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

Christmas Time!!

Dec. 14, 2015
Im pretty pumped for Christmas, and this week it started to feel a little like Christmas! Every morning we jam to christmas music, and we got a little tree to decorate! This week we also had a Christmas dinner that the stake Presidency put on for the 12 Missionaries here in Mante! It was a blast! We had great food, and had a great time talking and enjoying the christmas season, it was great to hear the stake presidency bear testimony of Jesus Christ and what Christmas is really about! It was a great night! And we all got new ties so what more can you ask for?
This week was another trip to Tampico which is always fun! We had a class with the President and learned more about the mission!
There were 2 parts of this week that made the week really great!
First, our investigator Karim is ready for baptism! And has his baptism this Saturday! So that was great!
The other thing was that we got to watch the Dedication of the Tijuana Mexico Temple! This was a great experiance! Elder Uchtdorf and Elder Oaks spoke, the spirit was so strong! I felt such a strong love for the people of Mexico, they had so much joy for the new temple! I am so greatful for the blessings of Temples we have in our lives!
Now a funny story for all of you, Im sure most of you know that I don't enjoy spiders too much, well this week I had a encounter with a new spider, I was changing my laundry before going to bed and saw a huge spider outside the door, was about 4 inches, so big for me. I battled to try and kill it for about 15 minutes inside and outside the house,
during the process waking up my companion with my pounding, and manly screams, but sadly

 Typical street in mante, with a funny sign

My enemy for this week

he won...its alive and im not sure where... so
pray for me..Ill send a pic because im sure you all want to see!
This week was pretty great here, and I hope it was for all of you as well!
Love you all!
Elder Ford

December!

Dec. 7, 2015
Its already December! How crazy is that! Christmas is just around the corner! People are excited for christmas which makes the missionary work a little easier! Everyone thinks about Christ during christmas!
Remember the true meaning of christmas this year! And the real gift that we recieve! A Savior! I know that if we all remember that this christmas and apply this gift in our lives we can have a more meaningful christmas!
This week was pretty good! It was a lot of fun really! We had a lot of powerful lessons as well. Alot of lessons of pure testimony of the blessings of the gospel, alot of the investigators here love the church but arent quite willing to make the changes in their lives to be baptized so these testimonies were really powerful of the difference the church makes in our lives!
We have been working with the members alot here in Mante, because missionary work is a lot better when the members work together with missionaries! One way we do this is by having family nights and members houses and having them invite their friends! This has been alot of fun and led to alot of success in the work! So my challenge this week is to help the missionaries, give them names of people they can visit! Or go on visits with them! I promise it will bring blessings into your life! Sharing the gospel brings pure joy! I
promise that!
Things here in Mexico are going great! The language is coming along 

Our FHE for this week!

great! And the missionary work is great as well!
Everyone have a great week!

Love,
Elder Ford

Another week here in Mante!!

November 30, 2015

Elder Smith and I

Elder Brown (BYU Tennis player) and I in the MTC in our BYU

gear, this pic is to celebrate the BYU Victory!

This week was pretty crazy because we weren't really in our area too much! Elder Rubilar had to go to Mexico City for his Visa for a couple days and then to a training in Tampico for a couple days so I was with other missionaries for those days! Alot of fun to spend time in other areas!  I spent a couple days with Elder Smith, who I knew from last year so that was fun.

We eat real street tacos here!!

The weather here really is getting cooler so that is nice!
I hear that BYU crushed Utah State so I am happy about that!
Really dont have any great stories from this week, but I promise the letter next week will be better! Everything here is great! I hope you all are doing great as well!
With December tomorrow I invite you all to check out the new website the church has for christmas! It has some great videos!
Christmas.mormon.org
Have a great week!

Elder Ford

One Change Done!!

Crazy! One change is done here in Mexico! A change is
every 6 weeks! Ill be in Mante for another 6 weeks with
Elder Rubilar still, so nochanges for me!

Our zone here in Mante

This week was great! We had 2 baptsims! The spirit is so
strong at baptisms, its so great to see the joy on the faces
of those being baptized and their families! The baptismal
service was great as well! I played the Piano, which was a
fun way to add to it!  I cant wait to help more people make
this step in their lives!
I have a couple crazy stories from the past week as well!

Lupita and Angel right before their baptism!

First, we were talking with a investigator and he asked
where we were from, I told him im from michigan, and he
responded by saying Kalamazoo, I was pretty shocked and
told him yeah thats the city I'm from, he knows kalamazoo
because his ex girlfriend used to live there!
Crazy, what a small world!!
 
Our snacks here are whatever we pick off the trees!

Second crazy story, Last week I gave a talk in church! And
thats not the crazy part...the crazy part is that they told me
I was giving a talk during the sacrament hymn, so I had
about 10 minutes to worry and prepare it in spanish! It
wasnt very long but I think it was good! People could
understand me! So thats a big step for my spanish!
Overall a pretty good week, it actually got cold the past
few days, which isnt bad, but we dont have hot water, so
that part is pretty bad...
But oh well! Life is good here!
Hope you all have a great week!
With Love,
Elder Ford