Scorpion!!!

Scorpion in our apartment

Some of the ruins in Chiapa de Corzo

Dear family,

Sorry if I write a little less this week but I just got to chat for a little with Elder B (Bramwell) because he was on which was great because I sure do miss him.

We are struggling to find people right now but we have been blessed with people who have the desire. We will have a baptism saturday of Danyra who honestly seems fake with how easily she has accepted the gospel.

Zara and her family are amazing. Yesterday we saw them walking to church. Zara with 3 daughters and son (one daughter is handicapped in the leg) and the grandkids. like 5 of them. The left at 6:30 to make it to church by 10. And they have NOTHING... the house is of dirt and sticks and wood and really its hard to describe. Zara received such a powerful answer to her prayer. 2 daughters arent married to their husbands and asked us if that meant they would get kicked out of church and we told them absolutely not. I am grateful for the members and their love which makes this family want to go to church. And one decided to get married and a member will pay for the wedding. 2 of them have baptismal date right now but I know they will all get baptized because they study the book of mormon every day. Truly amazing family because they told us the trail is full of mud so they walked bare foot and stopped in the river to wash feet and put shoes on. 3 hours walking and over 6 miles of mountain trail. I love this family.

Had some pretty amazing scripture study this week. This week I heard several times people say they are seeing the change which strengthened my testimony that this gospel really changes peoples lives and makes people happy.

We have an investigator who wants to find the true church. Her son 10 years old has been going and loves it and he asked her what religion she was which is motivating her. She sent us a message today to tell us we cant visit her because of other problems which is really frustrating sometimes.

1 more week until transfers so well see what happens. Whenever I leave I do feel good how I am leaving the area. We have learned in this mission that we should always say we are leaving the area better then we got here. I know the area is better but that I was only an instrument in God´s hands. I have made a lot of mistakes and could have done more or not made some mistakes but it is helping me grow and learn to follow the spirit.

I love you all
Love, Elder Lythgoe

The Gomez Flores Family is Baptized

The Gomez Flores Family was baptized on May 25, 2013

Pretty interesting week. Spent my day of the one year mark in the house because I got what we call the double dragon. That would be diarrea and throwing up. It was awful and you feel like you are going to die haha

We baptized the gomez flores family but it was a roller coaster to get there because we got a message from roberto wednesday that his wife didnt want to anymore so we cancelled plans and went to visit her and she was just crying and telling us why and at the end she said si me quiero bautizar which was great to hear. Honestly, I was pretty out of it but yesterday after church they came up to us and hermano roberto was like we have something to tell you so I got super nervous. And then they told us that they signed up to feed us next week haha and asked what we want to eat. It is amazing how highly these people think of the missionaries here in Mexico.

The sister maria who had the prayer story well we visited her again. She told the same story but with more detail which will make you laugh. We visited her with the second counselor of the branch and she told him the story how she prayed the way WE told her in the name of His apostles Peter,James, John and Jose Smith. And I was like where the heck did that come from so we retaught her and as we are explaining it she is sitting there saying exactly haha

She came to church with 2 of her daughters and one is handicapped with some leg thing so cant walk that well. Anyways they walked for 2 and a half hours to go to church and members told us after how impressed they were and with the example they were and how she said in relief society that we arrived in the moment she needed it most. Great example of faith and sacrifice.

We have a new investigator who told us that she wants to be a member and get baptized and has a baptismal date for June 8. Other than that we are looking for people to teach right now.

I love you.

Exciting Experiences this week

We had some exciting experiences this week. First, the lady who went super far to teach. We ran into her. We asked her if she read the pamphlet and said yes and she believed it.

She said her grandson got sick and she told us. I said the prayer the way you showed me because you told me that was the way to pray and her grandson was better in two hours. She said she has never felt this before and she feels she needs to go to church so we will see if she goes because she lives super far away.

That is exciting that Carlie got baptized.

We did divisions this week and when I got back this little kid came running up to me because his mom said he was super mad that I had left for a day. Even though I want to leave it will be super hard.

I love seeing the progress of the investigadores. Esteban gave a talk in church yesterday, Carmen received the aaronic priesthood. Jorge and Francisco are still going strong and others.

Lately, people have been saying hi to us and we find out they are inactive members and want to go to church so we will try visiting them this week because all of them have family who arent members and we hope to find new investigators.

The faith of people here always amazes me. People tell us they do stuff because we told them and that always amazes me that they trust so much in what we are telling them.

I love you.

Love, Elder Lythgoe

I Have the "gene" now too - Tears

It was great seeing and talking to you all yesterday even though I completely embarrassed myself but I know it would come out sometime that I have that gene now too haha.

Happy mothers day mom. I really do have a testimony of what I said yesterday that Heavenly Father has given me great parents to help me which I never realized before. I was thinking about that this morning when I remembered something that I want to apologize for. When I first got here and said I put my arm around a girl for a picture I said I forgot. Really I was just afraid to tell the member no because he was saying its ok because we are friends. I have learned that it is much more important to be obedient and honest so I am sorry for telling it that way.

One of the greatest blessings of the mission is learning obedience but in a different way. Learning that it only matters in preparing to live with God and be obedient to him and not worrying what others think. I would be disobedient because I wanted the members to like me but I realized it is more important to have their confidence and to have them say that I was an obedient missionary not a cool missionary.

We walk a ton and use a lot of transportation because our area is HUGE!!! The other day we received a reference and she said its a little far... A LITTLE... we walked in a dirt road for an hour uphill... both ways haha we left at 430 from Chiapa and got back at 730.

Funny experience... we visited Nadia and her mom this week and the mom had a shirt on that said. Science. It works, bi..... we started laughing and she was like. oh no does my shirt say something bad... another time the branch president sent us a message to ask what... f the cubs meant... another shirt he saw... everyone here knows the english cuss words and it is very normal to hear kids say the f word or mexican missionaries because they think its funny without knowing what it means... we have to explain a lot of stuff like that

I love you and hope you have a great week.

Love, Elder Lythgoe

Plugging along

I am not going to lie but this was probably the hardest week of my mission but God really blessed us. We started the week with only the family as investigadores. Tuesday I just felt the whole day that I had 4 baptisms this transfer with them and that was good. It is hard staying in an area for so long. I tried to keep pushing forward and that night we found twin girls whose dad is member but lives in Puebla Mexico and they speak english. We are now teaching them. We teach in english which is hard because I dont know how to teach in english and my comp still doesnt say too much haha.

Also, this week we found an inactive sister who has not gone to church in about 10 years and has a 14 year old boy and 8 year old daughter who arent baptized. They went to church with us yesterday. Also, we found a family  and the mom wants us to teach her kids but she is also listening to help them.

I think almost every day this week God answered my prayers through the Book of Mormon. I know that it is true and God uses it as His tool to help us.

Yesterday there was a change of the branch presidency counselors and after so much time here it felt the same is it feels in the home ward. Sadness and excitement for those who are released and called.

I love you. Happy anniversary mom and dad. Hope you all had a good 5 de mayo because here in Mexico it is nothing haha. Dad I am proud to call you my dad. I always strive to be like you and follow your example. The faith and testimony that you have of the Savior really inspires me.

Love, Elder Lythgoe

Transfers - And I'm Going to. . .

I will going to the beautiful pueblo of chiapa de corzo haha. Thats right im here again. I think I will be getting a ward calling soon haha... I was super suprised but happy because we have a family of 4 that we will be baptizing this month. President did tell me one time that I would help a lot of people in this area so I guess that is true if I stay here my whole mission haha

The little girl did get baptized. Her name is Sarahí and there is also the picture of Carmen and his baptism. We didnt take the picture because this was a rough sunday for converts and investigadores.
Pretty tough week but a good missionary experience we had was when Roberto the father in this family told us how he felt during the baptismal service. I realized that people really can feel the spirit strongly through us or ordinances. We just feel good and dont think anything of it and the people tell us how amazing they feel. Saturday after the baptism roberto told us he had never felt that before and I was thinking where did you feel that when I realized that the spirit is manifested through us and the ordinances of the gospel because we have be set apart. Also, I know for someone who has never felt the spirit to feel it for the first time will definitely notice a difference.

Learning experience... patriarchal blessing... they are amazing huh? You can decide whether you send this part out to others or not. The part that talks about not taking the honor to myself. I never really understand that until this week. It really is a weakness of mine but I am glad I was able to recognize that and work on it.

Another thing is about virtue... Thoughts are everything. President Cardenas talks about that ALOT... Does God really know our weaknesses? you bet he does and sometimes we dont even recognize that. I dont know all the reasons I was sent to this mission but one was definitely learn this from my mission president. That was definitely a weakness of mine and if one learns to control thoughts avoids all the mistakes.

I will let you know next week whats happening for mothers day here. Mothers day in Mexico is always May 10 so I dont know when we will call. I love you

 

 



Carmen (next to Elder Hincha) and his son in law who baptized him.  Carmen speaks totzil.

Aprendan su español porque no sé hablar ingles en voz alta jaja
Con amor,
Elder Lythgoe

The Baptism of Jorge!