we will never get the chance to do it ever again...

This week was a pretty good week here in Veracruz, Mexico. It wasn't too hot, but man the sun was hitting us so hard, and we got 'purty' dang dark. But we kept on working and kept fighting--but to be honest we had terrible results. But that just means we gotta work even harder this upcoming week.  So its gonna be pretty darn fun. We started the week off great yesterday and we killed it and it was super fun. 

This week was also super duper hard with this district. I'm currently trying to find how I can still be nice but pressure these people to work hard and fulfill their purpose. But I believe that between me and my leader we have figured out the way to get it done. We just gotta follow the example of Jesus in this. I love the story of when Jesus, after his resurrection, comes back to visit the apostles and they are fishing and not "gathering His sheep." And its not because fishing is a bad thing, its just not the best thing that you can be doing at this time. So anyways the thing we are thinking of doing is just be super hard with them and be honest about what they are doing. And its not cuz we want to force our authority on them or anything its just because we want them to really fulfill and feel good about their work. Also because we have two years of our lives to do this, and we will never get the chance to do it ever again, so we need to do our best to be proud of it. 

We can also look at it and compare it to the life of Christ. He was a full time missionary for 33 years, and He did everything possible, and is doing everything possible still, to bring people to his Father and be saved. So I personally don't think its impossible to give all you got for two years to bring people to our Heavenly Father. Well it isn't to hard if you really have a testimony of the things that you are teaching to the people. Another excuse that I always get is "Well I was just super tired." The thing that I've been thinking is this--Do you think that Jesus was tired when he went to the Garden to suffer for our sins? I think so. And when he finished with that do you think He was tired? Well yeah even more, no? And then He gets taken and judged by the world and spit on and hit and whipped and a bunch of other terrible things. Do you think He was tired? I think so. But what did He do? He took up his cross and finished with his mission, and entered into His rest afterwards. So when people tell me it was because they were tired its not a good excuse. We can do anything that He is asking us, because its His work, and He will help us. So when we are just way too tired, pick up your cross and fill your purpose and then you can rest after the week on Monday. 

We can also apply that to our everyday life. We all have things that we don't want to do, but we need to do. To help us get past this we need to make the decision to follow the example of Jesus Christ and complete the things we promised to do. Its a hard thing to do but its worth it all. And the thing is its never too late to take up your cross and follow God and follow His commandments. 

This week was another good week.

This week was another good week. 

I got transferred and it was really awesome. I'm finally out of Orizaba, but they returned me to the Port, and I'm opening up another area once again. This will be my 4th one in a row. But its all good because this area is really awesome, and the people are super nice, and we have a lot of work.

This week we are actually going to have a baptism--the first one in this area, and we have a baptism planned out for every single week already. Its pretty darn fun. We also are contacting a ton as well as finding a bunch of people. Its actually really funny, cuz when I was calling my district and stuff and then my leaders they said, 'Wow-- we don't know if you know, but you've been here for a week and you have more investigators than the whole zone'. It was super super funny. 

But we don't feel like we have enough people, so we are planning on doing a bunch of stuff this week--well mostly my companion--I'll be doing exchanges to help the other areas, and doing some corrections with them. 

The thing that I learned this week was just to have some hard work, and also you need to do hard things to progress in this life. I had to do some pretty hard things this week--one of which was pretty hard. Not hard physically but mentally and emotionally it was pretty difficult. But man was it so worth it. The President told us that we needed to dump some things at the foot of the mountain if we wanted to make it to Zion. And he said it was like leaving the goods things that maybe aren't necessary in the mission to help become the missionary God wants for you. So that's what I did and it was pretty awesome. And its for the small and little things that great things come to pass, and I have seen that recently. 

That's all I got for this week. 

Have a good week. 

Love you all.

"Church is true--go be awesome."-Anne Bagley

2/5/2018 catch up (again)

This week was a pretty great week for the most part. We worked hard and had a little bit of success. So that's a good thing, no?

The thing I learned this week is that old habits start young in the people. So Saturday we were planning out the day and I felt like we needed to go and pass by someone that usually is never there at this hour, and also to pass by later in the day. So we go over there and this guy is just hammered drunk--like passed the funny stage drunk. Anyways, we start talking to him and he told us what had happened. He tells us that he was about to kill himself when we showed up. So we stayed by him for an hour or so, and then I said, 'Well, we gotta go. But we will pass by later.'   I also took all of his whiskey, drugs, and all the things that would do harm, and put it all in a black bag and we left. jajaja 

So we pass by later and he is doing a little better, so I give him a little tongue-lashing, and then we put him to bed cuz he is still a little buzzed and hadn't slept for like two days. 

The thing that we also learned was that he had started this habit of drinking when he was younger, and when he had problems he would just get drunk, or when he wanted to be social he drank, or if he went to a party he drank. He didn't start out a drunk though. He just did it first to socialize and all of that, and then it progressed into something that he could no longer control. As time went by he couldn't live without drinking at least a few times a week, and then every once in a while would just binge. I learned that you always gotta be checking yourself and your actions. Because just like him, the small actions that our friends are doing can turn into something that destroy your life further down the line. Nobody starts drinking or doing something with the intent of going bad, but a lot of the time that's what happens--it just escalates. 

The same thing can happen with us if we do good things. If we pray, read, just follow the commandments, it becomes an addiction. And its a great addiction, we start feeling that there is no way to live without these things. And there's always something missing if we don't have it in our life.

That's all i got for this week. Sorry its a little boring buttttttt....

"Church is true, go be awesome"-Anne Bagley