Elder Condie is returning home!

Elder Mitchell J Condie will return home from serving in the Guadalajara East Mission in Mexico November 21, 2016 He will speak in church November 27, 2016 at 9:00 a.m. in the Enoch Homestead 2nd Ward Chapel. We are very excited to welcome him back home and we are very happy for all of his accomplishments as a Missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints! Well done Elder Condie! Love your family

As a missionary I have learned many things and I am so thankful for this opportunity I have had!

Hello Everyone, Well this will be my last email to all of you in my mission. How quickly it seemed to have arrived for me. I simply want you all to know that I love you and I am extremely grateful for all that you have done for me while I have been here serving as a missionary in Mexico. I know that this is the greatest thing I could have done for myself and for my family and greatest of all for the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with the last two years of my life and I am incredibly thankful for the decision I made to come and serve as a missionary. I remember my first interview with President Camarillo and what I said to him. I said,"I want to be the best missionary I can be. I want to serve Him with all of my heart." Inspite of the difficulties throughout my mission and the trials and all of the challenges I have faced I feel I have done the best I could and I am thankful for the strength the Lord has given me! I know that without Him and His sustaining hand I could not have done half of what I have done as His servant here. As a missionary I have learned many things. I have learned to trust in His guide. To trust the Holy Ghost and the inspiration he sends. I have learned not to doubt the strength we can receive when we confide always in His divine strength. I know that as we strive to follow Him all is possible. I know more than any time before in my life now, that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the path safely home to our Heavenly Father, and the only way to true happiness and joy. I hope that all of you will too find the joy that comes from living the commandments and inviting others to come unto Christ. I have found greater joy now as a missionary than ever before. I know that only greater blessings await me throughout my life but I will forever be thankful for His blessing in letting me, allowing me, to serve Him as a full-time missionary. I will miss the days full of teaching and preaching and contacting people in the street. I will miss a full-time companion and the meetings and the interviews with President. I will miss all of the laughs and the funny times and the great joy I have experienced here, but I am so excited to return home to be once again with all of you! I love you all! Never forget that this Gospel is true and that living the commandments of God is the only way. I am so sure of it, I am not so sure of anything else. I know it will save us in His kingdom of Glory. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that He loves us and that He is our Savior and Redeemer. I know that Thomas S. Monson is our living day prophet and I know Joseph Smith was the Prophet of the Restoration. I know that the Temple is the House of God. I know that these things are true and will bless our lives if we live them! I love all of you and I hope you too know these things are true. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen. Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

It's hard to believe I only have two more weeks!

Dear Everyone, Hey I hope you are all doing well. I am doing pretty well. Only two more weeks and I will be back in Cedar City, Utah. That is such a weird feeling. That has never seemed so close my entire mission and I really never thought it was going to arrive. Many times I hoped for it to come but it never seemed like it was going to get here. Now that it is so close it seems like it isn't really true. I am excited to come home to see all of you again and I can't wait to see how much you have all grown and changed and to see you all and hug you all again. But to me it still seems as if I am a missionary like I always have been! Really here we have just been working as we always have and I feel like we have been making a lot of progress in our area. I am excited for the new people that we have found and for the progress that they have been able to make. We haven't been able to have a lot of people attend church lately and Joshua didn't attend yesterday either which means that I won't get to see him be baptized, but at least I know that I have helped find some great people that have been waiting for the Gospel of Jesus Christ in their lives. We have been focusing a lot on being more productive as missionaries lately and it has given us some good results in the zone and I feel like we have made some improvements in our efforts. I am thankful to know that when we give our part the Lord adds his. I know that the Lord redoubles our efforts in all that we do and when we strive to be better in everything that we do everyday that we can become more than we ever hoped for! I hope that you will all trust in what the Lord and Savior can make of you! He can make of you great people, strong disciples and defenders of truth. I know that He has made of me much more than what I could have ever made of my own self! I hope you will always let Him make more of your own selves! I know that He can do it! I hope you all have a great week this week and will take really great care of yourselves! Love you all a ton! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

I have a testimony of doing the little things!

