This week has been a pretty good week. (Nov 13th email)

This week has been a pretty good week. 

Got really, really, really annoyed with my companion to the point were I almost punched him in the face--but i didn't, so don't worry. He just kept correcting me on every single little thing. The most annoying was when I said, 'Oh, that car has a problem with one of their belts'.   And he said, 'There IS only one belt--and its not a belt'. And I said, 'No, there's more--and yes, its called a belt'.  He then went on about how he was right cuz his uncle worked as a mechanic for a little. So I just said, 'Yeah, let's just stop talking to each other cuz you're literally gonna try to correct me on every little thing, and its annoying me'. So I just stopped talking cuz I didn't wanna hear it from him. And then out of nowhere during the night he started saying that things like Bush did 9/11 and all that stuff. So I stopped in the street, grabbed him by the arm (like a nice, firm grip), and said, 'You need to shut your mouth. You're lucky I'm having a lot of patience cuz if it was any other kid I would of turned around and knocked your two front teeth out. So shut up and keep walking, and I don't wanna hear another word out of your mouth'. 

However I'm lucky and once again I was transferred today (as I was previously told I was going to be). I am training--so what is up little homies. 

Other than my companion, this week was a pretty dang good week. I knew that I was getting transferred and I knew that President was just putting me in this area to open it up and to just try and fill the teaching pool as quick as possible. So this week we went from only having  two investigators to having  more than 20, and a few complete families.  I just hope my ex-comp doesn't drop the ball on this one. And 6 investigators in church.

I did learn one thing--and it is that as missionaries we have the power to receive the most direct inspiration. Some people can get offended by that, cuz sometimes we need to be really direct with the people. The funnest thing was that yesterday we passed by a less active members house to talk to him about why he isn't going to church. So he starts to pretty much tell us well its just because this, this, and this--just excuses. So I told him that, 'Hey, you were the one who decided to be baptized. It was not the missionaries decision, and you know that it was a sacred promise with God. And God's waiting for you to do what you know you need to do. So I said some other direct stuff and then shared a prepared personal story with him. He got ticked and said missionaries are stupid like that, and they always are promising stuff that are really direct, and they need to be more careful with that cuz what if it doesn't happen. That's when I said, 'Yeah its scary when that happens, and when we promise really direct things.  But to be honest, we have the power and authority to.  So no, its not to scary--its actually really spiritual and special. And the people that doubt this power just don't have the faith that we were sent and called of God'. 

So he start calling me a liar and a bunch of terrible things. My comp was enjoying it cuz the guy was like worshipping my comp, but in the end i just said, 'Hermano, we love you and we want the best for you.  And yeah, I had to be a little direct, but you wouldn't have listened if I wasn't. But I say these things cuz its what God wants.  I do what God wants, not what I want.  And God wants to see you in the church renewing your covenants that YOU made'. 

That was just a testimony builder for me and my calling to be honest. I know that we missionaries are called of God and He is in every lesson, every contact, and every thought out here. That means when we say something, promise, warn, or anything else it is directly coming from God, not from dos chavos in a white shirt and tie.

I know this Church is true and its without doubt that I say that. 

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

Huatusco

This week was another pretty good week here in Veracruz. However, I got transferred once again to another area- this makes it the third area in just this transfer, and my third companion as well. They actually sent me to an area that is literally in the middle of nowhere. Its un pueblito called Huatusco, and the closest "city" is a solid 1:30-2 hours away from us. We actually don't have to go to any district meetings because we are so far away. I freaking love that. However, President told me that I will only be here for like 1 more week, and then I'll be going back to my old area. Right now I'm actually opening an area for two weeks, and then I'll be returning and opening another area next week--this should be pretty fun. 

Elder Salazar and I kinda knew that we were going to be transferred due to our interview with President. He told me "va a ver Elder Hall"--which pretty much is slang for telling Elder Hall that he's about to be changed, or there's going to be a big change in my mission. 

He  told me and Elder Salazar that he can trust us with anything, and we are his two most trusted missionaries, and he has complete confidence in us. We need to know that he's gonna put us in hard situations to help strengthen the mission. So that next day we got word that we were going to be transferred, which sucked. 

But now i'm literally living in the middle of the mountains and its pretty awesome.  I'm tanning pretty dang well here so that's cool. This area is pretty weird and all backwards with everything. 

We are going to be working hard this week and I've got a pretty good plan to help this area in this last week that I'm here. Usually its the poor people that are the most receptive to the missionaries but not here--they hate us. As we say here, "son católicos con huesos colorados." However, the "rich" part of the community (I hear) actually accept us pretty well. The thing is they are all Italians, and they are a really, really tight nit group. So I have a pretty great plan of just going up to them and enter into their circle of friends. It shouldn't be too hard due to the fact that I look a lot like them (a little whiter, dirty blond hair, blue eyes, and tall). They also like accepting us into their houses to talk and they treat us just like family when we have their confidence. So I'm gonna try to take a different approach to this one. I'm gonna just try to gain their confidence, and just try to enter into the status of a true 'Italian'. I'm just hoping to get at least like one or two of them to church this week because, where one or two Italians go--they all go. And then we will slowly start working our way down to the other levels of the community. Since the Italians own literally all of the stores and restaurants here that should help us out a little bit. It seems that they get something they don't just keep it to themselves--they love to share what they have with literally every single person in the whole world. So yeah--we are gonna go that route this week and see how it turns out.  

Another pretty funny thing is that we have gained the confidence of the branch really quick. Just yesterday we had like every single person in the branch ask us for a blessing, and wanted us in their houses, and in the houses of all of their friends. And on top of all of that they put me and my companion in charge of the Primary Program next week. I'm pretty excited for that one. 

However, something I have realized is that time flies by when you are on your mission. It has now been a little over a year. Its been a year of a lot of things. A year of:

1.Bathing with a bucket of hot.

2.Flushing a toilet with that same bucket.

3.Speaking Spanish.

4.Doing stuff for others 24/7.

5.Washing my clothes in a bucket of water and soap.

6.Putting up on a clothes line.

7.Mexican Food

8.Racist comments and looks just because of my skin color.

9.Hate from every side.

The thing is I wouldn't have changed any of this for the world, or for any other experience. I've gained a lot over this past year, such as:

1. A testimony

2. A lot more patience.

3. Such a profound love that I didn't know existed.

4. I feel like God has faith in me just like I have in him.

5. Funny jokes and memories.

6. Great new friends from all over the world.

7. New families (that are Mexican)

8. A better character (don't get me wrong I have my same personality).

9. A different view on life.

10. Just more joy and light in my life.

Its a weird thing, but this year has probably been the happiest year that I have ever had, and its also been the poorest I've been all of my life. It makes me see that money really isn't a big factor in what makes somebody happy--its the things they are doing in their life. And its also about the people that you are around. I'm excited for these 11 months that I have left, and can't wait to see what they hold for me. There's going to be a ton of ups and downs, but that's life. We grow from those moments and can learn and grow from all of our experiences in life. 

That's what I got for this week. 

Love you all. 

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

Anyways, a super cool thing happened while I was over by the offices.

This week was a pretty great and excellent week, and it was probably my best week on the mission to be honest. It was so incredibly fun, and just really, really different. So we started off the week having to go back to the mission offices to go to a Leader's Council (or however you say it in English), and then we just worked in the area of the Assistants for the rest of the week. We then slept at the offices that night, and the next day we all had to go and take out another visa for our second year on the mission. Man it was so, so, so fun. We all got together-- everybody that came here with me--and we just had a great night in the offices with the Assistants and the Secretaries of the mission. It was a nice little half mission present that got.

Anyways, a super cool thing happened while I was over by the offices. So I was talking to the Bishop of one of my past areas (because he works in the offices), and I was just asking about all the people that I had baptized in his ward. He told me that a few of them had gone inactive. So I was just super, super down, and it was really sad to hear that the family that I helped had gone inactive (they are like my Mexican family). 

So that night I just prayed really hard and intensely and just trying to figure out how I could help. Praying that God would just do something to help them return to the Church. So anyways, I felt like I should write a letter to them. So I did and I put it on the Bishop's desk for when he goes home. And then I was with President and he had to take us to the hospital. We were suppose to return to our area, so he starts to drive us to the bus station.  But then just says, "No, you guys aren't going home.  You'll just wait until tomorrow to go and I'll take you." So I asked him, 'Well, what do we do for the rest of the night, cuz we kinda wanna work.'  

