Mexico Week 9: The Spirit and Singing!

¿Que tal todos?

Bueno, muchas felicidades a mi hermano Kasey. Holy cow I can't believe you are 15! You taller than me yet lol? Braxley, your letters make me laugh a ton, hahaha. And to give you my opinion...the Lakers will win again and you know why, number 24 is not human in the postseason, so I rest my case :) Brinkley, congrats with your prom invitation I hope things are going good with Trey. Tell him I say hello. As for your talk, good luck! Just remember Obedience is the first law in Heaven so that shows you how important it is. Kolby, how is everything? I love and miss all of you! Grandma, thank you so so much for your contribution. I know that the Lord has a great blessing for you soon in your life. As for BYU....I heard :( I also heard Duke lost too :( So both my teams are gone :( But hey baseball has started up!! :)  Go Dbacks!

Well this week was definately an interesting one. Things are better with my companion only because I am just really really being patient with him, hahahaha, although today and yesterday I was not. Tomorrow we have a zone conference at 8:30 in the morning and I told him we should stay with our leaders in Puebla tonight because we are here in Puebla today anyways. Well he said no because he wants to sleep in is own bed. Well today our leaders told us we need to stay here. I was right again haha so we are going to return to get changed and then come back here to spend the night hahaha. Ugh!!!!!!!!!!! We have changes in 2 weeks so hopefully we will be changed. If not...well it will be good for me, hahaha, and my patience. Did I spell that right? Lol! I am at a point where when I type and write in English I have to think about some words before I write them down because I am thinking the word in Spanish. The language is getting better. I have more confidence which allows me to speak more. I hope by Mother's Day...which is soon...I will be able to understand 100%, right now its about 85-90%.

Well this week we had divisions a couple days with some young men in our branch. It was good working with them. Anyways this week a man, 20 years old, found us and said that he likes how the mormons live and wants to learn more about our religion. Well we set up an appointment with him and taught Tuesday. He agreed to meet again and we gave a Book of Mormon. Thursday we taught him again, but me and Luis Daniel taught him since we were in divisions. I asked him how his reading was in the Book of Mormon and he explained very well the chapter we left him. Then I asked if he prayed and he did and described how he felt peacful and just happy. Well in that moment I testified how that is the Spirit testifying to him that this is true. Then I invited him to be Baptized on April 9th and he accepted!!! I was smiling so much that day, hahahaha. I cant wait for that day!

Lorena this week decided she wants to get Baptized the last week of April which is after this change. We asked her to think about the 16th or 17th of April since it's the last day of this transfer. I hope she says yes because I have been working with her since the begining with Elder Villalba and it would stink to miss her Baptism. Alan our other investigator will be Baptized on the 29th of May so I will miss that one too unless I stay in Huacalzingo once more haha.

Nothing else really happened this week, hahaha. We have been trying to find more people to teach because the others we have found have turned us away. Actually one family still is with us. Hermano Casto, his wife Josefina, and son Napolion. They are hard core Catholic and know the Bible really well. Well last night I was with Fernando a boy in our branch on divisions and we taught them the Book of Mormon and the Bible and how they work together. Well we read 3 Nephi 11 with him, and he asked how we know Nephi didnt just write that and Christ didn't come here to the Americas. Well I asked him how do you know that the Bible wasn't written by these men and there really is not a Christ. He answered that he didn't know. So I told him that this is our invitation, read, meditate, and pray to know if it is true. I then told him that we know the Bible is not complete because how many Apostles did Christ have...12...how many gospels does the Bible have...only 4. He understood that and then I felt like I should testify about families and then sing "Families can be Together Forever." The Spirit was so strong and I will tell you all that was purely through the Spirit, haha it was a good feeling.

This week I hope we get more people to teach haha! We are also looking to serve alot. Saturday we painted a members house blue haha and it was really good!! I have pictures that I will upload when I have time. Right now I have some uploading.

Oh this week I bought two soccer jerseys haha. One of the Puebla team and another from Argentina. I want to buy a Mexico and Chivas one when I have money hahaha.

Well for General Conference we just watch it in our stake center here in Puebla which means in Spanish hahaha. I hope I will understand everything hahaha.

Last week I got your package Mom......wow thank you so much. It's like I am walking on clouds, hahaha.

Oh two other quick stories. One lady thinks we are Apostles, and a drunk man hugged me this week and asked what our profession was because we dress nice. Well we told him and he got mad because he thought that we didn't believe Mexicans believe in Christ, hahahaha funny.

Well I got to go! Love and miss you all!!!

Love,

Elder Brady Lester

Mexico Week 8: Patience, Serving a Companion, and an Answer to Prayer!

Hey there everyone!! 

Well this week has been another tough week. Things have been getting better with my comp. He just is really power hungry, and doesn't accept the fact that he is not perfect, and thinks that he knows everything. But I have been practicing patience big time this week and it has really helped me out. I have also been serving him a ton like shoe polishing, ironing, making breakfast, making his bed. I feel good about it and hope it makes things even better :) Thursday in the morning he sliced his fingered on our broken sink and it was a bad bad cut so we had to go to the hospital in Puebla, so we traveled for two hours and he had to get stiches. Things with his finger are better.  We stayed the night with our zone leaders because Friday morning I had to go to the offices to do something for my Visa. I saw almost all my generation, Elders who came the same day I did. I didn't see Elder Walker though which was a bummer. I miss that guy so much!! He is definately a best friend!  

This week has been tough with our investigators. We found 6 new ones but we only have 2 progressing, Lorena and Daniel whom both declined again a date for a baptism. We hope our prayers are answered this week becasue they are so ready and need this step in their lives right now. This morning I felt down because last night we invited Daniel to be Baptized this Saturday and declined. I started thinking that I am not worthy or something because I felt like I don't have the spirit if these people are not accepting us. I felt like no one here was prepared to hear me and it is only an area of trials to help me later. This morning I really wanted to give up but I went in my room and prayed and pleaded for an answer and didnt really feel any better. Well, I went to my scripture personal study and just a couple days ago I decided I wanted to add D&C to my studies - how they came in order by revelation. Well today I read section 6 and it was the answer to my prayer and gave me exactly what I needed to hear and learn. I am so ready for this up coming week and know success is there. 

This past week we have really organized what and who we have because we have a ton of investigators. 17 to be exact, hahaha but only two progressing. :(  To answer your question Mom, every other week we get to go to Puebla even if we have money to go every week. This week on Wedesday I will go for our district meeting and I think we have interviews with President, but this past week we went for my comps finger and my Visa thing, and next Monday we are going again to the doctor for my comps finger for a check up, so we are just going to stay there and play soccer with our zone. As for pictures I am uploading some right now. They just take forever here. I can only get about 20 in the one hour I have here, so next Monday I will see if we can email in Puebla because the connection is faster and hopefully I can get them all on. I have like 130 to add from last transfer still, hahaha. 

Our branch has a branch building...like the size of our basketball court at the church, hahahaha its tiny. I believe with all my heart that if missionaries stay here and the members help them, there will be a ward by the end of this year. I promise it, so we will see :) We have been trying to find service and did!! This week we are going to paint a members house, hahaha cant wait :)

Well not much else to say, hahaha but if you have any more questions let me know! I missed letters from the kids today :(  I did get your package and Corrinn's thank you soooooo much!! I love the socks and American candy. So does my comp, hahaha. I hope the other package comes this week! 

I love and miss you all so so much!! Please pray for me, I need it! You are all in my prayers! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!! 

Love,

Elder Brady Lester

P.S. Are the members and missionaries in Japan ok?? 

Mexico Week 7: Finding more Investigators

Hey there everyone! 

Well this week has been a hard but yet good week. My new companion is very obedient and we are getting alot done. This week we found 9 new investigators!! It's been hard though because he knows no English and told me that he doesn't want to learn. He also is very power controlling and does not trust me at all with anything. This whole week we have worked with a member because he feels since I have only been out for a little while I don't know the area. He also is very controlling in the lessons and I can't hardly teach. He has also accused me of many things, for example thinking of family, and when I do that I can't have the spirit and we can't work. That day he got mad at me and he said because of me we can't teach with the Spirit so we went back to our house. It has been very frustrating and I feel like I am being abused most of the time. I hope things get better. 

Anyways this week we have been focusing alot on finding more people to teach. Tuesday we went to find that family, the husbands name is Silverio, and they were not home. We looked for more people to teach but were unlucky and ended up not teaching a lesson to anyone. It was a dead kinda day. Wednesday we had our District Mtg in Puebla and set a goal as a companionship for Baptisms this change. Four is our goal and we hope we can get it. Elder Bencomo is our DL and he is awesome!!! After we went to eat at an inactive members house and then after we ate at another members house, Brother Castro's family, but I got confused which one so we ended up eating at both, hahaha. The rest of the day we went trying to find more people to teach and we ended up getting three new investigators and taught them the first lesson. The next day we had our weekly planning session and planned out how and what we are going to do to help our investigators. After we went and visited Lorena and she declined the date of March 19th for her Baptism. She is scared her family will not like it. We have Faith that here soon she will accept a date. After her we went looking for a reference in some town I have never been to...and we searched for two hours and could not find them!! So that was our day, hahahaha. Friday we went and invited Alan to be Baptized on the 18th of this week, but he keeps saying May 30th which his birthday when he completes 12 years. We ended up finding out that his dad might be interested in the lessons so he can Baptize his son, so this week we are going to take action on that. After we taught Bertha Missionary work and invited her to teach with us with Lorena. We hope she will have a good influence on her because she just recently got Baptized. The rest of the day we spent in our house because of me apparently. The next day we visited Lorena and taught her the Doctrine of Christ and again invited her for this week but she said no. Her husband Pedro was even there and testified to her the importance of this ordinance. We invited her to pray for a date and talk with her husband about it. The rest of the day we taught other lessons with our new investigators.

We have two very religious investigators who we taught for two hours, or my comp taught for two hours, and he was bashing with them. The Spirit was not there and I kept telling him lets go but he didn't listen. Then the investigators got mad because of how we dress and said that it is not humble and we are not representitives of Jesus Christ. Again my comp got mad and I just sat there with a smile on my face and didn't say a word. At the end we asked if we could help them with anything and they thought we wanted money for it. They are really weird but Elder Lumbreras wants to go back this week.

Sunday we went to Puebla for Stake Conference that was broadcasted from Salt Lake!! The Prophet and Elder Nelson spoke!!! It was in Spanish so I could barely understand it but it was uplifting! That afternoon was a fail trying to find people. We were searching for one investigator on this one street and couldn't find her. I asked my comp if we could pray for direction and we did and immediately after the prayer we both pointed to a house and knew it was that one. And it was!!!! She was just busy and asked to come back another day, but still it was a cool experience!! 

Well I hope things work out better this week. I found out today that we can't go into Puebla anymore for our meetings since it is too expensive so that stinks way bad. Friday though I have to go because I need to do something with my Visa, so I get to see Elder Walker and everyone in my generation!! Can't wait for that!! Tell the Elders I say hello and everyone else! I will email Jacob next week!! 

So I have been reading the Book of Mormon like crazy and am in 2 Nephi 27 right now. I really love teaching and learning from the BOM. That with the Spirit is the only way someone will be converted. The Bible wont convert anyone. The BOM has the Fulness of the Gospel and Testifies of Christ. I know that it is true with all my heart! If you want to be inspired READ THE BOOK OF MORMON!! 

Well thanks for all the letters and the packages!  I hope they come soon!! :)  My feet are better thanks. Say hi to Sean for me!! Cant wait to hear from you all again!! 

Love,

Elder Brady Lester :) 

Mexico Week 6: Service with the Members

¡Hola!

Well we just had changes this morning and......I am still in Huacaltzingo!!! Elder Villalba did get a change. I was sad about that and kinda cried. Haha, I didn't know that it would be so hard to leave him. Anyways my new companion is Elder Lumbreras who is from Mexico hahaha :) So far I like him! Even though it's only been 7 hours, hahahaha but things are looking up here in my area! As for the language it is way better. I am understanding about 70-80 percent of what the people say. It is difficult to talk still but I am getting better. I am just afraid of making a mistake when it's casual talk which is weird because when we teach I will talk and talk, hahaha but that is probably because the Spirit is helping me and plus most of my vocab is Gospel right now, haha. I have definately seen improvement and can't wait to completely get it, haha. So I feel like the reason I stayed here was because President Rex called me and asked if I wanted to and I said yes, haha cool huh?

Anyways thanks for the sports updates! GO BYU!!! Kolby I am sorry you didn't make the team but keep your head up I know exactly how you feel. Brink, Morp sounded fun!! Tell Trey and Sean Hi for me :) Braxley, I love your cute letters, hahaha :) How is your defense going? Kasey, I am glad you are looking for a job! Start saving that money! Good luck in the search. We shall have a race...can I get a Baptism before you get a job? :) Grandma you should totally go to Cancun! There is an Elder Bravo here from Cancun.

Well for this week not much happened again. The work is hard and I think the Lord is trying to teach us something. Not sure what yet. I hope for more success this coming week. This week Elder Villalba and I have been looking for ways to serve. I think this week we are going to help the Branch President build a house, haha which is his job :) Oh and yes Mom, you have your info right so far about my area and the Branch President. Anyways we are looking for service and we want to start with the leaders of the branch so they can set the example for the members. We have some plans we have been working on to try and strengthen the leaders and have them set the example. We hope that this week we can get a ward mission plan rolling so we can get more references from the members.

Well this week Lorena finally accepted Baptism!!!!! She finally prayed and got an answer. She wants her husband Pedro to do it but we don't know if he can right now. This month she will get Baptized by us or him :) I am so happy and excited for her!! We also got 2 investigators new and invited them to church and they showed up hahaha, which was a miracle!! We have an appointment with them this week.

I don't have any more time so this is a short one. I will upload pics next week for sure. I forgot my camera at the house :(  Everything is great and I am feeling good!! I love you and miss you all! Thank you for your prayers and kind words everyone! :) Can't wait to hear from you all!

Love,

Elder Brady Lester

P.S.  Mom, my feet are fine but could you send me some insoles for my shoes. I think they will keep them nicer and my feet too. Also some more shoe polish. Thanks!!