Hello everyone, This week was a pretty good week for us and it went pretty crazy. We had a lot of lessons and a lot of things to do. Today we had our zone activity and it seemed like we had no time at all today. Anyway it seems like time is just flying by way too quickly for me anymore and I can't get everything done that I need too! Unfortunately, Joshua didn't come to church this week so that means his baptismal date will have to be changed. He can still be baptized while I am here if he attends the next two weeks in a row. Hopefully he will. We don't know why he couldn't come. Hopefully he will be able to continue to progress. We have a couple of other investigators that seem to be progressing little by little. Miguel Angel is Ricardo's brother and he came to church this week and seems super excited to learn more about the church. Hopefully with him we can help him to progress and learn as we work with him more and more. Really we are still just looking for more people to teach and how to help them all out in increasing their faith and coming closer to God! I spoke in church yesterday and it was pretty fun. I spoke on the importance of doing all of the little things because through the little things great things are brought to pass! I have a testiomony of doing the little things. I know that many times we forget to do the little things or we just stop doing them because of laziness, or lack of time, or lack of interest in those little things. I know that many times we feel like those little things aren't worth very much but in reality they are worth so much in our lives. We must always strive to live those little things and do them everyday so that we can be blessed and so that others can see our example of obedience. I know that the little things like prayer, scritpure study, church attendance, fasting, and temple attendance are all things that will help us come closer to the Lord and know his will for us. We should strive as much as possible to do these things. Prayer and scripture study should make up a part of our daily lives so that God can have presence with us. I know these things to be true. I love you all and I hope you can all strive to do the little things! I hope you have a great week! Take care! Love you! Happy Halloween and DIA DE MUERTOS! Love, Elder Condie

We had a good week and found some new investigators!

Hey Everyone, This week was a really good week for us. We were able to find a few new investigators and teach a lot of lessons. Our only investigator that is really progressing right now is Joshua. He attended church yesterday and has a baptismal date for November 12th. We are hoping to help him a lot towards being baptized. He is a great kid with a lot of desires to follow the Lord and do as he wishes of us. He arrived yesterday at church an hour and a half early, he is that excited about learning about the church. I love his excitement to learn. All of the others are lacking the desire to live their commitments and attend church. We are trying to help them to do so but it is a great challenge. I have learned throughout my mission the importance of keeping commitments in order to become as the Lord wishes we will become. I know that the key to becoming better is being commited to changing and living up to the promises and covenants we make to God and the Lord Jesus Christ. If we make up our mind and put our will to following Him all is possible unto us. We must just follow Him and decide to live His will in every moment. Once we take that determination nothing can stop us but our own limits that we ourselves set. I know that we can do amazing things with His divine help, but we must simply trust in His ability to make wonders of us. Of this I am sure. I am certain of His power and ability to make of us great things, wonderful things, powerful people, and strong disciples of the Lord. I love you all and hope for you a wonderful week! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

We worked hard this week to find some new investigators!

