Nov. 27, 2017 Changes

So we finished the change this week. I feel like the changes are just going by faster and faster. Also I am leaving the area and going to have a new comp! So this week we were going to have a baptism but it fell through because the district leader was really pressuring our investigator. She said that she wasn't ready but the DL kept pushing her in the interview. I didn't like what I heard from her when she told us about the interview. I was upset with the Elder because he thought of her as another baptism another number and she is a person a daughter of God that wants to learn more about the gospel and just wasn't ready. But other than that we had a fun. We went and visited some people. Also one day we were contacting and everyone was super crazy. The first person that let us in was weird. We asked if we could say a prayer and he said No. I'm Catholic. What? That doesn't make sense? But okay? Then the next one said we were way out of what the Bible teaches. Normal answer. The next we just were trying to present ourselves like how old we are and where we are from and the lady said I don't remember when that was part of the gospel. We were like sorry??? The last one was ya come on in and it was great then we said that God has called a new Prophet to lead and guide us and he lost it. Nope. This church has to be false. God will not have a Prophet. It says in the Bible that there will be false prophets. So we said do you believe that God is the same today yesterday and forever? Yes obviously? Well then will you believe that God called Prophets like Moses Noah and Adam before now he will do the same and call a Prophet? No absolutely not! That is absurd! Who would ever say that is posessed by the devil!! Hahaha ya the people here are crazy. Also this week was Carnival. The second biggest in the world, right behind Brazil. Ya and we didn't get to go see the half naked girls or the girls just painted up. But to be honest that is all that I can say we did this week. Love you guys! 

Fotos

In the trunk of a car. 

When I took the stitches out of my finger by myself and the only thing they had was a pad to give me...

A cool place where we were contacting.

Nov. 20, 2017 Service

Hey fam! How is everyone doing? This week was successful I would say. So we have still been finding teaching and doing just about everything to help others come unto Christ and get rid of their sins with a baptism by someone who holds the priesthood authority of God. I enjoyed this week to be honest. So Monday we played softball and soccer. But the reason why we didn't write more than 10 minutes was because we let the sisters cook something and it wasn't even good but it took 3 hours to cook it.. Ridiculous. Anyways, Tuesday we worked hard and we put a baptismal date with Jesus. He is awesome and I just hope he changes his mind about a few things and changes to be baptized. You can see how bad he wants to be forgiven but he lacks a few things. Wednesday we got to go to the temple. I LOVE going to the temple. You learn so much and you just feel so close to your Heavenly Father. I enjoy my semi'annual visit to the House of the Lord. We didn' even get to go to our area after we had  left it in the morning. We got back at 830 at night and the last bus goes by at 630. I think we just barely missed it right? Haha so then Thursday we had a baptismal interview for Maria. She is going to be baptized!!! We are so excited for the 25th. Also we found a ton of new investigators. We found 8 in one day. So we are doing pretty good in all aspects of the work! We even had a service this week, well it was a really short service project because I almost cut my finger off with a machete cutting a tree down. We almost saw the bone!!! Haha so they gave me 2 stitches and even one is under my fingernail. Wow my finger really hurts. But ya! Just working hard to get those 'tisms. But ya. So that was my week. Hope you had  a great week. Love ya'll!!!

Voice recording:

