Mexcio Week 95: Final Week

Hey Everybody! 

Well I am entering into my last week in the Mission. It's gone by fast. I would like to mention some of my experiences and talk about how great of a Mission it has been and what I have learned. I hope that it might be of great worth to the boys since they all want to be going on a Mission. 

The Mission has been the best yet most difficult experience that I have had in my life. I think that because it was difficult it was great. I remember when I first came to Mexico I wanted to go home. I remember wanting to just give up but I was inspired to go on and finish. Hahaha, I remember hating the food and feeling lonely since my companion wasn't the best and the members were a little mean. I realized that it was just culture shock. Hahaha, since then I have had a lot of difficult times but I have put them behind trying to learn from them. I remember when I was a Branch President, things were really hard and I thought that I was losing faith. Afterwards I learned that my testimony grew and was strengthened from the trials that took place in Chignahuapan. I remember the members and the things that I learned from them as I tried to help them with the spiritual and temporal needs.

I learned alot in Castillotla about Missionary Work and how to really do it. Elder Escamilla and I had great times and a lot of success and I will always remember my time with him. I really enjoyed training Elder Escamilla and also learning from him. He is a great friend. I learned a lot about leadership in Loma Florida (Apizaco) when I was a DL and I had a struggling district with struggling wards. We ended up doing miracles for the Lord there in that district.

 

I remember that I learned the importance of working with members in Totolac (Tlaxcala). Wow, we did some great stuff there Elder Nuncio, Elder Lopez, and I with the members. We ended up having success for the members. They are great there.

 

Now as an AP I have learned a lot of everything. Having to run a Mission of over 100 Missionaries is not an easy task and I have so much respect for the President. He is a great man and has taught me a lot, especially about the future after the Mission and how to apply everything I have learned here, there in the real world. 

I have learned a lot in the Mission and I know that it will help me throughout my life, but I believe that the most valuable thing that I have learned here, that I will always treasure is understanding how and why to apply the Atonement in my life. I really understand that it is more than just repenting everyday. I have learned that it is essential for us to experiment it everyday. I have learned that to be able to experiment it each day we must be obedient. It's impossible to understand the Atonement or even experiment it if we are not obedient. Most people think that you must be a sinner and sin to understand it, but I believe that you must be obedient to understand it because the obedient repent....sinners might not. I have learned that the Atonement has a divine power that can set us apart from reaching our potential....yet it allows us to go beyond that if it is required, and more times than not, God needs us to go past our potential so that we may help Him establish His Kingdom and we do it through the atonement. 

I have learned that really we must understand the importance of the Atonement because it is the center of all we do. We could study the Book of Mormon and find that a lot of scriptures that maybe we don't see very well talk about the Atonement. The Bible actually only refers to the word Atonement one time were as the Book of Mormon refers to it 39 times. Besides the fact that it mentions the word more in the Book of Mormon, helps us understand at a broader view what the Atonement is through personal experiences of the Nephite and Lamanite people. 

I know that the Atonement is important. I know that it is essential for us to apply it to our lives each day. We must experiment at some point in our lives a little what He experienced. I testify as His representative that Christ lives! He loves us. He wants us to be like him and through His Atonement we can do it. 

With Love,

Elder Brady Lester

Mexico Week 92: Huge Missionary Effort

Hey Family!!

Well it’s Halloween! Hahahaha, are you guys going trick or treating? What are your costumes? I personally decided to be a missionary for this year’s Halloween. I know it’s the same as last year but I just like the outfit haha. The kids are already out here collecting their money and stuff. This weekend though there is going to be a huge, huge party going down in all of Puebla. We will see if I am able to sleep. 

Well I have been busy as always. We have been working, my comp and I, on some training meetings that we have this Saturday and next week. We also have a council meeting going down with the ZL this Friday and we have a lot to prepare. Also, I don’t know if I mentioned this, my comp and I have been in charge of the YSA activity, the Missionary part, for this year. It’s going to happen this weekend, but only tomorrow will we have our Missionary part. Actually we are acting, my comp and I, in a theatre work. It’s going to be cool, hahaha. We expect over 500 investigators from all over so we have been working with the South Mission APs to coordinate a Missionary effort to get these people’s references. We will be taking over 50 Missionaries from both Missions to help with this. We have over 500 BoM with our testimonies that we printed out and put in the book. It’s going to be sweet and even though I won’t be here to see the results, I am sure that there will be a few, hahaha. If I can, I will see if I can get pics and stuff. 

