I have learned a lot as a Zone Leader and I have a great companion who helps me!

Hello Everyone, I hope you all have had a good week this week. I was able to have a pretty good week this week. Although it is somewhat of a challenge getting everything done that we have to get done done I feel like finally we have been able to focus a bit more on our area. Finally we don't have so many meetings to worry about and we can focus just a bit more on the people we are teaching, at least for one more week. I think that is one of the challenges of being a leader is trying to learn to balance and juggle everything that we have to do. It can be quite difficult at times. This week we were able to teach a few investigators, but one of our biggest challenges that we now have is that there really aren't many investigators to teach in our area that are progressing. We need to find more still. We have been knocking a few doors here and there and trying to contact people in the street and work with members to find more, but we are still struggling to find. I think it is one of the greatest challenges I have faced in my whole mission. The only two investigators that we have that are kind of progressing didn't go to church and one of them we haven't been able to see so we are not sure what exactly happened with her, Dayana. Hopefully it was just something small and we can still help her to progress towards being baptized. Our other investigator that seems to be able to progress is named Ramona. She has been investigating the church for four years and has finally made the decision that she wants to be baptized, but is facing many challenges and trials which is costing her a lot of work to keep up her excitement and efforts to continue progressing in the Gospel. I think we had a good lesson with her yesterday teaching her that the opposition in all things only makes us stronger and helps us to learn and grow. Hopefully she will be able to see that these trials are to help her and only a test of her faith. We were also able to have exchanges with the elders in Industrial. I went to Industrial with Elder Tzub and it was a good opportunity for me to see some of the people that I came to love there. We were able to visit Hna. Araceli our investigator from Juanacatlan and her family and we invited them to be baptized and all of the kids asked me if I would baptize them. Haha. I told them that maybe I could if their Mom would give them permission and if they prepared themselves well. I hope that they can really prepare well for their baptism. I was excited to get to see them again and they seemed pretty excited to see me. That was a fun and happy experience this week. Overall I have learned a lot as a Zone Leader. I love having a companion to support me in the responsibilities we have. It is so much easier to face all of the challenges we have to face as we do so together. As a District Leader I felt many times very alone without the help I so much desired or needed. With a companion to help distribute the load it makes the weight of leadership much easier to take and to support. I am so thankful for a loving and supporting companion like Elder Ramon that understands his role and responsibility as a Zone Leader and as a missionary of the Lord and has taught me my responsibilities and roles as a leader and has given me a good example to follow. Really it makes my job much easier as we have someone good to lead and to follow. I have a testimony of the power of two and the power of working together. As a missionary I have learned that life is never meant to be lived alone. We have companions for a reason. They are here to love and support and teach and help and guide us. I am thankful for the lesson. I have learned through many experiences the importance of companionship. The Lord didn't send us here to suffer, but he especially didn't send us here to suffer alone. He has given us a great system of support, even as missionaries. We just have to learn to support ourselves in them. As we look for the help and support of others we can find great relief and succor. I know that the Lord loves us. I truly do, I believe it and I know it with my whole heart, I have felt His love and I have received His love in so many ways through so many others. He many times sends us special people to touch our lives and lift us up when we are down. I have a testimony that the Lord has touched my life through others and I only hope that I have been able to help the Lord to touch the life of others through me. I love all of you and I hope you all have a wonderful week! Take care. I love you all! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

We had a super busy week full of meetings full of many inspired messages.

Hey everyone, This week was a super crazy busy week for us. We had a lot of meetings. On Wednesday we had Leadership Council, then on Thursday we got together with the District Leaders to plan our Zone Meeting, then on Friday we had our Zone Meeting in the morning with another meeting in the afternoon with all of the Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders from the Guadalajara Zones in our mission to plan our Zone Conference (that will be combined between the three Guadalajara zones) for Tuesday. It was quite the occupied and busy week but full of many inspired messages and moments and I was very satisfied with the instructions we were able to give to the missionaries! We only have one investigator who is progressing right now who is named, Dayana. She is a referral from a less active member. She attended church for the first time yesterday and a baptism for the sister missionaries in our ward on Saturday. She is seventeen years old and is the girlfriend of the member who gave us the referral. She is quite interested in our message and accepted a baptismal date on the 16th of October. Hopefully she will be able to continue to learn of the Gospel and come to have a testimony of the truthfulness of our message as she listens to our messages and strives to live the commitments we leave for her. The only thing that seems like may become a challenge is that her parents do not seem to be very happy with the idea of her listening to our message and going to church, so we are going to look for a way to speak with them and help them to understand that it is something that will allow her to come closer to God and be a better person. Truly I have a testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ not just because I have prayed and asked God of its truthfulness, although I have done so and He has answered my prayers, but also moreso because of the changes the Gospel has wrought in me and my life. As we live the Gospel in its fullness and strive to heed the counsels of our Father in Heaven given to us through the Prophets we can change our lives and the lives of many others. The Gospel has made me a better person and made me the person I am today. I know I am not perfect but I also know that without the knowledge that I have of our Savior Jesus Christ I would be a lot further from the happiness I have experienced in my life thanks to my obedience to the commandments of the Lord. I know that as we strive to follow Him we can change our lives and become better and we should all try to do so day by day. I love each of you! Take care and have a great week! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

We had an awesome week and we had a baptism!

