Sharing the gospel

WOOOOOOO the week went by as fast as you read that word.. hahaha but seriously the weeks are going by too fast now. I completed 7 months today and yeah I'm super nervous. Less than a year and a half and I'll be home... like uh I just got here. This week was super awesome thanks to my new companion Elder Aviña. (la viña del Señor) haha he's an amazing missionary with a huge desire to serve and help others. He's a convert of 5 years and lives in the state of Mexico called Nayarit. He loves the scriptures (like me) and has some super powerful stories of his life and the gospel and in my one week with him I've learned tons.

We passed by with a lot of people that we normally see this week but our lessons were different. Not a bad different but the people who normally had lots of doubts or questions or problems just seemed to listen to his experiences and then boom! have desires to feel the same and leave behind what they had been doing. One of these people, she's like 50 something, I never know how old people are... hahaha but she drank tons before and after two Sundays in the church and one visit with us she told us the desire to drink is gone. She wants us to pass by more as well as the other members.  She's amazing and completely different from the first time we found her.. Another awesome person is hermano T. He served in the military and is a single father with four kids. He works in the ranch and has lots and lots of chores to do everyday. But somehow he always has time for the church and the activities and above all service.

We went to visit him this Saturday and he always has food for us and then after we have good little talks. My companion shared a really awesome scripture in the Book of Mormon about how we should share the gospel with others. Not just our friends and not just our families. But EVERYONE. And through our faith, the Lord will strengthen our words and help us preach the gospel to every creature on this earth. (2nd Nephi 3:21) he shared the experience that he had a friend that listened to the missionary discussions with him at first. This friend later said it wasn't for him and stopped investigating the church. Later after being baptized, my companion had the thought to go and visit his friend and share his testimony about the Book of Mormon. He went over, hung out and in the end started to slowly talk about the church. What he said is 100% described in this scripture. He said he shared his thoughts and love for the book, and even though he wasn't talking super well and super nervous he said it seemed as though his friend was hearing something completely different. That at the end of talking he asked for a book and within the month was baptized. How true is this scripture. being in Mexico where I still don't speak Spanish very well and I'm super nervous at times... A lot of people accept and I leave thinking how? I did awful. I didn't explain very well but they understood everything.. It's cause i wasn't what they were hearing. Same with my companion and his friend. the people were feeling the spirit talk to them and not just the two boys talking.

I love helping the people here and its changed my life. I would challenge all of you to invite someone new to church. Invite someone new to a mutual or Relief Society or Elders activity. As long as you have faith, the words won't just be your words. I love you all!

Elder Babcock

Training

Well this week went by fast and I'm writing you guys on Tuesday because well I spent my whole Monday in Xalapa!! But I'll save why for the end of the letter. Well we had changes and I am staying here in Espinal and my companion Elder Cobox is going to Xalapa. He was super sad to leave and well I didn't want him to leave either but the Lord needs his help there and I know he's going to bless tons and tons of lives there. Being his companion I have learned BASTANTE from this amazing elder. He knew the scriptures like the back of his hand and could bring the spirit to any lesson quicker than you can imagine. I wouldn't be surprised if he made it to assistant soon.

In our last week together we spent lots of time teaching our recent converts and searching for new people. He has helped me more than he probably knows and I'm super grateful for the opportunity to be his companion for a short 3 months. BUT awesome news and the reason why I went to Xalapa is because I'm training a new missionary!! WOOOO! I got the call Saturday morning and since then I've been soooo excited. I left for Xalapa Monday morning at 9 and arrived a little after 1. We went straight to the mission house and I met all the new missionaries as well as all the trainers. It shocked me to find out that of all the trainers I had the least time in the mission and immediately feelings of how am I going to train or how can I do this when I have such little time? We had a class of president and the trainers just before and something he said in this meeting took all the doubt and questions and threw them all away. He told us about the time that he had been thinking about who he wanted to train for this change, and that well none of us are there because he wanted us to be there. But with lots and lots of prayer he received our names one by one. I know this is going to be tough. Still learning the Spanish and meanwhile teaching someone how to teach. It sounds impossible. But I know that I won't be teaching him alone. That we are a companionship of three and there's two trainers here.

