I can see the hand of the Lord in my life as a missionary!

Hey Everyone, I hope this email finds you all happy and well (even if it means you are a bit cold from the fresh snow!) I had a really good week last week. I can definitely see the hand of the Lord in my life as a missionary and how He is constantly blessing each one of us. This week was the first week for Elder Muñoa and I together. It went pretty well for us. He is a good kid and I can see a lot of potential in him to be a great missionary. I know that I have been blessed to be able to train him and to be able to share what little knowledge I have about Missionary Work. I am excited to see how much he grows in the coming weeks and months together. I have already seen him share some very great thoughts during our lessons. Our job now is to just strengthen his teaching skills and his knowledge of the basic principles of the lessons! We had some really great blessings in our work this week. We found 8 new investigators. I am super excited to teach them. The first two are Hermila Arroyo and her husband. She was a referral that we received through the self-reliance program. I could tell that she has a desire to find peace and happiness in her life and I hope that we can help her to find it through the Gospel. The other six are part of a family. Enrique is the dad and we talked to him a few weeks back as we were traveling home from Ajijic. He seems to be the one most interested. We have taught him two times and his family once. I hope that we can help him to gain a greater understanding of the Gospel and strengthen his faith in Christ. It was a great blessing to us. Our other investigators are doing pretty good. Francisco (Lorena's husband) is doing well. We had a lesson with him on Friday after we got back from Guadalajara. We taught him the whole lesson of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It went really well and we were able to teach him with Lorena a bit more about the Book of Mormon and how he can develop his own testimony. I can see a desire to learn and to work towards keeping his commitments and being baptized. The biggest thing is he has lots of questions and doubts and we are going to have to help him quit smoking and drinking coffee. Our other new investigator from last week is Guadalupe. She is a friend of an inactive sister we have been teaching lately. We taught her about the Book of Mormon as well and emphasized how she can find an answer through prayer, scripture study, and church attendance. Unfortunately none of our investigators came to church yesterday. I hope we can get them to come next week! It was pretty cool because yesterday President and Sister Egginton along with Elder and Sister Anderson (the new senior couple who will be secretaries in the mission office and sister and brother-in-law of Sister Egginton) came to church in our Branch of Tizapan. It was great to see them and get to hear them speak. I ended up teaching them in Gospel Principles (Sunday School) in both English and Spanish because they are still learning. I think it went pretty well. Afterwards we had a potluck at church for lunch (every third Sunday we do it) and they stayed and ate with us. It was fun and I was able to talk to them a bit more about the branch. I love them they are great leaders and they show so much love, support and confidence in us. Overall it was a great week and I am excited to see how the work goes with Elder Muñoa and our new investigators! Please pray for us to help them to be baptized! I just want to share my testimony of the preparation that God is giving to all of His children. I know that He is working in the lives of all of His children to bless them with a knowledge of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I have seen how He prepares people. I know that He is aware of every single one of His children. I am so thankful to know that He is a loving father that wants to bless each of us as His sons and daughters. We must only choose to let Him in and change our lives. I know He is changing mine and that He can change yours! I love each one of you and pray for you always! I hope you have a fun and happy week! Take care. Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

This week was full of lots fun and crazy things!

Hey everyone, Wow this week was a long week full of lots of fun and crazy things! I had food poisioning last week and I was in bed almost all day Monday and Tuesday. We were finally able to go out and teach on Wednesday and I am now finally feeling all better! It was a horrible sickness and I am just glad that it is over now. Arturo seemed to be doing pretty well this week. He has continued working to not drink, but I know that it is super hard on him. The other day we had an appointment to go visit with him and we arrived at his house and his son was there and told us that Arturo had left to go to Guadalajara for awhile, but didn't tell us exactly how long. We ended up visiting his mom a couple of days later and we asked her why he left and she said for his own benefit and didn't tell us much more. We think that he is probably in some sort of rehabilitation center but they haven't told us that directly. Whatever he is doing and wherever he is though I really hope that it is for his benefit and that it helps him. It was just kind of a bummer because they didn't tell us anything and we don't know when he will be returning! Other than that on Friday night Elder Raya, one of the Assistants to the President called me and told me that I have been selected to train a new elder for the next two transfers. Honestly it didn't surprise me to much but it was a little unexpected for the timing. I am excited to be able to train a new elder and we will be staying in our area of Tizapan. My son (that is our language for the elder whom we train) is Elder Muñoa from Chiapas. He is 18 and seems really excited to share the gospel. I hope that I can do a good job training him how to be a hardworking and successful missionary! I hope you will all pray for me! I need all the help I can get in doing this. Honestly I think it is a great blessing and responsibility and I just hope that I do a good job teaching him and being a good example! On Saturday night we had a miracle happen. We went to go visit with Hna. Lorena to let Elder Menchu tell her goodbye, but she was visiting her mom in Guadalajara. It surprised us though because Francisco, her husband, invited us in to talk to him. He told us that he is ready for us to teach him the lessons so that he can be baptized. Honestly it was a huge surprise because before he pretty much didn't show interest in our lessons. He told us though that he has felt that for a long time God has been trying to talk to him and that he is ready to change his life! I am super excited to start working with him along side with Elder Muñoa because I was at first worried to train an elder here with so many challenges in finding people to teach! Really I know it was an answer to my prayers! I just want to share with you my testimony of the work of the Lord. I know that missionary work is His work because it is helping Him with His work of "bring[ing] to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39). I know that He is preparing the way for His children to accept the Gospel. I am so thankful that I have this wonderful opportunity to work alongside Him in the greatest work on earth. Honestly I have a sure testimony that this is His work and He guides us in it. "Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life." -3 Nephi 5:13 I hope you all have a great week! Love you all and take care! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

