Mexico, Veracrus mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Elder Horrocks will be serving in the Mexico, Veracrus mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

New Companion and a New Area


Hello from Carlos A. Carrillo, Mexico!

Okay, I´ll get right in to describing my new companion and my new area since that´s what most people want to know. My area is pretty darn cool. It´s a town that grew up around a sugar factory, so that´s where a lot of people work. There are sugar cane fields for miles around my area and there are tractors constantly bringing in their crops to the factory. It´s a fairly small town and the only big store is a Super Che which is a Mexican supermarket. It´s a really pretty area that´s fairly close to nature, but the factory makes things a little more interesting. It´s constantly spewing out black smoke out of five huge smokestacks. Depending on the wind, you might get some "black snow". It´s not much, but occasionally you´ll get ash falling on you and usually if you leave a window open you´ll end up with ash in your house. Speaking of which... I´ve lived in three different houses this past week. And here comes the whole story of my first couple days:

I took a 2 and a half hour bus ride to get to Tuxtepec, the area of my zone leaders. The bus ride was actually kind of nice and relaxing.  I got off the bus and met my companion then we took a cab to the zone leaders house. Then I found out that my companion is sick with salmonella (however you spell that) and needs to rest... not the news I really wanted to hear, but whatcha gonna do? Also, we had a zone meeting the next day so we spent the night with the zone leaders. After the zone meeting, my companion needed to see the doctor in that area. The problem was that the doctor was only going to be in at 9 p.m. and later. So we ended up spending the entire day at the zone leaders´ house while my companion recuperated. I took the opportunity to study and write a couple letters. The next day we took another bus to my area Carlos A. Carrillo. That bus ride lasted about an hour then we took a taxi to our house.

So I get there and my companion tells me that we´re changing houses. He had already found one, but we needed to actually do the moving part.  We didn´t have time to do it that day so we slept there. The next day we changed houses and went on splits. We had to clean out at least a year worth of old missionary garbage and move all our stuff. Almost everything was covered in either dust or sludge of some kind. We moved in the morning then I went on splits with some return missionaries from the ward. We visited members and got a few references. We also spent some time organizing and cleaning in the new house. Now, the old house had mice and huge spiders running around which is one of the reasons we left. All these critters were coming from the "backyard". It was pretty much a jungle and missionaries had been throwing their trash back there and burning some of it. Sooooo, we ended up cleaning that all up today. We went back there with machetes to chop down all the weeds and trees (small ones) and took all the trash to the "dump". The dump was pretty much just a field where you dump your garbage and set it on fire. It was just a ton of garbage with millions of flies, vultures, and a pack of stray dogs. It was like looking out into a post apocalyptic wasteland. It was interesting to say the least.

Anyways, the only day we worked the entire time was yesterday. We visited more members and had one lesson with an investigator that went pretty well. Elder Wheeler and I teach fairly well together. He´s been here one transfer already, but doesn´t have too many baptisms here. He´s a good worker and I know we´re going to baptize together. The ward here is super good and they´re already giving us references. We´ll be working very closely with the ward leaders and the members. It should be a lot of fun. :)

I think that´s it as far as new things go. I´ll let you know if anything interesting happens. I took a few pictures, but the internet cafe we´re in doesn´t have the right stuff to let me upload my photos. 

I´ve got a lot of work to do and it might be challenging at times, but I know that I´m here for a reason. I have no doubts that this work is guided by the Lord through our prophet and mission leaders. I know that this church is true and that the Gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth. If we live this Gospel, we´ll find the most happiness possible in this life. I love you all and hope all is well. :)

Love,
Elder Sean Horrocks

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