Week 10: Life is Good

This week was great as I am beginning to feel much more comfortable with the language, people, and how the system of everything works.  I felt a distinct change this week and I really do feel great being here.  One month down here in Mexico!  I've learned to expect that everyday I am going to be overly exhausted, my feet are going to hurt, and that It will be 18 months of minimal makeup and hair up in a bun hahaha.  I still miss home a lot, but it's really neat interacting with all different people and their lifestories every day....and doing it all in spanish is even cooler ;)

About every 12 weeks we have a zone conference, and so this week on tuesday and wednesday we had big conferences with the 20 missionaries in my zone and our mission president.  There are 10 zones in our mission.  We go over mission goals, learn teaching skills, and it's a great time to really reflect on this amazing opportunity we have as missionaries.  I really enjoyed this conference because it gave me a chance to just sit for 7 hours and feel united with my zone.  It's nice being reminded that there are lots of other missionaries here doing the same things as me every day.

Every week we have an activity as a zone

GOAL SETTING:  we talked a lot about the importance of "metas"- the life of a missionary is centered around goals.  Every night we plan for the next day the number of lessons with a member present, lessons without a member present, lessons with less actives in the church, number of new investigators, how many street contacts, etc.  and on top of that we have weekly goals with other components- it's so important that we have attainable goals so that we can further progress and have motivation.  On top of planning goals we also have a big binder of every investigator, lessons taught, street addresses....everything we do as missionaries is recorded and reported back to different mission leaders- seriously everyone needs to serve a mission just to learn how to plan haha!  It's crazy how much planning we do!!

"I am so thoroughly convinced that if we don't set goals in our life and learn how to master the techniques of living to reach our goals, we can reach a ripe old age and look back on our life only to see that we reached but a small part of our full potential.  When one learns to master the principles of setting a goal, he will then be able to make a great difference in the results he attains in life" - Elder Ballard

us with the two elders in our zone walking to a member's home for lunch

LEARNING ENGLISH:  Another interesting topic during the conference was the focus of non american missionaries learning english.  Just like we have to learn spanish it's cool because they have to learn english as well.  Everyone has an hour each day for language study, and they have to bear their testimonies and pray in english at various conferences- so it's been fun teaching my companion!

We had a great experience this week.  So every companionship has a big black binder of all current/old investigators, and so we decided to go out and contact some old investigators.  We went to go visit David (he met with the missionaries a few years ago but wasn't too interested) and we got to spend some time talking to his family as well- mom, aunt, 16 yr old brother, and 11 yr old sister.  The Augilar Familia is wonderful! We have had a few lessons with them, and they all have lots of questions and are interested.  And they make comments about the memories they have with the missionaries a few years ago....so yes finding this fam was great!  It shows how effective it is to really keep track of all the people you come in contact with so it can be of use to future missionaries as well!

Some exciting news....this week I get to plan for my first baptism!! Patricio's baptismal date is set for this sunday, so hopefully everything goes as planned!

the weather is still hot, i've got giant blisters on my feet, and I think I may O.D. on tortillas haha but life is good!  Being a missionary is stressful and you feel lots of pressure at times, but I sincerely love being able to learn more and more everyday from the scriptures and having this time to strengthen my faith.  The daily life of Lindsay Riches includes walking all day erry day finding different people to talk to haha but it's really cool seeing the people that are placed in your path for reasons that you don't know until later.

Smile...Jesus loves you haha!

Something I've had to keep reminding myself of is people's agency.  You can't make people act a certain way.  Everyone has the ability to make choices, and although it is difficult sometimes, you have to accept the fact that you can only do so much.  You shouldn't stress about it because it isn't in your control.  I tend to over stress about little things haha but really you can only be concerned about what is in your control and just let all other stresses go.

"use boldness but not over bearance, and also see that ye bridle all your passions, that ye may be filled with love; see that you refrain from idleness" Alma 38: 12

MORE PICS FROM THIS WEEK:

c o n  a m o r

hermana riches