The work is progressing in the area!!!

Hola,
it has been a great week here in Mexico.  I am really enjoying my new area.  It has been quite the experience.  My companion Elder Escobedo is from Piedras Negras Cuahila, 30minutes away from where my first compnion was.  He has 20 months in the mission so we are both veterans now.  I like how direct he is,.  We have been very clear with all the memebers that we dont want the area to close again.  The members are so stoked to have missionaries in the ward again. This week we recieved 12 referrals, so I hope we can see some progress from that.  The church we go to is the second oldest church in Mexico, so there are a lot of members in the ward who have been members for three or four generations.  The work is progressing really well with the members.
The lord has really been testing me this week, we walked so much the first two days that the cuts on my feet opened up just like when I was in Ixtla.  I am more sunburnt than when I was in Mirasoles.   I have a cold like when I was in Constitution, and we havent had much to eat like when I was in Ixtla, but now it is all at the same time ha ha.  but it is all good!!!  We just got to keep moving forward and I know that we will have success.  We had two investigators at church that just showed up, that was a huge miracle.    We are going to teach them on Thursday.  We have also found a lot of really prepared people just by circumstance and through the members.  There are many part member families in the ward.
We did a three ward training session with the other people who meet in our church.  I had to teach them about how to invite someone to a family home evening.  It went super well.  Elder Poston, my companion in the MTC was there.  We have hardly seen each other the whole mission but now we are in the same church.  He told me that I have changed a ton durring the mission.  I hadnt really relized it but I am much more comfortable getting up and talking in front of people than I was when I gave the district meetings in the MTC.
I got your package yesterday!!!!  Thanks a ton,  I love you all.  Dall and Dave, I am glad to hear that all is going well in track.  Everything is super great here.  I feel like I am going to continue in the pre med course so you can get me all rergestered up for the classes that my adviser says.  Love you all a ton.
Con muchísimo amor,
Elder Joe Fuell                                               

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Last Transfer!!!

Hola,
It has been a great and crazy week here in Mexico.  I have transfers!  I have never predicted my transfers before but this time I did,  I will be opening up the area Nativitas which is one of the richest areas in the mission, but it is really small.  We meet in the church of Emrita which is one of the oldest  LDS churches here in Mexico.  I saw some pictures with George Albert Smith their more than 50 years ago.   This is going to be super crazy.  I will also be helping out the new District Leader, Elder Escobedo.  President says that he has never been a district leader before and he wants me to teach him how to be one of the best.  I am pretty stoked.  Because the area is closed I have had all the keys and stuff, so I am going to move in all my stuff at 1:00 in the afternoon.
I am a little bummed that I wont be here for all the baptisms that we have coming up.  We are going to have 3 this week, but its all good.  It was an amazing experience just to be here and teach them and see them progress to this point.  I am really going to miss Iztacalco (or as I always called it, BautIztacalco, ja ja- Mexican joke).  I have made a lot of friends here and I will miss them. 

We went with Julio in the morning and he started crying which made me cry, but it will be cool because I will still get to see him and all my other converts at stake conference and general conference.

One of the things I was most grateful for in Iztacalco was the opportunity to work with Elder Carver.  He was one of my most difficult companions but he has changed so much,  and so have I.  We used to argue over stupid stuff almost everyday and we had a really hard time working together, but this last week was great and we worked together really well.  I think I have learned more about how to work with others with him than any other companion.  I really think that we learn more when life is more difficult.  I will miss him and the area but I am looking forward to lighting up Natavitas.  I love you all so much, thanks for your letter and I will write you all next week.
Con Amor,
Elder Joe Fuell

I got my flight plans. I didn't read them but I sent them to you

Hola,
It has been an another amazing week here in Mexico!!  Sounds like it has been pretty good for you too.  March is the best month in Mexico, the weather is perfect and all the trees have a bunch of blossoms, it looks cool.  That is pretty cool that you got a new truck, I am pretty stoked to see that. 

I got my flight plans.  I didn't read them yet but I sent them to you.  Happy Birthday Dave!!  You are getting so old, I hope you got my letter!   We have had a lot of success working with the ward these last couple of weeks, and we have seen a change in a lot of the members.  Sister Rivera, who owns the apartment where we live, and is the Relief Society President, would never ever ever give us referrals.   We would ask her and then she would say, "I don't think that is my job.  She would then say, "you can find the people and then we will befriend them at church."  But we had a ward activity the other day where we taught how to invite friends to a family home evening.  She, sister Rivera, decided to do it and because of that now we are teaching another family of 8 and they came to church this week.  It strengthened the testimony of sister Rivera so much.  She brought dinner to our house the other night and she just started crying about how good she feels that this family is now listening to the missionaries.  She feels that they will probably get baptized here soon.  We feel the same way.  The family they gave us is super awesome, we sang a hymn with them (something we don't usually do because we are not the best singers) but the spirit came really strong, and they all recognized it.  They even told us when we left, "there is something different about you guys, we just feel this peace in our home that we haven't felt before."

Sunday morning the bishop asked me if I could give a talk and I prepared something quickly.  It went well but as I got up to talk I realized that a bunch of investigators had come in, a ton!!!!  Probably more than I have ever had at church.  The thought was to make sure we were able to talk to all of them before they left and see if there were any questions we could answer.   Originally Elder Carver and I had planned that he would go talk to one family and I would go talk to the other and our ward mission leader would take the others to class but there came like three more families!!  So we were thinking what can we do?  And so at the end of the closing prayer  I bolted for one door and Elder Carver bolted for the other to see if we could get their information to visit them again and see if there were any questions they had.  All the investigators and less actives that we brought to church made up about half of the congregation.

Everything else is great.  We are working hard and we have the baptism of Julie and Alejandro coming up here soon.  I am super stoked.  I love you all a ton.

Con Muchísimo Amor,

Elder Joe Fuell

By small and simple things, great things can come to pass!!

It has been an another amazing week here in Mexico!!  At the start of the week it was super hot and we got really burnt and so everyone started calling us camarones (shrimp), but then it got super cold and it is still pretty cold so I guess now we are frozen shrimp ha ha. 

The big and exciting news is that Jessica got baptized, I have been working with her for more than three months and she was so happy.  We decided that Elder Carver should baptize her.  It was his first baptism, and it was an amazing experience.

Elders Carver and Fuell at the baptism of Jessica

We went with her and her husband as they got married in the state of Mexico.  We went there because we have a friend there who doesn't charge that much for the ceremony.  Elder Carver was really scared to go there because I told him a lot of  wild stories.  It was pretty funny.  We passed by Ixtla, I could see it from the train so that was pretty cool.

We had a couple of meetings where we trained the members to be member missionaries.  We were with the whole stake and we also went to the wards of Del Valle and Narvarte, both of which are in my district.  President Valadez was going to come and  give the first training rotation but he had to go to a meeting with the area 70 and so Elder Carver and I were assigned to give the first training rotation.  It would have been fine, but they told us during the opening hymn and we weren't prepared.  My companion was flipping out, but I just said a prayer really quick and advised him to do the same and we went and did it.  It turned out super well and it was super fun.  Its always crazy to see the things you can do with the wards help.

This week we where walking to our house at night on a busy road and someone calls out to us "FWELL . . . FULL . . . . FOOOL . . ."  I didn't hear it but my companion did and he said, "hey, I think that guy knows you"  I looked back and it was Raul.  I don't know if you all remember Raul, but he was the first person I put a baptismal date with in Quetzal (my first area) and the first person that I brought to church.  Then he moved and we weren't able to find him after that.  Turns out that he now lives here in Iztacalco!  He is married now and he wants us to come teach him and his wife!  It was a super crazy experience but super cool.  Still haven't taught him yet, but we have an appointment tomorrow and we are excited for that.

The Elders from Quetzal called me the other day to inform me that some people I found almost two years ago, Jose Carlos and Adriana now will be getting baptized in two weeks,  I thought that was amazing too.  I might not have been the ones to baptize them but I helped plant a seed.  It is amazing how by small and simple things great things can come to pass.  It has been a great week.  I am glad to hear that you have all had a great week too.  Love you all a ton.

Jessica's family with Elder Carver (L) and Elder Fuell

Con Muchísimo Amor,
Elder Joe Fuell