Hey everyone! Thanks for the email and updates on the past week. I know it was a wild one back home but thanks for taking the time to update me on everything.
Reply: Thanks for your spiritual thought mom! Jesus Christ loves us so much and it is so cool to think that He loves us enough to come and die for us and I love the scripture alma 7:11-12 and I love the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. Thanks for sharing your experience about how God doesn't do random and that is awesome that you could be there for Ash and Austin and this plan that God has for us is step by step and as long as we follow it, we will find joy!
Thanks for the updates on the sports and basketball. Hopefully the boys can find a rhythm and start playing good ball and they can whip sugar and south! Keep me updated on how it all goes but that is pretty crazy that Thomas is starting? But Rob knows what he is doing. Also how is Kinley doing with Sean and playing and stuff? But that is cool too you had the birthday party for Grandma and you could all be together as siblings and what an awesome family! It will be good for you all to go to California and be there for the Stiles family. I still just feel so bad for them because it is super hard but I just pray they can push forward and be happy and have faith and hope in life!
To answer your questions, I am in a small town called Benemerito in the state Chiapas. It is a town that reminds me a lot of Driggs so pretty small so I love it! My companion is Elder Cabanas who has 5 months in the mission and from the state of Mexico. I am in the branch and it is super good! Not a whole lot of active members so we have a lot of work to do. This city is not modern at all, so we don't have any grocery stores or modern restaurants but everything is ok! Our plans to find people to teach is through members it really is the only way because everyone here has heard of the church so it will come down to using the members to build relationships with others. But that is so cool about Marcos and I know the river he crossed and I'll send you a picture of it but that is super cool!
My Week
My goodness what a week it was here in Benemerito. I got here last Monday late at night and Tuesday we just jumped into it and went right to work. The thing with this town is there is one main street with lights and everything but then everything else is dirt streets and houses with no light so the deal is we have to be inside the church when it gets dark so that was an adjustment for sure. Our daily schedule basically is get up and get ready then plan and study and around 11 we leave and contact the streets and meet with members and then we have lunch at 2 then we are out again until 5:30 when it gets dark. At the church we message people and do language study then we have to be at the house at 8 and there it is a lot of looking through old area books (the paper ones from other missionaries) and trying to find people who are interested. It has been something new but I am getting there.
We are teaching a few people too but we need a lot more to teach. Elder Cabanas is pretty new so doesn't know a whole lot about what's going on but I feel really honored to be with him and help him out. When I think of someone to compare him to I can only think of Robert from Advocacy but trust me he is not on Robert's level at all but I know the President put me with him to help him learn and grow so it is a really cool opportunity for me! He has an awesome testimony too. He comes from a family who are all Catholic except his mom and he has an uncle in Utah who is a member but we were teaching this guy the restoration and he gave such a cool testimony about how he knows it is true. So even if some days are frustrating I am glad to be here with him and I am learning so much about becoming more of a Christlike missionary.
We had an awesome miracle happen on Sunday as well I want to share. So Sunday was fast Sunday so we got to hear great testimonies and I also got to share mine about how this church is the Light of the World. So after we went to Hermano Mario's to have lunch and we had some good Mole and we started talking about his friend dilmar who we could visit so we left and came back at 4 and went to Dimer's. It was an awesome lesson and Hmo Mario gave such a good - powerful testimony about prayer. We finished and hopped in his car and he said, "Elders do you have time to visit another family?" Obviously yes, so we went and visited a less-active family and shared a message and after we offered our service and they wanted a blessing for their child, so we did and it was such a tender moment for everyone there. It was like the room was on fire and everyone just looked so happy. So we left with Hmo. Mario and he was talking about how cool it is to be in the Lord's work and how it wasn't random we felt like we needed to go there tonight because who knows how long they had been waiting for this blessing and like you said before God doesn't do random.
I want to close with my testimony that this is the most wonderful time of the year. Not only because of the Christmas traditions and how fun it is, I owe my excitement of the Christmas season to my dad who always gets me so excited for the old fat man (you don't have to put that in the weekly) but also as a missionary I realized how cool it is to feel the spirit of Christmas through our Savior Jesus Christ. I know He Lives. I always find His birth interesting. Why wasn't the king of the world, the son of god born in a mansion? Or in a nice comforting place? I believe that he was born in a manger, where there were obstacles and wasn't the best, but He was born here to show the world from day 1 that He would overcome any obstacle in His Path to fulfill His mission and I will be forever grateful He did. I love you all and remember to FIND JOY EVERY SINGLE DAY!
Love Elder Reiley
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