Things are Good (from 3-6-12)

Well.... here`s the thing.... my camera was in he backpack that I lost so I am having to use E. Garmendia`s any time that I want pictures which really just happened today. We had an activity with the zone that we went to some ruins. I had others from my last few weeks in Cuicatlan where we did service and went to some other ruins, but that is all gone now. I’ll pass the photos from today and a pic of us now.

This week was pretty good. We found a few new people. Juan Luis and Claudia. I`m scared of Juan Luis because he is weird and obsessed with me saying that I am going to save him and that my comp does nothing. I don’t do anything so I have NO idea what he is talking about.

Claudia is nice but messed up from the catholic church. She thinks all churches that talk about God will get us to heaven. We have a lot of work ahead of us. 

Abel, our baptism for this Sunday, has just informed us that he isn’t married legally to his wife and therefore cannot be married yet. He is willing to do whatever it takes to fix that problem. He is still gold.

We should have another 2 baptisms on Saturday. Ruby and Linda are sisters 9 -  10 yrs old and 9 yrs old respectively. They have been going to church with their grandparents for years so we really just had an overview of the lessons to make sure that they understood everything completely and without confusion. Very easy. We just need to hear that their mom gives a definite yes. Their dad is a member but is currently state-side. We are going to be fasting this week for sure.

I wish I could be there for the Trek just to help out. I LOVED when we did that. I can’t understand why some people didn’t enjoy it as long as they did everything right. But that’s just my opinion.

I don’t know if you know this, but I have been collecting scriptures and writing them in the back of my study journal to help me and to prepare for the rest of my life and a Son of God and one day a father. Well, I will now be putting them into their own binder because I can’t fit them all in there. It really is amazing to take every scripture and apply it to our lives in order to get everything we can out of it and to understand it better. 

This Sunday, I was just feeling like crud in the morning despite having a lesson before church. I just couldn’t shake it. Then we got into sacrament meeting and I took the Sacrament. I said a prayer that was full of more emotion than I had thought I had in that moment and I know that I was being guided to pray. During my prayer, that was more like a plea, such a feeling of peace filled my body and I just felt warm. I felt the sadness being burned from my soul. I truly felt the cleansing power of the Sacrament. I had felt it before, but I had forgotten that it could be so wonderful.

I really do love my mission, I just feel like sometimes it doesn’t love ME. Hahaha.

I love you all!!!! Bye!!

Elder Heath

I'm here!

Just checking in!!! I REALLY don´t have any time right now as we got back from our activity WAAAAAAAY late. This time it is all my bad.

Things are still really rough here, but we have a baptismal date the 11th of March. His name is Abel and he is trying to get his family more involved as well. He is just really awesome and he can´t stop reading the BoM. Not that there is ANYTHING wrong with that. :)

I love you Mom!!! Please tell Dad and Sereen that I´m sorry that I don´t have any more time to write but I thank them for their letters and the time they put  into thinking of me! I´ll write them next week for sure!

Elder Heath

More of the same

Sorry mom. Writing home last week was just out of the question because of a service project. We were out in no-man’s land for the whole day until we had to rush home to change and go to a FHE that we had - that fell through, by the way.  Yesterday we had problems with the internet in that wherever we went, we could not log onto our mail. I don’t know what happened with that. 

I am simply a little different than I was when I started my mission. I would rather teach and serve and fulfill my purpose here and save the update for another 7 days.  I hope that you can see my commitment.  I am committed to writing home as often as possible for the REST of my mission. I only ask that you bare with me from time to time.

These past two weeks have been terrible once again. We have been booked with appointments, but no one is at home when we get there or they find us in the street and reschedule only to not be there on that other appointment. We had 2 baptismal dates but they fell through because they weren’t at home when we showed up to help them to church. So you can see this is a real problem. Those two dates were Laura and her second youngest daughter Daniela. They really do want to be baptized, so I don’t know what happened. That’s what we are doing today.

We are working our tails off and when we start to have some success, we lose contact for the week and that is BAD. We are packed each week with appointments and no one is there. I am not meaning to complain, I simply want you to know what is going on here.

I love you and I’m sorry that you are worried about me but I am fine. No grave illnesses. No attacks. I am obeying and doing what I need and should be doing so there is no need to worry. I am protected and I feel that protection. I am being obedient and we are working every day all day. I am here right now and I stayed during many hard times spiritually and physically because of my commitment to my home and my family.

I’ll write next week for sure. I love you Mom.

Elder Heath

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