Week 52

Hi mom, I hope that all is going well back at home, things are certainly interesting here in Veracruz. We are finally in the last week of May, which means that it might start to cool down here pretty soon. I don't know how hot it is during the day, I know that when I get back at night, it is 90 degrees or more. Needless to say I am drinking a lot a lot of water. As far as how the area is going, we are really starting to find some men here to join the  church, which is so awesome. 

As a bit of explanation the strength of a ward is determined by the amount of priesthood. They are the only ones that can conduct interviews, and especially here in Mexico determine where their families go. We have a couple of really interesting families I wanted to mention today.

1. Familia Perez- It is a family of a single mother with 4 sons. 3 of the sons have served missions. And one of those is married, his name is Oscar. They had all gone inactive for a while so we started to go with them. When we went with them, they shared how they felt that the church was always asking more, and how they felt that they were never living up to the Lord´s expectations. We did a  very sacred lesson on the difference between sacrifice and consecration. So often in this life we sacrifice, which means we give up something external, like time, or energy, or money. Instead the higher law is consecration, which means giving something internal, love, desire, and thoughts. It means a change of person. People that sacrificed are blessed, but they are never happy, because thee more we give to God the more he asks. Although they get blessings they end up being asked to give those blessings back, for which we are blessed more. There are only three options for someone who sacrifices, become consecrated, become more and more frustrated as you are asked to sacrifice more, or give up sacrificing. As we shared this with the family, their countenance changed, Oscar has reactivated, and has become the ward mission leader. The other 3 brothers have started going on divisions with us. Little by little they are reactivating, and it makes me super happy.

2. Veronica and Anselmo- They're a wonderful young couple. Anselmo was a youth baptism in the next town over that never served a mission, which he regretted. We are trying to help them fix their marriage and find the peace the gospel brings. He is honestly wonderful and it was great to see how he was interacting. His wife Veronica is a teacher here (if you think being a teacher in the US is tough, try it in Mexico, some of the stories I hear), and she fit right in with the Sociedad de Soccorro.

3. Juan Arenas- He is an ex-ward secretary, and it is awesome to see him slowly come back. He has a son that is not a member. And they are all getting closer to the gospel. 

Between all of these groups, we are starting to see how, little by little, the elders quorum is getting stronger. Recently the Stake President has been here correcting things, and its great because people are starting to work hard together to help one another, and I really hope that we will be able to see a strong ward here soon.

Anyways, that's the news from here in cosamoalapan, I love you all, take care!

Elder Standridge