¡Feliz Navidad!

Home sweet Home

 With President and our matching ties

Christmas Eve dinner...sushi!

FELIZ NAVIDAD!! I hope everyone had a great Christmas! I´m doing great and I love it here! This week we were blessed with 11 new investigators and a family of 7! I´m excited to see them progress in these upcoming weeks and I pray we can get them to be baptized! I don't have a lot of time but as promised, here are some fotos! Thank you everyone, I love you all!

Con amor, Elder Fillmore

Christmas Eve Skype

It was so great to talk to you all!! Let me say though, fastest hour of my life! I wish I could've said more but I´ll have to wait until May. You all look so great! Thanks for letting Ashlyn come! It was great to see her too! I wish it was cold here! It´s like 80 almost 90 degrees here still and I sweat my face off some days! I miss you so much mom but i know I´ll see you soon! It´s flying by! I´m doing great here so don't worry! I love you mom!!!!!!<3 Have a great new year!

Love,

Elder Fillmore

Long week, Little time

This week was crazy. So My new comp is Elder Morales and he´s from Guatemala and he´s great! But this week we got to our new area and its tough. The ward here has been without a bishop for almost a year now. Their year mark is in January. There is also tons of inactive members and this week there was only about 40 members in sacrament. All week we just contacted and knocked doors because we have no investigators so we have plenty of empty time in our agendas. So we contact like crazy. We have got 5 new investigators this week though and I feel really good about all of them!

This week, Elder Morales and I spoke in sacrament and that was pretty cool. We spoke on the atonement and also the birth of Christ and I think it went pretty well. Then after, a member asked me ¿ da la clase del principios del evangelio? but what i heard was ¿Va al clase del principios del evangelio? She asked me if i was giving the class but i heard if i was going to the class. So i said yes unknowingly and it wasn't until we got to the class and she asked me what i was teaching that i had realized that i had made a mistake. But yeah, an hour later i finished my lesson on agency and it went better than I thought it was going to. But yeah that was a lot of our week, stuff just happening to us unplanned and it all went well. 

i wish I could write more but time is very limited. And sorry but no photos this week because I left my camera at home. I miss everyone and love you all. Thanks for everything! Have a great christmas!!!

Con amor,

Elder Fillmore

Celaya is sick and so am I

Sorry for the short email this week but we have to hurry over to the bus station to pick up our new companions soon! I´ll try to give a short recap of my week.

So Ceyala didn´t give me the welcoming I wouldve liked and I was sick all day Tuesday. Throwing up all night and all day (once at a members house) and I spent the rest of the week feeling under the weather and eating an awesome diet of crackers and gatorade. The good thing though is at this rate I wont have to worry about gaining weight on my mission.

Thursday I went to Queretaro for a training meeting at Presidents house and that was cool. Got to see my MTC companion, Elder Harmon there. We´re both training now so thats pretty sweet. Then that night we went to a Christams play. Our whole zone went and we helped set up and direct people in to their seats. It was a packed house and afterwards we gave out pass a long cards to everysingle person. Really cool and great night for contacting. Below is a picture of sorts, it was a packed house.

Sunday night we went caroling with Bishop and some members from the ward and it was really cool to see how happy people were when they saw us. It´s nice to spread the Christmas spirit.

My new greenie gets here in about an hour and then training begins. I know it´ll be tough but I know that Lord will help me. Thank you everyone for the prayers. I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Fillmore

Transfer Time and Training

Sorry for the short email last week, this one will be short as well, unfortunately. We got our changes yesterday and I am now in Celaya! It´s about an hour away from my last area and apparently a lot more dangerous. I´ll be opening an area called Laureles and it´s supposed to be chollo central. So don´t expect much pictures in the coming weeks because I was warned to leave my camera at home if I want it to last. On top of all that, I will also be training! I don´t know my new companion, he gets here next week. So in the mean time I´m staying with Elder Bandala. He´s from Veracruz, Mexico, and is 26 years old. Pretty cool dude. I´m super stoked for this opportunity and although I feel totally inadequate with my Spanish I know that the Lord will provide a way for me to accomplish the things which he has commanded. Thank you everyone for the prayers. I´ll try to send a better email next week! Love you all!

Con amor,

Great week but little time so I´ll give a short recap.

Got to ride in a Porsche for 2 minutes and met a billionaire.

Got in a wreck in a taxi(nobody was hurt)

Elder Tovar and I were invited over for thanksgiving dinner and had sloppy joes and fried chicken

Had an awesome store contact with a lady who asked  us about our BOM and we taught her and its awesome!

I got to baptize a little kid of the less active family that we have been teaching for about a month and reactivated them!

Sorry for the short letter, I had written a longer one but may, or may not, have deleted it right after typing it up... I´m tired ok.

Thank you for the prayers! I love you all,

con amor,

Elder Fillmore

100 DAYS!!!

Nothing super cool this week so this week will be short. I´ll just include the highlights.

We had a lesson with our investigator Ximena and she said she really like the talks last week in church about divorce. It was super awkward though because her husband was in the same room and they have major problems. Hopefully we resolve those problems though and get Ximena to baptism!

We played soccer with a recent convert this week and he may or may not be semi pro. He´s crazy good and was running circles around us but it was a ton of fun and we played with a bunch of local kids too and had some awesome contacts.

We went to the biggest mall in Latin America and holy dang that thing was huge! Super cool and we were able to snag a few neat things and do some nice people watching.

Nothing else really happened this week and I would try to write more but another elder in the house (not going to say any names) is kicking me off to use the computer, I guess an hour isn´t sufficient for his needs and would like an additional 45. Thank you everyone for your prayers, I love you all! Have a great Thanksgiving!!

Mom, the bird look familiar?!
(We have the smaller version of that exact brass eagle in our home. We named him Hershall and he is older than Ethan -SF)

Con amor,

Elder Fillmore

Oh ya and I also hit my 100 day mark so that was cool.

Rain and Trump

    

     It rained almost everyday this week and was overcast all week. It was nice except for the first time it rained because we had no umbrellas and got soaked but after that we were always prepared. Also about everyone and their mother talked to us about trump this week and how he won and all that stuff so that was a good conversation starter on the buses.

This week started off slow with Elder Tovar and Elder Burbidge being gone Tuesday and Thursday and part of Wednesday. Elder Carr and I were able to have some good lessons without them though. We even got to teach a lesson in English! There's a guy we met named Constantine from Chicago and we taught him this week. It´s weird teaching in English because all we do is practice in Spanish and sometimes it´s hard to find the words say. We also went on a contacting role and we just talked to everyone and we set up a lot of future visits. 

         Friday was great. We had a baptism. We've been trying to reactivate a less active family and they've been coming lately so we were able to baptize their son! Tovar baptized him and Elder Santacruz and I got to be witnesses.

        Saturday was interesting to say the least. So after a long day of work and lots of walking we finally got home around 9 and were getting ready for bed when all heck broke loose. Elder Carr shot Tovar with the squirt bottle so then Tovar attacked Carr and stole the squirt bottle and started spraying Carr and Burbidge. Then Burbidge proceeded to grab baby powder and start throwing it at Tovar so then Tovar grabbed his own baby powder and started doing the same. Next thing you know there's a nice baby powder mist throughout the whole house and a layer of it over EVERYTHING. Battle is over right? Nope. Far from it. Elder Burbidge grabbed an egg from the fridge and nailed Elder Tovar so then Tovar chased him in to the bathroom (which was being used at the time by Elder Carr) and started throwing more baby powder. Then Tovar went and got two eggs of his own and started pelting them at Burbidge. The house smelt and continues to smell like eggs now. Awesome. And believe it or not but I actually didn't do anything! I was the angel in the whole situation, which i mean, isn't saying much. I just sat there really and laughed. But Ya what a night.  I don't expect to see anything like that again during the mission. 

        Sunday we went to church and Ximena came with us! It was a conference of sorts for all of mexico and we got to listen to Russell M. Nelson, Robert D. Hales, and a few other church leaders and it was really cool.

