This week has been very interesting, but before, I would like to apologize for my grammar. The Spanish language has really been messing with my speech and my writing so I will do my best to express myself.
First off, I'm getting transferred!! Transferred to a new area in the northern part of the city, which means more malos (People for the Cartel) and more poverty. I am so excited to start in this area and teach the people. The people here are so humble and such great members.
This week started with a goal, the goal was to teach at least 2 people the first lesson. Well, we taught one person and she will hopefully join the church in the future. The work this past week was super hard. The holidays are huge here in Mexico and we have to be very careful about what we do on the holidays. The people here throw on crazy parties and get so drunk that they have no idea where they are, they love to sing when they are drunk, so after all the parties, we can walk down the streets and hear drunk people singing to the radio.
New Years' Eve, what a day to remember, we had to be very careful in the streets, even more so in the evening. A family hosted us that night, we had some amazing food and had an awesome karaoke party.
Story time---
Before my mission, I took Spanish in Junior High and 3 years in High School, in the 5 years I had 3 teachers. My last teacher, Mr. Draper, I had for a year and a half, and was probably my favorite teacher ever. He loved music and loved soccer. He served his mission in Uruguay, and during the mission he was given the privilege to listen to the radio to learn Spanish. He listened and found some amazing groups to listen to. During class he would play these groups on the big speakers he had in his room. I liked this music and listened to some before my mission. There was one group, Reik, that I really loved and I listened to them all the time as I would practice my Spanish and I just loved the style. Eventually I memorized the lyrics to some of the songs and I would sing with it. Anyway, at the party, they started playing some of the songs that I know the lyrics to, so I started to sing with them and they were so shocked that I knew the words to the songs that they were playing. We continue to sing until we had to go home. The family was so great to host us for the night, there are 3 daughters in the family and they are all learning English, so we help each other with the languages.
Since I am being transferred, I was able to visit some of the members of the ward. I went to visit our ward mission leader as well as the bishop of the ward. The bishop reminds me of my dad years ago when he was the bishop. Our bishop has 3 little kids and they are off-the-walls crazy, so that would have been my brothers and me, and my mom had to take care of all of us. I love the people of this ward and I am going to be sad to leave, but I know that it's what the Lord needs of me, so I can grow and so I can bless the people in the other area.
I want to share with you a tender mercy of the Lord that was expressed these last 2 weeks. When I arrived to the field, I got to our house and it was a mess, there was so much junk everywhere, so the next few weeks when I would get the time to clean I would, I would find dead cockroaches, like 4 inches long, and I bunch of stuff, but one the the greatest things I found was a box of books. They are books about different subjects on the gospel and I was really interested in them. I asked the other missionaries and they said that they weren't their books so I took most of them and began looking through them. They are books by apostles, like James E Talmage. I stopped at one book, "The Peacegiver" by James L Ferrell. It's a book about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I decided to read and as I read I learned so much about the book, I finished it in one night after we returned, this was the week before Christmas.After I finished, I went back through the book and studied the scripture references and the stories that we written in the book, everything that was shared was something that I needed to hear about me, and about my role and what I need to do to have the full power of the Atonement's expressed to me. It tells of two stories in the Bible, the stories of Abigail and David and also the story of Jonah and the example they both are for the Atonement. I know that Christ has cleansed all of us through the Atonement, that we can all overcome anything if we just show an open and willing heart to the Savior.
I love this work. I wish I could share it with everyone in the world. I have been out 76 days, 2 months and 15 days, and I have already seen my testimony grow and my understanding of the doctrines of the gospel have been a blessing to me as I have studied and applied the teachings to my life. I testify that through the Atonement of Jesus Christ, we can overcome and accomplish anything. The Atonement is there for us to use so we can live with our Father in Heaven again.
I made some goals for this next year, I am going to give you a challenge. Find a way, in your talents or abilities, to share the gospel in your daily life. I know that if you do, you will see a flood of blessings in your life and the Spirit will be more prominent in your lives. I love this gospel and I am to thankful that I am about to share this joy with the world.
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Elder Corom Jones
"Being mistreated is the most important condition of mortality, for eternity itself depends on how we view those who mistreat us." --James L Ferrell
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