Hello family!!!
This week has been absolutely great! I hope you're all still STUFFED from all the food you ate for Thanksgiving! That's definitely something that Mexico needs to adopt...no stuffed turkey, mashed potatoes, yams, or anything like that for Elder Budge. But I did eat some delicious tacos in a Leadership Training we had this past week....ok so they weren't turkey tacos but they were still pretty good! I have lots of reasons to be grateful, the Lord has blessed us so much in our area these past weeks, and we've been able to see the fruits of the work we're doing here down in good ol' Mexico.
I'm glad to hear everyone's doing well, especially with that whole Honey Business deal! And hey, how are things going with Josh finishing up his mission papers? I want to hear about his call to the Mexico City East Mission! (Hey, it can happen, right?) Let me know how that's going!
Anyway, on to my miracle-filled week! I really never know where to begin. This week we really didn't have a lot of time to work in our area, because I had a two-day leadership training in the Aragon Stake Center (the one next to the temple), so we only had three full days to work this past week. But they were just incredible. We're continuing to teach Irlanda, who is progressing amazingly. She has her baptismal date for this coming Sunday, and she's really excited to be baptized. We had to kind of drop the other investigator that we had with a baptismal date for this Sunday...he turned out to be a little "coo-koo" because his brain has been pretty warped thanks to many, many years of doing every drug you can imagine. Yesterday he lost his temper a little bit and...it wasn't pretty. So we decided to just invite him to continue to attend Church and work on him gaining a strong testimony.
Wednesday we had a pretty eventful day. The Zone Leaders from the Neza/Pantitlan Zone called us with a referral they contacted in their area that lives in ours. His name is Pedro...so we set up an appointment to meet with him on Wednesday night in the Chapel near his house. He told us his life story...and he has been humbled and prepared to accept the Gospel. It's incredible the things that he's experienced. But those things helped him to be humble enough to accept our invitation to read, pray, attend Church, and accept a baptismal date for the 12th of December. He went to Church on Sunday and was asking a bunch of really good questions about baptism, repentance, and forgiveness...just an incredible person. We'll be working a lot with him this week to make sure he's ready to be baptized and receive a remission of his sins! I love that part.
Thursday I had to go to Leadership Training, and the assistants and the Mission President taught us a lot about commitments, prayer, verifying, teaching with the Book of Mormon, and the role of the Holy Ghost in our work. I loved it. I loved feeling the Spirit testify to me of the things we were learning, and feeling His approval of the things I had been doing so far. It was an unforgettably edifying experience. We had Leadership Training again on Friday, and after the training we sang "Las Mananitas" to President Hicken for his birthday, and the assistants bought him a Batman pinata, and a "President Hicken" Pinata. It was really funny to see President breaking the Pinata. We ate some delicious cake and ice cream afterward...not a bad way to spend your friday afternoon!
Saturday, I completed 18 months in the mission. I'm officially in the fourth quarter, and although I've never been much of an athlete, I know how important the 4th quarter is! I sent a message to Elder Walk (the assistant) to congratulate him, and he sent me a text that said: "No pain, no gain, playa! Time to get in it. Baptize!" That is the plan.
Thank you for everything! Until Next week!!
Elder Budge
Photos:
1. Graffiti in our area...
2. More graffiti
3. My generation in Leadership training: Me, Elder Folkman, Elder Walk, and Elder Allsen
4. Me with the Pres. Hicken pinata
5. Pres. Hicken with the pres. Hicken pinata
6. Pres Hicken going at the Pinata!
7. The Leadership Training group
8. Me getting mad because my cell phone always drops calls inside my house...haha.
9. My companion and I drinking smoothies and watching movies (Church movies of course) in our Ward Mission Leader's house while we do laundry.
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