Hey Everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful week this week. I was able to have a pretty good week. Elder Hernandez and I worked pretty hard this week together looking for new investigators to teach. We were looking for the way to find people, and we just started to talk to a ton of people in the street. Honestly that has always been a really difficult thing for me to do. I don't really like just going up to whatever person, randomly and telling them that we are missionaries and would like to share a message with them. I have done it my whole mission, but I have never liked it all that much and I haven't done it very happily. This week though my companion has been helping me to get over that fear. He is pretty fearless which is good for me and I think it is just easier for him to focus on looking for others easier than it is for me. We talked to a lot of people this week, so hopefully that means that in the coming weeks as we go contacting all of those future investigators we will find some serious investigators. We were able to find a new investigator this week through a referral. His name is Miguel Jimenez. It is the father of Ricardo (our convert). We have taught him twice and he seems pretty interested in learning about the gospel. Unfortunately, he didn't attend church yesterday as he said he was going to, but hopefully in the coming week he will. He is a good guy with a desire to become better. He has had many challenges and trials in his family. His wife left him and his family for another man and many things like that and he has an addiction to alcohol. Hopefully as we work with him we can help him to build a testimony of the gospel and he can learn the importance of living the commandments in his life. Our other investigators are doing alright. With Dayana we haven't seen her for over a week and it seems she has kind of lost interest in learning about the gospel. It has been awhile since she last attended church, so we are trying to decide if we are going to continue teaching her. Joshua didn't attend church yesterday either. I am not exactly sure what is going on with him. We talked to his mom this week and invited her to listen to our message and set an appointment with her and she seemed interested and open to listening and learning from us, but then she wasn't home. We haven't been able to have a lesson with Joshua for some time now, so it is kind of a frustrating situation there too. Hopefully we can help him attend church and continue to learn because I would really love to see him be baptized before I have to come home! Anyway, overall the work is going pretty well. We have been trying to focus a lot on finding new people to teach because the majority of the people we have been teaching really haven't been progressing so there is a need to find others. We have a lot of really great prospects so I am excited. The saddest part now is that the majority of them if they do get baptized will be baptized after I come home. 🙁 Oh well at least I can say that I helped to find them and had a part in planting the seed of their conversion. I just want all of you to know that I love you that I have a testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I know that there is now other way to find true happiness now or in the future than to continue firmly on in our journey as His disciples. If we follow Him with true purpose of heart desiring always to serve Him and His children we will find joy and happiness in the journey and even in the trials and challenges. I am certain of the joy that can be found because I have found joy in my own journey. I know that these principles and doctrines are true. There is no other thing anywhere to be found that will give us greater joy. Of this I am certain. We must serve Him with all our heart, might, mind, and strength so that we might receive in Him our gift. I love all of you and I hope you are all well. Take care and have a wonderful week. Love Elder Mitchell J Condie

My week was full of spiritual and uplifting experiences and another companion change!

Hey everyone, I hope you are all doing well and that you were able to have a great week this week. My week was full of many things to do but also full of spiritual and uplifting experiences. We were able to have our zone meeting and also able to establish a new focus for the mission during the leadership council. During our leadership council we were discussing the needs of the mission and the things that are lacking in our mission with the missionaries and what could help us to improve our efforts in the work. We were looking all for things that would help the missionaries become more effective servants of the Lord and also work towards building up their abilities as effective teachers. As we were in that meeting we decided that we needed to focus a lot on Discipleship, Establishing the Church, and Teaching the Doctrine of Christ. It felt so inspired as we were looking for what would inspire the missionaries to work hard and give a greater part of themselves in this work. I am so excited to focus on these things with the missionaries in the coming months. Well my companion Elder Ramon ended his mission today. I am kind of sad because he was a super great companion for me and I am going to miss him. It was a good last week together getting to teach the missionaries in the zone meeting about the need to represent the Savior in all that we do and follow Him in every footstep. I learned so much from him and he inspired me to work harder everyday. I will definitely be missing him by my side as my companion but I know he will continue to bless many lives as he returns home. My new companion is Elder Hernandez. He is from Cancun and has 17 months in the mission. I don´t know very much about him except that he has been a zone leader already for quite awhile so I am sure I will be able to learn a lot of things from him. I am excited to see what I can learn with him and what we can accomplish together here. Right now not much is happening in the area. Our investigators didn´t come to church yesterday. Joshua couldn´t go because his mom grounded him. Kind of frustrating. But hopefully we can continue to teach him and help him prepare for baptism. We are still looking for new people to teach. I am excited to work with Elder Hernandez I am sure he will help a lot. I just want you all to know that I know that as we follow Jesus Christ in all that we do we can truly become true disciples of Him and become a light to others. We must strive to do as He did and love the way He loves. I know that as we strive to bless the lives of others our lives will be blessed and we will become closer to our Savior and our Father in Heaven as well as others that surround us. I know that as we strive to obey Him and bring others unto Him we can become truly happy and find true joy in the journey here in this life. I know that there is no greater path than the path of true discipleship and as we seek Him, we will find ourselves. I love all of you and hope you have a great week. Take care. Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

I hope you all enjoyed General Conference as much as I did!

