January 27, 2014

January 27,2014

My branch my last day before changes!

My son... haha or my greenie

 My new district leader 

Well the life has been great here in Panuco! The branch is amazing. They are attacking the mission work and hastening the work in all aspects! A very,very nice change from my last two areas.

I am getting the hang of direction as well getting to know the people and enjoying what little time left we have till this place becomes an oven again haha! 

I am with Elder Tuñon an elder from Panama and so far it has been fun getting to know him we are really enjoying the time we have. He is a bit sensitive and for those who know me I’m anything but sensitive so I’m keeping an eye on my words and actions. haha  Well I can wrestle... I’ve wrestled around with all of my comps thus far so hopefully I can take a change or two without having some horse play haha! 

But anyways this week was fantastic...for the past while I have been pretty comfortable with the language but right now (still making mistakes) I feel I have total confidence which has been helping a ton in the lessons! That being said as well as the unity that we have as a companionship in our lessons I feel like I am teaching the best I have been in the mission... but makes sense right... I should be progressing. I am super stoked for the opportunity to work in this branch and give it all I’ve got to really make a change here. 

I LOVE teaching we have been getting in about 5 lessons a day which is way more than any other area I have had and I have been loving it and that is what I want to share today. When we open our mouth the words will flow and we will be blessed with happiness! In the hastening of the work we have been invited many times to open our mouth as well as pray for opportunities to share the gospel. I would like to extend the invitation otra ves! I have seen how exciting it is to get to know new people this week. I have met so many new people and feel as if I have become their friend. With all of my ¨friends” have shared an aspect of the gospel with them to brighten their lives. I has truly been a blessing and hope that all of you as well can participate in such happiness..

Love you all have a great week sharing this marvelous gospel! 

p.s. I’d like to hear some experiences if you have them!

Jan 13, 2014

January 13, 2014

                            Elder Strong when we had divisions and we got two whole pizzas from a member

  dinner! haha

                                                      Me and my son in front of the temple

Well Changes are coming up soon... (this week) and I’ve had a good run here so I think this may be my last week in Tanquian and am hoping for a change to junior comp again haha life is a lot easier that way. But we’ll see what happens!

But for this week it’s been a good one. We are working with 12 people with baptism dates and in reality we are hoping to have one progressing. It has been hard here and the people are super tough when it comes to religion. It’s like a culture here. It really has been hard to see people come and go getting to know the truth but not accepting it. It’s been making me think a lot of The Plan of salvation. I had some questions come up personally that I have been struggling to answer.... but tal ves they can’t be answered in this life haha.  But my blessing talks a little on the plan of salvation so I’ve been a bit intrigued. But in the little time I’ve had as a missionary or the time I have truly been converted in the church I can testify as Joseph Smith has in saying “that which pertain to our religion are only appendages” to the Atonement of Jesus Christ (Holland). I have gained such a testimony of this great and atoning sacrifice of our Savior. But this sacrifice is one of the three key parts of the great plan of salvation our Father has for us. In knowing how we can know the three most important and possibly most frequent asked questions (aside from GOT MILK?) Where did I come from, Why am I here and where am I going? We have the knowledge pertaining to our divine family tree and our potential destination if all goes well here on earth. So as I have been teaching it kills me to see people turn away from such great knowledge that holds a never ending future and turn away from a -fixer upper- to Life.

With this I have seen so many broken families, families that had time shortened or have wandered through life not knowing where to go. It’s these that I worry for. All have taken a huge leap in the Hastening of the work.... or hastening of missionaries which I am extremely grateful for! But as I see these families and all the people who haven’t been given the chance I am reminded of a form of missionary work of equal importance. A work  within the walls of the Temple.

This being said in all the Hastening the we are seeing I hope to see and larger demand of people in temple work due to overflowing names.... names that are our responsibility to truly hasten the work all aspects those within short distances of the Temple... (or those in Utah) NEED to be going as frequently as possible. Here in Mexico it isn’t as easy and should not be taken for granted....

So I wish to extend the invitation to all Parents, Family, Friends, and youth. DO your part help those who can’t help themselves and get to the temple. We all have a part to play in these times in the hastening the work.... for the second coming. I love you all and have a great week!

January 6, 2014

We had quite the spiritual experience this week after our training for new elders and trainers. We have been teaching a sister who has received a testimony of the restored gospel and has been making several life changes to follow the teachings. Because of this we have been visiting her 2 or more times a week at the minimum giving us a lot of contact with the family. One difficulty she has is the lack of support from family and friends trying to get her to drop the -Mormons-. However we saw the hand of God helping her this week through not only us but distant family and friends through her brother.
Her brother served a mission for a Cristian based church for many years and later became a pastor here in Tanquian, however he with time has become impressed with the missionaries and also with the overall organization of the LDS church and its doctrine. Finally we had a chance to talk with him and found that he attended a wedding party to a member of the church and had much interaction with members and truly could feel the spirit present in the activity which caused him to think a bit. Long story short, in this opportunity to talk with her brother we made the leap of faith following the newly received training we had to invite ALL to baptism as soon as the spirit is present and that’s what we did. A date was accepted along with a book of Mormon and determination to find the answer. It was a Jump forward here that we have been waiting on and hope we can do what is needed to help in this path along with his Sister. But thank you for the advice and teaching in all but more specifically in baptism... we are now 2 converted to invite all men to come unto Christ through baptism in the FIRST lesson. Have a great week!

 This was a letter out to my mission president but would like to share for my blog for sake of time as well as to show that we need not be afraid to share the gospel nor to follow the spirit! Love you all and share the gospel with someone this week you may be surprised and the success you have!

December 9, 2013

Well went to iron my favotite pants and well the iron was a bit hot..... boooo that 2 pants down and 8 more to go haha

I went on divisions and this is how i found the bathroom in the other area..... ha needless to say i went without a shower that day!

Some district soccer the other day.... and my fat face haha! triste comida mexicana! porque tan rrrrrico!

This week flew by! I spent 4 out of 7 days outside of my area! So we didn't make a lot of progress here in Tanquian but I hope I did something in the other areas that I was in! 

Me and my comp have put an extra focus on the little blessings we receive every day! Its amazing how many we receive in this great work that we have part in! It almost become a normality... like when we pray for what we should teach or who and almost always have the same thoughts after a prayer or how the spirit aligns our thoughts when we are in tune! This work is truly amazing! I am so blessed and hope you all feel the same in this wonderful gospel! 

Well I will have to apologize.... my general letters have been slow. I have lost a bit of my organization over the past few weeks but we are now in a new change and will be better is sharing some of my amazing experiences with all of you! I love you all and have a wonderful freezing week! 

P.S. Who has seen the new Mormon message about cedar breaks! ..... talk about being homesick I love it there and I could almost feel the cool breeze and smell the cedar trees while watching the video haha"!

love you all y nos vemos por la proximo semana!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

December 16, 2013

 

                                                                           bus ride to Valles

                                                      My very pretty Christmas tree this year

 Me and my zone leader who got changed this change. I'm looking a bit more fat no?  Elder Padilla has been my district and zone leader..... and was a great one

 

Alrightly.... well this week was a rough one. I'd have to say the hardest of my mission thus far! We had very little success and did tons of walking. One pair of shoes started ripping... boo.... don't buy Johnson and murphy for walking.

 

We had a variety of things go wrong this week that by Saturday night when our branch president called us to say he wouldn’t be at church and that no one was assigned to talk I had had it.... I found it very difficult to be the smiley joking missionary I usually am... And I know I’m trying my best and that’s what matters but I just couldn’t regain the energy I needed just by knowing I’m working hard because I’m the kind of person that likes instant gratification.... so I began to study to lift the mood.... And I fell upon the topic of grace and repentance as well as the explanation. And this is what I found.

 In the bible dictionary I really like the definition of both repentance and grace.... Repentance talks on not only changing ourselves through repentance or distancing ourselves from sin but rather to be closing the gap between our will and the Fathers. In grace it describes a little on the divine power that we can receive through the atoning grace of Christ. What a gift! We through the atonement not only can be cleaned and purified from sin but also can receive divine help and power to do so! What are we waiting for?!

 I have seen and can bear strong testimony that these two great gifts are real and within our touch, but as a car doesn’t serve for anything without first being turned on we will not receive any benefit of these two great gifts without first starting the process to obtain them.

 

Now as an older brother and a friend to many still at home I would like to add this part, one way that we can start this process of repentance and receiving a divine power is through our service to God. In D and C 84:61 and 62 we read

 

61 For I will forgive you of your sins with this commandment—that you remain steadfast in your minds in solemnity and the spirit of prayer, in bearing testimony to all the world of those things which are communicated unto you.

 

 62 Therefore, ago ye into all the world; and unto whatsoever place ye cannot go ye shall send, that the testimony may go from you into all the world unto every creature.

 

so if you don’t understand let me explain quickly...... If you want power from God and to be forgiven make the sacrifice to serve for two years in whatsoever place and receive the most blessed two years of your life.... and if not.... your condemned......

 

 ha no but really think about it.... if you do it for the right reasons you will not have made and better choice in your life!

November 25,2013

November 25, 2013

We were cleaning the water out of this hole where they are going to put a toilet!

A normal house for this part of Tanquian... a lot with grass roofs!

Cleaning the house of prayer Sat. night

Well as always I am short on time but wow this week flew by! We had a few short days here in our area as we spent two days in Tamuin with our district leader and in Tampico for a training for us trainers and our sons haha. It was all really good and we came back to out area riding a spiritual high and went to work..... the fruits of our work this week were miles and miles of walking but with 4 lessons with an amazing spirit and just wow! I love to work here and I could just finish my year and a half more in this area! 

 

The experience in being a trainer has been amazing! I have learned so much and really have been losing myself in the work...... I have so much to do in this branch and with my new elder my mind is in missionary mode 24-7 but I wouldn't have it any other way! I can really testify that is we are heavily involved in the Lords work we will not find any greater joy! 

 

I have been hearing a lot of missionary experiences from friends and family back home and it just warms my soul... haha.... to hear of my family a friends finding joy in the work as well! 

I have been bad at writing these past few weeks but am going to try to be a bit more organized and get out better letters and stories! but por fin (finally) it has been getting kinda cold here! I almost forgot what its like to not be living in my sweat 24-7 ha! one day I even wore a jacket which was a miracle.... and the cold here is like 16 degrees..... celcius bahaha.... but anyways love you all and well chat next week!

November 11,2013

November11, 2013

              

                                                     A little bit of my beautiful area!

 Well it was a good week. Very short and very busy. Being in a pueblo is hard because whenever we have meetings we have to travel a minimum of 1 hour and so it a takes up a lot of time from our work in the area and that’s how this week went... lots of traveling! 

 This week the weather was amazing!!! It is the best I’ve had my entire mission! We got down to a very low 15 degrees .... Celsius ha like 60 in Fahrenheit but it was cold!! We’ve had clouds and a mild 80 degrees all week it’s been great! 

We had an interesting experience this week with one of the families we ate with. No men were in the house as normal so we couldn’t eat inside.  Normally we eat at a table outside of the house but this day it was raining and we had nowhere to eat. So we ate in the pig pen where there was shelter haha.  So we were eating next to their 200 pound pig for our lunch. It was an interesting meal but kinda funny because my new comp is kinda a germaphobe and isn’t used to eating with tortillas (because we don’t use utensils just tortillas) so he was getting all messy and half way through trying to eat his soup with a tortilla he lost his appetite and threw his food to the pig  haha! The life in Mexico!

Not a whole lot of time left but just what to put a little focus on prayer once again! Because once again I’ve reaped the benefits of prayer and see the benefits daily! Prayer as well is a huge part to the day. Satan gets smarter and stronger daily so in turn we need to do the same! I hope and pray all of you pray and read daily so that when the battle comes you will have success! Love you all thanks for the support and have a great week!

 

November 4, 2013

Nov 4,2013

My new district and  new companion

My birthday cake!

                            My birthday meal... it’s what I got with my birthday money ha

They have some crazy wooden masks

 

Some of the dancers of the dia de muerte

 Wow what a week! It was sure different being a holiday week it was really hard to find many people to teach as all were participating in the festivities of dia de muertos and dances called Huehues. It was really cool and interesting but as mentioned made for a hard week of work.

 The settings have changed...  have a new companion who is new so I’m training and still trying to better the language while trying to plan the day and lessons. It was a huge change with a lot more responsibility but it made me a lot more focused on the work and I’m loving it more than ever now haha! 

Had some birthday celebrations with investigators and some members which was a lot of fun! It was hard to remember it was my birthday because we continued in the work and all I wanted for my birthday was a day of success and well... it didn’t come ha.... but I’ve got a lot of hope that things will start progressing rapidly here this week! 

 I don’t have a lot of time left but this week in my study I studied about the life of Jesus Christ and his example for us and found some very interesting and new ideas that I shared with investigators for some powerful lessons. I was looking at his life and the perfect example he gave us. First when he was found teaching in the temple luke 2. 42 to 49. I loved where he states he was only doing the Fathers work. This shows he spared no time in doing his fathers will and recognizing his purpose. Second we find him in the waters of baptism. Luke 3. 21 and 22 where the father says to him how pleased his is that his is doing his will. I liked in 2nd nefi 31. 5 where it talks a little more on his baptism and how important it is for us. The Lord wasn’t baptized to be cleansed but to follow the commandments and continue in showing us the way. Third I found him fasting and suffering for 40 days with temptations to show that even though we live perfectly, life won’t always be easy... but if we will remember our purpose we can conquer anything.... Luke 4. 1 to 8. Also  he is teaching the sacrament Luke 22 15 to 20. So that we might always remember him.... and his example so that we might become more like him. Lastly he showed his love by suffering more than humanly possible for all of us that we might be able to become like him in perfection in being freed from sin and faults. I challenge you to ponder these scriptures and the truly perfect life Christ showed us so that we might be perfect like unto him and our Father and receive eternal life- the greatest gift. 

 Love you all and may God be with you!