If Casual Friday Was Really a Thing in the Mission?!

Okay the last week of the cycle, First week of the new one begins!

This week was super cool :) My comp and I don't have changes, so we're still doin what we're doing on the daily. We like being together and we like being here, it's super fun :) There are a lot of changes in the zone, and well, it's cool.

But yea this week was dope!! I FINALLY GOT TO GO BACK TO CERRO GRANDE!!!!!!!!!! that was incredible on it's own!!! I saw so many familiar faces, so many people that I totally love, it was so sweet!!!! I got to see the familia Campa, pero no tomamos una foto (we didn't get a photo) but I think we're headed back there again this week to help out the missionaries there.

We've seen a lot of blessings here, it's been awesome, and we're excited to keep going :) 

Something that I really liked this week in my studies was in Matthew 9:10, when Jesus ate with the 'sinners'

10.  And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples.

I like it because it really showed how charitable Christ was and is :) but what I also like is that the people had to come to sit with Him. And it's the same with us! He is always there simply waiting for us to take a step toward Him. I hope that in this story there wasn't a sinner that felt too ashamed to sit with Him. It doesn't say, right, but it shows that Christ was so accepting if the people only had the courage and love to be able to go with Him without being worried by what He would think or say. We need to do that too!  We can't let our own worries or fears make us feel that maybe Christ wont accept us, because He always will :)

It's a little scripture, right, but I feel like theres a lot of meaning behind it :) We need to come to the table :)

A couple of pictures for you -- starting with Zaragoza!  Always fun to see friends and former companions at conferences!

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​If 'Casual Fridays' were really a thing in the mission... Haha!! :D  The Star Wars socks are sublime!  Thank you Lauren & Julian!  They are mazing!

​And yes Mom, my comp and I laughed a bunch with divertio!! (igual felicidades mama siempre tendremos el mismo humor jajajajajaj) 😘 

(From the moment Nick finished his training as a missionary, he has been a leader... first a District Leader then a Zone Leader and for almost 18 months that's what he's done.  Nick has mentioned that he would love to train a new missionary... and in the mission, when you train another missionary, he refers to you as his 'father'... There is a mission life span, you're 'born' into the mission when you arrive, your trainer is your 'father', his trainer is your 'grandfather', and other missionaries your father has trained are your brothers, etc...  and as you age in the mission you have occasion to gather with your 'posterity' at conferences, during changes and leadership meetings - creating opportunities for 'family pictures' - before you 'die' in the mission when you complete your two years and return home.  And since Nick is approaching the fourth quarter of his mission, he's been wishing more and more that he might finally have a 'son'... Haha!  So we got him a Funcle shirt, Funcle stands for the Fun Uncle, defined as 'like a dad only cooler' and it totally translates to Spanish: Fun - Divertido and Uncle - Tio = Divertio!!  Haha!)

Till next time,

Love you all,

Nicki

A Short Update, But Another Great Week!

Okay this week was sick!!!

We went to Aldama, and there we visited Elder Josse and Elder Gomez, Elder Josse is the same one that I started the mission with in Cerro Grande -- and we had a great week :)

We've been working hard, and actually last night we went to the mission call openening of two youth from our ward! They're twins that we've gotten to know well and they invited us to their opening (I'll try to send a video of it), but they sent their papers in at the same time, they opened their calls at the same time, AND THEY'RE GOING TO THE SAME MISSION AT THE SAME TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT WAS SOOOO COOL!!!!!!

And it totally reminded me of when I opened my mission call... Holy cow that was such a sweet experience... I'm never gonna be able to forget that! :)  (For anyone that missed it and would like to see Nick open his call, just click the following link... Nick's Mission Call )

But yea, something I liked this week was a message from Elder Marx, the same one that was my comp in Girasoles :) He shared a spiritual thought in our Zone Meeting and he talked about Enos, and how he went to hunt, but while he was hunting, he received a lot of spiritual inspiration! Elder Marx applied it to our daily lives. He said that it's so important that we always have the spirit with us, because we never know when personal revelation or inspiration will come! It's really likely that we wont be hunting, but maybe we'll be in the bus, or we'll be in the car, or we'll be on the road, or walking, who knows! But if we don't have the companionship of the spirit, we're not gonna be able to receive the inspiration we could have had.  That's cool right?  So I encourage you to live your life and make choices with that in mind every day.  

But yea, that's about it for this week! Short, but it was a good week! 

I hope you guys are well and good and happy - and OH I TOTALLY got your box!!!!! Thank you so much Mom!!!! It's awesome! :DDDD I love it all!!!!!

Till next time!!!

E. Fardos

Another Awesome Week in the Mish!!

Hey Fam!

You got my package?!!!! That's so good!! That makes me super happy!!! Hahahaha! I'm glad your'e loving the pictures and videos...  I don't remember all the videos that I have on there so I hope everything's good Hahahahaha, but yea, the mission really has been a blast so far!!!!! :D

This week has been nuts! And wow we've seen miracles! Elder Gonzalez and I get along great and that makes it super easy to teach, and the members tell us that they feel a lot of confidence with us, which makes it so they always wanna work with us! It's been such a cool experience being in this ward, and I'm honestly loving it. I don't want changes! Hahaha I've had a lot of luck with my comps and areas lately!!!

But yea, back to this week - we've been visiting a family lately, and we've been doing it with her neighbor that's a member. It's a family she's been trying to get to church for a really long time. She told us before a family home evening this week that shes wanted to send missionaries to her neighbors for a really long time but she was waiting for 'good' missionaries, and she said when she met us she had the impression that we should go with that family. I felt really honored to hear that she felt like she could trust us. It was a cool moment for us :)

Um so yea I get to go to Ojinaga now, I'm not a part of that whole mail/package delivery system, but it makes it easy for me to send stuff to you guys :D hahaha -- and also Presidente Julio Velazquez says thank you for the card and the gift :) I don't know what you guys sent him but he was very appreciative.

Something I liked a lot this week was something we heard in our Zone Conference. We were listeneing to a missionary conference by Elder Bednar and he shared something really cool! He said that us as missionaries can't be so distracted by HOW we are doing that we lose track or focus of WHAT we're doing. There's a lot of missionaries that freeze up if they feel like they aren't 'good enough' and I felt like it was really good for all of us!! I find myself thinking about that a lot too, like if I'm 'sufficiente' or if what I'm doing is enough, and all that time I spend thinking I could be trying to keep moving forward! So yea, I dig it! :D

And well that's kinda it.

Love you guys!

Till next time :D
Nicki

The district pics, note that Elder Molina is in our district!!!! He was my comp :D He goes home in May!!!!!!!!

And my comp had never had Carls Jr before, and since our area is more affluent then the rest of Chihuahua, we have Carls Jr here!!!!  We went to go eat there on P-Day!!!!

Today is a Good Day for a Good Day!

Fam!

Okay, this week was full of stories... that I'll tell you guys later! :DDD (This is usually code for either stories Nick wants to use in his homecoming address or stories that will make Mom worry!  Haha!! Truthfully, Nick usually calls out when it's a story he wants to use at his homecoming... Hmmmm...🤔)

We had amazing oportunities to talk with people this week. My comp and I teach super well together... honestly, when teaching goes well, something happens that I love! I've always loved to see the face of people when they finally 'get it.' It's been a really cool experience :) 

So yea, I've been reading a lot of General Conference talks lately and I've found that Dieter F. Uchtdorf is my personal fave. He's awesome :D

But I was reading one of his from November 2014 and it's super cool! It's called 'Soy yo, Señor?' (Lord, Is It I) and he starts it talking about the apostles with Jesus in the Santa Cena (The Last Super), and when Christ tells them that one of them was gonna betray him, they didn't stop and say 'ahh I bet it's Thomas, he never really was super faithful' They simply took a moment and did a self reflection, and asked, is it I? 

A lot of times I find myself having to do the same! Sometimes I think 'ah it's cus this person is like that' or whatever, but I really should be autoevaluating to see if I'm falling short in something, If I can do something to better the circumstances, If I can improve, instead of only seeing what other people 'should' improve according to my own thoughts. :D

If you'd like to read this talk, you can use this link: Lord, Is It I

But yea, I don't have much time, it was a celebrative day here in Mexico so we only have one computer to share with 4 missionaries, so the other 3 went first and well yea :D the Cibers aren't open and our time is up... soooo...

I hope you guys have a great week!!!!! I love you guys so much!!!!!!!!!!!!! And remember that today is a good day for a good day! :)

Till next time,

Nicki :D