Fresnos Queretaro with Elder Hernandez

6/l8/2018

Well, it was a very bittersweet week.  I have good news and bad news.  Elder Rubio was sick all week, and we hardly could leave the house.  He had to go home today, and since he had to go home once already for his health, he won't be coming back this time.  I'm pretty sad for that.  However, Presidente already had a companion planned for me.  Elder Hernandez came to the mission 10 months ago, but had to go home for personal reasons.  Anyways, today he came back to the mission, and I'm going to be training him! While I'm sad that Elder Rubio is going home, I'm glad that I'll have a good, hard working missionary.  It's gonna be a little tough opening an area and training, but I think we're gonna have a lot of success here.  

Most of this week I cleaned the house.  I also got some sort of stomach bug and was throwing up all day on Tuesday, but it cleared up by Wednesday morning.  It was pretty frustrating not being able to leave the house this week.  Especially since we really don't have a lot going for us right now in the area. But with my new comp, I'm sure we'll be working lots this week.  Elder Hernandez is from Puebla, the same as Rubio!  One missionary from there ends his mission today, and the other is just starting.  Kinda funny. I'm sure gonna miss Rubio though.  We get along super well, and he's one of the funniest guys I know. But I know the Lord has a plan, and everything will work out.  Anyways, that's about it from this week.  Also Mexico beat Germany in the mundial, and everyone is freaking out about it still haha.  That's about it from my week, I love you all and hope you have a good week!

Elder Cherpeski

Photos: Elder Paul. (he finishes in 5 weeks, he's a good buddy), Saying goodbye to Elder Rubio, Elder Hernandez showed up right before Rubio left so we snagged a picture.

6/25/2018

This was a really busy week.  It has been interesting opening an area, especially training.  The good thing is that we share the area with sisters, so they help get to the members houses for food and all that.  I feel like I have the area down now though.  This week was crazy with the mundial de fútbol. Saturday morning Mexico was playing against Korea.  You would have thought it was a ghost city.  Almost nobody was on the street, but you could hear the game because everybody was watching to it and was really like a huge surround sound.  It was a really bizzare experience.  

My new companion is Elder Hernandez.  He's pretty quiet, but he's definitely been opening up more lately. He was the first convert in his family, and got baptized 2 years ago.  Since then, his mom and brother got baptized, but still waiting on his dad and other brother.  He's already really good at teaching, and has a strong testimony.  However, I've been helping him learn how to contact in the street, teach a bit more clearly, and other odds and ends like that.  Really I haven't had to teach him too much stuff.  He was feeling a little homesick this week, so I kept him extremely busy.  We had a ton of new investigators this week, and 3 of them came to church!  We're gonna keep working really hard!  The ward here is mas o menos.  It's not the best, but better than some wards I've been in.  I went and presented my comp to the Bishop the first day he got here, and the Bishop was really impressed with that.  He was telling my comp to try and learn as much as he can from me.  It was a moment that I realized that I'm not a new missionary anymore, and that in fact I'm starting to be one of the veterans.  Overall, it was a good week.  We had our zone activity today and I was able to play basketball for a while today.  I sure miss it haha.  I'm happy to hear that you're all doing well, and have a great week!  

7/2/2018

It rained a ton this week!  I got completely soaked three days in a row.  Thankfully I didn't get sick.  My eye infection came back though, so that's been annoying.  Things are going really well here in Fresnos.  It's part of Querétaro, but on the outskirts.  My last area was a lot closer into the city, so it's been a different, but good experience.  A lot less people here are in a hurry, and it's pretty easy to have lessons in the street.  Elder Hernandez still is pretty quiet.  He teaches well and with the Spirit so that's the most important thing.  He still has a little trouble contacting people on the street, but he's made a lot of progress.  He's had a hard time getting adjusted to the mission, so I offered him a blessing.  I don't remember really any of it even though it was a solid 5 minutes.  I know that it was the Lord talking to him, not me.  We get along really well, and the work is going well in our area.  We've been finding some really good investigators, and put some baptismal dates this week. They had the elections this week, and only half the active members went to church because everyone was voting.  It was interesting.

