Mexcio Week 95: Final Week

Hey Everybody! 

Well I am entering into my last week in the Mission. It's gone by fast. I would like to mention some of my experiences and talk about how great of a Mission it has been and what I have learned. I hope that it might be of great worth to the boys since they all want to be going on a Mission. 

The Mission has been the best yet most difficult experience that I have had in my life. I think that because it was difficult it was great. I remember when I first came to Mexico I wanted to go home. I remember wanting to just give up but I was inspired to go on and finish. Hahaha, I remember hating the food and feeling lonely since my companion wasn't the best and the members were a little mean. I realized that it was just culture shock. Hahaha, since then I have had a lot of difficult times but I have put them behind trying to learn from them. I remember when I was a Branch President, things were really hard and I thought that I was losing faith. Afterwards I learned that my testimony grew and was strengthened from the trials that took place in Chignahuapan. I remember the members and the things that I learned from them as I tried to help them with the spiritual and temporal needs.

I learned alot in Castillotla about Missionary Work and how to really do it. Elder Escamilla and I had great times and a lot of success and I will always remember my time with him. I really enjoyed training Elder Escamilla and also learning from him. He is a great friend. I learned a lot about leadership in Loma Florida (Apizaco) when I was a DL and I had a struggling district with struggling wards. We ended up doing miracles for the Lord there in that district.

 

I remember that I learned the importance of working with members in Totolac (Tlaxcala). Wow, we did some great stuff there Elder Nuncio, Elder Lopez, and I with the members. We ended up having success for the members. They are great there.

 

Now as an AP I have learned a lot of everything. Having to run a Mission of over 100 Missionaries is not an easy task and I have so much respect for the President. He is a great man and has taught me a lot, especially about the future after the Mission and how to apply everything I have learned here, there in the real world. 

I have learned a lot in the Mission and I know that it will help me throughout my life, but I believe that the most valuable thing that I have learned here, that I will always treasure is understanding how and why to apply the Atonement in my life. I really understand that it is more than just repenting everyday. I have learned that it is essential for us to experiment it everyday. I have learned that to be able to experiment it each day we must be obedient. It's impossible to understand the Atonement or even experiment it if we are not obedient. Most people think that you must be a sinner and sin to understand it, but I believe that you must be obedient to understand it because the obedient repent....sinners might not. I have learned that the Atonement has a divine power that can set us apart from reaching our potential....yet it allows us to go beyond that if it is required, and more times than not, God needs us to go past our potential so that we may help Him establish His Kingdom and we do it through the atonement. 

I have learned that really we must understand the importance of the Atonement because it is the center of all we do. We could study the Book of Mormon and find that a lot of scriptures that maybe we don't see very well talk about the Atonement. The Bible actually only refers to the word Atonement one time were as the Book of Mormon refers to it 39 times. Besides the fact that it mentions the word more in the Book of Mormon, helps us understand at a broader view what the Atonement is through personal experiences of the Nephite and Lamanite people. 

I know that the Atonement is important. I know that it is essential for us to apply it to our lives each day. We must experiment at some point in our lives a little what He experienced. I testify as His representative that Christ lives! He loves us. He wants us to be like him and through His Atonement we can do it. 

With Love,

Elder Brady Lester

Mexico Week 89: Conferences, Learning and Spiritual Feeding

Hey Family, 

Well again I don't have much time to sit down and write a legit letter. I have been in and out of the offices all day everyday. Last night we didn't get home until 11:00pm. We are working hard getting ready for the changes that we have on Tuesday. We have sent two more Elders home too so it's been very crazy here. We have been working hard and we feel like we are behind but I believe that we are more ready for these changes than the last time. We have a lot of new things going down. We are splitting a Zone into two Zones. Now every Stake in the Mission will have their own Zone and Zone Leaders which makes things a lot easier. We have been working hard to think about how to do the changes for the next change because my generation is going home a week early. Things just have been really crazy. 

Last week though we really had a great week. A lot of Conferences but a lot of Learning and Spiritual feeding. My topics went great. In the Leadership Training meeting I talked about judging righteously in our callings and correcting disobedience. It went very well. I share the example of Lehi in 1 Nephi 8:37-38 and how we need to judge righteously like Lehi did to his sons. I shared another example in D&C 101:2-5 as well. In the regular Zone Conference I talked about the Atonement and Gossip. It went very well and I have learned a lot about the Atonement while studying my topic. It has been great. I have really looked into the Scriptures and notice that the Atonement is on every page of the BoM. One example would be 1 Nephi 3:31 when Nephi and Sam are beaten by his brothers and then the angel comes. It's very interesting to see how it is talking about the Atonement. 

