Endure to the End in Charity

Hello!

 

Buen dia from Mexico today! I just got done playing soccer for about 5 hours. I'm not super great with the ball handling, but I got mean defense and when I'm goalie I only let the sister missionaries get goals so I don't get in trouble.

 

This week was HARD. One of those weeks when you roll the sleeves up, put your head down and just work. And work means lots of walking and talking and then running home so ya arrive home in time. The worst part of it all is that my comp convinced me to try eye tacos. They didn't taste that bad, but I suffered for a couple days after. We knocked some doors, the first time I've knocked doors in my whole misión. In all we didn't teach very many lessons this week. We talked to lots of people in the street, but normally its not all that effective. I even contacted a couple buses! That was fun, and we found a new person from doing it!  We didn't have a ton of success this week, but we enjoyed. 

 

Two of the greatest lessons I've learned in my misión really helped me this week: 

The first is to ALWAYS have a prayer in your heart. I didn't really know what that meant when I showed up to Mexico, but its something I will do for the rest of my life. It means to always be in constant communication with God. Whether that be through a silent prayer, a song, or sometimes just listening to what He's got to say. There are 1 million ways to do this, but it requires discipline and virtue. And when you do it, you ALWAYS have the Spirit with you, you will have power in your voice when you talk, and you will not fall into temptation. Christ taught the Nephites to do it in 3 Nephi... Read the whole book to find out what chapter it is and tell me later :)

 

The second is to "come what may and love it". When we have a loving attittude, when can learn from the good or the bad. When we are hot or we are tired, or when its hard, its awfully easy to complain. Its very easy to forget all our many blessings, I think that's why a prophet of God has said that the most important word in the dictionary is "remember". This week I'm grateful for lots of walking and hard days because I know that all these things will be for my own good. I know that Christ suffered for not only our sins but pains, shortcomings, and hard days. I often thought this week, "If Christ could suffer for all, I can suffer a little." 

 

"We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, its a habit" -- Aristotle

 

When Luis told us this week that he wouldn't be baptized because he still hasn't received an answer about the BoM, we decided to fast, and we had an experience that strengthened the testimony of my comp. I'm sad Luis won't be baptized just quite yet, but I'm sure that if he had decided to be baptized, my comp wouldn't of had the experience.  

 

Elder Minnick