Trust In The Lord!!

Hey guys!

This week was good and full of little blessings from the Lord.  We really have been working hard and continue to rely on the Lord to bless us in all we do.  This week in my free time I have pondered many things that pertain to our personal spiritual progress and about how dependable we are to the Lord.  I think when we can remember in the work and in our lives what the Lord is trying to do with each one of us specifically, we forget the troubles and challenges we face and move on knowing that our trials are but a small moment and if we persevere faithfully we shall be exalted on high.  While working some weeks, I know I have felt that at the end of that week like we didn't accomplish much.  This week for example was not one of my best as far as being able to find new people to teach and teaching them. 

However, I thought about some of the things that happened while we were working and how they were challenges sent from the Lord to help strengthen us.  For example, I was able to teach my companion about patience with people when we get annoyed with their excuses.  Also, when we were looking for someone, we came to a dead end and we saw that a guy who was drunk and high had followed us and was waiting for us at the bottom of the hill.  We were considering other options to escape but then I just told my companion that if we had faith and prayed we would leave unharmed.  We prayed and left and passed right by the guy as he tried to stop us and went along with our work without trouble.  In trials we need to rely on the Lord and see what he is trying to make out of us, what kinds of lessons he is trying to teach us, and ultimately who he wants us to be; that is, men and women of God.

I am so grateful to the Lord for the many blessings he has given me in my life and also for the trials that he has put in my path to help build me up.  I know that as we focus our energies and talents on building others up, we will find that we are also built up in the process and that the Lord will bless us in unimaginable ways. Trust in the Lord.  Trust in his power to change and lift you.  Forget the challenges and focus on the blessings.  I testify that the Lord does indeed build his people and shapes them according to his will and I so testify in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego

A Super Duper Week!!

Hey folks!

We had a super duper week over here working, getting wet, and doing all the things a missionary does.  I don't have much time to write, but here's a little update.  We have a few good progressing investigators and hope to work them more towards baptism this week.  We helped this one lady out who is getting baptized this week and her's is a very interesting story that I will have to tell later.  We are doing good and working better together.  Good things are happening and we are gonna do even better!  I love you all! 

Have a great week!

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego

September 15th and 16th they celebrate the Mexican Independence Day.  
We had to be in the house early and these are the fun things we did.  Enjoy!

"Just look at my beauuuutiful mustache!!!"

Viva Mexico!!

Ay, ay, ay, ay canta y no llores,
 Porque cantando se alegran, 

Cielito Lindo, los corazones

"The Things We Can't Measure"

Hey guys!

Wow, what a week it's been! 

Elder Cadena and I worked so hard this week and things are coming along.  He is learning really good and putting all the things I teach him into practice.  He is excited to learn more and that just makes me even more excited too.  We had a really good week and found a lot of people who know this is true and want to change.  All they need to do is act.  So things are going good there.  It is a little different with my new responsibilities as district leader, but it's going good and really gives me a good opportunity to serve those in my district and bear my testimony frequently.  So the work has been going great and will be going even greater!

Then, on Saturday, we had a special mission conference and Elder Dallin H. Oaks of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles came specially to our mission just to talk to us.  It was a really neat experience and we each got to greet him personally and shake his hand.  He's really is a funny guy in person and very lively.  I was part of a special musical number that we sang and that also was a cool and very spiritual experience. One thing he said that really stuck out to me was, "It is the things we can't measure that are often more important than the things we can." We can all apply that to our personal lives that the things that are often more important are the unseen internal personal growths of testimony and love towards God and Christ. So all in all fantastic week and great experiences and more to come! I love you all!

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego

Elder Quirante, an old BYU roommate

Me and good 'ol Juan Diego

Washing Clothes!

District Leader & Trainer

Hey guys!

Great week and man am I tired.  But! Gettin' all geared up with energy to kick butt this next change! 

