Super Bowl in Mante

Feb 7, 2016
haha dont worry, we didnt watch the superbowl...not even sure what
happened, but thats still pretty cool that it was this week! We had a
member who was pretty pumped for it so he grilled a bunch of meat and
we went and ate with him a few hours before, so if you stretch it we
kindof had a super bowl party! But i hope you all were able to enjoy
it, and I hope all of your weeks were pretty great as well! Our week
here was pretty great as well! We started the week off on the right
foot by having a Family Home Evening with a part member family! 

Pancake Night

It was great! And they made pancakes for it, it may sound normal, but it is
really hard to find good pancakes here so we were in heaven! I love
good pancakes like nothing else! SO that was a great way to start off!
And it just kept getting better! Every wednesday we meet together as a
zone to have a class, and lots of times we do activities that are then
related to the lesson, this week we played dodgeball to start,
truthfully im still not really sure how it related but it was alot of
fun, sadly Elder Lundberg and I didnt win, we took 3rd though, so it
wasnt a bad performance!

Birthday celebration with Juan de Dios

The week stayed great and got a little more spiritual when we headed
to Tampico to have a confrence with Elder Valenzuela, a member of the
70, he was super powerful, he helped us learn how to teach our
investigators bettert and how to better apply the gospel in our lives,
his spirit was so strong as he talked and it was amazing to get to
listen to him! The trip was also fun, the night before we had about 25
Elders in one house....so yeah it was a fun trip!

dodgeball

and now, more great news! This saturday we are going to have the
baptism for the Borjas Family! We are very excited for this and so are
they! So this week is going to be pretty great!
I hope you all have a great week as well!
With love,
Elder Ford

Ps. shoutout to my sister kati and my future brother in law russell
for getting engaged!!!

Its February in Mante!

Feb. 1, 2016

Well this week was pretty great! One of the best of the mission so far! So here we go!  It started great last monday when the Borjas family taught us how to make mexican food! Specifically Tortilla de Harina (flour) from scracth! That was amazing! it is pretty hard to do but I think i got the hang of it! So look forward to that! This family is amazing! They
are preparing to be baptized next week! Its so great! We had a little party  with Cenobio this week as well he is a member
of the ward that is older and has some health problems so we visit him and talk about his life and hye loves it. But i think we love it more! This week we took coke and bread and we had a little part with him! I love getting to know the members here! They all have great stories and are super kind to us! And now the crowning moment of the week! Jesus got baptized! WAHOO! I love this guy! He made alot of changes in his life to prepare to be baptized and now is hoping to serve a mission! He asked me to baptize him so I had the privalege of doing that and it was a great moment!
The spirit was super strong and he loved it! And Sunday when he recieved the SPirit he was about crying! And to make it even better we had 10 investogators at church and they were all able to feel that spirit! I love it! It made for a great week! Im loving Mante!

Tortillas! First make the dough! Roll it out and then
cook it! Then of course it them!!! They were pretty great
I must say...Have a great week everyone!
With love
Elder Ford

Hola from Mexico!!

Wow this week was fast! I feel the yesterday was Monday! Its kind of scary how fast time is flying! But Its also great how amazing the time is! This week was a good one! We are working alot with a the Family Borjas. They are a family of investigators that are amazing! They have been coming to church the past few weeks...But this past friday the dad broke his leg in a motorcycle crash so we kindof assumed he wouldnt be able to come..but then on sunday he was there with his crutches! He said he wants to be there at church and he is going to do what it takes to go! This family really is great! Today for Pday they are going to teach us how to make homemade tortilla! So that will be pretty great!
The other great news is that our investigator Jesus is going to be baptized this Friday! Yay! He has worked so hard to prepared for this and he and us have seen huge changes in his life! I love seeing the blessings of the gospel in the lives of others! This week the weather has been perfect here and we have been loving it! Might be pretty hard to picture 2 americans walking around down here but let me tell you, its pretty great! Everything here is going 

taco night with the Borjas!

great and we are excited and ready to have a great week this week! And
I hope you all do too!
With love,
Elder Ford

Beautiful Mante!!

1-18-2016

First I just have to say that the city of Mante is beautiful! I really love it here! We crossed a bridge over looking the main road in our area and i realized how pretty it is! 

Don't worry I took a picture! The people here are always kind and willing to listen to us and I realized how great that was!
Now this week! It was great as always, it was a little crazy of a week, as always...but it was really fun! We had a couple days of divisions this week so that was fun! During one of these days we went and did service for a member, named Cenobio, he developed a health problem about 10 years ago and due to this has problems walking and talking and can't move one of his hands very well, we always go to teach him and help him try to use his hand more and get better! This
week we helped him sand a table to get it ready to paint,It was great to be able to help him out and just talk about his life! Great day!

Another great part of this week is our family of investigators, the Borjas Family! They are super great! Mom, the fake snow you sent we took to this family our inv family the Borjas and they loved it! They are hoping to visit The states, the dad lived in indiana for awhile! But they are great! They own a tortilla shops here so they are going to teach us to cook next monday!! 