I have food poisoning, but we survived the Hurricane okay!

Hey Everyone! This last week was a pretty good week until last night. I got food poisioning from some chinese food that some members gave us. I feel horrible today. Thankfully though it was just me and Elder Menchu didn't get sick. I hope that within the next couple days I get feeling better because I don't feel great right now. Other than the food poisioning it was a pretty normal week. We traveled a lot in the last week. First on Sunday we went to Ajijic for our district conference. It went really well we had the theme "To the Rescue" it was focused on working with the less-active and inactive members more. I really hope that it helps us to better work with the members here to re-activate those who are not actively coming. Then on Monday we had a trip to Guadalajara with the Eye Doctor, and that went pretty well except that we returned home so late. Then on Tuesday we went to Ajijic again for our District Meeting. Thankfully we don't have to travel this week until Friday to Ajijic for our Zone Meeting. The Hurricane Patricia a week ago didn't actually do very much damage where we are at, so that means we didn't really get any service opportunities at all. I am thankful though that it wasn't worse because everyone was expecting a huge disaster. It did cool down the weather last week and it rained a couple of more days. I am hoping that the weather stays a bit cooler, but at the same time last night with my fever I was freezing and I don't have extra blankets. Overall we are doing pretty good here. Next week are transfers and we really don't know what will happen. In a way I hope that Elder Menchu and I get to stay together again, but I don't know if that will happen, we already have three transfers together. Anyway whatever happens I am sure it will all end up fine. We haven't found any new investigators still. We have been searching a lot still, but they just haven't shown up for us yet! We were trying to visit with one lady for like six weeks and it just never worked out and now she is in the U.S. so we lost that chance. Hno. Arturo is pretty much our only investigator that we have at the moment. He is struggling quite a bit with his addiction. For like three weeks he didn't drink but then he relapsed a couple of weeks ago and has been struggling since then. Sometimes it is frustrating trying to help him because he has only come to church once and doesn't read in the Book of Mormon much. We have tried to help him to learn that those two things along with prayer are the keys to having strength to overcome! Hopefully we can help him to keep his commitments so that he actually can progress. We have still been trying to teach Leslie (Lorena's Niece). She is really smart and knows a lot about the gospel (missionaries visited their family before). She has a desire to do what is right and to live the commandments. The biggest challenge with her is that she goes to school in the afternoon and we only really get to teach her on Saturdays. She is only thirteen, but she is super smart. The other challenge is that her mom let's her listen to us, but I think it will be hard trying to convince her to let Leslie be baptized. We are going to keep working with her though! I just want to tell you all that I know that the Gospel is true. I know that God loves each and every single one of us! I have truly been able to see the love that God feels for each and every single one of His children through my service as a missionary. I want so badly for all to have the same joy and happiness that I feel through living the gospel! I am so thankful for this opportunity I have to share it with everyone else. I know that He is guiding and directing this work and I have learned more to trust in Him. I hope you will all trust in Him as well I know it will bless all of your lives! I love all of you and I hope you have a great week! Take care! Thank you for all of your continued prayers and love towards me! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

We survived Hurricane Patricia okay and our prayers were answered!

Hey Everyone, This week was a pretty crazy week with a Hurricane and all. Today we went to Guadalajara so I am very short on time to email. I just want you to all know that we were fine throughout the Hurricane Patricia and that we didn't have any problems! Just lots and lots of rain and a bit of wind. I was thankful for the rain though! It made the weather cooler! Yesterday we had our District Conference (it is like stake conference but we are in a district here) and we talked a lot about going "to the Rescue" of the lost sheep of the church. We are really focusing on working with less active and inactive members to strengthen and help them! I really hope that what we all learned will help us to better work with the members here to strengthen the saints! I just want you all to know that I have a testimony of the truthfulness of this Gospel! I know that Jesus Christ is our shepherd and that He cares for each and every one of his sheep! I know that He loves us and is aware of us in every moment. I saw that last week as many people were very worried about the hurricane that was so huge and it did very very little damage. He hears our prayers and he answers our prayers! I love each and every one of you and hope you have a wonderful week! Happy Halloween! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

We had the great opportunity to be trained by a General Authority of the Church.

