dedication

hey, im sorry about last week, it was crazy and complicated because it
was a national holiday and practically the whole city was shut down.
last week, we went to a group of pyramids called xochicalco
(socheecalco for all you gringos) and it was a blast! we got burnt a
little, but it was worth it. we took a ton of pics, and ill send some
today so you can post them. i feel bad that i havent sent pics in a
long time, i hope you at least had pics of me to see in my blog. last
week, we baptized german! our first week in the area, and we start
baptizing, it feels so good, and it builds the members trust to see us
get right to work. german was very excited and very well prepared.
sadly he didnt get confirmed, because his baptism was after the
services, and the bishop, after telling me that he would be confirmed,
changed his mind, so we will have to wait till next week. also we had
to talk in church, which i felt was very good and spiritual. in the
ward, the first councelor, ex mission president and ex seventy, pres.
gaona, congratulated me on my talk for being very sincere and simple,
and right to the point. that was fun to hear from someone like that.
and i think the ward is going to be great. in the last two weeks, we
have been able to meet a lot of the ward, and who the leaders are to
go work with them. we are starting the fhe thing and have had some
success, as well as more excitement from the leaders. i think this is
whats really going to get this ward going like it should. this week,
we finished the baptisms and confirmations of german and two of his
daughters: gina, and jenny. they are 10 and 8, but adorable! it was
so much fun to watch them giggling and bouncing in their chairs during
the baptismal service waiting to be baptized. everything went well,
and they were all confirmed, and german received the aaronic
priesthood! we are slowly moving along. luckily german has been well
accepted into the ward, and even if he wasnt, he would keep going. he
is very independant, and is dedicated when he wants to be, so he is
doing really good, and happy to give a good example to his daughters.
the ward is pretty good to accept and welcome new people. this last
week, we had 7 in church, and almost all of them saw someone they knew
and felt really happy to be there. we have been receiving a lot of
references this last week of people that are ready to be taught.
sadly they have had to go through many hard times to get there, but
they are finally there! yesenia is one of them. we found her
saturday, because she is the neighbor of a member, and he is way cool,
even went to church. she had a hard marriage, where her husband beat
her, and didnt help at all with the kids, etc. jsut hard, but she is
so excited to start praying and talking to christ for the comfort.
this week we will challenge her for baptism for the 17 of december.
please be praying for her, and also that she can find work. we have
found a lot of dry members(investigators with years of going to
church, but never getting baptized) that we found this week, and seem
like they could top it off. one of my best converts, sonia in
acapulco, was a dry member that felt the spirit and changed
immediatly. they are luis, minerva, and margarita. we also found a
super golden family this week, thanks to the zone leaders, they are
the mom, reyna, and her two daughters that are listening to us,
maritza and diana. so great! reyna also needs your prayers to stop
smoking, and she is working hard. they all went to church twice and
are progressing for baptism of the 10th!
elder sonntag is doing really well, and we havent really had any
arguments or problems, we just need to get better on teaching a little
quicker, which comes with speaking better spanish. he has had some
stomach problems since the time he entered in the mtc, and this last
week we went to the doctors to see what was up, we did a few tests,
and will see probably this week the results. he is really excited,
and very dedicated to working hard. while he was in the doctors
office with hna. spannaus, me and president got to talk about the
area, comps, and future plans. when adam miller goes over, pres tells
him hi. he explained a few concepts of the importance to study and
get a good education first, and then work hard. i have been trying to
prepare myself to study hard, now, so i can go back and be diligent.
i ask for your prayers, in this time as i try to find what i desire,
and what i dont desire. thats what president explained that i have to
do to find out what i want to study. so lets see how it goes! if you
have any suggestions, im completely open. haha.
mom, what you mentioned about grandpa brig mitchell, you know, its not
the first time i have thought about that. i have read helaman 5:6 a
few times, and i always think to when you named me brigham in his
behalf. its touching, as well as being words of caution. i know who
i need to live up to, and what my name is, or who my name is. it
really makes me want to be better, and try so much harder to leave it
all on the field! i have been working so hard to stay focused, and i
actually dont think about home that much. when it comes, i quickly
change my thought, and get focused again. thank goodness for short
memory. haha! just kidding. i really do love the missionary work, and
am so grateful to be here. i hope that i can do all that the lord is
expecting of me in this, my last area, and with elder sonntag, who
might be my last companion. its intersting to be in this position, to
be one of the older guys, or leaders of the mission. all is going
well, and im still working hard, and i will until the very last day of
the mission. thanks for the quote by elder holland. cant wait of the
package!
love you all, and thank you for your support and prayers. thank you
all who have helped be get to where i am, spiritually, emotionally,
physically, and financially. thanks maryjo and sharon and emily for
your help. it really means a ton. i really do love you all, and i
thank you for what you have done to get me here. take good care, and
we will talk next week.

Come What May, and Love It

well, i guess i will start out letting you know about changes. elder solomon stays in atzingo with an elder that has about 15 months in the mission and i got changed to the area on the side of atzingo, one of the biggest in the entire mission, called la pradera. i am with a missionary that has 5 months in the mission, and has just completed his training. he is from holiday utah, and his name is elder sonntag.
he is like 6 foot 4, and likes to rock climb! haha. i barely know him, but he started in acapulco, right when i left, and had a really good trainer. i am really excited to be with him, and during the week, we will take a picture and ill send it to you.
well we finally baptized and CONFIRMED someone. it was mariana, the fiancee of our old ward mission leader luis. she was great, and passed her interview with flying colors. in her baptism, there were only eight people, all that she wanted. her, luis, elder solomon and i, her future in laws, and her close friends, adan and mayela. elder solomon and i sang a song of oh my father, first verse to the original tune, the second, i sang the original and he sang it to the tune of come thou fount of every blessing, and the third was a melody of come thou fount. it was really cool, and we were commented on our song.
later, she was confirmed on sunday and it was really good! yesterday was the first time i had ever blessed the sacrament in spanish, i will admit, i was a little nervous, but tried hard to be slow and emphasize it differently than everyone else. it was nice. the funny thing was i really didnt have to say goodbye to anyone, because we well share the same church building, and i will continue to see them all. the only hard thing was that we had to get to know the area of pradera, because its huge! we are going to open it, and we didnt know anything about it or where we lived etc.....
we tried to work hard this week, but it just didnt work how we hoped it would, to be able to find 25 people . we worked hard and had some success, but we jsut couldnt find some people we wanted, or really get ahold of guillermo again. so im sad to have to leave some things undone, but what else can i do... just keep a smile on and keep working so that i can have the spirit and work hard. appearantly there are a few possible baptisms this week that the sisters left us, so we will see if we can get the members to help us get around and start to know the area.
well i ask for your prayers, to help us be guided by the spirit in this new and huge area. pray for baptisms this week for us, and as well as joseph, he said they could baptize 5!im proud of him. its rough, and he said he might have a tough companion, from guerrero, but im excited for him. baptizing is what keeps a companionship happy and funcional. love you all, and thanks for writing. take good care.
elder facer

Fasting brings miracles

wow, well i dont know where to start. i have had an incredible week,
and as i can hear, so have all of you! alyssa is having good progress
on her finger, all of my nieces and nephews are wonderful and growing
super quickly, and everyone else is working hard to complete with
their family responsibilities and the lords. that makes me so happy
and proud to have been born into this family that has been growing and
learning for over 5 generations in the church! its humbling and so
spiritual to see how the lord has decided to bless me with my
situations and trials. congratulations to tara for being nominated to
be a leader for your team! its a big responsability, but as you pray
for love for your team, and how best to guide them, they will all
follow you and respect you. its cool to see you recognizing your
attributes and trying to apply them. also it was good to hear from
joseph this week. he is doing good, and is happy to be in the work.
thanks scott for your letter, and emily, alyssa, betsy, and shauna.
it really does my heart so good to see all the support that i have, in
the hard and good times of the work. thanks also to bishop williams
for his letter and inspiring words.
well, this week, we worked hard, and really tried to stay focused on
working and having a lot of appointments. we did! and because of
that, we had a huge blessing which i am going to talk about later in
the letter. haha so you will have to wait.
elder solomon and i have been working on our teaching style to learn
how to be better united. chapter ten of pmg is amazing for our
teaching abilities and has changed the way i teach. elder snyder was
very smart to start me off with that and i have tried to finish it off
with elder solomon. we also had a wonderful zone conference that
talked about it. i cant remember if i told you that we are having
zone conference this week, its wierd not being zone leader and hearing
about all this stuff a month before, now i only hear about it a week
or two before. i was incredibly impacted by the conference this time.
usually president repeated the conferences from last year, so i went
thinking i knew what he was going to talk about, but i was made
humble, and was taught a ton! the spirit was definately there, and
taught us what we needed to change, and how to better ourselves in the
lords work. president asked us three questions at the end that really
impacted me they were: how will i know if i love the lord? how will i
know if i am his true disciple? how will i know if i know the lord? we
had to answer them with straight scriptures and were taught a lot. we
need to keep the commandments and serve our fellow man to really
answer those questions. it taught me what i need to do and how i am
doing in my spiritual progress. then hermana spannaus talked about our
desires from elder oaks talk in conference of may. she brought out a
lot of good quotes and points, and taught me how to have righteous
desires that will make me a better servant of the lord, and help those
around me. she gave examples in the book of mormon of missionaries
and captain moroni. it was cool the planning and preparation that
each of them had to receive the help of the lord, as well as their
faith that the lord would work miracles in their lives.
now i will talk about our miracle. saturday we started our fast and
decided to fast that the investigators we had would go to church,
because that is a stastistic that we are really lacking right now in
all the mission, i imagine in all the world. so we worked really hard
for them to teach them the importance of church and the sacrament, and
had to respect the agency of a few people, but as sunday morning
approached, we started working even harder and had a prayer in our
hearts for the investigators. we went looking for them for about
1-1/2 hours and a lot of people told us that they were going to go,
and most of them went. saturday night we taught a family that some
inactive members had given us, and the inactives and their referral
went, and three families we went to also went! in the end we had 13
investigators in church! a super miracle, i think its the most in
sacrament meeting ive ever had. so we knelt down and thanked the lord
for his merciful hand and for allowing these, his children, to
progress at this time. i know the hardest sacrifices we give to the
lord, results in wonderful blessings, but when he gives them. i was
very humbled and touched to see how the lord is still working in such
a hard area for us. there are no bad areas in the mission, they all
have been blessed by the lord to be ready to be harvested! i know
its true, and now i dont really want to leave the area! there is so
much work to be done here. the members were really excited to see
our work, and alot wanted to help and offered it in this next week!
this is the lords work. i feel it so deep within my heart, and i know
he is the good shepard. he directs this work, and knows us personally
and what we need to keep going. i love him, and am now working to get
to know him better.
by the way rosy, from acapulco says hi, and as well as emmanuel, elder
snyders convert who went for his endowments last weekend! so great.
by the way, by the way, we usually dont do much in church, its a
ward, and we teach gospel principles class and help in priesthood. we
have two decent organists from the ward, so neither of us play, but
maybe in a baptism. speaking of baptisms, mariana will be baptized
this week, she is the future wife of or ex ward mission leader and is
super prepared. she is way excited, and we made her program last
night
love you all! thanks for your prayers and love. its great to hear
from you all, and that all is well, i cant wait to see you in 7 weeks
for christmas, but im not waiting too much on it, because there are
more details during with our investigators. have a wonderful week! i
love you all
elder facer

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