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!!

Pizza, New Years, and Dieter

These week was actually not so good for the mission. The thing is, just about everybody - members, investigators, recent converts, everybody - was on vacation, visiting family and stuff. On top of that, we didn't work on New Year's (it can get a little dangerous in some parts), so as a result, we had little progress. It was kinda hard for me, I was pretty bored on New Year's, not working, I would so much rather be helping people. But, Elder Antonio and I bought pizzas and that was fun! 

I actually really love having Elder Antonio as my companion, we're obedient and the Spirit is such a wonderful guide as we speak. I can't tell you how many times we'll be teaching, I'll finish talking and then I'll think, 'dang it, I should have said that!' And then he'll say exactly what I was inspired to say and didn't. It's really awesome to watch the Spirit work through us towards the hearts of these people here, even though they are very hard hearted and many don't really want to change. However, we are still finding people! Our baptism for the three kids is this Saturday, and I am so excited for them! Even though they're young, and don't understand everything the Gospel has in store, they understand that it is an important decision to make! 

We visited a family this week, the three kids are members, but the parents aren't. They want to be baptized, but they're afraid of being hypocrites when they don't live up to the promises they make at baptism. To quote President Deiter F. Uchtdorf, 

Some might say, “I don’t think I could live up to your standards.”
All the more reason to come! The Church is designed to nourish the imperfect, the struggling, and the exhausted. It is filled with people who desire with all their heart to keep the commandments, even if they haven’t mastered them yet.
Some might say, “I know a member of your Church who is a hypocrite. I could never join a church that had someone like him as a member.”
If you define hypocrite as someone who fails to live up perfectly to what he or she believes, then we are all hypocrites. None of us is quite as Christlike as we know we should be. But we earnestly desire to overcome our faults and the tendency to sin. With our heart and soul we yearn to become better with the help of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
If these are your desires, then regardless of your circumstances, your personal history, or the strength of your testimony, there is room for you in this Church. Come, join with us!

I love this talk so much, here's the link to the rest; 

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2013/10/come-join-with-us?lang=eng 

This is so true! I talked to the parents about the purpose of baptism. When we are baptized, we not only receive a remission of our sins, we not only receive the Spirit, but we also receive the opportunity to obtain eternal life, or a life forever with our loving Heavenly Father; 

2 Nephi 31:17-18;

For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost. And then are ye in this strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life; yea, ye have entered in by the gate; ye have done according to the commandments of the Father and the Son; and ye have received the Holy Ghost, which witnesses of the Father and the Son, unto the fulfilling of the promise which he hath made, that if ye entered in by the way ye should receive.

THIS is why people are baptized into this church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Because they know this is the way to achieve eternal life. Of course, just because you may be baptized in the church does not mean you or I automatically gain eternal life, you and I still have work to do. Life with a perfect being such as Heavenly Father requires us to work to become better. 

2 Nephi 31:19-20;

Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life. Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life. 

PRESS FORWARD. The covenants we make at baptism are sacred and we need to keep them the best we can. So far, these parents are correct in their fears, because they know that they are human and imperfect still. What they are forgetting is the power of Repentace. Christ did not suffer in the Garden of Gethsemane and on the cross for the perfect people. 

Mark 2:16;

And when the scribes and Pharisees saw [Jesus] eat with publicans and sinners, they said unto his disciples, How is it that he eateth and drinketh with publicans and sinners? When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are wholehave no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.

He came for all of us imperfect souls who need His help to overcome our sins. We can't do it alone; it just doesn't work like that. He is the way. 

2 Nephi 31:21;

And now, behold, my beloved brethren, this is the way; and there is none other way nor name given under heaven whereby man can be saved in the kingdom of God. And now, behold, this is the doctrine of Christ, and the only and true doctrine of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. 

What people need to understand is this is the only way, there is no other. We must live like Christ, become like Him, in order to gain this wonderful blessing of eternal happiness in His Glorious presence. 

Sorry this isn't very much of an update, but not much else happened in this week. The Church is true! I love being a missionary! And I love all of you! Have a great week! 

Elder Connor 

1. Walking/running all day gets you pretty thirsty man...
2. The District!

Christmas Celebrations

This week was both awesome a little disappointing...I'll start off with the not so great stuff. On Saturday, we were supposed to have a baptism for three little kids, ages 8, 10, and 14. We got there and were filling the font when we realized the gas wasn't working, so all we had was freezing cold water...then we missed some things for their interviews...then the Bishop couldn't come...then no one showed up until super late...just a whole bunch of things all added up and we had to postpone it. Super bummer. The family was really upset about it. But good news, we have it planned again for January 10th, after all the breaks are over so that we can figure everything out! 

Tuesday, we had exchanges for the day with the Zone Leaders. I went to their area with one of them, Elder Cardenas. He's from Oklahoma, super happy, funny, spiritual Elder, it was an awesome opportunity learning from him for a day.

On Wednesday, we spent Christmas Eve with the Soriano family. They're like, 5th generation LDS or something, one of the first families in Mexico to join the church here. Their house used to be the meeting place for Sunday services, all kinds of cool history behind that. They were also housing a family reunion of over 100 people in their house for the first time in 20 years, so it was packed. On the brightside, tooooons of food! The turkey was gigantic, I'll send a picture. 

