Hola Mi Familia Chevre,
I am sitting in an internet cafe in the delegation Tenayo of Mexico City! My clothes are busy being cleaned in a member´s corner laundry mat and I am about to go to a local grocery store to get my shopping done. Cool, huh?! I can tell you how much I love being here. Every moment I am out of our tiny little apartment, I just breathe in the warm Mexico City air and just cannot help but smile when I realize I am amidst the Lamanite people. The people are so amazing here; so humble and willing to smile and talk. As a mission we have a weekly goal for every missionary to get 70 contacts on the street. There are TONS of people everywhere 24/7 and it is a sweet experience to stop and talk to as many as we can. I love walking down the paved streets, smelling the tacos al pastor (amazing by the way!), and continually being wowed by the humble conditions people live in and work in here. I cannot tell you enough how blessed I feel to be here to serve the Lord and people in Tenayo.
My mission president is President Villarreal. He native to San Antonio, Texas and was SO excited to have another Texan in the mission. I am actually the only one if my information is correct. He is such an amazing president and I have already learned a ton from him and his example. We met him and the Assitants to the President as we came out of Customs. We went with them to the mission home where we had a question and answer session to learn all we could about how the Mexico, Mexico City West Mission works. We then had a dinner made by the Sister Villarreal who, Mom would be happy to know, will be such a great mission mom. After dinner we had an amazing devotional by President Villarreal in which we shared testimonies and discussed the doctrine of Christ. I have really enjoyed learning the basics of the Gospel more in depth and have no doubt that the way to eternal life is through Faith, Repentence, Baptism, the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. We are extremely blessed to have this knowledge and I love to see the hope and faith of investigators grow as we teach them the doctrine of Christ. We then went and slept in the mission office and the next day we had a training on safety and the way the mission works. In the afternoon, the APs took us to our new companions.
My companion is a Zone Leader named Elder Lopez from Sonora, Mexico. He is an amazing missionary who teaches with so much power and love for our investigators. I am trying as hard as I can to learn everything I can from him. He is a convert of about 2 years and has a fire of a testimony that only a convert could have. So basically I am trying to sponge up all the things I can! E. Lopez is helping me learn how to be really independent so that I can be ready to be Senior companion. I have no idea when this will happen but I am so thankful for his willingness to prepare me all the same. We have some phenomenal investigators and hope to have three baptisms this coming weekend. One of our investigators named Javier was contacted on the street Saturday afternoon and we invited him to church that next morning at 8am. He had an amazing experience at church. In Elders Quorom we were talking about New Year goals. The teacher went around the room and asked each of us what our New Year goals were. Javier answered that his was to go to this ward every week this year!! We have a lesson with him this afternoon and plan to put him on date for the this coming weekend!! One of the Elect! We live with another Zone Leader named Elder Decker from Mesa, Arizona and a missionary that flew in with me on Monday named Elder Duffin from California.
For New Year´s Eve we went to a member´s home to eat queso con carne (now my favorite Mexican food) and then went home to drink some Martinelli´s. Then New Year´s day we played soccer for about 4 hours straight and then watched the movies Toy Story 3 and Despicable Me. We then played some more soccer and returned home for some evening appointments. I had a wonderful New Year´s! The whole city went crazy for the holiday and there were actually fiestas everywhere. The fiestas last at least two days and as we walked to the church to play soccer, we saw many drunk people...anyways I absolutely love Mexico City and know that I will have an amazing time here. I hope that everyone had a great New Year´s and had an amazing start to a new year!
Con mucho amor,
Elder Janis
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