Mexico Week 41: Changes and Miracles

Dear Family and Friends,

Thank you for all your wonderful letters. I love reading your letters each week because they always make me happy and ready for the week. Just want to let you know that I love you all even though I dont write much to each of you. I know that some of you are concerned about that, but I have 1 1/2 hours to write and I try to write everyone but never have the chance to. I am always busy writting letters to my converts as well, but please know that I love you all and hope that you all understand that you are in my prayers always.

Well this next Monday we might have transfers. I kinda feel like I am going but I hope not. I do have 6 months in this area but I would like 3 more. I have really fallen in love with this area. We are having alot of success and I just know that we will have more here pretty soon. I have grown to love Elder Escamilla like a brother, and really he is a great example and is the best Missionary in the Mission. I would love to continue working with him but we will see what the Lord wants from me. Some of my converts are sad and really don't want me to go. Hahahaha, Hermano Euloterio said that he doesn't want to go to Church and not see me, so he doesn't want to go, but I had to talk to him and let him know that I would see him again in one year and that he needs to stay strong in the Church. Hermana Cony opened up a hair cutting place and she wanted me to pick out the name (Cony`s Great Clips), and she dedicated the place to me hahahaha. So sweet. It made me cry.  

Well this past week on Wednesday, Elder Escamilla and I had the great opportunity of working with the Mission President in our area all day, hahaha!! How crazy!! It was a great experience and we learned alot. It was kinda scary at first but I loved the experience and the things that we learned. He really taught us the importance of working with the members. It really inspired me to keep working hard and with the members because that is how the investigators will progress more. Also we talked about how we could split the Ward and the importance of having Priesthood in the Ward. We took that to thought and we really want to start reactivating Priesthood and Baptizing men, hahaha so we are going to try and focus on that.

One lesson we taught with him was to one of our investigators, Hna Gabriela, and her family. We knocked on the door and the mom, Hna Gabriela, and her sister were all crying, yelling, and fighting. Well we started to just listen and it was about money and financial problems. We listened and listened and finally I opened my mouth and started talking about the Atonement and the importance of that in their lives. My companion testified of what I said, but Hna Gabriela said that she didn't want God in her life anymore and that He can't help her with her problems. Well when she said that the President spoked with power and really loud and testified as a Representative of Jesus Christ that they needed the Atonement, and that no one should put down that importance of Christ`s suffering in our lives. He started talking about happiness and the blessings that one can receive as they live according to the Atonement. When he spoke the Spirit was so strong. They all stopped crying, yelling, and fighting, and started listening. We ended with a prayer. The next day we talked with Hna Gabriela and she accepted a Baptism date. It was a great lesson. Today we have another lesson with her and we hope that all goes well with her and her family. 

This past week on Saturday, my companion started having stomach pains in the morning. In the afternoon we went and ate with a member and the pain was worse and he was screaming almost. He called the mission doctor and he told him to take medicine and only drink water and gatorade. Well he did that, and later the sister with whom we ate asked for a blessing. We gave her a blessing and when we left the house, my comp could hardly walk, so we walked quickly to a members house, Familia Ferrusca, because the sister is a nurse. We got there and he was screaming and crying with this pain, and so she sent him to a doctor in the pharmacy. They took us there in their car and the doctor said that it was really bad and gave him an oil shot in the butt, hahaha, and said that we needed to go to the hospital. I called the President and he told us which hospital to go. The good thing was that it was close to us. The members took us in their car and as we were driving I gave my companion a blessing and it was a wonderful experience. I knew that for his Faith, he would be alright. I also had a little mini vision of what he is going to do in the Mission. The Lord gave me that opportunity. Elder Escamilla really is going to do alot of good and work miracles here in Puebla. I just know it. Well we got to the hospital and we were there for 5 hours, and they would not let me in so I was all alone for 5 hours, hahaha. It was a little weird. I had to keep calling the President and my Bishop to let them know how things were. The doctors told me that we would have to spend the night and I was really worried for my comp and was crying for a bit for reals. I said a prayer and one hour later he walked out. I was so happy when I saw him and know that God really showed His hand in our lives.

I love my companion and really don't want anything to happen to him. After, we started walking around for a bit because my comp wanted to walk and I saw a Krispy Kreme!!!!!! In Puebla!!!!! I went running and bought myself 6 donuts and ate them all!!!! Hahahaha I love Krispy Kreme. 

Well I gotta go now! I love you all and hope you all have a great week!!   

