Still here...

Hello all,

First of all, I want to share an experience we had this last week.

In January, we passed by this one house looking for an old investigator. It turned out to be the wrong address, but we contacted the person that lived there anyway. She accepted a return visit. We passed by various times during the week, ever since January. We couldn´t get a hold of her until this last week. She thanked us for passing by so much and received us in her home. We started to explain our purpose as missionaries and what she can expect and gain by hearing the gospel message. She started to cry, and she told us ´Before you arrived I was about to do something really foolish and bad, but you arrived just in time and I didn´t do it. You are my salvation.´ She has a lot of needs, but the kinds of needs that are satisfied by the gospel. She is a single mother who is struggling to raise her 13-year-old son. That experience made the whole week worth it. Sometimes we are out here tracting and contacting people in the street, with lots of excuses, lies, pretexts, and doors slammed in the face (we had plenty of those this week too). Sometimes it gets pretty depressing, but when we find that one person, it makes to whole week worth it.

I´m grateful to be here. I´m learning so many things, gaining so many valuable experiences, losing weight (lost 48 pounds since leaving home). There is nothing better that I could be doing.

Love you all.
Elder Bunker

Hot hot hot

Hello all,

This week was really really hot here. Some told us that it got up to 44 degrees celcius (about 114 F), and it sure felt like it. Today we only got to 33 (about 96). It was very unusual for this region this time of year, but times and climates are really changing.

I got the package from Jess (thanks mom & Jess!) with the brown sugar, chocolate chips, and peanut butter. We went and made chocolate chip cookies today (they turned out pretty liquidy, but not sure how to change that, so we left them in the oven for another 15 minutes). Not sure what went wrong, but i think i´ll wait till i get back home to enjoy those. Also, we made french toast the other day in the morning. They don´t eat that here either. And I made a peanut butter (which they don´t sell here) and jelly sandwich. mmmmmmmmmmm.

Well tranfers are tomorrow and I´m staying here in Meyehualco another 6 weeks. At the end of these following 6 weeks, I´ll have been here for 6 months, which is really unusual. But I guess I´m still supposed to be here for some reason, so I´m alright with it. My companion is going to another zone, and I will be junior companion to another elder.

Everything went well, but we didn´t baptize anyone this week. It was a little bit slower for some reason. But we´ll see for this next week. We almost baptized every weekend in May, but not quite.

That´s about it this week. I love you all and miss you.
Elder Bunker

Baptism, baptism, the wonderful fruit

Hello once again my wonderful siblings and relatives!

Sorry I haven´t written for a little while. We seem to be really busy and rushed every Preparation Day, but I figure that I should probably write today.

Since I last wrote, I think we´ve baptised 3 more people, and we have 4 more planned for this month. Baptism is really the wonderful fruit of repentance. I am so grateful to be a part of this work in preparing the earth for the second coming of the Savior. Thankfully there were little or no problems with this last baptism yesterday. She offered the closing prayer of her own baptismal service, and the spirit was really strong during the service.

Today we helped a sister in the ward with her house. The brick walls were slightly deteriorating at the bottom, so we mixed up some cement and applied it to the wall. I learned something new that I didn´t know how to do before. It´s pretty different because in the US we mainly use dry wall and lumber and nails and screws, etc. But it´s all concrete and cement and cement bricks and mortar, and sometimes they have laminate roofing, which really heats up the houses in the sun. We spent most of the morning there helping out, and they gave us breakfast.

Last week we went and played basketball with the family of an investigator. I got really really sunburned, but it was fun. Yesterday there was a really strong thunderstorm with hail and lightning and wind, but only for about 1 hour during our weekly planning so we didn´t get wet at all.

That´s about all for this week. I am planning on a talk this next sunday in sacrament meeting, about repentance. I am going to use the example of Peter, who denied Christ 3 times, but later reaffirmed 3 times that he loved Christ more than the nets, boats, and fishing. Christ called him to leave his profession of fishing forever, but he didn´t understand that. When Christ was crucified, all the apostles looked to Peter as the Chief apostle, wondering what to do now that Christ was gone. Peter didn´t know, so he went fishing, back to the world, back to his comforts. Then Christ visited the sea shore and prepared them Breakfast of fish and bread. How thoughtful. When peter saw him on the sea shore, he threw himself into the sea and swam to Christ. Christ asked him, and he reaffirmed his love for Christ 3 times. What a great repentence story.

Gotta run, love you all.

Take care.

Elder Bunker

Semana Santa

Hello everyone,

Not much time today, but here it goes.

This week was Semana Santa (the week before Christ´s crucifixion). On Friday there was a representation of the crucifixion that passed through our area, but I didn´t get to see it. Strangely, but with significance, it stormed with thunder, lightning, and rain on Friday night. Saturday is called Saturday of Glory, and everyone gets wet, such that the city shut off the water and gave out fines of $300 and 36 hours in jail for wasting water (water balloons, throwing buckets of water, etc). Luckily it scared enough people that nobody got us wet. They also burned a giant sculpture of Judas Iscariot in the streets. It gets pretty wild here during the festive days. Sunday wasn´t much of a celebration, which was surprising. In the US Easter Sunday is a pretty huge thing. All in all, many people were gone on vacation, but many were more willing to talk about Christ.

Lots of people have asked us why we don´t use the cross in our church, but I have learned a lot from the Book of Mormon; that the cross is a symbol of the crucifixion and sacrifice of Christ, but Christ himself set the appropriate symbols for those: the bread and the water of the sacrament. I have been thinking a lot about the resurrection lately. How wonderful it was. That Christ died, but more importantly that he lives, with a body. He didn´t take up his body and ascend to the Father just to leave his body somewhere orbiting somewhere out in space. He took up his body because he is going to NEED it. Just like we will need our bodies after the resurrection to inhabit a kingdom of glory. How greatful I am to know that. And to share that. I am trying hard to repent and to become a better person, a better son of God, a better missionary, a better representative of Jesus Christ.

