Fall 7 times, get up 8

Hope you all are doing well, and had a wonderful week!

We got the cambios today and I am going to be staying here in Alianza Real with Elder Santiago as District Leader for another change, and I am honestly so excited I have another chance to serve here because I have grown to love this branch so much, and all the wonderful families that we are teaching and helping ot progress in the church teachings!  We have been searching high and low for the prepared families and God has truly answered our prayers this past week in being able to receive references from other people and have some experiences in street contacts or unexpected occurances to help everyone come unto Christ!

One More Change with our District in Rama Alianza Real

Elder Santiago, Elder Raven, Elder Basurto, Elder Aguilar

Our District serving in the Rama Alianza Real

One of the coolest ones has been Antonio who is a college student that is very well versed in the bible, and he recognizes that the Catholic church has a lot of doctrinal holes to him, and he has been searching for the truth for quite some time and it is so awesome to be able to answer some of his life long questions through the Restoration, the Plan of Salvation, and all the wonderful teachings and principles of the perfectly restored gospel!  Being able to see the light in his eyes growing each time we speak, is a testimony to me of the reality of the church that we as missionaries represent!

Sorry I never seem to have enough time to share everything, but I will really try next week, haha!

Spiritual thoguht-Things that happened

So this past week was honestly the greatest in many aspects because of the challenges and opportunities given, as well as the joy of overcoming all of the curveballs and having a truly blessed week!  I really thought a lot this past week about a Japanese saying that roughly translated means the title of this week´s email!  That We really are successful if we can take our mistakes and our errors and learn from them, and not let them define us if we fall another time!  

This was especially true in a situation that we had on Tuesday because what happened is that I was giving the weekly capacitation when suddenly the Zone Leaders called and said that they were outside of the casa de oracion where we hold our meetings and wanted to drop in and evaluate the capacitation.  No pressure ... right, haha!  The capacitation was going well, and then suddenly President Maucotel and his Wife called, and they said the exact same things that they wished to be able to drop in and were waiting outside for us to open the doors!  This really put me under a lot of pressure to capacitate well, and it was in this moment when I really felt the Spirit guiding my words to be able to bring across all of the ideas that I had about missionary work!  I honestly felt so blessed that this didn´t result in an embarrasing situation, and we all left edified from the capacitation.

Looking back, I would like to share some of the thoughts and experiences that I learned from Early Tuesday morning!

First, the way in which expressing love is really the intelligent way to live!  Jesus Christ was the most intelligent being to walk the face of the earth, and he dedicate all of his days to serving others, being in the present moment, and building up the Church so that all the children of God can receive the promised blessings of the Gospel. They are two ways to gain this love and charity for others, if we can act as Moroni stated and pray unto God with all the energy of heart for this love, and   If we truly dedicate ourselves to at least two pure acts of service everyday, I promise that we will see the quality of our lives improve, we will feel a greater sense of personal worth and value, and grow in love, and after a great effort we can become true disciples before God for we are filled with his love,  because it is like King Benjamin shared in his grand address to the Nephites: ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins.”   This is truly the way to greater intelligence and a more blessed life.,

Secondly, consecrating all that we have to God is really the true way to enduring happiness!  If we feel that we are missing something in life, we can take a moment to reflect about our connection with God, see where we are in this process, and then commit to the small things that bring us closer to him.  For example, if our scripture study is shaky, we can make a concentrated effort to sanctify these learning experiences in the house!  I love the words of Omni 1:26 that state:

And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.  

These were some of the thoughts that I shared, and I wish that I had more time to write all these things down, but until next week!

Love you all,

Elder Raven

HAPPY 17th Sis!

Sorry I didn´t have a ton of time to send you the best birthday wishes but ahead of time, I prepared this little audio piece to tell you a bit about what we´ve been doing down here, some cool events, and things so that you can hear my voice as a birthday present!