MTC Week 9: Permiso, Blessing, Elder Holland and Member Missionaries

Hey Family!!

So it is week #9 here at the MTC. Let me update you on some things about my Visa. So yesterday I got my Permiso :)  I will officially be going to Mexico and can Preach the Gospel there :)  So what they told us is that we won't get re-assigned. They will keep us here and hopefully next Wednesday, we will go down to Salt Lake and talk to the Mexican Consalant. Which means we could leave the 22nd 23rd or 24th!! The four missionaries going to Bolivia just got their travel plans and they leave the 24th at 4:00 am, haha. Hopefully we get ours soon!

So this week was one of the hardest weeks, but yet the most rewarding. I still have problems with the two elders in my room. I try hard to keep the peace and love them but it's so hard when they don't do anything they are supposed to do. It's hard to get along with them. But I still love them, and Elder Walker and I are trying to keep pushing on :)  I asked my District Leader Elder Bell to give me a blessing and it was an amazing experience. In the blessing he said that God has put angels not just around me, but with me, and as he said that I felt something on my back and it was so warm. It was amazing and it is still giving me strength to this day.

So this week is teaching week for Elder Walker and I. We are teaching around 20 times this week!!! It's insane but way cool!! And also very tiring. We are getting so much better Teaching with the Spirit and focusing on our investigators, not our Spanish, and when we do this our Spanish is great!

So Elder Walker and I had this cool experience talking to a fake investigator the other day. He came up and asked if we were the Mormons. We said yes, and he asked where we were going. We told him and he asked when we were going, and we told him we don't know because we don't have our Visas yet. Anyways, he is Mexican and said he was from Puebla, and he said that God didn't want us to get our Visas because he's protecting the people in Mexico from us. It turned into a legit lesson in the hall and we asked great questions and got him to open up. It was a cool REAL experience of teaching someone we don't know! We loved it!

Elder Holland came again on Tuesday!! Great powerful talk! He talked about the materials we have as Missionaries like Preach My Gospel. He said it is written for the conversion of Missionaries not investigators. We first need to get it into our hearts then we can help them Come unto Christ :) It got me thinking alot about Missionary work, especially with members. I have been thinking about how hard Missionary work is for Missionaries and members. Missionary work is hard because Salvation is not a cheap experience and it will never be. We are the Church of Jesus Christ. We are the truth. Why would we believe or think it will be easy for us when it was never easy for Him.


I want to encourage each of you to find friends and invite them to Come Unto Christ. You are what starts up Missionary Work. Find them and don't be ashamed to testify the truth to them. Help them through what we know is true. Love them and you will see how it can help them. When you do this, and it will be tough, I testify you will be shoulder to shoulder with the best missionaries and life this world has ever seen!! Christ commands us to feed His sheep so lets all do it!

I love you all and can't wait to hear from you :)

Love,

Elder Brady Lester

P.S.

Mom and Dad thank you for all the packages and goodies. It was very yummy :)

Setting Apart as a Missionary and a Letter from Mom

The setting apart for Brady was really special. President Peterson requested to be the one to set Brady apart. He and his wife came over to our home at 8:00 PM.  We also had the Handy family present. Jacob is one of Brady's best friends, and his family has been dear to our family for many years, and a second family for Brady. If he wasn't working, or at home, he was with Jacob. Brother Handy also set Brady apart in the office of an Elder in the Melchizedek Priesthood on his birthday, September 6th.  President Ferrell was also present. I am so grateful for these good men in our lives. The teaching that President Peterson gave before the blessing came from D&C 109. The Spirit was present and the blessing was absolutely beautiful, and of course as a mom, I was so touched at President Peterson's blessing as the Lord remembered our family as well and spoke directly about me, the Mom. There was so much more to the blessing, but Brinkley wasn't able to write everything down.

I included what we had in this letter that I gave Brady the night before he entered the MTC.

