Monday November 28th, 2016

Hey guys! 

                                            Elder Vargas and Elder Radmall on Preparation day (p-day).                                                                       

Dad: Thanksgiving was definetly not the same. I'll talk more about it in the main letter.

Mom: We see dead mice in the street, but we have yet to have one in the house.

Holly: We have... 12 investigators. They're progressing alright. Some faster than others.

Sam: If you promise not to tell Dylan. (Sam asked if he could know what Forest was giving Dylan for Christmas)

Dylan: I have not had to teach Primary yet.

Thanks for the pics! So, last week, I sent a picture of Peanut Butter, but didn't explain. One of our investigators gave it to us :) Peanut Butter here is about 40 pesos, and when you only have 400 pesos to buy everything you need in a week, it makes it hard to buy, so I was super excited and grateful that she gave us some!

 

We decided to stop by the Ricci home earlier this week. She started crying saying that she wants us to come by more often. A common phrase here is "Mi casa es su casa" which is "My house is your house" which she said a few times. She said that it's not only for the mission, but as well as after.

My companion was sick again, which sucked. But a lot of people here are getting sick. They say it's due to the climate change, but the temp changing 2 degrees isn't a climate change ;) The temp is going down quite a bit, which is awesome! It was soooo hot!

Having Thanksgiving here really made me realize why I like it so much. Yes, the food is amazing! (usually haha) but more importantly, I really like being with all the family! The food here wasn't nearly as good either. The potatoes, aren't Idaho potatoes :( We had chicken instead of turkey, and no stuffing or gravy. We had jello, and cake instead of pie. We did the best we could.

 

                                                   Thanksgiving dinner...no stuffing...no gravy                                                              

Earlier we were walking in the street. Okay, first, here in Mexico only the police and the military have guns. The only other people that have them are the Narcos. So, we were walking in the street, and 3 guys got out of a car. One of them was holding an AR-15. They just looked at us and didn't even care. We now know of 2 different homes that have Narcos in them close to our house.

Speaking of the other Narco, he talked with us again. He loves politics. He kept telling my that Trump is crazy, and Hillary is even crazier. He asked me why Trump was president, and I was just like, "I don't know. I'm in Mexico, and we don't have internet." He seemed content with the answer, and didn't talk about them anymore. But, he gave us food again, and this time followed us home (It was close to 9:00 when we were talking to him) So, now he knows where we live. This is either good, or bad. Not in between. He likes us, so it could serve as a protection.

  

(They sure eat a lot of macaroni and cheese!)

  

(Glad he can cook something other than macaroni and cheese!)

On Wednesday, we were walking in the street, again, and this lady came up to us and asked if we had another book of scripture other than the Bible. She said that she was reading in the Bible, and that it says that there is another book of scripture. We took out a Book of Mormon and started teaching her about it. It was an awesome experience! The Lord is preparing people for us to teach.

 

                                                                                            (street light)

Elder Vargas

 One more experience. On Thursday, we had an apt. at 6, 7, and at 8. We had it planned perfectly to be home by 9:00. Well, the 6:00 apt. fell through, so we went to the next one. He was there, so we talked to him for a little while. He is struggling with some drug addictions and wants our help to overcome them. Well, our 8:00 apt. fell through as well. My companion needed to go to the bathroom, so we went back to the house. (It was almost 8:00) We had an hour still, so while he was in the bathroom, I prayed to know where we should go for the last hour. I felt that we needed to go and talk to these people in a little store around the corner from our house. So, we talked with them for a little while. They asked us questions about where we're from, why we're here in Culiacan and such. We found out that they clasify themselves as Catholic, but don't go to church. We gave them the first pamphlet, the Restoration, and they want us to come back this week to teach them. It was awesome!

John 3:5  and  14: 18,26

So, I shot a video of us walking in the street, but my finger was over the mic for part of it sorry haha I said this in Spanish in the video, but we are going to Isidro's house, from Paola's house.

I love you guys! Have an awesome week!

                                                       (It was so good to hear his voice!!!)

-Elder Radmall

November 24, 2016


Hey guys!

     Dad: I'm gonna miss the people here. They're awesome! But I'm sure there're good people in every area. It's gonna suck not knowing the area very well for a little while, or what bus goes where.

The Ward is also pretty small. The picture from last week with quite a few people in it, is our entire ward. The photo was taken in the chapel. I have written in my journal every day. I need to do better about the Spiritual things too.

     Mom: They have a primary, but I'm not sure if they'll be doing a Primary Christmas Program. The Primary is pretty small. Darin from High Desert Meats has not emailed me.

     Holly: I've had dogs get really close to me while barking and growling, but I don't run, so no, I haven't been chased haha

     Sam: We have the option of riding a bus, but we mostly walk. It's about a mile or so.

