THANKSGIVING WAS NOT A THING - NOVEMBER 30, 2015

So my subject is half correct and half incorrect. I first want to wish all of you a happy thanksgiving and I hope you had the best week ever! This week in Yucatan Mexico we did not celebrate thanksgiving whatsoever and in fact it was one of the harder days I have had in a while missionary work wise. But I did have thanksgiving because I made a promise with God to have a thanksgiving between Him and I, all day I prayed to him about things I am thankful for and let me tell you... it helped a ton, and it was truly memorable in my heart to be more thankful for the things that matter than any other time in my life. 

This week, we tried so hard to strengthen our faith and our goals. We have been stuck between what we need to truly focus on, because our bishop only wants us to focus on inactives, and our mission president only wants us to baptize. But we are sticking to a plan which is long term, to work with the members to gain references. It is working, slowly but surely. We have so much work to do here. This week we had 41 lessons, which is a ton but we only had 7 with investigators. But we can always improve and always will. We can do this without a doubt, with faith. We have seen a change in this ward already, and members are working with us almost every day to go walk and do visits!

We have an investigator named Raymundo, who needs to get married to his wife that is only home 1 day every 2 weeks. He is an ex Jehovahs Witness so he is so stuck that God is Jesus and not that they are in fact 2 different people. But he came to church with us and is great!

So the guy I talked about last week named Antonio, who was completely drunk and said he saw Jesus in my face, is crazy. I love him though. We met with him twice this week, and he was completely drunk and drinking both times. But we someway somehow got him to commit to baptism in 2 months, because he has a ton of work to do. But it is crazy, I feel so much true love for this guy. I want the best for him. My comp said after, he has no idea what I see in him, and he feels no love for him, which made me sad, but then he said he will support me. So Sunday we went to his house to bring him to church and he was up drinking all night and said he is going to rehab for this month, I was so sad. We will see. He literally has every problem you can ever imagine up in your mind. 

We met a guy in the street and within 15 minutes had him committed to baptism, but he lives in a different area turns out. At first I was a little selfish and thought wow, I wont get this baptism, but then I remembered it doesn't matter who does what, it is all the same work! I repented for that one.

We contacted this lady who acted completely interested and talked to us for 45 minutes, but then asked at the end if I could teach her 2 daughters English... who are our ages. We said we would return, but with caution because we cant waste our time. We came back and indeed taught them how to pray in English and Spanish, we are following the spirit on this one for sure, because we feel these 2 daughters actually could be interested, sometimes we just have to work in different ways. 

Elder Luna and I are so in sync every day it is crazy. Every lesson, same thought, from the same spirit, and it stems because we are truly best friends. When he starts talking about the Book of Mormon, I am already reaching in my bag to give them one... it is crazy!

I gave a blessing to a kid that was sick this week. I was so nervous at first! How am I going to give a blessing IN SPANISH!? Before my mission, English made me nervous, but the family chose me to give it and I prayed so hard for support. It is hard because we use the USTED form of Spanish all day every day and I have never learned TU form, but in blessings we use TU form... so I used my little knowledge from high school but during the blessing i felt so comforted and the spirit guided me in all things I needed to say.

Thanksgiving, my neighbor ordered us a pizza and we all sat around and I said we are gonna be Americans for a little and go in a circle for all the things we are thankful for... it wasn't turkey, but it was great.

LIFE

One day, 3 drunk ladies called us over and we talked to them about how to stop drinking. They kept hugging us and we just lifted our arms and tried so hard not to touch them. Apparently they literally were saying some very cruel things about what they wanted to do to me as an American... but luckily in those instances I cant understand anything lol. But when we left, they were pissed and went and told the police we were drinking... it was an experience. 

Thursday, thanksgiving, our lights and water went out.... because we didn't pay the bill. So we went to Centro and payed and did adult stuff. I have learned a ton of stuff, like how to actually live!

Friday, we were invited for hot dogs and hamburgers with a family, so I ate my hamburger and fries, and thought about how horrible they were compared to the states, and the mom was talking about how she loves gringos cause they always eat, so she asked if I wanted a hot dog and i didn't at all and was so full... but did it to make her happy. Turns out that when I had one bite left... my hot dog fell on the floor... they made me a whole new one. I almost died that night. 

Lol, this is just a funny story. Every day, teenage girls yell at me HOLA GUAPO pasame su numero!! I think they just say that because I am the only American within miles lol, just cause I am different, we just laugh and say we should give them the number of the mission offices.

Next Monday we have a Christmas party for the whole mission so we literally are gonna have meetings when we say party but also we have a gift exchange set up, so next TUESDAY will be my P-day and I will write then!!

I LOVE YOU GUYS AND I LOVE THE LORD!!

A picture of my comp and I walking... cause that's all we do.

Also every family, we ask if there is any way we can serve them, and they always say no, but finally someone said yes and we helped them fix something on their roof!!

Elder Plowman 

35  No obstante, ayunaron y oraron frecuentemente, y se volvieron más y más fuertes en su humildad, y más y más firmes en la fe de Cristo, hasta henchir sus almas de gozo y de consolación; sí, hasta la purificación y santificación de sus corazones, santificación que viene de entregar el corazón a Dios.