Mark Your Calendars for December 3rd!

¡HOLA!

Lots of good work this week and lots of people progressing!

This week Elder Valdovinos and I finished knocking in our area, so we started on round two of knocking and had great success!  We met a lady named Patricia and taught her about the Plan of Salvation.  She loved it and we are making plans for her to be baptized.  We also met with a woman named Andrea who had talked with the missionaries ten years before, but the missionaries were transferred and none ever came back.  We taught her a little about the Restoration again and she loves talking with us.  We hope to commit her to a baptismal date this week and have her baptized on the 3rd of December!

For the most part, this week was pretty calm as we knocked and contacted a bunch of people.  We finally met back up with one of our investigators, Sanjuana, on Friday and taught her and her grand-daughters about the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  The Spirit was storng in the lesson.  They loved listening to us and learning more about the gospel. Sanjuana came to church this week and knows that she needs to get baptized in the correct form by Jesus Christ's example, so we are setting her up to also be baptized on the 3rd of December.  We promised her that as she obeys these commandments from God, that she will be blessed in her life and will have more peace in all she does.  I know this to be true!  When we have faith and are obedient to God´s commandments, He is able to open the windows of heaven and work miracles in our lives.

On Saturday, one of the wards in our stake had a youth missionary activity.  They were paired up to go out with the missionaries and spend the whole day with us doing awesome missionary stuff!  It was a neat activity and we had a lot of fun knocking and teaching with our assigned youth.  We taught Patricia about the Restoration of the true church of Christ and she was very receptive.  We extended a baptismal invitation which she accepted, so we are working on making that commitment firm, resolving all her questions and preparing her for baptism on the 3rd of December!

On Sunday, Sanjuana came to church with us; which was really awesome!  Jonathan also came to church on his own!  He is doing great!  He's continuing to read the Book of Mormon and praying daily!  What a great guy!  I know that he will be so good and firm in following the gospel.  Later, we met Sanjuana´s daughter and taught her about the Gospel of Jesus Christ and she accepted to be baptized.  She says that her daughters can continue talking with us and also be baptized, so we hope to baptize all of them on December 3rd!

Today was the usual p-day except we played football today as a zone against another zone.  Pretty fun.  I threw for two touchdowns and got one pick (interception), so it was a good day.

We are working really hard and I know that through our efforts, we will be blessed by God with families to baptize.  Fun stuff!  Lots and lots of hope and anticipation for December 3rd and the rest of this year!

I love you all!

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,
Elder San Diego

En Primer Lugar mi Bautismo - My First Baptism

Hey hey!

Wow, another week gone already! I don`t know how it`s possible, but this week has been even faster than all the others.

On Tuesday, we met with this cool couple, Benjamin and Jimena. They have two small girls and are strong Christians. Good start. So we taught them a little bit and are going to keep meeting with them. I know that as they keep being open and receptive to our message, they will be open and receptive to the Spirit which will tell them that this is the only true church of Jesus Christ and that they need to follow their response. 

On Wednesday, we had a multi-zone meeting at 8am and had some great instruction from President Tervort and one of the area seventies. They talked a little bit about Mosiah 12-16 which are some great chapters of when Abinadi is teaching King Noah and his priests. So, naturally, I encourage you all to read those chapters! They are great and full of the Spirit. Later in the night, Jonathan had his interview! Yay! He is way excited and so are we.

On Thursday, we had a great day of knocking and contacting. We met with a family and feel they are really great so we are going to focus on them. Later, we met with Jonathan and gave him a blessing to help him feel calm and peaceful since he was really stressed out with a job he had to get done. In the afternoon, we received a nice cold downpour to walk in, so that was cool. 

Friday was a great day. We started off visiting a contact named Sanjuana. We taught her and her grand-daughter about the Restoration and they felt the Spirit very strong. We invited them to be baptized and they are going to pray about it and read the Book of Mormon. I know they will receive an even stronger confirmation of the truth through the Spirit as they do this. So, as you can imagine, we are excited to meet with them again. We visited Jonathan again and an amazing thing happened! He is an industrial mechanic, so he makes different parts for businesses and hospitals. He felt stressed on Thursday because he had a project to complete, but the business called him and wanted it finished earlier or they would cut a big chunk of his pay. So he was pretty stressed out and that`s why we gave him a blessing. I know that priesthood blessings are from our loving Father in Heaven given directly to us through a worthy priesthood holder. When we met with Jonathan, he told us that he got all the work done super fast and a few hours earlier than expected! Wow! I know that as we show our faith in God and are obedient to His commandments, He blesses us with miracles in our lives.  Later, we met with the family we had contacted on Thursday. The mom is Cecilia and she has three sons: Angel Gael (8), Angel Gabriel (6), and Angel Ariel (2). (I call them "Los Angeles" hehe.) We watched the Restoration movie with them. They are really cool, and we are going to work on getting them to church and being baptized. Cool story from Friday: I ate tacos made with cow brain! Yeah! Funny thing is, they were really good. 

