Holy cow it´s 2011!!!!

Hellooooooo! La la la....

Muchos saludos de la Zona Neza/Pantitlan, y el primer saludo del año 2011! Pueden creer que el año ha pasado tan rápido? Yo no!

Anywho, my companion and I have some big plans for this coming year; there's lots of improvment to do, many people to find, bring to Church, baptize, and invite to come unto Christ! This year is going to be awesome. We already started off with a really good week to help us figure out the things we need to change and improve in order to bring more fruit unto the Lord. I spent a lot of the week outside of my area, but nevertheless had some really cool experiences.

This past week we did splits with the assistants, and I finally got to actually work with Elder Walk! We realized that we hadn't taught together since the MTC, and then we realized that in the MTC we never taught real investigators. So it was fun to have the chance to actually work with him in the Lord's vineyard and gather up some fruit! We had an absolutley awesome day. We did something he calls "Power Proselyting", which consists of choosing a street in which to work (of course through much prayer), busting out the good ol' Ward Directory, marking all the families that live in that street, and going to visit them, and of course, contacting everyone in our path and knocking a few doors if we feel like it. It was really awesome, we ran into some really strange less-active members (one lady who said she left the Church because she didn't want to pray to Joseph Smith....we told her that we never pray to him, but she said that they tried to teach her some memorized prayers so she could pray to Joseph Smith. Weirrrrrd), but were also able to contact a TON of people in the street. Later Elder Walk felt the impression to knock a door, so we knocked, and an active member came out and said that that was her house. We asked if their was anyone else in her house, and she told us we could try to knock some other doors in the building. We went to the last door, knocked, and a lady named Paolina Pluma came out, we introduced ourselves, and accepted our visit. After asking a few questions, she told us that she had had some serious difficulties these past few weeks with the loss of her daughter and granddaughter. We taught her the plan of salvation, invited her to be baptized, and she accepted everything! Elder Walk and I teach in almost the exact some way, so there was plenty of flow and harmony when we taught together, and when we left the house, we were skipping down the street with our arms around each other's shoulders! Ha it was really fun, and a really good experience for me. We topped the night off with a delicious Domino's Pizza, with their supposed "new recipe" that tastes the same as the old recipe...

The next day, my companion and I got to work together in our area, and we spent most of the day contacting, to almost no avail. Most of our appointments had fallen through that day, and we were getting a little desperate at the end of the day. We decided to take some advice from the assistants and find a quiet place to pray and ask for a specific blessing. We had the goal of finding two new investigators that day, so we told the Lord where we were going to contact, and asked him to bless us with those two new investigators. After we finished, we started contacting like locos, and every time we contacted it was a usually a couple walking together. We saw a lady that was standing by her car alone, so we contacted her, and she mentioned that she had been have some difficulties, and had been praying for the answer. We testified to her, and then ther eleven year-old son came up to us and we set up an appointment to visit them the next day. Sweet!

My time is running out, and we had some other cool experiences, but I'll share them next week maybe!

Elder Budge

PS I can't believe Deanna is heading to BYU already...she'll have to introduce me to her friends once I get back! hahaha!

The Twenty-Seventh of December...

Hey family!!

It was so awesome to talk to all of you on Saturday, and especially to see all of your beautiful faces, including Josh's awesome beard! That thing is sweeeet.

Welp, since we've already discussed a few things on Saturday, I will answer a few questions! First of all, my companion is NOT from Brazil, he was just kidding...and he didn't understand a thing Rudy said to him on Skype. He's from the state of Chiapas, Mexico, so to answer your question, he does speak Spanish haha. He's an absolute stud, seriously every day is like hanging out with a best friend. We get a long really really well and we already have several inside jokes...so we're definitely having a good time here.

Mom, we're in the Neza/Pantitlan Zone, but geographically we're in a colony called "La Arenal" in La Delegacion Venustiano Carranza in the federal district. Sorry if I don't write a lot this week either...this keyboard is covered in dirt and dust and the keys are all sticky...it's hard to write fast and it's frustrating.

