3/4/2013 The Gospel is a message of hope and joy.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Coffman <david.coffman@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Mar 4, 2013 at 3:09 PM
Subject: Re: Hola! Greetings from your family
To: Janel Coffman <janelscoffman@gmail.com>

hello family! well things are going good. this week was hard again, but it´s ok. i think the hardest thing is finding people who are really interested. we always have lessons planned, but the majority of them don´t happen. i know the work is hard for a reason though. it is hard because salvation is not a cheap experience. being a member of this church is hard, but it really is worth it. i know the the Lord is helping us with the work.  it seems like every day we see at least one little miracle or one little tender mercy. i love teaching and i love serving the lord.

nothing too exciting happened this week though. i am pretty amazed at how fast this month went by. it makes me want to make the most out of my mission because everyone always says it goes by really fast and now that is how i am feeling right now. i love serving the lord and i am so grateful i am out here again. i learned something pretty cool in this past week. it kinda took a while for it to really make sense, but now i understand it better. it started when this family we were teaching told us they didn't have time. all they did was work work work and then sleep and then work work work. and the interesting thing is  that although they were always busy, their life doesn't have any real meaning. they go day after day working and that´s it. that´s when i realized how important it is to know our purpose in life. think of Jesus. he understood perfectly what his purpose was and look what he did. he redeemed a fallen race. not one day was wasted of his life, yet he never did anything for himself. if we understand our purpose, our origins and, being sons of God, really understanding what our true potential is, we will have purpose in life. i read a talk by President Monson that said unless we lose ourselves in giving service to others, our own life has little purpose. i know this is true because it´s how Jesus lived. he was the perfect example of charity and love. for this reason, he gave us the commandment to love god with everything we have and to love our neighbor as we love our selves. i invite you guys to try to understand our purpose here on life and how serving and showing charity to others is eternally intertwined with our divine purpose and responsibility as members of the only true church found on the face of the earth. there is so much more to life than work and money and the things of the world. the gospel is what matters. share it with everyone you can because it really is a gospel of hope and joy.

well i´m glad everything seems to be going good back there in bountiful. how´s the weather back there btw? here it has been unusually cold. like i haven´t sweated in 3 days haha. i never thought i would live a day in mexico without sweating but it´s been really nice!  except at night and in the morning with the cold showers. you get cold at night with me macas because it´s like with the bridges where you have to be extra careful driving over them with the snow because they freeze easier because there is cold air under them( that´s why i always told daddy to be careful while driving over a bridge(; ) haha so you freeze at night with out a sheet, but i have one so it´s all good. it´s funny because when i work out in the morning i try to work out extra hard so that my shower will be more enjoyable jaja well i never thought i would be saying it´s cold here, but i am and i am very grateful for that because everyone says that after this cold spell it´s going to turn into el infierno haha.

 well i love you guys a lot and i´m glad we can be eternal. that´s why i never cry saying goodbye to yáll because i know we´ll see each other again, weather in this life, or in the next.

mother, that´s way cool with tyson. how did he like the salt lake temple? that´s crazy how early he is leaving! he´ll love it. tell him í´m proud of him haha i´m still on my first pair of shoes and i have 2 more unused pairs so i´m good.

adios.

2/14/13. Breakfast. toronja y atun (Breakfast, grapefruit and tuna)

  

3/4/13.  "Me in front of my house in Vallodolid."

3/3/13.  "Our Kitchen"

3/3/2013.  "Where we sleep."

3/4/2013.  "I work out."  ("They just have machines like these in parks all around the city haha but we don't really use them to work out").

2/25/2013 Trust in the Lord, He knows the best way to go.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Coffman <david.coffman@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 4:43 PM
Subject:
To: Janel Coffman <janelscoffman@gmail.com>

well hey there everybody! i´m glad you guys all seem to be doing well. i´m doing great out here. it´s really different now though because up to this point i have always been the junior comp but now as the senior comp a lot more of the responsibility rests on my shoulders. this week has been though but i know things will get better. i´m really gla yall taught me how to work hard and how to be a self starter and all that because it's really helped esecially with me being the senior comp and all that.  but all is well. this has probably been one of the hardest weeks though i've learned a lot though so that´s the important thing. i think it has also helped be to be a lot more patient. well there is some new news with the mission. we will be splitting the peninsula into merida and cancun missions in july. also president salinas will be going home in july. so things will change up a lot. if i stay where i am now, i´ll be in the cancun mission. its super exciting. i´m really sad to see president salinas go though. he´s still got a little time but he´s had a huge impact on my life.

this morning i read alma 57 i think or maybe 58. i had always wondered why there were so many war chapters in the bom, but now i know why. they teach us how to deal with adversity. you should read this chapter and think of all the problems helaman went through and in who he trusted in and what the results were. i was very impressed. they all trusted in the lord and i know that is the best way to go. they never murmured and as they trusted in the lord, they were able to overcome their difficulties. the holy ghost gave them more strength and i know that will happen with us as we seek his help and keep the commandments

this week i went to chemax. it´s a pueblo in our area and the lesson we taught was in maya basically. the hermana culd speak a little spanish, but mostly maya so we had to have a member kinda translate for us. it was pretty good and she got the point and felt the spirit s thats the important thing. the only bad thing was that she started breast feeding during the lesson so that was kinda...awkward....but it wasn´t the first time its happened so it wasn´t too surprising. i went to that ward too on sunday and it was realy good. just half of it was in maya. i was helping the kids focus and kept them interested so it was fun. i´m praying for the gift of tongues but i don´t think i have enough faith because i still don´t understand or speak mishba...  i think that´s how you say nothing

i couldn´t see the pics from google earth because of the email service of the church but i´m sure they are really cool. the area here is really pretty. and that´s supper cool about tyson. have you told richards aunt yet. i wish i could go to the temple with you guys but maybe later on we can come out here and go to the merida temple

as far as the shoes go, they are fine. it was just because the padding broke a little and so i cut it out an made another one and now it works perfectly. they are tie shoes and the blisters are fine. i don´t get them anymore it was just because i wasn´t used t walking and after i popped them they didn´t hurt anymore haha and i remember when the lady said that doctors need to be resourceful. actually i had been trying to remember the word she used for a long time so thanks for saying that.

well i love you guys a lot and i'm glad you are all doing well. also tell the parkinsons, anne, and alis gma that i enjoyed hearing from them. i'll send something to them soon. but today i didn´t have time. tell them all i love them very much.

 

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Coffman <david.coffman@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 4:55 PM
Subject:
To: Janel Coffman <janelscoffman@gmail.com>

2/25/2013 "And the Habenero!! I eat it to speak better Spanish and have a better accent...hopefully it works for Maya too haha."

 

2/20/2013 "Elder Reyes forgot pay for electricity for three weeks so they cut our our lights haha pure candles and the worse part...no fans!! i sweated the whole time haha."

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Coffman <david.coffman@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Feb 25, 2013 at 4:50 PM
Subject:
To: Janel Coffman <janelscoffman@gmail.com>

2/19/13 "These are mate. we drank it from a pineapple it´s basically grass and water and it's from Argentina. we did it for Elder Aguirre's last day. it's pretty cool."

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.