Hey Fam!  What's Up?  Just clocking in from El Salvador we're in the morning right now and we're outside on our patio listening to the birds and looking at my Mango tree, the fruit that has the cashews on it, I have one of those trees at my house too.  I have a bunch of trees that don't even exist in the States here right now at my house, it's pretty cool.  But it sucks because right now we're in the season without fruit.  I have a papaya tree that has a ton of papaya on it though, it's pretty sick. But we're just sitting here, I was thinking about my week to talk to you guys.  I already wrote the letter, but like, this week up to Sat. it was amazing.  Well, Monday kind of blew, well, we had fun and everything, but didn't get to write and that kind of upset me.  But the rest of the week was great.  We honestly had a great week.  Then Sunday rolled around and no one went to church.  well, we had 2 people go to church, we had 2 people progress.  It was just really frustrating.  We have a sister that had her baptismal interview.  She is supposed to be baptized this next Saturday that comes.  I really hope it happens because I have been working so hard in this area to get another baptism and it just has not happened.    Like we are working incredibly hard to do this and I want to do what the Lord wants me to do, so it's just a little bit difficult  to get people to get baptized sometimes.  I mean, their agency, the thing is in this area right now is we find amazing people, they love it, they want to change and everything, but then they don't like to use their agency to do good things, like go to church.  Like it's really hard for me and the kid I'm training.  We're working hard and everything but we just can not find that person that goes to church that first time that we visit them.  We can not find that person that wants to be baptized.  IT is really difficult, but we'll be ok. 

This week was really good.  All except for the Sunday part.  But, I've been learning a lot in the scriptures.  President Durrant was telling us we needed to learn more about the Book of Mormon and the spirit.  I really like chapter 4 and 5 of Preach my Gospel, it really helps me understand my purpose and understand how I can help others come unto Christ more effectively.  Because I mean if I just sit there and teach them everything and they never read or they never feel the Spirit, they will never be baptized because who wants to be baptized.  Especially here, there's like a church on every single corner and there's like 3 churches on every block.  So everyone's baptized, everyone goes to church.
The week wasn't that bad.  We found a ton of NEWS this week.  Just working hard to get people to progress.  The mission life isn't the easiest thing. 
Oh and Sat. I almost cut my finger off with a machete, just so you all know.  Got a couple stitches and they put one of the stitches under my finger nail because there was nothing else to put it in.  It hurt so bad.  Still hurts.  Bleeds a ton. Always have to clean it.  Almost saw the bone.  You'll see the pictures. 
Have a good one!

Nov. 13, 2017

Hey Guys!!!! How was your week?? Mine was just lovely. I had some fun this week. First off we are in a NEW HOUSE!!! Soo happy like beyond belief. 1. The house was ugly 2. It had mold growing and not for our fault. 3. The neighbor who is the sister of the owner is CRAZY. She woke up at 5 am every single day to  throw on some music full blast and wake us up. So when we moved we left a few things that weren't ours but weren't the owner's either. But the crazy neighbor had to come in the house. She sees a box that I really thought was the owner's and picks it up then literally and I mean literally throws it on the floor and says "This isn't mine!" We honestly started laughing but we couldn't laugh at the same time. Wow it has been a joke all week long. After moving the next day we had a purification activity. Where we were all going to change and be more pure and obedient missionaries. So my comp and I are trying to be better missionaries in a few parts of the work. We are also trying to get Selena to be baptized. We are going to do her interview this week so we might have a baptism coming up. Pretty excited for that. The members still are not being all that great but the attendance is going up. So this week we also used the talk from 2006 by David A Bednar and they shall not be offended. Yes I remember this talk from when I was baptized. I still remember listening to this talk. I didn't capture all of it as an 8 year old but I remembered the part where he says that we choose to be offended. So last Monday I was looking for the talk and I sure did find it. Wow was I happy. We shared it with a few of the less actives in the ward, because almost all of the less actives are less actives because someone didn't visit them, or because someone said something mean or whatever it is, it is always the member's fault. So we shared this talk with them and they said the same thing that the talk said, Well I never thought of it that way. So there is a talk if you need one to use in your next talk in church if you don't have a topic. Also during this week I got to weld a car!!! Hahaha I was so happy. Show Jason Bingham and tell him to cut me some slack. I know I need more practice. But that was my week love you guys! 

Nov. 6, 2017 Didn't get sick!