Hey Everyone, This week was a super awesome week for us. Wow there were so many things that happened that I can't even describe! Wow it was so cool. We had a baptism that was quite a trial. His name is Ricardo and he has been listening to the missionaries for quite some time. His baptism was scheduled for Saturday and he didn't pass his regular interview on Saturday because he in the past had had problems related with drugs and other things, but he had a special interview with one of President Egginton's Counselors on Friday and passed it so that night we went to have his father sign the baptism record so he could be baptized and he didn't want to. We were scared that he wasn't going to give his permission and we planned to visit him on Saturday morning to talk to his dad about it. On Saturday we talked to his dad and he said that if that is what he really wanted to do he was going to support him and then he turned to Ricardo and asked him if he didn't want to wait. In that moment Ricardo turned to us and told us he wanted to wait. It was kind of sad but we told him that was alright and we headed to visit some other people. We hadn't walked more than four blocks when he ran after us and told us that he had changed his mind and wanted to be baptized that day. The service was amazing and super spiritual and I felt incredibly blessed to have been a part of it even though I have only known him for a short time! I could see that the Lord truly does work in miraculous ways in peoples' lives. Really I know that the Lord has a plan for all of us and that He still works Miracles for us in our lives! I hope you all know that I know that He lives and that His Gospel is perfect. I know that as we choose to follow Him and not wait we can be incredibly blessed in all we do in every way! I love Him and I am thankful for His Gospel and Church on the Earth! I love all of you and I hope you have a great week take care! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

I got transferred to the same Zone and became a Zone Leader!

Hey Everyone, How are you all doing? I hope you are all doing well. Well I am doing well. This last week was a pretty good week. This weekend was pretty crazy and today has been a stressful day with Transfers but I am in my new area safe and sound. I was transferred super far away from my last area SO FAR AWAY that I am in the same zone, haha. I am now a Zone Leader, and I will end my mission here I am almost one hundred percent certain because my companion ends this transfer and I end the transfer following him. Honestly I am excited about the transfer and I am happy about it. I know it will be a great learning experience and it was probably the easiest transfer of my mission just knowing that I am close to all of those I grew to love in Industrial, including my companion Elder Felix. My new companion is Elder Ramon. He is also from Villahermosa (vi-ya-err-mo-sa), Tabasco, like Elder Felix. He is a super cool kid. I have known him for quite a long time throughout the mission and I am excited to have him as my companion to teach me and help me to be a Zone Leader. He has only one transfer as a Zone Leader so I am sure we both feel new at this and will learn a lot together but I know that it will be a great experience for the both of us. He will be a great teacher for me I am sure! I honestly feel prepared to be a Zone Leader and I am excited to fill the position that President Egginton and more importantly the Lord has entrusted me with. I know that I will have to love the missionaries and get to know the missionaries even more and be a greater example to and for them in everything I do. I am excited and anxiously wait to learn all that He has prepared for me in this assignment. Other than that all of the people that we have been teaching and preparing in Industrial continue to learn and progress towards their commitments in the Gospel. I am very excited that I am close to be able to hopefully see their progress still and hear how they are doing. It made it easier to say not goodbye, but, I will see you soon to those I love so much there. Really I learned a lot in such a short time there in that ward. On Saturday I had an awesome opportunity with other Stake, Ward, and Missionary Leaders to attend a special leadership training in Guadalajara with Elder Chavez of the Fourth Quorum of the Seventy in a Training on Missionary Work focused on working with Members and Missionaries together. That has been a great focus in our mission and is a great need here in Guadalajara. It was an inspired meeting inviting and impulsing all Members and also us Missionaries to work in greater unity together to achieve the Lords greater purposes. It scared me because I raised my hand to make a comment towards the end and the Seventy invited me to the pulpit to share my testimony of working in unity and I want to share with all of you that same testimony but a little shorter here. I know that if we work in Unity members and missionaries to acheive the Lords great and eternal purposes all is possible with His help. We as missionaries are here to help all members to bring to pass missionary work in your wards and stakes and we cannot, members nor missionaries, do it alone. We all require the help of others, and we all, both missionaries and members, need the eternal and infinate help of the Savior and of our Heavenly Father in preaching to others and inviting others to come to a knowledge of the truthfulness of the everlasting Gospel. This is the truth and there is no other truth upon this Earth. Many are prepared, but if we do not search for them, who will? We must do it. Please do it. I know you can. I know we can do it together. And I know if we strive to do it together the Lord will strengthen us and double our efforts. Of this I testify. In His Holy Name, The Lord Jesus Christ, Amen. I love each and every one of you and I hope you all search the opportunities each day to share! I hope you take care of yourselves and your brothers and sisters! I hope your week is fruitful and wonderful! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

