February 10, 2014

Okay sooooo this past week was alright, It wasnt one of our best weeks.... So this calender that we made for the ward was a failure........... haha Lots of people signed up, but when we went to their houses to have the family home evenings, they had forgotten, or they didnt invite anyone.... but thats okay, This week we are going to try it again. We have lots of activities coming up in our ward and we get to join in for some of them, I am excited, because I know that I am still going to be here. I feel like I am going to be here for a long time. I am excited though. This change we have struggled a little bit at first.... We know most of the active members now in this ward, and we are visiting them, Basically have the boundaries memorized also. There are still sooo many less actives to find, to see if they really still live here, and whats the deal with them : ) I am excited for that. It is one of my favorite things to do in the mission, is look for people that are lost, and help them again. Today we had our first capacitation of zone leaders. It was pretty awesome, that is why i am writing so late right now. We were in the capacitation all day long. Mom i got your package of cookies, and gum, and other things.... The sad news is that i dont know what you put in the box, and i got a note on the top saying that they had to take things out because they werent able to pass the border or something like that... hah i think it was the jerky... : / but its okay,. Dont worry about it., the only thing i feel bad about was the money that you spent. But i opened the box and we ate alot of them when i was with all the zone leaders : ) They are very yummy and taste like Christmas. haha. Thank you!! It turns out not that much happened this last week, It has been very hard to find people in this area.... We do lots of divisions with the 22 missionaries that we are in charge of, and i am rarely in my own area.... My companion literally finished his mission about four days ago, officially.... He came in February 6 and he has served his full two years and he will stay here for three more weeks and then he goes home.... He is alright with the work, I find it a little difficult... sometimes, because he has been showing all the people in the ward that he finished the 6th.... and i dont know, it just isnt helping that much i dont think. But he Is still a good worker, and he is a good guy, good missionary, very smart, and he wants to go to BYU Idaho. He and his sister are the only two in his family that are members, his parents are divorced, and none of them are members, he has a lot of Spirit and a lot of strength especially that he will be a returned missionary in 3 weeks. He is pretty awesome, and he builds my testimony for who he is and what he has done with his life. He doesnt get letters... only from his 17 year old sister sometimes.... that is a member, and he is just a good guy. I am proud of him, and we have a pretty good relationship. We teach well also. He has tought me a lot just from these 3 weeks that we have had together.... it has gone by super fast!!!!!!!!!! We continue finiding ways to find people to teach, we receive references form lots of the members, they are also a great help! I am talking a lot of english also because my companion is going to take an english test to see if he can enter into BYU Idaho, He asks me a lot of stuff in Enlgish and he can speak pretty well, he just needs to work on his grammar, and to not get things backwards like they are in spanish, or maybe we are the ones that are backwards.... but who knows,. I am helping him with that. This past week we had a lot of missionaries that went to the hospital... This past week was colder than any other week..... Lots of people got sick, and we were going up and down taking lunch to the missionaries that were in the hospital... Luckily it is pretty close to our house, and lots of the members were really nice about giving rides. We get rides like crazy here. Lots of the members give us rides, and ask us i we need rides to other places. They are like natzi ride givers. We found a man named ulyses, and he is very interested in the things we teach, he works in a little tienda, and he has four in his family. We have an appointment with him tomorrow. Tomorrow we will give our very first zone meeting, and i sometimes feel like it is difficult to get all the missionaries pumped to go out after and do the things that we teach them.... but we will see what happens tomorrow... haha we have some things planned, an we received a lot of teachings today in our zone meeting. Something spiritual that we received in the zone meeting was that Our president told us that he asked one of the 12 this past week Why was the age changed of the missionaries, and he said that the young men wee changed because at 18 years old now the young men have been proven worthy, and then they asked about the young women.... and they didnt know how to answer that.... and during the meeting it came to him through revelation that it was directly from Thomas S Monson that the age for the women should be lowered also... I thought it was really cool to hear that, and just to have the surety that we have as a church, to know that our prophet receives revelation today, and that when he receives it it is obeyed. I just want you all to know that I know the church is true, I know that Our prophet is a true prophet of God, I know that only through prohpets is the way that we can communicate with our Heavenly Father, I know also that obedience is key in receiving blessings from our Heavenly father! He loves us, and he wants the best for us, and when we obey him, he knows that he can give us the blessings and things that we need personally. I love the gospel, and I love my mission. I love you guys My family and My friends, and i hope that every day you are all feeling that the gospel is growing in your lives. Love you all and i hope you all have a good week. Love Elder Fellingham Elder Fellingham Culiacan, Villa Verde

