Week # 8 SHOUT OUT...

October 14, 2013

So a big shout out to myself for being a real idiot these past few weeks. I have been so negative and it’s really stupid because it’s all in my attitude. I realized that my mission is only as good as I make it. So I’ve really tried super hard to be positive and keep the gospel the focus in my life. And I’ve come to realize 2 things more than ever in my life, in my 2 months that I have been on the mission. 

1. My family and my true friends are the most precious things to me. You never realize how much something means to you until you don’t have it anymore. The mission would be so dang easy for me if I could email, or talk to my family and friends everyday. The getting up at 6:30 and working non-stop until 9 is nothing. I could do that so easy if my family surrounded me. But that’s just not how it goes here. I am really lucky to have experienced this because I might not have realized it if I hadn’t come on the mission. My memories in my head are my most prized possessions (idk if I spelled that right #stupidspanish) I am so grateful for the family I have and the awesome friends I have been majorly blessed with in my life. I am so grateful to have been born in the USA! Its truly is such an amazing place, when fourth of July rolls around I will go so hard in the paint its crazy. I just love America, who would’ve thought. Not only am I in love with the USA, I am in love with Utah!!!! The mountains, the lakes, the snow, the freezing cold, the insanely hot, the people, the temples, the roads, the cars, the cleanliness. Just Utah it thee BOMB. Now don’t get me wrong I love Mexico and there are a lot of things that I love about Mexico that the USA doesn’t have, and I will get into that later.

2. The gospel next to my family or just as much as my family is so dang sacred to me. I am telling you right now that I will never ever fall away from the church. Everything about the church, the members’ world wide, the fact that we have our hands where ever they are needed and are always willing to help other people not of our faith. There is not a single doubt in my mind that this is the true church. I’ve started to read the Book of Mormon and I have never been so touched by so many scriptures and thought so deeply about my life than when I read the book of Mormon. The bible testifies of the Book of Mormon. It is so awesome. The members here are so great they feed us every single day for comida (aka lunch) they never miss a meal and if they can’t feed us they give us money. It is just so humbling to be fed by these people who have literally nothing, yet they feed us with all they have and sometimes that’s just tortillas and chili. Three days ago I had a guy that has half of his body paralyzed feed me food. I couldn’t help but cry when I saw this man try his very hardest to walk to and from the kitchen serving me food. I insisted on him letting me help but he said that it was his privilege... these things happen to me on the daily. We have catholics and atheists feed us, and just the people down here are amazing they always take the time for you, they never make you feel worthless and they always make you feel important. The Lord is truly blessing me every single day and I have really grown a lot and figured out a lot about myself over these past 2 months. I can only imagine how I will be in 2 years haha.

So now I will talk about what Mexico is like. We are in an area called Rancho, it is the smallest area in the whole world, smaller than Temple Square, but we have like 10,000 plus living in our area. It’s nuts, but so cool to be in a new place. The food here is so dang weird. I cant count on two hands how many times I’ve eaten cactus while I’ve been here. At first I thought it was green beans but holy crap it was not green beans, it tastes so dang weird haha its like a mix of green beans squash and has the toughness of an apple #superweird. Mexico has the best tortillas in the whole world so fresh. They are made at the local street corner tortillaria. I live above a little shop that sells pipes and we have a little kitchen tiny bathroom and our house is surrounded on every side by windows kinda cool. Random tangent sorry. They always have lemonade for a drink for comida (aka lunch) and its always super good I really like the lemonade. They have fruits for every meal and I just tell them that it makes my stomach feel like crap haha, which it does it might just be a little lie haha. The tacos and tortillas are amazing and I haven’t had any run in with the diarrhea yet which I’m sure will come haha. But anyway this is getting pretty lengthy and I hope that in some way this next miracle that I want to end with, will touch you because I can tell you it changed my life for the better and probably saved my mission cause I was so close to coming home last week... but God placed this man in my life to help me stay here.

So last week I was going to go print off an email and some pictures but the normal computer lab we use to email we use was full so we had to walk a little ways to the other computer lab. We get there and the storeowner is listening to something in English... I’m thinking that it’s weird that in Mexico there is a guy that is listening to things in English cause I’m in Mexico ya know, not only was it in English but he was watching 17 miracles. So he spoke English and was LDS like WHAT ARE THE CHANCES!!!! But anyway I finish printing off my emails and I send this email to my mom that apologizes for my crap attitude and as soon as I press the send button the owner comes up to me and in English asks for a blessing, so I was kinda nervous but I gave him a blessing. His name was Moroni... and I was 100% completely overcome by the spirit and by the time I said amen he was crying, like out of control sobbing. This 23 year old man out of control sobbing. So we end and he told me that his girl friend wanted to break the treaty with him (law of chastity) and he said no so she breaks up with him, and he is just destroyed because he was going to propose to her. But I said some stuff to him that God was proud in my blessing and he said he had such a huge sense of peace. Then the craziest part was when I got done he looked at my face, then to my badge then looked me straight into my eyes and says "how do I know you?" I asked him if he had ever been to Utah he says no. He’s never left Mexico except his mission to Chile, he asked me like 10 times how do I know you. I have never met him before but then as clear as day the thought came to me you know him from the pre-existence. That morning I had prayed harder than I have ever prayed before asking god to send me a sign that I was needed here in Mexico and that I was supposed to be on a mission. There was my miracle as an answer. God cares about every single one of his children, and I now know this for a fact. God is real and Jesus Christ is his son. I have seen the effects of His hand and the miracle of the atonement in my life. And I leave this experience with you in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love you all and I look forward to seeing you when I get back and in the eternity to come. Keep the faith God cares about you even if you don’t know it yet.