Manuel's Baptism

Que onda familia y amigos!

Happy late valentines day! Our neighbors/landlords really showed their love with the apricot cake and Santa Clara milk they gave us that night! Blessings haha

This was a really really good week. We had interviews with Pachuca Sur, and we also had two different conferences. One with Valle del Mezquital and Tezontepec, and the other with Pachuca Sur, Pachuca Mexico, and Tizayuca. The Conferences went soooo good. Everything was really well prepared, they were some great musical numbers, and some very strong testimonies! Many missionaries told us that it was their favorite conference they've had on the mission.

This week we were able to do a lot more missionary work!! It's weird to be writing that sentence as a missionary haha. But this week we were able to contact a lot of new people in our spare time and we also went to a lot of lessons with president. After the conference in Tezontepec we went to a lesson in Mixquiahuala with President and Elders Rowley and Morales. It was a family that was super receptive and it was a pretty good lesson, I think they'll end up getting baptized. Then we went to Actopan to go to a different appointment. This one was really cool because President and Hermana Maldonado were able to participate a lot more to help the couple feel more comfortable about baptism. Hermana Maldonado got baptized at the age of 19. Beforehand, she was a hard core Catholic or in spanish (un Catolico de hueso colorado) haha but she took her time and really found her conversion. I love hearing their testimonies. The couple felt a lot better afterwards and they accepted a baptismal date!

The next day after the Pachucas and Tizayuca conference. President sent us to a nearby pueblo San Agustin to give a blessing to some hermanas misioneras' investigators. I gave a blessing to a 2 year old girl that doesnt have any strength in her legs and afterwards she just gave a really big smile which was super sweet. The mom and grandma felt a lot more calm after the blessings. 

On our way back home from the blessing, I got a call from my past companion Elder Cordeiro telling me that Manuel was gonna get baptized the next day and that he asked me to baptize him!!! So today I was able to baptize Manuel who was my investigator in Tizayuca and who couldnt get baptized because he wasnt married. But he just barely got married with his wife this week so they came down to villas for the baptism. I love how they have to come here for every baptism since their chapel is in construction! Its so convenient haha. President was able to come to the service too and it went really well!

Something that I really love that President shared in the zone conferences was from Exodus 33:1,3,12-16

The story is about how Moses was commanded to take the people to the promised land but since the people were being disobedient (with the idols and everything) Jehova told Moses that His presence would not go with him to the promised land. To which Moses responded "If thy presence go not with me, carry us not up hence." eh. We can apply these words to our life. If the spirit isnt going to be with us, it is not possible to accomplish all things, so we need to stay where we are and figure out how to get the spirit back with us. Every day we should think about this before leaving. When we leave, is the spirit going to be with us? I invite you all to read those 7 verses that I put down. Its a great story!

I love you all!

Elder Millard 

Pic 3: Manuel's Baptism ft. my awkward arm because we were way too close together haha

pic 2: President going to the lessons!

pic 1: where we fill up our garrafon water almost weekly

Transfers!

Buenas tardes familia y amigos!

We are in February now!! Thats crazy.. I hope everyone had a great week!

It was a pretty chill week here! Monday and Tuesday were the craziest, and then the rest was pretty low key.

On Monday, we had 19 new missionaries come in! It was so fun to see all of them arrive! There were like 16 Mexicans and then 2 Americans, and 1 from New Zealand. We took them all to the clock to contact and take pictures! And then we went to President's house to have lunch with the trainers and trainees! Then we took them to the chapel and the offices to do the trainings and the interviews! That was a lot of interviews, but they all got home by 9pm ish! I love being with all of the nuevos, they have so much animo!

