2/18/2013 Photos & Elder Coffman Transferred to Valladolid, MX

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Coffman  

Date: Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 4:43 PM
Subject: Re: Hola Elder Coffman!! 2/17/2013 We LOVE You!!
To: Janel Coffman <janelscoffman@gmail.com>

hola. well i am here in my new area. it was hard leaving my last area even though i was only there for two weeks. it was a really good area and i really loved the members and investigators we had. i also became pretty good friends with elder wadsworth but i guess that´s just the life of a missionary. i am super excited to have my own area now though. i think i´ll stay here for a while like at least six months so it will be good to get settled if i do end up staying here for that long. but anyways my new area is a pretty big tourist place. it is still in the state of yucatan but it is in a city called valladolid and is about 2 hours away from merida and 2 hours away from cancun. my new companion is elder reyes. he is from mexico city. he`s pretty cool and i think we'll get a long pretty good. im gonna learn a lot of spanish now because i´ll be forced to talk in spanish haha. the area is a city but we have two pueblitos i think in the area that are pretty small. i´ve haven't been there yet but the wards there are small so they only have a house of prayer. here in valladolid they have a capilla and there are a lot of members. i´m super excited to be here in this area. it´ll be hard work because elder reyes and i don´t have a lot of time on the mission but i know we can have success if we work hard enough and have the spirit. i also know i´m here for a reason. the Lord always knows where we are most needed. like for example, in my last area we founda antiguo investigador or he found us i guess because he thought i looked like another elder who taught him before. he said he wouldn´t have talked to us unless he didn´t think i was elder shanky so it was a miracle but God works in mysterous ways or however you spell it haha. ´but anyways this area is cool there are a couple of really old catholic churches and also a cenote. you´ll have to look that one up to find out what they are haha. basically they are caves with water in them. we already ate with the members and they gave us a ton of food so i´m glad about that hahathe elder i am replacing is going home in a couple of days and he is actually from san bernardino. so that´s cool for stephen.

i´m glad grandma is home! that makes me so happy to hear that! she´s reallly tough haha her and grandpa are a great example for me haha tell them i love her a lot

well i´m glad everything seems to be going good with all you guys. i love you a lot and i hope you can all have agreat week.

mother, there is no spell checker and i the keyboards are different here so sometimes i miss the shift key to do capital letters haha  i took pics and i´ll send some. that´s awesome about grandma! tell her i love her alot

michelle that´s cool  you're with the cousins. i bet you´re liking that warm weather haha it´s super hot here haha but we are having cool experiences everyday. sometimes i feel like the mission is one big miracle or spiritual experience.

hermanito, esta bien con la novia haha pero es verdad lo que dice sobre la belleza de la persona. he visto esto mucho tanto en la hopital como aqui en mexico. he notatdo los nombres de mis conversos pero las direciones son diferentes aqui haha tengo sus correos electronicos y facebook si los tienen haha bueno te amo mucho

sup pops. thats cool about the motos but not so cool about the buick. i guess it´s got a lot to fix on it. i wish i could help you fix it but you´ll have to do without me. maybe michelle will help...not haha jk i drank goats milk and it was really good. also people always ride motorcycles here so it reminds me of you. and a banana a day keeps the monkeys away, but 2 a day keeps you on the toilet haha jk but i love you a lot. thanks for all you do for me and the family.

Janel's Note:
Here's some photos Elder Coffman sent along with his email update this week.

2/5/2013.  Close up shot.

2/5/2013.  Me pointing at the Temple.  I had no idea it was next to our Church in Merida.

2/3/2013.  My first Missionary Companions- Elder Galindo and Elder Conally, they were assistants to the President.  Now that Elder Galindo isn't and my old Comp Elder Martinez is.

2/6/2013.  Baptism.

2/12/2013.  Baptism.

2/12/2013.  Elder Wadsworth and I at the Temple.

2/9/2013.  AC in my house in Merida.

2/14/2013.  Blisters haha but they are all gone now.

2/15/2013.  Goats milk - yum.

2-17-2013.  Carlos Sanchez. This was my last day in this area of  Mexico.

2/18/2013.  Last pic. of Elder Martinez and I "looking good" haha.

2/18/2013.  Packed in a taxi.

2013 2-18.  Last pic. of Elder Wads and I.

2/17/2013. Our baptism Luis.

Below are some pictures from Valladolid Mexico where Elder Coffman is now serving.  

I've also included photos of some of the Cenotes that are in Valladolid, Mexico which Elder Coffman mentions in his email.

2/11/2013 Zone Conference and 2 Baptisms

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Coffman 

 Date: Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 1:50 PM
Subject: Re: weekly letter
To: Janel Coffman <janelscoffman@gmail.com>

<hola! well this week was really good. it seemed long but only because every day was packed with spiritual experiences and teaching haha.  we are super busy right now because we go on divisions everyday. we are basically doing double the work. it's pretty nice and i love working hard. we had a zone conference on tuesday. we went to our capilla and it's a really beautiful building. and it´s right next to the temple! i was pretty surprised when i saw that. it's a beautiful place. and it was awesome the only thing i didn´t like is they announced that we all have to have comb overs or part our hair or whatever you call it so i have to do my hair in the morning now haha but it´s all good. we look more professional that way i guess haha one of the main messages that was given was about faith. it was a really strong message given by sister salinas. she talked about the miracles Christ preformed and how before all of them he would ask if they had faith. there were 2 main reasons why. 1. because the faith is necessary to perform miracles, and two because christ was concerned with the faith of the people. he didn´t ask them if they were hurt or if they wanted to be healed, he only asked if they had faith. he asked because faith is vitally important. the atonement works only for those who believe in christ and have the faith to repent. another thing that was also interesting about the miracles christ preformed was how the only one that is recorded where he didnt ask if the afflicted person had faith was with the child who was lowered from the ceiling. the reason why is because  this person showed his faith through his works by lowering his child through the ceiling.. and that is the main point. faith is not just something we think. true faith is action.  it is what brings us to action. it is what drive us to repent. it is trusting in the lord that if we obey the commandments, we will be blessed. and we are blessed not because we have earned them, but because by being obedient we make our selves worthy of receiving blessings from our loving father in heaven. we need to have the faith that God will take care of us if we put him first. its true we need to have order in all things and not run faster then we can walk  (the scripture says something better but it's in mosiah 4:27 i think if you want to read it) but when it all comes down to it, the only thing we need to truly worry about at the end of the day is if we are closer to christ then we were yesterday and if we are willing to improve tomorrow. well that was one of the main messages from the zone conference. it was a lot better the way sister salinas gave it, but this is the basic message. the other part of it was about the atonement. it was super powerful. president salinas is one of the most powerful people i know.

well along with the zone conference, we had 2 baptisms. we should have another one this week as well. the baptisms were really good. one of them was a hermano who has 21 years and he wants to serve a mission. his family loves to cook for us so we have been eating a lot. i was doing good on not eating too much and just pretending i was full until last night when i couldn´t help it anymore becasue the food was really good. it was funny because when they asked if i was still hungry i couldn´t lie beacuse i´m a missionary haha. so basically i kept saying i wasn´t full when they asked and so they kept giving me more food haha. they always say coman sin pena which means don´t be embarrased to eat more haha. they always give so much and they love it. ánd its not just this family either. everyone gives us food and so we are never hungry so don´t worry about us not getting enough to eat. they always say that no mother wants to see their son come home skinny so i guess i probably won´t. hopefully i´ll be able to keep my exercises in the morning up so i can stay fit haha but they are all really cool people though and we will be baptizing the rest of that kids family soon i hope. it's hard because i am getting really attached to this area and the members and the people but i´ll be leaving next week. i really love the work and my companions and everything. i´m so glad i´m out here again.

i´m glad yáll had a good time with mother´s birthday! i didn´t forget it was her birthday either so don´t worry haha i won't send anything because by the time it gets there it will probably be michelle´s birthday jaja but that sounds fun. what did you guys eat and i guess it´s still snowing? i don´t miss shoveling at all how much did it snow? the closest thing we have to snow here is in one of the rooms we have ac and that makes it pretty cold but it's still super nice compared to the rest of the house. it's funny because my comp and i say that the harder you workout in the morning the better your cold shower will be so we always workout way hard. i love you all so much and i hope you can all make the atonement a bigger part of your life. true conversion is a process but the end result is perfection. we won't get there in this life, but i know that it is all possible though our faith and diligence and obedience to the gospel. i love you guys. oh and there is a member here named elder maya. he served with the brother fabrizio in the ward. tell him that elder maya said hi.

