Guillermo's Baptism (and a quick smoke out of habit)

good afternoon family!
well all is going well here in atzingo. we had a very quick week,
because we were booked with appointments all week all day long, so it
didnt leave us with much time to contact or find new investigators,
but i have finally found out why it is so important to use the
members! we went to a sisters house that has been looking pretty
excited has helped out a little, but never really had any
responsabilities in the missionary work. we visited her andher son
with his wife and talked to them about inviting some friends over to a
family home evening. they gave us some names, and we all prayed for
who of their friends could be good to invite and start the lessons.
they felt a few names in particular and went to invite them. on
friday we had the fhe and 15 of their friends showed up, many were
whole famliies! it was a decent lesson, but the best part is that
everyone had a good time and was pretty willing to hear more later!
so even though we didnt go looking that much, we had a big success
there and will start looking into these famliies this week. it was
nice because the sister´s sons are inactive and they were all there
for the fhe. what elder ballard said is true and has been put to use
a little now. we have tried it with two member families and we have
started to work our way out. its going good. just like joseph said,
if we loose ourselves in the lords work, and let him change our
attitude, it makes the difference.
i was also glad to hear that mom and dad had a wonderful conference
and really felt the spirit. i hope to visit you in mexico soon
enough! haha. we will all just start speaking spanish in the house so
you learn quicker. im glad that you are considering it. i have
already made the decision with for my future wife that we will serve
at least one mission for the lord as a couple. so i have started
thinking about jobs, family, school etc for the future and president
spannaus said to wait to think about it till i have 2 months left,
then we will set goals and start thinking. i hope that we all can
think like mom and dad to prepare ourselves now and make the
preparations to serve when the time is right.
well this week, we struggled for guillermos baptism, and finally got
him baptized! we were with him almost everyday in the week, except
for friday, because he had a soccer game with friends. so after the
fhe, we stopped by his field to watch, but the game was already over,
and to our shock, we found him with a cigarrette in his hand....... we
were devastated, and went to talk to him. we organized an appointment
for the next morning after playing soccer with the ward to talk. he
went to play and meet some members, then we talked aobut what
happened. he mentioned that his brother asked him to hold the
cigarrette and withou thinking, lifted it up to his mouth and smoked,
as an old habit, then after the first smoke we called his name. we
told him to repent and not get up until he felt forgiven of the lord.
after talking with him, we called presidete spannaus for his counsel
and he pretty much tlaked us through the situation and left the
decision up to us, so we tlaked and realized that he is ready for his
baptism. the service went well, just that there were only 4 members
there, and his family that was invited. but it was a good service.
sadly he disappeared and we couldnt get ahold of him for his
confirmation yesterday, even though he knew the importance of
completing his baptism. so we will confirm him next week, and the
week afterthat, the week of changes, we might have three baptisms, but
one for sure, mariana! all is well now hat the area is progressing,
an we are finding more membe help. all is well with elder solomon,
just that we are trying to change his speach habits. he says um more
that i ever have in my life, so be thankful mom that i wasnt so bad,
haha just kidding. its also hard for me to have patience with him now
that i have taken it out of my speach, but we are getting better.
all is well in zion, and mom, i will take in notice your advice to ask
for, and look for the miracles that the lord is putting everyday in my
life. i need to be more willing to stop on the streets sometimes and
talk to someone than i have been doing. so i will rmember that. i
also read an incredible talk by elder maxwell yesterday called
consecrate thine actions, from december 2008, i think. it was very
inspiring, and taught me how to better dedicate myslef to the lord,
and give him my agency as i have covenanted that i would. so it was a
very good reminder.
thanks for your support and love and prayers, it was so good to hear
from you all. love you, and im also praying for you!
elder facer

An email from Hno. Stocking

Hola Elderes de Mexico!
It's been a while since i have written you all! Well, things are going well for me. No going to lie, these last few months have been such a big test for me. I moved from Provo to Knoxville Tennessee in August. I am pursuing a PhD in psychology. There are many times where I question myself and what I am doing, but I know I have my Heavenly Father to help me along the way. He has humbled me so much here. but in the end I have realized it has been so I could put my full trust in Him and my brother Jesus Christ. That realization hasn't come without some doubt. With out some kicking and screaming. And with out some serious one and ones with my Heavenly Father. It's a constant battle everyday for a piece of Heaven. I am so proud of you all for all you have gone through and done to serve the Lord. Keep up the great work.
About six months before leaving for grad school, I met my sweetheart. He name is Helena. She is half greek, half brazilian. She was born in Brazil, but raised in Miami Florida. She and I will be married the 17th of December this year in the Orlando Temple. I am so excited! Having her in my life has changed it for the best. Seek to have it, boys but by no means rush it:) I love you all so very much. I am now almost fluent in Portuguese! Boy that was a hard process to get use to. It made me appreciate the good ol MTC days and struggle of learning a language. I look forward to hearing from a few of you soon as your mission will shortly becoming to a conclusion!
Con amor,
Ben Stocking
509 987 2432

