Week #62

Dear all,

Yesterday was district conference and Presidente Cardenas arrived! I knew what that meant.... my packages! My loving mother had told she sent packages but i had no idea i was going to receive 7!  and of course letters. I got an electric razor, umbrella, food, and christmas presents! we opened all the christmas presents last night eventhough my mom told me not too........ just kidding mom. dont worry im being good and waiting. However i´m seeing a potential problem. If there are transfers next week i really dont know how im going to haul them all to my next area. ive been here a long time and i hope He leaves me at least one more transfer so i can have Christmas in Tapana!  In a letter a got from Kendra, she told me that my friends Cameron & Troy that went to Poland are now companions.... i´m going to slap them for being companions when i get back to BYU. haha. 

We are working hard and have found a few very interested people. If they progress I´ll tell you more about them but im really excited and hope they make it to church. It´s very rare to find to people living together, married, that don´t drink. Also...... one of their kids is a runner. Runner?! ya that confused me too. i didnt know people ran down here. But apparently so. Pray for us to teach with more convincing power so that people can obtain eternal joy with our Heavenly Father some day!

Thanks for all the prayers and support,

Elder Leslie

Week #61

Hello all,

We had a busy week! Raquel and Inoel got baptized on Thursday by Elder Day and I and we had a powerful conference with Elder Tenorio. Our zone (Chahuites) and the zone from Arriaga had to travel friday evening and stay the night in Tuxtla. Our zone stayed the night in the mission offices and ordered delicious Dominos pizza. I dont think iven eaten pizza in like 8 months. Yum.  Elder Tenorio is very inteligent and was full of great stories and examples. I left very edified and excited to work. We are going to try to be more specific with the people we teach to help them with their needs and doubts. He also taught else how to say more especific prayers to get more especific anwswers using an example from Genesis 24 when Isaac was looking for a wife.  

Right now we don´t have anyone preparing for baptism, but we are going to keep praying and searching. 

Thanks for all your prayers and hope all is well up there. 

Week #60

Dear Everyone,

Well I´m pretty excited that we finally cleaned up the bedroom the last P-day and put up our new curtain with the aid of Chilo. The room is organized way better, clean, and we dont have to put old mattresses up in the window anymore. :-) It was because our room is right in front of the streetlight and a lot of light enters in at night. So now, instead of old mattresses, we have a curtain that a sister (Rosaurora) gave us. It´s green in a blue room so when the light hits during the day it gives the room a nice oceany feel. And I feel greater measure of happiness from the spirit in a cleaner better organized room too! 

This week we are excited to be having a baptism for Inoel and most likely Raquel. Raquel´s mom still isn´t sure but we´ll see what she says tonight. Isabel still is going to hold off because the boyfriend of her mom (cant call him husband) doesn´t want her to. She wants to and her mom does too, but this guy is just causing problems. He´s 23 and her mom is 32. I dont understand why they are together because this guy says he doesn´t want to get married. If you aren´t going to marry Veronica and are just going to cause problems then get out and let these wonderful people follow christ! That´s how i feel about it. 

We visited Yesenia Friday night and she told us that she prayed to know if she should get baptized. She said she didn´t feel anything extraordinary. But after a feel questions we found out that, yes, the spirit was giving an answer. She said she felt peaceful just like at church so we ended teaching a lesson on how to recognize feelings of the spirit. It takes practice just like everything else in life. Also, we told her to let the seed of faith grow in her and be patient (Alma 32). sometimes we want our seed of faith to be a tree in an instant. but that´s not how life works. Life is growing. 

We go forward with faith and are excited for a conference in Tuxtla with Elder Octavio Tenorio this saturday.

Elder Leslie

Week #59

Hello everybody,

This week we worked with some less active members and it payed off! :-) A couple families made it to church yesterday and we had a pretty high attendance of 56! wow. I hope we can keep that number rising. One of the kids of the less active family hasn´t been baptized yet and he´s 9..... so we invited him to baptism and he gladly accepted. Right now we have 3 people getting ready for the 27th and this week we have high hopes to find more. A family we have been working with finally made it to church for the first time yesterday so we will invite them to baptism again tomorrow. The parents, Fernando and Yesenia, seemed to like it and they alread know the branch president so that´s a plus. 

Don´t have much to say and never been one for a whole lot of words. But, just know that as i maintain myself pure and put myself to work I feel the Holy Spirit putting itself self to work through me. My only desire is to do the Lord´s will. 

Sincerely,

Elder Leslie

Week #58

Hello everyone,

I´m doing real great here in Tapana with my Utahan companion, Elder Day! Right now we have a few great people that we are teaching and I really hope the continue in the path unto Christ. And of course I want them to all get baptized so that they can enter the gate at the beginning of this path. Sunday morning during sacrament meeting I was sitting there really nervous and looking out the window about every twenty seconds waitng for a whole bunch of people to show up. There were about ten who all said they were going to make it so I waiting so anxiously and full of hope. Just when I thought my hope meter was about to hit ``Empty´´ I lady named Veronica and her 4 little kids and a couple nephews showed up! about twenty-five minutes late but they all made! Wow I was filled with joy and renewed hope that ``Yes, it really is possible that people do what they told us they were going to!´´ Thanks to this lady and her little kids, I approach this week with new energy and faith that we will find God´s children who are prepared and will to complete their commitments. 

 I really am actually enjoying my time here and I have made some great friends with the members, investigators, and my companion. :-) We are still working well with our branch mission leader, Gabriel, and the sisters of the ward take care of us. I know my Heavenly Father is real and loves me more than I could ever know. Prayer works. Do it. 

Your friend,

Elder Leslie

Week #56

Hey, 

We´re doing well and working hard. This week is was ridiculously hot and humid and we are doing are best to just deal with it. Right now we are teaching someone named Ana Karen (11), her mom, and her little sister Raquel (8). Ana Karen just started going to church with her member friend Domili but still isn´t sure and wants time to think about baptism. I actually like the fact that she´s not sure and is sincerely thinking about it, because here we have a problem with people accepting baptismal dates then doing nothing toward actually getting baptized. Honestly, I would say about 80% of the people we invite to baptism accept and of the 80% like 10-20% actually get baptized. I know that with this new week we can find some people with sincere desires to come unto Christ. 

Elder Leslie

Week #57

To Whom This May Concern:

Well, I really enjoyed going to all the sessions of conference this weekend. Wow, I think that was the fasted time has ever passed while watching conference. My favorite talk was, of course, Elder Holland´s during the priesthood session. Also, there was another one from someone named ``Ardern´´ (i think) that was really great on time management. Overall, it was great and I felt a wonderful strengthening spirit. Only downside was having to sleep on the floor at the zoneleaders house in Chahuites because the Priesthood session got done at 9pm (not giving us time to head back to Tapana). I just told myself, sleeping on the floor is all part of the wonderful mission experience! :-) haha. 

Today, we went to Arriaga to buy a couple things and met a group of people from England and Florida. I guess they were all there for a wedding of some a girl from mexico between the groom from England. It was a strange and unnusual experience to talk to people in english. Haven´t done that in a long time and to top it off, english from england. wow, never thought i´d do that in Mexico. One of the Englishmen was really funny and said that they need the missionaries a lot more in england than in mexico because they are all a bunch atheists up there. haha 

We are working hard together and depending on the Lord for strength. I know that we are going to have a lot of great experiences in this next transfer together because we get along really well and are both willing to do the will of Our Heavenly Father. 

Regards,
Elder Leslie

photos next week.