Mexico Week 46 -- Serving Others is the Key to Happiness

To the best family in the whole world!  This week was a great one!

Is this the cutest puppy ever or what?! 

I found a Dr. Pepper here! They pretty much don’t exist, but I found one!  What a special night!! 

Saturday we walked for a million years.  It was the day of not finding anyone at home and all of our plans falling through, and we were with a member!  Poor thing, we walked so much but we found some tender mercies that day. These would be our pictures we took that night ... seriously exhausted! 

Hermana Elsa had us over for lunch on Thursday, or well, the day I hit one year in the mission and she bought me this bracelet. She is the cutest. 

Fun fact: Hermano Jose showed up to church this week with a white shirt, a tie, and he blessed the sacrament. We are so proud!! 

Okay, I´m going to tell you guys a funny story. Last night we were street contacting and as we were crossing the street, Hermana Gonzalez tried to talk with a lady and she made a face and says, “You scared me!”  She kept walking and Hermana Gonzalez follows her and says well we’d like to introduce ourselves and kind of tries to talk with her and the lady totally takes off running.  I was dying laughing after and Gonzalez says “What, you’re the one that taught me to be persistent!”  Ha! Ha!  It did make me laugh, but it also made my day to see her fearless and trying the best she could and it was just awesome.  I love her to pieces and she is such a great missionary. 

This is Hermana Z.  She’s a returned missionary and well, she’s getting divorced. She always puts on a tough face and tries to be happy, and her kids are amazing!  She invited us to eat yesterday and, well, she started to cry.  She said she just really needed to be with us, and we shared a really special message with them. We truly need to serve inside our wards and just be a family.  We never know what trials people have and sometimes, you just need someone to talk to and be your friend. 

 I SAW HERMANO OSCAR AND HERMANA KAREN THIS WEEK!! They went to ward FHE and ahh, just warmed my heart!!  They started talking about how their ward was so different than this one and how much they missed it and then Hermana Karen, looking me in the eye, says, “But we do things the right way, right Hermana?  We have to be obedient and we know the Lord has a plan and will bless us.” How AWESOME is that?!  They are two converts that are obedient even when it’s hard, even when it’s not what they want. Hermano Oscar was called to be the Young Men’s President and he is so excited to have a calling.  He was already telling us about all of his plans.  I am going to cry my eyes out in their temple sealing in December. 

Hermana Gonzalez and I hosted FHE this week and it was a hit!  We played the human knot and also put ourselves in circles and played the game where you have to pass the hula-hoop all the way around the circle, but it was a competition. We talked a lot about unity in our families and in our ward. The Lord says that if we’re not one, we’re not his. We need more activities like this to excite the ward and help our investigators to get integrated. 

Wednesday we walked for hours and also struggled to find people.  I started praying and thinking Heavenly Father please just help us find someone, tell us where to go.  I had the thought to look for a person that we met in the street about 3-4 months.  I just remembered where she lived and we went to look for her.  We found her and her 19 year old and they accepted baptismal dates!  They are really looking for peace and feel like it’s time to be closer to our Heavenly Father.  We are so excited to keep working with them! 

This week we also visited the Velazquez family.  Grandpa is exhausted.  He works all day, and takes grandma to the hospital three times a week, and helps with all the kids.  He told us that he feels such a heavy load, especially regret for past mistakes and sometimes his thoughts torment him.  As we talked, he just commented how a fresh start would be so nice.  Ah, we just have to get him to church!  Four of his grandkids went this week and I was dying.  They are too precious and they go by themselves!  The members help us by picking them up and taking them home.  We have faith, but this family needs a lot of help! 

We also found another new family this week.  It’s an unmarried couple with six kids.  They are too cute and also accepted to prepare to be baptized.  The young boys are wild and the mom just wants peace in her home. Her partner didn’t come home one night and the next day it was a real battle to get her to open the door, but she did and just started crying and gave us the biggest hugs.  We talked about the Atonement and the Sacrament and the Spirit was so strong! 

We had a blast finding new people this week!  I love you all so much!  On Thursday, I was thinking about exactly one year ago: Staying with Janille; eating at Zupa’s; the curb drop at the MTC; the snow; how nervous I was; Dad’s blessing; being so excited but having no idea what to expect.  I just want y’all to know that serving a mission is the best decision I ever made.  It has tried me, stretched me, made me grow, and more than every thing else, it has helped to me to come to know my Savior and my Heavenly Father.  I know them and I love them more than any other time in my life.  I am the most grateful I have ever been in my whole life for all of the blessings I have received.  I know who I want to be and I know what kind of life I am going to live here.  I am happy.  I know that we can only truly be happy by serving others and thinking about them more than ourselves.  I can’t believe it was a year ago, but I am so grateful for every opportunity and the six months I have left.  I want my sisters to read and ponder on this testimony.  I will support you Rach and Meg in whatever you decide, the most important is that we love the Lord and truly rely on Him.  It’s hard.  It’s really hard for us stubborn and independent Rawe/Henderson’s, but if we rely on Him, it all works out and we’re never really scared. Love you all to the moon and back! 

Words of Wisdom -- From President Uchtdorf

The Resurrection of Jesus Christ – the most remarkable event in the history of the world — created a way for all people to receive eternal life. Also, it transformed a band of frightened, worried disciples into a dynamic group of fearless missionaries who changed the world.

“The events of that day have the potential and power to do the same for every servant of the Lord,” President Dieter F. Uchtdorf declared in an Easter message on April 20.

President Uchtdorf, second counselor in the First Presidency, spoke to an assembly of some 1,400 gathered in the Lorenzo Snow Building on the campus of the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah. Thousands of other missionaries watched by satellite broadcasts in training centers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, England, Ghana, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru, South Africa and Spain. Missionaries in training centers in New Zealand and the Philippines viewed the broadcast on a tape-delayed basis.

President Uchtdorf quoted scriptures telling of the events of those days in which Jesus went through the Atonement in the Garden of Gethsemane, His trial and death by crucifixion on Calvary.

“The disciples huddled together afraid, perhaps in disbelief that their Master was really dead,” he said. “I can imagine them looking into each other’s eyes and feeling confusion, anger and, perhaps most of all, a profound and consuming grief.”

He spoke of an angel rolling away the stone from the tomb; the proclamation, “He is risen;” and the Resurrected Lord’s appearance, first, to Mary Magdalene and His instruction to her: “Go to my brethren, and say unto them, ‘I ascend unto my Father, your Father; and to my God, and your God.’”

President Uchtdorf told the missionaries they all knew the story of what happened next: how the Savior appeared to His disciples, invited them to touch Him and see for themselves that He lived, tarried among His followers, taught from the scriptures the things concerning Himself and appeared to more than 500 people.

“It is remarkable to me how things changed after that day,” President Uchtdorf said of the first Easter. “Before His death, Jesus’ disciples were mostly in the role of witnesses and followers. They observed and learned, and they witnessed the Savior’s acts and teachings.

“But everything changed for them after Christ rose from the tomb.”

President Uchtdorf spoke of Peter. “What do we see in this ‘rock’ of a man prior to the Resurrection? Among other things, we see fear.”

He quoted scriptures describing Peter’s courageous steps in the water toward the Savior but how he called out in fear as he began to sink when his faith failed him. Also, President Uchtdorf spoke of how fear overtook Peter, causing him to deny knowing Jesus on the night of His trial.

“Peter later wept and agonized over that betrayal,” President Uchtdorf said. “With broken heart he pleaded with God for forgiveness. How could he have been so weak? How could he have allowed fear to make him deny the man whom he knew as ‘the Christ, the Son of the living God?’

“But from the moment Peter saw the risen Christ, he was transformed. He was a different man. Along with James and John, he was a true leader.

“No longer was he afraid. From that moment on he boldly testified that, ‘This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses’” (Acts 2:32).

President Uchtdorf said the men who had conspired to kill the Savior surrounded Peter, but as a “revitalized, fearless champion of God,” Peter continued to preach the gospel —particularly to those who murdered the Christ. “He boldly confronted them, claiming that Jesus had risen from the dead, the first fruits of the resurrection.”

Peter and John were taken into custody and brought to the rulers, elders and scribes for interrogation; Annas the high priest and Caiaphas were there. “It must have been an intimidating group — a group that held Peter and John’s lives in their hands,” President Uchtdorf said.

“But any trace of the old, fearful Peter had by now disappeared in the magnificent refiner’s fire of that Easter Sunday morning. Peter confronted those who condemned him — the very men who had slain His Lord — with miracles performed in the name of the Lord….

“From that moment to the end of his life, Peter faced threats, ridicule, hatred, and humiliation. But he did not back down. He feared no man. Nothing kept him from fulfilling his mission to raise his voice as a witness of his Savior, Jesus Christ.”

President Uchtdorf asked the MTC congregations, “What does this have to do with your sacred calling as missionaries?

“Elders and Sisters, each day you put on your nametags it teaches an important message. You are disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. Like Peter, you have taken upon yourselves the name of the Lord and the great responsibility to spread the happy and glorious news of the gospel of Jesus Christ.

“The ancient apostles were charged by the Lord to teach and baptize all nations, ‘teaching them to observe all … I have commanded.’ As missionaries you are the extended arm of the Twelve Apostles of today with the same promise that the Lord will be with you, even unto the end of the world.

“Every day of your missions and every day of your lives you are faced with choices similar to what Peter had to make. Like Peter, you have the same question before you: What kind of witness will you be?

“Among our 85,000 missionaries there are many who, like Peter, are fearless in proclaiming the truth. They approach each day with renewed vigor. Even in the face of ridicule, apathy and hatred they raise their pure and joyful voices and proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

He spoke of Elder Fabrizio Ricciardi, a convert from Italy who served some 30 years ago as a missionary in Great Britain. His parents were troubled about him serving a misson, but he went, with peace in his heart. He determined that since his decision to serve had been so costly, he would make his time as a missionary count.

One of his missionary companions, Elder Danny Q. Humphrey, later wrote that every morning before they left the house, Elder Ricciardi would look at himself in the bathroom mirror, point and say, “I fear no man.”

President Uchtdorf related that Elder Humphrey, a junior companion, wrote that as he stumbled along, Elder Ricciardi taught him many things about being a missionary. At one point, Elder Ricciardi asked, “Elder, do you know who you are?” He then opened the Book of Mormon to 3 Nephi 5:13 and read: “Behold, I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. I have been called of him to declare his word among his people, that they might have everlasting life.

“Then [Elder Ricciardi] looked at his junior companion and said, ‘Elder, you are a disciple of Christ! You fear no man!’”

He said Elder Ricciardi was never an assistant to the president or a zone leader, but he trained many new missionaries. “Training new missionaries is one of the most important leadership positions in the mission field.

“On this Easter Sunday and always, I invite you to consider the example of the apostle Peter who overcame his fears and became a courageous missionary and leader in the Church. It is not only Peter we can learn from – we can learn from all missionaries who have the same kind of commitment and dedication – missionaries like Elder Ricciardi.

“Each day, let us remind ourselves that we are disciples of the Savior, Jesus Christ. And because He is with us, we do not fear.”

President Uchtdorf assured the missionaries that as they incline their hearts and minds to the Savior, “He will surely lift you up and strengthen you. He will visit you with knowledge, peace and courage. He will prepare the way for you and send His angels to surround and uphold you.

“He will help you overcome fear. He will help you rise up and become men and women of God.”

After the meeting, President Uchtdorf shook hands with dozens of missionaries. Elder Selwin Lovell, a missionary from the South American nation of Guyana assigned to the Mississippi Jackson Mission, was among many elders who received a warm embrace from President Uchtdorf.