Atonement has power to save and heal

Well this week Satan went after every single one of our investigators and I guess we didn't prepare them well enough for it. On Tuesday we went by to visit one of our investigators only to be told that he was forced by his dad to steal from a store, he got caught, and will now be in juvenile detention until he turns 18.... 3 years man..... we also went by to see our investigator I. this week and he was higher than a kite.... are you kidding me? We tried to visit him again throughout the week but every time we went by he couldn't see us and didn't come to church this week. Hmo A. has told us he CANNOT quit smoking no matter how much he or we try, haha so right now God's putting us through a Little bit of a refiners fire. We literally have no one in our área right now that is progressing. We talked with some of the other Elders this week and they told us the same, Durango is rejecting the góspel on all sides. We had interviews with president this week and he told us that we just have to be patient, that we have to just love the people, apply the atonement in our own lives, and let people use their own agency, so we are trying.

The celebration of the virgin Mary started this week as well. Aparently there is a huge celebration in all Mexico on Dec. 12th to worship The Virgin. Its bigger than Christmas... There is a story here that Mary appeared to an Mexican Indian named Juan Diego and he gained her favor. So now they all dress up as indians and have drum rolls and indian dances in the streets at night. I'm not gonna lie it's spooky to see and hear these people beating the crap out of drums and dancing and yelling with murals and pictures of the Virgin Mary all around. I really do feel like I'm in a city that has rejected the góspel completely. Jesús Christ is a name that is only remembered really as the Son of the Virgin. They all believe that Christ died for them but they put all their faith and devotion in Mary.

On a high note a family here in Durango baught me a freaking sweet birthday cake

 

Missionary work is not easy. It is the most demanding, the most compelling, the most exhausting, and yet, with it all, the most happy and most joyful work in all the world. - Ezra Taft Benson 

Love the happiness radiating from that face!!

and Fam. C and S. from Gomez Palacio went to the temple for the first time.

Gonna keep trying hard here in old Durango... 

 "Remember the worth of souls is great in the sight of God"

It's a weird thought to think about the Atonement of Christ. About who He was and what He really did. There are people here that have been termed by themselves, by their family,  by their neighbors, and by the world at large as "worthless", as drunks and losers, as people that cannot change, that the circumstances of birth have made it so they can't move forward or look up, they were born losers, drunks, as the worthless natural man, and they will die that way. The price of the worthless is unimaginably high. What did Christ have to go through to help these people out of the hole they were born into and dug themselves deeper? I look at my own life and what was my price, the price of my weaknesses, of my shortcomings, my sins, my failures, the holes I dug myself into?

I have seen the Atonement help pull people out of these holes, to help man reach something better than he is. I have also seen when people reject that Atonement, that their own personal price to pay of obedience is far to great, when they just don't realize how much of a price has already been paid on their behalf. The Atonement has been there for me in every stage of my life. Christ was there for me in moments of need, He reached out to me when I needed Him most and deserved Him least. I have been carried every step of trial by Someone that is a lot stronger than me. I was a child when I left for Mexico, I didn't know anything, about myself, about God, about Christ, about the real power that is found in the Atonement. He took that child and every day He gives me the opportunity to one day become a God.

That was the point though, Christ stepped down into the depths of Hell so He could carry His bothers and sisters out of it and welcome them into the mansions of Our Father. I know the Atonement is real, I seen its power to save, to heal, to turn the worthless into Sons of God, but more importantly I have felt and am experiencing such things in every step I take in a place that refuses to receive such power to save.

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
 Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

The yolk is compliance to the Gospel, and the price of discipleship I can promise is a truly lighter load than the self prescribed, selfish, and to be honest, worthless life that we would live for ourselves

God will lead us to the honest seeker of truth

So last week we were wandering around looking for investigators and everybody fell through, so I was feeling pretty frustrated, so that night I was thinking and praying about how we could find more people and it came into my mind that we should go and contact in a place called Ampliancion Pri. This place is sketch, lots of gangsters, lots of problems, and it's far from the chapel so we haven't really touched it too much, but it is a part of our área so I told Elder A that we were gonna spend a day there and contact. So we did. As we wandered through the streets of this part of town we started contacting and EVERYBODY accepted a visit that we talked to, it was nuts. Haha then reality hit and when we went back nobody was home except one kid named I.

 

I. is a 16 year old kid that has had a rough life and has to work hard labor constuction or wash cars in order to help his family. He accepted a visit when we contacted him and when we went back to visit him he wasn't home. We were kinda bummed but as we turned away from his house we saw him running full speed down the dirt road with his dog to come and meet us before we left. Haha when he got to us we were just like... "how's it going...do you remember we said we were gonna come by and talk about Christ...." and he said "yeah come in come in". So we did and taught him lesson one. This kid is different he wants to make God happy, he really does worry about his eternal salvation and that of his family, altough he can't read he understands and remembers what we teach him. In the first lesson we invited him to baptism and boom, he said yes. All this happened last week (I didn't have a lot of time last week to write)  Haha so last Sunday we went by his house with a member to bring him to church, in this área we pass by investigators houses every week to try and bring them to church and almost nobody is ever home so we were a Little nervous. After we knock I. comes walking out in a cowboy hat, cowboy boots, a hawiian shirt and jeans. I looked at him and was just like "uhhhh... well are you ready to go..." hahahha and he said "yep let's go." He really likes to pray and was praying really hard and was really reverant during the sacrament. All of the Young men in the Ward welcomed him and took him to clases (this Ward really is amazing). Overall his first week at church went really well.

 

So this week we went and visited him every other day and every other day he brought someone new to listen. His mom, his sisters (he literally dragged one into the room to listen), his friends, some drunk guy that we dont really know who he was or how he knew I. (not a joke that really happened) so not only does he believe our message but he is ready to share it with everybody. This kid is on fire, every time we go back he just gets this light in his eyes as he realizes that his hard life can be better. He reminds me of when Christ healed the servant of a Roman and after said "Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel (Mat. 8:10)." This kid has so much faith and wants so bad to make God happy and help his family. This Sunday he came again to church, this time in a button up shirt and without the cowboy hat haha. I know that he is one of the reasons I was told to go to a place that to a large degree has rejected God.

Happiness is the purpose of this life

Just wanted to share something I have been studying a little this week with you guys. I have been thinking a lot about happiness, why there are happy people in the world? and why the majority really aren't happy? It's kinda sad to see but it's true, very few people are happy.

The First one is our purpose in life that is found in 2 Nephi 2:25 (Adam fell‍ that men might be; and men are, that they might have joy.) This scripture is one of the most simple but most profound in the scriptures. God made us to be happy, our purpose in existing is to be happy. That's a weird thing to think about, when so many come into the world and leave it miserable. How can our purpose be to be happy then?

About a day later I found the answer to the question, our nature is happiness but what is it to be happy? Alma 41:10-11 (Do not suppose, because it has been spoken concerning restoration, that ye shall be restored from sin to happiness. Behold, I say unto you, wickedness‍ never was happiness. And now, my son, all men that are in a state of nature, or I would say, in a carnal‍ state, are in the gall of bitterness‍ and in the bonds‍ of iniquity; they are without‍ God in the world, and they have gone contrary‍ to the nature of God; therefore, they are in a state contrary to the nature of happiness.). This is something fundamental to happiness - GOD IS HAPPY. God is happy and so He knows how to make us happy. To be contrary to Gods nature is to be contrary to being happy. Just as God has laws that govern life, He has laws that govern happiness. Happiness is something as definite as gravity,

So then if the answer is God's Nature is the Nature of Happiness how to we become as God, accept His nature. Moroni 10:32 (Yea, come‍ unto Christ, and be perfected‍ in him, and deny‍ yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love‍ God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect‍ in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God) DC 76:69 (These are they who are just‍ men made perfect‍ through Jesus the mediator of the new covenant, who wrought out this perfect atonement‍ through the shedding of his own blood.) I love the phrase that says we have to deny ourselves ungodliness, we have to deny for ourselves to work against the Nature of God (The Nature of Happiness). I have seen so many miserable people here that don't understand how a Heavenly Father could love them when they are as miserable as they are. It is hard to try to explain to people that have been given so few opportunities, that their choices are directly against the Nature of Happiness, we promise them happiness that comes through Jesus Christ and the majority find that it's too hard to be happy. To deny myself of ungodliness is HARD, haha but that's the same as saying that to deny myself unhappiness is HARD. Its funny that to be happy is our purpose but it's against our carnal nature as human beings.

