We started Tuesday off with an another earthquake...

This week was a pretty good week in Boca del Rio, Veracruz Mexico. Well what happened this week? Not a lot to be honest. 

We started Tuesday off with an another earthquake. It was pretty strong down here in Veracruz, and got me a little sick.  But other than that, it didn't do much. It just cracked a few buildings here in Veracruz, but nothing like Mexico DF.  I didn't know it was too bad until I went to talk to our Leader Misional and he told us that it just ruined Mexico. (First thought, "what happened to Ammon? Is he in Mexico City or stuck in a random part of Mexico with a bunch of other gringos que no saben español?  Or is he in Utah cuz nobody can land in mexico? Or is he in Oregon and will leave another day?"  All I knew what that he probably didn't make it to Mexico. But other than that, I didn't know anything! jaja. Hood to hear that he's safe). 

The earthquake that hit Mexico DF was the most destructive one in like 36 years. And it was as strong as the one last week, however it was more destructive because it started in the heart of the DF. It was pretty sad to hear about it because there was also a school that collapsed with a bunch of niños in it that couldn't escape. Its also cool to see how Mexico came together really, really quick to try and help los demás. I saw the news like 3 hours after that and the whole city had come together to try and save the people that were stuck in the rubble. 

Two days later we had another earthquake that was really strong.  It caused some damage and death in Oaxaca, so that's not good. Other than that, there hasn't been any other weird weather events that have happened (well, other than a huge thunder storm that was literally shaking my house for a whole night, but that was more cool than anything). 

Just a funny story that I would like to share that happened today in the morning. So it was like 1:24 in the morning and I hear my companion and he is screaming. So I think pasu mecha its another earthquake, so I just stay there but my bed's not moving so he screams again and I sit up and I ask him, "Dude what the heck are you doing?"   He turns on the light and says, "Hey--there's someone in the house."   And I said,  "What are you talking about?"   He says,  "Just look at the window!"   I look and there's nobody.   He says, "Dude, look at the fans--just look!"   So I just start laughing and I said,  'Elder, there's nothing, and I really don't understand anything right now."  He says,  "Well I had a bad dream last night..."   And I say, "Well what happened?"   He replies, "No just forget about it.  Go to sleep",  and just keeps repeating that. 

So I go back to sleep and I wake up in the morning and ask my companion,  "Dude, what the heck?  Why did you wake me up at 1 in the morning? And why'd you turn on the dumb light?" Hahaha   He tells me, "Umm I didn't wake you up, and I didn't turn the light on last night."  I then start asking him if he even remembers any of this and he tells me that I'm lying and nothing of this happened. So I finally came to the conclusion and started laughing really, really hard and said, "Elder you were hardcore sleep talking and sleep walking last night and you were going crazy and it was so so so funny!" jajaja   It was so incredibly funny--just the whole entire experience. 

Other than that, we had another zone conference, and it was pretty dang good. I actually participated a lot for some reason (which was new).   But it was really really good. Like always, Hermana Palmer killed her part in the conference with another great talk. She talked about the sacrifices that the first members of the church made, and a lot of them gave there lives for there faith. And I made the comment that, 'Well yes, they have movies and thanks to them we have the chance to be here. And I said "sorry to say it, but I don't believe we will ever get a movie made about us.  However, we are doing the same thing as them but with different details. We have all left our houses, friends, families, and have all traveled to a foreign land that we didn't know about. We are all suffering with this wonderful Veracruz heat and sun. And the thing is, these are all the same things that they had to do in there time. They have written their stories and have sealed it in history, and the whole world will know about them. Now its our time to make our sacrifice, and write our own history. The world won't know about the things we do, but the people that we will help and have helped, will always remember us. Their kids and grand kids and many generations will be thanking you for the sacrifice you made to help them, just like we have given thanks for the sacrifice of the pioneers." 

And it made me think--to be honest I don't believe that I have any Mormon pioneer ancestors, so I'm not cool like that.  But I got some pretty cool pioneers in my life that I think are a lot cooler. 

For us kids we got Grandma Sara, and to be honest Mom.  And we also have Grandpa on the side of Dad who is a convert. And that's the cool part. We all have "pioneers" in our lives, and to a certain point we are all pioneers in one way or another. We are all making sacrifices to live the Gospel, and we do it because we love God and we know He will bless us if we follow His commandments and cumplir con nuestros convenios (That just wasn't translating in my mind and I don't know the translation). But we all have the chance to make just as big of a difference in the lives of others like the first members of the Church made for all of us. We are just as important as they were in these days, and we are all making the sacrifices they made (but with different details). 

