HAPPY NEW YEAR - JANUARY 2, 2017

New Years Eve 2016 Piñata

Wow what a week this was. I am going to be honest with you, this was one of the harder weeks in the mission, but it was a good one! If it wasn't hard, it wouldn't be worth it. So anyways we started out the week in divisions with Elder Colin in Maria Luisa, it was a really successful day! I got back to the area on Wednesday and we started working but honestly the whole day I felt pretty down about the work. I felt like we had been working so hard but we haven't seen like any results from it, at least not the results we are looking for. I was feeling like a lot of our lessons were just lessons and nothing more, we weren't having the spiritual experiences like we normally have. It was 8pm and we had nowhere to go and I thought of a reference we contacted like 1 month ago that told us to come back and when we did they weren't home. We went, and they accepted us and we had a really great new lesson with them. There names are Alexandra and Rosanna. At the end of that night and lesson I just sat there for a second realizing how happy I felt. It was the type of lesson I really needed, and it was something that just made me realize again that it really is all worth it :) 1 lesson is worth days and days of work. I can't tell you how much I love this. I have been here forever and one thing I have learned about the mission is that it never gets easier, it just gets better.

So I have been studying a lot this week about humility. There are 2 ways people become more humble, because they are compelled to be, or they choose to be. When I say compelled, i mean something happens in our lives that make us more humble. It is always better to just choose to be humble from the start. Let me just tell you that this week was a really humbling week. Once again on Friday I was feeling down about the work... something about me is that I am very goal oriented and do all I can to accomplish my goals but sometimes whenever I don't accomplish them I get down on myself. This was when the miracle happened... on Friday night we got invited to go to a  family´s house that got baptized about 1.5 years ago. He invited his brother to come who is 42 years old. He is one of those people that you just know God has been preparing him for years to receive the gospel. He told us that he wants to have the peace in his life that his brother has. His name is Gaspar. He has lost his family, his kids, and his job. He is now living with his parents and it was one of the most powerful lessons in such a long time to teach him how he can have this peacefulness in his life that he is looking for. He accepted a baptism date for February 4th. He didn't go to church though which made me sad... but honestly like no one went to church because it was January 1st which was super lame but it made me so happy to have this experience with Gaspar.

I have studied a lot this week about repentance. As a missionary, I am not perfect and I must repent every day. I have met a lot of people this week who were talking about how they want to change their lives this upcoming year. Something I realized is that thanks to Jesus Christ, we don't have to wait till the new year to change; we can change every day. The Atonement makes it possible to make bad men good, and good men better. I know this is true. I was thinking a lot about 2016. In 2016 I was in the mission the whole entire year, and have changed so much more than any other year in my life i think. But literally when the clock hit 2017, it hit me that THIS IS THE YEAR I AM GOING HOME. In this year ahead of me, I will finish the mission, go home, and study a whole semester of school at BYU. How is this possible? Some goals I have made are honestly only focusing on the mission because going home is scary haha. I cant believe it is 2017 and I haven't been home since 2015. Celebrating New Years here was super fun. They have a tradition where they beat up piñatas of old men haha and they also make literal piñatas filled with fireworks and set the whole thing on fire. It was super funny haha but we played it safe... :) I know that this year ahead of you wont be perfect, but you can make it as perfect as possible by applying the atonement of Jesus Christ in a perfect way. It is something we must always learn, but I know it is possible :) I love this work and am so excited to finish my mission strong this year!

P-Day trip to the Centro Art Museum

A Cowboy Hat......

El Centro

Elder Plowman 

13 And now, because ye are compelled to be humble blessed are ye; for a man sometimes, if he is compelled to be humble, seeketh repentance; and now surely, whosoever repenteth shall find mercy; and he that findeth mercy and endureth to the end the same shall be saved.

 14 And now, as I said unto you, that because ye were compelled to be humble ye were blessed, do ye not suppose that they are more blessed who truly humble themselves because of the word?

 15 Yea, he that truly humbleth himself, and repenteth of his sins, and endureth to the end, the same shall be blessed—yea, much more blessed than they who are compelled to be humble because of their exceeding poverty.

 16 Therefore, blessed are they who humble themselves without being compelled to be humble; or rather, in otherwords, blessed is he that believeth in the word of God, and is baptized without stubbornness of heart, yea, without being brought to know the word, or even compelled to know, before they will believe.