01-26-2015

Hello all,

Wow has the time ever flown by! I can't believe I have already been gone for four months! So much has happened, but it feels like I have only been out here for like two weeks. But I also feel like I can't remember life before the mission. 

So the news for this week is that I had transfers again. My comp and I had been having problems for almost four weeks, and it was just not working out. On Tuesday I was moved again, now to Ixtlahuacan. It is a very mountainous colony, and is absolutely gorgeous! There is not a lot of green, but the layout and houses are very very pretty. 

Now in my area instead of being an hour walk to get across the area, it is about 15 minutes. It is so so nice, and makes the day not seem as long. Some of the hills in the colony are absolutely insane! I would be skeptical to ride a mountain bike down them! (They aren't actually that bad, but they are way steep.) I have yet to figure out how the cars are able to make it up them without stalling! 

So the story that I have for you this week took place on my first day in the area. We stopped by a less active's house to teach a lesson at about 8 at night. We are invited into his house, and as we are walking in we ask about the nice couches that are sitting outside of his house. Come to find out he got new ones, and was just going to throw them away. We offered to buy them, and then he said that we could just have them. So the next day we go with the two other elders that live with us to get these couches. The house that these couches are at is 1 to 2 kilometers away from our house. ( Remember, the area is very very hilly. ) So we go and get these couches, one is a two seater, and the other is a full three seater couch, and then start to make the hilly walk home! So yeah, we succeeded in getting the couches home, and now the house really feels like a home!!! All we need now is a tv to watch all of our restoration videos on!!! Ha ha jk. We aren't getting a tv. But the looks that we got while we ( Three white guys, and a short Latino ) were walking down the street were absolutely hilarious!!! And that is the story that I have for you this week!

All is well here, and I finally feel like this is where I am going to be for a while. My comp is awesome, and the area is by far my favorite! 

The other day while I was sitting on our couch reading my scriptures, I just had a very very comforting feeling that now this is where I am supposed to be, and that a mission is actually something that is supposed to be fun and enjoyable. It is not only about doing to work of The Lord, but also having experiences to grow, learn, and be humbled! I am hoping that this area will be a home for me for a while, and that I can stop being the new guy in every single area that I am in. 

The Lord does answer prayers, and preform miracles every single day!

I love this work, and love the trials, and wonderful experiences that I am having!

Les amo y extrañarles mucho pero yo estoy donde el señor me me necesita!!!

Con amor,

Elder Mason Millar

01-21-2015

Hey all,

Wow does it ever feel like time is flying by. 

So this week was a pretty normal week. We had lots of lessons and walked probably about 40 miles. That is not very abnormal to walk that much in this area, but I figured I would let you all know that my shoes and legs are getting well used!

We had to go to the hospital again this week for my comp. We were walking home from Tubo Azul, and he was trying to do more that his body allows, (he is a wee bit chunky) tried to one hop over a bar that was about 4 feet tall at the metro, and smacked his knee really really good right on the top of it. 

So the next day we called President and he told us that we should go and get an x ray. So we had another trip out to the hospital. That was boring!!!

Other than that nothing has really happened other than the story in the recording. So you guys can go ahead and listen to that. 

All is well here, and the work of the lord continues to press on. 

I love you all, and you are all in my prayers!!!

Con Amor,

Elder Mason Millar

(mp3 recording is attached to Blog Update e-mail and on my FaceBook page)

01-12-2015

Hey All!!

Well has this last week every been a week! 

So starting last Saturday I started to get a little bit of a head cold. This was nothing big, just  a stuffy nose, and sore throat. Nothing to big. Everything was going well until Thursday.

On Thursday I woke up just fine and then got some breakfast. About an hour after breakfast my stomach turned though. I felt like crap! Was cramping, and was just miserable. I then un-ate my food in the bathroom and was feeling a little better. I then figured, ´´well lets try some different food and see if that makes my sick.´´ So I ate some different food and then got a blessing. 

After my blessing I went out and worked for about 2 hours. And then got really shaky and called President's Wife to ask what do to because I felt Like I should go to the hospital. She laughed when I told her what had happened that morning, and that I had still gone out to work. She told me to go home and rest and that if I had the symptoms in the morning to go to the doctor. 

So the next morning (Friday) I was feeling sick, so my comp and I got ready and made our way to the temple to get a visit with the doctor over the missionaries. This was pretty cool because the doctor was actually from Holiday, and lives like 15 minutes from my home! But he looked at me and figured I just had a bug and that it would pass in a few days. So we go home, and I am not feeling well so I rest for the rest of the day. 

Then comes Saturday. I was feeling totally fine for most of the day, other than the fact that my comp canceled our lunch appt because the sister lived an hour and a half away and out of mission boundaries. So I asked him to call a hermana to feed us. Well nope. He didn't want to, so we didn't get food until 6 that night. All I ate that day was two bowls of cereal, and a half a loaf of bimbo nut bread. So we go home and I am feeling like crap at the eld of the day and go go sleep. 

Man did Sunday morning hit me in the face! I woke up and could barely move. I was shaking it off more that Taylor Swift!!!! I was cold and did not feel good at all. We called President, and he told us to go to urgent care. So I got another blessing and then went to urgent care. This was an adventure. I was looked at in a consultation room and then taken to a treatment room. (Don't worry, this was an American owned hospital, and was very very nice) I then had an IV put in because I was dehydrated, and then got an Xray and ultrasound done on my stomach to make sure that my appendix was not going to rupture. All was well, and I was released 4 hours later being told that I had gastritis. Intlamation of the intestines and stomach from the food that I have been forced to eat down here in Mexico. 

I am now on like 3 different medications and have to watch what I eat for the next two weeks, but it should all clear up. 

Not much more that happened this week, But I can for sure say that being sick on a mission sucks!!! It gives you way to much time to think about home, and miss a wonderful Mom that takes care of you when you are sick. 

I love and miss you all,

Elder Mason Millar

Happy New Year!!!!

So, I don't have much to say this week.

But I had a wedding yesterday, and went to the Mexico City visitors center today.

But really all I wanted to to was wish everyone a Happy New Year and let everyone know what my goals are for 2015, or ´´My full year of service to the Lord´´

This year my main goal is to read every single one of  the standard works. That would be

-The Old and New testimate, 

-The book of Mormon AGAIN, 

-Doctrine and Covenants AGAIN, 

-and the Pearl of Great Price!

My other goals, 

-Learn Spanish more, and when I can speak to focus on Dental and Medical spanish

-Go through the Mexico City Temple

-Stay fit, and not gain weight

And Lastly,

-Make lots of friends!!!!!

These are my goals for the new year, and I would love to hear all of yours!!!

Los Amo,

Elder Mason Millar

Feliz Navidad

Hola Todos,

So there was not a whole lot that went on this week. We had a lot of really good first lessons with people at the beginning of the week, but then everyone left for Christmas. 

The rest of the week has been pretty blah. We had a baptism to go to in my comps old area on Saturday, so we got to go on a little bit of an adventure. We went to Chimalhuacan for the baptism. This was a little scary because this is a much more dangerous area than La Paz. There are Santa Muerte´s everywhere, and that is what makes the crime go up. The belief of the Santa Muerte is that if you do something to someone and they get injured or killed, it is because it was there time to die. If they live then the Santa Muerte was not ready to take them.

So that was a little interesting being there. There were a lot of cool members, and my comp had a wonderful time visiting his old area. This was the area that he got shocked in and I was able to visit and meet the family at the house he was zapped.

Other than this, the only other exciting thing this week was the new investigator that we got yesterday. Her name is Fatima, and wow is she prepared. She was a referral from a friend and we met here at the church last week when she attended for her first time. We met with her this Sunday and taught her her first lesson. The crazy thing though is that she already had all of the folletos and has started El Libro de Mormon. She set her own baptismal date for the 31 of January, and says that she has already prayed and knows that it is true. She is awesome and I can't wait to teach her more!!!!

Other than that, the week has been pretty normal. We ate some good food and talked with lots of people. And on the metro I found Reese´s and bought 10 of them because they are very rare to find here. 

All is well, and the Spanish is continuing to progress. 

I love and miss all of you and can't wait to hear and talk to you on Thursday and next Monday. 

Con Mucho Amor,

Elder Mason Millar

12-15-2014

Wow, was this week an eventful one!!!!

So starting last Monday after I had to leave, the 4 missionaries in my area went out and got pizza from Pizza Hut. It was wonderful, but not the same as in America. After this we had a district meeting and then went out and worked. 

Starting Tuesday is where the craziness begins. Driving in a combi (small taxi/van) to a zone meeting at about 9 in the morning, we are rear ended by a car. This car was doing about 60 mph and we were doing about 25. It was a pretty solid impact, and of course we were in Mexico and none of the cars have seat belts. Both my companion and I smacked out heads pretty good and were really sore the next day, but we were in a pretty big combi and nothing happened to it. The car that his us though was completely totalled and the two passengers in the front seats hit and broke the windshield. It was pretty nuts. 

Then on Wednesday we had the mission Christmas party. This was a lot of fun. We started out with a devotional and then had a talent show. The talent show kind of turned into a joke though. There were a bunch of elders, (The ones from the Dominican Republic) that were just being dumb and ruining it for the rest of the missionaries. But whatever. After this we had lunch and then played sports or watched Frozen. I decided that I would watch the movie, because you don't get to do that on a mission. It was so funny when Elsa changed when she was singing Let It Go. All of the elders went nuts!!!! It was really funny. 

Thursday was a normal day of work and nothing really exciting happened. But Friday we weren´t allowed to work. It was the Day of the Virgin for the Catholics, and it was not safe. So I bought Monopoly and the four of us played it 6 times. 6 times is was to many times to play Monopoly in one day. But is was fun. Friday was really hard though, because we all got homesick because we weren´t allowed to do work. It was nice to have the break though. 

Saturday was also another very interesting day. We didn't have anything planned because we didn´t work of Friday, but we had a ton of lessons. We didn't have a lunch appointment because the sister wasn't home. So we had an hour and a half that we just walked around. We went and sat on these stairs that were like super tall, and were sitting there for about 15 minutes and then four guys came and started to smoke weed in front of us. They started talking to us and then they had more friends show up. By the end (about 45 minutes later) there were seven of them, and they all had a lot of question about the church. It was so crazy. They were there blazing up on the fattest joints that I have ever seen, and asking us question about the church.

 

Later that night we were walking home, and someone yelled at us, so we stopped. At first we thought that he was going to come and rob us, but then there was a girl that was following him. He came and was talking to us about how his friend didn't believe that there was a god, and asked us a bunch of questions to help her understand that there is one. About this time I watched both of them put their hands up to their noses and sniff. Yup, they were huffing. (sniffing glue to get high) But he then looked at us a asked us to give her a blessing. It was kind of weird because it was just on the edge of the street, but Jesus gave blessing in the street, so why can't we! 

And yesterday was just a normal Sunday. It was busy and we had 5 lessons, but is was just a normal day. 

The Spanish is coming along well, and my companion is so much better that my old one. 

Thank you all for the letters and have a wonderful week. 

Love you all so much,

Elder Mason Millar

12-8-2014

Vaca Santo,

Where has the last month gone? There has been so much that has gone on it just seems like a bit blur!!!! 

So this last week has been a good and crazy week. I love my new area, and love my new trainer!!! (Most of the time) He is an increadible missionary, and knows exactly why he is here. He likes to push buttons though. That is for sure!!! He is a great guy though!!!! 

So this last week was very eventful. We had 35 lessons this week, and contacted like a bazillion people. I am not very good at it. As most of you know I talk to lots of people, but I don't like to preach, so it is a little bit of a stretch of my comfort zone. 

Also this week we had a pet dog for a night. She was what looked to be a golden retriever, and we named her Sage. She came up to us one night freezing and hungry, so we bought some food and gave her a warm place to sleep. (I will attach a picture or her)

We also had a pretty crazy lesson last night. We were knocking doors and came across this pastor and his wife, and they invited us in. It was a wonderful lesson, but I didn't understand anything, because it was mostly deeper doctrine. But at the end of the lesson he asked if he could give us a blessing, and he put his hands on our shoulders and asked God to convert us to his religion, or make it known to him that the Book of Mormon is true. If he actually reads the Book of Mormon, then man he is going to be strong in the church, But we will see. We have another appt on Thursday 

So later tonight I am going to a sister's house who is a chiropractor to have her fix my ankle from the MTC when I rolled it. She looked at it the other day and said that it is out of alignment and if it is not put back I will end up tearing my tendon. So that will be nice to have my ankle feeling and looking better. 

The spanish is coming along great for all that are wondering. Everyone I talk to says that I am way ahead of where they were when they were llearning so that is good. I just don't talk much, because I haven't had the opportunity to get to know and open up to the investigators and members yet. But it is progressing, and the Lord is helping me to learn it quickly. 

Other that that, all is well, and the work down here is crazy!!! It is Hot as all get out during the day, and Cold as ice during the night. Dressing for the day is really difficult!!! 

I miss all of you, and love you all so much!!!

You are in my prayers,

Con Amor,

Elder Mason Millar