Stuck in Juchitan - December 3, 2016

Hello Everyone! Well it was a crazy week. On Saturday all the kids got baptized that we originally found in Nochixtlan. It was so humbling to see their innocence and purity to be baptized. They knew everything and they have some of the strongest testimonies that I have seen. On Sunday we had the baptism for Angel. It was such a cool experience because his mom came to church as well as his whole family. But something even cooler is the missionary that baptized his mom came to the baptism too and you could tell that it was an amazing experience for him too. But that Sunday was so spiritual. It has been a hard couple of weeks for the Casa Blanca ward, the attendance has been going down and the ward leaders have been worried about it. So we had a huge talk in the ward council and we got on the topic of music. We decided to incorperate more music into the sacrament meeting each week. We did that and we had an awesome spiritual meeting. I love music and it has been something that has changed lives and strengthened testimonies. On Tuesday we had our Zone conference with President Madsen. He was so powerful and each conference is more urgent to increase and be more in this work. He got up and told us "As missionaries in this mission we dont know how to teach, all we know is how to explain something. We are teaching the doctrine of Christ, not the individual doctrine of each one of us. We need to learn how to teach and let the spirit guide" Afterwards we learned the importance of scriptures and teaching and simply being guides for the investigators. We learned that the way of Christ is a lot harder to do, including the way that we need to teach, but it is the way we need to do it because it is his name that we wear. After that we ran down to Juchitan to go do splits down there with the Zone Leaders. We got there at 10 that night on the bus and we went straight to their house. We worked hard on Wednesday and we were able to teach the zone leaders how to incorperate that way of teaching so that they could teach it to their zones. We were able to see changes in people that way. Actually in our own area we had an experience with a guy named Israel. We shared 4 scriptures with him and we saw a change in him. At the end he told us. "I need to go to church and I need to be baptized. When can I go and when can I get baptized" That took us off guard because all we did was read and direct him to scriptures. We are hoping that he goes to church tomorrow. But anyways going back to the Juchitan experience, on Wednesday night we got a call saying that all of the highways were blocked in Oaxaca and that we wouldnt be able to travel for another day. It was frustrating to see because we had so many plans in our own area but there was a reason we needed to be there. We taught the next day as well and on Friday morning we were able to get back to Oaxaca. It has been a huge trial of faith to be out of our area for this amount of unexpected time but I know that it will work out. It always does. It wont be the easiest but it will be the most worthwhile and the blessings will be greater for it. I hope that in this process this next week we can be the way that these people recieve the blessings in their lives, that we can be a light for them so that they can find this same eternal light in Jesus Christ and his teachings. It changes people, because it is a light that is only found in the true teachings of our Savior. I am so thankful for the opportunity that we have to light the world this month and after. There are so many people that need this light, dont be afraid to shine it, they are looking for it. Be the way that they find that light. This next week Saturday we will be going down to Juchitan again to see Elder Andersen. He is flying in and going to be speaking to the stakes down there. It will be the first time ever that an apostle goes to the itsmo and we are excited to be able to hear what he says. So next week I will probably be writing Friday night because on Monday we have changes and it will be crazy!!! But it will be a fun experience. Thank you for all of your love and support, I hope that you can all share the light and #lighttheworld. Elder Peterson

Baptism of Angel

Baptism of the Nochixtlan Kids

Divisions in Juchitan with Elder Portales from Mexico and Elder Thomas from New Mexico!