 | ||
| Conbi! We take these everywhere! and they are EVERYWHERE! Dallin would love it. Every time we hop in one it smells exactly like Dallins VW; old carpet smell and fume intoxicated upolstries. They load the people in them, at least 11 every time:) It's fun. They just have one bench in the back and another along the opposite side of the door, and you pile in, hahaha:) My legs are always like on top of three other people:)
|
 |
| Taking the Micro to church, the seats are tiny! Pretty much every car here backfires so bad! You know that noise and smell of the cars at the demolition derby? Yeah that is what it sounds and smells like in every street:) |
2013-08-05
Familia!
Okay, where do I start? I don’t really remember what I said
last week so sorry if I repeat some stuff. Anyways, so remember how I was going
to clean the apartment last Monday. After emailing we went home and I started
cleaning while the other elders took their siestas. Anyways I cleaned for about
two hours and the place was looking pretty good. I filled two huge garbage
sacks with garbage, old clothes, shoes, food, cardboard, boxes, containers,
plants... you name it. There was a tone of stuff that I just tossed in the
trash. So almost immediately after I finished cleaning we received a call from
the zone leaders (great great missionaries, I love them) anyways they said that
president and Hermana Valadez were going to come by at eight the next morning
to do an apartment inventory; coincidence, I think not :) so the next morning
rolls around and they come, after a half hour inventory of everything he
huddles us together in the middle of the room and says, " I don’t like
this apartment, the conditions aren´t really good, it’s really humid, has no ventilation,
and there are four of you, so your assignment is to find two new apartments for
the mission to rent."
Entonces (so, then) we
have been looking all week for another place. It is tough to find time to look
at apartments with all our teaching appointments. Anyways we have until the end
of the month to find two new apartments. So hopefully we will be moving sometime
soon.
This week we have really been focusing on a manual that our
president created called el modelo de exito, The model of success. He just
introduced this manual to the mission and it has things we need to do every
day, week, and month to be successful. It is awesome! Anyways I have been
studying it a lot and trying to make goals centered around it. A big part of
the modelo is working with the members, which can be a challenge here because I
only know 3 families in the ward that all are members and sealed in the temple.
It is really sad; pretty much everyone is a part member family. So we have been
working a lot with the part member and less active families to get them back to
church. We need to strengthen the ward and have more priesthood holders for the
work to really progress, because the most effective way to obtain new investigators
is through the members. So right now we are trying to strengthen the members.
Another part of the modelo is to train the members, so we are training how to
be a ward missionary, etc. It is a lot of work, and we have high goals, but I
know that if we follow this modelo de exito we will see miracles.
Okay so Thursday we had splits with the zone leaders, I love
them. They have been out for a year, and are really stellar missionaries. I
really look up to them and learn a lot from them. Anyways Elder Frazier came on
splits with me and he really built me up and made me even more excited for the
work. He also helped me with my Spanish. My companion is native and he has no
Idea what the rules or why certain words are used in Spanish, so he can’t
really explain why things are the way they are with Spanish. But elder Frazier
was able to answer and explain a couple questions I had concerning Spanish. He
is just great! And Elder Yates is the other Zone leader; I get along with him
so well. I am really fortunate because my companion is the district leader so
we report directly to the zone leaders, entonces (then at that time) I get to meet and talk with the zone leader in person once or
twice a week to report the numbers and everything with my companion. I am able
to learn a lot in these sessions. I love them. At night we usually talk to them
on the phone and I give them the daily obedience report... the through and
through honest truth. I have to do this because we have had some obedience
problems with the other elders in the apartment (another reason why we are
looking for two apartments). It’s sad to see elders not living up to their full
potential because they don’t want to be here.
Anyways, you wanted to hear about church, well it’s awesome!
Pretty much the same, except we start ten minutes late, and yesterday there
were about 10 people there at the beginning, by the end we had maybe 60-70 on
the high side. The classes are great we usually go to gospel principles con (with) the investigators. I love church, it’s
so great!
 |
| The stake center which is our building too, we are very fortunate, this building is hug and has two full size chapels! Very nice for Mexico. We have all our meetings and reports to the Zone Leaders aqui (here). The building is in Tasquena, which is a huge metro station, bus, micro, and conbi interchange. It is pretty central to all the mission. |
Spanish, I am doing really well! It is tough at times, and I
feel a little lost in some of the conversations. Right now I feel really
blessed, I bet I understand about 85%. And then there are like two or three investigators
that talk really really fast and I cannot understand them very well. The
hardest part is expressing your thought because my vocabulary is limited. Many
times I am scared to say something because I don’t want to say the wrong thing,
but there are many scriptures that say if we just open our mouths the spirit
will prompt us. So I am focusing on saying something whenever I am prompted.
This was testified to be true last night in a lesson with an
inactive man. We were reviewing some of the commandments, and my companion said
this is the law of chastity, and turned to me.... I had never taught this
before.... let alone in español! hahaha so I opened my mouth and taught it very
simply. It totally worked though, and the spirit was so strong.
We are also working with a part member family, the Lopez
Perez family. The dad is a member and the two kids want to be members but their
mom will not let them. It is so sad to see people that will not open their
hearts to the gospel message. The mom is catholic and wants to be loyal to her
mom’s traditions. Anyways, the kids are golden, they know all the answers and
they brought an amazing spirit into the lesson with their mom. Nothing I say is
going to convert a single soul; it’s all about the spirit. The Spirit is the
ultimate teacher.
Our area authority (don’t remember who) said " it’s not
a coincidence that we were called to serve at the same time Christ is
accelerating this work. Christ is accelerating this work because we were called
at this time."
I know this is true, just as is says in 1 Peter 2:9
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood,
an holy enation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of
him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light
And D&C 121:
34-46
34 Behold, there are
many called, but few are chosen. And why are they not chosen?
35 Because their hearts are set so much upon
the things of this world, and aspire to the honors of men, that they do not
learn this one lesson—
36 That the rights of the priesthood are
inseparably connected with the powers of heaven, and that the powers of heaven
cannot be controlled nor handled only upon the principles of righteousness
Great scriptures.
Another great week has quickly passed by; I love this work
so much!
Answering our questions:
No letters yet, stomach is fine. I eat oatmeal with PBJ or cold cereal for breakfast with a yogurt drink. Then at about 2 we have a huge meal with the members which is the best food I have ever had ! I have no idea what half of it is, but its good. Oh yesterday we had the best home made horchata I have ever had, Camille would be jealous. Oh and the juices are all so good, so many flavors, and all 100% natural; fruit juice water and sugar:) Study is good, one hour of personal, two hours of companionship study to prepare lecoins, and one hour for language. The we start teaching at 12. Companions....fine.
oh thanks Dad. The scout adventure sounds fun...gotta build character in those boys for their missions. Thanks for writing. I love you, and yes...I do feel the support everyday. I also love reading your mission journal. Thanks for always being an example to me and a righteous priesthood holder. Love McKay
No comments:
Post a Comment