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

This week was a pretty great week for the most part.

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

The thing I learned this week is that old habits start young in the people. Saturday we were planning our day and I felt impressed that we needed to go and pass by someone that is usually never there at this hour. So we go over there and this guy is just hammered drunk--like passed the funny stage drunk. So 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 them in a black bag and we left. jajaja   So then 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 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 just 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 awhile just binge drinking on it. 

So what I learned is 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 will happen with us if we do GOOD things. If we pray, read, 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

Font Turn On Valve 

Not sure what that is at the bottom

Should probably have those feet wrapped in plastic!

1/22/2018 post

This week was a pretty good week here in mexico. Its been pretty fun for the most part here. I mean nothing too exciting happened this week though.  

Well we did talk about something pretty cool Sunday (or one of these days and I actually enjoyed it).  We talked about the torment of the soul due to your sins and other stuff.  I got  thinking and it was super cool.  I was thinking what if we could all see all the sins in our life at the same time, how would we feel?  We talked about that and I started wondering how does it feel to have a soul that has all this guilt?  When I got to thinking I found out what it felt like. Its like a sadness and a dull pain that just won't go away until you do something to fix it. Its a pretty terrible feeling that you really can't get rid of if you don't change. I believe that missionaries feel this a lot on the mission just because they know all of their sins or they just feel like they aren't doing all they can so the sins and the errors of the people here come upon them because they aren't giving it their all. 

Now just think of how much worse you will feel when you're in front of God and you're being judged for your works here on this world. Man that will feel even worse and the only thing you can do is ask to leave His presence. 

But here and now we have the chance to change it and be clean or try to be as clean as we possibly can. But I think that the thing that causes the most pain isn't the sins, well at least for me, its the guilt of the things that you left undone. Like all of the people that you make feel bad and you never really fix it or mend all the things you can. Those are the things (I think) that cause the most pain for the soul. 

This week was pretty darn cool as well because we are gonna baptize somebody this week, whoop whoop. This lady has worked her tail off to feel ready. It was super cool this week though. So she said she still didn't feel ready because she felt a lot of guilt because her daughter died and she thinks that it was her fault. So she said before her baptism she wanted to fell like she had received forgiveness for this. So we said one way you can is you can fast for the things that you need, and in this case for more peace in this. So anyways, she fasted for 12 hours and then said a prayer and she said she fell asleep and had a dream where she was once again with her daughter and she was just smiling at her, like everything was alright. So anyways  she wakes up and she feels as if a women or girl is hugging her, and then she feels a kiss on her cheek. She told us that she knew it was her daughter telling her that everything was alright and it wasn't her fault and that she's happy now. And then she told us that when she looks at the picture of her daughter she doesn't feel sad at all, but it fills her up with joy and love and hope. So she said she is now ready and she's a gonna be baptized this week. Whoop whoop. It was super, super cool. 

That's all I got for this week.   Have a great week. 

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

So just keep on keeping on...

This week was a pretty good week and I enjoyed it. However it is freezing cold out and my fingers and toes are really, 

really cold and its weird, cuz its still like 70-75. So other than that its been pretty good here in Mexico.

So anyways we are currently teaching a family and it was actually super super cool what happened. So we had 

divisions with the zone leaders and I went with him to the family that we were teaching, and (not cocky, but us 

two are the two best teachers in the zone) we went and we taught about repentance and we invited the people 

to stop smoking and follow the Word of Wisdom and stop smoking. So we told the one that had the most troubles 

that if you stop smoking God's gonna bless you more than you can know. And He promises you that you will 

see your daughter again (cuz she had died). So anyways, I passed by her house again two days later to see 

how it went and she was smiling. We asked how it was going and she said, 'Well, I haven't smoked.  The first day

 that I didn't smoke--that night I saw my daughter! We were walking and talking and just playing around, and after 

that I haven't had a single desire to smoke again'. So that was just super, super cool to see because we didn't 

feel like saying that last part, but we just started opening our mouths and the Spirit was filling it with the things 

we needed to say.

