We Baptized An Angel

Elder Depeel and I Enjoying A Burger

December 12, 2016

WEEK 58

HI, FAMILY!

Oh, mommy! You make me laugh with all your craziness!  I know me and my companion will be happy with the package. I won’t tell him. It’ll be a surprise.  #santaspresent

About sending cash… American money, well, it works. Because I am in Reynosa, they use the dollar here. Right now, it’s 20 pesos to the dollar, so I'm rich right now. lol jk. Because the mission only deposits the same amount of money each month, I am trying to be money smart and never use my debit card. So cash is great!

Happy that you got a Christmas tree. I think we are going to try and find one... or maybe make one. We’ll see if we actually want to become crafty this December. Lately I have been thinking and remembering some of our great memories we’ve had as a family with past Christmases. Elder Depeel and I are trying to plan out the holiday and everything. We’ll see what happens.

Elder Depeel is great. He has 21 months on the mission, He’s got blonde hair and I think blue eyes. He’s a little bit taller than me. I’ve grown a little here so you guys will have to try and imagine him. We get along really well. We are somewhat alike. Just picture me normal and quieter and you have Elder Depeel, so hopefully you understand who he is now.

Angel Baptism

We had a baptism this weekend. His name is Angel, he’s super awesome! I got to teach him a couple of times before we baptized him. He is a singer, so I am going to have him sing me a song. I want to try and film it. I will attach the picture of his baptism.

Well, a lot of things happened and I have no idea on where to start… Well, do you remember Manuel from my first area? He was the guy in the wheelchair. Well... he passed away two days ago. I attended his burial today in the morning with Elder Rodriguez, my former companion. It was a little sad. I wasn’t sad that my good dear friend passed away. What made me sad were the people or rather his family members that cried and mourned. They truly didn’t understand the Plan of Salvation. I felt sad but I am happy to know this gospel is true.

Convert Paloma

So all the investigators that I mentioned last week… Well, they should be getting baptized this weekend. So that’s awesome!

I love you guys so much! Thank you for always supporting me.

- Elder Pukahi

San Juana & Family Visiting

This Week Was Filled With Spiritual Blessings

Elder Depeel and I

December 5, 2016

WEEK 57

Dear mi familia y amigos,

This week was great. It was filled with many spiritual lessons, many times not sleeping in my own bed, getting to know all the Elders in my new zone, and my goodness! My area is HUGE and so ghetto. It's awesome.

Well, this week we had to do a lot of splits and all that great stuff so me and my companion had no time to work in our own area. But the time we did, we found many, many miracles.

First, Francisca, she's an old woman. How we found her was through a reference from a member. It's her best friend. Well, we went to go talk with her and she left her house smiling and all that, but when we started talking with her, she began to cry. She told us, "I knew you guys were going to be coming, I was waiting for you." So we taught her. She came to church this week and is excited to get baptized. She's awesome. She's going to start feeding us. So fooooddd, yeah! But more importantly, she's wonderful and I'm very, very thankful to God that we were allowed to help and find her. Just very grateful!

Second, Graciella, she's a single mom with two kids. Her husband passed away about a year ago. She actually had been listening to the missionaries for 6 months already and she still hadn't gotten baptized. The reason is because she moved and couldn't find the missionaries again. But she prayed to find them. And somehow, we were lucky enough to do that. She should be getting baptized really soon.

Third, the family Montoya Martinez, who is a mom and her two kids. The father lives in Monterrey, but the mom Carmen, is awesome. She's read and read the Book of Mormon and loves it. The kids are going to all the church activities. I don't know how we were so blessed to find them. They are awesome. And will be baptized shortly.

This week was filled with miracles. We even have other people who are just as awesome and should be getting baptized shortly.  So I will keep you guys updated.

And YES, I forgot to mention last week who my new companion is…Elder Depeel. He’s from Canada and the model of the mission. I'm probably going to kill him. [What missionaries say if their companion goes home.] He doesn't have a lot of time left in the mission, so we'll see what happens.

We still got a lot of work to do so we'll keep you updated. "You can't do things just to do them, you have to want to do it to have true success."

Have a great week!

