Hi mom!
This week president asked us to go on divisions with him after some of the interviews and it went really well so I think he's kinda wanting to do it a lot now. We worked in 6 areas in 3 days haha. It is super hard to keep an area going like that. We have been so blessed though. On Sunday a recent convert brought her friend who really liked it, and we have an appointment with her today, we found a mom and a daughter (9) who speaks 4 languages (the 9 year old), and just now the ZLs called and said they found a really awesome family of 4 that lives in our area that wants to listen, has member friends, and have all started reading the Book Of Mormon. Also we have an investigator who is the only Mexican woman who is a firefighter for Formula 1 races (like nascar stuff!), she has come to church once and has a baptismal date in December!
C got baptised this week, and the whole fam came! Also it was one of the biggest turn outs to a baptism' Ive seen in my mission. They had cake, a special musical number planned and everything! Super spiritual, and he was running around the church before because he was so hyped! On Sunday he sang in the primary presentation and I think the nerves are gone!
Just now we went to Apizaco to play volleyball with some members and other narrys, including the legendary Elder Stones! It was a lot of fun but there's this guy up there named Hermana S who is famous for cutting ties with giant scissors and I happened to be wearing my Canada tie that you sent me :( So if you could send another Canada tie that would be awesome.
That's about it from me, the time is going by super fast these days and we are super tired but I love it!
Love,
Elder Lethaby
November 6, 2017
Hi MOM!
Gonna start off with a little miracle. Yesterday a less active lady that we were supposed to visit this week but had to cancel came to church and brought her 8 year old grandson. The ward secretary was joking around and went and asked him if he wanted to be baptised TODAY. He was hyped and said its the biggest desire of his heart and didn't understand that the ward secretary was joking. The 3rd hour of church one of the bishops councillors came and pulled us out of our class and was waiting there with the boy (Eric). He was super confused because he was going around telling everyone to come to his baptism after church. Anyway, we went and visited them in the afternoon and grandma is hyped to come back to church, his parents have potential, and he has a baptismal date for this month! He sat us down, offered a glass of water, told us "estan en su casa", real gentleman. He then said "lets talk business, when am I going to get baptised?" hahha pretty rare to have baptisms just fall out of nowhere like that, but we were super grateful, and we are really hoping the whole fam can just be baptised. Only problem is that the grandma on the other side of the fam is a JW.
This week like 4 big fams in the mission got baptised, one was a family of 5 in Totolac! We already have almost as many baptisms in this month as we did in all of September, after just one week!
The zone conferences went really well, we are going to get more into working with the YSA (young adults) and using FB and stuff to get the youth more engaged. We're thinking of a Christmas scavenger hunt thing that we want to do on the FB page (Mision en linea Puebla Tlaxcala) and get everyone to share their missionary experiences in the comments.
Who's Ben Barfuss gonna marry because I was talking about that with Elder Barfuss the other day and he hadn't heard anything haha.
Did I tell you guys that our stake president´s wife passed away a few weeks ago? Super sad, he's a very young stake president (maximum 40 years old) and has young kids. The other day we got to the offices and there was a 70 just waiting outside to interview him and so we could talk to him a bit. This week Elder Valenzuela of the area presidency is gonna come to reorganise the stake presidency and he's gonna stay at President Nelson´s house! Might meet him :)
Glad the weather is still so nice over here hahaha, gotta enjoy that while I can.
Sounds like all is well back home.
Love you guys, love being a missionary.
Elder Lethaby
November 13, 2017
It's Christmas time in Mexico :) (just in our apartment but were hyped)!
You will all have to wait another week just like the rest of the missionaries to know if I will stay another transfer or not haha.
We had a special stake conference with Elder Valenzuela from the area presidency and Elder Chavez of the seventy. The Mexico city temple president and of course President Nelson were also there. Those seventies understand very well why they are there and do not waste a single moment or word that isn't going to help the stake with what they need. They called a completely new stake presidency (the old one was only there for like 7 months or something). Don't know them yet but seem good. Elder Chavez gave a really, really good talk though about what he saw happening in the stake that needed to change. He talked about the way the Saviour responded to the adulterous woman, that he didn't say "I forgive you" because she still hadn't repented, but he did show that he was willing to forget about it and forgive her once she had done so. He talked about how we need to be willing to forget about the mistakes of others (especially leaders) and not judge. It takes faith to trust that imperfect people are still called of God even when they make mistakes. "if you look for the flaws in the men we have just called, you will find them. If you look at the fact that all 3 of them are even shorter (he's pretty short) than I am, you will find it." We should look for the good in everything, like that Gordon B Hinckley quote you sent mom. Very good and needed talk. Has been a big help looking at the good and not the bad in missionaries while in the process of choosing 22 trainers hahaha.
Elder Valenzuela talked about some experiences he's had with sharing the Gospel in creative ways. He went to a graveyard with his wife on day of the dead and gave out "My Family" pamphlets. Pretty creative. "We don't need to wait for Salt Lake to tell us before we come up with different ways to share the gospel." Pretty good stuff all around.
They're gonna get married in August I bet.
Eric's parents aren't as excited about him getting baptised as he was, but we want to go serve them and I think that way we will be able to get through and help them see the need for the gospel in their lives.
I think that's it from me, see ya next week! Also if someone could get me Ana's missionary email address that would be good :)
Love
Elder Lethaby
November 20, 2017
Thanks for the spiritual thought mom, honestly I think that's been one of my biggest weaknesses in my mission, studying well. Kinda surprising because that's all I did before the mish and I did it well, but it's something I need to step up in the mission. Goal for this last stretch will be to learn how to study in a way that I can continue for my whole life :)
Sorry for writing so late in the week, with all the news that arrived on Monday we had to take two days to train them and choose companionships. To answer your question mom, yes we do have a very large part in choosing the trainers, the companionships and everything about the transfers. We go out and do our homework, calling all the leaders in the mission to get reports on every missionary, we bring that information to the transfer meetings, and we work together with President Nelson and the Spirit to make those decisions. This time it was pretty hard to choose 22 trainers in such a small mission. Right now more than half of the mission is either training, or being trained. We now have the zone leaders of 2 zones (Tlaxcala and Tlaxcala Norte) acting as trainers and zone leaders! Huge job for them (Elder A and Stones who arrived with me are two of the 4 that are doing that). 2 zone leaders and 2 news live together and they are pretty much trainers by day, and zone leaders by night haha. Should be good. We have been so blessed with this generation though, our problem was that many of the news already seemed more ready than their trainers! Super prepared, spiritual, smart missionaries. Probably like 6 future APs in the group. Pretty sure Ana met several of them in the MTC because they were all there at the same time.
President took us to IHop after the transfer day to celebrate and for Elder Stirling's birthday! Pretty weird eating in such an American place.
Other than that we have just been preparing for more meetings and stuff so far this week. It's going to be more fun to plan the zone conference though because it's the Christmas conference this time :) That was a big part of why I wanted to stay another transfer hahaha. That, and because the mission is doing awesome now. We had 28 baptisms last week which was more than any other week since I've been an assistant! Also in week 3 of the month we already have more than we have in any other month since I got here! We have been very blessed and it's been a lot of big families too :) Love hearing about all the miracles.
Also, the stake president whose wife passed away was called as our ward mission leader on Sunday! So hyped on that one!
Love ya!
Elder Lethaby
Questions answered:
What do you think your strengths are, that you brought to the mission? Ask your companion this too.
Elder Stirling says my huge arms, my testimony, my hair looks nice, and he says I know the scrips well but I think that one isn't that true. Also that I'm really flexible. I think one of my biggest strengths is being constant. I don't think I am the best at teaching, or the language or a lot of other things, but I am constant in working hard even when things don't go my way :)
Why do you think you were called to serve where you are?
I think the Lord had some super specific people and companions he wanted me to meet. I think this mission is a place where I have been able to have a ton of super spiritual experiences, and a lot of success, but also some really hard times that taught me maybe even more.
What ideas or inspirations have come to your mind since being called as AP?
One big push we are trying to do right now, is changing the way the leaders in the mission motivate the rest. Before, when I arrived, it was very competition based (showing the numbers of all the areas, giving awards for the zones that baptise more, etc...), but now we have changed a few really small things, like the way we present the progress of the mission, so that it is a unity based motivation. We now set goals the come from the bottom up, not from the top down, and when one of us baptises everyone is happier now.
Favourite person to work with this week…WHY?
Elder B, he's one the new zone leaders and I went on interchanges with him and we just really got along really well, pretty much the same person. Wasn't the best day for the work but it was super fun :)
Tell me a kindness you witnessed today?
Latest P-day activities?
What is different going on divisions with the President vs. another missionary?
The hair dresser opened up early for us so that we could get our hair cut before we had to come to the office :)
Well last week we went to Apizaco and played volley ball and tie shopping. Right now I think the plan is to go for sushi and next week we are thinking about going to "African Safari" which I think is like a zoo.
Well I've only ever had President go on divisions with me once. What we do is go visit a companionship and I go with one and he goes with the other. When he goes though, one big difference is that he has a car and he is a really good teacher. He's kinda like the secret weapon, if someone has an interview with him it's almost 100% chance they'll get baptised.
Do they have an equivalent to Remembrance Day? That was just this past Saturday here.
I don't think so.
Do you ever think of presents you could bring your mother? You know….like a nice Mexican nativity set for her collection?! ’Tis the season!!!
I will find you a nativity set hahaha
What kind of tree? Fake but beautiful? Charlie Brown?
Fake and like a foot and half tall haha but it looks nice.
What’s with the green iPhones…I heard they were fake?!
No, they are real. President loves us.
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