        Ya that was my week. Everything is going great and I´m loving it here. My spanish is coming along slowly but surely. Thank you everyone for the prayers! I love you all!

Sorry but today has been pretty busy day so don´t expect much detail from this email that I try to throw together in these next 5 minutes.

Dia de los muertos was this past week and kids constantly asked us for candy and when you´re a baller on a budget like myself you don´t have candy to give. So we crushed the hopes and dreams of these little kids when they asked for candy and we had to beg for their forgiveness as we told them we had none. It was like in Mosiah 4:24 when it says "I give not because I have not, but if I had I would give".

So we found out that every Tuesday and Thursday for the next month Elder Tovar and Elder Burbide will be gone so Elder Carr and I will work together a lot this month. Other than that, this week we just contacted a ton and got a bunch of new investigators.

I´m sorry for the short email! Thank you everyone for the prayers! Miss you all!

Con amor,

Elder Fillmore

Dogs...Ugh!

This week was pretty uneventful and I don´t have a whole lot of time so unfortunately this letter will be a bit shorter.

Elder Tovar and I started contacting in a different part of the city this week to try and try more investigators. We got one really cool one, Bertha, who seems way interested in our message, and a few other great contacts. The only downside of contacting and teaching over there is that it´s super far away and sometimes we schedule appointments, walk over there just to find that they´re not home and we have to walk back. so yeah we did a lot of walking this week.

The worst thing that happened this week was definitely on Thursday. We were in a lesson with our neighbor and their dog jumped up on the couch behind me and started peeing. ALL OVER ME! I can not stress how terrible the feeling of having warm dog pee soaking into your pants. 0/10 Would not recommend. And don´t even get me started on the smell. absolutely the worst!

Unfortunately though, the dog peeing on me was also the most exciting thing this week. Nothing else really happened. Yesterday was tough because between the two companionships in our house and our 15 or so people that committed to coming to church this week, all of them dipped. None of them were home when we went to get them or they said they were busy. Dissappointing when people don´t do what they say they will but that´s part of the mission I guess. We´re really going to stress the importance of attending church this week and hopefully they´ll come next week.

Today Elder Carr and I went to the central and went into some store to look at ties. We statred talking to the lady working there and it turned into an awesome contact and we´re going to teach her this week! Then she just started giving us all these ties and by the end of it, we got 10 ties and a pair of pants all for about 30 US dollars. I love Mexico!

But yeah that was my week, next week should be more exciting with more pictures with dia de los muertos this week and all of the festivities. I´m sorry for the short letter and I hope to send a better one next week! I know that I am in the Lord´s hands and He will guide us to the people who need his message.

 I came upon a scripture that I really liked this week in personal study and it really made me think of missionary work and the importance of it. "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." 3 Nephi 5:13 I know that our Heavenly Father has called me here for a reason, and that reason is to serve. I´m so grateful for this opportunity I have to share this good word and I´m excited for this next week to try even harder to bring more of His children to Him.

 Thank you everyone for the prayers. I miss and love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Fillmore

Birthday Week & Best Rejection Ever

Birthday Fun

 Birthday Baptism

Wow what a week! Where to begin. So, last Monday after our P-day activities, we went out and taught a few lessons. When we got home that night, while I was writing in my journal, my companion called me out back and asked for help. I stepped outside and he started spraying me with the hose! What the heck! I was so confused at first I just kind of stood there and took it. I´ve learned that Latinos love to have a good time and will look for any excuse to have a party of sorts.

Tuesday was good too. We had a district meeting in the morning and after, Elder Tovar and I found an awesome investigator! His name is Diego and he was way into our message! We taught him again on Friday and his mother too and we had an awesome hour long lesson with him and we were able to answer all of their questions about the plan of salvation. Then we had Diego pray and he gave an awesome prayer for his first time.

On Wednesday we had a lot of appointments set up but they all fell through. One of them was way weird. We went to a less active family and they opened the door, said they couldn´t talk, handed us a big box of Corn Pops, and proceeded to shut the door. Best Rejection Ever. Not that rejection is ever good but it hurts less when you get cereal out of it. Then Elder Carr and Elder Burbidge had us go to a lesson for them because they accidently went on the wrong bus and were an hour away from their investigator, so Elder Tovar and I took a cab over to Jessica. Elder Carr and I gave her a Book Of Mormon about a week ago and the day we gave it to her she called us and said she had started reading it and so Elder Tovar and I were able to answer all of her questions about Lehi´s vision of the Tree of Life and it was a super cool lesson and it was super cool to see that she was already reading! Then that night we had a lesson with Ximena, who has come to church two weeks in a row and we invited her to baptism and we set a date! We finally got gas back in our house that night so we can take hot showers again and what a blessing that is.

Thursday was pretty uneventful until about 8:30 at night when we had a lesson with our neighbor. We were able to invite her to baptism and she accepted! She seems way excited about it too! I just hope now that she continues to come to church so that we can baptize her. 

Friday we went on divisions and I went with our district leader, Elder Santacruz. We went to teach Osvalso, who isn´t a member, and his dad, Jose Guadalupe, who is a less active and it was a great lesson. Elder Santacruz is a great teacher and we invited Osvaldo to be baptized and he said yes! Him and his dad both came to church on Sunday too and they both enjoyed it!

Saturday. What a day. Definitely won´t ever forget this birthday. So Leon and Santacruz came over in the morning and we were going to all go for a run for exercise. I stepped outside and they threw buckets of water at me and soaked me. Then proceeded to spray me with "espooma" and they covered me with it. I couldn´t see at all and after, they said I looked like an abominal snowman. Then I came inside and they had a cake for me. I blew out the candles and they smashed my face into the cake and I had cake everywhere. The frosting like glued on ofe my eyes shut and I couldn´t open it. I had cake so far up my nose and when I blew my nose, only cake came out. It was in my hair and just everywhere. This was all before 7 in the morning. Happy birthday to me. Then I showered and we got ready for Jose´s baptism! We went and Elder Burbidge and Elder Carr brought their investigator, who is from Chicago and they are teaching him in English, and we all made our way to the baptism. I probably said the baptismal words in my mind a hundred times on the bus ride there. I was super nervous that´d I´d mess up the words. We got there and the service was awesome! The Spirit was so strong and Jose looked so happy. I got to baptize him! It went perfectly and I can not describe the joy that comes from bringing somebody into the waters of baptism and helping them recieve that remission of sins. The mission is tough and I miss everyone back home and often things don´t go our way but when I see the smile on people´s faces after they have received that forgiveness and they know they have come back to their Heavenly Father I know that it´s all worth it. To share this gospel and message of happiness is so worth it. The rest of the day was great. Elder Tovar and Elder Burbidge went with President to figure out changes and Elder Carr and I went out teaching. We taught a family of about 9 and they all said they´d come to church. that Sunday 6 of them did! Then on our way home we met some guy from Texas who speaks English and we´re going to go teach him later this week! It was an awesome day overall and a great birthday.

Sunday was good. Investigators came to church and we got a less active family to come. They all stayed for the entire 3 hours too! Then Carr and I were on our own again because Tovar and Burbidge went to finalize changes. I´m happy to say that I´m staying here for another 6 weeks! Woohoo! But ya Carr and I taught Ximena and halfway through our lesson she asaked us if she could practice her English and holy heck she knows English! We then had an awesome lesson in Spanglish and We´re going back again tonight. Then we took the Sacrament to a member in the ward. He just lost his leg and isn´t able to leave his house so e took it to him. Elder Carr and I sang him a hymn before and then after the sacrament he asked for a blessing and then his son asked for one too and we were able to give them blessings in Spanish. It was great and they were so grateful for it. I´m so glad that I´m actually able to help the people here and I feel so much more useful in the hands of the Lord. I know this Church is true and I´m so grateful for my opportunity to be serving! Thank you everyone for the birthday wishes this week and thank you for your prayers. I´m doing great and miss you all! Until next week,

Con amor, 

Elder Fillmore

 

Great Week!

