Our Heavenly Father and Savior Never Give Up On Us!

Hola

What a busy week it has been here. This week was filled with many different emotions. This week I have been reading in the Doctrine and Covenants. What deep doctrine that we learn through revelation to the Prophet Joseph Smith. There are many sections that are directed at Elders in there and our calling here on the mission. Although it is directed at Elders, it applies to all members as well because we are all missionaries. We are the Lord`s servants and through him and the Holy Ghost others lives our touched. He needs our help though, and that is why I am glad to be here serving the Lord and giving the people here a chance to come unto him. As members of the church, we are the light in other people`s lives. It may not seem that way but this Gospel is the true Gospel and brings happiness to people`s lives.

This week Elder Ayala and I went to visit a reference that we had gotten from the Visitor`s Center here in Mexico City. We weren`t really sure where she lived or who she was. We didn`t have planned to meet with her on Wednesday night either but we had the feeling that we should try and visit this very sweet lady. Her name is Maria Carmen and when we showed up she was extremely excited to see us. We had never met her and she had no idea who we were but she told us that when she saw us at her door she had instant peace in her heart and was praying for someone to visit her. She was a very sweet lady and we put a baptismal date her with this week because it was like automatically when we showed up that she wanted to be baptized. She is Catholic and said that she hasn`t felt so much peace until we showed up. That is the power of this Gospel, this Gospel brings happiness and peace into our lives. I want everyone to have that opportunity because this life is difficult and we can not do it alone. We have 5 baptismal dates set right now for December and January that I am looking forward to continue to prepare them.

This week has been a testament to me that our Heavenly Father and Savior never give up on us. This week we had the baptismal service of Hna Domitilia. It was my first baptism that was one of our converts, it was so awesome!!!! A little background story on Hna Domitlia is that Elder Ayala and other missionaries have been working with Hna Domitilia for 7 months now. They have set many baptismal dates and she has said yes and then no the week before for 7 months now. When I first showed up here in Arboleda, my first week we went to visit her and she said no to being baptized again my first week here. Elder Ayala and I continued to work with her and pray for her and two weeks ago she said yes to be baptized. It was such a cool experience because Hna Domitlia is the grandma of this family and there are like 9 people that live in this house so when she said yes to be baptized, the rest of the family could not believe it and burst out in tears. It was such a neat experience and yesterday I had the chance to baptize her. It was such a special moment for the family and for me to watch how happy this family was. Yesterday was Ward Conference in my ward and the topic was To Be in the World but Not of the World. The messages shared were so awesome because it is hard to be in the world and not participate in things that can harm ourselves. Elder Ayala and I had the chance to go into the Primary and share our testimonies with them. I remember being in Primary, haha good times. Singing "I Hope They Call Me on a Mission" but in Spanish with them was a neat experience because I remember singing that song thinking I can`t wait to serve a mission in Primary and now I am here in Mexico serving the Lord. Yesterday I also confirmed Hna Yaquelin which was awesome! Yesterday was a pretty busy day for us haha. I am so grateful for this work though and when I forget myself and work things are so much better!

Today for Pday we went to Xochitenco to play soccer and basketball with the district. Haha I am slowly learning how to talk in Spanish and play sports at the same time especially since there are no Gringos in my district anymore. Hope you all have a good week!

Elder McCain

The photos are of the baptism, tacos today, and on top of our house.

Baptism!!!!

Hola

Hey Everyone! This week was really good! It was filled with lots of things going on. First I will start with Tuesday. Tuesday half of the mission went to the temple for a session. With President Mann we go to the temple twice a year. Elder Ayala and I left our house at 5:30 in the morning. We got to the temple around 9 in the morning for a 10 o`clock session. It was so awesome! I love going to the temple so much, I am so grateful for the opportunity I had to work in the temple before I left for the mission. The temple is truly the House of the Lord and we should strive to be in there as much as we can. Everytime I go into the temple I feel of the Lord`s peace and love for us. Heavenly Father and Jesús Christ are truly watching over us and are there for us in all times of need. After the session in the temple, we had Zone Conference. I love Zone Conference because it is an opportunity to spend time with other missionaries. We ate pizza and had the Conference with President and the AP`s.

The highlight of my week for sure was yesterday. Yesterday after the church services we had two BAPTISMS!!!! One was our investigator Yaquelin and the other was Ariadna, a 8 year old girl that wanted us missionaries to do the baptism. I had the opportunity to baptize Ariadna and Elder Ayala baptized Yaquelin. It was such an amazing experience and was a testament to me of how happy I am to be doing the Lord`s work. I want everyone here in Mexico to have that chance that Yaquelin did. Even though the boiler broke on the Font and the baptismal wáter was freezing, it was such an amazing experience for me. I think the best part about it was at the end we gave Yaquelin and Ariadna a chance to bare their testimonies. The Spirit hit me strong especially when Yaqueline testified that Heavenly Father and Jesús Christ are real and then she looked straight at her husband and daughter and said "I know that I can live with my spouse and daughter forever and that makes me so happy." What a blessing that is to me is to see happiness in her life and to see that she knows she can live with her family forever. That is the greatest blessing we could ever recieve is to live with our families and Heavenly Father forever. It was such an awesome experience for me! We have another baptism this Saturday the 25th and I am so excited for it! We are going to have the baptism for Domitilia! Last night also we had the opportunity to watch the Face to Face with Elder Oaks and Elder Ballard. What great advice that we recieved from them during the devotional! By the way, that was not my mission that was on the Face to Face haha. I wish it was but it wasn`t.

Today was awesome! Elder Ayala and I went to Centro de Ciudad de Mexico with Elder Tec and Elder Queen. It was so cool, it was my first time actually seeing Centro. There were huge old modern looking buildings and a cathedral! It was so awesome! I saw people from Spain and the United States. We talked to lots of people. Elder Queen and I got interviewed by girls that had homework to do an interview in English and then translate it. Haha you could tell they were pretty scared to talk to us in English. It was a good Pday though! I hope everyone has a great week and a great Thanksgiving! Enjoy the Turkey because they don`t celebrate it here haha.

Elder McCain

The photos are of the temple with Elder Ayala, our baptisms, and Centro today with Elder Ayala, Tec, and Queen

Divisions and Baptisms

Hola-

Hey everyone! I hope that you guys are doing well! This week was really good. On Tuesday I did divisions with Elder Clark the zone leader and they went great. There is a book called Member Missionary Work and we tried the tracting tips that it gives there. What we did is we said a prayer, then both Clark and I would pick 5 streets each and not tell each other what we picked. Then when we were ready we would see what streets we each picked and we had one street similiar to contact. So we contacted this one street that is huge for an hour and found 8 news and they all seemed really interested in learning more. Something that helps me a lot in the week is knowing that the Lord always has someone prepared for us as members and missionaries, it is our job to find them. Missionary work is hard without the members help as well. I have learned to notice that. The best investigators that we get are usually references from the members. It was so cool to work with Elder Clark that day and then that night we played some Monopoly with Elder Boynton and Salazar as well. I love when we do divisions! 

Also this week we had a zone attack like we do every week but this one was awesome. A zone attack is when all missionaries in a zone meet in one area and contact that area. We have them every week. This week I went with Elder Boynton and we found this family of 7 that were so awesome!! We talked to them in the street for 30 min or so and it seemed like more and more of the family was coming out of the house to listen to us. I wish that this family lived in my area haha! It is alright it is all the Lord`s work but it was such a cool experience and the family had a good time listening to our broken Spanish haha. They were surprised though how much we have learned in a couple of months haha. The people here are so humble and loving. 

So we did not have any baptisms this week, I know that is probably what you think after reading the subject but we do have one this Sunday the 19th and another the following Saturday the 25th! Oh I am so excited. Our district is actually doing a noche blanca which is where there are going to be a total of 7 baptisms between the district. We can not participate in it because the two investigators that are ready for baptism can not make it so we are going to baptize Jaquelin this Sunday and Domitilia next Saturday! We put another baptismal date this week and have two others that are ready for baptism but they need to be married so we pushed there date back to December. This work is so awesome! 

