I learned something very important this week!

Hello Everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful week. Our week was a pretty good week. It went super fast. It amazes me how quickly time seems to be moving as a missionary. This week was a pretty normal week for us. We did a lot of walking and a lot of appointments fell through as usual but really when I look back on it all I learned something very important this week. It doesn't matter how much we walk, how many appointments we have, or even how many lessons we teach; if we as missionaries of the Lord Jesus Christ are working diligently, striving to be obedient and doing everything possible to serve Him with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength; then it was a success. This week, then I would consider was a great success for Elder Menchú and I. Serving in Tizapan has been hard, the branch is small and there are few people here that have shown a real interest in the Gospel. We have been searching for new investigators, visiting less-active members, and trying to strengthen those who are active, so that we can find those who are prepared to receive our message. This week we did not have a single lesson with a member and an investigator present until Saturday. We had multiple appointments earlier in the week and we were trying hard to visit with people but all of our plans had been falling through. Both of us were feeling a bit discouraged. One day in my personal study I was reading in Chapter 6 of Preach My Gospel which teaches about Christlike Attributes. I was reading especially about Hope. There it says that "Hope helps overcome discouragement" it is "an abiding perseverance" and "waiting and expecting that something will occur" reading this the other morning helped me to stay hopeful and not be quite as discouraged for not having lessons. On Saturday we were finally able to visit with Hna. Lorena and we had a wonderful lesson with Hna. Elisa in our company. Later that day we found a new investigator named Mauro. It was a good day. Then yesterday we were unsure how everything would end up. We didn't know if we would be able to have a member accompany us to visit with our investigators because many cannot com with us because they have meetings and others do not come to church. After church my companion asked a young man to come with us and his mother said he could. We ended up having three more lessons with him and investigators and we found another new investigator yesterday. After all week long having few lessons and walking all day everyday with little to show for our efforts we were able to find a little success. I know it was a blessing of the Lord for our efforts to work diligently even when it was hard. About our investigators. Well Lorena it doing pretty well. We only got to visit her once this week because they had family members visiting all week long and they were traveling, but they left Friday night so we were able to see her on Saturday morning. We went Saturday morning and had a great lesson with her about following the prophet, the Ten Commandments, and Honoring the Law of the Land. She has been reading the Book of Mormon and is understanding it very well. We are not sure when she is going to be baptized as of right now because the re-dedication of the Mexico City Temple will be on September 13th and there will not be church that day, she would have been baptized on the 12th and confirmed on the 13th so we are thinking the following week, but we will see in the coming weeks! This week we found two new investigators. Mauro, who is an older man. He lives alone and the majority of his family lives in the United States. From what he has told us he has lived quite a tough life, but he has a strong desire to change his life. We have only taught him once, so we will see how it goes with him in the coming days. The other new investigator is Aturo"s mother. Her name is Maria Luisa. We talked to her the other day when we were searching for him and she was looking for him too! He has been drinking a lot lately I guess (we haven't been able to find him for over a week) and yesterday when we went and taught her she told us that he is in the alcoholic rehabilitation center. She is really interested in our message because of the trials she faces with her son and his addiction. Hopefully as we teach her more she will come to a knowledge of the truth of the Gospel. Lately there has been a lot of talk about the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. Yesterday in Priesthood Meeting we also had a lesson that was based on Elder Russell M. Nelson's talk from the April General Conference "The Sabbath is a Delight" and it was a wonderful lesson. It sounds like many of you have been hearing continued lessons and training's on this subject and I want to leave you with my testimony on the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day Holy. I know that this commandment has been given to us from the beginning of times. Just as Moses received this commandment as part of the original Ten Commandments Jesus Christ kept this commandment as our perfect example. Later as He was preparing for His great Atoning Sacrifice He instituted the Sacrament in remembrance of Him. The Sacrament is the single most important thing we can do on Sunday or the Sabbath Day. As we partake of the sacrament we renew our covenants with our Heavenly Father. I know that keeping this day holy as a sign for our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ is essential in our lives. I know this for myself from keeping this day holy. By only doing things that remind us of our Savior, and by refraining from work and other activities we can have renewed physical and spiritual strength given to us to face our week. The Sabbath Day is truly a delight for me. I know that Jesus Christ is my Savior and my Redeemer and by keeping the Sabbath Day holy that I am giving Him a sign that I love Him. I love every single one of you and hope you have a wonderful week this week! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

Yea we have a New District!

