Changes, Death and a wedding- the circle of life in a week

It was an alright week. We have been teaching a guy named E. a lot and he is actually changing more and more every day. When we found him he was a punk without a purpose, alcohol, girls, parties, "believed in God"... but not really... We have had several really good lessons with him about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. In several of the lessons with him the Holy Ghost has helped me so much to teach, I leave our lessons learning new things - nothing is cooler on the mission than when you learn something new from your own lessons, when it happens it's a sure sign that it wasn't really you that was teaching, but the Real Teacher. After about a month of teaching him he came to a church activity with his little brother and they loved it, we learned about temples and eternal families and they told us they were for sure coming to church on sunday. We go by his house on sunday and he is standing outside his house, half and hour early, showered, shaved, in a polo shirt, and waiting for us. There is nothing better on the mission then moments like that, physical evidence that the gospel really does change people. He will be baptized in June and in the MTC by June 2016. Awe yeah.

One thing I have learned from this area is that the punks and cholos in the streets that call us names and make fun of us are actually some of the most receptive when we talk to them. This area is full of little thugs so we have to contact them or we are left without a whole lot of other options. At the start I just did it for the numbers, figuring that that was about all we would get out of it. Nope. These teenage kids between 14 to 20 have never really known a happy family nor really who is Jesus Christ and when we talk to them the Spirit really does help them to understand and to start to think about making some changes in their life. There is a neighborhood here that what I would call the ghetto of the ghetto and when we first showed up all we got were a bunch of stupid jokes or they would all just run into their houses and hide because they know that two white kids wandering around in the middle of Mexico aren't here to party....But little by little in this transfer we have actually talked to a lot of them and it is not just changing them but the attitude of the whole area. One kid said that he liked talking to us because afterward he "tiene ganas" he feels like doing something as opposed to just sitting around. We'll be seeing big changes soon.

On a sad note one of the great members of the ward Hno T. died this week. He went with us or with the other missionaries EVERY DAY, he showed up to the chapel on Sundays to clean it at 5 in the freaking morning ALONE, every week he would call the branch president to ask if there were specific assignments he needed to do that week and he always came through. He stopped going with us last week, so we called him and he told us he didn't feel good, he had a cold, so the other elders went by to give him a blessing on Saturday. He was always assigned to bring the bread of the sacrament and on his last Sunday on earth he shows up to church, he can barely walk, stumbles into the chapel and gives the bread to the priests so they can bless it. This poor man had walked like 2 miles, sicker than crap just so he could bring the bread instead of calling and asking someone else to do it. He was too sick to return home so some of the members took him to the hospital and after to his brothers house. And there he died. He didn't get the care he needed in time. He was only 54. God needed more people like him on the other side. He didn't have a wife, nor kids, nor parents, just his brother. For some people life really is hard, I thank God that He hasn't seen it necessary to put me through some of the trials that I have seen on my mission. 

Baptism Last week

But just so we don't end on a sad note a really funny thing happened this week as well. We went to a little podunk town in our area in the middle of nowhere to visit J. and his family (The drunk guy that came to church a long time ago and his family). When we get to the town it started to rain really hard so we hauled it to their house and knocked and got in quick....the house was FULL of people, packed, what the heck is going on.... turns out that I. (the return missionary that has gone AWOL, that miraculously showed up to church) was getting married.... I crashed a wedding on my mission. Haha it was uncomfortable for us for sure but I can't even imagine how I. felt. A super stressful day, raining super hard so all needed to be in the house, all of his family (mormon that don't approve of the lifestyle the he has chosen) was in the house giving his wife dirty looks, and all of his wife's family (die hard Catholics that can't understand why there is no alcohol at the wedding, "freaking mormons man..") were all jammed together, and to top it off, two soaking wet gringos show up just as a reminder of what he once was. I'm sure he thought he had died and gone to hell.... hahahaha The first, and yes my friends, the last wedding I will ever crash... 

