12 Oct 2015 - I'm doing really well and learning lots of good knowledge.

Dear Family,

This week and month we've been really focused on how we can work better with the members. We've tried planing activities and encouraging them to have the ward counsels but if an area 70 comes i'm not going to be surprised. 

Some of the members still have this crazy idea that the missionaries do everything. 

We watched a video this past week in our zone conference that talked about how the missionaries are here to help the members fulfill their responsibilities to activate, baptize and find, not the other way around.

So this week its our job to show this video to all the members and let it cut where it cuts. I'm not bashing because there are those who are super excited to help us but what we're learning right now is that if we're not 100 percent with all the members working together, the work can not move forward.

We're teaching this lady and she's super funny and super ready to be baptized, she just doesn't know it yet. 

When we asked her if she'd ever prayed to God to know what is the truth she said ''No, and you wanna know why? Its because if I do, he'll send me trials of my faith and I don't want that.'' hahaha

shes super hilarious and super honest with us but we just need to help her find a beginning to learn to trust in God. Because we explained that no matter if we ask God or not, we're going to have challenges in our life, the only thing we're inviting her to do is accept God's Holy Ghost in her life to help you through these difficulties.

It was a little sad this zone conference because a few of my good buddies are heading home for mission impossible 2 ''Temple Marriage''.  One is Elder Ramos, one of my comps and the other is Elder Juarez, my second district leader.

I'm doing really well and learning lots of good knowledge.

I've started to read the Jesus the Christ book again. It's pretty cool the few sentences that I've understood. 

Oh man hahaha almost forgot,

So we were eating lunch at a members house yesterday and her husband isn't member. They're both 25 or 30 years old, not really sure, but we start to talk about the Gospel of Jesus Christ with them and she leaves because the baby starts to cry and so we continue. When we get to Endure to the end, he asks ''Endure to the end? Does this include if, for example: one person who is married goes off to dance with another man or woman who his or her wife or husband doesn't know and returns like nothing happened..is this enduring to the end?'' and I said ''I think there should be unity, communication and understanding in every relationship.'' nothing more. And he yelled ''I knew it!!! HONEY (yelling to his wife) Get in here! You need to hear this!!!'' So without knowing I'd started a family feud and he thought that I was siding with him and wow was that uncomfortable hahaha. but we explained everything and I guess we'll see if we have food to eat this next Sunday. pray for us. haha

I love  you all And I hope you are ''milking it for all its worth'' to have a temple close by. :'(

Elder Padilla

They both leave 24 of Oct

We had a birthday party/zone conference. Woo!

The baptism from a few weeks back. RICHARD!!! aka Ricardo

 

5 Oct 2015- Loved Conference!

Dear Family,

This week was crazy. We are working a ton. we are changing a lot of things to have better results.

I loved the conference. I watched about half of it in Spanish and then when Russell M. Nelson started talking about girls I think was when I started to watch in English.

Elder Padilla

I love you all.

28 Sep 2015 - Short and sweet

This week went super well,

We had an entire family and a half in the church.

That's crazy about Brandon's Farewell talk but I'm glad to hear that there's another missionary out in the field.

This week we had a ton of success and was super awesome to see our convert, Ricardo, and his son, receive the priesthood.

I don't have  a ton to say this week and the computer I'm using is super slow so that'll be all for this week.

I love you all.

Elder Padilla

21 Sep 2015 - Be happy, Be Mormon!

Dear family, 

These days are flying, can't believe that I'm going to hit my 10 month mark this week. Mexico is so great. Recently we've been finding people of pure gold, they're really excited about our message. My comp Elder Reyes and I work really well together and he's so great!! Whenever we get down about an appointment that gets canceled or something like that we're able to keep the energy and try as hard as we can to find someone new. What we're doing right now is finding and leaving. If the people we teach don't progress within a 2 week period, we leave them because we're wasting our time and there are people that are waiting for us today, not in two or three weeks. 