Fried Bananas 

This week was a really good week I would have to say. We had fun worked hard and just are doing really good. We visited a ton of people this week. We even had interviews with President this week. Hahaha I told him about what happened in the ward last week and how the attendance is going down really fast... He said that he would make an appearance in one of these days that are coming closer. The assistants talked about how we have to follow more rules and be better at all that jazz. Just normal mission stuff. To be honest I love President Duran. He wants us to be the best and he pushes us to our limits I feel like. I mean he wants us to baptize every week, which is not an easy thing to do but it is obtainable. He wants us to love others as Christ loves us and told us "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself" Hahaha another thing that happened is that just earlier this today we left to visit with a member and we passed by the church at 4:30 but we saw something super cool. We saw one of the counselers of the bishop and a counseler of the Elders Quorum washing their cars. I was like wow cool car wash. We asked the member why he didnt invite us? Hahha but the member likes to machete others so he sent a message to them saying can I bring my car tooo wash too? The other members were like when did you see us and we just responded what? We were visiting in Chapel super far away from the church. So just typical church leaders for ya. Wow I am just loving the mission. It is super difficult especially in these months but it is amazing. I had never thought about the mission this way but I am here helping others have a better relationship with Christ and our Heavenly Father. Sometimes I wonder what would the people do if we weren't here to teach them? Also the same question that President Nelson said in conference. Where would I be or this person be without the Book of Mormon? It is a question we should ponder many times. Not only one and done. Now here in the mission it is starting to get a little hotter. The rain is starting to go away. However, the nights are still cool well if you think 80 is cool. But the days are like 90 to 100 so ya I guess the nights are cool. Haha I am all over the place in this letter. Its because I am always tired in the night... But it is all cool. I hope you had a great week! Love you all

Your Boy,

Elder J. Lancaster

Oct. 30, 2017 Pink Eye

So how was your week?  Hopefully no more trips to the hospital. Are you doing anything fun for pday?  You're out in the country this year, do they do anything for Halloween?
This week was pretty normal. Work and football. Carson's last game against Logan. They won 40-7 I think that was the score. One of the Logan kids targeted Carson's friend Keaton Lamb and he got a concussion. A pretty bad one. Not cool.
Other than that life is pretty chill. Carson went to the corn Maze on Friday with some friends, they came back to our house after and finished watching game 3 of the World Series (go Astros) and then to a Halloween party at the craynor's on Saturday so we're back to the picking kids up late at night on the weekends. We had a reprieve from that for a minute. He has some pretty good friends so hopefully we don't need to worry too much about him getting into trouble. But you never know I guess.
Dad went golfing on Saturday with Chad Noorda in Ogden somewhere. He had a good time. Carson and I went to Ogden to lunch and went and bought some new tennis shoes. By the time we got home I had a migraine, so I spent the rest of the day trying to get rid of it.
I did go to the dr this last week to get my heel checked and I have a bone spur. It looks not good- (no wonder I can't hardly walk some days.). Anyway, I got a cortisone shot in my heel - hurt like crazy- and they gave me a brace and an insert for my shoe and some exercises to do for a month and come back and see how it's doing in a month. Some days it feels much better and others it still hurts like normal-- I guess I'll just have to deal because there's no way it hurts bad enough to have surgery on it at this point.
We are planning on the Halloween hay ride and dinner and mostly watching the World Series. Today is a day off while they travel to LA. It's been great so far. We are all cheering for the Astros and so far they have fought to the bitter end of each game. 2 OT games. Most home runs hit in a World Series- they are breaking all sorts of records. I'm pretty sure everyone thought that the Dodgers would sweep them and the Astros are up 3-2 they won 1 game in LA and lost one at home, but won the 2nd game against Kershaw so that is definitely a feather in their cap. Verlander is starting tomorrow. So hopefully they can get the win. It would be awesome.
Quote from sacrament meeting yesterday -Ryan ended the primary program.
'Don't pray for an easy life. Pray for the strength to endure a difficult one.' Bruce Lee
Have a great week!  Love you
Love
Mom

