July 20, 2015 Found a New Family

We were really grateful to find a good family this week to bring to church for the first time. It is a little family of 3 named the Family Medina Ben-avidez. It is kind of weird bringing people to a little kind of run down house of prayer for church, but I am grateful to have a building. We will make this little branch into a ward.

Also this week please pray for María Agustina as she is the blind lady looking to get baptized this Sunday.

I will also be sending more pictures of the beautiful area out here and of the house of prayer with the sweet baptismal font in the back of concrete. I love it here in Mexico.

My message come from Doctrine and Covenants 105:38-41 this week. It says, "(38) And again I say unto you, sue for peace, not only to the people that have smitten you, but also to all people; (39) And lift up an ensign of peace and make a proclamation of peace unto the ends of the earth; (40) And make proposals for peace unto those who have smitten you, according to the voice of the Spirit which is in you, and all things shall work together for your good. (41) Therefore, be faithful; and behold, and lo, I am with you even unto the end. Even so. Amen. 

I love this scripture because although it says the word peace I like to also think of that as love. We need to be good with all others. There will be people that smite us and mock, but we need to respond with love. We love all people whether they are bad or good because we are all children of our Father in Heaven. And if we can love all people, as it says in verse 40, all things will work together to help us. And He will be with us unto the end ,or in other words, forever.

I love you all very much and I hope that we can all focus on what brought us to this world and that is love. And if we love everyone, we will have peace.

Elder Andrews

P.S Sorry that the pictures are so small. Accidentally didn't change the setting back on my camera 

July 13, 2015 First Week on Bikes!

So as you know, this was my first full week on bikes, and it was actually super fun. I will have to admit that my legs are super sore, and I will have to get used to it. However, I am looking forward to having some really strong legs in about a month. 

We have a few people here that are getting ready for baptism, and they are great. I have realized that we teach a lot of interesting people here haha. One lady that we are teaching is blind, has one leg with 6 toes, and 12 fingers. She is really awesome though, and her name is María Agustina. That is probably the most interesting person that we are teaching right now, but we do need to find a lot of new people to teach. We have faith that we can find these people that are searching the Gospel but do not yet know it. We will bring them the truth. 

My message this week comes from Doctrine and Covenants 101:59-62. It says, 

"59. And the servant said unto his lord: When shall these things be?

 

60. And he said unto his servant: When I will, go ye straightway, and do all things whatsoever I have commanded you,

61. And this shall be my seal and blessing upon you - a faithful and wise steward in the midst of mine house, a ruler in my kingdom.

62.  And his servant went straightway, and did all things whatsoever his lord commanded him, and after many days all things were fulfilled."

I really like this scripture because it teaches us 3 lessons. (1) First of all when we ask, "when shall these things be?" we need to realize that it is always in the Lord´s time. For that He says, "When I will." (2) We also need to do all the things that the Lord commands us because obedience is the first law of Heaven, and we need to prepare ourselves as such. However, for that obedience we will receive many blessings. (3) And last, we need to do the things that the Lord asks of us now or "straightway." As we fulfill the commandments and wait for the blessings patiently, "after many days (the blessings will be) fulfilled." All we need to do is do as the Lord asks and do it diligently. We need to forget everything else and serve Him. As we do this we will see the blessings, maybe not immediately, but after many days they will be fulfilled.

I love you all very much and hope you all have great weeks!

Elder Andrews

P.S We found and bought hammocks. Best idea ever. 

July 8, 2015 To Maravatío, Michoacan!

Well I am writing today on Wednesday because I moved across the entire mission to Maravatío, Michoacan. It is a small pueblo with a house of prayer because there is no church. I already really love it here, and there is like a sweet tourist plaza which is really different and cool. I am so glad to be away from the city and in clean air. And I also feel like a regular missionary now. Why? Because we have bikes haha. My new companion is named Elder Costello, and I had met him before. We already get along super well and joke around, so it should be a great change. 

I really was sad when I had to leave El Mirador because I had made some good friends there, and it is hard to leave behind people that have had dramatic changes with the gospel. However, a change is always nice. It is nice to say that I left that area with a baptismal date in that area for each Sunday for 4 weeks. I was kind of sad to not see them baptized, but them knowing the gospel is all that matters. 

A scripture that I really liked this week is in Ecclesiastes 8:12. It says, "Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him." I really like this scripture because no matter how much we mess up, we can always go back to God. We cannot sin purposefully, but we do occasionally make mistakes. And as long as we are always trying to improve, do our best, and fear God, we will be forgiven. As we do our best, everything will turn out well if we follow God.

I love you guys all very much, and I will have bike pictures next week!

Elder Andrews

P.S. A nice good head in the cake to say goodbye