On Tuesday, we went to the airport in CDMX again to pick up a missionary who came from the New Mexico Farmington mission while he was waiting for his visa! His name is Elder Morales and he's super cool! His trainer elder Rowley came with us too. We got there at 1 o'clock because his flight came in at 1:30. We saw all of the brand new missionaries coming in and when we saw his flight, all of the missionaries were there except for him! We seem to always have issues at the airport haha. We saw 220 missionaries come through the airport that day to go to the CCM and they all thought that we were the ones there to guide them haha. At first we were super confused at why he wasnt in that flight, we were looking around everywhere and we followed the guy from the CCM because he was making some calls. Long story short, I know basically the entire airport at CDMX by now haha now Im not worried for my flight back home, I know exactly where to go and what to do. We called the church transport people who had just barely found out that his connection flight was canceled so he ended up flying in from Dallas a little later. While we were looking around for him, we saw a flight come in from China and everyone had their mouths covered. We definitely took a short detour just in case.... haha. We were in the airport for a total of 7 hours that day. We finally found him and got outta there! He was super happy to finally make it to Mexico, he woke up at 2 am that day! We went to presidents house that night to have dinner with the missionaries going home (two of which were latina hermanas from my generation) and then we had the testimony meeting at like 11:30 for everyone going home.

There have been a few Elders staying with us recently because some things went down and most of them will probably go home. Then yesterday, another Elder came over to our house who is also going home. It's kind of annoying to have them all there for so long because it makes everything a lot more complicated. Mainly the shower in the mornings, and the whole food situation haha but hopefully everything if figured out soon. 

This week we were able to visit the zone leaders in Tizayuca, Pachuca Centro, Pachuca Sur, Pachuca Mexico, and Valle Del Mezquital. They're all doing great and it was fun to talk to all of them. We had straight up interviews with them. I felt like the mission president haha. We were able to talk about a lot of things we want to fix during the leadership council this coming week! Im grateful for our good zone leaders. The missions on a good track!

Im finishing up Jesus the Christ right now and I just loved reading about the restoration of Christ's church. It's something Ive taught so much about but reading Joseph Smith's account is just something so special. In preparation for the conference, we all need to ponder more on that occurrence and make sure we truly have a testimony of it!

Les amo un buen!

Elder Millard

pic: Hermana maldonado's favorite natural ice cream. Mandarina limon esta bien rico

Calling Old Investigators

Como estan mis hermanos!??

September is already here! That sure went by fast. I absolutely LOVE this season! College Football is among us. Well I guess its just among you guys but I still love hearing about it and seeing pics haha. Fall here in mexico is also super fun! Im gonna start hearing more mariachi, eating more posole which is super good, we have the 15th of september celebration coming up, etc! What a fun time to be in the mission.

This week was pretty good; we found some pretty good new investigators! One of my favortie parts of the week was when we were calling all of the old investigators in the phone. Of course most of them didnt answer, we don't even know who these people are but we needed to clear up space on the phone and before deleting the contacts, we wanted to give these people one last shot! So long story short, I got a hold of a lady named Luz Maria who answered the phone and said "I just finished the book of mormon and I would love for you guys to visit me"!! Of course we were super stoked about it! That same day, we went to go visit her and I think shes gonna start progressing well! She even went to church with us on sunday. 

The rest of the week was pretty normal, I had exchanges with a brazilian elder which was super fun! Portuguese is honestly so similar to spanish, it was fun to try and understand him speaking!

I just barely finished reading the book of Job. He is one of the most popular figures in the Old Testament because of his faithfulness! I love one part where he says, paraphrasing, "If we receive blessings from God, shouldnt we also receive the trials he gives us?" we should be grateful for everything that happens in life. Most of the time, the hardest times are the times we learn the most from!

Les amo un buen!!

Elder Millard

p.s. sorry I left the camera in the house, next week ill send the pics!

Temple and Zampoala!!

Como les ha ido a todos!??

Happy fathers day to all dads out there but especially to my very loving and wise dad! Im so grateful for his amazing example and advice! 

It was a great week here in Huauchinango! It all started off with the trip to the Mexico City Temple!! I love this place with my whole heart, definitely gonna be a place I take the family to. The session we did was so beautiful, its been almost a year since the last time I went! I love the whole grounds of the temple. A couple days after the trip with the mission, my comp and I went back with some investigators in our zone! We got a little combi that the stake presidency provided for free and went down to Mexico with 18 people! All the investigators loved it even though they couldnt go in haha. the visitors center is something else though, it has so much information and cool ways to learn about the church! Its cool how the temple trips work here in Mexico. Instead of being in Utah where theres always going to be a temple nearby, the wards here have to plan in advance to travel in a bus to the temple! When we went on Saturday, there were busses after busses coming in with wards from all over the place! From different states too! They make it a whole party with the food break and time to go to the stores too. I am definitely planning on going back to that place.