     Dylan: No, I have not read any of the Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites books.

Isidro and his wife Rosa​

     Earlier this week we were talking to one of our investigators, Alexis, and his cousin was there. It was evening, so it was starting to get a little dark. His cousin thought that I was about 23. She also thought I was Mexican haha. Alexis has a baptism date for the 10th of December.

This week we've really realized just how much time we've spent with the Lopez Gomez family, and the Ricci family. It was pretty hard to plan!

     One night earlier this week, we had decided to try contacting around our house since it was almost time to return home, and we didin't have any appointments. We hadn't gone very far when this dog, who was laying next to a house, came out in the street  and started barking at us. It was almost as if he was guarding the road. So, we decided to just turn around and go home. About a minute after we got home, we heard two gunshots and screams coming from the area we would've been. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

     Also, Elder Atkins suggested that you guys set up a "skype" account for me and email me the information. That way we can save some time on Christmas.

(Forest always had a way with the Girls)

     On Thursday, I went on splits with Elder Huaraccallo. He's from Peru, and has one less transfer than me in the mission. When we got to our lunch appointment, the Hermana was running around frantically. Her dad was upstairs super sick, mentally and physically. When we went upstairs, he was rolling around on the bed, occasionally falling off, then crawling back on. When he reached for his Virgen Mary statue, it fell off the nightstand and broke. He would also trying clawing his way through the cement wall. They had a car outside, but he wouldn't leave. So Elder Huaraccallo and I had to carry him to the car. The Hermana apologized over and over and said that any food we could find in the house we could have. She had made some food that was on the stove, so we just ate that. But it was a crazy experience.

 

 (Some of Forest's area in Culiacan)

This is an old market place, the writing says something about Fruit.

     I learned yesterday that my companion knows who Rocky is. It really suprised me! But he's only seen the 4th one.

     I'll have to send letters next week because the post office was closed today.

Hermano Juan

I love guys! Talk to ya next week!

November 14, 2016

Hey guys!

     That´s scary about Ian! I hope he gets better soon! I´ll keep him in my prayers. (Editors Note: Ian is Forest's cousin, he was to leave for Peru on Wednesday, however he had an accident hitting his head that has pushed back his departure date to December 28th, Bummer!)

     I always thought that our area was safe, especially considering the pictures I saw before I came out. I now know why I thought it was safe: I couldn't understand what people were telling us haha I have now learned that on the far side of our area, gunshots go off nightly. The Lopez Gomez family warned us about it one day when we were there at 7:30. Other people warn us to be careful in general more than I realized. I'm glad I'm on the Lord's errand.

     Some more information on the Lopez Gomez family. Some good news and sadly some bad news. Their daughter, Naomi who is 8, quotes scriptures and stories from the Book of Mormon in our lessons. She is super smart and is learning super fast! As you know, they have a baptism date for this Thursday. Not anymore :( Yesterday they said they don't want to be baptized. The dad doesn't want to because he wants to drink on Christmas, and the girls don't want to because they want to wear immodest clothing. It's super frustrating! Just last week they were all so excited for baptism!

     We have another investigator, Paola Rojo, who is in her late 20s and has a little boy. She REALLY wants to get baptized! We suggested the date the 3rd of December so she can have enough Sundays. And she said, "Why not earlier?" She has the date the 26th of November. She'll lack one Sunday, so we got permission from President Gabaldon to baptize her anyway! She is learning so fast!

     On Trump: I cannot even tell you how tired I am of talking about him. Everybody wants to talk about him, and everybody down here, except for the American Missionaries, hate him. It sucks.

                              (The Jardine Ward, where Forest is serving )

     On Friday, we had a 5 hour meeting with President Piper, one of the area 70s. He's also from Idaho. Well, we knew about it all week, and obviously it was going to be in Spanish, and I really wanted to understand it. The night before the conference I prayed earnestly for help. I could understand him well enough to take a couple pages of notes! How awesome is that! And since then, I can understand everybody else a lot better too! Prayer is so powerful! Some of the council he gave, was that when we have investigators that aren't progressing, stop wasting your time with them. Sadly, we've had to apply that council this week with the Lopez Gomez Family, and also the Ricci Family. They no longer want us to talk to them about the gospel. I hate Satan!