The Conferences have been great and we have been able to teach the Elders a lot of things. We really hit the importance of being Obedient and Repenting because we need to get onto other things in the Mission and not always talk about the Obedience issue that we have. The President has said that if we are not willing to live in a Mission of Obedience, we can go home. 

Well we have started to talk about other things. On Friday we had our ZL conference and we talked about a lot of things. We talked about Numbers of Excellence that my companion and I have been wanting to have. They are great numbers and really high norms for us. It really is going to change the Mission. Yesterday we saw how excited the Mission is as we went to a couple Zone Training meetings. The new culture is being placed and everyone is excited! 

Well I don't have much time. Hope everyone is doing just great! Love you all and hope that you all have a great week! 

Con Amor,

Mexico Week 49: Happy New Year

Hey there everyone!

Well I hope that you all had a great Happy New Year!! We are officially in the last year of the world, 2012!!! Hahahaha just kidding. If it's true that means I only have 1 month after the mission to be home and get married so that I can go to the Celestial Kingdom hahahahaha. Well I want to send a shout out to Bishop Turner and his family for the sweet package that they sent me for Christmas. Also to Grandma and Sister McAurthur for sending me money. I used that money to buy myself a jacket because it's so darn cold here!! I love you all!!

Well life has been going a bit hard here in Loma Florida. It's not easy being District Leader, especially of one of the biggest Districts in the Mission. It's also been tough with my companion. He is a little different but I love him for who he is. He loves video games so he talks about that all day hahaha, which just drives me up the wall! He also speaks English so he is really really prideful. He doesn't like to work at all but he thinks he is better than me hahaha. It's not been fun not having success these past two weeks...it's actually not so fun. It's really hard but I will be getting stuff done this week so I hope that we will be having alot of success this week.

This past week we didn't do much but the plan that I have here is to visit and reactivate a ton of less active members. I feel like we will be able to have success with that and find some Baptisms. Yesterday only 16 members showed up to Church hahaha and there are almost 300 in the ward so we have plenty of work to do!! We just have to start it up! There is no testimony here so the plan that I have is to teach the BoM to everyone so that they understand who they are and why they got Baptized in the first place. If they have a strong testimony of that book...they won't fall. It's not easy to fall with that book in our lives. In my district meeting I talked about the Book of Mormon and how we must use it in our Mission. Something that I learned is that we have to pray and ask the Lord how we must use it in our Mission. Cool huh!!

Well things are going good and I pray that they get better. I hope things are great at home!! I love you all and hope that you have a great week!!

Love,
Elder Brady Lester

Mexico Week 40: Reading the Book of Mormon

Happy Halloween!!

Well just so that you all know, yes Mexico celebrates Halloween hahaha, but instead of asking for candy they ask for money hahaha, so the people give little money and sometimes candy. The funny thing is that they do it with their parents hahaha!! Every little kid that asks me for money, I just tell them that in my country they ask for candy, you should do the same hahaha. It's probably mean but I really don't have millions to give out to the little kids hahaha. They hardly dress up! But it's a holiday here. I hope you all have a great Halloween this night!! Baseball here by the way is a popular sport so I heard that the Cardinals did win and I am happy that they did. I just want the Dbacks to go all the way again!

Thank you for all your emails! I enjoy reading everyone of them :) I am glad that you all had decent and good weeks!! Remember that you are all in my prayers and thoughts. In about 1 year we will all see each other again hahaha, how crazy is that!! Really my mission has been passing by so fast and I feel like this last year will just pass by faster! I am really loving it here and I really love the people here. They are really nice and the members are always willing to help anyone. I really love them here. They have given me clothes, money, blankets to keep warm, and food.

Well in this past week Elder Escamilla and I have been working hard. We found a sweet family of 4 who let us in their house to talk. Well we started talking about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon and they all loved it. There is a little boy of 10 years who in the lesson said "Mom we need to get Baptized again because the Catholic church doesn't have the Priesthood." Hahahahaha how cool is that!! That first lesson we all invited them to be Baptized and they accepted! This week this sweet boy has been reading the pamphlets and the Book of Mormon and is pushing his family to listen and read and progress. He really is a great example! This past week we have also found a couple more new investigators who have accepted Baptism and look like they are going to progress.

