Love Being a Missionary

August 24, 2015

Dear family,

I had an awesome week. Elder Romero went home after the changes meeting and his family came to pick him up so I got to meet all his family and eat one last meal with them before they headed home. But now my new companion is Elder Flores. He is 24 and is from Chile. Hes a really cool guy and we are really excited to work together. We have some great goals set for this next change and we are looking forward to keep progressing the work! We have some good laughs and also some good lessons. And he told me that I've been sleep talking teaching about baptism and inviting people to be baptized during the night. We're just set up for having a successful change haha.

The Mexico City temple is having their open house right now and so we has a couple investigators go to mexico with our ward to the temple open house. The temple has been closed for a little while so when I was in the MTC I wasn't able to go to it but the missionaries that are going into the MTC this upcoming change will be able to do a session in the temple and I want to go to the temple in Mexico City so bad! I'm hoping near the end of my mission Ill be able to go do a session.

Wow have we seen so many miracles in our area! We got a reference the other day for a girl that went to EFY in Mexico city with a friend and she wants to get baptized right away! We haven't been able to get a hold of her yet but we are going to go to her little Pueblo tomorrow to  contact her. And I'm not sure how it worked out, but our Zone Leaders told us that she can get baptized right away. We haven't met her yet but all we know is that she wants to get baptized and we're all about that!

I love being a missionary and I wouldn't rather be anywhere in the world than a missionary here in Mexico. Have a great week everyone!

Elder Del Toro

English Classes

Monday August 17, 2015

Hello family!

This week was another great one. I got invited to go back to my last area, Huejotzingo, to baptize one of my old investigators! I baptized Alejandra and the Elders quorum president baptized Carlos and it was a really sweet service. They have been taking the lessons for about 2 years and they couldn't get baptized and then finally they got baptized! There was so many people at the service and it was one of the best baptismal services I've been to. Also we baptized Paty! Moroni, one of the youth in our ward that has a mission call, baptized her. We had it at the stake center and there was 4 other baptisms in he same service.

We started teaching English classes last week! Me and Elder Winters have been teaching them and its been going pretty good. We've taught how to pray, how to meet somebody and the next class we are going to teach how to bear a testimony. We really like teaching them and we've gotten a few new investigators from it so we are going to continue them!

Elder Romero goes home tomorrow so hes been pretty excited. Ill be staying in the area and I will get a new companion.

Not too much else is going on! Im happy and I love being a missionary

Elder DT

1) Baptism of Clarlos y Alejandra
2) Me and Elder Winters teaching the English class
3) Baptism of Paty

A Special Invitation

Monday August 10, 2015

Things are going great! This week I got invited to go back to my old area and baptize one of my old investigators. I'm really excited about that Ill be able to baptize them. Its a little family and so if they decide to get sealed in a year in the temple, Ill be able to go to mexico city to see them get sealed! Also this weekend we have a baptism for one of our investigators named Paty. Her boyfriend that has a mission call is going to baptize her so we are really excited about that. This weekend is something special called a Noche Blanca. So everyone in the zone tries to put all of their baptismal dates for a specific date to get baptized in the stake center the same night. Right now they are planning on having 18 people get baptized that night from all the missionaries in the zone. We are super excited and Ill be sure to send some pictures next week. But everything is going pretty good! Ill write more next week today I'm not in my area because my companion had his last interview before he goes home so I'm on exchanges with some other elders here in their area to write.

Have a good week, I love you!

Elder DT

Baptisms and a Wedding

Monday August 3, 2015

Family and friends,

Things are going pretty well here in Puebla. Not too much new has happened this last week. We are going to have a couple baptisms before the end of the change so we're pretty excited about that! This week we had interviews with President Stellmon at the stake center and it went really good. He gave me some great spiritual insights and always pushes us to be better! Right now we are teaching this girl named Paty. She is the girlfriend to one of the youth in the ward that has his mission call. She is progressing really fast and we have a baptismal date for the 15 of August! Also we are still working with the family Conde to get married and then baptized. They came to church this last week and there is a Hermano in the ward that is going to pay for the wedding so we are trying to get them married soon and then the whole family get baptized.

Everything is going great and I love being a missionary!

Elder Del Toro

Hospital Rounds

Tuesday July 28, 2015

Hello familia!

This last week was another great one. This week I'm writing on a Tuesday because me and Elder Romero were in the hospital with Elder Winters who has been sick. We ended up going back and forth to the hospital 3 different times and if he is still sick by tonight, its my shift to go and stay in the hospital with him. But hes been feeling better so he should be released from the hospital tomorrow.

This last week I went on interchanges one day with Elder Ramirez. He is a funny little guy from Peru. Every time me and Elder Romero poke at him or joke with him he calls us racists. We're not sure why but hes a funny little guy. He is super tiny so the other day at the hospital, we were going up a couple floors to go visit Elder Winters and one of the security guards wouldn't let him go because you have to be 12 years old to go upstairs. He is 19 years old and he didn't like that one bit haha. But we had some good lessons and some good laughs.

We had a baptism for Mariana! She is a girl that was adopted into her aunts family recently and so now the family she is living with are members so she took the lessons from the missionaries for a little while and she was baptized this last week! Her uncle baptized her and it was a really sweet baptismal service.

Right now we are teaching a lot of awesome investigators and we are hoping to have a few more baptisms before the next changes meeting so we've been working really hard and doing everything we can do to progress the work. I've been really happy and I love what I'm doing. I wouldn't rather be anywhere else than being a missionary in Mexico.

Have a good week everyone!

Elder Del Toro

Twin Brothers

Monday July 20, 2015

Hola familia!

This week was another good one. Me and Elder Romero have been walking so much and working so hard we come home absolutely exhausted every single night. Earlier in the week one of the young men in our ward wanted to come and spend the whole day with us so he tagged along with us for the day. He came over and studied with us and went to our appointments throughout the day too. He was so excited to come with us and see what it was like to be a missionary. But I don't think he knew how hard it was going to be. As the day went on, he was talking about how he wanted to go home. Then at around 6 o'clock, he insisted on stopping by his mom's hair cutting place so we did. He begged his mom to not make him finish the day with us because he was so tired haha. Me and Elder Romero chuckled about it for the rest of the night just the two of us without the poor little guy. So something kind of funny happened, me and Elder Romero when to a baptism the other day for a investigator he taught a while back and there was this girl that I saw looking at me and my comp a little funny. And then a couple minutes later she came up to me and asked if I had a brother serving is the Guatalajara East mission and it turns out she served her mission in Guatalajara and knew my brother Kadyn from the mission. She said she was super confused because she said me and Kadyn look exactly the same and she knew he hadn't finished his mission yet so she was confused why he would be in Puebla! Everything is going great here in Cacalotepec. We have some awesome investigators that are preparing to be baptized soon so we are really excited.

Have a good week everyone!

Elder Del Toro

This is the little guy that spent the day with us. He even looks a little rattled up haha

New area, New companion

Monday July 13, 2015

Hola familia!

A ton has happened this last week. Elder Conrad went home, new comp, new area and all of that. My new area is called Cacalotepec. Its a tiny pueblo out in the middle of no where but I really like it. My new companions name is Elder Romero. Hes from Mexico city and he is a really funny guy. We have a lot of good laughs and we've been working really hard together. Turns out he goes home after this next change! This will be my second of two companions that finish their missions with me.

This morning me and Elder Romero went to some sweet plazas here in Puebla for our p-day. One of the pictures is of me and Elder Romero there at one of the plazas. The zone that I'm in right now is a really well off area but my ward is a bit of a more poor area. But I really love it here. Compared to my last area, there is a lot less paved roads, a lot more mosquitoes and a lot more fields.

Right now we are working with the Conde family to get baptized. Its a family of 5 and they are all ready they just need to get married and then the whole family can get baptized. They are such a humble and loving family. The 5 of them all live in a house probably about the size of my room at home but they are all just so happy and content to be together as a family.

Also we are helping this girl in our ward to prepare to serve a mission. She is a recent convert and she is such a faithful member. She took the lessons for a year straight and couldn't get baptized because her parents wouldn't let her. When it came close to her 18th birthday her parents told her that if she got baptized they would disown her. She got baptized the day after her 18th birthday and she is now living with a family in the ward. Although she is just a recent convert, she wants to leave for her mission as soon as she turns 19. Shes been baptized for a couple months so we go over and teach her and the family shes living with sometimes so she can learn more about the gospel and start to prepare for a mission.

I really love my new area and love being a missionary. Have a good week everyone!

Elder Del Toro

1) The baptism me and Elder Conrad had right before he went home
2) Welcome to Cacalotepec
3) Me and Elder Romero at some of the plazas here in Puebla