We've been working with some really cool people these past weeks, including Mari Carmen and her daughter Sandy, who got baptized on Sunday. They're so fun to teach and work with, and they both have such great testimonies of the Gospel. We were able to see some miracles this week at Church; my companion and I were really concerned because we didn't have anyone to bring to Church, and the only people we could find last week were people we weren't really planning on focusing on too much...people who said they woud maybe go to Church and things like that. But, lo and behold, on Sunday they all went to Church by themselves! It was awesome.

My companion and I have been talking a lot about the things we've learned so far in the mission, and I've been especially pensive, considering the time I have left, and I've realized that I would not have learned half of the things I have learned had I chosen to not serve. It's such a unique time, where we can forget about our personal problems, and be dedicated completely to one cause. We only read Church materials. We pray who knows how many times a day. We listen to Church music, watch Church movies, talk about teaching the Gospel, and that allows us to be taught by the Holy Ghost. Those who don't serve literally do not know what they miss out on, and they never will know it. I can't tell you how much I love being a missionary. It has been the greatest joy of my entire life, and I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. As I've reflected on things with the "soft filter of experience", I have gained an unwavering testimony that every good and bad experience have helped me grow, although personal growth is not my objective here in the mission field. I understand why the Lord requires His Priesthood Holders to serve in His army, and I'm grateful that I made the decision to do so even when I was nowhere near understanding "why".

These next five months are going to be awesome.

Elder Budge

Skype....?

Hey Family!!!

Forgive me for leaving you all on the edges of your seats last week...the transfers came as quite a surprise. Anywho, my new companion is Elder Coutiño, and he´s a Zone Leaders...which means I have also assigned to be a Zone Leader. My companion is an absolute stud, and we´ve had an awesome week, full of excellent experiences!

We had the privelege of having a Conference with Elder Tenorio of the Seventy, who is serving in the Area Presidency here in Mexico. He taught us some awesome principles, especially what he taught about praying specifically and receiving specific answers. Sorry if this letter is a little short, my hands are freeeezing and it´s hard to type fast.

So it turns out that this year, I am officially allowed to use SKYPE and webcams to call home this Christmas!! Isn´t that awesome? We just got an email from the Missionary Department of the Church letting us know that that´s allowed!! So, I´m thinking we can talk on Saturday at 6 o clock Mexico time, and I just set up an account with SKYPE so we can do a Video Call!! It´s going to be great! So if you don´t have a webcam, BUY ONE! Set up an account on Skype, and look me up (my username is jacob.budge1 ) ok?? jacob.budge1 !!!!!

Love you all, and SEEE you on Saturday!!!

Elder Budge

PUROS MILAGROS!!

Hello Family!

Can I just tell you that I love this work! This past week has been most excellent, and as you may or may not tell, we have seen pure miracles here in our Wards!! It's incredible how much the Lord has been blessing us these past few weeks, and it seems like the miracles just keep coming. Here are a few so you can get a taste of it:

We have been working with an investigator named Pedro, who was a referral from the Zone Leaders from the Zone next to ours, and we had his baptismal interview last week. While we were waiting for him to show up to the interview, a lady came up to the Chapel and told us that she had spoken with the sister missionaries a few years ago, but that she had since then stopped going to Church and was never baptized. She said, "I think my time has finally come, and I would really like to be baptized. Can you tell me who the missionaries are that live near my house?" She gave us her address and it turns out...that WE are the missionaries that live close to her house! Needless to say, we set up an appointment, went and visited her and her family, and talked about what we had to do so they could be baptized. Turns out that her husband and her two kids, Andrea, 16 years old, and Alejandro, 8 years old, want to be baptized as well. Andrea made the suggestion that they should read the scriptures and pray together as a family every day, and they've all received witnesses that the Book of Mormon is true. Awesome. the Mom, Elisabeth, had a dream after reading Alma 32 and said she saw a tree in the middle of a field, and heard a voice that said "The seed is good and fertile" and then woke up. Miracles! We took them to the visitor's Center on Saturday night and it was pretty sweet.

