April 28, 2014

Saturday was a special day, all the leaders were invited to the presidents house, and we did an activity of contacting people in the street, and we had a meeting to see how everyone is! It was very fun, and the spirit was felt for sure. The assistents gave a great lesson to us all and the whole time they focused on the sons of mosiah! The focus was on missionary work and how ammon and his rothers were such great examples for missionary work. If we read the story of them There is preparing, having a desire to serve and then serving, Contacting in the street, winning the confidence of the people we teach, Diligence, Asking references, and baptism, all for just one conversion (Rey Lamoni) a kingdom of people were baptized. I encourage you all to read in alma 17 and 18. Think of ideas of how you can share the gospel with people. Just because we live in Utah it does not mean that everyone is in the gospel. : ) the majority, but there are still souls to be saved.! This week was really good, we did divisions with the new missionaries that are in our zone and i was with elder Myers! He is from San Diego California. I have a lot of respect for him because he is a very spiritual person. The whole time we were together we had a blast of fun, and we ended up contacting a lot of people on the day of divisions. We ended p contacting 5 buses of people.... and we received a lot of contacts haha. Elder myers at the end of the week with his companion had 51 contacts in the street, and we had 25.... haha Elder myers is a beast at contacting. He really suprised me that day. The reason why we had the zone meeting was because we are not contacting enough people in our mission. but now everyone has started to contact a lot more people, I feel like we have taken the fear out of us, and we have contacted a a ton more people. I remember the first time i contacted a bus and i was sooooo nervous, me and another elder did it, and it was interesting and fun, the day of divisions we found a lot of new people to teach and lots of new references to give to other missionaries. There was one point where we missed where we were going to get off the bus, and we took it all the way into the city and we just continued to contact people, when we got into the city, we had to take another bus to get to our area, and we contacted that bus also, then in the morning three more buses to get to navolato where elder myers works, and it was a good time. It really helps us practice our speaking skills. I am going to do more divisions this week because i see that some of the newer missionaries need help of finding things to say to the people that they talk too. It is super fun though I love it. Thanks everyone for the pictures that you have sent me!!!!!!!!! Danny and heidi, Gracias!!!!! cant wait to drive your jeep danny. , ) hehe Everyone here had a great break!!!! We had a lot of opportunities to talk with the people about easter, Here they call it semana santa, and they all go out and party, and we tough a lot of families and people about easter and what it really represents... It is very sad to hear some of the questions here because really the truth is lots of people here dont really know what happened in these past two weeks. These past weeks we have found lots of families!!!!!!!!! we are now teachingthree families, Family sanchez, Family Muñoz, Family Armenta. Family sanchez has 6, Munoz 7, armenta is a family inactive but we just went with them yesterday and they had famil their in their house, and we started teaching them and we talked about baptism and power and authority of christ and the trinity and so far they know that everything is true. One of the sons whos name is saul asked sooo many good questions. These moments are really exciting for me in my mission. Answering questions is one of my favorite things to do. I am looking forward being able to skype!!!!!!!!!!!! me and my companion are looking for a way to skype, this last time i really hope you can all see my face... haha We have various people in the ward that have computers with cameras!!!!!!! we are going to skype, and you are going to see mee whooooo!!!!!! We will have a conference this next week and they will tell us the day when we can make the call or skype and i will tell everyone the 5th next monday what is going to happen. I went to an appointment with the doctor about my back, and while we were in the office we heard what sounded like fire crackers, and the doctor ran into the other room, and we went to see why he left. and there was a shooting in front of the offices of the doctor..... : / we looked out the window and there was a car that had stopped in the street with bullet holes in the front windshield, then the police came, and there was a bunch of traffic, we decided to go back in the office and finish my appointment, and when we finished and went outside everything was cleaned up and it was as if nothing had happened.... It is another interesting story to add to my mission. :) It was cool. It did not come out in the news the next day sadly to say : ( But all in all this past week was a good week. !!!!!!!!!! For those that worry... please dont! God protects us, and if you worry it comes from satan and you need to repent. I love you all!!!!!!!!! and i hope you have a good week : ) Elder Fellingham Culiacan, Villa Verde

