Come Follow Me

Come Follow Me
"And he saith unto them, "Come and follow me, and I will make you fishers of men." (Matt. 4:19) As the New Year begins, we, the members of the Willow Wood Ward, invite you to Come and Follow Him!

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Elder James Hadley



May 12, 2014
I'm in Tenancingo Mexico. In the state of Mexico. I was in the federal district for 6 weeks but now I'm back here.
So this area is really really awesome. We have the city part that we work in a lot, but also we have a lot of little villages that we go out to. Tiny little villages, where the people are so so so poor. It's sad, but well, that's Mexico.
Ummmm, well, we have been working a lot with families that are partially members and partially not. It's been interesting. Just a bunch of recent converts. We haven't made a ton of progress with them this week, but next week we are going to try to find a ton more people.
But yeah, people here are a TON nicer than they were in my last area, life here is more tranquil. Almost everyone will just listen to us and let us teach them. So yeah, that's really nice. I'm excited to keep working and keep finding people.
I don't know really what more to say. I'm happy, and it is crazy that 6 months has past. I'm 1/4th done. But at the same time it feels like I can't even remember normal life. I'm excited to keep going and keep experiencing things and whatnot.

May 19, 2014
So yeah, I arrived in my new area, it's the polar opposite of my old area. My old area was huge commercialized city, and here is just a little town. Well it could be more different, quite a bit of people live here. But yeah, it's really weird.
My companions name is Elder Bradford, he is from Blanding' Utah. He is great, we have a lot of similar interests, such as computers, videogames, that sort of stuff.  He is just kind of a regular dude, that's how I would describe him. He is really nice and we get along well. I'm excited to get to know him more and work with him.
So yeah, well, I told you about everything else. Anabel said she was sad I wasn't going to be able to baptize her. And that when I come back she would be my tour guide to Mexico City. I want to make that happen. 
May 26, 2014 
I think my favorite area was the city, because I really like the city, and I got along super super well with a lot of the members. And also I had some of my favorite favorite favorite investigators there. But out here is really really pretty too. It's different but also really great.
We do not have a chapel in this area, just a house of prayer. This ward was changed from a ward to a branch about 2 changes ago, so like 3 months. So it's super new. And a chunk was taken out to make another branch, for the members that lived super far away from this house of prayer. Right now they are meeting in a high school, because one of the members is a teacher.
The apartment here is my favorite yet. Its pretty nice. There aren't that many bugs, and we have this little washer and dryer thingy. The dryer just spins them to get most the water out, but it's super nice to have. This apartment is pretty clean, we clean it a lot, and the water heater thing is the best, it makes the water way hot and heats it up fast. In my old house it only heat it up for like 5 minutes.
Yeah, life is crazy being in the mission is crazy. It's great though. We are teaching this guy named Omar, and he is awesome. He used to live in Delaware. He's super great, he has a ton of problems and really really wants to change. And he loves us a ton. We are just best friends with him. He is going to get baptized June 8th.
June 2, 2014
The guy who lives up super high didn't come to church, so we dropped him. We haven't seen him in a long time. There are a ton of drunks that always come up to us on the street and ask us to help them change. If they REALLY show interest then we do help them. One time there was this group of drunk guys and they called us over, and we went, and one asked us to help him, so I said - Ok, start right now and don't drink that glass you have in your hand right now, then we will help you - and he said that glass was his last one so we just left.
So we have been working with a lot of people. The last missionaries that were here baptized 11 people in one change..... but only one of those people actually go to church often. So we have been working a ton with all of those recent converts. They are great people, they just have a lot of stuff to work on. We have also found a lot of new people who we are hoping with be great and progress.
So, something cool that happened this week, ------- so my District Leader was Assistant to the President for 8 months before he was here. He was chosen to start a whole new branch in a place called Ixtapan (Eek-stop-an) it has been the first new branch started in over 2 years. Anyways, so he is incredible, one of the most spiritual, kind, loving, smart people ever, and his Spanish is flawless. People always ask him if he has Spanish parents and that he has been speaking it his whole life. Anyways, so I went on an interchange with him, and it was awesome. We went around and visited a lot of the people they have getting ready to be baptized.
So, well, I cant think of a ton more stuff that happened. We made scones today and ate them with honey and butter. They had bedbugs last change, and we went and checked the beds and I found a live one on my bed. Also, my companion found a baby little scorpian in his food box thing. Interesting!
Everyone keep reading the Book of Mormon every day. 
June 9, 2014
So this week was weird. We found a ton of people who we thought were great, but they ended up not being so great, so we kind of wasted a lot of time. But whatever, we will press on harder this week. We are going to work with the ward more, because that's the key. When you can teach people that ward members know, and then you bring the members, it's a lot more effective. They feel more obliged to go to the church. Which is the hardest thing is to get people to go to the church. So here in Tenancingo there is a huge market on Sundays, and EVERYONE goes there and shops. It's hard to get people to realize what their priorities should be, but when people are really great they will make time. 
It was a few months, maybe 2 months before I got here, that they couldn't knock doors anymore. So I haven't ever had to do it. Well, I have, the thing is that if you have a reference, and you are looking for a person, you can knock the door next to theirs or the door in front of theirs, so I've done it a bit. But it's not a too effective way of doing things.
So yeah, early we hiked up to Cristo Rey, it was amazing. I sent a few photos. We ran down all the stairs, we got down in like 10 minutes.
Ummm, oh yeah, so members, well less actives but members, made us sushi for free today. They made fried rolls and rolls with bananas, and then a sushi cordon bleu, it was soooooo amazing. I was filled up by it too. But yeah, they said we can go there every Monday. So I'm excited and hope I stay.
Keep reading the Book of Mormon and keep being happy.
June 16, 2014
I'm doing well, I went on an interchange all of last week with Elder Dubose, and he is really really really amazing. He was Zone Leader for a long long time. He is super great, and I learned a TON. We got along so super well too. They have a million investigators to teach, for 5 days it was seriously that he had an appointment every hour of the day, so we were running and teaching and running and teaching. It was really great though.
So well, this might be my last week here, I will hopefully stay here, we have found a few good people, and I would be fine with staying with my companion. Of course after 6 weeks with someone it's kind of easy to get annoyed with them, but I need to work on that and not care about stuff at all.
I will be happy with wherever the Lord sends me next and who he puts me with.