Hello Everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful week this week! I had a better week this week than the past week which was a blessing. My headaches have been a bit less intense which is nice and we were able to visit with our investigators a bit more. First of all I wanted to tell you about a new little change that happened last night with transfer day. Elder Menchú and I will both be staying in Tizapan as I expected because he only had one transfer when I got here and usually we have three to four transfers in an area. We did however have a fun new change that I am excited for. Before our zone, which is Chapala, only had one district because it only had three branches with four sets of missionaries, but with with the transfer they are adding another branch to our zone. Sahuayo is a city about an hour past us, so now there will be two districts in our zone. That means on Tuesday mornings for our District Meetings we will go to Sahuayo instead of Chapala. I think that will mean a little less traveling and hopefully a bit more sleep! I hope that will help me with my headaches a little bit too! Other than that we have another month and a half here together and we are excited to see what we can accomplish! We are hoping to have a baptism this transfer so please pray for us to be able to accomplish that goal!!!! Our weather here has been pretty hot for the last few weeks it is in a time year that they call the Canícula which is forty days of strong sun usually with little to no rain. It supposedly ends on the 24th or 26th. That means it has been pretty hot here lately. But, yesterday it decided to rain even though it is supposedly the Canícula, which was appreciated really, but it was quite the downpour right when we headed to church. That meant that only twenty five people arrived at church yesterday including five visitors (three from the district presidency and two from the mission presidency) so it was kind of a sad church service yesterday. None of our investigators arrived. Lorena is doing pretty well except for the fact that she hasn't come to church for the last two weeks. We were able to visit her three times last week and she understands well the things that we teach her. Honestly she has a strong desire to learn and to change, but there are always things that hold people back from progressing. The best part is that she has a friend in the church. Hna. Elisa always accompanies us to visit and teach our lessons with Lorena and we have seen a relationship develop between the two. It is really neat to see how Lorena responds better to the testimonies that Hna. Elisa shares than to our testimony. I know that the work of the Lord and that our work as missionaries is much more successful with the help of members! Now we just have to find a member like Elisa for every single investigator we teach! I just want to share with all of you my testimony. I know that the Lord is watching over us. I know that even in the hardest of times, in the deepest of sorrows, and thickest of tears that He is here. He never forsakes us. He knows each and every single one of us individually and perfectly. He knows our pains and afflictions and our unique problems and pains. When no one else knows how we feel or how to help He does. I have found the greatest comfort through knowing that He is always there for me without exception. He never faileth. His Atoning Sacrifice is infinite just as is His love. Nothing is impossible with His loving hand. I know He lives and that He loves us. I love each and every single one of you and hope all of you are doing well! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Take Care! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

This week was kind of a trying one!

Hey everyone, How was your week this week? I hope it was a good one!!! Honestly my week was kind of a trying one. My headache has been pretty bad this week which made it hard and we didn't have very many lessons with our investigators because one of them got sick, but other than that it went pretty well! Lorena is doing pretty well other than she got sick so she cancelled our appointment with her on Saturday and didn't end up attending church on Sunday. We went to see how she was doing yesterday and she said she isn't feeling very well. We set another appointment for Wednesday because tomorrow we have to travel to Chapala and she wasn't sure how she would be feeling. We could see from that, that it is really Lorena that is the most interested in the Gospel because she was the only one sick, but none of the others arrived at church yesterday even though we had asked Hna. Elisa, who has been visiting with us to invite them to go. Hopefully we can help them to gain a stronger desire to receive the Gospel and through Lorena's example they will gain a desire as well through the changes they see in her. Other than the fact that she is sick they are doing fairly well. Last Friday we found a new investigator named Arturo. He is probably around forty years old and has a pretty hard life. I can tell that he has been through quite a few problems and hopefully we can help him through the gospel message we share. His family is falling apart and him and his wife are seperated. We have only visited him once and we shared with him the message of the Restoration. I felt the Spirit strongly as I testified of the First Vision and of Joseph Smith as the Prophet of the Restoration. I hope that through our visits with him we can help him to find direction and help in his life! We tried to visit him yesterday but he wasn't home. Hopefully we can find him again this week! Really this week was kind of slow in teaching and it was kind of a challenge physically, mentally, and emotionally for me, but looking back on the challenges that I faced I can see that the Lord was there helping me and comforting me through it all! I know that the Lord is always with us in everything that we suffer. I have a testimony of true comforting power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I know that He allows us to suffer so that we can receive His succor. I have a great deal of love for my Savior Jesus Christ because I know He never has forsaken me nor will He ever forsake me. I am reminded of my mission scripture "Be strong and of a good courage, be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed; for the Lord thy God is with thee, whithersoever thou goest" (Joshua 1:9). I am thankful for the true comfort that we can receive through fervent prayer and priesthood blessings. I know that my Father loves me and that my Savior loves me too! I love all of you and I know that our Savior loves you! I hope you all have a wonderful week! Take care! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

I am so thankful to be a missionary!

Hello Everyone, I hope you had a good week this week. We had a good week, but as I was afraid it was super busy! After going to Guadalajara on Monday for my eye appointment we had to go to Chapala on Friday for our Zone Meeting and then back to Guadalajara on Saturday for Interviews with President Egginton, and then tomorrow back to Chapala for District Meeting. It was pretty crazy busy, but it was a great week! Last week we found three new investigators and I am so excited to tell you about them. They are the ones I told you about who came to our Pioneer Day activity. Their names are Lorena and Leslie and Leslie's Mom (I feel silly I forgot her name! but she is Lorena's sister-in-law and Leslie is her niece). We had three lessons with them this past week and they came to church yesterday. Like I said before they were listening to the missionaries in the State of Mexico before, but returned home (they live here really all of the time but visited there for a few months) and thankfully, we have been able to teach them. They are really interested to learn about the Gospel and I really think that they are going to progress well! The best part is that Lorena's husband and her sister-in-law's husband are brothers to a member of the Branch Presidency and I hope that helps them to have some support in the Gospel! We went and ate with all of them yesterday! Really I am enjoying it here in Tizapan. Even though it has been hard finding investigators to teach I know that the Lord has been blessing us and I know that with hard work we will be able to find more. I really just like that it is a lot smaller here than in Guadalajara. It is so pretty and usually it is cooler too, but for the last two weeks it has only rained like once so it has been a bit hotter! I hope it rains more this week. I am loving this area and I hope I get to stay here for a little while, so that I can see the work progress! Our Zone Meeting last week was really good. We talked about the importance of developing Christ-like Attributes. It is Chapter 6 in Preach My Gospel and it is one of my favorite chapters! Our new mission president, Pres. Egginton is really focusing on helping us to be more Christ-like and to focus on our main purpose of Inviting others to come unto Christ through faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost and enduring to the end. I am excited to see how the mission improves and changes under his leadership. We had our interviews with him on Saturday and it was fun to get to talk to him a bit better and to share some things about myself with him. He asked us to share about our family, ourselves, why we chose to come on a mission, why we stay in the mission, and our testimony. I felt so wonderful talking to him and sharing with him my answers to these five simple questions. I can feel that him and Sister Egginton really love us and they show it, which is nice to me! I got to share with him as well about my headaches and we are going to start trying some other medications to hopefully get rid of them. He also invited my companion and my zone leaders in and I asked him for a blessing. It was really good to have another priesthood blessing. I just want to share with all of you my answer to two of those questions he asked me. Why did I choose to serve a mission? I think the answer to that question is quite simple really, I chose to serve because I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I know that it is incredibly small my mission in the form of a gift to Him because He gives us everything, but I want to offer my mission to Him because I love Him. My testimony. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that He loves each one of us! I know that He suffered and paid the price of all sin and pain that we have and experience. I know that this is His church and that it is guided by Him through His living prophet Thomas S. Monson. I am so thankful for a living prophet to lead and guide this church and also for apostles and their continued guidance and direction. I know that Joseph Smith was called to be the Prophet of the Restoration and that he translated the Book of Mormon through the power and authority of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is true and I cherish that divine gift from our Loving Heavenly Father. I know without a doubt that all of these things are true and more than anything that I am in the Service of God. I know that I am where I have been called to be and I am so thankful to be a missionary. I love all of you guys so much and I hope you have a wonderful week this week! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

We had a Great Pioneer Day Celebration here in Mexico!

Hey Everyone, How has your week been? I hope all of you are doing well. My week was a good and very busy week, and the following week will probably be busy too! This week we had companion exchanges for two days and we also had to go to Guadalajara today for an Eye Appointment that I had. I am kind of tired, but I don't think we will get to rest much this week because we are supposed to have our Interviews with President and our Zone Meeting as well. Our exchanges were good we started on Tuesday and returned to our own area on Thursday. I went to Chapala with Elder Lavery one of our zone leaders who was actually my first District Leader and Elder Benitez (yes my old companion) our other zone leader went with Elder Menchu to our area. They finally found some new investigators, but unfortunately when we tried to return to visit them someone told us that they didn't actually live where they visited the first time and so now we don't have their actual address. Hopefully we will be able to find them again because I don't even know who they are! Ha!Ha! Our work here continues to be trying to actually find someone to teach. Beforehand we didn't have permission to knock on people's doors unless we had first talked with them in the street, but I asked President for permission to knock on peoples' doors and he told me yes. He just said that we need to be selective with where we go and to not knock on a whole neighborhood at a time, and to not systematically work the area. Hopefully as we carefully work to know where to go and to follow the Spirit we can find some new investigators that way. Because really not very many people that we talk to in the street want to receive our visits. Our Pioneer Day was very wonderful. We had a great activity at the church and I really enjoyed participating in it. It was a simple activity but it was fun and the Spirit was present. We had a short little 'Trek' and a lot of the members came dressed as pioneers. We didn't have a handcart or anything but we walked from "city to city" from Kirtland to Nauvoo and to Salt Lake. At each city we listened to someone share a little bit of what the pioneers went through. After we arrived in Salt Lake City we sang Come, Come Ye Saints and the Spirit was very strong. Afterwards we had dinner in the church and talked among ourselves for awhile. I had been reading about the pioneers in the book "Our Heritage" that morning and I asked if I could share something as people were finishing eating. I didn't share anything that I had read in the book, but I decided to share one of our family history stories that comes from the Willie and Martin Handcart Companies. I shared with them about our 4x Great Grandmother Mary Ann Mellor, whose story is featured in the movie 17 Miracles. She is the one who felt she could go no further and sat down on a boulder and cried. She told her family to go on without her because she could not do it. Her husband resolved to come back for her that night after helping their family reach camp, but her daughter would not leave her. Her daughter stayed behind with her mother as the rest continued onward. Her daughter decided to go a little way off and offer a prayer. As she prayed for guidance and comfort she cried not knowing what to do. As she stood up and headed back towards her mother she found in the path in front of her a pie; it was manna sent from heaven to help them have the strength to move forward. She took the pie to her mother and together they ate and gave thanks unto God for His mercy. She then said afterward, everytime she felt she could not go further she remembered that miracle and the goodness of God and then had the faith enough to continue. As I shared that story in our activity and my testimony of the pioneers the Spirit was incredibly strong. I could feel Him touch everyone's heart and I felt very grateful that I could share that story with those who came to that activity. The best part about the activity is that two sisters arrived there who are not members. They recently moved back here from the State of Mexico and were listening to the missionaries there. We tried to visit them the other day but they weren't home, but they still showed up to Sacrament Meeting yesterday and tonight we are going to try to visit them again. I hope they become progressing investigators who can be baptized. That would be another miracle to add to my family history. I know that God lives and that He loves us. I know that this is the true Church of Jesus Christ on the Earth and that He is at the head. I am strengthened by my pioneer ancestors and all that they suffered so that I may have the Gospel in my life today. I love those stories and to be able to see the faith they had. I too am striving to have Faith in Every Footstep. I love each and every one of you and hope you all have a wonderful week! Take Care! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

It is super beautiful here in Tizapan and we hope we can find someone to share our message with!

Hello Everyone, How has your week been this week? I hope that all of you are doing well and enjoying life! Our week this week was pretty good. I finally feel like I am getting a better knowledge of my new area and that I am getting used to being here. Really it is super beautiful here in Tizapan because it is so green and pretty everywhere. It rains quite a bit here and when it rains it usually rains pretty hard. I really like it here because it is much cooler than Guadalajara with all of the rain and because of Chapala Lake closeby. Although I am loving the area it is quite a challenge in the missionary side of things. There are a lot of catholics here. There are a lot of Catholic Churches and not very many people want to accept a visit from us. We haven't found a single new investigator in the two weeks that I have been here, so that is a challenge. I know we are going to have to get creative in our ways of finding people. Although it is a challenge to have new investigators, I am excited for the work here because really there are a lot of people and I know that there are people here who need this message, we just have to find them!!! Haha. We have been working a lot with less-active members trying to strengthen the branch. It was interesting because last week there were 50 people in Sacrament Meeting and this week there were only 25. That means that the majority of the members are not as committed and I hope that we can help them to be stronger. We really only have one investigator that we are really working with right now. Her name is Guadalupe. She lives with her parents-in-law. Her father-in-law is a less-active member and that is how she became interested in the church. We have only taught her two times, but she seems interested in the message that we have and always thanks us for sharing it with her. I hope that we can help her to progress and become a faithful member here. The biggest challenge is finding her at home, but we try to visit almost everyday so sometimes we find her! I know that this message will help her and I am just praying that we can help her! Other than that we have been searching! Hopefully we are able to find some people to teach! Please keep praying for us to find them and send us ideas on how to find people!!! haha! Really even though I know it is a challenge to be here I am so excited to be here and to work here as a missionary! I want to tell you all that I know that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is true and that it is the only way that we can return to live with our loving Heavenly Father. I am so thankful to my Savior, that He came to earth, lived a perfect life, taught the way to return to live as an Eternal Family with our Father in Heaven, and that He made it possible through His Infinite Atonment. I know that He loves each and every one of us and that He strengthens us in every trial. I am so grateful for Joseph Smith that he had the courage and the faith to pray for divine guidance and that he did everything necessary to restore the Lord's Gospel on earth. I know with all of my heart that this is Jesus Christ's Church on the Earth and that He is at the head. I know He directs this work. I love this work and I am so grateful that He has trusted me enough to call me as one of His servants! I love all of you and I hope you all have a wonderful week! Take care! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie

It is a little cooler here in my new area!

Hey Everyone, I hope that all of you had a good week this week! I had a pretty good week here in my new area of Tizapan. It was an interesting week getting to know the area and some of the people here. I still have a lot to learn and I still feel a bit out of place, but I know with a bit more time here I will get used to it all and I am sure I will come to love it here just as I did in my last area. It is kind of hard trying to learn everything about an area all over again but it is going good. A little bit about my area... it is a bit cooler here than in Guadalajara thanks to Chapala Lake close by it keeps the climate quite temperate. If I am right Chapala Lake is the largest lake in Mexico. There are a lot of cerros here (that means mountains or hills) so we walk up and down a lot, but that is normal, as far as I know none of them are as big as the cerro in my last area. It is really green here and it rains quite a bit. More than in Guadalajara. I love the rain, but if it rains in the morning then it is super humid in the afternoon and that makes it somewhat miserable. Because our area is far away from the other areas in our district we have to travel to Chapala every Tuesday for our District Meeting and that means that we have to travel almost three hours to get there in bus, so we wake up at 4:00 AM on Tuesday to catch the bus and get there on time!!! Yay!! haha. I don't know if I'll ever get used to that. Elder Menchu and I get along pretty well. He is pretty excited to work hard. He is from, Totonicapán, Guatemala. He has only been here in this area for one transfer so I am sure that we will end up learning a lot together. As for right now we don't have a ton of investigators and I have only met a couple of them so in the coming weeks I will tell you more about all of them as I get to know them better. Last Wednesday we taught English classes to about ten kids and that was kind of fun! It is hard to teach English using Spanish. haha. I am sure that it will help me to learn Spanish better though. Yesterday church was a bit different that in my last area. We had fifty people there and that was a lot according to my companion. We are the ones who get to prepare and bless the sacrament because there aren't very many priesthood holders. I am just excited to get to know everyone and the area better in the coming week! I just want to tell you guys that I know that the Gospel is true! I know that this work I am doing is the work of the Lord and that His hand is in it. He guides and directs this work through the Holy Ghost and His inspired leaders. I am so grateful that I have been called to do this work and that the Lord trusts me enought to do it! I hope you all have wonderful week! I love you all so much! Take Care! Love, Elder Mitchell J Condie Elder Condie still needs your prayers because he is still having headaches!