January 20,  2014

Aloha Family,

Man, each week here in the mission just keeps getting better and better. I feel like a mexican more and more each day. I dont know if you guys received the picture i sent home of me eating Cow stomach. Yeah, that was interesting...kind of good though! Everytime i eat some thats really mexican-ish...i say 'Yup, im completely mexican now' haha. But lately, i've realized that im getting a little too chubby so im going to start trying to work out a little more and get trimmed down a little haha. I've never been fat before, and its kind of fun. 

On Friday we had exchanges and I went to an area called San Miguel which is one of the best areas in the whole mission so it was fun. I actually worked in trio that day with Elder Keller who i wrote about a few weeks again, and Elder Bojorquez who is from New Mexico. And he played Bball for New Mexico State University so that was a fun day with them both. We worked super hard all and taught like 5 lessons. It was a day with great success and then we ordered KFC in the night time. 

The next day, Saturday, we had another leader mission conference as zone leaders so we had to hurry and change back to our companions early saturday morning and then Elder Tenorio and I headed to the mission offices to have the council. It was freakin bomb cause after the conference, President Bird took all of us to a restaurant called Los Generales and its a buffet of just pure mexican food. You can kind of compare it to the fancyness of Olive Garden. But maybe even nicer. It was super good and President was surprise how much i could eat! ooops. 

Also on Sunday i have a funny story. So we were at church and had just finished taking the sacrament. The first counselor gets up and tells us the speakers for the day. He says....Elder Tenorio....Elder Needham....Elder Celedon....and Bro. Davila. I just look up at him like....WHAT?!?!?! Haha NOBODY told me that i was speaking!! While Elder Tenorio( my companion that didnt even tell me that i was speaking) went up to start his talk, i ask Elder Celedon if i was really talking. Him and his companion were like yeah yeah! They told me they told Elder Tenorio while we were in exchanges and Elder Tenorio forgot to tell me. Hahaha so i freaked out!! While Elder Tenorio was talking i hurry and prepared a talk right there in the meeting. hahah it was funny cause it just surprised the crap out of me!! I talked on missionary work and faith. It ended up being like 10 minutes so that was cool. I honestly know that the Lord was blessing me with words, ideas, and scriptures so that i could give a great talk! It went well and my lesson learned is 'Always Be Prepared' 

Yesterday we were in a lesson with a new investigador that we found named Martha. And she said something that i really liked a lot. 

'This earth is hell. When a baby is born, it cries.'

This world has a lot of things to destroy our lives. I know that if we keep moving foward, enduring till the end, we will enjoy the life we had like in the premortal life. 

Well i love you family and yeah. I pray for you lots but from your emails, you all seem to be doing great :) thanks for all the support! 

Elder Needham

January 27, 2014

Dear Family,

So i'm getting pretty excited for the month of January to be done with. I always remember that Grandpa Shumway hated January because its just a month when we are all poor after christmas. And especially that he didnt want to pass away in January....February 3rd was a perfect day...i'm excited for that day. It'll be a great time to remember Grandpa and the little memories I have of him. Ill wear his tie that i have of him and buy myself a pink cookie in remembrance of him :) I think its next monday isnt it? I hope you will all remember him that day. Sometimes i just sit back and think about gramps. Also, when i have a bad day on the mission...i put his tie on and it ALWAYS makes me feel better. I can feel him protecting me here on the mission. He was a great man....I miss him but I know he's a missionary angel right now.

So this week was a pretty busy week!! We had exchanges 3 different times during the week so that was exhausting. I worked with Elder Bergman from Washington, Elder Jaramillo from Mexico City who actually played linebacker in high school so that was a fun day, and Elder Villela from Guatamala who is one of the assistants here in the mission. So yeah lots of work this past week!! Elder Tenorio and I capacitated again to the zone and we talked about how we can get the members more involved with finding people that we can teach. It was great, ill send some pictures! 

Also on wednesday we had a meeting with president Bird and the stake presidency to talk about the missionary work in the stake. The stake has about 8 wards and 4 missionaries as zone leaders. So we have growing here in the mission cause usually its just one companionship for each stake. But we are growing a ton! It was fun to talk about what he can do to do even better!! Also it was hilarious cause after the meeting we walked outside and some member gave me a football and president was like hey lets play catch! haha it was sick, and it just felt good to throw a ball again. I took a video of us playing so you can see it when i get back! President was a QB in high school, he's got a good arm!

Also funny story. So right before we got the offices which is actually the stake center for our zone, we took a taxi to get there. I sat in front and i gave elder tenorio my duffle bag that i had with me to him in the back. When we got dropped off. I noticed that elder tenorio didnt have my bag and i was like Elder! wheres my bag?!?! hahaha. We noticed it was in the taxi and i just dropped all my stuff and started running like Bolt chasing after that taxi. I was hoping elder tenorio was behind me because i cant leave him, but i was kinda man he left my bag so i was like screw it! and i left him haha, as i was getting closer to the taxi..the guy thought someone was chasing after him so he got scared and took off really fast hahaha. I was like BROTHEERRRRR!!! He heard me and finally stopped and i got my stuff, haha and slowly elder tenorio comes running behind me! haha it was so funny and just so fast how it all happened!! It was always hilarious because when we got back to the offices, everyone was like freaking out because of how fast i just took of and started running after that taxi man. I dont mean to brag, but it was actually pretty cool hahaha. 

Also guess what?! Remember in tamaulipas, Elder Bautista and I were teaching that lady named Guera?! yeah, she got baptized on saturday with her son! And Elder Tenorio and I were able to go! Guera will always be one of my favorite people that i've ever taught! I hope you can all meet her one day! She was so happy on her baptism day and just loved it! I just wanted to cry during the baptismal service! It was also great to see everyone!

But anyways, yeah, it was a good week. I love you all and hope all is well :)

Elder Needham