Miracle Week

Everyone,

Hey! So this week was pretty dang busy and crazy!! Like yeah super busy and crazy. I’ll start with today because its the most fresh in my mind. So remember how I got my Appendix out in the MTC?? Well, my comp is getting kidney stones!! Like 2 weeks ago he woke me up in the middle of the night saying he had some really bad pains in his kidneys and I told him to take 2 Tylenol and it was better. Then… yesterday at the food with our bishop it started hurting him more. We talked to the mission doctor that lives here in Chilpancingo and she told us to buy this one medicine and so we went and got it and he took it and it was pretty good, for a while.. Later that night at like 10ish he started having them again worse than ever so we called the wife of the mission Hermana Avila and she sent us to the hospital. We got to the hospital around midnight and they put him on some drugs. Then he was good for a sec and we almost got to go home around 3am but then it hurt again! So we stayed in the hospital last night.. It was real uncomfortable because I was sleeping on little padded seat. They did some tests and we stayed there for a while until like 3 this afternoon. It was quite an adventure... So yeah..

Earlier this week, last Tuesday, we had to go to this other area that used to be part of the zone but now there aren’t any missionaries there. We had to empty the house and were told to just donate everything that it had to the members there. We took a while to get there and then had to hire someone to pick the lock and replace it because we didn’t have a key. The house was full of brand new stuff like everything.. We also couldn’t get ahold of ANYONE from the branch there sooooo... We literally ended up just going around contacting people and asking them if they wanted like free beds or anything in the house haha... It was pretty cool actually!! We got to give a bed and a drawer set to the family at the store on the corner. Their kids had some sort of birth defect so it was good to help her out. It was pretty funny and crazy at the same time. Makes me want to help people more and take advantages of situations like that when I’m older.

Also this week we had a miracle baptism! I say miracle because we literally met the guy at his baptism and he got baptized in our ward! He was an investigator from the neighboring ward and then moved the Friday before the baptismal service. His name is Adrian and he is super cool from what I know. He was talking to my companion after the service while they changed in the bathroom and said today baptism, tomorrow confirmation and the next goal is a mission in a year! I’m just amazed when I hear about people like that. The potential that someone has when they really fully let the spirit guide them is infinite.

Last story, real quick, is that this week we also met a new family to teach! It was a bit different how we met them too. So on Tuesday after the district meeting me and my comp were cleaning up and talking to a few companionships and this lady came in and said she was looking for someone to teach English to her kids! She like walked into the church from the street! A bit weird but we told her that right now we weren’t giving like any formal group classes but if she wanted we could go to her house and teach them. So we set the appointment for the next day! That day we went there and sat down with her and met her 2 kids Marco and Valeria who are like 11 and 13. We taught some basic English and helped them with that then didn’t really get to teach them much gospel stuff but we left them a pamphlet and invited them to read it and to pray as a family often in English. So we put an appointment for the next Thursday and went and saw them again. This time we had brought a bunch of English stuff that we had in the house like Liahonas and stuff! I read with them an article from the kids section about baptism haha. It was really cool because they are like religious but not so much and they had a lot of questions and it was really natural just to answer them. We invited them to the baptism and to church and they went to both!! It was awesome! We still haven’t been able to check to see how they really liked it but it was a good step of faith on their part. Miracle week!!

So in my studies I was focusing on this week the gospel in general and how following it makes us clean from sin and how that works. I was reading an article this week too that I really liked that has a powerful quote from Elder Holland. I don’t have the quote in English but it says…

 ¨perhaps the most often disobeyed commandment is when Christ said peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you, not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. I believe that nothing makes our saviors heart more sorrowful when he sees us worried because we don’t trust in his judgment, we don’t feel safe in his hands, and we don’t trust him.¨

That was real powerful for me.. I need to be better at that. I worry about wayyyyy to many things that I don’t have control over and don’t trust enough in keeping the commandments and the plan that God prepared for me.

Anyways that’s me this week. Next week we are going to Cuernavaca and probably baptizing again.. I’ll give you all an update.

I love you all!!! Have a great week and Trust in Christ!

Love Elder Marrott

Muti Zone Conference, Gifts, Service and Grace.

Hey!!

This was a super good week! Well like ridiculously busy.

This week we had a multizone conference here in chilpo and we hosted the other zone Iguala. It was really fun but kind of stressful. The hermana that usually would cook for the conferences moved like a month ago.. So we had to find someone else but it turned out good. The conference was really good. We talked about teaching with the spirit and preparation to teach. Also teaching with the end in mind. Like when we teach people it’s to focus on the ordinances. We don’t invite people just to have more members, we have to think of the temple and what even comes after that. We didn’t really have that much time to work to be honest but we still did some good work!

So remember Alondra that got baptized last week? Well her dad was like completely inactive when my comp found him like 2 months ago. He’s a return missionary and so he recognized the elders. Well we baptized his 2 kids, we are working on his wife, and this Sunday he was called as Elders Quorum president!!! Crazy. Feels good.

So there’s also this other less active guy that’s kind of special. His name is Juan Manuel and he likes us a lot. He’s really touchy and always wants us to visit him. Good guy. So anyways we passed by where he works this week just on the way to an appointment and he stops us and we are there talking with him for a while. Anyways he says hold on I got a gift for you. My comp and I looked at each other weird while he went back and got a plastic bag. He comes back and gives us the bag and says I hope you like it!!.. It was 3 pairs of boxers. hahahahaha. Oh my heck it was so funny. We just said thank you so much. That’s really nice. And he was all smiley and happy that we liked them and said that he was walking in the town and saw them and thought of us haha. Ahh he’s a great guy. It was just really funny that he had no idea.

Anyways yesterday we had 2 really good classes in church. In gospel principles class we talked about service. I just thought about how great the world would be if we all served with all our hearts to one another. Doing things for yourself can be really hard sometimes and there’s not even a recompense. When we help others and accept help, we get like the same done if not more plus the blessings of peace and happiness for serving! Why not! Well, greed and pride is why not! People just don’t want to live in faith anymore. They give up the things that they want most for the things that are there and present. If people just think about what they really want more than anything else and do whatever it takes to get it then the happiness will be equal or more than the sacrifice. Time is the scariest thing. I’ve found myself worried that when things go good that they will end soon, or when we look into the future and have hope for something good sometimes the immediate future can just be seen like an obstacle. Service makes life joyful. Patience makes trials edifying and sweet.

Also the other class was on Grace. It was the talk from President Uchdorf from this last conference. I love that talk. I love Grace because it just blows my mind sometimes! Nothing is more sweet than just accepting the Atonement into your life and letting it work. Salvation is free to all those who will not block it out! Christ paid for all sins. Obedience is out of love for that act. Repentance is how we reach our potential!

 Just a few things I really liked. I’m grateful to be a missionary. It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I’ve changed more than I thought possible. I’ve given up things so close to me but all for God. Just like Matthew 19:29. God is the best investment.

I love you all so much. I wish I could thank all of you individually for what you have done so I got to this point in my life. Have a good week and go help someone!!

Love Elder Marrott

Emailing us with Elder Stumpf

Alondra got baptized!!

Everyone,

I’m super exhausted. We just got back from playing soccer for like 2 hours. There is a member that owns a really nice roofed and netted field so you can kick the ball as hard as you want. It’s really fun. Today we had like 14ish people there to play with so we had a blast but I’m super dead. Also we had some super spicy food right before so me and my companion were dying the first like half hour haha.

This week went really good! That little girl Alondra got baptized!! She’s super cool. Her brother too. He got baptized like a few weeks ago and now her. They are both soooo quiet. She like never shows her emotions but right after her confirmation when she was going back to her spot she was like holding back a smile haha.  The other ward that shares the building had a baptism of 7 people scheduled at the same time sooo we had to wait an hour... Good coordination right? Besides that it was really a good baptism. It was pretty funny because while we were waiting for our turn I found this tiny lizard and caught it and was just holding it for like 30 minutes while we just sang a bunch of hymns waiting haha. I have pictures. It just stayed on my thumb.

This next week is going to be kind of crazy. Well, tomorrow we have the district meeting and me and my companion have to prepare for the zone conference on Wednesday. The other zone is coming from another city and so they are going to be staying in the houses of the missionaries here the night before. We have to make sure the food is there and then on Thursday we have broadcast from the doctor of the whole Mexico area. I have no idea what it’s about but more stuff we have to plan.

This week I was studying a lot the sermon on the mount. I believe it is just about the most powerful talk ever. Studying each section of it and using Jesus the Christ I was able to learn a lot more things. Some things that I especially liked were the beatitudes and their respective blessings. Sacrifice really does bring forth the blessings of heaven.. God is so just and loving. He will give us EXACTLY what we want!! Self-Reliance is one of the most important principles of that. If we want to get to the Celestial Kingdom and receive our inheritance from God of everything he possesses then we just have to do what he tells us. The world isn’t that just.. There are a lot of people that get what they don’t deserve whether it be good or bad, but the hope that comes from faith in God and Jesus Christ is what should motivate us to push through all that to get what we REALLY want.

I also was thinking of how great of a blessing it is to have bodies. Everything that humanity has ever created or done is because of our bodies. I don’t know if that sounds like really weird but it just blew me away. We were spirits with God before and had developed for a long time to prepare us to come to earth. Then we got here and have these bodies capable of sooo many things. One of the greatest trials is to learn how to use to correctly. I guess this week I just learned a lot about sacrifice.

Well, I have a long timeish on the mission now. It feels like my life. When people ask where I’m from I say Washington out of habit but I dunno, it’s just weird because I haven’t seen it there in forever it seems like! All’s good here though. The weather here in Chilpancingo is really nice actually. Its windy a lot, rains randomly and really isn’t that hot.

I love you all and have a great week!!

Elder Marrott

Alondra Baptism
Elder Stumpf, Elder Marrott

Alondra Baptism

Alondra Baptism

This missionary REALLY loves his animals!
Today it's a lizard...

Elder Marrott singing to his lizard

Street in Chilpancingo

Chilpancingo

Hey!!!

This week was pretty dang good. I had like only a half week to work in the area though.  I’m a lot farther from the offices so when I had to go to Cuernavaca I had to go earlier and then I stayed till Thursday morning there.

Basically Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon we just walked around Cuernavaca haha. It’s really interesting there. We always went to the calo which is like the main square? idk how to say it in English. But there I got my shoes shined really cool and we got some strawberry waters and just hung out. The first day, there was a clown that had a big crowd and did fire tricks and told dumb jokes. We kept our distance so as to not be part of his act haha. Then there was a really cool guy that was doing spray-paint art live. He did some dang good paintings but I didn’t want to buy any because where would I put it?? haha. I actually don’t think I got a single little toy there or anything.. It was pretty fun but got pretty boring.

Here in Chilpancingo is a lot different from Morelos. It’s still really cool but just a few interesting things. Like every Sunday when they sing the closing hymn of sacrament meeting they stand to sing it. And then in Elders Quorum they kneel for the last prayer... Idk its whatever.

The members are really cool. This is probably the biggest ward I’ve been in so far. I don’t know how many members it actually has but the attendance is like 180ish. We also have been meeting some really cool people. One of them is named Litzi. She went to a missionary activity one day in the mission in Acapulco and afterwards was like I’m gonna get baptized. So she lives here and she’s been going to church faithfully. She will get baptized the 5th of September or possibly a week earlier because she will have enough times in church. I could tell you about a ton more people but I don’t have time..

I’ve been trying to write in my journal better because I wrote like March 31, then like May 9ish then yesterday... haha. It’s pretty bad and I’m going to regret it for a long time. Trying to do better.

The coolest thing that we have been seeing is just the improvement in the teaching. Our new president has put that as a really big focus. We get in lessons and we try so much more to just teach what the spirit says and let it direct the lesson. It takes a lot of listening, questions, and testifying. Its super powerful because we have seen people just change so much when we teach them. Then the sad thing is we see them change back to how they were as they don’t accept commitments and act.. It’s really sad but it happens.

A lot of things are changing with the new presidents and it’s kinda throwing all the missionaries off beat but they are necessary changes. They are focused a lot more on helping us be self-sufficient. We had a few things on the mission that were like crutches and they are trying to strengthen us to be able to not need them. Anyways it’s exciting and I love it here! Spanish is super fluent, I understand the culture and can make friends a whole lot easier here. It’s really fun if you let it.

Well I love you all. Really. Loving is pretty much the same thing as getting to really know someone I’ve learned. When you open up to someone and don’t close, then you start to love them and be loved. One day I wanna come back here to see these people. If not I’ll have a long time in the eternities with some of them.

Have a great week everyone! Go find someone that needs your help!

Love Elder Marrott

Elder Marrott in Cuernavaca

In Cuernavaca, Elder Marrott and his companion,  Elder Stumpf.

In Cuernavaca, Elder Marrott...just thinking

A secretary, Sister Zambrano, and Elder Marrott

Cuernavaca

Street view of Cuernavaca

Elder Marrott getting his shoes shined

Elder Per Chex speaks perfect English, and is from Guatemala.
Elder Marrott says he's really cool!

Companions...Elder Stumpf and Elder Marrott

Hill overlooking Chilpancingo

Chilpancingo

Elder Marrott overlooking Chilpancingo

Cuernavaca

Elder Marrott, Elder Peterson, Elder Smart

Elder Smart, Elder Peterson, Elder Marrott

Hello from Guerrero!

Hello from Guerrero!!!

So my new area is Chilpancingo!! I’m super excited. I’m going to be a zone leader again here. This is also my first time in Guerrero which is the other state in the mission. Guerrero literally means Warrior... sweet.

Well I was kind of sad to leave Galeana. The members there were super cool. I really felt like I tried to give them everything. One of the families gave me a tie and wrote a message on it. Then later came by last night to give us some extra food from a party they had had. I loved them. It’s sad because I really don’t know if I’m going to come back to visit. I hope to one day so I always say to people I can’t promise to come back to visit you, but if I do come back to Mexico I promise to stop by your house! I should probably make a list of people that I made that promise to haha.

My new comp is named Elder Stumpf from Rexburg. He’s cool. We would always talk in like consejos and meetings and stuff. It’s gonna be a fun time with him.

So reflecting on my time in Galeana I realized how powerful the spirit is in the work here… And I realize how churchy bland that sounds but it’s true. I saw that the more I strived to teach differently, listen to the investigators, and involve the members, we had more success. Yesterday there were like 15 people who came to church for the first time in months. I was proud to recognize just about everyone that was in the church too.

Well I’m really excited for a new week and area and state! It’s probably the most dangerous zone but I don’t feel endangered at all. Have a great week everyone and remember to really let the spirit guide your life with faith in ever footstep!!!

Love Elder Marrott

Elder Marrott and Elder Stumpf 

First pictures of new area,Guerrero

Saying Good-bye

And Good-bye

The new apartment

Cutting the Ties...Sister's going home.