Elder Tellez 9-17-12 Email

This week was good. We had stake conference here in Martinez. President Lopez came and spoke. We also had 5 baptisms in our zone. We baptized 1 in my area. We had a baptismal service Saturday and another Sunday after the conference. There were 60 or more people in the baptism on Sunday, 15 of which we investigators. We have a goal of 8 baptisms this week as a zone. In my area(s) we are going to baptize 2 or 3. I say areas because we have two wards now, Ejidal and Martinez, because Elder Sulzen (the elder without a companion) is now our companion. I'm loving it here, it is just really hot. It is just a small town, but I know like 6 people who speak fluent english. My direction is the calle articulo (I think) 27 between the calles Martinez de la Torre and Lopez Mateo in the colonia Ejidal. It is the great and spacious building (the only one). I have climbed up the hill, now that was that slow and hard part. Now, I am going down and that is the quick and easy part, haha. The year mark has come (finally), but I still love the mission. I'm so happy for you gramma that you are moving into the apartment, I can't wait to see some pictures. Mama, 2nd counselor in the young womens, haha, that's cool. I love Joshua's section shirt. My favorite part is the "Little John", haha. What is the name of his band director, is he old, does he have a family, is he cool? Yay, General Conference is coming up in a couple of weeks. Happy early birthday to Bianca "the old lady" 23, wow. This will be the last birthday she has with me on a mission, haha. Can you check when the enrollment is for BYU Hawaii in the winter 2013 semester or spring 2014 semester, like when the money plan and application deadline are? Depending on that I might come home a couple of weeks earlier. But I don't know. Ok time for me to go. I love you all.

Elder Tellez 9-10-12 Email

Hello family. How is everyone? I'm great. I'm loving my new assignment as zone leader. My companion is awesome. In fact I have another companion, Elder Sulzen (the tall american in the baptismal photos). I count him as a companion bacause he doesn't have a companion so he stays with us or goes with youth from his ward. Gramma: My mission president is President Lopez. You would send packages to the address of the new mission office that I sent in one of my emails in July. I'm not sure what the location of my house is yet but I will get that info for ya'll next week. Martinez is relatively small. There is no Walmart or anything like that. There are two stores: Bodega Aurrera and Chedraui. Aurrera is a branch off of Walmart but not as cool. Chedraui is a mexican store equal in size to a Walmart supercenter but obviously doesn't a whole bunch of american things. I actually like Chedraui, so that's good. There is a Domino's and it delivers to my apartment, haha, finally. The city is too small to have a whole bunch of awesome restaurants but big enough to have it's own stake. My zone has two district leaders. In total, my companion and I are over 5 companionships (not including us but including Elder Sulzen) or 9 misionaries. There are two sister misionaries in our zone (as you can tell in the photo). The taller sister is brand new in the mission and she speaks really good english (she is from Mexico). My companion is working really hard to learn english so that he can go to BYU. He knows alot already so we talk a lot of english. He ends his mission in January along with Elder Sulzen. That is all the time that I have. I love you all.

Elder Escobar and Elder Jensen went on a 10 mile up and down hills bike ride to Block Island with the Narragansett Elders. Pretty nice scenery!

Elder Everett Escobar 9/10/2012

Hello,

Sorry if there is not too much in this letter. I am writing it in a hurry and so yea that's why. But it does sound like you all had fun this week, except for Aaron's Subway incident. So this week has been busy busy busy with meetings and will probably be that way for the remainder of the month. Please pray for one of our investigators, Michael, he bore his testimony last Sunday and said he is ready to get baptized this month. However, a few family conflicts arose on Tuesday and his adult son, Justin went missing. They don't have any leads as of right now on where he could be ): So Michael is under a lot of stress and I don't know how he is going to handle it. Other than that we are strengthening our relationships with the members and helping them with their callings which helps us in return, find more less-actives and potential investigators. So we haven't done too much teaching with investigators this week but we plan on teaching plenty this week and the coming week after that. We were having a ridiculous time with members feeding us, so I have pretty much spent all of my msf on food that is at the apartment. However, the members as of yesterday started feeling bad for us, because the bishopric complained for us and so now we have 4 families signed up to feed us this week. 2 weeks ago we went on P-Day to Block Island with the Narragansett Elders, we had to take a ferry, it was fun and we had a good time. Rode a bike for 10 miles up and down and up and down hills, my thighs were crying in agony, but it was good exercise though. Today I am on exchanges with Elder Munson, so that's why I didn't e-mail earlier. Well gotta go...

