Hi Mom!
So this week end was Halloween/Día de los muertos! Pretty fun. Also we happened to put one of our friends on date! 🌊🌊🌊
So, pan de muertos does not taste like a dead person. In fact mine tasted like sugar, cinnamon, nutella, bananas, and strawberries. Pretty rico not gonna lie. So the reason we happened to be in downtown San Pancho was not because we wanted to see all the Día de los Muertos stuff. We actually had a lesson planned there with a guy and completely forgot that we were in Mexico and this is what they do Haha. The guy never showed up. But all the festivities made up for it.
So, we have been teaching Mario for about two weeks now. He has been so prepared. Every lesson he goes on a tangent about how much he wants to change and how he has so much faith that through repentance and baptism he will be. Honestly we have taught him just about everything. And his baptism isn’t for another 5 days Haha!
We also invited him to church this last Sunday. He absolutely loved it! All the members were so welcoming and made him feel very included. He happened to shatter his knee cap in a bike accident. A few weeks back. He’s had surgery and everything. Right now he can’t bend his leg so he had to wobble around. But he got around just fine. He was telling us that getting baptized isn’t gonna be a problem. He’ll sit down if he has to. Haha. Anyways we are excited!
One of my favorite spiritual thoughts that I learned in North Carolina comes from Luke 19. It’s about a rich publican named Zacheus. Who desperately wants to listen to Christ teach. But cant see him, both, for his short stature and the large multitude that gathered around. So he climbs a tree. Upon reaching a height enough to see Christ. He finds Christ pointing to him and calling his name “Zacheus” he says “make haste, come down, for today it is necessary that I dine in your house.” Now Zacheus was very excited and came down to Christ and offered all of his money to the poor.
Now usually to start this spiritual thought I ask those involved what their favorite word or what is the most important word from the bible? Some say faith, others say Jesus, but in this instance I ask what do you think was Zacheus’s favorite? For the purpose of the story I’d say Zacheus’s favorite was his name. It was the first thing Christ said to him. With members I would point out how awesome it is that we have Patriarchal blessings because they start with our name too! With investors I usually say that Christ knows us by name.
Either way, there are a lot of things we can learn from this story. Another thought that I like to bring up has to do with the multitude that prevented Zacheus from seeing Christ. In our lives there are a lot of distractions and obstacles that prevent us from achieving what really matters. Most of the time this is following Christ. But it can be applied to anything. Family, work, etc. Anyways so we ask how we can overcome those obstacles? The simple answer is to do the little things. Pray, go to church, read the scriptures, etc.
I’d like to end with my testimony, I love being a missionary. There is something about sacrifice that really changes a person. I know that I have changed over the last 14 months and I am excited for the many more changes to come in the next 10.
Till next time,
Elder Service
