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