February 3, 2014

This last week was a great week. I did divisions with the assistants of the president, Elder Fonseca, and Elder Bell are the assistants and i went with Elder Bell. I went to his area, we walked a lot and they have a pretty big area. It was really fun and we had fun lessons. We were able to teach lots of lessons during the day and it gave me more energy and more thoughts of what i can bring back to my own area to put into practice. This past week we also met with our mission leader of our ward, and we made a calender. It is florescent green and it attracted a lot of the members sunday : ) ha just what we wanted. But when the sacrament meeting finished we were there outside waiting for everyone when they past by, and we told everyone about the calender and what we were going to be doing. Here in Mexico it is sooo hard to get everyone in one spot. but we were smart enough to just get them all right there. !!! The Calender is so that we can do family home evenings with all the families, after church was over the first week was filled with people, and i am looking forward to the next week also to see how many put there names. But i am really happy, We are really happy, and we have a lot of appointments put up for all the week for family home evenings. We told all the families that they need to invite a less active or a non member. Tonight is our first family home evening starting the calender and i am excited to see what comes out of it. We also this week have an elder that is interned in the hospital, we have been taking his companion food in these days because.... he cant leave. : ) His name is elder padilla, he is from LEHI Utah!!! i dont know he because he is a little younger than me, but he is a cool kid and he is pulling through, he has amoebas in his pancreas or something like that, but we just went to give his companion his dinner, and when we were their the president and his wife were there taking there lap top up so that they could write there parents. how nice of them: ) Everything is good though, our zone is doing pretty good, we should have 6 baptisms this next week, this saturday. We are hoping for six, but for sure 4. Our ward is really spiritual. We have more high priests than elders, ha... sad, but we are working on that. he youth is really strong, and this morning we woke up at 6:00am and we went to a field to play soccer with everyone, lots came, about 20 came to play, the young women, and young men, and some dads. It was really fun. Then after for breakfast we ordered Pizza haha, and then later we had a cook out, and we cooked carne asada, and we all ate again for lunch, It was a very good day, We have been running around all day.... it has been a little crazy,,, I found out today that i can wash a shirt take a shower, and then dry my shirt with three fans that we have in our house, and then walk to a members house to put in a load of laundry in 35 minutes........... yeah the mission life. It is like a new time record. but we did it, My companion also showered and was ready 35 minutes. The member live right behind us, but hey i thought it was pretty good, we were productive and still being productive today. In the church this past sunday we had a good experience, we went and bore our testimony with everyone, and after in one of the classes with the high priests we had a really good class, we talked about lots of good things that we can do, and we talked about how we need to take more action in doing things during the week, the spirit was really felt. The people here touch my heart especially when they are wards that are so much hmmmmm.... I will put still growing. They come up with good ideas, and lots of the members are willing to take action to be able to do the thing that was planned. They are very awesome. I am thinking, and well.... I basically know that i will be in this area for the rest of my mission, I will atleast have another change. And i have already decided in my heart that this is the ward and the place where i would ratyher be than any other. I really like it. I shared two scriptures with the high priests when we went to there class, I think it was elders and high priests mixed or something.... but the scriptures I shared were in first Moroni 6:5-6, and i told them that we always do this, and then i told them that during the weekend we cant afford to just be saints on sunday.... we have to be in tune with the spirit so that he gives them moments and oppurtunities during the week with the people that they revolve around. We are all missionaries, and we all have to be searching oppurtunities every day to bring people unto Christ. This is what we talked about, and then i shared a scripture in james1:22 which says que no podemos ser oidores de la palabra angañandonos nosotros mismos pero ser hacedores de la palabra. With action!!!!!! Then after me and my companion we gave them a challenge to look for one opportunity to contact someone during the week, and my companion showed them a very simple practice that they can do. So we are hoping that we will receive references from this. Everything is well, We are healthy, we are learning more about our area every day, We are very busy..... haha There are lots of more detailed things of what we do now, and i like it, It is fun, but sometimes it is hard when it comes to decisions that are both hard things to choose from of what we are going to do. and we also have to choose the best out of the two. We have received a couple new investigators and we have started working with them a little bit, There is a family of three that we are going to start see, its a mother with 2 kids, i dont know her name, my companion and i did divisions, and the thing is, is that her husband wouldnt let her go to the church, and do the things of the church but now they are divorced, so i am sure now that she will progress very well in the church. She has the desires. I am happy to hear that, It is what my companion said. also we are working with a 17 year old, his name is vladamir, and he wants to be baptized. We are trying to get his mom and his sister also to understand the gospel, they are a little more different. but well not different just they dont understand what we are really talking about i dont think, we have only tought them once, and yeah, we are progressing but slowly, We are getting there!!!!! This week we have 3 references to contact and i am sure hoping that some of them will be golden. I love the work, and time is just flying, and i just feel like i need to work hard and fast in these moments. I have to keep my work up with the time : ) I love you all and i miss you all, Hope all is well, family and friends, cousins : ) love you all!!!! have a good week. Elder Fellingham Culiacan, Villa Verde

January 27, 2014 photos

Our first zone meeting as zone leaders. we had to carry all of the supplies up a ton of stairs!!!! but we made it, we just had to take a break about half way up.

me, my companion elder sumano, and elder pardo, my son, I trained him!!!!!!! : ) we wnt to the zoo

I got to pet a girrafe, first time in my life petting one, it was pretty amazing.

Me and elder Pardo, him and his new companion that he is training are in our district together. I find it pretty cool to be able to see him again, and now that he is training his second greeny,

January 27, 2014

The time just flies, we are almost in february.......... This past week family and friends was a very good one. We almost know all the active members in our ward, My companion remembers names very well. I have had a bit of a struggle memorizing some of the people here. I havent been in a big ward for sooooo long! Our ward has about 120 that assist every sunday. This past sunday, well yesterday there were lots of families and lots of people that came to church. It made me very happy to see sooo many people. My companion is also very pleased with the assistence. He hasnt been in a big ward either for about the whole time he has been on his mission. Also he has never been in Culiacan, I still remember parts and places of Culiacan when i was here in Libertad. We did divisions with elders last week and they were having a hard time, but we got a lot of work done and had a great day. When i was their, it was an area that was right next to my old area in Libertad and I saw people that remembered me and i remembered them. It made me happy to be able to see them again. We also had our first small zone meeting and that went well. We feel like our zone is a little bit down so we have to cheer them up somehow. We are going to start lots of new things as a zone to boost there happiness up. I really hope to see lots of big changes while we are in this change. We will have all of February together and i am excited. I hope we find lots of people to baptize as a zone. This past week was basically just getting to know the members. We dont have any investigators so we are basically just starting from scratch. We have received lots of incomplete families since we have been here that are most likely to be baptized so we are first going to start with them. The leaders in the ward are very awesome and very spiritual. They help us with anything that we ask... They are amazing. It is very organized and we are planning lots of activities for the youth and for the members. I hope we can excite them to join in the work with us. We hope to get them involved in doing more visits so that less actives start returning. Our are isnt very big. }this whole past week we explored all up and down and it is actually pretty small.. I am happy to see that it is small but very strong! We have been sooo busy lately... ahh i am exhousted. My body, i feel like physically and mentally and spiritually is just gone.... after this week i have just used everything up. Today we got some free time and we went to the zoo here in Culiacan, it was pretty fun. I havent felt soo good today or yesterday. Last night i woke up like 5 times. I got sick from the food yesterday and i dont know what it did to my body but i just feel really weak... i have been just waiting it out today trying to to the best i can, I feel like ti is going away but very slowly. . . I feel like i need something to clean my stomach. but anyway the mission goes on. I am not going to be able to write that long today.... sorry but everything is going well. There is lots of responsability, and more stress. . . ha but the first week has been really fun. We have already had soo many cool experiences and the days are just flying by. . Love you all and i hope you have a good week. Love elder fellingham Elder Fellingham Culiacan, Villa Verde

January 20, 2014

I got thinking about how it was like when prophets or great teachers had to move on with there journeys to go and teach other people, or in another place, and I also remember when Jesus Christ... well left the people after he was ressurected. The people of Jerusalem and the people pf the Americas. It makes me wonder how they felt, what they did. I sure know that they left impressions on some and maybe even many. I know that I am not at all like them, but what I do know is that I try to be like them. With this and the reason why i am thinking in this way is because i have been changed from villa union. I found out saturday night..... and ah it really made me well kind of down. I have been their for four months maybe a little bit more. I really grew close to all those people and all of our investigators the few that were : ) It was a really good experience and i will always remember that area. It is hard to leave something that you have a part in, especially in the most important work in the world, which is missionary work. They have called me back to Culiacan and the bus ride was very long this morning coming here, we are now here and i am even more excited to be able to start from scratch again and do it all again. I love being able to open areas, and i love being able to get to know new people, new members of the church and being able to help them with there struggles and there life challenges. It just strengthens my testimony even more that were are able to do that as missionaries. I am very excited though. I My new companion is named Elder Sumano, He is from the district of Mexico. La fabrica of Mexico. He is very outgoing and very nice, and he likes to talk and laugh a lot. haha we already got this change goin. He was in Mazatlan with me and i have basically grown up with him here in the mission. He has three months ahead of me. We have been called to be the zone leaders here in Villa Verde. Villa verde is our new area we will both be opening it together. The two missionaries that were here before us have been very good friends of mine for a long time. Elder Faamousili and elder miranda, they are both very good elders and they leave to go home wednesday, I am happy that we got there area becasue i know that they left it to us taken care of. They are both good examples to me. ahh opening is my favorite. It helps my memorization! We are in charge of 22 other missionaries, We dont even know who they all are... We are going to have a little zone meeting tomorrow so we can get to know all of them. I am excited to be a part of this new adventure. : ) it will be a good one. The good thing is, is that i kind of know the area that we are in. I did divisions a couple of times when I was here in Culiacan about 8 months ago. We have already met some of the members here, and they are very awesome. I am excited to be able to be in a bigger ward, they told me that there is about 115 people that go to our ward every sunday, I want to take a look at the roles of the ward to see how many people really should be going. I have a strong testimony in re-Activation... I have seen a lot of it during my mission. Some people have just lost the ideas or the visits and then they just stop going, and forget. But I am happy to be able to go and remind them who has the truth. I love it. I will definitly miss Elder Rasmussen, and Villa union. I already do miss everything, It was one of the sweetest places I have served on my mission, and the people their are really humble. Hard but humble.... I know thate. Rasmussen and his new companion will be able to make the difference, and like i said the last week they have just barely called to new missionaries their. An older couple that will be able to give everyone rides their in villa union. I am not worried a bit that they will be in good hands. We found lots of new people before we left so I know that the work will go on strong their. I heard that in these months we should have 70 new missionaries enter. We will have a little over 200 missionaries in the mission and lots of them will be Americanas. It will be an amazing sight to see if we all get together as a mission. I am glad to know that the work is being moved a long. These next months i am sure they will be pretty busy, i might have to write short some weeks because of how busy we are taking care of this zone, but I have such great disires to help the missionaries that we are setting an example for. There is definilty more responsability and i am excited to have this awesome experience to be able to grow and learn. I love you guys, i hope the fam is well. This is what has happened this past week, We also helped the older missionary couple a lot this past week get organized, and get settled in there new area in villa union. We worked and we also had really good numbers, but the majority was helping the new missionaries with everything, passports, photos taken, and other things around Mazatlan. I am soo happy that they are going to be their helping. I love all of you. Hope you are all well. I am doing well. Healthy, atleast i think i am. Im still living. : ) i hope you all have a good week, here is a scripture for the week that i would like to give you. Well cahnge of mind. I would actually like for everyone to go on the computer and look of the new videos of elder Bednar. They are about the Holy Ghost and they are very good. I really like them, There are three parts to them. Its with a picture of Jesus christ getting baptized and it says the function of the Holy Ghost. Watch it. Thats my homewrok for everyone. It is really good advice of how we can be more in tune with him. He helps us recognize the moments when we need to help other people. I love you guys. Have a good week.

January 13, 2014

Hey everyone,!!!!!!! Hope you are all great! This past week was really amazing and good for us and for villa union, here are the things that happened. Th week just went by really fast for me because i did divisions twice with other missionaries in my district, and with our zone leaders. They both went really well, but the week just flies!!!!!!!! i need to do more so that i am more focused, It really helps me to focus more i dont know why, but i guess it is helping the other missionaries see what they are doing, and to lead by example. It is esier to contact when your not in your original area.... ha but when we did divisions we contacted a ton of people, and it raised all of our numbers a ton!!!! We received a lot of references, and we are finding families that are golden!!!!!!! When i was with elder hulsey, we found a family of 5 that are super awesome they will progress a lot. i just know it in my heart. im at the point in my mission where i can just haha i feel like i can see the future and be able to just say you are going to progress.... or you are not going to progress... No.. ha but it is true there is a feeling as missionaries that we receive when we know the family is ready for the gospel and they are just going to bloom into it. The holy Ghost does all the work and it is up to us if we are listening or not. Our zone meeting was really good also... the missionaries are learning how t take control of things because well our president is still new... The zone leaders said that when they went to the meeting hardly anything was talked about... they didnt receive a lot of instruction.. and so we kind of had to just find out what we are doing wrong ourselves, and figur out what we are going to do to make it better. This next week lots of my good good friends are going home....... My good buddy elder faamousili is going home.......: ( and elder nelson our zone leader.... it makes me so sad that they are leaving, it is hard for me to see people that have showed me things in the mission, that have helped me become who i am now leave.... i dont want them to leave but i got there address and i said il see you guys in 5 months: ) ha, but i hope my family has a chance to be able to meet elder faamousili one day, he is a really cool guy and we have a lot in common, he is the only brown person in the mission that is not mexican, hah he is samoan. He gave me one of his ties today because thats what we always do with companions when we leave eachother. I did a baptismal interview 2 days ago and it went really well, the zone leaders are going to baptize him, his name is martin, he washes windows of cars that pass by, but his attitude is sooo much different then what he looks like he is... He lives in a shack next to the railroads in Mazatlan, and lots of his friends that are areound him do drugs have bad habits and other things.... but martin no.. He is really awesome and he passed his interview and he is just amazing and has a smile on his face wherever he goes. When he saw us cme he ran into a market close to where he works and bought us apples and bananas with the money he just earnerçd from the windshield that he had just cleaned... ha is is sweet and he is going to progress in the church forever. This past week we received 14 references and we are still contacting them, we also like melanie found 7 new investigators, and some of them are really awesome, really prepared spiritual and all ears to listen to us. I am excited for the work here in villa union,,, last week i was telling myself..... i am sooooo ready to leave here,,, and this week i am saying i want to stay.,... ha it definitly has a lot to do with the work, if we have work i am happy but if no,,,, it just makes us sad and frustrated. but there is work, and there is always work, we just have to search for it. This past week we also received a phone call from the mission president, and he said you will be receiving to new missionaries in villa union to help you, little did we know what type of missionaries we would be receivng and it turns out it is an old couple. I cant remember their last name, it was hard for to say.... ha and I thought it was funny, because the majority of the people here cant even say our names, and... the missionaries got here, and i couldnt even say there last name.. but they are very nice, very friendly. They are form alpine Utah and started there mission this week. They live in a condo right next to the beach, its called estrella del mar, Dad you will probably want to look that up, It has a golf course, and a couple of the holes are right next to beach. We will have to come back and play : ) I think it is a resort, but i am not sure. It looks really pretty though, and the brother told me that he loves it. To be señior missionaries i didnt know you are still allowed to golf.... ha he had his clubs all in the back of his car. They are a very nice couple, i told them i hope i stay to be able to help them around, and that i can hlp them with there spanish. They bore their testimonies and told a little bit about themselves in church and a had to translate a little, but they both can speak pretty well. They just need a little bit more practice. These are the things that passed this week, It was a really good week, and it makes me happy to have the nattainers here. I think that is there last name it is something like that. I love you all and i hope you all have a good week. Tell danny that is is such a blessing to be able to teach that class : ) and i like being spritually uplifted by him and dad. I love you guys. Hope you have a good week, be safe Love you all. ! Elder Fellingham

