The Traveling Missionary

 Hijole mis cuatachos! I hope you guys are all having an amazing week! My week was pretty uninteresting this week so ill keep it short!

Work:

This week my companion and i were on a bus for 15 hours combined! We had the chance to work in our area for a whopping 2.5 days this week but we were able to find 4 people who were really awesome! We had to spend so much time traveling this week because we had interviews with president! They were awesome as always but they were thursday afternoon😭 and it was 3 hours to get there. So we had to take a trip up to the main city (San Luis Potosí) for our interviews then we returned home for 1 day and returned saturday afternoon to make it to stake conference! Stake conference was completely missionary themed and it was so cool to see all of the members! I cant wait to be able to do member work some day, its probably the biggest thing im looking forward to if i get to leave San Felipe this transfer! 

Storytime! (Skip if you don't like guitar)

Okay so this storytime isnt nearly as crazy as the other ones ive shared but its the p day story of how i got a new guitar! We started the day by taking a way too expensive uber to centro in order to visit some guitar shops and look for a nicer, more permanent guitar that i could have for the rest of my mission! We stopped by 5-6 guitar shops and all but 2 were closed! Apparently there was a Mexican holiday here on monday that i didnt know about and so many things were closed! We decided to bag shopping and come back next week, safe to say i was pretty sad because i really wanted to get a new guitar. (I sold my other one to another missionary so i had been guitarless for 3 weeks lol and was craving playing a guitar) when we returned to the church i decided to scour facebook marketplace to see if there was a guitar that called my name. After an hour or so of trying different searches to filter the guitars i found 1 that looked pretty good, i sent the guy a message to see if it was still available and he responded really fast and asked if i wanted to see it. I said sure and we met up so i could try the guitar. Honestly i didnt think i was going to buy this one, but when my comp and i showed up and got to play the guitar it sounded amazing and my comp told me if he had the money hed buy it for sure! I decided to buy it because i really liked this guitar, the man selling it was really nice and gave me about 65$ off so i got a pretty good deal! The guitar is a Yamaha Fg335 made between 1977 and 1981. Its in really good condition with a solid spruce top, mahogany back and sides and a mahogany neck with brand new strings. Im super excited and i couldn't have asked for a cooler mission guitar!

Stats of the week! 

Guitars bought: 1🥳

Hours spent on a bus: 15😭

Days in my area: 2.5😢

Texas roadhouse trips: 3😁🤠

Workouts: 2🥶

Eggs eaten: 18🐔🔥

Dominoes pizzas bought: 3😅🍕

Spiritual thought:

This week we had stake conference and it was mission themed, every talk mentioned or had to do with missionary work. Specifically encouraging the younger generation to serve. I thought it was amazing and i encourage you all who have the chance to serve, whether it be a proselyting mission or a service mission, to serve the lord with all of your might, mind, and strength. Serving a mission has been the hardest months of my life, but the things ive learned and the man ive become in only 6 months is something i never could imagine. If you are thinking about serving and praying for an answer sometimes it feels like that answer wont come. But, in the words of my mom, "missions are hard, suck it up and go serve the lord." I invite all of you thinking about serving to just suck it up and go. The lord needs you now more than ever, im convinced that serving a mission is the single most faith building, testimony growing experience that you can have in this life. Do NOT waste your chance and wonderful opportunity to serve the lord because it will not ever come back again. D and C says "Behold the field is white and ready to harvest." The lord needs us and is calling everyone able, to serve him and be an instrument in his hands. I know he lives and i know the mission is one of the most amazing experiences ever!

Prayer list:

Elder Tueller

Elder Ah Quin

Elder Trejo

Elder Sowards

Marichi Family

Thank you guys for reading this one! It got kind of long but i love you all and hope you are having an amazing week!

Te Amo!

-Elder Ericson

The Current Bush

 Hey everyone hope you all are doing well! This week was full of rejection and and miracles! Im learning a ton out here on my mission and its been quite the experience! Also, Happy Birthday Britney and Gracey! You guys are awesome and I love you guys so much!

Work:

This week my comp and i worked extremely hard in order to hopefully find someone wanting to come to church! Sadly noone came but we had some cool experiences this week! We were out contacting late one night when we were contacted by a lady named Milagros! Shes awesome and she wanted to have a lesson asap so we came back the next day and had an awesome lesson with her! But, after that lesson shes ghosted us and didnt come to church which was really sad for us but at least we were able to bring someone a little bit of christs light this week! Weve been working hard and having tons of rejection by the people in san felipe but its all good we will keep going and keep trying and i know the lord will bless us to find more people this week!

P-day! 

My comp and i woke up bright and early to take the 7 am bus out of san felipe to hopefully make it to the city with some time to have a good p day, we ended up being on a bus until almost 11 but its all good because we were able to go go-karting and texas roadhouse which was a blast! 

Stats of the week!:

Eggs eaten: 24🐔

Nightmares had: 1😅 (sorry elder elledge haha)

Go kart best lap time: 1:07.19 🏎

Texas roadhouse trips: 1😁

Meals cooked for lunch: 2👨‍🍳

Points scored in basketball game: 30🏀

Prayer list:

Milagros

Elder Valencia 

Elder Trejo

Karla

Spiritual thought:

I was able to give a talk in sacrament meeting this sunday and i was reminded of the story of the current bush, given by Hugh B. Brown in the March 2002 edition of the liahona, where he talks of a gardener loving this current bush enough to cut it down so that it can grow into something magnificent. Its an amazing read if you have time for it, but the principal that i want to share with you all is that god sends us our trials and gives us these challenges not to suffer, but to help us grow into the deciples of christ that we need to be. When we accept the challenges with a different outlook we are more easily able to see the growth that can come from our trials and how they shape us into better people. The lord is our gardener, he knows what we need to look like and become. And he loves us enough to cut us down so that we can arrive to the place we need to! 

I love you all and hope you guys have such a great week! 

-Elder Ericson

Sleeping on the Floor...Again

 Hey everyone! Hope you guys are all having a great week! This week wasnt as crazy as the last one but im definitely not complaining about that lol! 

Work:

This week we were finally able to work a little bit and we had some pretty good success! We found 9 new people that want to learn about the gospel! My comp and i Elder Elledge have been working really hard to help San Felipe 2 grow into an amazing area but we will no longer be in San Felipe 2 for very much longer. My old companion Elder Valencia is training a new missionary in the area of San Felipe 1 but the new guy is going home to help his family, thats not all of his story but i dont want to share much about his circumstances in respect to him. We arent sure when hes leaving but it will probably be this week. Elder Elledge and I will become a trio with Elder Valencia and will be working in San Felipe 1, so that means that San Felipe 2 will be put on hold and we will see what president wants to do with it next transfer. This past week i recieved a new phone finally haha! After i got robbed i recieved a replacement that didnt work all too well so i finally got my new one after a few months!

Exorcism??😅

This week we recieved a member reference to a man named Nicholas. We met with him and he basically told us his whole life story about he was drugged as a kid and ever since then hes been able to see and talk to spirits and ghosts, and they also physically attack him and write things on the walls of his house when hes gone. We taught him about jesus christ and the priesthood and he asked if we could come back a different day to bless him and also his house. We came back on thursday to give him a blessing and dedicate his house. When we walked in there was a dead tree in the middle of yhis one room shack with a huge pile of dirt around the tree. He told us the spirits told him to bury something there so we decided not to ask questions haha! We gave him the blessing and dedicated his house and honestly my comp and i both felt nothing but the holy ghost during the whole thing. We heard rats in his shack and weve talked to him a little more and are 90% sure hes schizophrenic but we will see what happens with him😅 

Stats of the week!

Times slept on the floor: 5😭

New phones: 1🥳

Lessons: 3🔥

Hours on a bus: too many🤧

Texas ̌roadhouse trips: 2🤠

Basketball games won: 1😁

Eggs eaten: 30🐣

Calisthenics goals achieved: 1🤯🥱

Prayer list:

Elder Sowards

Elder Tobler

Elder orullian

Iliana 

Gerardo Juarez

Spiritual thought:

This past week the come follow me talked about Abraham and the sacrifice of his son Issac(which didnt end up happening) but i was thinking a lot about heavenly father and how much love he has for us to willingly give his only begotten as a sacrifice for us. That would be a pain that i could never imagine. I am so grateful for the sacrifice of our savior Jesus Christ and the opportunity that he has given me to return to live with my family and my heavenly father for eternity in the halls of the celestial kingdom. The love that our father in heaven has for us is incredible and my invitation for you guys this week is to love a little deeper. Also to focus on being just like him, who loves unconditionaly, and said in

 Matthew 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; 

Christlike attribute: Love

Love you all and hope you guys have a great week! 

-Elder Ericson

Lockdown

 First things first i am doing okay and the recent things that have been going on in mexico havent affected the city that im in too bad, we were in lockdown for 2 days but now just have to come home before 6 and stay in the house so it isnt too bad and we still get to work most of the day! (Also made friends with a guy who knows everything about the bad guys here so hes keeping us in the loop!)

Crazy story time:

This week might rival craziest weeks in the mission and i genuinely dont know how this keeps happening but i guess heavenly father wants me to have the craziest mission stories ever, when transfers came (addidng a second set of elders in san felipe) president told us that all 4 of us couldnt live together and we needed to find our own house to stay in, while we have been searching for a house president told us it was okay to stay with a member who has a little room outside of her house for guests. So we moved in there and on our second night someone broke into the main part of the house to rob the little old grandma that stays there alone, she yelled for us to come and help her in the middle of the night and so we stormed into the place wondering what was up. We found the guy and got him to leave (my comp and i have come to the conclusion that he probably thinks that we're either magicians or angels) and we were able to notify the poliece and they caught him. But i do have to testify in court this week and i cant really share too many details about what happened, but thank you all so so much for the prayers they have helped so much and i am safe and my comp and i have moved back in with the other elders with permission from president because i couldnt sleep there anymore and it wasnt the best for my mental health to stay there in the house after that. But i have had a flash back of when i first got to this area because we are sleeping on the floor again haha! Good thing we kept the dog food bags handy!

Work:

We won our basketball game on tuesday and it was way fun lol! I miss playing basketball with all of my friends back home but soon we will be able to play again! Elder Elledge and I werent able to work as much as we'd have liked to because of the whole break in and such because we still are having to deal with legal people right now so prayers would be appreciated! We were able to find one new person to teach this week which isnt too good but we also checked on 20+ different apartments and none of them had space for us. This week was slow and long but thats okay because ive got faith this next week will be amazing! 

Stats:🏋‍♂️

Workouts done: 2😭

Apartments weve been rejected from: 20+🏠

Nights i fell asleep before 12: 2😅

Texas roadhouse trips: 0😭🫠 

New people found: 1🫡

Cold showers taken: 4🥶

Basketball points scored: 25? 😁🏀

Hours in lockdown: too many to count☠️😭

Spiritual thought:

My mission has taught me that no matter what you have set in front of you, god will provide a way for you to overcome it. (Also don't ever repeat the words "it can't get harder than this" because it can, and it will😂) but from armed roberies to dog food bag mattresses and house break ins with many more inbetween, i can say for certainty that god is real and protects his followers. I should not be as healthy as i am if not alive without the support and protection of my heavenly father and my savior jesus christ. They are there, and they are real. And i testify that through the lowest of lows and the highest of highs, they are always there for us and are never changing. My mission has also shown me that angels are real, and that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is the only church with the restored gospel and priesthood power of jesus christ. I know this church is true, and i know god is watching over all of us, always. 

I love you all and hope you all have an amazing week! Send me an update on your lives? I miss you all so much!

-Elder Ericson

Transfers!

 Hola mis amigos como estan?? Another week in the paradise that is San Felipe Guanajuato! There were a ton of crazy things that happened this week so we seriously had zero time to work, but there is a pretty interesting story that took place this week haha! 

Transfers! 

First off we got transfer calls and. . . Im staying in san felipe again for a 4th transfer😭 which is fine but id be lying if i said i wasnt bored of this little pueblito yet. Its alright though because the lord has great plans for me and my new comp Elder Elledge! Hes from Santa Fe New Mexico and is the first american comp ive had in the mission! Hes awesome and i cant wait to work with him! A little curveball was thrown at us for this transfer because we are opening a 2nd area in San Felipe. And president told us that we need to move houses because he doesnt want quads in the mission anymore (quads are houses with 4 missionaries living in them) so im curently writing this email from my new ish house, which is a members extra spare bedroom with not too much space for two elders to move in😅 all for the mission lore!!

Story time:

This week was crazy, we have two recent converts who were rehabilitating alcoholics and wre progressing like crazy! But, they both started drinking again this last week, the first one, jose, started drinking and when the cops showed up to arrest him he tried to fight them and now hes annexed himself from the church and doesnt want to come anymore, and hes now living with his girlfriend. The second is where the story gets insane. Cesar, our other recent convert had a crush on one of the members and he confessed his love for her, she did not like him back and he got mad so he said either be my girlfriend or im going to start drinking again. She told him thats not her fault if he starts drinking again and he got mad and left. The next day we went over to her house to have member meal with her and cesar showed up really drunk thinking she was alone. He said hi asked for some food and left, and the hermana told us that this was what he said hed do if she didnt be his girlfriend. So we talked it over with the member for a few hours to see what we could do and how we could help. Then he came back after he thought we left (we hadn't) and talked to her and was mad at her for not loving him, then he came to the conclusion that she didnt love him because she had a crush on my companion Elder Valencia. So he now wants to fight my companion as some sort of macho showing i guess. But this is only half of the story, that same night he broke into a different members house and stole her bike and some money and left and we couldn't find him for 2 days, then we came across him with the help of one of our investigators hugo. So we went and talked to him and he had no idea that we heard everything he said about me and my comp and the member. And he played the victim and told us he only drank a little bit, the members were being mean to him, and that the bike was given to him by another member. We then told him we are here to help him but he has to give the bike back to the member and a few other things, and he was all okay. The next day he returned to the members house and gave the bike back and she told him he better not come back to her house or she will call the cops. He then left and took everything he had and disappeared, we havent seen or heard from him in about a week now. So that wraps up story time in the weirdest area on earth🫠 im just so excited to pick up this mess and figure it all out😅 please send your prayers haha they are needed!

Stats of the week!

Eggs eaten: 24🐣

Texas roadhouse trips: 2🤠

Basketball games won: 1🔥

Nights at a members house: 1😴

Workouts: 3🫠

Naps taken: 5😅 (send help im exhausted)

Days studied: 6📖

Prayer list:

Me

Jose

Cesar

Sister samantha

Sister mauri

Elder orullian

Spiritual thought:

The spiritual thought today is really simple, be kind. Please look out for everyone you can this week and be kind to them, you have no idea how much of a difference kindness makes in peoples lives. It helps them do another day and push through another trial. This week i challenge you all to be kind and reachout to someone who could need your kindness this week.

Christlike atribute: Kindness

I love you all have such a great week! If you have time to shoot me an email id love it!

-Elder Ericson