The Christmas Season - December 31, 2016

Hey Everyone, Well Christmas was so awesome here in Oaxaca, there was no snow, very little lights and music, but the spirit of Christ was felt everywhere being with the members and especially teaching about Christ and his Atonement. It was a very special week. One great experience that we had was with Madai, after her Mom didnt give her permission to be baptized she has really struggled. On Christmas eve her mom made her go to the Catholic church and she was hoping to feel the same spirit there. She said that when she went there they didnt even talk about Christ and she felt nothing that she needed. When we stopped by she didnt want to tell us anything. It was 3 days after Christmas but we still felt like we needed to talk to her about the true meaning of Christmas. When we finished teaching about Christ and his atonement she told us that she hadnt felt this spirit in a long time trying to look for ways that went the same as her mom. When she prayed at the end she said "Heavenly Father thank you for giving me this answer that I needed and what I needed to know to have this happiness and joy" It was an amazing experience. It is sad that a girl with a testimony is being stopped by her age. But the Lord will provide a way, she knows it, and we know it too. This week now that Christmas has come and gone we have had to do all of the training meetings this week. It was a special experience. On Tuesday we had a meeting with President Madsen to discuss what we needed. This is such a hard time to teach the gospel. Satan is working in the hearts of all men and women. It is like the old prophicies that the hearts of the children of men are becoming hard hearted and cold. We are seeing that and we need to be the best we can be now. So we talked about this in the meeting and what we need to do to make sure that every missionary is at his best. Afterwards President told us to get the training ready. I couldnt believe that he would confide in us to do that especially in such a critical time. Elder Caballero and I studied for 2 hours getting together all we needed to do to make sure that we were teaching and being the best we could be. The Lord lifted us, he gave us power to do what was needed at this moment. On Thursday we trained all the new missionaries and their trainers about the influence that they would have across the generations of missionaries to come through Oaxaca. President talked about how Pride and Laziness are the only 2 things that can impede our eternal progression and our missionary progression. In the Leadership council we talked about ministering to the missionaries in our zones. We shared a scripture with them in Alma 60:6 that has a huge question to ask each of us as leaders and members of the Church. And now behold, we desire to know the cause of this exceedingly great neglect; yea, we desire to know the cause of your thoughtless state. It was really powerful and to some it may have come across as harsh but it is what we have had to ask ourselves as missionaries in these last days. The Lord needs us in this work and he cant have us neglecting those that need us, missionaries, members, and investigators. I am so blessed to be in this work at this time. We are in the last days preparing for the 2nd coming of the Lord. Even though many are turning their hearts away and "neglecting" the Lord, we can still be those people who Light the World.

Ice Cream Sundaes with Elder Thompson and Elder Caballero

Still working on getting in Farm Shape again...

Oaxacan Graffiti