April 21, 2014

ahhhhhhhh semana santa---... This week is always a sad week. Not really haha, but this past week was easter, here they call it semana santa. Here in Culiacan during this past week, everyone leaves. Culiacan is empty.... Everyone went to the beach or they traveled somewhere else. There were a couple of days that me and my companion walked down the streets and there was just nobody.I started whistling The whistle that is in like cowboy movies when the street is empty and there a few tumble weeds rolling a long haha. It was really empty this last week. Luckily we did have a good week and we were able to find people to teach. The only people we couldnt find were our investigators. Lots of our investigators that are progressing left on vacation.... They should be getting back today and tomorrow, so we are really looking forward to teach them, and figure out if they are home now. The family of six are progressing really well... I really want to see them. We found a family of 5 that are less active, we invited them this last sunday and they came!!! I was soo happy to see them. The dad is divorced and he has a girlfriend. She is also interested in the gospel.So we are looking forward to get to know them better. They have a 9 year old son that could be baptized really quickly, but we would rather have the parents fully active before we baptize him. We dont want to create more inactives.... : / but they are a good family. We have been finding lots of less actives in these past weeks. Our map is growing with little dots of numbers. It is how we organize our maps. The streets are filling up with new people that we are finding. This past week i ate oyster and raw fish in a ceviche. It was reall yummy!!!! It is one of the foods that i will miss the most. During the hott seasons everyone is eating sea food. Mariscos!!!! a brother from the ward told me he is going to get me some manta ray and turtle to try.... haha they are things that one has to try, it is once in a life time. They tell me that the turtle smells really funky sooo i am not so sure about it. They also eat iguana, and armadillo. but those i think i will pass..... im not so sure. Me and my companion were asked to talk in church this past sunday, and we never talked.... haha una hermana elso talked and she took up the whole hour.... she talks alot and it is really difficult toteach her sometimes because she never lets us leave her house... But i was going to talk on being shepherds of israel. It is my favorite talk!!!!! i really like it. Its by John R lasater.I would encourage everyone to read it. Love you all me and my companion are doing great!!!!! The zone is well, we will be having three baptisms in our zone, My companion and i have really been focusing on how we can help our zone have success. We have been calling them in the night to see how they are doing , how was there day, and how are there investigators. We are also doing more divisions with them so we can help them with there needs. bad news is that my neck and back have been hurting lately. It is not a strong pain, sometimes i am just super tired and i feel like i need to sit down or stretch my back. I am going to see the same specialist i saw a year ago... when i was hit by the truck, i am going tomorrow to check what is going on. lately it has been bugging me more than usuall. It feels like it is just the muscles that are bugging me.... i dont know what it is, but everything is good!!! il let a know what happened next week!!! I love all of you and i hope you all have a great week!!!!!!!!! Be Shepherds of Israel and do your duties that you all have in the church!!!! The true Church. Love you all. Elder Fellingham Culiacan, Villa Verde

April 15, 2014

Buenas!!! I hope everyone had a great week! Me and my companion sure did, we worked really well this past week. We found new investigators a family of 6 and another person who´s name is karin she is 20. We started the week teaching the family of six which is the family Sanchez. They are really awesome, we have some members that live right next to them and last month they invited them to a family home evening and they really liked it. When we went to their house this week they invited us in and we tought them how to pray!! The mom gathered all of her kids together so that they could listen to us, and me and my companion found them doing things that we did in the family home evening. Ha they are very awesome. I think they thought we were trying to do another family home evening with them, but we were just teaching a normal lesson. But they were all present and it made me happy. The mom Rosalva was really trying to do her part in getting everyone of her children to be their in the room. They all learned how to pray and we are going to see them tonight and we are going to start teaching them the lessons. They asked me to do the closing prayer so they could learn how to pray and i asked them all if they would like me to ask something specefic. and all of them told me that we want more unity in our family, and that we want to be together forever, and it made me very happy inside to be able to ask for that in the prayer. It is an amazing family and we struggle finding families like this one... and it is such a blessing. I am happy to be teaching them. I hope and pray that they progress!!!! Karin is a 20 year old woman haha and her mother died when she was younger... We tought her the first part of lesson one, and then at the end we asked her to do the closing prayer. She did it very good for her first time ever!!! and she started crying during the prayer. We also invited her to go to church, but she didnt go..... sadly, we are also going to see her tonight to see what happened. The family that she lives with is not her family, They are members of the church and help her know and understand the church. They have a doughter that is active that is 21 and she is less active........ She definitly does not help karin.......... She was making fun of KArin before she said the prayer..... I cant beleive her. We are hoping to help her and karin. She also accepted to be baptized how jesus Christ was baptized, we didnt put a date but she is a new investigator. She is great and has a lot of strength!!! Hang in there karin!!! please keep these people in your prayers. Me and my companion are getting a long really well, He teaches me lots of things, and visa versa!!!! We are working hard, and turns out at the end of the mission lots of the members talk about people dying.... not dying literally, but being dead at the end of the mission.... and i have already have tons of members that have been telling me even those that are around me the missionaries and my companion likes to make jokes sometimes..... I do not like it, but i think its something that every missionary goes through.... I am not dying .... I am trying to prove everyone wrong, Usually The dying jokes usually always come after me telling them how much time i have in the mission...... and yeah i usually just say un año y feria.... ha I try to not tell them the exact amount of time... It really does show sometimes though the affect of words. How strong words really can be..... I am happy to say that i am not dying. I am pushing forward every day with a smile on my face and i love the mission. I have in my mind all the people that have been blessed from there hard work. Something funny just happened in the Computer place where we are writing haha..... and i cant stop laughing. We just ate with the family 100fire and we helped them break garlic hahaha and some guy just walked in the computer place and said it smells really nasty and that it smells like garlic. haha Me and my companion busted out laughing jeje!! whooo still cant stop laughing. okay ........ anyways this past week was a good week. They have finally finished our house... the remodeling is over and we are finally back to a normal schedule!!!! We are less busy haha. It always feels great to be less busy. There are still a ton of things to do though, we need to clean the house , everything is covered in dust, and we dont have hot water anymore.... it stopped working our regadera water thing.... ha but it actually feels really good because it is heating up here. We are getting back to summer, it is spring right now, but spring here is like our summer and a little bit hotter... Back to sweating all day everyday, I am used to it now, and it doesnt bother me as much as it did when i entered into the mission. Something else that is interesting is that the family that we ate with today has a daughter serving in New York, and they showed me her roster of all the missionaries that are in her mission, and i saw Seth Hunter, he is serving in that mission, and i thought it was soooo weird. not Weird just very interesting. I tried to send him an email but it didnt go through. i dont know what his email is, but i would like to send him a message, I asked for the email of the daughter of the family, and i am going to ask her for his email to see if she knows who he is. Its a small world. I love you all and i am very thankful for everyone and your messages. I hope you all have a good week, love you guys hasta pronto, Elder Fellingham Culiacan, Villa Verde