Current address:

Avenida Pie de la Cuestra No. 102
Esq. Boulevard Desarrollo San Pablo
Colonia Colinas de San Pablo
C.P. 76125 Querétaro, Queretaro
Mexico

Sorry about last week, we didn't get home from our zone activities in time and I was unable to email. Sucked but I'll try to get a good recap of both weeks.First off though. Shout out to Jeff and Ashlyn for getting their calls this week!!! So stoked for you guys and can´t wait for you guys to get into the field and serve the Lord!

First off though, SHOUTOUT to Jeff and Ashlyn for getting their calls this week!!!

So stoked for you guys to get into the field and serve the Lord! You guy´s will be great!

 Last week was awesome. Tuesday we had a district meeting and that was alright. Before we left though president Williamson asked me if I'd give a blessing to one of the sisters... In Spanish. This was my first blessing in Spanish, in front of president no less, and I was super nervous. But the spirit was there to help me and guide me what to say and I was able to give the blessing. It was a super cool experience. The rest of the day was nothing spectacular. Wednesday and Thursday were super sick though! Elder Burbidge and Elder Tovar had to help president those days with some things and me and elder Carr were on our own, knowing little Spanish, in an unfamiliar place, with no way of contacting anyone for help. It was awesome. We went out and taught lessons. People listened to our broken Spanish and accepted our messages. We had one guy come up to us while we were walking and asked what we were doing and we were able to talk to him and give him a book of Mormon and set up more appointments. Then another guy offered us a ride and in the car he told us he was less active member. Then he asked for blessing and we were able to give him a blessing on the side of the road. We taught some others and one family said they'd come to general conference with us! It was a super fun two days. Friday was good too. We found a really cool investigator and she said she really feels like her family needs our message and we're going to go back and teach them next week. We also so a Ferrari while walking home! Some member gave us lunch and when we left she gave us an apple flavored thing in seran wrap. Later that day some high dude asked us for money so instead I gave him the snack thing. He just started eating the whole thing, seran wrap and all! Elder Tovar tried to help but he walked away and I'm pretty sure he ate all of it. Then conference on Saturday and Sunday was amazing! Luckily I was able to watch it in English with a few other American elders. What a blessing. But we were able to watch all sessions and learn a lot. We had two families of investigators come to the Sunday afternoon session! They really liked it! It was great to see them there. On the way home from priesthood session, the ward mission leader offered us a ride and we crammed 6 missionaries in this tiny car and drove home. It was hilarious and he took pictures so hopefully he sends them to us. For lunch on Sunday we ate at the church with a family and they had a whole bunch of different foods. There was a bowl of something so I went over and was going to try it and I grabbed the spoon and stirred it up to see what it was... A FREAKING CHICKEN FOOT came to the top! I quickly walked away and pretended I never saw it. I hope I never have to actually eat that during the mission. P day was fun. We went to the Nike store and looked around and we walked around the mall for a little bit. Then we went across town and met up with our zone and President and his wife and we all went bowling. It went longer than expected though and that is why I was unable to email last week. It was a ton of fun though. Tuesday was tough. We walked all day long and people kept cancelling on us left and right. Tovar said that´s just part of the mission and to not let it get to you. We did have a baptisimal interview that night with Sergio and he should be getting baptised within the next week or two! Wednesday was good. We taught a father and son, Jose and Osvaldo, who seemed really interested in our lesson and we set up more appointments next week with them and I´m excited to see where it goes. For lunch we went to a members house and for some reason, the peppers are hotter here in Mexico. They said it was´nt hot and so I took a bite and I´m pretty sure there was a legit fire inside of my mouth. Hottest pepper I´ve ever had. The rest of lunch tasted like nothing and it was not a fun experience. I learned though that if someone says a pepper isn´t hot, they´re lying.  But ya the rest of they day was pretty good. We invited the Perez family to church and they said they´d come. Thursday we started a "swear" jar. We can´t say "flip" or "freak" or "a la goma" or stuff like that because it´s not very missionary-like and if we do we have to put 10 pesos in the jar. After a day we had about a 100 pesos because it´s hard for all of us to adjust. We've been doing better though. It´s just tough when something bad happens to you and you can´t say anything. For example like when I got pooped on by a bird... Ya, that sucked. Right onto my freshly washed pants. Elder Tovar thought it was hilarious and I did too after the fact. Initially, I was peeved but after I was laughing about it.  The next 3 days were great. Every day we had different members feed us and we had American food everytime. Domino´s pizza, hamburgers, and hot dogs. Tasted like home. We also had a lot of cool meetings with investigators and a lot committed to coming to church or reading the Book of Mormon! Then last night, Elder Tovar and Burbidge had to go help President with something again so it was me and Elder Carr again. We had no success until the end of the night. We were walking home and saw a lady sitting on the side of the road and we started talking to her. Not really talking, more listening. She talked for a good 40 minutes straight and Elder Carr couldn´t get in a word. Then we finally had to cut her off and tell her we had to go to another appointment because it was 8:40 and we were still far from home. We gave her a pamphlet with our number on it and she seemed too excited to get our number. I think she just enjoys talking. But we had to speed walk home and barely made it in time. Today we went around the city and went to buffalo wild wings for lunch and just hung out. But ya it was a great two weeks. I can´t believe 2 months are already gone! Time is flying by. Thank you everyone for your prayers! I´m doing great and I love you all!

