December 30, 2013

Lucas 2:10-11 10. Pero el ángel les dijo: No temáis, porque he aquí os doy nuevas de gran gozo, que serán para todo el pueblo: 11. que os ha nacido hoy, en la ciudad de David, un aSalvador, que es CRISTO el Señor. Happy New Year Everyone. Day Before New Years Eve. :) I hope everyone had a happy Christmas!!!!!!!!! It will definitly be a Christmas to remember for me. It was very awesome. Im sorry we couldnt get the Skype to work............. but mothers day for sure, I was happy I could see all of you and the house! I miss seeing all of your faces everyday. I cant beleive that tomorrow night is New Years Eve!!!!!!!!!! We dont really have anything exciting planned, i think we will just be chillin in the house in the night, haha. obvious. Last year i was with Elder Casimiro, He is now in his house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and this new year i will be with elder Rasmussen!!!!!! yeah, We are going to crack glow sticks.... in the night, whooooooooooooooo Missionary Fireworks. haha. Anyways, This past week was really good, we got to do divisions with the Zone leaders, and I spent the day with elder Rodriquez, He was sick the whole day though, so we went to the hospital and got him a receipt for medicine. Then he left and he got me sick, i think......... This morning i woke up with thee worst sore throat i have ever had in my whole entire life....... i felt like i couldnt swallow,. My mouth was really dry and could hardly speak. This morning we told some youth that we were going into Mazatlan to play basketball, and one of them came to our house and waited for us to get ready to leave, and so i kind of felt like we had to go, but i really wanted to go play basketball also. because i havent played it in sooo long. I took some medicine and then we left to play basketball, it was a really good day. We all had fun plying basketball, but my throat still hurt, and it still hurts right now, while im typing. It is less swollen, but i am afriad in the night... because it just stng like crazy in the morning. I am drinking lots of water, and the medicine helps me a little bit. I think it will go away in a couple of days. I hope it does, we also did a fast for one of our investigators this past week, for blanca and we are really hoping that she will understand. She pays her tithing, Goes to church, always listens to the missionaries.... Ha she is amazing... we just dont know what her doubts are,... and we fasted with her and her family so that she could receive an answer. We are hopingthat this did the trick. She is very shy with us and it is sometimes awkward to talk with her. but I know she knows that this is true.... She just needs to say yes. We are hopng for an answer to everyones prayers. please pray for blanca so that she will get baptized. This past week we also met an 89 year old women that can still do push ups, she showed us. Ha ha i am going to go back and take a video of it. She is a member, but inactive. I told her that if she can still be doing ups, she can still be going to church,She does live pretty far away though. But we are teaching her. ha she Always gives us hugs...... ? .... She is very sweet. ITs against the rules to hug a missionary... but for 89 year old women that can still do push ups there is an acception. My companion is healthy : ) Im happy that he doesnt have anything serious. but we are just chuggin along Hope everyone has a good day tomorrow and a HAPPY NEW YEAR Love ELDER Fellingham

December 23, 2013

Well!!!!!!! I am very happy to say that its christmas time: ) I am very happy that it is almost Christmas day, I feel like this christmas will be a little bit more exciting than last years, i dont know why, but I am just excited for this one. Good News is that an old missionary returned here to Mazatlan, and christmas morning he invited all of the missionaries that are here in Mazatlan to go eat breakfast with him and his family. I am pretty suprised, I am sure we are all going to go. I still remember this missionary. His name is elder Snow. He left when my trainer left, and he is a cool guy. Im excited to see him. He told me when he was still in the mission that his family are really good friends with the montgommery family, Kathy and Greg, who has now passed away. But it was cool that we found that in common. Elder Snow is from Orem, Utah. I think he also told me that his parents know mom and dad, Gil and Paula. So i dont know if you guys know a fmaily with the last name by Snow. But i am happy that we get free breakfast Christmas morning. That is exciting for me. ha. It will be in a hotel. Then also the President of the branch here in Villa union invited us to be with him and his family for Christmas. We are going to cook carne asada and it is going to be delicious. It will be a very good last Christmas to remember here in the mission. btw cant beleive that its my second Christmas,............ This past month..... well in the past weeks lots of misisonaries left home. They got to go home early for Christmas..... But lots of them were my friends and it is soooo weird to me that they have left and they are not here anymore. I am veryy happy that they get to be with there families during Christmas though. It is something very special. Ha Yes Heidi showed me what mom and danny were talking about, Paula: Its our last Christmas without ben Danny: ill cherish it. Heidi: Somethings never change...... ha im looking forward when i get back to seeing the things that didnt change: ) haha especially my brother danny, This past week was not very productive with all the activities that we had, and the things we were doing. We moved houses, the knew house were in is very wonderful, it is brand new, and it is sickness free....... thank the heavens. It is very nice and we are both very grateful that we moved in in such short time. The new land lords are very awesome, very sweet and nice. It is a young couple that were going to move in, but they decided to keep living with on of there moms a little bit longer and they are letting the missionaries rent the house. The activity that we had was a multi zone conference, we had a spiritual session at first and then after we played lots of games and we broke three piñatas and then we ate and received packages. Yes i received the packages from heidi, Thank you heidi for the cookies, they are almost gone already... hah they are very yummy! i also gave a bag to some of our investigators that are progressing. they enjoyed them as well. Mom I will get your package next zone meeting im sure. Thank you very much for sending them i love you guys very much! We hae very few investigators right now.... Villa union is one of my hardest areas. I have talked with the missionaries that have been here in the past changes, and they have also told me the same.... It is just a rough place.... Lots of the people here are very direct... or indirect with there lies. but it is also vvery obvious.... But it is sad to see that lots of people reject the gospel here.... I still hae hope here, and i know that we just need to work even harder... we have to give all we have to hae miracles. To see the blessings of the lord we have to do 110% and i really hope we find new investigators in these weeks that come. Were still working with the same people and the owners of the new house that we just started renting. They seem very ready for the gospel. I hope they listen and understand us. I hope everyone is well at home, im glad we have snow for christmas it means it will be a good summer. I hope everyone is remembering the real significance of christmas, even though we have some ¨grinch doors¨ like melanie explained haha it doesnt mean that we stop or get down. We keep going, and we teach the truth and bring light unto others. I love the gospel and there is no other place that i would rather spend Christmas in two days than here in villa union. Even though it is hard hear i am learning that you just gotta put your head own and keep goin... Even if we arent seeing the big miracles right now there are always the little miracles that get over looked.... We surely do receive sooo many blessing from our Heavenly Father and we should know better to not over look them, or let them surpass our view because we are soo loved. I just want you all to know that love is one of the greatest commandments and I want you all each one of my family members and friends to know that I love you. Thanks for always being there for me and supporting me in the things I am doing. It means a lot. Dont waste time this Christmas season to over look the little things that you can do for someone else. President eyring said something like this in the book ¨To draw closer to God¨ That you sent me mom and dad: The times when I feel like I am most in tune with the Holy Ghost, The spirit, The comfortor, is when I am simply asking my Heavenly Father, What can I do for someone else? or who is someone that is in need of me right now?. Those two questions are the questions that Henry B Eyring asks himself when he wants to have the Holy Ghost with him. I feel like it also has a lot to do with service, Mosiah 2:17 what does it say? My dear family and Friends look at the things that you can do for others in these moments of your lives, and I promise you as is the promise from our Heavenly Father, down to Henry B Eyring a member of the first presidency that The Holy Ghost....... a member of the trinity will be by our side as our companion if we do a simple act of love to ur fellow men. I love you all And i wish you all a very Happy Christmas. Buscan milagros. Love Elder Fellingham

Pic1 me with my district left to right, E. Esplin, his companion E.hammon, E. Rasmussen and me, E. Orton, and E. hulsey Pic2. me and my district going to this thing this morning. We were invited by a bunch of norte americanos to eat breakfast with them, and we were right next to the beach, they invited all of the missionaries in Mazatlan, and the president let us go. : ) Feliz navidad. This picture is a mirror in the little car that we were in when we were trying to get to the breakfast.

These are all the missionaries getting lined up to eat, it was like a big buffet. The People that invited all of us are all from Utah. They said they do it every year, and they have always invited the missionaries. It was really fun, and we sang for them after.

and this picture is me with the zone leaders, elder Nelson and Elder Rodriguez. It was a really pretty day.

This is the backraound of where we ate this morning it was right on the beach, super tempting............................

This is all of us eating together, me and some of our zone. Elder Merkley in the front right is from lindon, he said he lives about 8 houses from the allreds, im sure Jeff knows him, maybe even you guys know the merkleys? i dont know. when we used to live in lindon. Then Elder Roberts in the back right with his mouth open is from Layton, He says he thinks he knows the bairds, robby and carol. the baird family. you can ask them. but i think its cool that they are both in my zone and the know my cousins.: )

all the food i ate : ) it was a good reminder,

elder roberts wanted to be in my picture, , ) but it was a good morning. We were all very full after.

Hermana Tejeda, She is really cool, very strong convert missionary, she is older but she is awesome. elder merkley from lindon, Elder Snow haha who used to be in this mission, but came back for this week to vacation, he spent his christmas here with his family with all the Utah people that came, he is my buddy, we were good friends when he was here. but he finished his mission with my trainer. He came with his mom, and you wouldnt beleive who his mom is.

His mom was Joy´s old teacher when she went to Orem High School : ) memories, ha I dont know if you guys remember her, but yeah i got to meet her, and I served my mission with her son. Love you guys, hope you had a good christmas, and have a happy new year WHOOOOOOOOOOO 2014!!!!!!!!! Love Elder Fellingham

December 16, 2013

Hey everyone, Looks like were in Christmas season. I hope everyone is in the christmas spirit. I really loved the pictures heidi thank you!!!!! Im glad you guys all had a little visit by santa clause early. !!!!!! ha ha hazel did look a little bit suprised. Im happy you all had a good fun time. This past week went well, me and my companion are finding new people like always that want the gospel. This past week, we met someone on the street, her name is Vanessa. She asked us to go to her house so we could talk to her, and she is 18 years old. She is pregnant and she is living with someone. She has desires to get married and we are goin g to help them get married. She is very nice and so is her husband ( luis) They are bot very cool, She is a member of the church, but luis no. She told us that she will be having her baby in two weeks. It doesnt look like in two weeks... i mean her stomach still looks very small to be in two weeks, She is not really bulged, it looks like the baby is side ways in her stomach so she has really big hips.... its kind of weird. but atleast thats what they are telling us. We want them to get married before she has her baby... because if she does it will be that much easier to baptize her husband. He has a desire to be baptized. He studied with other missionaries a while ago, he still remembers how to pray and everything, he just needs to be taught a little bit more. But this is our plan for them. They werent soo sure about getting married before the baby, and we told them to think and pray about it. We know someone that can marry them also, We just need to ask about some paper things. But we are really hoping that they get married before the baby. Because if they dont we will have to wait another month so that they can get married becasue she will be in what they call reposo. Rest! the people here.. well lots of people have there babies naturally. and they dont get medication.... i dont know what she will do, but usually all of them rest after having the baby. and here i feel like they rest even longer, because some dont have the medical stuff they need... but i dont know. Im doing well, my companions doing well. Were not sick, we are going to have christmas with our president. He invited us over to eat with them in the night. Me and my companion decided that we are going to skype, we will call before so we can see what we will do but we are both going to skype. If the family can be ready around 5 6 or 7 thats when we will be skyping. We will be more specific next week when we get on. but i cant wait to see all your fces, and whats new, and how everyone is doing. This is going to be a short letter this week, but maybe we will get on later on today and write more. We have a meeting in Mazatlan with all the missionaries today so we have to leave right now to be on time. But i love you all, and i love the work. Love Elder Fellingham

December 9, 2013

Its almost Joseph Smiths birthday!!!!!!!! hah just thought you might like to know that. We were teaching a lesson telling fun facts about Joseph Smith, and his birthday is close to christmas. Fun fact for the week. Hey Family!!!! This past week was pretty good, we had a good week, we found lots of new people, and we had interesting lessons. We have new investigators, it turns out we had to drop lidia.... she is not progressing, and she lies to us. buteverything besides that is good. We are still firends, we just cant pass by her house frecuently anymore. We are focused on other peopl who follow up with their commitments. We found someone new, her name is margarita. Se has a very good friend that is in the church. We just found her alos... ha she is less active, but knows a lot about the bible. The thing that is difficult for her is because her house is super far from the church.... but i think and figure that it is a little sacrafice to wake up sundays to go to church, I think she will keep coming. she has a lot of friends their. Margarita has a lot of family, she accepted a baptismal date, and she said she would like us to talk to her husband. She said he is very nice, and he likes things about God. He likes religion. He is a miner, and blows up hills, and mountains. i imagine it is for the big new free way that they are making. The old way to get to durango takes about 6 hours, and this new road/ freeway will only take 3 hours. they basically just cut straight through the mountains. but it is pretty cool, im sure you can look it up. They say its very beautiful. (the drive) We have a guy who lives her in villa union that is member and he helps us a lot when he can. He is dating a 22 year old in my old area in juarez, and he said he wants to propose to her in these months that come, but he is going to take a drive with her down the canyons ha. and thats where he wants to propose. He works their also, so it takes up a lot of his time. but he is a cool guy. He is basically like our mission leader. The mornings and nights are getting colder here. February and January are the coldest months in mexico.. well herein sinaloa and then it starts getting warmer, i bought a long sleeved shirt to wear in the night. I have been waking up with a sore throat these past few days, but i think its because we leave the door open to our balcony at night. I need to start shutting it. My companion still thinks he is a tough guy,,, and he leaves his fan on in the night... pff, ha i remember when i did it also last year. Turns out we had changes but we didnt get changed again!!!!! i was a bit suprised. but i could care less with the time in my mission about changes. ha. Lots of the missionaries revolve around where they are going, and thats not good. I am actually happy to still be here. I havent seen this place grow how i hoped i would make it with my companion, so i am happy that my heavenly father is giving me another chance. Every change helps me see things that did well and i did wrong, and we will be changing a few things... We always strive to be our best!!! Im doing well, we are not sick!!!!!!!!!!!!! well bad things havent happened like serious sicknesses!!! So we have been blessed. Our District didnt even change either. It is still the same six gringos... together haha. I feel bad for one elder he has like almost half a year... and he is still in his first area. Elder esplin, from Alaska.. ha All our district are good people. They are all good missionaries. I hope we can see lots of miracles this change. We have lots of investigators that are ready to be baptized.... but they are just not baptized............. ahhhhhh it makes me frustrated... one of these weeks they will be baptized though. thanks for the pictures of the snow. I miss it, although my body is really used to the weather here now.. I dont sweat at all and my companion is always asking me...... why arent you sweating... are you not hot.... ha he is still used to Idaho. In two weeks i will be able to talk with you guys so get ready,,, this week i figure out with my companion when is the best to do it, and then i will tell you next week. i dont know if we will be able to skype... remember we have a new president. I will be sure to ask, what we can do. Anyways i love all of you, here is a scripture, a good one for christmas, "And behold, this will I give unto you for a sign at the time of his coming; for behold, there shall be great lights in heaven, insomuch that in the night before he cometh there shall be no darkness, insomuch that it shall appear unto man as if it was day. "Therefore, there shall be one day and a night and a day, as if it were one day and there were no night... and it shall be the night before he is born. "And behold, there shall a new star arise, such an one as ye never have beheld; and this also shall be a sign unto you." Lets all remember to focus on what Christmas is truly about., Love you guys, travel safe, and rememer who you are. Love Elder Fellingham.

December 2, 2013

We are almost in 2014!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay Black beans and cheese for thanksgiving dinner!!!!!!!!! One of my favorites, i will always remember it. : ) It was delicious. This thanksgiving nobody invited us to eat with them, but it was okay. Me and my companion had fun trying to cook, haha. I hope that everyone had a really good thanksgiving, i miss seeing the fall leaves, and being with family thanksgiving. But this thanksgiving was a really good one and i liked it, haha because i didnt even remember it was thankgiving. I read a talk from dietewr F uchtdorf that i would encourage you all to read. It made me more grateful for the things i have, and for te real things i have in my life, not the material things. Here in mexico the people always get really festive when it comes around these months, they are always having parties, and dancing, and drinking.... Anyways, im happy to be in the christmas month!!!!!!! lots of people are buying there christmas trees, and lots of people have there lights all lit up. ha i said this last time, but it is really weird for me to see christmas lights without snow.... it is weird. I am just sooooooooo happy that the sun instead of melting the snow isnt melting my skin.......... It is not hot anymore, the days are much cooler, and we have a nice summer breeze, there are more clouds. It doesnt rain, and my skind and my body temparature are both a lot happier. Okay this last week, here comes some sad news,,, the lady that we have prepared all this past month to be baptized told us the day before her baptism that she didnt want to get baptized,... She did it in another way though without using words.... Which made me and my companion really sad,,, and a little frustrated. My companion was more sad than me i think.... I felt really bad for him,, and i tried to cheer him up. We were sooo close to baptism with her... She will be baptised... just more in the future. We have changes next week, and i am expecting to leave this area.... This is the area of enfermedad ,,,,, as me and my companion call it, ha.. The house that we live in isnt very healthy. There is just a lot of dust in it... and there is spaces that we dont even use, like rooms and stuff. . . but one of us will be leaving, or the both of us maybe... i dont know, i hope my companion leaves, or the both of us.. 6 months down and counting... ahhh the time i ask it to please just stop for one minute... but it doesnt obey.. I have always told myself that i hope i go to all the areas in my mission... to be able to see everywhere before i leave, and i am almost there, Atleast all the main cities, I lack cruz de elota, and el dorado, and rosario, and the baja california( la paz, Los cabos) I really want too go their, i have always said also that thats where i will get sent last tio finish up... haha but who knows. I am really looking forward to a change... i have been here in Mazatlan for a really long time. . . Mazatlan is the area i know like inside and out, i know all the buses by name, which one i need to take to get to basically hwatever colony.... It makes me bad when new missionaries come in and they like cant even remember how to get back to there house or where the main street is.... : / I also know where all the missionaries houses are. It has been a long time here. Okay i hope that the laytons and webbs had fun in st george. Thats always a fun drive: ) i miss it. I hope you guys played well and hard, Im happy to hear that you all got second!!!!!!!!! Next year im sure you will be first!!!!!!! Mom dad, Im glad everything went well with your surgery. Its pretty amazing to me that you can play 18 holes of golf after your surgery. and that you are up and going so fast.!! mom really missied thanksgiving, but its okay, next year for sure. : ) and dont cry il be home soon.... : ) il set up the nativity set even when its not christmas... haha. I just want to say one thing. I hope everyone in the family remembers how blessed we are, we really are trully blessed to be able to live in such a beautiful place, to have houses, clothes and food. There are lots of things that i have seen in my mission that you would never see in the united states, or in your communities, i feel like i have a little bit more sense of what danny has felt for the people in iraq, and the places he has been, but also when i have traveled with mom, we saw things and places that dont even compare.... Just want you to remember in this thanksgiving season and christmas season that we are trully blessed,, and we shouldt have full intentions of helping others and having just a slight concious of what is happening in other places in the world. Just know that we are all very blessed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Be happy, Be giving, and know that our heavenly Father loves us all, Love you guys, miss you. See you in half a year!!! Love Elder Fellingham