Monday, March 12, 2012

Stay Strong in the Faith

well I'm not going to be writing much today, because we had a week full of traveling from altamirano to iguala, to chilpancingo, back to iguala, and back to altamirano. we had the conference with elder octaviano tenorio on friday, and it was really good. he had us read mosiah 12 to 16 and we talked about some of his experiences with those verses and really learning to come unto christ. it was good to talk about that and hear a general authority's opinion on the topic that i will speak on in my return talk. i received some good ideas. he also talked about the kind of prayers that god likes to answer and what he likes to hear and in genesis 24 it gives the example perfectly. this week, i will re read it and learn how to pray. finally. haha. i also got to see arturo and rosy, and found out about the temple..... the whole trip it gave me lots of time to reflect on the hand of god and his purposes. it was nice and i was able to stay busy and positive about it. i got one last pic with them before leaving for iguala again. we only had three days to work this week, and it was good. we kept working hard, and found 10 new people to teach and 5 in church. we were pretty excited with the people that made it, and it will allow us to probably baptize 3 for my last week. they are brian, getsemani, and rocio. please pray for them, and that they can receive the permission from their parents to be baptized.
i promise to all of you, and to my father in heaven that i will continue to work at my fullest, and give everything i have in this last week. we must keep the eye single in the glory of god. it goes some thing like that. con la mira puesta unicamente en la gloria de dios. haha. it will be a weird transition in english again, have mercy on me when i get home. i love the work of the lord, and i will truly miss it, but i will love to be with my dearest family and friends again. but i will have to lose my tan when i get home and ill probably get sick... haha ni modo. i love you all so much, and i can't wait to be with you all again. stay strong in the faith, and trust in the lord with all your heart might, mind, and strength, as i will do likewise. see you in the end......
elder facer

Monday, March 5, 2012

Working for the Lord

well, now i have set apart the time to get a good letter to make up for last week. we have had a good time these last two weeks with a lot of success, and also trials. to start off, being the last week of the month, we were striving to find the last baptism we needed to complete our monthly goal, and as church was finishing, we just happened to find two little kids that were in need of baptism. one had been baptized 3 years ago, but his baptism récord was lost. the other girl watched all of her family be baptized a few years ago, but she never wanted to and didnt like the idea of baptism. as we talked to her at church, she was nice, and really sweet to us, so we asked her mom if we could go visit them. as we were there, the girl, itzel, came up and right away said that she didnt want to be baptized, and we asked why not? she explained that it was just a fear of water, so as soon as we calmed her down about that, she accepted and was really excited! haha but she would do it on one condition, only if her inactive dad was there. so sunday the 26th came along and we had the baptism for the both, and they were way excited. even though itzels dad wasnt there, she was so excited, she said that we should just do it! in the end, i had to baptize her 6 times, because of her fear of the water, she just wouldnt let herself go under the water all the way.... haha but afterwards she was happy and grateful it was over!
the other kid, yedsan was a champ and did it on the first time. elder white baptized yedsan. so we ended the week good and completed our goal of three baptisms and ended up with 4!
that same week, we also had the zone conference in iguala, which was a long ride. we talked a lot on how to work better with the members, and especially how to have better baptismal services. we talked about a lot of key tips to make a good service, but it all revolved around planning and the ward mission leader. we hit a lot of points on getting the members confidence and helping them recognize us as representatives of jesus christ. im not saying that i have been really good at it, but i think that has been one of my favorite parts of the work is to be with the members and strengthen them. i didnt know what an impact it can really have until that experience i already told of finding a guy in cuernavaca from anenecuilco that said me and elder snyder revolutionized the ward. from that point on, i really wanted to work a lot more with the members, and i have seen some fruits of it here already from just two weeks of applying the tips that they gave us in the conference. luckily we were able to apply the baptism tips in the baptism with yedsan and itzel. we had a lot of participation and everything went well.
in this week, not too much happened, we had some good appointments, and and a lot of necessary appointments fall... also quite a few people we had with a baptismal date didnt go to church, so we will have to rechallenge them with a new date. at this point in the mission, its very interesting to see where your heart is. its very easy to stop working because the people you find now, are not possible to be baptized before i leave, so it really has to be an unselfish work, and stay focused. its nice, to think that for these last two weeks at least, i am working for the lord, and not at all for myself.
thanks to you all that wrote to keep me excited and working hard until the end. its sad that its so close, but it must come. it would be nice if you could help me with some prayers to set good goals for after the mission i put a little bit of time into it about every night, and just need some more help. this week we did divisions with the elders in huetamo, the other área in our district. i stayed in altamirano with the new missionary, and elder white went with his old companion in huetamo. it was good to work even harder to give a good example to a new missionary. it made me work double time to stay busy in the day, and also be productive. he has a lot of experience, and loves the work, so it was fun to be with a mexican again and see how a newbie works, and how to help him too. i couldnt teach too much in the one day we had together, but when i could, i tried to give a few pointers. we didnt find many people this week, but we did have a family go to church that is progressing towards baptism and they took with them three little kids from the neighborhood that we are teaching and might also get baptized so we had 8 in church and that was a big blessing. after church and finishing our fast, we went out to a pueblo an hour away called ajuchitlán. a convert of elder white lives out there, but is here all week for work, so she took us out to meet her family and to eat with them. they are way cool, and they say that they want to go to church really bad, but becuse of their work, its really hard for them. so we talked about the situation and the mom came up with a way that they all can go. by rotating week by week who goes. she was really happy she came up with that idea and wants to be the first of the family to go. we helped them with health blessings, and we helped them move some big boulders to a new house they are building. they asked us to come in the week too so we could eat with them again.
well i guess you could say that everything is going really good here.
im loving it, and having a good time. we will keep working hard, and loving the destroying heat that just keeps getting worse! ANIMO! haha love you all. see ya next week for my last week to write you. take care. your in my prayers.
elder facer