Hello from the Hood

Overview:

Sorry I didn’t get to send out an email last week about my last days at the CCM! Life got busy and I thought I would have a p-day last Tuesday, but I didn't :(. But the CCM is missed! On Monday of last week, I was shipped off to the streets of Mexico City southeast! So exciting! I arrived and got to meet a lot of the missionaries in the mission including my companion Elder Gamez! He is the best but also speaks basically only Spanish! Which is amazing, but I’ve gone days without hearing more than an hour of broken English. I would like to say that means my Spanish has become fluent at this point but it most definitely hasn't! My Spanish is improving though (slower than I would like but improving). The mission has been awesome! We had 4 people commit to baptism this week! They are all so awesome and it’s been so fun teaching them! Their names are Nancy, Mario, Cesar, and Santiago. I love each and every one of them and I would love it if you guys would keep them in your prayers. We also have had so many people just come up to us and say how they want to learn about our church. Of those people 3 of them we are going to ask if they want to be baptized. Which is really exciting! Keep them in your prayers as well. The people of Mexico are so welcoming and loving! My weekly summary could be a novel for this week but I'll leave it at this. Just know I love it here and my companion is the bomb.com! I would be lying if I said it isn’t killing me to be missing BYU football but I'll gladly give it up for this work!

If you want to hear more updates about this week email me or Facebook message me and ask me about any of these topics:

•The taxi drive

•The food! Seriously so amazing!

•Elder Corbitt, first counselor of young men’s presidency, his talk to us

•My favorite people

•Church

Funny story:

On Saturday we had to do a half day of splits (when you switch companions).  It was because my companion had a leadership meeting.  So, I got paired with another newby.  This alone terrified me.  My companion had forgotten about the meeting so he did not tell me until the night before.  Typically, half-day splits are no big deal because the first half of the day is just studying and planning but this day was special! My comp had forgotten the meeting so he had planned a meeting with a family at 10:30 so my new companion and I put together a lesson (scary, but no big deal). It took us an hour and a half to find the house (which was a disaster and story of its own).  I should also say before telling this story, my new companion didn’t speak ANY English. We finally arrived at the house and when we got there, she said something I couldn’t understand and my new comp pointed at me.  I had no idea what I was signed up for but I was scared.  My new comp started typing into a translator as I looked over his shoulder.  The first words on the screen were “You are going to do a blessing over the house.“ And to be honest, I had no idea how to give a blessing over a house in English, let alone in Spanish. I also was stupefied by how fast my new comp threw me under the bus.  He looked at me, a 6-foot white boy with a small capability in Spanish, and thought “yeah, he can do this.”  Was he wrong! I looked up how to do it in Spanish and thought I was good to go.  But wait, there’s more!  As I was learning this already difficult assignment my companion had been talking to her and gathered more info on the situation. Apparently, this woman believed an evil witch was flying around her house cursing everything she touched.  She needed the witch to either be killed or cast out and it was up to me to do so.  At this point, I went from scared to dumbfounded. She expected my blessing to fight and win a battle against a witch.  I looked to my comp and thought “You have to be pulling my leg!  This has to be a joke!” but sadly it wasn’t. As I was comprehending my thoughts, the woman thought I couldn’t understand what she was saying so she grabbed a broom and started acting out the witch. Now at this point, I couldn’t believe that 10 minutes ago I thought my biggest problem would be giving a blessing in Spanish.  Now I was going to be in the fight of my life protecting this family from a witch who was causing the store (attached to the house) and their house to be cursed.  I prepared my thoughts and went for it.  The blessing was epic and by the end, the woman seemed somewhat satisfied.  I left the house proud of being a witch slayer. In all honesty, it ended up being a beautiful moment. I got to show and explain to the family the importance of blessings and I told them that I could give a blessing of protection from the effects of Satan which could possibly include this witch.  Awesome experience that I will remember forever, even if maybe they didn’t understand some of the stuff I was saying. When they came to church they thanked me because they have felt the Spirit of God stronger in their house.  So maybe I am a witch slayer.

Spiritual thought:

This week I have felt the Spirit so STRONG!! I could tell you so many miracles and spiritual thoughts, but I’ve decided to share this one.  Imagine you are in a bubble.  There is only so much room in this bubble. Inside it is you and Jesus.  I want you to think of this bubble as your thoughts, how you project yourself to others, and what you are trying to achieve each day. Now imagine how much room you have in that bubble and how much room Christ has.  I worded it that way because most (if not all of us) take up most of the room and give Christ the little space that is left.  Now I want you to picture what you want that bubble to look like.  For me, and for most of you, I bet you want to be as little as possible in that bubble and let Christ take up most of the space.  As you go throughout this day, week, year, and the rest of your life I want you to picture your bubble at each moment and then picture what you want it to look like.  There is so much power in remembering what is truly important to you in life.  Reaching for your eternal goals is powerful and motivating.  Always remember Christ wants to be part of your life.  He will help you remember who you want to be and what you want to be remembered for. Then change the little things in your life to align you with that future!

 

Also, got to shout out to my BYU Cougars.  “Let’s GO”  Don’t know the details but beating #9 Baylor is a big deal!