I love you all and wish you a happy Easter.

He lives.

Elder Bunker

Rain

This week was great as well. We baptized two more investigators this weekend. Remember how last week there was no water to fill the font? Well this weekend, on Saturday, there was an overabundance of water, via Rain and Thunder and Lightning. The bad weather prevented most of the people from coming, so there was almost no support from the ward. But she is a strong investigator and has a strong testimony already. Last week I had lent my white pants to the husband of the woman who was baptized, so he could baptize her. He didn´t come until halfway through the baptismal service, right before the baptism. But luckily our investigator had multiple sets of white clothing just in case. I wore the overalls that she was going to wear, and she wore another set of clothing. Everything went well afterall.

They say that the sun is very very strong right now...between 10-12 on the UV scale...and they say that 14 is solar radiation. I´ve started to cake on the sunblock...It really helps. Sometimes I can just feel the sun burning my skin. But it´s nice out right now. Overcast and about 75-80 degrees. It has rained the past 3 days in the night, so it gets really cold in the mornings, but that´s how I like it, when my head is cold and I have nice, warm covers.

Transfers are tomorrow, but both my companion and I are staying here in Meyehualco. I really do like it here, and there is a lot of potential. Speaking of moving around, they say that the mission is going to split in June or July and that they are going to take some missionaries from the Mexico City South and Mexico City East missions to create the Mexico City Southeast mission. We´ll see if I´ll get moved. If so, I´ll have had the opportunity to serve in 3 different missions and have 3 different mission presidents. Pretty whacky.

Well that´s about all for this week. Will write next week. (this week is Semana Santa, or the week leading up to Easter. On Saturday, everyone throws liquids at everyone else on the streets, so we´re expecting to get pretty wet that day...details to follow :)

Love you all.

Elder Bunker

Pyramids & Earthquakes (but thankfully not together)

Dear Beloved Everyone,

Oh, what a great week. We had another baptism, but Satan sure does work hard to prevent those from happening. This time it was that there was hardly any water in the Chapel. The cistern where the city deposits water (drop by drop i might add) had been emptied the day before for maintainance and repairs. In the morning, there was no water still in the cistern. We investigated, and it turns out that the valve had been shut as well, so the city couldn´t deposit water. We opened the valve and started filling the font on Sunday morning at about 9am. The baptism was scheduled for 12:30pm, but the font was only filled up about 1 foot deep. We rescheduled for 5pm and luckily there was barely enough water to perform the ordinance. We have two more baptisms scheduled for this weekend (one Saturday and one Sunday). It´s sure a great joy seeing our investigators progress and come unto Christ.

In other news, there was an earthquake here on Thursday morning of magnitude 6.7. Then on Monday, another one of 7. I didn´t feel either of them, however. Both were at about 8am. On Thursday we were on the bus traveling to a missionary meeting at that time. I don´t know what happened on Monday, but we didn´t feel it either. It makes me wonder, however, if the tectonic plates are just slipping and preparing for a big earthquake. Hopefully not, but it´s possible I think. A massive one occured in 1985 here and devasted the city. But they have put more preventative measures in place.

Speaking of the missionary meeting, it was to audition for the missionary choir that will be singing for the visit of Elder Oaks in the middle of May. Turns out that both my companion and I made it into the choir of 20 (it was open to the whole mission, about 130, but only about 55 or 60 showed up to audition). It´s truly a great opportunity. We will be singing I know that my redeemer lives.

We decided to change our Preparation day from yesterday to today so that we can go to the pyramids in Teotihuacan. It was really a great trip- we got permission to leave the mission and change the day and everything. It was a long ride (about 3 hours in buses, vans, and the metro one way). We spent about 2 hours there. Maybe I´ll send a few pictures later.

Transfers are in one week from today. I think I will get transferred (i´ve been here 3 months), but my companion isn´t too sure because sometimes they leave us in our first area for 6 months. We´ll see. I love it here, but I also wouldn´t mind going to a new area.

That´s about it for today/this week. I love and miss you all. Remember your covenants.
Elder Bunker

Conference, baptism, conference, conference, confere

Hello everyone,

This week has been a pleasant surprise. One of our investigators told us this week that he was ready to be baptized (there were a few pending problems). So we (my companion) baptized him on Saturday between the first and second sessions of General Conference. It was a great service, even though not many people attended (we didn´t have a Sunday in between to announce it). His wife is already a member, but they are not married (not living together either). Their daughter is 7. He´s a great man. Their pictures are attached. We have 4 more on date for baptism this month. We´ll see.

We were just informed by email that Elder Oaks is going to be visiting our mission in May, and that we are going to provide a missionary choir. I think I´ll go audition. That would be a really neat experience. And I miss singing.

General Conference was so great as a missionary. We watched all sessions in the stake center. They put it on in English in the high council office, so we english-speaking elders (6) got to watch conference in style. It was really amazing. I wrote down 8 questions that I needed answers to (some for me, some specific with how to help my investigators). All 8 were answered thoroughly throughout the conference. It´s amazing how that works. Also it seemed to me that there was a large theme of the second coming. One apostle mentioned that difficult days are ahead (and they also talked a lot about the welfare program, being the 75th anniversary). And they talked about how the gospel must go forth upon all the face of the earth, together with the call for more missionaries last conference and this conference. It makes me wonder...

Well if it is really soon, I´m glad. It´s about time.

I love you all, miss you. Keep the faith.

Elder Bunker