Heading towards the one year mark in Teziutlan

Well for the weekly letter, this week went by extremely fast and it also was time for changes!! We had an awesome time as all the missionaries in Teziutlan got together and we had an awesome dinner waiting for the changes to come. The surprise came when most of us aren't changing!! I am going to stay with Elder Guzman for another change and most of my district stays the same. Elder de Groff is going to Xalapa where he will finish his last change. Elder Cobox will now be in my district as he's going to Altotonga. I'm super stoked to see him again.

I'm really excited to spend another change here as I'm going to hit the one year mark this change!! Crazy how fast the time is flying. A bunch of elders that had about my time in the mission when I started are going home and I'm here like I still wanna stay. I'm not ready to leave yet hahahaha. We had a taco fest as a district because Elder de Groff is leaving. Sad to see my buddy go, but he's going to do work in Xalapa. I truly love this work. Through the good times and the bad times it's always been a blessing and I wouldn't wanna be anywhere else.

Love,

Elder Babcock

Little Jerry Seinfeld

I was challenged to take some shots at the fair.

Voladores ("flyers")

11 months

Well I don't have very much time as we are six missionaries and there are only four computers so we are learning to share (; This week was awesome and we were super busy the whole time. I've come to learn the mission really is the best two busiest years. One second you're up in the morning and the next you're laying down to sleep. Crazy how fast the time flies. Not to mention I'm going to be hitting eleven months in the mission pretty soon. WOOOT how crazy?! right?!


I feel like just yesterday I showed up to the mission home and Elder Reyes took me to Coatzintla. I've come to learn a lot but most of all I've come to rely more on our Savior during the tough times. I love love love studying the atonement and reading about the life of Jesus Christ. They gave out a little booklet with tons of conference talks a while back about the atonement and well I've been reading like crazy cause I just love it so much. In this life we are meant to have joy, it says so in the scriptures (2 Nephi 2:25) but we are all going to have tough times and trials. That's also part of our time on the earth. I know and have learned that searching the scriptures and praying often helps just about any situation.


That would be my little challenge to read and learn as much as you can about the plan our Heavenly Father, more specific, about the atonement of Jesus Christ, as that is the central part of his plan. I love you all and hope everything is swell and hot there (; in June here there's tons of rain so its nice and cool here. We walk around in sweaters and jackets all day (; stay sweet!!


Love,


Elder Babcock

Good news, bad news

Welllll hello there... this week was absolutely amazing in many ways. We had some super cool lessons, one of which I will talk about a little later, also our president came to visit for a zone conference where something really bad and sad happened... (suspense...duh duh DUH) we also are looking at some very very possible baptisms for the next couple weeks and it's all just good and dandy here in San Juan.

To start off this week we had a zone conference with our amazing president, Presidente Greer. He talked with us as a zone about talking less and letting the spirit talk more. Instead of reading a scripture or passage and then immediately sharing a question or thought to give some time and wait for them to start talking. It really was something so simple but that we have seen a lot more success in our lessons. Also we encouraged us to use more of Moroni 10:3-5, Moroni´s promise, with our investigators and even the less active members.

The sad thing that happened is that we received our cards and packages from home this week.. all of them were sitting inside of a suitcase from Xalapa. But while we were inside the chapel having the conference someone snuck in and stole our stuff..... and later we found all our cards and packages destroyed and ruined... I found a card with my name but I have no idea who sent it and well I sadly wasn't able to read it.

We have this amazing investigator. We're just about done with the lessons and she has her baptismal date in a couple weeks. We were talking about the Word of Wisdom and sharing the wonderful blessings we can receive if we live this commandment in D&C 89. And instead of blurting out a question we just stayed quiet and still... we waited.. and waited.. and waited some more.. and then she started to talk and told us that she would love to have every single one of these blessings.

But that wasn't all!!! We had another amazing lesson with a new investigator. He lives in the middle of nowhere.. he owns lots and lots of cornfields and well doesn't have much free time. We went to visit him with the intentions of teaching the restoration and leaving a Book of Mormon to read. When we showed up he was busy, but dropped everything to chat for a little while with us jovenes. We were out in the middle of the cornfield when we started to teach the story of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. The spirit was so strong that in the middle of the lesson he told us out of nowhere that he felt a slight burning in his chest. Nothing that hurt him but felt really good. It was super cool to be part of that lesson and help him feel the holy ghost. he later accepted our Book of Mormon and on Sunday told us he's already to Mosiah.

I LOVE THIS WORK! THE CHURCH IS TRUE! AND I LOVE EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!! #staysweet #coolbeans

Elder Babcock

Super busy

This week was awesome!! Super busy but we got it done and are ready for the next one. Sadly I don't have time to write today.... we were super busy and we have a family home evening tonight.. my companion and I had a super cool week as we found awesome people to teach and did lots of divisions. My comp and I are doing awesome and idk how the Pres. does changes. Sometimes people stay like two or three changes together. That's about it.

Love,

Elder Babcock

Fotos

Well sadly we don't have any money right now so I can only write really quick 'cause we are at a member's house. This week was great!! Found some new families to teach and taught some great lessons. My new companion is Elder Guzman, he's from Mexico City. This P-day we didn't do anything 'cause the money comes tomorrow and well we have nada...anyway probably won't write a letter for this week. Just fotos.

Love,

Elder Babcock

10 Months

What a week. This past Sunday I hit 10 months in the mission. Like WHAT? I swear I just got here. However I'm really happy that I haven't hit the halfway mark because I don't wanna go home hahaha. I love it here. In fact I'm probably going to come here to live (; hahaha maybe.

This week we had an awesome, awesome lesson with some new people we found. It's a family of four and we had talked with the mom before but never the family. When the member of the Seventy came to visit he told us to focus in the fathers, and doing so we would find more success. We went to visit the hermana one day and share a small message with her. After about ten or so minutes her husband came in, and from that time we focused completely on him and his needs and problems. It ended up being a very spiritual lesson leaving all in tears... yeah my companion made me cry with his crazy personal story of the priesthood. And in fact it made me think of how blessed I was growing up to have such amazing friends and family members who actively and worthily administered their priesthood authority. I absolutely admire my dad and my brother and thank them for that.

But yeah this week was great! Today we went to the Christ statue. It was super fun and we went as a zone. A good two hours of climbing and we made it there! The sight was beautiful and the statue was huge! Except that part of his beard fell off. Oops. hahaha anyway I love you and miss you but the time will go by faster than you know it! To those of you that have the priesthood in any shape or form I would encourage you to use it worthily and actively. It'll bless the lives of others as well as yours!!

Love,

Elder Babcock

Leadership and stake conferences

We had changes this past Sunday and lots of stuff happened during the week. Overall it was awesome! One of the first things we had this past week was a conference with a member of the Seventy, Elder Falabella. All I have to say about that was it was amazing. The spirit was so strong and I know he is a man called of God. He had nothing but love and the spirit radiating from him the entire time. Our mission is now focusing on teaching fathers of the family. Our goal is to have between 5 and 7 families progressing at any given time. That's a really tough goal, but we know that a Seventy wouldn't give us a goal if it wasn't possible.


After this conference we had our stake conference this Sunday. Yet another member of the Seventy showed up to the stake conference (how lucky are we right?) and gave some really powerful talks. But this is were everything got super cool for me. Right before we started the conference my mission president came up to me and asked me to translate the talks for a brother who doesn't speak Spanish. I got to spend the two hours translating and sharing conversation with a really amazing man. I feel bad as I never got his name. He's a recent convert of just about a year. He was going to receive the priesthood that day and is the coolest guy you'll ever meet. He's 85 and has lived in Mexico for the past year and a half. A lot of the talks were about genealogy and temples, he told me that he has gone to the temple once and never tried family history, but he said he's going to talk with his sister about starting it up and go to the temple more often. What a blessing it was for me to not only listen to the conference, but get to translate what was being said. Afterwards he gave me a huge hug and asked me to go with him to be set apart as elder. The experience was amazing. I love being a missionary.


Here comes the other awesome thing about the week was that we had changes!! Sadly it's time for Elder Rangel to leave...I'm gonna miss my buddy from Monterrey, but he's going to do awesome in Xalapa. My new comp is named Elder Guzman (I think that's how you spell it... hahaha) he's chilango (from Mexico City) and we are going to have an awesome change. In these 6 weeks I'm going to complete 11 months in the mission. Time flies, no? They closed an area in Tezuitlan that was of another district leader so my district is going to be growing by two! With another set of elders and also hermanas. Expect to see pics of some activities as a district cause we are finally big enough to do stuff! hahaha.


I love you all so much and I love this church. This mission is amazing and I love every second. I don't ever want it to end! I want to end with a quick thought that Elder Falabela gave us. He said as missionaries we have lots of rules. More that him in fact! (he can kiss his wife is what he said is different hahaha) but he asked us to think about why we have so many rules. And he said well it's so that we can be blessed, we know that with more obedience we are more blessed. But then he said being obedient is the way we show our faith. We know that faith without works is dead. He encouraged us to be more obedient in everything so that our faith will grow and with that faith we will find more miracles in our missions.


I love love love a scripture about faith. It's in the Bible in Matthew 21:21. (be ready for rough translation hahaha) basically with our faith we can move mountains. Now I'm pretty sure not really move mountains but we will have more miracles in our lives when he have more faith. And that all comes from our obedience to our Heavenly Father.


Love,


Elder Babcock