The Fruits of the Lord´s Work

Hola

This week was honestly a really good week. Not sure where to start but this week started off at first a little frustrating. On Tuesday during planamiento semanal we got a call from one of the moms that her kid was not going to be able to be baptized on Saturdaybecause his Dad did not want it to happen. Honestly to hear that at first was hard for me especially because I was looking forward to baptizing 4 on Saturday. Elder Santiago talked about it and we decided that it was okay and we were going to move on and focus on the other 3 that had fecha bautismal. Something that I have realized in the misión is the weeks that we are going to baptize are the hardest weeks because obviously Satanas doesn´t want something to happen and one thing I always think about is when we are having a hard time so does our investigators so I like to call them every day of the week to make sure they are doing good and we are there for them if they need help. There were many things that happened this week that really worried me especially when we went for the entrevista and our investigators weren´t there. We called them and called them but they finally picked up and we had the entrevista later that night but it really scared us. Anyways on Saturday we ended up baptizing 3 people and it was such an awesome experience! Moments like Saturday make me so glad to be a missionary. Even though the times can be super difficult here I always know to push on because I know that the Lord is watching over us and our investigators. Yes there are casos when we lose investigators but I know that the Lord is preparing the people and each person has their time to conocer el Evangelio restaurado. Por ejemplo this week we found a family of 8 people and they went to the baptisms and church yesterday. They are progressing super well and we are going to put a fecha bautismal with them and I can not wait to be able to teach them this week!

Something that made me so excited this week was putting a fecha with Kevin who is 18 years old. I have worked with him for a good 5 years and he has struggled to acept una fecha but we have kept working with him and promising the blessing to him of getting baptized. Es un cambio maravilloso! Kevin is going to get baptized this Saturday 2 de Junio and I am so excited for it! This week could be my last week in Polanco as I now have 6 meses acá en Polanco. Honestly I would love to stay here another cycle because there is so much work here that I could be leaving and I would love to be apart of it for another cycle. I am so grateful for the oportunidad to serve a misión here in Ciudad de Mexico! This week I did divisions with Elder Kay and it was funny because there was a lot of members saw us working in the Street and they thought we were twins hahah. It was a good time with him and I love the oportunidad to work with other misioneros. I am so grateful for the blessings we had this week and I hope that Kevin has a chance to get baptized this Saturday as well and see this change in his life. I will have updates and fotos on the baptism and I hope you all are doing great! Never forget how much our Heavenly Father loves us and always say your prayers and keep building su relación con nuestro Padre Celestial!

Elder McCain

The fotos are of Rosa. Omar, and Kevin and their baptisms on Saturday

El Templo y Heavenly Father is Preparing the People

Hola

This week was pretty busy. On Tuesday we had the oportunidad to go to the temple. That was such an awesome and fue muy espiritual. The temple is truly the Lord´s house and the ordenanzas that take place there are so awesome. Honestly I love the temple so much and seeing the difference there and the outside world. It honestly gives you so much peace and I love it so much. I wish we had more oportunidades to enter the temple as missionaries but something that motivates me is to prepare other people to have the chance to enter the temple and feel the peace that one feels there! I really want all to have the chance or at least feel la felicidad that this Evangelio nos trae. I was so grateful for the oportunidad to go and learn more as well. I love the language Español so much and right now I am about to finish the Book of Mormon in Spanish and I have learned so much. This is my 3rd time that I have read the Book of Mormon here in the mission and I learn more and more every time. Study your scriptures, it helps in so many ways and gives us so much comfort and has the answers to nuestras preguntas! 

This week was great for the obra misional. We are finding several more people to teach and it is so awesome! Right now we are teaching un Hno se llama Francisco. We found him contacting doors and we have taught him 3 or so times. It is so awesome to see how the Lord is preparing the people because our first lesson with Hno Francisco he told us that we were crazy as we were telling him about the Restoration of the Church. He believes in only the Bible and so he didn´t believe in Jose Smith and all that. But after the first leccion to not believe us but to believe our Heavenly Father. We told him to believe in what his father told him was right. We invited him to pray and put another cita with him hoping that he would accept us the next time and would have recieved an answer. We went back for the next cita and he let us in and we asked him how everything went and he told us that he prayed and hadn´t recieved a respuesta but he felt so much paz in the last cita that he let us in again. He told us that there is something that Dios wants for him to learn. It is going really well with him, we introduced him to El Libro de Mormón and he loves it. The Libro de Mormón is so powerful and it brings such a powerful message for all. Even the first verse of the Book of Mormon brings power "I Nephi being born of goodly parents." Read the Book of Mormon and aprovechan cada momento que tengan! This week we met Francisco´s wife and she does not like us at all. She ignored us when we tried to say hi and when we started the practica she turned music on super loud so we can´t hear each other during the lesson. She even yells a lot at her husband for listening to us but Franciso still listens to us and wants to learn more. The Lord is preparing the people even when the times can be hard. 

