Mexico Week 76: Zone Leader Conference & More Rain

Hey Family!!

Thank you all for writing. I love your letters.  Really Kasey...you broke my heart with that Steve Nash news but I am happy that he is going to be going to a team where he can win a championship. It will be fun to watch him play in LA.  Sounds like you boys are having a great time up in Utah camping and stuff. Sounds like a plan maggie...I will have to try those enchiladas and your pozole dad ;) Hahaha.  Thank you Mom and Grandma for the money. Tomorrow I will be buying my leather scripture cases.  Tomorrow we have a leadership training meeting in Puebla. Hahaha, we are traveling alot.  I am not a fan of the Zone Leader thing...I miss being a Branch President, hahahaha. 

Well the work has been good here. We got to go to the new mission home on Friday for the Zone Leader conference.  It’s really nice. The new president lives in the nicest neighborhood in Puebla. It looks like an American neighborhood but more modern. There is a golf course and everything there.  We got to eat breakfast.  Sister Christensen made us eggs, juice, and pancakes with whip cream!! I have not had whip cream for 20 months hahahaha. We had a great conference. I learned ALOT about A LOT, hahahahaha. Everything I learned really I can see how to apply it in my life after the mission and that is what President Christensen said that he wants.  Just so that you know the president a little more: 

He served a mission in California Spanish speaking.

He was the Vice President of Hallmark Cards (he is rich).

He quit his job because the First Presidency asked him to work as the Head Director of Finances of the Church (he is even more rich).

He had monthly meetings with the Twelve and the First Presidency. 

That is just a little background info about my new Mission President. I guess that I will have to have alot of money to be a Mission President someday, hahahaha.  In the conference he told us that Elder Bednar´s favorite scripture is 2 Nephi 2:14. Hahahahaha, all of us Zone Leaders just looked at each other like...wow...he knows the favorite scripture of an Apostle, hahahaha. He is very spiritual but he says things how they really are. On Friday we did something that I never thought that we would do. We started making the "culture" of this new Mission. We started talking about the Purpose, Processes, and Actions. We talked about how we could make sure that our Actions or Practices in the Mission are aligned with the Processes and the Purpose and throw out the bad Actions and Practices that have nothing to do with our Purpose. It was very cool.  Hahaha, then I think that I received revelation for my personal life in that moment. That formula is a great one to be able to start and better businesses (just a comment since you all know that I like business). Hahaha it was a great conference. I really felt the spirit and learned alot. 

Here in our area we have been working our tails off.  It has been raining like crazy and literally the rain has been up to our shins. We keep working hahaha. The other day we were working in the rain and it was just coming down and some members saw us and asked why we weren’t home since it was raining so hard. My comp just laughed and said...the work goes on. It’s true what he said. The work goes on. God keeps working and doesn’t rest if it’s raining. 

Today we played like 2-3 hours of basketball at the church with a team of a brother in our ward. They are real good. I had a great time but I have just lost all of my condition hahaha. I would just run up and down the court dying. It was really the best basketball that I have played in the Mission. 

Well I gotta go! I love you all and hope that you have a great week! Kasey I hope that you enjoy EFY! Miss you all tons!! OH!! Hahaha before I go I have some good news for you all. My date changed for going home. I was supposed to go home the 28th of November but President Christensen wants me to be home for Thanksgiving, so I will be going home the 20th of November, so you will all have me home a week early hahahaha. Love ya!!

 Elder Lester

Mexico Week 64: Elder Bednar

Hi Family!!

Well this past week was a joyful week. Thank you for all writing me. I love you all so very much and I appreciate your love and support towards me. I have a testimony that an Elder in the Mission sees many blessings in the Mission just for the love and support of a family. I am grateful to have a loving family and I pray that you will always support me in my decisions, especially in the future because I will be staring my life very soon. Grandma, I send my love and prayers and congrats to Kelly!! That is wonderful!!! That is sweet that the Suns and Dbacks are all doing great. Kasey, congrats on wearing a suit!!!!!!! And for blessing the sacrament. It is such a blessing.