-Elder Fillmore

 

Just a Quick Note

We just got home and have no time to write:( 

Tell every one I love them and I will write them next week. I'm sorry. I love you guys!
-Elder Fillmore

Dang what a week!

So we got into Queretaro last week and met our mission President and his wife this week and they're super cool! Then we got our area and companions. I'm in the Hidalgo area with elder Tovar!

He has been out for 18 months and he's super cool!

He doesn't speak English so I get to practice my Spanish a ton.

Every day has been great this week. So every morning is pretty much the same. We get up and exercise for 30 minutes and then shower and get ready. Then we have an hour of personal study, an hour of comp study, then an hour of language study, and then we hit the streets for the rest of the day. We walk a ton! We walk a good 8-10 miles every day and only take the bus if we go to church or the far side of our area. And even then we usually walk back from there. A lot of the people here are really poor and I've  never realized how blessed we are in the states with everything we have. But they're really humble and are pretty open to our message. This first week I've already been able to give away about 10 Libros de Mormon! Everyone has been super nice and the members feed us everyday. There's only been one drunk guy who's been somewhat aggressive. He yelled at me and elder Tovar day 1 and loves to get close and poke us in the chest. We just laugh and walk away. Lol.

So today we went to Costco to get groceries and it was so weird. It totally felt like home there and it was messing with my mind. It felt like we were back in the states for a little bit. It didn't help either that in the parking lot there was a white couple from Glendale and they had an AZ license plate. Totally thought I was home for a good 2 seconds. 

Thanks everyone for the prayers. I´ll try to send more next week but this week we had a ton of extra stuff to do for our first P-day. I love you all!

-Elder Fillmore

"E" Has Left the MTC (CCM)

 This morning we left the CCM and drove on a bus to the airport. Then we got off and got onto another bus (the nicest bus I´ve been on) and made our way to Querétaro. The bus was way comfy and it was nice to get some sleep because we had to get up at 3:45. We got to Qerétaro around 10 and were picked up by President Williamson and his wife and the AP´s. They´re all super great. Then we drove to the mission president´s house and holy dang it is in a super nice part of town. Doesn´t even look like Mexico but rather California esque. We had lunch with them and got to hang out and meet them and take pictures. Sister Williamson is apparently related to Rays in Mesa. Then we drove to the offices and found out our area and companions. Me and elder Carr are serving here in Querétaro with the AP´s. My companion is Elder Tovar. He´s from Mexico and has been out for 20 months and Elder Carr is serving with Elder Burbidge from Utah. We´ll all be in a hiouse here in the city and I´m so stoked!!! Mom you´ll be glad to hear this is the cleanest city in Mexico and one of the safest. I can not wait to actually start helping the people and I´ll get to start tonight. We have our first appointment tonight!!! I can´t wait!! I love you guys so much and I´ll send a lot more next week and lots of pictures. This week is just mainly to say we´re here safe and sound. Feel free to send this out to anyone! I love you guys so much!<3

-Elder Fillmore

Final Week in the CCM!!!

