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

 

Week 51~~

Hey mom, I dont know if I ever shared this with you mom, I had a really spiritual experience at the start of my mission. I was really hurting, really sad, an wantedto go home, and I wanted to go home. My companion, who I still think was the hardest companion I have had up until this point, gave me a blessing, and I just felt so very comforted. Those hands in that moment did not belong to him, but to God. The priesthood gives us the ability to act in the place of Jesus Christ because he cannot be here at this time. ITs awesome, and it has brought me so much comfort. 

I honestly had an experience that made me convinced to become a vegetarian after I finish this mission. Oe day, a member cooked this feast of pork, chicken, and beef. While delicious it was greasy. It was fine at first, I didnt eat too much or anything, but about 30 minutes later, I was sweating a ton, and felt sick. Within an hour I was throwing up, and my companion was sick, even the host called us to ask how we were doing because she was sick. There was nothing wrong with the meat because it was gone within the day, it was just eating meat on a hot day. The next day, the member cooked pure vegetables with just a little bit of shredded chicken and a ton of fruit. It honestly made me feel so much better physically. I am not saying if someone cooks me meat I wont eat it (I am not a sae the animals kind of God) but the word of wisdom states we should eat but very little meats, which I think is counsel I will follow. Also check out D&C it says that we should got bed early so we dont get tired and get up early so we get invigorated. Its so true. I think another thing I am going to do different is I am going to keep getting up at 6 or 630 everyday when I am done, and I am done with staying up until 3, its just unnecessary and dumb.

Thank you guys for all that you do for me, I am so grateful that you are doing so much for me with the card and package and everything. Please keep grandma safe, and call the missionaries there to give her a priesthood blessing. Both of us know how much comfort a blessing of counsel can bring, I know that blessings of healing really work because I have seen how much they help the people here.

If i ask president there is no chance, if you call and ask him, maybe, so go ahead and give it a shot if you would like. You probably wont talk to him, because his english is not great, but he should give you an answer. 

When I got here in Cosamoalapan mom, the assistance was 75 pretty consistently, and the ward was honestly dying. This past week it had gotten up to 100. It honestly makes me incredibly grateful for the chance to be here. So many peoples lives are being changed, and those who are active members are really growing in their testimony. Its great mom, I am loving this transfer. One thing that I have learned here is one of the secrets of prayer. First we have to give gratitude, then we have to ask for the attribute that we wish to develop to be able to accomplish what we are praying for, then we promise what we are going to do ensure that the prayer is answered, and then, and only then, do we ask for Heavenly Father to do what we want done. For example if I were to want help with my school work. I would thank Heavenly FAther for my gifts and my opportunity to learn, then I would ask for increased diligence and desire to learn, I would then promise what changes I would make in my life to get better grades, and then, and only then, I would ask heavenly father to help me to have knowledge brought to my mind, strength to endure, etc. I also need to avoid asking things that Christ wouldn't ask for, the scriptures say that is sin, so like in this example I shouldn't ask please make the final easy, or please make sure the curve is really low, or something like that. I really have noticed that when we pray in faith like that, God more readily gives answers to our prayers, because they are prayers of faith. Faith is nothing more nor less, than the willingness to act on what is given to us from God, so the promise to act is extremely important. (we hope that we will get something if we do an action, because we know we are true).

I love you very much mom, today is my halfway point ( you now may tell people its my halfway point if you have not already done so), but 11 more days until a year. I hope everything goes well, I will be praying for you guys. Take care!

Love Kevin

 

Week 50 ~~

Hi All - I cut out some personal stuff and here is the rest of the letter from this week!!

Anyways, as far as the mission goes. Right now this past week we just baptized a woman named Dilia, she is a little old Grandma. She wasn't going to get baptized because of pain walking. But luckily all of those injuries I got in high school running, I knew what was hurt and was able to show her how to get some relief. That being said, the funniest moment of my week, was my companion trying to baptize this woman. He is still super new, and she just wouldn't go under the first time, so then she decided that she is going to baptize herself. And lets go of my companion, walks over, grabs the handrail and dunks her head under water with like one arm waving above. Needless to say for what should have been a sacred ordinance I was really way to close to laughing.

We have been teaching her 8 year old granddaughter, but the girl has a serious coffee addiction, so we need to make sure to keep on her so she doesn't do that. Its just sad that an 8 year old has a coffee addiction.

In terms of other things that I am dealing with, I have a wonderful investigator named Jaime, and he is great, he loves the book of Mormon, and goes to church, but he has two problems. First off, he doesn't pray, which makes it rather difficult if one is looking to get an answer from God. Second he smokes 16 Cigarettes a day, and has done so for the past 40 years, so he is going to have to overcome that to get baptized. It is really weird because I feel like he just needs a little bit more, and he would so be able to overcome it. There is a recent convert here in the ward who should be able to give him advice because she smoked a pack and a half daily.

Something that has really been hard for me to learn out here is the art of asking questions. It is a very very difficult thing to do. If I want to ask good questions I have to think of exactly what I want the person to learn, and how I want them to learn, but the challenge is that so often when I try and teach with scriptures, people just read them and then don't pay any attention to what is being said. Its as if the words go in one ear and out the other. So that is my great frustration.

A moment when I had a surreal experience this week was with a less active, I got a prompting to go knock on the door of a less active who I knew had no interest in going to church. I felt the prompting, ignored it, then the next time we passed by, I felt it again and so we knocked the door, she let us in, and we started talking about going to church and she said she was too busy to do that. She put up a bunch of excuses, and then I told her what she could do to overcome the difficulties, and she didn't want to. I then responded I felt like a parent watching their child do drugs because I knew all of the blessings that she would get from the sacrament and she said I know the consequences and I am going to accept them. In that moment I thought wow, this is not the Gospel of Elder Standridge. This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Its not always about what I want, and not everyone is going to accept what I am sent to say. Sometimes I am sent so that at judgment day that everyone will have gotten a fair chance.

This is quite an interesting topic, I asked President about it. Can I really affect the salvation of someone else. If I chose to be disobedient and lost the spirit in the mission, would God honestly allow one of my brothers to be lost. The answer is no, he always has another means, like with Nephi making the second set of brass plates. If I fail as a missionary, the people will still go to the kingdom that they are willing to receive, and God will give them the best chance. Why then do we preach the Gospel. The scriptures have 2 answers. First is to prepare the world so that it is ready to receive the savior when he comes. And the second is to avoid ´´the abomination of desolation´´ or in other words the consequences here in this world of sinful action. There was an extremely poor country torn apart by civil war, where the people had hardly any more for even food. What was President Benson´s (I think it was him) advice, they need to pay their tithing. Why? Because the Lord would then bless them with what they needed physically. I am not just here to help people for after this life, but for what will happen right here, right now. Wow the mission is great. I love getting to work every day to help those around me. I get to bring blessings to those in need, and although some people may reject the message, so many people are changed and grow, and it makes me just so very happy. 

I love you both, and enjoyed very much our phone call. hope to hear from you soon.

Love, Kevin

Week 49 ~

Hi mom, 

I am thinking like 4 or 5 my time for skyping, but honestly I didn't plan it yet, and I don't know what phone calls I will have to make to leaders, so we shall see. It will be 40 minutes on Sunday. Church takes priority over the phone call so dont come home early okay!

Mom this has honestly been one of the most stressful weeks of my mission. This new assignment as a leader really makes me work so very much harder, and I am trying my absolute hardest. Its hard, and I don't know really how to help the people in my district. Its really a blessing here in the mission because the moment I get comfortable, the moment I feel like I know how to handle the job that I am currently doing, God seems to give me new challenges. I had a moment this week of ultimate stress, when I prayed, and during the prayer I didn't feel comforted or helped, but after I finished, got into bed, an overwhelming sense of peace washed over me as I realized that all that I was struggling with was for my own good and would one day help me when I encounter life's stresses.

Ah, so the experience of the week has been helping a companionship. One companionship`in my district has not brought anyone to church for nearly 12 weeks (that is very very bad). They cant find anyone new to teach, and they have tried everything that I can think of. Meanwhile I in my own area have been having problems with finding new people to teach. As I studied in preach my gospel, I found a section that said our spiritual power depends on the revelation we receive. For some reason, as I read that, I realized the need to find revelation for myself and the members of the district. Then a scripture came to my mind, that said we must seek learning by study and faith. That is the key, to revelation, that is how Joseph smith was called and got almost the whole D&C. I know mom that sometimes we have problems we don't know how to solve, but as we seek revelation through study and faith we will have the  power to overcome the problems we have. Something I have realized is that I have to have a sense of urgency during my work. I have to remember what is at stake every minute. Also, I realized that sometimes we are given commandments and we don't always understand why. A commandment we have is to talk to everyone we can, for example in the street. Which I had never understood because almost no one invites a stranger off the street to their house. But something I read in a talk this week  