Hello Everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful week this week. I really did. I enjoyed the weekend probably more than any other moment or part of the week. I absolutely LOVED General Conference this weekend. It was so full of inspiration and wonderful direction from the Prophet, Apostles and other General Authorities. I was so full of light and the Spirit as I listened and I loved hearing and listening to their inspired counsels. I cannot say that any one talk was my single favorite because they all seemed to have a great impact on me. I saw many themes and I loved what I felt and heard there. On Saturday I felt the theme of missionary work and the work of home teaching and the role we have in strengthening others. I also felt one of the biggest themes in the whole conference was the theme of coming closer to Christ and getting to know Him personally and on an individual basis. We must grow to know Him through fervent prayer and continued service in all that we do. I feel that it was a powerful message to us that as we strive to repent and become more like Him we can be better sons and daughters of our Heavenly Father and we can comprehend better each day the power in the Atonement of the Savior Jesus Christ. I loved every minute of the conference and especially hearing the messages from our beloved Prophet Thomas S. Monson, both in the Priesthood Session and in the Sunday Morning Session speak of the Plan of Salvation and the Word of Wisdom. This week went well for us and we were able to find a new investigator named Joshua. He is a referral from a young sister in the Primary of the ward. She is ten years old named Alison. He is thirteen, but they are good friends and one day she just decided to invite him to church and he showed up to their house on Sunday morning three weeks ago and attended church with them. He has come two weeks in a row, but we were unable to visit him because of fallen through appoinments until this last week. He has a great desire to learn of Jesus Christ and come unto Him and attend church. I am amazed by Him. He accepted a baptismal date, but because he didn't attend church this week we are going to have to change it, but I am sure he will be baptized soon. He is an awesome kid. I just want to share with you my testimony of a living prophet of God. I know that our Prophet, Thomas S. Monson, is God's Prophet here upon the Earth today and that he speaks God's word. I know that he holds the authority and keys of the Priesthood to guide and direct the Lord's church in this time and to guide us through the darkness of wicked times and perilous moments. If we will listen to a prophet's voice and give heed to his counsel we will not be lost but be guided safely through strife and pain. I know that God loves us and for this He has called prophets and apostles to guide us and direct us in Latter-Days. We must listen to and rely on their guide to be safe and to avoid danger and temptations grasp. I am sure that if we follow them we will be greatly blessed in these difficult times. I love all of you and I hope you have a great week! Take great care and know that I love all of you! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

I've learned that God's Plans for Us are Perfect even when things are hard!

Hey Everyone, Well this week was a pretty good week. We were able to teach some good lessons and have a few opportunities to learn and find ways to improve. We are still in need of new investigators and this week we talked to a lot of people in the street and we knocked on a lot of doors and we learned as many others about the hardships of missionary work as many others before us have as we didn´t find any new people to teach just yet. Hopefully of the contacts we made we will be able to find some people in the coming days to teach. We were able to learn an important lesson about not letting sad circumstances get us down and let them make us sad or give up. On Tuesday we walked all over the area and all of our plans fell through within the first hour and a half of working in our area. The family that had agreed to feed us that day weren´t home and we didn't have anything to eat, and had little money to buy food with us. We bought a torta and thankfully we felt full. But later on in the day as the hours passed and our plans kept on falling through it became harder to stay excited and positive. I was trying to remain positive and optimistic as we looked for people to visit and things to do or meaningful activities, but it was difficult. Together Elder Ramon and I became discouraged and we sat down to think about what we needed to do. I thought we need to say a prayer. And so I did. I thought of many names and so we went and looked for those people. None of them received us. The thought came to my mind, what then should we do, and why did those names come to my mind? The lesson I think to be learned from all of this and from all of our daily difficulties and trials and all of the trials of our lifes--from all unanswered questions and all unsureties of life-- is diligence and patience. I think the Lord in this moment was trying us to see if we would continue trying, continue pressing forward with faith looking for those He had waiting for us. It required a constant effort and patience in the downturns and the disappointment. It required a firm belief that if we continued trying something good was waiting for us around the next turn or down the next street or behind the next door, and if not that the next time would be different. Life always has its downfalls and its challenges, but we have to look for its uplifting moments and blessings. Eventually something good came of the efforts and we ended up having two uplifting and worthwhile lessons. One of which made us lose another appointment which we wanted to attend. A day later we realized it was a blessing that we did not arrive as there was a family problem that took place during the time in which we would have been present in that home. As I have been here on my mission I have learned many lessons and one of the greatest to me, and one He has continued and continues to teach me is that His plans are perfect. I love this scripture from Mosiah, ``Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.`` (Mosiah 4:9) I know that His plan is perfect. I know that if we trust in Him and His perfect timing all will go the way He has planned for us. If we follow Him and His commandments we can have a firm hope and belief that all will be well and all will be for our best good. Of that I am sure and of that I know. I am a witness of His great love and His merciful direction in my own life. I know at times we may feel like things aren`t going right or that everything is wrong, but according to Him and His plan all is going just fine. Trust in Him and His timing and all will be well. Of that I am sure. I hope we can all work to trust more in God and His plans that are perfect for each of us. I know we can and that as we strive to do so we will be guided and directed by Him and His Spirit. I love all of you and I hope you have a great week! Take care! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

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

I hope you are all well! We found three new investigators this week!

Hey Everyone, I hope that all of you are doing well. This week went pretty well for us. It was a good week overall and we felt a bit better together as we have started to get a bit more accustomed to each other Elder Felix and I. We were able to teach a lot of lessons and we found some new people to teach fortunately! We found three new investigators this week. Two of which I feel like are likely to progress. Two are referrals from members. One is Berenice. She is married to a member and they just moved to our ward. They are a young couple and they have and eight month old daughter. She is interested in the Gospel because her husband is a member. They have been attending in the ward where he is from, so they still haven't been to our ward services yet, so that is going to be the greatest challenge with them, but hopefully we can help them to attend with us in the coming weeks. Our other new investigator is Tania. She is the referral of another sister of our ward. On Friday as we arrived to our lunch appoinment she was there to eat with us and we taught her the first missionary lesson and invited her to church on Sunday. She told us that she is Catholic, but that she has many questions and after having listened to our lesson on the Restoration of the Gospel she had even more questions for us. She is young and also has a newly born baby girl. They came to church yesterday but didn't make it to Sacrament Meeting and we will be seeing her again on Friday in our other lunch appointment. Beatriz is still doing pretty well. She will not be baptized this Saturday like we had first planned on baptizing her for two reasons. Yesterday they didn't come to church because she was really sick and couldn't get out of bed, we went to visit her afterwards and she didn't look very good. She was worried because two years ago she got hit by a car and had a bad accident and it almost paralyzed her and she felt like this may have been related because for like three days she didn't feel good and her back has been hurting her. But she said she had started to feel better by the time we went to see her last night. Therefore, she still needs another attendance in church to be baptized. The second reason she doesn't want to be baptized yet is because she feels she needs to forgive a couple of people before she is baptized that is costing her a bit of work to do so. We taught her that she can do it with the help of the Lord and that if she prays for her enemies and asks for the Lord's help to love them then he will help her. She accepted the challenge to be baptized on the 13th of August, so hopefully she will be! Please pray for her and her son Jose!! We are praying hard! Overall it was a really good week and we were able to teach a lot of lessons and have a lot of fun! Elder Felix is a good missionary and he is a pretty good guy. I have learned a lot with him already and I am just trying to learn as much from him as I can. I think that is the good thing of having lots of companions, is the opportunity to learn from many different people. I know that this Gospel is true and I know that this is the Church of Jesus Christ here upon the Earth. I am certain that as we live the commandments of God we can experience greater happiness than in any other way. I am certain that as President Thomas S. Monson has said that, "Decisions determine destiny," and as we make righteous choices we will be blessed with happiness and prosperity. I have felt greater happiness here as I have been in the service of God than in any other moment in my life and I know that as we lose ourselves in the service of others we will be blessed forever! I love each and every one of you and I hope you have a great week! Take care! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

We had some good lessons this week with our investigators!

Hey everyone, I hope that all of you have had a wonderful week and that you are all well. I have had a pretty good week this week. It was hard getting adjusted to leading the area with a new companion and I still missed Elder Cruz a bit, but I am getting slowly adjusted to my new companion Elder Felix and I enjoyed our time together. We had some great lessons this week and I was able to feel strongly the Spirit this week. It felt weird guiding the area alone this week. It was the first time I have guided and area alone in six months so it took some getting used to once again. I was hoping that I wouldn't have to do that again for a long time as I had hoped that Elder Cruz would be my companion longer, but this week was the trial as I was forced to do it with the transfer. I guess I did a pretty good job because we didn't get lost and we were able to make it to our scheduled appointments. I think I have been blessed to be able to learn the areas quickly it just is kind of challenging because my companion doesn't know much and is still quite disoriented here. Hopefully quickly he will learn and it will become easier. Elder Felix is a good missionary and I think it will be fun for us to be here together. I know that he will become a good companion for me, it has just been hard accepting the unexpected change. He has six months in the mission, but he is already a pretty good teacher and I have enjoyed learning to teach with him. He is from Tabasco, in southern Mexico. He is a serious person, but can be pretty fun when he wants to. I am excited to get to know him better. This week we had some good lessons. The best lessons were with Beatriz. We taught her twice. The first time we focused a lot on the need for her to pray and ask God if she should be baptized so that she can make the decision to be baptized. She told us she wants to and is convinced that she will do it, but just not sure of how soon. We also had another lesson on the Plan of Salvation that was super powerful and she was super overcome when we talked about the fact that we can have eternal families and as we receive the ordinances of the Temple that we can be saved in the Celestial Kingdom. She loved hearing that and told us that she has felt that since we have been visiting and teaching her that she feels "full" whereas before she never felt the same way. It has been really cool teaching her and to top it all off yesterday in Gospel Principles we learned about Baptism and she talked to us after and told us that she knows she needs to be baptized she just needs to decide when. Hopefully we can help her to be baptized soon. We were finally able to find Jaime again this week and finish lesson one on the Restoration with him. We were able to explain it to him and help him to understand that there is a living prophet here on earth and to also understand the need of the Book of Mormon. It was a good lesson. He also came to church yesterday, so hopefully we can continue to visit with and help him to learn about the church and progress towards being baptized. Overall it was a good week. I just want to share my testimony of the importance of obeying God's commandments and living his laws. I know that really our happiness here in this life and our eternal happiness depends on our obedience and our decisions here and now. Of all the things we can teach and learn in the Gospel I think this is probably the most important principle of all. Obedience is key to our success. If we choose to do what is right we will never go wrong. If we live righteously we will have what God knows is best for us and He will continually bless our lives. I know He lives and that He loves us. He has given us commandments for our good and if we will live them we will be happy! As President Monson says, "Decisions determine destiny," so let us make wise decisions always. I love each and every one of you! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Take great care! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

I'm sad that Elder Cruz got transferred because he was a great companion!!

Hey everyone, I hope that you are all well and that you have all had a great week. This week for us went well and we had lots of fun, but was a trial for me at the end. My companion Elder Cruz got transferred and I am sad because he has been a really great companion for me and I didn't want him to leave. That was probably the hardest transfer I have yet faced in the mission. We were only together for one transfer but we became really great friends and I feel that I was able to learn many things from him in the short six weeks that we spent together. I could tell that it was also a really hard transfer for him. He only had two transfers here in the ward and I could see that he did not want to leave yet and he really struggled as he left today. I really hope that we can serve again together, but I know that if that is not possible that it is because we learned what we needed to learn together. He was just a great companion for me who taught me to love openly and serve with my whole heart and I am going to miss him a lot. I still wish he was here with me, but I think what I have to learn about this is that it not so important what I want or my will, but the will of the Lord and what He wants and what He knows is best for each and every single one of us as His Children. With Elder Cruz we were able to work hard together in this area and find lots of people to teach and strengthen many others. I could see that he truly loves and loved the people here and I hope that I can develop that same love for all of those that we teach and serve here. Our investigators are doing well. Beatriz and her son Jose are still progressing well towards baptism on their date of August 6th. They have attended church every Sunday since the day we found them and I am super excited to work with them. They are pretty much the only investigators that are showing an active progress. They have a great desire to learn and to do what God would have them do and I am so thankful to have received their referral. Hopefully we can continue to help them to learn and to grow. My new companion is Elder Felix he is from Villahermosa, Tabasco, México. He has six months in the mission. He seems like he is super excited to work hard and help the members to be involved in the work and I hope that together we can hasten the work here in our area! I am thankful to have him and I hope that together we can become great friends and do a great work to build the faith of the ward and the people we serve. I know that sometimes life throws at us trials and challenges. Things that we do not want or expect or wait for. Things that we wish wouldn't happen or have happened. Things that we cannot control or cannot change. It is in those moments that we can decide to give up or to be stronger. I feel like I am in one of those moments in my mission and as hard as it is, I have to be stronger. The Lord doesn't ever give us any trial too big or too strong to overcome. He gives us things to make us stronger and to help us grow! I know that if we trust in Him and do what is His will for us we can become better than we ever were before! I know that change is hard, trial is hard, and that as we trust in Him all is easier. We can do hard things. We can do all things. "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me" (Philippians 4:13). I love you all and hope that you have a great week! Take care! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

