Conference and Explosions!

Buenas tardes familia y amigos!!

S/out to good ole Orem Utah for existing for a whoppin 100 years! What an accomplishment, that place is much missed haha.

The highlight this week was the zone conference! We had a combined zone conference with four zones because there were some special announcements. First off, we celebrated our mission "Iron Man" by getting over 212 baptisms in three months! And many of us got person Iron Man awards for getting over three baptisms personally!

 President then announced another initiative as a mission that still involved baptisms but there was more emphasis on recent convert progress so thats good. Im excited for how the goal can help the mission and my zone! 

The best part of the conference was when Pres Kimball announced to us that Elder Cook is coming to our mission on February!! IM SO EXCITED. He's coming with the members of the Seventy and a member of the Presiding Bishopric!! I cant help but think that changes are gonna happen, or else why would so many be coming? But wait, thats not all. I get to sing in the conference with three other Elders!!! Pres asked us a while ago to start preparing something for a special event but we didnt know until the conference that we'd be singing for an Apostle! Im super excited.

Not too much more news from good ole Pachuca. We have a rockin panaderia where we get some high quality bread on successful days. We've been riding thousands of combis around the city. The number of deaths from the gas accidents has exceeded 100. We've been helping some neighbor girls with their English homework. Oh and we had quite the experience eating lunch with members a few days ago. Elder Cassat was saying the opening prayer, and during his prayer, the food on the stove just completely exploded! There was a humongous flame and boiling oil that flew everywhere! It got on all of us but somehow none of us got burnt! Literally a miracle haha but it was quite the scare! We have no idea why it happened but it was quite the experience, we are all alive and will so dont worry haha.

This week I reflected a lot on a talk by Elder Holland that talks about the story of Peter getting asked by Jesus if he loved it. Jesus asked him three times if he loved him. Peter was very sensitive to "threes" at this point. And then the Lord told him to feed his sheep. The Lord had already asked him to do it but Peter was confused when Jesus died and just went fishing with the other Apostles. So Jesus appeared in this story to ask him again to feed his sheep. Elder Holland says that that was the day Peter converted into the great Apostle. That was the day he was converted. A lot of times, the Lord has to ask us to do things multiple times. I reflected on how I already accepted my mission call but I should always be accepting my call every day, remembering what I have been asked to do.

Que tenga una buena semana!!

Elder Millard

Kickball and Explosions

Que honda mis queridos hermanos!??

Twas a good start to Pachuca round 2! Its good being with Elder Cassat. He{s a hard worker and has lots of good experience. Not quite as outgoing or fun haha but hey, theres no such thing as a perfect companion. Im lucky to be comps with him. The work is progressing slowly but surely. Got quite a lot of people in the chapel today and things are moving right along! It was a pretty rough week as far as contacts and new investigators go but we{re looking forward to a new week full of opportunity.

We had the zone activity today where we played kickball and soccer at a professional baseball field in our area! It went super well and we defintiely enjoyed the 10 dominos pizzas afterwards haha. It was fun to get to know the zone and spend some time together.

This week we had the consejo del liderazco with all the zone leaders and capas (STL's) at Pres house which always goes super well! Especially with Hermana Kimballs amazing cooking we can always count on haha. Its always fun to see everyone and talk about how everythings going and how we can improve the mission. Plus its nice to serve in Pachuca Centro because we dont have to travel forever to get to Pres{ house like we had to do when I was in Mixquiahuala.

Speaking of Mixquiahuala, there is a place about 10 mins away called Tluahililpan that is a part of the zone there. There was a terrible incident there friday night. Because of the huge gas problem right now, people are becoming desperate. In Tluahili, someone broke open one of the gas ducts and it started a little fountain of gas shooting out that a bunch of people came to to fill up some gas.

There were about 600 people crowded around with huge bottles, buckets, garrafons, whatever they could find to rob more gas. What ended up happening was somehow the gas was ignited and there was a humongous explosion right where all the people were. They shouldve seen it coming, judging how there was literally a fountain of gas and air with gas particles that can easily ignite but nonetheless they all came to try and rob gas. Some even brought their kids. About 70 people died from the explosion and around 80 more severely injured. There were horrifying videos of everyone running away completely on fire screaming [Ayudenos!!! Ayudeme!! The fire took about five hours to extinguish because it was about 60 feet tall consistently after the explosion. WOW. Such a crazy mess and such an unnecessary incident that killed a lot of people. There were other crazy things that happened this week here in the state of Hidalgo. I just hope it doesnt get worse.

