Powerful Prayers 10-30-17

This week my highlight was hearing investigators pray. We had 3 new investigators specifically, that kneeled down and prayed with such a strong power that everyone was crying when they finished. We found a lot of really prepared people this week. I was really grateful for hearing those prayers because it taught me how to pray better. I've never heard prayers so sincere in my entire life. The people here are great!

We also had a baptism this week, but I forgot the camera so I don't have pictures. I also forgot the baptismal clothes, and the keys to the church. I am forgetting everything lately. But, we had our bapitsm and Alejandro was super excited and his Grandma cried. It was a great experience. 

I am living with my companion and 4 other Elders in a department made for 2. It is a nightmare haha. But in a good way. I am with Elder Garcia from Santa Maria California (In McCall's mission!) and he is super dope. Super Californian. It is awesome. 

A lot happened this week, but also... kinda nothing. We just did a lot of service and had a good time. I am learning how to be relaxed and work. I like the mission.

Our branch is back and functioning, we had a hundred people show up! We also had investigators show up, which was something we missed cause no one wanted to drive an hour away to go to church. Lazy people. 

I am fine, I am working, and I hope you all have had a good week. I am super excited for this week cause we have a lot of potential, and this week Mexico will be celebrating Dia de Muertos!! I hope you all enjoy this coming week! Love you! 

Spiritual thought: "Life is nothing without rice- I mean Christ" -Elder Garcia

Feliz Coumpleaños 10-24-17

That means Happy birthday in spanish, if you didn't know 😂

This week was bueno, we celebrated Elder Paz's 26th birthday. Just kidding, he is only 20. We bought a round looking cake from Wal-Mart and sang "Las Mañanitas" or something like that in Spanish. I didn't sing. 

On Saturday we got to go to the Temple! The Temple has such a brilliant spirit that not even Elder Paz could make jokes. It was like we grew up in there for a second. Then we left and we started joking again and the thought went away. I was super happy to go to the Temple, because well, it's the Lord's house, and because they brought 100 sandwiches and only 30 people came. Guess who ate 9 sandwiches for free? 😎 But really if you haven't been to the Temple in a while, go. Because you'll feel the spirit, and the pants they lent me made my butt look really good, so you also get a nice confidence boost there too.

We had a great week, found a ton of people to teach, and they fixed my Prayer House so we went to church in my own area this week! We are starting from the bottom, but we will build it back up over here. 

Transfers were this week, and I'm staying in Chinampas again! That means I'll hit my year mark in this area. This area is the best. 

Spiritual Thought: "You just have to eat the Lord's sandwich first" -Hna Rocha 

Photographic content:

1. Me and Paz

2. Templo

3. Hno Saul

?? 10-16-2017

I am running out of ideas for email titles. Being creative for this long is tough.

This week we had 2 baptisms, Noemi and Michelle. I don't have pictures cause it was the craziest day of my life. We were going to get there on time, until my companion forgot that he didn't have his white pants to baptize, so we traveled up into the mountains and got them from a ward member who had adjusted them. Then we started our baptismal service 2 hours late, and it was great. Everyone was happy, and they went home. We drained the font, and were closing the doors when a bunch of members arrived. They were having a surprise baptism for their 8 year old daughter! And of course, we had the keys so we couldn't leave until they left. They left at 7pm. We were at the churchhouse ALL day. We literally just sat outside the church on the curb and waited for them. What a waste of a day. Then, yesterday, a protest broke out and they blocked off all the main roads because they wanted water, so no one was able to make it to church and we couldn't confirm them. Awkward. 

But, even with all of these wierd occurences, I had a good week. I found a house, and it is super rich and fancy, and we will be moving in next week. I like staying with the neighboring Elders because they are the President's assistants, and they are like spiritual giants. And the bottom floor of the house they live on is a candy store owned by a member who lets us take all we want. That too. 

We have been finding a TON of people who are super interested in learning about the Gospel lately. One lady calls me her precious little brother, and she is just dying to hear about the Book of Mormon. One lady said the Book of Mormon just makes sense and she is gonna read the whole thing in a week! We somehow only contact women, I just noticed that. Funny. 

Anyway, my scripture for this week is super touching to me for some reason. 2 Nephi 5:27

"And it came to pass that we lived after the manner of happiness"

I love this work. I like being here. I love Christ. I like living happily. 

Have a good week

Not much to report 10-9-2017

This week, we just started from scratch. I'll be looking at a house tomorrow, so hopefully we can move back into our area soon. We still have people to teach, and we will have 2 more baptisms this weekend, which we are super excited for.

Nothing happened, just teaching and working and stuff, the normal mission life you always hear about. This last month I've given more blessings than I ever have given, received, or seen in my entire life. Suddenly everyone wants a blessing of comfort. Helaman 12:3

We are okay, we are having success, and well, yeah. 

An investigator told me this week something that really touched me. 

