Matthew 3:2

hi fam,

This week was tight!  I did diviones with one of the DL's in my zone. We had a good time...and I met some really cool investigators. This elder I went with has had a hard time inviting others to baptism, and his whole district does too!  They find like 30 people a week but only have three baptismal dates.... and that ain't good. So we invited EVERYONE to baptism. I had fun with it. Preach My Gospel lets us use our personality, so when you really do live the gospel, other people see it and get curious to know why we are so happy. We had some cool experiences. When the Spirit is there its hard for the people to say no!

Cool experience this week... I got a call from my old Zone leaders this week. They called to tell me about one of my old investigadores. His super awesome. I'll call him Juan.  He is one of the coolest guys I ever met. Very genuine and very prepared to receive the gospel. He was abused as a child and has struggled and struggled with many temptations. I contacted him about 8 months ago, and we gave him a BoM. He was super interested but lived in another area, so we sent the other missionaries to visit him. But they lost contact with him. About 4 months ago we found him again.. he moved into our area! So with the help of our ward and the sister missionaries we taught him the gospel. He wanted to be baptized but things weren't looking too good because he had made some mistakes only a short time before we started teaching him. When I left my old area, he had just attended church for the 5th time, and we were waiting to hear about his baptism. This week they called me and told me he passed his interviews! He will be baptized in these next couple weeks, and he is committed to the temple in the next year! I didn't sleep the next night because I was so excited! I probably wont be able to go to the baptism, but he told me he was going to call me after!

There is no greater blessing than to see others come unto Christ with full purpose of heart! I know that God lives, and because of the Atonement, we can all repent. With His help, we will overcome sin and temptation. Thanks to our Redeemer, guilt becomes peace. I love my mission and I love the gospel!

elder minnick

The House of the Lord is a House of Sacrifice

Hello,

This week was one to remember! We had the temple dedication of the Mexico City Temple! We are in the temple district, so we were able to see the cultural celebration and the dedication in our stake center. I'll give you the deets here!

The celebration was cool. The sound wasn't that great in the Stake Center, so my comp and I were running around explaining to our investigadores what was going on. It was more like a play but part of it, they acted out scenes from the BoM. It was cool to see the face of the investigators when they recognized parts that we have read, it helped them see the BoM in a new way. 

The dedication has been one of the spiritual highlights of my mission. Thinking about it, I got mad at myself because I went to two dedications before my mission and didn't get anything out of it.. so this time I went prepared. We went to two of the three sessions. I would've gone to the third, but I got a little too excited at the food in between the second and third session and dumped my plate on my shirt... its okay because the shirt was yellow anyway.

Pres. Eyring presided at the dedication. He was there with Elder Holland and Elder Kent F. Richards, also the Mexico Area Presidency was there. All the talks were excellent! They were different talks in every session too. So that meant I got to hear Elder Holland speak two times in one day.... which is a dream come true for just about any missionary. I learned too much from all of the speakers and I'd share it all with you but I don't have that kind of time, and some things are better kept sacred :)

But here are some of my notes...

The House of the Lord is a house of sacrifice... what sacrifices does the lord want?
3 Nehpi 9:15-22

What did the pioneers sacrifice to build temples? Love (sacrifice) is really spelled T-I-M-E

We re-dedicate temples. Shouldn't we also re-dedicate our lives to the Lord in service? Re-dedication means to "clean the inner vessel", make adjustments, and improvements to our lives so that we can live a consecrated life.

Three feelings you will always feel in the temple:  1) gratitude 2) the light of understanding 3) the love of God...what more do we need?

Everything we do in our lives is to prepare us to be sealed in the temple, and to keep that covenant forever (hint hint Whit and Tay) so we must keep our priorities straight to help us make and keep that covenant!  Check your priorities!

Weekly temple attendance isn't a suggestion, its a commandment...especially if you can see three temples from your back yard. (hint hint Zane, Dad and Mom)

More than anything I am extremely grateful to my Father in Heaven for the blessing I have to live in these days. I promised him before I came to this earth that I would be a "Savior on Mount Zion".  I am obligated to save my ancestors, and I have come to know that this is the work of the Lord.

DyC 2... I never understood this before but Elder Holland explained it perfectly. Elijah the Prophet has come...waited for more than two thousand years, and he appeared in 1836!  We now have the sealing power here on this earth, it was restored through the prophet Joseph, and President Monson holds that power now! 

There is just a little bit of what I learned! I love the temple. I know it is the House of the Lord. I know that Jesus is our Savior. I know I am a son of God!

besitos

Elder Minnick

El Vergel (name of Elder Minnick's new ward)

HOLA

This week was super crazy and fast. Hands down the fastest week of my mission and I'm absolutely sure it'll only go faster. Time flies when your having lots of fun :)

Elder Lagunes is from Veracruz! His dad was a mission president here in Mexico a couple years ago, and right now is in the temple presidency in the Veracruz Temple. Elder Lagunes has 8 ish months in the mission... I was his District Leader about a month and a half ago, and I trained his comp from the MTC! We get along really well and we teach awesome together. We just have fun! We are both super prideful so we butt heads sometimes but in a good way :) 

We went to Queretaro this week for the Leadership meeting. It was one of my favorites... They are always super inspiring. The principles are always the same but the teachings are always different. That's what I love about the Gospel... It's so simple, but there is always something more to learn. We are excited for our Zone Conference tomorrow. Pray for us, we have to say "Suck it up, be obedient, and get to work" in the sweetest and firmest way possible. :)

The new area is a bit hard. I felt like I was opening up another area because Elder Lagunes only has 4 weeks here, and they just didn't have any investigadores! They haven't had any investigadors in church in a month and a half, but we had 1 this week. It was my tender mercy, and I'm grateful for the Sister missionaries in our ward that helped us out! I learned this week that things are only hard when you say its hard. Its amazing what a positive attitude can do! SO SMILE!

Love,

Elder Minnick

I met an Apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ!

That's right family and friends! This week our mission had the special opportunity to hear from Elder D. Todd Christofferson of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles!

Thursday morning I woke up at 3:45 AM to catch an early bus to Queretaro. The whole mission showed up to a stake center.  It was a little crazy because we were all so excited and nervous. President told us that we would have the time to ask him a few questions, and invited us all to prepare our own question, even if we didn't have the time to ask it. My question was, "Is this man really a special witness of the Savior?"  I didn't ask him, but I asked God and got an answer ;)

I shook his hand, and he said to me with a big smile, "Hello!". Throughout the whole conference I couldn't help but notice just how happy he was. It wasn't a fake happy either, I could tell he was sincerely happy.

I thought the conference would be super long and with a bunch of heavy doctrine and that he was going to tell us to repent and stuff -- but it was awesome!  He spent a while talking about the first presidency, the 12 apostles, and 70's. He allowed some of the stake presidents to teach, and taught us about some priesthood responsibilities. Then he just spent a while thanking us for being missionaries. I felt like he was giving me a pep talk because he just got us all excited and the spirit was super strong. I was very impressed with his humility and with his testimony. He answered some questions and then blessed us. 

His testimony was by far the greatest part of the whole conference for me. It was super short and at the very end. I felt the Spirit very very very strong when he testified that he is indeed a very special witness of Jesus Christ. After the prayer, he stood up really fast and said, "No puedo negar lo que el Espiritu me indica... El testimonio del Profeta Jose Smith es verdadero... Lo que el vio es la verdad..."

Yo sè que hoy en dia, Dios ha llamado profetas y apóstoles para ser testigos especiales del Señor. Yo sè que Cristo es nuestro Salvador y Redentor. èl vive y dirige  esta iglesia!

I got changed! I'm a zone leader in Celaya with Elder Lagunes. :) I am very very very excited!

Love y'all

elder minnick

Note from Tami:  

Elder Minnick found out this week that Whitney (his sister)  got engaged and will be married on December 19th!  This was his response:

"ahhhhhh!! cant wipe the smile off my face that Whit's gettting married. I'm sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo happy happy happy for her! Makes my whole life!  Love you Whit!!!!!!"

It will be a hard to not have Weston at the wedding....  for Whit especially, but we all know he is in the right place!!  

The Book of Mormon vs. the Holy Death!

Hola mis amigos!

Man, this week was AWESOME. God truly has blessed me.

Saturday night I was looking at the calendar..... I realized I only have 10 months left. That felt like an ice cold bucket of water to the face. I don't ever wanna go home!

Well I had a bunch of cool experiences this week. But I will start with the one with the JW's. We were talking to some guy on the street, having a wonderful conversation about revelation, when a guy on his bike shows up and starts hating on my boy Jose Smith. He went off about how no man could see God and took the BoM from the hands of this good man and told him it was dirt. So we just sat there and listened for a bit.... and when he gave us a moment we quickly shared our testimonies and left. The guy we were talking to wanted nothing to do with us after! So we just went walking, and about 2 minutes later this JW rolled up again... and apologized! I was truly surprised, because all of my experiences with them have been less than pleasant. He asked us to visit him this next week so we could "clear up the doubts". It was cool and we felt the spirit strong.  

The other experience was super special. We have a family that worships the Holy Death. I was extremely surprised because they are some of the coolest people I've ever met. They have explained a little bit about their beliefs, and although they are different, they aren't what I thought. They have a TON of questions. They have felt the Spirit with us and want to know what makes us different. Hugo, has had a re-occurring dream about Christ, where Christ told him exactly the same thing every time. He told us about the dream, took a long pause, and asked for a BoM. He opened the Book of Mormon (I still don't know where, I'm thinking its 2 Nephi) and read a random verse. What he read was almost exactly what Christ told him in his dream. He never had opened a BoM before, but the Spirit sang true in all of our hearts that it is true and His word. In the moment I wasn't shocked, I didn't even feel a bit of surprise! I already knew the feeling and knew it well. What I saw on their faces was JOY.   Joy that only the Gospel of Jesus Christ offers us. Thinking about the experience over and over again, I stand amazed at the loved Christ has for this family and me, as He performed such a miracle.

I testify to all of you that Christ is our living Savior.  He hears and answers the prayers of all of His children!  I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and contains the fullness of the gospel of Christ!

I think I only have one week left here in Salamanca. I'm bummed! I don't wanna go, but I've had a good 7 months! 

I love you mom!

Happy Anniversary MA and PA. Dad your getting old and mom you haven't aged a bit -- forever 25 :)

Elder Minnick

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

Do you love me? de me tacos

¡HOLA!

These past two weeks have been 2 of the best! You couldn't take the smile off my face if you tried.

Elder Chegue and I have been focusing on service to find new people. So this week we washed cars, dogs, and windows. Thursday we cut a huge lawn with those giant scissors. I've never missed a lawn mower so much. If anyone ever complains about mowing a law, I'll send them pictures of my blistered hands. :)

One of the best parts of the mission is service. You feel great and its good exercise. What more do ya need? Serve someone every day this week :)

We watched Elder Holland's "Feed my Sheep" devotional this week. Every moment, I'm looking for ways to tell Him through my actions that "I do love thee". This week we have been working hard with less active members. Every less active member we visit, we ask them if we can eat with them one day. And then when we go and eat with them, we look for a way to serve them. We also have a goal to increase our sacrament meeting attendance, and we have had a ton of success! We had 3 of our less active families at church... and we ate a ton of tacos with them all too. I'm full of blessings!

We had interviews with President this week! It was my favorite interview yet. I love confessing all my sins so I can be squeaky clean again. ;) President Holland said something like, "Repent is the most hopeful word in all Christian vocabulary". So repent every day!  I thank my Savior for His great atoning sacrifice... I often ask myself, "How many drops of blood were shed for me?"

I love God and the restored gospel!

Elder Minnick