The work is going well! I have a testimony of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon!

Hey everyone, I hope that you are all doing well and that you have all had a wonderful week this week. Our week this last week went pretty well. We were quite occupied as always with many different activities. On Monday we had interviews with President Egginton so we didn't have P-day until Tuesday. On Tuesday we had a big zone activity and we had lots of fun playing soccer, basketball, steal the flag, having a water fight, and eating pizza. Saturday we had Zone Meeting and it was super awesome and it was super inspiring and I am just excited to work and help others to come unto Christ. Really the work is going well. Our investigators are doing alright. We have quite a few but not many are really progressing much. We haven't seen Jaime now for two weeks. It has been really difficult to find time to visit him and the times when we have had appointments set with him he has not showed up. He hasn't been to church since the first Sunday that he came, so we really don't know what is going on with him. Hopefully this week we can locate him and see what is up because I really would like to find him and help him as he showed a sincere interest in leaving behind his addiction and drawing nearer to God. Beatriz is doing really well. She has shown a great interest in the Gospel and I feel like she is progressing really well. She and all of her four children came to church again yesterday. We were only able to visit her one time this week in her house because of lots of craziness with our schedule, but we had a really good lesson with her and she asked us a lot of really good questions. Many of which are focused on lessons that we teach as missionaries and doctrine of the church. I can tell that she has a true desire to follow the Savior and do what he desires of us and she just wants to receive His help to be a better mother (she is a single mother). Her oldest son is 13, his name is Jose, then after that she has a 7 year old daughter and a son and a daughter that are about 5 and 3 years old. I know that the Gospel will be a huge blessing in her life. It was a huge testimony builder to me to see her in church yesterday too because on Saturday when we saw her she had told us that she wasn't sure if she was going to be able to go to church because she didn't have money for the bus, but I can tell that she made an effort to get the money and she was there early on Sunday morning and stayed the whole time. Anyway I know that this work is the work of the Lord and that in His timing and in His way all things work out and work together for the good of all men. I want to testify of the truthfulness as well of the Book of Mormon. I finished it once again this morning and I am certain that it is a true book of scripture. I know that it is divine, it is of God. I know that it was translated by Joseph Smith a Prophet of the True and Living God. I know that it is true becasue I have read it and prayed to know of its truthfulness by the power of the Holy Ghost. As I have lived the things that the Book of Mormon teaches I have experienced a greater change of heart than in any other way. I know without a shadow of a doubt that it is a true book and that it combined with the Holy Bible contains the fulness of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am so excited to read it once again in the next three months as our mission president has challenged us to do and I look forward to the things that I am sure I will learn and the new changes it will cause in my life! It is a very special and important book. I know that all of you can know that it is a true book as well if you will read it, meditate the message it contains, and ask of God in Jesus' name if it is true. If you will do that I am sure that you will receive an answer through the power of the Holy Ghost that it is true. I love each and everyone of you and I hope you are all well! I hope you have a wonderful week and take great care! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie