Week 22 - my testimony

Well yet again its MONDAY!!!

Hope this week was good for you! I am feeling like i must have doubted somewhere because well- no baptism this week. but it was a pretty great week. My new Companion, Elder Mora and I are doing quite good actually really good I have no idea why I am so happy all the time but i just am!! i am always smiling and it seems at times a bit weird but you know what i am one happy missionary!!! and well because I share my smile everywhere i go!! and in return people just all of a sudden start smiling its kind of weird haha but I am just happy.

One reason why this week was a great week was I finished the Book of Mormon on Wednesday in English then the same day I Started it in Spanish.  i want to share just a bit about a book a book that changes lives and changes peoples hearts. In the Book of Mormon there is a big pride cycle and well we all know how that works out haha. People praise God, get blessed and then are rich and well fall down and are wicked. Its a pretty big problem in the Book. but this book has a powerful impact on the lives of others. it changes peoples hearts and their minds towards God and his Gospel. the Mighty Change of heart happens in this book a lot. As Elder Bednar said in his talk last conference, I think, he said we need a mighty change of heart to turn our hearts to him.  it might not have been him but it was a good saying paraphrased by me haha. But this book is true it is the only true book on the earth today. its also the keystone of our religion. because it is the keystone the whole church relies on this book. the truth that Joseph Smith was a prophet that he saw a vision that angels speak by the power of God, it is all in this book. by reading this book we gain knowledge that goes with us in to heaven. 

Elder Holland said this in one of his talks and its just a great quote, he says "For 179 years this book has been examined and attacked, denied and deconstructed, targeted and torn apart like perhaps no other book in modern religious history—perhaps like no other book in any religious history. And still it stands. Failed theories about its origins have been born and parroted and have died—from Ethan Smith to Solomon Spaulding to deranged paranoid to cunning genius. None of these frankly pathetic

answers for this book has ever withstood examination because there is no other answer than the one Joseph gave as its young unlearned translator. In this I stand with my own great-grandfather, who said simply enough, “No wicked man could write such a book as this; and no good man would write it, unless it were true and he were commanded of God to do so.” wow!  it is true, this book has been attacked and

torn apart but it is the only true book because it was commanded by God to be translated. 

I have started reading the Doctrine and Covenants and well i read about Joseph having the gift taken away and How not being able to translate. It just goes to show that well God works in mysterious ways. I also gave a talk yesterday off the bat on

how God has blessed this Elder to learn Spanish. tomorrow i  will have been in Mexico for 3 months and on my mission for 5 months time goes by and it never ceases to amaze me how God works and how he teaches me everyday. The book of Mormon is true and the Church as well. I know it with all my heart!! I love being a missionary!! its been a blessing to have the ability to speak with the gift of tongues and the  ability to take the word of God that I know to a different land and to speak their tongue and to walk in their ways!!! I love this work!!!

Love you all and like always have a wonderful week!!!

Elder Jaymes Monson

Elder Holland Oct 2009 Safety for the soul

Elder Mora holding an Iguana

Hair cut!

http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2009/10/safety-for-the-soul?lang=eng

opening the church building

Peaceful river, beautiful

Week 21

This week will bring a lot of changes for Jaymes...Elder Picuasi will be transferred and Jaymes is getting a veteran Elder who will be finishing his mission in Ixhautan with Elder Monson.  He is doing very well, happy and healthy and LOVES the people in this beautiful part of the world.  He wants everyone to read the talk listed below and be the hands of Christ here on earth.  That sounds like a very worthwhile work for all of us!  Thanks for reading his letters and for praying for the missionaries all over the world!-Elder Monson's Mom

Well Hello!!!

Hope all is well where you are at. Here its pretty crazy!!!! I just came back from an activity with my zone and ya its been a pretty crazy day!!! tomorrow i get privileged with a new companion and well i am supposedly his last companion in the mission. So that's cool and well i might be privileged in four weeks with a new companion from the united states, its going to be a good four weeks with this Elder and then he is done!  

