Called To Serve: Mexico, Mexico City North: Letter #59

We will go in a bus with our ward and investigators.( To the temple open house on Thursday.) They found the waffles in a little town.( The investigators that brought them waffles.) Who knows how they know what waffles are.( They don't really have anything like waffles in Mexico.) Yeah they combined the conference because our zone is super small. I was able to talk to him, (Elder Hoskins a guy he knew from Logan) actually he is also a district leader. Elder Mendez still has about 7-8 months left in his mission. I don't think they sell nativity sets in September... but I will look. ( I asked him to keep an eye out for nativity sets, because I collect them.)

( I asked him if there was something he wished he would have done or known before his mission to better prepare.) If there was something I wish I had known it would be the importance of the mission. I didn't fully understand before why I needed to prepare myself. I had thought, "Well I will be studying 24/7 over there so why would I need to do it all now". God can only work with what we have. We are instruments in his hands. It depends on our preparation whether we are a tool he can use or not. That is something that I love about the mission. It prepares you for life. You get to experience many different things and you get to see how the Lord really does bless those who obey. It brings a motivation that will last.

Well our investigators are doing really good right now. This week 3 new investigators went to church with a baptismal date so now we have 7 that are progressing towards baptism. It is amazing talking to them and hearing the changes that they are making in their lives. Also the 7 are making plans to go to the temple open house too!

With changes next week I am almost sure that one of us will leaveHuehuetoca. It is a stellar area and it will be interesting to see what happens.

This week we climbed up Mount Cincoc. It was cool because the trail got steep and the view was good (except the pollution). We had some fun up there. I also had exchanges with Elder Mendez. It was awesome being with him again. We had fun and taught really well. Actually something really strange will happen this week. I guess I will be training/ teaching the Zone meeting with Elder Mendez. Even though I am just a district leader President told the Zone leaders that Elder Mendez and I were going to do it and not Elder Mendez and his companion. I have never heard of that happening, so we will see how that goes.

Something I have learned in the mission is the importance of the spiritual preparation. I would like to share with you the teaching method that Elder Bednar taught us so that you can apply it in Family home evening, teaching classes/people, etc.

1. Spiritual preparation. Prepare yourself by studying the topic and also prepare those you will be teaching by leaving them an assignment of something to study beforehand.

2. Interact to edify. "Teach one another the doctrine of the kingdom of God" .Ask questions and help those you are teaching to share the revelation that they received and their experiences with the topic.

3. Invite to act. We must act after we learn because if we don´t whatever we learned doesn't matter.

I invite you to apply this from now on in teaching assignments, family home evening (assign the topic before Monday), and other teaching opportunities and I promise that the spirit will be felt in abundance, and it will be a time to receive and share revelation from God. You will be converted.

Love you,

Elder Finlinson