This past two weeks we have invited our recent converts to join us in reading the Book of Mormon before Christmas. In our visits this week they have all read a ton!! Hno Fidel and his son are in Alma 28 and read 20 chapters one day!!! Hna Cony and her family are in 3 Nephi after 2 weeks!!! They are beating us!! I asked Hna Cony "are you sure that you are not in 2 Nephi" she told me no but that she is reading in 3 Nephi. Well I asked her "so you read all of Alma?" and she responed "ohhh Alma is the best book so far in the Book of Mormon!" hahahaha!! I could not believe it! They are just strong and faithful members!! This past week we also have been working really hard reactivating members in the ward so that we can achieve our goal in splitting the ward soon. Well yesterday in Sacrament meeting there were members standing outside the room because there weren't any seats!! It was awesome!! Hahahaha the Bishop really feels that we can split the ward if we keep working hard and Baptizing.

Things are going great here in Castillotla and I am really loving Missionary work! I don't have much more to say. I have not tried anything new food wise. I have alot of pictures to send but I forgot my camera again so next week I will get them on :) I love you all and hope you have a great week everyone!! Stay safe!

Love,

Elder Brady Lester

Mexico Week 14: Sick - Parasito! and a Visit to Centro

Hey there everyone,

Well this past week was a good and bad week hahahaha. We didn't have any more Baptisms and some of our investigators are not progressing, but we really feel that they are almost ready, they just need to come to Church! I have been very happy even though the little success we have had this past week. The reason it ended bad was because since Friday I have been extremely sick throwing up and a bad case of diarreha. I haven't eaten since then and have only been drinking water. Today I talked with the Mission Doctor and he gave me some advice for the next two to three days and if I am not better I have to call him again. My guess is that I have lost about 10 pounds hahaha because I am so skinny and feel so sick hahaha. I hope I feel better this week!!

So today I am in Puebla. We went to Centro which is where all the cool historic stuff is!! I saw Elder Walker finally!!!! I love that Elder so much. He really changed my life. He has gotten big from walking and working out. Remember how he was always so skinny hahaha? He is looking great and his Spanish is really good!! He has improved so much from the MTC. I hope I see him again soon. After we saw him we went to a HUGE Catholic Church haha!!! I took some pictures and will upload them next week. It was huge and beautiful but they believe in crazy things. I could not feel the Spirit there and I felt really sad for them. They had a really bloody Jesus Christ laying down and it made me sick and cry a little. I did not take a picture of that though. Something weird is there are tons of little boxes to put money in. It really is the Church of the devil and they need the Restoration!!!

Things are crazy here because apparently the Pope performed a miracle hahaha so it's really hard to teach now about Prophets. Also soon the Pope is coming here to Puebla hahaha so us Missionaries are doomed!!! Hahahaha jk jk jk, because we have the Truth and the Spirit when Obedient. It just gives me more desires to preach repentance!!! I just need to feel better!!! Stupid parasito!

So this week we hope to have more success!! I pray everyday that the Lord can teach us this lesson we need so that we can have more success. I have learned that the Lord Answers the Prayers of his Children and the Scriptures are the medicina that we need. Read the Book of Mormon every day! The Bible is the Word of God but the Book of Mormon has it all!! I don't really have a funny stories for this week, sorry. I miss you all and love you tons!!! Cant wait for Sunday!! :) Love you all!!

Love,

Elder Brady Lester

Mexico Week 13: Baptism of Lorena, Learning, and Testimony in Spanish

Dear...Everyone who gets this letter, 

Well this week was a very bad week number wise. Pretty much all of our appointments fell through and we had little success working and teaching. I feel like maybe the Lord is teaching us something. I want to figure it out so I will be praying and reading alot this week. I also feel like my comp is slowly dying. He is starting to get a little lazy. When our appointments fall through, he doesn't want to contact and he always wants to go visit the same member family everyday. We had a talk about it but of course he would not listen. I also had some ideas to see if we could get the members more involved but he just contradicts everything that I say so I will be just sitting back on that stuff this week and just do my job teaching and testifying of the truth we have. I also will repent for my bad thoughts towards him hahaha. 

This week was fun with the bicycles though!! Instead of walking the 30 minutes to the church building we get there in 5 with our bicicletas :) My legs and bum hurt though hahahahaha. That is so awesome that Kasey fixed the bikes! Mom, just get your bike fixed and you guys can take family rides together Sundays or something :) That is cool about the triatholon that you had too! I remember the two that I did when I was a Teacher and they were a blast! But we did it as a campout. 

So this past week Pedro, the man who walks to church for an hour, Baptized his wife Hermana Lorena that we have been teaching for 3 months hahaha!! Finally she got Baptized!!! You will see the pictures that I am uploading right now :)

Elder Lester, Pedro, Lorena, Elder Lumbreras

Also in my pictures you will see me and Elder Johnson eating something redish called a pitalla from a cactus. It wasn't bad but it wasn't good, hahaha. It was like a mushy dirty watermelon with alot of seeds hahaha. 

Elder Lester and Elder Johnson

Well Braxley your fortune is coming true because this morning I sent off letters to all you kids hahaha. I laughed so hard when I read that story lol!! I wrote a letter to all you kids individually but in one envelope so it gets there at the same time hahaha. I am glad to hear you are all doing well! I cant believe how fast the time is going but I am dying to see you guys!! Btw you guys get to call me May 8th :) I will get you info of when and what time :) I cant wait for that day!! 

Well I have enjoyed my studies this week and I learned in Alma 37:33-37 the Keys to Becoming a Successful Missionary (I think the scripture is right if I remember it). It talks about how we must teach Repentance and Faith, always thinking and looking towards Christ and using His Atonement everyday in our lives. I will be looking to apply that in this wonderful work of the Lord and hope the Lord will bless me with success the next 18 months!! I am like a new sister missionary now, hahaha. 

Pues, yo testifico que la obra misional es verdadera. Yo testifico que Jesucristo es nuestro Redentor y Salvador. El es La Piedra de nuestras vidas y solemente obtengamos salvacion por medio de El y Su Expiacion. Como podemos saber lo que tenemos que hacer para volver a Su presencia, leer El Libro de Mormon. YO TESTIFICO que El Libro de Mormon contiene la plenitud y es verdadero. Nadie puede entrar en los cielos a menos que lea este libro y medite la significa este libro tiene en su vida. Yo hablo sin temor por que se que mi doctrina, la doctrina de Cristo, es verdad. 

I miss you all and love you more!! Can't wait to hear from you, and you are all in my prayers everyday! I hope you are receiving many blessings!! 

Love, 

Elder Brady Lester

Mexico Week 12: Baptism of Omar and Loving Missionary Work

Hey there everyone! 

Well, I am in Huacaltzingo again, hahahahaha and with Elder Lumbreras :) I am actually glad but do hope it is my last change here because the work is so hard. I hear one of the hardest in the mission. I think the reason we stayed was because we lead the whole mission in new investigators found and we have about 7 who have accepted Baptism without a date, so these next few weeks we hope to have them progressing and Baptized!! Speaking of Baptism this Saturday is the Baptism of Lorena!! Her husband Pedro will Baptize her but I am so excited for her! Three long months with her and finally we are going swimming! Also yesterday Omar got Baptized and I performed the Baptism myself hahaha!!! It was a very special service! Also his best friend Antonio attended and he is interested in the lessons. Things are really looking up here in Haucaltzingo for reals!! I Love Missionary Work! 

 Elder Lester and Omar

Elder Lester, Omar, Antonio, Elder Lumbreras

So this past week was not very successful apart from the Baptism and the date we set for Lorena. We tried hard finding new investigators but no luck. We have been planning to teach with movies with some of our investigators like the Testaments, Restoration, and Charly, hahaha. We hope that will touch the hearts of some of our investigators. We had an investigator, Casto and Josefina, that totally rejected our message and said that they wanted to find the truth in the Bible and not in some other book. Well my companion and I just made a lesson plan for them about the teachings of our church that none other practice that are in they Bible. For example the three degrees of glory and Baptisms for the dead. Well we stopped by their house and after asking some questions they were interested again, so we are going to see them this week! We pray for success! 