- Elder Pukahi

We Had Baptisms Just Before Transfers

P-Day with Zone

November 28, 2016

WEEK 56

Dear mi familia,

Thanks, mommy, for the wonderful email! I'm so happy to hear about how Thanksgiving was with the family and to hear that everyone is doing great. I am a little worried, though, about Gma & Gpa. I hope they made it home safely.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JAMISON!  It must be weird having your birthday on Thanksgiving this year. You just need to celebrate it during another time of the year... AND it still weirds me out that everyone is now married or getting engaged. But it really is great.

I am attaching quite a few pictures this week. A lot has happened and we had a few baptisms this week. And YES, mom, me and Elder Salazar are working as a team with the other missionaries… Last week, with Milagros, me and Elder Salazar contacted her but the other missionaries helped teach her. Sometimes they would teach her and other times we taught her, so she is a shared convert.

The baptisms this week are an older man, a couple, and two kids. 

Marcelino Baptism

The older man is Marcelino. We've been helping him for awhile to get ready for baptism. He stopped smoking and everything. Pretty cool! 

San Juana with kids Baptism

The kids are Roberto and Frida and their mom, San Juana. They are my favorite! 

The couple we helped get married Baptism

And the couple is the couple that we helped to get married. They are as well shared converts. Elder Salazar and I taught them and then we placed them over to the other guys. We work as a team. And so we all helped each other with these baptisms. It’s been a wonderful experience!

But I got some news… We had changes, so that’s why I’m emailing late today. Elder Salazar (my child) is now training. I'm a grandfather again and I'm going to be a soon great-grandfather. Elder Cox is training as well, and the son of Elder Cox, Elder Hidalgo (my grandson) is training as well. AND Elder Gonzalez (my other grandson) is now training. So... I'm pretty happy. I'm leaving a lot of posterity.

But the other news is that I'm now a Zone Leader. I got transferred back to Reynosa, in the area of Juarez. And we all got changed today, so it was a little crazy this morning. When I arrived, the president was happy to see me and wanted to have a special meeting with me, so he pulled me into his office and everything. So it's been a pretty fun day.

Well.... yeah....how about them apples! Just some good old transfers. I love you guys soooo much! Stay safe. And preach the gospel.

- Elder Pukahi

P.S.  I'm glad to hear that you guys finally finished Jamison's room. Hope you guys can finish the other rooms before I get home #porfavor... LOL! But send me a pic of how it is if you can.

And fun to hear you watched the movie, Moana!... People here talk to me about that movie because #Hawaii and they all assume that I've seen it. But nope, uh, mission… So yeah, it will be good to see what all the talk is about when I get home.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Milagros Baptism

November 21, 2016

WEEK 55

Hola, Family!!  HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

I can’t believe it’s already going to be Thanksgiving this week. It feels like yesterday was Halloween, the Day of the Dead. The time is going by tooo fast!

Awww, I remember all of our good Thanksgiving dinners that we have had. Well, don’t you guys fret. I will also be having a great Thanksgiving dinner as well. We are pretty sure that our investigadores (our soon to be converts) are going to be having a party and they invited us. So we will see what happens!

THIS WEEK should be very fun. We’ll be helping with a marriage and Roberto and Frida will be getting baptized this Saturday, as well as the couple that is going to get married on Thursday.

We should be having changes this weekend and those will be the only ones until after Christmas. So, will see what happens.

This last week was AWESOME! We baptized a woman named Milagros, who is a dwarf. She is fun!

Love you!

- Elder Pukahi

I Love Hearing How You Guys Are Doing!!!

Our Zone Celebrating Elder Mendez Birthday

November 14, 2016

WEEK 54

Dear Mi Familia,

I love hearing how you guys are doing!!! It gives me a lot of happiness and joy.

What a great experience for you and dad to clean the Provo temple and to hear about dad’s experience with the employee there. I’m very happy that God could work through my father who is so wise and funny but really...God always has a plan. Everything is for a reason, there isn’t a thing “as by chance”. I know for sure that is true. I’ve seen it every day here in the mission. So I’m happy that Dad got to take part in this great plan of God’s.

Sometimes I wonder…what are we doing to help Heavenly Father instead of being a trouble to him or a hindrance to his work? I learned that when mom scolded me when I was little. I realized that it was better to help Mom out instead of being a little stink because if you do, you earn trust and privileges. Now what are the blessings we would get from God if we help him out? Well....it says it in the scriptures. GO search family.

This week was a little weird. I got to play the role as a counselor for a family because the parents needed advice on how to raise a child and the child needs help to respect the parents. It was really interesting. I don’t know if I ever told you guys about San Juana. She’s was an inactive member and when we contacted her, she didn’t want to let us in because she knew what would happen after… Well, we should be baptizing her son and daughter this weekend but this is the family that we are helping. My companion and I earned many valuable lessons from this experience. For example, you cannot give someone everything and then expect that person to always be happy. You have to help and allow a person work and gain their own happiness.

I love the work of God! It’s pretty fun!

- Elder Pukahi

P.S. I will think about what else I may need and I will email you! BUT REALLY, THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE PACKAGE!!!

MAN! You guys are renovating the house! That’s awesome. SEND ME PICS!  And

can you guys believe it’s already almost Thanksgiving?!! Who would have thought that it would be so close!

Our Zone

IT'S BEEN A YEAR!

November 7, 2016

WEEK 53

Dear Mi Familia,

IT’S BEEN A YEAR!  I got my package—GRACIAS for everything! My companions want to steal everything from me because they are super CHIDO! So THANK YOU, THANK YOU!  I haven’t tried the new shirts yet because I’m still using my other ones. I haven’t changed them. My shirts are still somewhat “white” because I’ve washed them by hand for the past year. Some good old hard work!

Me and my companion didn’t get changed this week, so we still get to be together. It’s a good/bad thing because we act stupid together, but we are working really well!

Glad to hear that you talked in Sacrament meeting. I’m sure you are helping the ward with the great testimonies that you guys have. I’m so grateful to have you as my parents. Have I ever told you guys that?

I’m also happy to hear that you were able to go down and visit with Gma and Gpa Weaver. I love them and so glad to hear that you helped them. When we are serving others, we are in the service of the Lord.

This week was great. We worked well and found some great people. We had our investigators go to church, so we should be seeing some baptisms soon. I sure have learned a lot in the past year. It still blows my mind how time goes by so fast. For example, it’s only 48 days until Christmas. That is crazy to me because I know how fast that is going to go. People have been telling me that when you reach a year, the time goes double as fast. So well.... I guess I’ll be seeing the fam real soon then if time will go that fast.

Well, I got to go soon and save many more souls, right? That is what God asks of us, and we must be obedient to his will.

Hey daddy, remember the Secret? You know, if you are visualizing what you want, or always thinking about something, you’ll get it. Like with the phrase, "what you put out in to the world, you will receive.” Well, this principle of the Secret is just using gospel principles like faith, hope, diligence, and obedience. For example: if we want chocolate, we are thinking of chocolate, which makes us want chocolate more, until we want to act and go get chocolate. And if we want it bad enough, we will do anything to obtain chocolate. If we have great desires to brings souls to God, we think of bringing them to God, and then we act and try to bring them.

All of this just depends on our desires. What are our desires? Do we desire to do God’s will before our own?  Wouldn’t it be awesome to be like Nephi... where all his life he’s always desired to know God and then acted righteously.

Well, I love the GOSPEL so much!

- Elder Pukahi

We Baptized The Parents!

Brother and Sister Vazquez baptism.

October 31, 2017

WEEK 52

Dear mi familia,

Yep, I’m hitting the year mark in a few days! Where did the time go???

This week was a GREAT week. We are really finding the blessings from Heavenly Father. When we first arrived in this area, we were struggling but now we are seeing it was all worth it. And we are still struggling, but… now we get to see some blessings as well.

Well, we baptized the parents of the Vazquez family (Erick’s family)… Like I mentioned before, Brother Vazquez had a major problem with drinking. A HUGE problem but we got him to commit to stop drinking little by little. He hasn’t now had one drink for two weeks. He wanted to get baptized. And Sister Vazquez… well, she wanted to get baptized but has a huge fear of water. On the day of her baptism, she actually backed out but we were able to talk with her and we all said a prayer. We also gave her a blessing. We did everything step by step. Me and her got into the water and we had a conversation for about twenty minutes. During that time, I said the prayer and then, well, she got baptized. It was awesome!

This month has been great and we’ve received a lot of blessings!  I love you guys so much!!

ELDER PUKAHI

Erick with Mom and Dad.