This will be my last email coming from the CCM! Next time you hear from me I will be in Queretaro! It´s been a great 6 weeks here and I have learned so much but I am so excited to get out of here and actually help people! 

Nothing really happened this week since Friday but I´ll try to give a good recap.

Saturday we had a service project and we cleaned the gymnasium because there is supposed to be a big celebration kind of thing in there so we had to clean everything and now no one is allowed to go in and play basketball. That is suppose to take place tomorrow I think so hopefully that will be pretty cool. Except that night there is allegedly going to be fireworks all night long so I´m not too stoked for that because we probably won´t get any sleep.

Sunday was great. One of the districts in our zone sang in church and it was amazing. They sang "Gethsemane" I think is was it was and it was super good. We have to sing this week on Sunday so we have to practice this week. Then that night we got to listen to M. Russel Ballard for our evening devotional and it was great. He talked about remembering who we are representing and how we should act and it was a real gut check for a lot of people and I think since then people have been nicer and more Christ-like. Then we took pictures with district 13 C because they were leaving the next day. Those guys were great and I´m going to miss them but I know they´ll do great.

Monday was pretty uneventful, mostly just the same old classes and nothing exciting happened.

Yesterday was pretty good. for our gym time we played some soccer and it was pretty fun. I was playing really well until Elder Bettilyon kicked and missed and nailed me in the shin. It hurt but i tried to walk it off. Then like 3 minutes later Elder Seaman did the same thing! I could barely walk for the next 10 minutes and I just stood in goal because walking hurt too much. Super fun though despite getting shin blasted twice. Then that night we got to listen to another apostle! Quinton L. Cook spoke last night and it was awesome! He talked about loving the people and if we do we will have so much more success and we´ll enjoy it so much more. 

Overall it was a great week. I´m excited to be leaving soon though and actually start serving in the field. We should get our travel plans today so I´m so stoked for that. Thank you everyone for your prayers! I´ll talk to you all next week... from Queretaro! 

Zone Pic

part of the squad from back home

People in AZ stay on the lookout for my boy Elder Folkman

serving in the Tempe mission! Super great guy.

1 Down. 23 to Go.

Hola everybody!!! So my first month is done and it has been awesome. In these past four weeks I have learned so much. I´ve learned more spanish here than I did while taking it for two years in high school. I´m learning so much more about the Gospel here too and it´s just incredible how much information we´re learning and how much our testimonies are strengthening!

This week was great. Fast sunday was awesome here and we got to watch a lot of cool videos and here some great talks. And on Tuesday, we got to listen to Elder D. Todd Christofferson! It was so cool to listen to him and his wife speak. Next week we get to listen to another apostle and I can´t wait for that.

So there is 20 people in our house. I´m pretty sure 15 of them are Latinos and it´s awesome! We have so much fun talking and hanging out with them and it´s also great practice for our Spanish. They are super funny and one night, one of them was showing us all his card tricks and stuff and then another one brought out a beats pill and starting playing MOTAB and it was a huge dance party. Then one of the songs ended and Eminem came on and all the Latinos starting getting hype. The guys in my room were all kind of confused at first, especially when Eminem dropped a F bomb. We had to explain to them that we shouldn't be listening to that but it was kind of funny because when he said it they were all smiling from the music because they didn't understand English. 

My district is kind of the best at everything. We keep getting challenged to play people in sports because we talk smack. This week we played a ton of ultimate Frisbee and kickball. No contest. We slaughter everyone and it´s so much fun. The only time we lose anything is when the Latinos play us in soccer, LOL.

Overall it was a great week. Thank you everyone for the prayers, they´re really helping. I love everyone and miss you all!