Just to sum up I would like to give two examples of happy, really happy people in the Book of Mormon. Nephi talked about how the Lord had supported him in all his trials and struggles and he adds this small part to his testimony of the Love of the Lord - 2 Nephi 4:21 (He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming‍ of my flesh.) Nephi knew what it was to have problems in life but he also knew the love and Happiness that the Lord offers to us His children through His góspel and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Ammon also had felt such love and happiness after having labored and suffered a lot on a 14 year mission Alma 27:17-18 (Now the joy of Ammon was so great even that he was full; yea, he was swallowed up in the joy of his God, even to the exhausting of his strength; and he fell again to the earth. Now was not this exceeding joy? Behold, this is joy which NONE receieveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seeker of happiness.)

I have felt God's love, I have felt God's happiness and comfort for me in really hard times. I have felt the Lord's love for others and I am coming to finally understand that happiness is only gained through Jesus Christ. Christ is our way to being happy and I know that now. I cannot fight against the nature of God (Nature of Happiness) and expect to be happy. I know that I and my investigators can only be as happy as we are willing to let ourselves be, and that is by letting Christ show us how its done and then doing it His way. 

I am ready brothers

I only really have one experience to share this week. So we are working with a family right now named Fam. A. He is a SUPER nice guy and believes in Christ and living prophets and his wife is very accepting as well. So naturally we invited them and their 4 year old son to conference to hear the words of Pres. Monson and then pray about it. The conference center where we all met is about twenty minutes away in car and he doesnt have a job right now so he couldnt pay for the gas to get to there. So we got a member on board to help us bring this family to conference. So Saturday rolls around and they committed to come to the second sesión of conference that afternoon. So saturday morning we sat with the rest of the rejects without investigators and watched the first sesión of conference haha. After lunch me and Elder Altamirano had to take a bus back to our house so we could meet up with this member and go grab Fam. Amaro. The bus came really late and it took forever to get back to the house, by the time the bus stopped we started running in 100 degree heat in suits to meet up with our ride. hahah misión life. We show up to the members house and then drive over to pick up Fam. A., the whole time me and Elder A. are hoping and praying that PLEASE can we have this family show up. We knock on the door, wait about five seconds and Hmo. A opens the door in a dress shirt and slacks, then his little boy peeks out from behind him in a little suit and yells "¡Estoy listo hermanos! (I'm ready brothers). I seriously almost cried, the whole family was dressed and ready to go right on time. 

When we showed up to conference they were very serious and the only time that Hmo A talked for the whole sesión was when he leaned over and asked us before every speaker "hmo is he the prophet?" So we had to explain about apostles again and what a 70 is. Throughout the entire conference he kept asking when President Monson was going to speak. ahhahah the funny part was President Monson didn't end up speaking in that session, but hey there were some really good talks so its all good.

Another thing that was so cool about conference was the talks in the different languages. It's one thing to hear a guy translate the words of living prophets and leaders into spanish, its totally different to hear these men of God testifying in their native language. Seriously the talks that were given in spanish by native spanish speakers were so powerful and were a huge spiritual moment for every single person in the conference center here in Mexico and I'm sure all around the world. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father has changed things up so members and investigators around the world can feel Gods concern and guidance for them in their own language.

So yeah conference was a success. Missionary conference is so much different than conference as just a member sitting in their house. We are trying to remember and be able to teach every Word that these men of God teach so that we can have the success and the Spirit we need to be missionaries of Christ.

Elder Roberts

What I have learned from 0's

We had very little lessons and no one at church this week. This entire 6 weeks we have walked all day and have had a total of 1 person at church and he isn't progressing right now. Gotta just be optimistic and have faith cuz if you don't than there isn't a point in the mission.

Because of these hard times I have been trying to study a lot more and in my studies I have come across three examples of missionaries that passed through some tough times in the mission as well. 

The first went on his mission and in every area he was in he didn't have a single baptism but right after he left the missionaries after him had success. After a year of having no baptisms he wrote his dad and told him he was coming home. His dad told him to just get to work and forget himself. He did and ended up finishing his mission with a total of 0 baptisms. His name was Gordon B. Hinkley.

The second example was a missionary who was recently married when he got called by the first presidency to serve a mission. He decided to leave his wife and answer the call. During his mission his wife got seriously sick several times but he decided to have faith and kept working for 2 years. He ended the mission with 0 baptisms. His name was Joseph Fielding Smith. 

The last example: There was a Missionary who was getting a lot of attention because He was able to work miracles and He spoke by the power of God. He taught the true doctrine by the Power of the Holy Ghost. But the majority were only listening to this Missionary because of His miracles and not because they had genuine faith in His teachings. In order to divide the real believers from the sign-seekers this Missionary taught a stronger doctrine than the majority were ready to handle. He lost a lot of investigators that day. (John 6:53-69) His numbers dropped drastically. And by the end of His ministry His true converts were very few. And about 400 years after He died no one believed  the true doctrine that He taught. His name was Jesus Christ.  

Something that is kinda sad about today's mission field is there is a lot of emphasis on numbers. Missionaries (me included) love to look at their progress report with a lot of numbers more than at the people they are teaching as literal children of God. It's really hard to see a bad progress report and believe that your still doing your best, that God still is here helping us. But if we measure the success of these three missionaries just by their numbers these two prophets of God and Our Savior left their missions as failures.

I guess the lesson that God has tried to give me in a transfer of 0's is the mission is so much more than the number of baptisms. If it were all about numbers the Lord could send angels to teach people and their numbers would be awesome, but instead He sends weak, whiny, inexperienced 19 year old kids to teach the gospel. It's about the souls of men, missionaries and investigators alike. If we give it 100% and still we get nothing in numbers, we are just walking in the same path that Prophets have.

Eye Single to the Glory of God

To be honest this area is the toughest I have seen yet in the mission. Its super easy to find new people to teach the hard part is getting them to church. We have a ton of support from the local bishop and other members haha but people here just don't want it right now. We have committed several people to baptism but when they find out they have to do things to be baptized they have 0 time all of a sudden. We have gone going around to our investigators houses with a car (seriously the members here are awesome) to see if that would help. Haha it didn't. So we got the bishop on board and he has met with several of the investigator families here to see if he was the missing link. Nope. Haha so then it just came down to accepting that maybe people here aren't ready.

I was thinking about it the other night, about how no body was progressing, no body was moving along, and I was pretty angry at God. We try harder to be obedient every day, try harder to get the members involved and do everything we can for our investigators and what was the point? As I was fuming all of a sudden I realized I wasn't angry because nobody was progressing I was angry because my pride couldn't take another week of 0's on our progress report to president. I wasn't angry because these people were accepting Jesus Christ, I was angry because they weren't accepting me. I was angry because all my work has been for me, to make me feel like Im a better missionary than the rest, not for God nor for these investigators. Sometimes it takes a month of 0's to learn a lesson. God has given me so much on this mission, I've had a lot of success, I've learned a lot, I haven't had a bad companion yet (And I hit 8 months in Mexico this week, holy crap!) and still all I can do is whine when my pride wants more than God is willing to give me. 

D&C 4:5 And faith, hope, charity and love, with an eye single to the glory of God, qualify him for the work.

Eye single to the glory of God, not to a number on a progress report that I'll just forget by next Monday anyway. Haha so even if our investigators aren't progressing, I am. 

Other fun facts of the week. Something that is rare here in Mexico is dessert - they don't eat a lot of sugar here. So one day for lunch we go to a members house and along with a huge meal of roast chicken and other delicious foods we see 2 big cakes on the table, I was pretty psyched... As we were finishing up the chicken all of the sudden the member comes in with a cheese cake -  yeah that's right, there are three cakes in the room at this point... No invente... As we started in on one of the cakes the member comes in one last time with a giant jello fruit thing. Three cakes and a giant jello-fruit thing. Needless to say it was the fullest I have been since coming to Mexico, the members and the food in this area are unreal. Im going to be GORDOTE by the end of this transfer, i hope.

Also we (me, Elder A, the other two elders in our ward, and the bishop) sang in sacrament meeting this week. We sang a hymn in Spanish called "Oh Santo Dios" (Oh Holy God) that is pretty sweet. After we sung it I look over at a kid in the ward who is having a lot of problems with the church right now and hes bawling. Mission accomplished. 

So yeah just another week in ol´ Durango. 

Oh yeah also last Monday was Mexican independence day.

 Pic #1 ¡Puro Durango!

 

Pic #2 Dia de Independencia