"Crazy beetle things that come out at night here in La Junta."

"We played minute-it-to-win-it games with the youth."

June 30th, 2015 - Weekly Letter

Family,

    AWWWWEE, I can't believe that Ashton and Cohen were baptized this last week!  That is so exciting!  I was always hoping that I could be there for their baptism, but I'm still super excited that they got baptized!!!!  Sometimes I get excited to come home too, but then I realize that I still have a month to work hard!  Not that I don't like the mission, but I am really excited to see everyone again!!!

    But this last week was really cool!  It wasn't one of the best weeks that I've had in the mission, but it was probably one of the best weeks of my life.  On Tuesday we had a training meeting with President Chavez, and through President, I received an answer to my prayers.  There is something in my patriarchal blessing that is really interesting, and I was doing what it said, but wasn't seeing the blessing that is pronounced there.  There was a word that I didn't understand very well, and even though I studied it a ton I could never figure it out.  There were some days that I would stay up all night thinking about it, and couldn't.....and it made me sad.  But President cleared it up for me!!!!

    “And if your eye be single to my glory, your whole bodies shall be filled with light, and there shall be no darkness in you; and that body which is filled with light comprehendeth all things.”  –D&C 88:67

 “For the word of the Lord is truth, and whatsoever is truth is light, and whatsoever is light is Spirit, even the Spirit of Jesus Christ.”  –D&C 84:45

    In the first verse we learn that a body full of light comprehendeth all things.....like everything!!!  And then in the next verse we learn that the scriptures are true, therefore they are light.  President taught us that when we have light we don't sin, and more, we see miracles.....because we understand and comprehend everything!  We comprehend the reasons why we should do things, which makes it easier to do.  As I came to understand this principle I figured out what that part of my blessing meant....and now I have seen the blessing pronounced.....which increased my testimony.  I get emotional when I think about it, because for all I did to understand my blessing, God knew better when I needed to understand it.  I love Him....and I know He lives....and I know that he watches over us always!  We can't live being a mirror of someone else’s light....we have to learn to produce our own light, so that when we leave on our own we don't sin, but we help in the Lord's work.  The world is dark...and if we can't produce our light, surely we will get lost!

    I just wanted to say thanks to my amazing parents.  Before the mission you both helped me arrive to the point where I'm at, and it was because of the light that you both have.  It was enough to get me here, and I thank you for your help and support, and more than anything, for being worthy!  If it weren't for that who knows where I would be right now!

   I hope you have a great week! Only 29 more days.  29 more days to keep increasing my light of Christ!  I love you all so much and miss you tons!!!!

-Elder Loveless

"Yeah, we played with a ton of water!"

June 22, 2015 - Weekly E-mail

Family,

    What a week!  It's kinda sad here in Mexico because they don't celebrate Father's Day at all.  Like it's just another day.  But HAPPY FATHER'S DAY DAD!!!  Thanks for being an amazing example to me and the rest of the family.  I hope that one day I can be as good a dad as you have been to us!!!!!!

    So this last week for us here in La Junta was good!  We worked a lot and then on Thursday I went to an area in the zone called Matachic.  In that area is where the other district leader, Elder Sanchez is, and the zone leaders wanted us to work together for a few days.  On Saturday it rained ALL day, so we were just wet the whole day, but it was way fun! 

    Another reason I went to Matachic is because President Chavez asked me to play the piano for the district conference of the district Madera.  So on Sunday I played piano for the district conference.  In the district conference was the temple president of Colonia Juarez also, so it was cool to hear from him and his wife.  After the meeting President Chavez took me back to La Junta.  His whole family was there so I got to chat a little bit with them. His daughter was telling me all about the new stuff in the world.......craziness!!!!  Also President Chavez' sister came down to visit, and she was there too.  After she got married she moved to Utah with her husband, and they live in Harvest Hills!!! Small world huh! The only thing though is that she goes to a Spanish ward, but she was telling me about everything that had been happening in Saratoga Springs.  Her name is Sister Herrera, and she is in the Saratoga Springs South stake.  Don't know if you know her, but it just made me realize what a small world it is.  Who would've known that President Chavez' sister lived in the little town of Saratoga Springs.

    So yeah, this week we also baptized!!!! I don't have pictures though because I was Matachic when she got baptized, but it was amazing. On Saturday there was a party at the church to celebrate Father's Day, and so a ton of people went.  The zone leaders ended up baptizing somebody, and then after a little girl and her mom told us that the little girl hadn't been baptized before and wants to.....so of course, she got baptized right then and there.  She's so cute though.....her name is Cinthia and she's 8 years old.  The Lord has been blessing us tons with all of these people!  I know that This is His work, and not mine. 

    So.......I realized yesterday that in one month is my birthday!!! So like......I'm almost 20.  That is kind of old. Well not like really old, but kind of.  So that's coolio!!!

    Well family, thanks for everything that you all do for me.  I love to read the family's letter every week to see what's happening over there in Utah.  I'm so grateful that I was sent to this specific family!!! I wouldn't change you all for the world!!! Thanks for everything and have a great week!!!!  :)

Love Elder Loveless

P.S.  I'm so proud of Emma for starting to drive!!!! YAY!!!

P.S.S.  That's so awesome mom that you are almost finishing the Book of Mormon again. I'm in the middle of Alma!!!!  LOVE IT!

"The kids dressed us up!! Haha!!"

"Baptism of Porfirio!!!"

June 15th, 2015 - Weekly Letter

Family,

    It sounds like you all had a very busy, but awesome week last week!  I guess it's Jon's last high adventure for a while!!!  And with David Matthews, you don't have to go.  I didn't know him that well, so don't worry about it.  I love to see the fun that you're all having over there in Utah.  Is it really hot in Utah right now??? Because here in Chihuahua it's Really hot.  But it's great.....still loving it here in La Junta!

    So this last week was really good!  And it all started with the zone activity we had on Monday.  We just played soccer for a few hours, but we hadn't done that for a while, so I finally got all my energy out again. 

    On Tuesday we had to go to Chihuahua because it was time for my companion to renew his visa.  It was cool because there is a service missionary named Elder Arrieta that is from here in Chihuahua, and he is going to serve his mission in the offices for a year and a half, so when we went we were chatting and he thanked me a ton. He told me that I was one of the reasons he served a mission, because when I was in Lagos and Elayne got baptized, I insisted that he baptize her, even though he has health problems and it was going to be really hard, but he told me that for persisting him so much, it helped him have the desire to serve a mission.  So that was really cool to hear that from him.

   Wednesday was also a great day!  After lunch we went to Maria Elena´s house, one of the members, and we helped her pretty much for the whole day to move stuff around in her house and clean up.  She just barely finished making an extra room so we moved everything from the other room to that room.  Also, for the first time ever I got to see fireflies.  I didn't know that they existed here, but the children of Maria Elena took us out back to look for some, and they're really cool.  So when it started to get later, we played with fireflies!! 

    Then from Thursday to Sunday I went on divisions with Elder Zarco, and my companion went with the other zone leader to another area in the zone.  It was fun, and we worked our butts off, because we had to work in both of our areas, or in other words, the whole city. But it was way fun. When Sunday came around the Lord blessed us and we had 4 investigators at church.

    Sunday night, or last night, we saw a miracle as well.  So about 2 weeks ago we found this kid, 9 years old, that wanted to be baptized, but we could never find him again.  So last night as we were walking around, we only had about an hour until we were supposed to enter into the house, and we found him sitting on the street.  He's what they call a Tarahumara....it's like the original race here.....they're literal Lamanite descendants.  So we found him and we went to baptize him.  I feel really bad for the kid because he was just so happy to go with us to the church.  When we were going to take pictures he grabbed our cameras and started taking pictures like crazy....he had never really seen a camera.  He has a really sad story, but now he's baptized....clean!  And we're going to continue helping him so that he has a better life then he would've had if it weren't for the church. 

     So yeah.....that was my week. Also one of these days last week I was thinking about punishments.  I was thinking, well God does everything with a purpose, and everything He does helps us get closer to Him.....so then why does he punish us??? And that's when I read this in D&C 95:1

   "Verily, thus saith the Lord unto you whom I love, and whom I  love I also chasten that their sins may be forgiven, for with the chastisement I prepare a way for their deliverance in all things out of temptation, and I have loved you."

   So it made me realize that the Lord punishes us to help us NOT have the temptation.  He punishes us as a way to free us from temptation. I hadn't really thought about it much like that, but it's because God loves us....just like it says in the end of the verse. 

    I love this church, I love this gospel, and more than anything, I love my Savior, Jesus Christ.  I wouldn’t trade anything for the blessings that the Lord has gave me throughout my life!!!!

    Thank you all for everything you do!!!  I hope you all have a great week....love you and miss you all!!!

-Elder Loveless

"Me in front of the train."

"Us with the youth."

"Ana, our convert, and her family!!!"

"With one of the little girls from Guerrero!!!"

"With my new piano trumpet."

June 8th, 2015 - Weekly Letter

Family,

    What Sister Randall said is probably actually why I am companions with Elder Vasquez.  I hadn't really thought about that until just now. Tell Sister Randall thanks!!!  I can't believe that everyone is getting married.  That's kinda weird to me......but it’s okay.  I guess that's one of the next steps after the mission.  And that makes me so happy that dad is going to take off work for a few days to help me out.  That's good because I'll probably need a translator!!!  Oh and also, shout out to Jon for becoming assistant manager at Tenny's.  He's working a lot harder than I did before the mission, and that's going to help him a lot during the mission!!!

