Six Month Mark Tie Burning Ceremony

Well it was quite an eventful week. Despite the fact that I got food poisoning again. My comp was throwing up all Wednesday, and it hit me on Monday I think it may have had something to do with stuffing my face full of carne asada and hot links. Besides that though, the week was awesome.

So I know I hit six months almost a month ago. However, I didn't get around to celebrating it till this week. For anyone that doesn't know, it's tradition to burn a tie at your six month mark. Living in the middle of nowhere however, I had the chance to do the greatest six month tie burn with my companion ever. We tied the tie around the tip of some homemade arrows, and then shot flaming arrows off our roof into a six made of tires. It doesn't get much cooler than that.

Ready, aim, fire - 6 month tie burning ceremony

Successful attempt

6 month mark in mission

View from above

It also rained pretty hard our here. And since all of our roads are pretty much dirt, we got to drive in the mud like all week. Let's just say I'm glad I'm the driver. It sucks though cause we need to wear dress clothes. So I got those pretty muddy. Especially when we played some soccer in the mud.

Tacoma Truck after riding through mud

On a more spiritual note. Elder Nielsen (the head of the missionary department) came and spoke to us. It was super awesome to be able to listen to him. Besides the fact that my stomach was hurting the whole time he spoke. He also told us (the missionaries from Puerto Rico) that we will probably be sent back pretty soon. Reason-to-rejoice-missionaries-return-to-Puerto-Rico Mission life just keeps on getting more and more fun though.

Les quiero,
Elder Busco

Another Baptism - Mission life is the best!

So we had just about the sickest week. We went on an awesome hike with our zone to start it off on P-day. It's amazing. Even out here in the middle of nowhere where all there is is dirt and cacti for miles, the view was still so beautiful. ... But then we came back to find a couple hundred dollar ticket on our truck. Apparently we were supposed to pay to get in. We got that all settled out though. But it freaked us out when we first saw it. Especially since I was driving. 

Hiking in Chapparel

Brian off the cliff (of course!)

Other than that, we had a pretty normal week. Besides the fact that we had another baptism! It was such an awesome experience. The dad has been a less active member for pretty much his whole life. We started teaching the kids though. We've been working with them for forever. A couple weeks ago, the dad decided to turn his life around because he saw his kids reading so they could be prepared when we came over. He saw them super interested and it motivated him because he wants them to have the best life they can get.

It was probably one of the coolest experiences ever to work with them and watch them change. He invites us over all the time now. We go and play football with the kids while he's out on the grill. It was the greatest thing ever to be able to hang out with them after the baptism. The sun was setting, the weather was perfect, everyone was happy and we were having a bunch of fun. There's nothing greater than that. Mission life is the best!

Baptisms of children of less active family

Made Senior Companion

So this week has been pretty crazy. We had transfers and I'm staying in Chaparral still. We were going to have another trio as well. But that only lasted for like a day. Then there was an emergency transfer so I'm back to only having one companion now. My new companion is Elder Gee. He's from Michigan and is super awesome. We've both been out for about six months now and supposedly I'm senior comp. So let's see how that goes. I also am officially no longer a greenie as of this week. I guess I'm supposed to know what I'm doing now. As far as missionary work goes though we had a great week. We found a couple news investigators which is awesome for Chaparral. We also should be having a baptism coming up the tenth of February which will be super cool. They are such an awesome family. They were teaching us how to make some Mexican food just the other day. I need to learn how to cook this stuff before I get back. It's been going great out here sharing the gospel. 

It was such a sick week, and we're about to have another one. We should be having a baptism this Saturday. It's been awesome to be able to work with them, and help them progress. It's been so busy out here. Normally it's hard to plan for our days because we are trying to figure out what else we can do. Recently though, it's been super hard to plan just because we've had so much to do out here. We've had a lot of service as well lately which is awesome. It's a blast out here. This past Sunday, we brought our enchiladas out on the roof and ate while watching the sunset. Then I played my guitar up there which was super cool. We've been going on the roof to do a lot of stuff recently. We actually brought up a table, and did our Spanish studies up there once. We also got to gorge ourselves in Carne Asada this week for one of our dinners. I had five steaks and a Bratwurst. It was awesome. Everything is going great out here. Love you guys and miss you guys lots.

