2 years and 3 days June 16, 2014

haha I like my title. I am so happy that i have made the decision to stay here in the mission! Me and my companion have been having a blast in these past days. I am trying to make every day count! The sun gets hotter and sometimes the days go by so slow but i wouldnt change my decision for anything. I am pretty much just used to being in my sweat, and my companion is just barely hitting the point where he doesnt like it haha. I told him that i remember those moments, but it goes by and you just dont care anymore. There was a lady that looked at me and said ¨its good to sweat¨, and i glanced at her and made a half smile while the sweat was dripping from my face haha, and i told her thanks hermana maria, ha Maria is the one who will be baptized this saturday!!!! We are very excited for her. It will be her birthday that day also. We just barely taught her the last lesson yesterday, everything in her paper that we fill out is filled out and she isnt missing anything. The last lesson we tought was if Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. We gave her a Liahona from this last general conference, and we gave her the talk that thomas S. Monson gave and we told her to read it and pray and ask specifically if he is a prophet. It should be easy to receive her answer, because she already has a testimony of the book of mormon, and of Joseph Smith. We are excited that she will be baptized!!!!! I will send pics next week. We were kind of bummed this past week because the investigators that we are teaching none of them came to church last sunday well yesterday : / we called and checked with all of them, and they all said they were going to be their, but for some reason or another they werent able to come. We think it was for fathers day.... but its no excuse : ) Anyways, we are still working with the same families, and they are progressing, we are getting there!!! We are hoping for a couple more baptisms in these three weeks that come! We are working hard with these sons and daughters of God so that they can be baptized! My letter will also be short today, we dont have a ton of time, we have an appointment at 6:00pm But i love everyone, Im excited to see you all very shortly, Me and my companion are well, I got the x rays done and my spine is different, it is more sraight now. Not completely, but there is a big difference in how it used to be. I will have another appointment with the doctor this week, and i will see what he says.! Everything is all good! Love you all. Have a great week! Elder Fellingham Culiacan, Lz, Humaya!!

My therapist

Me and my companion teaching

June 9, 2014

Hey everyone!!! im happy i get to write today! This past week we had a lot of experiences! I am not going to be able to tell all of them but i will tell a couple. Lots of the experiences made me really happy, me and my companion! #1. i am almost done taking therapy!!! They have been putting electricity things on my back for the last three weeks, 3 times a week.... ahhh but i am happy to say that i only have one more therapy and they are going to take x rays again and we are going to see if my spine has changed!!!! I have done everything that the doctor has told me so i am expecting changes.. But everything has gone well. ! I don't know why the pain came back, but just to let you all know, the therapies have really helped me and i feel a lot better! i last through the day without my back getting tired. Usually when it happens i just grunt through it. But i am very happy that it is healing. #2. We have been teaching a family. The familia Medina! We have taught them 3 times now, the first week the wife came to church with her mother in law, and she was very happy to be their. The second time we have been focusing on there daughters and 2 of the 4 daughters came this past Sunday!!!!!! It was so great to see there faces in the sacrament meeting. We asked around after to some of the members and they said that they really liked the classes and they participated! We are really hoping for the next Sunday to have the other two daughters and the husband in the church. We are going to have a family home evening tonight at 7:00pm with there family. I am always really excited to teach them and to see them because I haven't seen a family like this progressing so quickly in a while. I am happy to have the opportunity to teach them. We are planning to give them a baptismal date as a family. We are waiting until everyone participates. The two other daughters are rebels to join in in the lessons, but we are fixing that! We also had four other investigators that came to the church with us! We have lots that are progressing. We are hoping to have the next baptism the 21st! It is a lady named maria and she wants to be baptized on her birthday. She has all of the lessons, but we are just waiting for her birthday!!! I have a big picture of them in my mind being baptized! #3. This past week was really busy!!!! super busy, we gave our zone meeting in front of all the 22 missionaries. It went really well.! Well..... We planned it really well, we used videos and good scriptures and the spirit was really felt. The only thing that we wished from the missionaries was to participate..... They didn't participate very much. Everyone was very quiet and shy to speak.... : / We are working with some of the missionaries in the zone trying to help them with their areas! Some of them are having a hard time. but i am very happy to say that last week we had 6 baptisms, and this past week we had 3. In the zone we have baptized 5 weeks in a row, and everyone is doing very well.!!!! We are finding the people that the lord wants us to find. This zone really does have a great spirit!! i feel like all of the missionaries are really good at listening to the spirit, they are awesome! These are the main things that have happened this past week. Me and my companion are a fun companionship. We talk non stop, and we are always laughing at things. I am going to send a picture of the zone. It isnt everyone because some missionaries had to leave early because they had citas! lessons! This is all for today but i love you all!!!!!!!!!!!! Hope everyone has a great week. Love Elder Fellingham

