6 Jan 2015 - First time from Mission

Just checking in for the first time in the field.

I left the mission home about 2 hours ago and now in an internet cafe with my comp, Elder Garcia!

He's so great!

He's like the Mexican version of me and I can tell that this is going to a great compañerismo!!!

Obregón es muy bonita y los personas son muy amigables!!!

The weather is perfect and I can't wait to start teaching others!!

I set una meta con Elder Garcia que este primera semana bautizaremos 20 personas!

mis dedos son crusadas!

The mission president, Presidente Munive, is so great and very friendly!

Now that i'm out on a mission, it's really been beat into me how important it is that the members help the missionaries with the process of conversion. So Mom, Dad, Luke. I challenge you guys to pray and try to find one person this week that you can refer to the missionaries, because we can't do it on our own. Let the missionaries know on sunday and I know that when we pray for specific things, with sincerity and a righteous deseo, God will bless us with opportunities to act! 

ok, no tengo mucho tiempo pero les amo!!!

Elder Padilla

5 Jan 2015 - Today's the day

Hey, hey!

Today is the day!

The MTC is letting us email the day we get sent to the field and my time has come!

So crazy how fast days went by here but I'm so psyched to get out there, 

oh and whoever said Mexico doesn't get cold, sits on a throne of lies.

I honestly can't wait to get outta here, this place is starting to feel like a prison!

And I can't wait to get to the airport and eat some good ol' McDonald's.

The flight takes off at 5:25p.m.

I know I've been so blessed in my life and I can see the Hand of the Lord in my life.

This week has been incredible and I don't trade these memories and experiences I've made for the world.

Love you all!

Elder Padilla

Our farewell pictures. If you're wondering why my neck is scrunched up is because the collar on the shirt was super loose......I mean, I'm huge so that's why.

another pic from the temple

This is me with the legendary Elder Yela, Arguably my favorite Latino! he converted three years ago and he's so great!

We tried. 

Fire in the sky.

This is my  teacher, hes so crazy

The GQ photoshoot. Me and the roommates. 

The newly called zone leaders. The one on my left is from Toronto! 

The coolest guy ever right here, he's from Brazil. He's into american rock bands like AC/DC hahahha so cool

These guys crack me up and the one on my right reminds me of John Walker.

Got a picture with Sister Harris' niece! 

President Pratt! aka Grandpa Padilla, Doing our going away presentation! 

Everyone who leaves today. try to find me.

Me on the third floor of our apartment complex. without the flash, I promise I'm not in front of a green screen

1 Jan 2015- Happy New Year

Feliz Año Nuevo!!!

Este semana pasada fue so great!!!

I got my flight plans ir a Obregón en Martes y estoy muy feliz y listo!

This week was full of goodbyes and hellos!

Goodbye to our zone leaders y uno de los districtos en nuestro zone salir a Estados Unidos!

I miss them but I only have 4 días más until I leave!

As the older district we, as a class, got to teach the newer guys or the ''más verdes'' and it was so cool because sometimes you don't get to see the fruits of your labors but after I taught Elder Gibson he told me that he wanted to be as fluent as I am by week 6, and that really hit me and made me think about all the progress I've made while aquí en el CCM!

Our district took group pictures for the ''goodbye ceremony'' that the president does for leaving missionaries every Sunday and while we were waiting I was dancing, appropriately, to some music I could hear outside the walls of the CCM and Hermana Jones, one of the mission president counselor's wife came up to me and said '' Well, I hope you can pray as well as you can dance'' and I got volunteered to say the pray at the devotional on Sunday! Yes! 

But yeah, today Elder Afualo and I had to pack and weigh our bags for the flight and both of his bags weighed 52ish pounds, hahahahaha! 

Yes I received the picture from Dad and that's soooo cool!! That tie has been to Mexico and back and I guess wanted more? He's a brave one.

The family looks great and Luke is wearing my shirts I see. ahhhh yesss the old, '' Wait til he leaves on his mission then wear his clothes trick, not bad.''

Thanks for Matt's email, i guess I'll just use google translate until the Spanish comes along......then I'll use it again to translate the Spanish to Brazilian.

So during one of our devotionals with the new soon to be CCM President, he spoke about the power of prayer and specifically the power of specific prayer.

He told a story about when he was being called to be a general authority but he wasn't married yet, and he needed to get married and how he had a specific window of time to get married or else, I guess!! hahaha

So he prayed that he would find someone that wanted to marry him and turns out a new family moved to the ward and so to make a long story short, ''I made my move''

hahahaha and he wrote her a 30 some odd paper about why she should marry him and I guess it worked!!!! Some women like romance and some women like reading. 

But anyways the moral of the story was not to be commanded in all things but that when we need, not want, but need things in our lives and we give God our game plan He will ''consecrate thy performance''

So i tried it out the next day at breakfast. They gave us french toast but they'd ran out of syrup and so I prayed that by the time I had finished my peanut butter sandwich, they would restock their syrup.

didn't happen.

But today for breakfast we had pancakes and wouldn't ya know it, there was syrup upon the land once again. Balance restored and I thought of the scripture that says ''for ye receive no witness until after the trial of your faith.'' 

I appreciate the scriptures more and more now, now that I've been able to apply them to my life now and then.

Now that it's a new Year I've started to reflect on 2014 and realize how far I've come from then. Seems like only yesterday ha, and the more and more I think about it the less I think of ''how much I've grown'' to ''how much the Lord has blessed me with opportunities to grow through the experiences I've had!''

Its so great to be serving in this time and I know that I'm here on the Lord's time and I'm going to try as hard as I can to make Him proud of how I've spent it.

It helps me to know that i have a loving Heavenly Father who gives me a family like you guys to set me on the right path for my life and to guide me in my years of learning. Thanks Mom and Dad, love you guys!

I know my Redeemer lives and I know that families can be together forever. I know Joseph Smith saw God the Eternal Father and Jesus Christ and I know through him all of the everlasting gospel was restored upon the Earth! 

In an Elder Holland general conference talk he spoke about missionary work and he said, ''missionaries are not called to fail. they are called to succeed.'' and I know that God sends the Holy Ghost to bring authority and light to our words!!!

I love this work and the way my life has changed because of it!

I love you guys!

Until Next time. your favorite Mexican.

Elder Padilla. 

18 Dec 2014 - Spanish going well

Hey so much has gone on this week I can barely remember!!

I'll start with some sad news, 

the Elder with the back problem went home this past Tuesday because he couldn't handle the pain

He prayed and felt that he needed to go back home and continue his mission there

I know that he was sent to the CCM for a reason because he strengthened mi testimonio a ton!

Yo sé que mediante de el Espiritu Santo, sentimos los sentimientos en nuestro corazónes para nuestras vidas y para la guía en nuestras vidas.

The message of the Restoration has been the ''topic of discussion'' en mi clase y mi estudias tambien.

Yo quiero todas las personas a saber de el Evangelio de Jesucristo y especialmente, la Expiación.

Me encanta este obra y sé este es donde mi Padre Celestial quiere mi a ser!!!!

Ayer fue a bit deficil,

As a district, we've been neglecting the importance of personal study and I had to be the bad guy and tell everyone to buckle down

I let them all know that I hate beating around the bush and let them know that if they weren't here to do the Lords work, why are they here?

It was followed by an ''increase in love'' but this was a great learning moment for all of us.

I love this work so much and i actually got to teach Hermana Alonso, mi maestra, la importancia de familias.

what else......

today I got to visit the temple para la tiempo segundo! Its still closed but just being on the grounds is spiritually uplifting!!!

and i got so sweet ties!!! I'm bringing zip up ties back into style!!

I cant believe I'm in week 4 of the CCM!! Lifes moving fast, and i think Ferris Buller said it best, ''if you don't take the time to stop and look around, you might miss it''

My studies have been getting better and im so digging Nephi, Helaman's son, right now!!!

God gives Nephi the sealing power to ''bind in heaven what is bond on earth''

He tells Nephi that if you want to make a moutain into smooth land, so be it!!! So cool!

oh yeah!! I'll call you guys on Christmas day (dec 25) at 2:00 pm Mexico city time, which is i believe 1:00pm Utah time but I'm not sure

I miss you guys but to be honest I forget about home most of the time when I'm out here!

Luke, is going to be the next David Archuleta! That's crazy sweet that he got to sing at the National convention of those who are able to sing, In DC!

haha!

Love you all and cant wait to talk to you guys on Christmas!! Pictures are on the way.

Feliz Navidad,

Elder Padilla

This was the night before Elder Wazden left!! (he's to my left)

me inside the visitor center

hahahaha this guy was in the middle of traffic riding his horse!! Mexico is so rad!!!

So apparently there's only a few temples in the world with the angel Moroni holding the scriptures and Mexico City is one of them.

God Bless Mexico!!!

11 Dec 2014- Week Two in MTC- Temple Visit

Wow, so much has gone on this week I don't even know where to begin. One of the guys in our district has been having terrible back pain and he prayed and felt like he needed to go home. So as a district the 9 of us and the 2 zone leaders gave him a blessing!! it was so great!! I felt the spirit so strong and I know that when we are worthy we can have the companionship of the spirit to guide our words in the very moment. 

So this week we had companionship inventory! and it was much needed. companionship inventory is when the two companions talk and discuss about things they think are good and bad that each other is doing. its so that if there is anything prohibiting them from working as one, they get it out in the open and are able to move on and better improve their companionship!  I got the opportunity to be blunt with a few of the missionaries and I probably hurt their feelings but as a representative of Jesus Christ, its unacceptable to be wasting time, cracking jokes and getting distracted from the purpose of being out here. Being district leader gets hard at times because everyone looks to me for the example including the teachers, zone leaders, branch presidencies....its a lot of pressure but I'm not dead yet. 

So me and Elder Afualo are teaching two investigators a week now. we had a lesson Monday night, one on Tuesday morning and one on Friday and Saturday night. its exciting to share not only what you know to be true but what you feel in su corazon es verdad. 

My Spanish is really coming along and I've memorized la primera vision, proposito misional, y la invatacion a ser bautizado. I bore my testimony on fast Sunday and cried like a nino because I just knew what I was saying to everyone was what I truly felt. I don't know, this whole mission thing has been way crazy and I couldn't have asked for a better situation.  I'm trying my best to make you guys proud (mom and dad) and I wont ever forget whose name is next to Jesucristo. Take care and pictures are on the way! 

PS
hahaha oh man I cant believe I almost forgot this, hey mom! so when we went to the temple visitor center, one of the missionaries there is from Oregon so I asked him about it!! hahaha he said yeah ''you better look out for the drug lords, there's a big drug line that runs through Oregon.'' but yeah I'm psyched and he seemed pretty chill! that's all for now, talk to you guys next week! and Luke, kill it out there on ur play, good luck man! I'll pray for you!

hahaha im not sure what instrument this is, but it sounds like a mix between an accordion and a broken trumpet. haha 

oh yeah there's some really important Mexican holiday, either today or tomorrow and we saw a ton of people carrying Mary on their backs.

oh yeah there's some really important Mexican holiday, either today or tomorrow and we saw a ton of people carrying Mary on their backs.

some places we saw on the way to and from the temple! so cool

some places we saw on the way to and from the temple! so cool

hahahaha heres me on a nachoooooo libre bike we found by the temple, there's so many in mexico.

opened it and hung it up,

oh yeah we went to the temple today. it was rad

these are my roomies!! the two natives left earlier this week so the four of us cant wait to get some fresh meat, or as we like to call them ''muy verdes''

our first investigator!! Luis Loya! hes so cool and he thought it was hard to stop drinking coffee until we told him, as missionaries, we cant have any chicas. haha

4 Dec 2014- First post from MTC

Actually everything is going great!!! So first off I´m district leader and its wayyy sweet cuz the people in my district are really spiritual!! we have 10 elders y 2 hermanas!!! the language is coming very well and my companion (Elder Afualo) is so cool!!! We have this goof ball redneck guy, Elder Loren and i thought at first that he was gonna be a hassel but turns out he has such a strong testimonio y cuando he was speaking he got everyi9ne in the room to cry!! but yeah today, Thursday is my P-day and we started off right by throwing up some iron in la gimnasio. but yeah, 

we've been teaching this investigator who comes to the CCM (MTC) to learn because he's a friend of one of the teachers aqui and tonight is his last lesson before he gets baptized so psyched to be moving along the lords work and ''reaping the harvest''. the food is like none other, frutas y completas y pollo y a few times they make spaghetti......I know right!!!! 

anyways i've made a ton of amigos aqui and our teacher, Hermana Alonso is such a spiritual power house its so crazy...man, so much has gone on here it feels like i've been here for a month! the Thanksgiving devotional Elder Benar spoke and I saw Brandon H because it was broadcast from the Provo MTC!!! hahahaha that guyyy. but yeah i'm doing well....well i mean there's a sore in mouth that's been buggin me and our shower spills into the rest of the bathroom all the time, but besides that, todo bien. oh yeah so mi companero y mi live in this apartment which has three separate rooms but solo uno baño. no bueno. but anyways one of the other elders that lives with us is Elder Burke and hes from Maryland. Have you, mom or dad, ever met a Hermano o Hermana Burke? cuz they go to the DC Temple.

After week 2 we are only aloud to speak Spanish, as of right now we can speak English outside of la clase pero no hablamos ingles anywhere despues semama 2. I'll lnk some pictures of me and the gang, there's two elders y dos hermanas that are gonna be in the obregon mission con mi. cant wait! they are so rad and one of the elders ( ELder Robbins) es from Canada! he lives in Alberta somewhere i think and i asked if he knew of any Bullocks and he said '' man theres a ton of Bullocks in Canada'' haha so yeah! oh and he also said, not sure if this is true, that theres a place in one of the provinces in Canada where everyone has to keep there from doors unlocked because if their being chased by a polar bear you can run for protection en the closet house, hahahahha so crazy. i hope its true, ask Jessie about it. 

So you know how Matt calls gay guys scorpions in his mission? well here, the native elders call other elders snakes, hahaha because when a fine Sister walks by there eyes go all wide like a snake hahahhaa!! the native elders are great!! anyways yo sé la Evangelio de Jesucristo es verdadero y yo sé Dios es nuestro Padre Celestial! El Libro de Mormon es verdadero y yo sé en mi corazon, el Espiritu Santo puede testificar de la verdad a todos las personas en la tierra! can´t to hear back from yall. 

Elder Padilla 

room

view from room

the native elders we live with (Elder Ramos y Elder Juarez)

the "family"

other Obregon elder

me and the Canadian

the picture with the five of us in front of the sign is the missioaries going to Obregon!

the obregon crew prays for todos de los niños de Dios!

26 Nov 2014- Made it to Mexico Safe and Sound

Mom,

Hey I made it! imma make you proud momma! The flight was great and I talked to some guys about the gospel! I'm alive and well and ready to do the lords work! OK adios for now, write you soon.