A new church building in San Rafael

Another week has passed here in San Rafael, Veracruz and I love it. We had an awesome "capacitacion" I don't know the word in English. Missionary work is changing and it's giving us, the missionaries more freedom and more focus on our goals and what we measure. I loved it a lot! This past Saturday we got the good news that we will finally have a building to have church in!!!! The house was approved and we went to clean. Today they went to paint and knock out some walls and hopefully with coming Sunday we will go there to meet! FINALLY! A prayer house is going to help this area out a lot as it's no longer going to be a porch outside. When it's really cold outside not even members want to go. HOWEVER! now with a house I feel like more members should come.

This week we found a super cool family who's last name is Prince. They are FRENCH! They are all super white and have blue eyes and blonde hair. In fact more blondes than me. The family is super sweet and really amazing people. Seems like in March we should be having a baptism for this family but we will see what happens. Apart from that we had a really cool experience on Thursday. We were walking in the cold knocking on doors trying to find a referral we have when we look into a window and see this little girl. She was super white and has super blue eyes and blonde hair. My comp said we have to knock on that house to see if they are French.. HAHAHA we talked with the father and he let us pass. In 30 minutes we talked about the restoration and about baptism by immersion. They all started to cry and told us if you want to help this family keep sharing your message with us! The mother is French as well as her kids but the husband is from here. I love this gospel and how you can make someone's day better by sharing it. We went on Saturday and they were so happy to see us! In fact someone called and the mom said tell them to call in 30 minutes we are busy learning about God! This is a really cool family that could progress very easily! They love to pray and already love reading the Book of Mormon!

Share the gospel with everyone you know! Not just by talking the talk but by walking the walk! Being an example is the BEST way to show the blessings of the gospel and showing how God wants us to be in this earthly state. I love you all and hope you have a great week!! It's FEB-ALREADY! Enjoy your week and remember to pray always! No matter how unworthy we are of the spirit, his love has no limits. he loves you and wants you back home!!

Elder Babcock

San Ruffles

I have been officially moved to San Rafael, or as many missionaries say, San Ruffles hahaha. It's a town of about 30,000 people and only 50ish are members. We are a branch. A small branch of only like 15 active members. It's going to be really fun here and we will see what happens. I'm in the zone Martinez. I haven't been in this part of the mission before so it's going to be super fun! I will be the district leader of 6 missionaries including some old buddies. My companion is named Elder Hurtado. He's from Mexico City and has only 3 months in the mission. He's relatively new but knows how to work and is a super awesome guy. There isn't much else! The area was without missionaries for a while so we don't really have much at the moment. It's going to be a great opportunity to work hard and build this branch!!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!!

Elder Babcock

Off to San Rafael

Another quick week has come and gone and lots of things have happened. I'm sad to say that I won't make it to Sunday to see the baptism of the family as I'm being moved to a place called San Rafael this coming Wednesday. The mission president was going to leave me until changes but a missionary had to leave today so I'm going out in a couple of days. Spent most the day packing and saying goodbye to people. I'm really going to miss this place. I've come to love the ward and the area and it's going to be a HUGE change of pace. My new area doesn't have a prayer house. Church services are on the porch of a member. Also many of the people who live there not only speak Spanish BUT also speak French! WHAT! This is going to be a great new chapter of the mission and I'm super excited to see what more will come! It seems like I will  be training! I guess we will see what's going on and who knows if I'll stay much time or in changes if I'll end up leaving. I'm super ready to have new experiences and I'm ready to be work all day instead of just in the afternoon. It's super hot where I'm going to it's going to be grand! hahahahaha. I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Babcock

Final weeks in the office

Soooo this past week has been very crazy. Recently we haven't been able to be out past 7 p.m. because of lots of riots and marches against gasoline prices. It's been tough to lose even more time to work but we have found lots of success in the short time we have. Some really amazing people are looking at a baptismal date for the 22nd, the Sunday before I leave the offices!! And the 21st they will go to the temple in Veracruz. They won't be able to enter but they want to buy stuff and see the temple. This family is super awesome and they cook amazing food! Gorditas, picadas, mole, tamales and pozole! I love teaching families and helping them realize that families can be together forever. I'm eternally grateful for my family and the knowledge that I can be with them forever. So when others learn this to be true it invites a very special spirit to the mission lessons.

The days are counting down until I have to leave the office and I'm really sad. It's been an amazing time in the mission and the 6 months have seriously passed soooo fast. You come to love your ward and investigators when you stay a long time and that makes it sad when you have to leave. Elder Brewer and Elder Silverio are going to have a great couple changes with all the people we have found and even though I'd love to be the one to baptize them I know I have done my part and I'm more than happy for the time I was given here with each and every one of the members and non members. We were able to go to a baptism on Saturday of the assistants of the mission and one of our investigators went. He loved it and is now working towards a baptismal date as well! So much going on and such little time. Being busy is seriously the greatest blessing!

Anyway I love you all so much! Thanks for all your support and love! There are lots of missionaries who not all the family is member and often where not all the family is happy that they left for the mission. I feel extremely blessed to have family, friends, neighbors and members of the ward who support me in the mission. Have a great week and keep being awesome!!!

Love,

Elder Babcock

The Office

Another crazy week and my replacement is finally here!! His Name is Elder Brewer, he's from Arizona. We are literally the same person. We get along so well and always working well together. I will be with him until he understands all he has to do as secretary and then I'm gone! Could be a week or could be three more! I don't really know!

This past week we were able to find lots of new people to teach, even though most people went out of town so the church was literally EMPTY on Sunday. A whopping 20 people including us. (but hey that's the same as Espinal every Sunday hahahaha).

Its now 2017 and yes that means lots of great things. New year, new chances, new opportunities, new challenges, new friends, new everything!! Take advantage of this year and make it the best one yet! It will also be the year I come home!! I love this time of year because everyone talks about GOALS. However, without work and a follow up, what good is a goal? Something we try to always do as missionaries is connect our goals with heaven. I'm sure most goals we put during this time is something that would help us or make us better people right? Why not pray about it? Ask for help and strength and then throughout the year continue in this pursuit. Our Heavenly Father invites us to be more like him at all times. He gave us his son as the perfect example to follow. Keep with your goals and become more like your Heavenly Father!! I'm sure you won't be the only happy one when you complete it!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!! Work, school and other things are starting back up which means less free time but don't ever forget time for personal prayer and scripture study! It's a huge blessing to me and to many people I visit with here in Mexico. Happy New Year!!!

Love,

Elder Babcock