Monday, January 5, 2014 - Have You Set Your Goals Yet?

Hola Mi Familia! So there are winter storms passing all through the country eh? While you all are dying of the cold, we are still suffering from heat! It seems like in the last few weeks the temperature has been rising to where it isn´t even cold in the mornings and it is a little hot in the days. I remember at this time last year I was sleeping with 4 blankets on top of me and with my sweat shirt, gloves, and long pants underneath. But this year...I even turned on the fan the other night because I woke up hot. However, just last night we had a cooler night so hopefully it will only get cooler from now on. Well, let´s see...what can I say about this week... We started off the week kind of sad. We had a Carne Asada at a member’s house. Her family always makes the best Carne Asada that I have ever tasted! New Years Eve was quite the day! Let me just tell you. We were put down to eat with the richest family in the ward, the ones who live in the subdivision with the only Golf Course in Hermosillo. We were eating with them and then they also invited another family from the ward over too. They had asked us to prepare a special message to give and to sing our famous ¨O Holy Night¨ that they loved when we did it in church. When we arrived, we helped them set up tables and chairs for quite a few people and then they tell us they invited Pres. and Hermana Hernandez. Not too long after they arrived and we had a nice social with them! Haha! Before eating, all the guests were called into the front room for us to give our message. We spoke on ¨The Plan of Salvation¨ and the importance of Families. It was a really fantastic lesson that I personally liked and the spirit was quite strong! At the end, we did what we normally do and asked the people there if the spirit had put a name in their minds during the lesson of someone who that we could visit. We received a few names and to our surprise, Pres. Hernandez gave us a name of a friend in Uruguay and told us to get with the Secretaries to be able to send the reference to Uruguay. We even got a reference from Pres! Imagine that! We then passed to the back terrace to eat. It was a really enjoyable meal and visit even with Pres. being there! Haha! When finished eating, we said goodbyes and slipped out to go do more visits. While walking Pres.and Hermana found us and gave us a ride. It was quite an interesting day that I don´t think I will forget. That night we had no big plans. A member’s family invited us over and so we went and eat dinner with them and by 10PM we were in the house and sleeping even before the New Year...but we had our own celebration before sleeping! The rest of the week was kind of slow! Just like last year, New Years day was the WORST working day of the mission. Everyone is too hung-over and sleepy to want to listen to us and so we spent a lot of time just walking around trying to find lessons. Finally, this week everyone returns to school and work and so hopefully we will be somewhat back to normality. This week we found a cool new family who are 3 teenage kids and 2 parents! They are really pretty cool and they like us enough. We hooked them with our voices! We sang ¨Nearer My God To Thee¨ and at the end the mom had tears running down her face with the kids as well, tearing up. At the end of one lesson this week the oldest son gave a prayer and it was really special and heartfelt and sincere that the spirit was felt and at the end his sisters were crying! We invited them to church on Sunday and they said we could pass for them to go together, but Sunday morning when we went they said that something came up and that they wouldn´t be able to go. It was really depressing and sad, but nothing new. You just get used to rejection in the mission, but no matter how many months you have and how many times you have hear it, it still makes you sad sometimes because you just love people so much and desire their salvation, but in the end they have their agency. Our zone started the month off awesome! We had 5 baptisms in the first weekend and have various other dates for the rest of the month. We had the opportunity to give a few baptismal interviews this week and I always enjoy giving those. I talked with the kids this time--one with 9 years and they other with 11--they were both excited to be baptized! It is crazy how fast this past year has gone by! I reflect on 2013 and it was a growing year for me. I will value the things I learned and the experiences I had. Have you set goals for 2014? I haven´t! Haha! I usually don´t like making goals because I never fully complete them. But I do invite you all to put one special goal--to come closer to God and specifically do 3 things: 1) Pray at least twice daily, every single day 2) Have PERSONAL scripture study EVERYDAY! 3) Attend church always! I promise that if we are constant in these 3 things, we will have spiritual help that will give us strength in our everyday lives. Really! Our testimonies and faith depend on these 3 activities so make it a goal to be constant and DO IT!!! Well, I hope you all just have a super duper first week back to school! Sounds like you will with having school canceled already tomorrow. I love and miss you tons! Happy New Year! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner