Mission Travels - August 20, 2016

Hello Everyone, Well this week was for sure a very different week for us. It was a week in which we were able to travel around parts of the mission that are further away from the offices to go and train the zone leaders and new missionaries once again. It was such an amazing experience to be able to go and learn from everyone this week. As I was traveling it really dawned on me the great blessing that I have been given with this responsibility. I learned that the greater responsibility that someone has in the work of the Lord, the greater need that they have to learn. I know that it is a commandment of the Lord and I was thinking about that the great scripture from 1 Nephi 3:7 came to my mind. "And it came to pass that I, Nephi said unto my father: I will go and do the things which the Lord hath commanded, for I know that the Lord giveth no commandments unto the children of men, save he shall prepare a way for them that they may accomplish the thing which he commandeth them." I feel like this really applied to this principle of learning, knowing that the Lord expects us to now be a missionary among missionaries as well as among the people of Oaxaca, we have recieved a greater need of learning and growing in the gospel and the way in which we represent the Lord. With this greater need the Lord put forth "the way" for us to be able to learn and grow. It was one of the hardest weeks of my mission, physically, emotionally, and spiritually, but the difficulties were overshadowed by these experiences that we recieved to learn from missionaries, members, and others in our trips this week. On Monday we started out bright and early getting things ready for a week long trip down to what is known as the "Itsmo" it is an area that I was in at the start of my mission that has Juchitan there. It is about 5 hours away driving from the offices. We left Monday morning with President and Sister Madsen and just like last time we rode with President I got a little car sick from all of the curves, but we made it safe and sound to Juchitan. We started out our week of splits with Elder Barlow from Huntington Beach and Elder Ibarra from Durango Mexico. We had a member come with us for some of the lessons and he taught us so many ways in which we could be direct and he taught us that if we have 2 minutes to contact then go and bear your testimony. We applied it and it was amazing how the results were. I saw peoples hearts softened to the Lord in just 2 minutes time because of the fast and strong affect of the Holy Ghost. The next day we went with Elder Rayon and Elder Portales both from Mexico. I learned so much in how we can keep a loving and happy attitude in the work. We had a few people try to contend with us and all that Elder Portales did was "I know that Heavenly Father loves you and wants the best for you" It was an amazing example for me to see. On Thursday we traveled to Salina Cruz to go with Elder Tomala from Ecuador and Elder Seañez from Chihuahua. Elder Tomala was the assistant here in the mission and the simple principle that he taught me was work by faith through each work that I have. And then he showed me how to do it and it was such a comfort to be able to see that and learn that. On Friday we took a bus back to Oaxaca that was 7 hours long and now we are back here. I am so excited for this next week that we will have the first chances to put all of these teachings into place. The Lord really blessed us with "Talents" this week that he has given us the chance to use and bless the lives of others, and I know that we will be able to see miracles through what he has given us in this past week. I love this work and know that it is true. Elder Peterson

Elder Valenzuela and I in front of the famous Nacho Libre church that was filmed here in Oaxaca

Some steps Nacho Libre ran down