Running It Back!

Hey everyone! Whats up and hows it going? Sorry its been a while, I'm still here and alive out here in the mission. It's just been a wild few weeks out here!

Ok so first of all, we got transfer news! And guess what: I'm staying here in Refugio with Elder Gonzales! Literally nothing changed haha! God really needs me to learn something here in this area with the people in teaching or the members or the missionaries but we staying and were gonna get to work!

We went to cambios (transfers) this week and we got to see all the mission legends! My comp Elder Madsen from the Mtc, my mission dad Elder Dunn, and my mission son Elder McDonough! It turns out that both my mission sons are training and one is a DL, so I'm a mission grandpa now and a proud dad haha. But yeah it was an awesome day to see some good ol' friends.

Also, Day of the Dead is coming up soon! A few weeks ago, we went to Atlixco (my old area) and it was decorated so awesomely! There are like all these huge skeleton things and a bunch of flowers. It was so beautiful. Also, our ward had an activity with an ofrenda to celebrate Day of the Dead and to teach us about how to do family history work for our ancestors. It was so awesome and then afterwards we ate hojaldras (Day of the Dead Bread) and hot chocolate.

That's about it for these few weeks. But the truth is that these past few weeks have been super hard. We got hit with a few bombs from the adversary. One day, the entire zone EXPLODED with problems and Elder Gonzales and I were hit by a wave of doubts, fear, sadness, and other personal things that were happening. And it made it almost impossible to work as hard as we wanted. I would love to talk about the Christ-like attribute of Diligence. 3rd Nephi 6:14 says,

14 "And thus there became a great inequality in all the land, insomuch that the church began to be broken up; yea, insomuch that in the thirtieth year the church was broken up in all the land save it were among a few of the Lamanites who were converted unto the true faith; and they would not depart from it, for they were firm, and steadfast, and immovable, willing with all diligence to keep the commandments of the Lord."

In these latter-days we cannot let our guard down for even a few minutes. I saw this in effect for our zone and my companionship. We always must be anxiously engaged in a good cause, so that we don't have time for the Devil to enter into our lives to lead us to things that don't come from the Lord: Anger, contention, jealousy, despair, lack of self-worth, or temptation. As we see in the example of the Book of Mormon, the lack of diligence can lead to division, and a loss of a testimony.

And so brothers and sisters, boys and girls, friends and family, let's be diligent in our testimonies. Let's be diligent in learning about Christ. Let's be diligent in going to the church and the temple. Let's be diligent in showing our Christlike love for others. And I give you the promise that you will have increased spiritual momentum, a stronger testimony, and a greater desire to share this love to all others. That is my invitation to you all this week. Have an amazing week! I love you all!