MEXICO VILLAHERMOSA MISSION -- JULY 2012 - 2014
"Wherefore, ye must press forward with a steadfastness in Christ, having a perfect brightness of hope, and a love of God and of all men. Wherefore, if ye shall press forward, feasting upon the word of Christ, and endure to the end, behold, thus saith the Father: Ye shall have eternal life." 2 Nephi 31:20

Monday, September 9, 2013

A Clearer Picture

This week we had another week of...success. Except you learn to accept success in different ways on your mission. You can walk around all day in the sun and not get accepted by anyone the whole day and then find ONE person that tells you that they had been praying that someone would come help them. That happened to us just about every single day this week. Makes me wish we could have just gone there first, but the Lord's timing is his own.

Luke 12:53. We went with a Single Sister who has been falling away from the Church for quite some time. She has been a member for about 3 years from what I can tell, but is the only member in her family. For that, she sometimes has to choose between her family and Church, and her husband tends to abuse that priveledge. She had been praying that we would come by to visit her as she is contemplating a divorce that would require her losing her house, her money, and her best friend: her husband. For more reasons than just not going to Church (obviously). Although we consoled her, she decided she needed time away from everything, and we left, and said she was on her way. I got a clearer picture on why you need to start a family with the right person.

Ecclesiastes 3:2-8. This week we talked to a family here in our area. The mom is 22 years old, and has three kids, the oldest of which is 7 years old. She is great, her husband is great; but due to the timing of their marriage they did not get to experience what you and I might have, and for that reason have certain regrets. They both really are great people. They both say they started their family too soon. But, one, two, three kids later, its hard to just give it all up. A clearer picture of why you need to do things at the right time.

Numbers 13:25. We started to visit more members from the ward list since it is 20 pages long but we only have 70 people in assistance each Sunday. We found out some really interesting things. Mainly that our ward is dead. Literally. We found at least 10 people that had already passed on. Thankfully we didn't see them personally. Afterall, one of them has been in the ground now for 35 years. But, even more troublesome than that, it gave me a clearer picture of the game we as missionaries play here in Southern Mexico when looking for specific houses (see picture below).

Ezekiel 38:7. I'll share with you my anagoly I shared with a few of my family members. After talking a bit with Elder Rangel, we wondered why people didn't want to hear our message. We figured they must be getting bored. But why? We looked at what we were carrying around--the scriptures and the pamphlets of the missionary lessons. Isn't that enough? We couldn't decide. I had some DVD's of the Church and so did Elder Rangel, so we decided to start to carry them around. People tend to like movies more. I figured that we had to become better teachers. President Morales taught us once, "You all are teachers. Remember back to your teachers in school. Remember your worst teacher. Imagine he/she showing up to your house to teach you. Would you let them come back?" It goes along with the "work smarter, not harder" quote. I saw soo many of my teachers struggle to teach what they already knew. WHY? But I had one teacher that had her own method. She had all her materials all set up. She had her plan. She stuck to it. And we really learned. Sometimes I wondered. And she really gets paid for this? She could have done really anything she wanted--so much free time. But I learned more in her classes than in anyone else's. And so, that is why we are shooting for. Teach better, learn better. Teach smarter and it should be easier for me and for the people I teach. 

And so, that's what we are shooting for in the 10 months that are left with me. Sorry all I didn't send anything out last week. I was working on this email when all the power went out in the computer lab we were at.

Take care, all,
Elder Andrews

So, what's the house number again?

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