Lately, I've been thinking a lot about the importance of obtaining spiritual knowledge and how it has to do with our personal salvation.  We can't be saved in ignorance, so that means we have to learn about the gospel.  The moment we learn about the Gospel, it's our decision if we want to obey it or not.  Every single person will have this decision to make at some point in this life of in the spirit world.  It's an interesting idea, but it's making me try to obtain as much spiritual knowledge during my morning studies. Anyways, that was my week.  It went by really quick.  I'm not in my area right now since we have our interviews with Presidente in about an hour or so, and I forgot my camera.  I'll send lots of pictures next week!  Love you guys!

Elder Cherpeski

7/9/2018

Hey everyone!  I hope you're all doing well!  We had a pretty good week here.  First, I'm gonna give you a quick recap of how much of a pain it's been opening this area.  First of all, I saw the Elder who was here last transfer in the bus central the morning of transfers.  I had to run after him before he left so that he could give me the phone and keys.  That pretty much describes how they left the area.  The first few days, we threw away 13 bags of trash, and spent a good chunk of time sweeping and mopping.  There was no note of investigators, 4 teaching records from the last 6 months, and no hand map.  It was hard.  We're still having some difficulties.  For example, we didn't know who the landlord was, or that we pay the light bill here with a special card (that took us digging through the materials to find, and a dark morning without light haha), and also the fridge wasn't working when we got here.  I've learned how to not close an area haha.  But, little by little we've survived and figured everything out.  My eye is doing better.  We went to a Opthalmologist that is a member, and he examined my eye. It turns out that I have a gland infection or something in my left eye.  He gave me some special eyedrops, and I've been feeling better.  

Something cool this week was that we taught a Muslim!  He was honestly one of the most respectful people I've met in the mission.  It was pretty sweet.  We also had zone conference this week, and it was one of my favorite so far.  I think I forgot to mention this last week, but last saturday I went back to Colinas for a baptism of one of my investigators!  He bore his testimony and mentioned how everything started with a phone call one Sunday morning before church, a quick visit and invitation to church that would take place in just an hour.  I perfectly remember that day.  We had recieved a reference in the phone earlier in the week, but he never answered.  However, Sunday morning I was looking through my phone to see who else we could invite to church, and he answered my random phone call!  And now, two months later, he got baptized!  He's changed a lot and dropped a lot of addictions.  It was one of the best experiences of the mission so far for me.

Anyways, the week was fairly normal.  Just a lot of contacting, some good lessons, and lots of prayer.  Things here are going well.  I love you guys, and hope you have a great week!

Elder Cherpeski

Here's a picture of my two trainers, me, my brother, my two sons, and my grandson.  In that order from right to left haha! 

Also, here's the zone

 

The baptism of Jorge. He's the one on my left

7/16/2018
We walked a lot this week.  We didn't have a whole lot of success this week, but I'm happy with our effort.  We truly gave it everything we had, and I know the blessings are on the way.  Elder Hernandez got a little frustrated, and I had to reassure him that sometimes there are hard weeks, but that the good times will always outweigh the hard times. While we had a hard time with our investigators this week, we were able to find some less active members, and 2 of them showed up to church!  That was pretty sweet.  We dropped about 7 people this week.  Actually, it was more them dropping us than us dropping them.  We're gonna keep looking and see what happens.

On Saturday we still hadn't found any new investigators, so I decided that we we're gonna leave the house earlier and try to find people.  We left around 9am and got back 9:30pm at night.  Nothing.  It was honestly a super rough day.  We walked a ton, and didn't get any sit down lessons.  We gave lessons in the street, but it's just not the same.  However, today we had a sweet P-day!  We had a party with the entire mission and we watched Coco!!  I really enjoyed it.  Most of the sisters were crying, and everyone felt more motivated to do their family history work. Afterwards, we took pictures as generations.  I don't have my cable to send photos though!  We went straight to the internet cyber after the party, but I will send them next week!  It was a great time.  17 missionaries are going home next Monday.  I'm gonna miss them a bunch!  I love you all, and hope that you have a great week!

