Letters to Siblings and Mom

Dear Kolby,


Thank you for your letter bro. I want to take a little time to write you :) You are awesome Kolby!! I am glad that you are going to start reading the BoM because my testimony of that book is what really helps me help the people, because I know without a doubt that it is true. It has helped me so much and I see the blessings of living by its teachings. Keep it up brother! Things here are awesome! Elder Escamilla and I are doing great. We Baptized 2 more yesterday! We are having a great time working together! New foods...not really. Yesterday I did buy a little bag of crickets to eat with lime :) It was good! I love you tons Kolby!!


Elder Lester

Dear Braxely,


Hey bro!! How are things? Thank you for your letter but please write more hahaha! That's good that you are getting things done with scouts! Even if its boring, try to make it fun. If you do that you will enjoy it and learn even more! Well things here are great! I am learning tons and really feel the love of God in my life. Do you feel His love? I hope you are praying and reading the BoM everyday because that is how you feel His love. If you don't feel His love, you don't know Him...something I have learned :) Well keep up with the chores and your straight As!!


Elder Lester

Dear Kasey,


What a blessing it is that you have a job! That is awesome! I hope that you give the Lord thanks for that blessing in your life. Something I learned recently in the BoM is that the righteous always gave thanks to their Lord and we must too. I hope you won't be stupid like me and waste all of your money. Save most of it but always enjoy it and treat yourself to something good after a hard week of work. But be wise! I am so happy that school is going great! Keep it up! School is one of the most important things you must work and focus on. I love you tons and you are really my best friend in the world! I miss you more that anybody and you are always in my prayers! I can't wait to see you in 14 months so I can still school you in bball lol :)


Elder Lester

Dear Brinkley,


Things sound like you are doing a ton! Work is awesome and especially nanny jobs because you are right, it will help you for your future family. The calling of a mother is the most important calling somebody can have in this life. More important than being the prophet hahaha, and God gives that calling to you wonder women. It's a sacred calling and the Lord gives all the help needed to fulfill it successfully. I hope you have a great week! I love you :)


Elder Lester

Hey Mom,


Just wanted to write you a quick letter to let you know that I love you tons! You do so much for me and always have the best for me in mind. Even though we are miles away, I really do feel your love in my life. I really feel like the Lord is blessing you and all the kids with so much!! Always remember that we all love you. Even though sometimes the kids don't show their appreciation much towards you for what you are trying to teach them, remember that you are not the only one. Think of a missionary who gets rejected by someone trying to do something good and bring his salvation into his life. Think about Jesus Christ. Every time we sin we really don't show our appreciation for His atonement. I feel like we take advantage of it alot. We don't give thanks for that blessing. The Lord does not put trials in our lives...He only allows the adversary to try us so that we can learn and grow. Without that we can't return to His presence. We are tried and if we come out faithful we will be blessed.

Read D&C 121:1-9. Those are all times that we feel, but there is a promise in there for all of us. Read 1 Nephi 3:7. The Lord always provides a way for us in our difficulties. Remember that you are a daughter of God. You hold the greatest calling in the world...a Mother. I told Brinkley in her email that it is even more important than being the prophet. The Lord entrusts the future of His kingdom in your hands. Your kids are the future of the church, leaders and missionaries and parents. You have the responsibilty of raising us. Sounds intimidating I know...but you can do it.

Remember that you can pray and He listens and answers. That is your greatest tool as a Mother...prayer and counsel from Him in the scriptures. That is how you can receive revelation as a Mom. It won't come all at once, but one day you will realize that all your life you were actually receiving revelation for your family. Have faith and keep the commandments. You also have leaders who have been called to help you as a Mother. I love you and am so grateful to my Heavenly Father that He gave me the best Mother in the world.


Love you,
Elder Brady Lester

Mexico Week 29: Blessings in Trials and Learning from the Scriptures

Hey there everyone!!

Well first off I want to start off by saying HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRAXLEY!  I can't believe that you are 11 years old now!! That is crazy because I really still remember when you were a little tiny kid hahaha. I hope you have a great birthday!! Kasey thank you so much for you letter and your advice. I am so glad that you are learning, so just apply it!! You are meant to be a leader in the kingdom of God but obedience, study, and prayer is required to take that spot. Brinkley congrats on getting another job!! SAVE your money and don't be stupid like I was with mine. Kolby....Baritone?? Really? Hahahaha cool! You are going to be really good! Mom, congrats on passing your test!! Dad thank you for your letter and for sharing your experiences. I really did learn something and I felt that I must really use the guidance of the Spirit more in that aspect of the work.

Well this last week was hard because my comp did not want to do anything and so he stayed in the house all week. I tried having a member to come over to be with him so that I could go work with other Elders but I didn't feel comfortable with it.

(This is Mom...since Elder Lester has spent a lot of time in the apartment with his companion that won't work, I thought I would show pictures of the new apartment in Castillotla that they moved to awhile back.)

 I think this is the view from Brady's apartment. I believe that's a volcano.