NORMAL

FUNNY This is almost all of the zone we are just missing two missionaries, Left top to right bottom E.Rasmussen my son! i trained him : ) E.Merkley, EGramajo, E,Perez, E.Ramos. Mi compañero E Guzman, E Fellingham, E.Coombs, E. Lopez, E. Garfias, Hna Fonseca, Hna Wall, Bottom row Hna Ayala, hna Hernandez, Dora she isnt a missionary, Hna dicent, Hna nichole, hna braithwaight , hna parke, hna alonzo and the other two missionaries that arent their are elder zarate, and elder hughes. The Zone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!HUMAYA!!!!!!!! ​

June 2, 2014

Hola a todos!!!! Hey everyone Hope everyone had a great week!!! We had a really good week here in Humaya, it was my first week here, and me and my companion have had a great time so far. We are really good friends and we have a lot in common. This week we had the opportunity to go to (Potrero) The pictures that I sent are from the baptism that we had their! that little group of people is one family. They are all family. The rama in Potrero is made of 30 people. It reminds me of Villa Union! It is small, but it amazes me of the fidelity and devotion the people have here, to stick to there standards and beleifs! They are amazing. The president in Potrero and his wife are very strong and very nice. He is a farmer and he looks like he is only 25 years old. When we were driving their to Potrero it was pure fields of alfalfa,corn,wheat and other things. and then we got even further.... The whole way their i felt like a little kid asking his parents when are we going to get their..... haha the truth is is that is way far away...... It took us an hour and ten minutes to get their, and and hour and ten minutes back. In our ward we have a guy in our ward that has his own business and is very wealthy, and he sells medications... He has a lot of drivers that drive around the city with medications..... (medecine) and he tells one of his drivers to go and pick us up every Thursday. We go to Potrero every Thursday and his drivers take us their. It is very amazing. !!!! I was very surprised the first time we went. It was a very awesome experience for me to go their. It was very spiritual, and i felt very diferent in that little rama of Potrero with my companion. Before there used to be missionaries their, but the president took them out of the area because it is dangerous, there are a lot of narcos their they say, we are only allowed to visit for a short time, and during the day, and only once a week. But everything is fine, and i love the time that we get to be their. We have lots of people that we are teaching the family medina, blanca and her daughter and another cool experience with elizabeth. They are people soon to be baptized, we are preparing them to get baptized, to be short Family medina is having a rough time right now. They want to get a divorce and we are helping them, they have four or five daughters.... the parents are both members but there daughters arent... The wife just barely came to church this past sunday she hast gone to church for 20 to 25 years.... and it was a huge step for her to come to church. Her mom is a member and she always wants to go, she is about the age of grandma and she cant hear, and she cant walk very well and she cant see.... : / but she is very diligent in all her efforts when it comes to sunday to go to church. : ) She is awesome. Blanca isnt married with her husband, Her daughter is america and America s boyfriend is member. America just got baptized two months ago, and she has a very strong testimony! She has helped her mom also have the desire to be baptized and we are going to help them get married, and then baptize them! The dad is tough, he is a little difficult with understanding things from the book of mormon but we are trying to find time with him. Elizabeth we just barely tought her for the first time, and she cried at the end and she knows that the things we teach are true, i dont think she has a husband, and she has three or four kids. Her brother tells her not to listen to us,but she still does anyway. She has a date to be baptized for the 28th of this month and we are going to help her reach it. She has lots of desires to know more, even though she cried and knew in the moment that it is true she didnt come to church this sunday.... bummer, but we just barely started teaching her, and it was a cool first experience with her. } This is my first week here in humaya!!!! and it was very awesome! i am excited to finish my last change here and it is better to go big!!! finish with everything that you have : ) Im looking forward to it. Hope everyone has a great week!!!!!!! Love you all! Elder Fellingham Culiacan, Lz, Humaya!!

Me and my companion eating sushi!!!!! We get along really well, we are like brothers!

We went to a ranchito named potrero. Its part of our area, it is a special area!!! even though we live in the center of culiacan. Potrero is like an hour and ten minutes from the city and we had a baptism!!! His name is gabriel! very awesome. The people their are really sweet!

Mi compañero!!!! here they baptize in boxes with a tarp ha, usually all of the ranches here do it like this because they dont have a church big enough with a baptismal font, after the third time it was valid! and he was very willing, especially here in culiacan!!!! Its super hott!!!!!!!!!!!!

May 26, 2014

We had changes today, My new companion is elder Guzman, he is from Taumaulipas close to texas, he is very cool. I am excited to start a new change. and i am excited to be in a new zone!!! We have 22 in our zone, We are back to another big Zone Elder Guzman has 16 months in the mission and i am excited to be able to be his companion. He tells me that we have a baptism this saturday, i am excited for him and his companion and the work that they have done. We have a couple lessons tonight in the night time, i am going to therapies with the doctor i feel better. my back still gets really tired. but I am happy to work. I hope everyone can understand my decision.... kind of last minute, but the word will get around. : / : ) First comes our Heavenly Father and the rest comes after. I have grown to love him and Jesus Christ and The Holy Ghost. I hope everyone can have more experiences with them. Because working with them is the greatest! Love you all, and i hope you all have a good week. Sorry the message is short, but i will write a lot more next week about how the zone is and what it is like in this area!!!! I don't have enough info. Its my first day!!! Sooo far it has been a good day. Love you guys, Follow the spirit always!, and love those around you. Elder Fellingham Culiacan, Lz, Humaya!!

May 26, 2014

In these past weeks mom and dad i have been having serious impressions to know if i am supposed to come home or to not come home.... haha I know that sounds weird but here it comes. The missionaries from my generation have been given three weeks more to stay in the mission. I knew that we were given three weeks more before, and i would really like to know what your opinion is on this??? The mission president told me mom that you told him you have already gotten plane tickets for some of the family members to be there in the house when i get home ? did you really already get plane tickets for them to fly in??? I have prayed to ask heavenly Father if i should stay the 3 weeks more. and i have had serious impressions that i should stay, but also i have had serious impressions to just be home..... I want to be home, I miss my family, I miss everyone, but i have also asked myself if three weeks really makes the difference. If God has given me more time to be here in my mission should i still be here. I have talked to the president and he told me personally that i can leave on the day that i came in which is the 13 of June. But i just don't know i wanted to ask you both what you would do in this situation. I feel like it will be a burden for the mission if i leave early. The thing is here in the mission is that we have a set date for changes..... every second generation leaves a change after there due date, and every first generation leaves three weeks early to their houses..... The reason why is because when they opened the MTC in Mexico they opened late...... they opened three weeks late.... Everything in mexico is late haha its the culture..... but all the missionaries from my generation have decided to stay here one change more... and i feel like if i leave #1 my companion wont have a companion... they will have to put him in a three some, or find a summer missionary, #2 I have had feelings of regret if i leave or if i dont....#3. I miss my family and i dont want to waste the money that the family has already spent on plane tickets to come to my homecoming if you have already boughten them. ...... This is what i am thinking and i am hoping you can get this letter and read it in the next hour and a half.... : / Elder Fellingham Culiacan, Villa Verde

May 19, 2014 photos

My zone, 3 werent in this picture because they were in the hospital. One of our missionaries got his appendix taken out, and the other two were with him because they are in a three some.

Zone without the sisters : )

​Guaapos!!!!!!!!!!! hahaha

May 19, 2014

This past sunday the bishop asked me and my companion to talk, It was my last time to be able to talk in front of everyone in the ward here, it was a little emotional for me... haha i almost cried... almost.. okay but anyways I talked about being obedient and missionary work. The bishop let us choose what we wanted to talk about. It all went really well. With obedience a shared a story about kites hah and another about cows. The kite one was about obedience. Its a story in a book i found here on my mission and i really like it. Its called the kite is held up by the string. Im sure many have heard of it before. It talks about a father and son that were flying kites together and the son asked his father Dad? What holds the kite up? and the father told his son ¨the string he replied¨ Then the son said to his dad no dad the string holds it down! not up.... Then the father replied and said well if you think so let go of the string and see what happens. Suddenly the son let go of the string.... and what happened??? the kite began to fall!! The son mentioned to his father and in his mind that it seems odd that the same thing that holds the kite down really holds the kite up! and then it mentions the book that isnt only true with kites but with life also. Those strings that are tied to us, Those rules and regulations that seem to hold us down are actually the ones that hold us up. The word religion is a latin root that means to hold back or to tie back. this is what religion does. it provides the string to the soaring kite of our spirit. It keeps us from falling, It binds us to great values and it attaches us to great causes. It helps us fly high in the aid of gods truth and lifts us until our heads touch the stars and our lives take on the beauty of men and women who are bound closely to god. The men and Women who tuen their lives over to god will find out that he can make a lot more out of their lives than they can. He will deepen our joys, expand our vision, quicken our minds and he will bless us. Whoever will lose his life to god will find that he has eternal life. ¨Quote from ezra taft benson¨ This is what i translated into spanish haha the morning that i was going to give the talk. But everything went really well. I know we have limits for a reason, and the reason why is so that we can be spiritually free from everything that is in this world. I have loved my mission and i couldnt ask for anything more. I thanked all of the mothers in the ward for their kindness and there willingness to serve the missionaries. After this i started talking about cows haha and everyone laughed when i told them i was going to start talking about cows.... random. But there is another story about an old cowboy that lived in the prairies and fields and as he grew up he told us one of the valuable lessons that he learned from life. and it was when he was a cattle herder. He said that almost all his life he has watched out for cows... Normal cows, dairy cows, meat cows haha and hereford cows. He said in his story that in the state that he lived in that there has always been nasty snow storms. The type of storms that if your out too long the ice nips at your skin and starts to cut it, howling bitter winds, and these storms have always taking a heavy toll on the herds that he watched. temparatures below zero freezing cold rain and winds uun imaginable... Finally intercepted by the boundary fence the cows would huddle up and sit down and through these types of storms if they sat down they would surely die.... and they did. . . But on the other hand hereword cows acted differently. They would hed into the wind and stand shoulder to shoulder facing the storms blast at the end of the storm you most always found the herefords alive and well. said the cowboy, he said i guess that is the greatest lesson i ever learned on the prairies - Just face lifes storms. - Norman vincent peale I promised the members after this story to be united. Jesus Christ tought us if we are not one we are not his. Now is the time that members start working with members, We were visited this past saturday by President Johnson a member of the seventy. Him and his wife gave us a visit, and they talked to us for a good two hours. It was all of the missionaries here in the city of Culiacan and he talked to us especifically about teaching investigators. He gave us a parable.... and i love this parable that he gave to us. He talked about tomatoes. Here in Culiacan there are lots of tomatoes : ) and he mentioned that sometimes the tomatoes are green, some are red and green, and some are ripe ready to be harvest. He refered this to our investigators, and he told us to stop wasting our time with the green, and green and reds.... He told us to start looking for the red tomatoes and that is why were are called as missionaries. Sometimes us as missionaries we have investigators that we start teaching and we dont want to drop them because we are friends, or because we think we are on a break through... But really we arent and we are just wasting our time. Elder Johnson told us that God has a place and time specifically chosen for his sons and doughters to accept the gospel. And our duty as missionaries is to find all of those that are red tomatoes. All of the chosen ones, all of the people who are ready to be baptized and ready to accept to read, pray and go to church. If they dont do those three things he told us in the first three lessons its time to move on. It was very powerfull and the spirit was felt very strong. I told myself in my head haha where has elder Johnson been for these past two years..... why didnt he explain this to me when i entered as a missionary, why hasnt this been said to every missionary in the world.... hah.... I think my testimony grew about 50% more that day and the reason why is because my testimony grew in the area labeled.¨ Gods time¨ God has a time and place for everyone of us, and if someone isnt ready none of us here on the earth knows when that change will be for them exept God. Except our heavenly Father. Only he knows. !!! My testimony grew because Elder Johnson mentioned a lot about hastening the work. The prophets and apostles have really been talking alot about hastening the work. We are sooo close to the second coming of Jesus Christ. We are the priveleged he told us to be a great part of the first ones to start hastening our heavenly Fathers work here on the Earth. I know in my heart that this is the time and it is especially for the missionaries that are still serving and that are going to be serving in these next years. I am glad that i was able to be here to be able to listen to the words of Elder Johnson. I have had a lot on my mind in these moments from listening to him, and thinking of what i can do to be able to help the zone remember every word he said. I am happy for the missionaries that get to be a part of what is coming next. During my mission sooo many things have changed and it has all gone by so fast, and it makes me wonder whats next? what is going to happen next. I am excited to find out. I am excited for the next general conference. I love you all and i hope you have had a good week. I hope you could all understand a little bit of what is happening in the Mexico Culiacan mission: ) Love you guys have a great week. I feel like as a missionary i have learned so much.... but i have also learned so little. Elder Fellingham Culiacan, Villa Verde