Elder Tyler Gregory Mission Blog

If I could describe my new comp to you guys, he basically looks like a slightly bigger version and acts very similar to that of cousin Eli Baughan. I know I haven't seen Eli in 1 1/2 years, but this dude literally just has the same mannerisms as him and I can't get over it!!! Hahaha the way he smiles and laughs...it is quite funny to have Mexican Eli as my comp!! His name is Diego Sanchez, and he is from San Luiz Potosi, Mexico.  We had a pretty good week this week regarding dates for baptism. We have an interested family and a date for them along with 3 other individuals. But now we just need to get them to church!!! This week was pretty rough at first. Maybe it was because the lack of sleep and the intense schedule of the mission, but I was just so tired and stressed out. It really got to me having to be the "lead" missionary. It's so hard having to explain the circumstance of every person we teach because some of the times I don't really know. I ...

I am officially done with my training....which means I now don't have an excuse for why my Spanish is so bad!! Hahaha in reality it is actually a lot better than I thought. I am able to small talk pretty easily and I can tell experiences and teach the lessons pretty comfortably. I still can't understand probably more than half the people, but I occassionally get the gist. But like dad said...just fake it til I make it! hahaha So half my zone got transferred and I'll be here in the Nogales zone in Magdalena for (likely) another 6 weeks. I'll meet my new companion tonight...and his name is...ELDER SANCHEZ. Hahaha the name Sanchez here in MX is basically like Johnson or Smith in the US. I don't know too much about him. So this will be an interesting first week. As for my last week with my "papa" Sanchez was pretty chill. He is a crazy hard worker and wanted to not be "trunky"~ or a missionary term for being sluggish or lazy or not carin...

This will be my last week of training!!! wow!!! Which will be pretty sad cause that means I won´t have much of an excuse for my Spanish....oh well!! This week was yet...another grind. It started out with splits with the La Mesa Elders. I went to La Mesa with Elder Cortes and this dude is so funny. And I can actually understand his Spanish. He is from MX City and is a straight clown. We had tons of fun. But La Mesa is a rough area. Needless to say, I am pretty lucky to be in Magdalena (in comparison to Imuris in La Mesa, the other towns in our district). Other than that me and Elder Sanchez were straight grinding. We have been trying to visit inactive members and whatnot and I didn't think it was worth it. Until we had a whopping 32 people show up to church!!!!!! The most Magdalena has ever had. We had so many inactives come and a couple of investigators....I think 2 hour church is a lot more appealling than 3...hahaha. Also this random white senior couple was there...

After being taught the lessons for over 5 years, after helping him with his marriage and addiction with smoking, we finally baptized David!!!! The first baptism in Magdalena in over 3 years!! It was pretty funny actually, the only day he was available for baptism was on Sunday, but we also wanted to him confirmed in front of the congregation on Sunday. So we had the baptism  at 9am on Sunday before church. The branch president did the ordinance. We had to build the giant lego baptismal font on Saturday and we filled it up with water and left it overnight outside. Contrary to popular belief, it is actually super cold in MX and in Magdalena (about 25 degrees F for the low) so the water was FREEZING. After David was baptized, this grown man started screaming like a little girl and laughing his head off and got outta there SO QUICK. It was so funny to see, and such a joyous moment indeed.  Obviously that was the highlight to my week, here is some others... ...