Concordia Week 1

This has been a fantastically wild week! I feel so excited here in the Concordia ward after only one week!  My companion Elder Santos, from Coatzacoalcos, Veracruz, Mexico is really awesome and i feel like we are learning so many incredible lessons together!   The ward here is very animated to take part in the missionary work and in order to better encourage the ward, the bishop called on us right before the start of sacrament meeting to give 10-15 minute talks about missionary work, which was a little stressful but it was amazing how Elder Santos and I, due to a lack of time, didn´t have time to prepare or talk about anything beforehand but our talks combined into a beautifully harmonious message which just strengthened my testimony of how the Lord truly guides us as companionships here in the mission!  Elder Santos spoke about 1 Cor 14:9 and our need as members to declare the gospel to others as the trumpet mentioned in the verse above and prepare everyone for the Second Coming of the Savior which was an amazing way in which he applied Ven, Sigueme (come, follow me) with his discurso, and then I went on to share a personal experience of having been lost in the woods as part of a Scouting Trip and how Hope is what got us through the challenge and then applying how there are so many people that are lost today that are looking for the light of the Gospel and that as we open our mouths, we illuminate the lives of others about the gospel and as well we find light to our personal struggles and difficulties and it is a little bit difficult to shorten the whole talks together but overall it was a wonderful spiritual experience.  

We have several wonderful people that we are teaching, but due to some family opposition, we had to postpone their baptismal services this Saturday!   The Hermana Nallely, a college student,  is one of them that is a escogido (golden) investigator who had passed her baptismal interview and was completely ready to be baptized on Saturday but in the end, due to some opposition from her mother, she didn't get baptized but we are praying and hoping that Nallely can find a way to help soften the heart of her mother!´

We are working more with the members than ever, and the results are definitely showing!  We have members accompanying us with every single lesson that we have planned so far this week which is going to be incredible!  We have a ton of less active young men that we are hoping to work with as well to be able to find Part member families and possible friends that aren´t members to be able to strengthen the ward!  This is the dream ward to be able to work in, and I am so excited for the time that I am going to have here!

Anyway we found some really exciting new investigators this week as well with Rey David (King David is his actual name), Obed, Kevin, and Jose, who are some awesome young men we met playing a bit of street soccer with them for like 10 mins who are coming to church this next Sunday and Rey David contacted us as we were passing by and he asked for a bit of help moving a refrigerator onto the back of his truck.  He is an awesome older gentleman who has a lot of personality and a very strong desire to follow Christ and still remembers when Elders shared the gospel with him over 15 years ago and he lost contact with them suddenly and he is really animated to continue learning about the gospel and he is the first man that on a first contact said, I am willing to follow Christ more than anything else in this world, and I hope that you guys can teach me how it is done!  He is super escogido and we are going to be visitng him throughout the week to help him come unto Christ.

Anyway tons of cool things happening here and I wish I could share more, but for now, I hope you all have a wonderful week!

Elder Raven

2 Ne 31:20

Changing things up

Hey Everyone!

So starting tomorrow I am going to be leaving the Anahuac Stake for the first time in my year in the mission! (It is so crazy!) I will be heading to the Concordia Ward in San Nicolas Stake which is only about 10 miles away from my current area! (Check fotos where I diagrammed the changes, using LDS Maps and Snipping Tool, jaja!) (Just to let you know FC is where I was at, the sister area that were sharing the ward with us, and the zone leaders of Anahuac)  I will be serving with Elder Santos who was my first zone leader in this mission and this will be his last change which is so wild to see how the time is flying by!

It is pretty sad saying goodbye to everyone that I have come to love in these past few months but I genuinely believe that the Lord has a divine purpose for me in San Nicolas! 

I am really excited to see how things go in the next few weeks but I feel that this was a truly inspired change and honestly I am not going very far from Felipe Carrillo which is really nice!

