Bautismales y Otro Ciclio en Polanco

Hola

This week was honestly so awesome being the last week of the cycle. This week I saw so many blessings that have come after 4 and a half months of hard work. This week we had 2 baptisms here in Barrio Polanco! Honestly it was so exciting and awesome to see the blessings and los frutos that the Lord has prepared for this Barrio. This week I baptized Hna Patricia and Elder Santiago baptized Hna Veronice. Both of these Hnas May and I found and worked and worked with them to prepare them for this momento. Hna Patricia I have worked with her since January and after so many citas of her telling us that she doesn´t have a testimony still and that she just doesn´t feel right about the Iglesia and muchas cosas que nos decía. Elder May and I never gave up with her and we still kept working with her when Elder Santiago arrived. After months of working with her I had the chance to baptize her and here and see her testimony grow. Something that amazed me more than anything was to hear her to tell me when she arrived to the servicio bautismal on Saturday with a smile on her face and the first thing she told me was that all day she was so nervous and anxious for 6 oclock when the service started. She told me that she has such a strong testimony of this church that on Saturday one of her familiares passed away and she was missing out on seeing and supporting the family because she felt like coming to the baptism was the most important for her. She literally told me that she knows she will see this member of the family again after this life but first she needed to be baptized. Literally to hear that and see how much her testimony had grown honestly made me so happy and to see how excited she was for her bautismo. During the service she shared her testimony and thanked me for all the paciencia I had with her and for all I had done for her. I always knew that she would progress that is why I never gave up to visit her even when she told us straight up that she doesn´t believe el Libro de Mormon to be the Word of god. We testified to her that if she read it and prayed to her Heavenly Father who is the only person that knows whether or not it is the Word of God she would recieve her answer. 2 months later she recieved her message and her testimony is super strong over the Libro de Mormon. This weeked was honestly so awesome for me and made me love being a missionary aun mas!!!

Today is the cambios en la misión and I got the news that I will be staying here with Elder Santiago here in Polanco for another ciclio (6 semanas). I am extremely grateful for this oportunidad as we have more work to do and more people to find. Even though I have 4 and a half months here I know that the Lord is still preparing personas and we just need to find them This week in the capilla we had 4 en la capilla and there are more people wanting to learn more about el Evangelio de Jesucristo. I am looking forward to another ciclio here in Polanco and setting metas with Elder Santiago. I love this Barrio también, they treat me so well and always have been so good to me. I am grateful for the oportunidad that the Lord has given me.

Today for Pday Elder Santiago and I just kind of chilled around la casa. I am really enjoying the misión and all the things that I have learned! I still have a lot to learn and looking forward to it all! We will see what this cycle brings for Elder Santiago and I. When times are hard always look passed them and think of your Father in Heaven that loves you so much! Hope all is well!

Elder McCain

The fotos are of the zona, Elder McCain exprimiendo jugos y todos me ven bien rado jajajja, con Elder Tristan, y los bautismales

Blessings Come From a Little Effort and Diligence

 Hola

Honestly this week I saw so many blessings through the work of the Lord. This week has had its up and downs but Elder Santiago and I just look forward because I know that in the end the Lord will not leave us to hang. This week we focused on preparing 2 of our investigators for their baptismal dates this weekend. Yes I am so excited we have 2 baptisms this Saturday and Sunday. It is going to be a week of preparing them for their baptismal dates. I am so excited for them and had such great experiencias with them this week. They both told us how they had received their respuesta that this church was the true church. One of them May and I have been teaching for 2 o 3 months now and she told us this week that she recieved her respuesta and was ready to be baptized. It honestly made me so happy to see that she had felt so well in this Gospel and now wanted to be a part of it. After months of diligent work with the Lord and with Hna Patricia she is going to be baptized this Saturday and Hna Veronica Domingo. Holy cow it makes me so happy to see these things happening after months of hard work to get this area back up and to help the barrio. Something that I have learned that it is not me doing this work it is the Lord. I am only his representative and he is working through me. That was the only good thing that happened this week. This week in the capilla tuvimos 7 investigadores. Holy cow how happy that made me to see 7 investigators en la capilla feeling of his love and consuelo. How happy that made me honestly especially because one investigator arrived after just contacting him in the street for 5 min. He is super interested and we have a cita with him tomorrow. I am so excited to continue teaching more hijos de Dios.  