June 23, 2014
SO THE NEWS ABOUT THE CHANGES, nothing changed. I'm staying here in Tenancingo with the same companion. He is now District Leader. So yeah. So last change we didn't baptize any, which is terrible. The thing is when I got here there was NOBODY at all. So well, we had to start from the ground up. BUT, we have found a lot of really great people. And we have one baptism for sure next week, and one for sure for the week after, and then another pretty sure one the week after. We have 2 other people that all they have to do is come to the  church, then they would get baptized that day. And we also have a bunch of family members to work with of the sure ones we are going to get. So yes, things are looking a lot better.
The goal that President Whitehead keeps stressing is that we should be baptizing every single week. And so, thats what we are working for.
So Tom needs to come down here to Mexico to eat the food. Everything has chile. They say "if it isn't hot then it doesn't even taste" And I have gotten super used to it, and really really like it a lot. Before I would eat hot cheetos or Takis and think they were hot, they would make my nose run and my face go red. But nowadays, those things are absolutely nothing. I eat salsa of habanero and manzano daily. And it's really delicious. So yeah, that's something cool that has happened on my mission. I wonder what I will do when I get home, maybe just never ever use chile. We will see.
Yep, well, another week here in Tenancingo.
I'm happy that I'm staying. I love it here and we have really good members. My companion is good.

Love,
Elder Hadley
                               Elder Hadley at "Cristo Rey" - translated literally means Christ the King!

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