Elder Hirsch Mission Emails

  Last night we set an alarm for 4:30am. The reason is, a few days before, we'd been talking with Hermano Serrano, (the absolute machine who's been bishop in like 4 different wards, district president, and seems to think he's still a missionary), and we asked him if he needed any help in his corn field. He said yes! And that he's going early in the morning. So, we went to sleep that night with much anticipation, but instead of waking up to an alarm, I woke up to my companion on the phone with Hermano Serrano, who was already grumpily waiting outside. We rushed to get dressed, went downstairs, and jumped in his car.   I thoroughly enjoyed driving away from the city. As we passed through the small towns scattered around Apizaco on the way to his field, I watched as the dormant volcano Malinche drew nearer, and enjoyed listening to my companion talk to Hermano Serrano in the front seat. On arrival at his personal corn field, the hermano gav...

  Hey everybody!   Apizaco has always had at least one baptism per month. It doesn't matter who the missionaries assigned here are, the Lord gives one baptism, usually the child of a less-active.  A few weeks ago we found out that a young adult named Dulce, who has been attending church for like a month, has not been baptised. She came to know the church because her husband, Alan, is a member. When we showed up for our first lesson, we learned that she had actually been in teaching with the missionaries for a long time, but never got baptized because she always moved. So we set a baptismal date for the next week and got teaching! She already had a pretty good understanding of the doctrine, and a testimony of the Book of Mormon, so teaching went pretty smooth.   The only problem was, we heard from a few different members that she can't get baptized because they are living together, but aren't actually married. So we immediately addre...

   People always say the same thing about their mission. First of all that it was difficult, but also that they treasure it. And even more often than that, they say that it went by very fast. I didn't quite understand that sentiment until a few weeks ago when we were in a car with a member, and she said, "So you've almost completed a fourth of your mission, right?"   This time has undoubtedly been the most incredible and busy six months of my life.    I hope that for the rest of my life I can treasure the moments I will never experience again, and work in accordance with the knowledge that time is always limited.   All this month we've been teaching a 14-year-old girl named Giselle. Her mom was inactive for a very long time. And just like most inactives she's got a great testimony, she just has a difficult situation. So we visited them regularly, and Giselle progressed very quickly. She diligently reads the Book of Mormon, prays, go...

  The last few weeks I didn't find the time to write, but here I am today! A nice big email! I wrote this last week, but did not finish it, so I never sent it: " Rafa is an 11 year old kid whose family was less-active. When I arrived he had already been in teaching for a while, because he's a little bit slow to understand new concepts for his age. He also had expressed in the past a fear of going in the water in order to be baptized. The first lesson with him I didnt really know how to teach him in a way he could understand, but over the course of several lessons with him I found my own simple and clear way to teach and eventually he finished the lessons and was ready for baptism!   We had the baptism on saturday, my companion was going to baptize him, and everything was ready. Rafa found the courage to go into the water, but my companion couldn't get him all the way under the water on the first go. After a few tries he was very dis...

  I don't have much time to write today, so I'll just write some tidbits and share my testimony! A story that I don't believe I ever shared:   This happened when I was in the Morelos ward and Elder Tadeo was my companion. We went to visit someone, but they weren't home so we decided to knock on some doors nearby. So we came to a house a few doors down and Elder Tadeo gave a very friendly "Buenas tardes!" after we knocked the door. The woman who answered turned out to be very open to taking a Book of Mormon and scheduling a time for us to visit her. Our first lesson with her was The Restoration, and she had lots of questions and doctrinal misunderstandings, but she was legitimately interested. Eventually we explained the authority by the laying on of hands, and that Joseph Smith received that authority in modern day. I showed her a photo of when Joseph received the Melchizedek...

    Two weeks ago I was moved over to the other ward in Apizaco, with a new companion and a new area. Elder Ortiz teaches with the spirit. He has a sincere desire to help the people, and he knows his purpose. He's also very helpful with my sub-par spanish.  We're both on our own now without a trainer for the first time and there have been some growing pains. We're learning to do some basic things that our trainers always did for us, but we've still made a lot of progress with the people in the area, and have frequently witnessed the hand of God in the work.   One thing I do know how to do is contact people. We almost always do the same thing when contacting people. It starts with a simple question, "Do you like to read?" Then, we briefly introduce the Book of Mormon and invite them to "borrow" a Book of Mormon and read 3 Nephi 11, and we note down their information to be in contact. Sometimes we knock doors, sometimes we contact in the park or street...