My mission is flying by way too quickly!!

Hey everyone, This week was a pretty good week for me! I hope it went well for all of you too! It seems like the weeks just go by faster and faster each time and that I never have time to get anything done in the meantime. Well overall it just seems that my mission is flying by way to quickly and I don't like it. I only have three more months left and I really hope that it doesn't fly by nearly as quickly as it has been. Transfers are next week and I am pretty certain that I will be transferred. I have no idea to what area I will be transferred, but hopefully it will be a good area and I will have a great companion. This week went well and overall we were able to focus pretty well on our area. We had exchanges with the zone leaders so that still complicated things a little tiny bit, but we at least had a bit more time to focus on the people here. We were finally able to have a formal lesson with Hna. Araceli and her family. The people that arrived to the baptism of Hna. Beatriz and to church last Sunday. Araceli lives with her boyfriend, Gonzalo, (she is separated from her husband and the father of her children) and has six children. Her kids are, Brenda (18), Remegio (17), Omar (15), Marizta (12), Brezait (10), and Cynthia (8). They are all quite interested in learning about the Gospel and they are all at the age to be baptized. It would be such a miracle if they all decided to be and were baptized together! I feel like it has been such a tender mercy of the Lord to find them! I hope that they can progress together and that they can all be blessed by the Gospel. Our only other investigator that is really progressing is Jose Vazquez, Beatriz's son. He told us that he does want to be baptized and he had a baptismal date, but he told us that he isn't sure about that date. We are going to visit him this week and talk a bit more about a date a bit further in the future and help him to prepare himself for that date. He really has a desire to learn and to be baptized we just have to help him to live the commandments and do what he is necessary to be completely ready. He still hasn't received all of the lessons so I know that as he learns more he will feel more ready too. More than anything I am thankful to have this opportunity to be an instrument in the hands of the Lord. I know that as we let Him use us to bless the lives of others we can truly become tools in His hands. I know that He has blessed the lives of many other people through me and for that I am so grateful. I know that we must be meek, humble, and have charity towards all others that He may work through us. I know that as we strive to be more like Him and see others as He sees them that we can be a blessing to many others! I am so thankful for this opportunity I have been given to serve and bless the lives of many of God's children here. As I have done it many of His children have blessed my life. I love all of you and I hope you have a wonderful week full of joy and happiness! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

We had a baptism!! Yea!!

Hey Everyone, I hope that all of you have been doing well. This week went really well for us. It was full of many more adventures and a lovely experience! We had a baptism!!!! YAY!!!! Hna. Beatriz was baptized and it was super beautiful. She asked me to baptize her and I was very happy to do so. She was super prepared and a very choice investigator. She was only baptized a week later than her first planned baptismal date because she was sick one Sunday and was unable to attend church. She has learned and progressed so quickly and I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to teach and help her progress towards this huge step in her eternal progression. Really It was such a special experience and the Spirit was so strong. Yesterday she told us after church as we went to her house to visit her that Jose her son had told her that he wished he had prepared himself to be baptized with her and that he wants to be baptized. We don't know how soon but I hope that in not a long amount of time he will follow the example of his mother and be baptized too! She also told us that as Elder Felix confirmed her a member of the Church and after he said the words "Recibe el Espíritu Santo" that she felt a very warm feeling flood all over her whole body and she couldn't hear the words that he said following that for a minute as she felt a strong peace and tranquility. It was very neat hearing her tell us and the Barragan Family (the family that has helped us the whole process of teaching her) and the Spirit was palpable in the room. Really she is such a special daughter of our Heavenly Father and I have grown to love her very dearly in a short time. Really I am so grateful that we had the opportunity to help her to come to the knowledge of the truth and that God trusted her in our hands. The coolest other thing that happened this week was that a future investigator talked to us the other day while we were in the store trying to find umbrellas because it was raining and there wasn't any, but a lady came up to us and told us she wanted to listen to our message and get to know the church. Her name is Araceli. We invited her to the baptism and to church on Sunday and took her information to visit her another day. As we were preparing the baptism, she arrived with her four children and we were completely taken by surprise because that never happens. Hna. Beatriz was also super happy to see that new people arrived to her baptism. Then yesterday at church Araceli came and she brought her kids and her sister and her whole family. That meant that in all they were eight new people at church. In all there were twelve investigators in Sacrament Meeting yesterday from our area (not including the Sister's). That is more than I have ever had in my entire mission. It was a miracle and we are going to visit them this week and hopefully they can all progress in the Gospel as well! Overall this week I saw many miracles. I have learned in my time as a missionary that sometimes the Lord works in mysterious ways and sometimes not so much, but in all times He blesses us if we live worthy of His abundant blessings. He prepares people to receive His Gospel and those that are ready to receive it will do so. I am thankful to have been given the opportunity to teach and preach of this great gospel news to the good people of Guadalajara. It has been the biggest blessing of my life. Really I know that the Lord lives. I know that He provides the way for us all to come unto Him and to be saved from sin and sorrow if we repent and rely on His Atoning Sacrifice. I love all of you and I am thankful for all of your love and support and sacrifices for me! Take care and have a wonderful week! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

