Elder Loveless' Mexico Chihuahua Mission

Monday, June 23, 2014

"Translation: Dear God: If you can't make me skinny make my friends fat!" "Hahaha, too funny!"

"It might look like we're sweating a ton.....but no.....it rained a TON!!!"

"Me in a bathroom mirror???!!!! I don't know why I took this photo :P"

"Elder Newman and I as Super Heroes!"

June 23rd, 2014 - Weekly E-mail

Family,

I love all the pictures that you guys send me! In every picture it looks like you guys grow more and more. And congratulations to Emma and Mikey and the girls for doing the Manti pageant and everything! I loved the pics!!! But yeah! I don't know how the weather was up there in Utah, but here in Chihuahua, the whole week was pretty much cloudy, and it rained like every night! We got a little bit drenched some of the nights!!! But this last week was a good missionary week...a good week of work.

Last Monday was really good! It was just a normal ole P-day, but we had a Zone conference, and it was super powerful! Elder Ruiz talked about Christ, just Christ. In the mission, if there's two things that we learn it is how to have a better relationship with Christ and how to recognize the spirit in our lives. For me, whenever we talk about Christ in the mission the spirit testifies so strongly, and the lessons based on Christ are always the best. So Elder Ruiz showed us a video of Christ, and how he is with us throughout the mission, and it was so spiritual. It is a talk by Elder Holland, and he talks about how as missionaries we walk a part of the path that Christ walked. As missionaries, as well, Christ is with us shoulder to shoulder, so that if we fall a little bit, he is right there to help us. It talks a little bit about how the mission is not easy, and that it never will be because for Christ it wasn't easy....salvation isn't easy. It was an amazing conference, and I felt on a spiritual high afterwards!

So Tuesday was also a really good day. So in the morning we had a lesson with our investigator Elayne. We talked about Christ....what we talked about the night before, and it went so good! The spirit was so strong, and so then we invited her to be baptized the 5th of July, and she accepted. She's super cool and understands everything that we teach her!!! After this lesson we all had worthiness interviews with President Chavez (we have these interviews like every 3 months or so). My interview went good, but President Chavez asked me a few things that was kinda like telling me that I was going to have transfers. I'm not 100% sure that I will, but from the interview I probably will have transfers, because President asked me some things that he didn't ask anyone else. Transfers are tomorrow (the 24th of June) and we find out tonight if we have them, so I guess next week you guys will find out, but I'll find out tonight!!! Also that night, Tuesday night, it rained a ton, and Elder Newman and I got drenched!! It was fun though......I love the rain!!!

On Wednesday it was kinda like a replay of Tuesday in a way. We didn't have interviews with President Chavez, but we had a cool lesson with Elayne again, and later that night it rained a ton as well!!! Oh, and in the lesson with Elayne that we had on Tuesday and Wednesday, we had members that came with us, so the two lessons were super powerful!!!

On Thursday not too much happened, but Elder Ruiz went on divisions with me for just a few hours to teach our investigator Elisa. Elisa is already ready for baptism, she just doesn't realize it. There was a Family Home Evening specifically for her, and so she got super excited for baptism, but then there were a few of the young adults who said a few things on Facebook that she didn't like, so it became a problem, and she lost her excitement for baptism. In the lesson that Elder Ruiz and I had with her it was super good, and Elisa said that she would prepare for baptism this Saturday the 28th, but then on Sunday her mom said that she wasn't sure about her baptismal date for the 28th, so we don't know what is going to happen. But I really hope that she gets baptized this weekend!!! I have enough faith....now we just have to wait to see if it is the will of God.

Friday was just a normal day. We had another lesson with Elayne, and we brought the members again, and the lesson went good again! She is so excited about everything, and already loves the book of Mormon a ton!

Saturday was normal, but then later in the afternoon Elder Ruiz called us and told us that he was going to have a baptism and that he needed help, so we went. That night we went on divisions after the baptism, and our other zone leader, Elder Palma from Honduras, went with me to our house.