To those who have not yet made the decision to participate in the blessings of the Restored Gospel--I invite you all to go and try for yourselves. Don't let the opinions of others get in the way of your eternal happiness. Go and see for yourself if the things (the message that I am trying to bring to Veracruz) are true. Listen to the missionaries. Do the things they invite you to do.  Read the Book of Mormon, and actually think on the message that it brings. And Pray with a humble heart if the things you have read in the book are true. Its is literally one of the simplest things in life, but it brings wonderful blessings. Wonderful feelings of love, peace, harmony, the feeling of God fills your life. Just do it don't ask questions until after you have done it. And I promise you that you all will get the answer that I have received.  And then follow the answer that you receive and not throw it to the side. I invite all of you to do this. And I'm inviting you with all the love in my heart and inviting you all to do it not to say that I'm right.  No--I'm doing it out of the love that I have for all of you. 

That's all I got this week.   Hope all is well with everyone and everyone is safe and sound. Love you all and hope for the best this week. 

You are all in my prayers (how lucky).

"Church is true go be awesome"-Anne Bagley

This week has been a pretty good. 

It was so incredibly quick I didn't even realize it was Saturday until the middle of the day of Saturday. Man time just keeps going on and its getting more fun every week. I've got a little over a year left here in Mexico and its gonna go by really, really quick. I just hope I keep getting good companions. And I have been getting along really well with President haha. 

Story one: I had the chance to see another person that I've been teaching be baptized this week--that was pretty special. She's the sister of a member that was baptized like a year and a half ago, and it was actually just a really cool experience through the whole process. Her mom is super like anti for some reason, and gets really mad at her kids for being members of the church.  When we asked the daughter if that was gonna be a problem she gave a great response. She told us,  'Well to me no it won't be.  If she's got a problem pues vaya la goma a mi mama'. which means like 'Go fly a kite' (but a little bit stronger). So anyways, she also said she wasn't gonna be baptized until she was sure that this was the true church of God. So we said,  'That's perfect.  So that means you gotta put all of your efforts into this to know if its true. You need to read, pray, and attend church'. And so the next week we asked how she was doing and she said,  'I'm great'.  We asked if she had received an answer, and she said,  'Well no, but I just really hope that this is all true. I'm gonna keep working'.  And then the next week we asked how it was going and she said, 'I'm doing better and better than last week'.  And then we asked if she had received an answer and she said,  'It's true.  I know that it is all true.  Every single part of it.  Let's get baptized'.  It was super cool. And she asked if President Palmer could baptize her cuz they just got along really well, and because he had helped us teach her as well. So the the next week we were talking with her and asking how she was doing and she said great. and then she was talking to us about how she hopes that she can go on a mission in a year or so as well as her brother. So how cool would that be if she goes on a mission in a year? I would have a person that I've been teaching on the mission at the same time as me. Sick dude--sick. 

Also another thing that was pretty cool this week was just talking to President. President and I have got a pretty awesome friendship going on right now jaja. Tuesday he was scheduled to go on visits with us and I had set up this with him. And this is like the third or fourth time that he's come to my area to work with us. Every single time I had been out of the area on divisions or interviews. So this time I had one interview and I purposely put it at a time so I could go out with President. However, I went to this interview and 'boom' she wasn't there and asked us to return in an hour.  So we returned in an hour and she said she couldn't have the interview in her house, but 'Saturday I'll have the interview'. So we just taught a lesson with her and then we started our 90 minute journey back to my area. No hombre-we got on the wrong bus thanks to a member in the other ward, and it took us all the way through centro, and I didn't return to the area until 930 at night. So that night I sent an email to President that said, "Thank you for helping us today.  However, I'm really mad because I'm always gone when you're here." He then responded "Well yeah, what's your problem?  Do you just not wanna see me or something? jaja"   I then responded,  "Well I wasn't gonna say that, but yeah..."   We gotta a pretty good laugh out of that, and the conversation went on. 

Also I saved two lives this week. One guy hit his head in the street and started having a seizure, so me and my companion were the only ones around and we saved his life. There was a bunch of blood and a bunch of shaking, but when we got it all under control there was like a crowd of 30-35 people just watching, and no one had called and ambulance or nada. We looked at each other and said, 'Well what now?'   I said,  'Well I got an interview so let's go' haha.   

The second one was pretty weird. We got a call from the daughter of Nuestra Mama Galleta and she was crying and told us that her mom had collapsed and they didn't know what to do. So me and Elder Bettlyon ran to their house to see what we could do. So we did some stuff (worked our magic)  then said,  'Hey-have you guys called a doctor?'  They said, 'No.'   I said,  'You gotta be kidding me!  Call a doctor!' jaja.   And ya saved a life mas o menos. 

Its going pretty well these days.  I am really enjoying myself and am truly really happy. Sometimes I get a little worried about what's gonna happen after the mission, but then I just tell myself to live in the moment and just don't worry about a thing #bobmarley. 