    So this last week was pretty good.  On Wednesday we had a really cool meeting with President Chavez.  He taught us about the difference between principles and doctrines, and he used the example of the Word of Wisdom.  The principle behind the Word of Wisdom is not just what we shouldn't consume, but it's that our body is a temple.  Principles are laws that have and will exist forever, and so some people wonder why the Word of Wisdom is a principle if it didn't always exist but it did.  In Noah's time, cigarettes didn't exist, and Christ....He also drank wine.....but it's because it was different.  They couldn't eat certain meats, and things like that.  The Word of Wisdom is to help us have our bodies healthy, and for us in our days it's different than back then.  So that was really cool what President taught us. 

    Then it was also way cool on Friday.  So the week before one of the assistants and Elder Zarco went to talk with one of our 'eternal investigators' and still couldn't crack her, but they did get her to commit to baptism this last week....Friday. So we actually didn't have any time to talk with her until Friday. So we arrived and she was acting a little weird but her husband told us that she wanted to get baptized but didn't want to admit it, so at 6 that night they arrived.....but it took her 2 hours to finally enter the chapel.  It was good though, because on Sunday they all arrived.....with their little boys in tuxes and everything!!!  Her husband is a member, but very inactive, so Ana getting baptized was amazing!!!  That was a miracle!!! :)

    So yeah....that was my week!  It was a lot better than the week before.  Thanks for everything my amazing family!!! I love you all so much!!!  Have a great week!!!!

-Elder Loveless

Training in Cuahutemoc.

June 1st, 2015 - Weekly Letter

Family,

    I'm so glad that you were able to see that video mom! I was just about to leave to go back to La Junta and Elder Clayton came up and told me to say a few things and then he was going to show you when you went to his homecoming!  Sounds like last week was pretty crazy for you all, but it's probably a great feeling that it's finally summer, and you can all finally rest a bit.  It's finally starting to feel like summer here too. This last week was one of the first weeks since last summer that almost every day was pretty hot, but everyone is saying that June is the rainy month, so this month I'm hoping that it rains a lot! 

    So this last week was alright, but I think that it was more of a learning week for me.  At the beginning of the week I was super excited, and then after about a day or two I wasn't as excited any more. I guess my companion’s story is that he didn't want to serve a mission, but his bishop tricked him into filling out the papers, telling him that they were for something else. So then his call got there and his bishop told him that he was going to serve a mission, and so they kind of trapped him.  Poor kid still doesn't act like a missionary even after 13 months, and he doesn't have any desires to work.  I'm going to try to help him the best I can, because I know that Christ can change anyone through his Atonement. 

    I also was wrong though in the way I acted. I just kind of was sad the whole week. With Elder Hansen we knew and talked with every single person in La Junta, and everybody loved us.  So when we went to church yesterday, the members were all like, oh now that Elder Hansen left Elder Loveless doesn't want to interact with us, and stuff like that.....and I knew it wasn't true. So I started to think. First, even after the stressful week, we had 5 investigators at church which is pretty good.  And then second, why should I be acting like that if this is the Lord's work, not mine.  It doesn't matter who I'm with, or where I'm act. If I have faith in Christ, everything is possible.  So I told myself yesterday that I wasn't going to change for anybody.  All of the members love me, but not how I was acting.  Also, two more of our recent converts, Luis and Gilberto, received the Aaronic Priesthood this last week! That was super exciting to see that 3 of my recent converts here in La Junta have the Priesthood! That made me super happy!

    I also had a really cool experience that really touched me deeply.  So I don't know if you guys remember my first convert here in La Junta, Rafael.  So I think it was the first week of May or April, for fast and testimony meeting, I went up and bore my testimony.  I bore my testimony about trials, and I shared Emma's story.  I remember getting teary eyed, and as I looked out at the members, a lot of them were teary eyed too.  So all was spiritual, but then I kind of forgot.  Yesterday though, we were just finishing church, and Rafael comes up to me and tells me he wanted to ask me something, so I said of course, whatever you want to ask me.  So then he asked me how Emma was doing, and I said that she was doing really good, better than before. And then he said, that's awesome. He told me that every single night since the time I bore my testimony he had been praying to God to protect my sister, and to bless her.  And I started getting teary eyed.  My recent convert, only has 2 months as a member, and doesn't understand too much still, had been praying to God.....to bless my sister.  That was a huge testimony to me. I knew that he knew that God existed. He doesn't even know my sister, but he has the pure love of Christ, worrying about people he doesn't know.  He has to be one of my favorite people that I have come to know here in Chihuahua.  He's definitely somebody that I will never forget!!! 

    So yeah, in the end of the week I took the sacrament and told myself that I was going to be better. There's no point in being sad....just gotta keep moving forward, working as hard as ever, because I only have 8 more weeks.  8 More times of writing to you all on Monday!!! 

   Thanks for everything that you all do for me! I love you all so much, and miss you tons too!!!  Have a great summer!!!!!!!  Enjoy every moment!!!

-Elder Loveless