So this week we get bicycles!! I am excited for that because we walk everywhere! It has also been raining a couple times this past week. Apparently the rainy season starts soon and it can rain up to 4 days straight without stopping!! I am excited for that. So these next two weeks here in Mexico are hard I guess for the work. These weeks are called the Semana Santa, or the Holy Week. It is when the Catholic Church here worships the death of Jesus Christ and partakes of the Sacrament. Apparently it's hard on us Missionaries because it's a tradition and alot of investigators say no until after the Semana Santa. We have already lost 4 because of that :( 

Well my reading in the Book of Mormon is going great! I am in Alma 30 and have learned alot about Missionary Work! I have been learning and studying how Alma and the Sons of Mosiah brought so many into the Gospel. I learned that they always testified and taught about Christ and His Atonement and the Plan of Salvation. I am sure that if we teach and testify of Christ each time, more people will receive us. 

Well I have no more time! I love and miss you all! I am glad all things are going great!! I will be writing you all letters personally soon so look for those!! :) Kasey I want to write you but don't have time today. I have homework for you though :) Study the Atonement and how to use it in your life! 

Love, 

Elder Brady Lester

Mexico Week 10: Amazing Conferences and American Food!

Hey there everyone!

Well this week has been a decent week except most of our investigators changed their mind about Baptisms on the 9th so we are going to work for the 17th, the last day of the change. Lorena might want to get Baptized at the end of this month. We did however find a women who is interested in our message and we have an appointment with her on Wedneday. This week though I believe will be very hard to teach lessons. This week our little village is celebrating their birthday all week haha. No one will be in their house so we will be contacting alot.

Btw....there is a ton of Fanta down here including apple flavored which is amazing!! I don't know where I will be changed but I really want to leave my area. I think three months in one area is enough, haha. I really want to stay in the same zone, but in the city. I think I might mention it in my letter to President today.

Sorry it's really hard to answer all your questions, but guess what...in one month you get to call me!!! So I will be able to answer all of them then, haha.

Well today was the best P-day ever! We are here in Puebla because we stayed the weekend with our zone leaders. Yes we do sleep well :) I didn't pack a pillow but I bought a tiny one here, haha. I am fine though :)

Something I would like in the package is razor heads, if you could. They don't sell the ones I like here. The fusion gillete ones...I think they are orange. Anyways today is Elder Rios' birthday! He is one of our zone leaders and he turned 23!! So we bought him some of his favorite ice cream and a jersey of his favorite soccer team. He was so happy!! He is a great Elder and leader. After we went and bought breakfast. I treated myself to donuts since you can't find those in my area, haha, like I can find anything but cows and goats. I hear there is a Krispy Kreme in one area so I hope I serve there, hahaha. After we went and played soccer. I used my brand new Mexico jersey I just bought and I think because of that I scored two goals, hahahaha which are my first goals in Mexico!! I am slowly getting better at soccer. After we ate HAMBURGERS!!!!!!!!!! So delicious!! Then we played pool, hahaha, so great P-day today!! 

General Conference was amazing!! I got to watch it in English. I guess it is a rule that we have to watch it in our native tounge. So I got to take good notes but I can't wait until the Liahona comes out so I can study them even more. Between the first and second session on Saturday, Elder Johnson and I, he is in my generation and distict, went and bought DOMINOS PIZZA!!!!! My first pizza since the MTC!!! :) It was so good! But anyways Conference was amazing. My favorite talks in order 1) Elder Bednar and personal revelation (that talk was something I needed). 2) Elder Uchtdorfs talk in Priesthood which was amazing! 3) Elder Holland of course. 4) President Monson in Priesthood. I really enjoyed all the talks and learned so so much! I can't wait until the next one, haha, and by then I will have 11 months in the mission!! 

Oh, and our Zone Conference this past Tuesday was awesome! We all got to hear from President Rex and his wife which was awesome. We also learned alot about teaching skills and practiced, practiced and practiced some more. It left me with the spirit and I was so ready to work!!

Also this week I received my first case of diarreha...it's not bad but it's not fun either, hahaha. Once in a while I get a sick stomach but I hope all will end here soon. I keep drinking coke to kill whatever is there. I am beginning to like coke now, hahaha. 

Well not much else to say, hahaha. I just finished the Book of Mosiah in the Book of Mormon and I love that book!! I am excited to start Alma and receive more inspiration in my life. I love all you guys and your letters!! I can't wait to hear from you again! I can't wait to call you guys!!! Have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Brady Lester

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 5: Listen and ACT on the Promptings of the Spirit

Hey there everyone!!