When we live in the moment we start seeing a lot of things that are really awesome, and we don't miss out on anything. Time starts to go by without us even noticing and we start enjoying life even more.

So hey--just keep on keeping on, and remember "the church is true go be awesome"-Anne Bagley.

Well as you guys can all guess, this week was a pretty great week. It was actually so incredibly fun, and I really enjoyed myself.

The things of this world that happened this week were pretty darn fun, now weren't they?

I don't remember when, but one of these days this week we had an earthquake of 8.2 in the middle of the night. That was actually really funny. I was knocked out cold and in a deep sleep when my companion starts calling my name.  I was just trying to ignore him cuz I hadn't had much sleep and just wanted to sleep. So I finally woke up after like 15 seconds, and he tells me,  'Hey, I think we are having an earthquake right now.'  I said, 'No its just your fan or something.'  I sat up and we were getting shaken pretty good and I say, 'Oh yeah we are having an earthquake.'   He then says,  'Well, what should we do?'   My response: 'Well, just wait it out and enjoy it.  But I really gotta go to the bathroom, so I hope it ends soon' haha. So after it stopped, I got up to go to the bathroom and I was so incredibly dizzy and almost fell just walking to the bathroom.  Going to the bathroom [was not easy either]. Haha

So all that night I was trying to sleep, but my body was still feeling the earthquake.  It was just wild haha. I didn't know that your body did that after earthquakes.

We went out the next day and worked all day.  The next day we had Little Miss Katia #hurricane haha. That was pretty fun.  It wasn't even that bad.  We just got a bunch of wind and rain and nothing else--so that was all good. After all of that we have just been getting a bunch of wonderful weather here, and its felt amazing. 

So what else happened in this week? Well let's think real quick--cuz I cant remember a lot of things from this week because it went by way way to  quick.

We had another baptism this week, Hno. Antonio. That was pretty fun teaching him and visiting with him. He technically was the investigator from the guys that were here a while back but that left him because during a lesson the cops came and took him to jail on false charges. This guy's life has actually been pretty dang hard. His second wife was murdered while he was at work a few years back and his niece told the police that it was him. So he was taken (literally) underground, like the prison from Batman--no joke. He was there for five years with little to no lights, and contact with only two other people. He was tortured and a whole bunch of other stuff as well. But he said through all of this he was finally able to find God in his life, and he guesses that that was the purpose of this horrible five years. So we were teaching him (and teaching him) and he was progressing a lot. He stopped drinking and smoking and all of that stuff, but it was hard for him with the law of chastity. We were really, really direct with him one day, and said, 'Hey, you know its a commandment, and you know that if you break this commandment its a lot worse than almost all other comandments (and a bunch of other stuff on top of that)'. So he was fighting with this becacuse he honestly wanted to follow Christ, but he said it has always been hard for him, and he just didnt know what to do. So he decided to follow everything, and put all his worries in the hands of God. We told him, 'Hey, you don't have to break up with your girlfriend.  Marry her if you really love her. And she'll get her pension taken away.  If you have faith and are keeping the commandments, God's going to take care of you and you won't have any of these problems.'

So he prayed about it and we came back the next day and he said, 'Alright, let's get baptized.' And (boom!) he was baptized on Saturday. And his girlfriend and her kid came down to see it and everything! whoop whoop.

That's all I have for this week.

Just know "church is true go be awesome"-anne bagley

9/3/2017

This week has been a pretty good week as always. Another stressful one but hey we aren't progressing if we don't push ourselves. So anyways, what happened in this week?  Not a lot to be completely honest with you's all. We have just been working hard as ever and pushing ourselves. 

We have been actually having some success--not having the highest numbers in the mission (or that I had in my other area) but hey, I think we are having a lot more success here. I was talking to President the other day and he asked me how I was doing with everything and I said,  'I'm actually doing really well. We are working really hard.  But more important we are having a bunch of fun in our companionship'. He got a really big smile on his face and he told me,  'That's amazing to hear cuz this work should be really fun'. 

The members are also seeing us, and how we are actually in sync and they are buying in to helping us. Almost all of our investigators and members have commented to us, "There's something different about you two. And just enjoying yourself, and I really like that." We actually have the confidence of like all the members just because we are connecting with them, and connecting with one another.

To be honest I personally think that the two of us may be the best-blended companionship in the mission. We are just like two different colored brothers walking the streets of Veracruz living the dream. The two of us have our weaknesses but our strengths really compliment each other, and the things he can't do I can help him and the other way around. And we just have a bunch of confidence one with another, and we can really just trust one another with a bunch of stuff. Every day is just really enjoyable.   Lots of days something happens that I just get a little annoyed about and we will be sitting in our house at night and he will just say something or I will just say something and everything will just disappear and I'm just not bothered anymore. 

The most important thing of all of this is that because we have the spirit of unity between us we also have the spirit with us. Because we have this during the day we can receive the guidance of the Spirit, we can contact the people we need to contact, and teach with the Spirit as well. Because we have the Spirit with us we have been having what I believe is a lot more success than before. The members are trusting us more and more and they are looking for us to give us references of their friends, and we aren't the ones looking and constantly asking them. All in all we are just enjoying the work like everyone should be. 

So all in all how can we apply this to our lives? Well its pretty simple--we need to get rid of the spirit of contention, because that the spirit of the devil. And the Spirit can't live or be in a place that is always fighting or that always is having problems. If we try better ever day to get rid of this, and replace it with fun, love, the Spirit, well we will have a bunch more success in our lives. 

"33 Mas buscad primeramente el reino de Dios y su justicia, y todas estas cosas os serán añadidas.

34 Así que, no os afanéis por el día de mañana, porque el día de mañana traerá su afán por sus propias cosas. Basta el día para su propio mal."

3 Nefi 13:33-34. If we look for the Kingdom of God He will help us with everything else in this life. 

That's all I got for this week.   Hope everyone is doing well. Keep up the good work. Keep being nice to everybody, and God promises you all His Spirit and also a bunch of success in your life. 

"Church is true go be awesome"-Anne Bagley

9/28/17

This week was another great week of course. How could it not be?  I'm serving the Lord and the people of Veracruz. Don't get me wrong, it was a really, really hard week, but hey life isn't meant to be easy, right? 

So the good news is I got a new companion--Elder Gonzalez.   He is from Guatemala City, Guatemala, and he is already my home boy. The members can already see the difference in the area with the new companionship, and can tell that we are a lot happier, and are having a lot more success than before.  It was a great week and he has really helped me out this week cuz it was not an easy week let me tell you. 

Story one:

So we had transfers (which I was pumped for) and I went to the offices and I asked who were the new people in my district--and that instantly put a bunch of questions into my head. So I looked on the paper and I saw that Elder Dickson was transferred into my district. I was pumped--his comp is a little weird but i am dealing with that. And then I look at the other companionship that are my district and I see that my trainer is in my district. Basu mecha no hombre. I just got a little down there cuz then knew that I was going to be in for a really good six weeks. But then I settled down and thought, 'Wells its better that he is in my district so nobody else will have to deal with him. I know how he is so I know what I will need to do and its better that I suffer than the other district leaders.' And also I think I know why he was put into my district and not the other districts in the mission. First off, the Zone leader knows how he is  (he was his companion), and I was also his companion. So we know how he works, so the other people won't have to figure it out as they go--we already know. On top of all of that I know with out doubt in my heart that the Lord is just trying to show me and teach me (more like force me) to have patience. I do not know the purpose of it, and I do not know why He is trying to develop a lot of patience in me, but there is a purpose in it. I know that I will see the purpose of it further on in my life, and I will be glad for the opportunities that God has given me to progress and get better in my attributes as a man. It sucks in the moment but hey, it'll be great in the future.

It has also really helped that my Zone Leader is an absolute homeboy and someone that I can confide everything in and just vent to him. We were just talking for like half an hour last night on the phone cuz I was done with the week. I just couldn't take anymore cuz everyone was just being so incredibly rude to me, and I just let it all out the the ZL, and he just took it all in and then helped and just made it a little better. I was still really annoyed after it but he did help a bunch. 

That is really what I have learned this week. There is really no time in life to get mad as well. I have been close to getting mad this week but I have swallowed it up. There's no reason to get mad--if you get mad that means the other person wins and has gotten the better of you. I have just been trying to put a smile and my face and think happy this week with everything that has been going on and it has helped me a bunch. I think that God has given me the gift to be able to look at the good side of things or find the good in times even when it is the worst of times. This has helped me a bunch on my mission as God has been giving me things to help me with my patience. 

Story two: 

Last night after I was done talking to Elder Bettlyon I was just drained and I honestly could not handle anything more. So I was just had a bunch of things in my mind and I just couldn't sleep, so I had the thought just to read all of my notes that I have taken from the Christmas Devotional, and also from Conference. And I found a bunch of things that helped me a bunch last night. And then I said a prayer and just said, 'Hey I have no clue why you are just putting a bunch of things in my life to try my patience.  I know its to help me but its hard. So you need to help me cuz I am trying to do everything I can and I can't do anything else. And almost instantly I just felt a weight lifted off my shoulders and I couldn't feel any of the things that have been going on, and I fell right to sleep after that. 

So that is all I got this week.  Have a great week.  

Remember that "the church is true and go be awesome."-Anne Bagley