Hidalgo

Hello Family,                                              Monday, Oct. 31, 2016
I hope that you all had a great week. I know that there are always ups and downs...but we always have to keep moving forward in despite of what goes on. That is the beauty of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It covers everything that we could ever experience in our lives. There is nothing that we con go through that He has not felt...and because of that, we can make it through anything if we put our faith in Christ.

This week was a crazy week. Yes....it is still raining like crazy, but it has lightened up a little bit. It is still very humid here, but the sun (when it comes out) is a lot stronger. I am always getting sunburned. In Tabasco I hardly ever got sunburned. But oh well.....I'm coming home a red as a tomato!!

Breakfast

I was in divisions almost the entire week. On Tuesday I went with Elder de la Cruz to his area in Hidalgo (my first area). We had a great day working together. We found some new investigators that are now progressing, and we even put a baptismal date with one of them for November 12th. The Elders in that area have been struggling to find new investigators and to help them to progress towards baptism....so I gave this Elder a few tips from my experience that he could try out. I saw him today, and he says that the changes he made are working out. It feels kind of cool to be the oldest Elder in the Zone (time in the mission). I also got to see my converts!!!!! Esau Samy and Jonatin!!!! They are all three still going strong in the church. They grew...of course....but were so happy to see me as I was to see them. Their Grandmother....who I was teaching...also got baptized and is firm in the church as well. The only thing that made me sad is that their mom, Cecilia... left them with their grandma and went to live with another man:(:(:( She lives in centro now which is not my area. But as zone leaders we can go anywhere in Mina!!!! My companion and I are thinking on going and visiting her. We'll see how that goes. I also got to see and visit with several members in Hidalgo. It seems like everyone missed me a ton. I was very surprised because when I was there, I hardly spoke Spanish...but they remembered me:) It was crazy to see babies now running around the house....or young adults now married. A lot happens in two years!!!!

A huge shipment of Books of Mormon!

On Wednesday I went and worked with Elder Echeverria. They had a baptismal interview that I did, and helped them find some new investigators. Elder Echeverria has about a year in the mission and is a really good missionary. A little while back he had some problems with obedience and since then has been a little frusturated with how things are going in the mission. I was able to talk with him for a while and share my testimony on the blessings of being obedient. We talked about ways that he could re-excite himself about being out here. We came up with a plan, and I have talked with him several times this week. Today I saw him and he has completely changed. Super excited and filled with energy.

Local in the street

On Thursday morning at 1:00 I woke up vomiting. I don't know what it was, but I kept it up off and on until about 5:00am. Worst throw up session I have had in my entire life!!!! I went to bed at like 5:00am and when I woke up at 6:30 I had a fever and a severe headache. I called sister Haws and she told me that It is a virus that is going around and that I needed to take the day off and rest until my fever went down. I stayed with Elder Echeverria and slept all day while our companions worked in both areas. I couldn't eat anything until about 8:30 that night. But Friday I woke up at 100% and now I am doing better than ever.

On Friday I was in divisions with Elder Cairnero (from Brazil) becaues they also needed baptismal interviews. So...I got to work with him all day. Excellent Elder. Great day...but nothing really exciting happened.

Saturday I was with my companion again and in my area!!!!! We had a great day working with less-active members. We found a little old lady that only has one leg, who was baptized like 40 years ago. She is the funniest little lady. She made us laugh throughout the entire visit:) We picked here up (literally) on Sunday to get her to church. She was sooo Happy!!!! She made my week!!!!

Sunday was the primary program!!!! I LOVE primary programs!!!! The Spirit there is so strong. The primary here only has like 15 kids...but it was wonderful. One little girl made me cry as she was bearing her testimony of the love that God has for everyone of us. I got to play the piano for the program....it was great. We also had 8 investigators in church!!!!!! That was a special miracle for us. After two hard weeks, we are starting to see progression. We got permission from Dalia to baptize Karime and that is set up for the 12th of November. We are going to stop teaching Elyew for a while. He is not progressing, but we'll probably pick him up again a little later.

We are planning for a baptism this week for Jonathan on Saturday. Tomorrow is our key lesson with him. If everything goes good...we should be baptizing soon:)

Today I cut an Elders hair. It turned out pretty good!

Sorry, I'm out of time. I Love you all!!!!! Have a wonderful week!!!

Elder Cavenee