Some things have now changed too.  I am now a dad! Yay!  Haha, that's what we call it in the mission when we train someone.  So, I'm training a new elder now! Woo!  His name is Elder Cadena and he is from Monterrey, Mexico. Cool kid.  He and I are totally gonna tear it up this next little bit!  Rock! 

So, along with being a trainer, President Tervort also called me to be a District Leader. Yay!  So now I gotta keep doing good and working hard.  Elder Wood also is going to be a trainer and still being DL so all is well with us. 

Other than that, it was a pretty uneventful last week with Elder Wood.  However, we did baptize! Yeah!  We baptized Pilar, who I might have talked about before, but not sure if I did, so I will fill in one day when I have time.  Anyway, we are going to have a rockin' week!

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego

My new comp, Elder Cadena from Monterrey, Mexico

We helped the sisters in our district with their baptism and we got to meet Bro. Juan Jose. 

He is super cool and one of the most solid converts I have ever met.

Pilar's Baptism!

"My Peace I Give Unto You"

Hey guys!

We had a good week despite a few setbacks.  The family that was to baptized this past weekend told us that the grandpa wants to get baptized too and asked his wife to wait for him so they could get baptized as a family.  So, she and her daughter and grandson decided to wait another week and a half until he gets off from work to be baptized with him.  We were a little sad to have them wait longer for the blessings they will receive from baptism but decided that it is still great that they have the desire to enter the gospel as a family and that they are still super excited about baptism.

We visited with the family of 6 that we found and taught them about the restoration of the gospel.  The spirit was felt strongly and we started to use the six steps, but they still have a few doubts and worries about changing from being catholics.  We cleared up a few concerns but were limited on time to resolve more of their doubts and concerns.  So, we put a sort of half baptismal date for next week that we are working towards so we are going back this week and going to set a firmer baptismal date for them and work more with them through the spirit.  We also have another family lined up to be baptized this Sunday.

Tuesday evening we were contacting to finish up the day.  Elder Wood was on one side of the street and I was on the other.  As I was contacting, I remembered what Elder Gutierrez and Elder Andrew, our zone leaders, had told us in our zone training meeting.  They said the purpose of contacting isn't to get an appointment, but to find the chosen of God in that given moment.  As I remembered that, I said a little prayer so that we could be helped to find that person who so desperately needed us. 

As Elder Wood and I reviewed that night the appointments we had set up, we talked about the potential of the people we had contacted.  Elder Wood said he found a cool lady who seemed pretty interested in what we had to share.  So, the next night, we went back to the appointments and all the others had fallen through.  She was the last one we had to meet with. As we looked for her house, we found that there was a closed gate with a little staircase leading up to the house.  We stood and waited for a minute or so when a person came out as he was leaving and said we could go through.  So, we knocked on her door, she invited us in and we talked with her and her son and daughter. (Judith, Luis, Abigail)  So we talked a little bit and she opened up to us and said she really needed peace in her life especially since her husband left her for another woman.  We explained about how through the atonement and gospel of Jesus Christ that we can receive that peace in our lives.  The spirit was super strong and we invited them to be baptized and they accepted!  It was a great experience and every time we have gone back since, we feel the spirit strongly with them.

Some cool things about that experience is that we had set a goal for that day to find a family of four who we would invite to be baptized, and we did! (she has another younger son who is 6)  So we got the four, and the little one will one day be baptized in a few more years.  Also, when Elder Wood had contacted her, she was off to the side of the sidewalk and a big group was passing by my companion and he felt to contact her instead of the big group.  And, when she felt the spirit and we asked her what she felt, she said she felt a lot of peace and that from the moment we stepped through her doorway, she could feel it.

Great week and another to come!  I love you all!

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego

Mexican Money

I don't know if anyone knew, but I'm a big fan of mayonnaise.
Especially if it's enough to last you a year!

Rollin' like a big shot!

Positive Mental Attitude & Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Hola hola!

Elder Wood and I had another amazing week finding and teaching people. We really focused on always having a positive mental attitude about the work and our investigators and also using what Presidnet Tervort told us about self-fulfilling prophecy. We had our best week yet and found many new investigators and whole families to teach. We have a family of 8 of four generations who we are getting ready to be baptized this weekend! We are way excited and they are too.

On Saturday we had a great experience with using the two mission tools I mentioned earlier. While planning on Friday night, Elder Wood asked me how many new investigators we were going to find the next day. I told him, "we are going to find a family of 6 who are going to want to be baptized." So we put it down as our goal. It was 6pm on Saturday and we had to go do an interview at 7 so we had an hour with no appointments. We weren´t too thrilled to do more and were really tired, but we got ourselves excited to go out and knock by saying it was our most favorite thing ever! Yeah! So we started knockng and on the second door we knocked, we found a family of 6 who let us in and we talked to them for a bit and taught them. Turns out, they were preparing to be baptized by two other elders more than a year and a half ago, but then changes came and the new elders never went back. So we talked about baptism some more and are getting them back on track to make that important promise with God. SO great! So we are receiving lots of blessings and spiritual experiences and we are very grateful for them.

Well, that`s a quick little update for the week. This morning for our preparation day we woke up early and went and hiked the mountain that is in our area with the other two elders from our ward, Elder De Hart and Elder Hurst. It was well worth it and we got some beautiful shots of the Mexico City valley. Later, we went to a member`s house in another area and made oreo truffles and pumpkin pie and she fed us alambre! (basically fajitas) Yum! 

So, we had a great week and will have yet another great one! Love you all!

¡Ten fe y se obediente!

Todo mi amor,

Elder San Diego

Cool rose I saw when knocking

Beautiful Sunrise

View of Mexico City

Counsel From A Son

Hey dad!

Thanks for the counsel and stories this week.  There was a very special reason that as my motto I chose "have faith and be obedient".  Upon those principles lies our testimonies, the reason behind why we do what we do, why we serve the Lord and why we follow his gospel.  In our faith lies the conviction to rely on the Lord and seek his blessings, knowing that by following through, we shall receive the promised blessings.  In our obedience lies the power that is within each and every one of us to choose the right, to fulfill our destiny and become heirs to the celestial glory of our Heavenly Father.  Without faith, there cannot be obedience.   Without obedience, there is no faith.  We receive the blessings when we are ready for them, when we show that we are indeed worthy of them.  The Lord promises more of his blessings to those he can trust, to those he knows will continue to follow through and magnify their positions.  There is such great power in having faith and being obedient!  One thing President Tervort has told us recently is about self-fulfilling prophecy, or, making our own circumstances.  He said a successful person makes their own circumstances work for them or finds the right circumstances he needs instead of being content with what he has or complaining.   Many many times I have faced this in the mission, being faced with challenges or times when it just seems easier to stop working for the day.  I have always found though that the recipe of faith, diligence, and obedience never fails to work miracles in our lives and to create the circumstances that are good for us and benefit us.  We never stop improving in this life.  We keep growing in ways we maybe thought were impossible before.  As we look towards Christ and focus our lives around the life he lived, we can find peace at every turn, comfort in every hard situation, and success in our trials.

I love you dad.  Please continue to show mom the love you have for her.  I can only imagine, from what little I know about love and how I love you guys as a family, how much you must love my mom.  Express your love to her in little ways day by day as Elder Richard G. Scott has counseled many times.  Go to the temple with her once a week, if possible.  The bond you two have will grow much stronger by focusing on the blessings we receive from the temple and family worship together and fun recreational activities and focusing on having the Christ-like attributes in our lives such as love, forgiveness, patience, repentance, faith, charity, humility, and many more.

I look to you as a great example of good, dad.  I love to reflect on the tremendous amount of faith you had to recognize the truth, embrace it, and follow it, now for more than 30 years.  Let your light so shine that people may see your good example and glorify your Father who is in heaven.

Have a great week and always remember to be better every day.

¡ten fe y se obediente!

todo mi amor,
Elder San Diego