Overwhelmed from pork brains...?

a common breakfast, or bruch meal. chilaquiles y huevo

wow, i feel overwhelmed with all that is going on in the house!
congratulations to tara, for winning state, and for having good
progress with physical therapy. also to joseph for having a great
week. scott and alicia for having two adorable kids in front of the
temple, thanks mom, that was gorgeous! haha. also alyssa and manuel
for a sweet baby that is starting to walk! to mom and dad for
following the spirit and inviting barbara to act and always being
there for someone who needs you.
well, we have had a good week, with some good progress, and some
disappointments, but we just wont worry too much about those. this
week i have to start off saying that we ate pork brain tacos! haha it
was pretty wierd to know what i was eating, but it was fine, kinda a
green and white color... haha! we were trying to work with an
inactive family who needs to return to church because a lot is going
bad for them. we are trying to help them, but they just cant organize
themselves good enough to give us a half hour. we ate the tacos with
them. this week we also had stake conference with elder delgado of
the seventy. he seemed very serious, but did very well on his talks.
he also organized a meeting with the recent converts and investigators
to teach them a little more about baptism. we talked about 2 nephi
31:17-20 and picked apart the scriptures. it was nice, because it
wasnt so much to bash on other churches or teach that we are right,
but just teach what the book of mormon is. during the conference, the
speakers talked a lot on prayer and the book of mormon. it went
really good, and i really felt the spirit. sadly guillermo didnt go,
and i will talk more about him later.
we picked up a lot more investigators this week, because we decided to
go back to a few old investigators and see how they are doing, and
they accepted us well and look like they could progress. we are also
trying to work with the members as much as we can to get them to
invite their friends and family to a family night and be able to teach
them. we are moving slowly but surely with that.
well guillermo still didnt get baptized because of the conference.
the only day that he had free was saturday and in the afternoon, but
all the leaders taht had to be in the baptism couldnt make it because
of the conference, so we had to postpone it a little, we will try to
do it the quickest we can next week just so we dont give satan as much
time to work with him. we are also going to try to work with his wife
aby and maybe his sister in law noemi to get them baptizd on the same
day.
sorry its just that i dont have a ton of time today, because im trying
to send pictures also, so i will have to end it here now, we will be
having zone conference in these next two weeks, so ill be giving
details on that. we need to prepare by reading the living christ, and
the activity on page 133 of preach my gospel. sorry thats in spanish
haha. the activity is at the end of chapter six about christlike
attributes and how we feel we are doing. i recommend it for a fhe.
well, keep praying for guillermo, abigail, noemi, laura, and mariana.
lets pray for a big miracle so that they all can be baptized this
week! thanks for your love and support, i love hearing from you all,
and i know that the lord is guiding your steps and every moment in the
day. trust in him as joseph has done, and let him mold you as i am
also trying to be humble and let him continue to change me. have a
great week!
elder facer

