23 Feb 2015 - All Spanish

Querida Familia,
Este semana pasada fue bien loca! Muchas experiencias que, en verdad, han cambiado mis pensamientos y han empezado a llegar a ser las cosas que motivarme.  No puedo esperar cuando me convierta en fluidez en español pero casi allí.  Puedo entender casi todas las cosas que la gente me dice pero a veces hay un palabra que no entiendo y es esencial en la frase y me confundo. Por ejemplo, en lección uno, hay pasos de doctrine que deben compartirse con los investigadores para ellos a entender exactamente cómo se restauró esta iglesia.  Yy pensé que escuché Elder García dice algo acerca de los profetas así que eso es donde me recogió. Y entonces empecé a hablar sobre el ministerio terrenal de Jesucristo y fue un poco de un desastre . Después de la lección que estaba un poco enojado , pero luego se dio cuenta de que todavía estoy un verde.
Una cosa que estoy muy agradecido por es la oportunidad a ejercer el poder del sacerdocio y la autoridad que me ha sido dada. Sé que los bendiciones para los afligidos literalmente es un bendición, pero también en un bendición para mí.  Y me he dado cuenta cómo importante es a ser digno de este poder en todos los tiempos, en todas las cosas y en todos los lugares.  
Así tenemos este investigador y él tiene 18 años y es muy extrovertido! También él tiene un deseo fuerte a llegar a ser un miembro de esta iglesia. El otro día, antes de aceptando su fecha bautismo, él nos dijo que quiere llegar a ser un misionero como nosotros. Yo estaba pensando, QUE SUAVE!!!! Estoy muy feliz, pero nosotros le dijimos que un misión no solo es diversión y que es un gran sacrificio pero también es un gran bendición. Pero sí, él nos acompañó a la iglesia este Domingo pasado y está progresando muy bien!  A partir de ahora su bautismo se fija para el 21 de marzo.  Tenemos gran deseos por él. 
haha un otra cosa que sucedió esta semana es que encontramos un familia, Guillermo y Elsa y sus 2 hijos! Ellos son muy amigables y les gusta nuestro mensaje.  Ellos no pudieron a asistir la capilla en Domingo pero Guillermo ha tenido dolores en su corazón últimamente y no sé tal vez él necesitaba a reposar. Pero hemos les visitados dos veces y cada vez fue muy bien. Primero vez les damos un folleto de Plan de salvación y entonces el segundo vez verificamos si ellos leerlo.  Elsa leerlo y también contestado las preguntas en el parte posterior en el folleto. Fue muy bien! Y ellos nos preguntamos sobre la vida de un misionero, no sé porque, pero ellos tenían preguntas acerca de dinero hahaha y ellos nos dijeron si nuestras familias no nos quieren más, que nos van a dar comida y dinero y todo lo que las cosas que necesitamos! ayúdales tan grande! que son prácticamente de la familia!! 

Espero que puedo quedar en esta area para más tiempo porque en verdad, estoy empezando a amar la gente aquí!!

Le amo mucho!

Elder Padilla       

Google Translate - 

Dear Family,

This past week was really crazy! Many experiences that truly have changed my mind and started to become things that motivate me. I can not wait when I become fluent in Spanish but almost there. I can understand almost everything people tell me but sometimes there's a word you do not understand and is essential in the sentence and get confused. For example, in lesson one, there are steps doctrine to be shared with researchers for them to understand exactly how this church was restored. Yy I thought I heard Elder Garcia says something about prophets so that's where I picked it up. And then I started talking about the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ and was a bit of a disaster. After the lesson I was a little angry, but then realized that I'm still green.

One thing I am very grateful for is the opportunity to exercise the priesthood power and authority has been given to me. I know the blessings for the afflicted is literally a blessing, but also a blessing for me. And I've noticed how important consideration is to be worthy of this power at all times, in all things and in all places.

So we have this researcher and he is 18 and is very outgoing! He also has a strong to become a member of this church desire. The other day, before accepting his baptism date, he told us he wants to become a missionary like us. I was thinking, How Sweet !!!! I am very happy, but we told a mission is not just fun and that's a big sacrifice but also a great blessing. But yes, he accompanied us to church this past Sunday and is progressing nicely! From now his baptism was set for March 21. We have great desire for him.

haha one else happened this week is that we found a family, William and Elsa and her 2 children! They are very friendly and like our message. They could not attend the chapel on Sundays but Guillermo has had pain in his heart lately and I do not know maybe he needed to rest. But we have visited them twice and each time was great. First time we give them a brochure Plan of salvation and then the second time we check if they read it. Elsa read and answered the questions in the back of the brochure. It was great! And they wonder about the life of a missionary, I do not know why, but they had questions about hahaha money and they told us if our families do not want us, we will give food and money and all the things that need! they're so great! are practically family !!

