Thank you for writing me so much, I feel so loved when other elders tell me that their family doesn't even write them. Like my comp named Elder Rosales. I have bad news. He went home like last week to his house. He only had like 4 months left. I felt really bad for him and I will have to write him when I get home and check up on him cause he needs a lot of help.
Well we had the council thing this week. We talked about so many things but first we had the council with the zone leaders. We talked about our areas and how we are doing in our areas since Elder Johnson came. I got up and said that we had found some elects but I felt like I had lightened up a little bit because we already found some people and had quite a few in teaching. So we found a few and then stopped looking so hard. I asked how I could better focus on that everyday and how other elders have focused on that in the last month. I had many ideas and the spirit taught me what I needed to do. I really learned about how the spirit can personalize the teaching for us. While someone is talking we need to pay a lot of attention to the impressions that we have. We will learn things we never thought we would learn. During the conference the president mentioned a couple of times the experience that I had with him and I was thinking a lot about that experience and what I did before to be able to receive that spirit and receive the impression to do what I did in the lesson. Later on in the conference a thought came to me and I knew what I had done to be able to receive that revelation. There in a quote in PMG on the page 93 or 94 that says that if we pray every morning to be instruments in the hands of the Lord to bless the lives of others we will act under the influence of that spirit as well as our investigators. I specifically remember asking for that in my prayer the day that I went to work with pres. And now I am applying it every day. I have seen a change in my mission.
For the last couple of months our pres and his wife have made plans for the whole mission to read the Book of Mormon every 3 months!! It seems fast and crazy and I thought so too. And to be honest I never really did it. But in the council we talked about it and a lot of elders stood up and said that they couldn’t read 3 chapters a day or they liked to study other things. I thought that too. But I felt the spirit teach me a lot in this moment. I remembered the phrase in PMG that says that your mish pres will establish goals to develop your faith. This was a goal and I never took it seriously. I underestimated the revelation of my president. I thought, how will the obedience to my mish pres now help me in my future life and fam. Basically in everything. If I begin to say that I don’t what to do a little thing that my leader tells me to do then pretty soon it will be a couple of little things and then a bigger thing. I committed myself to finish the BOM by the end of this months. It will require a lot of sacrifice but I am going to stay up late to read. I calculated it and I will have to read 17 pages everyday to finish on time. But that’s what I get for not obeying my pres. It is something so small yet, we don’t do it. And as we read the BOM they want us to focus on the obedience and what happens as we are obedient. I have learned so many things even though I am reading fast. For example, God's will is done through those who are obedient and those who follow the spirit. If there weren’t obedient people on the earth, God could do nothing.
Well Apolinar is going to get baptized this Saturday with his wife!!!! We went on Saturday and we went with the old mish presidents of the Xuahaca, Mexico. They are in our ward. They are way cool. They basically taught the whole lesson and they talked about how she needed to pray to know if this message was true because she was still a little iffy on the baptism thing. She came to church on Sunday and she came out of the second class crying. She told us that she though we had set this all up for her so she could feel so happy. She told us that the minute she walked into the church she felt such a great joy a happiness the whole time. We challenged her right there to baptism and she said yes she will get baptized on Saturday with her husband!!!! And we will be throwing down a 15 year old kid named Bruno whos parents are the less active couple I told you about a while ago. He is sweet and so ready to be baptized. She we will have three this week and then at least two or three next week. We are going for the kids of Apolinar. One of them is way close and the other one has not gone to church but she has already had a dream that she will get baptized!!! We are leaving the house everyday with a new purpose. We must find an elect EVERY DAY. At least one. So we have done that so far and we have seen results. We need to stay humble because after so many blessings we become pridefull. I pray every night to become more humble. I have noticed that too as I have read the BOM that after obedience comes the blessings that then after the blessings comes a warning to be humble and remember the hand of the Lord and where that blessing came from. I love this work and I know that we are here for the gathering of the Lord's chosen and for no other reason. There are more chosen people in our areas that we could have time to teach, says Elder Johnson. Its just our job to find them. I will put in an extra hard effort this week to be able to find those chosen who so badly need this gospel. I love this work and I have seen that really are only instruments in the hands of the Lord. I love striving to listen and follow the spirit. It is such a challenge but so gratifying. I love it and love knowing that as I do so I am carrying out the will of my Heavenly Father.
That was cool to read the experience about anna and how she had the opportunity to talk with a 70. I didn’t talk with him personally but I feel the same way about Elder Johnson. He came down here and changed my life. He changed my way of seeing things, he tested more my faith. And he has made me grow in so many ways.
I know that we have had much success and after that success I must humble myself more than ever because pride is the stumbling block of Zion. And after having had a a lot of success we must work even harder to be able to have more success. We cant be comformists??? I think that’s a word in English. haha But what I want to say is that we can't get comfortable with what we have achieved. We must keep climbing and climbing higher and higher. I love the scripture of 1 Nephi 17:50, I think, that says if the Lord commanded me to do anything I could do it. And also Proverbs 3:5-6 and D&C 58:26-33. I have been reading those 3 scripture almost every morning to start my day and to remind me why I am here. To find the elect every single day. I can't let one day pass. So as I read these scriptures they remind me that the promise Elder Johnson made us is real and that we can do anything with faith and that the power is in us to do whatever we want to do. I will be working hard also to get this mentality in the minds of the elders of the zone. Because when I got here I heard nothing about how I could baptize every week. Maybe once every month was good. Well it's not anymore. We have risen the bar and the Lord has risen us at the same time. This has been a great test of faith and I still must work hard because many times we forget it. But I need to remember this every moment of my life. That I am here for one reason, to baptize. Nothing else.
I love you all and hope that all is well. Thanks for your prayers. I really need them. If I could ask one thing it would be to pray for me so I can be humble and not get comfortable with what I am doing, but keep my purpose in mind and work for that constantly. Thank you.
Hey meg is going to be here Thursday. Well I cant go out there it's way too far. She is going to be in my first area. Well if she wants she could call from a local phone for a couple of minutes to my phone. But it can't be a lot. But that’s if she wants. But it would have to be from a local phone and only for a couple of minutes.
I love you all.
Love, Elder Mahas
