Leaving our comfort zones

Another great week here in Xalapa, Mexico. This is the week of changes and I'm sure lots of missionaries are happy and many are not. Sometimes as a missionary you have your companions that you like and get along with better than others. At times you have more success with one than with another. It's sad when your favorite comp has to leave, but this is something that I have learned happens in our lives outside of the mission too. We should leave our comfort zones to learn from others and grow as a person. When everything is all and well we enjoy this life but we don't really learn much when there isn't affliction. It's a necessary part of this life that allows us to become better, little by little more like our Heavenly Father who is perfect. Take the changes in your life as a blessing and always look for the good in every situation and you will be surprised how much you will learn. It's not easy, but living the gospel of Jesus Christ never has been easy.

We had a lesson this past week with a family. We were teaching them about Christ and his perfect example, which includes partaking of the "bitter cup" even when we don't want to. I'm not sure if I've shared this on an email before but a sister in my ward said once, "it's hard to drink the bitter cup and not become bitter." Take what comes and learn from it. And always be happy knowing that Christ died for our sins and allows us to become better every day.

I love you all and miss you all tons!!! Have a great week and keep with the LIGHT the WORLD initiative!!! Service allows us to know and understand more our neighbor through Christ's eyes. Press forward and know that we are in the true church, the only church with Gods divine authority! Serve someone new this week and get out of your comfort zone!

Love,

Elder Babcock

Light the World Part 2

First week in December and it's already passing by really fast. During the Light the World movement we need to take advantage of EVERY moment. In the spirit of Christmas we, as members of the church, as well as non-members of the church, can share the light of Christ with others. Every single one of us has a special gift or attribute of Christ that is to be shared and grown. Service can be given in many, many ways. Search your way to share your gift with another person and help them to feel the love of our Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ.

As missionaries we try to help people feel this love, and when they do feel it, it changes their whole life. Take part in missionary work and serve someone this week and help them feel this pure love. We have helped in many service projects this past week, moving members from houses, taking food to those who don't have it, cleaning different parts of the community with members and writing letters to missionaries and less active members. I can truly feel the spirit of Christmas in this new initiative. Don't let it pass without feeling it too!!

I love you all!

Elder Babcock

Light the world

What another quick week and here we are again in the ciber writing another email. Missionary life is just a weekly cycle with small 6-week breaks and changes. It's so simple but such an amazing experience. I seriously love every second of it. The bad. The good. The kinda bad. The kinda good. All experiences and afflictions help us become better people and better missionaries in my case!! Learn from mistakes and keep repenting!! CHANGE IS NECESSARY!

There is a scripture I read today in the morning and I love it: "For, behold, I have refined thee, I have chosen thee in the furnace of affliction" (1 Nephi 20:10). We become refined through our experiences and then our decisions to change or keep being the same. Become better and learning shapes us to be more like our Heavenly Father. It's difficult to take the struggles and hard times as a time to learn. But that's where our faith and hope comes in. Knowing that whatever comes and happens everything will be okay.

Here in the offices life is amazing and I am so grateful for the chance I have to get to know my mission president a little more each day. He's an amazing leader and loves this work. Today we went to Walmart to get some food and then relax since this past week was SUPER busy. Feels good to relax on a P-day. The church started a new initiative for December: LIGHT THE WORLD! (Ilumina el Mundo) I really enjoyed the video and sharing it with members and non members here. It's an amazing way to contact people in the street. Share the video with all your loved ones and watch the daily videos starting December first!!! Also don't forget to do some service that day too. We have planned to make some food and go hand it out at one of the local hospitals as a ward! Do some good and LIGHT THE WORLD!! I love you all and miss you dearly!!

Elder Babcock

Escundriñar las escrituras

This week I started something new. Apart of my normal studies I'm reading the Book of Mormon again, but instead of finishing as fast as I can, I'm reading it one chapter a day, and writing my thoughts and feelings about the verses and what I'm learning. I love the change it's brought to the Book of Mormon. It's now much more than reading. The word in Spanish is "escundriñar." It's like study and ponder.

This Sunday all of Mexico had a special conference where Elders Robert D. Hales and Russell M. Nelson talked to us about the commandments and how it's important live all of them. Elder Nelson spoke Spanish and it was surprising to hear his normal voice in a different language. Maybe that's how I sound to the people here hahaha. What I did love was how they talked about the progression of the church here in Mexico. They talked about the long time it took to start building temples and schools of the church. And then to the MTC in Mexico City and now 13 temples. Something special about my mission is that I have come to completely love the people here. I love love these people. They are so special and loving.

Sorry for the short letter as we have a lesson in like 10 minutes. I love you all and keep reading the Book of Mormon!!! Read it slow and ponder what the verses mean to you. LOVE YOU TONS!!!

Elder Babcock

Service

What a great week. It's seriously hard to remember everything that happened and all the visits and lessons we did. But what I haven't forgotten is the love and joy I feel while sharing this wonderful gospel. Especially with my new companion Elder Silverio. He's just an amazing guy all around. I feel like this is going to be a great couple of months together. He's from Guatemala and doesn't eat spicy food (which is funny 'cause none of my comps eat spicy food.)

PERO, this Sunday in our gospel principles class we talked about service. Why it's important and how it blesses our lives. I love being in classes when we can't finish the lesson because everyone is sharing experiences and asking questions. Honestly as a missionary when your investigators talk lots in church and talk with members it's awesome. Not sure how many investigators really go to church in Utah, but in other places I'm sure new people show up every couple of weeks.

I'd just like to invite you all to search for new people in church and make new friends. Who knows, maybe they have been feeling uncomfortable at church and you going to talk to them was the answer to their prayer? Think about it. I love you all and miss you tons! Short letter because well life is too good to rant!

Elder Babcock

An amazing week

Well this was quite an amazing week. Lots of really spiritual experiences and just a wonderful week in general. Some of the small highlights were:

- My new companion Elder Silverio came this past week as he had to learn to do elder Ix's old job.
-We found lots of new people to teach.
-WE BAPTIZED!!
-Did some service with an older couple in the ward.
-GOT MY PACKAGE FROM HOME. FLAMING HOT CHEETOS NEVER TASTED SOOO GOOD!
-Had some truly special moments while in lessons.
-Had lots of people come to church that want to be baptized!

Of all the points I would just like to talk a little about one experience I had while teaching a lesson as well as the story of our baptismal service this week! The baptism was a young boy named Amaury. He's only 9 years old but he had such a desire to get baptized. His family, consisting of his mom and dad, his older brother and his grandma were all members except the grandma. We started to visit them right when I first showed up. That was almost 3 months ago! Little by little we taught and encouraged them to read the Book of Mormon as a family and pray together. To do the small things as a FAMILY.

At first they came once a month, then twice, and now they come every week. It's so great to see this entire family sitting on the row together, smiling and laughing. We had the goal that the father would be able to baptize his son. We had to work with the bishop but everything worked out perfect and last night the family was together for the baptism of little Amaury. Truly a special experience.

About three weeks ago elder Ix and myself were leaving the house of Amaury when elder Ix stopped to talk to a young man in the street. His name is Joar and was interested in us coming to visit him. For days we passed but never was home until one day, this week, we found him. He invited us in and we started to get to know him and share what it is that we do as missionaries. He began to share a personal experience, in the middle I felt prompted to share the story of the Alma the Younger and the Sons of Mosiah. After he finished the story I pulled out the little booklet of paintings of the church and opened it to that page and we started to talk about this story. He was laughing in between sentences and after we had finished he asked if we had planned to share this story beforehand. He said this was the story closest to what he felt he was living in right now. He has lots of problems and would always say why would God answer me? I'm not worthy of it. Why would he want to change me?? He went with us to church and is now working and progressing to be baptized in the coming month!

I LOVE THIS WORK! there are people waiting to hear the stories of the Book of Mormon and connect them to their lives. I know its the strongest tool we have as missionaries and as members of the Church of Jesus Christ! It is another testimony of Christ's ministry. Read it, ponder it, love it!

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

Elder Babcock

New companion

Well this week was FULL of things to do. From one place to another we barely had time to do many visits. This is when the secretary assignment becomes a little difficult. BUT we had lots of people in church this week and we are teaching lots of progressing investigators.

We received the call that Elder Ix will be leaving. We don't know where but my next companion is named Elder Silverio. He's from Guatemala. He is currently in Coatzintla! My old home. He will be here tomorrow morning and by next week elder Ix will be gone. It's really sad when you have to change companions but we should always look for the good and not the bad right? My new companion only has 4 months in the mission. I have almost 4x his time in the mission! Time flies when you're having fun.

This past week we talked a lot about temples. Every time we talk about temples here everyone asks me how it was to have tons of temples close by. I think that's something I would encourage each and every one of you at home is to GO TO THE TEMPLE!! You never know when you'll be far away and won't have the commodity of having a temple so close to home. Go and enjoy the temple!!

I love you all and hope you have a great week!! New missionaries come this next Monday! The weeks keep flying by!

Elder Babcock