October 21, 2013

Wassgood fam,

This past week we had a lot of fun experiences and lots of food. Last monday we went to this mall called CityDel as a zone. We ate there in a restraunt and i got my self a bacon cheeseburger like always haha, and there was a soccer game on. I couldnt resist, so yes i watched it. Im sorry...haha. But whenever we do something fun like that as a zone, it feels like im back home. Its a super nice mall, and they also have cinnabon that they have in all the malls in the US. So yeah i got that too. 

On friday I had exchanges with this elder from El Salvador. Its so cool to just know people from all over the world haha. This mission is a crazy ride. We had a great day and had some powerful experiences. We visited the less active family named F. Acosta. They havent gone to church ever since i got here and we've never really understood why, sometimes they have work but really they just dont go. So i felt that we just have a testimony meeting, cause i really wanted to know if the dad of the family had a testimony of this gospel. There were 6 people there in all so i ripped up six little pieces of paper and wrote the numbers 1 through 6 on them, and each of us picked one out of my hands. And whoever had number 1 was able to share their testimony first. And we had to go in order. But we could start talking when we felt like we were ready. Luckily enough i was 2nd and not first haha. But come to find out, the dad of the family was 1st. It was great to start out with him. By the end of his testimony, i just nodded my head up and down and knew he truly has a strong testimony of this gospel. As with all the family, they were all crying by the end of their testimonys. Even though sometimes they dont find time to go to church, I know that they all have firm testimonys of this gospel. It was a very spiritual experience and after the lesson the dad and I ate some Japenese Peppers and man they were spicy! haha it was so funny! It was a fun-spiritual night! 

We had a lot of great experiences this week but ill stop it there! Hope all is good back home and you're all working hard! Congrats to my aunty cherisa on her wedding, welcome to the family Kent!! So sweet! Plus next thursday, 31 of Oct. we are going to the temple so i wont write home next monday. Not until that thursday. I love you all and miss you lots! But im doing great out here :) Have a great week and a half!! 
Elder Needham

October 14, 2013

Hola fam,

Monday: alright so after i wrote you guys last week, we met up as a zone and Elder Cayetano from my first area is my zone leader again! its freakin sweet, i love that kid! he's so fun, best zone leader ever! We all played some football and basketball together which was fun to finally play a little football. But it wasnt anything, haha all the mexicans were just running around like crazies! It was funny! And during one of the games of basketball, i got a break away and totally threw off the backboard and dunked it haha. it was so fun!! Man, sports really are my life. I love them too much. I sound like a jock, but i take advantage to play any kind of sport while im on the mission haha. 

Tuesday: Today i had exchanges with Elder Cayetano and it was just a great day in all. He is just a great leader and example to me. He is a convert of just 3 years, and he is one of the most humble missionaries i've ever met. These past couple of weeks i have been feeling a little bit down, tired, wornout. And i needed some help. I hadnt received a priesthood blessing for a few months so i asked him to give me one. It was one of the most heart-felt blessings i have received in my life. For the first time in a while, during the blessing i felt God's love for me. I had a feeling of peace, calmness, and just the most soothing experience. I know that when times are hard, through having a blessing we can be reassured god's love for us. it was an awesome experience. In the night we bought two campechanas each and went into this empty room next door with music and just enjoyed our time talking and all. it was great!!

Wednesday: Today we did some great service for some members! We chopped down some weeds with other elders and then had a barbeque after! It was a fun experience. 

Friday: we had our final lesson with one of our investigadors Nestor. We were preparing him for something very special and this special thing is.....

Saturday: WE HAD A BAPTISM! Woo! Today Nestor was baptized in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints! It was such an awesome experience and Nestor is seriously one of the most awesome men i have ever met. His testimony that he has is like he's been a member for 5 years. It was just a special service and it was great for Elder Bautista to have his first baptism. We now have a new rule that missionaries cant baptize the people. Only the members. its a good rule cause now the converts with always have a friend in the ward. It was a great day :)

Sunday: Nestor was confirmed today and received the Holy Ghost. I cant tell which is better, the baptism or the confirmation. It was so great! The bishop confirmed him and Elder bautista and I were able to join in the blessing. What a great weekend!

Monday: we are going to this big mall here called CitaDel, it'll be way fun :) 

Well, there's my week! it was a great one and im still alive. So thanks for the prayers. Love you and all hope you have a great week!! Take care. 

Elder Needham

1. & 2. just preachin the book of mormon

3. the baptism

1. Studying in a hawaiian shirt

2. this lady named Guera. Which means, red head lady.

3. our bishop that just got released. Love this guy. 

September 30, 2013

Familia Necesitamos-Jamón,

So, when people try to pronouce my name...they just absolutely fail haha. So then i tell them how to say it, but then i say here is an easier way. my name is elder necesito-jamón cause {need} means necesito and {ham} means jamon. And they always start busting up laughing. So here in mexico, im elder necesito jamon :) 

This past week was full of great blessings! I think i can say that it was one of the most hard working, successful weeks i've had on my mission. We had a ton of success finding new people and receiving new baptismal dates. We ended the week with 12 lessons with members present and 9 other lessons. We worked freakin hard to get members in the lessons with our investigadors cause it just makes it that much better and spiritual. We ended the week with 0 baptisms, but we still have them ready to go, we're just waiting about another week or 2. Im so excited that we are able to baptize a few more people. This area is awesome and each week i love it more. Elder Bautista is great and he getting accostomed to the mission real quick. 

I cant wait for General Conference this weekend, its always great to hear from the prophet and apostles. I really hope i can find a way to watch it in english cause its just not he same when they change the voices haha. But we'll see how it goes! 

This past week I had inter-exchanges with Elder Rodriguez from Dominican Republic. It was a great day and we're great buddies. We just talked bball all day, haha i loved it. But during the night while we were sleeping, elder rodriguez woke up hearing the weirdess noise outside the room door. It was pitch black so he could see anything, but he hopped off the bunk bed and when he touched the ground he just cringed up haha. He reached from the light and turned it all, the house was flooded up to his ankles!! hahaha i woke up just like what the heck are you doing? and then i realized and hopped out of bed real quick. We were in his house luckily so i didnt have to worry about it, haha but there was water in the whole house. The pipes under a sink exploded and it was just great crazy. We were up at3:30 in the morning just taking loads of water out of the house! it was so fun! Crazy night though! We were just screaming running around the house trying to figure out what to do. But they're going to change houses so its all good.

We recieved changes yesterday for the district, elder bautista and I are staying together because we're in training right now. So we'll be together here in tamaulipas for six more weeks!! Woo!! We have a great time here!! 

But yeah thats all i can remember right now. But i love you all and hope you enjoy conference weekend! Have a good week :)

Elder Needham

September 23, 2013

Hola mi familia,

Wow this past week has been way fun! Elder Bautista and I have had lots of success here in Tamaulipas! This past week we had a ward activity and it was a Mexican Night! Oh man it was so great! We had the whole sacrament room full of members, less actives, and investigadors. There was dances from the members, and we actually even had an investigador dance with them, haha it was great! But you all know me, i wouldnt miss out on a dancing opportunity. So yes, we as Elders danced and sang as well! haha it was so great!! I have the video on my camera but i cant send it on this thing! But man let me tell ya, we had the other room busting up laughing!! haha i love making people laugh!

This past week we found 6 new investigdors! Elder Bautista and I are working very hard and getting lots of work done! We are trying to be as obedient as we can. Its crazy how much the lord blesses you when your obedient from when you're not as obedient. Elder Bautista and I are doing great though, and we've received many blessings!! This next sunday we a baptism for this man named Nestor! Other missionaries were teaching him in another area and in the end they had to pass us the reference and he's already ready to be baptized! What a blessing right? We will continue teaching him this week and he'll be baptized next sunday!! We also have our investigador Rosaulva who will be baptized either next sunday also, or the week after! She just waiting for a friend to be able to come into town!

Man, missionary work sure is amazing. Im getting myself lost in the work and thinking less about home! I can finally speak the language and sometimes i feel like i've lived here all my laugh. I love hearing all the great stories from my friends serving mission. This work is amazing. 

Also last week i shared with you guys that i read alma 28 and i loved it. But i lied, haha it was alma 29! Also here are some great scriptures that i love! D&C 60: 3-4, D&C 100: 3-8  11-13. It gives me a boost of energy when i find great scriptures!

I hope all is well and you're all working hard!! Share your testimonies with your friends and we're going to convert the world!! I love you all. 

Elder Needham

September 16, 2013

Hola familia,

well i just wrote you all this past thursday and nothin too much as happened since. Its been raining like crazy here so havent been able to get too much in. Tonight we are suppose to be having a Hurricane!! How crazy is that?! im so excited haha! But next week ill be sure to write all that happens! We just havent had to much these past few days!  I love you all and hope all is well! Have a good week and be safe!! 

Elder Needham 

September 12, 2013

Hola familia,

So about a week ago, the zone leaders told us that they had a big surprise for us!! And...YES, it was the greatest present ever!! We went to the temple today! Ahh man, it was the best experience i have had at the temple thus far in my life. It was exactly what i needed! Wow, the temple sure does manifest to me that all these things are true! When i was there, i just didnt want to leave. It was the first time i had gone in 5 months so it such a great opportunity. The temple is quite small, but it sure is beautiful. And all the scenery outside of the temple is absoultely ridiculous!! I felt like i was in paradise or something! There's no doubts that the temple is the house of the Lord. It's like heaven in there. 

But besides that, Elder Bautista and I are going strong here in Tamaulipas! In my last email i told you that we might be having a baptism, but...we are going to wait a little bit longer with this kid. His name is brandon and we've been teaching him ever since I got here! He has all the lessons and is such a great kid. We had the baptismal interview and everything, but he just wants to wait a little longer. He knows everything is true, but he just hasnt obtained his testimony yet...so we've been working hard with that!! Im sure he'll be baptized soon! We also have this lady named Rosaulva, and she was an investigador from other missionaries in the district. But she lives in my area! haha they were being disobedient and going into our area to teach her. But then we find out and now she's so close to getting baptized too. Either next week or the week after!! We also have this great family named La Familia Martell. ive talked about them a little before and they are so great. They came to church last week and they loved it! The mom asked me to buy her a Bible from the temple so she can read from the book of mormon and bible and use those scriptures at the bottom to learn more! Its so great! They wont get baptized for a few weeks cause our investigadors need to attend church 5 times before baptism. But they are solid and we're working very hard with them!

Training Elder Bautista has been way fun! We've had some great times together and we just laugh all day! But man, being a trainer and district leader just kicks your butt. I was talking to my zone leader and he told me that training and district leader is one of the hardest things to do on the mission. AND i only have 6 months in the mission here in crazy old mexico! haha im dying! literally, i almost die everyday. haha. 

But all is well, and im looking forward to getting a few more baptisms in these upcoming weeks! We are working hard and the ward is improving tremendously. We have a mexican night activity next week, and i think we are dancing. Ill pull out some of those crazy dance moves that i got. 

I love you all and ill write you on Monday! Thanks for being the best family ever!

ps. 6 months completed baby!!!!! wooo!!!

Elder Needham

September 2, 2013

Hola mi familia,

so like i said last week im training Elder Bautista and he is improving so fast! He's a stud. These past few weeks and been way good and we're having lots of success right now! These past two sundays we've had 12 people attend church. Its so awesome. When our investigadores attend church its like christmas, haha we get so happy. It sure is weird training cause i feel like im still brand new out of the MTC, but it sure is crazy how much more i know than Elder bautista. hahah. When i got assigned with him, i thought because he speaks spanish already and all that he'd be perfect...but WOW, there sure are a lot of things to teach in the mission. But every day he seems to improve and he's started to take a lot of iniciative. Im pushing him kind of hard, and sometimes he gets frustrated...but whenever we appears to be mad or sad. I just stop everything and we just talk. And then we continue working. He is a very humble missionary and its very fun working with him. Even though he just got here, i've learning so many things from him. We never fight or anything, so its nice. And....he likes to eat so we eat a lot and im happy too hahaha. 

