Elder Palmer's Zone!

Elder Palmer's E-mail!

Sounds like our Elder is continuing on with a successful mission and growing more each day, despite some trials!

Dearest Family and friends:

I love reading your emails every week. The support I get from you all is truely immense. I know the Lord hears your prayers and has been supporting me because of your wishes. You are all so amazing and really blessed people. I hope that you can all remember who you are. You are all children of our Heavenly Father. If you dont know that, FIND OUT. I know you are all surrounded by people who know how you can figure out your true origines. God loves you and He wants you to be able to feel His love. He hears our prayers. He has blessed all of us with the opportunity to talk to Him whenever we want to. If you are ever feeling alone and really need somebody, He can be that somebody. I testify that God hears your prayers and is waiting to pour out his blessings upon you. Know that.

This week was really rough, spiritual, and full of learning. I have something to say concerning my time here in Mexico so far: I have never in my life felt more hated than I do now. The people all around are much smaller than me, they have darker skin and hair, and they are not wearing a shirt, tie, and slacks. I stick out like a soar thumb. All I hear is racial slurrs against me and the few naughty words that the people here know in English. But I love them. I dont know why because the majority of them dont want me but I just want them to know that God loves them and has a plan for them. It is amazing the support that I have felt from our Lord. I have a new understanding for how Christ felt when the people that He loved so much rejected Him and hated him. All of this is made up for when we find someone who is ready to receive us. I love them.

Three days ago, we met Jose knocking on doors and he invited us in. His wife died nine years ago and he accepted out message without a doubt. Along with our message, he accepted his baptismal date for Christmas! So, I will be wet for Christmas.

We had a ward Christmas dinner the other night and the members amazed us. Our prayers were answered when the members brought friends (7 of them!) and they are all very accepting of our message. We also had a baptism that night during the services of young Nahun who was really ready and excited for his baptism. The members and the new contacts were very excited for him and enjoyed the services.

Elder Montes is a first generation Latter-Day Saint. His mother was a Jehovas Witness when she invited the sister missionaries into her home almost twenty years ago when he was 1. His mother was baptized along with her three kids older than eight. He was later baptized by his older brother (his mom and dad are divorced.) Her has nine months on the mission and an avid student of the Bible. He likes the Book of Mormon and has a strong testimony but knows more about the bible than any other person Ive met. We are working really hard together and I couldnt ask for a better companion.

Our area is Las Americas in Ecatepec, Mexico. It is the Jardines part of Ecatepec near bosques and Las Americas. I doubt you will be able to find it on a map or Google Earth. The addresses are so hard to follow and find that we dont even bother having one for each individual missionary. Sorry Im not very specific. Our ward is Las Americas in the Ecatepec stake.

Anyways, this week was rough. We had over 25 lessons fall through but we beasted through it, found people, continued to study and pray, and ended up with new investigators and a baptism.

I love you all and wish the best for all of you. I will keep praying for you and know the Lord hears my prayers. Happy Birthday yesterday Mom and Brandi, you are going to be the best missionary ever!!

Love,

Elder Palmer

p.s. I do think of you all once in a while. :P

Called to Serve! Brandi Leaves for her Mission to Lisbon Portugal!

We are so proud and overjoyed to have taken Sister Palmer to the MTC yesterday! Sister Palmer is starting her new chapter of her life by serving our Heavenly Father.  She will be serving in the Lisbon Portugal mission.  She will be in the Provo MTC for approximately 2 months and then it will be off to Portugal. We couldn't be more proud of her in her decision to take 18 months of her life, and spend it preaching the gospel to those people of Portugal.
As we hear from Sister Palmer, I will update on here everything that she is experiencing as well as updating everyone on her addresses and the best way to write her.  We are so grateful for all the love and support all of you have shown towards Elder Palmer, and now Sister Palmer as they have both been preparing and now are serving on their missions.
We are so grateful for both of their examples and look forward to hearing from Sister Palmer soon.

Sister Palmer's MTC address is:

Sister Brandi Palmer
Provo Missionary Training Center
2005 N 900 E Mailbox#120
Provo, UT 84604
United States

**While Sister Palmer is in the MTC, we find that it is easier to us dearelder.com to write her.  It is free, and she gets it that day.  All you need is her Mission Box.... #120.

Thanks again to all of you for your support!

Following the Promptings of the Spirit!