My new companion is named Elder Aviña. (av-een-ya). He's from Mexico in some city I still don't understand, but it's close to Guadalajara. Before we received our companions, our president has each new missionary stand up and share his testimony. And something I loved that my companion said in his is I'm ready to work. I'm ready help to give the gift that two missionaries gave me and my family a while ago. I'm ready to help change lives. He said this because the reality is we don't convert people. Physically we visit and spend time with them yes. And share small talks. But the key thing and ultimate reason we are here is to bring the spirit into the lives of people. Let them feel this joy and peace they haven't felt before. Or maybe just hadn't recognized it at first. And then guide them where they want to go.

Missionary work in a short  (almost) 7 months has blessed my life to the extreme. I love this place and this work with all my heart. I'm more than happy here and I'm trying to use all the time I have to its full potential. I love you guys and I really miss you all. Try to share the gospel with someone new. Doing it day to day to day has showed me that thinking in myself might make me happy for a week. Maybe a month or two. But through serving every day here in the mission, it's no longer like that. Every day is filled with love and joy and happiness and I wouldn't trade this time for ANYTHING!

Love,

Elder Babcock

Another baptism

What an awesome week! We had lots of cool lessons and the teaching and language are getting better every day! My study of the scriptures has changed from a "rule" to a "habit" and I love learning from the ancient prophets.

This week was the bautimision that I talked about the last email, where the whole mission plans in advance to try and baptize people on this day. Leading up to the bautimision we have been teaching the couple P. and M. When we first met with them they had lots of problems. They couldn't read or write. They weren't married. They almost don't have any money. They live far away from Espinal. And he smoke and drank. Normally with something like that it might be easy to think yeah let's go look for someone else, someone with less problems. But the reality is that these problems are what led them to Christ and to making the decision to be baptized.

This week they had a little party with their family and we knew there would be alcohol and cigarettes. We had talked lots with them before that well they should leave that stuff. That it's not true happiness and that the temptation would come but they should be strong and stay clean. Well we talked with them Saturday night and come to find out that M. had no problems and that P. asked his family to drink outside, or throw the alcohol out. Wooo! We were so happy to hear him say that he stayed strong and didn't drink or smoke. But not only that. He separated himself from this and then invited his family to come to his baptism this coming Sunday. I love the good and amazing things the gospel can bring to the lives of people and the ways it can change them.

This Sunday as we went to the river as the branch of Espinal we talked a little with them and they could only say, it's time. Finally. How powerful and wonderful are these people. Another awesome blessing that we had during this week was the weather. The past couple days has been awful. Lots of rain and clouds. And well to baptize outside normally yeah it's cold. But this Sunday we had nothing but sun. How awesome is that when today is raining and cold also. After the baptism we all went and had some food in the church and hermana M. couldn't stop smiling and kept saying "I feel different, but a good different."

I love this work so much and the blessings that I have the chance to receive. Helping people to have this true happiness. My one challenge for all of you at home is to do something like P. did. Maybe if you have the chance invite someone to leave sin behind and come to church. The family of P. is a new family we are currently teaching and it all started with that invitation to come unto Christ.

I love you all and be happy!!

Elder Babcock

Bautimision

Another week, another email (; first off where did January go? And second who is still doing their New Year's resolution? jajaja... This week in Mexico was awesome. The weather can't decide if it was to be good or bad so every other day is rainy and the rest are super hot.

This following Sunday my mission is having a thing called the "bautimision". We picked this date like two months ago and all the missionaries have been working really hard to baptize on this date. Like all the other missionaries, Elder C. and me have been working to bring our investigators to the waters of baptism this day. And well with this I had a really awesome experience. The people that I'm sure I have talked about in letters before, P. and M., are the people we have been focusing on for this date to visit and teach more to prepare them to be baptized. We visited them one day with the intention to talk about the Word of Wisdom which with them was tough. We showed up and started talking about it, what it is, why it's important and about the blessings, and well M. started to cry in the middle of the lesson. We waited a little in silence and asked what was wrong. She told us that P. had thrown out all his alcohol about two weeks ago and said he wasn't going to drink because "the brothers don't like it when we drink." She said that he has changed as a person. More kind, more loving, more quick to serve and help someone out. He took our challenge to live the Word of Wisdom and said he feels better without the beer anyway. P. is a person that has been prepared for the gospel. We have the papers and we are going to get them married this Friday and then baptize this Sunday (more guajolote jajaja).

They have been a huge example to me and with changes being in two weeks I would be very sad to leave this area. They always have oranges or little Mexican snacks and candies. They are sad when we don't visit and are the first ones to church on Sundays. They have listened to the Book of Mormon on tape and they said they are starting again. These are the investigators that every missionary wants. That religion isn't just something for every Sunday, but an everyday thing. I love this work and I can't even count the blessings. I know this is the true church and that we need to live the commandments always, enduring to the end. I love you guys!

Elder Babcock

6 months

What a fast week. I swear it was just Monday like yesterday and now it's Monday again. This week I hit 6 months in the mission. Yeah more than 1/4 of the way done. It's scary and well makes me want to work harder and do all that I can. People always have told me the time goes too fast and well I can now relate. The night that I hit 6 months my companion and I went outside and burned one of my ties and funny thing is the owner of the house came out too and bought us a Coke to celebrate. I love Mexico hahaha.

Anyway as for this week we taught lots of lessons and had a lot of new people we found. We spent this week in companion study doing little simulations, which at first I was like, serious, like this is kinda random and boring and idk... BUT during one of these my companion was acting as a person and I was trying to commit him to come to church this week. Messing around he threw in some crazy reasons as to why he couldn't come and truth is I had no idea how to answer him or commit him to come. Afterwards we talked about that and how we could commit a person like that... and you wouldn't believe it. That day literally four hours or so after we met a new guy on the street. We talked with him for a little and he accepted to hear us for a little. For every first lesson we talk about church and why we should go and then ask them to come to church. And his reasons why he couldn't come were WORD FOR WORD what my companion had said...and with that we were able to talk and he eventually said yes he wanted to go. He showed up to church before we did and later told us he loved it and can't wait for next week.

This was an amazing experience for me and I just love the things I can learn from my companion. Or more than that what you can learn when you study with someone. With that my invitation for you guys is to maybe read a scripture or a talk with someone in your family. Or do a family home evening and see what you can learn when it's not just your mind talking but others too. Revelation can come to us through others just as well as through ourselves and I have learned that more than just once here on the mission. I love you guys and enjoy the cold as it's hot again down here!!

Love,

Elder Babcock

Birthday

Well my birthday was this week and in Mexico they do birthdays right! It started when we were talking with a member Thursday night about a food we could eat for my birthday. I asked about turkey..they call it guajolote here. They said you have to buy the whole bird and kill it and then serve it in mole. Soo....with my birthday money from my family I bought a guajolote!!! He was a beautiful bird and pretty big for his age (only one year old). Anyway this bad boy was quite a beast and it weighed like 10 kilos. That's like 22 pounds I think. But yeah so we went to this little pueblo to buy my guajolote and nobody has a car so we had to haul the thing in a taxi like 10 minutes and I'm pretty sure it pooped on my companion hahahaha. Anyway we killed it and cooked it up in mole and ate it together with this family. The leg was too big to fit on the plate. I was also given a cake from the branch president and his wife and well we went to his house for his birthday (the 12th of January) and I smashed his face in the cake....so he had to get revenge and do me the favor. Cake in my nose for like 3 days was not fun.

