Elder Kameron Lightheart, Mexico, Monterrey East Mission: Week 54

The Bike Repair Guy named Memo made me a keychain
from a bike chain to remember my time there in Cadereyta on bikes:D

I got called as Zone Leader!!! It's been quite the crazy transition this week moving from my area super far away in the countryside, to an area in the huge city with everything close by. It's like 5 minutes away from the Mission Office in an area called "La Pastora". I am really loving this area from the beginning. Yesterday I met the ward, which meets in a tiny little church building, but the members are great and we have a bunch of cool recent converts from past Zone Leaders. Oh and my companion is Elder Azuara, whom I met in my last area since he was a District Leader in our last zone. This is only his second transfer as Zone Leader, so we are both pretty new at this. There are a lot of responsibilities as Zone Leader and so I've had to try to take things one step at a time and try not to overstress myself. It's something I've been learning in the mission that I know will help me throughout my life, to focus on one thing at a time and not worry about getting everything done at once. Also, to have patience with myself, my companion, and the Zone because no one is perfect and we are all in the work of the Lord together :)

We don't have investigators close to baptism or anything in our new area, but we are working hard to find the people God has prepared for us because we know they are out there waiting. Oh, this week we had Leadership Council last Thursday, where all the Zone Leaders, Sister Leaders, the assistants, and Pres and Sister Bird meet together. I learned more about how the mission runs and could feel the Spirit really strong, seeing inspiration come to the leaders. The one thing that really sunk in is something I learned when someone asked the question of why do we sometimes see disobedient missionaries have more "success" (meaning higher numbers, baptisms, etc) than the more obedient missionaries. President Bird responded by talking about our personal conversion and how the correlation that sometimes occurs is to test our obedience to the Lord. We shouldn't work just to see higher statistics like lessons, contacts or even baptisms. We should give our all because we love the Lord and want to give him our best. I did a really rough job of explaining it, but for me, this conversation really helped because it's something that sometimes discouraged me. However, I've been pondering the true reason behind my hard work and whether it's to serve the Lord, or to find recognition of others.

I've been reading in Mosiah, in the Book of Mormon, and finished the book this week. I've learned so much from what I've been reading, but just to share a brief scripture I loved in Mosiah 28:3

"Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble."

Here it explains the Sons of Mosiah's true desire to preach the gospel to everyone. I love how they could go from being the "vilest of sinners" to completely turning around their lives to serve the Lord. Let us learn from these servants of the Lord that it's never too late to change, and let us strive to obtain such a desire as them to save every soul on the Earth.