Come What May, and Love It

man, i think that the more away i am from home, and the closer i get
to getting home, is making everything a little more touching.
especially to hear about all the wonderful changes that are happening
at home. all of you give me so much faith and courage in the lord
jesus christ to keep going and push through our trials and experiences
to grow. its so wonderful to see that kids like canyon are going to
church in a white shirt and tie, memorizing their talks and really
starting to learn the gospel of jesus christ at only age four!! way to
go scott and alicia, your doing a great job. and im proud of your
example of how to raise a family in the gospel, as well as mom and
dad, cant leave them out. haha. ill return to why that impacted me in
a little, because we found a family this last week that needs this
family support in the gospel. also i love hearing about andrew and
savanna in their prime growing ages and what all is changing. they
seem like wonderful kids, and i cant wait to meet them, well andrew, anyway.
im also proud of tara for her fhe lesson, and being such an influence
on her team to keep going and give it all they can. im rootin for ya!
well, we have had a rough week, but it was a good rough week. we had
a lot of progress, but a lot of disappointments. but what can you do
about it. ever since i read the talk by elder wirthlin about come
what may and love it, over a year ago, i have frequently been reminded
of it to stay positive. at times its hard, and as elder ballard
mentioned here in civac, whenever i feel weighed down or that my
burden is heavy, i look at a painting of jesus on golgotha, or in the
mount of olives, and i dont feel weighed down anymore. i have little
by little tried to apply that and i have noticed that its real. last
monday night, we also had a fhe with a family that are neighbors to a
family of our ward that are really trying to work hard. adan, served
his mission in ogden, and his wife, mayela is a convert of 3 years,
she is a professional basketball player in mexico. this family is
new, and have had problems in past families, so adan invited them over
to read the family:a proclamation to the world and have a good time.
later we talked with the dad, ricardo, and he explained to us his
business and where he stands religiously. he is the president of a
business that he invented 22 years ago called WOSS world on security
systems. its a car protection system. he explained it all to us, and
its pretty cool how he came to make it. he has it functioning in 14
countries, and is slowly moving to all the world. he has studied
with a lot of other churches, but never felt good about any, and went
to scientology, but they didnt want him because he went outside of the
box, so he is interested in what we have to say, but is a little
closed. he playes soccer with us at church and is a fun guy, but
needs some prayers to allow the spirit to enter his heart. ricardo,
adriana, eva, and tina. we will talk to them this week, so we ask for
your prayers now.
we finally got guillermo to church yesterday, and he enjoyed it, but
was sad to recognize that about half the ward left after sacrament
meeting.... he will be baptized this week and we need your prayers for
abi, his wife. she has been doubting recently and needs help to accept
it and be baptized. but we are excited to finally be baptizing and
helping this new family receive the gospel. they need it, and are
excited to know what god expects of them. also we ask that you pray
for laura. its her time to be baptized also, and all she needs is a
little time to rest from moving her house, and be able to get her
baptismal interview!
we are slowly progressing, and trying to stay excited. thanks mom for
your advice on faith and prayers, i will apply it this week, and will
come back next week with a spiritual experience that i can share with
you all. i know that god loves us and desires to answer our prayers,
we just need to be humble and ask for his help and guidance, and be
patiently waiting.
thanks for writing back to rosy mom, she said that all went well on
her testimony, and that she had a wonderful time at the temple. i
love converts that can write home and tell about their conversion etc.
i hope that it means as much to you as it does to me that they are
gaining their own testimony and progressing in the gosple. well i
know it means a ton to you and dad, or else you wouldnt have sent us
out here to get our own testimonies and strengthen them.
i have to go now, but i will be waiting to hear from you all next
week! i love reading your letters, and it fills my heart to know that
the lord is blessing you all. i am praying for you all every day.
love you tons.
ps. hno. stocking, mtc teacher, after going to tennessee for his phd
in psychology now met his wife and they are going to be married on
dec. 17. he told us today.
elder facer