"Living without feeling, it just doesn't make sense." -Alfredo the wizard. (he is literally a man-witch)

I don't have pictures either cause my camera died, and nothing ever happened so I got lazy and didn't charge it. Oh well. 

I hope you all have a great week. Remember to pray!!!!! 

(I don't like posts without pictures, so I'll add an old pic of elder Wilson 😃)

October 2, 2017 Homeless

Well, this week was kind of a bummer in the beginning, because Church Services came and said we can't live in our house any more😬, so we left immediately, and now live in a nieghboring area🏠. It takes 2 hours to get to our area, and 2 hours to get home🚃, so we lose a lot of precious time every day. And I don't have very many clothes so I wash by hand what I will wear tomorrow until we can go back to the house and get our clothes. Our area is still really bad and they need water and light and stuff, so no one is really interested in the message as of late. I'm sure that after my area gets back on its feet, people will jump to receive the message of Christ, but until then, we just need to wait.

The end of the week was good thought, cause we got to watch General Conference, and that means we got to hear God's chosen prophets give us revelation for these latter days of need. I enjoyed the entire conference, but what really touched me was the inspired talk by Holland, followed by the song "Faith in every footstep", and if you watch closely, the camera moves to a man singing who is crying while singing, and I'm not sure why that hit me so hard, but it was a moment of spiritual filling for my soul. I really like what I heard this weekend, and I am ready to apply it to my life. 

On another note, two young teenage girls that had obviously seen me frequent the house of an investigator gave me handwritten love notes💞. Didn't really know what to do, so I just accepted the letters. I figure they will be a great souvenir from the mission. I hope you're jealous, McCall. 😂

Um... that is it. The Lord has blessed my life, and the life of those around me through his Gospel, and as a living witness of Christ, I testify that He lives and loves us. Have a good week.

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Ground Zero 9-25-2017

Hey everyone, I AM ALIVE! Thanks for all of the prayers for Mexico City because we have had a rough week! The earthquake from a few weeks ago obviously hurt the city, because when the Earthquake on Tuesday hit, over 100 buildings fell in the City! There are some crazy videos out there of what happened in the City. My area is trashed. We lost power, water, signal, gas, everything. We couldn't tell anyone that we were alive until the next day! They pulled us out of the area and we have been living with our District Leaders because our area is really bad. I didn't take any photos because there were a lot of deaths. Houses full of people went to the ground in seconds, and even the giant catholic church in the center of my area fell completely to the ground. I saw some really sad things. 2 schools fell down, with all of the kids in them. It is a mess over here, but every single missionary is alive and accounted for. I wish I could say the same for the members here. Please pray for everyone, because many don't have a place to live, food to eat, nothing. We have been ordered to not serve because the only service the city needs is professional, like doctors and stuff. But anyway, it is really sad here and everyone is on edge because it's going to happen again. 

When the earthquake hit, I was on a bus. The bus started rocking back and forth really hard, so we all got off and everyone was crying. I wasn't shocked or anything, I was just amazed because I had never felt an earthquake before. We kept walking and saw tons of fallen houses and fires and everything. The videos make it seem scarier than it was. 

Then, on Saturday, I got in the shower at my District Leader's house, and the seismic alarm went off! My companions booked it, without waiting for me, and I grabbed my towel and ran out to the street haha. It wasn't as bad as the quake on Tuesday, but it was awkward standing in the street cause everyone else ran out of their house too, so I was just standing there naked until we could go back in again haha!

Our Prayer house is really damaged and the streets in my area are destroyed, so we had a blasting attendance of 9 people this week. I really hope that they can start to rebuild my area soon so that everyone can start coming to church again!  

Well, I'm okay. And I always will be okay, as long as I'm a missionary. Pray for those that are still in need of help! And remember that life is a very fragile thing, so live in the best way, the way you want to live, because tomorrow you may not get a chance. Do what you need to now, don't wait! 

Remember, God does this so that we will remember him. So let us remember him! 

Photos

1. this is the only photo i took of the earthquake out of reverence for all of the many other buildings that fell down with people in them. no one died here so i felt better taking a pic of it. but it isnt even bad, the building only has moderate damage.

 

Baptismania 9-18-17

This week was super chill, even with Mexico's Independance Day this week. I expected parades and fireworks and a lot of drunks, but didn't see any of it. We worked a lot this week, and I am dead tired. DEAD tired. As in, I look dead some days because of how much hiking and running and teaching and everything that we do. 

This week we had another baptism! He is Jorge, and I am so excited for his baptism because he is 18 and will become a Priesthood holder very soon, which will be a huge support for this little branch! He was so excited, and his mom started crying cause she was so happy and she isn't even a member! It was awesome. 

For the first time in almost a year, I had McDonalds! Woo! 

Other than that... Well, that's it! It was a fast, calm week. 

I hope you all are having a great time, wherever you are!