My Favorite Mexican

Pépe is officially named ¨My Favorite Mexican.¨ I honestly can´t even believe I only new him for less than a week. I suppose that´s the way God works. When we meet fellow brothers and sisters in Christ, it doesn´t take long to find things we have in common. It doesn´t take long to go deep.

Pépe is one of a kind. He´s not even 20 years old, but he knows what it means to live the life of a higher calling. I´ve met so many pastors´kids who turn against everything they´ve been taught while growing up. I think Pépe just learned that HE had to make a decision for himself, and he made the right one.

He´s the worship leader at Iglesia Cristiana, and he´s going to try out for Latin American Idol someday soon. He speaks English and Spanish, and I have no doubt that God has huge plans for his life.

I know that meeting Pépe was a huge blessing to me, but it´s even better to know that our group was a blessing to him. I think it made a big impact on both of us to know there are other college students who are trying to live their lives for Christ, and aren´t settling for the things of this world.

Anyway, I just thought I´d let you know about one of the extremely cool students we´ve met during our time here.

More Pics

¡Bienvenidos a Pachuca!

Here is the link to some of Andria´s pictures.

Teatro Juarez

Teatro Juarez has become a newly found friend. Maybe it´s just because it´s an easy meeting point since everyone knows where it is. Anyway, we´re meeting people there tonight, tomorrow, Thursday, and Friday. We´ll probably also meet people there Saturday since we are leaving town on Sunday.

Back to those we are meeting...Sunday we went to Iglesia de Cristo (Church of Christ). I guess you could say we went on a whim since we didn´t know anything about it accept it said Iglesia and Cristo. This church has turned out to be a huge blessing. All of the songs they sang Sunday morning were songs that we knew in English, so we were able to sing along with them. The message was ¨Why are we called Christians, and Why are we members of the Church of Christ?¨

The pastor went through 11 answers to the above questions, and they were all directly from the Bible. It was wonderful to be able to understand a whole message in another language! After the service, the ¨jovenes¨ or youth were going to go to lunch together, so they invited us to go along. We went out for pizza. I didn´t think we really connected, but before I knew it, we had committed to meet them again at Teatro Juarez at 10pm (a little past my curfew to start new activites in Mexico). I asked what we were going to do, and nobody seemed to know. Ok, I guess we´re just doing to sit around and stare at eachother.

When we arrived, there were about 4 guys, and I only recognized one. David introduced us to Alberto, Juan, and Victor. Pépe (the pastor´s son) and family also came. We went to a coffee shop and had a blast! Juan and Alberto are rediculously hilarious. We actually decided that they are the Mexican male versions of me and Andria. We left the coffee shop at 11:30...we decided to leave since they had closed at 11 haha. We went outside and started singing worship songs in the street. It was really cool...they would sing in Spanish while we would sing in English. Then, they´d sing a Spanish one, then we´d sing an English one, etc. After a bit, we got yelled at to be quiet, so we decided to go back to Teatro Juarez to finish our little concierto.

We ended up staying there past 1 AM. Last night, we went with them to a worship meeting put on by Agua Vida (living water), a group from Chihuahua. That was definitely an experience, but maybe I´ll write about that some other time. After the worship thing, we were all standing outside saying goodbye, and we decided to get together tonight again at 5 (my sleep-o-meter is very grateful).

I´m very excited to build these relationships and to see what impact Christ has had in each of their lives. We´re also hoping to connect some of the new believers from Universidad de Guanajuato with these chavos (friends).

Please pray for us as we keep connecting with our new friends. Thanks!
¡Dios le bendiga!

Mi Casa Es Tu Casa

I would like to start by saying that I love Mexico and I love Mexicans! They really mean it when they say their home is our home.

Saturday we went to Monica´s house. I figured it wouldn´t be a typical Mexican home since her parents both teach at the University of Guanajuato, plus her mom owns a little store in el mercado. But, I didn´t expect to go through the gate and enter a garden and what seemed a typical American home. They had so many fruit trees including palmegranates (sp?), bananas, papaya, apples, limes, and more! Her mom made us horchata water (like a rice and cinnamon milk...doesn´t sound good but is my favorite!), pico de gallo (the best I´ve ever had!), quesadillas, and grilled beef. What a feast!

After we ate, we sat and talked in the yard for a bit before heading in doors. Monica and her brother, Edgar, are hilarious! They have both lived in the U.S. for at least a year, and Monica is planning on coming to study for a year soon, so they both speak excellent English. We sat around and chatted for a bit before she brought out her keyboard and I played and we sang some worship songs.

When we were done singing, we asked Monica and Edgar more about what they believed as Mormons. They said that they didn´t really know that much since they never really go to church. They are both really searching for Truth to believe in. We shared the 4 Laws with them and they said they believed all of it. We also gave them New Testaments and suggested reading John if they were interested.

After eating some plums and bananas, we came back to our hotel thouroughly stuffed. We are continuing to pray for Monica and her family, and we would appreciate if you do the same. Hopefully we will be able to hang out again this week before heading to the next city.

Tuesday

Today was a little crazy. We went to several universities and schools, but didn´t get to talk to students. The first school we went to was already out for the summer, so we talked to a guy about doing student exchanges. At the next school that we went to, the director stopped us, so we also got information about student exchanges with their school. Then we ate lunch. I had a delicious quesadilla and Sprite for less than $3...I don´t think I could have beat that at home.

The next school we arrived at turned out to be an elementary school, so we pressed on. The last school we went to is having their finals week, so after I sat in some gum, we left haha.

I posted some more pictures on the facebook site, so you can keep checking the link below and there will be more pics as I have time to upload them.

Evelin

Today I was able to meet back up with Evelin. She is so sweet and she is growing so much in her faith! Turns out she is going to be in Guanajuato from Monday-Thursday, so we will probably be able to hang out there together!! God is so good!

When we met today, I went through some more follow up with her. We talked and read verses about how we can have sin that blocks us from being in fellowship with God, but we are still His children. Then, we took time to write down any sins that came to mind, we confessed them and wrote 1 John 1:9 over the top of them, ripped up the paper, threw it away, and thanked God for His forgiveness and mercy.

I just stand in awe of all God is doing here. He is so amazing to let us be in Guanajuato for 4 days together! I was really sad to have to leave Evelin and not see her again, and now I might get to see her more in Guanajuato than I do here! God is good!

More pics!

To see more of my pics of the trip so far, please go to:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2099455&l=f5889&id=17218566

This was a group of students that met for a meeting called Generation with a Vision.

Los niños

UAM

Today we went to the UAM campus. Michelle and Jared went to talk to a guy, while Andria, Nate, and I went to meet back up with the 3 girls we talked to on Tuesday. We were going to introduce them to Skye and Lis so they could keep in touch with them once we leave Mexico City. The girls never showed up and so we just waited. Michelle came and got Nate to help her and Jared communicate with the guy they were talking to. Lis and Skye left, so Andria and I just waited to see if the girls would come late (not unusual for Mexico). They never came, so we went over to the others. We were introduced to Marcos and found out he is a Christian, and he is involved with a group that evangelizes on the campus every Thursday!! Then, his Christian friend, Israel came over and we talked with him too. They introduced us to a girl in their group who spoke excellent English, then we left for lunch.

The stinters left, and we (Jared, Michelle, Andria y yo) went back to campus. Jared and Andria went together, and I went with Michelle. Michelle and I tried to start several conversations, but no one was interested. So, we tried to go to another courtyard when we saw Israel again. We asked him where he thought the best place was for us to go. He ended up coming with us, and we started talking with 2 girls. They were both Catholic, but didn´t really have a personal relationship with Christ. I took them through the 4 Spiritual Laws, and they both accepted Christ!! Israel is going to follow up with them, and he will introduce them to the girls in their evangelism group. Praise God!!!