Christmas, Zone Conference and Monument in Montemorelos

FELIZ NAVIDAD

The new area is honestly really hard. I have been struggling a lot trying to keep my companion obedient and the branch that I am in is really interesting. Like Ive never heard of so much gossip in all of my life. Like the stuff that has been said comes out in the newspaper... I know I will be learning so much during my time here. I have never been more tired in my life and I am stressed out but I have seen a growth in what I though was my potential. I am so positive that the lord has me here for reasons and I am going to make the best of them! 

Well I don't have any more time to write but

                                                                                       ¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡¡FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Tough Honduras Companion

Hey everyone!

This week has been sooo different from all the other weeks of my mission. Well to start off im on bike and thats well weird and it hurts like crazy. My legs have been on fire all week long. I guess imfinally getting payback for never kicking well in swimming.... But the worst part is the mud when It rains. Its impossible to stay clean... when we ride bikes the mud gets shot up all over our face legs and back.... Its awkward but part of the life! Its interesting meeting all the new people and trying to remember who they are. Its pretty funny because during the last weeks in Estanzuela I was praying to have a bigger area because it was really small and now I have one of the biggest in the mission! 

My companion is really different. Well i think this change will be a big test of patience... He reminds me a lot of Elder Diaz who tells a lot of fake stories and well doesnt want to work. But at least he wasnt angry all the time. My companion is a little bipolar and scares me a bit to try and correct him in something that needs to change. I will be praying and working pretty hard to get along well with him. But this will be interesting. 

The district is a lot bigger than last change and that is pretty exciting. We now have 11. The district meetings are fun but we have to take an hour long bus ride to get to where all the other missionaries are. 

Thats about all I amloving my time here and I hope everyone has an awesome week! And that snow starts falling there! 

Elder Ahlmer

Oh yeah my companion is Elder Pavon and he is from Honduras

Tamas, not good - Moving to Montemorelos

Hey everyone!

This week was good. Well first off I think I was cursed for celebrating thanksgiving in mexico because well the tama that I showed you guys got me pretty sick... It along with all the other things with chili that I have been eating gave me gastritis.. I dont know what its called in english but its a pretty common thing here. So Sunday monday and tuesday It hurt pretty bad but once we figured out what it was I get the medicine and now it doesnt really hurt! I have to be really careful of what I eat for the next 4 weeks or it can get worse but other than that Im basically normal! 

So they changed the way that they do transfers now and they told us last night that I am going to be sent to Montemorelos a little town on the outskirts of Monterrey! Im so excited to be in a little town. And this means that I get to go out on bike! I am going to miss estanzuela so much I learned so much here. I have made some great friends here and I dont think Ill ever be able to forget climbing uphill and downhill all day long! Last night we went to the Christmas devotional I liked it a lot! But afterwards we ate hot chocolate and bread as a ward and It was pretty hard to say goodbye to all of them! 6 months is a long time! It was really hard saying goodbye to maria and her family. She has gone through so much and is still doing everything that she should. I have learned so much about faith with her. 

I hope you have an amazing week I heard a lot about finals good luck everyone!

Elder Ahlmer

Tamas for Thanksgiving

Hey everyone!

This week has been pretty interesting. First off thanksgiving was pretty good! Even though I miss the family party Elder Perez and i celebrated our own way! We bought Tamas which is like a huge taco with well a bunch of stuff! 

Friday we had an open house in the church and it went really well! We invited a lot of people and many came! I felt like it was really well organized and people enjoyed and learned more about the gospel. The church has taken a new initiative this Christmas trying to help everyone understand the true meaning of it. They created a new website called christmas.mormon.org Its way cool. There is a 3 minute video there and we have been doing all that we can to help other people see the importance of Christmas! It has been working well. We have found a lot of new people to teach including a lot of family members of members that have had their heart softened hearing about Christmas! Its been a great success. But we had a really cool experience during the week when a member took us to visit one of her friends and invite her to the open house. When we got there she was really closed and didnt want to talk about anything. She kept on saying Lets not waist you and my time and stuff like that. But when we started talking to her about the Christmas everything changed. She opened up so fast it really shocked me. And that same day she went with her member Friend to the open house! I invite you all to talk with a friend and share the quick video with them its an awesome way to start talking to them about the gospel! 

This Saturday we had the baptism of Xiemena the youngest daughter of Maria that turned 8 two weeks ago! It was pretty special all her kids sang. 

Well I hope everyone has an amazing week and that you all share the video! 

Elder Ahlmer

Baptism of Xiemena

Luis and Gilberto

Hey everyone! 

This week has been cold! I was not ready for how cold it was going to get here so fast! We always have to leave the house super covered! But it beats July! Hopefully it doesnt get colder! We finally got a heater for the house today and hopefully tomorrow we get hot water so things are looking up! 

Things have been going great I am loving my time here it really is so exciting seeing the change in others and yourself! This week we did quite a bit of service we cut down another tree for someone and that was a lot of fun! Ill send pictures! And we help repair a road well a trail that people drive on to get to the houses that are super high in the mountain. With all the rain the dirt ran off and left a bunch of huge rocks so we had to dig up a bunch of dirt and put it to cover the rocks. I hope that makes sense...

Today we went to the temple and then afterwards we played basketball and of course soccer in the gym! It felt so good playing sports! We also got up monday early to be able to play with a few members! I hope we start doing that more often! 

Luis is still doing great and way excited and we have been started teaching her niece. We met her yesterday actually and she is really cool and has some awesome questions. I hope we will be able to help her as well. Gilberto is doing pretty good he has a lot of ideas but hopefully we will be able to help him understand why Gods ways are higher than ours. Maria is going to the temple from the second time today and her daughter Ximena turned 8 twop days ago and will be baptized next Saturday! Im so happy to be able to be here for her baptism as well! Pablo is going to go as well and him and Maria have both received callings in the church! Maria as an assistant to the primary and Pablo being in charge of the sacramen table! Im so excited for them! 

I hope you all are enjoying the cold and have a great week!

Elder Ahlmer

Luis the 25 yr old

Hey everyone!

How is everyone doing? Its starting to get little colder here so I cant imagine how cold it is there! It rained pretty good this week and well we got soaked! Only now with the cold its not as fun to get wet s it was before! 

As of right now we have been visiting someone named Luis. Hes 25 years old and is a great guy. He has a few ticks because he had been doing drugs since he was 11 years old and as of 6 months ago finally was able to quit. He has come to church with us two times and Sunday we put a baptismal date for the 30th! He is so excited to start a new life. I am so blessed to be able to be a part of it. He alreadyhas a huge testimony of prayer because whenever he feels tempted to fall he says a prayer and overcomes the temptation. I hope we will still be able to help him and show him how to change his life through Jesus Christ. 

We also havcebeen teaching Gilberto. He came with us Sunday as well hes a little harder to open up. We need to find out what it is that makes him want tolisten to us. Yesterday was interesting because we sat in front of a huge family of like 6 little kids during sacrament and well as you can expect there was a lot of noise.... I hope he was able to feel the spirit and pay attention to the talks!

Thats about all for right now!

Elder Ahlmer