This week was awesome and I really love the mission. All the awesome experiences I wouldn't trade for anything. Something really cool that happened this week was we were able to teach these two older people. I think I wrote about them before but I don't remember. They can't read but we are teaching them and they really really want to be baptized. Only thing is they have to be married first... They were missing lots of paperwork and it seemed like it would take another three or four months to get it all.. Well we went to teach them one night and they told us they had been talking and that they really want to be baptized. That they had been listening to their Book of Mormon on tape one night and they both began to cry. They new this was true and that they needed to be baptized. I don't know how it happened but some miracle of their papers and we pretty much have them all in. One of the papers from Xalapa came in two days. Normally it's waiting almost a month for this paper. We have a plan to get them married in the next week or so and them a baptism date for the 7th. It's amazing to see that these people really have changed and want to follow Christ's example, and for some reason everything is coming together to make that happen. I know this is blessing for this family.

Also, I was reading in the Book of Mormon this week, I was reading and studying about Lehi´s vision and it really made me think. Where would I be in this vision? Would I be holding tight to the iron rod? Would I be in the great and spacious building? Would I be partaking of the fruit? (sorry I'm reading in Spanish so I'm trying to remember all the stuff in English). I know it's easy to fall away, and see the ´happiness´ of the world and want to follow. But I know that true happiness only comes from the gospel of Jesus Christ and living the principles of his church. He loves us and is always there for us when we do fall away. For that he suffered for each one of us. so that there is a way to leave the dreary wasteland and come back to the straight and narrow. I know this is the true church. I know that our loving Heavenly Father answers our prayers and that he is always there for us. I know that Christ is my Savior, that he died for me. That he made it possible to live for all eternity with my family. Stay safe everyone and I hope you are enjoying the snow!

Love,

Elder Babcock

 

 

 

Working with the members

Yet another week has gone by and I feel like it was just Tuesday yesterday. This week has been an awesome one as we got to teach some really powerful lessons and help Abigail (that's the name of the joven we baptized the last week) to be confirmed a member of the Church. During this week my companion and myself have been visiting lots of less active members, because as I have said in the past, the numbers are something like only 16 percent of members are active. And so as part of our calling it's to help people to come unto Christ, not only through baptism but also the other principles of the gospel of Jesus Christ. And so we set off.

Sadly from what we found out is that a lot of these people don't want to come back to church. They are fine to have the missionaries in and talk a little but they don't want to read the scriptures or pray. This is really sad thinking that some of these people are converts of only a couple months. That this person at one time was excited and taking lessons and going to church. Lucky there are some people who just had forgotten what the Spirit feels like or the blessings that they have received but are missing them. And with that we were able to bring three families who were inactive to sacrament meeting this past Sunday. And you know, a baptism is awesome. You get to see someone change and well make a covenant with our Heavenly Father. You get to see the gospel change a life and see someone come closer to Christ. But I think too many people get caught up in just that. Because this Sunday we didn't baptize. HOWEVER the love and joy I felt as these families entered our little prayer house was something very special. To see these families partake of the sacrament and afterwards with huge smiles asking us to visit this week. I know that missionaries don't just help investigators but we are here to bless the members as well.

I love all the experiences that I've had so far on the mission and I'm so happy to have even more. The time is going by a lot faster than I want (my mom will be mad at that) but I know from experience that if we are obedient to the commandments, if we give ourselves up, and serve, that in the end we are actually happier than we could've been before. I love this gospel and it's blessed my life so much. I hope you are all staying strong at home and going to church and praying and reading the scriptures. These things are so little, they take little to no time to do, yet they make the biggest difference. I love you all and stay safe! (last bit of news. someone told me the dollar is now worth 20 pesos. don't know how true that it, but if so woooo for me!

P.S. I forgot to put this is but I wanna talk about this real quick. Here they have a little holiday called Day of Kings. It's where they make this special bread called a rosca and it has little white figures in it. And you take turns cutting it and if you find a little figure in your piece you have to make tamales for the rest of the people. It's something really cool and fun they do I think its like the 6th of January but I don't remember. Anyway of the three families we cut rosca with I got picked twice with one familly and once with another..looks like the guero is gonna learn how to make tamales hahahaha!

Love,

Elder Babcock