But i seriously wish i could explain to all of you the kind of food i eat here. Its seriously heaven. And its so cheap...i get so happy when i eat. I hope to bring all the family back here one day just to try all the food! But also, this week is my 6th month mark!! crazy huh? Time is flying!! This friday, Elder Bautista and I are going to order some real good food and we bought candles to have a little party hahaha. THE THINGS WE DO ON THE MISSION ARE CRAZY. 

But this week during one of my studies, i read Alma 28. Its a way good chapter and it got me motivated. I suggest you guys to read it. I love it after i read it. 

But i hope all is well with all of you and you're doing good!! 6 MONTHS BABY!!!!

OH, and also next sunday we are planning on a baptism! We hope it all works out, MÈXICO ES MÌ VIDA. I LUHHH YOU ALLLL

Elder Needham

1. my buddy Elder Larson

2. Elder Bautista and President

3. Last meal with Elder Soto and Hermana Ortiz

August 26, 2013

Hola familia,

I dont have much time to write today but ill tell you a few things that happened this past week. I was called to stay here in Tamaulipas and I am training this new missionary from Puebla, Mèxico!! His name is Elder Bautista and i think he's serving for the wrong church?? hahah just kidding! He's great! We get a long great. Im  a PAPA! (crying voice...) haha i've always wanted to be a dad so heres my chance! Its been a great first week with him! Also i've been called to be District Leader so thats pretty fun too! I teach today and im going to talk about doing service in the companiship to strengthen each other. I hope it goes well. Well those are the cool things that happened this past week. Sorry i dont have much to write today and i could respond to all your emails today. But they were great and im glad everyone is doing good. I love you all! The hot season is just about done and the rain is about to start! i cant wait! Take care family!!

Elder Needham

August 19, 2013

Hola peeps,        

Wow looking at all of Keilani and Justin's wedding pictures makes me sad. It looks so beautiful and just a happy day. Im glad it turned out perfect. Haha the card board thing of me was funny, im just like a little creep in all the pictures. hahaha. And im glad my letter to kk made you all laugh...and cry and...stuff. Haha i wish i was there to see it! How did nate read it? I chose nate for a reason, me and him are so similar i knew it'd be just like me talking haha. But im glad it was a wonderful weekend. 

This past week was a lot of work with very little success. Almost every appointment we had fell through, but its ok cause the appointments that we had were very good. We have this investigator named Fransisco. Heres the story of when we found him.

    'We were in a little gas station buying some water real quick, and this man comes up to me and asks me if i'm a mormon missionary. I say yes and he instantly invites us to his house. We thought we had just received a miracle or a punishment because Fransisco had just bought some beer. haha. So as we've continued to teach Fransisco, we have lessons like i've never had before. He has many many problems in his life, but he's one of the most special men i've ever met. He just cries to us for help and he wants to find THEE path...the straight and narrow path. Every lesson we start out with a song and he just prays with all his might. Haha its actually kind of funny when it happens cause he just cradles up like a little emphant. Me and my companion dont know what to do so we just keep singing. One time we finished a song, and he just started balling for like 5 minutes...we didnt know what to do so...we just sang another song haha. He also just pours out his heart to us. The thing is..i dont feel sorry for this man. I feel the need to help this man, he's like a child to me; i feel the need to care for him. At times its kind of sketchy with him cause he drinks a lot, but he wants to find the way of Christ. I dont know how long it'll take for him to understand all of our Gospel, but I know what day he'll find it. 

      Also some big news, we have changes this week and my companion is heading out to another area. He only has 7 months in the mission and guess what?! He's going to be a zone leader somewhere! Its ridiculous! Its very rare for someone with such little time to already be zone leader. Im very happy for him. The good part of this for me is...that he taught me all he knows in this past 6 weeks to become a great missionary. So i hope i receive some kind of lidership. President wont tell who are new companions are until tomorrow so ill tell you next week. President told Elder Soto early because zone leader is a great-important position. So we'll see tomorrow what i get! And ill be staying here in Tamaulipas. Im excited to see what these next 6 weeks will be like with my new companion. 

        But anyways, thats all my family. Love you and hope all is well. I sent a letter home on friday, but i gave it to a member that went to the states on friday. You should get it today or tomorrow i hope. I love you.

Elder Needham

August 12, 2013

Hola,                                                                                                                            

this past week was great!! WE HAD A BAPTISM!!!!  The baptism was on Saturday and we baptized one of our investigators Daniel. Daniel was always a really good investigator the whole time! We found him the very first week we were here by contacting. He had always been way solid! Daniel is 17 years old and he knows when something is right, then its right. We had been teaching his girlfriend, Esmeralda, too; but her family believes some crazy things so we had to stop teaching her. The day of the baptism, daniel had lots of doubts because of his girlfriend. He didnt want to lose her. But we were able to help him through it and he was baptized saturday and confirmed on sunday!! it was so cool. It was a crazy weekend but it was nice to get a baptism. Ill post a picture of the baptism! 

Also this past week i had inter exchanges with Elder Rodriguez from Domincan Republic. Him and I are way good buddies so it was a fun day. But i have a funny story to share. So me and elder soto have been teaching this lady named Guera(wich means red head haha) but she never has been really interested. But when i was with E. Rodriguez, we decided to go visit her! So when we got with her she was just different this day, it was weird. haha she wanted to talk and she was just happy. But heres the story. So almost nobody in the neighborhood knows the real name of Guera. So when we were visiting her a few weeks ago, her mom was visiting so we asked her what her real name was...and she told us! So this time with E. Rodriguez, he asked her what her real name was. But she wouldnt tell us. So when she went inside for a sec, I told E. Rodriguez and we planned a little lesson real quick! When she got back we started the lesson with prayer, and E. Rod. said that we are going to talk about how we can find answers through reading the book of mormon! So he told her that he's going to read the book of mormon and receive an answer for what her name is. Haha so E. Rod. is just acting like he's reading for a little. And Guera is just like ya ya whatever you can find it!! haha and then E. Rod. writes the name on a little piece of paper and gives it to her. She reads it and.....ALMOST DIES. haha she was freakin out!! She yelled and her kids and said, 'GO GET THAT BLUE BOOK IN THE HOUSE!!' hahah it was hilarious. Oh and after that, she accepted a baptismal date. Cool story huh? we were laughing the whole time!!

But theres my week! I love you all and have a good time at the wedding!! Ill be thinking of you!! 

Elder Needham

Hola,

So last week i mentioned a little about *** and her family! Well this past week we visited them again and had a great lesson about the Book of Mormon. And guess what?! They all accepted to be baptized!! The mom  and daughter *** are the strongest in the family, im sure they will definitely get baptized. We'll have to work a bit harder with the dad jose and son edgar but we'll see how it all plays out!

 We are continuing to teach our investigators and some of them are improving very well. We have a young kid named *** who we've been teaching ever since we got here, this past sunday he went to church for his second time so now he's able to get baptized. His baptismal date is for this saturday so we hope it all works out and he can be baptized!! He's a great kid and knows what he wants in life. We've always continued teaching the ***family and they are great. They werent able to attend church cause the mom is pregnant and wasnt feeling goodsunday morning, so we'll have to move there baptismal date in little forward but they definitely have a desire to be baptized. After church yesterday we went by to see why they didnt come to church. The mom, ***, told us her head was hurting..we gave her a priesthood blessing and we hope all is well now. Haha its kind of weird giving investigators blessings cause they're just like what the heck is going on?! haha but it went great! 

Im continuing to learn many things about the mission, but the main one is learning how to deal with a companion all day. Things have been rough lately with me and Elder Soto cause i hate not being able to give my input sometimes. But we always seem to work out our problems and understand what our real purpose is here in the mission. So its good. I now understand how the mission prepares you for marriage. hahaha. 

This past Wednesday we had a great experience with a new investigator named ***. We found him through a reference. He thinks that his girlfriend(who is a member) might've talked with some sister missionaries and his girlfriend sent a reference to us to go visit him haha, its kinda funny. So we visted him and at first he was just kinda like GO AWAY. But then we just talked for like 2 minutes and he wanted to hear a little more. He has a desire to change so we thought he would be a great person to teach. He invited us back over and we taught him the Restoration. While we were teaching his family came home and just kind of chilled outside. But his sister, ***, overheard us and wanted to join in. By the end of the lesson they had both accepted baptismal dates!! it was seriously so cool. *** and *** are great people and both have the desire to changte their lives for the best. After the lesson they were just offering us like tons of coke and yummy bread and stuff. It was great. But by the end of the lesson it was 9:20 and we had ten minutes to get home. Ahh man we ran so fast! it was so sweet! 

But anyways we had a great week and had 4 people come to church! i was so happy!! 

I love you guys, have fun with kk's wedding and nate with football, and jared with eatin my doritos. 

Elder Needham

Wassgood,

So im sitten here trying to figure out what to write about cause there is always so much that happens during the week! This past week we had a difficult time finding new people...but we did find a great family yesterday. The familia Mantell. Its the parents, Rosalina and Jose, and the kids Edgar and Claraiso. We taught them the first lesson and everything went great. The mom, Rosalina, is the most interested because she wants a great future for her kids. The kids are 24 and 20 so they are grown up and already have kids but you can tell the mom loves her family very much. Usually when you teach families you talk to the dad a lot to try and convince the man of the house about the truthfulness of the gospel. The dad, jose, was very quiet so we'll see what happens. We didnt feel prompted to invite them to baptism so we'll do it the next visit. They are a great family and i can see them getting baptized one day!

So because he had a hard time finding new people...we continued to teach our investigators with baptismal dates. A few of them is a family of 4! The family Eligio. They are so great and love every time we visit them. We taught the plan of salvation that past week and they were dying to hear when we are going after this life. haha it was awesome! You should've seen their faces! 

We also have this man named Edgar who is part of a part member family. His wife daniela is a member and they have a little month year old baby. We've only taught him 2 times and he's already planning his baptismal service..hahahah its so great!! hes a really quiet guy so he said that he only wants his wife and baby and us to be there. haha its so funny! 

On sunday i gave a talk in church about the members helping the less actives come back to church. It was a great talk and i was VERY firm with the talk. haha i hope i didnt offend anyone! After sacrament i was nervous to talk to anyone cause they kind of looked mad...but as church went on i think they all realized that they need to do their part in helping people come back to church. haha cause after church we had ward council and all they talked about was helping the less actives return to church! Also when we were working yesterday we saw a few sisters from relief society driving around visiting people!! it was so awesome! Sometimes its scary to be firm with people, but when you're doing it for the lord...it all turns on to be good in the end. 

The hottest time of the year is starting here in monterrey and let me tell ya...ITS HOT GETTIN HOT IN HERE. i might just start taking of my clothes........haha nahh im playin. But its great cause every one offers us water and food so yeah i stay healthy. But its also great cause i each so much here im started to get a belly. i freakin love it!! :) But anyways, thats my week y'all! we have a few baptismal dates coming up so we'll see how it all plans out!! the baptism that we were going to have didnt work out...so hopefully in a few weeks, Oso, will be baptized! 

I love you all. 

Elder Needham

Hola familia,

Another great week of working and lots of success! I messed up on the name last week on where i am at...its called Tamaulipas Andalucia. its a very big area! We walked SO much...my shoes are getting destroyed already haha. sometimes we have to walk a straight hour just to go to lunch. But its worth it cause the food here is so dang good. 

