We had a lot of lessons this week!

Hello Everyone, ¿Còmo estàn? I hope this week has been good for all of you guys and that you are all doing well and feeling good! This week for me was pretty good and we had a lot of lessons. First of all today was transfers and my companion Elder Benitez got transferred. He is now a zone leader in Chapala. I am still in my same area and my new companion will be Elder Arellanes. He is coming from Morelia and still hasn´t arrived so I have been spending the day with my new zone leaders Elder Mar and Elder Denton. Elder Fuentes and Elder Creason our old zone leaders both got transferred as well so that means I am the only Elder in our ward that has been in our ward. So I feel a bit weird that I am the only one that knows the members and the area so I am sure I will be teaching a lot in the next few weeks about the ward and area. I am excited to meet my new companion and get to know him and how he teaches. Our investigators are doing well. A few of the ones we found last week have decided that they do not want to listen to us which is hard, but also it is better that we can focus on those who do want to hear our message and be baptized. It has been hard because for the last few weeks we hadn´t had investigators at church but yesterday Brenda came. It made me happy to see her there! I am excited for Brenda because I think she will end up being baptized. She is the wife of a memeber and they live with his parents who are both members and we have been working a lot with them. She already knows a lot and understands really well what we teach her. The biggest challenge I think is that she is pregnant and going to have her baby in June so I don´t know if we will be able to baptize her before or will have to wait until after she has her baby, but I guess we will see! This last week we found five new investigators. The first four is a family, the Castillo´s. They are catholic and know quite a bit of the Gospel and I hope that with teaching them they are able to gain a testimony and be baptized. We have had two lessons with them and it was good to hear that he had read in the Book of Mormon. I hope that we can keep working with them and help them to be baptized. The other new investigator is a teenage boy named Christofer. He is 16 and was a refferal from other missionaries who contacted him in the street. It is hard to teach him because he has little knowledge of the Gospel and he works a lot which makes it hard to visit him. We will see how it goes with him. We have quite a few investigators and I am excited to keep working with them. I hope that we are able to help them grow in understanding and gain their own testimonies of the Gospel. The biggest challenge we have is getting them to come to church, and that is our goal this week to have many more in church! Please pray for us to find and to have investigators in church. I know that your prayers have been helping us. I just want to share my testimony that I know the work that I am doing is the work of salvation. I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the path given so that we can find true joy and happiness here in this life and for eternity. I know that this gospel is true and that it truly brings happiness and blessings! I know because I have that happiness and those blessings in my life and I am so thankful to be a missionary here helping others to receive the same happiness that I have. I love my Savior Jesus Christ and I feel a great deal of love for Him. I know that He Lives and that knowledge gives me great comfort! I hope you guys are all doing well and that you are taking care! Have a wonderful week! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

I hope you all had a wonderful week!

Hey Everyone, I hope you have all had a wonderful week this week. Our week was much better this week than in the past four and that was such a blessing for me. In the last week we were able to find four new investigators which was a great big blessing. The first was one day when we had plans to visit some possible future investigators and they rejected us. We were with a recently returned missionary, Christofer Muñoz, who has only been home for like three weeks. We were walking down the street and started talking to a lady with her two daughters. Her name is Fabiola and she let us share a message with her right then. She actually lives on our same little street. We had a good lesson with her about how the Gospel can bless families and I am excited to teach her again. I hope that she will be open to listening to us more and that she will be able to progress and be baptized. Later that same day we went and had a visit with another guy and his wife that live on our street too that we had talked to prior to that day. It was our first visit with them. Their names are Armando and Claudia. Claudia is very catholic and has strong beliefs and Armando still doesn't know a whole lot about religion so it is going to be a challenge teaching them I think. We had a good introductory visit on the Restoration and I pray that they will really search for an answer from God. I know that all those who truly seek and ask will receive and I just hope that they do so! I know that will be our biggest challenge with them, but I also know that if they do so they will become strong and faithful members that are dedicated to the gospel. We also found a young man named Jose. He lives almost at the top of the cerro (or mountain) that is in our area so it is a challenge to get to him. His family is pretty poor and they live in a house made of pallets, so I am glad that we found him because I know that the gospel will bless their lives. He is very interested in learning about the gospel and reading the Book of Mormon. He said he has many doubts about many things and he is excited to learn through reading and listening to our lessons. He is very open and said that he thinks what we share is possible and he believes what we say. I hope that he will come to gain a testimony of the gospel. His biggest challenge is his work schedule because it always changes, but hopefully we will be able to find a way to teach him and help him attend church. Our other investigators are doing okay I think. It was hard because none of them attended church yesterday so that is our biggest challenge, but many want to but were unable to because of their situations. The Vazquez family has been out of town for a week so we didn't get to teach them. Adrian had a prior commitment, but he wants to attend a lot. And Brenda didn't come but her parents-in-law who are less active did come, so we are going to continue to work with them so they can attend. Really this week was good for us because we had the opportunity to teach more and find some new people. I know that God helps us when we do our part and we definitely worked harder last week. Thank you for all of your prayers for us to find investigators and I hope you keep praying I know it helps. I just want to share my testimony with all of you that I know God is mindful of us. He loves every single one of us so much! I feel His love as I pray and ask for strength, help, and guidance. I know that He loves every single one of you and that if you will ask Him in humble prayer for anything that is right, He will give it to you. I know that sometimes we have trials and tribulations but that he is there and wants to help and support us through them all. He gives us those trials so that we can grow and become better and He never gives us anything that we cannot handle! I testify that He is our loving Heavenly Father and we are His children and that He is always mindful of us! I hope you all have a wonderful week and know how much I love you and am thankful for all of you! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

I hope this was a good week for you!

Hello Everyone, This week was a good week for me and I hope that it was a good week for all of you guys! Even though we still do not have a ton of people to teach we had a good week with some good lessons. I think that we are having what I call a drought of new investigators, but hopefully this next week we can find some new people. It is my goal that I am more obedient and I know that by doing so that we will find more people to teach. I know that the Lord is watching over us and that as we work our hardest to do everything we can that he will do everything he can to help us. This week we had the opportunity to go and teach a family that we have been teaching since I got here on my mission. One of the daughters, Lupita, is the only member and was baptized last November. She has been struggling to attend church lately and we have been visiting with them to help her to be excited about going. I really like teaching this family because the mother Gloria and father Jose are both really kind and loving people and both are very interested in the Gospel and want to be baptized. The hardest thing with them is that they aren't married and it is really difficult for them to get married because he is from El Salvador and has to have special documentation to get married but they do not have sufficient money. That is a challenge we see here a lot is that no one has enough money to get married. I really like teaching them though because Gloria is always very excited to see us and listen to us teach. I hope that one day the small seed that we are nourishing will be harvested by other missionaries. That is something that I have realized in the last few weeks with few investigators and many great big problems is that sometimes it isn't our time to harvest the field but to prepare it for the harvesters who will follow us. I am thankful for the opportunity that I have to be one who helps prepare God's children receive the nourishment they need of the Gospel and that they can eventually grow into a strong and beautiful strong tree firmly planted in the soil of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. As a missionary here in Mexico I have learned so much and I have grown so much and I know it is only thankful to the Lord Jesus Christ. I know that he is at the head of this church and that the only way to true happiness and joy is through His Atonement for every single one of us. I am so thankful for the knowledge that the Lord suffered everything that we suffered and that he has already paid for everything that we will do. It is up to us to turn unto Him, accept His will and sacrifice for us, and live the commandments of God. I promise that as we all do so we will find greater happiness and joy than we have yet known. That is my testimony that I share with you and I hope that all of you will accept Him more in your life each and every single day. I love all of you and hope you are all well! I hope you have a wonderful week! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

Thanks for your prayers!

Hey Everyone, This week was a good week for us! We still don't have a ton of investigators but we were able to find three new people to teach this week! Thanks for your prayers and please keep praying for us to find more and help those we do have! I know that your prayers truly help us every single day in our work as missionaries! I am going to tell you about these new people! The first two are a mother and her son. Their names are Teresa and Jose. Teresa is a little older in her fifties I think and her son Jose is like 24 or something like that and he is living with his mother. They are pretty interested in our message and I am excited to teach them. She has a strong belief in God and is very open to our message. Jose is a bit more analytical about our lessons and I know our challenge with him will be helping him to trust in God and to find an answer through sincere study and prayer, but I am confident that we can help him to do that! I am thankful that we found them and I am excited to teach them. Our other investigator that we found this week is a kid named Adrian who is a referral from a recent convert, Lupita. He is 18 years old and has a lot of interest in our message. It is nice because we have been able to teach him with her and help them both to learn and grow in the Gospel. I am very excited to teach him and I know that it will help him a lot. His Mom died eight years ago and I am excited to teach him the Plan of Salvation and help him to understand that we can have eternal families! Sorry this email is short I am out of time, but I want you guys to know that I love you all and am so thankful for all of your love and support! I hope you all have a great week! I am so thankful for this opportunity I have to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that God loves us and thanks to our Savior that we can return and live with Him again through his eternal plan. I am so thankful for the knowledge that through Him I have an Eternal Family and that all who come unto him and live according to his commandments too can have these blessings! I love all of you so much, Elder Mitchell J Condie