(Just a little bit of bragging for Jaymes) As missionaries we make goals and well I just talked with the Mission President and he told me that wow!!! he has never seen such success in a new missionary like me he told me to keep it up and said he was thinking Elder Picuasi was doing good but when Elder Picuasi told him that "No its all My Companion, he has a goal in mind and just takes off with it". He then said, "President He told me that when you said to try for a baptism every week he took it to the next level and said as Nephi I will go and do!"   My companion and I are doing well and its the last day today. And well I am so glad to say that I will go and do! Baptisms 4 weeks in a row!!! wahoo!!!!! the Picture is of Teresa a 13 year old girl who followed Christ and entered the waters of baptism on none other than a day known as Valentines day! isn't that interesting she was baptized by here cousin Magdiel and she is just doing well. Her mom who just needs to be married to her spouse is being baptized this Saturday! so its just been an answer to my prayers and its been just a great experience to see them change. 

I have really seen how Christ has used me and my companion and the people of the branch as his hands. I read a talk that is just about that its entitled "You are my hands" It is a great talk talking about the way we should help the work of god through doing something. I actually am glad that i read this because yesterday President Aguilar a counselor in the Branch Presidency asked me to speak so i did and spoke about this Talk and mostly about how faith without works is dead so ya. It was a good experience and well i was glad that the lord gave me the gift of tongues to help the members understand what i was talking about. so ya this talk is actually one i remember quite clearly. i am here to tell you that all of us are the hands of Christ by our examples. It shows us how Charity never faileth. the pure love of Christ is what we need to share to the whole world. We are the hands of Christ on the earth and we all are missionaries. I know that through our hands we can change the world one person at a time!! just remember that one person can start the chain and change the world. so do it!  I know this church is true and I know that by us doing what we can to reach out our hands we can change and lift people to the heavens to live with the master! i am in Moroni 8 I love the Book of Mormon!!! It is for sure the only true book and i have found that through reading I open up my mind to the people that really need the message. I love this Gospel!!!

I hope you have a great week!!! I will for sure because the only way is up!!! we progress and progress and I will do my best. one thing i have seen this week is the way the gospel changes peoples attitude as well. one 17 year old young man is so exited for us to come over and teach and he just runs to us when ever he sees us its is awesome!!!

Have a great day!!!

Love you all!!!!

Elder Jaymes Monson

You are my hands President Uchtdorf April 2010 http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2010/04/you-are-my-hands?lang=eng

Week 20

Well Aloha!!! oh wait, haha

Well Week 20 its hard to believe that on Wednesday I will have been out for 140 days. that's crazy talk haha and that's crazy fast too!! Well Happy Monday to all hope you are having a great day. Here in Mexico its just only 93 degrees and getting hotter and well i don't care what you say about how nice it is here to me I'm, well HOT!!! haha for nice right now if i wasn't serving the lord it would be nice to be on a lake having fun but that can wait and well it will have to because the boat is sort of in 27 degrees and well the water temperature is probably just down right freezing!!! so well I guess that might be a problem so ya. Anyways its been hot here and well in just three months starts the hottest month known to man well that's at least what they say about here in Ixhuatan so if i am here in two transfers then i will be telling you all about it.

This week was a pretty good week. My companion and I had another Baptism this one was for M_____ who I have been working with for about a month and a half or so. I say I because for all of January and we were on splits when we taught him so well i was always with another person while teaching him. so ya anyways it was funny when we were
asking him who he wanted to baptize him, we listed a list off and he turned and said, Monso haha or Monson, it was pretty funny cause we listed off all of his friends and he just turned and said Monson, I of course said well i would be honored to do that and Saturday night that's what we did. What a great guy though man he is one and a million his whole family are members and well they have become very less active until I showed up with a young man named William and we taught him the first lesson and well his whole family has now been
transformed and he just says every Saturday, tomorrow it church and there will be no saying no we are going as a family to church to worship god and to know the truth. he has 5 kids and well they are all grown up now only three live with him two are married and one is handicapped so he gets all of them and they go in him Mototaxi to church. I have learned a lot from this great man one of the things is how attending church changes people because of the spirit. I can remember the first time when he came to church and said, I feel something here and its sort of like i am home, do you feel that every week? I thought about it and said well ya we do, but to tell you the truth it is just something that has grown on me its just something i expect to feel every week. its something good and well its the Holy Ghost. and well when people only have the light of Christ and they come to church they feel something. a lot of times they cant explain it but it feels good to them. it sort of made me realize how important it is for us to "come home" or to enter the lords houses. The temple for example is one of the ways that we feel the powers of heaven and
the spirit. I know that every time i attend the temple i feel closer to my heavenly father and and feel like all of my worries are not even there. it feels to me like i have put off the natural man the natural
clothes and put on cloths that i hope my spirit looks like always as i try to wash my spirit clean with the blood of Christ. It makes me feel like i am pure as we should feel after baptism. That's how we should feel feel the love of Christ as we attend the temple as much as we can.

This week i read yes i know that's funny me reading a talk but its true I read a talk. This week i would like to share a few points from President Thomas S Monson's talk from this past conference, See others as they may become. President Monson says,"We must develop the capacity to see men not as they are at present but as they may become." Now as a missionary we cant look at people as they are like this one missionary President Monson Describes in his talk he says he was talking with N. Eldon Tanner and he shared this story with him. "He told of a missionary who had been the most successful missionary whom he had met in all of the interviews he had conducted. He said that as he interviewed that missionary, he said to him, “I suppose that all of the people whom you baptized came into the Church by way of referrals.” The young man answered, “No, we found them all by tracting.” Brother Tanner asked him what was different about his approach—why he had such phenomenal success when others didn’t. The young man said that he attempted to baptize every person whom he met.
He said that if he knocked on the door and saw a man smoking a cigar and dressed in old clothes and seemingly uninterested in anything—particularly religion—the missionary would picture in his own
mind what that man would look like under a different set of circumstances. In his mind he would look at him as clean-shaven and wearing a white shirt and white trousers. And the missionary could see
himself leading that man into the waters of baptism. He said, “When I look at someone that way, I have the capacity to bear my testimony to him in a way that can touch his heart.”" What an example of a missionary he saw people as a son or daughter of god and a person who could change. People change everyday and its up to us to help them. I think that every person can change. Even a guy who gets drunk every night and his wife is getting baptized can change and well he says he wants to and if his wife his found it then he will join her just need to get him to church that's all. So people change everyday and I have seen it. Manuel changed and people change for the feeling they get when they do right. I am another testament to what President Monson says, "I pray that we will have the courage to extend the hand of fellowship, the tenacity to try and try again, and the humility needed to seek guidance from our Father as we fulfill our mandate to share the gospel. The responsibility is upon us." I know people change and when they do we need to be there to lift them higher. President Monson says much more but that's what hit me this week. People Change and People are constantly doing so.

Well this week was  good week, hope it was for you too. I can see the lords hand in all things he is helping every single one of us to follow the example of Christ and to as it says in Mosiah 3:19 to put
off the natural man. I know this is true! and that's why I am sent to preach the gospel to be the working hands of the master. His hands are moving fast through out all the land too!!!

Love you All!!! have a wonderful day week and remember people can change!!!

Elder Jaymes Monson

President Monson's talk Pristhood Session October 2012 See others as
they may become
http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2012/10/see-others-as-they-may-become?lang=eng

Week 19

Wow! the weeks sure go by faster then they did before!!!

Hope you are doing just dandy because well the Elder named Monson way down in Mexico is doing pretty great! I had another Baptism this week!!! The picture is of Erick at his Baptism Saturday night and as you can see by the picture I was dressed in white as well, well that's because he asked me to baptize him and i told him of course i would love to baptize you. so ya it was a good day as Elder Picuasi and I saw this great young man of 21 years enter into a covenant with our father in heaven. Now this was a good opportunity for me to practice my priesthood and to learn how to say the baptismal prayer in Spanish. those are two good things! haha so it was a special day for me to see how the lord works to help us in so many ways as I stood in a Baptismal fount and with arm to the square said, Having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, And as Elder Holland said in this last conference that's supposed to change my convert for ever but it is especially supposed to change me forever as well. And well that sure did as I remembered my Baptismal day with my dad. There are many things that we say and do in our lives some of them are important some of them are just daily tasks but some of them change us forever, either in a good way or in a bad way. This past Saturday changed me in a good way as the significance of "being commissioned of Christ" really hit me that wow i m out here being called of Christ to serve a mission in his name really sort of hit me. This powerful phrase changes all of us whether its us saying it or weather its us being acted upon.

Now back to the day of my Baptism as an 8 year old boy not really sure the significance of this act of being dunked into water just knowing that at 8 years old this is what we do in the church so ya that and I love water haha. So ya that's a good thing to remember in my life.

I Listened to a very good talk this week it is actually one of my favorite talks that I remember from 2010 Priesthood Session Elder Patrick Kearon, I remember this talk not only because of his accent because he is grew up in the Arabian Peninsula but because of the power of the talk in titled "Come to Me with all purpose of heart and I will heal you" It is all about Coming unto Christ and being perfected in him. Now he says some pretty great things in this talk and well i would encourage you to read and listen to it. One thing he says is this"Tonight I would like to share a message of comfort and healing with any of you who feels alone or forsaken, has lost peace of mind or heart, or feels that you have thrown away your last chance.  Complete healing and peace can be found at the feet of the Savior." the last part especially Complete healing can only be found at the feet of the savior. When we have a a problem we can fix it for example if we have a problem with our feet or with our health we can go to a doctor for help to heal us. when we have a problem with something we need to make right with god we get on our knees and seek Complete healing. he goes on later in the talk and says "When we choose another path from the one we know to be right, as taught by our parents and leaders and as confirmed to our own hearts by the Holy Ghost, it is like stepping onto the desert sand in flip-flops instead of shoes. We then seek to justify our lazy or rebellious behavior. We tell ourselves we’re not really doing anything that wrong, that it doesn’'t really matter, and that nothing all that bad will result from letting go just a little from the iron rod. Perhaps we console ourselves with the thought that everyone else is doing it—or doing worse—and we won’t be negatively affected anyway. We somehow convince ourselves that we are the exception to the rule and therefore immune to the consequences of breaking it. We refuse, sometimes willfully, to be “exactly obedient” —as it says in Preach My Gospel—and we hold back a portion of our hearts from the Lord. And then we get stung." In the Book of Mormon there is a story about the Anti-Nephi Lehis who come unto Christ with all purpose of heart but they do more than that they “They became a righteous people” because “they did lay down the weapons of their rebellion, that they did not fight against God any more.” Their conversion was so complete and so profound that they “never did fall away.” this is a marvelous work we have and well when we lay down our weapons of rebellion we are completely healed we have become true followers of Christ.he goes on and says this Brethren(sisters), we find healing and relief only when we bring ourselves to the feet of the Great Physician, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Not one of you has thrown away your last chance. You can change, you can come back, you can claim mercy. Come unto the only One who can heal, and you will find peace. What a talk and well let us put off the natural man and put on the full armor of god and put down our weapons of rebellion and become the people the world needs to fight for the right with all our might.

Well that's the week in a rerun haha, not really, there is so much more than baptizing and listening to motivational talks given by the Brethren. It all about walking and well this week was Fiesta or party week!! so not a lot of Missionary work happening the past week as we walked Biked ran rode a mototaxi and walked more we well we did exactly what we were supposed to but it is sometimes hard to sleep when in your backyard there is a big party!!! lots of music lights and well thank goodness i was tired haha. So ya Hope ya are doing well and hope you are having a good day! Another baptism lined up for this week! Have a great Monday and a Great Week!!!

May God Bless and Speed the Right,

Elder Jaymes Monson

Great talk to look up and read!

Elder PATRICK KEARON “Come unto Me with Full Purpose of Heart, and I Shall Heal You” http://www.lds.org/general-conference/2010/10/come-unto-me-with-full-purpose-of-heart-and-i-shall-heal-you?lang=eng

Video of a part of it

http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#the-sting-of-the-scorpion