And he tells us, "You guys decide.  Here's 150 pesos for food and buses.  Just get to the offices at a reasonable hour."   So me and my companion look at each other and without thinking just go "sotavento"--so we jump out of President's car and start sprinting to where the buses are to go to our old area. 

When we finally got there we got off the bus and just started sprinting from one house to another house. It was so incredibly amazing--I used to have that feeling before football games--like an amazing adrenaline rush. 

So we go and visit the Famly of Lucero, and only the mom Lucero and Jackie are home, but it was so funny. Jackie starts yelling, "Mom, Mom Mom, its Hermano Hall; its Hermano Hall." 

And her mom just goes and says, 'No its not.  Its just Elder Rodriguez and the his white companion'. 

But Jackie just kept going and going, so when she looks out the window she gets a huge smile and just starts booking it down the stairs with jackie and Genesis. Everybody was crying just with tears of joy, and then we just testified and said, 'Go to the church. You know you need to.'

They told us that they'd been praying for a sign--and 'Boom' here it was. 

Then we go sprinting all the way down to Andres´ house. However he wasn't home, but we did get to see his family and wife which was a great time. 

Then we went to go say 'Hi' to the Family Leon, and we told them to just put their faith in God and go to church.  They committed to go to church and ALL THAT GOOD STUFF. 

Then we went sprinting all the way the Ana Claudias' house to go say 'Hi'.  Man Ana is freaking awesome! She hasn't missed a single day of church or seminary since she's been baptized, and she's only got 14 years. And she's the only one in her family--it was awesome to see her, and she got after me for not saying goodbye when I left. I told her, 'Hey, you weren't home when I tried to say goodbye, so that's not my fault li'l lady'. 

So then we talked with her sister and told her to get her act together and she committed to be baptized! haha It was great. 

Then we go sprinting to Armando and Rita's house. And wow was that amazing! Rita opens the door and just starts crying (more like sobbing) because she's seeing the two guys that helped change her life, and she said some great things. And then we bore our testimony and tell her that she needs to go back to church, and its not because we are missionaries.  Its because we love her and her family and want them to be happy and have the chance to live forever together, and we know we can only do that if we are renovando our convenios during the sacrament. 

Then we go to Pedro and Amilia's house and that was just great to see because he was just super happy to see us and also he needed help getting through to his wife and getting her back to church. So we just told her that she knew what she needed to do to feel God in her life again, and then bore our testimony and she too promised to get back to church. 

Then to finish it off I just got the feeling that we need to go back to Lucero's house.  So we go back and the other two daughters aren't home yet, but her husband was on the phone so I talked to him. When I was just leaving the two girls got home and it was an awesome reunion. 

It was something that I will never forget.  I think it might go down as the best mission night that I will have on the mission. There was just something so special about every single one of those moments. We honestly just could see the hand of God really working all through that night, and we felt like He was guiding us along the way as well. 

I won't ever forget the smile or look on the people's faces when they saw us standing on their doorstep--I honestly felt like felt it was seeing two angels standing right on your step type of stuff (with all humility I say that). Lots of missionaries will never get this opportunity to do this, but it was something that was well-needed. And I just loved it. I got to see the impact that I had on their lives while still on the mission, which was an eye opener. Its an experience that money could never buy, and feeling that I didn't know I could ever feel. Their faces were priceless--in a good way. 

So that helped me gain a pretty strong testimony of the fact that everything happens for a reason, and we hardly understand it all. But God has a plan and we need to be humble enough to follow it and accept it. He might cut us down to try to help and put people in our paths that need our help. And we might not ever have seen them if we weren't cut down. So yeah--that was a great week that i just had. 

Also funny story--made my star football team out of the sister missionaries in the mission, and then we found a wheelchair and started using it in the offices. So President walks in and tells us to get up, and he goes and sits in it, and I go, "Do a wheeley President".  And without thinking, he just pops a wheely and holds it for like five minutes and breaks the wheelchair. Man that was so incredibly funny--and I just found that maybe he is like perfect. 

That's all I got--have a great week and love you all. 

"Church is true go be awesome"-Anne Bagley

I started the week out with a pretty nasty cold

10/23/2017 Post

This week was a pretty good week as always. However, it was a pretty hard week here. All this week my comp. and I were pretty darn sick. It was really funny but it really, really sucked. 

I started the week out with a pretty nasty cold and my companion had a pretty nasty stomach ache. The week went on and we both gave each other what we had, so by the end of the week we were both battling a terrible cold and then on top of all of that we had a really, really bad stomach problems.  So anyways, we just kept going out and working because we couldn't just stay inside cuz we needed to work and we can't spare a single day in this work. Haha 

So anyways, we went to the doctor's office Thursday cuz it was terrible and my companion just goes, "Dude let's just buy some laxante (thats spanish)."  So anyways, I go, 'Oh yeah--great idea. That'll just get everything out of us dude." So we take three of them and that night we were in and out of the bathroom. The next day we aren't getting any better and we can't stop and its just terrible. But we still go out and we work and its just terrible and we can barely walk around without almost ..... ourselves.   We just went bouncing from one house to another using the bathroom. 

So that night we call Hermana Palmer and we ask her for some advice of things we should do to get better. She asks us what we have done and we tell her, 'Well nothing--we are just trying to work hard and forget about it.' haha 

She gets mad at us and tells us that's kinda dumb. Then she asks if we have taken anything to help and we tell her, "Well the doctor told us that we should take laxantes to help us poop and clean out the system." She then responds with, 'How old was the doctor--like 12? That's the dumbest thing I've heard in Mexico. You guys have really bad diarrhea--you should not have taken that. C'mon guys--you should've known better.' jaja   It was just really, really funny, and it was just a 'crappy' week--but really funny at the same. 

So anyways, what else happened this week to us? We just talked a lot about life and just a bunch of stuff like that. We were talking about how we are kinda a little scared to return home. Its like the mission is really really hard, and the people hate us for the reason of we have different colored skin. We love that its hard and we wouldn't ever want to change the mission because we just feel like it should be this way. We talked about how when we get back the life is real and we gotta start living life. And we got thinking like yeah we can't wait for all of that, but we won't ever have the opportunity to serve the mission ever again. And we won't ever have the chance to serve the people like we are right now in Mexico. We also feel the Spirit like no other, and we just kinda love it and we don't wanna stop having these experiences in the mission. We also know we are gonna miss the little things of the mission. Like contacting, we are gonna miss getting a door slammed in the face or really racial things said to us. Like I'm gonna miss that. But the thing I'm gonna miss the most is just doing the Lord's work. Like knowing that I'm doing exactly what the Lord wants me to be doing. Also just the fact that I know I'm doing what Jesus would do if He was here right now, and I love it. I feel like I'm doing my part to help Him, and I'm in some way paying Him back for all the things that He did and is doing for me. 

That's all I got this week. I hope all is good and everyone is doing well. 

Love you all. 

Church is true go be awesome-Anne Bagley

Best Transfer Ever

This week was a pretty dope week to be honest. 

We started off with transfers early in the morning Monday, which was really unexpected, and also an emergency emergency transfer. The President put me in the area as far away from the offices as possible and said 'You guys are on an island--just work hard and enjoy yourselves.' 

He put me in the area Reforma, and because we are really short on missionaries here, so he gave us a second area as well--Jalapilla. So yeah my area is just 'lit' guys. My area is the area that all the missionaries want to serve in and if they don't then they all want to go there on Pday just to walk around. Just to put it in perspective like how awesome my area is--I'll describe a little bit of it. 

In the middle of my area is a zoo that we walk through because its the fastest way across town and when we walk we just contact the people (and also the animals). (the animals are a little more receptive.) Every other day we walk up a giant hill to a place that is just awesome-it looks over all of our area and a bunch of the stake we are in. Its just an awesome area. 

We then have a giant dino park that we also contact in and its all free here. And then we are in the city the invented Cri Cri, he's like the Spanish Jiminy Cricket. Its just absolutely awesome and beautiful here in my area. 
However, I'm absolutely dying hear in this area. I spent a year in the port where it averaged like 35-45 degrees celsius every single day. I rarely saw any rain, and I was sweating every single day there. SO I come here and its no hotter than like 22--and a lot less--and where it rains like every single day and really hard. So I am so incredibly cold all the time and wet all the time.

So anyways, I come to this area and my comp tells me, 'Hey, we literally have nobody to teach right now in these two areas because my other comp was always sick and never wanted to leave the house and wanted to go home'.   So we are pretty much just opening up these two areas. 

So I said, 'That's great let's go to work then'. 

So we didn't have a great week in the numbers factor of it, but I felt like it was a pretty good week, and we really set a base and a foundation for the work to come. Its feels great to just be with an awesome companion. And its really cool to see how well we teach together because we work off each other really well, and we just got a bunch of chemistry. Its amazing the Spirit that comes when we start to testify, to the point where the person we are teaching cant neglect the things we are saying because they to can feel it just as strong. We are also teaching in the way that its just really simple and everybody can understand the things we teach. And when people start to try to fight with us or anything we literally are never twisted or taken advantage of and we just disprove the things they say in a great manner and then teach the real doctrine. And I love that when we are teaching things that are part of their church that are actually wrong, they just don't get mad cuz we are teaching with the Spirit and explaining why its wrong, and we are teaching with all of the love that we possibly can. Its great to be honest.

The really fun thing about this whole thing is that my comp and I are actually from the same generation, and we are going to complete our first year on the mission together here in this rocking area hahaha. The only thing that President told us when he told him is, "Have some fun guys, but just keep the rules and don't be to stupid." haha 

And then if we stick together for another transfer then we will be celebrating Christmas together here in the mountains haha. Its just great with this kid to be honest. 

Its been the best week on my mission by far, and I know without a doubt in my heart that this will be one of the most successful times in all of my mission. Why? Because we have the Spirit with us and we aren't thinking that one is better than the other or that the other sucks in these aspects. We are always thinking about how we can get better and also about how we know each others weaknesses and my strengths helps his weaknesses and the other way around.

That's all i got for this week. 

Church is true go be awesome-Anne Bagley

This week was a pretty good week--but not--at the same time. As a whole the district that I am in charge of worked a lot harder than they had previously, and they really picked up the teaching and lessons. However, when Sunday came around we were the only people to have anybody in the church with a baptismal date.  I wasn't  upset about this because I knew that the other areas had worked really, really hard and were working 100%. They were all really sad and just down on themselves that night, so I just explained to them to pick themselves up. I told them that as a missionary we pass through things like this in the mission. And the cool thing about this is that if they kept up working like this then they are destined to have one of the best transfers of their entire mission. I also explained that good things come to people that wait. And its not just the people that wait without doing anything, but its the people that work through this time of trial. And I said that God doesn't just give us these things to give them to us, but He gives them to us to grow--and also because He has prepared great blessings for the people that persevere and finish the things all the way through. 

I have seen this happen a lot on the mission. For example, one time in the ward Aeropuerto, we were having a bunch of success and then one or two weeks everything just crashed and burned and we had straight '0's. We started searching for the answers to the problems that we had. The thing was we were having exact obedience-- we were teaching like 6-7 lessons every day, and we were contacting for at least 2 hours every day. So the question was hard to solve and the only thing we could think of is that we will just keep working like this--but even harder and with more energy. Well time went by and the area picked up really quickly. By the end of the transfer we had 7 baptisms, another 7 with baptismal dates, and another 4-6 in the church working on getting married to get baptized. So what I learned is that it just takes patience and diligence. With these things comes great blessings and a great life.

Another thing that I learned is that we don't know when our day will come, so we just gotta be prepared. In these past 11 months I have seen and been through a lot of things, and the cool thing about it all is that I was at peace with it all. I know with a certainty in my heart that no matter what happens, if we live by our faith, all will be alright. I also know that if we keep strong to the faith we will return home to our Heavenly Father and He will tell us 'Well done my good and faithful servant', and we will live with Him for eternity. This has helped me a ton on the mission and I know it to be true. It has helped me calm some nerves and has helped me forget myself and go to work. I have a great mentality, well I think, its that I couldn't care less what happens to me as long as I'm serving the Lord and helping better the lives of his sons and daughter her on this earth--here in Veracruz. 

Oh yeah, in other news--I had transfers this week to the middle of the mountains with one of the elders in the same generation as me. We are in charge of reviving two wards right now and I am going to be enjoying this time that I have here. There is not a lot of heat here which is a #blessing and it is a beautiful climate and I'm with a great companion. We's about to have a great, great, great transfer. 

Love you all!

Know the Church is true; go be awesome-Anne Bagley

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