So this was a difficult week. But we sure did make it through it. Hahaha it really wasnt that bad it was just a little bit harder than normal. This week we did a pretty sick activity but lots of people didnt show up so it was a little disappointing. But you know how the mission is full of ups and downs. It is a complete emotional rollercoaster. So this week the main focus was find new people that we can put baptismal dates for the 25th of November. So we found the people we just havent but the baptismal dates yet. But also we were just trying to get people commited to go to this activity that we had. So the activity was we blocked off a street and we watched a movie in the park. We watched the testaments. Which is the movie about how Christ came to the Americas. It is awesome. Well at least I like it. Not only for the people that didnt show up to the activity I caught the eye problem that has been going around. It is called conjunctivitis. It blows. My eyes are super red.. And it feels like there is a little rock in my eyes and so you rub them, but it just hurts more. I had to use sunglasses all day because the sun kills your eyes... It really is horrible. The nurse told me that I couldnt leave for 3 days and I said thats an awesome joke. So I left and I suffered. But it was great. I love the mission. So that is why it was really difficult. But this week we were walking and an old man, who we were teaching someone in his house but we stopped visiting her because she didnt want to progress, anyways he stopped us and said why dont you visit her anymore? So I said because I have been busy and she didnt really want to listen to us. He told me come by and visit me. I want to know more. I even would like to be apart of the church of Jesus Christ. So we said is it ok if we come by tonight? He said if you arent busy. So we went and taught him and he told us that he wanted to be apart of our church and that he would try his best to go to church this week. That was a really cool experience. But yeah so that was pretty much the week that I had. Fighting another sickness... And just trying to find the chosen ones of the Lord. I hope that you all had a great week!!!

Your boy

Elder Lancaster

Oct 22, 2017 Chosen ones and bee stings

It's hard to believe that another month has passed.  Christmas will be here before we know it.  The last football game for Carson is on Wed. and I think they start open gym type stuff today after school. CRAZY!  I'm not ready for winter and wrestling and all that business.  Football season has been pretty chill and I have loved it.  I haven't gotten anything done, partly because of my shoulder and party just because I haven't felt like it, but I have read a lot.  I guess that is coming quickly to an end, I'll have to ramp up and get some energy from somewhere :/

Carson is doing great in school so far, he has a few core classes this trimester, language arts, earth science and honors math. He's keeping up well, but I'm a little nervous for the next tri with wrestling because he doesn't have seminary and PE as a buffer, he adds German and something else that wasn't easy.  He will definitely need to keep his nose to the grind stone.  I'm not sure he's prepared for it.  He is also working on his NCSA recruiting profile for baseball and he's already had views from 4 universities.  It doesn't necessarily mean anything yet because he doesn't have any video or stats on his profile yet. 

This week we spent helping Aaron with his roof.  Monday Dad and Carson went after practice, Tues. Dad went around 3 til 530 when we went to Carson's game at Green Canyon (new school in Hyde Park), Wed. Dad went over around 11 and I took Carson after Practice.  Thurs Carson went around 10:30 and I took dad after work and picked up Carson so he could go to a thing with some friends.  And then I picked Carson up at 10:30pm and we went back over to help finish getting the paper on the roof because it was supposed to rain on Fri.  We got home about 2am.  We told Carson he could tell his friends he went to an all night party over fall break.  ;)

We worked on Fri and relaxed.  Then went over on Sat. morning til 5.  It's probably 1/3 shingled now, so a couple more evenings and it will be done.  He still has to finish his deck and the soffit and facia, so he still has a few things to finish up but nothing that is going to ruin his house.  

I went to the Dr on Wed for my final check on my shoulder.  I have almost full range of motion, so I don't have to go to Physical Therapy again, just do the exercises at home, so that's good.  I sent you a picture of the hardware that was on my shoulder.  Carson thought it was pretty gross.  It was kind of weird to actually see it and the drill scratch marks on the top of it where they were putting the screws in.  

How's the new companion and training?  Any thing new and exciting happen this week?  Any new baptismal dates?

Keep working hard and focused on the task at hand.  