Working hard and overcoming trials

The nearer a person approaches the Lord, a greater power will be manifested by the adversary to prevent the accomplishment of His purposes. Joseph Smith

We had a baptism. yay haha it actually went really well. Haha poor P. she's like 3 feet tall and weighs like 10 pounds and she had to wear an adult jumpsuit hahahah but she took it well. I didn't get to see the confirmation because we had an incident Sunday morning that I can't talk about over email but lets just say Satan is going after our investigators.

Actually we have had several incidents this week that are proof that Satan has to do his work too. When I got here we had nothing, nothing. So we started working really hard to try and find people and we found 5 really good families, we had really good lessons, they were reading the Book of Mormon, we had a lot of member support, and things were looking promising.

This week 2 of them moved to a different state and the other three have told us that they can't be baptized because they were born in their religion and they will die in it.... daaaaangit. Everything fell through this week EXCEPT THE BAPTISM THANK YOU LORD. So guess where we are again? 0`s man...

John 14:30 Hereafter I will not talk much with you: for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me.

The Lord Himself told of the power that Satan CAN BUT DOESN'T HAVE to have in this world. Satan has the power that we give him, and there is the trick -And has nothing in Me. Christ beat Satan because He never gave Satan even a little power to drag Him down. Satan can only hurt us if we let him.

We had almost 140 street contacts this week and lots of lessons and whatnot but as we closed the week, we realized that we gotta do more. If we don't put in more effort, if we don't try harder, then Satan is gonna beat us. God is more powerful than Satan, Jesus Christ is more powerful than Satan, representatives of Jesus Christ are more powerful than Satan, there is no reason that we are gonna lose unless we give up and call it a day until we get transferred. I will leave this area better than I found it.


John 15:18 If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you.

I can't imagine how hard those last hours must have been for Christ. He knew what was coming, and instead of being afraid, or doubting, or complaining, or preparing Himself, He turns to His Apostles and quiets THEIR fears, strengthens THEIR confidence, prepares THEM for what will come. The world hated Him first. This week will be a week of turning to God, working hard to start over again, and praying for miracles.

Lord prepares people to hear the truth

This week went pretty well. We are teaching a family right now named Fam. L. and lets just say they are pure gold. The first lesson we had with them (like 2 weeks ago) we taught them the plan of salvation and the Spirit was soo strong. Haha they still refused to accept a baptismal date but were very receptive.

This week we had 2 really good lessons with them about the restoration haha but before the second lesson we had a funny experience. So we show up to their house with a member - A. (His mom wanted to name him Abinadi like the prophet in the Book of Mormon but she didn't remember how to spell it at the time - voila - Adbinadith) who is a return missionary and one of the best members I have met on the mission, he knows how to teach and invite and help the lesson really well.

When we get to their house we knock, if they aren't home there is always a padlock on the door and there was no padlock when we got there so we knew they were home, but nobody answered the door. DANGIT.

So after waiting and moping for like 5 minutes we turn around only to see Hmo L. coming around the corner to let us in, he was just getting home from work. HAha he told us he didn't know why his wife wasn]t home but he wanted to listen to us teach so he invited us in and we started to teach just him.

 As we started the lesson all of a sudden we hear someone start to cry  from one of the bedrooms in the house.... we were all like....what the.... so Hmo L. gets up to check whats going on hahahha and out of the bedroom comes his wife and his two little girls who were hiding in the bedroom because we got to their house before they could finish cleaning and the wife was too embarrassed to let us in herself....hahahahhaha her husband was ticked he kept saying "the door is always open to them, if they don't come back its your fault.".... haha

We just laughed and tried to help her finish cleaning up before we started the lesson again. We taught about Joseph Smith, Spirit was strong and they told us that they would come to church. At the end of the lesson Hmo L. told us that he had dreamed about the lessons we had taught him before we met him, he told us that he knew what we were teaching him was from God..... God had been preparing him long before we got there.

We also have a little girl named P. that will be baptized in 2 weeks, haha she's just like any other kid haha a little hyperactive and doesn't pay a whole lot of attention after about 5 minutes into the lesson, but hey she wants to be baptized and knows the answers to the baptismal interview questions, and her grandma is a member, so its a done deal.   

Other than that life is pretty normal here....