"The missionaries from Lagos!! Last day together as a ward with our mission leader." (Elders Loveless, Mendoza, Mission Leader, Neuman, Woods)

May 26th, 2014 - Weekly Letter

Family,

This last week has been good.....but let's just say that I think the Lord wants us to learn something. So we have been doing an activity lately to get the members to give us references of the people they know, and it has been really good, in the aspect of getting the references. So we have been asking the members, when we visit them, to write down ALL of the people that they know that come to their mind while we sing a hymn, and then after we say a prayer to ask God who of those people would be ready to hear the gospel....and it's been working good. We received a lot of references. And we even saw some of the fruits of the activity. With one sister, she felt good about one name, and so she invited this person to eat with us and her the next day, so we went to her house and we talked a little bit and it was really cool. She said the next day she would come again to visit with us, and didn't show up. We called her and she said the next day, and didn't show up again and doesn't answer us any more, so that was kind of hard, especially when we thought we found success. And so we started to visit all of the other references that the members had given us, and all of them rejected us. We haven't found one that has accepted us. So that was hard. About 80% more or less of the people in Mexico are Catholics, so the answer is always the same. I'm Catholic, I was born Catholic, and I will die Catholic. It saddens me every time because the majority of the people don't even know what they believe in....they're just Catholic because they were baptized when they were babies.

So yeah, we saw that the references haven't been working, so we started talking with everyone on the streets. They accepted us....but nobody lives in our area. The thing about this area is that it is probably the richest area in ALL the mission, and there are a lot of fancy things in the area, so a lot of people come from all around the city, so the people that actually live in the area are usually in their houses, which we can't do anything about because we can't knock on doors. So that is a hard thing, but a good thing at the same time. We are all working for the same cause, so we are giving a TON of people to other missionaries, but we don't have any work for ourselves. Actually, we had to drop some investigators that weren't progressing this last week because they haven't progressed at all in forever.

So that's been the situation here. And on top of that, yesterday we received some hard, but good at the same time, news. Yesterday they closed our ward, Lagos. It doesn't exist anymore. The stake president said it was because the ward was inactive for too long...which I don't know exactly what that means, but there was no progression in the ward. We found out that this area is one of the hardest areas in the whole mission, because the mission president told us as missionaries to not worry and not be sad, because it's not our fault. The area has been dead forever. But that just makes me want to have success more because then we can show that miracles exist. So now half of the ward is going to one ward, and the other half to another ward. So that was kind of weird.....a lot of the members were crying because Lagos has existed for a long time!

But in all of these hardships we have seen success. This last week we got a reference from the zone leaders of a widow. So we went to her house, and we realized that her husband was a member, but she never had the chance to get baptized, but her husband already passed away. So she wants to be able to see him again and live with him forever, so we are preparing her baptism for June, so she is cool, but very very old. All of these hardships remind me of Ammon and his brothers that go to teach the Lamanites, but have way more failures than successes, but it tells us in Alma 26 that they suffered with patience, and then the Lord blessed them. They ended up starting to convert people, including some of their leaders, and that eventually led to the Lamanites living more righteous than the Nephites.

Although we have these hardships, I know we will see success. We are already seeing it, although it is only one person, that is one more person that is going to come unto Christ. If we suffer with patience, I have a firm testimony that the Lord really will bless us. And apart from these afflictions, I have seen a lot of progress with my personal testimony! I have learned a lot, and continue to learn every day! I know that the most important part of the mission is to returned convert, so I strive for that every day!

Thanks for all the love and support! I'm excited to see a new week here in what was once Lagos....love you all!!

-Elder Loveless

 

"This is me AFTER eating the incredibly hot chips...I almost died!"

"The spiciest chips ever!!!!!!! One of them literally says 'caution'...haha!"

May 19th, 2014 - Weekly Letter

Familyyy,

It sounds like everything is going super good with everyone!!! I can't believe that the school year for you guys is already pretty much over. I left on the mission shortly after it started...wow! So this last week was really good! I was able to go on divisions with one of the zone leaders, but not Elder Ruiz, our other zone leader, Elder Ramos.

So on Monday we had our normal p-day! Not much happened.

On Tuesday we were able to get an accepted baptismal invite. I don't know if you guys remember when I talked a little bit about someone named Gaby?! But yeah, she has a twin named Rojelio, and he's like always in the house, so we've been teaching him lately, and we invited him to be baptized, and he accepted. The only problem with him is that he goes to way too many parties, and parties aren't necessarily a bad thing, but in Mexico they are!

Wednesday was a normal day....but abnormally hot.

On Thursday we had a meeting with President Chavez, and it was awesome because a lot of the elders from my old zone are now in Chihuahua. I saw Elder Hansgen, and Elder Ellis (from the MTC), and everyone else again! But man, the meeting with President was amazing! We learned how to use 3 different types of questions to help the people actually put in practice what they learn. We have put it into practice and it has been working amazingly! But that day, Thursday, after the meeting, I went with Elder Ramos to his area, and let me just say his area is super humble, and there are a TON of investigators there. It was so cool to work with him.

On Friday, with Elder Ramos, we worked hard, but he said that it wasn't THAT great of a day. We made like 3 or 4 baptismal invites and they all accepted. Elder Ramos is just crazy...no wonder he is a zone leader.

On Saturday....well let's just say it was crazy. We ended the day with 16 visits. A new record for me and him. I think the most time we were not talking with someone during the day was like 5 minutes. We were in constant teaching the whole day!!! Man was I tired at the end of the day.

And then on Sunday we left the house at like 7:45 to pass for investigators, and we passed for like 22 investigators....only 3 investigators came to church. But hey, although it is a little sad, that is still 3 souls! So that was cool! Later, nothing really happened. I returned to my area with Elder Mendoza, and so now I'm here in Lagos again :)

But yeah, so I learned so much from Elder Ramos, and so this week I'm going to step it up a notch more, and see how everything turns out! Oh, also, I got two packages from the fam!! An Easter package and a summer package! Thanks so much :) I hadn't had candy in a while, American candy, so that was good!!! haha, but again, thanks so much! The little notebooks are sweet too, oh and the book about teaching and learning by the spirit, I started it last night, and I'm learning a ton from it. I learned that the most important thing that a missionary should learn while on the mission is how to recognize the spirit and how to make decisions with it. If we truly learn how to use the spirit in our normal lives we will have a life, and a family, how God wants us to have it! If we do everything in the Lord's way, we will truly be blessed!

But yeah, I love to see what you guys are up to! Thanks for all the love and support! I hope you all have a good last week of school (and week and a half for Jon)!! Love you all!!!

-Elder Loveless

Oh, and so for my birthday, I was thinking if maybe I could have a new camera, and I'll tell you why. So my camera doesn't have a case, so it has gotten kinda dirty and the photos don't turn out as good, and yeah....I don't think it's going to last the 2 years....so that's why I say a camera (and a case) so that it doesn't get ruined. Oh, and I would also like some of that gel that dad bought me before the mission!!!! With those two things (three things with the case) I would be satisfied!!!

 

"The food at one of the restaurants we ate at."

"Me and Elder Mendoza at KFC."