                                                  (Elder Vargas the Companion)

     One of the members, who is a recent convert, in his 50s, is super hilarious. His name is Ramon. His wife, Luz, doesn't want to get baptized until February when her daughter will be here. We went over there to talk with them the other day, and Luz was at the store. We asked Ramon do give the opening prayer, and in his prayer, he prayed for his wife to hurry and get home with the cake, and for his stomach, so it would feel well enough to eat the cake. haha it was really funny... and the cake was pretty good :)

                                                (Forest wanted us to know he's eating good)

     On Saturday, we were walking down the street, and there was this lady sitting on the side of the road, crying. We walked by and said "Good Afternoon" like we do to everybody. When we walked by her, I felt the Spirit super strongly that we should go back and talk to her, so we did. Turns out she's been less active for 5 years, and is having a rough time going through boyfriends and such. We ended up talking to her for 45 minutes! Three times the bus she needed passed by, but she wanted to talk with us instead. By the end of our visit, she was laughing and smiling with us. It was awesome!

I love you guys! I hope you have an awesome week!

-Elder Radmall

November 07, 2016

          (Forest and Clark, From same stake, in same mission, both in the Culiacan Zone...Amazing!)



Hey guys!

(Editors note: Forest answers our questions)

 I do like the idea of me getting to "draw" a name. (Christmas with our kids)

Dad: Yes. We do both. Mainly in the streets. We just walk around the streets, and if we feel prompted to knock on a door, we knock. (Where do you do contacting)

Mom: We don't get a whole lot of desserts. We get this cheesecake type thing that's really good though.

Holly: Well... I walk haha People play sports, go to the movies, bowl. It's pretty similar here. (What do people do for fun in Mexico)

Sam: Church starts at 11:00. The name of my ward is Jardines (Whats the name of your ward)

Dylan: I bought a hat that says "SIN" on it. It stands for Sinaloa. But it's also funny in English since I'm a missionary. ( Have you bought any souveniors)

     The picture that President Atkins sent you is probably of our Zone. It's the biggest Zone in the mission! I'm gonna try to send some letters home probably next week sometime. Just so you know. Earlier this week, Hermana Beltran took us out for dinner to a new taqueria called "San Juan's". It was super good!

     Hermano Juan told us that he takes his Book of Mormon to work with him, and that when his buddies are drinking beer, and he feels tempted to drink with them, he pulls it out and reads it for strength. The Book of Mormon has incredible power!

     Elder Vargas was sick for a couple days this week. We didn't get to do a whole lot which sucked, but oh well! He was in the bathroom most of Friday night. He's feeling better now though.

While we were walking home the other day, this guy called out to us after we had passed him. When we turned around to look at him, he lifted up his beer and said, "this one's for you" then took a drink. We said thanks and moved on. But it waws kinda funny.

     When we were walking home yesterday, this guy asked us to come over to him. He was super drunk and only wanted to talk about American Politics. Elder Vargas told him that I didn't know very much Spanish so he would stop talking about it. He asked if we had dinner, and I had a bag with some cake and some bread in it from the Ruiz family, so that was our dinner for the moment. He told us to wait there while he went into the house. When he went in, he whistled quietly and some other grown men in the house quieted down and moved to a different room where we could no longer see them from the street. He came back out with two fried fish for us to take home, and another bottle of beer for himself. We asked him if there was anything we could do to help him, and he said that he fixes the problems of Culiacan. Elder Vargas is pretty sure that he's a Narco. So, I've shaken hands with a member of Mexico's drug gang.

     Here, there are already people putting up their Christmas lights :/ Everything in the stores is Christmas already.

     The Lopez Gomez family is planning on getting baptized on the 17th of next week.

We ate with the Bishop's family again yesterday, and their little daughter Kim would whisper secrets in my ear while we were eating. She wanted me to go color with her on the couch, but to not tell my companion haha She's about 5. It was really funny!

I love you guys! I hope you're having a great week!

-Elder Radmall

Monday October 31st, 2016

I like the title of the email in Spanish haha (Editor's note:  We titled our letter: Dia de Muertos

I keep forgetting to say. Everybody that's served on the Tucker side has gone Spanish speaking. 

I was looking through my paperwork the other day, and how the transfers fall, I'll finish my mission on June 4th, 17 days before I complete 2 years. 

We were in the Church Building next to the Mission offices earlier this week, and an Elder there from Mexico City was there. It was his 2nd day in the mission, and he wanted to practice his Spanish with me. It was actually pretty good. He had a few questions about how to say a few words in English, and I was able to tell him, which was pretty cool! It was actually hard for me to say some words in English, it came to me first in Spanish. Spanish is already ruining my English, but oh well!

In our area, there's this dog that chases other people, but when we walk by him, he doesn't even bark. It's awesome how the Lord protects his servants. 

The Lopez Gomes family went to church yesterday, and if they go one more time, they can be baptized, and want to. Juan Garcia received the Aaronic Priesthood yesterday.

We got to go to the ward's Halloween party, which wasn't a party. They watched conference talks, played one game, judged costumes (I got asked to be one of the judges), and had hot dogs.  The costumes were... ok haha They mostly just wore what they wore to work, and said they dressed up haha

I went contacting the other day with Elder Wright, who is from Utah, and he said that I talk like an Idahoan haha That's good, since I am an Idahoan.  This week I was told by Elder Wright that my Spanish is really good for only being in the mission for 3 months.

Today I got a letter from the Kolsens. (A family in Forest's home ward) It was sent August 1st. He caught a 42 inch Salmon! That's crazy!

The other day when I shook a guys hand, he wanted to see how strong my grip was, I don't know why. But anyway, he started to squeeze, and I overpowered him. Then he squeezed with both of his hands, and I still overpowered him, it was awesome!

I don't know what happened to my camera, but it doesn't work anymore, so I'm gonna need to buy a new one, so if you could put some money on my card, that'd be awesome! Thanks!

So, now more about Sam's question.  (Sam asked Forest if he slept well Sunday night before p-day because Matt specifically prayed that he would)  Saturday night was a super long night. I didn't sleep hardly at all. At 2:30 in the morning I threw up. I felt a little better after that, but still wasn't really able to sleep. At 6:30 Elder Vargas gave me a blessing, and I slept for two more hours. While I was sleeping Elder Vargas called Hermana Beltran, the member across the street, and she brought over some Pepto-bismol, and some pills for my stomach. She also brought over a drink that's supposed to calm the stomach. Well, we went to church, and word spread that I wasn't feeling good, and the Bishop's wife went to the store and bought me an Electrolit, which is a drink that helps with dehydration, and has a lot of other vitamins in it. It helped a little. Our investigator, Paola Rojo, wanted some water, so she left to buy water, and came back with Pepto-bismol for me, which was nice of her. The Lopez Gomez family gave me chicken soup, and some lotion that's supposed to help when your body aches. The Ricci family gave some pills for my headache. Lots of people helped, which was awesome! Last night, I slept amazing!!! I needed it. I was so tired! I feel a lot better today.

I love you guys!

-Elder Radmall

P.S.

I don't want to be needy, but if you haven't sent the Christmas package yet, I would love some more photos of you guys, people in the ward, and just little things around the house and Twin. Ties are always nice. And I would love a workout book. An Elder here has one called "Your Body is Your Own Gym" It's written by a Navy Seal, and the workouts in it are soley workouts you can do with out weights. Thanks. I love you guys! Oh! The time changed an hour here as well.

Back and forth between Dad and Forest...

Forest:  I keep waiting for it to snow, but it's just hot haha. Well, I care about you guys a lot, you know family is all you've really got ;) but I pray for you guys every day. Ummm I would love a picture of our backyard, the canyon, you guys, yeah, and whatever else you want to take a picture of. Oh, and the hunting pictures .

Dad:  OK, don't forget to get the sim card out of your camera. and don't spend a ton on your camera. and don't break it, and , and ,and, jk ok, we'll get you some pics, it may take some time to get to you from here, we'll see. grandma and grandpa say hi

Forest:  ok, hi!

Dad:  So does it ever cool off there? I'm glad your feeling better, stay healthy, the work is hard, long days everyday!

Forest:  Ummm not really. When the sun goes down, like right now acually, it's a litte cooler, but not a whole lot.

Dad:  Well it's cooled off here, tons of rain too. Our time changes this weekend so it's 6:30 here right now.

Forest:  We changed yesterday, so it's 5:30 right now

Dad:  I didn't know you changed times there, cool. so you ate hotdogs for your halloween party huh, any chili?

Forest:  nope, just hotdogs. It kinda sucked 

Thanksgiving and Christmas are gonna suck too, but oh well. It's only for two years.

Dad:  So...hotdogs for thanksgiving, haha. we are having homemade pizza tonight, how do you like that kid!

Forest:  Shut up! haha I'll probably have a sandwich :(

Dad:  I'll freeze ya a slice. Mom says thanks, she wore your cowboy hat for halloween at school. Are the members feeding ya regularly?

Forest:  Nice! Yeah, we have a lunch appointment almost every day.

Dad:  Good, any American style cooking ever? Can you buy steak there? and do you have any sisters that are cooking thanksgiving?

Forest:  We don't have any American sisters in our Zone. I've heard that you can buy steak, and you run into more Americans in the Baja. So, maybe for Christmas :) The Steak here is super thin :/ I gotta go. I love you guys! Have an awesome week!

Dad:  Check battery in camera!

Forest:  It's new. It turns on, but the screen is almost totally black, and there's weird colored line through it .

Dad:  Bummer!

Forest: Yeah. Talk to ya next week!