Dia De Los Reyes, Baptisms!!, and Lizards

FIRST! I want everyone to go take a look at this page:

https://www.lds.org/youth/theme/2015?lang=eng

Watch the videos, listen to the music, read the articles, and SHARE! One thing I will always miss about life back home is the Church's youth program. I learned and grew so much from this program and I really want to be able to be a part of it after the mission. The songs are actually pretty fantastic, and the theme video almost made me cry. So good. Go now!!!

Dia de los Reyes in Mexico is on the 6th of January. On this day, the people all celebrate when the Wise Men found Jesus and Joseph and Mary and gave gifts. It's basically another Santa Claus deal, where the Wise Men come and leave gifts. Everyone also buys this bread called Rosca de los Reyes, it's really good. They have a bunch of little dolls hidden in the bread (apparently they represent the Christ child??) and if you have on in your piece, you have to make everyone tamales on February 2nd. I found two...too bad transfers are a day AFTER the second. Sheesh.

One of the members in our ward is this 18 year old kid, Logan, who's preparing to go on a mission, he's just about to send in his papers!! He's also coming out with us every Friday to help further this work and prepare for his own mission. Stud. 

On Saturday, we had baptisms for three kids! Said (14), Filiberto (10), and David (8), all entered into the waters of baptism and received the Holy Ghost the next day. It was honestly a little stressful at first, trying to get everything put together, but when they bore their testimonies, three kids, they invited the Spirit in a way I could do all the time. Basically everyone was in tears by the end, including the kids, and it was just an awesome service. The Church is too true. There is no possible way for me to deny it, I've seen, felt, and experienced too much to go back, to not be excited and incredibly HOPEFUL for the future. I love being a missionary.

Random analogy that just popped into my head out of nowhere this week; spiritually, we are like lizards. Now before you think the mission has knocked some of the bolts and screws that hold me brain together loose, let me explain. Lizards, during the day, need to sit on hot rocks in the sun in order to warm up and store up heat for the night. When the sun goes and the night comes, they seek shelter from the cold and use the heat they've stored up to survive until the day comes. 

Now. Here's where the genius comes in. In our lives, we have moments of 'light,' where we can feel the 'fire of the Spirit' burning in our hearts and we know the Gospel is true. Our testimony grows when we 'stand in the light.' But then the night comes. We have trials, difficulties, hardships. Sometimes, we lose sight of that light that we once stood under, we can't remember as clearly the experiences we had, or maybe we don't understand exactly how we believed what we believed. In these moments, the chill of the night and our own doubts threaten to kill us,  spiritually. But if we stored up those moments where we knew, if we can remember them and hold on to them, if we do not let the light of our testimony dim, we can survive. We can make it through those times of trial that will so surely come, and make it back to the day for more experiences of peace and love. But we CANNOT be lazy about the Gospel. We have to actively seek those 'rays of sun,' those faith-building moments, so that we can overcome our faith-trying times. 

2 Nephi 28:24-25;

 24 Therefore, wo be unto him that is at ease in Zion!
 25 Wo be unto him that crieth: All is well!

So in our times of ease, we cannot let our guard down! We must be vigilant at all times, striving to implement the Gospel into our lives and remembering it in our times of trial. 

I love you all!! Have a great week!

Elder Connor

1. My two little dolls. I don't even know how to make tamales!! 
2. The family of the kids that were baptized! 
3. In our whites!!

1. Some hilarious cards that I got from Nicole in a package she sent!! Best Full-Time Missionary Sister!!

Magical Ironing Board

'Design for the children all are fangle and in the high quality welcome you use our products'

That was the product description of this Magical Ironing Board toy I found. Very convincing hahaha. Don't ask what is fangle, it's definitely not Spanish, let alone English haha. 

This week we had exchanges with the zone leaders! I was originally supposed to go with Elder Merrill to his area, but they prayed about it before and felt like Elder Nava should come here with me instead. This is probably his last transfer here, so I was really glad they did. This is the only time I've had the opportunity to serve with him, and he is such a stupendous missionary. He talks to literally everybody that passes by, he listens to the Spirit constantly, he is bold but not overbearing. I learned so much from him this past week and we also traded ties. Boom. 

Yesterday, we had the Christmas devotional, a meeting in which we get to hear from the leaders of the church talk about Christmas! I really loved it this year, it was a very different experience for me. Normally, I watch it in English (duh), but they didn't have an English translation, so I had to watch in Spanish! Don't get me wrong, my Spanish has definitely improved in these past 4 months (as of two days ago, four months old!), but there was still so much I didn't understand. As a result, I spent most of the devotional listening to the Spirit and writing down whatever promptings I received as I struggled to understand the messages of the speakers, and boy was it an edifying meeting! I would listen to the words coming out of the mouths of the translators, and then listen a little harder and feel like there was something I could do better, so I would write it down. It was awesome, I want to be able to do that at all of these meetings (but in English would be nice...) 

I want to talk about one of our investigators. His name is Santos Mejía, and he is GOLDEN. He's a little tough to teach, we'll be talking about Faith and then he'll ask us if he wants to go see the 50 baby chicks he just bought, but he's reading, praying, coming to church, etc. Some of my favorite quotes by him:

'WE are the Church of Jesus Christ'
'Is what they're teaching bad? No. Is what they're saying bad? No. Is what they're doing bad? No, it's all really good, so why would you reject it?' (to his mom who doesn't want to listen to the lessons.)
We had our first lesson with him 2 sundays ago, before church, and invited him to attend with us in an hour and a half. Didn't think he was gonna come, but he did, in CHURCH DRESS. Blew my mind, that never happens here, even with some of the members. He even participated in class these past two sundays, and the things he said were totally correct, not even a little false doctrine. He could totally already be a member, it's awesome teaching him.

Saturday, we had our youth activity where we did splits with the youth throughout the stake. My son's name is Juan, he's a really cool kid, good hard worker. He hasn't finished high school yet, but he's planning on doing that this next year so he can serve as soon as possible. He also told me he wants to be a professional rapper...haha ok. 

This morning, we had our zone Christmas party. Traded more ties, beat some piñatas (I'll send pictures), and played soccer and frisbee. Boooom, Merry Christmas haha. We're also gonna start an English class! The ward got together a group of people that want to learn, and President gave us a teaching book and the go ahead, so we're probably gonna start that pretty soon. Transfers are next tuesday though, so we'll see where I end up....

I love you all! Have a great week! 

Elder Connor
Ok actually, it's not letting me attach any pictures, so I'll have to send them next week. Sorry!

Mexican Thanksgiving

...doesn't actually exist. I know. Bummer. Even so, we had some delicious foods on Thursday, which was nice! 

This week was kind of slow, not as much success. Also, freezing cold. I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden, every morning, have to plug in the heater. And if we have lights on, it shuts off all the electricity, so we exercise in the dark. We still did a lot of good work! 

We had divisions on Friday, I went to the other area in my district with Elder Berger. He's seriously awesome, we taught 5 new investigators! He's super tall, really long legs, so I was half-walking, half-running all day haha. We ended the divisions at the chapel, and it turns out the other ward was having a wedding reception, so we ate some food and then went home. Good stuff. 

I want to tell you about one of my favorite people to visit. There's this old lady in a wheelchair in our area, who we like to go do service for. Her name is Hermana Betanzos, and she's seriously one of the nicest ladies in the world, always so happy to see us and to give us references and feed us. We went to go pick some chayotes for her (some kind of squash), she has them growing all over her house, got almost 200 in a couple hours. She doesn't have very much, but she is so giving and so humble. At the beginning of the week, we stopped by and she was feeling really sick. We gave her a blessing, and then went and asked some of her neighbors (including the bishop and stake president) to visit her and help her out. We returned the next day, and she was up and rolling around in her wheelchair, happy as ever. It was a wonderful experience. 

On Saturday, we had the first part of a youth activity called, 'Oid el Toque Del Clarin,' which is the spanish title of the Zion's Camp hymn. Seriously so awesome. In this activity, the youth came to the stake center, which we converted into a mini MTC. In the first part, we explained some of the rules of missionary work, taught them how to start teaching, and how to teach the Restoration. All this week, they are expected to follow ALL the mission rules; no phones, no facebook, 6:30 wake up call, 10:30bedtime, exercise, study in the morning, etc. Then, on saturday, we're actually going to do divisions with them from 8:00 to after lunch!! They received their 'calls' last week and we're gonna do study with them and everything. Gahhhhh I'm so pumped!!! I'll have a son for a day, that'll be kinda crazy haha. 

I want to share a couple verses from Doctrine and Covenants this week. The Doctrine and Covenants is a compilation of revelations that Joseph Smith received as the church was restarting. In D&C 1:31, it says; 'For I the Lord cannot look upon sin with the least degree of allowance.' That's some pretty intense stuff. No matter what we do, whether it's as little as thinking a mean thought about a sibling, or as big as shedding innocent blood (or anything in between), it doesn't matter, because we automatically exclude ourselves from God's presence. Remember Adam and Eve? All they did was eat some fruit. At first, that may not sound so bad, but remember, they were commanded not to, and for their disobedience, they could no longer abide in God's presence and were kicked out of the Garden of Eden. Any sin, no matter it's size, is offensive to God and disqualifies us from returning to His presence. 

Now whatever you do, DON'T STOP READING NOW. Let's take a look at the next verse, 32; Nevertheless, he that repents and does the commandments of the Lord shall be forgiven'; No matter what we do, whether it's as little as thinking a mean thought about a sibling, or as big as shedding innocent blood (or anything in between), it doesn't matter, because we WILL be forgiven, if we truly repent and keep His commandments from then on out. Of course, repentance doesn't mean that we are completely perfect afterwards, but it does mean that we have changed the desire of our hearts and we do everything in our power to better ourselves. 

That is what this Gospel is all about; helping people to better themselves so we can eventually return to God's presence and reach our great potential as His children. This gives me so much hope, and I hope it does for you all. 

Until next week!! 

Elder Connor

P.S. sorry my pictures aren't all that fun, but here ya go; 

1. My current planner that I made. Boom.
2. My next planner, with the lost lamb and the prodigal son. REPENTANCE.
3. The sleeping lady mountain from our roof. I might have already sent this one, not sure...there's a Romeo and Juliet story behind this mountain and a volcano next to her, something about how they were lovers, and then she died (or fell asleep...?) and so the volcano cries ashes. Something like that, I think it's supposed to be more romantic haha.

Scrambled Pancakes

Not a ton of eventful stuff happened this week, just a couple big things...

First off, Me and my companion now make up the smallest district in the entire mission! The other two elders in our district are gone now, one left for sickness, and the other leaves in about 3 weeks, so he got transferred into another area for the rest of his mission, and they closed our other area for now. I really wish we could take on both areas, but that's a lot of work and we didn't get permission. 

On Tuesday, I went on splits with my zone leader, Elder Merrill! He's really a great missionary, 20 years old, 13 months into the mission, super humble, loves contacting. At at least half of the appointments we had with people, they started crying, the Spirit was really strong. Early in the split, we were walking to an appointment, only to find the sister wasn't there. We started walking to our back up appointment, when I felt impressed to turn around and go visit another family, the Bobadilla's. I wasn't perfectly sure how to get there, but I knew the general direction. 

As we walked, we bumped into some old ladies dragging a heavy stove down the street, so we stopped them and helped them the rest of the way. We asked if we could meet with them another day, and they declined, which is a bummer. But that's ok, planting seeds! We headed back only to bump into our original appointment! We got to meet with her and had a really nice lesson. 

We never actually got to go visit the Bobadilla's, but I think I know why I was impressed to head back. If I had just been told, 'walk the other way,' I would've ignored the prompting and kept going. But with a specific target in mind, I find I am more willing to go for it. I know God was aware of those ladies and their needs, as well as my thought process and what I needed to be pushed in the right direction. 

And now for a commercial break: Elder Merrill apparently had a band before his mission that had some pretty successful shows, so he asked me to advertise it back home. If you go to bandcamp.com and look up 'Sonsapapa,' you can listen and tell me if they're any good. He writes the songs, sings, and plays guitar. 

Later in the day, we had a guided tour with Maribel, Ana, and Angel from last week. It was crazy, here's what happened: 

We went to pick them up, and one of them was in the shower, so we ended up waiting for about 20 more minutes. We got to know more about them though, and their needs, so it wasn't a waste. When we finally got to the chapel, we realized that the other ward was having their youth activities that night, which was kidn of annoying. The youth were being kind of rowdy too, at one point, there was a group of deacons and teachers WRESTLING in the hallway. Elder Merrill sorted that out quick (Do you realize you're in the house of the Lord!? There are investigators over there and you just made a TERRIBLE impression of the Church on them!). They were also having an Institute class in the actual chapel, which is like, the crowning moment of every guided tour. Despite all the upsets, we still got into the Chapel and they were able to feel the Spirit. It turned out to be a very nice tour. 

Other than that, I don't have much else to report, other than I made scrambled pancakes this morning! I couldn't flip them in the pan we have, so I just scrambled the batter, and it turned out fine haha. 

This week, I want to share Mosiah 4:10; 

'And again, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God; and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them.'

I really like the wording in this verse; not only should we repent, it says we MUST. There is no way we will feel comfortable in the presence of God, who is perfect, if we are unwilling to repent of our sins. Part of that repentance is forsaking that wrong thing we have been doing. Repentance is never a one moment occurance, it is an ongoing process that takes time, so you can heal from the Spiritual harm and be able to overcome the temptations as they arise. Repentance is in reality an act of faith and humility. When we truly repent, we also believe we can be forgiven and we realize that we cannot return to His presence without His forgiveness, a gift received only by those who truly seek Him. It is given to all, but we must accept it and forgive ourselves as well. My favorite part is the end. As we come to truly believe in things, we are not finished with just faith. We must DO them. We must act on that faith and do those things we're commanded to do, including repent and forsake. 

I love you all! 

Elder Connor

1. Sometimes, people don't want to listen to our message...
2. But then they can feel the truth! :)

A Pizzeria, Blisters, and Isaiah

This week, I had two different guys come up to me that used to live in the US! While there, they both met with the missionaries and really enjoyed visiting with them, but for some reason never got baptized. As we were walking to appointments, they came up, stopped me, and told me they really wanted us to come teach them again! They gave us their phone numbers, haven't picked up yet, but I really don't want to give up on them. I've only called once, so I'm gonna try again a bit this week.

On Saturday, we had this awesome lesson with an Hermana Angela. She has three kids who all live far away, one of her daughters owns a pizzeria in New York. Her kids are members, but she isn't. We went to talk with her, and she has a Book of Mormon that she reads from regularly, and she prays too! She's really nice, a little stiff at first, she didn't smile very much. But I made her laugh once, don't remember what I said, but knowing me, it was probably pretty darn hilarious. So that was a score.

After meeting with her, we saw a guy across the street shoveling some dirt and decided to help him out. Turns out, he was the same guy we'd helped a few weeks previous! He hadn't wanted us to teach him last time, but when we asked this time, he said he'd like that! He doesn't live in our area, but he works here all day everyday, so we're gonna set something up during work hours. He's really cool, and says I speak really good Spanish (wow, really?), so I like him already haha. 

On Thursday, we played basketball with some of the church youth, and I got my jaw relocated. Not really, but one of the other players got me pretty good haha. The next day, we did some service at a less active's hair cuttery, tearing up her tile floor, and I got some nasty blisters. Love service haha. (Seriously though, love service)

On Sunday, I went on splits with Elder Brewer. We knocked on a bunch of doors and no one was ever home, but we got some good contacts, and it was fun. 

This week, I want to share a scripture from 2 Nephi 8:22-23. 'But Elder Connor, that's an Isaiah chapter!' Yes. It is. And I actually get it! Here are the verses: 

'Thus saith thy Lord, the Lord and thy God pleadeth the cause of his people; behold, I have taken out of thine hand the cup of trembling, the dregs of the cup of my fury; thou shalt no more drink it again. But I will put it into the hand of them that afflict thee; who have said to thy soul: Bow down, that we may go over—and thou hast laid thy body as the ground and as the street to them that went over.'

'Now what the heck does that mean Elder Connor?' I really like these verses. Here's the thing; the cup that Isaiah mentions in these verses is the same cup as the one Christ 'drank' in Gethsemane: 'Father, if it be possible, remove this cup from me.' This cup represents all the pain, sorrow, affliction, temptations, etc. of everyone in the world ever. Throughout our lives, we take little sips from this cup as we are tempted, afflicted, and punished by those who 'say to our soul, bow down.' But here's the beautiful part; Christ has drunk that cup. He has tasted my sorrows, and your sorrows, and everyone else's. And so, as a result, we don't have to drink it anymore during the eternities. If we choose the better part, choose to live as He would have us, and seek to be as He is - that is, perfect - that cup WILL be removed from us, when it was not for Him. We have the blessed opportunity to repent of any sin we may commit and to feel his love and comfort in any trial we experience, because He has already experienced it all. 

Things are great here in Mexico, lots of work to be done! I love you all! 

Elder Connor