The zoo!

Friends and Fam,

Nothing as exciting as getting hit by a car this week...sorry.

No this was a really good humbling week. It was super disappointing. We had to drop a family and another investigador.... Super frustrating when the salvation of someone is more important to you than it is to them. 

I got super mad at myself this week too. This whole Spanish thing is frustrating and our one promising baptism for this month fell through. But Elder Manning and I repented of all our imperfections and mistakes this week, and I'm feeling much better for this next week.

Like I said... not many super exciting things happened this week, but I'm grateful for tomorrow and the chance we have everyday to better ourselves!

We went to the zoo today! I got some sick pics!!!

Love you all!

Elder Minnick

Some call it work, I call it therapy!!
Tam: The hat and pen behind the ear... same old Weston!!! The mold on the the wall behind him -- killing me!!!  :/

Selfies for mom!

Pucker up! 

Pretty Bird!!!

Obispo let me use his iPad!!

IGOTHITBYACAR!!!!

hahhaha mom don't be mad... I really am okay :)

Last Monday night it was raining super hard... and it was night so it was like... DARK.  We were walking across a small street headed to a bigger street.  And yes mom, I even looked both ways...but a couple stupid people were driving and took this corner super fast.  They hit Elder Manning's leg, cause he walks a little slower than me so he actually saw it coming... but they hit me in the butt.  I only flew like 10 feet and comfortably landed in a crap filled puddle... But, like I said, I really am okay. Not a single bruise. My back was super sore this whole week but I'm not complaining.  Glad I could check that one off my bucket list.

I know the Lord was looking out for me. There really isn't a perfect way to get hit by a car, but if there is, I'm pretty sure I did it. And yes momma, I'll be more careful :)

We found an awesome investigator this week... his name is Arael.  He lived in Utah for like 3 weeks, down in St. George. He really liked it, and wants to go back, but he wants his daughter to go with him. We contacted him this week outside our house, set an appointment up for Saturday.   He was somewhat familiar with the church and we have a fecha for him next month! He even came to all 3 hours of church this week!!!  That was a relief because all our other investigators couldn't make it. 

It was a harder week. We had to drop a whole family... of 7. It's super sad. The whole family is super super receptive to the Spirit, and we have had a ton of awesome lessons with them... But the dad trusts the internet more than he trusts the power of prayer and the Holy Ghost.

We had a super cool day today. Played soccer for like 100 hours, then we went to the centro here in Leon! It's awesome!!!!  We went to a couple of giant churches... They were beautiful. But, the feeling is just so heavy and cold.  I MISS the temple back home. Feeling is soooooooo much better.  Cant wait to go to Draper Temple in 2016.

God loves you!

Elder Minnick

Bunnies and Books of Mormon!

I didn't make any Mexican jokes, I PROMISE!

Met a member with a longboard today!

SELFIE!!

BOOM!

Silly white people!

Fancy art and stuff!

Elder Brito y yo!

Gen Con

Fam and Friends,

Really though conference is sooooooo much cooler as a missionary.   I wish I could sit down with all of you and talk about all of my favorite talks, but I only got an hour so I'll just tell ya my absolute favorite was Pres. Uchtdorf's talk in priesthood. I wish I could send pictures of my notes or something but they are completely ineligible and don't make much sense to anyone but me...haha! 

I also couldn't help but think of a certain boat that couldn't turn in Powell over the 4th of July during President Monson's talk. Those Germans just needed some duct tape.

Conference really was an amazing experience for me. I had 5 questions at the beginning and got 100 answers each session. I testify that not only does our Father in Heaven hear our prayers but he answers them through Profetas of Old and in these latter days. We are sooo blessed to hear from these men and women who have received a special witness, and receive revelation for the world.  We had some investigadors come to some sessions, but we had one dude named Ricardo, who came to all 5 sessions!  The prophets and apostoles did all the teaching for us, did some converting, now all we gotta do is baptize the dude.  Can't wait for the next conference...6 months will come fast!