After the session at the temple, we all went to the stake center to the side of the temple to have our last zone conference with President Kimball!! It was a great conference, him and his wife will be very much misses. We will be welcoming President Maldonado from Saltillo Mexico on the 28th!

As soon as my comp and I arrived in Huauchi, we saw this humongous mountain in the distance. Its hard to miss because of how big it is. Its called Zampoala and it is one of the biggest peaks in the state, and today we were able to summit it with some members!! It was very very steep sometimes difficult haah but we made it to the top and it was absolutely gorgeous!! It was a little bit of a bummer because of how foggy it was but I think it made it look cooler seeing all the cliffs with fog. Its a beautiful place we live in! 

Everyone needs to find time to go to the temple! Its incredible the insight and instruccion that we get as we participate in these sacred ordinances!

Elder Millard

Pic 1: This is the first thing you see as you walk into the Mexico City Temple. It was come to be the favorite painting Ive ever seen from the church. There is so much history here in Mexico and I get to live right in the middle of it! Jesus Christ came to the ancestors of the people I get to teach!

Pics: Temple Trip, Zampoala!! we got to the very top of that baby

Navidad!!

Feliz Navidad familia y amigos!!

Lets get straight to it... Christmas!! On Monday, Housley and I had to go to the stake center to unlock it and prepare everything for the christmas party for the whole mission. It was the first time that the whole mission has been together for a year and a half. Usually we do two different meetings, each with half of the mission, but the other meeting was scheduled for this past Saturday and they had to cancel it because there were rioters setting the freeway and everything on fire because people were protesting to get higher salaries for teachers haha. So we had the whole mission together and it went super well! We had a really good devotional at the beginning and then we had a talent show where my comp and I did some dope dances that we had been practicing. One of the was to Santa Tell Me by Ariana Grande and the other was an island song that a Polly sister taught us all right before the conference. It went super well haha, President Kimball went up to the front to record it all haha. After, we ate tacos de Jabali which is wild boar and it was SOOO good holy crap. It was also a fortune to buy all of that food but we wont even get into that haha. It was fun to see and talk to everyone in all the mish and get to know the new kids too. To finish Christmas Eve off, Housley and I and a few other missionaries went to a members house for the Christmas Eve dinner which was also super fun.

Christmas Eve here is even more important than Christmas day. Its called NocheBuena and people always have humongous dinners with their fams. Its sad though because people celebrate the day of the Virgin Guadalupe more than they do Christmas here. Its the same case with the days the dedicated to celebrate the three wise men. I{m just sitting here thinking, who is the most important in this whole event__ But the people and the Catholic religion definitely have their traditions.

Christmas day went really well! President allowed us to sleep in a little bit so that was glorious haha, and then we went to a members house for the skype call! Everything went just fine until my incredible mom got in front of the screen for her personal time to talk to me and thats when I started to lose it a little bit gosh dangit. Haha but definitely was super fun to talk to the fam and hear their voices to them. Definitely super fun to talk to Maddi and Kenny in spanish too haha, that{ll be useful to have them after the mish to keep the spanish up.

After the video call, we went to the bishops house for the rest of the day to watch movies, play games and have some traditional food from England since thats where theyre from! It was super fun, what a great fam. There are still some times when I legit cant understand them because of their thick accent but it always makes for a good laugh when I find out what they were trying to say haha.

So overall, Christmas was definitely a success! It was a little disappointing seeing the lack of Christmas spirit here haha but that{s why we{re here to bring it up right_ But for real, what a special time of year to spread this special message of Jesus Christ and his church. Testifico que realmente la iglesia ha sido restaurada y que hay un plan de salvacion que Dios ha creado para nosotros. Si solamente seguimos fiel, heredaremos todas las bendiciones del senor como familia eternas. 

Feliz Navidad!!

Elder Millard

Real del Monte

Buenas Buenas tardes from one of the highest inhabited places in all of Mexico! It was cool to be able to get to know Real del Monte better this week! I hope all of you are doing well!

