Good Bye 2012, Welcome 2013!!

Hey guys!

We had a pretty good week. It was great seeing my family on Christmas via Skype. It truly is a miracle and a blessing to have the kind of technology that we have in this time and age to bless our lives and the lives of others in an instant. It was good to see them and hear of their successes. We had a good week and found some great people who are excited to listen to the gospel and know of the blessings it has to offer us in our lives. One sister in the ward even brought her friend to church this week and then presented her to us. She was excited, as was her friend, about the opportunities that are opened before us as we open our hearts and souls to the Lord by receiving His gospel. We worked hard and will continue to do so.

In this time of the year, we have the marvelous opportunity to reflect on our lives, our successes and failures, the chances we have to improve, the love we can give, and the happiness we can find in the service of the Lord. In this season of the New Year, I am reminded of the principle of repentance. Many prophets and apostles have written and spoken of this divine gift of repentance. It is well known that the Savior gave His life for us that we may live. It is true that it is only in and through Christ our Lord that we can be washed clean of sin and sorrow and receive the peace, joy, and glory that awaits us in the heavenly realm. Yet, He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way. My dear friends and family, let us not turn to our own way and forget the Lord. Let us not wander in darkness. Let us not commit one more sin or regretful mistake than is necessary. Let us always remember Him. Let us live our lives as He did His. Let us reach out and help another. Let us serve our brethren. True happiness only comes by making others happy. Let us rise out of the dust and shake ourselves off and act instead of wait. Let us rededicate ourselves to the Lord. In this New Year, let us live better, stand a little taller, and be more Christ-like. We have the chance to repent; to change! If we have made mistakes, it's okay. All of us do. What we need to do with those mistakes is forsake them. For that reason, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ came to the world. For that reason, He sacrificed all so that we may live, if we will repent. Let us start again and come unto the Lord with a broken heart and a contrite spirit. In the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego

Ronald and I just chatt'in it up!

The after effects of Christmas dinner on me and Elder Hatch

Feliz Navidad Everyone!!

Dear folks,

We had an okay week. We found the little girl named Vania who we are preparing for baptism and she is still excited about it. (If I have never mentioned her before, she is the daughter of an inactive member lady we found) The only thing is that she couldn't go to church this week again. The good thing is that her mom doesn't work for the next few weeks and wants to start going back to church! So we should be able to find her more frequently and prepare her for baptism. Yay! This week we had two families we had found tell us that they don't want to or can't listen any more. It was disappointing for the both of us but we kept working to find more whom we can teach. But we have good hopes and faith for this week. We had a guy contact us yesterday in the street and tell us he wants to learn more and be closer to God and Christ. That was a tender mercy from the Lord and we will meet with him tomorrow and see how it goes! It should be good and we are praying for the best!

In good news, the world didn't end! Whoopie! That just means we still have time to save people! But we had a good week. Lately, we have been helping a kid in our ward with his english and as I have taught english over the course of my mission, I remember the words of my past english teachers telling us one day we would have to teach somebody english and me thinking 'yeah, right'. Just goes to show that all those who are older than you will always be right. Anyway, tomorrow is Christmas! Yay! My prayer is that we may always have the spirit of Christmas to be with us throughout all the year, and not just in the moments in which we unite as a family to celebrate the holidays. Let us always remember him. In good and in bad, let us give thanks to the redeemer of our souls, Jesus Christ, the very Son of God. May our hearts always be full of cheer, love, joy, and giving. As we focus and center our lives on Christ, we can enjoy the peace he has to offer us in life. We are never alone. We are never forgotten. Let us never forget Him. And may we always enjoy the feeling of Christmas all year round. In the name of our Saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen.

See you tomorrow family! Love you all!

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego

Hey! The world didn't end!

Happy 29th Birthday, Mom!!!!

Hello and welcome to the next edition of "Where in the World is Elder San Diego?"!

Elder Cadena and I had a great week. 

We had Luisa and Tania's baptism on Tuesday and it was marvelous! My companion baptized Luisa and I had the privilege of baptizing Tania. They are super great and will be great examples of good. 

Also, in Catholic news, it was the Virgin Guadalupe's birthday this week. I'll explain the hubadaboo about all this confused belief and such when I get home but anyway, the Basilica de Guadalupe (center of the Virgin worship with cathedrals built to honor her) is right along the far edge of my area. What people do is come from all over and from different states of Mexico to give thanks to the virgin and sing the mañanitas to her. (like I said, it's a bunch of hubadaboo) So people come walking in what they call "peregrinaciones" (basically parades of people) and they are called "peregrinos" which translated means "wanderers". I think it's pretty funny that they are called wanderers and they come from afar to worship idols. It's just too ironic for me. But yeah, it was all packed up in this piece and there were many a people who came, an estimated 3 million. 

