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 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 87: Numbers of Excellence

Hey Family!

Thanks for your kind letters and words. I love you all and sounds like you all had a great week! Sounds like school is going great and work too.  Congrats Kolby for getting your job, hahaha. Hey Kasey, where do you work again?  Hahaha I forgot. Well anyways sounds like everything is doing just great. 

Well not a lot has been going on in our area. We have planned a lot so that we are working in our area at 6-9 pm each day.  We are going to be working every single day with the Missionaries in the Mission to help them and see what we need to help them and better the Mission. We have a lot of plans going down. We have Zone Conference coming up and my topic is the Atonement. It’s going to be difficult but I have been doing a lot of study and a lot of learning. It’s been fun. 

We are going to be talking a lot about putting numbers of excellence. We are trying to work hard on bettering the numbers in the Mission. We hope that we can get a lot of work done. This Mission is going up and up each week and we are really excited for what is going to happen in the future. 

Well I am sorry I don’t have a lot of time. I don’t have a lot to say either. I love ya tons! Hope that everything goes great!  Can’t wait until we see each other. Time is going by really fast. I love the Mission! It’s great here. I am learning a lot but I have learned that time just flies. 

Con Amor, 

Elder Brady Lester

Mexico Week 74: Rain & Clothing

Hey Everyone,

Well things are going great here and I am just loving the Mission. Hahahaha, I have not been much in my area this past week since I have been in exchanges with all of the District Leaders in the Zone, and today I am in a place called San Martin where I will be working for the next two days. Things are going great. I will be honest, I miss being a Branch President or even a District Leader. Hahahaha, it’s very different being a Zone Leader and I am not sure what I think about it yet.

That stinks that the Heat won the championship. I was routing for the Thunder, haha!
 
Well it’s raining again over here in the Mission. I am lucky to have one of those areas where the streets look live rivers, hahaha. My other pair of shoes are just thrashed and so I think I am going to be working alot more in my "Sunday" ones to finish off the Mission. While we are talking about clothes I will just let you all know how my clothing is hahaha. Like I said, I am pretty much down to one pair of shoes. I have one good belt, hahaha. I am also loving my garments, hahaha. They are grey and with holes, and sometimes it’s hard to get those stains out from behind, hahaha, it’s awesome. I think that my shirts are yellowish now. They seem white but when I am with other Missionaries who have less time in the Mission their shirts are way white, hahaha.  My pants are just different colors. My grey ones look like some ugly brown and my blue ones look like they are turning colors like if I was washing with bleach.  My socks are just...well let’s just say bad.  Thank you for the socks Mom!  Hahaha I think that is the best present a Missionary could get....and hot fries hahaha.  My blue suit is just a sad mess. I think that I am going to leave it behind when it’s time for me to go home, hahaha.  I really won’t use it after.  My ties....wow my ties. Let’s just say I need to learn how to eat better, hahahaha.  I am just looking back at all the money that we spent and it’s just going all down the drain, hahaha.  I love it.  The good thing is that I still have one good suit, that I will have to tailor again to my size. My hush puppies are still good.  And I have one good belt and a pair of good jeans that I bought here because I got paint all over my other ones, hahaha.
 
Just to let you know Mom, I think that it would be better to save up the money to come as a family here next year instead of coming for me in November.  The Church does pay for the ticket so don’t worry about that.  They will probably buy my ticket soon. I think I am going to ask the President if they could fly me out of Mexico City instead of Puebla so that I could go to the Temple before I go home.
 
Things are just great!  I really love my companion and we are getting alot done.  We are trying to help the Zone be more obedient because we have had problems in that, so we are trying to be the best examples.  We are teaching a bit but we need to find new investigators because we are dropping some and are we are hoping to Baptize soon.  We put the goal to go eat seafood if we Baptize, hahaha.  It’s rare to eat that here. I am going to work hard so that I can buy myself some shrimp.

The other day I ordered some leather scripture cases from a brother in Castillotla.  He is going to make them and I am going to pay and get them in like a week or two when I go to Puebla. We are getting ready for our Zone Conference this Friday. The new President is going to be here so it’s going to be exciting.
 
Well I hope that all continues to go well back at home. I feel sorry for Brink and her wisdom teeth. Hope that you feel better soon. You are all in my prayers I and love you all tons!

 

Love,
Elder Brady Lester

Mexico Week 61: Work as a Missionary Branch President

Hey Everyone,

Well I want to wish a very happy birthday to my brother Kasey!! I can’t believe you are going to be 16 tomorrow, that’s crazy!!! I hope you don’t keep growing, hahaha. I would also like to congratulate Maggie and Dad on their wedding. Hahahaha, I love the cardboard Elder Lester and the letter to the President. Hahahaha, did you really send that to him?

Thank you all for writing me :) Thank you for the money Mom. You could send me a package and I could get it. I will go to Puebla more with this calling.

Well, as you all know, I am a Branch President.  I am actually the only Branch President in the entire Mission. It’s a hard calling and I have so much respect for Bishop´s now. It’s pretty much the same calling just with less members. We have 83 members on the list and about 40 come each Sunday. This week I have had to interview for giving the Priesthood, Patriarchal Blessings, callings, worthiness, needing money from the church, and helping a sister go through a divorce. IT’S ONLY MY FIRST WEEK!!! 

Hahahaha, I don’t know how long I will be here but I will be here for at least 12 weeks and maybe more. I feel like we are starting up the Branch. One of my goals is to start up the Young Women’s and Young Men’s program. There is youth but there is not any program, so I called a Young Women’s President and a Deacon’s Quorum President named Jesus Huerta. He is great. We are going to start mutual pretty soon and get them working on their Duty to God and Personal Progress. I would also love to start a Boy Scouts program.

I am also in the process of helping some brothers be worthy to receive the Higher Priesthood. One brother, Hno Hector, helps us out a ton and he is really working hard to be ready and worthy. I am going to call him to be my second counselor but Pres. Reeves needs to interview him first. I would like to be the last Missionary Branch President and I would like to have Hector be the branch president in about 12-18 weeks. That is another goal of mine. I am very excited but also I have never been so tired and stressed out. I have a lot of things in mind and we are going to start making some changes in the Branch so that the members work, and so that we can work hard in the field.

We don’t work everyday as Missionaries. There are some days that I have interviews or my comp, who is my first counselor, and days where we have to travel to a bank to manage the Tithing and Fast Offerings. Hahahaha, I have a lot on my plate.

Well today we went to a waterfall place and it was beautiful. Next week I will send you pics. I love the area. It’s really pretty. I am in the mountains, hahaha, and it’s freezing at night. I am really liking it here. My companion is Elder Cano. He is from Sinaloa. I thought I was going to get an American because I have not had one yet, but it will probably be later in the Mission. He is really cool. He kinda does the work a little different so I will have to get used to that but he is really great.

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


Love,
Elder Brady Lester

Missionary Week 42: 1 AÑO‏ this Week!

Hello Everyone!!


Thank you everyone for your letters and kind uplifting words. I always love reading your emails. Well this week was a very interesting week and I was thinking alot about what was going to happen today with me hahaha. I cried alot yesterday in church because I really love the members in Castillotla and wanted to stay really bad. I have prayed like crazy so that I would stay....and God answered my prayers hahaha. I stayed in Castillotla with Elder Escamilla!!! Hahahaha we are together again for another 6 weeks so we have changes on Christmas! I am so happy hahaha and shocked! I had no idea that I was staying. My district leader called me and told me that I had changes and I was expecting that so all I said was ok. After he told me that it was a joke and that we were both staying, my comp and I. Really Elder Escamilla and I jumped for joy!! I really think we are going to keep doing good here :)


Well not alot happened this past week. We had 6 baptisms planned and they all fell!! All of them!! One investigator, Hna Alicia, had her interview and didn't pass. Apparently she did something really bad in her life so she couldn't get Baptized and has to wait to talk with President or his counselors. Well this week she has an interview with them and so we really hope that she can get Baptized. She is a sweet spirit and really wants to get Baptized. Another Baptism, Hna Maria who is 12 years old, fell. She wants to get Baptized but her mom wants to listen to us first so that she knows what we do and teach, so we planned her Baptism, and Baptism for her mom in 15 days hahaha. It kinda turned out better. Our other investigator, Hna Gabriela who is 18 and wants to get Baptized, went to the doctors and they told her that she was crazy and that she needed help haha so she had no time this past week to talk and so we had to cancel her Baptism. Another family that we have been teaching for about a week just moved to a new house and has not had time to go to church so we had to cancel their Baptism for a while but they will get Baptized :) We think we could Baptize 7 in this month even though our goal is 5. We are really working hard and things are going good.


This past week we have been trying to find ways to improve the work here in Castillotla. We have been thinking of ideas of contacting and finding more people and we have been trying to work with the priests in our ward and want to put up a stand on a corner with a bunch of pamphlets and Book of Mormons. The young men's president in our ward really wants us to start working tons with the young men so we are trying to find ways to work with them. We are also getting really close to opening up a branch in this little village that we have in our area hahaha and we have permision and everything. We are just wanting to wait a bit more so that we can get the work started up really good. I feel that things will take more than one change and I might not be here but I will try my hardest to keep the work going here. I really want to see my vision that I had when I got here come to life.


Well honestly I have nothing else going on so I will just have to wrap up hahaha. I am grateful for all your love and support and I hope things are going well for you all!! I will be completing 1 year in the mission this week and the time has just passed by flying!!!


Love,
Elder Brady Lester

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 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 :)