I studied a ton this past week hahaha. There are blessings in the trials. I really learned alot. This week I read 1 Nephi 8 and learned quite a bit of new things. Something new came to me as I was studying this chapter. I learned that the Rod of Iron is like the Doctrine of Jesus Christ which is Faith, Repentance, Baptism, and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost. If we as members and investigators live and follow that Rod, we will have the opportunity to partake of the fruit which we know from Nephi´s explanation in chapter 11 is the Love of God. I learned in my study that this fruit is Eternal Life. That is the gift that God offers us if we live His Gospel. The love part comes in from the Gospel that He gives us but more importantly His Son, Jesus Christ. Without Jesus Christ we can't partake of that fruit. We need His help. There are dirty rivers and great and spacious buildings in our lives, but we always have the chance to come back to the Rod and partake of the fruit through the Love of God, Jesus Christ.

This past week I also learned about the importance of being obedient. There is no way to have success in this work unless you are obedient. There are rules for our protection and for our learning. We can learn so much by the Spirit if we are worthy to learn from it. I believe that we must always remember our Covenants and these Commandments and have them in our hearts. If we really ponder them it will be easier to follow and live them I believe. We will understand the importance of these commandments and then have the desire to keep them. If we don't, we are offending God and can't learn or live great experiences. I love what Joseph Smith taught "When we are willing to come to Him, He will then be willing to come to us." I believe we do that by keeping Covenants and Commandments.

I also read Alma 17 and I love that chapter! It was written for Missionaries I believe! I learned about three things that we must do as Missionaries to have success. The Sons of Mosiah did these things and had alot of success Baptizing thousands for their 14 year mission. First is studying diligently in the scriptures. There is a difference in reading and studying. Studying is really pondering and trying to learn from the Spirit while reading. It takes alot of pondering I have learned. It takes me almost 40 minutes to read one chapter in the BoM because I ponder certain words, verses, and phrases. At home we call it "family scripture STUDY" so I invite you all to really study. The next thing that they did was pray alot. Prayer is the greatest blessing that God gives to all of His children, members or not. We can talk to Him and He will answer us! Its amazing! We just need to listen to the Spirit before, during, and after the prayer. This is one way to receive revelation. The next thing that they did was fast. Fasting is so important in our lives. First, we are more healthy physically. We need to not eat every once and awhile, as the prophets have taught. Second, we are spiritually fed. I have learned that the greatest blessings come from great service and sacrifice. For example, a Mom serves and sacrifices to give life to a child. The Savior served and sacrificed to give each of us the gift of life after death. Fasting is a way to sacrifice something that we all love and receive blessings for it. Then it is not such a sacrifice but something that we want to do because it's a blessing.

Those are some of the things that I learned in my personl studies all week and day long, hahaha. I really know that the Lord is preparing me for something with all these lessons and trials. I just can't wait for it to happen, hahaha. I really see success in the future! I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,
Elder Brady Lester

Mexico Week 4: Promptings from the Spirit

Hey there everyone!!

Thank you for all your loving letters!! Grandma, I heard about your illness last week. I am worried about you and hope you are getting better :) Braxley, I am impressed that you can do a smiley face now :) :) I can wink though ;) haha =) or a heart <3 haha!! Keep it up in b-ball and don't get down. Kolby, that is awesome that you won the game for your team way to go!! Brinkley, where did you go, haha? Thanks for all the sports updates Kasey.  I love them :) How's your scripture reading going? You studying Preach my Gospel?

So to answer your questions. Our house is very nice I think especially compared to the houses we have been in. There is no heat in our house, only for the shower thank goodness!! You are right grandma about the tv thing. Alot of people dont have running water, so sometimes when we ask if we could use the restroom you see their stuff from the day in the toilet still :( Kinda gross. Everyone does have a tv though and they treasure it, lol. My area has about 600 people who live in it all spread out! We can only work in about 2 sometimes a 3rd town in our area because our area is huge and it's too expensive to take a bus to the other towns in our area. We really need bikes. I did give my tie to Elder Christofferson, but we traded so I have one of his :) I also traded a tie with Elder Ferrell and gave him another one since its his uncles business, haha. Those last pictures are of my district and zone at our last temple walk at the MTC...wow I miss that place so much right now and all the friends too! I do wear my shower sandals but I still have athletes foot. That town we did our shopping in is about an hour away from us but I dont know if it is in our area? I think I got all the questions answered right? If not let me know.

So this week was not successful at all!! Tuesday was not so great. All of our appointments fell through and so we spent the morning and afternoon trying to receive referrals from members, but no success. Same with service...no success. So we took a cumbi (small crowded van) to Dolores. A town in our area about 15 minute drive away. We have an investigator there named Lorena. Her husband Pedro is a fabulous faithful member who has served a mission. They are soooooooo poor. They live in a one room hut and have no stove, shower, or toilet. They cook over the fire like camping. Pedro spends alot of the money he makes in the week just to take a bus to church EACH Sunday. Sometimes when he can't afford it, he will walk the hour walk to get to church. I pray the Lord blesses him with whatever he needs in this life or with treasures and mansions in the next. He is a great man and he always puts a smile on my face. Anyways we taught Lorena, and how when we live the gospel our families will be blessed. She was receptive and we gave her a Book of Mormon :) That evening I taught Luis Daniel the piano. We have lessons twice a week :)

Wednesday we had our district meeting so we traveled to Puebla. After the meeting we had divisions so I went with Elder Nielson in his area, while Elder Villalba went with his comp Elder Borrego. I thought it would be fun with Elder Nielson since he is an American, but all he talked about was cars. haha. He loves his cars. Anyways after we ate with a member we switched and I was with Elder Borrego from Sorona, Mexico. Apparently he has had some bad experiences with American Elders so he doesn't like Americans. Hahaha, that was fun to walk and not talk the whole time, lol. Anyways at 6:00 Elder Villalba and I traveled back to Puebla and that night we taught the mother of Fernando. She is the only one in her family not a member. As we taught, the father who is a member, started going off about something that I didn't understand. I felt impressed by the Spirit though to share two scriptures and testify about them. Ether 12:6 and Mosiah 2:41. I don't know if they helped but I did it.

Thursday and Friday we worked with Luis Daniel, the young man I am teaching the piano. He is 18 and is wanting to serve a mission so he worked with us. Absolutely no success. We even knocked on doors which we never do because it doesn't work here all that well. That shows you how deperate we were.

Saturday morning we knocked on doors again because we had no appts set up. We got two people for appts!! One is tomorrow and the other is tonight at 6pm! The one tonight is a family, sweet family :) The dad took the lessons 10 years ago when the area was open and still has the Book of Mormon today!! He never got baptized for reasons I dont know. I hope we have success with him :) That afternoon we visited Luis Daniel and asked if he would help us out with our activity for the night. He agreed but he started crying. Elder Villalba talked to him and I tried listening but didnt really understand. I found out that his girlfirend broke up with him because he has been trying to share the gospel with her. Also he misses his dad who has lived in New York for the past 7 years for better work for his family. I couldn't do much because I didn't understand, but after Elder Villalba talked to him again the Spirit urged me to tell him to go into his room by himself and read D&C 121:1-9. He did so and came back feeling much better. That night the activity was awesome and he shared that experience with the members and testified that us missionaries are here for a reason and the members need to help us with the work! He is going to be a great missionary!! I hope the activity was a success. I felt it was. I hope the members see their value in the work. The work progresses faster with the members. More people are baptized and stay active. Our calling is to teach, teach, and teach. The members calling is to find, find, find. This is how missionary work should work!!

Sunday was great too! Bertha came and received the Holy Ghost. We had Branch Conference and that was great too :) I also taught Fernando English :)

So anyways, I hope for better success this week! Especially with the people. This week I have had to put up with alot of trash about being from the US, especially Arizona. Also for not knowing the language, including members of the Branch. The language is getting better. I can understand more but not really talk much more, hahahaha. I having been feeling alright though. I got way home sick on Friday but things are fine and I am trying to move forward. I am almost finished reading Our Search for Happiness by Elder Ballard. Great book!! I reccommend you guys read it!  Especially Grandma! :)

I love and miss you all!! I cant wait to hear from you!!

Love,

Elder Brady Lester 

Led by the Spirit

I shared this with Elder Lester in the letter I sent him today:

While I was reading last night I read this great scripture in 1st Nephi 9:6 - Nephi testifies, "But the Lord knoweth all things from the beginning; wherefore, he prepareth a way to accomplish all his works among the children of men; for behold he hath all power unto the fulfilling of all his words. And thus it is. Amen."  I thought about you and the great work you are doing as a Missionary and learning the Spanish language. The Lord will help you accomplish what is needed in this great work!

This morning for scripture study we were reading about how Nephi was led by the Spirit to Laban so he could get the brass plates. It was a new insight into how exactly Nephi was so successful at following the Spirit.  Nephi was willing to try time and again, using his best efforts. He expressed faith that he would be helped. He refused to be discouraged. But because he acted, had confidence in the Lord, was obedient, and properly used his agency, he received guidance. He was inspired step after step to success, and in his mother's words was "given...power to accomplish the things which the Lord hath commanded." (1 Nephi 5:8)

Nephi knew he was required to confide in God, to exercise faith, and to act so that he could receive help, step by step. He did not murmur nor ask for full explanation. He did not wait passively for help. He acted! By following spiritual law, he was inspired and given power to act.

I believe that lesson is perfect for Missionary work and would be a great lesson to share with your District and throughout your Mission. Let me know what you think about it. :)

I just love learning and I believe that the Lord is Blessing our Family. I saw President Peterson last week and I told him that I feel a deep reverence and gratitude for your service. I'm sure I already told you that, but it is truly felt throughout our home and within us individually.

Mexico!

Brady arrived home from his service at The Hill Cumorah on July 23rd. He served from June 22 - July 23, 2010. This was his second summer serving at The Hill, and his arrival home this summer was so exciting for us because after receiving His Call and knowing he would be serving in Mexico, the family found Mexico t-shirts to wear to greet him at the airport.

 We went to Texas Roadhouse to celebrate his arrival home.

 At home we gave Brady a new set of Spanish Scriptures.

 His name was engraved on the front - Elder Brady Lester