Hey, Everyone

Jared pretty much hit the nail on the head in his letter to me this week, but I want you to know why I haven’t written.  I have felt pretty down due to the fact that we have been working, but we haven’t had any success.  Every time that we have a speck of hope in the work, it just disappears.  Families came and left with a lot of promise but not for us to work with.  I really felt ashamed and scared that there was something wrong with me as District Leader and especially as Senior Companion.  But we kept working and my comp, Elder Garmendia was a huge pushing force in keeping us going, honestly.

Well..... The continued work has finally been paying off!  We have seen the blessings of our efforts this past week in a referral from a member that lives in Tijuana and came to visit family here. We are teaching the mother, a son and daughter, the family of that son AND the family of that daughter with a friend of the family thrown in there.

We have also re-established contact with Laura and her family of 7 daughters although we still have yet to meet the 7th.  We had 7 investigators in Sacrament meeting and an investigator, Paola, has a baptismal date for the 10th of March.  She wants to wait for her husband to be there.  He works in Mexico City and is already a member. We also reactivated his family and his little brother just became an Elder yesterday and is prepping his paperwork for his mission.  He will be the first in the family to serve.  There is another brother that is making plans to serve but is still too young.  We spend Mondays with them playing soccer and stuff.

I love you Mom.  Sorry to make you worry.  I just haven`t felt like facing my failure I guess. I do love you and I am here for you as well as the Lord.  :-)

Elder Heath

(Below is the letter from Colton's brother that he references in his letter.  I'm sure others will be able to identify with the emotions expressed by Jared.)

Hey, stud.

I’m assuming you haven’t written lately because, well, life sucks. You’re a leader and no one wants to follow, you feel the weight of your district—and possibly even the salvation of the people throughout the district—on your shoulders, and oh yeah, your companion sucks/sucked, too.

You’ve got, what, 10 months left? A little less? That sounds about right. When I was at this point in the mission, I was in a Mandarin area, but my Mandarin was so bad that I couldn’t even make phone calls. My French was fading fast. I could barely even speak English. Looking back, I think I probably should have talked to my president about how depressed I felt—and to this day, it was one of the darkest times I’ve ever had. But I didn’t talk about it. I didn’t want to complain.  I only felt comfortable enough with select few elders to disclose what I was going through. So I just held it in.

When I was zone leader, I had a companion who intentionally refused to cooperate. You don’t need to imagine how awful that was. I think you know about uncooperative companions first hand pretty well.

You see, Elder, I took myself and my work so seriously. I know how much the world needs the restored gospel of Jesus Christ— the real, living, quotidian example and power and authority and love found only in the covenants we make with our Savior and our Father in heaven. But looking back, I daresay that it was difficult to teach about the plan of happiness when I was so damn miserable (an intentional play on words).

If you’re miserable, then you’re miserable for all the right reasons, my dear younger brother.  The people aren’t listening, and you feel like it’s your fault. You are serving the Lord, and you feel like you are failing. But you need to know that it’s not your fault, and you aren’t failing. And the scriptures prove it.

Moroni was having a pretty awful time, too. He was praying and praying for the people to have charity, and he was teaching and exhorting them to repent, even as they suffering genocide at the hands of the Lamanites. 

In Ether 12: 34-38, the Lord tells him, in effect, not to worry about it.

Colton, you will be free of the blood and sins of this generation, because you are sacrificing for them. “If they have not charity, it mattereth not to thee. Thou hast been faithful.” (Ether 12:34-38)

But if possible, I recommend you find some pursuit to help you lighten up. Anything (within reason). Get that souvenir you just can’t justify buying. Find a park, and walk in it. Lay down in the sun. Or go to the church building and shoot some hoops to let off some of the tension if you’ve been tracting for (way) too long.

It’s the plan of happiness! Find a way to be happy. I know you want to convey the gravity and intensity of the Atonement to these people, but don’t let the gravity drag you down. I’m not lecturing, dude. I’ve been there. This is my greatest regret as a missionary, and I don’t want you to repeat it. Please learn from my misplaced intentions, however good they may have been.

And if you’ve just got to punch your companion in the face . . . well, don’t do that. But maybe try some push-ups. J

I love you, Colton. I’m proud of the work you’re doing. Find a way to keep going, and I promise you’ll make it through. And when you’re crying your eyes out in the airport this November, I want with all my heart for your tears to be of joy and happiness that you have fought the good fight rather than tears of regret, wonder, and worry about what you have just done.

You don’t need to wonder if it’s enough. It is.  Cheers,

J

New Companion!

You ask about my health. I’ve had the flu.  So, as for my health, it’s still not so good. There were some problems in the District and I got really stressed out so I am now fighting to go to sleep. The oils help a bit, but they don´t stop the nightmares.  I´m really doing great other than that though.  We are working hard.

The story about the new comp?  There were emergency changes and I got a comp that I new back in Cuicatlan. He was in my district for 2 changes and now we are having a lot of fun and working like neither of us have worked before!   Appointments are falling left and right, but I feel good because we have at least one appointment every day.  Most of the time 3 or 4.  As for investigators, we got and lost 4 perfect investigators. They were in town with family for a time.  THEY WERE AWESOME!!! But they live outside the zone so there is nothing we can do about that.

The holidays went well. We spent Christmas Eve with some members and still made it home in time for curfew. That was after a day of working so it was nice to eat well and sleep better.  Christmas was spent with E. Rodriguez packing so that was a small bummer, although I was really excited to not have to deal with him and his issues that he had against me but refused to talk about it or even pray.  And I was super excited because they told me that E. Garmendia would be my new comp and he is really awesome.

City life is doing me good. It is just a lot easier to work and to contact and feel like I’m doing something. Also.... Bodega Aurrera (Mexican Walmart) is right behind the house. SCORE!!!

I am really glad that my family feels such joy at my service. There are only two powers, there are only two spirits: good and bad - creation and destruction. The only way to be sure that we are working with the riñght spirit is to be creating and to be building the Kingdom of God, whether it is in this life or the next.

I have to admit that I’ve been feeling a lil homesick, but my awesome comp is helping me by bringing a positive spirit back to the mission. I miss you all, but I know this is needed for all of us and for the salvation of souls. Till next week!!!

Elder Heath

No Idea

I had "No Idea" that we would have changes yesterday until we were eating dinner on Saturday and the District Leader called.  I had "No Idea" that my new companion would be Elder Rodriguez until President Reeves announced it over the pulpit before a Christmas devotional.  I had "No Idea" that I would become District Leader in the Zone Tlaxcala, town of San Martin, area of Lindavista (NW of Puebla).  I had "No Idea" where the house was or how to get to the area yesterday because Elder Rodriguez and I are both new to the area.  I had "No Idea" where our appointments were for today until I spent 1 hr 30 min searching the map of the area. I had “No Idea” how much I missed the city till I got to Puebla. I have "No Idea" how this change will go, but I DO know that this is a great opportunity and I plan to take it with everything I’ve got. 

We got up this morning, hoping that we could get hot water going.  It is very cold here at this time of the year. The shower doesn’t run hot water, so we got the water straight from the boiler and into a bucket. A cup then served as our stuttering shower head.  I then started preparing the first district meeting that I will be in charge of and I am kinda nervous. We had our studies and all that jazz, and we left the house at 10:00 to look for the Bishop and the Presidenta of the Relief Society. 

Sister Villegas (Presidenta) is really great and has a meteor that fell in front of her house. I’ll sent a picture later.

We then went to the Bishop’s house and he cordially welcomed us to the area.  He is big on missionary work and let us know that we have lots to do inside and outside the ward. He also said that the members would make sure that we ate well..... WOOHOO!!!

We then started the big adventure of crossing town and looking for our first appointment, Obdilon. We didn’t find him. His street apparently has 3 houses that have the same number as his address, but we still didn’t find the right house. Unfortunately, we don’t have records of the investigators so we have nothing to go off except his name and his address that we couldn’t find.

We did some contacting on the way to our food appointment, but people weren’t very receptive because the market is here Mondays and Tuesdays and it is the biggest Flea market south of the border.  I’m excited to check that out next week!  The food was amazing. We got there and the Sister had ordered food from nearby. Before the food got there, the Sister’s son walks in and demands that they order pizza for us. We ate both. We ate well. :)

Another two appointments and no one was home so here we are and there goes my time. I love you all and I hope that you all have a Merry Christmas!!!! :D

With numb fingers,

Elder Heath

Think about it

So this week went slow. Leticia once again has pushed her baptism back. Her current illness is keeping her down at the moment. We will just keep visiting her.

We weren’t able to go visit Guillermo because we had interviews with the Mission President Saturday night, but we left a message for him and the chapter of 2 Nephi 33. We will be passing by with him this week.

I have a song in my music from EFY but, I don’t have it’s name nor the year that it came out.  It is probably my favorite song and I am listening to it right now.

"Everybody used to tell me that big boys don`t cry, but I`ve been around enough to know that that was the lie that held back the tears in the eyes of a thousand Prodigal Sons...."    I love these lyrics.

Are we not all the CHILDREN of God?  We are not His adults.  The kingdom of God is full of those that will be as little children and humble themselves before the Father to do His will.  Also those that will humble themselves to depths of their sorrow, to kneel at the feet of the Savior to seek His everlasting atonement.

President Reeves (my current mission president) wrote to us this week and said,  "If you need to repent... repent."  How simple.  Do it. There is no half way.  There is no next time after true repentance.  There is change, growth, relief, blessings and happiness.  Do it. Repent.  Move forward because you know that there is nothing behind.  

Another part of that song, "Is Your love stronger than my foolish pride?"  Well yes, yes it is.  His love is stronger, so don’t try to win.  Be as a child.  Cry if needed, just return to the fold.  That is all that matters.

I love you all and I hope that you can take these words to heart.  This is not what I had thought about saying, but it’s what hit my fingers when I started typing.  Enjoy the week!

Elder Heath

"He who once was lost..."

The baptism for Leticia has to be postponed for a week because she had some health issues.  She is still very excited and showed incredible trust in us by explaining the reason why she lives alone with 2 kids and doesn´t have many friends.  That is a story that she has not felt secure enough to share even with her mother.  It was an incredible time talking to her and feeling her trust and confidence that we are the Lord´s servants on His errand.  She is an incredible woman with amazing faith.  She is praying, reading on her own and even sharing with her friends.  She is just that kind of disciple of Christ.

Well here is the reason for the headline of this blog..... WE FOUND GUILLERMO!!!  I haven´t spoken about him for awhile because we couldn´t find him.  Last night we were trying to think about what we would do for the next 30 min before we had to call the District Leader and we just thought about visiting him.  We passed, we knocked and he answered with a big grin!  He has left that house because his wife went back to their pueblo and he is living with his brothers and cousins.  He is very excited that we found him again and we have an appointment to teach this week!  He hasn´t read the Book of Mormon, but he wants to know more.  He told us he would read the chapter that we gave him the last time we were there for this next appointment so things should start progressing with him.  I AM VERY EXCITED!!!!

Well that´s the time I have today!!!  I love you all and I hope that you are able to enjoy life even if it doesn´t seem like paradise!  That comes later. :)

Elder Heath