Love you

Mom

Well fam and friends I am glad to start another change with another MEXICAN!!! I dont know how but I guess I will always be with latins. Haha dont know how to get a gringo comp yet... I am loving the heck out of my comp right now. He is kind of a nerd but he is a great guy. I really am not training him. He can ready to go. But he is a great missionary that wants to serve the Lord and give Him all that he has for 2 years. His name is Elder Olivas. He is really funny and we joke around all the time. But this week I would have to say that there were 2 highlights. 1 we found a chosen one of the Lord. Her  name is Yesenia. She is 25 years old. You could tell that she had been separated from her husband well boyfriend. Here they never are married. So we were contacting and we just happened to knock on her door and she let us in. She had a member friend but she headed to the states just like everyone else in this flipping country... But anyways we taught her lesson 1 and she said that she is going to read the Book of Mormon and everything to find out if Jesus Christ came to the Americas. We invited her to be baptized the 25th of November and she accepted so we will be working with her for a bit. The 2 highlight or you could say great experience, was I was drink a bag with water and a bee or wasp just happened to land on the bag and I went to drink it and the wasp or bee stung me on the inside of my lip. In that moment we got in a house to teach. We taught like a 10 min lesson and left. But that time half my face was numb and my lip was pretty big. So we went to a members house that was close and he called the mission doc. and the mission doc told me to go to the emergency room in the nicest hospital in San Miguel. I was like fine. So we got there my whole face was numb but only the side that it stung me was swollen, but it was enormous like an elephants ears... So when we got to the hospital they took me to a room and the they came in and gave me 3 shots. One was like 100ml of fluid... They couldnt do it just in my arm so they had to but it in like an IV but just with the injection. There was so much liquid because my vein filled up and they had to jab another whole in me.. What??? I was like you filled me up with so much liquid... But It was really strong so the nurse let me sleep for like 30 mins because the real doctor said I couldnt go yet because there were a few things why I couldnt go, SO ya that was pretty much my week. Also this week we went to a ton of less actives inviting them to the Movie Night activity. So we got visiting and we started to rip on these less actives a little bit. We were with a member too so he helped us out. But the best one was when we went to a house and literally asked why they are inactive. They went on to say fro the members and everything so I started to give them a good ole machete. Then the member starts in. And then the less active started to justify herself. But here comes the best part, my comp interrupts all 3 of us talking by saying "Sister, you need to repent." We were like woah!!! The new kid on the block is the Big Man on Campus now. It was really awesome to hear him just come out and give it to her hard core. But Sorry kinda boring the week but that is what happened this week. I would be proud to have dope pics of El Salvador, but there isnt anything that cool to take pics... Sad... But ya I hope you all had a great week. Love you guys.

Elder Lancaster

Oct 16, 2017

Since I didn't get my letter written yesterday, you'll probably write early. I just couldn't get motivated to get it done.
We had a scout meeting after church and dinner and then we had a court of honor at 630. So not much relaxing going on😕. Dad and Carson and Kevin and all the boys (Hudson and Rhett too) played football in the yard for a while after dinner and then Boyd and Carson went to the park and did some hitting and field drills.  And then we went to the court of honor.
Last week was kind of a lazy week for me. I was taking it easy and letting my shoulder heal up again. It looks pretty good and isn't too bad for movement. I'm not back to where I was before the surgery as far as range of motion, but pain wise it's about what It was then. So I guess it's doing good. I go back to the dr on wed morning and hopefully I won't have to go back too many more times.
Aaron is replacing his roof right now. Don't you wish you were here to help?😂. His isn't as big as ours and it's not the hottest week of the year so that's a bonus.
So how was your week?  This week is transfers right?  Are you staying or going?  Either way is good. You are finding people, you just need to be patient. Becoming a member of the church is a process and Some people just process things different. Change isn't easy even if we know it's the right thing to do. And that it would be a great thing for our life.
And habits are super hard to change, we may not even like what you're doing and want to change but it's a habit. I think bad habits are harder to change than making a good one.
Anyway. I guess not much to say this week.
Love you
Mom

Hey guys!!!! This week I will be 100% honest... It was soooooo LONG!!! I have no idea why... Well, yes I do it is because there are changes this week! I knew that I had changes since Wednesday. Because I am going to be adopting! Hahaha I am going to end a training. I am not going to be a complete dad so I guess that I will be adopting. This week was full of many things from fun to getting matched by President for my comp... But what it is. You just have to keep going. So this week on Tuesday we did something different. It was )according to my comp. who was in the meeting with the stake President= what the Stake President wanted us to do was leaving in the morning and study at night. I didn{t like it. I felt like the day was never going to end and that MEN )the most important thing to get into a house= Were all working. So it was a little bit difficult for me to do it. Oh and the reason why we were supposedly told to do this was because we are trying to open a branch in Chapeltique. It is where we live along with many other members. It is 30 minutes away from the church building in Moncagua in a bus and like 20 in car. So we are trying to open that up to help the ward grow. Anyways, the next day was a district meeting so we left like normal, after lunch. Then that night they called me and told me I had to go to the trainers meeting the next day. We went at 5 am to go to San Salvador. We got there they started teaching and then they asked a few questions and I was going to be 100% honest with them, so they asked who had been studying the first 12 weeks. There were many who were in their training so they obviously raised their hands but my coomp and I aren{t doing it so we didn{t raise ours. Then they asked my comp why we didn{t study it. He goes on to be an idiot and says ooh it{s because we leave in the morning and study at night. Then President kinda lost it. I was like oh no.... The thing was that we only did it one day but my comp made it sound like we had been doing it for months! After President gave us a good ripping they went on with the meeting until it got over. Normal training meeting. So we came back to Moncagua and worked some more. Now Friday, I have no clue why but we had interchanges AGAIN... I was like dude it is the last week of the change why are you doing interchanges___ He said that the zone leaders asked him to do them so he did them. Once again I went with the Gringo Elder Ledesma. He really isn{t that bad of a guy like everyone thinks he is, you just have to get him to open up. If you get him talking he{ll be your friend. Like he is my friend now. So what was cool about the interchanges was that we ate dinner with a family that 3 of the kids are deaf mute people. But it was so cool how the whole freaking family can communicate with each other so well. I even picked up a few signs. It was really dope. I would love to learn how to speak sign language but that stuff is a TON of practice and studying. Now along came Saturday. We finished the interchanges and my comp )because he stayed in the area= was supposed to plan for the day. However, after lunch he goes [Where are we going_[ I was like WHAT_ Did you not plan_ He was like no not really. So I was a little ticked off. So I told him it was your responsibility to plan so you will tell me where we are going today. But then he did the biggest girl move that made me livid. He goes ok. Hey will you call Hector )a member= so we can go to visit Selena_ I replied uh no_ You have the phone don{t you_ Just call him. Then the baby starts to whine no just call him. It is your turn I had the phone yesterday. I lost it. I sharply said Elder it is a phone call. Are you scared he{ll say no_ And it just so happens that whenever you want to call someone it is ALWAYS my turn but when I ask you to call someone you always say well you want to call him here is the phone. WOW I honestly lost my cool in that moment. I called the member and he didn{t answer. So we went to work and did the norm. Look for investigators that we have and look for new investigators. But yes I am really struggling with this comp but I am just trying to always be more patient with him as the Lord is with me. But you all know how patient I am.... So ya that is what is going on but I at least already know that he isn{t going to be my companion so I am pretty happy about that. Like wow I really don{t like Mexicans but that is just how it is. You have to learn to LOVE not LIKE EVERYONE so that includes whites, blacks, latinos, Chinese, and even the MEXICANS.... Hahaha no I try to love everyone it is I love everyone in different ways. Some I love because I love them, some I would love to talk to them, other love to teach them and other I would just love to smack {em in the mouth! Hahaha I hope you guys had a great week Love you all!!!!!

Elder Lancaster