We had a lot more success this past week with finding people and setting baptismal dates! We found a full family, Martha Antonio Victor, and Jennifer and they all accepted to be baptized on the 16 of August. And we found a young girl named Esmeralda, who also accepted to be baptized that day. We now have 12 baptismal dates and im still waiting to get that first baptism. I have a lot of confidence with those 12 dates that we'll get atleast one hahah, but we are working to get all 12!! and more!! We are working our butts off and i have realized that if we want success, then you gotta work every day likes its your last. Its just like football or basketball...play every game like its your last. This area is great and we've been having some great help from some of the members. We are trying to get the members more involoved cause if we want success...its going to come through the members. I mean...we can contact people all day, but the members know people and have friends. Everyone just needs to work together with missionary work...its the best thing to do. 

We had a crazy rain storm this past week, it was so sweet. We were setting up an appointment with Esmeralda and it just started pouring!! We took off running and i just took off from my companion. haha i felt like i was in a movie trying to dodge all the cars and big puddles. It was fun!

On sunday we had 3 invetigators come to church which was way exciting!! it was Oso, Daniel, and Esmeralda. Oso has his baptismal date this weekend so we're hoping it all works out! Daniel and Esmeralda are boy friend and girl friend and they are great people. Those 3 are some of our most progressing investigators. Hopefully ill get my first baptism this week!!! :)

Having a companion from mexico is definitely something different. haha we just think different so sometimes it gets really frustrating. But we work well together and are having lots of sucess! 

Also a funny experience, we visited this man named Alberto who has a date of baptism but we hasnt been improving lately so we were going to give him a serious discussion to leave him for some time...but they he told us that he received answers that everything is true!! hahaha how crazy is that?! me and elder soto left after the lesson and were so confused! it was awesome!! We have some great people we are teaching! But if we want success, then we have to be 100% obedient and have diligence each day. Thats the key to success in the mission. Oh and LOVE THE PEOPLE.

LOVE YOU FAMILY. PEACE.

Elder Needham

pictures from first area!!

1. Elders 

2. Perla and Ramiro(fruit people)

3. Hermanas

 Good bye to Trainer Elder Boden

New Companion Elder Soto

My family that i miss so much,

WOW WHAT A WEEK. So all the emails that i've gotten this past week have said that you cant wait to hear about my week. So yeah a lot has happened. My emails are going to be different now since im not with Elder Boden any more and he has that little key board thing so im just going to change it up a little bit and do it like brittons emails. So i got my new companion and his name is Elder Soto. He is straight out of mexico city and he has 6 months in the mission. My new area is called Tamaulipas in the stake of Audulacia. But guess what?! ok heres the craziest part. This area has been closed for some time....And we both are brand new to this area and starting from a little bit of scratch. We showed up to the house last tuesday and just kind of sat there for a sec cause we didnt know what to do. When we found out that we were both going to this area and opening it we were scared out of our minds. So i asked Elder Larson, the assistant, how come the assistants and president walker(he was still here to make the transfers) decided to put farely new missionaries in this area that has been struggling for many years. And he told me when they were deciding which missionaries to put in Tamaulipas, they knew they had to look for 2 good missionaries. When they thought of me and Elder soto, they had a sense of peace come over them and knew we were meant to be sent here. I was confused cause im so new to the mission still and still learning. But when we arrived to the house and area, i knew i was here for a reason. I knew that the Lord had specifically called Elder Soto and I to work in this area. Tamaulipas has been open and closed many times cause it just doesnt have much success. So that right there, helped us set a goal to change this area and keep it open for a long time. This past week was the hardest week of my mission, but the most rewarding. We tried to be 100% obedient and do everything with exactness. We ended the week with 9 baptismal dates.
This work is amazing. Even though it takes every energy cell of my body, even though its 110 degrees everyday...this work is for the Savior. The only thing that keeps me going is my tesitmony i have gained for this gospel and my love for my family and Jesus Christ. We have been so blessed this past week i cant even explain. I've just been working my butt off cause i still dont have my own convert...i have a feeling we're going to get one soon.
Elder Soto is a very hard worker and a great example to me. He is very obedient which helps me a lot, but sometimes he's a little TOO obedient which gets annoying. But ill learn a lot from him. Its so weird cause we are the same age and we're just out here on missions working in random places. haha its just like chillen with a buddy from home and doing missionary work. He's a cool kid and we have a lot in common. He speaks pretty good english so he can help me out a ton with my spanish.
I'm not really sure what else to say besides this past week was crazy but we had a ton of success. I hope you're all well and i miss you all so much. The mission is hard. But its a duty. Love you family. I pray for you all every night. Peace and Blessings <3
Elder Needham

Aloha,

Man, these weeks go by so fast. During the week i feel like i havent written you guys forever, but when it comes to monday i feel like i´m always writing you. So this week i almost died.....no im kidding. But hey there was a gun shoot out like 5 minutes from our house. We didnt hear it or anything but thats still cool haha. ALLRRIIGGHHTTY THEN, ill get started on the week.

Monday: I had to go to the dentist cause i have to get a root canal, and i was scared cause i didnt know if dentists from México would be good, but it was normal. All went well. Always we went to a mall that is here called Citydel and it is so freakin nice!! its like a mall back home! And its like heaven here cause everything is pretty expensive here in pesos, but its so cheap in dollars. So i just unloaded on some ties. I got 3 nice ties for $15! I was in heaven. Im gonna go back there at the end of my mission and just buy a ton of gifts and what not.

Wednesday: today we had our first multi-zone conference with the new president bird. It went well and everyone seems to like him a lot. I personally think hes going to be a great president, he makes things fun! We talked about basketball and football so thats cool. Haha and he just cracks jokes all the time so its nice to have an american adult to talk to sometimes!

Thursday: today we UNLOADED on FOOD!! it was ridiculous. In the morning we ordered a pizza. At 2 we had our daily meal with a member. At 5, *** and ***, some investigators invited us to their house to eat carne asada, which is a meat and they made it into tacos. And then some of my favorite members, the familia cruz, invited us to their house at 8 to celebrate a surprise party for their brother in law, ***. And he´s the guy that i became best friends with right when i got to this area, so that was fun! I signed a tie and gave it to him for his b-day, he´s a cool guy!

Saturday: so remember that week how i baptized the mom of that family? their name is familia ***. And then i said the dad couldnt get baptized yet? Well today he got permission and was able to get baptized! it was so awesome! And i was able to baptize him also!! Its just an amazing experience baptizing someone. I did baptisms for the dead before my mission with like ty josh and carson, and i baptized them..which was way cool. But baptizing someone for their own salvation is just AMAZING. The guys name is *** and he said he felt so happy and peaceful right after the baptism! it was great!! Also we visited *** and gave her a tour of the church!! She absolutely loved it when she walked in the sacrament room, the spirit was so strong and it was amazing. I feel like shes going to get baptized soon!

Sunday: today was a wacky day. So we went to church and all was good, and some guy that we had randomly contacted the other day and invited to church CAME today. It was awesome. We sat through sacrament and then after we taught him in the first lesson in a classroom. During the lesson our ward mission leader came in and he was doing great sharing his conversion to this man, whose name is ***, and then they started talking about money and me and elder boden are like what the poop? so *** mainly came to try and get some money to help him out, but he actually knew a lot about the church so hopefully we´ll see him back next week! I can totally see him getting baptized one day! Also this past week we had been planning on Elder Boden getting transferred so during church he was like saying bye to a few members and stuff. And during the night we got calls from the Zone leaders. And guess what? Im out! We were both SO shocked. Usually i would be staying and he would leave cause he has more time in this area then i do. But i guess president received revelation for me to transfer to another area! But i wont find out where im going or who my new companion is till tomorrow, so ill let you all know next week! I gotta pack everything up and try and quickly say bye to a few members. I cant believe im leaving....im made some great relationships here. Missions are crazy, you make such great relationships and then they just boot you out. haha it sucks. But im excited to see where im going!! woo!!

Love you all

Elder Needham

July 1, 2013

Aloha,



So its getting pretty hot here.



Monday: as a district, we all made an American Breakfast! We made it all at the church and it was so good! We had pancakes, eggs, bacon, and hashbrowns. Haha i cante ven explain how fast i chowed it down! It was so good



Tuesday: so we went and visited the Familia *** and it was just the mom there. Right away we found out that she hadnt read, again…so we stuck to the plan and had to have a serious talk with them. It was very hard to do it and i hope i dont have to do it often. This has been my favorite in the misión so far, but they just werent progessing. When we left her with a prayer, right when i walked out of the house…i just wanted to cry. It was rough yáll.



Thursday: we continue meeting with *** in the street and she becomes more and more interested each time. We read 2 nephi 31 with her and everything just clicked with her. It was awesome. She´s a really kind lady. And her and her husband always buy us like drinks or something, haha i feel bad but hey its free. We also had a Ward misión activity and we had a few investigators come so that was exciting. The activity was on Lehi´s Dream. It was fun!



Friday: today i had exchanges with one of the Zone Leaders, Elder Cayetano. He was companions with Elder Larson before and we have always got along pretty well so it was a nice fun day. Hes from De´Jefe? Mexico, so we spoke spanish all day which was nice. We also just have a lot in common so it was nice to talk to someone like him for a day. Ill put up some pictures! Oh and also, *** and her husband *** actually live in Elder Cayetano´s area but they´re always selling fruit in my area, so thats why we teach them. But this day with Elder Cayetano, we were walking and just randomly saw them at their house. Ha it was way weird. Elder Cayetano and me ended up teaching her at the house and it was good that now the zone leaders know where they live!



Saturday: today was a very exciting day. The hermanas in our district had some baptisms today of a family of 4. And i was able to baptize the mom! It was way fun! I was suppose to baptize the dad too but he wasnt ready to get baptized today because of some personal things that i cant say, so hopefully he can in a couple weeks..Its a way awesome family! And it was a great baptismal service.



Sunday: well the new president came in this past week and today he came to our church cause he had a meeting with the dad of that family that was baptized yesterday. We went to the church to meet them and they´re completely different tan President Walker. Haha he´s from California and speaks Little spanish. His names President Bird and his wife…doesnt speak ANY spanish. Ha it was so weird just talking to adults in english cause i havent done it for like 3 months! But its good to have people from the U.S. they are way great people and i already love them! They´re gonna do great!

I love you family and i miss you everyday. But things are going great here. One more week with training and then im most likely getting a new companion. WE'll see!!

Con Amor,



Elder Needham

Dear Family,

Monday: last p-day. We had a fun day playin bball and we all played capture the flag in the church parking lot and threw waterballoons at each other. Haha theres this new elder from Argentina and he was getting so mad at me cause he couldnt catch me. Haha this whole week he kept saying that we´re going to race the next p-day. Haha so if i end up racing him then it´ll be like Mission Olympics. Dont worry ill run fast for my USA people :)

Tuesday: so remember the Family ***? who we met in a store by pure guidance of the Holy Ghost? yeah well we´re still teaching them and its still very difficult. They´re having a hard time believing the book of mormon is true and they only need the Bible. So on this day we taught the whole plan of salvation from the bible to help them understand that we actually do use the Bible in our church too. It was a good lesson but its really just hard to get them to do anything. They never do there homework which is really frustrating. The mom is who we are focusing most on right now. We left her to read 2 nephi 31 and we are going to go back tuesday night. When investigators continuely dont do there homework, you have to end up leaving them for some time. Which is kind of sad. But we decided that if the mom doesnt read it by tomorrow...we have to drop them. I really hope she reads though cause i love this family.

Wednesday: Today we had a zone conference that was kind of different cause our mission president leaves this next week. So instead of just having a ton of different zone conferences to say goodbye we just had like another mission conference with the new monterrey east mission. Because the split of the missions is pretty much official so all those missionaries in Reynosa are all in a new mission now. If all that makes sense? hahaha. But so yeah we had a conference and guess what? i was asked to give the opening prayer! The day before Elder Larson(my homie who is now the assistant) called me and told me president wants me to give the opening prayer for the conference. Haha i felt way honored to do it in front of the whole mission. I KNOW its only a pray! But hey, its in spanish, in front of 100 missionaries, AND the president picked me for it. So solid. I was shaking the whole time. haha. But it was also a sad day cause we had to say bye to the President and his wife. And they´re seriously the best people ever. I´ve become really close with president walker already and its sad to see him leaving. Ill post a picture of me and them! Our new president, President Larry Bird(yeah that famous basketball player from the Celtics) will be here on thursday. Ill have to work hard to build a good relationship with him now!

