April 23, 2014.

I'm not sure what the plan is for Mother's Day. It's after transfers so the plans are gonna depend on what happens during transfer next week! If I stay in Stamford I'll be able to skype from my apartment haha we have church till about 1:30.. So I'd probly be able to skype anytime in the afternoon or evening? What times work better for all of you? My pull ups have not improved at all since last week. I think it's actually gotten worse.. So I think the update will have to wait until I can do more than I did that one day haha 

Last p day was sick. We rode like 20 ish miles on the bikes.. I loved it! Definitely an opportunity I will likely never have again. Today we went to the skatepark for a little bit and I rode a skateboard in there.. It's been so long! But it was fun. There's an elder here that is really good! But he actually ended up tweaking the skateboard haha it was really funny. In a little bit we are going to new Canaan to go hang out at some member's house.. They have a tennis court and basketball court and a trampoline and soooo we're just gonna go kick it for a little while! Should be good.

This week was pretty good and weird. A few days ago my coach at MCC emailed me again and just told me to get my hands on a basketball if I can.. And we play every morning so I figured I could always do more.. So Monday and Tuesday I convinced one of the elders I live with to wake up at 5:30 with me and go to the church before everyone gets there to be able to do some shooting drills.. We'll probly be waking up that early 4 days a week cuz I really want to play basketball when I come home! I don't want to pass up any opportunities.. 

 On Monday we had a training on faith given by our mission president. It was so good! It was really refreshing because lately all we've been hearing about has been Facebook and online stuff and honestly the online stuff is still not my favorite. So receiving an actual training was really good. We talked about having true faith as missionaries and having sufficient confidence in God to call down the powers of Heaven. It really made all of us think and ask ourselves if we really have that confidence in God to pray for things and actually expect to receive what we are asking for. We set a goal as a mission to have 100 baptisms between now and the end of May... Which in this mission is a TON... But I think we can do it. I'm hoping to be able to contribute.. It's been a little while since I've had a baptism. But regardless, I'm happy. I know I'm successful in other ways! 

We haven't been able to meet with Carlos since last time I wrote. We actually just found some things out from his wife which I don't feel like I can share over email but it doesn't look like Carlos will be ready by May 3rd or anytime soon. But we are trying to have faith and help them overcome this obstacle.. Tonight we are gonna meet with a family of 5 who seem pretty promising! They came to the primary Easter egg hunt activity and were really eager to meet with us. We are teaching them at another members house so hopefully we can get them going! 

Me and my companion are getting along really well. Even though I want to go to the city, I also want to stay with elder Stephens haha he is awesome and we have a lot of fun together. Next week you guys will know if there's any changes or not! I hope you all have a good week! 

April 16, 2014.

My week. And stuff.

Sorry you haven't received any pictures lately. I actually haven't sent any home at all for a long time. The reason is cuz now almost every picture and video gets taken on our iPads.. And I can't send that home haha but I'll see what I can do about sending some home soon. 

So we bought our broadway tickets this week! We bought tickets to watch wicked on July 9th ! I'm pumped :) a lot of my friends out here are going with us so I know that will be an awesome experience! 

This week was pretty good! We met with Carlos and his wife. They are awesome! We taught him about baptism and the Holy Ghost.. He is right now praying about whether or not he wants to be baptized on May 3rd. He is doing so good! At the end of our lesson he said that eventually he would like to be sealed to his family!! Haha so even tho he hasn't officially decided to be baptized yet, we know he has a long term goal of living the gospel with his family. We are super excited for him. Hopefully he gets an answer to his prayers soon! Riding the bikes has been so fun. We're able to talk to a lot more people and lately we've been stopping by some parks and asking if we can play ball with people. We haven't taught any lessons out of it, but we are definitely introducing ourselves to a lot of the youth in our area. Some of them even want to exchange numbers after we play so that they can call us to come play again.. I love it! Hopefully we can turn all of that into something even more positive. 

Today we are going down to manhattan with out bikes.. We're gonna tour the island! We're gonna ride from Harlem down to battery park and probably the Brooklyn bridge and then back up. And on the way back up we are gonna eat lunch up by Times Square kinda. I'm really excited, it should be really fun! We are actually on the train right now from Stamford to the city and I'll just send this email off whenever I have wifi. So yeah. Those are the plans today. I hope all of you have a good week! I love you. Church is true!

April 9, 2014.

things with carlos are going well. he is really awesome. he came to a few sessions of conference with his wife. he seemed pretty tired after, i think he might've fallen asleep haha but we will be seeing him later this week. we think it won't be long before he gets baptized, but there are still some things we have to teach him before that can happen. 

conference was awesome! its awesome watching conference as a missionary.. it gives the meetings a completely different feel. its weird to think that this one was my last one. but i loved it. my top five in no particular order were Elder Holland saturday morning, elder anderson saturday morning, elder eyring saturday morning, elder nelson saturday morning,elder oaks priesthood, President Monson sunday morning, Elder Bednar Sunday morning.... i realize that thats more than five haha but they gave really good talks! mom i hope you find time to watch the saturday sessions cuz they were really good! 

last p day was good, but it was super rushed. its always a little crazy when we go down to the city. today we're gonna be going to a park by a beach and we're gonna play basketball and volleyball. it should be fun! its 60 degrees today which is SOOO NICE. i think back home that would be a little chilly but to us right now the weather is perfect for playing outside. its wonderful. 

i had an interview with president yesterday. it went really well! he is awesome. we talked a lot about how i can finish my mission strong and how i can still be a good example to others, especially at this point of my mission. out here we have these things called "dying wishes"... some say its a myth.. but its real haha basically its just a name we give to requests missionaries have for the mission president in regards to where they want to serve at the end of their missions and with who. soo i asked him if he could pray about me serving down in harlem before i go home! with elder Kerr. he's also from mesa and we've been wanting to serve together for a long time. he's the AP right now, so i think he's going to ask for the same thing.. so i think there's a decent chance of that happening! but we'll see. i'd be fine to die where i am right now, but i would also be pumped if i could go die in the hood with my friend. so cross your fingers for me. 

thats basically all the news. i'm loving life. things are going well! i hope you all took something from conference this week and are applying it, i know i am! Peace and Love,

Elder Zazueta!

April 2, 2014.

Things are still going well here in Stamford. I love being on a bike! It's actually a lot of fun, and it helps keep me in shape ha it's nice to have a little bit of exercise in between appointments! The work here is so different than my last area.. There's actually work to do! We are teaching a variety of people, so we stay pretty busy! Our most promising investigator right now is named Carlos. I think he's from Guatemala? He's married to Ruth, who is Mexican. She's a less active member.. Well, now she is reactivated, but yeah. We are working with him! He seems really happy when we teach him. On Sunday we had a fireside in which one of the sealers in the temple came to speak and it was awesome. He talked to Carlos afterwards and I heard Carlos tell him that he was planning on becoming a member soon! Haha sooo yeah. We are almost there with him. There are a few other people who are showing good signs as well, so we have a lot of good things on our plate. Yesterday was my companions birthday. It was a good day, although I was on a split so I didn't really get to see him too much. Me and him are the oldest missionaries in our zone physically andddd mission age as well. It's really weird looking at the mission and being one of the oldest.. There's like 10 missionaries that go home this transfer, 8 that go home the next transfer, and then 25 that go home when I do. 

Me and Stephens are going down to the Bronx today! He served in Yankee stadium not too Long after I left that area so we are gonna go visit one of the families that we both love and then we are gonna go play basketball in the projects haha my favorite.. 

I hope you all have had a wonderful week. I'm excited for conference! Wondering if any big things will be announced! It's always nice to have the big guys instruct us on how to become better. Be kind, love one another. Talk to you next week! Adiossss (:

March 26, 2014.

Stamford is pretty awesome. Everyone who serves here says this is the best spanish area in the mission and so far I can easily see why. Our chapel is FULL during sacrament meeting.. All the missionaries stand until right before we start because members need their spots and then before the opening hymn we have to find a place where we can fit.. There are a ton of members here.. And we have 10 missionaries in the ward! It was so funny, my first day here (last Wednesday) we had correlation and it was raining so we ran inside the church and when we walked into the room one of the members asked "elderes como están? " and i responded " estamos bien, pero un poco mojados" .. So The ward Mission leader answers " no se preocupen elderes, todos aquí somos mojados! " hahahaha i laughed so hard it was really funny.. The ward members here are awesome, they help a lot with the missionary work. Most of the people I have met so far have been from Guatemala and Peru, not too many Mexicans here.. But it's been good! My companion is elder Stephens, from Utah. He rode bulls before his mission! Cool right? Me and him both go home at the same time, so neither of us are really the senior companion. But we get along really well, I already knew him from before so I was excited when I found out we were gonna be companions. We also ride bikes here! We share a car with our roommates, so one day we ride bikes, the other we drive. The car we have is a 2014 ford fusion. I love it. It's dope! But yeah it's been really fun so far. It's a lot different than Monticello haha we have a pretty nice apartment too.. The only bad thing is we don't go to a gym.. I feel fatter already! We need to find one that doesn't cost a million dollars.. I am having a good time, we have a lot of work to do in this area so we have stayed pretty busy! I don't think I need anything.. But the end of my mission is coming up soon and that is when we get to go to a broadway play.. Sooooo I'll be needing to save up some money for that! And if I want to go to the Statue of Liberty and a couple of other things that cost money.. So yeah. That's what's new with me! I hope everything is going well back home! Love you all! 

March 19, 2014.

Hey! 

Sorry so late, and so short! Today has been a little crazy.. I promise a longer email next week! But just so you all know, I got transferred to Stamford Connecticut! I'm with Elder Stephens! He's dope. I'll tell you more about him next week! I hope all is well. I love you all!

I got a haircut!

March 12, 2014.

Life is good. We had a pretty crazy week! Last Thursday was my birthday.. So that was cool. Friday our roommates went down to manhattan cuz one of them had to see a doctor.. When we came home at night we talked to them and it turned out that elder Sullivan, our roommate, was probably gonna have to go home because of some problems he has been having with his shoulder.. Pap patently it's cheaper to fly missionaries home, get an MRI in Utah, and fly them back than it it is to get an MRI in NY.. So we found that out Friday. Saturday was a bit of a normal day. Sunday I gave a talk in church! About member missionary work.. It was probably the most comfortable I've ever felt giving a talk. So I'd say it went pretty well. Then me and Elder Sullivan sang after I spoke. We sang a medley of Nearer my God to Thee, Be Still my Soul, and I Need Thee Every Hour. It went okay I suppose! Elder Sullivan is really good at singing. So that was Sunday. Monday during our district lunch We got a call saying elder Sullivan needed to be at the mission home by 4.. And it's an hour and a half away from here. So we were super rushed and we left.. So we dropped him off and said goodbye., it was really sad! It's always a weird feeling when a missionary goes home.. I really hope people don't give him grief about going home early, I hate when people do that!! So now that he's gone, I'm in a trio with Elder Encarnacion and Elder Rydalch, our other roommate. This is the second time I've been put in a trio because of someone going home! So yeah while we were down by the mission home we stopped by a members house who was in my last ward and it was so awesome to see that family- the Aguilar's! Mom, I think you and Hermana Aguilar would be good friends, I would always tell her that and I always wanted her to talk to you haha I was going to give her your number but I forgot to get it for her before I left her house.. Then Saturday we got to go down to the temple to do baptisms for the dead with out ward. It was nice to take a little break from the forest and feel the city again. 

So yeah. Crazy week. And we found out that elder Rydalch is leaving Monticello next week during transfers. Meaning that they will be bringing two new elders here just like they did with me and Encarnacion.. Haha there's just a lot going on. As for the work, things are still a little slow. Still trying to get things going. The people here really just struggle with a lot of things.. It's hard. But we are trying.

On a light note, it was 55 degrees yesterday! It was soooo nice, I had my sleeves rolled up, we were driving with the windows down, I was pumped! 

March 5, 2014.

This past week was pretty good. We are still just trying to find people to teach. We now have an investigator named Lisa! She's awesome. She's bilingual.. And probly one of the most normal people we've met here in Monticello haha she's been to church once.. Initially when we started teaching her she said she didn't know if she believed in God and all of this other stuff, but we've visited with her a few times and we've helped her realize she does Believe and that she does have faith.. She just has a lot of doubts as well! She's awesome tho, we love her. We are going to go see her today. I'm definitely pretty used to being here. Me and my companion still get along well. No problems! Everybody here is asking me if I think I'm going to finish my mission here. If I do, then.. There's nothing I can really do about it and I would be fine I suppose. But honestly I don't want to "die" here.. It's a decent place, but I feel like I belong in the city haha I want to serve in Harlem before I go home. Either that, or go back to Yankee Stadium in the Bronx. I loved that area so much! A lot of people have asked president if they can go somewhere for their last transfer or two and some get their wish and others don't.. Some time next cycle I'm going to ask him if he can think about placing me in Harlem or maybe back in the Bronx. But we'll see. It could really go either way. 

On Facebook I've been see a few posts about MCC and how they're doing really good in basketball! I wish I could be there to witness it all. I think soon they're playing salt lake community college and if they beat them then they go to nationals.. Isn't that crazy?! It just makes me think of what I'm going to do.. I need to start figuring school out. I think I'm going to email my coach either today or next week and start talking to him about what the possibilities are for me to come back and play next year.. I really want to! But yeah I know MCC has already started enrolling, so I need to get on that fast! 

Also, do you guys remember Critchfield? Well, he's up in my zone.. So we worked it out to be able to go on a split! So we were on a split from Monday to Tuesday, it was dope! I love that kid. 

I'm doing well guys. Time is flying by as usual. I miss you all a lot, thank you for the birthday wishes. I hope you have a good week! One love! ❤️

Feb. 27, 2014.

Well. Not too much has happened this week. I'm getting pretty used to where I am. The work is starting to progress! We are definitely starting to see the fruits of our labors! I'm sorry I don't have too much time today.. We are going to a kickboxing gym today cuz one of the members in Middletown is a trainer.. So we get a free session today! Pretty cool right? Haha It should be fun. But thank you so much for your emails. They definitely help me out. You guys are awesome!! Have a good week :) 

Feb. 19 2014

things are going good. The weather here is the worst! We were snowed in three days last week. The roads have all been plowed so the sidewalks are all covered in snow. About four feet of it. So people just walk in the street because literally all the sidewalks are covered. And just a fun fact haha I haven't seen the pavement/asphalt of the church parking lot yet.. It's been covered in snow since I've been here. Isn't that messed up? Haha we were checking the weather from around the United States the other day, and Monticello was the coldest place we could find.. And Mesa was the hottest we found. So we are living in opposite weather. I hope you are all enjoying it! The ward is really warming up to us. Everyone is nice. The sad thing is still, we don't have any spanish members. But we have high hopes. We've been able to find quite a few people who speak spanish and who are willing to have us come back over, but the problem is that almost nobody out here has a car. At least out of the people that we have found.. So they have no way to get to church. A little discouraging, but we know if they want to come, they'll find a way. I'm glad you guys liked my Facebook post.. Being here I've really had some time to reflect and think about a lot of things. I'm still learning a lot of things.. I know I always will be. But we are trying really hard to maintain a positive attitude, and so far we are doing a pretty good job. It's definitely a hard place to be with our situation, but we are making the most out of it. Life is good. I love you all. We will be playing some basketball today, if you were wondering 🏀❤️🏀❤️🏀❤️🏀❤️🏀

Have a good week!

We gave our car a snowhawk