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

Mante Week

This week was pretty crazy busy! We went to Tampico
for a couple days to have a training meeting with
President Ramierez, so that was good, we learned more
about the importance of obedience in the mission! We
also got subway and Little Ceasars....American food!
So that was a fun trip! This past week was pretty normal
for teaching, nothing too different. This week we have 2
baptisms Friday so that is really exciting! Its been great to
see the change in the lives of these 2 as they have prepared
for baptism! The gospel really does bring great joy into the
lives of any who apply it in their lives! And I challenge all
to do that! Please let me know if you have any questions
about this or want to learn more about the church!

More about the week! On saturday for lunch the member
fed us a big Chile with Cheese inside, i thought that was
unique, it was pretty good!
 
I had my first haircut in Mexico!

The weather here is getting a little cooler for winter!
Everyone is freezing here but it is great for me!
Mexico is great! And things are going great here!!

 

The Chile

Now a story to celebrate me being here for almost a whole
change (6 weeks)
No one at home knows about this, so here we go (sorry
mom) If you remember, right before I left the MTC I was
reassigned to California because I hadnt recieved my visa,
but then a couple days later I got my visa and came straight
to Mexico! The problem was the Missionary department
forgot to tell anyone that I was heading to Mexico....only me
and the airline knew this.....as a result, I got the the Airport
in Tampico and was alone, because nobody knew I was
coming to this mission....So i got to hangout at the Tampico
Airport for a couple hours, I was finally able to borrow a
phone and get a hold of the mission and they came and
rescued me! It was a interesting first day! But it was all
good! And all is great now!
I hope you all have a great week!
Love,
Elder Ford

me with Angel after his baptismal interview, he is deaf so 
the Elder who gave the interview had to write it all on the 
board! Angel´s baptism is friday!

Week 3!!!

Another week, gone! this week was good, nothing too crazy happened. Teaching lessons is getting better because my spanish is getting better! We taught alot about Joseph Smith this week and my testimony of him as a prophet and of the church keeps growing! Please everyone read his story and you can know that he was a prophet and that the church is true!
Everyday is great and pretty similar, we wake up at 630, workout and get ready and study at 8. at about 12 we start teaching, and contacting people in the street! I love it! We do thing until 9 when we head home and then go to sleep at 1030, crazy but amazing days! 

Selfie with a sheep

This week was my birthday so that was fun! we celebrated monday with cake and hamburgers! then wednesday the zone (group of Missionaries in Mante, we have 12 elders so thats fun!) got me cake which was fun! And then that night me and my comp got pizza! So a pretty great Birthday! 

my birthday!

All is great here! The gospel of Jesus Christ is true! I promise that it will add blessings to the life of all! Have a great week! I look forward to hearing from you guys each week!
thanks for all!
Elder Ford

Week 2!!

Well this week flew by! Crazy how fast it went! The food is still pretty great! This week a member made Hamburgers which was a great blessing! I also discovered the donuts here are really good..so that is not good...and they are normally 3x10 pesos (which is about 75 cents)..Luckily we work out every morning! This week was pretty great otherwise as well! We have a lot of great investigators and one has her baptism in 2 weeks! So that is exciting! Hopefully it works out great! The language is coming along, not perfectly but I feel like I
am learning more and more each day which is good! The members help out alot and are patient with me when I speak! This week a big thing that helped me with the language was remembering that a smile and laughter is universal! Everyone can understand it! Remember that this week, that no matter who anyone is, everyone understands a smile!
A couple days ago we were going to teach a new investigator, we knew she lived a long way from the rest of the city but we were not sure how far, so we started the trek down the dirt road, it ended up being maybe just over a half mile, so it shouldnt have been too bad, but we have had alot of rain, so it was pretty muddy..it made for a adventure, but when we found the investigator we were able to teach her and her children and they loved the lesson and are excited to learn more! The Lord will bless us if we persist! 

 I made some killer french toast this week

the long muddy road!

I hope you all have a great week! Mante is great!
Con amor,

Elder Ford