Search and Rescue - On it's Way in Mexico!!

Fam!

Okay, this week was a big one, an awesome one, but a big one!!

Elder Molina and I are doing awesome, we get along great and he's just a really good and really funny guy. We are all in good spirits here! And living with two other missionaries is just better, officialmente! Hahaha! It's just been good! 

This week we had some people get baptized and it was really awesome! One was a family who started talking about the church with their cousins a couple months ago. They were able to get baptized, and it was a super cool moment :) they really are a special family. Also, a kid got baptized, and is a cousin of the members in Cerro Grande that owned a panaderia!!! So I got to see a BUNCH of people from the first area of my mission!!! That was way fun and we were able to catch up on so many things. That was pretty awesome! :)

Also this week I met a new gringo missionary, his name is Elder Clymore. He's in Tech 2, (we're in Tech 1). I met him when we had a combined Zone meeting, and he says 'Hey, you're the missionary with the blog, right?' Hahahah! So that was cool, thanks Mom for keeping that going! ;) (Note from Nick's Mom:  When I discover new Missionaries preparing to serve in Chihuahua Mexico or new Chihuahua Missionary Moms on social media or through group or friends, I always reach out and invite them to browse Nick's blog to see people and places their missionary may encounter while serving, or get a feel for work, weather, and landscapes of Chihuahua!  We connected with Elder Clymore's Mom as he was preparing to serve. Connecting with other Missionaries and Moms has been a huge blessing to this Mom!! It makes Chihuahua feel like it's not so far away)!

This week I learned a lot and had a lot to think about.  First was something President Montoya said.  He was addressing all of the earthquakes in Mexico and used them as an example saying... If any of us see what's on television, and see images of people in Mexico working very urgently to reach out to search and rescue people who are buried under concrete or rubble. Each life is precious and there are people trapped who want to be rescued, and need the help of other people to work and do what is necessary to save them. He asked us the question, why are we not searching with the same urgency in our missionary work? There are people who are spiritually trapped, and if we do not work with urgency to find them and try to help them, they could stay spiritually lost and stuck waiting and wanting to leave, but whose souls are imprisoned by sins or circumstance unless we reach them and work to show them the way out!  The work of salvation needs to be just as urgent because each soul is precious and worth saving - and that is why we are here!  

Also, I've been reading the Bible a lot, and I really liked something I found in John chapter 9. It's the story of Christ when he healed a blind man, but the story doesn't end with that miracle.  The blind man was healed because of his faith, but he went through a lot of trials after that because of the pharisees. So, after all was said and done, offcials made fun of him, and then cast him out which was kind of a big deal because he doesn't just get run out of town he's completely rejected by his culture. But the book of John adds details that I really like, in verse 35-38, even after he was cast out, Christ found him. He didn't just bless him and leave him, he stayed watchful of him, and when he needed Christ again, He was there to find him. It's something that gave me a lot of hope for the future. :) Christ doesn't come and go, He comes and stays and waits for us. :)

Love you guys! till next time!

Nick

There's No Place I'd Rather Be!

Okay Fam!

Well, I have officialy 1 week in my area, and it's super awesome! My companion, Elder Molina is awesome!  We get along super good, and we teach well together too, and yea, it's just all good stuff! :) I'll be sure to send you guys a comp foto soon!  

But now I live with another copanionship, and I forgot how much cooler that is. I dont know, I really like it. It's a little more exciting and a lot more fun! Hahaha!

Also, this week was Mexico's Independence Day! September 15 & 16. That's something else... I dont know why we celebrate Cinco de Mayo... May 5th is literally a regular day here, but man the night of the 15th is crazy! For that exact reason we had to get in the house at 6 that day!!!! Thats super early, so we ate pizzas and had a little party :D

But the area is super cool, the zone is cool too! We have really good District Leaders. Elder Ramirez is one of em, I was with him in Cerro Grande, in fact, he was my District Leader there! The other one is Elder Alavez, and he's from my generation (entered the field from the MTC with the same group). He's from the Cuidad de Mexico, and he's super cool! Honestly, it's pretty awesome. 

