Guadalajara
HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I think it's kind of gay that we can’t call on Father’s Day too but whatever. Well dad, I hope you had fun watching golf by yourself, I remember those Saturdays where we would just sit there all day for like 6 hours watching TV while mom would just yell at us the whole time telling us to do something active. Haha dad, I can't even begin to tell you how you have influenced my life. You have given me so much and I really am so blessed to have someone like you. You have always been my example. When I got up early a 6 to go to practice you were always reading your Book of Mormon and that made me want to read more and be more like you. I hope I can become half of the man and dad that you are. Just look at what your kids are doing with their lives. You have given us all that we needed and more. Two on a mission and one returned home. Two married in the temple and one getting ready to get her patriarchal blessing and so much more. Thank you so much, dad, for everything you have done for me. I can’t express it in words but I wish I could just give you a big hug right now.
Well, my companion has started to get a little bit better with the language. I am letting him teach a lot even though the people don’t understand him. He needs to just block out any English that he has. He sometimes likes to talk in English when he can’t explain stuff in Spanish which is what you shouldn't do. You have to struggle through it, but little by little I am helping him get it down.
I have changed what I have been doing this week so much. We had a zone conference and then we had a district class today where they talked about another meeting they had with the area president or something like that. He said that so many missionaries waste time with people that really are not chosen or ready. We have the promise that there are people already ready to hear us and to accept everything that we have to offer. I think many times we lose the vision and say that there really are not people in my area and things like that. But I got so pumped up in that class when they talked about those that are chosen and ready to hear us. They said that if we found all of the people in our areas that were chosen we would not have time to teach them all. Who says that we can’t baptize every week and who says that we can’t find more of the chosen? Because the Lord will give to us according to our desires, Alma 29:7.
Well, today they told me too that I am going to be a district leader. I really don’t feel that weird about it like I did when I got moved up to senior comp. but I know it comes with more responsibility and more knowledge. I feel like I am learning so much on my mission. I have set a goal to read the New Testament in two changes because I have never read it all the way through.
Haha a couple of days ago one of the members was trying to say my name and they started singing Mahas to the song My Humps, by the Black Eyed Peas, but instead of my humps they said ma-has... hahaha I was cracking up.
We have had such tough days. The other day we taught one lesson and everyone else was gone and not in their house. It was frustrating but I know that for some reason it had to happen. Actually, I was thinking that I had just made some goals to be more obedient and exercise and everything the day before. So I did everything really well that morning and then left and there was nothing. But I think it’s a test. Satan wants me to think that being obedient won’t help me in the work, but I know that the blessings will come. We just don’t know when because it is a law from heaven, D&C 130.
It’s kind of funny that they just barely called me to be district leader two weeks after the change started. I was talking with a return missionary and he said he was a junior comp. for a year. He said he really didn’t care what he was and we talked about a lot of stuff. But I started to think that sometimes I feel like I am obeying all the little rules so that I can look good in front of the pres. so that I will get moved up. But I repented of that thinking and really thinking like that and obeying for that will not get me anywhere. Actually Elder Bednar said that if we are not doing it for the right reasons then we are committing priestcraft. Just like a week after that they told me I was going to be a district leader. So it’s funny how things work out like that.
So we get around my area on pure buses almost. We actually walk a lot, but it’s nothing like Vallarta. I miss the hitch hiking and all that but I like it here too. It’s all good--I needed a change.
One thing I am trying to do with my obedience and fasting and praying is I am trying to sanctify myself. I really want to have that full change of heart where I cringe at the sight of sin. I know sometimes we think that the prophets of old are people that were way obedient and we can’t ever become like them. But they had sanctified themselves. That is what I am working on and what everyone should be working on. We can sanctify ourselves through the atonement of Jesus Christ. As we are receiving forgiveness from the atonement we can have the change of heart and a desire to do what is right continually.
Well, we did have a date for a baptism this Saturday but he wants to wait until his wife can get baptized too. But this guy really is a chosen one and was ready from the beginning to get baptized. His wife too but she works a lot and it’s hard to teach her all of the lessons so we will have to take a little bit more time with them. Their names are Enrique and Chayo (I forgot her real name but that is what everyone calls her, haha.)
I am reading in the BOM and the Bible right now and I loved how Jacob describes the importance of the atonement and resurrection in our lives. In 2 Nephi 9, he says that if there was not a resurrection then we would become just like the devil after this life--without a body and just a spirit. And something that I liked in the Bible in Mark 4 when he is talking about the parable of the planter, (I think that’s what it is called in English) when some seeds drop by the wayside and in the thorns and in the rocks and all that jazz. But I see that as the less-actives or the new converts. It is scary because it says in 15 that right as the people receive the word Satan will come to try to take out what was planted. I can believe how many people and less-actives I have seen who really did not have a strong foundation. I want to be able to bring real lasting converts to my Heavenly Father like it says in 20. When they receive it and have strong roots-- because many times the missionaries just baptize to baptize—that’s their convert but it’s not a convert for the Lord because they never were really prepared.
I would ask you to pray for my companion and for our faith so that it can grow and we can have the faith that there are people waiting for us. Thank you so much for your support in my mish.
It’s too bad I couldn’t go with you on the trip but I’ll catch ya next time.
Love ya
