I arrived in the field on Monday night, just in time to sleep, and the next day was my first day, going out and talking to all the people that I could, and with only MTC Spanish, it was a challenge, but I was able to get through the day and my Spanish has improved a lot in just a week. The city isn't dangerous, at least where I am. Most of the higher class mobs and people wanted by the law. respect us. They are actually really kind to us. Since I live on the most Southern side of the city, we don't meet many of them, but if I ever serve closer to the border, I will. the APs told us that they served up there and encountered many of them. They offered them all sorts of stuff, they offer missionaries coats and clothing that may help. Many of them even ask if we need money. I feel completely safe here, it's a really great experience!
Our mission president is a crazy guy!! He is about 5 foot 4 and just has a ton of energy, he is always pushing us to get more baptisms and do our best in our mission. His wife, she is the opposite, she is very quiet but very stern, she scares me TBH haha. I'm not sure how often we receive our packages from the president. We got ours when we arrived last week. I have 2 other elders with me in my zone that were with me in the MTC, I get to see them 1-2 times a week.
My companion's name is Elder Cornejo, he is from here in Mexico, which city I have no idea. He has been out on the mission for 15 months and is our district leader. He is a pretty chill guy, he isn't demanding, which at times, I wish he was. His parents are both converts, so he has grown up in the church. I live in a house with 3 missionaries: my companion, Elder Cornejo, and the other companionship: Elder Torres and Elder Javalois. It's a pretty cool place, we live on the bottom floor of a triplex, there are 2 bedrooms and the bathroom and kitchen are tiny!
I serve in a little area close to the airport in Reynosa, on the south-eastern side of the city. It's a middle-class area for someone here in Mexico. Most of the houses are made of cinderblock and if you are lucky, and have a little more money, you can have a house of concrete or stucco. The people here love us and they are so humble! A lot of the people know we are representatives of Christ and they respect us, which is really cool.
All the neighborhood roads are dirt, the highway and the main roads are paved, but are really poor quality. We walk everywhere, so the bottoms of my pants and my shoes are always covered in dirt and mud. The weather is really hot and humid, but there are also days that are crazy cold and it rains, walking through those days is not the funnest but we get done what we need to. Only the APs have cars in our mission, they drive around running errands for the president. The food here is amazing!! Tortillas come with every meal, most of the time it's soup or some kind of enchilada or something like that. Every P-day we go to the local store and buy our food for the week. Last week, I really didn't know what to buy and just bought a loaf of bread, PB&J, a couple tubs of the ramen cups and cereal, I got sick and tired of the quick food this week and decided to go a little better this week. I bought eggs, milk, bread, butter, cheese, and a couple other things, I will be making grilled cheese and tomato soup for some days and french toast others. Mainly we only have to feed ourselves in the morning and then after we get home at night.
Ok, my younger brother, Jacom, will love this part. James the Mormon is a huge thing down here to the missionaries, even more so with the Latinos. It's just something they listen to a lot. He wrote one song about Coca-Cola, which has true lyrics for everything we do out here. In Mexico, we aren't allowed to drink the water, well, we, as Americans, try to refrain because of the bacteria and other things that are in the water, so we try to stay around bottled drinks, bottled water is great and we can go to the little corner store and buy 5 gallon jugs of water! But really, "Coke rules everything around me", every store and everybody has Coca-Cola in their house, it's the biggest company out here, just like Apple is the biggest, most popular company in the United States.
Trash is all over the streets. you can't walk 5 feet without seeing trash somewhere, the garbage is picked up probably 2-3 times a month which is crazy, so there is just garbage, a mountain of gargabe in front of everyone's house.
CONVERTS NOT BAPTISMS
I have been thinking a lot this week about what our mission president wants us to do and it is a great thing, getting as many baptisms as we can, but as I further think about it, that's not what this work is about. He is telling us to use our first encounter as one to preach about faith and repentance and then ask for them to be baptized. After a training we had this week, I was looking at the what it was about, the only thing that the mission president emphasized was the importance of getting as many baptisms as possible so we can be the number one baptizing mission in Mexico. Afterward, his wife spoke about being a Preach My Gospel missionary and the importance of always following the guidelines in the missionary handbook. So that night, when I was doing some final studying, I looking through the chapters in Preach My Gospel,
"Baptizing and confirming the people you teach is central to your purpose. Baptism is for the remission of sins, and the gift of the Holy Ghost brings a host of blessings to those who live worthy of it. Through these ordinances people enter the gate and continue on the path to eternal life. Elder Dallin H. Oaks said: “We do not preach and teach in order to ‘bring people into the Church’ or to increase the membership of the Church. We do not preach and teach just to persuade people to live better lives. … We invite all to come unto Christ by repentance and baptism and confirmation in order to open the doors of the celestial kingdom to the sons and daughters of God. No one else can do this.”As I read through this I understood that as I go through and teach the people, I know that I want to teach so I can have converts on my mission, not baptisms. Baptisms is just a was of stating a statistic, but a convert is one who truly changes the nature of their heart, turns to the Lord, and develops a personal relationship with our Father in Heaven. That relationship can't be grown over the 5 minutes we preach to someone about faith and repentance, it comes through, time and constant work to be a better person, over weeks and months, not minutes, hours or days.
Ether 12:6, "And now, I, Moroni, would speak somewhat concerning these things; I would show unto the world that faith is things which are hoped for and not seen; wherefore, dispute not because ye see not, for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith."I know that Christ lives! I know He died for each one of us so we can change our lives and become the best we can be. I know that through faith and the constant want for change, we can become like Him. I testify that the Holy Ghost will testify to you of anything, that as you are worthy and pray with a sincere effort to learn that, guaranteed, God will answer through the Holy Ghost. I know that if we have a sincere desire to change and become better, we are on the path to become like Christ. I know that the scriptures will change your life as you read them and try your hardest and with the most desire to work towards an answer from God. I testify that this Gospel is true, and I know that it will change your life and there will be no greater joy than this in the Gospel. I know that people's lives will be changed as they work toward turning their lives to the Gospel. I love this Gospel and I am so glad I can serve the people here!
There is a man we are teaching, his name is Christian, I would ask you all to pray for him, we need him to increase his faith, will you please keep him in your prayers and thoughts? Thank You!
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Elder Corom Jones
"No one likes to fail. And we particularly don’t like it when others—especially those we love—see us fail. We all want to be respected and esteemed. We want to be champions. But we mortals do not become champions without effort and discipline or without making mistakes.
[My friends], our destiny is not determined by the number of times we stumble but by the number of times we rise up, dust ourselves off, and move forward."
-President Dieter F Uchtdorf
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