Dear Elder Lester,                                                                                                                           

                Well, here’s my first letter to you as a missionary. I can’t believe the time is here. We’ve waited so long and now the time has finally arrived.  I am so proud of you.  I want you to know that you mean more to me than words can express. You are my first born. We’ve been together for a very long time. I anticipated meeting you for the very first time when I went to the hospital to deliver you. I loved you before I ever met you and I have never stopped loving you. When I was pregnant with Brinkley I couldn’t imagine loving another child, but that love just expands and grows, and keeps growing as you get older, to almost overflowing that it’s hard to control the emotions sometimes. I am so proud and grateful to know and be a mother to the most amazing children. You and your siblings are such great people and examples to me in my life. You teach me everyday, and I look forward to learning more from you as you continue your preparations to serve the Lord and the people of Mexico. I can’t wait to go on this journey with you and experience all that you will be involved in. This will be a great time for our family and I’m so excited for you to share this with your brothers and sister. Share everything. Give us challenges. Stay close to your siblings and help instill in them the desire to serve as you are. You are loved and will be greatly missed. Our home is not the same without you. But as you can see, your picture is everywhere and there will be more pictures to come as you send them to us. Our home will be a missionary home and full of the love of the Gospel as it always has been. We have your brothers that will be prepared to follow in your footsteps and will be looking to you always as an example. Thank you for being such a great brother and example to them and to me. 

                I want you to have some of the words from your setting apart from President Peterson. Before he began, he talked about how you are now set apart from the world. You will go forth from this house armed with Thy power. Read D&C 109 and learn about this. In your blessing you were given:  

• The privileges and rights that go with this sacred calling
•  Capacity that God endows to his full time servants 
• Go forward with confidence that you are worthy 
• Special feelings of Reverence and Sacredness with this calling 
• Have Faith
•  Remember your Temple Endowments
•  Carry the Light of the Savior in your countenance 
• People’s hearts are being prepared right now to meet you 
• Be like Paul, how he always went about testifying
•  Have a special love with your companions, they will become your best friends for the rest of your life 
• Be perceptive with your companions and feel as one with your companion 
• Quickly love the people you serve 
• Want to help and lift them up and to help make families more united 
• Be diligent and obedient to the rules and laws 
• Be strict, aware of your adherence 
• Be diligent in your preparations 
• You will be called to leadership positions 
• The Lord will open your mind and your heart 
• Be at peace with your family 
• Strengthen your Mother 
• Remember her always in your letters 
• Make her a part of your mission experience 
• She has relied upon you for strength in the home 
• Know the Lord will be mindful of your family 
• Focus your mind and heart and give all you have 
• Angels will be near you 
• You will be guided 
• Have Gratitude 
• So many people have helped you get to this point and look to you 
• We send you forth on the Lord’s errand

     It was a beautiful blessing and I am so grateful to have been present.  You are now set apart from the world and have that special mantle as a representative of our Savior Jesus Christ. I know you have a strong testimony and I’m so proud and grateful that you know this for yourself, before you leave. I am so thankful to have found the Gospel and have been able to be worthy to be Baptized, receive the Holy Ghost, receive my Temple Endowment, Serve a Mission and raise a family in the True Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know it’s true. When I learned of the Gospel as a teenager, it was like all things came to my remembrance from when I was in the pre-existence. Your patriarchal blessing and my patriarchal blessing are similar in that way of how it discusses us being in the pre-existence and knowing, and coming to earth and remembering what we have been taught there. I have a great love and admiration for the Prophet Joseph and know that he saw God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. They spoke to him. They knew him. They know us. I have seen the handiwork of God in my life so much. First because I am a mother and you are my child, and Brinkley, Kasey, Kolby and Braxley are also evidence of his love for me. He blesses me daily and has blessed our family tremendously. I am so grateful for the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and value it as my constant companion and know the importance of being worthy. Being worthy is everything. It keeps me with my children. It keeps me in the Temple. I love the scriptures and the church magazines and hearing from our Prophet and church leaders.  I know that Christ lives. I know this is His Gospel.

Go forth my son and serve. Remember you have been Called to Serve Him. Be obedient…always with exactness and you will be the most happy. Remember what President Hinckley said that his father told him during a rough patch on his mission, “forget yourself and go to work.” When we forget ourselves and focus on serving others we can see things more clearly. Rely on the Spirit. Pray. You will pray more than you ever have before and your relationship with your Heavenly Father and your Savior will grow. Be safe at all times. Take care of yourself so you will be healthy and strong, free of illness and injury. This is so important so you may do the work of the Lord. This is the most important work you will ever do in your life. Make it count…everyday. Believe in the power of D&C 4 and the Standard of Truth.

I look forward to your letters. Write, write, write and send those pictures! I am here for you always. Your family is here for you. We will be praying for you, your companions and the people you are teaching, every day and night.  Let us know what you need and we will pray, fast and go to the Temple.  Be the Leader and the Missionary that the Lord created you to be! I can’t wait to see your growth. Thank you for being my son. Thank you for being who you are. You are the love of my life.  I love you Brady.