Hola de Tepatitlan, La Tierra de Los Locos y las Piñas, Y Las Piñas Locas,
Just want to let you all know that things are going pretty well here. I am happy and am continuing to learn and grow each day. For reals I love the mission life and sometimes I just get caught up in the work here I forget how my life was before the mission... the "Normal life". Except I haven't decided which life is actually considered "normal"... because I kind of figure that this is the most important work that we can do here... so maybe my life is actually the "normal." ¿Quíen Sabe?
I'm doing pretty well like I said but I have been getting a little frustrated with the work lately. Honestly we have a lot of investigadores (investigators) right now so a lot of work to be doing every day. Its good... we're keeping busy. But, nobody is really progressing much. We have about 10 or 11 investigators right now and maybe about 3 are reading and praying regularly... sad right? And nobody is going to church... can't really help them progress if they aren't keeping commitments. So its been tough lately. I just want to help these people progress... I have grown to love them, even the locos. Everyone continues to tell us that they are going to go to church and that they are going to read and pray... but nobody is really keeping their commitments. Sometimes I feel like Satan's plan would've been a lot easier... if everyone was forced to do what their told. But I understand that's not how it works and that's not how it should work. As missionaries we can't force people to do things (even though sometimes it would be nice), we invite them, if they don't want to act upon our invitations its too bad and honestly its sad. True happiness is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ... there's no other way to achieve it. So why don't people want to be happy? ¿Quíen Sabe?
I have also learned a lot about gossip while I have been here in Tepatitlan. It hurts people, it's terrible, and it makes people sad. Why do we want to gossip? I honestly think this is one of the biggest problems that is within the church. Especially here. For some reason us as human beings think it's chill to gossip... it's not. Its pretty sad that one of the biggest reason that people are inactive is because they were offended by what someone said in the church. First off, you shouldn't really care what people say about you... if you let it get in your head its just going to hurt you. We go to church because we have made a covenant with the Lord to go, we don't go just because other people are going, we go because God wants you to go. Second off, people shouldn't gossip. It's just hurtful and its one of Satan's biggest tools to fight against the members of the Church. I have advice for everyone that gossips... Don't Do It!
This has been a really hard thing for me to watch and listen to this week. Now that I am actually understand what people are saying, it's hard for me to believe how much gossip is going around. It's dumb. I don't want to listen to it.
Just want to let you all know that things are going pretty well here. I am happy and am continuing to learn and grow each day. For reals I love the mission life and sometimes I just get caught up in the work here I forget how my life was before the mission... the "Normal life". Except I haven't decided which life is actually considered "normal"... because I kind of figure that this is the most important work that we can do here... so maybe my life is actually the "normal." ¿Quíen Sabe?
I'm doing pretty well like I said but I have been getting a little frustrated with the work lately. Honestly we have a lot of investigadores (investigators) right now so a lot of work to be doing every day. Its good... we're keeping busy. But, nobody is really progressing much. We have about 10 or 11 investigators right now and maybe about 3 are reading and praying regularly... sad right? And nobody is going to church... can't really help them progress if they aren't keeping commitments. So its been tough lately. I just want to help these people progress... I have grown to love them, even the locos. Everyone continues to tell us that they are going to go to church and that they are going to read and pray... but nobody is really keeping their commitments. Sometimes I feel like Satan's plan would've been a lot easier... if everyone was forced to do what their told. But I understand that's not how it works and that's not how it should work. As missionaries we can't force people to do things (even though sometimes it would be nice), we invite them, if they don't want to act upon our invitations its too bad and honestly its sad. True happiness is through the Gospel of Jesus Christ... there's no other way to achieve it. So why don't people want to be happy? ¿Quíen Sabe?
I have also learned a lot about gossip while I have been here in Tepatitlan. It hurts people, it's terrible, and it makes people sad. Why do we want to gossip? I honestly think this is one of the biggest problems that is within the church. Especially here. For some reason us as human beings think it's chill to gossip... it's not. Its pretty sad that one of the biggest reason that people are inactive is because they were offended by what someone said in the church. First off, you shouldn't really care what people say about you... if you let it get in your head its just going to hurt you. We go to church because we have made a covenant with the Lord to go, we don't go just because other people are going, we go because God wants you to go. Second off, people shouldn't gossip. It's just hurtful and its one of Satan's biggest tools to fight against the members of the Church. I have advice for everyone that gossips... Don't Do It!