Looking for the fruits of the labor

well even though mom thinks that im so great at loving people, its
quite a struggle. but this time around, i try to realize that im
falling in the same traps that happened with elder zazueta, so i try
to prepare myself and avoid them. but man is it hard!!! i sure have
had some problems preparing myself to love more, because satan knows
how to pick at me and hit me at the small points. he works hard on me
by my companion, investigators, and the ward. the three things that
most influence me... sadly with me being meticulous(cant remember how
to spell it....) the little things out of place are getting to me. so
im asking for new ways to love my companion and serve him, have
patience with the members and investigators and keep the spirit.
well we didnt baptize estela, cecilia, or nohemi, because they are
hiding... we set their baptismal interview and they just didnt show
up. we talked to guillermo the next day, and he said they asked him
to tell us that they didnt want to keep going, because it will be hard
to complete............ so we need to talk with them this week to
staighten things up and challenge them again, or drop them..it depends
on the lords will now. memo(guillermo) and abi are still doing good,
except they didnt go to church yesterday, so we will have to wait
ANOTHER week to baptize them...we talked to them both, and they said
they would go, but in the end, had their cell turned off and we didnt
hear anything from them. but we will need all of your prayers for
laura. she has a baptismal date for the 22 of october, and might not
be in the state, and she feels its true, but wants to wait maybe. so
we need to help her understand that she is ready and move forward with
faith to be baptized this week. we need your help! haha.
other than that, we are slowly progressing, and are working hard. we
have had good appointments with some inactive members, and are working
with the ward council more to help us get to the right families that
will be able to return. so i think the fruits of our labors will
still be more in the future.. haha but thats just how it works
sometimes.
it was a blast to hear from all of you this week. bets, and em had
good family experiences, and it makes me remember how much fun our
family get togethers were. also alyssa got her job and dad and scott
and canyon went fishing! i sadly didnt hear from tara, but mom
informed me a little, and congrats on taking region! keep your head up
and keep working hard!
we had interviews with president this week, and also a small training
by the assistants to pres about the missions data of finding and
baptisms. so we talked good and left really excited to get out and
keep finding more investigators and sons and daughters of god that
need this message! he helped me understand something that i really
needed to hear that made me understand why god lets some things happen
the way they do, even after feeling inspired to do something. he told
me that god has me in his school of training, and that he is teaching
me how he must feel as a god when his children use their agency and
disobey. its something that we all have probably heard before, but
man, that time it really impacted me that god is preparing me for
something better. its hard to be patient, but its worth it.
my convert from acapulco, rosy is going to the temple this week with
the ysa to do baptisms for the dead and im way excited! she is also
trying hard in primary secretary and the primary program that they are
doing in two weeks! well sadly my time is up, and i need to get to
our district meeting. i hope that the fhe goes well tonight, and
please tell the oldroyds that i miss them and thank them for their
support in getting me out on the mission. im way excited for cameron,
as well as tanner! love you all, i hope that i put in good info...
love you
elder facer

Just Another Day--Happy and Excited to Work

well nothing here has changed. elder solomon and i will stay together for this next change, and we will be happy and excited to work. i was almost expecting a change, but as soon as i heard that i was staying, i felt a reassurance that this is where God wanted me to be. then hearing it in conference again, i was very calmed and positive that that is what he wanted.
well lets talk about conference. it was good to hear your thoughts and feelings about conference, especially those from lys. its hard to be focused when you have a kid going crazy, and its in a half-forgotten language(haha) but you were still able to feel the spirit and learn what the spirit had to say. thats the most important part, is being taught by the spirit. i was reading in the book of mormon today, and realized that alma after teaching the people of zarahemla for the first time, alma 5, in chapter 6 he reconverted and baptized many people. he did that because he followed the spirit and taught what the lord wanted him to say in the exact moment that it was needed to be said. i feel like the leaders of the church, and us, as missionaries, really need that. that is why we plan and organize ourselves to be prepared to have the spirit. i really like elder bednars talk of how the lord is completing with his ancient promises for us in these latter days. as well as elder ballards talk on who we really are as members of the church of jesus christ of latter day saints. also it was fun to see matt richardson talk, even though he looked a little nervous haha. but it was a really good talk. sadly we only had three investigators that went, but they walked away feeling really good, and enjoying it a lot. they were memo, abi, and mariana. they all will probably be baptized in this month!
we had a good week, and found an inactive lady that had many problems with the church about 2 years ago. she had asked for her records to be removed from the church, because she felt like she could never return. she is way sweet, and was excited about the church, but for not completing for so long, has lost that energy and excitement. i wanted to mention her, because this is something that happens so frequently, and it can be so destructive. but it is something that happens between most of the good and solid members. its something that president spannaus has talked about to really warn us of the destructiveness of our tongue and how to take care of it. james 5.
this poor lady went inactive becasue of some gossipping that went in between the members and really attacked her. there were rumors of her liking a missionary(she is 40 with two kids and her husband) and she denied it, nothing actually happened. she tried to stay at church and keep going, but every time she went, she didnt feel welcome, because the members had such rancor and hate in their hearts from the gossip that was passed around many years ago. the members dont want to hear about her, and she doesnt want to hear about them, but she tells us that she wants to be in the true church of christ, but just cant. so we are working with her below president spannaus´ direction, and we ask for your prayers for her and our other investigators. she is ariadne, sara, guillermo, abigail, estela, cecilia, nohemi, nohemi perez, and laura.
we have been working hard, and are staying as focused as we are allowed as 20 yr old boys, but we are doing well. i love you all, and was grateful to hear that all is well at home with work, school, family, surgeries etc. i will be praying for gma and gpa sumner, in this time, as well as gpa facer. i hope all is well, and that you are seeing the blessings of the lord everyday and being grateful. love you!
elder facer