I am so excited for this weeked. We are going to baptize 4 people this weekend and hopefully another one the next weekend. This week we are going to focuse on preparing the fechas and working hard. I am so excited for this Saturday though and to see the Lord´s investigators enter the water. I will have pictures next week for sure! Today for Pday we went to Centro with Elder Baird y Elder Monte de Oca. It was a good time to catch up with Elder Baird especially because we have been on opposite sides of the mission for todo nuestros misiones jajaj. It was a good day. Hope all is well and that you guys have a great week! 

Elder McCain

The fotos are of the temple and centro today

The Power of the Priesthood

Hola

This week was really good! I would like to first start off by saying I had a great time talking to my family! Love them so much and all the support they show me! Also hope that all the mothers had an awesome day and felt how important they are to the power of the family and priesthood in our lives. I am so grateful for all that my Mom has done for me and will always remember the things she has taught me for the rest of my life! This week was pretty good. This week I did divisions with Elder Northrup. He has become a really good amigo of mine and I am grateful for everything that I learned from him the poco time I was with him. Haha it is so funny to see the people´s faces here when they see me especially when there is 2 gringos juntos jajajaj. It was a good time we sure talked with a lot of people and borrachos that is for sure haha! 

So last week Elder Santiago and I gave a blessing to an Hna that was super sick. She was in her bed when we got there and she did not look good at all. Her hija had called us and asked us for a blessing. I gave her the blessing and when I finished I felt the biggest warmth when I was looking down at the Hna and she started to smile at me and told me "thank you Guerrito." This week Elder Santiago and I passed by this week to check on her and what do you know she answers the door and had the biggest smile on her face. She was full of energy and she was so happy that she almost gave us hugs hahha. Just to see this work and the power that an unción and a priesthood blessing has makes me so happy to be a priesthood holder. Always strive to use your priesthood and exercise it when it is needed. Always be digno too because you never know when someone is going to need a blessing. As missionaries we always try to have a plan for everything but we have to make a lot of adjustments depending on how the Hna feels. Sometimes being a priesthood holder can be hard but is so awesome to literally have the power of God to help others. Something else important to remember is that the Hnas are the most important part of the priesthood. Without them and their support the priesthood doesn´t work. I am so grateful for the opportunity to have the priesthood and to exercise it casi diario. Nothing makes me more happy here than seeing the people happy! 

I know that this Church is the only true church that Jesus established when he came here and Joseph Smith restauró la iglesia después que había caída. I am so grateful to be a missionary of this church and to bring this happiness into their lives. Yes there is still challenges as a member but I am so grateful for the opportunity to give this chance to the people here to hear this gospel and find out for themselves if it is the truth. I love being a missionary! 

Today we played in the Estaca and un Hno barbequed for us. Haha I don´t even know if that is how you spell that word, I am slowly losing words in English. My family was testigos of that last night haha. Hope all is well and that you guys have a great week! 

Elder McCain

The fotos are of divisions with Elder Northrup and yummy tacos!

The Lord´s Work In Progress

Hola

This week not much happened but we spent a lot of time working with our 5 fechas that we have right now and are really hoping for awesome results this next week. We are planning to have a baptism this week, 2 baptisms the 19th of May, and 2 more on the 26th of May. I am looking forward to these next three weeks that are coming up and the fechas we have right now. This week I had a really awesome experience where I felt the Spirit so strong was in the capilla ayer. One of our compromisos this week was to bring one of our investigators to the pila bautismal and try to put a fecha with him right there in the pila. With one of our investigators se llama Kevin, he is 17 years old we brought him to the pila and intended to put a fecha with him. We have intended to put a fecha with Kevin for a good 3 weeks now but he keeps telling us that he doesn´t feel ready yet. We felt the need to bring him to the pila and we did and he acepted a fecha bautismal!!!!! I was so excited because he literally answered us without thinking and after mucha oracion y ayuno he acepted to be baptized and his fecha is for this Saturday. I am so looking forward to it as I have worked with Kevin for quite a while now too. Literally I know that this is the Lord´s work and he is preparing people to enter the waters of baptism. As missionaries we are only the guide to waters of baptism and perseverar hasta el fin. 

This week we had zone conference and it was a good spiritual experiencia. I invited my conversos to the conference to compartir their testimonies in front of the other missionaries. One of my conversas started to share her testimony and I felt the spirit so strong because she talked about the first time that she met Elder May and I and how she thought we were crazy and what we were teaching was so wrong. She said that she decided to give us a chance though and began to go to church and involved herself in actividades. She began to like the Iglesia more and more and she began to give us more of a chance and listened to us more. I remember when she told us that she didn´t believe in the Book of Mormon and didn´t want to read it anymore and didn´t even want to touch the book because she only believed en la Biblia. To see that she is a member and to see her sharing her testimony of all this made me so happy. She even said to all the misioneros that she remembers when the Guerrito that being me showing up to her house and I understood nothing he said hahahhahah. She goes I don´t know how he did it but his Spanish is really good for only 4 months hahah. It made me laugh because I remember always having to repeat what I said or May had to say it because she didn´t understand me. I love this work to see the Lord´s work in progress and all that he does for us here in la tierra. I give thanks everyday for the oportunidad to Preach his gospel! 

This week we started to teach un Hno se llama Oscar. Oscar just got out of jail and really wants a change in his life. The first lesson we had with him I could really feel his desire to change and to be better. I could feel the love that our Heavenly Father has for him even though he just got out of jail and they track everywhere he goes. We taught 2 lessons to him this week and I really enjoy teaching him and seeing his willigness to change. It is so awesome I have really developed a love for these people and the oportunidad to teach everyday and help others to come unto Christ!

Today we went bowling with a lot of missionaries! It was a good time and shoutout to Elder Clark for bowling a 210 hahah! It was a good time! Hope all is well back home and have a great week and awesome Mothers Day! Thanks to all the Moms out there and all that you do for your kids! We are truly grateful for you! I am so grateful for the Mother I have and the example she is in my life and all that she has taught me that has helped me so much in the mission! Thanks so much Mom love you! 

Elder McCain

Only one photo but of bowling today

The Importance and Power of the Ayuno (Fast)

Hola

This week was really good. As a mission hemos empezado un ayuno. The purpose of this ayuno is to help the members in their work in the obra misional and to achieve our meta as a mission for 100 bautismales cada mes. How it has worked is cada compañerismo has a different day during the month to ayunar for this exact purpose. Honestly reading the scriptures and how Ammon y Aaron ayunaron to help the people where they were teaching. Elder Santiago and I have been working a lot with the members and their involvement in the obra misional. A scripture that I have shared with the members that I love is Alma 6:6. It says: 6. No obstante, se mandó a los hijos de Dios que se congregaran frecuentemente, y se unieran en ayuno y ferviente oración por el bien de las almas de aquellos que no conocían a Dios.            

I love this scripture because it talks about the prayer and fast that the members can do to help others know about this Gospel. Us as misioneros we are striving and trying to help the members in their work and our work. Ever since empezamos nuestro ayuno I have definitely seen the blessings in the work. It says in the scriptures that the ayuno is something extra that we can do to show our seriousness and our desire for the things to happen. The blessings that I have seen from this ayuno have been awesome! The members are starting to work a little bit more than they did before and this Sunday we had 9 investigadores en la capilla!!!! I was so excited to see all the investigators there and stand back during la sacramental and count the asistencia and see that the ward family looked a lot more lleno and a lot better with few chairs that didn´t have people sitting in them. Honestly I am extremely grateful for this work and all the experiencias that I see aqui. I really am growing and have really seen the Lord´s hand in these peoples lives. Like the scriptures say that el mano de nuestro Padre Celestial is always extended towards us, we just need to reach out and grab it to have his help. The Lord is waiting for our prayers and wants to hear how we are doing but we need to reach out to him first! There are people that are looking for the hand of Heavenly Father in sus vidas. Que tan dispuestos somos para agarrar el mano de aquellas personas y ayudarles a sujetar el barra de hierra. When they have the oportunidad aprovechala! You are going to see the blessings in your life and if you are ever feeling down or something is to hard hacer un ayuno y ofrecer un oración. Nuestro Padre Celestial wants the best for each one of us in this vida. I am grateful for the oportunidad to help los demás aquí en Ciudad de México. De hecho the whole mission even the members in cada barrio y estaca are going to do an ayuno this Saturday-Sunday which I am really looking forward to!

This week was pretty good for the work we are finding bastante personas para enseñar. We are even starting to teach our vecino. It is so awesome to see all the people the Lord is preparing and the way that he is preparing them to find us. We are teaching one family that has fechas but they need to casarse first which is super frustrating here in the mission because there are lots of people that want to get baptized but they have to get married first. It is extremely hard that is for sure but we are praying for them and that they can get married fast! We also found a niño this week that wants to get baptized! He is 9 years old and went to the capilla en Domingo and loved it! It was so awesome to see his desire and another good part is he is activando a su mama tambien jajjaa. Looking forward to this week and seeing all the blessings that come! 

Today for Pday we went to Parque Pueblo to play basketball with a bunch of other misioneros! Making some good friends here and really enjoying the mision! Hope all is well back home and sorry but I only have one pic for this week. 

Elder McCain

The foto is of Little Ceasers today after playing with a bunch of misioneros and our crowns for free galletas jajjaja