Dearest Family,
As of last tuesday, I am the Leader of the Xicotepec District--in the very farthest area of the mission! It takes about 4 or 5 hours to get to Mexico City from where I am...and there is one state between my area and the Federal District! It´s kind of crazy but I absolutely love it! It´s ridiculously beautiful; lots of trees, rivers, waterfalls, and of course, lots of people ready and waiting to get baptized. Ha you won´t believe it, but here in this Zone, Elder Walk (my MTC companion) is one of my Zone Leaders, which is absolutely awesome (actually, he is at my side on another computer in this very moment!). We slept at the Zone Leaders´ house last night and played some sweet basketball in the morning. We have to travel to their house every Sunday afternoon to turn in records and letters and things like that...they live 2 and a half hours away. Yikes! But it´s really fun because Elder Walk and I get to catch up and talk about EVERYTHING. He´s really become a good buddy to me.
Anyway, so I had to leave my son, Elder Montoya, with my new grandson, Elder Lara, in Los Heroes. I´m sure they´re doing great...that ward is so awesome. And now, I´m in Xicotepec. My new companion is Elder Cruz...he´s super chill and an awesome missionary. We get along really really well...we think the same in a lot of ways. So he´s pretty much a stud. We spent all last week just looking for new investigators...it was ridiculous! I´m too used to working with city people, it´s been weird getting used to these small-town folk. This area is just ready to explode with a lot of success. I have so much faith in this new area...I know that there are thousands of the Lord´s elect ready and waiting for us. It´s just up to us to go out and find them. Elder Walk showed me a really cool letter that his grandpa sent him, and he talks about how being a good servant is just receiving the assignment and doing it. There´s no asking why or how or when...you just do it! I was reminded of how Dad always tried to teach me that principle. He always would say, ¨Jake, just be a problem solver!¨ I´m really grateful for that teaching, because that´s how the mission is. Success in the mission is baptizing...the Lord has called and commanded us to baptize. So we just need to go out and do it! He´ll worry about the how´s and why´s and who´s...we´re just instruments in his hands.
I had a really awesome experience this past week in my very first baptismal interview. The entire interview I had really strongly felt that his man wasn´t ready for baptism...after digging a little deeper, he had some issues that I was uncomfortable with and in the end, we decided to wait for his baptism. I called President Hicken and we talked about what had happened in the interview, and he said to me, ¨Elder, you couldn´t have given that man better counsel if you had been a Bishop for 25 years.¨ I still felt unsettled about what had happened, and I was wondering about the decision I made was the right one...so I prayed, and decided to crack open the ol´ Book of Mormon. I opened right to Mosiah 26:34-39. I´ll let you all read it. It really helped me realize the importance of my calling and my responsibilities in the mission. I´m doing another interview tonight, so I´ll ask you to be praying for me as I do so. I need all the help I can get!
This week I prepared a blank Book of Mormon, and marked all the passages that explain the principles of the Missionary lessons, among other things, so I can use JUST the Book of Mormon in the lessons we teach. It turned out pretty awesome, and has been a great tool in teaching. I love the Book of Mormon!
I love you all, and I think that´s all the news I have for you. I love you all, and thank you for all your prayers!
Elder Budge
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