This has been a really hard thing for me to watch and listen to this week. Now that I am actually understand what people are saying, it's hard for me to believe how much gossip is going around. It's dumb. I don't want to listen to it.
Here's something I wanted to share. It seems to me that the #1 form of transportation in Mexico is either walking or taking the Bus. The #2 form is probably by car. The #3 form is horse. For reals. It's just normal to ride your horse through the center of town.
I had a pretty sweet experience this week. This last Saturday, Hermano Camacho called at about 9:00p.m. to ask me to speak in church. Of course I told him no because I wasn't ready. Okay, that's not true at all I
told him yes ;) The topic was on La Obra Misional (Missionary Work) which is focusing in on how missionaries and members need to work more in unity in Mission work. I didn't really know what approach I wanted to take the talk but I took it a little differently than normal. I focused in on what it really means being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In the sacramental prayers it states exactly what we do differently than other people not of our fold. I really focused on "taking Christ's name upon ourselves". I then talked about what Christ did, what kind of person he was, and why was he considered "perfect"? I talked about his perfect love for everyone and gave the Example of the men that wanted to stone the mujer (woman) because she committed adultery. What did Jesus do in this instance? He helped her... although she did something bad (committed a sin, made an error) Jesus showed love to her. Jesus then went and told the men that wanted to hurt her to throw the stone if they didn't have any sins. Dang. Anyways in this story we learn how Jesus loved this woman even though she did something wrong. He didn't turn his back on her. He didn't go and tell everyone how terrible of a person she was. No he helped her, with love.
This is the characteristic that we need to take upon ourselves. Love. If we love people we should bring them into our fold... where true happiness is... in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We shouldn't gossip, we shouldn't turn our backs on others, we shouldn't be the ones throwing stones at people because they are
imperfect while we are just as imperfect as they are. Love is what people need, Love is what Jesus
taught and lived. When we take upon the name of Jesus Christ... we take upon the responsibility to Love his brothers and sisters.
Different approach on the topic of Missionary Work right? But really, we should love our brothers and sisters enough to bring them in... to invite them to be happy! That's what missionary work is! So my talk was definitely supposed to be for only 15 minutes but, those of you that know me know that I tend to
talk a lot in talks. I definitely talked for 30 minutes instead of 15 but hey... it's all good. I'm not perfect either I still have a lot of things I need to work on. Anyways after I talked about how we should love everyone and after church we went to a members house for a lesson. And this person just started right up with puro chismes (gossip). Definitely made me a little frustrated... after talking about Love and how
we shouldn't gossip she just started right up with gossiping about everyone. I mean really? Gossip Sucks. The Gospel is true. I am learning more and more everyday and loving the time here in Mexico.
Love,
Elder Summers
I had a pretty sweet experience this week. This last Saturday, Hermano Camacho called at about 9:00p.m. to ask me to speak in church. Of course I told him no because I wasn't ready. Okay, that's not true at all I
told him yes ;) The topic was on La Obra Misional (Missionary Work) which is focusing in on how missionaries and members need to work more in unity in Mission work. I didn't really know what approach I wanted to take the talk but I took it a little differently than normal. I focused in on what it really means being a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. In the sacramental prayers it states exactly what we do differently than other people not of our fold. I really focused on "taking Christ's name upon ourselves". I then talked about what Christ did, what kind of person he was, and why was he considered "perfect"? I talked about his perfect love for everyone and gave the Example of the men that wanted to stone the mujer (woman) because she committed adultery. What did Jesus do in this instance? He helped her... although she did something bad (committed a sin, made an error) Jesus showed love to her. Jesus then went and told the men that wanted to hurt her to throw the stone if they didn't have any sins. Dang. Anyways in this story we learn how Jesus loved this woman even though she did something wrong. He didn't turn his back on her. He didn't go and tell everyone how terrible of a person she was. No he helped her, with love.
This is the characteristic that we need to take upon ourselves. Love. If we love people we should bring them into our fold... where true happiness is... in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We shouldn't gossip, we shouldn't turn our backs on others, we shouldn't be the ones throwing stones at people because they are
imperfect while we are just as imperfect as they are. Love is what people need, Love is what Jesus
taught and lived. When we take upon the name of Jesus Christ... we take upon the responsibility to Love his brothers and sisters.
Different approach on the topic of Missionary Work right? But really, we should love our brothers and sisters enough to bring them in... to invite them to be happy! That's what missionary work is! So my talk was definitely supposed to be for only 15 minutes but, those of you that know me know that I tend to
talk a lot in talks. I definitely talked for 30 minutes instead of 15 but hey... it's all good. I'm not perfect either I still have a lot of things I need to work on. Anyways after I talked about how we should love everyone and after church we went to a members house for a lesson. And this person just started right up with puro chismes (gossip). Definitely made me a little frustrated... after talking about Love and how
we shouldn't gossip she just started right up with gossiping about everyone. I mean really? Gossip Sucks. The Gospel is true. I am learning more and more everyday and loving the time here in Mexico.
Love,
Elder Summers
Thanks for the updates on the family. Its fun to hear about all of your adventures back at home. Things are going well here and Spanish is coming along. Not fluent yet but I am getting close. I'm able to hold up conversations by myself. Plus the Gigante Espiritual is pretty quiet so often times I'm the one doing the small talk (okay like every lesson). Elder H. is a great guy and I am learning a lot from him. Like I've mentioned before its been kind of tough trying to follow someone else. But I'm learning a lot from him... he seems to have more patience then me. For example, our water boiler works but it doesn't ignite very well. It takes about a half an hour to ignite it and then after igniting it, often it just stops warming up the water by itself. Okay so the part where I said that our water boiler works... I take that back, honestly
it just sucks. Anyways Elder Hernandez works is butt off, with a lot of patience, every morning to keep the boiler lit for his shower. While I on the other hand just find it easier to boil some water, put it in a bucket, and take a shower with the bucket and cup like we used to do at the cabin. It's just easier, more time efficient, and less stress.
One thing that's been tough with this companionship is that Elder H. is just slow. He takes forever to get out of bed in the morning. For me its pretty easy, yeah its a temptation to hop back in bed but for reals I just get up and go and jump rope a couple minutes and then I am fine. Sleeping really isn't a problem for me. For him its super difficult to get out of bed. And when I am ready to leave in the morning he just takes a long time..... I usually am waiting for him to be ready. He's a great guy and all but is just super slow. Its frustrating... but I am learning patience with this companionship. Other than this, we get along really well. I really like the guy.
Oh and Chantelle told me as well that she is doing really well. She also told me that she's been struggling with getting up on time and her lessons. Nothing really different from what she said in the letter of her blog. She's doing well and it makes me happy to know she's enjoying her time in the MTC.
it just sucks. Anyways Elder Hernandez works is butt off, with a lot of patience, every morning to keep the boiler lit for his shower. While I on the other hand just find it easier to boil some water, put it in a bucket, and take a shower with the bucket and cup like we used to do at the cabin. It's just easier, more time efficient, and less stress.
One thing that's been tough with this companionship is that Elder H. is just slow. He takes forever to get out of bed in the morning. For me its pretty easy, yeah its a temptation to hop back in bed but for reals I just get up and go and jump rope a couple minutes and then I am fine. Sleeping really isn't a problem for me. For him its super difficult to get out of bed. And when I am ready to leave in the morning he just takes a long time..... I usually am waiting for him to be ready. He's a great guy and all but is just super slow. Its frustrating... but I am learning patience with this companionship. Other than this, we get along really well. I really like the guy.
Oh and Chantelle told me as well that she is doing really well. She also told me that she's been struggling with getting up on time and her lessons. Nothing really different from what she said in the letter of her blog. She's doing well and it makes me happy to know she's enjoying her time in the MTC.