As you all know Elder Bednar came on Saturday to Puebla. It was a great learning and spiritual experience. I was able to feel such a Spirit as he and his wife, as well as other General Authorities talked to us. It was a SWEET conference. He didn’t talk to us, but rather it was a conversation between him and us. It was awesome. I also got to shake his hand and look him into the eyes. Hahahahaha, the first thing that he told us was "I hope that you don’t take notes of what I say. I have given up on adults. The rising generation is the hope of this world. Adults writing notes in conferences is so silly." Hahahahaha, when he said that I couldn’t help but laugh. I loved it! He also taught us something so true about agency. Agency is the will to choose but not right from wrong. Agency is choosing God. We don’t have the option he told us. We MUST choose God and nothing else. When we rebel and don’t choose God, we lose our agency because we can’t choose our consequences. When we choose God we choose our consequences. It is so true and it really taught me alot.

We stayed 3 days in Puebla which was sweet and we stayed with Elder Riggin!!!! It was a blast! Hahahaha, we didn’t sleep much because we talked a ton, but it was fun. After the conference with Elder Bednar, my comp and I went with Elder Escamilla and his comp to Applebees. It was soooooooooo good, hahahahha. Just to let you know, I forgot my camera so I will have to send photos next week sorry.

I love you all and I am grateful to be a Missionary and to have a Testimony of the Gospel. I love this Church with all my heart.

Love,

Elder Lester

Mexico Week 34: Baptisms of Fidel and Jose, Service, Working Hard and Seeing the Blessings

Dear Family and Friends,


Well thank you all for your letters, love, and support!! Hahahaha I am glad everyone is doing great! Well I now officially have 10 months in the Mission which is crazy! It is going by so fast!! I still feel like a new Elder but things are going great! Elder Escamilla and I are getting things done here! We have been working really hard and the Lord is blessing us.


Yesterday we had 2 Baptsims! Hermanono Fidel and his son Jose got Baptized!! It was a crazy morning!! We went to their house in the morning and Hno Fidel was not home! He totally forgot about his Baptism and went to play soccer in the morning hahaha!! Crazy guy!! Well his son knew where he was and we had hardly any time, and our area is HUGE, so we went looking for him in a taxi hahaha. I will never do that again lol because by the time we found him and got to the church, the taxi guy charged me 120 pesos!! That's only like 10 bucks but it's a ton of money here hahaha! I was ticked!! Anyways we got to the church and there was hardly any water in the font so when I Baptized Hno Fidel he had to sit and I knelt down in the font to Baptize him hahaha! It was so ridiculous but so funny at the same time! It was a great service and I am so glad that they are members of the church now! During Sacrament meeting they got Confirmed which was awesome and Hermana Coni came too and got Confirmed!! It was a great successfull Sunday!! Hna Coni is so great and really it the strongest convert that I have Baptized! :)

Well in the past week Mexico celebrated their Independence on the 16th. Nobody wanted us in their house teaching them so we went and gave service to alot of members. One service that was fun was when we moved a bunch of sand at a members house to make some garden thing. It was a blast and I got alot of photos for you all to look at! My back is killing me now but it was a great day :) The night before on the 15th it was hard to sleep with all the noise with the guns and fireworks going off hahaha. They are really prideful about their country here. In the morning there was a ton of drunks in the street!! We invited them all to be Baptized and the alll said yes!!! Hahahahaha it was funny, but we didn't really go to their houses lol.

This past week we got some sweet references to visit and they all want to be Baptized so we are going to be working on those this week. I still don't know them very well, but next week I will have more news on that :) Hermana Sandra and her husband still have not gotten married but they are trying to get it done by next week so hopefully she gets Baptized soon. She also found a job finally!! I was so happy and cried when she told us that because I remember promising her that she would find a job if she got Baptized. Well the Lord has blessed her!!


Things are going great with Elder Escamilla and I! We are working so hard. We have had troubles studying together because we have so many appointments to get to and the area is huge!! We have plans to study though all this week. He really is a great guy and comp! He has so much energy and spirit and is learning so fast! He is going to do great things here in Puebla I just know it.


Well I gotta go now! Thank you all for everything! Shout out to Sister McArthur for the bday money!! Thank you tons! That is a fortune here in Mexico!! You are like another grandma to me :) Brother Hansen as well! Thank you for writing me every month! You are awesome! I am sorry I don't have much time to write you back, but thank you for being faithful in writing :) I love you all!