On Tuesday this week, we went with the bishop to real del monte to meet some less actives and get to know the area a little bit. This place is like a MAZE! Holy crap its gonna be so hard to navigate. A lot of streets dont have names and all of the are super crooked and lead to random paths and there are hardly any main streets! It has been interesting navigating throughout the place, especially with all of the crazy hills!

Honestly its been kind of a slow start. Since there hasnt been constant missionary work for a very long time, there are no investigators, converts, or anything. We've met a few people from part member families and so far those are our only investigators. Weve contacted quite a bit but wow this place is Catholic! Im used to going to other pueblos that are also very catholic but this place is even more extreme. While we were contacting, there was a woman low key following us and knocking the same doors we knocked but to organize their next march to worship the catholic saints and everything hahaha. Despite a lot of rejection, we have find a few people who we have appointments with this week. I hope they progress! I have faith that this week will be better and we'll find more people. Its going to be very complicated to figure out the sunday situation with the reunions canceled! The mission right now is figuring out how to act, and how to measure investigators progress instead of requiring the 3 sacrament meeting attendances. 

RIght now we're living with the other Elders in Loreto and we're still trying to find a house. Right now we're just living out of our luggage haha there's no space to hang up our clothes and unpack! I hope we'll find something soon. all of the options have been falling through.

My kid is doing well! He's doing great in the few lessons we've had, but he still doesn't feel used to contacting and the rejection haha but thats definitely normal. We just have to be patient that the Lord will provide us with people to teach! Its been a while that Ive been so desperate to find new investigators, but thats part of opening a brand new area!

This week I finished Helaman in the Book of Mormon and I really like the part where Nephi's preaching was rejected but that the Lord comforted him and he didnt even get home by the time he turned around to keep on preaching to the people. Those feelings of rejection were kind of what I was feeling, just a little less extreme obviously haha, but It gave me motivation to return to the pueblo to keep on preaching! Its never been an easy thing to do, thats why I know it'll take some time to see results!

Les amo a todos!

Elder Millard

Pics: Ill miss working with them! Welcome Elder Cordeiro to the offices!

(we ended up moving to Atotonilco, a pueblo a little further away from Real del Monte to start working. Everything was going great until the virus shut everything down.)

The Last Chapter

Bueno Bueno Bueno familia y amigos!!

March is upon us! I love the springtime! Even though spring isnt even noticeable here, I enjoy the pictures Im sent! We've had a few colder days recently, but most days its pretty hot. This week flewww by! Here are the highlights.

We started the week with another zone activity at Presidents house. This time, Pachuca Sur came! We played a lot of volleyball, and ultimate frisbee and football. Good times! I definitely enjoyed it more than the yoga from last time... Im the least flexible person on the planet haha. 

The rest of the week was completely focused on the transfers. We were able to do divisions with the Elders in our area a little more which went really well! But all the rest of our time was with the cambios. Almost every day, we sat down with President for hours talking and thinking about every companionship. It was very interesting to talk about my own changes as well. I'll write about them in a second.

First off, I just wanted to write about these past three cycles. These four and a half months have been incredible. Working with President and Hermana Maldonado is something I will never forget. They are so incredible, and they really put in their all to help the mission! President has done a lot to change the perspective of the mission for many missionaries. The disobedience has gone a lot down despite some special cases that were really hard to witness. The missionaries are working more for their love for the savior than for other previous motivations. There is a lot of potential for our mission! Results are already going a lot higher and March and future months are looking good for Mision Mexico Pachuca. In my time working as assistant, I have seen missionaries at their lowest, Ive seen them at their best, Ive been exposed to many things that happen in the mission, Ive gotten to know all of the missionaries. Ive never been so sick up worrying about renting new houses and buying all of the furniture and house items haha, Ive learned how to work with dozens of things on my mind at a time, Ive learned a lot more patience, Ive learned a lot of things I personally want to change, Ive been close to nocturnal for many days haha, Ive seen Gods servants lead his church and its been unforgettable. Im so grateful to have been a part of it. Even though there is still a lot of room to improve as a mission, I know I put in my all and I know we are on a good path. And now..... I'm back to the MISSION FIELD!

so. drumroll...... for the last 3 months of the mission I will be opening a new area called REAL DEL MONTE and I will be TRAINING! I am honestly sooooo excited. Let me explain what happened.