Hey Everyone, I hope that you are all happy and well! I am doing pretty well and I had a good week. We had another full week, but it was a great one. We were able to teach and learn a lot this week and I am excited to share all about it with you! First of all this week we were able to have lots of lessons with our converts and also less active members. Hna. Lorena finally returned home from Guadalajara Monday night and we were able to have a lesson with her. She is such a fun and great person and I am so excited to see how much she grows from now on. It was really cool because the self-reliance course started this week and her husband (who is not a member) is now attending. I hope that it helps us to have a better opportunity to teach him about the gospel and to help him to one day be baptized so that their family can be sealed in the Temple! We also had the opportunity to go and visit another convert Jose who has been struggling lately with his addiction to alcohol and other family problems. I am really hoping and praying that we can strengthen and help him to overcome these struggles and trials that he is having and become a more active and faithful member of the church! We also had the opportunity to teach Cecilio another convert and he told us that he was able to get Sundays off of work so that he can come to church. We also asked him if he would come visit with us, so I am hoping that by working with him we can find some new investigators! We still didn't find any new investigators this week so we have been focusing in speaking with more people, but also we have been focusing on helping our existing investigators. Arturo is our investigator with the most progress right now, but unfortunately he relapsed and drank this last week on Friday and Saturday. He didn't end up coming to church on Sunday because of the problems. We visited him though and I could tell he felt kind of silly for letting a small dispute with his wife make him drink. He really wants to change and I can see lots of changes already and I hope that we can just keep helping him to move forward and work to overcome his addiction. Other than him our other investigators aren't really progressing right now. On Saturday we had a really great opportunity to go and participate in a training given by a visiting General Authority of the Church in Guadalajara. President Devin G. Durrant, the First Counselor in the Sunday School General Presidency of the Church, came and visited our mission and gave a training for all of the missionaries in Guadalajara and our zone in Chapala. It was a really cool experience to get to listen to and learn from him how we can become better teachers and missionaries. He also focused a lot on how we can better have the Spirit when we teach through our personal preparation and teaching techniques. It was cool to get to participate in that training and later get to shake his hand along with two other Seventies. Really it was a cool experience getting to have a special meeting with a General Authority just for us as missionaries! I just want to leave you all with my testimony of the Power of the Holy Ghost. I know that the Holy Ghost is a member of the Godhead and that He truly can dwell with each and every one of us. I know that the Spirit can testify to each and every one of us of Jesus Christ, Heavenly Father, and of any other truth. I am so thankful that we can all have the Gift of the Holy Ghost if we are baptized by the proper authority. I know that the Spirit guides and directs us in decisions and in avoiding danger. I am thankful that God has sent to us the greatest gift He can give. I know that if we will heed the direction and counsel we all receive through the Holy Ghost we can all remain safe and receive personal, direct revelation from God. I know that our Father in Heaven communicates to us through the Holy Spirit and that we can to find comfort through Him. I love each and every single one of you and I hope that you all have a great week! Take care! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

We started a new course about Self-Reliance

Hey everyone, I hope that you all had a great week and that you have a good one coming up! Our week went pretty well. It amazes me that it is already Monday again, time seems to be flying by. We were pretty busy this past week with a trip to Guadalajara on Monday and then Ajijic (Chapala) on Tuesday with lessons and a devotional the rest of the week! Overall it went pretty well. Last week we had a devotional to start a free course on self-reliance. The plan for the area of Mexico in 2015 is learning to become more self-reliant and this course is offered to help people improve their economic circumstances. It is set up so that people can see how they can better meet their financial needs and what they can do to improve their income. It includes a twelve week course in three different areas of the person's choosing. They are: how to improve my education, how to search for a better job, and how to start or grow a business. We were working all week long to make it successful devotional on Saturday night. We made and passed out fliers to a lot of people and helped coordinate meetings between the District President and our Branch President. Not a ton of people actually came compared to those who we invited, but we had about twenty-five. Six of them are non-members and we only knew one of them which is Lorena's husband and is already an investigator. I hope that with them we can find some new investigators and help them to be baptized. Also a less-active sister who we have visited with since I got here went and that was the first time I have seen her at the church. I hope that it really helps push the work along here in our area! I think it will! Other than that devotional we taught quite a few lessons. Our main focus right now is Arturo. He is doing pretty good and he hasn't drunk for the last two weeks. I am hoping that we can help him to continue to resist and overcome his addiction to alcohol. He is doing pretty well. Last Tuesday they invited us to eat dinner and they made us ceviche. It was really good and we got to meet his wife officially. They are working out their problems together (now that he has stopped drinking) and we were able to teach her as well. We are hoping to be able to help him and his wife and son to all listen to the lessons and prepare for baptism although I think that Arturo will be the first baptized. Unfortunately he didn't come to church yesterday because he pinched a nerve or something while working (he is a mechanic) and he couldn't walk very good. We had to change his baptism date, but he is still progressing quite well! Really the work is slowly moving forward here. It is kind of hard to be patient sometimes, but I know that with our efforts and patience that we will be able to find more people to teach. We have been working to talk to more people in order to find investigators and I think we have some good prostpects. Thank you all for your continued prayers for us to find and teach God's children here! I know that through our efforts and His immense help we can help many others come unto the knowledge of the truthfulness of the gospel. I just want to share with you all my testimony of the Book of Mormon. I know that this sacred book is the word of God given to the ancient inhabitants of America. I know that they received revelation by the Spirit of God just as our modern day prophet, Thomas S. Monson, recieves. I know that it was translated by Joseph Smith Jr. only through the gift and power of God that he was able to translate the ancient record from Golden Plates. I know of a surety that the Book of Mormon is true and that if we will read it daily and live the principles it teaches us that we will be immensly blessed by God and given the things that we need. I love the Book of Mormon and I am so grateful that God has revealed it to us through one of His chosen servants! I love each and every one of you and I hope you are all doing well! I hope you all have a lovely week this week and that you all take care! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

I loved General Conference

Hey Everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful week this week! Our week was pretty crazy busy once again. It went okay teaching, but we didn't have many lessons because we don't really have many investigators at the moment and Lorena our convert has been gone so we didn't get to visit with her either. Overall though it was a pretty great week, just because we got to listen to General Conference. We pretty much only taught lessons this week with one of our investigators because the rest were not home or they were busy. We visited with Hno. Arturo three times. He drank again this week and the day after we had a pretty good lesson with him. I think he really does have a great desire to quit drinking, but as an addict it just isn't all that easy. I have seen some great efforts by him though to change and to become better! We taught him about how he just has to keep on trying, just like the conference talk from April "Latter-day Saints Keep on Trying" by Elder Dale G. Renlund (one of our newly called apostles). After that lesson with him we visited him the next two days in a row and invited him to conference. He didn't end up coming to conference, which was kind of a bummer, but on Sunday night afterwards we went and visited him. We taught him more about the requirements for baptism (like that he has to have five attendances in church) and we scheduled a new baptism date for the 7th of November. I really hope we can help him to prepare and be baptized on that day! Other than visiting with Arturo we visited with some other less active members and converts. I really hope that we can continue to find and help some of those members return to church through our efforts. We are trying to find new investigators because honestly right now we don't have very many. Arturo is the only one who is really showing true interest and desire to keep his commitments. Please pray for us to find new investigators, we need them! That is definitely going to be one of our biggest focuses in the coming weeks! I absolutely loved General Conference! If you have not had a chance to watch it or only a section of it I invite you to watch it or watch the sessions that you did not get to hear/see. It was absolutely amazing and incredibly inspired. I felt as if every single word was spoken directly to me, but I also know that it will help others too! I can tell you that they are all inspired to share what they do! I saw a huge theme about faith, centering our lives on Jesus Christ, obeying the commandments and living righteously, and also keeping the sabbath day holy. I loved everything that was spoken. One of my absolute favorite talks was by Elder Dallin H. Oaks (I believe in the Saturday Afternoon Session) that was talking all about the power of the Atonement. I loved how he talked about using that power to overcome adversity and trials. I loved his focus on how Jesus Christ suffered every single pain, affliction, and temptation that we face or experience. His Atonement isn't just for sin, it is complete and all-encompassing. It was a wonderful talk that helped strengthen me! I loved all of the talks but that one especially stood out among others by President Monson, Elder Bednar, President Nelson, and Elder Holland. I love their inspiration and ways of speaking to all of us! I just want to end my email today with my testimony of modern-day revelation. I know that God continues to speak to His children, us. He loves each and every single one of us and He is always available if we but turn to Him in humble prayer and strive to live His commandments. I know that He has called modern-day, living prophets to lead and guide and direct His church here on Earth so that all men may one day return to His presence in our heavenly home. I am so grateful that we receive revelation through our Prophet Thomas S. Monson and the apostles. I know that God has called three new apostles and I fully sustain them. I know that we too can receive personal revelation directly from Him. He will and does answer our prayers through the power of the Holy Ghost, His prophets, and the Scriptures. I am so grateful that He has not changed and that He continues to speak to us in love. I love each and every single one of you and I hope you are all doing well! I hope you all have a great week and take care! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie