September 13, 2018

 We found a house, were just waiting on an answer. Transfers are this coming week, were gonna be here in guadalajara now. The work will be harder which im not a fan of, people in the city are not as cool. It is nice here, like 75 every day probably, maybe 60 in the morning, and it rains every day in the afternoon and the night. Living conditions are fine.   this week i learned how to be a mexican bull fighter. So we were out in the forest with the group (like the branch, but its just a family group with 2 families) and the 2 14 year old boys were up ahead, then me and my comp, and everyone else was a ways back, and they stopped because their was a cow and they were scared, so i said "its just a stinkin cow, just yell at it and itll go away" so i ran towards it making a bunch of noise and yelling like a maniac to scare it away, but when i get through the trees it just squares up to me and im about 3 feet away looking at this thing when i realize its not a cow and its got some big ol balls and some horns, and my companion says "hey...thats not a cow." so im just standing there squared up to a bull with a camp chair in one hand and our picnic lunch in a shoulder bag, with two 2 liter cokes in the other hand. So this bull accepted the challenge and wanted to show me he was the king of the jungle, so he hooks his horns to the left, hooks his horns to the right, pawed the ground, gave a little snort and takes off straight at me, i knew i couldnt outrun it straight on, plus if i run down this tiny path the bull is gonna take out all 3 of our primary children, so i take off and am hoppin through the thorn bushes running for my life, tryna hop behind trees so this thing doesnt kill me. It was a pretty quick chase, because i think the bull got scared of me, but i understand how 8 seconds is so long for bull riders now.

September 6, 2018

Davis Gregory Koenig	Thu, Sep 6, 5:29 PM (13 days ago)
to me

Hey momma. Things are good around here, fun, we have been working in our area, trying to find a house which is frustrating because small town people give the worst direcctons. "youre going to go 4 streets up until you see the virgin painted on the wall, then 3 streets down until you find a drunk guy named jorge, if you can wake him up and get him to tell you his brothers number, his brother is renting a couple houses." ill try to talk to him this week about divisions, we talk to him and he just doesnt understand what we are saying. His wife teaches, and her teaches would be decent for sunday school, but we're missionaries, we need more, you gotta apply it to the work. Best thing this week was Ricardo from tuxpan got baptized in our ward, so thats sick, worst thing missionaries are disobedient and it makes me sad. 

August 30, 2018

Hey momma, The president's wife is nice, but shes clueless. She makes us food for the conferences, she told me shell get up at 3 in the morning to start cooking, which is really nice and really shows that she loves us, but she has no idea what missionary work is. neither of them. President just throws stuff out there without thinking without knowing what is going on. Like i get he was a 70 and im sure he knows 500 times more than me about the gospel, but he doesnt know these missionaries, and he doesnt know the rules, and he doesnt know a lot of things. He got mad at us for doing our daily planning in the morning, because in his mission they did it at night. That was 30 years ago, things change, the apostles say so. Also, his wife hasnt been going to conferences because she has a daughter here that is in school so she has to take her to school and stuff, which is really weird and a lot of people dont like it. Im sure its hard for them, but idk.  I feel like president and his wife are great people but they dont really understand what boots on the ground missionary work is, and until they understand that they arent going to be able to teach us how to be better missionaries. I think that was just revelation, because president clayton and his wife were always on divisions, President needs to go on divisions and get to know the missionaries and the work, and maybe buy them ice cream on divisions because everyone is still way afraid of him. Thanks momma. I found a wafflemaker a while back in one of the houses so i stole it, but then i lost it in my travels, but then i found it again. We havent made them yet, well probly make them next week when we come back to guadalajara. Jala is like 2 hours away, but next transfer we are going to transfer to an area in guadalajara so that it will be easier for president to have us on his coattails. Catch you next week, i love you

August 26, 2018

We had 6 new investigators in 2 days this week, so that was neat. We are going to all the conferences in the whole mission, but we dont teach anything, we just travel and then sit there doing nothing. But we did have a couple sweet lessons, i went on divisions with my companion form the mtc, so that was neat. Pdays dont really happen lately if you havent noticed, since im writing at 9 on a sunday night. i am in Jala, Nayarit is the state, Tuxpan is also in Nayarit. Its a tiny little town. Safety is...decent. Definitely wouldnt recommend it for you. Things with president are alright, he chews out the zone leaders on a daily basis, and he does stuff on purpose to make their lives harder and confuse them, just to see how they handle the situation i think, but it irritates me, being a missionary is hard enough as it is. The best part about working with velazquez is our flow, this week president out of the blue in a conference says "and now the assistants are going to teach us about being consecrated" and we just pulled it out of our sleeve on the spot but the spirit was strong and it went super well.  Love you, have a good week.

August 17, 2018

Hey momma, being assistant is alright, being with elder velazquez is booomb. I am in guadalajara and this is where i keep my stuff, but we have an area in nayarit that we were in for 3 days this last week, which is kinda a bummer, because President is new and is still learning how to plan, but we are going to be out of our area for 2 full weeks. It is hotter being in nayarit, the sun is hotter, i got burnt because i am used to colima now. When we are in our area there are 2 families that feed us, in guadalajara we mostly just cook food because we dont have anyone to feed us. this week we went to our area from friday until monday, then we went to tepic monday, vallarta tuesday, guadalajara wednesday, and we are staying here until tomorrow we are going to nayarit then sunday in guadalajara again. Im not too irritated with the changes, mostly just irritated with president, its like having a new missionary be your boss, but a new missionary that doesnt know how to be a missionary, im not sure if i should tell him or if he would just get irritated, so i just let it be and he will learn as he goes. President clayton was just pure love, and president reyes is a lot more worried about numbers and is a lot more strict and will get on you if you mess up, so someone that chews you out a lot and puts a ton of new rules doesnt make a lot of friends. in zone conference he told us he is putting these rules because we are the lowest baptizing mission in mexico so thats why hes putting  these new rules, which is cool because it gets things done, but everyone is just bummed and feels like he doesnt care about anyone but numbers.  love you, bye!

August 9, 2018

Hey momma. i am with Elder velazquez again which is sick, i had special transfers so i wasnt there for the baptisms, but only 3 of the 4 got baptized, but it was sweet, even though i wasnt there. Her name was lupe, she is a single mom and her 2 kids got baptized with her, she also has 3 other kids that hopefully can get baptized later on. I havent written in my journal in a couple weeks, but over all on my mission i have been doing alright.   Pday isnt really a thing anymore, but i ate...some pretty good stuffed chiles gueritos filled with cheese and bacon. Being with president reyes has been...different, it is definitely going to take some adjusting. Have a good week, thanks for the update. I love you

July 30, 2018

Baptisms should be this week that comes, on saturday. Transfers aren't for another week. The new president is...learning. i'm not sure how i feel about it, he told us finding out he was going to the mission with the least baptisms in mexico is like having a stupid kid, you're still happy to be a dad, but your kid is an idiot. I thought that was funny, nobody else liked it, he is a lot more worried about numbers, at first i thought it was going to be a good thing, now im not so sure. Some kids in the zone called him and asked him to go somewhere for pday and he called us and asked how many baptisms they had and if they deserved it. I didn't like that much, like Mosiah 2:21, even if i serve with all my soul im still an unproductive servant, so no, they don't deserve it.  but i don't work for Pday privileges, i work because i love the Savior. If we are going to work to earn privileges whats the point of being a missionary? i don't think thats how he was trying to come off, but i didn't like it.