like I did, but now I just have the desire to go and teach people. Weird!! They have these things called Electrolitos drinks which are pretty much a form of concentrated Gatorade. So the doctor prescribed me to drink 3 liters of those a day!! Yikes! On Tuesday I got better within the day but on Saturday I was well sick into Sunday. But I’m much better now. Thank goodness.

So I was informed that the mail here runs about 2 months late, so it might take a while for letters to get here. Yesterday our District leader received his Christmas package, and was so excited that it finally arrived!!

IT IS SO HOT!! I miss the cold, dank, rainy place that I call home; I have never in my life desired more to have rain than now! LOL If possible, it should snow here, but that’s not going to happen.

For some reason our water decided to turn off on Friday, so we have been taking bucket showers. Those are fun.

So my Spanish is slowly getting better. I don’t know why President George Put me with a white companion, it is very hard not to speak English to each other, especially me, so it’s just another trial the Lord has given me to make me work harder and to strengthen me.

Now to the real business. This week we asked 11 people to baptism, only one agreed to get baptized, yay!! I am so happy she made that choice. Our favorite investigators that have been progressing so much, we asked them to be baptized, and they wanted some time to think about it. I know they are ready to get baptized. Their son, Romeito strait up asked his parents if I could baptize him. They kind of ignored him at that moment. LOL. Milrenia the wife says she really wants to believe our church but her husband has some doubts, but I know they are ready.

We had a baptism this week!!! It was the baptism of Hancey, a ten year old girl. It was so exciting. I gave the talk on the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and it was very spiritual, even though it was very slow Spanish. My companion baptized her and she was sooo happy.

One of the priests accompanied us yesterday, Hermano Hugo, he is very helpful in me learning Spanish, and we get along very well, he loves saying puppies in English because he can’t pronounce the U in puppies so its popeies, LOL. My last name is also very hard to pronounce, people say Puugmiereh haha, so every time my companion and I meet a new person he asks them to say my name, it’s pretty funny.

The Lord has blessed our companionship, with so many miracles, just because we work so hard and are so obedient. He is so by the book, sometimes it annoys me but it is for the better since I’m so chill at times.

"I will go and do the things the Lord has commanded of me"(1 Nephi 3:7) Be obedient and the Lord will bless you, listen to your parents and leaders cause they only want what’s best for you!!

Miss you all, miss Washington (I have a Washington apples sticker on the back of my name tag from an apple I had in the MTC) miss the Rain!

Love,

Elder Pugmire

Pancakes I made this morning

Hancey and her family!