Then, we had a mission conference this week with Elder Daniel L. Johnson, the area president of Mexico for the Church. He talked to us and shared lots of good things with us on how we can improve the already marvelous job we are doing here in this mission. He gave us a statistic that in this mission of every 9 new investigators we find, we baptize 1. In all the other missions in Mexico, they have an average of 1 baptism for every 15 new investigators that they find. In all of Latin America, the average is 1 baptism for every 21 new investigators found. Thus, we are doing good over here. But, more important than that is the work we as members must complete in retention, activation, and fellowshipping. That is what leads to true conversion and makes it possible for us and others to be worthy for the gift of eternal life. 

This week, our stake also had a big Christmas party which was fun. We also found some additional families this week who we are excited to start working with and inviting them to come unto Christ. We are doing great and I hope you all are too! 

Let me not forget to wish a VERY Happy Birthday to my dearest dearly mother!! Happy Birthday Mom! I don't know how it works out, but I keep getting older and you keep staying 29! Crazy. Much love to you, mom! 

We will have a great week and I hope you all do too! If the world really does end, Happy End of the World Day! If not, I'll talk to you next week! I'll get my schedule all set and let you know what time we will Skype next week. Love!

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego

Luisa and Tania's Baptism!

I helped teach a Christmas song in English to this group of kids along withElder Wood and Elder Durrant that they performed during the Stake Christmas party and it turned out great! 

Getting A "Big Hug" From The Spirit

Hey fam bam,

We had a really great week. We found lots of new people while looking for inactive members that are golden! We have planned some appointments for them this week and look to invite the Spirit strongly with them so he can testify of the truth of all we share. Very exciting! 

In other news, we have Tania's and Luisa's baptism lined up for tomorrow and they are super set! We also had a cool experience this week with Luisa. We went over to teach her and we started going over the commandments. I taught the second commandment and asked her if she had any questions. She replied that she did and started asking what "true and living God" meant. She started to ask if God and Jesus Christ really did exist and if they did, where they were and how we can say we know if we have never seen them. As she talked, I felt very strongly the presence of the Holy Spirit and after she was done I asked her what she was feeling. She replied that she felt a really good warm feeling on the inside and that it felt like she was sweating on the inside. I then asked her if she knew what it was and she said she didn't. I told her it was the Spirit and that it was testifying to her and to us that Christ does indeed live and that we know all things through the Spirit. I asked her how she felt in church and she said when she was there she felt as if someone was giving her a big hug. I then testified that that was also the spirit and reminded her of the other times we had felt it together. We focused her on that and that the way to receive it in fulness in our lives is to be baptized. It was a marvelous experience for the spirit to answer her own question and help give her the strength to use her agency for good and continue to prepare for her baptism. Yay! 

Good things are going to happen and December will truly be a month of miracles!  Elder Cadena and I have noticed a change in the people and a different spirit about them and that they are more open. We know that it is the spirit of Christ touching the hearts of the people to open them up for the message they will receive through us. Yeah! We are super excited to be doing missionary work right now and are ready to receive an outpouring of blessings from the Lord. 

Well, that's about it! I love you all! Have a great week!

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego

"Orange" ya glad I sent you this photo?

This week I ate a gusano, which translated means worm.  Mmmm, yum!!

"I Testify That Christ Lives!"

Hey guys!

We had another super duper week here in the vineyard of the Lord. 

On Wednesday we had a great mission conference where the spirit was strongly present and we learned a lot of great and important things about our work and relying on the Savior in those hard times of our missions and our lives. 

We worked really good and found lots of other people who we can start to teach. This week our baptism didn't go through, but we plan to have it this weekend. It is a mom and her daughter named Luisa and Tania. They are really good and we can feel the spirit very strongly every time we teach them. They are excited to follow the example of the Savior and take this very important step in their life towards returning to the presence of God. Yay! 

In other news this week, me and my companion had the opportunity to run into a modern-day Korihor! Never thought it would ever happen, but I met an anti-Christ! We were walking by and he stopped us and gave us a piece of paper each and we said goodbye and kept walking. Later as we opened it up and started reading it, Satan just flowed from the words that were printed. It was pretty hilarious reading the lame argument and the rest of the stuff that was there. Interesting and very uninspired. So that was good. 

Good week and a better one to come! I testify that Christ lives. He is our Savior and our Advocate with the Father. Through His grace and mercy, we can obtain the mighty peace of mind, body, and spirit that God has to offer us. He has restored His truth to the earth in our days through His prophet. No unhallowed hand shall ever stop the work of the Lord from progressing. I testify that He is and was and is to come. I know that He is the way. He is our very Redeemer. His name is Jesus Christ and His power is in and through His gospel. Of this I testify in His holy name. Amen.

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego