Mexico Week 90: Busy!

We did miss a letter from Elder Lester this week but he has been in contact with me and he is doing good. They had mission transfers they were working on and he stayed in the Mission Home with the President during this time. Later in the week he and his companion searched for new housing for them and the office Elders. There are five Missionaries living in one place together. Fun!

We look forward to getting a letter soon.

Mexico Week 84: New Area, New Assignment, New Life

Hey Everybody!! 

Well this week has been a very interesting week. I am writing you all today because tomorrow we will not have time to even wash our clothes hahaha. As most of you know I am the new AP which is an Honor. I still don't know what are all my duties and stuff like that but I will be learning. I am actually in Puebla right now and am in the offices with the assistants and my companion. We are receiving some training from them and we are working on the transfers for the Mission. It’s a lot of work and we are trying to get a lot done. In the afternoon we will be going with President Christensen to our old area to have a training meeting with the Stake Presidency, Bishops, Ward Mission Leaders, and Missionaries. It’s going to be interesting going to all of these types of meetings with the President and his wife. When we get back we are going to have to go "Elder hunting" because there is an Elder who is doing some bad stuff with girls....I am so not ready for that hahahaha.

Tomorrow we will be receiving the new Missionaries who come from Mexico in the morning and I am going to be able to see President Reeves which will be weird hahaha. We have training meetings all day tomorrow with them. Tomorrow night we will be going to the airport to pick up the Americans that are coming and we will have to drop them off at the Mission home. On Tuesday we will be in training meetings with them all day as well, and then in the afternoon we will have the transfer meeting hahaha.

Things are beginning to look interesting and it’s going to be a different experience being an AP. Hahaha, only three missionaries here have ever had all the Mission assignments - Elder Gonzalez, Elder Bencomo, and me. I refer to Junior comp, Senior comp, Trainer, District Leader, Zone Leader, AP, and Branch President hahaha...and those two other Elders are legends so I have big shoes to fill hahahaha. The good thing about being an AP is I will get to know all the Missionaries and the whole Mission, travel a lot, learn a lot more from the President, and get my packages on time if anybody sends me some. hahaha! :)  

As of this week in our area...well there was not a lot to do. I had to go to the hospital for my knee but it’s getting better and now I can start working and stop resting my knee. The good thing is that I won’t have to have surgery or anything, but I am taking some medicine which is helping out. I will have to take it light on the soccer and basketball :(

Last night we had a huge ward activity and a ton of people came. It was a BBQ that we planned, my comp and I with the Ward Mission Leader, Luis Medel, and the Ward Missionaries. We planned to have a BBQ and an open house. We planned on having about 100 with 20 invites but it was a bigger success. We had almost 200 people and 80 invites and we had a great time. The food ran out so fast but everybody was asking me recipes for the shredded beef and BBQ sauce that I made :) It was delicious. We put in some spice into the sauce because it’s Mexico. We had mashed potatoes and corn on the cob with baked bread and butter. We did it just like in the USA. A lot of the invites wanted to listen to the Missionaries, so the new Missionaries who are going to be in Totolac Ward – Tlaxcala, are going to have a lot of work. I am going to miss that ward. It was my favorite area for sure in the Mission and I really hope to go back and visit. Hahaha, I hope to start my English school with Luis Medel actually...maybe it will work out.  

Well I don't have much more time to write...and I am sure my letters will be shorter some weeks than others because my P-days are going to be much different. If you can try to write me early Sunday or in the afternoon because I might have to write on some Sundays like today. I love you all and hope that you all have a great week! I want to wish a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Brinkley! Love ya tons Sis!  

Con Amor,

Elder Lester

Mexico Week 78: Transfer for Elder Nuncio & Baptism of Elvia

Hey there!!

Well just to let you know my comp, Elder Nuncio has transfers :( I was really excited to stay with him again. He has been my best comp so far in the mission. We Baptized last Friday, Hermana Elvia.  She has been listening to the Missionaries for 7 months now and she finally decided to be Baptized! I got to Baptize her and it was an awesome Baptism service. Things have just been going pretty great. 

I am glad to hear Kasey that you had a great time at EFY. I wrote to your email because I thought you were still there but then I read that you are home now hahaha. I hope that you had a great time and that you always remember that time in your life. Hopefully you will be able to go back next year :) 

I am sorry for not sending pics.  I have not had a computer that permits me to download stuff. The internets are weird here because they are business and not in the homes because not everybody has money to have a computer in their home. 

Well things are going pretty great.  We had a sweet ward activity the other day. Our investigator family went. The Familia Minor. They are awesome! I really hope that they get Baptized.  We have been working with them alot and we hope to have alot of success with this family.  I pray each day that they can receive a testimony and know that this is the true church. They are really Catholic but that’s what I like because if they are Baptized they will always be faithful and active in the church. 

Thank you all for you letters. I hope everything continues to go well for you all.  I love you all and hope that you all have a great week!  I promise to try and send pictures soon hahaha. I have alot of pics hahaha! 

Love,
Elder Lester

 

 

Mexico Week 72: Transfers

Hey there Everyone!

Thanks for writng me. I loved your letters. Brink I have written Sean but it seems to me that it didn't get to him because I got an email telling me that the address was wrong, so if you could send it to me again that would be awesome. Hahaha, well Kolby, I think that the Heat will win, but I want the Thunder to win. Shame that Boston lost. Things sound great at home! Grandma you should tell your boss to start a school in Mexico or Panama. He would make alot of money especially for the English. Brasil will be a cool place though.

Well just to let everyone know because I know that you are all anxious to know hahaha, I do have transfers. I am happy about it. I would like to stay one more transfer but I am willing to follow the Lord. I am happy for my companion Elder Rojas because he will be the next president and he is going to do great. He has been a blessing to the branch and will help even more.  Exciting things are happening in the branch and I really love this place. I think that it's my favorite area hahaha, more than Castillotla even though Elder Escamilla and I had alot of success there. There is just something about Chignahuapan that I love. Who knows where I will go and who will be my comp but tomorrow I will find out! There are 3 places, Tlaxcala, Amalucan (which is my first zone and I could visit Hualcatzingo, and if he doesn't have changes Elder Walker would be my comp, hahaha) or Angelopolis, which is like the US hahaha, because everyone has money. It's kinda like Gilbert. I have to send the pics still but Elder Escamilla, Elder Cano, and I went to eat at Applebees there :) Hahaha there is a Mac store and everything is just like at home. That would be a sweet area but who knows. I would just love an American comp now hahaha. But its possible that my next area is my last but who knows.

Elder Riggin is going home today and Elder Rojas, the lazy one. Hahaha I talked to Elder Riggin. He is going to find you on Facebook Mom so that you guys plan out the day when I get home, he wants to be there and loves you all so much. He is really a great friend. I think that he will stay in Washington for a while and study and work because one of his comps that is from Ecuador is going to live with him up there for a year. Hahaha he does have a girl who is studying though, Elder Riggin, at UoA in Tucson. Apparently she is a Mexican and speaks Spanish hahaha. He is excited about it but is really wanting to go to AZ.

Well things are going great. I love the Mission and really am Happy. I am happy to know be able to work as a normal missionary. I am really excited to get back out to teaching and contacting all the time and working with the leaders of the wards and not being one hahaha. I have alot of respect for them, like Bishop Turner. They really are called of God and everything that they do is by revelation. It's been a great learning experience to be here. It will help me be a great leader in the church and help me raise my family in the future.

Well I hope that you have a great week. I love you all so much and miss you tons!! I will let you know next week where I am and who is my comp :)

Love,
Elder Brady Lester

Mexico Week 66: Transfers

Hey there Family!

Well I don’t have much time to write. We have to write early today because we have to get back to the house because my companion Elder Cano has transfers. I don’t know who it will be, but tomorrow we go to Puebla and I will find out. I hope that I finally get an American, hahaha because I have not had an American my whole mission. I really don’t think it will happen.

Well not alot has happened in this past week. Yesterday I had to cancel the services after Sacrament meeting because nobody showed up. We had like 19 people in the meeting so I canceled the other 2 hours, and we started our Branch Council meeting early. We talked about pretty much how we need to work harder as leaders in the branch. Things were going good but we slacked off as leaders and we need to bump it up again.

Things didn’t go so good for us in Missionary Work either. We walked around all week and nobody was home and everyone in the street just pretty much dumped us and said no. I am very excited for this next change and know that we will have more success.

I love you all and hope that you have a great week!!!

Love,
Elder Brady Lester

Mexico Week 60: Transfers - Branch President!

Hey there all ya!

Well his will be a short letter. I have like no time to write. I read all your emails and thank you very much. Well me and my comp have changes. They are going to put in 2 new Elders in Loma Florida which is a little sad but I know that we did the work that the Lord had for us.  

Tomorrow we will have the changes and know where we are going. I am staying in the same zone, and I will either be Zone Leader here, or a Branch President in a Branch, hahaha, the only branch in the Mission. It's going to be a great blessing if I am President, and that helps me understand that the President trusts me and the Lord does as well. That will be cool, but I don't know how to do it. Tomorrow I will know, so I will let you all know.  Life is going good here in the Mission. I love the Mission and everything about it.

I hope that you are all doing great!! I love ya all so much!! Thank you for your prayers and your support.

Love,
Elder Brady Lester

P.S.  After Elder Lester sent this email, he replied back and said that he just found out that he will be transferred the next day to Chignahuapan, which is about two hours North of Apizaco.  He said, "I will be the Branch President. That's sweet!"

Mexico Week 47: District Leader in Apizaco

Hello everyone!!


Well today the great rein of Elder Escamilla and Elder Lester ended! We had changes today, everyone in the mission, and I feel a little sad to leave my kid behind but I have a lot of work ahead of me here in the mission. Today I am in a small pueblo called Apizaco. My companion is Elder Estevez from Tijuana Mexico :) He is really a good guy and missionary. It looks like he really wants to work and get things done. It seems like he did not have a good relationship with his last comp and they did not get alot done. I really know that we are going to have a lot of success here and we are going to work hard. He really wants to work so we are going to get started today with our work. I have also been called as a District Leader, hahaha. Guess who is in my district!! Elder Riggin!!!!!! He is my Zone Leader but I am his District Leader!! I am so happy to be with him again. He is an awesome friend and missionary!! He is really excited to have me in the zone.


Well not much happened in the last week with Elder Escamilla. We just contacted and everyone there just gave us the door, hahahaha. I feel like here though we will have alot more success. We have alot of plans to get the work started here. I feel like it's my calling here in the mission - go to bad areas and get the work started, hahahaha. I know that the Lord has alot of plans for me in the future here in Puebla, so I need to just keep working and hopefully everything will go alright!!


Well there are no plans here for Christmas...just work. We are going to plan how we are going to call and do all of that on Christmas so I will let you know during the week what the plans are.


I love you all and hope that you all have a great week!! May the Lord always bless you!! I am sure I will have more to write soon now that we have work to do, hahaha. Love you all!!!


Love,
Elder Brady Lester

Mexico Week 45: Transferred to Centro - Center of Puebla

Hey there everyone!!

Well as some of you know, my companion and I had emergency transfers on Friday. The assistants called us in the morning at 9:30 and told us that we had to be in the mission home at 6:00 at night. So we packed up our things, said goodbye to some families, and we left. That night the President just moved us for no reason which was weird because we have been having a ton of success in Castillotla. The members were very sad and my comp and I cried because we love that ward and area so much. The President kept us together and we are here in Centro, the Center of Puebla. Here we have two wards to work in, in two different buildings :( Here in Centro are all of the historic sights and all the old Catholic churches and stuff. The Missionaries have not had success since August here in these two wards so the President sent the two powerhouses here together :) Hahaha the President told me that I will only be here for three weeks and then he will send me somewhere else, but here I am. I will be honest, it's hard to work. We don't know our area and its hard to get around. We are both really sad and we feel like we left our hearts and desires to work in Castillotla, but we are getting over it and in this week we have alot to do!!!

Well in the past week nothing really happened except for that. We talked to our investigators and we were just helping them get ready for baptism, but not anymore. They have the Elders in the area right next to Castillotla working there for 3 weeks until there are changes. This will probably be a short email because I am crying here in the internet because I am not in Castillotla, hahaha. I just need to keep working and moving forward.

Well I am in the last year of my mission. I have less than one year to complete hahaha, and I feel like the time is going to pass by really fast. Things sound like they are going good back at home. I miss you all and can't wait to talk to you on Christmas. I still need to find a internet place that will be open on Christmas but it looks like we will be talking in the afternoon night time again like on Mother's day. We just need to figure things out like who will call me first and stuff like that. I just have my two ward services in the morning.

Well I am really happy to be here in Puebla. I would like to live here hahaha because the food is great and the people are awesome!! I really hope you all can come down here with me sometime in the future or when I finish. You guys will love this place! Well I gotta go!! I hope you all have a wonderful day and 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 30: A Joke and a Trainer/Senior Companion!

Hey there everyone!!

Well I have a lot to tell you all from the past week but I am going to start with some news that came from our district leader this past district meeting on Wednesday. So we had our normal district meeting but after he had an anouncement for us from the First Presidency. China just opened up!! It opened and all new Missionaries and future Missionaries are being called to go there! So for us the the First Presidency has given us the invitation to extend our Missions. We have four choices...go home after 2 years, extend 6 months, extend 1 year, or extend 2 years. Well we had to give our decisiones that same day. I was overwhelmed and really wanted some time to think and pray. I had the chance to do that and the Spirit just came over me that I should serve longer. Well I decided to serve two years more mom and dad which would make me have 4 years in the Mission. Well this ended up just being a joke from our district leader to get us to understand the importance of our calling, but I want to let you guys know...I have my answer hahaha and if I have the oportunity to extend my Mission...I will be staying for as long as the Lord will let me. But we will just see here in a year :)

Well now I will get on with the other stuff. I had transfers today!!! I am with an Elder from Sonora.  Elder Escamilla is my companion and he seems just great :) The news is that today is his first day in the Mission, so I got the calling last night to be a Trainer in the Mission hahaha! I am a dad!! This morning I had to go to the Mission offices and be trained with other Elders who were going to be trainers too. It was a 5 hour training!! I learned alot, but the cool thing was that when I first saw the new missionaries I looked at him and just new that he was going to be my companion. It was cool :)  It has been a good 2 hours with him so far. He really seems excited about the work and just obedient. He is going to whip me into shape I think hahaha!! I am only here to help him out because he his prepared!! It's going to be a great 2 changes with him :) I just know that we will have success!!

Well this past week Elder Rojas did not want to go work again so pretty much we had divisions all week with Elder Lamb and Elder Riggin. I went with Lamb one day and Riggin two days. Elder Riggin and I on Friday had a great day and lived some great experiences. The first one was when we taught Hna Sandra. It had been about 2 weeks since the last time we taught her so we passed by her house and she let us in. We started talking about the Book of Mormon and she said that she had not been reading it so I taught the importance of reading and how the BOM teaches us what to do. Well after Elder Riggin taught about Baptism and how that is what the book teaches us. After, I invited her to be Baptized on the 27th of August and after 3 months of denying a date she finally accepted it!! It was great but when she accpeted I really was filled with the Spirit and it told me to tell her that she would find a job and that one day she will she her husband and son sealed to her in the Temple. It was a cool experience!

The other one was with Hna Alejandra and her two sons. She has two cute little boys who are not Baptized and that want to get Baptized. Hna Alejandra wants that too. The thing is, she is inactive and doesn't want to come back to Church because she has a sickness and can't be in a building with alot of people. Well Elder Riggin and I were teaching about the importance of coming to Church and having Faith. It was going really well but she didn't accept to come to Church with us this past week. Well her 9 year old son started to pray quietly during the lesson, so after a while I asked him if he had anything to say, and he told his mom that he prayed that everytime that she touched the BOM she would feel better and be healed. It was so sweet and she started to cry. Well she didn't touch the book so Elder Riggin told her to touch it and when she did the Spirit was so strong and she even said that she felt better. She accepted to come to church. It was a great experience!! What killed it though is that she didn't come on Sunday!! So tomorrow we are going to figure out what happened.

That was it for the week. We did have a zone conference Thursday with Elder de Hoyos from the 70 but he told us that we can't tell anyone, including our families, what happened during that conference. Lets just say that angeles litterally came down and ministered to us. It was a great experience and I am glad that I was there to live it.

I miss and love you all!! I got my Birthday package this week and thank you so much!! My favorite thing is the T-shirt and the pillow case :) Well until next week!!

Love,
Elder Brady Lester

Mexico Week 18: Cambios - Castillotla!

Hola Todos!

Well today we had transfers and I left Huacaltzingo.

 District Meeting

Special Family in Huacaltzingo

 It was a great time I had there and was extremely tough, but all that I learned I know will really really help me in the future in my mission. I also hope and pray for the best there in Huacaltzingo. Today, and for the next 6 weeks at least, I am in Castillotla, hahaha. It's half city and half village. My companion, Elder Rojas, has one year in the mission and is from Peru!! Sweet eh haha?

