Atlantis Real (Alianza Real)

Familiares y Amigos!

How´s it going(insert question mark cause I can´t find it on this weird hybrid of an english and spanish keyboard, haha) 

I am going to keep this email kinda short, cause we don´t have a ton of time, but this past week has been absolutely crazy in terms of temperatures because we have had absolutely freezing temperatures and then been chilling in the 80 degree temperatures so la clima (climate) here can´t seem to make up its mind, haha!
It has been raining a ton here, and the street we live on was getting borderline flooded from the massive dumping going on, so I told my companion Elder Brown that it seems like they might have to change our area name to Atlantis Real, haha!

Spiritual Thought:

Recently I received the Christmas package from my family which was absolutely wonderful, and I am so grateful for their wonderful support, and one thing that they gave me was a small artificial christmas tree with a 12 days of christmas gift wherein are 12 different ornaments each one with a different name of Christ and a small excerpt about the characteristics of the Savior.  The one that really impacted me this week was reflected upon the title of Advocate.  Personally, this is one of the most beautiful titles that He bears because an advocate is somone who defends someones rights, voice, and them as a person in a court case, and it seems absolutely beautiful to me that in a coming day, every one of us will be called to stand before the Judgement Bar of God, to be tried of who we have become in this life. (side note: I believe it is a beautiful principle that I believe that we will be judged based off of who we have become in this life, and not a massive list of the good and bad things which we have done)  Anyway, in that day we will have our Savior, with nail-scarred hands pleading for our cause, standing in defense of our helpless souls against the demands of justice, and joyfully, lovingly, and proudly declaring before God our cause, if we have applied his atoning blood, we can joyfully receive the highest degree of celestial glory!  This is a day that I yearn for, and this perspective is what gets me out of bed early in the mornings as a missionary, so that I can work to earn my salvation and strive to apply the blood of Christ to all those around me so that we can reap the wonderful blessings together!  I testify of these eternal truths, and pray that each and everyone of us can come to trust in the Atonement of Jesus Christ, and make the changes necessary to find peace in that we can receive all that Heavenly Father has in store for us, if we but stay true to the small things, and serve our fellow men, love our families, pray, study the scriptures, and receive the guidance of the Spirit!  Keep going forward, because you have legions of angels cheering you on, and pouring out their hearts and souls to help you, if you but accept it by meekly praying for the strength that is one reach through the veil!  This is my testimony that I wish to share with you all, and hope that you have a wonderful Christmas season, loving and serving those who surround you!

Also, things have been really good down here, and I am going to give you a breakdown of some of the crazy wonderful things that have gone down!  Don´t have a ton of time, but I will give the basics of the past three days because they have been super eventful!

Saturday: BAPTISM DE (OF) JOSE LUIS

Wondeful day, and I have attached photos below of this wonderful day!  Being able to baptize him was great, and we did have to do it two times because his fingers didn´t quite go down below, but we got it right the second time, and the spirit was beautifully strong in the testimony that his wife, Anabelle, bore about the truthfulness of the gospel!  Such a wonderful young family with the two kids Fabian and Victor are really sweet kids that can be phenomenal future missionaries after activating this family and hopefully getting them to the temple in a year!

Sunday: Primary Program

I realize that I might have confused some people two weeks back about the primary program, but we were practicing the past few weeks and we finally had it this week, and the spirit was beautifully strong, and I am so grateful to have been able to help so many sweet kids bear their testimonies through song and memorized words!  The really wonderful thing is that they didn´t give the kids assigned topics, but they had each kid pray with their family and write up a specific topic together!

Also Elder Brown gave his final testimony and it eletrified the branch with the Spirit, and I just sat there and thought that I wish to become the kind of missionary who can honestly say that I served faithfully, lovingly, and with all of my heart, might, mind and strength, and leave the mission without any regrets!

Monday:  CAMBIOS ARRIVE (CHANGES)

I am going to be training a new elder, as a district leader as well this next cambio, which has been extended to 7 weeks, so my trainee is going to have 13 weeks of training with me!

This is absolutely crazy, and I am really kind of nervous about how everything is going to go down, especially since I just barely finished my training!  But I have faith that the Lord will strengthen me to be able to fulfill this assignment, and I have complete trust that if I am being obedient, trusting in the Spirit, and striving with all my heart to follow his will for me, then I will be a success, no matter what the outcome may be!

Love you all, and pray that you can find simple ways to rely upon our merciful Savior this season in which we can remember him!

-Elder Raven

Also there´s the burrito sabandero video that I promised to send that Elder Brown took on his camera during the ensayo (practise that we had at the casa de oracion (house of prayer-chapel that we have in the branch)

So Many Changes!

This is the Cardenas 6 year old Twin girls from the Rama Alianza Real Christmas Party

Mom,

I am honestly kind of freaking out about this, but I have been called as a district leader, and training a brand new missionary, just after having ended my training this cambio!  I am super stoked for this next transfer because its seven weeks long, and I am going to be able to spend 13 weeks with this next companion, and I pray that we will be able to get along, learn together, and that I can inspire this new missionary to go onto greatness!  I am honestly super happy and just loving life right now!

I FINALLY GOT YOUR PACKAGE as well, so that was so wonderful and THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH! You are literally the best and your presents were so thoughtful and I am honestly going to get diabetes from all the candy that you gave me, haha!

I have figured out that I am going to be able to eat lunch on Christmas with a family that has a computer so hopefully we will be able to use that to chat with you guys on the 25th around 2 or 3 oclock in your guys time, or 3 or 4 over here!

I also have been pretty sad about saying goodbye to Elder Brown, because he is such a good missionary, very patient, kind, spiritual, and I have learned a lot from him, and I plan to learn so much more from first hand experience, the best teacher of all, haha!

Anyway, do you guys have anyquestions that I can try to respond to in the family email!

Love you all so much,

Elder Raven

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