But yea this week has been cool! We're really focusing on finding new people, finding the people that the Lord has prepared.

Something that I've learned this week, or something that stood out to me, was from a couple chapters in Luke! The first is in Luke, Chapter 14. It talks about a master of a house inviting people to a dinner, but a lot of people said no at the last minute, so he told his servants to go find the humble people on the streets to receive his dinner. I found that this really applies to us as people. God has created His 'dinner' o sea, blessings, and we can choose to have them or not. He won't force us to receive them, and we may have to give up a little bit, to receive a lot more! We have to learn to be humble and put our things aside for a little bit so that He can bless us with all that we have. But then we can see something else in Luke Chapter 17.  There was a time when Jesus healed 10 Lepers, and they all asked for help, but only 1 recognized the divine help and gave thanks to God. We, every day have the decision to be what kind of person we want to be. We can choose to be one of the people that didn't go to the dinner of the master, for excuses, and lose blessings, or we can be humble and go and receive more. We can choose to be grateful and give thanks to God, or we can go our way being content because life is good. We have these choices each and every day. We choose who we want to be.  I hope we all want to show up to the dinner, receive the blessings, and be grateful for all of them each and every day.

Bueno pues, que mas. I think that's pretty much it! It's been a good week, I'm excited to see what we will do here in Tech 1. It should be a really good 6 weeks. Can't believe that in this cycle I'm gonna hit a year... I honestly can't believe it. It's been so amazing, the year has passed so fast!!! I love you guys and miss you guys, but there's no place I'd rather be. I hope you guys have a great week, and Ill see you guys next week :D

Till next time, stay amazing,

Nick 

Goodbye Chuviscar, Hello Technologico!!

Fam!

Well, changes are here again, and after 6 months in Chuviscar, they moved me!  We've seen some crazy changes in the mission these days, But yea now I'm in the north of the city, in a Zone called Tech. The Stake is called Technologico, but there's two Zones of missionaries in the Stake, so I'm the Zone Leader of Tech 1. Does that make sense? My companion is named Elder Molina! He's from Honduras, and he's awesome!

It's pretty cool, so far so good, although I don't have a full day out here yet, so I really don't have a whole lot to report on of my new area, but my last week in Chuviscar was awesome!!!!  

So, this week in Chuviscar we met a girl that is so valiant! She found the missionaries and she started talking with them a while ago, but she received super strong answer about the church upon praying about it. She said she asked God if this message was something she needed in this life, if it was something that He wanted for her. She said she just felt it and knew upon asking. Upon receiving the answer, she said 'I'm willing to do whatever it takes to follow this feeling'. Really, she has such a strong testimony already. I dont think I've ever met anyone like her. She was so awesome! Honestly, she strengthened my testimony, and showed me what it means to be humble and have courage at the same time.

And then there was another young girl who had a very similar story :) her whole family is receiving the lessons from the missionaries, and she had the option to wait as long as she wanted, until who knows how long, to get baptized, or she could do it right away, even earlier than her parents. She wanted to do it now, because she wanted to show her faith and be an example for her parents. It was so adorable, and she got really emotional, it was super awesome honestly. The Spirit was super strong. It was amazing.

Then we had another baptism, and it was the grandma of a member family, with young grandkids. She always goes to church but never wanted to get baptized. Then we went with her one day, and she told us that she wanted to be an example for her young grandkids. She said she knew that this message was true, and that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, but was afraid to get baptized - and then she also decided to be brave, and take a step of faith for herself and for her grandkids. Needless to say the Spirit was super strong in this baptism too! :)

This week we had a lot of excitement in Girasoles too! Yet another person I knew in Girasoles finally was able to get baptized! He was a nine year old kid named Erick, and of course, my boy Templeton was there. That kid is awesome! :) 

Really something that I've came to appreciate this week comes from the Book of Mormon, Alma 37:6  Now ye may suppose that this is foolishness in me; but behold I say unto you, that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise.