Elder Rojas

Well I will tell you about today and my new area first and then about the week. Well this area is huge and my comp tells me it's tough and the members don't really help us out. Sounds familiar haha :)  My house, well is tiny, we don't have a working toilet, we will shower in cold water, and there are cockroaches hahaha :) Sounds fun eh hahaha!! Well I will be fine don't worry about it. I am just excited to be here. My comp seems a little lazy and President Rex told me personally to take care of him hahaha, so we will see what happens, lol. I am just ready to work and am excited :)

This is Brady's apartment in Castillotla

Well in the past week we didn't have much success. It was another tough week in Huacaltzingo, but we did have some interesting experiences. Tuesday was a good day. We were out working and stuff and I had the impression to visit a specific Hermano and Hermana to ask them for a reference. Well my comp and I went and when we arrived the Hermano told us that his wife was really really sick and couldn't move or get up. Well we ended up giving him and her blessings. The spirit really directed our words and you could feel it's presence there. Well two days later she was up and walking :) It was sweet :) Well yesterday was a very strange day in the mission for me. We got up and headed for church and nobody was there. Everyone showed up late hahaha everyone! We finally found out why...apparently at 3 in the morning two young men killed a woman of 30 years with rocks not too far from the church on a hill. She happened to be an investigator that Elder Villalba and I taught. She was loved much by the members so it shook them up too. Yesterday we only had Sacrament meeting and I gave a talk on the Atonement and how Christ suffers with us and is always there calling, we just need to accept the call and come unto Him. I really hope that it helped.


Well thats all the news for this week. Brinkley CONGRATS on your graduation :) How do you feel? :)


Well I am excited to see what is going to happen in this change. I really think we will have success :) I am excited and ready to work! I hope the Lord blesses us :) I love you all and are all in my prayers everyday!


Love,
Elder Brady Lester

Mexico Week 6: Service with the Members

¡Hola!

Well we just had changes this morning and......I am still in Huacaltzingo!!! Elder Villalba did get a change. I was sad about that and kinda cried. Haha, I didn't know that it would be so hard to leave him. Anyways my new companion is Elder Lumbreras who is from Mexico hahaha :) So far I like him! Even though it's only been 7 hours, hahahaha but things are looking up here in my area! As for the language it is way better. I am understanding about 70-80 percent of what the people say. It is difficult to talk still but I am getting better. I am just afraid of making a mistake when it's casual talk which is weird because when we teach I will talk and talk, hahaha but that is probably because the Spirit is helping me and plus most of my vocab is Gospel right now, haha. I have definately seen improvement and can't wait to completely get it, haha. So I feel like the reason I stayed here was because President Rex called me and asked if I wanted to and I said yes, haha cool huh?

Anyways thanks for the sports updates! GO BYU!!! Kolby I am sorry you didn't make the team but keep your head up I know exactly how you feel. Brink, Morp sounded fun!! Tell Trey and Sean Hi for me :) Braxley, I love your cute letters, hahaha :) How is your defense going? Kasey, I am glad you are looking for a job! Start saving that money! Good luck in the search. We shall have a race...can I get a Baptism before you get a job? :) Grandma you should totally go to Cancun! There is an Elder Bravo here from Cancun.

Well for this week not much happened again. The work is hard and I think the Lord is trying to teach us something. Not sure what yet. I hope for more success this coming week. This week Elder Villalba and I have been looking for ways to serve. I think this week we are going to help the Branch President build a house, haha which is his job :) Oh and yes Mom, you have your info right so far about my area and the Branch President. Anyways we are looking for service and we want to start with the leaders of the branch so they can set the example for the members. We have some plans we have been working on to try and strengthen the leaders and have them set the example. We hope that this week we can get a ward mission plan rolling so we can get more references from the members.

Well this week Lorena finally accepted Baptism!!!!! She finally prayed and got an answer. She wants her husband Pedro to do it but we don't know if he can right now. This month she will get Baptized by us or him :) I am so happy and excited for her!! We also got 2 investigators new and invited them to church and they showed up hahaha, which was a miracle!! We have an appointment with them this week.

I don't have any more time so this is a short one. I will upload pics next week for sure. I forgot my camera at the house :(  Everything is great and I am feeling good!! I love you and miss you all! Thank you for your prayers and kind words everyone! :) Can't wait to hear from you all!

Love,

Elder Brady Lester

P.S.  Mom, my feet are fine but could you send me some insoles for my shoes. I think they will keep them nicer and my feet too. Also some more shoe polish. Thanks!!