We had a very full and busy week with a great opportunity to learn new leadership skills!

Hey Everyone, I hope you all had a very special week this week. Our week was a good one. A very occupied and busy and tired one. We had few lessons because every single day of the week except for last Monday and yesterday we had to go to Guadalajara for one reason or another. Everyday was full of traveling and very early mornings and late nights and I am therefore exhausted, but it was all worth it because I felt the Spirit very strongly on many occasions and I felt very uplifted, edified, and instructed by the Lord in this past week and I learned many things. On Wednesday I was invited by President Egginton to attend Leadership Counsel, a meeting of Zone Leaders and Sister Training Leaders of the entire mission to asses the state and needs of the mission and address ways to further the work and improve our efforts. He talked to me as I was there and I now feel as if I will not be continuing in Industrial in the coming transfer in three weeks time. It was a great opportunity for me to learn new leadership skills and see the real worry President and us as missionary leaders feel for the mission, missionaries and those we teach here. I learned a lot and I felt a great responsibility to improve my abilities to teach and lead those under my stewardship. On Thursday we went to the see the Doctor as we have bed bugs and luckily we don't have any parasite or anything. We are going to fumigate our house and receive new mattresses as soon as possible, but we have been so busy that we still haven't done it yet. Hopefully this week! On Friday we participated as all the missionaries in our mission in the Guadalajara Area in a Youth Conference activity in teaching young men and women, future missionaries how to teach in a real situation looking for less active members and contacting people in the street. It was a fun activity and there I was able to see many young members of my first ward here in Guadalajara Buenos Aires. On Saturday morning we woke up at 3:45 AM and were on the bus by 4:30 AM so we could attend the temple in the 6:30 session. It was a beautiful experience for me. I love attending the temple and I was in need of a visit to the Lord's Holy House. I feel His great love for me there every time I go. As they were praying I thought of how my Mom told me that Grandma Lynda had called and had my name put on the temple list and in the prayer I thought of how they were praying especially for me. I felt the Spirit give me strength to work hard and to continue to seek His guidance and direction for the challenges in our areas. We have been facing a great challenge with Beatriz as we have been teaching her trying to help her to make the decision to be baptized. I was looking for inspiration and guidance in how to help her to make the choice to be baptized on her date. We had visited her during the week and she seemed as if she was unsure and not ready to accept the date with confidence, but that same Saturday as we taught her it rained on us outside of her door. We ended the lesson early and were going to leave, but I felt the need to ask her how she felt about her baptismal date. She said she had finally arrived at the decision that she wanted to do it. That she didn't understand why she was waiting. It was something she understands is correct and she is wants to do. She told us that day that she wanted to be baptized this coming Saturday and it changed everything. From that moment we have been running like crazy trying to finish teaching her the lessons and organize everything necessary so she can be baptized, but thankfully today we will finish the lessons and this Saturday she will be baptized, although her son will not be baptized with her I am confident that soon he will decide to follow her example. I know that the Lord has a way of changing our hearts and the hearts of others and I know He can work mighty miracles. I know that He has not ceased working miracles because I have seen His miracles every day of my mission. I know that His power is real and that His power is matchless. I know with all of my heart that we are nothing without Him and without His Spirit. I know that without His Spirit we can do nothing in the way of converting and helping others come unto the truthfulness of the Gospel. I know that these things are true with my whole heart and I know that if we obey we will be blessed in all things! I know our faith is essential in working His miracles and we manifest our faith through our obedience to Him. I love all of you and I hope you have a great week! Take care and know that I miss you all and think of you often! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie