A Few Days Late

From the mission president's wife:

Sister Fillmore,

I'm writing a quick note to you to let you know that Elder Fillmore is fine but they had a zone activity in Guanajuato and didn't have a chance to write. You should hear from him tomorrow. And also, he is just an awesome missionary. We are so blessed to have him in our mission.

Sister Williamson
*So grateful for other moms in this world -SF

We went to Guanajuato for a zone activity Monday and got home way late and when we got home we had interviews with president so yeah it was a long long day. President gave us permission to write though so here I am:) It was sweet though, we went to a mummy museum and visited the city and its super sweet, hopefully i can serve there one day. And bad news though is that I lost my cord for my camera :,( I cant charge my camera or upload fotos. We´re going to the Tiangis this week though to see if we can find one there and if  not I think I´m going to sell my camera and buy a new one. Hopefully I find a charger, haha. But this week was good. My district of 6 beat the other district of 10 in our zone in a contacting competition. And my 6 was actually 4 because one companionship is fried and they don't do jack squat. But the 4 of us killed it this week and it was a great time and we found a ton of new investigators so I cant wait :) this week was also really nice because we've gotten a little rain every single day so its nice to have a change of weather :) I cant believe Ive been out 7 months, its going crazy fast! I'm glad everyone is doing well back home but I´m kind of bummed Blake hasn't done his papers yet. He needs to hop on it because the mission is so rad. So I was thinking of sending a package home but I have yet to find a post office place here in Salamanca so I might have to wait until I get transfered:/ it´ll be sick though, But yeah, we got permission to write home and say we´re still alive so here it is:) I love you so much mom!<3 Thanks for everything! Keep being you:)

Con amor,

Elder Fillmore :)

 

*Blake started his mission process the next day

Salamanca or Smellymanca?

Hey friends and family! All is well here in Salamanca, except for the smell that is. Here in Salamanca we have the biggest petroleum refinery in all of Mexico and it smells wonderful. Sometimes I want to walk around with a clothespin over my nose but that´s unprofessional so we don't do that.  But seriously that´s the only bad thing here. We already having success here. We started teaching a family of 4 and they told us how much they love this gospel and they also came to church this week! If all goes well we will be able to baptize them this change! We also met an old lady named Ingracia and she loved our message and our first lesson with her we invited her to be baptized and she accepted! The field is white and ready to harvest here in Salamanca and I´m excited to be a part of it.

So this whole District leader thing is different. I had to give my first district meeting on Tuesday and I felt way unprepared but I felt the spirit guide me in my words and I know that the Lord was helping me. I know that the Lord makes weak things strong and that He will help us in all aspects of life if we ask Him. He has already helped me tremendously and continues to do so everyday. I´m so grateful for this gospel and am so glad to be sharing it with others. 

Thanks everyone for the prayers and support, I love you all!

P.s. sorry no fotos this week, I left my cord in the house :(

Lider de Distrito

Hey everyone! This week was a great one but do to transfers today and the traveling I dont have a ton of time. So last week we passed Olimpia off as a reference but she wanted us to keep teaching her so we got permission and we continued with the lessons and she gort baptized saturday!!!! Such and awesome experience!

We got changes yesterday and I´ve been called to Salamanca! I took a bus for two hours to Irapuato and then another bus for one hour to Salamanca. It´s like celaya but smaller. And it smells awful because of all the gas companies here. I´m also District leader now! Excited to work here in the new area with my new comp, Elder Wierna. He´s from Argentina and has about 6 months in the mission as well. Should be a great time here. 

Thanks for all the support! Love you all! 

Elder Fillmore

Week of Tracting

 The call me the cat whisperer

 Me goofing around in the Catholic church

Me, Elder Reyes, Elder Marshall, and Elder Morales feasting

Hey everyone! All is well here in the good´ole México. This week was very busy with tracting and we contacted a ton of people. Since we dumped a lot of our old investigators, we´ve been searching for new ones and there have been a few days when we have no lessons planned so we just go and knock doors ALL DAY LONG. I love it. We get to meet a whole bunc of people. Some super old and cranky. Some Catholic that tell us we´re going to hell. Some drunk and invite us to drink with them. But every once and a while we find someone who actually is normal and wants to listen to us and we get to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them and it´s so worth it when we find that one. This week we were blessed to find 10 new investigators and I´m excited to see how it goes this next week with them.

Bad news however is that one of our investigators, Olimpia, who we´ve been teaching and we have a baptismal date with her for this week actual live a whole 10 or 15 feet out of our boundaries. So unfortunately we had to pass her as a reference. Super bummed to have to do that but the missionaries in that area are great and they´ll do a great job finishing.

Nothing else too exciting. This is the last week of this change so next week I may be in a new area. I´ll let everyone know what happens next week! Thank you all for the prayers and support! I love you all! Have a great week!

Con amor,

Elder FIllmore

The Recovery

Hey everyone! I´m feeling much better from last week so thanks for all the prayers! And I´ve learned my lesson to never eat bugs again.

So this week we dropped a lot of investigators because nobody was progressing but we were blessed to find a handful of new ones who are way more prepared! We found Olimpia and she already has a baptism date and is ready to go. Unfortunately her family is super hard core Christians and don't like us but we´re still teach her and trying to find time when they're not home. We also found Militon and he came to church with his daughter yesterday and he says he feels like this is the right church! I´m excited to see what happens these next few weeks he before changes.

Today we went to the centro and took a lot of pictures but this computer is trash and won't let me upload so I´ll send them next week. Thanks for all the support! Sorry for the short letter again this week, we´re busy. Love you all!

Elder Fillmore

One Fourth of the Way

Hey everyone! Well, I´ve been out for 6 months now and holy heck and the time flown by! I don´t have a ton of time today but that´s fine because not a lot happened this week. I did divisions this week with Elder Reyes. He´s our zone leader and he´s awesome. It was a weird experience though. When we got to his area, someone told us we could come over for dinner. Elder Reyes told me it was weird because they were investigators and never want to talk to the missionaries, let alone invite them over for dinner. But we went. Worst dinner ever. They just put a big bowl of chapulines in front of us and well, that was it. I´ll send a picture of what chapulines are. Yikes. But yeah they made me quite sick and we spent the rest of the week in the house throwing up. I´m doing much better now and I´ve learned my lesson, haha. Well, I hope you all have a great week!

Elder Fillmore

 

Slow and Go

 The dogs love me

 Makin´it rain with that mensualidad. Dont be impressed, it's less than $150 in the U.S.

 District bus ride

Elder Morales, Elder Reyes, y Yo chillin in Costco

 

Hey everybody! Hope all is going well! So nothing exciting this week. We had a few rule changes on Wednesday and now we can be out later teaching investigators which is nice. This week Elder Morales and I looked for new people to teach and we found an awesome family that lives on the edge of our area. They are way into our lessons and they said they want to be members and we´re stoked. Only thing we have to do before that is get them married... Easy right? Haha we´ll see how that goes in these upcoming weeks. Also this week we went to a lot of less or inactive members because we have A TON of them here. And it was good to see 5 of them come to church this week. Hopefully they continue to come. We´re trying to reactivate members in hopes that one will be called to be bishop because the ward is really struggling without one. I´d like to see if we can get a bishop here before the next change but who knows. Nothing else too exciting happened this week. We lost our keys one night and look for them for an hour. I´m stupid and they we´re in my bag the whole time. "Buen hecho Elder Fillmore" -Mi compañero. jaja. But yeah hopefully with these new rules we can teach more investigators this week and get perhaps get them to come to church.

Thanks everyone for the love and support! I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Fillmore

Sorry...

Hey everybody! Sorry for no letter last week. We we´re helping a member move last week and we were there from 11 to 7. And sorry for this week because we are short on time so don't expect much this week. Next week should be back to normal though!

So these past two weeks we have found a handful of new investigators and 2 new families to teach and we´re way excited to teach them! We had stake conference this past week and we we´re excited because we though they would finally call a bishop for our ward. But lo and behold, Laureles is still Bishopless and has been for over a year now.

But yeah, everything is going here. I love it here in Celaya and the people are super nice for the most part. The dogs on the other hand are a different story. One chased us from the store to our house and just about ate us. Luckily we were able to fight it off. That´s not true. I think our high pitched screams hurt its ears and scared it off. But yeah other than that its great here.

Thanks everyone for the prayers. I miss you all and hope everyone is doing great!!

Elder Fillmore

 

*Jan 16th to his mom

Mission life is great. It´s tough here in Laureles. No members want to help us and nobody wants to listen to us. But we keep trying. No more lockdowns this week thankfully but we have permission to go home whenever we don't feel safe. Thankfully we haven't had that feeling yet. We did go to Queretaro this week! Osvasldo, one of my old investigators was baptised Saturday and invited us and President said we could go! It was awesome! And I got to see Elder Tovar again before he left. He left today in the morning. But yeah it was great to go to that and see my "hometown" Stoked for Blake and super jealous that hes playing volleyball right now. That´s so awesome that they're doing really well. Let me know how he does! I love you so much mom! I miss you and everyone back home a lot but I know everyon is doing great and I´ll see you all soon enough. Have a great week and I hope you do great in School! I love you mom!!!

Lockdown

Hey everyone! Super busy week and also super weird week. so first off we found our investigator who quit drinking last week in the street one night and he had relapsed. He said he was sorry and told us he was going to pray. So he got down in the middle of the street on his knees and started praying. From a different point of view it would've seemed as if he was worshipping us. We´re trying to help him get better but it seems like every other day he goes back to his alcohol.

On the good side we found a new family to teach this week and we´re teraching the parents, the grandma, and they have 4 kids! They seem really interested and I´m excited to see how it goes this week! 

So Thursday night we got a text saying that we all had to be in our houses before 7. Why? who knows. But we did as were told and usually when we get home at 9 we have a lot of extra time before we go to bed. But when we get home at 7... yeah, long night of nothing. I can now solve a Rubiks Cube now after that, haha. The next morning we got another text saying we still weren't allowed to leave. So we were in the house until about 3 that day before we finally got approval to leave. Not entirely sure why still but we have a few ideas from things we´ve heard from other missionaries and members. Crazy stuff happening in Mexico.

Other highlites from the week include eating pig head and getting invited next week by the same people who gave us the pig head to eat cow intestines and crickets. Yeah. Lets just say i hope we do divisions that day and I have the pleasure of missing that meal.

I´m doing great here though and I love it! Thanks for prayers! I hope everyone is doing great back home! I miss you all! Have a great week!

Con amor,

Elder Fillmore

 

 Dia de Reyes with the district

 When you cant leave the house to get food so you order Pizza Hut

Feliz Año Nuevo!

Hope everyone had a great new years! Nothing new here. Super slow week. The people here dont need a reason to party so when there actually is a holiday or some valid reason to party, they go nuts. Fireworks and loud music all week long and the occasional drunk person who offered us beer. And every time we pass a party there is always someone, without fail, who yells "hey wero!" I love it. And the parties will continue this week because they celbrate dia de los reyes here so we get that to look forward to.

This week one of our investigators moved to Queretaro so we have to pass that reference:/ I hope i can teach them again someday if I go back! We also got one of our investigators to quit smoking and drinking this week! He´s doing great now and he already seems happier! Nothing else really new here.

Thank you everyone for the love and support! I love you all!

Con amor,

Elder Fillmore

*This week was slow. Everyone is partying and its hard to teach people when that's going on. New years was uneventful here. Just music and fireworks ALL. NIGHT. LONG. but yeah nothing else.

Hope Blake's birthday went well!

Elder Morales got mad at me because I drink too much milk or something? Well I'm sorry. If we had coke or water, maybe this wouldn't be a problem. lol!

I love you mom!! I´m doing great! Have a great week!<3

*personal email from Ethan I want to include

¡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