Honestly I loved the Conference that we had two weeks ago and have thought a lot about the words from Elder Oaks saying that the little things eventualmente grow into big things. I found a scripture this week that I shared with an investigador that is struggling to stop smoking. It is in Alma 32:27, I love this scripture and told the Hno that with a little bit of fe and esfuerzo he could stop smoking but he needed to believe in himself first. 

27. Mas he aquí, si despertáis y aviváis vuestras facultades hasta experimentar con mis palabras, y ejercitáis un poco de fe, sí, aunque no sea más que un deseo de creer, dejad que este deseo obre en vosotros, sí, hasta creer de tal modo que deis cabida a una porción de mis palabras. 

Even if it is only a desire to believe there are blessings that are going to come and your fe can grow stronger and stronger. We left this cita and had another one with this Hno and he had dropped the cigarettes. He was able to do it! It made me so excited and was an example to me that though our diligence and efforts we can do it even if it is a little bit because it will grow stronger we just have to have the desire. Anyways it was a good week for the work and I am so grateful for the experiencias I am having here! 

Today we played basketball, soccer, and volleyball with other Elderes. It was a good time, got some nice sun! Haha hope you guys are doing good and have a great week! Oh ya this week I also bought myself a playera de México and wore it today to play haha. When I bought the playera I looked in the mirror and told myself that I don´t play soccer haha because it looked like I was about to rip out of it hahahahha. I love the people, culture, and food here. 

Elder McCain 

Bye to one Comp and Hello to another

Hola

Before I start this email I would like to give a big shoutout to the best papa en el mundo! It is his birthday today and I wish I could be there with him but I am so proud of him and all he has done for me in my life! Happy Birthday Dad! 

This week was a little tough honestly but I have definitely seen and have had some great experiences this week. Well it all started on Tuesday when Elder May packed up all his bags and we headed for the offices in the night. I slept there in the mission offices on Tuesday night and watched Elder May leave with President Mann for the airport Wednesday morning. I also got my new comp Elder Santiago Wednesday morning. He is from Chiapas and has 4 months in the mision. We got back to el área en Polanco Wednesday and started to work. It honestly was hard and a little weird walking around the same area with a different comp especially because I was with Elder May for almost 4 months here in Polanco. He became one of my really good friends and we worked hard together so it was kind of hard to see him go but I am happy for him because he is with his family and enjoying the playa!! Elder Santiago and I are getting to know each other better and I am looking forward to more hard work here in Polanco. Sad to see May go but I am ready to keep pushing forth in the Lord´s work with Elder Santiago. 

This week was a little rough for the work because there was no school so there was basically no one in their houses and there was a ton of lluvia so that makes people want to stay in their houses more haha. But the first day and first leccion with Santiago we put a fecha with un Hna that is really awesome and already has such a strong testimony of this Gospel. She told us in this leccion that she feels so much paz when we are with her and when she went to the Conferencia. She has a fecha for 22 de Abril. I am super excited for this day that could possibly be my last day here in Polanco but we will see. I am hoping that if I do leave that I leave strong in this area and leave it great for other misioneros to continue the Lord´s work. I am so grateful for this work and all that I have learned. This week en la capilla I taught El Principios del Evangelio and we talked about the Expiacion de Jesucristo. It is truly amazing all that he has done for us in this world and the blessings that come in our lives. We are so blessed and sometimes the life is hard but how strong are we going to be to overcome it? I am so grateful for the challenges and blessings that come here in the mission because they both make me stronger and help me to learn many things. When I was Elder Santiago the first day it was hard honestly and y me arrodillé and offered a prayer asking me to have the strength that I needed and that everything would be okay. The next leccion that we had we ended up putting a fecha and I felt the spirit so strong. It is truly awesome to see how much the Lord cares for us and how much we have to appreciate that he is willing to do anything for us. He literally sent his son here to sacrifice for our sins that was the first sacrifice made was to make the decision. I am so grateful to be in the mision and to have such awesome experiences here! 

Today for Pday we went and played some boliche. It was a good time and looking forward to working with Elder Santiago this week. We we will see what the Lord has in store for us! Hope you guys have a great week!

Elder McCain

The fotos are of the zone with Elder May on his last day, Elder May y yo antes de irse, Elder Santiago y yo, and boliche hoy

Conferencia General

Hola

This week was a pretty awesome spiritually filled week! This week went by pretty fast. This week we had the opportunity to listen to our beloved profeta Russell M. Nelson and his apóstoles. What a powerful conference it was as we heard many great words of wisdom. Now with these talks we can take them and study them and aplicar them to our lives. This week was pretty busy too. This week Elder Baldridge and I did divisiones which was a good time. It is so funny to see the reaction on people´s faces here with dos gringos rolling around the streets. This week Elder May and I found a Hna that is listening to us and she is progressing really well! We invited her to the conference and she went!!!! We had a couple of investigators this week that went the conferencia and they said that they liked it a lot! One of them left with a smile on his face and told us that he had a ton of preguntas answered! This investigator is named Alejandro Vasquez and has like 10 asistencias a la capilla but we can never find him during the week because he has lots of problems in the house and his wife is really sick but this week we got a text from the Hno to see if we could give his a wife a blessing who is not a member tampoco. All week I was so excited to give her the blessing because I felt like this was the next step in the Hno´s progression to enter the waters of baptism. We got to the house and gave the Hna a blessing. I gave the blessing and felt the Spirit so strong telling me what to say. At the end I asked my compañero what I said because I didn´t remember. Before we left the house the Hna started to say that she was already feeling better and hadn´t coughed once desde dimos la bendición. The Hna is already starting to feel better and the Hno is super happy with us and the Gospel. That to me was a testimony that el Sacerdocio is truly the poder de Dios and we should strive dia a dia to have the power with us to be digno! What a great experience that was for me this week!

La Conferencia was so awesome and I am so glad this time that I could understand it all haha. I remember 6 months ago I did not understand anything in the Conference because of the Spanish. It is crazy to see the don de lenguas work in my life and to see the progress that I have made through the help of the Lord. There was so many talks that I loved but the one that stood the most out to me was Elder Oaks about the small things become big things. I have reflected over that talk and how true it is that the little things start out but then become bigger and bigger. It can work for both things when we feel like we can´t do something we need to start with the basics and work everyday at it and then before we know it, it will become our strength. That is where Eter 12:7 comes into play that the Lord will make our weaknesses our strength through our diligencia! It can be the same with tentación también. When we give into tentación even though it can be something small it can eventually turn into a bigger problema. That is why before we do things always think of the future and what can happen later on. I love this talk because it is so true and I see it here with my testimony and the testimonies of my investigadores. At first they start with praying to our Padre Celestial to know the truth and when they have the truth their faith continues to grow slowly and slowly sometimes fast! I am so grateful to see the testimonies grow and the love I have for these people grow. I have found myself worrying more and more for their progress and never giving up on them because the Lord is always preparing people for us to teach. I loved the messages we got from Conferencia and already can´t wait for the other Conferencia in Octubre!

Something that I saw and took out of the Conferencia more than anything was the amount of times they talked about loving your vecino as we love ourselves. Also with the changes that they are making in the Lord´s church is a testimony to me of the importance of the unity as Hijos de Dios. We are literally the ejercito de Dios and need to help strengthen it by our own testimony and bringing others to join the army. It is so important the unity and love we have for one another here on the Earth. We are all here to help each other lograr the vida eterna. How are we going to do it? Look out for those around you and bring them in especially when they are down. Asure to them that we are the army of God and we are going to win. This week we were talking with an investigador and we told her that everytime you feel lost or down remember that fact that we have a cuerpo on the Earth today and we have already beaten Satanas and he is jealous that is why he tempts us. When you are down look to those around you and look to your Heavenly Father that loves you so much along with his hijo Jesucristo. Sigue adelante con firmeza en Cristo!!!!!!! Help build the Army!

This week was a great week for me and I recieved a lot of answers to my questions. I hope you guys did too and you can apply the things we learned to your lives. The blessings will come and we will continue to build this Army! Today for Pday May and I went to Centro and rode the Turi bus around Centro to know it better. It is crazy to think that this week I am going to have a new comp and May is going home. It is hard to say bye to him as he goes home Wednesday. I learned a lot from him and it was a good 3 1/2 months together. But he has finished his misión and is headed back to Cancun. We will see who my new comp will be! I hope you guys have a great week!

Elder McCain

The fotos are of Centro today and con Fam Lara y otros misioneros en la Conferencia