2/9/2010

2/9/09

Hey everyone!

So I don’t think I have as many cool stories but the week went really well. I had a number of good growing experiences and although it was a tough week, I learned a lot so it´s always worth it.

We had changes in the zone on Wednesday night. One of the sisters in my district changed and there were a number of others. A good number of our district leaders had changes and a lot of them became zone leaders. :) My companion is going to stay here and end his mission here is Cuauhtémoc with me. It’s a good thing because we have a lot more to learn together and this week has been our best week together so far.

On Friday we had the Zone Leader conference with all of the zone leaders and the mission president. I felt much better being there this time around and I was not too nervous. But 30 minutes before it started the assistants gave us a piece of paper with a topic for preach my gospel on it and we had 30 minutes to plan out how to teach it to everyone. We did a fairly good job and it worked out well. I have learned how to teach much better in front of groups of people so that has been a great quality to learn. It was a great conference and I learned a lot! It was a lot of fun actually and I get along well with a lot of the other elders.

The sad part is that most of the American missionaries here never stay in leadership too long because they have a relaxed view of the mission and break rules until the mission president takes them out of leadership. They come to Mexico without taking it all seriously and do stupid stuff, to say the least… it’s really sad to me and I am determined to help it not happen at least so much. I get to have divisions with a lot of the elders in my zone and so I always try to help them take the mission much more seriously. Out of 14 zone leaders (7 zones) only 2 others are Americans…. And they BOTH leave at the end of this cycle. I guess we will see how it goes, it’s not that I want there to be more American leaders, it just bugs me that they all do such dumb things in the mission. You know?

Anyways, the conference was great and then on this past Monday we had our district leader conference. It went SUPER well and it has been a great learning experience to be in leadership and to learn so much. It has also been a GREAT reminder that I am NOTHING without God’s help. The mission president talked about this a lot at conference as well as the importance of prayer, allowing God to lead us. He told us that is why we are called to leadership, so we can learn to be humble and learn to not trust in our own strength, but in the divine power of the Lord. It’s a great thing to learn and one we all seem to struggle at. I’m excited I have 11 months left in the mission so I can learn to APPLY the principle so much more.

Tomorrow we have Zone conference, which is the normal conference we always have every cycle with the mission president. When all the district leaders teach something and the mission president goes over some of the current mission stuff. It is with the whole zone and so there will be 30 missionaries there. I’m excited as zone conferences are always a very uplifting experience.

So Ramon Moreno continues to progress and will be baptized on Saturday!  I am way excited and he really loves the church. The cool part is that all his family members, his aunts and uncles and cousins are all way excited for him and we have started to teach them as well.

We have also met a few other families that we are teaching as well. I just love teaching the gospel and it makes me so happy!

Last night I met a super young newlywed couple and they seem very interested. My comp and I have gotten much better at teaching together and it’s made a big difference. My comp and I had a good talk this past Wednesday to work out a few problems we were having. We were both a bit frustrated and things have been different ever since. It’s taught me the value and need for humility and selflessness. Two things I will always need to work on better.

Life goes on and the mission is great. Anyone who is thinking about serving mission, DO IT. I promise it will be a decision you NEVER regret and the best 2 years of your life. I am sure of it! 

I love the gospel and know it’s true!

Thank you all for all of the love and support you give!

Elder Andrew Davidson