Esteban the Cafeteria Guy, who was a good friend to Elder Ridge Raven! He is awesome

Thank you all so much for your loving letters of support and encouragement, they always boost my day!  This week has been kinda difficult in all honesty but I have found peace in the final week of the CCM!  I finally have pictures so I´m going to send all of them to you, and then be a little more selective on the mass email, haha!  Anyway, we have a beautiful devotional about repentance on Tuesday and has led me to discover several insights that may not be new to you, but I hope can be of some benefit!  So Repentance is the second principle of the Doctrine of Christ, and the scriptures often define that those who love God, will wish to repent and become in greater harmony with his will!  Often, we develop this sort of negative connotation with repentance that it should be avoided or only be done with very great sins, but the reality is that Repentance is a sign of humility and with such our love becomes greatly attached to God!  The scriptures state that the man who is repenting is righteous and the man who is not is wicked!  This profound truth has caused me to pray every day to receive a forgiveness for my wrongs because I wish to remain on the right side of God!  Sorry for all of these tangents but in essence, God loves us so much, and He desires for us to return to Him, and if we love Him, we will do all in our power to receive the blessings of his righteous people, the repentant! I love you guys, and I hope that we can all be the Proof of His Love in our daily actions! (For King and Country Song). 

Elder Raven, Elder Ellis, Elder Holmes

 I love you guys, and now I am going to give a few more details about the week! so I have been running into Elder Ellis and Elder Holmes all the time in the CCM, but I also found Elder Buhler this week, and he is a great friend from EFY a year ago, and it has been so good to laugh with him about that amazing experience! I also had to say goodbye to Hermana Ramos because she was assigned to another district this past week, and we had Hermano Jimenez fill in this past week, and he has been the greatest teacher because he served in Oaxaca just four months ago he got off from the mission!  So he understands us completely and he is incredibly energetic ... and we think that there might be a relationship going on between Hermano Jimenez and Hermana Ramos because although they are assigned to different districts we see them chatting all the time, and it is not very uncommon for teachers here to marry other teachers ... so we´ll see if we get an announcement, haha!

Now back to the spiritual, I have found that no miracle in our lives can be wrought in less we are exercising faith, I was reading Ether 12 and was reminded that if we wish for God to change our lives we must do as directed in D&C 123:17 and it says

17 Therefore, dearly beloved brethren, let us cheerfully do all things that lie in our power; and then may we stand still, with the utmost assurance, to see the salvation of God, and for his arm to be revealed.

God will reveal His arm in the midst of our trials if we but seek to do everything (including repentance) and receive the Salvation that comes to all His righteous children!

We love to play volleyball with our district!

I love you all so much and I pray for each and every one of you!

I will be flying to Monterrey on Monday at 6:05 a.m. but I will have to leave the CCM at 2:00 a.m. in order to be on time, I might have the chance to call you guys, and I don´t know how much it could charge me, but I am going to try anyway so hopefully you guys will be up around then so that I can talk to you for a bit!

So excited to enter the fields that are white and already to harvest!

Elder Raven

Tender Mercy in the Provo Temple!!!

First dad and I started off our temple trip by taking lots of pictures of missionaries in front of the temple… Dad was so cute he was so proud to tell all of them that his son was in the Mexico CCM/MTC! I told him it reminded me of the day we found out we were having a boy and dad went running down the halls of the hospital telling everyone that he’s having a boy!!!! Which was you!!!💙💙💙

Then we did initiatory for the names that you had done baptisms/confirmations in February. All the names were from Canada! An older lady noticed that all the female names I was doing were all from Canada and said She served in the Canada Toronto West mission 10 years ago and I served in the Canada Toronto East Mission but more like 24 years ago. Haha 😂

Then while I was doing initiatory an older Sister noticed the Mexico necklace that you gave me! She asked me about it. She said she served a mission in Mexico, and where is she served is where the CCM is today! She knows exactly where you are! Then a cute little Hispanic lady came walking in with a thick Spanish accent and my eyes filled up with tears thinking about you! And that you are probably in the Mexico City Temple today!

We love you so very much. While I was in the temple… I couldn’t help think of the many tender mercies that are given to me every day! I’m starting an Atonement journal... I’m hoping the one that we sent to you could be your Atonement of Jesus Christ journal. He is so aware of us and He is in the details of our lives.

I pray that these 10 names that we did today… Will be your angels on your mission! You found their names, and they’re so grateful!!! I hope and pray you receive extra angels around you on your mission. Sister Deann Jacobson was at the Initiatory desk... she said, "I just want you to know we pray for your son every night!" 😢 Many people are praying for you.
We love you!
Love mom

Dear Mom,
Thanks for sharing! That´s incredibly awesome and I am so grateful that you have these countless tender mercies surrounding you! I love you and thank you for the packages and support! I would like to recommend that you read with the Boys ´You Are Special´ once again because that has literally been a story going through my mind and has refocused my efforts because I am trying to help everyone come unto Eli to be heal of their stars and dots!

Love,

Elder Raven 

"YOU ARE SPECIAL!"

Hola!

This week I have been reflecting a lot upon the book by Max Lucado entitled You are Special.  This short story is a parable of our lives and the relationship that we need to develop with God, because the world is full of empty titles and labels that will never fulfill us but if we seek to follow that pattern that our loving Savior has laid out for us, we will be overfilled with feelings of peace, joy, and love! The purpose of missionary work is to liberate others from the bonds of worldliness and experience the infinite goodness of the gospel!  So, I highly recommend that every one of you read it, and see how you can apply some of its simple yet powerful principles into your lives! I promise that as you do so, you will come to develop a more powerful relationship with Jesus Christ!  I know that as we remember the divine that is within every one of us, the challenges of life will diminish, and the path that we must take will be more clearly defined!

Now on to the events of the week!

Saturday: Well, this is a little known fact about Mexico, but they know how to party! Today was their Independence Day, and after 9:00 p.m. it was non-stop fireworks until the early morning of Sunday!  The food was incredibly prepared dishes native to Mexico, and the workers here dress in clothing that showed off their national pride! It was incredible!  We also had our first TRC meeting where we met with Roberto Hernandez who is a native to Mexico City and has been a member for 50 years!  So when we tried to give a lesson in our less than fluent Spanish, it was kinda awkward because we were teaching about the Plan of Salvation which I guarantee he had heard countless times, so we ended up scratching it and speaking about the need for the Atonement, and the blessings it provides, and thankfully the Spirit guided our Spanish or else there was no way that the lesson would´ve worked out, haha!

Also, some of the Elders in my district stole my bed during lunch, but when I came home that night it took me a solid 15 minutes to recognize that my bed was missing!  It was pretty hilarious, and I have to give Kudos to my district because it was really clever the way they covered up their tracks, haha!

Sunday:  I played Abide with Me for sacrament meeting and the Spirit filled the room, so I felt so blessed to be able to have learned the piano at that moment!

Monday: I busted the ligaments in my left middle finger playing basketball, so I can´t type as fast, but I am healing rapidly and feel blessed that it wasn´t worse!  Had a wonderful heartfelt experience with my district where we gave certain members that were sick priesthood blessings!  The spirit was so strong, and I have received another witness that God has restored His priesthood and gospel upon the Earth once again!

Tuesday: Not incredibly eventful, except for a beautiful devotional by Elder Anderson about being patient with ourselves and the peace the temple brings to our lives! They truly are the house of the Lord, and all of us should seek to receive the blessings therein!

Wednesday:  Elder Sabin and I had been fighting sickness for a bit, but he reached a point where he couldn´t focus because he was so exhausted, so I spent the afternoon doing personal study which was really awesome because I finished the rest of the Book of Alma in Spanish, and I received a lot of insights as to how I can improve my missionary efforts! With the main point being in the War Chapters, where Captain Moroni rebuilds the City of Ammonihah which had been destroyed because of their wickedness, and made it into a stronghold of the Nephites!  This seemed to be analogous to our lives because often we sin, and Satan is able to make us think that we are unrecoverable, that we have gone to far, but I know that with the Savior´s Atonement we can be taken no matter how much Sin, Worries, or just General Life Problems have devastated our lives!  We just need to pray for strength, increased desire, and humility, and we will be able to be strengthened in every challenge we face!

Thursday: Normal missionary day, with a wonderful lesson with Theresa about Following the prophet which makes me so stoked for General Conference!

Friday: I was able to go on a split with Elder James, because Elder Sabin and Gunderson had to go to immigration today!  We played soccer for the first time, which was amazing, and we played sand volleyball for about an hour!  It was really nice to ease up on the constant studying for just a little bit, but I am excited to see what the rest of this day holds!

Love you guys!

Continue to read the Book of Mormon every day and you will receive answers! God loves you and desires the best for all of his children!

Sincerely,

Elder Raven

Mom and Dad,

Now my district is tied for the being the oldest in our zone!  I was finally able to play soccer today and get two hours of sand volleyball in so that was amazing! We sadly didn´t get to go to the temple after the Tuesday devotional by Elder Anderson about Temple work, haha!  ANyway things are great here! Thank you all for your thoughtful messages and support!  Things have been a little bit harder this week with my companion being in and out of sickness, but it gave me the chance to whittle away at the Book of Mormon, specifically the Book of ALMA in which I have found so many new scriptures that never really spoke to me before the mission! I did have a miraculous experience on Monday with my district because I almost called them out on being too casual with their language and not working hard enough, but then something restrained me thankfully and we had a discussion about the various demons we had been battling as missionaries! I was able to give some wise counsel to the members of the district about how truly divine their are and the love of Jesus Christ that he has for them and this lead to about half of the district asking for priesthood blessings!  The spirit was incredibly powerful and then the very last second Elder Holt, who is the district leader,  requested that I give him a priesthood blessing which rocked my world! Anyway that is one of the countless miracles I have experienced and I want to share with you the thought expressed in the very end of the Book of St. John.  Christ appears for the third time unto his apostoles after they had been fishing and asks Peter ¨Do you love me?¨ Three times and three times peter responds Yea Lord thou knowest that I do!  to which Jesus responds: Feed my sheep.  I love this because if we are true disciples of Christ we will be willing to do anything necessary to help our fellow brothers and sisters because that is what he wishes out of all his disciples! So try to find ways to serve those around you and I promise that you will be filled with Charity! I don´t have a ton of time, but I love you guys!

              Love,
              Elder Raven 

Blake and Braxton

Thank you guys for the thoughtful notes!  Blake I haven't been able to play soccer because my old companion didn't like it, but I plan on playing with Latinos today that are crazy good so wish me luck! You're a beast, keep studying the scriptures, working hard and everything will work out!

Braxton, you are a machine bro!  Way to go on scoring after a bee-sting! I don't even know if i am that tough! Haha about the Pink!

Love you guys!

If Life became a Pitcher, its specialty would be curveballs!

Hey Everyone,

This week has been incredibly full of ups and downs, and I pray that I will have the time to express everything that's been going down in this crazy eventful week!  

So last Saturday, I was told my companion Elder Manwill, that he was going home!  This was incredibly difficult because I had seen him struggling and tried to offer him comfort but nothing seemed to work! He told me that he would be flying out with another Elder from our district that was also going home!  This put a huge damper in the group because we have all grown to love each other so much and the fact that they both were going home for unknown reasons made it really difficult to handle!  But then I was reading once again in the 24th chapter of Mosiah, which deals the people of Alma being placed in bondage, and I was comforted by the following verses: 

14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions.15 And now it came to pass that the burdens which were laid upon Alma and his brethren were made light; yea, the Lord did strengthen them that they could bear up their burdens with ease, and they did submit cheerfully and with patience to all the will of the Lord.

I strongly recommend you read the whole chapter or verses 10-16 to get a better understand of the context!

This was the best time to be reminded of this story because I feel that I'm the kind of person that wishes to immediately fix whatever problems I see but in this instance I was helpless and I felt as though I had failed somehow, and this caused a burden on my missionary efforts!  But through God, I was able to feel lightened, and face this challenging time head on with faith and hope that whatever was to go down would be according to the desires of God!

Sunday:  We had a phenomenal Sacrament meeting, and I was able to play some musical numbers once again which is honestly my favorite part of the week, but the Spirit is incredibly strong when Missionaries pour out their hearts in songs like I Need Thee Every Hour, and I Believe in Christ!  We had a phenomenal district meeting, and many wonderful things were said leading up to the transition of losing two members of the district.

Monday:  We had a MASSIVE tie exchange in honor of the Elders going home, and I was able to exchange with the two leaving Elders so now I have something to remind me of them constantly!  It was a phenomenal day and our lesson with Naomi (Hermana Correa, the morning teacher) went amazingly well which was a tender mercy because Elder Manwill had been upset at his struggles with teaching in Spanish but he taught incredibly well!

Tuesday:  The day finally came where we had to say goodbye to Elder Manwill and Johnson, and this was very difficult internally but each of us knew that this was the right step for everyone! After they had flown home Elder James and I went to reception expecting to become companions, but surprise two new Elders from the Provo MTC who had a difficult time getting their visas were coming to be our new companions. My new companions name is Elder Sabin, and Elder James' is Elder Gunderson!  

Elder Johnson

Elder Manwill

Elder Sabin is a really awesome guy from Seattle, Washington, who is incredibly calm, and has been the perfect fit to this crazy past week! Although we've only known each other for 48 hours, I have
a good feeling about our companionship! 

Elder Sabin from Seattle WA

That evening we had a devotional from Elder Pingree of the Seventy and he shared a phenomenal talk about the importance of the Atonement, and I wish that I could forward the devotional to you guys, but they don't redistribute MTC devotionals! One thing I got out of it that I want to challenge you guys to do is to find a way every day in which you can write down how the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ strengthened you to do something that day.  I promise that if you do so, you will have a deeper sense of gratitude and love of others by seeking to find the daily application of the Atonement.  The pattern is "The Atonement of Jesus Christ helped me to (Fill in the blank) today"

Wednesday: Fairly uneventful, but I learned that Elder Sabin is crazy good at basketball, so when we do 2V2 in the morning it is the best playing in my companionship, haha!

Thursday: We performed service cleaning up classrooms abandoned by the sixth-week missionaries that left this week!

Friday: Today we are going to the temple again, so I got to go, but I love you all so much and you're in my prayers!

Love,
Elder Raven

Hola Mi Familia

Hola Mi Familia Amado, (Hey My Loved Family, doesn't exactly translate haha)

This past week has been the greatest rollercoaster of my live!  There

have been so many highs and lows and I just don't know where to start,

so I guess I will give you a quick overview! I'll start with some of

the difficult things and then go into the awesome stuff so that way

you aren't depressed, haha!

 For starters, I learned last Saturday that Elder Manwill and Elder

Johnson were going home.  He hadn't told me anything about leaving,

but he had been really reserved, irritable and meeting with Presidente

Caldwell so I kinda had a theory that could be possible.  He told me

that they were flying out together on Tuesday.  It was so sad to see

him suffer and be unable to assist him in any way!  So we ended up

throwing get togethers everynight leading up to their departure by

using Personal time 9:00 - 10:30 to sit around, enjoy snacks, and tell

stories!  It was a beautiful bonding experience and somehow it made it

easier to let go of two of them.

So anyways, Presidente Henrie knew on Sunday that both Elder Johnson

and Manwill were leaving so he told me that I would be paired with

Elder James and that we would both be Zone Leaders! I felt incredibly

torn apart by this because I wanted the opportunity to serve others

but not at the expense of my companion's departure!

The time came this past Tuesday for him to say goodbye, and we shared

contact information so that we could find each other after the

mission, and everyone was really downhearted about the whole affair.

So Elder James and I went to reception desk and found out that we were

not going to be companions but that two Elders from the Provo MTC

would be flying here.  Their names are Elder Sabin and Elder

Gunderson!  This was a curveball because Elder James and I had already

made preparations to be companions so this was really interesting.

The reason why the two new Elders were coming is because they had had

a difficult time with their visas and were originally supposed to come

to the Mexico MTC, but complications stopped that.  Elder Sabin is now

my new companion and he is a really cool guy that went to a year of

School at BYU is majoring in Electrical Engineering and is from

Seattle, Washington!  It has honestly been so great having him as my

companion because he is a low key, humble, kind of guy that is very

active, which is a huge blessing because Elder Manwill really disliked

when we tried to play sports.  We have only been companions for 48

hours but I feel like this is going to be a phenomenal companionship!

There have been tons of blessings in our lessons with Naomi and Teresa

and I want to share with you guys some of the amazing lessons I have

learned.

On Tuesday, a member of the 70 came and spoke with us, Elder Pingree,

about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and its importance in missionary

work!  He reallly surprised me because he is the first general

authority that I have heard speak that is super energetic and kind of

like Hank Smith in his engaging story telling style!  He has an

incredible sense of humor which combined with powerful spiritual

doctine has caused me to truly internalize the teachings he shared.

One instance is to journal every day one thing where the Atonement has

strengthened you (the enabling power of the Atonement)  For Example,

Today the Atonement of Jesus Christ helped me to be patient with my

struggling companion, or be charitable with someone who was saying

horrible things about me.  This has filled my life with a deeper sense

of gratitude and I would like to ask you all to try to do this!  I

have been focusing on the Christlike attribute of Charity, and I have

found that as Moroni stated "Without charity we are nothing." It is

much like the song "Proof of your love"by For King and Country where

we need to evidence the love of God in all that we do if we are to be

counted among his people!  I love you guys, and challenge you to read

the Scriptures every day together, and I know that you will be

blessed!

If you need comfort Romans 8 is beautiful or the story of the people

of Alma in bondage to the Lamanites because God doesn't always take

away our burdens but he certainly has the power to make them feel

light!

Miles Away but Close in Heart,

Elder Raven

Beautiful letter about Kaylin! 💙💛💙 "I know that I can see her again!"

Mom,
Thank you that is so sweet! In fact I was able to share the story of Kaylin with one of my investigators regarding the Plan of Salvation, and the spirit filled the room as I shared that I know that I can see her again! My favorite verses in the Book of Mormon are Jacob 3: 1-2! Without your support this would be an incredibly difficult step in life, and thanks for all that you do to help me! I have to received the package from Elder Ellis, and all the other packages.  I am fine with supplies, thank you, but I'll let you know if I need some!  Some sharp looking ties would be nice, but I don't really need them!  Thanks for all of your support!    But some new challenges have come this week because my companion has been really struggling with something he won't tell me about which is difficult because I am the kind of person who always wants to get in and help if I see a need!  So I have been writing kind notes and sharing inspirational pictures to console him even though he won't tell me anything about his visits with Presidente Caldwell, who is the 2nd counselor in the MTC Presidency.  Its frustrating but I am great!  Also a member of our district is going home and that is really hard to see because it most likely isn't related to worthiness because he is a zone leader and he is such a great guy, so that has put a bit of a damper in our district while also uniting us!  Aside from these struggles, there have been many miracles going on around here at the CCM, and the language is coming much faster than I could ever imagine!  I'll send you some voice recordings next week to show how much I have improved!  I'm praying for you guys back home, and I love you mom!

Con todo mi corazon (With all my heart),

Elder Raven

Sticky Note War

Hola Everyone,

This week has been absolutely phenomenal, and I finally feel like I
can orient myself around the CCM campus! The language is difficult but
with God's assistance, my improvement has been exponential!
Now the name of this email comes from a challenge by Hermana Correa
(the morning instructor) who kinda became frustrated with some members
of the district not always using Spanish, so she created this game
where every member of the district has five pieces of a sticky note on
their nametag with each piece representing an English phrase used, you
say a phrase you lose a life kinda thing.  The punishment is that
those who have no stickies (not sure what else to call them haha) by
the end of the day must purchase a candybar from the tienda for those
that do have stickies!  This spiraled out of control really fast!  The
word "Ingles" would be thrown about like a nasty word whenever
somebody said something in English and caused most of the district to
simply be silent which actually destroyed the intention of the game
... so, that lasted for a couple hours before it was disbanded haha!
Now on to the past week:

Sunday:  I got to partake of the sacrament and play the piano for the
meeting which was wonderful because after the Sacrament we have a
special number where everyone can feel the spirit and reflect upon the
importance of the Sacrament and when we are perfectly clean after the
Sacrament is when we are most likely to hear the susurros
(whisperings) of the Holy Ghost! This was also the first and last Fast
Sunday I will have in the CCM, which I will miss because I love being
able to have testimony meeting, and the beauty of having everyone
voluntarily fasting in unison!  It reminds of the scripture Mark 9:29,
which testifies that through fasting and praying many miracles can be
wrought in our lives.  (make sure to read the context of the verse)

Monday:  Nothing crazy eventful except for the fact that in my room
there are four Elders (Elder Manwill, my companion, Elder Wright, and
Elder Hatch who are both going to the Reno Nevada mission) and Elder
Wright is an absolute prankster who always does crazy things to get my
goat, but I just laugh and wave it off haha! But on Monday night, I
felt it's only right to fire back, so I gave him a scare by acting
like part of the table, which is hard to explain but in our room there
is a table between the two bunk beds, and I blended in with that, and
normally he turns out the lights for lights out, so when he went back
to hop in his bunk, I yelled and he screamed so loudly it caused the
room next to ours come check in on us, haha!  This probably is not the
most missionary like thing to do, but hindsight is 20/20 haha!

Tuesday:  We had a beautiful devotional from Presidente Caldwell and
his Wife that talked about the Creation, the Fall, and the Atonement,
which acted as a strong witness that Christ really truly understands
every aspect of your life, and asks for you to partake of his atoning
sacrifice because "He has graven us upon the palms of his hands, and
our walls are continually before him" (1 Ne 21:16, slightly
paraphrased, cause I don't quite know it in English, haha!)

Wednesday: We had a great lesson with Naomi in which we were able to
understand more about her life and concerns which is a huge blessing
becuase we were kinda shooting in the dark with her lessons, but now
we can better craft them to meet her needs and help her along the
path! Fairly standard CCM day!  Elder Manwill has been having a hard
time transitioning to missionary life, so he had a meeting with
Presidente Caldwell (the second counselor in the MTC presidency) which
is such a blessing because he worried me for a bit there!

Thursday:  Elder Manwill had another meeting with Presidente Caldwell,
so I had to teach Teresa with Elder James (a zone leader) which was
kinda difficult because he hadn't been involved with the planning at
all haha! But we taught a beautiful lesson about the Plan of Salvation
and Elder James shared the story of losing his close friend, and I
shared my families experience of losing my Aunt Kaylin, and the peace
and happiness that comes from believing in the plan of salvation! The
spirit strongly testified and I know that we can dwell with our
families for eternity through the atoning power of Jesus Christ!

Friday: P-day once again!  Spent three hours at immgration to make
sure the Mexico serving missionaries could legally proselyte here
haha! The bus drivers here are crazy skilled at knowing exactly how
big their rigs are because they would shoot gaps that I didn't think
were possible and this would often cause the hermanas on the bus to
scream because they thought there was going to be a serious wreck,
haha!  The drive time is about an hour and a half each way with the
heavy congestion of Mexico City so there really hasn't been much else
going on!

Scripture of the week Jacob 3:1-2:

1But behold, I, Jacob, would speak unto you that are pure in heart.
Look unto God with firmness of mind, and prayunto him with exceeding
faith, and he will console you in your afflictions, and he will plead
your cause, and send down justice upon those who seek your
destruction.

2 O all ye that are pure in heart, lift up your heads and receive the
pleasing word of God, and feast upon his love; for ye may, if your
minds are firm, forever.


This comforted me so much with some of the struggles this week, and
although this is a verse that I have always loved, I have finally
committed it to memory and I highly recommend that you Ponderize them
... I mean if that is still a thing haha!

Thank you guys for the support and prayers!
I love you all, and I'm praying for the assistance of God in all you do!
Con todo mi amor (With all my love),
Elder Raven