P-Day today was cool -- went to the Plaza again!  I bought a ostrich snapback, and two other sick leather hats all for a total of ten bucks. Bought pops a belt buckle.  Don't worry dad, I'll send you some boots home soon.... what kind do you want... shark skinned or elephant?  I'm gunna get Manta Ray, but you can wear them until I get home.  :)

Other than that, this week was crazy. We finally got materials.  It's hard to teach about the BoM when you don't have any to give out.   We gave out like 50 in 4 days.  

Some people here are sooo ready. We have those lessons where we meet them, teach em a little, and they are committed to baptism in 15 minutes. But then we have those hour long lessons on how God is our loving Father in Heaven and the people can't get over the fact that we can pray ANY TIME day or night and share our feelings with Him.  I personally like the people who are humble enough to listen without proof. Faith is a powerful thing.

Thought I'd take a second to thank my parents who taught me how to pray. I can't remember right now who talked about that, but I'm grateful for a home that's built on the Rock of our Redeemer!  Love you mom and dad!  Momma feel better! 

Elder Minnick

MOM NOTE:  Weston did say he finally got some mail.....  16 letters and the first pkg. I sent him!!!  GOOD DAY!!  Weston also told Jay, "...couldn't be happier with mission life.  The work is good.  One complaint though.... you didn't tell me that the mission was fun!!  Just hard!!  You gotta tell your priests it's fun too!"   SO from the missionaries mouth.... missions are FUN!!!!  

McDonalds  -- WOOOOOO

Changes! (dumb title)

To the Fam:

You can send it out if you want... but I don't want to please the world this week :) 

Hahaha, I'm not really getting changed.  But I didn't really know what else to put as the subject... we did change our house this week. And I'm freakin stoked.  Its beautiful.  Even though it has like a million cockroaches and the walls look like pee. But its super nice and super big, and we spent like 5 hours cleaning it!!!   SO FUN!!!   But other things are getting changed.   Almost my entire zone, because so many people go home this week. We will have seven companionships in our zone in training!! Super sick right?  Now I'm not the only white guy that can't speak Spanish! wooooooo

I'm really tight with my zone leaders. They told me today to prepare to train... because they think I'm training next change! That means 6 weeks to perfect my Spanish!!!  I'm actually really stoked. I decided that if I could have one calling or leadership position in the mission that I want to be a trainer...  Office sounds boring and being a district or zone leader means you have to hear the Hermana's complain every day.  TAM NOTE: Weston is throwing this out to tease his sister and make sure she is really reading his letters  :)  My comp is the district leader and he is the most patient person I know!!  I'd much rather train a South American dude.  They have cool  stories, and sweeet testimonies!  But I'm looking forward to what the Lord has in store for me.

Not much to report on this week.  We had another baptism, with a 13 year old boy named Sachel!  He's sweet!  We blessed a couple babies in the stake president's office. Got our first family to commit to baptism... I'm dying to baptize an entire family.  I wanna wear that green tie Spencer gave me.  Elder Manning and I ate something bad this week, so we weren't at the doctor and kinda suffered for a day. I didn't take one picture this whole week!! so so so sorry --  but you'll have to live without seeing my face for a whole week :)

Sorry this letter isn't much but the faster I write, the faster we go eat tacos :)

Love

Elder Minnick

BLOG:  www.elderwestonminnick.blogspot.com

EMAIL:  weston.minnick@myldsmail.net

Tami:  This pic was sent to us from Hunter Nilson.  He has a former mission companion from Queretaro who sent him the pic.  He was feeding the missionaries that day!!  So fun to get a "live" pic.  Happy Weston makes for Happy Momma!!  

LOVE THIS SMILE!!!

Finally... many have asked about sending pkgs. and letters to Weston.  I don't think a single letter has made it yet.  If you have one get through... let me know.  As far as pkgs... I would say don't waste your money until I can figure out what will get through.  I have followed all the rules and two pkgs. so far have been held up in customs in Mexico -- never to be seen again.  Weston said yesterday... "don't worry about it mom... I have every thing I need!! "   

Busy, busy, busy, busy

Hola!!!!

First...Super huge birthday shout out to the biggest stud I have ever met, best volleyball player in the family, and my favorite brother Zaners!!!! I love you man and I hope you are having a ton of fun in Disneyland with our 2 super old parents! I hope they aren’t spoiling you too much and that you eat a lot of nice American food :)

This week has hands down been the busiest week of my life. I’ve had this layer of sweat on my forehead every day for like 15 hours and then I sleep with it too. And I LOVE it. 

I could tell you about everyday and about all of my 10000 spiritual experiences I had each day, but I only have an hour to write to all the people I love so I'll just share ONE! :) 

So there is this Taco stand we walk past at least 3 times a day, and every time we pass it we say hi to the woman that works there. After 6 weeks of doing this, she finally asked who we were and if we wanted to buy some tacos...and we said no to the tacos because we don’t wanna get fat, but we were for then happy to explain who we were. After talking to her for like 3 minutes, the only man in all of Leon that thinks he has read the Bible and thinks he is already saved decided to jump on in. He proceeded to tell us how he has studied the Book of Mormon, found it as apostasy, told us how my boy Joseph Smith is crazy, and then started quoting a bunch of out of context scripture from the Bible to us. This poor lady was just standing there terrified. We tried to testify, but he just kept cutting us off. So we just waited until he was done, and he left. I was bummed at first because we just had this solid contact, and some preacher just scared our lady off. But the opposite happened. Instead she just wanted to know more, and now she’s got a date to be baptized on the 1st of November. 

Its been a crazy 6 weeks here and its awesome because we are finally starting to see a TON of success from all our hard work...I’m just praying I don’t get transferred this week! I love this ward already!!!

Elder Minnick

Amazing Mexico!

My amazing photo skillz

These are 2 of my favorite kids from one 

of my favorite families that are investigating.

Meet Poco and Andrea!

This is for all you rich people with 

fancy campfires in your backyards.

I love you family!

Only mom will understand how happy this makes me!

My homies playing fut everyday!

Spirit does the converting

Hello Friends and Family :)

This week was super crazy and scary and cool and awesome and a lot of things happened and I forgot my journal, so I’m just going to do my best to remember it all...

Tuesday...Hands down the hardest day of my mission... The most important thing I learned from this day was recognizing my weaknesses and confronting my doubts.  This will allow God to make me stronger. My testimony of the Atonement sky rocketed as I felt God's love for these people.  Some of them believe that nobody loves them.  Well we do!!!  And I love you mom and dad :)

Wednesday... Can’t remember anything...sorry :)

Thursday...I do remember this day...Hands down one of the best days of my life. It was soooo cool. I went on divisions with Elder Lafavor, he is a stud.  He’s from home too -- graduated from Bingham in 2013.  Anyway, we had three amazing lessons. It was humbling because I realized that I have been teaching the wrong way. Helping people recognize they are feeling the Spirit makes the whole conversion process a lot easier. Let me tell ya about this lesson:

We contacted this lady on the street, and went to her house later that day. We got in her house, said a prayer, and began teaching the restauración, and like always, the Spirit came right into the room. It’s been one of the coolest things for me as a missionary, to be able to recognize when people feel the Spirit. Once we saw that she was feeling it, we helped her recognize it. We told her she was feeling the Spirit of God, and it was testifying to her that our words are true. We taught her some more, and asked her how she felt. She told us she could feel the truthfulness of our message. We told her she was going to say a simple prayer, and ask God if these things were true, and if they weren’t, he would take away those feelings that instant, and then we told her we would sit there until she has an answer. So she prayed, and then we sat there for like two minutes. These two minutes were easily the most peaceful of my life. The first words she said were simply, "The feeling is still there".  She told us she knows these things are true. We told her she was going to be baptized and she asked us how soon. We told she was going to church this Sunday and she asked where and when... Miracle investigator :)

I have a testimony that the Spirit does all the converting, and I am sooo blessed to be a witness of seeing others come unto Christ. I learned that you aren’t really living without the Spirit in your life.

The rest of the week was chalk full of other spiritual experiences, rainy nights, and running away when you’re in the wrong place at the wrong time. :) 

I’m actually getting pretty good at soccer. We play like an hour a day and we played for four today. It’s the only thing keeping me from getting fat from all these freakin tacos.

Love you all :) Shout out to Whit! Three more months...Don’t be lazy because you aren’t done until you give mom a hug, and then you have to find a husband. I have Elder friends that think your hot... 

Love, 

Elder Minnick

P.S. 

I've been hand washing my clothes for the past five weeks. It's super relaxing. Helps me get all that nervous energy out!

Note from Tam:  I asked Weston how safe his area was.  He said, "I am super safe. I always have the Spirit with me. I haven't been hurt or harmed.  We need to go into sketchy areas for investigadores and menos activos. We are just the only two white guys in a 100 mile radius. Most people respect us, others like our things... but I'm good and safe mama!"

As for Tuesday here is what happened:  "We walked into a huge fight at a menos activos house. Bricks were flying through windows and they were screaming and I just felt horrible for this family. Their 15 year girl ran away and the mom wanted to throw her in jail. The dad was crying and he was a mess, he just wanted to be happy and have his family togther. We taught him about charity and the atonement than fasted with him. We went back Thursday to see how it all turned around and a lot better. Power of fasting. I'm totally fine and I learned a lot. My testimony of the atonement is growing!" 

We only play with fire when we have free time. 

Don't worry mom, I've burned all my hair before -- I know what I'm doing :)

We celebrate our baptisms with tacos...
yah for baptisms and tacos!

BOOTS!

Howdy!

I just went to the plaza in Leon.... I don't have much to say about it another than there are one billion stores and many of them have more boots than dads office. And better yet, every single pair is probably about 300 dollars cheaper. I haven't bought yet, because this whole mission thing has made me super cheap. But I did buy this way tight leather snake skin thingy bag, and some sick leather ties. I also got a bunch of goodies I'm sending home soon so you guys can't forget about me :)

Dad would love Leon!

Today was another great weak... just with a lot more speed bumps :)  Both me and my comp got a little sick this week, at different times. This was a super good experience for me because I got a lot of time to teach lessons by myself. I testify of the gift of tongues and the power of the Holy Ghost, because there is absolutely no way I could have done it alone. :) I love Elder Manning! He's a stud! I told him about Dad's "Can't Died" shirts, and we actually used it in a lesson. It was super powerful.

I had another super cool experience, and I gotta thank my sister for it. I remember like 100 years ago me and Whit were in a fight, and I locked myself in my room. She came up to my door and slid a paper through it, and all it said was DC 64:9-11. I don't think she will remember this, but I did in the middle of the lesson. These verses focus on forgiveness, and I've never been able to hold a grudge since. I was able to share this scripture with one Hermana who didn't want to forgive her husband... and she took it to heart, and invited her husband to meet with her and the Bishop this week. Thanks Whittles.

This week I decided that I will never ever buy a VW. The majority of the service I do here is some how related to cars. We push them, change tires, everything, and EVERY car we have had a problem with are VW's. On Wednesday night it was raining hard, like enough rain to make every street into rivers. We saw this older couple struggling on the side of the road (in a VW) so we pushed it to their house through rivers. It was way fun :)

I love my mission, but this week I decided that my favorite part of my mission is being able to see the change in peoples lives as they come unto Christ.  Personally, there are few things that compare to the joy I feel as I see this change, and I am grateful for the opportunity I have to live in such a cool place with such cool people. 

Missionary work is so much different here than back home. We had stake conference this week, and we have basically the whole front of the chapel reserved for investigators. We have 41 missionaries in our stake... I'm pretty sure we only have 2 in our home stake. President Mejorada spoke, as well as Elder Reyes of the 70. I love conference!!!!! 

I have 2 months in the mission as of tomorrow... I'm already thinking of extending... sorry mom  :)  too little time and too many things to dooo.

Elder Minnick

This is what a dry road looks like!

Selfie when hiding from the rain!

Sweater Selfies!

Comp Selfie! 

Coke and Jesus!