What up, FAM!!

Hey hey!!

Sounds like everyone had a busy week! It's good to know that you're all doing well and keeping yourselves anxiously engaged in good causes. I also had an excellent, miracle-filled week with my son Elder Flores. Sorry the "Man Expo" was lame Dad...haha I can't imagine what they would have there. Not sure if I want to. To be honest, I really enjoy being in the city a lot more than out in the boonies. It was a nice little surprise when I got transferred...I was mentally preparing myself to be out in the middle of nowhere for at least six months. I'm definitely grateful to be among the chilangos again...I love these people so much. I was missing the dirty street tacos for sure.

Looks like the whole Honey Business dealio is taking off! That's great news! You should sell Budge's Golden Sunshin Honey down here in Mexico. That would be "sweet" hahahaha. Well I'll just let you all in on how my week went.

Well I'll just start off by saying that the week started out pretty slooooww. We had a sweet District class over at the Stake Center in Aragon; I talked about the importance of inviting investigators to fulfill commitments, having them commit themselves, and the importance of verifying the commitments afterwards. It was a really fun class. On Tuesday we just went out contacting in the morning...and not a single person accepted. But the Lord knew we were working so he decided to give us an awesome blessing--the Bishop from a different ward in the Stake (where there are currently no missionaries) called us and told us of a complete family that went to Church by themselves on Sunday, and the Bishop told us he set up an appointment with them in the Chapel on Tuesday night! It was great. All of them accepted a baptismal date for the 21st of November (this coming Sunday), and they're progressing really well. BUT, the missionaries from their ward finally arrived so we'll be passing that family along to my other son, Elder Montoya, and the other missionary whom he is training.

On Wednesday we went to visit a good handful of dry members that members from the Ward told us to go visit. We decided to listen to them and went to go visit...and I'm always reminded that there's always a reason WHY these investigators are eternal investigators...they just don't want to progress. Kind of a bummber but we're trying to win the confidence of the members, and visiting their referrals is an important part of that. Como dijo Nefi...pues, ¿ya que?

Thursday we decided to put the ol' Celestial References to the test again...we spent a lot of time praying and deciding where the Lord needed us to work that day. So we chose a few streets, knocked all the doors and contacted everyone in those streets...again to no avail. But did that get us down? NOO!!! Of course not. Getting down isn't worth beans! We continued to work and went to a few appointments we had, which kind of didn't work out either. We checked our online referrals and checked some of those out too, and set up some appointments.

We had a sweet District Leader Council on Friday, and we learned a lot about setting goals and how to accomplish them, and the Zone Leaders showed us Elder Walk's (did I tell you he's assistant now?) "Plan of Action"--or in other words, the process from getting from a desire to seeing results, and it's helped us figure out a lot of things we can do better in our own area. I love that Elder.

Saturday we saw some AWESOME miracles. My companion and I were both thinking..."we've worked hard all week, we've been super obedient...where are the miracles?!" And, lo and behold, we run into the Assistants from the Mexico City South mission (their offices are down the street from our house). We stopped to greet them, and started to chat a little bit to get to know each other. We had previously met an AWESOME investigator my first week here, but he only works in our area and lives in their area. We asked them if they knew him and if they had tried to teach him. They said that they had tried teaching him, but they could never find him at home because he's always working. They said, "Go and teach him and baptize him". I'm not one to question commandments or anything like that, so that's the current plan. We're going to be teaching him this week and all the good stuff.

So we continued talking, when a lady just came up to our little circle and asked "Are you guys Mormons?" We said yes, and she said that she had had some curiousity for some time and wanted to learn more about the Church! It was awesome. We took down her address and we have an appointment with her tomorrow night.

Moral of the story: Just be good boys and girls, obey the commandments, keep your covenants faithfully, and just put your trust in the Lord. If we don't do anything to interfere with the Spirit's guidance, we will receive the blessings the Lord has prepared for us. And a lot of the time, that just means being in the right place at the right time.