Christmas morning, I opened up the package I got from mom! She's just the best, she sent me so many nice things! Candy, Cocoa Puffs, Family pics, a little nativity, some Christmas lights, all sorts of good stuff. Love her. 

I also got to skype my family for a bit! That was so great to see them again and just talk to them and laugh and chat. I loved it so much! They're the best ever!

Annnnd Friday, my companion got sick. Saturday, he got me sick. Gross man. Nothing serious, just my head and throat are not happy campers. Well, then again, neither is the rest of my body haha. Ah well, I'm pretty sure I'll survive haha. 

Alma 5:57;'And now I say unto you, all you that are desirous to follow the voice of the good shepherd, come ye out from the wicked, and be ye separate, and touch not their unclean things; and behold, their names shall be blotted out, that the names of the wicked shall not be numbered among the names of the righteous, that the word of God may be fulfilled, which saith: The names of the wicked shall not be mingled with the names of my people' 

I love this scripture. When we know the teachings of Christ, and if we truly want to follow Him and ve like Him one day, we cannot allow ourselves to think that evil things are ok. Even if you are not participating, just being in that atmosphere is a bad idea and can get us into a lot of trouble, because the Spirit cannot dwell their with us. If we follow Christ, we don't turn to one side or the other when the world calls us; we continue down that straight and narrow path and NEVER diverge. Of course, we are not perfect, and the truth is we're gonna mess up, but that's why we have repentance! We are never so far away from that path that we cannot turn back! 

I love you all! Happy New Year!!

Elder Connor

1. Elder Antonio, my new companion, and I. He's awesome! Good hard worker, really wants to serve!
2. A little birds nest in my house in a cactus. 
3. My little nativity! 

Hello all!

So my new area is made up of two little pueblos called San Pablo and Zula, and a whoooooole lot of country! There aren't very many roads, just dust and dirt everywhere (hence, San Polvo, or Saint Dust). We have some investigators and members that literally live out in the middle of nowhere, we have to hike through all these open fields, and we can see their teeny tiny house from forever away. Crazy, man. My companion is Elder Antonio. He's been serving for one transfer less than me, lives a few hours away in Ixtapa Zihutanejo, and is one of the two members in his family of 11 (I hope that makes sense...). He has been a member for just over a year, but he loves the church and he knows the scriptures really well. He's a great guy, I'm really lucky to have him! District leading is so fun, I really enjoy it! I now have this renewed desire to be more obedient and serve more diligently and everything, I love it! 

On Thursday, we had our mission wide Christmas, which was so fun! I got to see my mission dad, Elder Jimenez, as well as some other awesome mission friends. So great, I love these elders. 

One thing I've noticed in my area is that there are lots of investigators who are progressing really well, and yet, they don't have baptismal dates. I'm not sure why, but we're gonna work on getting them prepared to make those holy covenants with God so they can truly enjoy all the wonderful blessings God has in store for them. 

Alma 5:45-46; 'And this is not all. Do ye not suppose that I know of these things myself? Behold, I testify unto you that I do know that these things whereof I have spoken are true. And how do ye suppose that I know of their surety? Behold, I say unto you they are made known unto me by the Holy Spirit of God. Behold, I have fasted and prayed many days that I might know these things of myself. And now I do know of myself that they are true; for the Lord God hath made them manifest unto me by his Holy Spirit; and this is the spirit of revelation which is in me.'

I love this scripture so much! Just a little bit of back story, the prophet speaking is called Alma. As a youth, Alma hated the church and went about causing all sorts of iniquitous acts to be committed by members and nonmembers alike. One day, he was going around with his friends, the sons of Mosiah (who was a prophet and the king of the people at the time), when an angel appeared to them and told them to stop it. After much guilt and pain and sorrow, Alma repented and became one of the greatest prophets and missionaries ever. 

Now back to the scripture. Notice he does not say, 'I know these things because I saw an angel. That experience never even enters the conversation. Instead, his testimony came from the witnesses of the Holy Ghost as he prayed and fasted to gain this knowledge. Some people say seeing is believing, but honestly that's a load of...well, it's not correct. To quote President Joseph Fielding Smith;“When a man has the manifestation from the Holy Ghost, it leaves an indelible impression on his soul, one that is not easily erased. It is Spirit speaking to spirit, and it comes with convincing force. A manifestation of an angel, or even of the Son of God himself, would impress the eye and mind, and eventually become dimmed, but the impressions of the Holy Ghost sink deeper into the soul and are more difficult to erase.' 

I love this! Things we see with our eyes are never going to be firm foundations for our testimonies, but the feelings of love and joy and happiness we receive when the Holy Ghost testifies of the truth to our hearts, THOSE experiences change us and make us better. I encourage everyone to do the same as Alma; that is, fast and pray for your own witness. As you do so with faith, I promise, as a representative of Jesus Christ, that you will receive your answer and that it will be a resounding 'YES!! IT IS TRUE!!'

I love you all! Merry Christmas!!!

Elder Connor

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!