But aside from all the change information I was thinking a lot this last week about the heroes from whom we pattern our lives after.   Some of us may do this following a famous individual, others a grandparent or mentor or teacher, and others our closest friends.  These can be great influences in our lives as we are following gospel principles, but I would like us to reflect about whom we spend our time thinking to model ourselves after and then think about the wonderful individuals of the book of Mormon, with the Nephis and Captain Moroni type figures that just give us the inspiration to persevere and be faithful!  I truly believe that we can literally apply the scriptures and become more like these individuals if in everyday situations we could take the divinely inspired actions of these just men and women and do similarly!  I have been trying to apply the principles of Teancums love for his fellow men, his courage, and preparation as a missionary to be able to better serve those around me and I know that as you follow this pattern with the ultimate example being Jesus Christ we will always find a happier and more blessed way of being!

I love you all and I will send you the fotos next week of the goodbyes!

FOMO and Repentance

David and Alma Cardenas-Cano Familia texted my mom this week to see if I was still in Felipe Carrillo Ward. They wanted to surprise me and visit my ward so I could see their new son . I was so surprised!!!!  It was fun to see how much the twins have grown.  I love this family! I heard they are preparing to go to the temple!  I hope I am close by still so I can go with them! 

A note from mom...
Kyle, Brother Cardenas feels so close to you. They are grateful for your service in Monterrey!  They love you.  I am grateful for the Cardenas family.  They are the only ones who send me photos of you! You look so handsome and happy in this photo!!!

This family LOVES you!  It was a tender mercy for me to know that they wanted to come see you...especially since you have had Elder Sant'ana as a companion.  I know Heavenly Father is watching out for you!  The Cardenas Family was inspired to surprise you with a visit. It meant a lot to me that they came and they don't know you are having a hard companion right now...it's a testimony to me that  Heavenly Father is aware of you. ❤️❤️❤️ He will send you extra LOVE when you need it!
Hope you are well.  I love you! Love mom! 

Hey Everyone!

This past week was pretty awesome as we were able to have several edifying experiences!

First of all we were able to have our first zone conference with the New President Isaguirre and I truly felt his love and powerful witness of this work!  He taught the elders in such a direct yet humble way that we saw several big changes in our mission schedule, and we are going to be much more effective now!  One of the big things is that we will now have district meetings on Mondays which means I am going to running around even more on Monday, but also that we will start off the week strong and ready to dedicate all of Tuesday to proselyting!  We also were able to see about half of the mission and I took a few fotos with them but I don´t have my camara with me, sorry! 

We also had a wonderful time learning about the basic principles of Repentance unto Baptism and I loved a principle that we talked about that was shared by another mission president where he shared that many times we have heard about the term of FOMO or Fear of Missing Out which is basically defined as being afraid of missing out on an experience due to being in a different place.   Then our Presidente turned to us and shared, how many of you have FOMO from the presence of God? and this was revolutionary because many of us, including myself, we could see how repentance was this key to avoid missing out on living in God´s presence after this life!  If we can but turn our actions thoughts and behaviors to God then repentance becomes efficacious and we receive a fulness of joy that we are not going to miss out on the Celestial Kingdom! Daily repentance is our triumph song over the forces of Satan and as we overcome our weakness (Ether 12:27) we become more like He is!

I loved learning about repentance in this way and I testify that it is a real power!

I also was able to see this because I had intercambios with Elders from my past area because now they are in my district and as a final part of the intercambio we were able to visit some of my past converts and the tears of joy that fell down our faces was absolutely beautiful!  I stood there in silence as I saw how much the children had grown in the Cardenas Family, or how the Rosales Chino family is about to get sealed and so many details that I had lost in these past few months!

I know that this is the work of the Lord and even though I do not have fotos with me I will send them next week!  I know that with every soul that comes unto Christ there is great rejoicing in the heavens and i feel so priviledged to have seen a small piece of that this past weekend!

I love you all so much and hope you can feel the same joy that I have been feeling!

Elder Raven

One Year of Miracles in Monterrey!

Wow! It is quite insane looking at all the events that have gone on in this past year!

WE had a wonderful week this past week and even with the scorching sun, we are seeing a lot of wonderful little miracles!

The Ramos Family after seeing many struggles with their schedule is going to be baptized in two weeks!  We have seen a lot of wonderful little miracles with them and the Hermana Nubia is so spiritually prepared! We are still seeing how the Lord is preparing them and we are just including all the members we can to help them feel loved and stay animated about their decisions!

We also had some miraculous experiences with the members because the Sisters were also able to baptize a complete family this past week and the family Galvan Medina are so wonderful and the Sister Ivonne bore a powerful spiritual witness of the veracity of the church and they are clearly on course to be sealed in the temple!

District Activity Bowling and Trampoline

We also had our district activity today which was great because we went bowling in a little plaza and it was great because due to recent changes in the zone our district has 12 missionaries now (3 normal companionships and 2 trios!) which has made things really wonderful! We have seen how the Lord is truly blessing our district with a support and love for each other which helps us stay really animated!  It was so great being with them and we found this cool 70s diner here that made some massive hamburgers that were absolutely delicious!

But as for a more spiritual side of things I saw this Mormon Message the past week in the Quorum de Elderes Class and dealing with how we minister to others!

https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/one-on-one  

It is an excerpt from the October 2016 conference talk by Elder Holland, Emissaries to the Church, which is absolutely beautiful!  I know that the Lord has given us the capacity to bless those around us through small and simple means!  I know that as we strive to love as the Savior loved and demonstrate our gratitude for all of the wonderful blessings we receive gracias a Él (thanks to Him) we can be angeles here upon the earth to those around us!  This past week my companion and I were studying Alma 13 in companionship study and we were discussing how as missionaries and members of the church we can oftentimes be these mortal angels that others need in order to receive the gospel, referring to verse 24, and I know that every charitable act done with a pure heart will be purifying to us!  I would like to invite you to find someone to serve and be able to apply as well the new videos of the church that were shared about how to share the gospel with others that are in this link;

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/blog/sharing-the-gospel-in-normal-and-natural-ways 

And that we can all strive to model these simple examples and see those who need our love and support!

I love every wonderful and charitable act that you have ever done and for the many examples that you all have given me of how Christ always looked to serve others!

Til next week!

Elder Raven

Que legal (How Cool in Portugese)

Hey Everyone!

This past week was full of wonderful experiences from an accidental run in with Marcos to learning all kinds of Portuguese slang and words this has been one of my favorite weeks in the mission so far!

We had the Ramos Family and Marcos come to church yesterday which was phenomenal!

There has been huge progress with many of our investigators and they are so incredible and I am so grateful for the many blessings which we saw in this past week and thanks to my new companion Elder Santana I have really been able to enjoy the work in a different way!

It is still hard, and there are days where the work is difficult but I have come to feel and see more often how the Lord is working in every single one of the lives that we interact with on a daily basis!

One cool experience was with Mizael and Cinthia who are absolutely amazing because they were being taught by the missionaries a long time ago but they never got baptized because they weren´t married and they didn´t want to make the commitment, but then we were checking the registros (teaching records) and felt that we should visit them! It was so wonderful to have a lesson where the spirit was testifying to them of the reality of this Church and the importance of the principles of the Atonement and Repentance in their lives, and at the end of the first lesson, we felt a need to invite them to return to the church and become members! The wonderful thing is that they said, yes it is about time that we put God first in our decisions! And they also let us know that they had been feeling impressions to get married for the two young girls that they have and about a month ago they got married! So now it seems that they have been truly prepared to become members! They are so incredible and they have an iron-like resolve to be baptized!

A spiritual thought comes from the Elder Holland Talk in Abril 2009 of None Were With Him

https://www.mormonchannel.org/watch/series/mormon-messages/none-were-with-him-2 

Even though this is a Easter Video I feel like it is something we can always benefit from because:

I love these words he shared and I also would like to testify that Christ knows us, he knows our challenges and he can succor us (run to us) wherever we may be found!  His loneliness means that we are never alone and that He stands with open arms to receive us the minute we turn our lives over to Him and say, Thank You for paying for me, please help me to make use of your gift and become more like You.

I hope you can find comfort from this video and that you can always remember our Savior Jesus Christ and strive to emulate His Perfection!

Elder Raven

Isaiah 52:7!!! Also Happy 50thAnniversary to my grandparents!

HAPPY 50TH ANNIVERSARY TO MY GRANDPA AND GRANDMA SCHULTHIES
It was fun to get to talk to them today on their 50th!!! My mom is in Oregon so I got to say hi to them!

Wow, this past week was incredible!

I am loving my time with Elder Santana who is a really upbeat and fun personality but also teaches and helps other people with power and love!  It has been so nice to be able to learn Portuguese with him and sometimes in lessons I have been accidentally throwing in Portuguese words which always creates a confused look from the investigators but anyway its caused a lot of funny experiences this past week!

Service Project with Hermana Arroyo cut, paint, and prepare a wood sign for her smoothie stand!

We found several new investigators this past week which was wonderful but specifically I would like to talk about 2 older couples this past week we started teaching who are really awesome! The first couple is named Juan and Juana and Juan is an ex-judge for the city of Escobedo and a really religious and wonderful man who is very receptive to the message of the Restauration, which is very rare here in Mexico because generally speaking the older generation is very close to Catholic traditions, but they began right of the bat by saying, we only wanted to talk with you two at first because you were always smiling and talking with the people in the street, and the simple fact that you always said good morning, or good afternoon to us helped us gain a lot of confidence with you two, but now after taking a real interest in us and after hearing about Jose Smith, we have felt and recognized that you have been sent from God to bless us!  This was one of the most incredible moments of the mission so far, not because of self-recognition or anything, but the fact that the Lord had prepared these two very humble and wonderful people to learn about the Restored Gospel of Christ.  They couldn´t come to church yesterday but they are reading the Book of Mormon and have said that they are coming this week!

The other couple is named Rodrigo and Seda! They were really closed off to us at first, but after passing by their house every day and talking a little bit with them, they finally accepted the offer that we could visit them! It was a wonderful lesson that we had and they truly felt a peace after hearing the message of the plan of salvation, (because they had lost a grandson recently) and said please keep coming back because this is the first time we have been able to have hope for our grandson because he wasn´t baptized in the Catholic church and they thought that he had gone to an eternal torment, but now they are also willing to begin coming to our church and learn more about God´s love and the principles he has revealed through his prophets!

After seeing these lessons and so many others I would just like to add my simple testimony that truly God is preparing people for the message of the Gospel and much like He has declared in 2 Nephi 27:20-21 *He will do his own work!* He just needs us to be able to take part in this process and receive the miraculous learning experiences that come from sharing the gospel with other people! I know that He love us! He has a plan for us and that He is in control over the seemingly insignificant details of our lives!

I love you all so much!

Hope you have a wonderful day!

Keep Praying, Keep Believing!

Elder Raven

Message from Blake to Elder Raven

Hi Kyle,

this is Blake, I just finished the park city cup I did well. one game I had three opportunities to score but I didn't score any of them I just hit the ball with the wrong side of my foot. I am now playing a holding center mid or left mid I am really happy about that. my team got to the semi-finals and then the ref was bad and we had a PK in overtime to tie the game we shot and scored but one of our players stepped over the line so instead of letting us get the kick she gave the other team a goal kick. 

It was fun.

 I wish you were here so we could practice soccer together and you could help me get better at shooting.

From Blake

Message back from Elder Raven

Ok love you bud! That is tough, but I am glad that you are still playing! I would love to practice with you, and don´t worry, when I get back from the mission I am going to spend a lot of time helping you out with whatever you want!

That is so cool that you changed position, you are much better midfielder than defender!

Your big bro!

Elder Raven