Well I have to be honest, I am surprised I am still alive here after 5 weeks. The traffic is crazy in the city and they don't really care about the pedestrians, haha. Also my comp and I always have to carry rocks with us since we have dogs always chasing us down the street, hahaha. It is kinda funny actually, especially when the little dogs try and chase us.


Anyways, thank you everyone for your kind words and letters!! I always enjoy your letters and hearing about normal life, haha. Brinkley, this week sounds like its going to be fun!! I hope you have fun at Morp!! Kolby, good luck with baseball tryouts this week!! I will be praying for you. Kasey and Braxley, thank you for the sports updates. Why did the Jazz trade Willams?? Kasey, I hope you have fun with your campout, and Braxley with basketball. Work everyday on defense. That is the most important. You know what they say...Defense wins championships!! Hey, keep me updated on how BYU basketball is doing in the tournament!


Well, for this week it was a little more successfull. Elder Villalba and I have been trying hard to find more people to teach, but they just are not coming. Plus the members are not helping us out at all! The other day we went knocking on doors on this one street and no one was interested, and so we had two more houses left and Elder Villalba wanted to quit because we had no success. But I told him no because I felt an impression that we should knock one of the houses. So we did and ending up getting an appointment. The other day they accepted to learn more, and now we have 4 more investigators, a nice beautiful family :) Always listen and ACT on the promptings of the Spirit!! They come softly and sometimes only once, but through the Spirit we can know all things, and why wouldn't we want to know all things?


Wednesday we had our distict meeting and we talked about how we can become a more successful Missionaries! Afterwards we had divisions again so I went with Elder Bravo in his area. We had great success. He is a great missionary and is from Cancun Mexico, haha!


Thursday we had our weekly planning session. We hope to have a Baptism this coming Sunday with Lorena. She is improving and has accepted everything she just has not prayed and is scared to change her beliefs. We have been promising her great blessings though. She is great! Daniel our other investigator wants to join but has not gotten permission from his parents, who are really catholic. We might be talking with them this week.


We had to drop an investigator this week. Erica. We found out that her husband has another wife. We have told her that she needs to marry him leagally, which means he leaves his other wife, which he won't, or break up with him. She won't because she loves him too much so we had to drop her :(  I wish the best for her.


Well some sweet things happened this week. I got my first haircut in Mexico haha! I had mole finally and it was good!!! Also on Saturday I got to kill a goat!! Yesterday we ate it with some members :) I have pictures that I will upload :) So how the goat worked out was that we hung it upside down from its legs and put a bucket under its head, then I stabbed it in the neck and all the blood came out, haha. It was fun!! And we ate it yesterday and it was way good, hahaha.

Nothing else much happened this week. Oh!! So President Rex last week sent an email to the whole mission that we must read the entire Book of Mormon by May 30th, 100 days. So I stopped my reading in Alma and started over again. Right now I am in 1 Nephi Chapter 17 when they build the ship. Something I learned this week I want to share. In 1 Nephi 13:37 we learn that those who take this Gospel will be blessed with so many blessings, this includes everyone, not Missionaries alone. This work the Lord tell us is marvelous in 1 Nephi 14:7. This work is Missionary work and Temple work. These two works are the same work!!! It is taking the Gospel to those in this life or in the next. We must do this work together and see it as ONE marvelous work and a wonder. I have pondered on how we can better this work and make it more successful. The first thing, which is the first law in Heaven of course, is to be Obedient! We can't have the Spirit if we don't exercise obedience. Second, the answer is in 1 Nephi 10:19. We must search and ponder the things of God which are the scriptures. I have learned that if you want to be inspired, read the Book of Mormon everyday and PONDER and ASK yourself how these words apply to me right now. When we do that, through the Holy Ghost, ALL of the mysteries of God will be unfolded to us. Then we must act on the things that we learn. This is how the Lord works and teaches. We work at it, He helps us understand through His spirit, and then we must Act! It's kind of like learning how to drive. You can't learn how to drive unless you study the laws, get help from your parents or an experienced driver, and then you drive! You don't learn unless you do. You don't progress unless you act.


Well I gotta go but I love and miss you all! Thank you for all your kind words and letters and the package!!


Love,
Elder Brady Lester

P.S. I have transfers next week and I will tell you how they work then because I don't know now, haha.