Thursday: today we visited a contact and her name is ***. We had a young men with us again. We taught *** the first lesson and she accepted to be baptized! We are way excited! The date is for July 12. She is about 22 years old? has a little girl and is  pregnant with a little boy right now. Things are a lot different here cause we´re always just teaching pregnant girls but its all the same work and its so fun! She´s a very fun out-going girl. and it was a great experience for one of the young men to be there.

Friday: So we have this little ice cream shop right by our house and last week we went and bought a cone. This lady named *** works there and we ended up contacting her! she is way nice and she invited us to come to her house. So today we went by and had to teach her outside cause she didnt want us to come inside cause her family was inside. ha it was kinda weird. But we taught her the first lesson and talked about the book of mormon. She is very smart and is VERY interested in the gospel. She accepted to be baptized on the 7 of July! And she seems really excited about it. Shes about 21 years old and just seems like she´d be a perfect member! We´ll have to go buy some ice cream more often!


Saturday: so we are continuing to teach *** and her family, the ones who sell fruit on the street, and they seem interested also. We talked about the book of mormon and the purpose of it. We mostly talk to her cause the husband is usually helping costumers. But she said that the things we tell her are pretty similar to the catholic church, but her questions that she has…we can answer them and the catholic church cant. So she is wondering that maybe our church could be the true church! Shes gaining a testimony!! Woo!



So it was a pretty exciting week!! A lot of work but lots of success. We just hope to finally get a baptism soon! But just a little something that everyone here says in mexico when we teach them which is super annoying. haha they always say, ´so why are you called mormons?´or why mormon? we tell them that we are actually latter-day saints but people call us mormon from the book of mormon. So people think that when they here the work ´mormon´they think like uh oh...MORMON. like its bad or somethin? haha its so dumb. i just want to be like Why catholic? whats the significance of the word catholic??¡¡ haha we asked some members what catholic meant and they were like uhhh i dont know...haha at least we know where the word mormon comes from! People just have crazy beliefs. But i guess thats why we are here, TO INVITE THE WORLD TO COME UNTO CHRIST!! Heck yeah!
Plus i dont know if any of you went to that conference on sunday about missionary work? haha we were all nervous for it cause there was a rumor going around that they were going to shorten the length of the mission cause they´re so many missionaries. But it didnt happen. haha it just talked about how members should help out the missionaries a lot more. Its very true though. If you all know the missionaries in the ward, try and help give them some references. Its like christmas when the members give us references. Its very helpful! If you have any like co-workers or neighbors, get the missionaries over there! But anyways, those are my words of advice!
Oh and i heard the Heat won again!!! haha so sick!! i walked into a gas station to see the newspaper to see who won, my companion got mad cause he doesnt like sports. haha
love you all and have a good week!

Elder Needham

Hola Fam,

Tuesday: we went and visited *** and her husband, the people that just randomly came to church last week, around 730 at night on tuesday. We went with the first couselor and his wife and it was a great lesson. We made sure the husband, ***, was there during the lesson also cause he´s who we need to focus on the most. Its so most easier having members at lessons cause a lot of members here are converts, and they can tell about their personal conversion experience. We talked about Eternal Families cause they have two little kids. The lesson went well! *** had a ton of questions cause he has a lot of doubts. But by the end of the lesson he seemed to have a better understanding of the gospel. We even got him to say the closing prayer, which was way cool cause we´ve never got him to pray before. During the lesson *** and the grandma were like telling *** that they need to be baptized so they can have an eternal family. haha so *** is like trying to do anything she can to be baptized, but her husband *** has doubts. We´ll keep working on them though!!

Wednesday: we received a reference from Sister Licona in the ward so we went and visited her friend ***on wednesday. The sister came along with us. It was a very strange lesson. haha the lady has had some really bad drinking problems in her life, and you can tell cause she has drinken so much its just kind of permantely affected her cause she just kinda has that wobbely-ness about her. But it was really weird cause we were going to say an opening prayer and we described what our prayer consists of, so we´re like ready to say the pray and we start. And i see her like put her head down and like half way through the prayer we can just hear her chomping on some chips. hahaha ahh i cant even explain it, but it just killed me. It was funny! The mission sure does consist of a lot of weird things.

Thursday: JARED´S BIRTHDAY!! I celebrated your birthday for you Jared. I even got a campachana and i ate it for you...hoping you could taste it? ahh it was good. But hope you had a good b-day, tell me all about it!

Friday: Elder Jace Wade´s Birthday! I dont know why but i just remember birthdays, haha. But this day i was able to give another blessing to a member for health. It was a good experience and she shared it during church yesterday! And also its cool cause by our house theres this guy and his family that sells some way good fruit. Like mango, watermelon, pineapple, coconut, etc...and for some reason whenever we pass by there around night time, they like to give us free fruit. And we got some this night...its like a HUGE bowl of fruit, its so good! We all decided to give them a book of mormon this time. They say they dont have much time cause their days consist of cleaning on the fruit stuff and preparing it. Which is understandable so we just gave them the book and told them they can read it when they have a little time. Hopefully it will be good!

It was a good week with a lot of referances from the members so we had more to do this past week. We still walked a lot but im just going to need to get use to it, cause its not going to change. haha. But something weird is i was looking at the pictures of my first night here in mexico and i look like a little fruit cake. Haha, i think all this walking is making me look bigger or somethin. its weirden me out!
Also this week, Elder Boden told me that there hasnt been a baptism in this are for about 5-6 months...i was wondering why we´re not having any baptisms yet. Even the members say this area is not very good with conversions. There are a ton of Catholics and Jehovahs witnesses that live here so its very hard to get baptisms. But my goal is to get a baptism in every single area i serve in so im going to break that streak! haha.
Anyways i love you family and hope you´re doing good! Take care!

Cuidense
Les Amo
Paz Fuera

Elder Needham

Hola familia,

I hope you¨re all doing well and succeeding in whatever you¨re doing! But anyways heres my week.

Monday: so we got a lot of new people in the zone this week and on monday afternoons the whole zone goes to the church and plays some kind of game and then we have district meetings around 630. I was nervous to meet the  new zone cause all the people i balled with left...but when they all showed up i actually got along with all the new missionaries. They¨re way cool! We played a little bball but its just wasnt the same, but it was actually still way fun cause the mexicans have no idea how to play so they just run around and push, haha its great. And then we play some kick ball in the gym with a volleyball and like destroyed the ceiling cause we kept hitten i cool my jets when i play games sometimes, haha sometimes i play too hard. We got a new zone leader that replaced Elder Larson. His name is Elder Mcstraw and hes like an angel straight from heaven. Hes definitely like the definition of a perfect missonary. Its going to be a lot different now but itll be good. During the distirict meeting i suggested a goal to the district for us combined to have 220 contacts on the street. They all agreed which was way cool. Now that im in my second transfer here in Mexico, i feel like im not such a newbie anymore. I actually feel like a legit missionary, its cool.

Tuesday: today the familia *** fed us lunch. Which is really strange cause they are investigators and they told us they wanted to feed us. haha we´re starting to think they´re definitely just using us for our presance in their house.

Wednesday: last week we visted this man named ***, hes 60 years old and rides a motorcycle...such a baller. today when we were walking around, he past us on his bike and he had his little blue helmet on and another old friend was sitting on the back of his bike. I busted up laughing cause people here just make me laugh sometimes. we went and visited him at his house later that day and when we got there he was sitten out front on a lawn chair just drinkin a big old thing of beer. He was totally wasted so we scheduled an appointment for next week. But its just funny cause hes an old dude but just reminds me of a little kid. And he has no idea whats going on when hes drunk haha. BUT he is interested in the church from our lesson last week. He was a reference from a member so were going to try and get that member to attend the lessons with him. He just has a pretty bad drinking problem, we´ll work on him though!

Friday: today we had inter exchanges with the zone leaders, so i was with Elder Mcstraw and dang he is a dang good missionary. He knows what hes doing. He spoke to me in Spanish the WHOLE day to help me out and i actually liked it. I could understand most of what he was saying which was way comforting. He does things exactly the way President wants thing to be done so it was cool to learn from him. At the beginning of the day i just told him to do his thing and im gonna learn to things the right way. Haha not saying my companion does things the wrong way, but elder mcstraw just knows and doesnt hesitate to do things. It was way cool to learn from him, he stayed the night at house and then left sat. morning back to his area. Oh it was also cool cause he came to my area so i had to kind of lead things that day which is way weird cause i cant believe i´ve almost been in mexico for 2 months now. We also had some young men come walk around with us today which was a cool experience for them, ill attach some photos of them.

Saturday: today we also had two more young men come walk around with us in the blazing hot sun. I got a sexy tan line, i wish you guys could see it :) haha. Oh and also on this day...for some reason every year on june 8 i always remember this its the birthday of Grandma Shumway, Devan Webb, Blaze Nelson, and Madi Bowie. Sooo Feliz Cumpleaños to you all!!!

Sunday: on friday when i was with Elder Mcstraw we visited this lady named *** WE´ve been visiting her ever since i got here in mexico and she wants to be baptized but not just yet. Her husband doesnt really like our church very much and hes always at work so we cant ever teach him. But when we were at church today, we were sitting there, *** AND her husband walked in and sat right by us!! it was such a surprise. Cause on Friday we didnt even really invite them to church, we forgot to. But they showed up for their first time in a couple months! It was way cool to see them there, especially the husband. They stayed for two hours and the husband was like answering a ton of questions in the principles class. haha maybe hes interested now? so cool!
During the night we had a nice storm which was way cool! There was a TON of lightning and stuff. so we went on the room and just chilled and drank a coke! it felt so good. But we didnt want to die and we kept feeling like the spirit was telling us to get down so we dont get electricuted. haha.

Monday-today: Every monday morning we have a neighbor who does our laundrey for us and feeds us breakfast. Its so freakin good. This morning we had tacos with this freakin good meat. Ahh food here is SO good. You´re all missin out. And also today for p-day, we are going to this huge park thingy with the district. Everyone says its pretty cool so ill send some pictures next week or somethin! Its gonna be fun!

But anways, its seriously so hot here though, sometimes i just want to die. And in a couple weeks, there is this thing called the Celiqula. Which is when it gets SUPER hot here for like 3 months straight, with no breezy days or nothing. And im NOT excited haha cause i just sweat salt everyday. But its nice cause a lot of people sell little things in their houses and a lot of people sell this thing called bollos. Its a flavor like chocolate, banana, pineapple, strawberry or just other ones mixed with milk and its frozen. So those are way good to have during the hot days. And also theres like mini stores at every corner, haha its ridiculous. But its very helpful, i just got buy a water when ever im about to die. haha. And something that i cant stand is that when like someones dog or cat dies, they just throw it in a bag and throw it on the side of the road. And it FREAKIN STINKS!! I smell it everything cause they´re dead animals all the time. The smell is like...i dont know, just dead smell. I just hold my breathe though haha.
But the language is coming along great now, its very helpful to speak during the lessons and on the street. Especially after being with elder mcstraw for a day, i gained a lot of confidence with speaking and stuff. THE GIFT OF TONGUES IS REAL!! so crazy!
Its actually saturday night right now and im writing all this and just barely some members, the familia cruz who we are really good friends with, just randomly brought us some dessert. They are so cool! Everytime we visit them they feed us at least something, they´re the best.
Anyways, love you and and PEACE.

ELDER NEEDHAM