I hope I can be in this area for more time because in truth, I'm starting to love the people here !!

I love you very much!

Elder Padilla  

''But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.'' (John 4:14)

16 Feb 2015 - More Street and Soccer Contacting

Querida Familia,

So good news, Elder García and I are still comps and we're still bothering people on the streets as missionaries do best.

This week was so rad! So one of the families that we contacted at the soccer game last week we visited and we had a great lesson. It was a little hard at first because Satan kept sending his messengers (the mailman, the phone person, the dogs barking) to interrupt our lesson, but once we started rolling with the lesson the spirit was there and had everyone focused. They felt it as well as us and the four of the family members accepted a baptism date in march! So pumped!

So one of our favorite families in the ward, a young couple with a baby boy, moved this past week and it was sad. The husband's name is Ivan and he's like a short Mexican Tony Stark who takes pictures for a living and its actually pretty cool. On Friday we helped them clean and pack their house and our lunch appointment fell through so we grabbed some Little Caesars with them! Because Elder García and I wouldn't let them pay us for helping out Ivan gave us a photo shoot! It was so cool! I don't have the pictures from his camera but I have a few from my own. Anyways that was rad!

More good news. We have an investigator and she's been back and forth with problems with depression and Elder García and I have prayed for her and have studied for her and it all paid off when she showed up to church this past Sunday. It was a little unexpected because in our last lesson with her we had planned to meet a few blocks from the church at the bus stop and all walk to the chapel together. Church starts at 11 am and we planned to meet at 10:45. Well 10:45 rolls around, then 10:55 and she's still not there so Elder García and I book it to the chapel. We get there and there aren't any priests at the sacrament table so we go up and sit. As we sit back and look into the crowd of members, waving at us is our investigator!! hahaha!! She'd forgotten about our plans I guess and had been waiting for us in the chapel, I said a quick prayer of gratitude because I knew that this was going to be the first to the many steps of faith she'll take. So grateful for the miracles of this work. They build and shape my testimony and little by little i become more converted to this gospel.

Last Pday we watched the first vision in Spanish and I understood most of it. But in my personal studies I've been reading The Book of Mormon and pondering about this language barrier that I have with the people here and I came across a scripture in 2 Nefi 31:3 dice: ''Porque el Señor Dios ilumina el entendimiento; pues él habla a los hombres de acuerdo con el idioma de ellos, para que entiendan.'' ( Google Translate- For the Lord God enlightens the understanding ; for he speaketh unto men according to their language , to understand) And I pondered this and thought about all the languages in the world. And then I thought about the passage in John 10 talking about how the sheep know His voice. I believe that there´s a universal language in this world, and its the language of the the Spirit in our hearts. It's those feelings from the spirit that can't always be explained in the same words but can always be felt from the same source. I may not be fluent in this language but having the Spirit with me as I teach is more powerful than any words I could share. I know that this gospel is true and that everyone can know for themselves when they take that step of faith and ask with sincerity for the truth.

I'm having the time of my life out here and I know this is where my Heavenly Father needs me to be.

I love you guys!

Elder Padilla 

''The wonder of television causes me to believe that Philo T. Farnsworth, back in 1927, must surely have been inspired of the Lord to develop this remarkable medium of communication.'' -M. Russell Ballard (General Conference April 1989)

''Seek not to declare my word, but first seek to obtain my word, and then shall your tongue be loosed; then, if you desire, you shall have my Spirit and my word, yea, the power of God unto the convincing of men.'' (Doctrine and Covenants 11:21)

9 Feb 2015 - Blacked out Caddy... HOT DAYS already

Querido Familia,

This past week has been pretty tough. I'm starting to feel the heat more and more as the months go by and it's not even summer yet. The worst was Friday and literally nobody was opening up to us. I think this past week was just a preview for June and July. If you read Jonah 4:8 you'll understand. But hey, life goes on.

