Mexico Week 91: Busy Life Teaching and Training

Hey Family!

Well again I have been busier than ever! I actually have not been here for this week. We left Monday, my companion and I, to Tlaxcala and we have been working with various missionaries and just got back today, hahaha. We have been working hard trying to teach and train the Missionaries in the Mission. It has been a very great but also tiring experience. We have also been working on some problems with some Elders who have not been working as they should. 

The other day I was working with a couple ZL´s and we were contacting in the street and and one of the ZL´s started to contact a family of three that was walking in the street. This Elder started to ask a lot of inspired questions about the family and it was a very good contact. I watched an observed and the man was very stubborn about listening to the Missionaries and accepting an appointment. He kept saying that he had to work from 5am to 10pm everday, and that he spent his off day with his family shopping and stuff like that. I then asked him "why do you spend that only off day with your family and not somewhere else?" He told us that he does it because he loves his family and that he only has that one day to spend with them. So then I asked him "Then how about you let us come buy next week to teach you how to be with your family forever and not just one day of the week?" He then really started to think and he said..."shoot you guys are right. How about you come by next week?" Hahaha it was a great contact and the Spirit really helped us out. 

We have a lot to plan. We are starting to work now in reactivating in the Mission, and with the President we are creating a plan for the Stakes in the Mission to be able to work with the Missionaries to be able to reactivate the less active. We are also planning the changes for this transfer since my generation is going home a week early. We are planning a few training meetings that we are going to have in the Mission. We are planning who is going to take my spot, hahaha. Things are really rolling and it's getting done and the time just flies. 

Great to hear that you are all doing good. I hope that you all have a great week. Love and miss ya tons!! 

Con Amor,
Elder Lester

 

Mexico Week 57: Baptism of the Martinez Family

Hey everyone,

Thank you for writing. I always love reading your letters. They help me out a lot and I love that you all tell me your cool experiences. Thank you mom for the money that you put in my account. Kolby, that's awesome that you are the Deacon's President. It means you have a lot of work and responsibility. As a DL in the mission I have learned that when you love and serve, your district, or in this case, your Quorum works hard and there is success. Try to be like Christ as you work with your Quorum. Braxley, congrats on your first chair in the honor band. That is awesome!!

Mom, I just wanted to resolve an issue I have. I am having a HUGE problem with my contacts!! In about 5 weeks I have gone through 3 pair and that's not good. They feel like they are cutting my eyes and I see everything really blurry. I take them out every night. I have gotten really good with that but they still bother me. I talked with the president and he told me to buy eye drops and I did that, but nothing is working. Could you talk with the doctor to see what is going on?

Well last week was a decent week. We Baptized the Martinez family which was awesome. I want to upload photos but this computer won't let me so I will play with it a little more, but if it doesn't work I will upload them next week. They are so happy this family. Hna Sonia decided to be separate from her husband because she wasn't married. We also want to teach her mom but she is not married either so that is going to be a little hard. I hope that we can help them out.

We have been working hard and the Bishop has given us some work to do. We are really wanting to work with the members a lot so that we can have a lot of success. Today for P-day we went and played bball and that was awesome!! I did some work it was awesome :) I am not so good anymore...well I was never good, hahaha but I am a lot worse hahaha.

Things are going great. This week we are going to do a lot of contacting and teaching to less active members. I have an idea for my district. I would like to print out flyers and put them around the city so that the people can see them and they can go to the church and we can teach them all at the same time and see who wants to us to pass by their house. I think it would be a good way to find new people to teach.  

Well I gotta go but I love you all so much!! Kasey and Kolby...you should do the Trek. When Brink and I did it, it was awesome. I learned a lot and really had a great feeling for the pioneers. Pray about it! I love you all!! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Lester

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 39: Working Hard & Baptisms of Euloterio and Rene

Hey everyone!!

Well I want to thank Mom and the kids for writing me, hahahaha and grandma too :) I felt a little sad when I opened up my email today because I usually have like 15 emails, but today only 4 hahaha. Kids I am glad that things are going great for you guys!! Sounds like you had fun last weekend with dad. Brinkley, your life seems really exciting and busy right now with school and work!! I am glad that you are busy hahaha....that way you don't get married before I get home, hahaha jk jk jk. I hear school is good and you are doing well. Keep it up!! And save your money!! That is how the Lord will bless you. I have learned something....5 dollar income 6 dollar expense...misery. 5 dollar income 4 dollar expense...eternal happiness. Keep that in mind everyone! I know that I wasn't the great example of that, hahaha and I will pay for my mistakes after the mission :(  Mom I heard from the kids that you had a great bday! They bought you a bike!! That's awesome!! I hope all your wishes come true :)

Well this past week things went really good. First off we had 2 more Baptisms on Saturday!! Hermano Euloterio, the husband of Hermana Cony, and Hna Rene, her daughter got Baptized!!! It was a great service!! The spirit was felt and they were even crying hahaha :) I promised them that in 1 year after my mission I am going to come back and go through the Temple with them to see them get Sealed as a family :) I really can't wait for that!! They are such a great family!

This past week Elder Escamilla and I had to drop alot of investigators that just were not progressing. We are trying to find new investigators in this week and we pray that we will be able to find more chosen people. This past week we actually found a new investigator named Gabriela. We decided to knock doors for an hour in a specific street in our area. Well we knocked her door and we started talking. She told us that she was Christan and that she knew a little bit about us. She said "you Mormons do weird things." Hahaha my comp and I laughed and we started to talk about some things but she didn't have much time, so we got an appointment with her. We went back for the appointment and we started talking...outside of her house hahaha about the Restoration. The whole time I felt uncomfortable and didn't know why. As we started talking about Joseph Smith and the BoM, she just looked at us weird and said that it was a crazy story hahaha. In that moment the Spirit told me to talk about the Plan of Salvation. I had no idea why, and I rejected it!! I kept talking about the BoM and the Spirit kept telling me to do it, so finally I just put down the BoM and said, "I feel like I need to tell you something." That is how I started talking about the Plan of Salvation. It was an ugly transition of things but it worked and it was because the Spirit was with us. My comp and I explained a little bit of the lesson. She completely changed and said that she wanted all of it to be true and that she might get Baptized if it's true, but she still has problems with the BoM and Joseph Smith. We challenged her to read and to pray. Today we have another appointment with her and I am excited to talk with her. I know that the Spirit helped us a ton in that lesson and really hope that we can continue to work with her and that she can accept all of this as the truth.

This past week my comp and I also worked really hard reactivating families hahaha. We really want to split the ward and start up another ward and a branch. In this ward there are over 650 members but only about 180 go. Well after a hard working week of visiting less active families, yesterday 216 members showed up!! We were really happy! Things are going great for us and I have never felt so happy in my mission. I really pray that I stay here for a while longer and that the Lord keeps blessing us.

Thank you for all your support and I love you all!! Hope you all have a great week!!

Love,

Elder Brady Lester