You are absolutely stunning in the pictures of Sweethearts!  Keep Smiling and sharing your brilliant goodness with those around you because you never know the good that you do!  You are influencing so many others for lives that are more Christ centered and I pray that you are praying and studying the scriptures every day to receive the strength necessary to have a phenomenally fantastic 17!!! YOU ARE STRONG, and in the words of Brother Lowe, you´ve got a powerful spirit, sister, POWERFUL!

Love you with all my heart,

Keep fighting and pressing forward, God is with you every step of the journey!

Love,

Elder Raven

He sent a voice recording for her Birthday!!! It was so nice to hear his voice!  I will try and add recording on here!!! :) 

Dia de la Candelaria on February 2nd from Grandma Schulthies

Dear Elder Raven:     

            We just wanted to share with you that we celebrated Dia de la Candelaria on February 2^nd. We had Grandma Joan come over so she could celebrate with us.  We watched a YouTube presentation of what that holiday means.  We truly felt close to you and the Cardenas Family.  We ordered Tamales since that is what you were supposed to bring to the celebration. Your Mom shared the pictures of you and your companion celebrating with them. By the way, YOU LOOK WONDERFUL! I’ll include a couple of the pictures we took.

                       

Our Scripture from the Idaho Meridian Temple Presidency – D&C 8:2, 9:7-8

2 – Yea behold, I will tell you in your mind and in your heart, by the Holy Ghost, which shall come upon you and which shall dwell in your heart.

7 – Behold you have not understood; you have supposed that I would give it unto you, when you took no thought save it was to ask me.

8 – But, behold, I say unto you, that you must study it out in your mind; then you must ask me if it be right, and if it is right I will cause that your bosom shall burn within you; therefore you shall feel that it is right.

Ponder – What are the obstacles to gaining personal revelation? (Think of Oliver Cowdery) 

            We had another wonderful FHE with Teniele and her boys and taught them about Jesus coming to Peter in Matthew 4 after Peter had had a devastating night of fishing. Anyway, long story short is that Jesus called Peter to be a “Fisher of men.”  We talked about you and how you are literally a “fisher of [people]” in Mexico. The boys were so excited to think about you in this way!!!  We discussed how they too could be a good missionary by being kind to their classmates and teachers.

            Grandpa is half way done with his radiation treatments. I admire him so much as he never complains but shows great courage and faith as he is going through this trial.   He is on course and the doctors say he’s responding as he should.  WE LOVE YOU so much, Kyle, and pray for your safety and well-being. I put your name on the prayer roll along with the Cardenas family.  Love always and forever, Gpa & Gma Schulthies

"Live well, Laugh often, Love much!"

Tamales for DIa de la Candelaria Feb. 2, 2019

(5 months) Time Flies When You Are Preaching the Gospel!

Rama Alianza Real Mutual Activity Jan 17, 2019

Hola!  

Wow, this is so incredibly weird to think that five months ago, today (8.21.18) I was an incredibly nervous yet excited missionary about to enter an entirely different life of commitment to my Savior and the beautiful principles of this gospel!  I just feel so motivated, and encouraged that now I am entering into the prime time of the mission (at least according to the missionaries here, where I have learned the principles, studied hard, learned through trial and error several practices that are effective and others that are less effective, and now I am able to begin the 6 months to 24 month period where I can also communicate a sentence in Spanish without having to question myself if what I said was grammatically correct!   Looking back, there were many moments of frustration and difficulty but I would like to reiterate the words of Elder Holland in his conference talk, An High Priest of Good Things to Come where he shared:

Thirty years ago last month, a little family set out to cross the United States to attend graduate school—no money, an old car, every earthly possession they owned packed into less than half the space of the smallest U-Haul trailer available. Bidding their apprehensive parents farewell, they drove exactly 34 miles up the highway, at which point their beleaguered car erupted.

Pulling off the freeway onto a frontage road, the young father surveyed the steam, matched it with his own, then left his trusting wife and two innocent children—the youngest just three months old—to wait in the car while he walked the three miles or so to the southern Utah metropolis of Kanarraville, population then, I suppose, 65. Some water was secured at the edge of town, and a very kind citizen offered a drive back to the stranded family. The car was attended to and slowly—very slowly—driven back to St. George for inspection—U-Haul trailer and all.

