Learning the Atonement of Christ

We had a lesson with a new family that we are teaching and we put some baptismal dates with them. 

    They didn't even talk about Easter in church. I actually heard no one say anything about Easter. I find it pretty strange :( I gave a talk on the Atonement. 

Well, we are working a lot more with the members. We didn't have a lot of lessons this week with investigators- but hopefully this next week we will.

   We'll be praying and working hard. I'm glad that I am still in this area. Elder French and I are getting along well. I'm glad that I can keep going here. Hopefully everything keeps going well.

I love to get to know Christ on my mission. I've seen how he is through others and how he acts through me. He's helped me change-many times-with many things-big and little. I hope that you have all been able to see the power of the atonement working every day in your lives. My talk was about how the Atonement strengthens us. I imagine the atonement is in a certain way- that he appears in our spot right when we were about to sin- and although the temptation is hard-he doesn't sin. He lived and felt ever temptation- every addiction- every contentious argument- he felt and overcame the hardest situation- the same situation where we sin- and then that knowledge reaches through the eternities to us in the very moment when it is actually happening. He reaches out and tells us through the spirit what we have to do-how to overcome- because he already did it- almost 2000 years ago. He knows what it's like. He knows what to do because he did it- because he took on every situation- there is no human weakness that he has not felt- no sin that was not presented before him to be committed. He suffered it all. It is just on us to use what he has given. How often will you do it?

I hope that this Easter has been beautiful for you- I hope that everyone has felt his spirit and put new goals to become more like him- more like he who took on every burden.

I love you guys.

-Elder Dazey

The Lord Always Provides

Everything is going great. My companion has actually been a Zone Leader longer than I have. He was in the MTC at the same time as me. He was just in Elder Cook's district. The work is going great. We had a zone goal to get 5 new investigators and teach them all about baptism and invite them to baptism and we weren't completing the goal. We only had 1 new investigator. A lot of our appointments had fallen through and we were worried about being able to get the goal. We had just watched two appointments fall through yesterday when we decided to go back with a reference we had contacted. We started talking to the lady there and she didn't seem really excited to hear a message, so her mom came up and she was this old lady and I just thought "It's going to be even less likely with her because usually the old people are super Catholic." However, to my surprise she came out to talk in front of her house with Elder French and I. We invited her to invite her family to listen to us too and she got them all out there. We got 6 new investigators. We began to talk about lesson 3- Faith Repentance and Baptism and they were all intently listening and we felt the spirit really strong. We invited them to baptism and they accepted. 

   My health is good. I weigh 188 pounds...I think I'll have to get myself on a diet too. GENERAL CONFERENCE. GET PSYCHED   

   We have gotten a previous zone leader and a previous assistant in our zone- we're pretty excited.

Anyway, I love you guys! Pray for us.

Love,

Elder Dazey

New Companion!

I hope that it keeps going well! The zone leaders have transfers early this time- So Elder Cook is going to another zone as a zone leader and I am receiving Elder French- He's really cool so we should have fun. 

This week has been good. We got some new investigators and we helped out some missionaries.

   We had a special conference with the Zone Leaders on Thursday. President talked about having faith and following the spirit and about focusing on baptizing. So as Zone Leaders we all need to baptize someone else in March! This is pretty crazy. I'll get working with Elder French on that. Anyway. I have to get going. Love you!

Elder Dazey

The Work will Move Forward at the Speed WE are prepared to move

    Well this week has gone well. We had a baptism on Saturday with Hector. He just had back surgery so we had to put a patch over his surgery so that water wouldn't get in and get it wet. But it all went well! We thought that not many people were going to come because we have been really busy with things this week and we didn't have much time to invite many people to the baptism- but we got a nice group there. We've just been running around doing a bunch of stuff. Helping Elders and working in a much farther part of our area. It hasn't been my favorite week.

   President in our Zone Conference told us that one of the area 70 asked him if his mission was ready to get 500 baptisms a month. President said that he didn't think we were ready. So the 70 responded and said that he doesn't think that the members are ready either. So president wants us to start preparing for that.

   Elder Cook and I are starting to elaborate a plan to work with the members better. It is based on the Importance of Members section in chapter 9 of Preach my Gospel. The plan is basically to help them and prepare them to be the kind of member missionaries that can help us get 10 baptisms a month. It is kind of a long term plan- but basically we are focusing on inviting them to come unto Christ and helping them have a conversion from member to member missionary. Basically it consists in steps very similar to steps that one would take to prepare an investigator for baptism. 
1. Gain their Trust (Service, Love, Obedience, Interest in their lives, and teaching them the Doctrine of Christ)
2. Strengthening their Faith (L1, L2, L3- with a big focus on lesson 3, helping them remember their conversion experience)
3. Inviting them to repent by teaching them tactics and inviting them to do them. ("Andar haciendo bienes", Keep doing well, Ayuno y oracion por la obra, fast and pray for the work, Cultivar amistades nuevas, cultivate new friendships, Abrir la boca,open your mouths, Invitar a amigos,invite friends, Maestros orientadores, teach investigators, Su ejemplo personal, be a good example, Hermanamiento, brotherhood, enseñar a los demás )teach everyone.
Basically we are going to try to convert them into a new way of thinking and into members who don't have fear to do the work. I think that once we have a bunch of members like this and we can figure out the best way to organize our schedules with them- that is when we will be baptizing 10 a month- so we are going to start preparing our area for that.

   Hopefull, we can put it to work well. It's going to take a while. We are excited for it though. I'm loving the mission Mom. There was a new Missionary that left our ward to go to Brazil this week. He stopped by our house in the morning to say goodbye. Elder Chichia. We are really excited for him.

Anyway I'm going to stop writing. iI LOVE YOU GUYS A LOT!

-Elder Dazey

Missionary Work-Yes!

This week has been good. We are going to try to work a lot more with the members. We hit

a lot of our goals this week. 

We were going to have two baptisms this last weekend, but Hector got surgery and Samuel didn't show up to his interview :(

   We had some exchanges in our Zone this week. We went with one of the companionships is having a lot of problems. It's hard to see Elders not do what they should. I love the Elders in our zone. We just have some things to do.

   To help the Zone work harder. Elder Cook thought of doing a march madness bracket competition with all of the companionships in our zone- with little prizes along the way. We have been elaborating that plan and told our Zone about it today in our Zone activity- which was really fun by the way. We played kick ball and did charades.

   I started the Old Testament this week and I'm hoping to read the bible before the end of my mission. It's really good :D I have been making a timeline of when everyone was born.

   I LOVE YOU ALL!

-ELDER DAZEY

Elder Oaks Visited!

Sadly one of our investigators-Juan Carlos couldn't come to the conference because his cousin got sick and he went to visit him in the hospital. However, we did get to see him and we had a really powerful lesson where we prayed together to receive an answer. He felt the spirit very strong and is doing great.
This week we've seen a lot of progress in our investigators. We've seen how their testimonies are growing and how they are changing. I love to see how the spirit touches investigators to make changes in their lives. I feel that my testimony and understanding are growing a lot. I am progressing.
We had a little competition, about finding new investigators during the course of two days, with the Elders from Xoxtla and we both found 7!
We have seen some baptismal dates fall through, but we'll just keep working and praying-we've seen miracles, and I'm sure we'll see more. Elder Oaks has given us a huge boost as a Zone. 
I am excited to put into practice the things that I have learned from the conferences. It was cool to see the example of an apostle. I would love to have that kind of consecration and love. I'm working just a little bit at a time. I loved the questions and the answers session. I decided that I won't get a beard after the mission-something I have thought about doing a few times. smile emoticon
We had a split with some of the Elders in our Zone. Elder Gonzalez seems to be doing great. 
We found one of our investigators drunk the other day. He was mad at his girlfriend and he wanted to go beat her (in his drunken state) He grabbed on to me and told me that we were going to go, and all the way he was yelling at people while I tried to talking him out of things. He kept saying that I was his only friend and he was even yelling some mean things to Elder Cook. At some point we just left him on the side of the street-because obviously we weren't going to help him beat his girlfriend. Hopefully they're alright. I'm glad that God has warned us about alcohol. It sucks to see people you love like that.
ELDER OAKS VISITED!
There is a ton that I wrote in a notebook, And I don't have that notebook with me while I'm writing this email sadly. IT WAS GREAT. He, Elder Clayton (President of the Presidency of the Seventy), Elder Valenzuela (Member of the area presidency), and Elder Walker (Also a seventy) were there with their wives and they and their wives all spoke. IT WAS REALLY COOL. I wish I had my notebook to say more.
He did a question answer time and we had prepared questions from ahead, so that they wouldn't be bad questions. One was about how we can keep our spirituality up after the mission. He said that we just need to keep living all of the mission rules after the mission- studies, sleep, everything- accept for the things we can do- like dating, marrying, and swimming. He said that he hates to see Elders come back and grow beards. ‪#‎nobeardforme‬.
Elder Cook prepared a question that got asked which was- what are the attributes of a special witness of Christ? He explained one- which was keeping your view set only on the glory of God.
I also felt that feeling the spirit is just a matter of eliminating the distractions of life and focusing your view on God grin emoticon
There was a lot more-But I'll try to explain more next week. It was really special. 
Anyway, I love you guys. This week has been great.
Love, 
Elder Dazey

So Many Blessings!

  Well this week we will have a special treat. We and the north mission are going to the state capitol to see Elder Oaks speak on Saturday and then he will address us here in Cholula on Sunday! IT'S GOING TO BE AWESOME! We're all really excited.

   I really enjoy being with Elder Cook. He is really hard working, and I have learned a lot from him. He is a great example, and he’s helped make me a better missionary. I feel like things are going great. We are learning a lot and we are working together in everything. 

I had a really cool experience last night. We were going to go talk with one of our investigators that is progressing very well, so we had a few people from the ward come with us. She wasn't there, but the man who answered the door was very interested and had a million questions- he looks really ready. We taught him and the spirit was strong- he accepted baptism. Walking out of that miracle lesson, a car stopped beside us. A young man came out and I recognized him from Cocoyotla where I served almost a year ago. He was a young man that Elder Diaz and I had visited because he and his family were inactive. He was 20 and had not gone on a mission or received the Melchizedek priesthood. I said "Kevin! How are you doing?" He said that he was doing well and I or one of the others then asked if he remembered me. He said "I couldn't forget Elder Dazey-You're the reason I have the Melchizedek Priesthood." I hadn't realized what a change that one visit had made for him. About a month after I had left the area he had already been to church, had his interviews and received the priesthood. I wanted to cry. I had no idea what difference that visit would make in his life.

   We will have our Zone training meeting tomorrow. We are pretty excited.

I put the pictures on from last week for if you didn't get them.

   We had tons to do this week. We had lots of miracles. We were walking on the street and Elder Cook started talking to someone that we both felt the impression to talk to. They are really cool investigators. Very nice and willing to learn. After that we went to visit another investigator. He was living with his girlfriend and that day she left him and took their kids. He was telling us about all of the calamities that had happened to him in his life. He cried. We said a prayer and we got up and cleaned his one room house, which was a total mess. He accepted baptism. His girlfriend and him made up and we actually took he, his girlfriend and their kids to a baptism this last Saturday.

   We had splits in the area of the assistants this last week. it was really cool to go with Elder Burnett. He is a great example and he taught me a lot about being a good example to others.

Anyway, I love you guys. I hope that everything is going great  :D

Love, 

Elder Dazey