Hey Family!!
Thank you for all your lovely letters of
support and love. I love reading your letters each Monday. They inspire me and
help me keep up with my English, hahahahaha. Happy Birthday to Baliee...how old are you now?
Hahahaha, Grandma, just to let you know you are allowed to send
me pictures and I would love that very much!
Things have been crazy here in Puebla...well I
am far away from Puebla, but still. The volcano, Mom, is actually a volcano in
Puebla. My son, Elder Escamilla is
actually working right under it hahahaha, and also Castillotla is about an hour
and a half from it. It has been a little angry that volcano I have heard, but I
am a good 3-4 hours away from that thing, so things here are tranquilo, hahaha.
Things are also crazy because in July Mexico
will be voting for another president just like us in November. By the way how is Mitt doing? Is he winning? The weather here is very nice. It’s a little
warm but not too much...it’s like Utah summer, the sun just burns a lot,
hahaha. Things are going great other than that. I hope that the Suns make the
playoffs...we must pray for them, hahaha.
Well this past week we were able to get a lot done...well more than usual. Elder Cano and I now have 3 Baptism dates for
the 4th of May which is really awesome because it’s hard to Baptize here and
usually the best Missionaries only Baptize like 1-2 in 3-4 months. We have some great things going with some
investigators. We don’t have a lot, only 10, but we are working with them and I
believe that the majority of them will be Baptized.
This is the last week of the change though and
I think next Tuesday I will have another companion. I love Elder Cano, but he
has some time here and I think he will be going. In this change we are going to have some weird
things happening because the Mission will be splitting on the 1st of July. The President is going to call 4 assistants
next week in the changes so that they can start working and helping with the
division. There are going to be 4-6 secretaries as well for the division. We
still don’t know where we will be but if I stay here another 2 changes I will
be in the North Mission...which means I would be with President Christensen. Hahahahaha, if that happens, I will have 5
Mission Presidents in my Mission!! (counting the MTC). I don’t think that happens a lot to many Missionaries.
Things are going great in the branch so far. We are really trying to get our auxiliary
presidents working because we really are working to build up the assistance and
strengthen the Faith of the members. We have called some Sunday school teachers and we started Mutual last Saturday :) We have called a family history consultant
(which I am really excited for) and we have called 1 leader of young single
adults, and we will be calling another. We
are doing all of this to help the members understand how the Church really is
and how much of a Blessing it is to be a member. It’s also really going to help us have a plan
to reactivate members who are inactive. I
am really excited for what is going on here in Chignahuapan, it’s just really
hard to do, hahaha. I have my respects
for all the Bishops in the world. Their job is hard and they are really blessed
for it.
One of my responsibilities is taking care of the branch budget and the tithing....basically
all of the money. If I steal or lose one
peso I am done for, hahahaha. Yesterday
I had to deal with $20,000 pesos of Tithing!! It was a lot of cash, hahahaha. I also had to make a 3 month budget for the
branch. We decided to put in a lot of money in the new program of the young
single adults. Not a lot go and the
program is new, but we are really expecting a lot.
Well things are going good. Hahaha, if I get a new comp the first thing we are
going to do is clean our house because Elder Cano and his last comp were pigs, hahaha.
I am happy and time is just flying by. It would be nice to get an extension on my Mission
but I really doubt that will happen because they want me home for Christmas,
hahaha. I love the Mission and the
things that I have learned. It’s quite
the experience. It’s not how they say it
is in Primary or the MTC, but it’s great.
Repentance is a lovely thing that I have
learned about in the Mission. That has been my favorite part so far. Seeing how the Atonement of Christ works in
the lives of my investigators and especially in my life. I am so grateful for
Jesus Christ and what He did for us. It’s
something that really is beautiful. I help members every week go through the
process of Repentance and although it’s hard...it’s worth it. I know from
experience as well. I have made mistakes in the Mission...but I have seen how
beautiful this Gospel really is. Forgiveness
really is a miracle.
I hope everything is going great. Just
to answer questions...I am in the middle of nowhere, hahaha. You guys can look this place up online...it’s
famous. We don’t shop and we have to eat
a lot in the street because the members are really poor here so they don’t give
us much food. As President, I have to
give them money for food and transport, and after I ask for a refund of my
money. It’s a beautiful thing to help
the poor...even though I am poor as well, hahahaha. The mountains are really pretty here. There
are a lot of places to go camping and fishing and stuff. I will send pictures very soon. I love you all and hope that you have a great
week!!
With Love,
Elder Brady Lester
Puebla Time