Monday, September 16, 2013

Hola Mi Familia! You mentioned summer is coming to an end, and we are feeling it too! These past few weeks, it seems like the heat has been slowing reducing which is nice. It is still HOT, but tolerable. However, these past few days have been kind of killer. Guess the weather is just getting everything out before it starts to cool down a bit. . Were you all interested in the boxing fight there was between Mayweather and Canelo? I don´t even like boxing, but everyone was talking about it here because they were supposed the best 2 boxers in the world and Mayweather is from the US and Canelo from Mexico so it was US vs. Mexico. Just wondering if it was as big there as it was here? Speaking of Mexico, today is the 16th of Sept. Mexico´s Independence Day. There is usually a parade and no one goes to school or work, but we didn´t do anything too special. Well, I start this week off leaving where I left off. I mentioned to mom, but I don´t remember if I said anything in my email last week, but after writing last week we went to learn how to make ¨Choco Flan¨ one of my favorite mexican cakes! There is a girl in our ward who just got back from doing a visiting student summer term at BYU and she is the only member in her family, but her mom LOVES us and the Sister missionaries and so they are always inviting us over to eat, ect. They invited us over to learn how to make Choco Flan with is basically a chocolate flan cake! Well, the girl´s mom wasn´t supervising us while we were making it and apparently we added caramel that was really cold and that prevented the consistency of the cake from coming out well so it came out a mess! Oh well, it was still able to be eaten and it was still really good. I have the recipe and know how not to make the same mistake, so we will just see if I will be able to reproduce it. We have been just having a real struggle to find more people to teach. I don´t want to blame it on the area saying that it is rich and not full of too many humble people who want to listen to us, because I know you need to have faith and be diligent, but things just aren´t coming out. A lot of times when we go to find someone they aren´t there and then we go with thier neighbors and they don´t want to hear us either and it can just be rough. But, I won´t get down and will just try to keep having faith and keeping my head up. This week we did interchanges with our district leader and I went to his area with the junior comp. I didn´t really like his area much, but it was a good interchange. I did a baptismal interview for a kid that was going to be baptized and we went with an investigator that loves to cook and she just fed us well and then we were able to share a message. The message was about a question the investigator had about why bad things happen to humble people and why there is so much suffering. We shared Mosiah 24 about how the people of Alma where a good people, but were persecuted and how the Lord helped them through their trails. Well, I feel like I don´t have a lot to say this week, so I will leave you all with a thought. Being in the mission, I have really become more conscious about how short this life is. We have been sent here to earth for a specific purpose and we were not make to stay here forever. Sometimes, I feel like the mission is just a dream because it goes by so fast. I think that it is just a short time and I will soon wake up and be in my bed at home. I imagine we will feel like life will be like that someday. That we will have returned to our God that gave us life and we will be reflecting on our earthly experience and we will think ¨wow! , that was just a finger snap and it was over. Being in an interview with Pres. Hernandez once, he talked about how we are really in the last days and how we are preparing investigators to maybe be leaders in the millennium when Christ come. I have thought about this a lot and have thought how all we do in this life just prepares us for the next and maybe for the millennium to help other to come to the knowledge of the Gospel. This has shaped my thoughts and has made me want to choose a career that will be helpful to me in the millennium if I make it to that point. I imagine that life will go on in the millennium when Christ is here. We will still continue working, ect. So I have a desire to choose a career and a future that will help me be of us in the future to help other come unto Christ and to know our Heavenly Father. I really strongly feel like we are in the last days and that is why missionary work is really taking off in our days. I think we must evaluate our lives and put our priorities in life in an eternal perspective and focus on the things that, like Pres. Uchtdorf said once, ¨really matter most.¨ Well, I am quite embarrassed with how short and uneventful my email was, but I couldn´t think of anything else to say. Just 2 more weeks left of this transfer! That is nuts how time is flying! I love and miss you all tons and hope you have super duper fantastic week! ¡Yo sé que vive mi Señor! Con Mucho Amor, Elder Joyner