My Spanish is getting there, it is very diffiicult to learn a different language but I am going to be so grateful when I can communicate good hopefully soon! Today for Pday was so fun, there is a huge park in the area called Parque so Ayala and I went to that today. It has like 4 full court basketball hoops and a big turf field for soccer. There were missionaries from all over the mission there. We played games for like 3 hours, I had so much fun. There are some cool missionaries in this mission and I know that the mission is going to be a blast. I just want the Spanish to come because it will be even more fun! I also finished the Book of Mormon this week and want to read it in Spanish now! The Book of Mormon is truly the Word of God! Everytime I read it, I learn more and feel comfort when I read it. There are so many examples that we can look up to in the Book Of Mormon. Well that is it for this week, I will have pictures of the baptism this week for next week`s email. I am so excited! Have a great week! 

Elder McCain

The pictures are earlier this week and today at the park with Elder Boynton

LOCKED IN!!

Hola

This week was not very eventful because we were locked in our house two of the days this week because of Halloween. It was a good week though and although we were really busy this week with meetings and other things being the last week of the cycle we were able to get things done. This week Elder Ayala and I had divisions with President Mann and it was great. We visited a family that is less active and visited Jaqueline, our investigator that has a baptism for the 25th of November. It was a fantastic lesson with President Mann, we read with her 2 Nephi 31. It is such a fantastic chapter in the Book Of Mormon that talks all about the 5 principles of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Recieving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, Perservering to the End. All are necessary in order to recieve all that the Lord has in store for us. It was so cool because the goal we set with them when we left the lesson was not to just be baptized on the 25th of November but to strive to be married to her spouse in the temple next year. Eymar, Jaquelin´s husband is a member of the church. It was so cool because baptism is only a goal for our investigators, it is only a step in Heavenly Father´s plan. The ultimate goal is for them to be sealed in the temple as a family forever. The spirit was so strong in the lesson. 

So this week we were closed in, Ayala and I went up on the roof of our house and just talked and played cards. It was a really good time but I would definitely had rather been working and finding more investigators. A really cool experience this week that Ayala and I had was with a Grandma of a family named Domitilia. In my first week here in Arboleda she had a baptism date and was ready to be baptized the following week. My first week we taught her the Word of Wisdom and she drinks a lot of coffee. At the end of the lesson she said that she did not want to be baptized anymore. It was kind of hard for me to see this happen, all the blessings she had in store for her. The rest of the family she lives with are all members. After continuing to visit this family and Domitilia and continuing to pray for her, this past week she said that she wanted to be baptized. We were so happy for her and it is truly amazing how the Lord and Heavenly Father watch over all of us. 

This week I had the opportunity to do divisions with Elder Northrup. He is from Pocatello, ID and is a really cool missionary. He just finished his training so we were both learning Spanish still but it went good. It was so funny because we got some weird looks for sure. People here are not used to seeing a Gringo walking around let alone 2 haha. It was such a good time, we went and visited some of our investigators and less active families. He came to my area Arboleda. At night we played some cards and just talked for a while. Friday morning though Elder Northrup and I had been talking about making French Toast for a while in divisions so we did haha. You can see us in the pictures and our French Toast haha. Seems like a while since I had it haha. It was so fun though, I love doing divisions with other missionaries. This week I got a new name haha, I barely get called Elder McCain here. This week my name was Elder Rodolfo (Elder Rudolph). I guess I got a little more sun this week and my nose was an extra little red haha. Instead of Elder MAccain, Elder Gringo, Trump, or Guerro this week, I was Elder Rodolfo. Haha the people here are so awesome!

My Spanish is getting there, I can pretty much understand everything. My only problem with understanding is just vocabulary. Now my speaking feels like it is a little lacking haha. It will get there haha. I am learning slowly and everyday I fill my agenda with new words that I hear throughout the day. Today for Pday, I played some volleyball and soccer with my district. I had a mexican burger today and it was pretty good haha. The food here is so good. I tried Mole for the first time yesterday and thought it was good. The only problem with Mole is that it is famous for getting all over missionaries white shirts haha. Every missionary here is a spot of Mole on there white shirt haha, it happened to me too unfortunately. The mission is hard but I have had such awesome experiences and I know I will continue to have them. This work is truly awesome!

-Elder McCain

The photos are today with the hamburger, Elder Northrup and I, and Elder Ayala and I locked in