IM BACK IN ACAPULCO

I got Transfered, I`m back in Acapulco! This time I`m not near the beach, I`m actualy pretty far from it. My comp and I both got to the area at the same time. So we are trying to figure everything out. My new comp is Elder Olsen, he`s from Nevada. He has two months less than me. So this is interesting. Two elders with lots of experience or so we like to think.

The area were I`m at is called Coloso. I`m excited to see how everything will work out.

My last week in Chilpancingo was good. Not a whole lot happened, because there was a giant parade, so everyone was focused in that. When it was the day of the parade, we hardly found anyone to teach. But there was one cool thing that happened, when we came down from the hill to see the parade or to try to get to the other side, to get to the branch activity, we found an old investigator. We hadn`t visited him for over a month, then he found us. He told us he wanted to talk again. That everything was going better. It sounded like everything was going to work out for his baptism.

The one picture is of me with cake on my face. Before I left, the family that you also see, had a cake for me. There is a tradition here that if it`s your cake, you have to take a bite of it, and normaly shove your face in it. So I went for the bite and they all shove my face in it. I took out about half the cake. I cake all over my face and all up my nose. It was a fun farewall.

Also the branch president, President Olguin wanted me to tell you thank you for him. Something about your raising an excelent missioary who helped him a lot. He expresses his deepest amounts of gratitude.

I can`t think of a whole lot right now. I just have going through my mind how I`m going to make these next few days work. Lets just say that were we are living at has greatly humbled me. So we will see how things turn out. I am all right, don`t worry too much about that. I have been through way worse. I like to think of it as camping. You will see in next weeks pictures.

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I Am Doing Great!

I am doing great! I love my area. It´s a little tougher but I wouldn´t have it any other way. Our baptism fell through. What happened is this. She is 20 years old, she still lives with her family and her family is very Catholic. When her dad found out about the baptism, he wasn´t happy at all. He told that if she was to get baptized she would have to move out and forget that she ever had parents. So she didn´t get baptized. We are going to hold off on that. The good part is that if she can get through, she will become a really strong member in the church. That´s a problem here, people get baptized, but they don´t have a strong testimony. So when problems come up they stop coming to church. We have seen that a lot in our area.
With a new month coming up though, we are excited to see what is going to happen. I pray that I will still be here. But I really don´t know. This next week we will find out the transfers. I may be going or staying. It´s weird to think I have only three transfers left and then I´m on my way home. I feel like I just started and that I still have a lot to learn.
I know that I said that I don´t want to talk about home, but I do have a question about that. Are you coming to get me or am I going to be coming home alone? The Secretaries will be asking me that here soon. I need an answer if you can by this next week. Everything is good with my comp. He is helping me a lot become a strong teacher in the lessons. I guess the best way to explain it is to stay focused and make sure we get things done.
The branch keeps going. Sometimes I don´t know how sometimes, but it does. We have such few members sometimes. Last Sunday there wasn´t any priesthood holders, except for me, my comp, and the branch pres. My comp was playing the piano, I broke the bread. Then he came over to help me bless it, then we passed the sacrament to everyone, me and him. Never had that happen before. You learn a lot of things on the mission. I think if that happened to me when I started I would have freaked out. But now I´m the experienced, all knowing, 20 months missionary. I know it all. That´s me trying to be funny if you couldn´t pick up on that. I´m going to be ready though to work in church organization when I get back though. I have studied that so much to make sure we are doing things right. I love my area.
I´m studying as much as I can and trying to always become a better missionary. Time is coming down and it seems more real everyday.

We Have a Baptism this Week

So what happened to Caleb, had some problem with his diabetes? I´ll be praying for him. That crazy kid.
Don´t worry, I haven´t been chased out by anyone again. That was a crazy mission experience.
All is going good right now. Elder Smith are going to be working really hard this week to try and find more people to teach. We need to find more people that have been prepared by God. We are finding people, but some we lose as fast as we find them. We are really going to focus as well in getting people to church. That´s another problem that we have been having. No one wants to go to church. But I think that´s were ever you are serving. So we are going to be working on that.
We also have a baptism this week. Her name is Ariadna. She has come to English classes before, that´s how we found her. We started teaching her and since the beginning she has been progressing on her own; it´s amazing to see. We are to have her services this Sat.
Tell everyone I love them for me.
I love you Mom. Thank you for everything.
Love your son,
Elder Cameron Coon

Cameron turns 21 on January 4th

Thank you for the Happy Birthday. I am excited to see what this year holds for me. My time is limited now. It´s more real now that I won't be a missionary Forever. When I started that´s what I thought. But it´s not true. Dang it. Oh well. I´ll just have to work even harder now. I don´t want to have any regrets. I want to give it all I have.

Things have been moving kind of slow for us. We have been having trouble getting baptisms. We are teaching but we aren´t finding the people who have been prepared in the process. We are doing a lot of sowing and not enough reaping. I know I shouldn´t complain about that, but I want to baptize more people!

Everything is good with my comp. It was a little rough at first, getting in tune with one another sometimes takes a little bit of time. But we are way good now. Elder Smith is teaching me a lot. When he teaches he is really clear and direct. Something I still need to improve on.

New Years was fun we visited about three families. I ate so much. For about the second half of the day I ate. Just eating, walking a little, then eating more with another family. Soo much Food. We had alot of fun.

 
I love you Mom. Thank you for everything. I could never have asked for a better mother than you. Thanks Mom.

Love your son,

A Tender Mercy from the Lord

I´m excited for tomorrow, because we are going to have a Christmas conference with the President and His wife. They are coming to Chilpancingo and the Iguala zone. So that will be fun. Me and my comp are going to be in the talent show, we are going to be singing a Merry Christmas from the Home Alone sound track. It should be interesting.

I´ve included pictures from the baptism we had the last week and the pictures of the wedding. It was just a paper signing, nothing more. But we are way excited for them. Because they were able to get baptized then.

The work is going good. It´s way different working in a branch. But it´s way fun we get to know everyone very well. It´s also way different working in a small Pueblo. It takes another style of work, I don´t know how to describe it. It just has a small town feel to it, same with the people. Me and my comp are doing good. OH, so we went knocking on doors one morning and we found a family, we shared a quick message with them and they invited us to come back. So on Wednesday we went back helped them make piañatas, we had lunch, and shared a the Book of Mormon with them. We are going back this Wednesday again to do the same. A tender mercy from the Lord.
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There was an Earthquake, but ALL IS GOOD

So yea, there was an earthquake, but it wasn´t in my last area. It was centered or started were I am at now. ALL IS GOOD. There wasn´t any real damage. To my knowledge there weren´t any building falling or anything like that. We are okay, all the members are okay, and our firm house is still standing. When it happened we were up on a hill looking for a family of an investigator, when it hit. We were outside. That was the first time I have been in one were I have been outside. I heard it, and I was trying to think were I have heard that sound before, but then when the door started shaking and then the ground, then the power lines outside, I knew it was that good ol´ sound of an earthquake. The aftershocks were nothing after that. There was only one, aftershock. We checked on members, then we went back to our apartment to make sure all was well, and it was. We had a low power current but that came right back at night time- President Spannaus called us to check on us. We told him all was well. We was visiting another area by the coast and they felt it as well. So he called to make sure were all right. I love being on a mission, so many fun things happen.

So this week was good. We baptized a couple, Fernando and Maria Elena. That was exciting. They will make a good addition to our branch.

We also did a service project for the city of Chilpancingo. We cleaned up a park.

We didn´t find very many new people this week. We are having some difficulty with this. People just aren´t that interested. it´s a small town so word gets around fast. Plus we have heard that other preachers are telling everyone to not open their doors to us. But that´s life. We will get around it. With the Lord all is possible.

So you should send some pictures of your giant Christmas tree. We have Christmas tree too, maybe not as big, but it works.

Love your son,

Elder Cameron Coon

We are Going to Baptize Two People this Week.

All is good here. This last week was a little rough. All of our appointments fell through on Saturday, about 10 of them. That was a little heart breaking. Especially when I found out why. It turns out that my little, emphasis on little, town came in number one in the whole state of Guerrero for drinking alcohol. So, everybody  celebrated that day with a party. That was way sad. But that´s why we are here, to change that.

We are excited though, because we are going to baptize two people this week. We are going to marry them Tuesday morning and baptize them Saturday. They will strengthen our branch greatly.

We are going to be doing a service project this week as a zone. That will be fun. We always do a zone wide service project this time of year. I´m not sure what we will be doing, but I will be sure to send you pictures.

So you can tell Grandma thank you for me. She saved my life! All the food I got. I received 4 packages from her this week. I¨m not going to starve! and I have CaNdY! I´m a way Happy camper. I LOVE YOU GRANDMA! could you please tell here that for me?