We had a baptism this past Saturday his name is Ricardo. His wife and son were baptized and now all three plus the 2 year old daughter can prepare one year to be sealed as an eternal family. There is nothing better in this life and nothing better in this work than to see those who are willing and ready to make these sacred covenants with our Heavenly Father. I know that God loves us. I know that the greatest prophet who ever lived is Jesus Christ and that through him all mankind will be saved if we come unto Him with our broken hearts and our spirits contrite. 

Luke, if you haven't started to prepare for your mission now, start. Make a goal. Pray for the opportunity to share the gospel with a friend and then be ready to do so. Read the Book of Mormon and gain a testimony of the divinity and power of it. Study, if nothing more, chapter 3 of Preach my gospel and share the lessons with mom and dad in family home evening. I hear Matt will be home soon, he can help you practice. Be a light little brother. I miss you and hope that by the time I get home we can go on a double date or something. ;)

Before my mission I didn't realize how much the members are truly evolved in the work of salvation. I thought it was the work of the missionaries and when they called I'd help out for an hour or so and that'd be it but now as a missionary my point of view has flipped and we really depend on them as much as they do on us. The hastening of the work has already started and Heavenly Father is counting on us to minister to those who don't have what we have. I hope that everyone whose last name is Padilla can offer a prayer this week in specific to ask for opportunities to share the gospel whether it be in New York, Canada, Spanish Fork, Farmington, Idaho, Osbourn Park or with our friends at work. We pray with faith and real intent, He gives with confidence. Be happy, Be Mormon!

I love you guys mucho!

Elder Padilla

14 Sep 2015 - re-dedication of the Temple in Mexico City

Dear Family, 

This week was so great! 

As a mission we were able to see the re-dedication of the temple in Mexico City and also the cultural session beforehand. It was transmitted to our various buildings so we were able to invite our investigators. Haha so you know how before you iron a shirt its all wrinkley, well ''to iron'' in Spanish,well here in my area, the people say planchar. And they people use it to say, for example, ''Oh he planched you'' to mean ''Oh he yelled at you or corrected your behavior''. Its like when the president has ''Special interviews'' with those missionaries that are doing  things that they shouldn't. So I tell you this because when our investigators went to the cultural meeting, they received the ''planch'' of a lifetime. hahaa because in the cultural meeting there was a part where it talked about the importance of attending the church and they felt really bad because in the past they were a little lazy about attending..hahha oh well.

Today I received my new companion, his name is Elder Reyes and he has one month more than me in the mission and he's from Puebla, Mexico. Hahaha he reminds me of Matt because you'll ask him for example, ''Can you bring me a fork please?'' and he'll look you right in the eyes and say ''no''. hahah but then he'll leave and return with the fork laughing and then he'll say in his English '' Elder Padilla, why are you crying?'' hahaha This guy..

We're super super psyched for this family that we're teaching right now. This Saturday we're going to baptize the father, Richard, and as a family they'll wait a year to prepare to enter the temple to be sealed. He's so spiritual, he just has a bit of trouble expressing himself.

Ha the people here are so nuts sometimes. The other day we went to the house of the sister whose husband died a few weeks ago. She's doing really well and also is preparing to enter the temple by the way, WHOO! But we entered the house to give some service and we receive a message. The message says'' Hey, I'd like to receive a Book of Mormon and visits to learn about how I can know God.'' We were like, ''NO WAY!!!!!'' so Elder Guardado calls him up and hahahahha my comp's face expressed everything hahaa. At first he was all happy and then he looked puzzled and then he looked sad hahaha

So this guy starts to talk and to my comp and tells him when we can visit and if it'd be possible if the ''handsome young man can visit'' haha oh man and then he tells my comp that he has problems and my comp says ''thats okay, we can help you '' and then he says ''I'm gay'' and then my comp says ''ok, when would you be free for us to visit'' and the he says ''can I be in my underwear when you guys visit?'' hahahaha my comp hung up and told me to erase the address he gave us hahahaha, we were sooooo bummed..

This week we were able to talk with a lot of new people and we found many that are ready to swim.

