Dia de los Reyes Magos (Day of Three Kings!) 1.6.19

Specifically, something that was truly incredible was on Saturday when members from the Felipe Carrillo Ward asked if we had some time available on Sunday to help out with the Reyes Magos (The Wise Men, or literally the Magical Kings) here in Alianza Real.  They had received a ton of toys and clothes for young children and they were wondering if there was anybody that could use a little bit of help by providing gifts to the young children of more financially troubled families!  It was so cool to see these young children freak out because here in Mexico, the Reyes Magos pass by and deliver gifts to every child, and they are often more revered than Santa Claus so just being a part to help some families that were literally saying, I just didn´t know how we were going to provide gifts for our kids this year, thank you so much! was truly very humbling and beautiful experience!

Dia de los Reyes Magos (Three Kings Day) is always celebrated on January 6th

I truly have a testimony that much like King Benjamin taught us that if we are in the service of our fellow beings, we are only in the service of our God! And that as we are out serving, we are being cleansed by the Spirit and are able to maintain our souls clean and worthy before He who is perfectly loving and pure!

But for any of you who are confused about what went down, just think of the Sub for Santa program, but with less preparation, a lot more soccer balls as the gifts, and everyone speaking Spanish, haha!

Elder Santiago and I both found the babies in our Rosca bread so we are supposed to bring Tamales to the party on Feb 2nd!

Megan Briggs just got home from Mexico City from a Wedding and she invited my family over to celebrate Dia de los Reyes Magos! My Dad, Braxton, and Caleb found babies in their Rosca. So they want to have the Briggs family over for Tamales on Feb. 2nd

Spiritual Thought:

Extranar vs. Extranarse
With my limited Spanish knowledge from spending four months with the wonderful people of Monterrey Mexico, I have learned something really interesting about these two verbs.  The first one of extranar means to miss something or someone, while the other signifies something that was unexpected or surprising to you. It is really interesting to consider because the only true difference is the reflexive se part of the second verb which makes the verb being acted upon the individual.  Or another way of phrasing that very confusing sentence is that one is to miss someone or something while the other is to be missing ourselves which translates in Spanish to the unexpected or surprising parts of life and I think there is a beautiful doctrinal principle about this.

David Cardenas Sanchez thought it was funny we both found the babies and we are supposed to bring Tamales for the party on Feb. 2nd!!! Hopefully, Elder Santiago can help me make Tamales! JaJa!

The Savior invites us several times to lose ourselves in his work in building up his kingdom.  He asks us to overcome the natural man in each and every one of us and in essence miss or forget ourselves in order to truly experience the beautiful blessings that surround us!  Many joys and wonders await us if we are willing to let go of the picture we have for our lives and follow the program that an all-knowing God has for us!  It is much like the rich young nobleman that was unwilling to submit himself to the will of Christ and receive the treasures of Heaven.  So I would like to invite each and every one of us to seek to align ourselves more with the two great commandments that our loving Heavenly Father has granted us!  To Love Him, and our neighbors, with every ounce of our beings!  I guarantee in this time of evaluating, planning and changing, that the more we can centralize our lives on these ultimate goals of our Heavenly Father, the more we will be at peace with ourselves, gain a sure understanding of our mortal purpose, and be able to overcome the temptations of the adversary that are so abundant in our world today!

For if we can truly apply ourselves to try to see through God´s eyes, I promise that we will never lack the spiritual and emotional strength to endure to the end.

Quick recap of the week:

Tuesday: We had a beautiful lesson with a menos activo family from the branch and we were able to see them in Church so that was really amazing!  They are a young couple with a young son that has been battling with sickness and we have been able to give him a blessing and it truly is such a wonderful experience to help everyone align their lives more with Christ, and experience the many blessings!

Wednesday: The cold became really intense and we had to come home early a bit because Elder Santiago was really struggling with his knee!

Thursday-Saturday;

Study and planning basically, haha!  Also making some quick intercambios with other Elders of Alianza Real to be able to make quick visits with some of our investigators!

That´s bascially everything going on down here in the sometimes freezing, sometimes blistering hot metropolis of MTY, MX, haha!

Cuidense Mucho!

Hasta la proxima semana!

Elder Raven