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

This week was a pretty good week here in Veracruz, Mexico

This week was a pretty good week here in Veracruz Mexico. It wasn't that entertaining though to be completely honest. Not a lot happened at all so well...

Tomorrow are cambios (or 'transfers'), and I will be greeting a new companion (well I believe so). But this week started out really, really rough--for the companionship. I believe it was Wednesday and we were in companionship study and he was just refusing to talk to me for no reason. 

And I said, 'Well if you don't want to talk then 'vamos' cuz I need to work'. 

And then he just starts yelling--like a straight mad man for a few minutes. After he was done I just started laughing and saying, 'Alright, you just need to calm down.  You're acting like a child right now. So tell me again why you are mad'. 

So then he's really mad and then turns really, really sad and starts to cry, and then gets mad and then cries again. 

And I'm actually being really nice during all of this and really patient. And then I go, 'Well we need to talk about this cuz these whole emotional breakdowns aren't healthy for you and you need to fix this cuz to be honest--you have a problem and its called bipolar'. 

And we talk about it and I tell him one of my own personal stories from my own life and how I, personally, cant do anything for him because I'm not trained and I have no knowledge of what to do. And how I have seen a person with kinda the same problem almost ruin there life because they were to prideful to ask someone like a therapist for help. So then I said,  'That's why we have a Mission President.  He is here to help us.  He's like our Dad here in Veracruz'. I then explain,  'I have had the thoughts recently (well for the last six weeks) that I needed to talk to president and discuss the problems mentally that I have seen in the way you react and other stuff'. 

After that I said, 'So we have two options here--I can either call the President and force you to go with me, or I can call him and explain the situation and say that we both would like to talk and work on this together'. 


He then told me we could do the second one cuz he could see that i was actually concerned. So we talked to President about all of this and he told us, 'Well I have seen that you both have actually progressed a ton in this cambio'. 

And so I explained the situation and all of that, and we got everything figured out with my companion. Then he told me, 'Well, we are going to have cambios tomorrow!' hahaah   It was actually really funny.   He said, 'Its for a different reason that we have cambios tomorrow and not for the conversation that we had with him'. 

After that he told my companion to leave and that he had to talk to me for a little bit more. So we got talking and he told me that he knew about all of this and that he had put me with him to try and help him, and that I actually did pretty well with it. Then he wanted to talk about something else. And we talked about something else that I had said during the conversations that I didn't realize that I had shared, and man it was really awkward. It was about my training and all the things that happened during that time (and all of that good stuff), and then told me I was dismissed and that he was going to sort out what had happened during that time. 

Not a lot of other things have happened this week to be honest. I have just been working a lot on my patience this whole week. I'm trying to get better at not getting mad. And I honestly don't get mad here, but I'm trying to get better at not getting bothered by stuff. It is because life's too short to get upset and bummed and bothered by things. 

When we have these bad feelings we miss out on a lot of things in life. We all need to work on having a longer fuse and having more love in our heart mind and spirit and in just every aspect of our lives.

That's all I got for this week.  I finished the Book of Mormon in Spanish again this week.   I believe that I'm gonna start reading the Book of Mormon in Mam know. 

Church is true go be awesome-Anne Bagley

8/14/2017
This week was a pretty good one to be honest. We started the week out with the zone conferencias and Sister Palmer gave a pretty bomb talk during it. She talked about her trip to Jerusalem and she related the 3-4 gates there to the mission. She told us that a lot of people don't enter the gates because they are to scared cuz they are the most dangerous parts of this city and a bunch of other stuff. She then said but when you have a guide to lead you through the gate you feel a lot better about it and its a little safer. After all of that she related that to us in the mission field because a bunch of us have been asking about the rules and the changes if we had any. She related all of this to this. She asked us why we should be allowed to play sports and we all gave our reasons, and she said well those are all great reasons but you still can't play sports. It's was really hard to take but it was said in a really funny manner. She then said it is all because we need to be taking people into the gate and leaving the other side with them, but if we are playing sports we are running the risk of never getting to the gate or not making it all the way through. She then said with a bunch of the other rules that we have here is because we need to forget ourselves and see the beauty in the work. It's not about us--its about the people that want to go through the gate of baptism but are to scared. We are the guards that help and guide them through, so they can receive all the beauty in the journey, and wont have any regrets. It was just a great  little talk that she gave to us.

Story one:

So after the conference I went down to go to Piedras Negras to help the missionaries out down there and to see how they were doing with everything. So I left my companion here and the other missionary's companion here as well and we went down to his area. So I just went down with the things I had during the conference so I didn't have any extra clothes our anything else-just my scriptures. And to make it all worse, I was still in my sandals. So I was originally just thinking about going down working with one missionary for the rest of the day and then coming back the next morning. So anyways, I get a call from the ZLs and they tell me that I dont have permission to return to my house until the afternoon.  I was all good with that cuz--yeah whatever. So we worked all day long and it was pouring down rain so that just sucked, and then I get a call saying that I don't have permission to leave the area until the following day cuz a hurricane was coming into the port and it wasn't safe to return. That was the worst news ever. Cuz I didn't have any clothes, and all of my clothes were soaking wet, it sucked. So I just suck it up and I kept on working. So anyways this area has been struggling recently and hasn't had really any success in this transfer. So I got talking to this missionary and he started telling me all about his mission (he has 21 months) because I have heard some stuff about him and not a lot of missionaries like him. So we got to talking and he tells me the story of why people don't like him, and he says that the whole entire situation sucks because the majority of the missionaries don't even know the real story. So he tells me the story and tells me that only like 3 other missionaries know the real story behind it, and how even though he didn't really do anything it was just a crazy chick that had a crush on him in his area and she started spreading the rumors that he had told her that he was returning for her after the mission. And it spread and he got an emergency transfer and he just hasn't cared if people know the real story here or the made up one cuz he's not here to serve the missionaries but the people. So I gained big respect for him when he told me that. And when I was working with him I gave him a new little spark and we just set the area on fire. In two days we found like 12 people and just revived the area. The whole transfer they were reporting '0s' and this week when I called he reported like 5-7 people in church, and all wanting to be baptized. It was just a really, really cool experience. 

Meanwhile in my area my comp just  killed the area. I came back with literally like nothing in the area hahaha. I was really mad but I decided to suck it up, take a deep breath, and reconstruct the area. So I pushed him to the breaking point and by the end of the week we had a pretty good teaching pool and a handful of people in church so that was great. 

Story two:

Got bit by a dog on my hand the other day--it was Friday. It was during a contact and I was just talking to the lady and the dog jumped up and got a good grab on my hand and finger and he tore down and 'boom' got me pretty dang good. So yeah that was just a fun little experience--its actually healing pretty fast. SO, maybe the dog was actually a werewolf and I'm turning into a werewolf.  I'm pretty sure I am. 

So this week I have learned that before you judge a person or label a person due to an other person's comments, you first need to get to know the person and give them a chance. You will find that the person is much more than what you know, and is actually way different than what you originally thought. But you really would have never known if you never gave them that shot to build a relationship. 

Well "the church is true go be awesome"-Anne Bagley

8/7/2017

This week has been a pretty good week, like always. We started off with the ZL getting transferred and getting a new ZL. So now we have two American ZLs and it is actually really really fun. We had divisions on Wednesday and it was an absolute blast. I first thought that this new zone leader was a complete nerd, and just like a weird kid. But then we start to talk and I found out that he is actually like a pretty cool guy. He doesn't look like it right now cuz hes like 170ish, but he played football before the mission. We were just talking and he tells me how before the mission he was actually weighing about 205-210 and was an inside linebacker. I didn't believe him, but he showed me a picture and he was pretty big haha. He has dropped so much weight (like every American kid in the mission), and he doesn't want to waste money on shirts that fit, so the collar is actually so incredibly big on him haha it is so funny. He then shows me another picture of him before the mission and he had long hair down to his shoulders and a full grown beard hahaha. It was just a great day, and we actually got a ton of work done in my area so it was a productive day. 

What else happened this week? Well to be honest I don't remember a whole lot of stuff from this week cuz it went by so fast. But I did have my ingrown toenails cut out once again cuz the 1st doctor didn't really do the job correctly so they grew back and were a lot worse hahaha.  It was actually really funny. And the lady that cut my toenails out was actually really nice and we were just cracking jokes back and forth the whole entire time. And when I looked over at my companion he was just white in the face and put his face in his hands and just stayed like that until we were finished up with it all. Then when I was waddling home I asked him what's up and he said "I felt my arms and legs go numb and I was pretty close to passing out so it was better if I just didn't watch" hahaha. I was laughing so incredibly hard, so incredibly hard. 

So we just spent all of Saturday in the house and also Sunday, and I just have been drawing all day long and yeah its getting my mind going. 