I love my new companion, he just finished his training but he is already a pretty good teacher, it is honestly pretty cool to be with him. I honestly love you so much mother, you are wonderful, every night, I want you to know how much I thank God to have you as my mother, I honestly am so grateful that I cannot describe it. Please just keep working. Do everything right, go to church, pay tithing, keep the word of wisdom, study the scriptures. I know how hard your life is right now. I know how difficult it is. But like President Uchtdorf said during conference, God is pouring down blessings and the only thing that stops them from reaching us is disobedience. Right now, I can tell you need blessings, please, no matter how tired you are, no matter how stressful it gets, don't stop the blessings when you need them most. Sometimes we don't see when our problems will end, but we just have to have faith that our problems are for our good. I cant wait to see you next week mom, I love you lots! 

Kevin

 

Week 48

Hi mom,

Well in two weeks we will get to talk so I am getting excited. Its so funny that I feel like I just spoke to you not to long ago, really the time just flies. Well anyways, we had transfers this week, and Elder romero will be going to Catemaco, which is known as the witch town, so I teased him a lot about it. Anyways, so with the cambios, I got made district leader here in cosamoalapn, which means that I have a lot more work to do here in the area, because I am no longer just worried about me, but also about how others are doing as well. ITs really weird because I have to treat the missionaries a little like investigators, and always try and help them.

I know how stressful work is mother, I know how stressful law school is, but really I know and promise you that if you keep working that peace will come. there is peace mom. there is rest.  I want you to go in and study Mosiah 24 about Alma. Really focus on how you an apply what Alma and his people did to your life, and not only what they did, but how the Lord helped. I love you very much, but dont let yourself get overstressed, everything will workout for your good. I feel so thankful to hear what the church has done to help you out. I know how hard it is with financial problems, but keep doing, be wise, and the Lord will help. Never let a single day go by without 1 chapter from the book of mormon. Those are the most important 5 minutes of the day.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2004/04/earthly-debts-heavenly-debts?lang=eng

Its funny mom how fast time is going. I remember very clearly your 40th birthday party and everything with the pool. I cannot believe that 10 years have passed. I feel like time will just keep going. Hahaha, I wish I could be there to see Kristy and them, it would be great, I really did enjoy their letters, it was super awesome. Wow, at least I will be home for the 25tth wedding anniversary, I better start working!

Anyways, as far as the church is going,, you should see how much less active work we are doing mom, we had an assistance of over 94, which considering we started in the 70s when I got here is pretty solid. The key that I have learned here in my mission is to never chew people out. Yes, many of these less actives are doing things that are horrible, stupid, illogical, and they make me frustrated. But anger comes from Satan, it comes from selfishness. I have really learned to be able to close my eyes and put myself in their shoes and then teach based out of love. 

Mom, I really want to make you a promise about something I have seen here. Never ever ever break the day of rest. Please please please do not do it ever. Never work on Sunday. Never purchase anything on Sunday. Please, I have seen way too many families destroyed because they choose to break the day of rest. I know mom that if you take Sunday as a day of rest that the Lord will bless you with a freedom from your stress. I know that he will bless you to have enough to meet your financial obligations, and that you will do better in Law school. He will bring the knowledge to your mind when you need it. It is so so so important. Also never ever forget tithing. The hardest time to pay tithing is when we dont have much to give, but that is the time when we need the blessings most. I know that these two things are the most important to have faith. Faith isnt begging for gods help until we have an aneurism. Faith is taking action based on the belief that he will keep his promises, even when we dont see how he will do it. I have perfect knowledge that I am incapable of directing a mission area, the Lord puts the people in my path, and I know he will do the same for you and Dad.

I

 love you, I pray about you, I miss you, and will see you soon.

Elder standridge

Week 47

Hi mom,

Well its another really wonderful week here in the mission, and it really touched me how much I have gotten to learn down here from President Cordova. I honestly feel like I could not have a better mission president. I would guess most people feel like that, but when they talk about your mission president and his wife forming parental figures in your life, it is so true. I really see the vision that he has shared with us, and completely agree with all my heart with the changes he has made in the mission during his tenure. 

Anyways, I mention all of this about President Cordova because this week we had interviews, and it was really a spiritual highlight so far in my mission. He had sent us off this story about two Elders, Elder Strong and Elder Green. Basically the idea of the story was that Elder Strong really was not afraid of anyone, talked with everyone he met in the street, and his companions complained because he worked them so hard. He said that the reason he worked so hard was because he was a disciple of Christ. As I sat there in my interview with President he started talking to me about my area, saying that the number of people at church was good, that I was doing a lot of good work with less actives and that my companion and I had really lifted Cosamoalapan. He did say that the area that needed improvements was contacting because we had 18 contacts for the week. So we got to talking and something he shared with me was that when missionaries really truly understand who they are, when they understand that they are disciples of Jesus Christ, and that their purpose is to help their brothers and sisters to become like their father in heaven, then they will want to talk with everyone. Then they will want to go with every less active possible, because they really want the salvation of their brothers and sisters. I pointed out that it was really hard to know what Jesus Christ would do in situations, because I am nowhere near as strong as he is. Jesus could just know who he should go talk to, but I am not that in tune to the spirit. He said, Jesus didn't need to go to the people, they came to him simply because of who he was. That is the purpose of our missions, yes the baptisms and all of that are important, but more than anything else, it is to become like him, to change who we are, how we think. In my mission, I have always had a very hard time with patience, really sometimes I just feel like I cannot take it anymore. I sit in a lesson, and I can ask sister what blessings would you like from God. And the response i get is well praying to him. And I am like no not how do you get blessings, what blessings would you like, to which the response is well asking him right. Sometimes I just get so frustrated because people don't get what I am trying to say, not because of Spanish, but because they're not paying attention. I have tried telling people to pay attention, or scolding them (appropriately) when they give me a dumb excuse to not keep a commandment, but it never works. Something they said in general conference was that it does no good to yell at darkness. We cannot scold people into keeping the commandments, we have to help them see and understand the blessings. Jesus said that the problem of the pharisees was that they did not understand the scripture, I want mercy and not sacrifice. That is how it is with us, we should want our brothers and sisters to be happy, and try and show them how the Gospel will bring them that. We should want mercy for them, and not punishment for breaking the commandments. I also realized that everyone paid attention while Jesus was there. When he spoke, he did it with authority, and everyone listened. We as missionaries need to love people to the point that they can feel it and pay attention to our message because they know we care about them. Needless to say, I set out feeling very spiritually lifted, and seeing everyone way differently than I did before.

This week at church was pretty awesome. All of this less active work we have been doing has been paying off, this week there were 18 less actives and 6 investigators at church. It was honestly awesome to see how they are progressing. This is even more awesome because the relief society president went on vacation, and had her family been there, there would have been 90 people at church (my current goal is 100) so really we are starting to see some major success.

Oh another thing, my new favorite fruit is mango. I love love love mangos! Those things are great! The only problem is how messy they are, like honestly if you cut them up, they have a great texture and taste. One of those less actives just happens to give out fruit cocktails and gives us them when we pass by (that is like my dream come true, the key to any Elders platonic heart is through his stomach)

Its getting hotter and hotter down here. We live right next to a sugar cane factory, the largest in the world, so there are days where it just rains ash, which is fine, because its not small particles, but instead big chunks so it doesn't bug me to much. That being said it does lock the heat in more, which is no fun when you have this much humidity and temperatures. 

Anyways, I have no photos or anything, but I want you to know I love you and the next time I do something fun I will give you lots of photos!

Miss you

Kevin

 