I had it in my mind, as I expressed last email, that I was going to go to a place called Tepatepec and train there. But early in the week, the bishop from the "Loreto" ward came to the offices with the Elders in Loreto to have a meeting with President. President invited us into the meeting with them. So the Loreto ward covers a section of hilly Pachuca right by the Clock monument. Even though most of the work is there in Pachuca, the ward limits technically go hundreds of miles north as well. It covers all of the pueblos in the mountains all the way up to the state of Veracruz. One of those pueblos in the mountains is called Real del Monte or Mineral del Monte. this place is like a 20 minute ride from Pachuca in transport and it is a HUGE tourist area. Every weekend, hundreds if not thousands go. Some if not most Mexican citizens that live further away from Pachuca, in fact, have never even heard about Pachuca but almost all have heard about Real del Monte. 

Real del Monte is a huge mining village. Like most the rest of Pachuca, the English people lived and mined there. They have parts of Real del Monte that people cant build a house unless it has english architecture, to preserve the feel and look of the city. The English cemetary has all of the grave stones pointing towards England which is pretty cool. It is one of Mexico's "pueblo Magico"s which just means its one of its strongest tourist cities. One of my last areas, huauchingango, was also a pueblo magico. Also, rumor has it that the first soccer game in all Latin America was played in Real del Monte by the English! and... its the exact home of the famous Paste! Basically, it is a very touristy place with plenty of people. Ive been a couple times passing by and it looks beautiful! Especially in comparison with Pachuca's dryness haha. Its 9000 ft elevation. 

There was a branch in Real del Monte about six years ago but members stopped going, and ever since then all the few active members went all the way down to Pachuca to attend the ward in Loreto. Ever since then there havent been missionaries working there! Six years without missionaries! This is why the bishop had the meeting with president. He wants to start working with the less active and part member families there. he has a lot of plans to help them. I'll be able to help him with all of that and hopefully I'll be able to find a lot of new people as well! Itll be a challenge, because all of them are going to have to travel significantly to get to church. and from what Ive heard, like 99% of the people earn most if not all of their income, selling to tourists on saturdays and sundays. Its gonna be an experiment to see if the people will be receptive and will be willing to sacrifice a little. I have faith that the spirit will guide us to people who are prepared!

The bishop convinced president to send two missionaries to work there. While the bishop was talking, I felt impressed to offer myself to go there. Since president let me pick my last area, I asked him what he thought about me going there and he really liked the idea! Since president doesnt think missionaries will have much work of there on the weekends, we will be living in Pachuca and taking a combi four days a week every morning to work in Real! and then returning back to pachuca every night. Good thing the combi ride is pretty! A lot of this is an experiment, but Im so excited to get to work and find new people! 

Since I will not be going to Tepa, I will not be a zone leader anymore. President wanted me to be the district leader there, but I convinced him to make a different Elder district leader, who I think will thrive with the new responsibility, and Ill be able to teach him his duties and help him figure it out! The decision was thanks to a thought my mom sent me throughout the week. I received the message right before we talked about the situation. God works in mysterious ways!

Im excited because for the first time in almost two years, Ill be able to focus on my area and my kid (the missionary im training) 100%

The new missionary that I will be training is named Elder Pardo! He is from Mexico City and he's a convert of one year!! From what hermana Maldonado read in his information from the papers, he seems really responsible, and hard working! I really hope so! Im excited to get to know him on Monday. 

After teaching only a few times in the past few months, Im so excited to go back to the people!! I know the Lord will guide my companion and I to get the work we need to get done in Real del Monte!!

Les amo!

Elder Millard

Pic 1: what the mission board looks like ft. my new zone.

Pic 2: The pachuca part of the loreto ward

Pic 3-4: a taste of Real del Monte!

Pic 5: The older sister of the boys in the pic I sent last week. She made us her facebook profile picture! haha also my old comp in that pic, Elder Cordeiro is the new Assistant! Im so proud of him, I new he would be the next assistant for a while now, it was hard not to tell him!
Pics 6+: extras