One thing that has happened is there is this sister in the ward, and she is actually kinda depressed, and told me that she really has no desire to live, and she is just waiting for her day to come. Its because her daughter died, and then this week her brother died as well, so it has been pretty hard. She is also like 70 years old and can't do a lot of stuff. So I'm trying really hard to just install a little piece of hope in her life, and I just am not able to get through to her. So I'm trying a new tactic of just talking about dancing and singing with her, because she usually feels a little better when we talk about that, and she just has a light shining about these subjects.

So anyways just know that hope is never lost. When we have lost all things there is still a few things that we still have. We have God, Jesus Christ, and we got hope. so I mean that's a pretty great list right there. Just don't let the world get the best of you, you gotta get the best of the world. ('Boom' make that a Mormon Meme) SO anyways that's all i got for this week.

"Church is true go be awesome"-Anne Bagley

7/31/2017

This week was pretty good, just like always. We started off with my companion pretty mad at me for literally no reason. I was asking him to do practices and then he would say yeah on sec, and then he was start "thinking" for like 10 minutes just to waste time. And I kept asking why and he said I just need to think of a good first question to ask and I just cant. So then I said do you have faith? And he said yeah. I then said don't think. Just give me the scripture and trust that the Lord will give you the words and questions that you need to ask. He then said that's not how god works, and I said that is how He works.  He gives us the questions and the words we need to say--not your brain. He then just kept fighting and I said you just don't have the faith that's required to receive these things. This just kept passing over and over again, and just like everything on the mission it was just testing my patience haha. 

So anyways I finally just was drained and tired cuz I am literally babysitting at this point. One night when I was verifying with the LZ, he said oiga Elder Hall you sound a bit different.  What's the problem? I just said I'm just tired.  I'm just babysitting and dragging my comp to every cita and doing everything. I have tried everything and nothing is changing and nothing's getting better.  I don't know what more I can do. So anyways they didn't say anything but the next morning the LZ showed up at my house at like 9:30 and he had a talk with us--really just my comp. We then had to do an activity to try to help. It was like the stuff you don't like that your comp does, why, and what you want your comp to do and why. So anyways I was just being nice and just really complimenting and he was just went off, and said a list of things I was "doing", but in reality they were all just a bunch of lies to get me in trouble. So the LZ left the house and then shot me a text and said don't worry.  We know that you're not doing any of those things. 

Story one:

Sooooo, I mean not a lot has happened this week so I don't have a good story sorry ´bout that. 

This week I have learned that God just doesn't give you a random little trial, He gives you trials that you need to receive. He puts things in your path to help you grow. For ejemplo, I don't have much patience--or I didn't have a bunch of patience. However, literally every single thing that I have received that involves the mission has been a constant trial of patience. First off, I had to wait a bunch of time just to receive my mission call. And then when I received it, I had to literally wait 6 months just to leave. Boom patience. On top of all of that I have had to deal with a bunch of stuff hear that has tried my patience. But just like a muscle you gotta push yourself to the breaking point to get stronger. You aren't always gonna lift the weights that are easy for you to do because you will gradually become weaker and weaker. So you always got push it and stretch the limit. Its the same with the things in life. If we are always staying in the same place and never actually getting pushed to the limit we will never progress--we will actually be moving backwards. 

God won't give a trial that we don't need. 

Another thing that I have learned this week is to trust in the Lord. He is gonna give us answers to prayers but we have to be ready to receive these answers. I have been praying about a certain subject recently, and He has responded many times. The thing is, I was too stubborn to receive and accept this answer, due to the fear of what others would think or how they would react. It started off with my President saying in my interview "Its gonna be like an automatic door just walk up and it won't open up until you are at the door." So I walked up the this fictional door and made the decision and the next day a scripture came into my head just out of nowhere. 1 Nefi 4. I knew it to be an answer but I was ready to accept the answer. So I continued to pray for another answer to assure the first answer, but all week this scripture was in my head, and a bunch of members and people were giving examples in this life and using this scripture. But I just kept praying for an answer. And I got a very direct answer that was just put right in my face. I went to bed one night and had been praying like no other for an answer and I fell asleep and had a dream. This dream was very very very direct and very vivid about what I needed to do. And it resolved all of the doubts about what would happen after the decision was made. 

So anyways, this just shows the power of prayer. And how we always need to except the answers that God gives us. Just don't be Elder Hall and except the first answer that you receive. Don't give our Heavenly Father a headache by being hard in the heart.

"Church is true go be awesome"-Anne Bagley