Week 46~~

Hi Mom,

I really am sorry to hear about how much you've been struggling and have been stressed with your work as of late. I know how it is to really feel like someone is breathing down your back, and to feel like you cannot do everything that you need to. Always remember mom, that this life is meant to be filled with trials. Many times we may pray and not get what we ask for. Why? Because God is a perfect Father, and sometimes our desires are the spiritual equivalent of asking for ice cream for dinner. Sometimes we need to struggle and stress and fight because that is what will change us from who we currently are into who God knows we can be. Keep fighting mom, be diligent, remember that part of faith is action. A good way to structure prayers is to always say what you are going to do to fix your own problem. Then ask for counsel, ask that solutions will come into your mind and that he will help you to know how to work more efficiently. Perhaps ask on whether certain studying tactics or techniques are what you should do. Also remember that our personal diligence and obedience will determine how much God answers. Why? because he is a perfect father, and sometimes our behavior is so poor that to give us what we ask for would simply be rewarding bad behavior. The more blessings we want, the more we have to work to keep the commandments. I know its stressful, but something that has always helped me is to keep my mind centered on a very eternal perspective. You and I must struggle in our respective areas for more or less one more year, but we have all of eternity to enjoy the blessings that God has prepared for us. Remember always that the consequence of sin is misery, it does not matter what excuse we try and put, when we sin, we are unhappy, always. I love you very much, and know how hard you are working. Remember that every Sunday you have the right to partake of the sacrament and if you go with a broken heart and a contrite spirit, you can feel the peace and joy that comes from having guilt wiped away.

It really has nothing to do with the offices mom, they did not get the package until I got down here to Tuxtpec, which was less than a month ago. You have to understand that while I am in the city of Veracruz, I will get my stuff quickly, while I am outside of the city, I will get it slowly. Speaking of which, I have about 60 (i am guessing) vitamins, so when you send off the next package please throw another bottle in, those are really expensive down here.

It makes me happy to hear about the rest of the family, especially to hear grandma is doing water aerobics (as in iron man, when I get home i will say I want 3 things, an american cheese burger, to be released, and to go to a gym, cheese burger first). I cannot believe  that I have missed all of Ally's pregnancy, that is incredible, I hope she is doing well, and that the baby is born healthy. It makes me a little sad that no one in the family has written me, I mean grandma I understand, but I have been out for nearly a year, and not a single letter from a single family member other than Kristy and David (who i love to death btw)...just  a little sad sometimes.

Mother I would send you some pictures, but the unfortunate thing is that I  have done absolutely nothing fun. So there are no pictures, Elder Romero and I have been working really hard, and PDay is please do not interrupt my nap day. So really I could send you some pictures of our small apartment, or the dog, but more than that I don't have much right now.

Speaking of the dog, so we live with members, and this week, they decided to let the dog out for a while (Mexican dogs are all over the streets and you never know the strays from the owned ones, but the strays usually have a ton of diseases and are pretty nasty). Well this dog, which has the same body fat percentage as sparky (Same eating habits too, Elder Romero likes to show her a chip and just watch her drool before eating it himself), decided to follow us for literally 30 minutes walking, it was so dead that we had to call our neighbors to come pick it up, which when they did (no one has a car here) they had to pull it by the ear to keep it from following us. 

Something made me super sad this week mom, we had been working with this less active, he is an RM and everything. I cannot give him a scripture he has not already heard, and he knows he is not okay and that he is condemning himself, but he just wont change the behavior. It honestly is so frustrating, we have invited him, and done a bunch of stuff, even passed by to bring him to church (he showed interest and promised to go) but wont help himself. I never understood any of the people like Thomas B Marsh or Oliver Cowdry until I met this man. Sometimes we just see other peoples small errors as so large that we forget that we made our covenants between ourselves and God and no one else are involved in them. 

This week was also super depressing because of Carnival. The Spanish word for flesh is carne, so you need to understand that a carnival is a festival of flesh, so it means a lot of alcohol, and a lot of very dirty things in the streets the next day. The worst part was that everyone, even most of the actives decided to go to carnival instead of church. It honestly made me so sad, we were working really hard this week, but honestly, this one thing killed us. That being said, we had 7 investigators at church, and one ex missionary menos activo (who is getting ready to come back to activity) so I cannot complain too much. 

Anyways, this week we are going to have a meet the Mormons showing in the next town over, and we are going to make an apple pie, which should be awesome. I realized how tough my mouth and body had become when I ate a raw chipaya pepper and it was hot but I wasnt suffering. I honestly need to make some salsa for you guys when we get back (guacamole is a type of salsa btw). Anyways, I will never ever eat chicken again when I come back home, you do not understand to what degree we are fed chicken, literally 6 times a week minimum. I love some of the different ways they do it, but in this town specifically its a little nuts. 

Anyways, I love you very much mom, I miss you and pray for both you and Dad every day. I know its not easy, but one day I promise you, you will be recompensed for your work. If you need any help with any kind of accounting or anything, send it off to me, and I will take care of it for you, its the least I can do.

Love you!

Kevin