03/10/14

Hola Mis Seres Queridos,

This past week was awesome! It was a great time celebrating my one year mark and my birthday! I almost filled up like 2GB of memory on my camera taking videos and pictures so you'll will be able to enjoy it when i get home! I had some awesome experiences with members and investigadors for my bday! I wasn't expecting too much because like you guys know, I dont like huge parties for my birthday. But mexicans are crazy, so yeah i gained about 10 pounds this past week! Hahaha. 

Down here in Mexico, they have a funny tradition where when its somebodys birthday they buy a cake and then all the people sing a birthday song! After they start screaming BITE BITE BITE! And then you have  to take a bite out of the cake with your mouth and then everyone shoves your head in the cake!! Hahaha its hilarious!

I feel like i havent shared with you guys too much about our area so i wanna share a little with you guys! This area is called Victoria,( Victory) and....its not much of a victory. Hahaha its a VERY VERY difficult area where theres not too much success. Its placed in one of the richer parts of the mission, so people are a bit prideful. Also there are TWO HUGE CATHOLIC CHURCHES in the center of the area. So nobody wants to talk to us...and sometimes they become very rude. So me and my companion(who has 7 months here) have come to the conclusion that we cant get discouraged when times get hard. We know what we want are baptisms, but what matters is that we are working hard, and serving people in every moment we can. In the email I received from dad, he mentioned I havent been able to receive as much success as i've wanted in my mission. But I feel like the amount of baptisms doesnt reflect the success I can have on the mission. Yes, we have some great investigadors who have baptismal dates and go to church each week. But I base my success if we are serving each and every person and helping them come closer to our Savior Jesus Christ. If I leave a family better then they were when i found them, i've done my job. And im perfectly happy serving people here in Mexico. I know the Lord will bless us with baptisms, as long as we are doing OUR part! Our Heavenly Father is 'obligated' to bless us when we do our part! And i'm so happy for the people i have met here, and we are going to continue to serve them with the Light of Christ that shines around our bodies. 

Right now we are working with this young woman named Ana Cecy. She's a member of a family that are strong in the ward, and she's the only non-member. Her mom and brother and sister were just baptized a year ago and they all just moved here in October because the mom re-married to a brother here in the ward! And they are such an awesome family and very strong in the church. The brother has 3 little kids from his first marriage so its a big family. And now him(Bro. Xiqui) and his new wife are going to have a baby in the time that Morgan will have a baby. So they are all pretty excited! Ever since i arrived in this area we have been teaching Ana Cecy. She's 18 years old and goes to church every week. She just participated in the Young Woman presentation at church yesterday for sacrament meeting. She's gone to the temple. She's going to work with sister missionaries this weekend(we have a stake activity this weekend where the youth are going to spend saturday and sunday with us as missionaries and live the missionary life. They'll also stay the night with us, pretty cool!) So anyways, Ana will be participating in that. She knows the Book of Mormon is true, she just DENIES COMPLETELY Joseph Smith. We work with her about 3 times a week to help her with her doubts. She has progressed so much and she's just a push away from falling in that baptismal font. We have fasted and prayed so much for her. She's an amazing young girl, she would make a great Sister Missionary. She would be such a miracle if we can help her get baptized! But for now, we'll keep doing our part. 

I love family, sorry for the long email. I've just had lots of things on my mind lately! Hope you have a great week!

Elder Needham