Feliz Dia de San Valentin!

Hey guys!!!! So i feel like i got lots and lots of stuff to tell you guys! So hopefully i can remember all of it. But first off Happy Valentines Day!!! Dad, be sure to buy Mom a nice dinner or something:) Haha, and way to go Caden you stud, getting 6 carnations? that's pretty impressive! And way to go Grant on your spelling bee! 9th out of 40 is super impressive! Way to carry on the spelling bee tradition in the family:)

Well, this week was probably even crazier than the last week. Because just when i thought i couldn't get any busier... i got busier! Haha, so this week has been interviews with the President, but for some reason he didn't schedule them until Monday, when we usually have like 3 weeks in advance to prepare everything. So I had to send the list of materials to all the zones in the mission, and then have them fill it out with all the stuff they need and then have them send it back to me the same day so i could start getting together all the materials. So I had very little time to do a lot of things. So this week starting on Wednesday there were interviews, so each day a different zone here in Saltillo came here to the offices to have their interview with the president. And every time they have interviews or zone conferences is when i have to give them a ton of materials that they need. But it's a little ridiculous the amount of things they ask for, haha. But we are kinda low on stuff right now and things are taking forever in getting here to the offices AND the system on LDS store STILL hasn't changed me as the person in charge of buying things for the mission even though we changed it almost a week ago, so we might be kinda low on some materials for a while. But... it's not my fault. But it's been cool seeing all the Elders here but it has been a lot a lot of work this week trying to get all the materials ready. Also every one and their dog has had problems with their cell phones it seems like so i've spent like half of my week talking to Telcel (the phone company here) trying to get the problems fixed with our service. So that's been lots of fun! And then next week President is going to be leaving to go to the other 4 zones in the mission, (Monclova, Monclova Este, Nueva Rosita y Piedras Negras) so i have to get ALL of the materials ready before Tuesday before he leaves, which in total is about 25 areas. So i'm going to be SUPERRRR busy these next few days getting everything ready. And tomorrow, i don't remember if i mentioned this in the last letter, but Elder Christensen from the Presidency of the Qurorom of 70 is coming tomorrow to give us a conference to the whole mission! So that'll be really cool! The whole mission will be traveling through the night to get here tomorrow morning early. The conference is going to start at8:00 but me and Elder Barrera and the assistants have to be there at 5:30 in the morning to set everything up. And you guys know how i am in the mornings... Haha but it'll be good. President has basically left us 4 in charge of setting up everything this week making sure we have all the equipment and keys and travel plans and all that fun stuff. So it's been kinda hectic. And...  I'm also going to be doing the special number! President asked me to be in charge of setting that up so I got one more Elder and 2 Hermanas to do it with me. We are going to sing 'Señor Te necesito', or I need thee every hour. But we haven't had much time to practice it at all, so hopefully it turns out well tomorrow... haha. And also i have a throat infection so that makes things a little more complicated also. But, it should be good. We're excited.  

So with everything that we have had to do this week unfortunately we weren't able to leave much to work in our area, which was a bummer! BUT we do have a baptismal date for one of our investigators for the 2nd of March. So that's awesome! We are going to be working with her a lot to make sure she's ready, she has told us she already wants to get baptized and be part of the church (her 2 daughters are recent converts) but that she's worried that she wont be able to complete with the requirements of getting baptized, and that she will let God down, and she also has a lot of questions for us about the restauración, but we've been working with her to make sure she'll be ready for her baptism in 3 sundays! But we had a really really cool lesson with their family last week with her 2 daughters. We invited the hermana to get baptized and promised her all the blessings she would receive by putting her trust in the Lord and taking this important step, and we asked her daughter to give her testimony of baptism. And she started to bear her testimony and started to cry as she gave one of the most powerful testimonies i've heard in a long time, and the spirit was soooo strong. So we're really excited to keep teaching this family. We also have been teaching a family who we contacted last week, their daughter just barely passed away so they really have a desire to know more about God's plan for us. So we've been able to have a couple really spiritual lessons with them about the plan of salvation. The ward i'm in right now, because idk if i have mentioned it yet, is called 'Fundadores', and it's right next to my first area Zaragoza! So all of it is pretty familiar to me. But the ward is really awesome and they have an awesome ward mission plan, so they've been giving us a ton of referrals and a lot of work to do. Which is SOOOOO nice after my last area. Unfortunately we just haven't had much time to visit a lot of the referrals this week. But we should have at least 3 or 4 of our investigators in church this Sunday! So we're excited. 

Well something really cool that we have started doing here in the offices is saying a prayer together every morning. The president in our meeting together on Monday, which we have every week with the secretaries, the assistants, the president and his wife, had the idea to have a prayer in his office at 10:30 every morning to ask God to help us find more people to teach, and to help the missionaries in the mission find more people to get baptized. And every single morning that we do it it brings an incredible spirit to the room and it's just been something really really cool that we have started to do.

Well, the church is true guys. God lives and he answers our prayers, we just have to do our part and reach out and ask him and He's there waiting to help us. Trials come to our lives for a reason and we can either choose to have them bring us down or try to learn from them and grow closer to our savior. This work is incredible and I invite you guys to be member missionaries back at home! I love you guys a ton and i hope you have a great week! THanks for all the support and love you guys give me! Wouldn't be the same without it! Love you!!!!:)

con mucho amor,

Elder Pajarito 

Lots and Lots of Work

Well Mom's been giving me updates on Grant's spelling bee thing and i'm impressed! I was watching the clips and realized I didn't even know how to spell the words he was spelling! haha, but that last word he got out on i'm pretty sure they just made up. Definitely not a real word. So way to go Grant! Haha, and i'm also jealous of all the snow you guys are getting. I have been wanting to see snow the whole winter but i knew it was never going to happen. But it HAS been very cold this week. But today it's hot again, so i'm guessing the cold times are basically over now. Back to the heat again. And that's awesome Kendall will get to perform at the Mavericks game!! That'll be super cool! I knew i should have joined Golden Girls back in high school to get to do cool stuff like that. Haha:)

Well this first week as Secretary has been CRAZYYYYYY. Until last night i hadn't gotten more than 4 or 5 hours of sleep any day of the week. So some of the things i have to do apart from the obvious things like make sure all the missionaries have all the pamphlets and books of mormons they need, is deal with all the phone problems that missionaries have, which involves talking to the phone company here on a regular basis. And also ordering all of the office supplies and mission supplies online through the church store, also i'm in chare of all of the referrals in the mission, for example passing them from one area to another. And then lots of other stuff! So it's a lot of work!! But to start off Saturday was really really cool. Remember the Gonzalez family that Elder Peralta and I baptized in my first area? Well if you don't we baptized 4 of the 6 members of the family because at the time the 2 oldest daughters didn't weren't ready still. Well this Saturday night they got baptized here in the church by the Mission offices. So i was able to go see the baptism and see the family again! And it was SOOO cool! I had missed them so much! And the other family we baptized in that area with Elder Peralta also went to the baptism so I got to see like 10 of my converts at one time! And it was AWESOME!! The best part was seeing their reactions when they saw me, the hermano was freaking out and the daughter started to cry she was so excited. Haha, ahh it was just really really cool. The hermano Jose baptized his 2 daughters and it was soooo cool to see how much they've progressed since i left and how strong they are in the church. It was honestly one of the coolest experiences in my mission. Then Sunday almost all day we were in the offices preparing things for the new missionaries who were going to get here Monday. ! And then Monday and Tuesday, oh man... it was chaos. So Monday morning the Latinos got here and we took them to eat and had to do a bunch of paperwork (which is my job) and do a bunch of other things to get them ready. And then when the Americans got here in the night me and Elder Barrera were in charge of the dinner and setting everything up and coordinating everything because the President and the assistents went to the airport to pick them up. So we had a big dinner with the new missionaries, some of the trainers who traveled from out of town to stay the night and then the missionaries who were finishing the mission. So in total it was about 25 missionaries. But then Tuesday was even crazier! Because that morning Elder McCoy left for Monclova for his new area and so he wasn't there to help me out anymore, which was kinda tough at first because he really didn't have much time to train me on all the things i have to do. But so the morning was full of trainings and classes for the new guys and trainers, and i had to give a 20-25 minute training too to them on all the things i do and what they have to do as far as materials and letters and packages and all that fun stuff. But Elder McCoy didn't really explain all that much about what i had to do so i just kinda winged it.. haha but it turned out well. And then i had to make sure all of the areas that are opening had their materials and celulares and all of the things that they needed before they left to the bus station to go to the new area. And everyone and their dog was calling me to try to get me to send materials or other things with the missionaries who were coming from here in the offices back to the other zones. So i was running all over the place basically the whole entire day. I was seriously EXHAUSTED by the time everyone had already left. And next change will be even crazier because we are going to be opening 7 areas and 15 missionaries get to the mission. So i'll be very busy in the next few weeks trying to get everything ready. But i like it, it's A LOT of work and everyone is always calling me asking for stuff but it's cool. I like being around President all the time because i get to learn a lot from him. So yeah it's been good! 

Well that's the exciting stuff i can think of right now, haha. But i hope you guys have a GREAT week! Cover up, take pictures of the snow for me! Love you guys!!!:)

con mucho amor,

Elder Bird