Where Rocks Fall (El Pedregal Pt. 1)

Wow! How are you all doing?

This past week has been phenomenally great and sad because after saying goodbye to all of Alianza Real I was kind of feeling down but then I came here with Elder Chavez and I am feeling the missionary spirit right now!  He is working really well with me, and although he is kind of goofy at times, we get along really well!  So this area is great because we are at the base of a mountain so the view is absolutely stunning and we have a poorer area because the further out from the city you are the less economically stable it is which is great because we have a lot of crazy adventures and a more teachable area!  This area has been known for having a ton of success and I am loving my district right now because we have really motivated great Elders and a pair of Sisters that share the ward with us because they live in the nice part of town, haha! 

Anyway, we have had some cool teaching experiences that I thought to share with you guys in vez de compartir some spiritual thoughts!

So we contacted the family Navarrasco this past Wednesday as we were checking for old references in the system and I felt to ask this young mother if she had ever spoken to missionaries before, we began to talk about the message of the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ and as a result we were able to teach Yulissa (the young mom), her mother, grandmother, and several other family members that were interested and in total we taught a lesson to this wonderful family of 7 people!  We were all prepared and ready to teach yesterday the Restauration and see how receptive they were but then I felt a need to start asking a few questions about the family and their needs before continuing.  As a result, the grandmother of Yulissa told us that she had lost her son about a month ago, and she was so wonderfully enthused when we asked her if she would like to know where her son was at.  She smiled and softened up and prayed and began to teach the Plan of Salvation to all of them!  This was a wonderful way in which the Spirit helped her open up because she is a really tough old little Catholic grandma who normally doesn´t open up to missionaries but thanks to this lesson we are going to be teaching them next Sunday, and be having daily contact with them through a scriptural text or a phone call to make sure they are reading and praying about the book of Mormon because they all work Monday-Saturday so that was a really awesome miracle that we have going on!

Secondly, we found Nancy who is someone who the missionaries taught back in May who was really receptive and felt that the church was true but due to her work schedule she couldn´t make it to church and she lost contact with the Elders.  But thankfully and sadly that her father has contracted Alzheimer's she is bound to help him everyday of the week and has stopped working which has given us the opportunity to teach her once again!! She loves hearing the word of God and wants to draw nearer to him, but she really likes the Catholic Church, but I believe that if she can really connect and feel through heartfelt prayer that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, that she will have the desires to drop her traditions for a much more blessed lifestyle!  She is absolutely awesome because she loves the Elders from before and after the lesson just kept on telling us that whatever thing that we need we can count on her!  It was such a wonderful blessing to feel the spirit testify to her that really we are representative of Christ and that His gospel has been restored in these latter days!

These are just a handful of the cool things we are seeing, and I accidentally left my camera at home again! But until next week...

Stay Faithful And True!

Elder Raven 

Just Around the Riverbend

Hey everyone!

This week has been wild with receiving the changes and we found out that I am going to be changed to Felipe Carrillo 2 as the District Leader with Elder Chavez, who is an Elder from Mexico as well!  This is pretty great because I am literally moving to the Ward right next to Alianza Real, but a little bit less isolated, haha!  So I am going to be staying in the same zone and be able to talk with Elder Santiago and all the wonderful missionaries here that I have grown to love so much!  This is literally going to be a just around the riverbend experience for me! 

Irma Mireya Serrano and Cecilia Cisneros families had a going away party for Elder Raven.  They don't always do this, but they were so kind and even Elder Santiago stood up and said how much Elder Raven had helped him on his mission.

Spiritual thought:

3 Porque he aquí, yo soy Dios; y soy un Dios de milagros; y manifestaré al mundo que soy el mismo ayer, hoy y para siempre; y no obro entre los hijos de los hombres sino de conformidad con su fe.  

I really want to testify that God is a god of miracles that he can and will change our lives if we develop the faith that comes from righteous living!  LA FE or faith is a principle of action that will lead us to have a hope and confidence in gods promised blessings!

We have had some wonderful families that we found this week and I would like to share some of the highlights with you all but I ran out of time so only some pics for now!

Elder Raven

Just MacGuyver It!

Hey everybody!

So this past week was kind of crazy because we have been trying to help the Lopez Santos family attend the temple to be able to baptisms for the dead.  But in order to enter the temple we have battled with the baptismal registro of the mom, Carolina, and so in doing so we were making phone calls to her parents and famliy members trying to figure out what day she was baptized, and who was the bishop at the time because all the records appeared to be lost.  But thankfully, due to the miracles of getting in touch with Hermana Carolina`s father we were able to call Church Services and create a new baptismal form.  

In the midst of doing all of this we had forgotten one very important thing before leaving the house, which was the keys which we had left inside next the door as we closed the button lock that we had on bottom.  We discovered this at about five oclock at night when we ran quickly to grab some materials before a lesson that we had nearby the house and we couldn`t get in.  So later that evening after using knifes, and credit cards, and every possible thing to try to enter the door, we couldn`t get it to unlock.  So Elder Santiago and I got a little creative, and I climbed our back fence to find some possible materials.  I came up with the mop, an old broom we had tucked away in the back corner of our lawn and a metal hook.  So we got to work and cut some of the strings of the mop to tie the broom and mop together and finished it off by pushing the metal wire in form of a hook on the end of the broom and we literally fished for our key from the doorstep.   After a few failed attempts, we finally got it and were able to enter into the house and not spend the night with the wild dogs that roam our area, haha!

Anyway, a spiritual thought that I had this week comes more from my personal thoughts and something that I have shared several times, but personally it has been really applicable in my life and I hope that it can be a form of inspiration to you guys as well!

So this past week I have reflect a lot about King Benjamin`s address and the promises mentioned therein and I am always drawn to verse 41 of chapter 2, which states:

41 Y además, quisiera que consideraseis el bendito y feliz estado de aquellos que guardan los mandamientos de Dios. Porque he aquí, ellos son bendecidos en todas las cosas, tanto temporales como espirituales; y si continúan fieles hasta el fin, son recibidos en el cielo, para que así moren con Dios en un estado de interminable felicidad. ¡Oh recordad, recordad que estas cosas son verdaderas!, porque el Señor Dios lo ha declarado.  

I love this declaration of truth!  Those who remain faithful and obedient to the gospel of Jesus Christ are truly the most blessed and happy of all people!  This is a truth that Satan so desperately wishes to obscure from our minds by planting a form of negativity about who we can become and who we are in this moment! Please remember the peace that comes from the gospel and even when we feel frustrated with ourselves or with others that we can step back and realize the power of Christ to heal and perfect everyone of us, and that we can truly seek for the revelation that comes when we are in harmony with the gospel!  Because the world is only going to become crazier, but we are on the winning team if we seek wisdom through the scriptures, humble ourselves in fervent prayer, and strive to build our families we will be able to weather the great and difficult days before the coming of Christ!

I was able to play the piano for the Young Women in the new beginnings and we had some wonderful appointments but I love you all!

I will try to send pics next week!

Til next week
Elder Raven

Letter from Grandma Schulthies 3.4.19

Dear Elder Raven:     

            We were so excited to hear about the Lopez Santos Family getting baptized… what a thrill. We pray that they will continue to be strengthened in the faith.  I will put their name on the prayer roll this Wednesday when I go to the temple.  We loved seeing the pictures.  Along with the young mother you are teaching, Lizeth.  We pray for your investigators as we pray for you and your companion. Joshua and James really get a kick out of knowing that you know another family with their last name.  They are so cute when they think about that.

                       

Our Scripture from the Idaho Meridian Temple Presidency – 1 Nephi 11:2

2 – And the Spirit said unto me: Behold, what desirest thou?

Ponder – If asked by the Spirit as was Nephi – What would be your answer? (No Sunday School answers.) (Notice where the question was asked, and the answer given)  

            Yesterday we celebrated Valeda’s birthday and had Tammy’s family along with Grandma Joan celebrate with us.  In the evening we had the Come Follow Me Lesson covering Matt. 8-9 and Mark 2-5. As you know these cover many of the miracles of Christ.  Grandma Joan stayed for the FHE lesson.  It is wonderful having her share her testimony and conviction of the restored Gospel.  Do you remember the acronym WWJD (What Would Jesus Do)? Well the lesson shared an additional acronym HWLF (He Would Love First). Grandpa and I want to find both bracelets and wear them as a reminder to Follow the Savior’s example every day! The Come Follow Me lessons have been such a great blessing in our lives.

            It was truly heartwarming to know that Brady’s priesthood quorum included him in their ski trip last Saturday.  Tammy said that the YM president bore his testimony in church yesterday and said how the Come Follow Me Program has strengthened the YM in their ward.  He said that the first time Brady attempted go down the hill that he fell 50 times (I hope that was an exaggeration but perhaps not) but that the boys were right there with him helping him up until finally Brady was able to ski on his own.  Brady was so excited when he got home and thrilled that he could do it.  Reminded me of your letter Fall 7 times get up 8.  So so thankful for Brady’s YM leaders and priesthood quorum members. 

            Grandpa only has ONE more radiation treatment (March 5^th). We need to figure out a way to celebrate.  He is doing really well. A bit tired more than usual, but thank Heaven he was able to do the treatments before spring farming starts.  WE LOVE YOU so much, Kyle, and pray for your safety and well-being. I love being in the temple and hear the temple workers pray for missionaries and realize that they are praying for our wonderful grandson YOU!!!  Love always and forever, Gpa & Gma Schulthies

"Live well, Laugh often, Love much!"

Preparing for the Temple!

Hey everyone!

So this past week was absolutely wonderful and a special highlight that we had was the branch activity where we literally learned about what we do as members of the church inside the temples (don`t worry, this received approval from the temple Presidency here in Monterrey) where we decked out the casa de oracion in white and explained very simply what we do in the temple and how we can be worthy to enter and receive the blessings personally and for our loved ones!  It was absolutely great because we had some less active families in the activity that have not been sealed and are talking with the branch president to get going on the process!  We also had the Lopez Santos family attend but sadly due to delays with getting the signature of the branch president on their baptismal forms they weren`t able to receive a temple recommend without a member recordship number, but we have plans to go on the 16th of this month so we are really excited for that!

We hit a lot of difficulties this week in people rejecting the message after having taught them, trying to get the second lesson proved to be our greatest difficulty because a lot of people here are nice enough to listen once but then after that Satan has a great way of distracting people from the important messages of the gospel.

Spiritual message:

This past week with the difficulties that we have been facing in the district with being able to have investigators in the church, I really reflect upon an inspirational story or message that could possibly animate the other Elders in my district.  While I was thinking I recalled the story of the elephants and the rope.

Hope this can be of some motivation to you all!

As a man was passing the elephants, he stopped and was surprised to see that they were held back by small strings that were obviously too weak to contain them.

He saw a trainer nearby and asked why these animals just stood there and made no attempt to get away.  The trainer responded that when they are very young and we use the same size rope to tie them and,  it’s enough to hold them. As they grow up, they come to believe that they truly can`t break free.  And thus believing like that they never even try to break free.

I remember hearing this story a long time ago, and I truly believe that if we can stop listening to the lies of Satan telling us that we can`t and we come to believe in our Divine Natures as children of God, is when we can truly be the great forces of good we were designed to be!

Love you all!

Hope you have a great week!

Elder Raven