They love going to church and love listening to our lessons! This week the Relief Society had a service project, and the dad in this family went to the whole thing just to help out and bring food! They love to participate in all the things the members do! The best part of this for us is the food....They heard that the members are the ones who feed us so they decided to feed us as well! I love it! We have eaten Mole and tacos with them! the only problem is the Calendar for our meals is already full...so we have been eating 2 meals a few days...luckily we arestill running.... The Family Borjas told us their favorite part of the Church and the teachings is that ever since they started listening their family has been closer. I loved hearing this! I know that the Church is centered on the family! And that if we follow the teachings we can have a lot of peace and happieness! One thing that I know can help is Family Home
Evening! So that is my challenge this week! Have a Family night, if you are questioning what this is: Its simple, a evening together as a family where you can share a spiritual thought, pray, and enjoy time together as a family! I promise that youll like it!

We had a little Christmas celebration this week! (Thanks mom)

I hope you all have a great week!
With love,
Elder Ford

Happy 2016!!

First of all, Feliz año nuevo! Happy New year! I cant believe its already 2016! Our New Years Eve was pretty relaxed but it was good! Elder Rubilar and I were alone and just played some games and waited until 12:00. Here in Mexico everyone went crazy, everyone had fireworks, or little bombs and they were going off all night! It was pretty loud but it was good! Sadly we cant play with fireworks....oh well!
But this we was good! A good week to start the new year! We have great investigators that really have a desire to learn more and more about the church and are preparing for baptism! It is my favorite thing to see people change their lives for the better! And the New Year is a great time to do that! I challenge everyone to put goals down for this
year...and actually reach them!
This week we had changes and Elder Rubilar left for a different area, and i got a new companion here in Mante! An American!! His name is Elder Lundberg, from Idaho! It is going to be a blast to have us 2 here! And we are ready to work hard and share this gospel! (and hope that the natives can understand us)
Updates of Mante, its really really cold....about 40 degrees, so i have been using the cold weather gear that my mom convinced me to bring ( thanks mom )

Remember that with God in our lives we can be so much better than we 

 Our crazy zone last change

 Goodbye Elder Rubilar

Hello Elder Lundberg

were before! And remember that with your goals for this year!
I love you all!

Elder Ford

Feliz Navidad!

12-28-2015
Feliz Navidad to everyone! I hope everyone had a great Christmas! Here in the Mission Christmas was excellent! The whole week was pretty great!
Our Christmas festivities started last monday, the missionaries here in Mante took a trip to a city called Valles to have a little party/talent show with the missionaries there and the President of the mission and his family! In total there were about 30 missionaries.
First of course we ate good food, and then had the show, people sang, danced, did skits, magic, music, lots of things! It was a great way to relax! Our zone (the 12 missionaries here in Mante) did a skit of the birth of Christ, it was good! also alittle funny because we are 12 Elders, but it really was good! After the show we got a little goody bag from the mission with some great candy and headed back to Mante!
The next day of celebration was the 24th! Christmas Eve! Here in Mexico Christmas Eve is bigger than Christmas day! Everyone eats a big dinner and parties until 12:00 when they open the gifts! For our Christmas eve we were invited to a dinner with some members in our ward, we ate with them and took some pictures before heading home for
the night (the rule for the 24th was at 8pm we had to be in our house) but it was all good because that is when our party began...we had 2 other missionaries with us so we had a good time! We played some games, ate some cake, and some other members brought us more food, we waited for midnight, said Feliz Navidad, then headed to bed to prepare
for our big celebration the 25th!! The 25th is the big day for
missionaries! And we got permission to play sports so that made us even more excited!! The day started at 10! I called home to wish merry christmas then we started to play soccer!! We played for about 6 hours during the day! It was a blast, we even played a little basketball! It was so fun! Yes, i did score a few goals, so thats what matters!
During the day we also had Nerf Wars, ate a unhealthy amount of food, and watched Minions! it was a great day to relax and have fun for our zone! The only problem was that with 12 Elders sports get pretty real, so we were all working pretty hard (dont worry, no one got hurt) but the next couple days after it was pretty hard to walk...we were all really really sore...but it was worth it to play some great soccer!
Overall it was a great Christmas, and a great week! I hope all of you 

 Our Skit for Christmas

 Santa came to me

 Christmas Eve!

 Christmas Eve!

Soccer!

had wonderful Christmas days as well! All is well here in Mante!

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year!
Love,
Elder Ford

Baptism!

Dec 22, 2015
Hello everyone! How is everything going?? Hopefully great! Things were pretty great here in Mante as well this week! The first great thing is after a couple more nights I successfully killed the spider, so now I can sleep in peace!
This week was pretty crazy, there was alot going on! But it was all good things! Most of the good happened this Saturday and here is how it went;
In the morning we went to the church to start filling up the baptismal font with water, while there another missionary came and we got haircuts, pretty big risk to let another missionary cut my hair....but i think it turned out okay, hair always grows back anyway right??
After that we went to eat with a member, we ate at his christmas party for his employees and the food was great! Really different though, its call Zacahuil (i think) Its a whole pig and some other stuff wrapped in giant leaves and cooked (i think)...all i know is it was good! And we ate with the old President of Mante so that was pretty cool as
well!
And now the best part! This Saturday was the baptism of Karim! It was super special! The spirit was so strong, he is only 11 but his desire to follow Christ was super evident! He has a strong spirit with him and loves to share that with all of his friends! Karim asked me to baptize him which made it even more special. I am so greatful for the 

 My haircut...

 Zacahuil

Karim and I before the baptism

chance I have to be here in Mexico inviting others to change their
lives! This week really was great and filled with the spirit!
And this next week is Christmas! I hope you all have a great
Christmas! Look forward to my email next week, im sure ill have a few
good stories from Christmas!
Have a great week! Feliz Navidad!
Love,
Elder Ford