May 26, 2015

Well today was a pretty normal week for me to be honest just going to classes and being a bomb missionary. My Spanish is getting better every day and I usually don't even have to study words or phrases anymore before a lesson because I can be generally pretty confident in what I know so far. I guess we are getting another General Authority coming I think on Sunday, but I'm pretty sure its like an area 70 or something. I got pretty frustrated with this one grammar principal in Spanish called preterit vs imperfect because they are both used to describe the past but not the same past and it was very confusing for me. It bummed me out pretty hard on Monday night but my district did the Mexican tower challenge and it was nice to just be dumb for a change. We are also, starting tomorrow, having 3 investigators in a day which I am pretty excited for because I love teaching the lessons and seeing how far we have come from day one. My house does some pretty dumb things to try and keep the stress away though, like the other night we had some flyswatter fights and just beat each other mercilessly! So fun and dumb lol. I am loving it here though and I get to have some sweet spiritual experiences every day that make me know I am supposed to be here. My teacher said something this week that really stuck out to me: "I want you guys to go into the field and be a blessing for your trainers that you can hit the ground running and teach people right off the bat. I dont want you guys to be a burden to your trainers and have to take 6 months to be effective missionaries." He is honestly the most bomb teacher and I have learned so much. He said that our district in general has improved more than any other he had seen and that we are well on our way to being effective in the field. Most of the house

May 19, 2015

Well Hola!

Today has been an amazing week! There is a lot to say so I will split it up between spiritual and temporal!

SPIRITUAL: So David A Bednar visited this week and it was just straight up ridiculous. The spirit was so strong there and I loved every second of it. I learned a ton too and the biggest thing that stuck out to me was who the teacher is. I had been worrying a lot about how I was going to be able to say the right words to be able to convert someone, to be able to testify in such a way that they had no doubt that this church was true. Elder Bednar stated in answering a question that we should get over ourselves and get out of the way. Doing this we let the true teacher teach, El Espiritu Santo. We are not the ones that are going to be able to penetrate their hearts and testify about the church. I was also worried about whether I actually was receiving spiritual promptings or not, and Bednar said something that surprised me. If it is reasonable it doesn't need revelation and that we should trust ourselves and know that when we need help God will send it! I can't even begin to tell you about the spirit in that room as he testified about the truth of the atonement and this church!

TEMPORAL: Well it has been an interesting week so far. We did some really fun things and were able to go outside the wire for a bit. We went to Immigration on Thursday to figure out some of our visa stuff and it was pretty awesome to just be in the city. We talked to some missionaries that were about 7 months out in Ciudad de Mexico East and it was cool to hear their Spanish and stories. We also bought street churros which were super yummy and it was 3 churros for 5 pesos! Then on Sunday my house had what we thought was going to be just a house tie trade. It ended up being like 7 houses in our tiny house everyone trying to one up trade ties! I did get some sweet new ones though and it was super fun to do and just joke around at the end of the night. Then today we went to the temple and that was a super cool experience and we enjoyed the visitor center and I bought some sweet scripture cases and an awesome zipper tie! We also have pet spiders in our house! We think we are gonna get babies soon! Me with the family tie MTC Elders MTC Sisters Me with Comps and Jesus at Visitors Center at the Mexico City Temple

May 12, 2015

Well it has been a cool week but a hard one. It is pretty similar every day here but thats ok because I am learning a lot! Bednar comes this Saturday and I am really excited to meet an apostle of the Lord. I also have some kind of immigration meeting on Thursday that is going to take half of the day, but at least we get to be outside the wire lol.

But spiritually my week has been pretty great, just a ton of work and things to do but all good things in the end :). Yesterday I especially got rather down on myself because I felt my learning spanish had kinda plateaued and I was just not motivated to do anything at all. Our lesson in the morning had gone fine but for some reason I just could not focus on studying or learning or the promptings of the spirit. Luckily I remembered the devotional that we watched where Elder Bednar had taught that when the savior was down and out or having hardships in his own life he always turned outwards towards others. So I decided that as a missionary, when the going gets rough and I don't want to knock on another door that I would always turn outwards and think of others instead of myself. So I said to myself that there was work to be done and got down to it and planned a lesson with all the spiritual promptings I could muster and it turned out to be the best lesson we had as a companionship! It really strengthened my belief that its always that last door at 9:29 or that last investigator that is going to mean the difference.

I love you and miss your guys so much but it was nice to talk to you on Sunday!

My companions!

My buddy that lives in our casa - Elder Mclaughlin

May 5, 2015

Its been pretty awesome! The language is pretty hard, I'm not gonna lie...but I am keeping positive and trying to make sure I am doing everything I can to learn the language and gospel as quick as possible. The days are long and the nights are short but the smiles are plenty and the tears flow. I have cried so much in these past few days that I cannot even stand it! I am loving this place though it is so beautiful, nothing like I imagined it being cause you know Mexico and all but this CCM or MTC is just glorious!  We got to watch Meet the Mormons on Sunday which was a nice break from the intense amount of studying that we do every day. I learned a lot about the atonement and baptism this week and how it is our duty as missionaries to invite all to come unto Christ, which includes each other and ourselves. I have had small experiences with the gift of tongues. During a lesson, I get to a word that I have no clue how to say but suddenly a thought jumps in there and I give it a guess and suddenly it is the right word and the lesson flows generally pretty smoothly even though our language is not that great. I did have to sing a little song and act out a marriage to get across some words and my teachers think it is the funniest thing they have ever seen but other than that it has been pretty smooth. My companion is Elder Soto and I will try to include a picture of him, he is pretty bomb and we get along pretty well, even being able to teach generally pretty well together. Unfortunately an elder from my district went home today and that has been pretty hard for the 3 of us left but we will be strong and hopefully in a little while we will see that elder in Xalapa with us. It has been a long week but I am loving it here so far! Don't worry about me I will be fine and I pray for you every day! By the way this sunday from 230 to 320 your time be expecting a 30 min phone call from me! Mexican Mothers Day!  Hayden