Don’t have much more time since we have a meeting here in a few minutes, but I just wanted to write real quick since I will be on the road again today and super busy this weekend. I hope that you all have a great week!! I love you all! Congrats Brinkley on your engagement. I am excited to meet Cameron and hope that you are happy with him :) Sounds like a pretty legit guy, hahahaha. Accounting...I like it :) 

Have a very Happy Halloween!!

 

Con Amor,
Elder Lester

 

Mexico Week 91: Busy Life Teaching and Training

Hey Family!

Well again I have been busier than ever! I actually have not been here for this week. We left Monday, my companion and I, to Tlaxcala and we have been working with various missionaries and just got back today, hahaha. We have been working hard trying to teach and train the Missionaries in the Mission. It has been a very great but also tiring experience. We have also been working on some problems with some Elders who have not been working as they should. 

The other day I was working with a couple ZL´s and we were contacting in the street and and one of the ZL´s started to contact a family of three that was walking in the street. This Elder started to ask a lot of inspired questions about the family and it was a very good contact. I watched an observed and the man was very stubborn about listening to the Missionaries and accepting an appointment. He kept saying that he had to work from 5am to 10pm everday, and that he spent his off day with his family shopping and stuff like that. I then asked him "why do you spend that only off day with your family and not somewhere else?" He told us that he does it because he loves his family and that he only has that one day to spend with them. So then I asked him "Then how about you let us come buy next week to teach you how to be with your family forever and not just one day of the week?" He then really started to think and he said..."shoot you guys are right. How about you come by next week?" Hahaha it was a great contact and the Spirit really helped us out. 

We have a lot to plan. We are starting to work now in reactivating in the Mission, and with the President we are creating a plan for the Stakes in the Mission to be able to work with the Missionaries to be able to reactivate the less active. We are also planning the changes for this transfer since my generation is going home a week early. We are planning a few training meetings that we are going to have in the Mission. We are planning who is going to take my spot, hahaha. Things are really rolling and it's getting done and the time just flies. 

Great to hear that you are all doing good. I hope that you all have a great week. Love and miss ya tons!! 

Con Amor,
Elder Lester

 

Streets of Puebla

I have some good friends that live in Chihuahua Mexico, Juarez, Mormon Colonies. Years ago when they got married in Mesa, AZ where Shelley is from, I traveled to Mexico with them for a wedding reception at the Jones Ranch. Kelly Jones' family is from there and they currently live there and he's a Stake President. They recently traveled to Mexico City and down South to Puebla. Shelley messaged me so she could see about getting a hold of Brady. She was able to call him and they visited for a bit. She said that he sounded wonderful and is happy. They were hoping to take Brady and his companion to dinner but their schedules didn't work out. I am just so grateful to Shelley for connecting with Brady and visiting with him. 

Here's some pictures of the streets of Puebla that she took while visiting.

I've seen this in Brady's pictures.

Puebla is Beautiful!

Mexico Week 90: Busy!

We did miss a letter from Elder Lester this week but he has been in contact with me and he is doing good. They had mission transfers they were working on and he stayed in the Mission Home with the President during this time. Later in the week he and his companion searched for new housing for them and the office Elders. There are five Missionaries living in one place together. Fun!

We look forward to getting a letter soon.

Mexico Week 89: Conferences, Learning and Spiritual Feeding

Hey Family, 

Well again I don't have much time to sit down and write a legit letter. I have been in and out of the offices all day everyday. Last night we didn't get home until 11:00pm. We are working hard getting ready for the changes that we have on Tuesday. We have sent two more Elders home too so it's been very crazy here. We have been working hard and we feel like we are behind but I believe that we are more ready for these changes than the last time. We have a lot of new things going down. We are splitting a Zone into two Zones. Now every Stake in the Mission will have their own Zone and Zone Leaders which makes things a lot easier. We have been working hard to think about how to do the changes for the next change because my generation is going home a week early. Things just have been really crazy. 

Last week though we really had a great week. A lot of Conferences but a lot of Learning and Spiritual feeding. My topics went great. In the Leadership Training meeting I talked about judging righteously in our callings and correcting disobedience. It went very well. I share the example of Lehi in 1 Nephi 8:37-38 and how we need to judge righteously like Lehi did to his sons. I shared another example in D&C 101:2-5 as well. In the regular Zone Conference I talked about the Atonement and Gossip. It went very well and I have learned a lot about the Atonement while studying my topic. It has been great. I have really looked into the Scriptures and notice that the Atonement is on every page of the BoM. One example would be 1 Nephi 3:31 when Nephi and Sam are beaten by his brothers and then the angel comes. It's very interesting to see how it is talking about the Atonement. 