Sounds like the bend trip was fun!  I know how Andrew felt.  However, I was a little overly confident before leaving I think, and was really humbled those first few weeks in the CCM haha.  He's gonna do well.  My eye still isn't 100 percent.  It certainly has turned into a pretty nagging issue.  It is doing better, but I'm gonna give a call to the doctor tonight and give him an update.  My comp is doing well.  It was a frustrating week, but he feels a lot better being in the mission right now.  The first week he wanted to go home, but luckily with the time he's felt a bit better.

7/23/2018

This week was great!  It absolutely flew by.  We had transfers, and we're staying together.  My comp Elder Hernandez is doing a ton better now, and I think he's just about completely adapted to the mission.  We were able to find some new investigators this week, and we had some come to church!  I think we have some possible baptisms here these next few weeks.  A great experience I had this week was helping out with the youth conference here in the stake.  Throughout the week, our zone along with another zone prepared a couple special musical numbers.  It turned out really nice and there was a special spirit there.  After that, we taught the youth how to contact, and then the priests and laurels went with the Elders and Sisters to contact for a bit.  My comp is almost 18 and is super excited to go on the mission, and it was fun chatting with him and getting him pumped up for the mission.  

Anyways, looking back at this week it was kind of a blur.  My eye is finally back to normal.  It's just a little red now from lack of sleep and the sun, but the infection is gone.  That's a pretty big relief.  I can't believe Andrew leaves in a couple of weeks.  Time is going by too fast!  I love you guys!

Elder Cherpeski

My comp from the activity

Los Misioneros de Fresnos!

My generation that I will be going home with!

7/30/2018

This was a fantastic week!  We worked our butts off.  There were a few days that we had 6 or 7 lessons, and the time absolutely flew by.  Lately, I've felt in such a good groove in the mission.  I have the language down, I know how to teach, I can follow the promptings of the Spirit, and I have enough time left on the mission that I'm not thinking about home.  It's a good place to be in.  The highlight of the week was Sunday.  We were running around(literally) all morning passing by our investigators inviting them to church.  Some weren't there, some canceled on us, and some said that they would go if they had time.  It was pretty frustrating.  We arrived to church sweaty and annoyed, and we saw 4 of our investigators there waiting for us!  They're the ones who have a baptismal date, and we decided to test them to see if they would go to church on their own and they did!  It was a pretty sweet miracle.  All the blessings from the work from the last few weeks are paying off!  On thursday, Isaac, my favorite investigator from my last area called me and told me he was getting baptized on Sunday, and that he wanted me to come back and baptize him.  I obviously said yes, and then afterward asked Presidente for permisson.  He said yes as well haha.

So, right after the church services we took a taxi (they ripped us off pretty bad) all the way to my last area for the baptism.  It was the most special baptism of my entire mission.  When he came out of the water we embraced and he said that he didn't words to describe how he felt.  The Spirit was super strong in that moment.  I will never forget that experience.

On another note, my comp is doing really well too.  His confidence is definitely growing, and is pulling more of the load now.  Overall, this may have been my most productive week in the mission so far. I love all you guys!

This Pday we decided to climb a hill.  Turns out it was closed, so we hitched a ride back in the back of some guys truck.  He was super cool and didn't accept any money.  Maybe he was one of the 3 Nephites....  But I don't recommend doing that on the mission.  We had no choice though haha...

Elder Cherpeski

8/13/2018

This was a great week.  We worked really hard, got soaked twice, and finished off the week with 2 baptisms!  The family that got baptized had been in teaching for 8 years... We started working with them pretty much from the first week we got here.  We started praying for them by name in every single prayer, personal and as a companionship for the last 6 weeks.  We saw a miracle as they progressed slowly but surely.  They dropped lifelong bad habits, and really progressed in the gospel. They had been wanting to get baptized for a long time, but some lifestyle choices kept them from it.  However, we gave them a blessing, and from that moment they completely changed.  Their names are Claudia and Raul, and they have 3 kids that are in teaching as well.  We had lots of super spiritual experiences with them as they experienced that conversion process.  The best though actually wasnt the baptism.  The confirmation had a special spirit.  My comp and I each confirmed one of them.  The sisters that share the ward with us brought someone for the first time, and she told them that when she saw them get confirmed she started to tear up and said that she felt that for some reason she needs to make it a goal to have the same thing happen to her.  It was a really cool experience.

Today we went and bowled.  I scored 131.  Not to bad for literally never bowling haha.  Pres got 177. Anyways, I hope you all have an amazing week.  Love you all!

Elder Cherpeski

8/22/2018

Hey everyone!  I hope you're doing well.  This last week I hit 16 months on the mission!  It's crazy how fast time has been going.  Right now I'm in Querétaro in an area called Fresnos.  I'm currently training Elder Hernandez and District Leader.  We've had some baptisms recently and some really amazing spiritual experiences.  I'm feeling good as far as Spanish goes.  It's not perfect, but I understand 99 percent.  The mission has been a lifechanging experience, and now I can say without a doubt that the church is true.  The Book of Mormon is true and was translated by the Prophet Joseph Smith.  I think the thing I've developed the most on the mission is the ability to listen to and follow the promptings of the Holy Ghost.  I know that it's real.  I've had specific phrases and words put into my head when I'm teaching.  I've heard the prompting to talk to someone on the street just to find out that they were hoping that we would talk to them.  I've had way too many experiences like that to call it coincidence or chance.  The church is true, and the message we share blesses the lives of others.

Some Highlights from the last few weeks.

Working in the sun here in Fresnos.

Our zone conference.

The sisters that share the area with us made us flower ties.

Our zone activity that we had today climbing cerro cimatario.

Some cool clouds.

8/22/2018
I'm relieved to finally be writing!  It was so weird working on P-day.  It felt like a Thursday haha.  It was worth waiting though.  We were able to climb a hill here in Querétaro.  It's called cerro Cimatario.  We met up at 7:30 and took a bus up to the hill.  It took about 2 and a half hours to climb.  Maybe it was a little crazy using our day of rest to climb a hill, but it was really fun!  In a week and a half we have transfers, and almost every companionship in the zone will have transfers.  I think I'm out of here.  It's been fun, but I hope I don't train again.  It's just a lot of stress and especially at the beginning you basically have to do everything.  We'll see what happens!  Things in the area have been going well.  We have a lot of great investigators in teaching right now, but most of them have to work on Sunday, so it's been hard getting them out to church.  Also in a week, church will now start at 1pm....  That's super late.  That's what time church started at in my last area, and it made it super rough on fast sundays haha.  Especially since we start the fast around 3:30pm or so after the comida.  Anyways, we had a lot of conversations with drunk guys this week.  Most of them come up to us and tell us to share a message about God.  It's made for some interesting conversations, and interesting experiences.  It's really sad to see how much alcholism there is here.  It really destroys some peoples lives.  

We had a pretty insane experience with our recent converts this week.  We had just gotten home and gotten changed around 9:30 pm when they knocked on our door(they live a few apartments up the road from us).  They came by to tell us that their oldest son, who's about 30, had been mission for more than 24 hours.  They looked pretty distressed.  We told them that we would pray for them.  When they left, I had an almost verbal prompting from the Holy Ghost to go give them blessings.  We got redressed, and headed over.  Claudia had been crying and they were relieved that we came to give them blessings.  I gave 3 blessings, and each one was extremely different.  But they weren't my words.  There was a tender spirit in the room.  A peace was there that wasn't previously.  We left and they called us 30 minutes later telling us that they had been able to get in contact with their son and that God had answered their prayers right away.  It was a special experience.  Some of the most sacred experiences I've had on the mission were from blessings.  I hope you all have a good week.  Cuídense mucho, les quiero.  

Con amor,

Elder Cherpeski

8/27/2018

Hey guys!  This was a good week.  It was weird having P-day on Wednesday and actually made the week feel longer.  Anyways, we had a good week of work.  We spent most of the week in lessons and not in the street which was super nice.  The sisters here had a baptism and their investigator named Javier asked me to baptize and confirm him, so I had the opportunity to do that this week.  I was reflecting on how amazing it is that someone could ask me to baptize them and me be able to feel completely prepared and worthy to do so.  We were also able to give more blessings this week.  I always feel the Spirit the most while giving a blessing.  Today we had a district activity and went to hang around the centro here in Querétaro.  It was pretty relaxed.  Last week was super long and I'm glad that we were able to rest a bit today.  Also on Sunday, Isaac and his girlfriend (the guy I baptized in Colinas a few weeks ago) came to Fresnos on Sunday to visit me! It was nice seeing how well he's doing.  On Friday night, 3 different families came and dropped of dinner at our house.  The members love us haha.  Anyways, I can't remember what else happened this week.  Love you guys! 

9/3/2018

Hey everyone! I hope you're doing well.  My last week in Fresnos was amazing.  It was a spiritually packed week.  We had lots of great lessons, and I was able to give some baptismal interviews this week.  Those are always very spiritual.  The highlight of the week was Sunday when we had a fast and testimony meeting.  I felt a nudge from the Spirit to go share my testimony and to invite our converts to share their testimonies as well.  When they bore their testimonies I almost lost control of my emotions.  The hermano Raul shared one of the most powerful testimonies I've ever heard.  He said that he knew that the church was true.  He said that for many years he had been lost, but that now he had found it again.  It was incredible.  

Also, we got transfers, and I got transfered to Leon again!  I'm going to be zone leader again, so I'm excited for that.  I'm with Elder Wright from Washington.  We started the mission around the same time, and it's really cool to see how much we've progressed.  I'll send more pics in the coming week.  Love you guys!

Elder Cherpeski

This was a great last week in Fresnos.  I spent time this week reflecting on my efforts in this area and just the mission in general.  I came to the conclusion that I did not love the mission when I started.  I liked it, but also had a rough time at the start.  However, at some point I fell in love with the mission.  I have no idea at what point it happened, but now I know that going on the mission has been the best decision I've made up to this point in my life.  We spent the week in a bunch of lessons, I had to give some baptismal interviews, and saying goodbye to some people.  Sunday was amazing.  We saw a hermano that we gave a blessing to last week. He had half of his face parcially paralyzed.  The doctors had told him it was going to last between 4 and 6 months to heal.  We gave him an annointing and blessing last week, and this Sunday he showed up completely fine!  He said it healed the day after the blessing. That was a cool experience.  Later, I felt prompted to invite our converts to come share their testimony with me.  They shared some of the most powerful testimonies I've ever heard.  Actually Presidente Williamson went to our ward on Sunday and later went up to them and told them that their testimonies were amazing.

Saturday night, we got the phone call with the transfers.  I'm going back to Leon as zone leader!  I'm pumped because I'm going with Elder Wright. He's from Washington.  We were in the same district at the beginning of the mission, and we get along super well.  We're the oldest zone leaders with combined time.  I'm going on 17 months, and he's at 20.  Most zone leaders are a bit younger right now.  We're both really excited for this transfer.  It's going to be weird being with an American comp again...  Elder Hernandez was sad when I left, but excited to recieve another comp and take control of the area.  It was a good last week, and really good transfers.  I felt a little like I was going home when I went back to Leon.  Love you guys!

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