Saturday was great! We finally had some success! Jonathan was baptized! Woohoo! I can`t describe how happy it made me feel, and I was the one that got to baptize him! Way cool experience!

On Sunday, Jonathan was confirmed! We are so happy for him and he feels so happy. I know this true and lasting happiness comes in and through the gospel of Jesus Christ and by following His example in our lives. Later, God gave us a gift! A lady named Andrea walked up to us and said she wanted to meet with us. She had talking with missionaries about 10 years ago, but they got transferred and she didn`t know how to get in touch with them. We are really excited to meet with her and hopefully commit her to baptism! 

Today was another good p-day. We went to downtown Mexico City and I bought a few cool bags and a jacket. Cool story is that I bought two tamales, two bags, a jacket, a suit pin, and lunch for all about the equivalent of twenty-three American dollars. Cool stuff. Oh! Shout-out to Cole Patterson! Today we were walking and two women introduced themselves to us as members of the church from Germany! Cool.

Well, that`s about it for this week. Keep doing great in all you do! I love you all!

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego

Jonathan's Baptism

Elder Valdovinos, Jonathan & Elder San Diego

"Luiz Offers You His Protection!"

Hey everyone!

Yet another week has gone by and boy was it fast!

Last Tuesday and Wednesday was Dia de Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). It was fun learning a little more about it and seeing the people here participating in that traditional holiday. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday were pretty similar. We had some investigators who told us they didn´t want to keep following with the lessons or be baptized so we had to drop them. So, in light of that, we knocked and knocked and knocked some more trying to find some new people who are interested and want to listen to this message. Funny story from Thursday: while I was knocking doors, I found a drunk guy sleeping on his patio. I called Elder Valdovinos over to take a look and join me in trying to wake him up. Like anyone else would do, Elder Valdovinos and I got little pebbles and pieces of vegetation to throw at him. We yelled and knocked on his gate and tried everything in the book, but he was out cold! He didn´t even move as we did all of this. Crazy. Elder Valdovinos and I had a good laugh at that.

Friday we knocked some more and met with some of our investigators. We met with a lady named Rosalia who is really cool. She likes talking with us and listening and wants to come to church with us. She is interested, so we are going to work hard to teach her all she needs to know and have her feel the Spirit to know this church is true so she can make the decision to be baptized. Her son is also interested, but we have yet to meet him.  From what she says, he sounds cool and willing to listen and is excited about it too. We also met the uncle of one of our investigators, Jonathan. His name is Luiz and he thanked us for all we have done for Jonathan and said he would like to talk with us one day. He also said that if anyone messes with us to just tell him and he will go beat them up. Yeah, we roll with security down here.

On Saturday we met with a young couple that another missionary gave to us as a reference. They are great. Their names are Mitchel and Brenda and together they have a little baby girl who is one month old. They have met with the missionaries before so they have been taught about half the lessons and love it. Elder Valdovinos and I taught them a little more and invited them to be baptized and they accepted! Woohoo! We haven´t set a specific date for them to be baptized yet since we have to get them married first, but it will be really soon.

Sunday was long but so good. Jonathan came to church this week and liked it and has his baptismal interview this Wednesday and his baptism on Saturday. Needless to say, we are all pretty excited. Just a little fact about Jonathan: before, he used to drink 50 liters of cerveza every week. Yes, 50. Last week he was down to only 2 liters and having no problem. We suggested for him to quit and abandon it forever and he agreed! I know that all things are possible as we turn to the Lord and ask for his help in our lives and rely on him. Such a truly amazing experience. Later, we met with some investigators, Gregorio and his two daughters Liliana and Ariadna. We invited Gregorio and Liliana to be baptized, but Gregorio said no, he wants to take more time to decide. However, Liliana said she wants to be baptized. She first needs the permission of her dad so we are praying that he will let her be baptized. When we were walking home, a drunk joven (youth) told us "Saca para una cahuama (a cahuama is a big bottle of cerveza)." (Give me your money so I can buy a cerveza) We just told him we had nothing and kept walking. Pretty funny.

Today we played soccer as a zone again and my team did pretty good. We all wore our Mexico jerseys and had a great time. I am getting pretty good at the good ol ball handling skills and scoring goals. Today I scored two goals! Yeah. I even tried a Chilena (bicycle kick) today and it almost went in but the goalie just had to be there to stop it and take away my glory.

Lots of good stuff happening here in Mexico! I know without a shadow of a doubt that this Church and gospel are true. There would be no reason to be out here if it wasn´t that way. I have people all day try to tell me that I am wrong and have been deceived, but I know deep within the truthfulness of all that I know and teach to others. I have received my witness from God and there is no way for me to deny what I know. I love this gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the fulness of the truth which God has to offer us. I know this with all my heart and soul. I bear testimony that it is true and invite anyone who is curious about it to learn more and test God to ask him if it is true and see by their own experience if it is indeed good. I know anyone who does this will receive from God their answer and his love and presence in their life.

I love you all! Keep doing great in all you do!

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,
Elder San Diego