Onward in the Work - October 15, 2016

Buenas Tardes! Okay so this week was a busy week for us doing divisions with a lot of the zone leaders and having to go to all of the zone conferences. The fun part about part of that though is this week I had the chance to go back to Nochixtlan and it was fun to see part of where I was for the change that I was there. We also got to go to 2 other zone conferences and it was a great opportunity to be able to learn in different ways the way that we need to do the work in this time. Really the theme for this week that has kept coming back to my mind is just doing the work with no fear. A lot of times we get scared to invite others to be baptized, or invite others to go to church or an activity because we are afraid of what they will think of us. But in each conference that we could go to the spirit kept saying to us that we shouldnt have any fear to do any of the things that we are sent here to do. It has reminded me of my favorite scripture this whole week, in 2nd Timothy 1:7: For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. We were really able to apply this this week with all of the blessings that the Lord has given us to teach. He has put so many opportunities into our hands and sometimes we dont have the faith to have the courage to continue on in what we need to do for him. Yesterday I was in splits with Elder Weaver from Roy Utah, and we had to go out and look for new people to try and teach. And for the first time in my mission, in each lesson we were able to invite someone to be baptized, no matter how strict or how closed off they were to us. We invited them to be baptized on a certain date too to test their faith. It was really a step outside the comfort zone but President Madsen has taught us that if the investigators dont know we are there to baptize them then we have no reason to teach them. It was really a test of faith but the joy that we felt afterwards was worth it. Sadly this week we recieved some bad news, Eva told us that her Mom was getting really mad at her and her kids for going to church with us and listening to us. It was really hard to hear that after all of the miracles that we had seen with her. She told us that she wanted us to keep sending her messages to help her to progress because we couldnt come by her house anymore. Yesterday in splits my companion found her daughter in the street and her daughter said that she wanted us to come by their house again. My companion asked her if they had prayed to know if this message was true and they said that they hadnt, but that they were going to do it and let us know when they did so that we could come by again. It is something so simple but it is the only way we can recieve the greatest blessings in our life, by coming to know of the truthfulness of the gospel through our communication with Heavenly Father. This week we have been able to see all the progress that Maddie is making with her family. She continues to invite everyone in her family to come to church with her. On Thursday we had the chance to go and teach her cousin Gaby for the first time. When we asked Gaby why she wanted to be taught she said that she had seen the change in Maddie and wanted to have that same change in her life, she accepted to be baptized immediately and we will start working with her to help her come to a knowledge of the truthfulness of the gospel. The two of them have been going to all of the Young Womens activities and are always asking what more there is to do in the church, truly this story is a miracle to see the way that the Lord truly cares about each of his children and how he puts the way forth for each of them to recieve the eternal blessings of the gospel. These past few weeks I have become an expert in Mexican Law and Politics. We have a couple in the ward that isnt married, Jose and Lulu, and they have been waiting 3 years for the chance to get married. Last week I started doing some research to see if there were any judges in Oaxaca that were members and we were able to find 1! We called him and he said that he was willing to help us in whatever we needed to be able to help them get married and be baptized. The only thing that we are waiting for now is for the papers to go through so that they can get married. We know the only way that they are going to go through faster is through more fervent prayer and fasting. Hopefully it can pass this week. These are all the experiences that we are having, it is a test and blessing of faith to see all of these miracles that we are experiencing. This work is true and I have no doubt about it.

The famous Oaxacan Chapulines (Crickets) and yes I ate it, the sensation of little legs in your throat is not the greatest

Pizza night for Splits