December leadership conference

December 12, 2017

       Man this week, so we had our December leadership conference yesterday.  We had to travel to Guadalajara the day before that of course.  We stayed the night in Indepencia which is my companion’s old area. So we got free food and we got rides all over town because the people there just loved my comp.  He had lots of success there and everyone wanted to see him again.  The training was awesome as usual, though it was very long.  We watched video about Zion’s camp and learned from the leadership fo Joseph Smith. Later we learned about the purpose of trials and how the Lord shapes us through our experiences.  Lots of stuff, but I liked how Sister Clayton used the example of ships/barges of the Jaredites. They would have never reached the promised lands if it wasn't for the strong waves and furious storms. Likewise, we will never arrive where the Lord wants us to go if we don’t pass through our own storms and the waves don’t crash against us sometimes. 

     We had to spend the night again in Guadalajara.  All of the Elders from my generation were there, a mix of zone leaders, district leaders, and secretary.  It was cool to see everyone there, but also kind of strange.  It’s weird because we’re starting to get old in the mission.  After we made it home, we visited a family and that wrapped up a long couple of day.

December 8, 2017

       Today we spent pretty much all day in Atlas looking for a house. The best part of the day was driving through the mountains and looking at the spectacular views. We found several different options, but they ended up choosing a tiny, rather pricey (but nice) apartment that Elder D and I found.  My companion isn’t happy about it, but I think that he just doesn’t like small houses.  I’m not sure why they chose that house, but at least it is fully furnished. 

Later on, we came home and visited an investigator who was celebrating her birthday.  Unfortunately, she was celebrating with a lot of alcohol. 

December 9, 2017

       Long day!  We worked and walked without a ton of success, and to cap it off, we had no time to cook or eat today.  Sounds bad, but I actually feel pretty okay with today because we worked hard.

December 10, 2017

      Today, like all Sundays, we went to La Huerta for church.  The area is suffering a little because we haven’t been able to visit in two weeks.  But we’re going to have a baptism there this coming week.  Later on we ate two lunches, so that made up big time for yesterday, and our investigator stood us up again.  One of our investigators brought her boyfriend to church and the gospel principles class turned out rather interesting.  We were learning about prophets and he first tried to prove that there are no prophets and that we are saved by faith alone, and that churches don’t matter, bot only our interpretation of the scriptures matters.  Then he tried to explain how we can all be prophets.  Unfortunately he talked for most of the time.  After church, we went home and stopped by some other people on the way home.  The parties for the Day of the Virgin are in full swing now, with fireworks and everything.  Overall it was a good day.  We never have any time to proselyte on Sundays sadly, but what can you do?  

       With all the travel expenses of the past few months, and also all the rents we have had to pay, we are officially broke. We haven’t been able to take out money, and apart from that, the offices are having problems with sending money to the missionaries, asi que we are scraping by. But that’s just part of the mission I suppose! It doesn’t worry me too much, somehow things have a way of working out. And it’s really humbling how many people, even of different faiths, are willing to help us as missionaries. It really fulfills the scriptures "carry neither purse, nor scrip.” 

      As we approach Christmas Christmas, I invite all of us to think about what we have because of him. We have so much, he has given us everything. Because of him we have a purpose to life, we have a hope of better things, we have light and love, we have new beginnings and fresh starts. We can leave all of our pains and shame because of him. He is the Christ, the Son of God. Because of him, we have Christmas! So in this season I hope that each of us can think about what we have because of him. Then, what we should do because of him.