Dearest family and friends:

Yet another great week out in the field! Elder Montes and I really wanted to focus this week on getting the members excited about the missionary work and helping invite their friends to church/taking missionary lessons from us. The members here are great...the active ones. It´s really tough to engage the members when we get a max of about thirty members to sacrament on Sunday. Elder Montes and I always knock on the doors of members and ask for references when we pass bye their houses but haven´t had any such luck quite yet. We´re going to keep working on gaining the member´s trust and helping them feel comfortable teaching their friends little pieces of doctrine.

Anyways, this week was pretty crazy. Elder Montes and I were out contacting looking for an appointment and we couldn´t find anyone. It was a really long day and all six of our appointments fell through so we were really disappointed with the numbers from the day. It was eight o´clock on Saturday and it was cold, miserable and it started to rain so we were about to give up. Elder Montes said, let´s head back and plan because we´re not going to find anyone but I felt impressed to say ok but we are going to go down this street first. I have no idea why that thought went through my head because the street was dark and, very obvious to me, dangerous (peligrosa). He agreed and just when we got to the end of the street, we ran into an old couple, probably in their late fifties. I don´t know why I said it, but I turned to the Señor and said, "Señor! Yo testifico que Usted puede vivir con su hermano despues de esta vida si siga el ejemplo de Jesucristo." (I know that you can live with your brother again after this life if you follow the example of Jesus Christ.) We acompanied them back to their house and taught them the plan of salvation and restoration. It turns out that his brother had just died and that he was worried about where his brother would end up. The couple´s names are Efrén y Gloria and we are teaching their 27 year old son Alberto too. I have a feeling that they are a golden contact.

This Sunday we had another baptism: a joven named Brandon. He is 17 and accepted our invitation on Tuesday last week. Elder Montes and I are really excited about this area. We have baptismal dates planned for the next four weeks and are praying that we´ll find more. The record for the mission is eight weeks straight of baptisms in an area and we´ve got three so far (one for the week before I arrived in the field). We have a goal to get eleven straight weeks of baptisms. Now, I know that some people think that having a goal of baptizing is ugly and we´re just trying to bring more people into the church. FALSE!! We are bringing SOULS unto Christ and inviting them to grow closer to God. These people are wonderful and I love them.

We have eight-twelve new investigators depending on how you count and are working hard on inviting them to follow Christ´s example and bringing more joy into their lives through the waters of baptism, the book of mormon, and prayer. Elder Montes is a great companion and we hope to see a lot of success with each other and to keep growing in out teaching abilities and love for the people.

In a less-church related note, Thanksgiving: Elder Montes and I made plans to eat thanksgiving dinner with a family in our ward from America but they had some things come up and that went down the tube...like a lot of our lesson/appointment plans so we ended up contacting the rest of the night. I hardly noticed it was thanksgiving but when Elder Montes would remind me that I was missing out on one of my favorite holidays, I would think of you family. I love you all so much, family and friends and continue to pray for you every night and day. I do read your emails and I love them. I believe that day has my mission office address and that is the best place to direct any of the mail you want to send me. Dearelder remains the best way to go as far as price and security go...

Keep up the scripture study and prayers,

Love:

Elder Palmer

1 Week... and 3 baptisms!!!

Dear family,

 

This week has been nuts. I got here monday, as I already have informed you. We had cambios/changes on tuesday and that´s when I met my companion. His name is Elder Montes, from Chihuauha, México. He is a stud and really has helped me out a lot. My Spanish is really helpful as far as understanding people goes but they sure do like to use words that I have no idea what the heck they mean... Anyways, we taught a few lessons my first day with him and spent some time contacting. I was really excited because our first day seemed really successful. Then day two came.

Day two was a good time and we met a lot of people but all of our lesson plans that we set up fell through and we ended up teaching only members. Fun fact, I come all the way out to Mexico and the first three people I contact are 1 a jehova´s witness, 2 a Mormon from West Valley and 4, a French! What is going on in this world...

Anyways, we are teaching a family, the Garcia family and they accepted out baptismal invitation and got baptised this sunday... That was nutz!! They are great people and are very fascinated by me and America but we teach the Gospel, not imigration. Anyways, Saturday, they asked me to baptize them and that was really scary for me. I´ve only been out here a week and I have three baptisms!! The members are really awesome but church is at seven am so there aren´t many people that show up which is sad.

This sunday, we went to church with the Garcia family so we got there late and right when we got the the first counselor called me up to give a talk. Anyways, this week was really crazy like that.

The area I´m in is called the Americas and all the little neighborhoods are closed, which means we have to street contact and knocking on doors doesn´t really work...It´s really tough to have new investigators because all of our appointments fall through which is always a disappointment. The people are amazing and I really do love them.

Out home is really small. Elder Montes and I live their alone but we hardly spend any time there so It doesn´t matter. The members and investigators feed us really well and I absolutely love the food here...I just need to drink more water. We can´t drink from the tap so we have to buy huge jugs.

Thank you Spencer. Because of our little walks all summer, my feet can handle all the walking. Anyways, I love you all so so much and am excited to send you pictures next week.

 

Keep praying for me and I will keep praying for you.

 

Love,

 

Elder Palmer

Sounds like our Elder is doing great!! We still haven't received a new address yet, but as soon as we do we will let everyone know immediately!

Mexico City Welcomes Elder Palmer

     Elder Palmer has arrived in Mexico City, Mexico! Monday morning Elder Palmer boarded a plane that took him where he will be spending the next 22 months of his life preaching the gospel.  We are more than thrilled for him and the many experiences that he has awaiting him.
     Our Dad just so happened to be heading to Arizona for work the same morning that Elder Palmer was flying out so he was able to see him and spend a little bit of time with him.  While they were waiting both Dad and Elder Palmer got their shoes shinned.  The gentlemen who was shinning Elder Palmer's shoes happend to speak spanish so Elder Palmer got to test out a little bit of his skills.  Dad recorded it so we all got to see him in action. We are all very confident that he will have no problems with the language.  At least we all hope so...
     Monday afternoon Elder Palmer and thirteen other missionaries arrived at the mission home in Mexico City where they stayed for the night and the next morning he will be meeting his new companion.  We will update you more as soon as we hear from Elder Palmer again.
     For now he is safe and sound in Mexico and ready to start spreading our Heavenly Father's gospel...

Here are the mailing instructions for Elder Palmer right now.  When we finally know what his apartment address is we will update you all.

Elder Palmer's Mailing instructions and addresses:

1st option: for letters:  Continue to use DearElder.com Select Mexico City East mission and all letters will be prepared and sent via pouch mail.  The service shows to be free; however, they do have options to donate for the services they provide.  Remember, pouch mail goes out only once a week, on Fridays from SLC church headquarters.

2nd option: You can use pouch mail to send letters to Elder Jordan Palmer, and here are the instructions:

Pouch mail leaves chuch headquarters every friday.  Only postcards or one-page correspondences (no envelopes) written on one side of the page.  No photographs.

Letter folding instructions:  Lay the letter blank side down and fold it inot thirds so the written side is inside.  Secure the long side with two pieces of tape about one inch from each end, but do not seal the ends.  In the top left corner write your name and complete return address.  Affix first class postage in the top right corner.  In the middle write the missionary address as follows:

ELDER JORDAN MICHAEL PALMER

Mexico Mexico City East Mission
POB 30150
Salt Lake City UT 84130-0150


Mailing Packages- Please send to the mission office.  When sending with a private courier, a telephone number at the destination is required.  The following address may be used:

ELDER JORDAN MICHAEL PALMER

Mexico Mexico City East Mission
Fuente de Piramide No. 1 Piso 1
Lomas de Tecamachalco Naucalpan
53950 Estado de Mexico, Estado de Mexico
Mexico

Telephone: 52 55-5003-3312

Thanks everyone!! I think until we get his personal address it sounds like going though DEARELDER.COM is the easiest way to send Elder Palmer your letters.

November 11, 2011 (11/11/11) SURPRISE PHONE CALL!

     It must have been a lucky day(11/11/11)... Today we got an e-mail from Elder Palmer letting us know that he finally had his travel plans and that he would be calling us tonight to update us on his itinerary.
     Around 5:20 we recieved a quick call from our Elder Palmer.  It was so great to hear his voice and he seemed very enthusiastic to know that he recieved his visa and will be leaving straight to Mexico City on Monday morning.
       We are all very excited for our Elder to be moving on to the next step in his mission experience, and being able to serve the people of Mexico City.
      As soon as we have the address for Elder Palmer I will post it.

We can't wait to hear about the first few days Elder Palmer experiences in Mexico City, and to share it with you all.  Untill then....