Love,
Elder Brady Lester

P.S. My comp and I had to go to the mission offices this week for a training meeting for all the trainers and new missionaries, and interviews with president, and I got some cool pics. We ate subway for dinner!!

Mexico Week 33: Marriages and Baptism plans and Baptism of Coni

Hey everyone!


Well this past week was a pretty good one!! Elder Escamilla and I worked really hard and we had a lot of success!! Thank you for your letters and it sounds like the week was a decent week for you all. I am jealous that you got to go to the Dbacks game but I loved the pictures that you sent Mom :) I hope you guys had fun. That is great boys that you are getting things done with your Eagle Project.


Well in this past week some interesting things happened. Slowly we are still working with Hna Sandra so that she gets married here soon, so that she gets Baptized. It looks like this week she will be taking her blood tests so that her husband and her can get married. I really hope that happens soon so that she gets married and Baptized next week. Also in the past week Hno Yazzer told us that now him and his wife want to get married, so it looks like this week that will happen or the next. Hno Yazzer is an investigator who has two years with the Elders and wants to get Baptized so bad but his wife, who is a member, didn't want to get married for some reason. Now they do!! So we will be helping them with that as well. I am getting really excited for them because it's been a long time teaching them.


On Tuesday, my Birthday hahaha, we had a crazy day! It started off really bad. We were walking to Hna Coni´s house to teach her and make sure she was ready for Baptism and stuff, and as we were walking a ton of members saw us in the street and started freaking out at us for no reason and wanted a ton of help. I had to tell them another day because it was a packed day! Well as we were walking we saw Hna Coni in her car with her daughter and she told us that she was coming back in 1 hour and that she wanted to talk to us about her Baptism. It made us worry a ton and so we changed plans and worked for awhile in her neighborhood for about an hour. Well we went to her house after and she still was not there so we went to wait with a sister in the ward at her house. She was worried too for Coni because she is her best friend. Well we waited and she made us some quesadillas for breakfast which was yummy! Later a brother from the ward that is right next to ours called us and asked if we could go to the hospital and give him a blessing. I was freaking out at this point because the members were wanting our help, Coni wants to talk about her being Baptized, we still had to fill up the Baptismal font which takes about 2 hours, and now a blessing in a hospital that is forever away. I was just thinking to myself, why is all this happening on my Bday?!! Hahaha well I called Elder Lamb and told him to give the brother a blessing because he is from his ward anyways and we still had to fill up the font. After all of that, Hna Coni still did not show up so we went to the church to fill up the font. As it was filling up, we went and studied in the church, and later on went to eat close to the church. We went to some tiny little restaurant close by and I got myself soup, rice, a salad, beans, salsa (really good salsa!), and breaded chicken breast and a dessert for only 35 pesos!! Three bucks for all of that!!! Plus tortillas of course hahaha! It was delicious! After we went back to the church and started to study again because the font was still filling up, and then the same sister who gave us breakfast called and said to come to see Hna Coni fast because it was an emergency! After settling down a bit I started to stress again hahahaha and we went almost running to her house. We got there and she started to explain a story that is really long but basically her husband got drunk at a party and flirted with another girl. She got upset and wanted to talk to him but he got mad and hit her. For that she drank 3 beers and smoked a cigarrete!! I was so sad and frustrating that she didn't call us and was telling all this on the day of her Baptism!! It was terrible. We were thinking that we were not going to Baptize! After listening to her for a while we talked about Repentence and later felt, after talking with our leaders, that she was Repentant and could get Baptized!! I was so happy. So we went to the church to finish things and then had her Baptismal service as planned. It was a sweet service and I felt the Spirit so strong but when I went to Baptize her she kept lifting her foot out of the water hahaha, and so we had to do it 4 times!! The 4th time I just shoved her under the water hard hahaha! It was fun! After a sister bought me a cake and they all sang Happy Birthday to me in Spanish hahaha, and then after they wanted me to bite the cake, so I went for it and guess what...Hna Coni shoved my face in the cake hahaha!! It was so funny and I was so grateful for the members and that day. It ended up being great and my testimony was strengthened about the power of the Atonement and how God will forgive anyone who is willing to "come and see." It was a great day!

 Baptism of Coni

The rest of the week went good! We have two Baptisms on Sunday so I can't wait for that and I really feel that we are going to have alot of success Elder Escamilla and I, as long as we are obedient. We gotta keep working hard! I am just really excited! Well I gotta go, but thank you for all your support! I love you all, especially my Family :)


Love,
Elder Brady Lester

P.S. Yes Mom, I am pretty much fluent in Spanish hahaha. I can understand 95% of what's being said and I talk a ton hahaha, but I still have a ton of words to learn :) 

Mexico Week 27: Learning to Improve Teaching and Becoming a Disciple of Christ

Hi there!!

Well it's August!!! I will be hitting 9 months in the Mission this month...on the 17th hahaha. Time is just flying by! Thank you for all your letters and support :) I love you all! Things sound like they are going good back at home with all you guys :)

This past week was a good week :) I learned alot. I have been really studying and practicing the lessons that we teach to improve my teaching skills. I have come up with some examples to help the people understand better the Doctrine. I have two examples for Baptism. The first is simple. In John 3:5 it says basically that no one can enter into heaven without being Baptized. Well the example is a door and Baptism is the key to open this door to heaven. The thing is there are many keys because there are many ways to be Baptized now days so there is only one right key. So you need the right authority and proper Baptism to obtain this key. My other example I use more because it's better. Well we all sin, and sin is like mud on our hands. To clean this mud off we need two things to do it because we can't hug God with dirty hands. First we need soap, which is repentance and then water, which is Baptism. I have alot of other examples for other teachings but I really like using them hahaha. The people understand better.

I have also learned alot about becoming a true follower of Christ. There are two things that help us become more like Him. The first is love. We must love others and show it like Christ did. Service is the best way. Christ always served. Before He died, He cleaned the Apostles feet. We must serve people to show our love for them not just say "I love you." Love is a gift from God though and only with His help can we obatin it. We must follow the counsel of Mormon in Moroni 7:48 then. This is the only way we can come to truly love someone. The next thing that helps us is keeping our Covenants. We must keep all of our Convenants and study about the real importance of them. The Sacrament is the most important Ordinance that we do today as members of the church. We sometimes do realize how important it really is. If we understand, study, and achieve these two things we will become true Disciples of Christ. 

This past Wednesday I got to teach in our district meeting and I taught about the highest law that Christ taught. That law is found in 3 Nephi 27:27. I talked about the Christlike attributes and how those are the things that we must always study and live to really live and keep this higher law that Christ taught to His Apostles in the Americas. I would like to challenge all of you to study these attributes in Chapter 6 of PMG and make the goals and plans to live them.

 Well we did not have much success with investigators this past week. Hermana Sandra is an investigator who wants to get Baptized but she wants to wait just a bit more until she makes this decision. We are trying to figure out what we can do to help her. Her husband wants to get Baptized too but he wants to wait awhile because he is not ready, which is true haha. We watched the movie "The Moutain of the Lord" with them and they got really excited and want to be Sealed in the Temple, but still want to wait a bit until they get Baptized. If Hermana Sandra does not accept a date this week though we are going to drop her which is sad. I really love her, she is great! The other night she made me a traditional american breakfast with two sunny side up eggs, bacon, toast with jam, and orange juice. Hahaha it was really good and I was so happy. It's funny because everyone here thinks that's all we eat for breakfast! Lol, oh and her husband taught me a "mexican fry sauce." It's mayonaise and salsa chipotle mixed together. It is so good! You guys need to look to that salsa and make that :) You will all love it.

So my comp and I did something funny the other night. We were listening to a Spanish song that he has on his ipod called "Mientes" by Camila (you should all look it up its really good) and we took the tune and change the words as if we were teaching a lesson to investigators. It was hilarious hahaha! We didn't go to sleep until 12 that night so the next day I was so tired, but it was finally fun to laugh and relax with my comp for once. We also played UNO that night and made sandwhiches :)

Well it has not rained much lately which is sad, but the weather is still great :) I have not tried any new foods but something you guys can try that they do here is the people eat their pizza with hot sauce, which is now my new favorite, or ketchup! Its actually really good! You will have to try it some time. I really hope you all come down to get me when I finish so you can see how Mexico is and try the food :) Oh its sooooooo gooooooooooooooood!!!!! :)  I love the tacos :)

Well I gotta go! I love you all and can't wait to hear from you next week!

Love,

Elder Brady Lester

PS: I played the Bishop the other day in chess and lost, so I lost a tie :( But he did give me a cool one for trying to win hahaha. He is really good!

Mexico Week 19: Hoping for Change and Goals

Hola Todos!


Well to start off, thank you very much Mom and kids for the packages! I got them this morning and they were great! :) Thank you boys for the bball news and I hope you are all wrong and the Maverics win, hahahaha :) Brinkley, I will try harder doing that ;) Grandma!! How are you?


Well to answer your questions, I did not see the volcano erupt. (How do you spell that word?) I am guessing the wind blew it North?? Grandma, we use the toilet to go to the bathroom but it doesn't flush so we just fill up a bucket of water and pour it in the toilet and that is how it flushes. You guys can try it at home if you want, hahaha. It really works, hahaha. We shower in cold cold cold water everyday, which is our own decision, because it's 200 pesos to buy gas and we have like no money, haha. I had to pay rent and water bill because I am the junior comp and so I won't see that money for three more weeks, and we bought alot of cleaning supplies to clean the house because we might be changing for the cockroach problem, and this lady that lives above us gets home at like 12 at night and plays music until 4 in the morning, so it's hard to sleep sometimes, hahaha. As for my ward, yes I am in a ward and it does start at 11:30. I only have one ward in my area and there are about 150 active and 300 inactives, hahaha so we have alot of work there to do.


Well this past week was a little disappointing in my new area. I was really pumped and ready to go but found out that my comp is lazy and really disobedient. So we stayed in the house alot and didn't work much. We got home late alot and I am telling him let's go or let's go work, but he doesn't really listen, and I have to listen to him since he is the senior comp. But today I told my district leader our problems and tomorrow we are having divisions to fix it. Appartently the zone and district leaders are happy that I am here because him and his last comp did nothing, so they think I will change the area alot...which I hope hahahaha. So far things are changing slowly. We found a lady to teach named Hermana Isabel. She is a sweet lady. She is divorced with two kids, Carla and Alejandro. Carla is 13 and Alejandro is 7. Well we have been teaching her and she really wants to learn and has alot of faith. She gave up coffee and she has a Baptism date for this Sunday so hopefully it will go through :) After, we will focus on her daughter Carla so that she can get Baptized too and we can bring a happy family in the gospel of Christ :) That is what misisonary work is all about! THE TEMPLE!!!! I don't care about Baptims. I want these people I teach, in the Temple making more important Covenants. Baptism is just the step to get there!


Well nothing much happened other than her. This week I want to visit all the former investigators and the member families who are all not Baptized so we have people to teach because Isabel is all we got. My comp and his last comp did nothing here in the last change so we are kinda opening the area, hahaha. I also want to visit alot of inactive members to reactivate them. My goals are 150 baps and 30 families reactivated :) I will acheive my goals I know it, hahaha :)


Well today was fun! We played soccer with the zone and there are some cool Elders in this zone. After we ate at Mcdonalds with our DL and his comp :) Yes, there is a Mcdonalds and Dominos in my area :) Que chido eh :) My area btw is the city and not terribly far from the offices :)


Well I gotta go!! I love and miss you all!!


Love,
Elder Brady Lester


Go Forward with Faith in Christ and nothing else!

Mexico Week 16: Loving the Work even though it's hard

Dear Family,

Well this week was another hard week in Huacaltzingo. But before I get to that let me answer questions. YES, MOM I MISS YOU!! Hahaha and Kasey I am glad you did your homework in PMG :) Grandma haha Little Ceasers is like 8 dollars here so just a tad bit more expensive. For KFC I spent like 10 dollars and got a drink, shake, chicken sandwich, fries, mashed potatoes, and a chicken breast so it was a ton of food!! That's awesome that you kids had fun with dad and that is sweet a Seventy came on Sunday. This Wednesday a Seventy is coming and the whole mission is going to listen! All 150 of us!!! I am excited. For that we are staying the night tonight and tomorrow night in Puebla with our district leader. I am glad to have a little break from my area haha.

Well this week was a little depressing. We have been working so so hard and have not been seeing a success. I think total this week we taught 8 lessons and worked our tails off. The work has been really bad. We have done everything possible alone and nothing has worked. So this past Wednesday evening we had a meeting with some of the leaders of the branch to make a mission plan for the branch so we can work closer with the members. Well it was almost 2 hours listening to their excuses about how the work here is difficult and really don't know why we are there. My companion and I felt dead afterwards and really didn't want to work anymore, but we did haha and again no success. Sunday we had another meeting with ALL the leaders for an hour and nothing got done, so today I wrote President Rex in my letter that the members really don't want to help us and that it has been like that for all the time I have been here. In two weeks we have changes so we will see what happens.

This past Saturday evening was fun though!! We had a family night thing with two families in our branch with an investigator who is so close to Baptism. She's just is a little scared because she really doesn't have many friends in the church, or so she thought hahaha. Well we watched the movie the Restoration and after we all made hamburgers!!! Well I made and cooked the meat of course being American and all, and they all said that they were the best hamburgers they have ever eaten :) So dad and mom, gotta give me props for that :) It was fun and it really helped this investigator feel better at church. Her name is Trinidad.

Well this week we will be focusing on our investigators Trinidad, Alan, and Fernanda because we feel that if they accept, they are really ready fo Baptism 28th and 29th of this month! We have changes the 30th so I hope we get these three before changes, but it all depends on this week!!

Well anything else you want to know?? I am loving the work even though it is hard. Oh btw, I heard a story that about 4-5 years ago an Apostle sent almost ALL the missionaries home from this mission because they were starting like secret combinations and stuff with secrets codes and rings and stuff that I can't believe. So the mission has been recuperating since then. Scary and just crazy!!! Well tell Jacob to write me!! I hope all is good with him and that he gets back out because if only Jacob P and I return it will be sad.

Well I love and miss you all!!! Mom, I attached the pictures of my shoes on this email.

This is what Elder Lester's shoes look like after only wearing them a few months in Mexico.

A new pair has been mailed to him this month!

Love,

Elder Brady Lester

Mexico Week 15: Puebla-La Ciudad de Angeles‏

Hey there everyone!!

It was so good to talk to everyone last night and was so good to hear all your voices!! Kolby, your voice is so so deep what happened?! Dad, sorry I think I talked to you in the usted form the one time we talked in Spanish. Hahaha, yes Mom you are right that I got a little emotional but it was all Grandma´s fault, she cried first and made me cry!! Thank you everyone for your comments and encouragement. I left you all with homework and expect you to complete it! All read in the BOM everyday, Dad in Spanish, and you kids and Mom study Chapter 2 of PMG and apply it to Gospel, school, and yes, work studies :) I have homework for Grandma :) I would like to invite you to attend Church every Sunday with the family :) Think you have time? I know it will bless your life :)

So I don't have much to write again because we talked a ton yesterday, haha but this week and for now on in the Mission, I am challenging myself to be more direct with our investigators especially with the commitments that we leave with them. I have been studying alot on the importance of them keeping their commitments. It's Eternal Life and if they don't read or pray, it's important to let them know that this is your Salvation and the only way to do it. I feel sometimes us Missionaries are too casual in all this. We need to help them because we have their Eternal Life in our hands and no one else. If they don't know the importance they won't do it so it's our responsibility to show them.

This week we will be focusing on three investigators that we have so they can accept and be Baptized in the change, the remaining three weeks that we have. We also are making a plan with the Branch and look forward to working with the members more. We need to find more people to teach because we almost have nobody, so we will also focus on that this week.

So today I am in Puebla again :) I love the city haha. We played soccer and I scored three goals haha!! We also ate at KFC and it was so good to put some familiar American food in my mouth :) I ate a ton for like nothing haha!!

Well I hope this week I will have stories for you guys. I will make some!! I have had like two weeks without stories!! I love and miss you all!! Stay safe and you are all in my prayers always!

Love,

Elder Lester