¡Feliz Año Nuevo!

One of my concerns about going to Mexico was that everyone would be Catholic here. And it certainly is a problem that there are many people here stuck in their traditions, of worshiping Saints and images of virgins. If you don't think worshiping idols and images is a problem in the modern world, you should see all the versions of Mary and idolatrous images of Christ they have. They somehow made worshiping Christ into worshiping an image. 

  Additionally, almost no one here actually knows how to pray, only how to recite prayers. One of the most often repeated is The Lord's Prayer, which is quite ironic because in the verses right before the lord's prayer, it says, "use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do... after this manner therefore pray ye:" The lord's prayer is an amazing example of how to pray, but it totally defeats the purpose to recite it. For this reason we teach almost every new person how to pray:

1.) Address your Heavenly Father 

2.) Ask for what you need and thank Heavenly Father for what you have 

3.) End in the name of Jesus Christ

and most importantly, we teach people that God is our loving father and that prayer should be a sincere communication with him.

  Fortunately, most of the people here only think of Catholicism as tradition, because if they are educated, it is quite evident that the Catholic church is apostate. 

I have witnessed the fulfillment of the prophecy given in 2 Nephi 30, that the descendants of Lehi gratefully receive the Book of Mormon. When we contact people in the street and tell them about the Book of Mormon, they tend to be very interested and open to the idea that Christ visited the Americas and that Prophets of jewish descent lived in the Americas.

  My week started off with a bang: exchanges with the Zone leaders. If you think I've been doing a little too swell on my mission, this one threw me for a loop. My companion for the day was Elder Dominguez. I could tell why he was a zone leader. He was fast, hardworking, and efficient. Suddenly, I was in a new area with a new companion. We walked all around Chautempan and I got to see all kinds of interesting new things, but Elder Dominguez has very long legs, and it was a bit difficult to keep up. If you think walking around so much is a bit inefficient, don't worry, he would make all kinds of calls while we walked, including lessons, planning, and varied zone leader stuff. What impressed me the most, however, was his eloquence and simplicity in teaching the gospel. I could tell he had an extensive yet pure understanding of important gospel principles. I could tell that, just as it says in D&C 4, he seeks to serve the Lord with all his heart. The work of gathering is not something to take lightly. We do not want to be held accountable for people we could have taught, but didn't. That is why it is essential to follow the spirit, work hard, and be obedient. I pray that I can remember Elder Dominguez, that he may be one of the people in my life whose example I can reflect on to adjust my own nature. That his actions may act as a glimpse into the character of Christ.

  One of the people we are teaching is a man named Alberto. We found him because as we were walking past a government mental health hospital, he was taking a smoke break just outside, because he works there as the security guard. He saw the name "Jesus Christ" below our names on our nametags, so he stopped us to ask what church we are from. We answered a question about whether the pain in our lives is God punishing us for our sins, left a Book of Mormon after explaining it to him, and set up a lesson. We taught about the restoration for our lesson the next week. During the lesson, I was helping him get Gospel Library on his phone, and I saw that the JW library app was recently downloaded on his phone.  (My apologies for using an emoji, it just seemed too appropriate.) He is a wonderfully curious person, and he seems to already have a pretty good understanding of who God is.

  Yesterday for our New Year's meal, we had a very delicious soup that had shrimp, octopus, and manta ray. The shrimps were almost entirely intact within the soup, and someone had to explain to me that you have to remove the head and shell. It did not taste very shrimpy, but it was tasty. Manta ray tastes like chewy beef, or at least it tastes like beef in soup. I'll have to try manta ray in a taco. Octopus es bueno tambien.

  I want y'all to know that the Lord has blessed me tremendously. Some of my favorite things about being in this area so far is that I get to try all kinds of food, we have plenty of people to teach, the gift of tongues is real, and I have fun conversations with my companion all the time.

  I know the Lord blesses those that diligently seek him. Alma 37: 34-35 BTW any gospel principle I have shared in this email, I have shared because it is something I need to work on personally. It is very difficult to learn or implement a gospel principle in its entirety, so there's always room for improvement!

¡Nos vemos!