With much love,

Elder Everett Alan Escobar

Elder Tellez 9-3-12 Email

Hello, how is everyone doing? I'm great. So, I found out that there was a Pizza Hut in my area. But, I'm being transferred, haha. Tomorrow I will be going to Martinez de la Torre. I will be a zone leader. Now, I will explain what a zone leader does: there are two zone leaders in a zone (my companion, Elder Valdez, and me). A zone consists of a couple of districts (I was district leader). The zone leaders conduct zone conferences and zone meetings. We do baptismal interviews for the people that our district leaders are going to baptize. There are six zones in the Xalapa mission: Xalapa zone, Poza Rica zone, Papantla zone, Tuxpan zone, Teziutlan zone, and the newly opened Martinez de la Torre zone. Up until tomorrow, the Martinez zone has been a part of the Teziutlan zone. I'm really excited for this new assignment and for a new area. I will truly miss Xalapa for the weather. Martinez is super hot like Poza Rica so I'm trying to get ready for that, haha. Today I had the greatest burger ever, a Carl's Jr burger, ahhhhhhhhhh. We also had some Dominos. There aren't any Carls Jr's in Houston are there? If there are then that is awesome, if not, then we need one. That's all for today, haha. I love you all.

Elder Waddell 8-27-12

So transfers happened. I will be leaving on Tuesday
for Fairbanks 5th ward. I'm also training a new
missionary that I'll meet Tuesday morning. So that's kind of
exciting. It's weird because I didn't feel like I should be leaving
yet. And we now have someone who really seems like he'll progress but
I guess it's time for me to skidaddle for a few months. I'll probably
be back though. So I'm not too worried. I am a little worried because
we'll be whitewashing the area so I don't want to mess anything up
because they're doing good work up there right now. We'll see I guess.
I'm excited for the cold. So don't be surprised if a chunk of the
money on my card disappears. I'll need a coat. Hopefully I'll see
the northern lights and stuff. We'll see. I'm happy because we
finished our four transfers with the best week we've had last week.
And the best transfer I've had in my mission. So that's cool. I'm just
hoping I don't just fail with this new missionary. I'll give it my
all. Oh just a note to the girls they better send me lihing candies
when they get to school. Haha!  Things have been going really
well and I'm excited for the next set of adventures. Love you guys

Elder Waddell

Elder Tellez 8-27-12 Email

How is everyone doing? I'm good. This week, my companion and I were companions with one of the zone leaders, Elder LaBianca, because his companion, Elder Ursua, just ended his mission (he actually extended). We were his companion for one day, haha, now a youth is with him for the week until his new companion comes. Yup, transfers are next week. I will update ya'll next week. But more than likely I will stay here and my companion will leave. I'm about to get my 7th companion, WOW, haha. In the picture with missionaries in it, the man in the background with the suit is President Lopez the mission pres. He came to my district meeting with his assistants to see if I was doing a good job, haha, it went well. He gave me some productive criticism but for the most part he said it was an awesome class. We had a baptism yesterday. Her name is Lucero, she is awesome. She works at the restaurant of the ward mission leader. Now we are working with her 8 siblings. I recieved the money, ahhhhh what a blessing, thank you. Yeah about All Bran, it's ok, I love it and it was really cheap at Costco, haha. Well, time to end this lovely letter from the heart, haha. I love you all thhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss much........and more, haha.

Elder Tellez 8-20-12 Email

Hola familia mia. How is everyone? I hope good. I'm just swell, haha. So, it turns out another tropical storm or depression passed by this weekend. Like last week, nothing happened. I could buy shirts down here, they are cheaper. I just need money. Thank you for sending your talk, nice job, haha. I haven't spoken in a while, yesterday was missionary sunday, but my companion, the ward mission leader and the first counselor of the bishopric (there is no bishop but don't ask me why, haha) spoke. But I like it, I get to keep my peace, haha, remain silent. We have a baptism this week, Lucero, she is a worker at the restaurant of the ward mission leader. We might also baptize Patricia but she needs to get married. I actually have 35 baptisms but it's not really about numbers, haha. I hope all is well up there in Texas. I will call President Lopez to see if he has the money. I still have stomach problems but I guess i'm used to them that they don't bother me, haha. Anything new in the ward or stake? Anything new in Dayton or Liberty? Anything new in general? Time to go. Sorry I don't write much, but it comes from the heart. Until next week. I love you!!!!

ELDER EVERETT ESCOBAR 8/27/2012

Hey, my new companion is Elder Jensen! He is really cool. He is from Montana, he is the second of ten children. His family just moved to Sandy, Utah. He didn't like the MTC, haha. He likes football, ultimate frisbee, and anything outdoors. He is 19 years old and has done 2 years of college, he graduated a year early. He wants to become an engineer. How is school going for the boys? My burn on my arm is healing up pretty well, I am super tired. But I still feel happy. The missionary that baptized Caleb was Elder McQueen, one of his past missionaries (the missionary that I replaced). So yes I did teach Caleb. Training is different, but I can already tell that I have room for growth spiritually and that this will be learning process for both Elder Jensen and I. As of right now we don't really have any miles on our car so things are kind of tight, teaching-wise. We have been walking A LOT! Walking reminds me of my first area in Cambridge. Its so hard to believe that a year has gone by, ever since my 6 month mark, time has just come and gone like no one's business. As of right now I am just trying to sustain myself food wise for the rest of the month, so the money that grandma and grandpa sent is coming in handy. Please tell them 'thank you' and that 'I love them', for me if you haven't already. Everything is good here on the mission. So I believe that I did get that other package apparently (: So no need to worry. David is going to be a dad, changes just keep a rolling on by. Good for him. I will keep working and I love everyone of you very much, hope you have a great week, although it may be tiring.

Love,

Elder Everett Alan Escobar

ELDER EVERETT ESCOBAR 8/21/2012

Hey-low!

This week has just chaotically zoomed right on by! Tendonitus: Eck! Seminary: Cool! Eagle Scout Project: Awesome! FBI Training: Interesting. (Is Dad switching over to the FBI or is he mustering in extra credentials for work?) Facebook Timeline?: What is that? I haven't been on Facebook at all. I didn't even know that Facebook had a timeline. I guess I'm out of the loop haha. So you wanted me to tell you all about my birthday, well other than district meeting, my burfday was kind of overlooked. I wanted it that way though. However, a lot happened on my birthday. First before I get ahead of myself, Tuesday I went on tours with the Zone Leaders. Then on Wednesday we had Zone Conference on Wednesday, which was nice. President Packard taught us more about working with the members in our wards. The next day, celebrated my birthday after district meeting and later, I got burned from a light bulb (as silly as that sounds). It hurt though, it was burning hot and melted off the top layer of skin on my arm. I'm pretty sure that a scar will result from that. The day after that we had a Ward Movie Night, we watched The Testaments and Brother Stabley (a less-active, that we have been working with) came so it was a success. Then finally on Saturday after a stressful morning we had the baptism of Caleb Dugan. I didn't tell anyone that it was my birthday because I wanted it to be Caleb's special day and I didn't want to steal some of his lime-light, so that why my birthday got overlooked; but I'm perfectly fine with that. Then later on Saturday I received a phone call from President Packard and I not only have the call to be a District Leader, but a call to be a Trainer was extended to me and of course, I accepted. So Elder Carlson is getting transferred to Amherst, Massachusetts tomorrow and I will meet my 'son' at transfer meeting. You didn't think that I would have a son this early did yah?! Haha. Elder Yim will be at the transfer meeting too, so we can take a generation picture! It's going to be hard but I'm excited. So Saturday was a good day! And then on Sunday, Bishop Bailey asked us to speak on the Third Article of Faith; I tied it into missionary work of course. It was a spiritual experience, yet again don't remember exactly what I said. In preparing I just made a simple outline of the points that I wanted to cover and came up with multiple ideas. In speaking I just let the spirit guide, I had studied and done my part. After sacrament meeting and even now the members are still thanking us for our talks and how we have inspired them to do more missionary work. Exciting week, it just went by so fast! So how are the Ginsels doing? Have they taken the discussions? How are the Stones? How is Travis doing at work? How are grandma and grandpa doing? I didn't not receive 5 packages this week, I received 4. But I got a notification from the mission office saying that there was a package for me, so I will get that tomorrow at transfer meeting. I received a card from my cousins in Juarez, I will write them back shortly. So thank you for the gifts, I have actually contemplated buying a sketch pad, I guess I don't have to buy one now. Well I guess I will e-mail you again on Monday, which will seem like tomorrow. I have gotten away from exercising because of all the meetings we have been having /: I will have to start back up with my son tomorrow. I have to drive early in the morning tomorrow and be at Belmont Chapel at 8am tomorrow, that's pretty nasty, oh well. I've gone through harder hours in the morning. I will send pics now.

Love your 20 year old son/brother/grandson/friend,

Elder Everett Alan Escobar