In light of all the current events here in Mexico and all around the world, I think often of one of my fav scriptures in 3 Nephi 22:10 which says "For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed, but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee.) which are the words of the beautiful song that tabcats sings (tabernacle choir at temple square). I love this scripture because it reminds that we are in the world but not of the world. The Lord has power over all of these scary things that are happening. We dont have to have fear because we can trust that his kindness and mercy shall never depart from us.

Que disfruten esta semana!

Elder Millard

Gas and Changes

Que honda familia y amigos!!

Pretty good week here in Pachuca! I wouldnt be surprised if this has made international news and that you guys already know but basically all of Mexico is out of gasoline right now. It is complete chaos, there are lines of 200 cars to get gas, even at like three in the morning people have to wait hours to just get a few gallons of gas. People are in panic because they cant even make it to work now. What happened is that the owner of Pemex which is like the monopoly gas company of Mexico was stealing a bunch of the gas with the help of the government haha. But they ended up getting caught and now basically everything is shut down and there is no gas in mexico. There are only a few pumps going. Some people in Ojo de Agua got shot and killed by cutting in line to get gas faster. So that has been the latest news here in Mexico haha. This could only happen here. There are so many people who are trained to steal gas and most of them are from the Pemex company haha but I hope it clears up soon because people are having a hard time making it to church too.

Not too much to report this week, but we did have some changes!! Drumroll..... Im staying here in Pachuca with Elder Cassat!! He was my zone leader when I was in Ojo de Agua and now he's here to be zone leader with me! He's from Oregon but goes to BYU and already completed a year there. He's super dope and Im excited to work with him! Our zone had a lot of changes so Im excited to see if that helps. Its a brand new cycle of 6 weeks and Im excited to find new people and progress with our investigators! 

One of the themes you read a lot about in the Book of Mormon is how quick people forget about the gospel or even Jesus Christ himself. Alma 46:8 says "Thus we see how quickly the children of men do forget the Lord their God, yea, how quick to do iniquity, and to be led away by the evil one." and there are a lot of similar scriptures to that. During my mission Ive realized how true this scripture is. I'll have my doubts and questions completely forgetting about all the amazing testimony builders Ive been blessed to have. It makes me think of the quote "Doubt your doubts before you doubt your faith". We truly all have enough signs to know the church is true. It definitely isnt a bad thing to search for more signs but sometimes we're just quick to forget. Its super important during hard times to remember how you've seen the Lords hand in your life. I hope we can all remember him a little bit better from now on and search in the scriptures to learn more about him.

Hasta la proxima!

Elder Millard

Brissa and Arturo Baptism, Changes

Que honda familia y amigos!??

Happy late birthday to the most amazing woman I get to call my mom! What a champ. Hope you had the best day!

Pretty good week here in Pachuca! It hurts to even type this but there were some special changes that president made and now Elder Housley isnt my comp. What happened was that there was an elder who returned home a little early for school so pres asked Hous and I to take care of his comp for a couple days until more changes. Pres ended up sending Housley away instead of the other Elder. So Housley went to Mixquiahuala where I was born and he took the place of the zone leader who also just went home.

So I ended up here as a lone zone leader with the other Elder whos name is Elder Bodegas from Guatemala. He's one of the weirdest elders Ive ever met haha. He's pretty chill and is willing to work with you so thats good but he's just kind of an interesting guy haha. Sometimes he{ll just stare at me for a good 10 seconds out of no where hahaha. He has the funniest laugh too haha. He feels like my kid cuz he basically just follows me around everywhere without doubting or questioning anything haha. The changes for the whole mission are January 14th so im curious to see if I stay with him for this coming cycle or if I get another comp or leave the area or something. Pres had this change planned for a while though, maybe thats why he took Hous and I running while he still had the chance haha. So its been a little different without Housley. Im leading the area now even though I still dont know some of the areas very well but hey Ive done this plenty of times before so Im not worried. Its part of the adventure!

This saturday we had the baptism for the hermana Brissa and hermano Arturo, the contacts from week two this cycle! The program went SO GOOD!! A lot of members were able to show up since we did the program right before a ward temple trip. I baptized Brissa and Housley came from Mixqui to baptize Arturo. I sung with the bishops daughters which also went really good! I still cant get over the feeling I have right after every baptisimal ordinance. Its usually when Im back changing and have some time to think, and I just feel such a special spirit that this truly is the correct baptism and promise with God. Good stuff. Elder Bodegas and I had to wake up at 5 to get the baptisimal font ready because it takes five hours to prepare haha. It was quite the effort to get one of those boilers working. We made devices with sticks and matches to stick in the boiler to get it started haha. After the baptism, since our parking lot is so small, we literally lifted up and moved a taxi car so that bishop could drive his car out hahaha, we were pretty proud of ourselves.

Wasnt sunday just so great with the new changes!!? I mean it was probably pretty chaotic just like it was with us but Im a fan of the new manual of Come Follow Me and I think its gonna help everyone out a lot! It also just felt good to get out of the chapel faster not gonna lie haha. We came to church in a taxi with some of our investigator neighbors. It was their first time coming and they absolutely loved it! I could see Alma (the wife) just nodding her head to everything she heard. All of sunday was a testimony to me that this is the true gospel. I felt Christs love all day and I reflected on my experiences with my family and in the church and I just felt an undoubtable witness that we really are in the truth and that its so important to share with others. 

Things are good here in Pachuca! Sometimes I just start talking to my comp in english because Ive been with Housley for five weeks but then I realize he doesnt understand a word Im saying. Haha Ill have to remind myself Im with a Latino until the 14th and then we'll see what happens. Thanks everyone for all your love and support!

Hasta la proxima semana!

Elder Millard

A few pics from our run last week...

Feliz Año Nuevo!!

Bueno Bueno Bueno familia y amigos! Como han estado??

Its 2019 baby!! 2018 absolutely flew by. Its weird to think that I was still in high school in 2018 haha. A lot has happened. But ill be spending all of this year in Mexico haha so at least I know what Ill be doing.

This week was a little bit rough for the zone with everyone being gone for vacations and baptisms falling through all over the place. This has been the problem for whole mission, and Im sure for all other missions too. I dont know if I look up to holidays on the mission because overall the work just becomes slower. But we were still able to find some cool new investigators and we are planned to baptize Briza and Arturo this saturday! Theyre some of my contacts from my first week here with Elder Housley, and they progressed super fast so now theyre ready for baptism!

New years Eve was so much fun!! We had some good dinner with a member of the stake presidency and his fam and other Elders. Then we went and played card games (mainly scum haha) and whipped out the martinellis we bought for the new years! Fun times.

New years morning, today, we got a call from President Kimball inviting Elder Housley and I to go trail running in a national park here in Pachuca!! We met him at a plaza as soon as we could and then headed on our way. OH MY GOSH this place was absolutely heaven. The place is called Mineral del Chico and its a huge tourist place but up in the mountains there are a bunch of trails. We ran for eight miles just the four of us and it was definitely the funnest activity Ive done in the mish so far. I got to know President a lot better, and we just all had a good time running together! Elder Housley is also a runner so we've been running a little here by our house in the mornings but this was just something else. Pres took a bunch of action shots of some classic jumps we did on the trail and everything. We finished the run and ended in the city of El Chico and walked around a little bit. We bought some amazing roasted peanuts, and checked out some ancient cathedrals in the city. We took a combi back to the car and headed back home after about four hours. What a fun trip though. This would have been a dream to think about before the mission. Getting to do one of the things I love most with my mission president, his wife, and one of my fav comps. Definitely an experience I wont forget.

I dont know what it was but on Sunday I had such a special feeling of love for the mission and this place Im serving. I love this culture to death, and everything that I've been learning. The people are so different but so amazing and humble here. I know there are a lot of experiences still waiting for me but I already have so many things Ill never forget. The combis, the tacos, the tortillas, the destroyed sewer systems, the concrete houses, the classic old mexican music, the chilangos, the tiangis, the dancing, the sun feeling like its 10 feet away from you, the beautiful sunsets but not so beautiful cities haha, the poverty, the catholics, the traditions, but most of the all the effect that the gospel can have on these people.  

There are so many incredible one-liners in the new testament. One of them that I would like to share this week is from Luke 18:28 which is when Peter is talking to Jesus right after he finished talking about how hard is is for a [rich man[ to enter into the kingdom of God, and the scripture says "Then Peter said, Lo, we have left all, and followed thee." 

There are so many instances in the New Testament where Christ{s Apostles and other servants decide to leave everything immediately to follow Christ. In this new year I hope that we can all do everything we can to [leave all and follow Christ.[ This doesnt mean we have to drop our jobs, hobbies, studies or anything but it does mean that we need to but God in the first place. We need to make him the priority and be willing to give everything. We will be blessed so much more this year if we can focus and Christ and find out more about him. Get to know him, read about him, and do your best to become like him.

Feliz Ano Nuevo!!

Elder Millard