Mexico Week 83: Baptisms of Jaime Santacruz and Moises Paredes

Hey There Everyone!!

Well this week was an interesting one hahaha. I have had problems with my right knee, my tendon.  I have been in my house all week because the doctor told me I need to rest my knee for 1-2 weeks. It’s been very tiring.  My knee gets tired really fast.   

We did not work alot this week. We just went to the appointments that we had. We Baptized though, hahaha, two people, Jaime Santacruz and Moises Paredes.  Hahaha, I have never thought that it’s possible to Baptize when someone doesn’t work, hahaha but we did it.  God keeps blessing us. I did alot of reading in the scriptures and Jesus the Christ in bed hahahaha, while icing my knee. I also did alot of thinking about what I want to study and the business I want to start hahaha. I had kind of a week of resting, thinking, and eating, hahaha. It was kind of frustrating cuz I wanted to work but I received alot of revelation.

Thanks for writing me! I can’t believe that Kasey is dating now, hahaha, but Camille is a great choice :)  Hope that you have fun at the dance!  I want pictures. I am glad to hear that you are all doing great!  The time is going by so fast and soon I will be back home hahaha.  It’s going to be weird for the first couple of weeks but it’s going to be fun hahaha. 

Well I gotta go. I hope that in the afternoon I can upload some pics for you guys! We ate chiles enogadas the other day with our ward mission leader and we got pics!  It’s the best food of Puebla.   

Sorry my email is short...not alot happened this week to be honest. Not alot to say for being in bed.  Hahaha, actually I found out that an Elder who goes home in November with me got sent home with Honor for some knee problems, but when I heard that I told the President in my interview that I will tough it out for 3 more months, hahaha. I love you all! 

Con Amor,
Elder Lester

Letter from President & Sister Christensen

Dear Parents of Elder Lester,

As you know, your son was called to serve in the Mexico Puebla Mission and during the time that he has been here, the Mission was divided. This may have raised some anxiety at the onset of this news for those Missionaries who had to leave President Reeves and all of the Missionaries they had grown to love in the South Mission. Your son was one of those, of course, who is now serving in the Puebla North Mission. My husband, Ralph Christensen, is the new Mission President.

Seven of our nine children have served Missions, so we know something of a parent’s desire to know about the Mission President and wife who will be caring for your son.  My apologies for being so slow to introduce ourselves to you.  It has been a very busy month since our arrival.  However, I would like to now take a minute to introduce ourselves to you.

President Christensen has most recently worked at the Church at President Hinckley’s invitation as Managing Director of Human Resources. Prior to that he worked as Senior Vice President of Human Resources at Hallmark Cards. All of our nine children are now married and we have been blessed to have 30 (soon to be 32) grandchildren. I loved and feel grateful to have had the blessing of being home to raise our family. I know the busyness of a house full of children involved in sports, music, and other extracurricular activities. We have both enjoyed service in the church and loved the influence of the gospel in our home. Prior to going to Salt Lake City, we had no family roots in Utah. We raised our family in Maine, Washington, D.C., Colorado, Boston, and Kansas City. We loved the opportunities and experiences of living in those areas.

My husband served his Mission many years ago in the California Sacramento Mission, Spanish speaking. He enjoyed working with many Mexican people during those two years and considers it a privilege to now be able to come to their homeland to serve. I never served a Mission and I do not speak the Spanish language, but I am determined to learn. We are anxiously engaged in this great work and look forward to working with your son as we press forward together. right along the side of your son. What a joy it has been, so far, to spend time with the Missionaries.  They are outstanding young men and women. Thank you for doing your part to raise such a fine son. 

If you feel that your son has had a hard time adjusting to the changes that have taken place, or if you have concerns of any kind, please do not hesitate to contact us.  Below is the information to contact the Mission Office.  Also, please note that the address for mailing packages and letters has remained the same.
  
Email: 1802399@ldschurch.org

Phone: 01-800-874-6783

Fax: +52 222-230-0431

Oficina Mision Mexico Puebla Norte
Av. 25 Sur #907
Col. La Paz
Puebla, Puebla, C.P. 72160
 
With warmest regards,
 
President and Sister Christensen
 

Mexico Week 82: Rain and more Rain

Hey Everyone! 

Thanks for writing me!  Everything has been going great.  We have three Baptisms this week on Saturday so I hope everything will go good and things will continue to work out.  We have been struggling finding new investigators. We need to work a little harder to find.  It’s been hard to get people to listen to us.  Right now we are planning on doing a ward activity and we have the goal to have 50 references from the members.  I hope that we can get a good number of people so that we can teach more.  Everyone is getting Baptized, hahaha.  In the activity we are planning on having an open house and a BBQ dinner :) It’s going to be awesome! 

It’s been raining alot and raining even more. It’s hurricane season so it’s normal but I need to enjoy it because at home it doesn’t rain as much. I am getting nervous now that the time is winding down. There is so much I want to be able to do before I get home but it seems like it’s almost impossible. I hope to be able to accomplish my goals. 

This week we will have interviews with President Christensen. I hope that they go well. I really love the President. He is a great leader and has taught me alot. We will have changes in 2 weeks. Who knows if I will go, but wherever I end up I will finish there I believe. It’s crazy how fast the time flies by. I don’t know if I have done enough but I hope to continue with the work after the Mission working hard in my calling and with my future family. 

Things have been going good. I hope everything keeps going well at home. I love you all. I uploaded pics last week but the internet is slow so I still have another 260 pics to upload. I don’t know if you guys checked them out. Well I gotta go. Love ya all. Thanks for your love and prayers. 

Love,  

Elder Lester 

 

Mexico Week 81: Baptims of David Andres and Miranda

Hey Family!

Well it’s been raining a lot as of late!  We are getting wet, wet, and more wet!!  It’s hard to work in the rain but we are having success. It has been fun!  I really love my companion.  He is a great missionary.  I love being with the missionaries who teach me. He has taught me and he is a great friend. Today we are in Chignahuapan, hahahaha! We asked permission from the President and he said yes, hahahaha.  It has been fun visiting places and people that I knew here. I have heard that the branch fell hard a few weeks after I left. I feel sad for that. I hope things get better.  My comp and I will be going soon.  Elder Rojas is doing good here but he just is having a hard time with his comp. He is a great missionary Elder Rojas, I love him as well.

Thanks for all writing me hahaha.  Well I only got 3 months left but I plan to work hard and finish strong.  I have plans to keep working after the Mission as well. It has been great so far. The Zone that I am in is a Blessed Zone.  We have been working hard and really we have the best Missionaries in the Mission in our Zone.  I am happy for that.   

On Saturday Elder Lopez and I Baptized 2! Hahahaha, David Andres and Miranda. It was awesome!  We pretty much stayed all day in the Church building because it was Stake conference as well. We Baptized David at 1:00 pm and Miranda at 8:00 pm. It was a great service and a ton of people came!!

We have been working hard and this week we will have another Baptism, Jaime Santacruz is his name. He is like 30 and he is a great investigator! We plan to have at least 2 on the 25th of August. The work has been flourishing in our area.  We are really happy and I love working.  We have been working well with the members as well. We have had alot of success with them. The Family Minor came back from vacation finally so we are planning to work hard with them so that we can get them to go to Church and also have a Baptism date. The Mission has been going great so far. I only hope that we will have success for the rest of my time here.

Well I gotta go. We have to get back to our area and it’s about 2 hours away. I love you all.  I want to wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Braxley. I hope you are doing great Brax, I love ya!  I also want to send a late HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Brennan.  I hope you are doing just as well.  Sounds like work, school, and Church are doing great!!  I hope that you all have a great week!!  Love you all!!

Love,

Elder Brady Lester

 

Mexico Week 80: Being an Example

Hey Family!! 

Well it’s August!! I can’t believe that these 2 years have gone by so fast!  November is getting close...it’s true, it’s going to be hard to go home. I love this work but I know that to be able to progress I need to get on with my life hahaha. I am happy that you are all having a great time back at home. That is great that you boys and dad went to scout camp. I hope you are all ready for school...sounds like you are :) I hope that you all study and work hard...it’s worth it. Make friends, have fun, and get good grades! 

Grandma, I am sorry that you are sick. I will be praying for you. I invite you to ask for a blessing from a Priesthood holder.  It will help you.  Just remember that you are in my prayers and I love you. 

Thank you for all writing me.  I am happy to see that everyone is receiving blessings!  This week my comp and I have been working real hard. We have been trying to figure out how to help the Elders in our Zone.  Last week in the Zone we had 0 Baptism dates and it really got us worried. We cracked down the whip on them and told them to get dates!! Hahahaha, of course we needed to be an example and so this week we got 3 dates!! And in the Zone we have 8 :)  I am happy and know that the Spirit is working with us! My comp and I will be Baptizing 2 this Saturday!  It’s going to be awesome. They are both young, David Andres is 14 years old and Miranda is 13 years old. They both have over a year listening to the Missionaries.  It’s going to be awesome. We hope to Baptize 6 this month my comp and I. We got alot of work to do. 

Well I gotta go! Lots wrote me today, Bishop Turner wrote me :) I love you all and hope that you all have a great week!! 

Love,  

Elder Lester