I'm loving mexico and can't believe Elder Smatt will be home in these next few months.

I love you all.

Elder Padilla

Ps. Ms. Cabello? I heard she really likes it when you talk when she's trying to talk. haha ;)

7 Sep 2015 - All Spanish all the time...

Querida Familia,

Hahaha se pasa con los elderes que andan por bici. Hay un Elder aqui que nos dijo que lo mismo pasó con él pero todos sabemos que él estaba mirando una muchacha y por eso chocó con un camión. haha

Me canse escribir en inlges. En verdad estoy olvidando muchas cosas de ingles. Y ahora español, no sé, es mas facil. Cada vez en cuando encontramos alguien que sabe un poco de ingles como ''Oh yes, very good'' o ''Hello, my friend'' pero hasta allí. Con mi compa, Elder Guardado, hablamos ingles en la casa pero es mas difícil que antes.  

Esta semana aprendí una lección de la vida. Había un desafio en nuestra zona que no estábamos encontrando tantos nuevos investigadores. Entonces hicimos un compromiso, como un distrito,  que ibamos a hablar con toda la gente en la calle que vimos e ibamos a contactar y compartir  algo con ellos. Tenía que marcar todos los compañerismos cada noche para dar suficiente seguimiento para que ellos pudieron trabajar con todo en respecto de este compromiso.  Y vi por la primera vez, el animo que nuestro presidente de misión y nuestro Padre Celestial tienen para la obra y para nosotros como misioneros y vimos como un distrito que podemos lograr muchas cosas cuando nos fijamos metas, pedimos la ayuda del Señor y trabajamos diligentemente a cumplir estas metas. En serio, esta semana pasada fue un otro nivel!! Y ahora todos tenemos investigadores progresando a bautismo. 

Algunas fotos de la semana.

 

p.s. Lucas, disfrute seminario. hahaha

Google Translate:

Dear family,

Hahaha he spent with elders who go by bike. There is an Elder here who told us the same thing happened to him but we all know he was watching a girl and so collided with a truck. haha

I get tired writing inlges. In truth I'm forgetting a lot of English. Spanish And now I do not know, it's easier. Every once in a while we find someone who knows a bit of English as '' Oh yes, very good '' or '' Hello, my friend, '' but there. With my companion, Elder Guardado, speak English at home but is more difficult than before.

This week I learned a life lesson. There was a challenge in our area we were not finding as many new investigators. Then we made a commitment, as a district, we were going to talk with all the people on the street we saw and we were going to contact and share something with them. I had to check all fellowships each night to give sufficient follow so they could work with all in respect of this commitment. And I saw for the first time, the encouragement that our mission president and Heavenly Father have for the work and for us as missionaries and we saw a district that can achieve many things when we set goals, we ask the Lord's help and work diligently to meet these goals. Seriously, this past week was another level !! And now we all have progressed to baptism investigators.

Some photos of the week.

 

P.S. Lucas, enjoy seminar. hahaha

31 Aug 2015 - A ton happened this week

Dear family,

First of all just want to say how proud I am of my only little brother who almost earned himself two tickets this past week. Luke you are the man. 

A ton happened this week. On Tuesday we got a call while we were studying in the morning that one of the recent converts that my comp baptized with his last companion was hit by a semi on his motorcycle. Elder Guardado spoke at him funeral and it was really sad, but to cheer us up the Bishop took us out to eat some pizza. 

The wife was super sad but it's times like these when we realize how blessed we are to have the knowledge that we have of the Plan of Salvation. 

The sisters in the ward had a baptism and it was so great. All the missionaries in the two wards that congregate in the Guamuchil building gathered to sing a special musical number at the baptism.

It went really well.

This past week, the elders in our ward found a woman that lives in our area that is super interested and they gave us her address and number. We went, We saw, We conquered. haha no, but she and her 13 hundred children like to listen and we're going to ask them to be baptized this Wednesday, fingers crossed. 

I'm really loving my mission and I'm learning how to be a better leader.

I love you guys so much,

Elder Padilla.