January 6, 2014

Hey everyone! Happy New Year, ha kind of late, but i sadi it in my last message. I hope everyone is doing okay, miss you all. Hope you all had fun, and i am glad that everyone is back safely. Back to school is always fun, I loved being able to see al my friends again after the break. Here in Mexico, in Mazatlan it is hotter than last winter, I think it is where i am. Last winter i was more north so figure its more colder, but here it is like summer.... We are sweating today,.. but it is not like horrible. Its not the full heat, but it is some. We are just grateful it isnt on full blast. There is a good breeze here always in Villa Union. We have changes in 2 weeks, im kind of excited... ha to tell the truth, i really hope there is a change. There was a change in our district that we found out yesterday, They took two elders out of my district and switched them with two hermanas. Now in our district there is 8 and we get sister missionaries now. Hermana Ballard, and hermana Tejeda. They are both very cool, especially hermana tejeda, she like the 2nd mom of the mission, she is a little bit older, but she has a pretty awesome story of how she joined the church. This past week i did divisions with Elder Orton, elder Orton is from American Fark, Utah. He is a fun guy, and when we did divisions new years.... ha i didnt even notice until someone else told me. and i was like whoops.... well we are still doing them, soooo... i wasnt with my real companion for New years, I was with Elder Orton, We ate really well that night, so i was glad we did divisions. A family invited us over for dinner, and gave us a present after, they were really nice. But the thing that was really cool about the divisions is that we had a really cool experience. This is the story that happened to us, Okay so All throughout the day we tought only about three families.... because lots of people told us we are busy for New Years and we cant attend you right now. but lets just say it wasnt a day of very much success.... It also started raining after our second lesson... at the end of the day after our last lesson and we were returning to go to dinner with this family and we walked past a man with three little children by his side, and they were waiting for someone on the corner of the street to pick them up, they had there suit cases all packed up and we thought hmmm well thats not usual on New years night... and we walked past him and continued going to our appointment to eat dinner. Elder Orton stopped about 20 more feet and he just stood there, and I kept walking, and I finally noticed that he stopped walking, and i said que paso? and he said were going to contact that guy, and I was like okay good idea, and so I followed behind him and right when we got up to him and we were going to start talking to him the car pulled up that they had been waiting for. and they were all ppiling in, and he was putting suitcases in, and when we got there it was like all awkward and elder orton just walked past him when he got to that point acting like he wasnt going to do anything..... haha and i ran begind him and i said No! and i gave him a card and said write your number on it and i will stop the car from leaving, and so I went and kind of waved them down from leaving,, and they slowed back down and I told them that we had something for them, and we gave it to them, and we started to leave, but the guy that was standing with his children he got out of the car, and he walked around the car and shook our hands and he said thank you! it was something very unusual that.... well i have never seen anything happen like that. Like we usually just give them a card and then they leave, but the man was very nice, and very happy and kind to receive our card with our number on it. While we walked away from him as he got back into the car and left i told elder Orton that the spirit told you for some reason that that man needed our help as missionaries, and he worked through you and you should never not contact someone when the sirit tells you too.... haha It was a very cool experience for the both of us and we walked away happy. We walked to the dinner, and we started eating and we were talking and laughing and having a good time, the cell phone rang a little and we had received a message, The message said ¨ hey this is the man that was on the street with my kids and i just want to thank you two very much fo what you did, It made me very happy, and also that in these months they have been hard on me and my family. Me and my wife just barely got seperated and in those moments you two ligthened my day up. and then he went on about other things, but that was basically what his message was saying. We told him that wherever he goes he will be able to find the missionaries, and that he should look for them because we have things that will be able to help and bless his life. ´These type of experiences help me to know that what I am doing is right, and that the gospel really does bless and bring joy to the family. I hope that that man in the future can go to church and he can help his family even more, and through his trials that he will be able to over come them through the true church. Just want you to know my family and friends that God gives us miracles every day and we need to be more alert during the day to be able to receive them. He loves us and he knows what we need in the moments that we need them. Love you guys and I know the church is true. Hope you have a good week. Love Elder Fellingham