mother happy bday again! i love you so much.! i wish i could give you a big hug and kiss for your b-day but tell daddy to give you one for me haha you can do whatever you want with that letter. it's on my laptop. i think it's called mission letter one. i´m glad it could be a help for other people because everything i said in it is true. you guys can read it too haha i´m getting alot of pics and i´ll get one of our comps together. the thing worked on the pdf for the pedometer, but it would be better on paper because i don´t have access to a computer and a printer. also maybe you could send me some ab exercises printed out if you do send something. i have some right now but they get boring after awhile haha. the computer i´m on doesn't have a working usb port so i can´t send pics this week either but i´m taking a lot of good ones and i´ll send them next week.love you oh and my comp went to fremont. i never played against him but he really likes football. we talk about it a lot haha

a hobe so what movie did you see? and did you give that box to ali yet? oh and how are the squirrels doing? there are a bunch of opossums here that get ran over by cars and that's the closest thing to squirrels that we have haha love your guts mc oh and i hope you don´t break the phone haha

whats up pop. well that's good about the snow kinda haha i guess the snow pack will be good. i´m glad you can go to the stuff with mother and michelle. that´s good you aren't working as late anymore. i guess the busy season will be starting up soon again anyways though so it will start to get more late for you again. how is grandma doing? well goodbye. love you

ps sorry my spellings so bad..i hope you can understand what i´m saying. i don´t have a lot of time to look over the letter haha so good luck

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Stephen Coffman <stephenecoffman@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Feb 12, 2013 at 2:51 PM
Subject: Fwd: ¡Hola!
To: Janel Coffman <janelscoffman@gmail.com>

Okay - here's the message I sent David:

Hi brother!  Sorry - I forgot to write you an email this week.  This week has gone by so fast!  But I am well - and I really enjoy reading your emails!  I hope it's not too late for you to receive this!

I love you.  c:

Fox

♫

And then he replied:

I received your message brother.  Está biem haha everyone here says m instead of n.  It's funny.  I love you a lot.  Do you have a girl friend or not yet?  Well, I love you more than you know.  Bye.

And here's the original Spanish versions:

De: David Coffman

Fecha: 11 de febrero de 2013 1:22:26 p.m. GMT-07:00
Para: Stephen Coffman <stephenecoffman@gmail.com>
Asunto: Re: ¡Hola!

recibi tu carta hermanito. esta biem haha todos aqui dicen m en ves de n. es chistoso. pues te amo mucho. y tienes una novia o todavia no? pues te amo mas de lo que sabes. adios

El 11 de febrero de 2013 13:40, Stephen Coffman <stephenecoffman@gmail.com> escribió:

¡Hola hermano!  Perdón - se me olvidó escribirte un correo esta
semana.  ¡La semana ha pasado muy rápido! Pero estoy bien - y
¡disfruto mucho leer tus mensajes!  ¡Espero que no sea demasiado tarde
para que recibas esto!

Te amo. c:

Fox
♫

2/4/2013 Mission Update - The Liahona compared to the words of Christ

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Coffman 

 Date: Mon, Feb 4, 2013 at 4:04 PM
Subject: Re: hola
To: Janel Coffman <janelscoffman@gmail.com>

well i´m back to normal missionary schedule now so my pday will be mondays. last night i had my interview with the mission president and it went well. he told me some really cool stuff about life and my mission and it was great. he is a very Christ like person and i have learned so much from him. he really does love the lord.

 i am now in a different area with zone leaders. i´ll miss elder galindo and elder connolly (especially because they didn't mind carrying the toilet paper we bought this week jaja jk) one is elder wadsworth. he´s from ogden and i finally have a companion who likes football so we get a long pretty well. i guess you could say we have a lot in common and  he likes to work out so that's good too. the other companion who is a zone leader as well is elder martinez. he´s from the dominican republic and is super cool tambien. he talks really fast spanish but doesn´t have the notorious dominican accent so i can understand him most of the time. luckily he speaks perfect english so that helps too. he´s also a really good singer. we call him chris brown. our new house is one of the nicest in the mission. it is huge!! we also have a washing machine so that is pretty nice too. it´s a way nice house but i have to keep most of my stuff in my suitcase because i´ll be going to a different area in a couple of weeks. but i´ll be glad to get my own area and my own comp when the time comes. this part of merida is a little poorer than the last area but that´s ok because the humble people are the ones that usually listen.

i had some cool things happen for the past couple of days. we were talking to some kids and we decided to give them a book of mormon and when we did, one of them was really interested in it and he immediately began to look through the book. so i kinda took him to the side and gave him a little part to read that night and he said well is it ok if i read more? jaja que potente es este muchacho! i probably won't ever see him again because he was in a different area but i know a seed was definitely planted. well he started reading the book right there in the street and i was super excited. i don´t know if he´ll stick with it, but i hope he does because the gospel will make his life so better even though he is young. i was really impressed with how interested he was in the book and it made me feel bad because sometimes i think i take all the extra scripture we have as latter-day saints for granted. then that sunday during my studies i read a cool part in the bom in alma where it describes the liahona and compares it to the words of Christ. it says that the words of Christ will take us to the direct path of happiness. it is such a good comparison because it´s exactly what the liahona did for lehi and his family. sometimes, however, they didn´t follow it or they weren't able to understand it all the time due to their shortcomings as human beings and so it ended up taking them longer to get to the promised land. as is with the book of mormon and the other scriptures. it's so easy. we have it right there:a map to happiness. it also talks about prayer in this chapter and i know that is an essential part as well. so i invite yáll to read the scriptures more often and really search them because they have the information that will get you to the direct path to happiness.

we also had a way good testimony meeting where we went over by 20 minutes. the members here are awesome and its cool because we are really involving the members in the work now. although some of them are brand new members, they still have their testimonies and although simple, they are super powerful and each time they share it, it gets stronger.

well it sounds like everything is going good at home. i hope you guys are enjoying the cool weather because i´m loving the sun! if you guys ever send anything out here, could you send me a pedometer. i´m curious to see how much we walk.

Janel's note:  Thank you so much for your love and support of Elder Coffman.

Per Elder Coffman's suggestion, at our discretion, he suggested leaving some  of the personal messages to our family members out of this blog, due to them not making sense with not hearing both ends of the conversation, but we're keeping these messages safely for him in his personal missionary memories.

  

2/1/2013 Elder Coffman Is Back!!! Merida Mexico

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Coffman
Date: Sat, Feb 2, 2013 at 11:12 AM
Subject:
To: Janel Coffman <janelscoffman@gmail.com>

hola!!!! well i´m here in mexico now and it feels so good to be out here again. even though it was more than a six months that i was home,it doesn´t seem much different. it as i´m going through the day, it doesn't seem like i was ever away from mexico because the work will always have the same proposito. the lords work will always push forward till it is finished and i think that is why i feel that way.  i feel like i´ve been out here the whole time until i look back and then i remember i was home yesterday haha. for that reason, i think i´ll just look forward from now. i´ll learn from the past, but i´ll live the moment to it´s fullest and plan for the future. well about my traveling, the flights all went well and all my luggage got here safe unlike last time so that was nice haha. i arrived in merida at about 9 pm and by the time i got through customs and immigration it was about 1030 when i left the airport. After that i was picked up by the missionaries. They are actually the ap´s so that is why i am writing to day. their p-days are on saturday. and i´m not sure how long i´ll be here. i thought i would go to the mission office first, but we just went straight to the house so idk what will happen but ni modo! i´m just glad to be out here again. there are 2 more weeks in that transfer so i´ll either finish up this transfer or they we'll change me to a different area in the next week.  anyways one of the missionaries was one of the elders that dropped me off at the airport last time. it was pretty good to see him again. his name is elder connolly. The other elder is elder galindo. he is from honduras and he was elder mills compa before me. They are both really good missionaries.

well we rode to our house which is in merida and on our way over we had some tacos. They were called gringas which we were pretty surprised at first because usually that means something bad, but they turned out to just be some super good tacos de pastor. we also drank some jamaica which was a lot better than the jamaica from el rey de oro (sorry pops) haha but anyways we got to our house and i was really surprised to see a bed!! so they did me the favor of giving me the bed to sleep in even though i would have rather slept in the hammock because it was so hot! but oh well it turned out to cool off during the night but i was still sweating most of the night haha. oh and also there was a cowboys blanket on it so that made it worse´(; jaja. its still super hot right now and i´m sweating as im righting

this letter but i´ll get used to it eventually. i´m just glad its winter time...if you can even call it winter haha. the only cold thing about this place is the water. before the water was always refreshing but now its just really coooold. i guess it´s alright though because it wakes you up real nice. ´over all I'm just so glad to be out here again. as i was doing my studies this morning, i read in alma 36 where he is telling his son about his conversion and i couldn´t help but put me in his place. yall should read it. i thought it was really interesting how right after he repented, alma told his son that one of the first things he wanted to do was to share the joy of the gospel. i think a lot of times we take the joy we have from living the gospel for granted. i would invite all of you to try to count the blessings you receive from the gospel and when you do, you´ll want to share them just like alma did and as i am doing now.

i love you all and i hope you all have a great week. idk if i´ll stay here for long and if i do leave then my email day will be monday again so yall can write by next monday and if i get to email then, ill have a message from you but if not then i´ll still be here in merida with the aps.

ps this is for daddy, but remember how you asked me if there are blenders in mexico right before i left? well there are haha we have one in our house. just thought i´d let you know.