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| Elder Carrizales and Elder Jones |
Missionary work is the greatest thing I have ever done. That is a fact! It is also the hardest, most spiritual, most nerve racking, and most emotional thing that I have ever experienced in my entire life.
Right after my e-mail last week, I went to get a haircut. Now the only place that was open is a brand new place, that is a little weird, and the guys that cut our hair are, what we would call in the United States, gangsters. Sooo, my hair looks a little crazy, but the people love it and so do the APs and it really helps with the heat. Thus, my hair.
On Tuesday, I was taken to my new area, given a new companion and told to work really hard and gain experience with this companion who was going to train me. Well, train me better than my first companion. The area I am now serving in is called Bugambilias. Bugambilias is in the western side of Reynosa and the area is covers is very, very large. My companion is from Wyoming. He has been out 6 weeks longer than I have and we are already really, really good friends.
We work really well together and I am really thankful for a companion like him! Our days are long and hard. We work to cover as much area as possible and follow the directions using the Spirit to know which houses to contact and which streets to walk down. Our first day, we found a family of 4. I feel that they have been prepared for a long time for us to teach them. They have listened to the first three lessons, have set a date for themselves to get married, and now it is just times they come to church before we can baptize them. The hardest part about the work here is that it is very hard for us to get people to go to church. A lot of people don't like to sit and listen for three hours, but we work hard with them and contact them the morning before church so they will be ready to go so they can feel the Spirit and be converted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
This week was filled with lessons and many people to teach as we walked a lot and worked hard to find people. At the moment, we are teaching over 10 people about the wonderful teachings and blessings that come from being members of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It's exciting to say, but this week we might have a couple of baptisms!! They are two little kids that love the missionaries, love church, and want to be baptized. One of the girls asked us for her own Book of Mormon and I bore my testimony to her of the wonderful teachings that are taught in that book.
Now, every week that I am out here I find something else to be thankful for. This week got really cold, down to 30 degrees F, and then with humidity added to that, it wasn't fun. No buildings have furnaces, not even the church, so we have to wear jackets and warm clothing to stay warm during the day. Our house has no insulation and the doors and walls do a very poor job at keeping the house warm. Our house is about the same temperature as it is outside. So, in our home it gets down to 30 degrees at night, but we are very lucky to have a heater in our room and it slowly blows in air at 90 degrees. Our room is amazing when it gets up to 65 degrees! We sleep with the heater on all night long.
This week I learned that I am really really grateful for the furnaces that we have back in the United States. This last week, while on the bus, I saw a movie list of movies that were playing in the theaters. I saw Rogue One and got really excited to see it after my mission. Since we are out on a mission, I began to think of how Star Wars relates to the Gospel in some way or another. Here is what I thought:
Jedis always travel in groups of 2. There is one master and one trainee. They wear certain clothes, Jedis Robes. They always carry their best tools with them, Lightsabers. They work really hard and have a great power, The Force. They work to bring good to the world.
Missionaries always travel in groups of 2. There is one senior comp and one junior comp. They wear certain clothes, white shirts and ties with a badge. They always carry their best tools with them, the Book of Mormon. They work really hard and have a great power, the Priesthood of God. They work to bring good to the world.
I love the way that we can teach, learn and relate popular culture to the Gospel, at times, and by going so, we can more easily teach the people around us and have them understand better the work of the Gospel.
I testify of the truthfulness of this work and the importance of turning our lives to the Savior in every aspect of our lives. I am a witness that as we participate and become pure disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, we have the power to change lives, our lives, and when we change our lives and turn to Christ, we will find the most, pure form of love and joy that is out there.
I testify that this Gospel is the only way to find everlasting happiness and as we come closer to our Father in Heaven, we will be eternally blessed.
-- Elder Corom Jones
“God does not begin by asking us about our ability, but only about our availability, and if we then prove our dependability, he will increase our capability.” -Neal A Maxwell
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