This week I really came to thinking about the small and simple things are how God makes big changes. I really got to thinking about how our lives are just series of a lot of small decisions that bring us to where we are now. I'm here in the mission now thanks to a lot of tiny prayers, a lot of days deciding to go to seminary, a little here, and a little there, putting 'oil in our lamps' like the parable of the virgins in the Bible. 

A lot of these special moments are the ones some might call 'coincidence' but these moments are always moments when God works upon all of us to bring us to a certain cross road, maybe with another person, maybe with an answer, with who knows what, but it's something, that looking back, we can recognize as Divine Intervention. Just something I came to really aprreciate this week :)

Remind me in a year and I'll tell you guys the story about The first girl, Daniela, dorinachos, and a foot infection okay? It's just too long to explain with the time we have to write :) Hahahahaha!

Bueno pues, Thats kinda it for this week, I hope you guys have an amazing week, I love you guys so much. Really, God lives, and He knows us and loves us. For that exact reason I'm here in Mexico. 

I love you guys, I'll write you guys soon,

Till next time!

Nick

PS Yes I'm wearing the same clothes in all the baptism pictures... they were all on the same day :)  And it was a good day!

This Week Was a Good One!!

Hey Fam!

This week was a good one! 

And this coming week should also be a good one!!!! But that's for the next letter ;) 

Let's see where to start...

Monday evening, one of the wards in our Zone had a baptism!! She was one of Elder White's investigators and she decided to get baptized! And she asked me to do the ordinance, and so I did! It was super awesome, and the service was just beautiful :)

Then this week was good, did Divisions with Temps twice because of interviews, and man that's always amazing. The dude is incredible. One of the days we did divisions, we ate with the Patriarch of the Stake (he's in my ward) and during the meal, we were all just talking about spiritual things and experiences and the Patriarch and his wife ended up crying... the Spirit really was amazingly strong.  At the end, when we went to leave, the Patriarch stopped me, shook my hand and hugged me, and said 'Thank you guys for coming. The Spirit was really strong with you two'. And I was kinda lost for words. And it's not just coincidence because in the two days I was with Templeton, everyone was crying!.. Even a uber driver we had -- at the end the ride, he started tell us that he felt good with us and started sharing things from his life and got emotional about it. Elder Templeton is just a great missionary, to be honest. I love being with that kid.

And then Hugo got baptized!!! That was awesome!!!!!! All the youth of the church were in charge of the baptismal service and Hugo's father did the ordinance!!!!!!!! Presidente was there, and he later commented on how awesome the baptism was in his address to the Stake! (during Stake Conference) But yea, Hugo was super happy and his family was happy and they're just really good people. I love being with them. I know Hugo will be an amazing missionary some day.

And the last week I talked about being the answer to someone's prayer, and how we should pray for the opportunity to do so? Well, it was cool! I had a few experiences, but one stood out more than others, just cuz it was so small but so clear. We were cleaning our house and I found a pair of shoes like way hidden away in one of the closets, and they were too big for me, and too small for my comp, and so we took em outside, and a young man passed by, and I felt like 'give them to him' so I stopped him, offered him the shoes and he said 'Ah thank you so much!! I've been praying for new shoes like those!' and just in that moment it hit me like, 'woah' it was a really neat experience, and I know that God answers our prayers :)

Also, I have learned to love Sundays. It has saved me here in this area - just when life is difficult, Sunday comes. It gives us a chance to rest, recover and rethink about what's really important before we start the week again.  So I'm really appreciating Sundays!

And this is Zoe, she's a doll, and is one of the members of our ward.  I love this family!!!  Anyway, she put my jacket on and it totally reminded me of when Jimmy Fallon put Shaq's jacket on.  Hilarious! 

But, that's kinda where I'm at!! This is the last week of this cycle, and everyone says I'll be getting changes. Hahaha! I've been in 4 areas in this Stake and I've been here for 3 Stake Conferences, it's pretty cool, because not every missionary can say something like that!  And I just love these people and feel so at home here.  I kinda hope I stay a little bit more. Maybe I'll get a full year out here! ;)

But that's whats up. I love you and hope you guys have a great week! 

Until next time!!!!!!

Nick