Brian as Senior Companion with his new companion on roof 

Brian with his "Chappies" on the roof (again!)

Arm wrestling for eclairs

Its been so long since the last time I emailed. I honestly feel like I'm a completely different person since then. So much has happened. Christmas was awesome! We had a bunch of tamales the day before. Then it was our P day on Christmas so we all got together and played some soccer and basketball with the rest of my zone. It was super fun. New Years was awesome as well. We had a "Day with the Lord" which is when we stay in all day. We woke up at the normal time, and then just read a bunch of talks and scriptures until like six. I honestly learned so much. Then right after that, we went over to one of our investigator's house for dinner. He made us seven seas soup. It had octopus, squid, shark, and some other things that I had no idea what they were. We let one of our investigators give us haircuts as well. It was a terrible decision. He gave us the worst fades I've seen in my life. We actually are in the middle of writing a song about it. Speaking of which, we also went pawn shopping one of our P days and got a guitar for super cheap. We've been working on that at nights now when we get home. We are having a blast out here though. Time just flies by. It's been an amazing start to a New Year though. I hope everyone had an awesome Holiday season!

Giant tumbleweed taller than Brian

This week went by soo fast. It was an awesome week though. We had a bunch of people at church on Sunday. We also got a new family in our branch with three kids, so our youth just like doubled. All the missionaries spoke as well for sacrament. People actually understand pretty much all my Spanish as well up there which was awesome. Our "internigator" actually might be getting baptized within a month or so as well. He's been investigating the church for years. He's already more active and more involved than most members here anyways. He got an assignment for the church, and every time we come over now he's working on it. We've been having some awesome lessons with him though.

A huge windstorm also hit out here so it was so windy and dusty out here. I found an Hermosa street sign which was pretty sick. Me and my comp have matching desk decorations now. We also found like the biggest tumbleweed. So of course we decided to roll it into the street and drive into it super fast. That was pretty fun. Overall it was a really good week though. Still learning a bunch and having a blast teaching the gospel.

Brian & the Giant Tumbleweed

Reading on roof of trailer

Well it wasn't all that eventful of a week. We all got pretty sick so we haven't been able to leave the trailer. It was a pretty nice out so we just chilled on our roof like all day. I read a bunch of Jesus the Christ. We were feeling a little better on Sunday so we stopped by a less active family who hasn't been to church in years right before church. Somehow, we were able to get them to come. It was awesome. That's about everything that we've done though.

Brian reading Jesus the Christ on trailer roof

Invited to 13 Thanksgiving Dinners but could only stomach 8 of them!

It was another super fun week. Our thanksgiving was super awesome
although slightly different. We went to a parade in the morning. It
lasted like three hours but it was really fun. Then after, we stayed
and cleaned up all the trash. For our dinner though, we had it at our
mission leaders house. They make all the same foods, they just make
everything hot. I guess that's the Mexican style. We had chipotle
turkey, with chili gravy, and potatoes with jalapenos. It tasted super
good. He also made some homemade pineapple agua fresca which was
amazing. We actually had like five thanksgiving dinners this week. I
have had way to much turkey and ham. That's what everyone kept feeding
us though. Another thing they do out here is they eat jalapenos with
food that's not spicy. So for example, if you are eating lasagna, you
take a bite out of the lasagna and then a bite out of the jalapeno. We
also met a really old guy that used to be Ronald Reagan's bodyguard.
He's a super cool guy, just literally can not hear anything, so I
don't think he understood anything we said to him when we were
talking. We also got invited to his thanksgiving. We could have gone
to like fifteen different thanksgivings if we wanted to. There was one
less active couple we met yesterday though. He is probably the most
humble guy I know. He's a truck driver, and they are both super poor.
They didn't have enough chairs, and they just got some silverware and
dishes, but they still wanted to feed us a nice meal. When they were
living in Juarez the had nothing though. They had one pot, there chair
was a Gatorade water cooler thing which was also their fridge. They
were always willing to share what they had though. They were super
cool to meet and learn from.

Street Names say it all!