 

Week 4

I can´t believe I´ve already been gone for almost a month! It feels like just last week I was home hanging out with everyone. At this rate two years will fly by so I definitely need to enjoy it.

Life is still great here in the CCM. The food is starting to get old but for the most part everything else is still great. The nights are great here, the constant sounds of barking dogs and honking horns and the occasional gunshot really just put me right to sleep.

The classes are great here and i feel my Español is really improving. I can understand a lot when people talk to  me, i just have a hard time formulating my own sentences. I´m definitely getting better though.

So this week was interesting. On Monday, Elder Harmon and I had to go to immigration because I lost my FMM form at the airport on day one. I had to go fill out a ton of papers and I was asked a ton of questions. The whole time we were there almost everything was in Spansih so that was great practice. While we were waiting to go inside we witnessed someone get pulled over and arrested. Some guy and stolen a car and the cops got him and found a bunch of cell phones in the car too (probably also stolen) so that was fun. Then today we had to go back, this time with a bunch of people to get fingerprinted to get residency here. I wasn't allowed to though because of the FMM form thing. Now I have to go back next week. Alone. And miss out on another P day. Not too stoked about that but whatever. As we say in our district, "I´m over it".

I miss everyone and Thank you everyone for the prayers! Hopefully next week I´ll have some more fun stories. Until next time,

-Elder Fillmore

Week 3

Hey everybody! sorry I couldn't write a lot last week we we´re in a hurry to go to the temple! But this week has been awesome! The temple was so amazing and we actually just went again this week! But let me see if I can give a recap for this week.

So first i´ll talk about the food. It´s not terrible here but it´s also by not the best. Tuesdays are great because it´s pizza night and we get Costco pizza! breakfast is usually nasty though. Almost every day they serve what we call "soggy chips" and all it is, is just some stale tortilla chips with some red sauce over them and they are absolutely terrible. But other than that everything is pretty good.

So our zone is kinda known now for killing animals. Our zone leader´s district killed two mice this week in their house. Big Mike and G Cheesy are now buried outside their house. Then Elder Carlson in my district killed a bird. We were walking back from dinner one night and he saw a bird in a tree and just chucked a rock at it and totally nailed it! We were all freaking out and some Sister missionary saw and started chasing after Elder Carlson and yelling at him. One of the funniest things I have ever seen! JAJAJAJAJA!

The classes here can be boring sometimes but are definately helping. Elder Harmon, Elder Paul, and I got two new investigators this week, Victor and Mario. I feel like my spanish is doing so much better and i can understand almost everything when we teach them.

Overall its been great here thus far. Thanks everyone for the prayers and support! 

LOL guess what. Lost my FMM form and have to go to the airport to fill out a bunch of stuff to get a new one because I kind of need that to get home one day. Classic me right? But ya Elder Harmon and I have been waiting at the reception for two hours for our bus and the receptionist just said the driver is running late (go figure) so she said we can check our email. I just thought i´d let you know what is happening. I saw Hansan and got my shorts, thanks for sending those with him. Elder D. in our district went home on Saturday so now Elder Paul is with Elder Bush and we don't have a tri-panionship anymore. Things are going great here but i´m definitely ready to get out of here and get into the field. Time will go faster and i feel like I'll actually be doing something to help someone. Feel kinda like useless locked up in a classroom all day. But three weeks from today i should be in Queretaro. Overall its been great here thus far. Thanks everyone for the prayers and support!

Limited Time...Sorry

Hola everybody! I don't have a lot of time today so this week will be short and i'll try to write more next week! but i arrived safely  with no major problems. My companion elder harmon is great. He's from Orem, Utah and is super funny. Elder Johnson in our district, from flagstaff, went home yesterday though so now elder paul is in a tri-panionship with us which is great though cuz hes hilarious and they moved us from the dorms to a house. So much better! But ya my district is really awesome and we wreck everyone in ultimate frisbee. The classes are awesome here and I'm learning so much Spanish! I love and miss everyone!

-Elder Fillmore