Fernando

Hey!

This week was really good.  The weeks are starting to go by faster and faster again which is good.

So mostly I want to tell you guys about this awesome guy named Fernando. He was a contact of the Hermana’s that share the ward.  They contacted him like almost 3 months ago and on Saturday we finally found him. He lives alone, separated from his wife and kids that live up north and lives in his families old house all alone. He works a ton and so it was pretty lucky that we found him. We started teaching him and it was super powerful. He really needed to hear about God and that there was someone that loved him. We taught him a little about the plan of salvation and when we told him that he used to live with God and decided to come to earth he was like so happy and surprised that he started crying. He cried a lot in the lesson but felt the spirit and we helped him to understand it. We gained a lot of his trust and he even came to church on Sunday! One of the talks was about living the gospel with joy from the sister’s session of conference and when he heard that, he thought about his mom and heard some of the same things we had taught him. He was really glad to be there.

Honestly that experience just reminded me that God is who does the work, not us. When we were looking for him it was hot and we were sick of going to look for him for nothing. Then that happened. 

Being a missionary is the best learning experience I’ve ever had. You go through so many hard things and sometimes the sacrifices are more than you ever thought you could handle. Faith is nothing without hope and I’m living every day by faith and with the hope that God can use me here and will make everything worth it.

That was my week here pretty much. It was a good one and I’m excited to be here!

Love Elder Marrott

Xochicotla

Hey! Everyone

I just got back from some sweet pyramids! Xochicotla is this really cool place where there are a bunch of ruins of pyramids and stuff. Hopefully my mom puts a ton of pictures from it on. We went with the other area and it was really fun. They even let us in free because we are missionaries! Anyways I took lots of pictures haha.

So this week was really good! We had interviews with the new President. I loved being able to talk 1 on 1 with him and get to know him better. I’m really excited to keep going strong here. I complete 1 year in Mexico this week! Wednesday I have to go to Cuernavaca for my visa and stuff.

So yesterday we had a not so great turnout for people in church. I think there was a lot of people on vacation. We have been working hard though this week. Yesterday in the afternoon we found a cool family of 7 though to teach! It was just an appointment we had set and we went and taught them. They are ¨catholics¨ but accepted our message really well. They had really honest questions and we had some members with us and were able to answer them really good to get there confidence. It’s really exciting and we will see what happens.

Personally I’m doing really good. I had a reflection moment this week. I’ve seen so much change in myself and I’m really excited for my future. I learned a whole lot more about the love that Christ has for all of us. The hymn came to my mind I Stand All Amazed. I don’t really remember what it says in English but in Spanish I remembered it. I am amazed how much Christ loves us. His sacrifice was so hard. I think of what I’ve been through and I get to know people and learn what they go through and then the fact that Christ went through all that x 1000000?? I stand all amazed. I really am excited for the Day of Judgment, I want more than anything else in the world to be able to show my appreciation for what He did for me. That’s why I’m a missionary. Anyways that’s what’s going on here.

I love you guys and all you have ever done to support me, whoever reads this :P. Have a good week everyone!

Love Elder Marrott

Prepare, Interact, and Invite!

Hey!

This week was good.

Our zone training was really good. I used to be kind of nervous giving long talks and stuff and didn’t really want to have to do them here on the mission but I feel a lot more comfortable now. I have a method…I study what I’m supposed to give like super good, Way more than I know I’ll have time to give but just so I can really understand the topic. Then I go through and think of what I want them to know and go from there.

This one was a little different because I talked about the new way to teach and tried to apply it while I gave this one. I think I did a good job. There’s a reason why DC 84:85 is on my missionary plaque. It’s helped me out a ton here. Also at BYU-I before the mission I took a public speaking class. Honestly it was kind of random that I took it because it was not part of my degree or anything. I just thought it would be fun because I liked debate in high school. Some of the skills have really helped me. A lot of things that are like not really what you should do when you speak publicly like use your hands weird, use bad examples or just weird things that everyone does that are also a little awkward to tell someone not to do and not seem rude. I don’t know if you understand me but I got rid of a lot of bad speaking habits with this class.

So this week was fun too. We really tried to put into practice the new teaching way. The prepare, interact, and invite. It’s so simple but so powerful!! Like a lot of times you have to rely a lot more on the spirit to talk. You will have a great lesson plan and want to teach a certain point next then they will say something different and you have to adapt your teaching a lot more. It’s a lot more effective and I really feel like it’s been helping us a lot.

Yesterday we had 7 people in church too which also testifies to that. We had some really weird lessons this week too.. One of the most frustrating things here is when you KNOW your teaching by the spirit but it’s almost like you can see the spirit go to them and just bounce off their hearts instead of going in... It’s really sad. Humility is really important to be able to feel the spirit. A lesson we had yesterday was a lot like that. I was just about ready to stand up and bear my testimony to this less active about Joseph Smith because he didn’t want anything to do with him and then tell him that if he didn’t humble himself he would never know. Well I basically bore my testimony like that but then I was patient and just sat frustrated for a bit. We brought 2 members with us and they helped us a lot. By the end of the lesson the guy kind of cried a bit and said he missed going to church and next week he might go. It was a big change and made me humble myself a bit for being impatient.. Anyways this new way to teach works!

Anyways we have interviews with the new president this week! It should be interesting. He’s a super great guy and I love him. I’m excited to get to know him more because it’s still weird to think that President Kusch is just chilling in Rexburg now and not here haha.  

Anyways I love you all! Have a great week

Love Elder Marrott

A baby squirrel

Baptism for Enedina and President Avila

Hey!!!

There was nothing special here for the 4th. People don’t celebrate here like Cinco de Mayo.

So we finally baptized Enedina this week! She got baptized on the 4th of July.  The baptism was super cool.  She invited a ton of her family that are not members and they had a super good experience. We are going to keep working with her daughter in law and I think her and her family could all get baptized too. It’s a little hard because their husbands are really bad people.. It’s really sad. People just don’t care or they don’t see the damage they do to their families.

We also met the new president Avila! He’s super cool! He and his wife have like 1 week now in the mission. We met them on Wednesday in Consejo and it was super cool. He hasn’t really changed too much, still the same idea of work hard according to preach my gospel. The church came out with a new way to teach though in this seminar for new presidents. You can actually see it in LDS.org. It’s really simple
1. Prepare to learn
2. Interact to edify
3. Invite to act.
Its super cool and we are actually going to have a training meeting with the whole zone to learn more about it tomorrow.

So next up to baptize will be a few weeks.. There’s one that could be close but she needs to get divorced so she can get married. But besides that she’s perfect. It’s a pretty common problem here..

Anyways love you all! Have a good week!!

Love Elder Marrott

Enedina Family at her baptism

Countryside