Pedro had his interview, passed it (we thought he was going to need a special interview), and has been progressing a lot. I'll tell you about the baptism a little further on.

Our investigator had his interview the same day as Pedro, and he did need a special interview (we thought he was the one that wasn't going to need it), and we set up the appointment for his special interview for Sunday at 6 30 in the Visitor's Center, which leads me to our next few miracles...on Sunday.

Sunday morning I dropped my companion off at 9 o clock in the Balbuen Ward, where Irlanda was confirmed a member of the true Church, when a family of three (Mom, Dad, and son) show up to church with a family, and we were able to set up an appointment with them for this week so they can be baptized on the 26th. Miracle! Afterward, I headed out to our other Wards, first to Zaragoza to bring Elisabeth, her husband, Andrea, and Alejandro (who will be known as the Romero Family from here on out) to Church, and I left them with the Ward Missionary Leader and headed to our next Ward, in Hangares. There, Pedro came to Church, my companion showed up a little afterward (don't worry, we did splits and we weren't alone haha), and we had Pedro's Baptismal service at 2:00. It was awesome, Pedro is a big guy and we had to buy special clothes for him, and my companion almost dropped him in the baptismal font, but it was OK. We went to eat lunch with a family, and then headed to the Visitor's Center with Alejandro to have his special interview. He passed with flying colors, we headed back towards the chapel, got lost, but then showed up right on time, and had an amazing baptismal service for him at 8:30 at night. Holy tiring day....and really really rewarding.

Our goal for baptisms for this month is 5, and up until now we have been able to baptize three people in these past two weeks. The Lord has blessed us so much...according to the investigators we have that are ready to be baptized, we should end the month with about 8 to 11 baptisms. It has been absolutely incredible, and I've gained such a strong testimony of how the Lord can bless us when we humble ourselves before him. The investigators He's given us are absolutely inspiring to see...people who are truly converted to the Lord. And then...Elder Budge receives a call from the Zone Leaders.

In the midst of all this great success, I'm getting transferred tomorrow.

Elder Budge

Photos:

1. Elder Flores and I and a bag of "Fritos"...we think it's funny because we call the disobedient missionaries "Fritos". HA!

2. Me freezing my tushy off in our house during personal study...it's cold here!

3. Me and Elder Andrew Stott from the Mexico City South mission...we went to junior high together and we saw eachother in the Visitor's Center on Saturday!

4. Us and the Romero Family in the Visitor's Center.

5. Pedro's baptism.

6. Alejandro's baptism

7. The Ward Missionary leader is teaching us how to make pizza today! As I write...we are waiting for the dough to rise.

8. Me "wofting" the scent of the pizza sauce that we're making.

Great Week

Hey Family!!

How's it going?! I hope things are going well...because I didn't really hear from anyone today! Ha I guess I'm used to it. I always tell the members here that once you have a little bit of time in the mission, people just seem to forget that you're serving. But that's ok, because the work continues to move forward! We had an absolutely awesome blessing-filled week this week...I'll cover the highlights.

At the beginning of the week (Monday till Thursday) not much really happened...we had a bunch of appointments that all fell through and my companion and I wasted a lot of time going back and forth and back and forth between those appointments. No bueno. We found an awesome family of four on Tuesday that just disappeared the rest of the week...who knows where they are! But we just kept working and working and working, and really we were able to see the blessings of that hard work.

Thursday our investigator Irlanda had her baptismal interview, which, of course, she passed. We had an awesome baptismal service on Sunday for her, and her RM-friend-from-youth baptized her. When we got to the Chapel, the font was full of dirty water, so we had to empty it out. But it wasn't emptying fast enough for us to be able to re-fill it by the end of the third hour of the block...so we had to grab buckets and start emptying the font out like that! Some brothers helped us out and we were able to empty out the font, fill it back up (with clean water), and have a really nice baptismal service. Baptizing is definitely still my favorite part of the mission.

Last night we went with a member family and Irlanda to the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. It was amazing. I especially loved the way President Eyring spoke of the Savior...you can tell that these men really are Special Witnesses of Him. I love seeing all the Christmas decorations and I can't believe that soon I will have my last Christmas in the mission...that's a weird thought.

Just so you know, I need to know when is best to call home, on the 24th or the 25th and at what time, to make sure all the fam is there. I can't do it in the morning on the 25th because we're going to have a Zone Activity in the morning that Day. I'm thinking the 25th in the afternoon, or at ANY time on the 24th. Figure it out with the plans you already have and I'll let you know where to call me.

I love you all! Have a great week!

Elder Budge

PS I'm sending some photos...the baptism, my planner for this month, some pesos, me cleaning the baptismal font, and the ward missionary leader's daughters who wanted to pose and take pictures with us. They're hilarious.

Moctezuma Miracles Week!

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.

Una obra maravillosa y un prodigio...

Hey family!

Elder Budge reporting for duty...after another amazing week in the BEST MISSION IN THE WORLD! That is, of course, the Mexico City East Mission!! Woo!!! I love being a part of this work; it really is humbling to know that the Lord trusts us so much, gives us so many blessings, and allows us to share those blessings with others!

So, an update on what's been happening here in the Federal District. Remember the lady I told you about that contacted us in the street? Well...she turned out to be not-so-elect and a little "loca". We had one visit with her and decided not to continue with her...maybe in the future.

Man I have so much to say but don't know what to talk about first. Chronological order seems to work out best. So last tuesday, we went to another ward in our Stake to visit with a young man that an RM had been teaching for the past couple of weeks. He was as GOLDEN as Budge's Golden Sunshine Honey. We reviewed some of the things he had read in the pamphlets, reviewed the questions from the baptismal interview, and gave him a Book of Mormon to read. We made an appointment for his baptismal interview for the very next day. That day came quickly, he passed his interview with flying colors (the Zone Leader that interviewed him was astounded by his golden-ness), and we set up another appointment for the next day. We talke with him about serving a mission and my companion and I shared some experiences with him about the mission. That really helped me remember and appreciate all the Lord has done for me my entire life, and especially the past 18 months. Needless to say, this "joven" Karim was baptized on Sunday, and I'll attach some pictures.

Next bit of news: We found an awesome investigator this week named Blanca Irlanda. We received the referral from the visitor's center and visited her on Thursday night. We talked a lot about the Book of Mormon, about Jesus Christ and Jehovah (can you guess what religous background she has?), and left her Alma 32 to read and pray about. She told us that she was just unable to explain what she felt while she was in the Visitor's Center and we were able to help her understand the nature of the Holy Ghost. On Friday we had another lesson with her, read more from the Book of Mormon, and helped her understand her answer to her prayers. She went to Church with us on Sunday with a friend of hers who is an RM, and while my companion was attending our other wards her friend and I taught her the Plan of Salvation. She loved it. At the end of the lesson, I asked her if she believed if the Book of Mormon was true. She said yes. I asked her if she believed if Joseph Smith was a prophet...she said yes. The Spirit is working absolute wonders with her, and she's really experiencing true conversion. She has a baptismal date for the 5th of December (just in time for her Dad to come to town...), and she says the great challenge of hers is that of breaking the news to her Dad. I asked her, "what happens if your parents say no?" and she replied, "Then...oh well. I'm going to do it." GOLD! GOOOOOAAAALLLL MEXICO!!

Can't you see why I absolutely love this work? The Church is true!

Elder Budge

PS I've attached some pictures from the baptism. One of the pictures has Karim's girlfriend...don't go thinking he got baptized just for her!! haha just kiddin.