Sunday was also good, but super stressful. You all thought that on Sunday we rest from our labors from the week, but as a missionary it's the complete opposite. It is the most stressful day because it's the day to find out if our investigators are going to come to church or not. Elayne was the only one that we had that came, but as always she was super excited to be there! She is always excited to go to church which is awesome!! But Sunday was stressful because we had to run around to gather up some of the little kids, and then one of the young adults was crying for a certain reason, and so we got our scriptures to help her, and then....yeah. But all in all it was a good day! Every time I partake of the sacrament I feel so good....ready for another week of work!!! Something that I have been doing during the sacrament is reading 3 Nephi 18. It is when Christ came to America and administered the sacrament to the people of the Book of Mormon. It is a really cool chapter and you really learn more about the sacrament every time you read it!

But yeah. So I just want to tell you guys that the most important thing that we do is read the Book of Mormon and pray, so just make sure that you all are always doing those things! If you do, you will be blessed more than you ever have been, and you will be guided by the Holy Ghost to do what you all need to do in your daily lives.

I love you so much, and I'll talk to you in a week! Have a good week!!! Be safe and make good choices!!!

-Elder Loveless

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

June 16th, 2014 - Weekly E-mail

Family,

So this last week was just an amazing week! Like, I couldn't see very many bad things that happened, and that felt super good, because I haven't had a week like that for a LONG time. And aside from all that, almost ALL of the days this week we had cloud cover and so it wasn't really all that hot....it got down to the lower 90s higher 80s this last week!!!

So nothing really happened between Monday and Wednesday, they were just normal days of work.....

Everything really started happening on Thursday. So on Thursday we had planned like 4 or 5 really cool visits, so we just prayed the night before that these people would be there when we passed by to visit them....and our prayer was answered. All of the people were there at their houses. So this is how it all started.

-In the morning when we left the house we went to a referral that the bishop gave us named Elayne. Bishop had told us that this lady had been reading the Book of Mormon for the last month, and so we needed to pass by to visit her. So we visited her. She is 25 years old and received the Book of Mormon from a friend that said that the book changed his life, so she wanted to see why. After teaching Elayne on Thursday and also on Saturday she told us that she would like to be baptized and also that she would go to church. She works from 6 p.m. on Saturday until 6 a.m. on Sunday, and still went to church. She told us on Sunday that she had only gotten 40 minutes of sleep, and was ready to go church and everything in the morning.

-Later we visited our investigator named Elisa and had a really cool visit about service and baptism, and how they go hand in hand. In the end we invited her to be baptized and she told us she would think about it but most likely yes. We put the baptismal date for this month, the 28th of June.

-After we visited one of our investigators named Ruth, who actually speaks English better than Spanish. We taught her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and everything, and it was all in English. Let me just say it is so weird to teach in English. That was like the very first time in my whole mission, and in the beginning it was very hard, but in the end I got a hold of the language and it was super good!!! She is super excited and wants this to be the only true church more than anything because she wants to know the truth.

-And later we visited an older lady named Alicia (of like 70 years of age). Me and Elder Mendoza have been visiting her for a long time, but she always told us that she would never change religion, but this day she literally told us that she would like to be Mormon, so that was just crazy.

-And then the next day on Friday, we visited an investigator named Brillanda, and went to a huge park in front of her house to teach her, and it was super cool! We invited her to baptism, but literally right before we were going to put the baptismal date with her it started to pour rain. We still put the baptismal date, but we were all soaken wet after! haha.....but we put the baptismal date with her for the 26th of July.

So as you can see we saw SO many miracles this last week! It has shown me that God does really watch over us and that if we work hard and trust in Him with all of our might, mind and strength, then he will provide for us! Seeing these miracles helps me remember how great of a work we are in, and I love every step of it!!!

Thanks for all of the love and help you guys send my way! Remember that I love you all, and that everything is okay here in good ole Chihuahua, Mexico!!! Todays actually good too because there's cloud cover!!!

Have a good week all of you, and good luck Emma in the Manti Pageant!!!