After more than two hours of checking and rechecking, no immediate problem could be detected, so once again the journey was begun. In exactly the same amount of elapsed time at exactly the same location on that highway with exactly the same pyrotechnics from under the hood, the car exploded again. It could not have been 15 feet from the earlier collapse, probably not 5 feet from it! Obviously the most precise laws of automotive physics were at work.

Now feeling more foolish than angry, the chagrined young father once more left his trusting loved ones and started the long walk for help once again. This time the man providing the water said, “Either you or that fellow who looks just like you ought to get a new radiator for that car.” For the second time a kind neighbor offered a lift back to the same automobile and its anxious little occupants. He didn’t know whether to laugh or to cry at the plight of this young family.

“How far have you come?” he said. “Thirty-four miles,” I answered. “How much farther do you have to go?” “Twenty-six hundred miles,” I said. “Well, you might make that trip, and your wife and those two little kiddies might make that trip, but none of you are going to make it in that car.” He proved to be prophetic on all counts.

Just two weeks ago this weekend, I drove by that exact spot where the freeway turnoff leads to a frontage road, just three miles or so west of Kanarraville, Utah. That same beautiful and loyal wife, my dearest friend and greatest supporter for all these years, was curled up asleep in the seat beside me. The two children in the story, and the little brother who later joined them, have long since grown up and served missions, married perfectly, and are now raising children of their own. The automobile we were driving this time was modest but very pleasant and very safe. In fact, except for me and my lovely Pat situated so peacefully at my side, nothing of that moment two weeks ago was even remotely like the distressing circumstances of three decades earlier.

Yet in my mind’s eye, for just an instant, I thought perhaps I saw on that side road an old car with a devoted young wife and two little children making the best of a bad situation there. Just ahead of them I imagined that I saw a young fellow walking toward Kanarraville, with plenty of distance still ahead of him. His shoulders seemed to be slumping a little, the weight of a young father’s fear evident in his pace. In the scriptural phrase his hands did seem to “hang down.”15 In that imaginary instant, I couldn’t help calling out to him: “Don’t give up, boy. Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead—a lot of it—30 years of it now, and still counting. You keep your chin up. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come.”

I absolutely love this story that encourages us to keep trying, keep moving forward, even when things look dark and dreary! We always have the Light of the World beckoning us to step forward, improve just a little bit each day, repent willingly and quickly each day of our errors, and we can have the confidence that one beautiful day we will stand before God clean and pure, with the opportunity to live with our families in a state free from pain, death, disappointment, frustration, and everything that comes along with this mortal condition, and hear him calling to us beckoning us into his loving embrace!  For this blessing we strive for as missionaries, and we know that it is only through sharing this message that we truly have the capacity to achieve it, because only until all the world has heard this wonderful message and made the decision to accept or reject it, is when the Savior will come, and he will reign in great power and majesty and as my favorite scripture says:  He will wipe away all tears from their eyes! 

Sorry for not sending a group email the week before, we ran late from the Zone Activity and in returning to our areas we only had time to send the basics, an email to the President and one to our mothers to make sure that they didn´t have a panic attack that something bad happened to us, haha!

I am also a bit low on time today, but here is a picture of mutual from the past week!

I love you guys,

Keep on Swimming and Trusting in our Savior!

Elder Raven

Feliz Cumpleanos Elder Raven 💙💙💙

Hi Elder Raven,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY WEEK!!!! I have been thinking about you all week! We hope you are doing well!  A couple of questions we have for you...

• How are you doing?
• How is Elder Santiago doing? Any news about how his knee is doing? Elder Santiago is lucky to have you as his trainer.  YOU are amazing!
• Did your internet short out last week? It's the first time we didn't get a group email from you. Is everything ok?
• How are your investigators? How is the Grandma you found the beginning of December?
• We sent you more fish oils...are you taking fish oils? It will help with the demands placed on your body. 
• I wanted to share that Blake was ordained a Deacon January 6th, Braxton has ordained a Teacher Sunday, January 20th. Mckinley went to the Temple with friends on Monday and she came again with Blake on Friday so she could be with him on his first time to the Temple.  Blake passed the sacrament for the first time in Church and he gave a youth talk about "Some of the Privileges of being able to go to the Temple." Dad also spoke with Blake in Sacrament meeting.  They did a nice job!
• The kids want to use your hoverboard, but I put the charge cord away so they can't use it. So it will be in good condition when you get home.  I told them they need to get permission from you before they can use it. You can tell me your honest thoughts if you want me to keep it safe for you... I will. haha 
• IS there anything we can help do for you? We re here to support you.
• Do you have any pics you can send for your blog?  Thanks for the pictures you already have sent.  

You are constantly in our prayers. We love hearing from you!!!! Keep smiling!

Love, Mom 💙💙💙

_______________________________________________________________________________________

Mom,

Thank you so much for the birthday wishes, keeping me in the loop with all thats going on back home, and for the many blessings I have received through your emails!

First off, I am so excited that Blake, and Braxton advanced in their priesthood responsibilities!  Make sure that they understand that they have an access to the power of God and that they have the power to be instruments of great good in school and in every aspect of their lives!  Teach them about their divine identity and destiny, and help them continue to be the wonderful boys that they already are!   I am truly blessed with the greatest family on the planet, and for your wonderful examples in teaching me the principles of the gospel!  They are doing so much good in the ward back home, and I hope they can recognize how wonderful they truly are, because they have learned from your example and that of our dad as well!

So this past week was honestly great!  It was full of challenges and adversity like normal, but we have grown closer as a companionship and for this reason, it is much more bearable!  We are truly striking up a great balance and I believe that we will be great instruments for good here in the branch of Alianza Real! 

We bought a knee brace for Elder Santiago, alongeside some pain medication to help him keep working in spite of the cold related pain!  So he´s been doing a lot better!

So last week we ran out of time from the Zone Activity in the stake center, and so we were booking it, so we only sent a message to the president, to family members and friends, and then left to return to our area a little bit late!  We were only writing for like 20 mins because we really ran out of time!

Everything is fine down here, and don´t worry I am going to explain everything in the massive group email!

Our investigators are great, it is just really difficult to work around work schedules in our area, because most of the people don´t have an education beyond la prepa or high school equivalent and for this reason they are very humble and good people, but they are unable to have a lot of control over their work schedules because they all work in factories where they literally don´t know their schedules in advance until the week of and they are only able to life and plan in the moment so that makes things complicated to plan our lessons, but they are really ready and progressing in all their commitments except for attending the church!

Yeah I have been taking the supplements and fish oils you have given me, and I still feel tired all the time, but they help me to maintain the energy until the nightime, haha!  

The broskis can use the hoverboard all they want, really I don´t have any need of it,  just make sure they stay safe that is my only concern, but for all I care they can have it.   One thing the mission has taught me is to not be so overly concerned about things, but rather how I can help other people, and if it makes them happy to use the hoverboard, let them at it, so long as they don´t try to do flips with it, haha!

Really there isn´t anything more!  Thanks for all that you are doing to send inspirational messages to help me press forward one day at a time!  The time is truly flying here and it is so wild to think that I have been in the field for exactly 5 months as of today!  I feel so blessed to be able to give to those around me, and center my life so that one day I will be able to end this mission with honor, to begin the true everyday battles of an everyday member missionary!

Love you so much mother!

Thank you for raising me in the principles of the gospel, and teaching me of the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ!

I love you more than you can imagine!

Elder Raven

A Quick Email after Zone Activity

Mom,

We had a zone activity today and we are short on time, but we did see to check on Elder Santiago's knee, but he´s been battling a lot, and it is a long story but we are hoping that he gets better and can keep working. Thanks for searching for the book! I am excited to read Saints, Articles of Faith and Miracle of Forgiveness. I appreciate you sending them to me.  You are so sweet, thank you! You have helped me in so many ways to be here on the mission! Thanks for the photos!

Sorry, I can´t send any, we really don´t have time!

Love you guys so much! 

Elder Raven

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