Elder Bednar, President Eyring, Brother Craig C. Christensen gave an awesome Stake Conference broadcast from Salt Lake on Sunday. It was absolutely incredible. What stuck out to me most is what Elder Bednar said about receiving revelation. He compared receiving revelation to three different types of experience with Light: the way light comes when we turn on a lightswitch (immediate revelation from God, i.e., Joseph Smith's first vision, Paul's vision on the road to Damascus), the way light comes into view slowly at daybreak (the more common way to receive revelation), and the light we receive at daybreak, but on a cloudy day. Needless to say I was able to receive several answers to very important questions I had.

Family, Mom, Dad, brother and sisters, brothers-in-law, cousins, aunts, uncles, grandparents, best friends: This Church is directed by Jesus Christ Himself. He has called and authorized His servants to instruct us and help us walk in the path that leads to Eternal Life in the presence of our loving Heavenly Father. Sometimes we need to walk in the daylight we receive on a cloudy day, and trust in what the Lord has revealed in these last days to guide our path. We will not understand everything perfectly. But we can have a perfect trust in the commandments, the council, and the wisdom we receive from the Lord through His authorized servants, and through our own personal revelation.

Go to the temple.

Elder Budge

PS I'm sending some photos of my District, of a 300 peso Jenga game I bought for District Class (I guess you could say that Mom bought it, haha!), and my new son, and my agenda for the month of November.

Aaww...nadie me quiere. Sino Brady...yeeaah!‏

Hello family!!!

How on earth are you all doing?! Dang Derek made me realize something crazy...we are the only two left! That's weird to think about. And our time is winding down so fast...now we just have to work hard and work hard and work hard and baptize the world in just a short time. And we are speaking the best language on earth! So I have some pretty sweet news for you. Here it goes.

As I mentioned last week, I got changed from Xicotepec, Puebla (aka in the middle of nowhere...) and now I'm in the very center, the very heart, if you will, of the Federal District...the largest city in the world!! I got transferred to the innermost part of our mission, right smack-dab in the middle of Mexico City. We have a bazillion metro stations, lots of taxis, buses...and for the very first time, I have a Wal-Mart in my area. Haha. But the best part is that our Wards here in this area are just awesome. This is my first time working with more than one ward at a time, so it's been a nice challenge figuring out how to work with three! The Ward mission leader from one of our wards has been helping out a ton, and after Sunday we now have a better understanding how we're going to tackle this new task.

My new son is awesome, his name is Elder Flores. He's the most teachable greenie I've ever met! He's super humble and pays really close attention to everything I do, and he's a really quick learner. It's been such a joy to be his trainer. My first son, Elder Montoya, is training for the second time as well, and the four of us are working in the same Stake. Pure Budge posterity is rocking the Moctezuma Stake!! It's a really humbling idea really, I truly feel grateful for the trust the Lord has placed in me.

I'm continuing to serve as a District Leader as well...but now my district is a little different. I have the two companionships of Secretaries (who don't even live in our mission...) and ALL the sisters from the Visitor's Center at the Mexico City Temple are part of my District! In total I have about 23 missionaries in my district! It has been a blast so far, and tonight we're having our first official District meeting in the Stake Center next to the temple. I can't wait haha! We'll take a gigantic district photo and I'll send it next week.

That's all the news I have...until next week!!

Elder Budge

PS. The reason for the subject of this email is that Brady is the only one who wrote me today...come on!!

Day of the Dead, Spongebob, and a new son...

Hey family!!

Sorry I couldn't write a whole lot last week, but I hope you enjoyed all the photos I sent. I'm trying to be more consistent in sending pictures...I think it makes my emails a little less boring. Mandy, I hope you keep uploading all this stuf onto that blog! I hear that I have fans? Haha just kidding. But seriously sometimes people ask. Anyway, thanks for writing me everyone, it's always really good to hear how everyone's doing.

Now I will answer some questions. Mom, of course they celebrate Halloween here in Mexico! What were ya thinking? American culture is very very integrated here...so on Halloween it was just like you might imagine it at home. Some teengers walking around in Costumes, little kids asking for candy, and if the missionaries don't have candy, they usually ask for money instead. But yeah, it's funny that when most people think of Mexico they usually think of huge sombreros and panchos and stuff like that, but it's really different. Everyone here watched iCarly and Drake and Josh, and of course everyone's obsessed with Spongebob Squarepants. When it comes to things like that, it's a lot like home. But you were right when you said that we celebrate the Day of the Dead...they're actually a few days if we want to be exact. And it's a little different from Memorial Day...people here set up altars in their houses with things that they're beloved dead liked while they were here in mortality...like foods they liked, cigarrettes, wine...and the tradition is that the dead people actually come and eat what they have set out on their altars. It's weird. But they have different days for different types of dead, like one day for babies who died before being "baptized", people who were murdered have a different day, peope who died in accidents, etc. But anywho, the best part is that we eat tons of mole (say it with me, MO-LAY), and it's delicious. This year I decided to participate in the cooking process, and there's a picture attached.

Anyway, on to the good stuff. Looks like me and melissa are Pregnant at the same time! Only my baby boy is due tomorrow! That's right, I'm getting transferred after my six shorts week in Xicotepec, and I'll be training a newby. My second son! I'm really grateful for the opportunity to train again...it will be a blast. I think we'll be opening up a new area too, so that will be interesting. I've never opened an area before. But anyway, I'm goodbye to good ol' Xico and headed towards Mexico tomorrow bright and early.

That's really all the news I have; I just want to congratulate David for putting both feet firm back at home. He'll be helping me out with music updates when I get back. That's a good sign of mission well spent--means he put two feet firm in the mission, fulfilled what he need to fulfill, and can very surely put both feet back at home.

I love you all, and happy Day of the Dead!!

Elder Budge

Pictures!!!!!!!!!

Hey family, here´s a ton of photos that I´ve taken over our time here in Xicotepec, we had an awesome Zone activity today, so the majority of the photos are from that activity. I couldn´t re-size them so the pictures are really big. And it´s because of that Zone Activity that i can´t write more, I have to get going home! I´m still 2 hours away. I love all of you and hope you enjoy the pictures.

Elder Budge

P.S. I won the swing set contest, as you´ll see in the picture.

Turns out green water works too...

Hey family!!

I've had an awesome week and have a few things to tell you about so sit tight. First, I just wanted to comment on Josh working in the Primary. Ha! That's awesome. Who would of thunk it? That's all. Now on to my week...

Let's go back to last Monday when I told you that my companion had special changes because he was going to train a new Gringo! Welp, on Tuesday we started our Journey towards the Promised land of Mexico state, with our eye single to the glory of the Mexico city Temple. Three and a half hours and 234 pesos later, we arrived at the temple and Elder Cruz received his baby boy...from New Zealand! I like the new Elder...and not just because he reminds me of Flight of the Conchords. They'll do awesome.

My new companion is Elder Martinez, and he's just a stud. We've been getting to know each other this past week, working really hard to find the Lord's elect here in Xicotepec. The day after he got here, our ward Mission Leader invited us to eat dinner, and lo and behold, a lady entered into his store, told us she was a less-active member and that her son was not baptized! Of course...we didn't hesitate to make an appointment with her for the next day. That day we did divisions with the Zone Leaders, and I was with Elder Valdez (who heads home in about a week and a half). We taught Kevin (the not-baptized kid) about baptism, and he told us he wanted to wait. So we left him the task of reading and praying and we set up an appointment for the next day.

After that, we found an awesome new investigator named Araseli. We went to her house, and she basically asked us to explain the Plan of Salvation. It was already 9 o clock so we explained a little bit, left her the P of S pamphlet and set up an appointment for the next day. SO...that 'next day' of which I have been speaking was just awesome. We had about a bazillion appointments we had set up with our street contacts from the day before, and most of them fell through. Wish I could say that wasn't normal. But we went to teach Kevin, but he wasn't home, so we just talked with his mom. She told us that Kevin wanted to wait until he turns 15 to be baptized (he's 12!!!), so we just talked about not procrastinating his baptism. We returned the next day, and Kevin told us that when he prayed, he dreamed that God was talking to him, and that He simply said to him "Yes". It was pretty awesome, because we had explained to him that if he would ask a direct question, like "Should I get baptized this Sunday?", then God would give him a direct answer. So that answer was a very direct "Yes." He was interviewed on Saturday and baptized on Sunday! I love miracles.

We went and taught Araseli about the Plan of Salvation, and she had a ton of excellent questions for us. We were also able to teach her "husband" as well, and they came to Church with us on Sunday. The next task at hand will be to marry them...yikes!! But the Lord will help us find a way to get them married.

That's all the news I have. Be safe, have fun, go to the Temple! Seriously!

Elder Budge

Photos:

1. My first District as DL

2. Me and my new companion in the Chapel

3. Kevin's baptism

Give, give, give until there´s nothing left!

Hey family!

Sorry I couldn´t write a whole lot last week, those pictures took up more time than I had anticipated. You forgive me? Excellent. Thanks for all who wrote me, really it means worlds to me. I´ll try to make this letter as spiritually uplifting as can be written...while ¨I´ve got a feeling that tonight´s gonna be a good night¨ by Black Eyed Peas is being blared in this internet cafe. Haha!

First of all, I didn´t get to give my report of how absolutely amazing General Conference was! I´ll share with you some of what I consider are the ¨highlights´´ of the many talks that were given. Ready? Ok.

First of all, Elder Uchtdorf´s talk about turbulence was a really good eye-opener for me. In my District we´ve been experiencing some turbulence in the work, so it was a good reminder to take things back to basics, and really just rely on the simple impressions of the Spirit and the basic principles of missionary work: hard work, diligence, and obedience. Just what I needed to hear. I was also really impressed with Robert D. Hales´ talk about making decisions...and how we need to just simply make the same choice we made in pre-mortal life...in my opinion, that means to learn and study the Plan of Salvation, and make the decision to follow God and His prophets. As Kevin R. Duncan explained...we have prophets and apostles for a purpose! We need to listen to their counsel; if we don´t, we don´t have a reason why to get up and testify about living Prophets today. Speaking of testifying...I absolutely loved what Richard G. Scott said about testimony: It´s not emotion...a testimony is a quilt woven together by countless correct decisions. Really, it always comes back to us and how we use our agency; as Boyd K. Packer explained, no one can take our agency away from us, we can only give it away--and agency brings with it responsability.

Did you like the way all my Conference commentaries all kind of wove into each other? I didn´t even plan that but I´d say it worked out pretty well! Anyway...

These past few weeks have been a little rough. Lost of decoy investigators...but this past week. We found a pretty awesome family at 8:30 at night on Saturday! We´ve been studying a lot about diligence...and we´ve definitely been putting it into practice. We´ll see how their progress goes. We have to marry them...yikes! That means lots of travel. Oh, and my companion, Elder Cruz (who is just absolutely AWESOME...I love this man to death!) has special changes...he´s going to be training some new americans that are coming in today. We have to travel like 5 hours to go pick them up and I´ll be getting a new companion. We only had three weeks together, but that´s just the way things go sometimes. I´ll miss him a lot. Good thing he has a visa and is going to visit me in Utah. Heh heh. Anyway, I love all of you. Please remember to go to the temple as often as you can! We need to put more temples on the map!!

Have a good week, I love you all so much!

Elder Budge

Photos!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hey family, not a lot of time to write, because I spent some time uploading and editing pictures to send! My week was awesome, General Conference was absolutely incredible! I'll write more next week!

Photos:

1. Bowling my last P-Day in Tecamac
2. Ice Skating in Tecamac
3. My dad, me, my son, and my grandson!
4. My new comp and I eating delicious Mac and Cheese with Chili!
5. The beautiful view from my desk every morning...you can see the missionary essentials.
6. Our Chapel in Xicotepec!
7. A banner we found in our chapel, it says "Xicotepec Ward" haha.
8. The two gringos watching Gen. Conf. in english
9. The missionaries of the Tulancingo Stake at Gen. Conf.!
10. Elder Walk and I...again.

Have an incredible week, go to the temple, and always remember that the Church is true!

Elder BudgePhotos!!!!!!!!!!!!