The Conferences have been great and we have been able to teach the Elders a lot of things. We really hit the importance of being Obedient and Repenting because we need to get onto other things in the Mission and not always talk about the Obedience issue that we have. The President has said that if we are not willing to live in a Mission of Obedience, we can go home. 

Well we have started to talk about other things. On Friday we had our ZL conference and we talked about a lot of things. We talked about Numbers of Excellence that my companion and I have been wanting to have. They are great numbers and really high norms for us. It really is going to change the Mission. Yesterday we saw how excited the Mission is as we went to a couple Zone Training meetings. The new culture is being placed and everyone is excited! 

Well I don't have much time. Hope everyone is doing just great! Love you all and hope that you all have a great week! 

Con Amor,

Mexico Week 88: Crazy busy week!

Hey! 

Well I have no time to write but I feel bad because I have not been able to. Just want to write a quick message saying that everything is going great here. We are making some big leaps in the work here in Puebla! I hope that it continues that way. I know it will. President Christensen is a great President and what I love about him is that he teaches us how important the Mission is for our future and what we have to learn in the Mission in order to have a successful future. He is an inspired man and I know that he was called of God. 

Want you all to know that I love ya all and that I miss you :) We have had a busy week this week with Zone Conferences and Zone Leader Council and now it will be General Conference. It's been crazy and it's just going to get more crazy!! Have a great week!

Con Amor,

Areas and Companions

ELDER BRADY LESTER – AREAS AND COMPANIONS

1^st Area:  Huacaltzingo :  January 28, 2011 – May 30, 2011

1^st Companion and Trainer:  Elder Villaba, from Chihuahua Mexico – January 28^th - March 7^th

2^nd Companion:  Elder Lumbreras, from Mexico - March 7^th – May 30^th

2^nd Area:  Castillotla:  May 31, 2011 – December 2, 2011

3^rd Companion:  Elder Rojas, from Peru - May 31^st – August 22^nd

4^th Companion:  Became Senior Companion to: Elder Escamilla, from Sonora Mexico - August 22^nd – December 19^th

3^rd Area:  Centro – Center of Puebla:  Elder’s Lester and Escamilla were transferred on December 3, 2011 – December 19, 2011

4^th Area:  Apizaco – District Leader: December 19, 2011 – March 20, 2012

5^th Companion: Elder Estevez, from Tijuana Mexico

5^th Area:  Chignahuapan – Branch President:  March 20, 2012 –  June 18, 2012

6^th Companion: Elder Cano, from Sinaloa Mexico – March 20^th – May 7^th

7^th Companion:  Elder Rojas, from Peru - May 7^th – June 18^th (not the same Elder Rojas from Castillotla)

6^th Area: Tlaxcala – Zone Leader:  June 18, 2012 – September 2, 2012

8^th Companion:  Elder Nuncio, from Mexico - June 18^th – July 23^rd  

9^th Companion:  Elder Lopez, from Ecuador - July 23^rd – September 2^nd

7^th Area:  Puebla – Assistant to the President, AP, with Elder Lopez:   September 3, 2012 – Present

Mexico Week 87: Numbers of Excellence

Hey Family!

Thanks for your kind letters and words. I love you all and sounds like you all had a great week! Sounds like school is going great and work too.  Congrats Kolby for getting your job, hahaha. Hey Kasey, where do you work again?  Hahaha I forgot. Well anyways sounds like everything is doing just great. 

Well not a lot has been going on in our area. We have planned a lot so that we are working in our area at 6-9 pm each day.  We are going to be working every single day with the Missionaries in the Mission to help them and see what we need to help them and better the Mission. We have a lot of plans going down. We have Zone Conference coming up and my topic is the Atonement. It’s going to be difficult but I have been doing a lot of study and a lot of learning. It’s been fun. 

We are going to be talking a lot about putting numbers of excellence. We are trying to work hard on bettering the numbers in the Mission. We hope that we can get a lot of work done. This Mission is going up and up each week and we are really excited for what is going to happen in the future. 

Well I am sorry I don’t have a lot of time. I don’t have a lot to say either. I love ya tons! Hope that everything goes great!  Can’t wait until we see each other. Time is going by really fast. I love the Mission! It’s great here. I am learning a lot but I have learned that time just flies. 

Con Amor, 

Elder Brady Lester