April 7, 2014

Okay buenas tardes!!!!! A todos. I am happy that i actually get to write this week. Thesepast weeks have been really busy. I am sure mom and dad has told everyone by now. My companion got really sick, and he was in bed almost all week this past week, and the week before we had workersin our housefrom early in the morning until the night time. You get workersin thehouse when missionaries dont take care of things in the house. Although this house has been in the mission for a while. It has a lot of time being used by the missionaries. like 7 years. The workers have repaired the bathroom, they have painted the whole house inside and out, The colors are like a cream white and green. They painted the doors also and put in a closet : ) I asked the owner to paint it green haha. The owner has done sooooo much for us lately, and it is because her daughter likes me.... they will not stop bugging me about getting together with her daughter, all of the workers and the owner... they are all crazy. She even bought us ties me and my companion, and she bought me a green one and then she told me this morning we bought you green because it matches with your eyes and you are handsome..... i smiled and said thank you... and then they all laughed at me because it is really awkward. But hey a tie is a tie,and it is a good looking tie also. i like it. My companion is also really happy...... oh my gosh... ha We have changesin a week and i hope i either get sent to a new place orthey hurry up and finish the construction in the house. The last thing that they are working on is the kitchen. There was a really old kitchen and saturday morning we woke up,and the men came tolook at it, and they were saying It will take a while to get all of the kitchen out and throw it away.... It issooo old that i started to lift up the peices and before everyone knew everything was outside........... That kitchen wassoooo nasty wakala! It was sooo old that all the peices were coming un done and it was like wet inside. It ismade of wood and it was just done. Right now they are building a cement table and then they are going to put like marble on top like we have in our house. I am sooo happy that they are fixing up the house. It was a disaster. Fixing up the house has been one of the main priorities and getting me companion to 100% health also. He is all better now and we started working yesterday!!!!!!! I loved GeneralConference. It was hard thinking that it was my last general conference in the mission. I tried extra hard to follow the spirit and study before hand so that i could understand everything that the apostles and prophet said. I liked all of the talks. I reallyliked the talkof uchtdorf in the priesthood session. That us as priesthood holders we cant be found sleeping.... There is a big problem herein mexico with the menof the church. Atleast from what i have seen during my whole mission. The men are soooo much more harder to convince and help feel the spirit. Also the men that are members. They work soooo much here that is very hard for them to do there visits. There shouldnt be an excuse.. well there arent any excuses to not do the work of God. The men here in my ward have a really hard time visiting the less actives, and there fellow friends and members that really are in desperate need of there help. I am happy When i heard the talk of Dieter that we shouldnt be sleeping but we should be aware and awake of what is happening around us.Especially in the work of our Heavenly Father. I love General Conference. I hope all of you were able to hear something that we can do better. I always do. The thing that we need to focus on now is how we can all put it into practice. ACT and not just here.. I love you all and i am glad that we could all hear the prophet and apostles. We are doing well me and my companion. We have had a very quiet change. We both have a lot in common, and one of those things is that we can be very quiet.......haha. I feel like yesterday wefound our balance, and that we are doing much better. I have been reading lately in DyC and i am in section 42. I really love it, and it gives a lot of information about what was really going on with God and joseph smith and all of the other men and women that were involved in those years. Thereis a little boy about 11 or 12 years old and he has showed methat DyC isnt that boring after all.... haha I havenever read it before.... and i havent read it because it has always been boring for me. But I talked with this boy who is the son of the young mens lider, and he told me that his favorite book is DyC and I said to myself.... how is that possible. This 12 year old that likes DyC more than me.... so i put it to the test and i started reading.... ha the last day my companion had to rest was this last friday, and i read the 42sections that day and it turns out i enjoy it a lot. It makes me remember the scripture when jesus said that everyone should be as a little child, meek and humble. And everyone who should be meek like a child will enherit the kingdom of God. Something like that.... I know exactly how it iswritten is spanish, but in english who knows.... haha only you guys because i feel like i am a mexican now.... No not true ha. But we need to remember to be humble and we need to learn how to do things that we think we dont like to do, and i am grateful for the12 year old who has shown me that something is not boring. Our investigators are alright...The few that we have. . We are still teaching them Norma and a family thatwe have found that we havent yet had the time to teach them. They havent given us the time yet. : ) they are busy, This is what is happening lately. In the zone we have had 2 baptisms in this past month. As the Culiacan Mexico mission we have almost completed our goal for baptisms this year. We are doing very well with baptisms. We will for sure go over our goal above and beyond.... our goal is 200 and we already have 156. It is amazing howthe missionaries are now coming in sooo young and powerful, especially the sisters.... I am sure lots of the baptisms are from the hermanas!!!! They work very hard. I love everyone. I am grateful for the work,and i am happy trying to work my hardest to finish up strong!!! Love you all and thank you for all your support. Hope you have a good week!!!! love Elder Fellingham Elder Fellingham Culiacan, Villa Verde