So the thing that I learned is that when God promises something He will complete it if we do our part and fill in 

our part of the promise. Sometimes we are to wait a little bit but we always know that it will all be worth it. I've seen 

that here in the area that I'm in. God promises that if I'm obedient and working hard He's gonna show me some 

success. I've been working like no other here, and Hey--I'm finally seeing the success and the promises being fulfilled. 

I see that all the blessings are being fulfilled with all the people that I'm teaching here. Its algo bonito--its awesome. 

So just keep on keeping on, and if you aren't following the commandments of God  just do it cuz, life is a lot better 

when you've got God. But God can't help you if you don't wanna help yourself, cuz God can't dwell in unclean things. 

If we aren't willing to clean ourselves spiritually, then we aren't willing to receive God. Many people believe that after 

this life they will be all good because 'Hey--I'll just repent and change'. But it doesn't work like that. If you aren't 

willing to follow God here, then you won't be willing to follow God in the next life, because we are going to have the 

same Spirit in this life as in the next. So just get better every day, and stop being dumb and going against the will of 

God.

That's all I got for this week. 

"Church is true--go be awesome"-anne bagley

Jan 8 - This week has full of lots of pretty great moments...

This week has been a pretty good week and full of lots of pretty great moments that were awesome. So yeah that was pretty fun.

The first thing that happened was that we were literally all over the place this week, and in different areas helping a bunch of members of different wards. Its cuz we are the only Elders within like 30 minutes, and the areas around us only have sister missionaries. So anyways, one of these days we got a phone call and the person asked us if we could hurry over to the hospital and give a blessing to her father who was dying. So we dropped everything we were doing and sprinted a long, long ways away. When we got there she explained that her dad was in a coma and his body was failing and shutting down. So we hurried up to the room and when we walked in the Spirit was just so incredibly strong. Beforehand I said a prayer to help feel the guidance of God when I was giving the blessing, cuz I decided my companion would anoint and I'd give the blessing. When it was time to give the blessing I started giving the blessing and I knew that I wasn't the one talking, and that I was actually just an instrument in the hands of God. When we finished and left, my companion said, "Hey you think he's gonna make it?"  And I was honest and said, "He's not gonna make it Elder."   He then told me, "I kinda knew that cuz in the whole blessing that you gave you never told him to heal and be whole again."   I then explained to him that the purpose for one of these blessings isn't just to tell someone they will be healthy again, we need to follow the Spirit. We ungir a las personas because the unción is to give the people rest--that's in the form of healing--and in other cases in returning to your Heavenly Father. And the blessing that I gave I couldn't say that he would be healed, cuz that'd be lying to God."   It was just super, super moving, no?   Cuz I was walking down the hall and didn't really feel anything, but the second I walked into the room it just hit me like no other.  I now know that in times of death God's ever so close to us, and around the family as well. 

The next thing was that we all just are looking for God in this life, some people have found it and the place and some are finding it little by little. The people that have found it have the responsibility to share it with others and help others find the truth and bring them to it. The people that don't have it need to trust in the Lord and in the people and give it a try. The biggest regret that I have here in the mission is that I never really shared the Gospel when I was at home. I have found this wonderful gift, and I was too selfish, or too unfaithful to share this with my friends and the people around me. Reasons such as thinking that my friends didn't believe in Him, or just that they wouldn't be interested. But the thing that I learned is that almost all of our friends and family believe in God and are searching for Him, and we aren't the ones to decide who will hear the Gospel and who will not. We are the ones that need to open our mouths and trust in the promises of the Lord. 

Also hard work pays off--that's also what I have learned this week. My companion and I have been working like no other here for awhile now, and finally we have seen a successful week. It feels great cuz finally I'm seeing the blessings and the hard work pay off. I could always see the blessings in my life and in the work, but finally they are shown as well. We need to keep pushing forward holding on to all the hope that we can possibly find and then wait out the storm and know that there is light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes we won't be able to see it and some times it seems pointless, but only after the trial of our faith do we receive blessings. 

That's all I got for this week. 

"Church is true go be awesome"-anne bagley