As a missionary I feel like when you search your day for the blessings you've received, Heavenly Father is really looking out for you. As well as the heat this past week it seemed like everyone in the ward got together, found out when it would be inconvenient to feed the missionaries and then planned our meals exactly when our appointments were, because that's exactly what happened. We had finished our second meal with a member and we needed to be on the other side of our area and we had 5 minutes.  So we started to run and then we started to walk really fast because running hurt so bad.  Next thing we know we hear a honking behind us and this blacked out Cadillac rolls up and my first thought was ''Ok, every man for himself'' because I'd heard stories and as cool as it is to be a movie star, I'm not trying to be starred in the ''Saratov Approach 2''. But we wait to see who it is. The window rolls down and it's an old man and he asks if we need a ride. We don't know him but we hop in because he seemed friendly. His name is Jonathan and turns out he's Roman Catholic and he's super interested in what we have to say. So on the way to our appointment we talk to him and he asks if we could come by his house and teach his whole family!!! How perfect is that?! In one of the general conference talks I heard in the MTC it said that God calls imperfect people to complete a perfect work.  And it goes on to say how people are prepared and being prepared everyday to hear this message, it's up to us missionaries to go out and find the ones that are ready to take that step of faith. 

On another note, as a zone we make goals for our weekly and daily progress. One of the goals, that has now been adopted by the entire mission, is that as individual companionship's we need to have at the least 10 contacts in the calle before we return home for the night and with this heat it's been a little tricky.  But lucky for us, we live in a neighborhood that has a soccer field and soccer games almost every night. With all the people who watch the games its easy to find people to talk to and Elder Garcia played a ton of soccer so he knows the Spanish soccer lingo which initiates the conversation and then we end up giving them a pass a long card and sharing with them a bit about the Restoration. I honestly feel like when anyone talks about the Restoration of this church to someone whose never heard it, it really sparks an interest and leaves them curious to know more. Whether its the Holy Ghost promoting them to want to know more or its just their own wonderings, it's very powerful to share this message because we're the only church on the earth that has it. 

Lastly, this is the final week before cambios on Sunday, moment of truth. Me and Elder Garcia in our letters to the President have asked that we could be comps one more time just so we could finish out my training as him as my trainer but he's been here for 6 months already so I guess we'll just have to wait and see. Fingers crossed!

Love you guys,

Elder Padilla

''And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!'' (Doctrine and Covenants 76:22)

''But if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.'' (1 Timothy 5:8) 

 ''And behold, this will I give unto you for a sign at the time of his coming; for behold, there shall be great lights in heaven, insomuch that in the night before he cometh there shall be no darkness, insomuch that it shall appear unto man as if it was day.'' (Helaman 14:3)

2 Feb 2015 - Spanish Firsts

Dear Family,

Oh what a week I've had! We had so many meetings this week (at least one a day excluding Wednesday) and I'm just glad it's over to be honest! Sometimes I feel like the amount of meetings we have interferes with the amount of work we're able to accomplish!

Exciting news though! Me and Elder Garcia had our first baptism this past Saturday! His name is Juan Diego and our bishop got the pleasure of baptizing him! He's really strong in this gospel and I really believe that because we've had members fellow-shipping him early (even before he was baptized) he's been able to become more and more comfortable coming to church and really contributing to the ward! He was confirmed by Elder Garcia in Sacrament meeting yesterday and standing in the circle was so cool and the spirit was so strong!

Baptism Whoo!

But yeah as I said many meetings, baptism, more meetings. Me and Elder Garcia were trying to beat our mission record this past week of ''the number of new investigators in one week''. We set it at 17 but this past week we only got 16, so close haha but yeah, finding and teaching families is the best!

There was a lot of ''firsts'' for me this week, including first baptism, last Sunday I got to bless the sacrament the first time in Spanish and also gave my first blessing in Spanish! The blessing was way cool because it was our first time ever meeting this lady and her niece. We'd just finished our last lesson with Juan Diego and we had only walked about 100 feet and Elder Garcia said, ''Hey lets knock his neighbor's door'' so we did and they invited us in and we had a great lesson and the spirit was so strong!!! 

So it doesn't rain here very often and i actually spoke with an Elder, Elder Ortega (district leader), and he said it hasn't rained here for about 8 months. sooooo I guess we were over due becuase its rained almost every day this week. One day it was really sunny but the rest of the week was downpour! Those giant rain boots that everyone has been laughing at me for having are now laughing in all the faces of those whose socks are soaked, so there! But yeah they're actually pretty comfortable after a while and they keep my feet room temperature, always a perk.

On Friday, every gringo and his/her companion got to go to Obregón for a special meeting for new, white missionaries! We met with Presidente and Hermana Munive and the assistants to the president and we talked about our progress in the mission so far. We say videos from the district and practiced teaching each other. Each group of 4 had a leader of some sorts evaluate the teaching and of course the one for our group was the mission president himself and Elder Garcia and I were assigned to teach Ley de Castidad. WHOO! haha na it was great, we work well together and can pretty much finish each others sentences. So helpful though!

Because last Sunday was fast and open mic night meeting, there was many who bore their.....thoughts. It was nice but a little strange. There's an investigator that comes to our ward every Sunday. Nobody really knows him and hes tall, skinny and Elder Garcia and I are 99 percent sure he comes to church stoned. I guess we all have our agency. He also asks people for their names, and then he would write it down on the inside of the Book of Mormon I gave him and then he'd walk away. Hahaha! Hes great though.

But yeah, I'm doing great, mission is great, the food is great, the work is great! 

Love you Guys!

Elder Padilla numero tres.    

26 Jan 2015 - Candle Water??

Hola familia,

This week was way sweet, I'm trying to decide where to begin, oh wait I know exactly where to begin. 

So we had our first interview with the president this past week and it was way sick, it wasn't even really an interview, more of a chat on how you and your companion are getting along or any problems you may be having. So yeah apparently me and Elder Garcia set the record for the mission for having the most new investigators in one week, 17.  Was so great to hear that all this work is being noticed by someone, but I'm sure Heavenly Father appreciates it the most.  This work is so crazy and great and really pumps me up!! On Wednesday I was super tired for some reason (and not because I went to bed late haha) but yeah as soon as we started contacting people on the street I started to ''wake up'' I'm not exactly sure how it works but I just had so much more energy and had a burning desire to share this message.  Every morning we pray as a companionship to be able to find others to share this gospel with and everyday we are blessed with opportunities, no matter how strange the circumstance, they come. 

So pretty much every weekend is a party here and they have a pre-party on Friday night to get ready for Saturday I guess, anyways me and Elder Garcia were on our way back to the house, it was about 8:45ish and this barracho stopped us in the street.  Its a rule not to teach them because they're not themselves when they're under the influence but this guy literally wouldn't let us leave so we spoke with him, I was trying so hard not to laugh because not even my Mexican companion could understand what he was saying.  We found out his name was Jesus and wrote down his name and where he lives.  I don't maybe we'll go and visit him in the next life or something. Haha or during the week when él tiene su cerebro.  But yeah also we had lunch at a member's home yesterday and in Mexico they have this drink that everyone calls, agua, but let me stand as a witness before the court to testify that it is most definitely not agua.  Agua is clear and puro and i shower with it and I think Ive seen it once or twice and remember what it looks like and tastes like. This stuff is a mix of water and milky powder and honestly tastes like a melted candle.  It has a very nice smell, like a candle but it tastes, well, like a candle. Earlier in the week during companion study Elder Garcia showed me a scripture in Lucas 10:16. So during the meal when no one was looking I asked Elder Garcia if he wanted my ''agua'' and his response to me was mas o menos, ''Elder remember the scripture? Don't you want to be exactly obedient?'' ahhhhhh so I downed it real quick and can now say that I've had the most exotic drink on my mission, its called ''the candle''. 

 

Man I love this mission though, I forgot to take a picture with one this week, but I literally see horses and stray dogs in the streets all the time, some times there's more dogs on the streets than people. This isn't why i love my mission but its something fun about it.  I love this mission because this where I was called by Heavenly Father to serve.  This is where He needs me, so this is where I'll be for the next two years of my life.  It's kinda cliche but it's so true and I'm never afraid to share this testimony with people I meet.  I love this gospel and the person it's turning me into.  

One of the nights this week, we got to see the video of John Tanner, who became the chief financial backer of the Kurtland Temple.  His great, great grandson is in this same mission! Small world.

Thursday night we had dinner at a member's home.  The grandmother that is the mother of the mom of the family lives with the family and she is less active and we were able to teach her but probably one of the craziest stories I've ever heard from a primary source was when the mom of the family told me and Elder Garcia about the time she went to the spirit world. Its a very sacred experience so I wont share the details but the things she said just blew my mind and her testimony of family just hit me like a truck! 

Speaking of blowing minds, I started to read Jesus the Christ, got 3 pages in and my head exploded! ha, soooo much doctrine and just things that are, not necessarily new, but are just different ways of thinking or seeing an event at a different perspective.  I'm hoping to finish it by the end of my mission along with the bible.

I hope all is well in the land of the free!

I'm healthy and well, thanks mom.

Love you guys,

Elder Padilla the third.

If this picture doesn't inspire you to go do some missionary work I don't know what will

Found the entrance of the Free masons, who knew they'd be hiding in Mexico?