  Hello friends and family! I am loving my mission, and can't imagine doing anything else with my life, but sometimes I just still can't believe that I'm really here in Mexico, doing what all my siblings did before me. I especially love being in lessons, testifying of Jesus Christ and the restored gospel. I can feel the spirit testifying of what I say. It's amazing what the Lord can do through such an imperfect servant. There are many people here ready to accept the gospel, our job is just to search, love, and baptize.   This week we had a zone conference, where President Montejo came to our zone, and we all met together. President taught about the importance of obedience, and that we have increased potential when we diligently work towards goals. I also had the opportunity to sing in an ensemble of missionaries in the conference. But I can't remember the name of the himn we sang right now.  ...

    Elder Haymore was an awesome companion. He speaks really good spanish, I connect with him really well, and he's a super hard worker. Some part of me already knew it was coming when the emergency transfers came in. I'm not totally used to the aspect of frequently changing companions, so I was pretty sad when I found out he was leaving. Nevertheless, I knew that the Lord knows what's best for me, and I looked forward to having a new friend. Little did I know that Elder Tadeo would be an equally awesome dude! He's from Monterrey Mexico, but he speaks english fluently. He's gonna avoid speaking in english though so I can learn even faster. One of the best things about Elder Tadeo is that he can connect to the people very well, and he is very good at teaching the gospel. I was nervous to have a new companion, but I honestly can't imagine having anyone else as my companion. I'm also sure that I'll get more accustomed to having transfers later in my...

    Hello Family and all! I think things are picking up a little bit. In the last week we have had a good amount of success, we are going to have two baptisms next week, we have had two exchanges with other companionships, and we are going to have two baptisms next week.    This week we met a man named Enrique. The other Elders in Apizaco were teaching him, until they realized that he lives in our area. Just like a surprising number of people, the best place for us to meet with him is actually his work, in a mental health clinic. Because it's not in our area, Enrique's work is closer to the center of the city than we normally go. Nevertheless, it was fun to be in the more busy parts and see the cathedral. When we got to the clinic we had to call him to let him know we were there, but he promptly came out and welcomed us into his office. His office was relatively small, but several trinkets and a little ...

   The most significant progress made this week was that we got an awesome facebook reference of a family who is very open to the gospel! Let's hope they read the Book of Mormon before our next visit! We also visited some less active members and found a woman with an 11 year-old son who is not baptized, so we're going to start teaching him.    I am loving my mission, and we have been very busy, but not too much happened this week, so I'm keeping it short. Please go read any past emails you may have missed!  We had a very spiritually powerful Zone conference. I love my mission president, he has taught me that I have much more to learn about prayer. For example, you can talk to God about anything, and you can use the spirit to know what to pray for.   These scriptures greatly strengthened my desire to be exactly obedient: Alma 26:22, D&C 4   Love ya'll! Facebook page! MisionMexicoPueblaNorte Google Photos (scroll to the bottom or hit the ch...

Adam Hirsch   < adam.hirsch@missionary.org >   The truth is that the last two weeks have been relatively slow, but for Apizaco slow is actually very eventful. The people who are making the most progress towards baptism are Sophia/Monserat, and Alberto. Sophia and Monserat are sisters, and the only thing holding them back from baptism is that they don't quite feel ready, so we'll keep teaching them and hopefully they'll get baptized soon. Alberto is the man who randomly stopped us outside of his work while he was on a smoke break. We've visited with him a few times since and he's making great progress. He already has a good understanding of the doctrine, and he always comes to church! We will teach him the Word of Wisdom the next time we visit so he can begin preparing for baptism!   Yesterday (Sunday), I gave a talk. I think they just asked us to talk after someone canceled, because they only let us know a few days before, but I managed to scramble to...

  January 9th   Boy, do I wish that I knew how to introduce the Book of Mormon to people before my mission. Right now I have the advantage that many people in Apizaco are looking for the truth, but still, it's rather simple. You just explain that, like the bible, it's a record of the teachings and stories of ancient prophets, but it's about prophets in the Americas. We love reading the bible, but unlike the bible, the Book of Mormon is completely unccorrupted and contains the compiled Doctrine of Christ. Then you explain that the book contains the history of when Jesus Christ visited the Americas, after his resurrection, and invite the person to read a few pages (3 Nephi 11) and find a way to get back in contact with them.   a newfound curiosity about the Book of Mormon was one of the things that grew my testimony the most during MTC. I have had a testimony of the Book of Mormon for a while because I prayed to know if it is true, and you can always pray for the witne...