Mitch in Monterrey: The Frozen Tundra!!

I never thought I would say this, but how the heck did Mexico get so gosh dang cold!? You may be thinking, "Oh c´mon, how cold can Mexico get?" Well, let me answer that for ya, I put on all of the warm clothes I owned and was just barely warm! That´s a long sleeved shirt, two sweaters, a sweater vest, and a jacket! Every morning during our studies me and my companion huddle around the little heater that we have because our house is freezing! Even as I am writing this, I have to stop every once and a while and warm up my fingers. (I just did it)

So, how is the work going in the Frozen-Over-Monterrey? Not too shabby if I do say so myself! On Tuesday we got 5 fechas bautismal.(baptismal dates) 5! So that is pretty awesome. We have been getting a bigger investigator base as of late, so it is good to see some hard work pay off.

In our first lesson with Juan, a new investigator with a totally unique name, everything went great! I really think this family has been prepared because in the lesson Juan was reading everything before we even asked him to. And then he would go on and read more than needed. He was really participating and conversing with us, not just us giving a lecture. And he seemed really excited to start reading the Book of Mormon! Hopefully he actually does, because when you read it sincerely, there is no way that you don´t feel it is true!

On Sunday they are having a special "open house" at the temple. Obviously not an actual open house, but this is an opportunity for people to come and learn about temples and to learn about the Gospel. So I am really excited to go because there is always such a special spirit at the temple and it will be a great opportunity to get some good teaching in! And we just found out tomorrow that we get to go to a special meeting with the Area President. That will be super awesome! Well, if I can understand it.

Speaking of understanding, the language is really coming along, with a lot of energy and concentration; I can get the gist of the conversation with minimal translation from my companion. But it depends on the person because everyone speaks different it feels like. Some speak super fast and others speak slower. Some people slur their words, others are pretty clear. But it is still super mentally exhausting. But one funny thing that happened this week was that we were helping some members prepare food for some event and the dad had learned a little bit of English and knew some phrases and I kid you not, it sounded exactly like my dad doing one of his imitations. Exactly! It had to be the funniest thing ever! He probably thought that I was weird because I just kept laughing but it was so funny!

So I had a cool thought in our district meeting this Tuesday. The district leader asked who was a convert to the church. A couple of missionaries raised their hand. It takes me a moment to process the whole sentence so I started to as well until I put it together. The district leader said something about my 1/4 hand raise, probably something like "Elder Morris always looks so sharp" or something like that. But I had a thought come to my mind and I defended my action with this. Aren´t we all converts? Or even better, shouldn´t we all be converts? As youth, our leaders tell us to develop our own testimonies. Testimonies of the Book of Mormon, of Joseph Smith, and of our Savior, But we don´t just need to get a testimony of The Gospel of Jesus Christ, we need to me converted to The Gospel of Jesus Christ. We need to truly become a disciple of Christ in not only our words on Sunday´s, but our actions and thoughts consistently! So my challenge to you is to become converted wholly to Christ. Show your love for him by standing as a witness of Him, by living for him. I know that is hard, I am going through that now. But the harder we try, the more help we will have from Him. And the more help we have from him, it will be less hard. Really a pretty great cylce.

I almost forgot, Thanksgiving is Thursday! Well, I am grateful for the best family to ever have been placed on this earth. I must have won the lottery or something in heaven to have got them. I am grateful for muy asombroso (pretty amazing) sisters, the very best. I am grateful for the hardest working dad, lo mejor ejemplo I could ever ask for. I am grateful for the most caring mom, and for her amor eterno para mi. I can´t thoroughly express my thanks for them. And I am and will be eternally grateful for mi Salvador and Redentor and His infinite sacrifice for this very finite Elder. I have a lot to be thankful for, more than I can say so I will just say that I am very grateful for everything and for all of you! I hope you all have the Lord´s hand in your life and will continue to feel his blessings.

¡Tenga un excelente semana!

-Élder Morris

Cooking up some grub at our Zone Meeting.. mmmmmmmmmmmmm