Casi Navidad

Hola Familia!

Well this week was pretty dope because Friday we had our christmas conference and on Sunday Samanta was baptized and confirmed!!!

Earlier in the week though, there were transfers in the mission and my executive secretary trainee Elder Tingey and I went to the airport to pick up a new missionary, Elder Fullmer. Then on Wednesday we headed back to drop off the valiants (missionaries finishing the mission). Among the group was Elder Tilley, who I trained in Jamiltepec, and Elder Schmitz, the guy that trained me to be the exec sec. It was kinda like a fulfillment of that scripture that says ´and the first shall be last and the last shall be first´ lol.

The christmas conference on friday was almost the whole day! We had a short talent show, played some games, ate food, watched videos that each zone made especially for the conference, and we had a gift exchange!! I ended up with a nice new tshirt from an sister named Hermana Guzman hahaha.

Saturday, we had our ward christmas activity and some of us missionaries planned a sketch that turned out great. There´s a cool new video on the church website called ´Samuel and the Star´ and our sketch was pretty much based on that. Speaking of which, I´ve seen a couple really good spiritual christmas videos lately, especially the Light the World videos. The Church is just so awesome and so true!!! The ward elders quorum showed us one about the time in the trenches of WW2 when german and British soldiers sang silent night together and even played a soccer match on christmas day! I suggest you all check it out.

Now for the baptism... we had to plan it early for Sunday morning at 8am, but it turned out great because a ton of members showed up and it was honestly one of the most powerful baptisms of my mission so far. Samanta was a reference from a device we sometimes use online called referral manager. It organizes all the referrals we get from anyone and anywhere in the world. Samanta is a 23 year-old single girl who lived in Canada for a while, knows english, and investigated the church a little bit. The first time we met her was actually at church about a month and a half ago because we called and invited her and she showed up. From there she immediately progressed, reading everything we left with her, praying, attending church, learning and understanding, asking questions, and even participating in a ton of young single adult activities. We actually got a lot of the YSA to participate in the baptismal program which i think was perfect. Elder Vakapuna baptized her and I confirmed her shortly after in sacrament meeting. She was so happy and is going to make a great member of the church!!!

This is the best time of year. The Cuernavaca weather cant be beat right now. And I´m so excited to Skype you guys on Tuesday! Can´t wait to hear more about whats goin down back home. Countdown is a little more that 5 months baby, woohoo!

Love,

Élder Tucker

Photos of the Missionaries in the Mision Cuernavaca

Quick Note This Week

Hey mom! Sounds like a fun thanksgiving, I LOVED that video of Wes driving the toy car and almost crashing into the palm tree! I had a good Thanksgiving, we just ordered some tacos hahaha. I´m so excited to talk to you guys soon! Love you

I enter into the 4th quarter of my mission this week!!!! Here´s some pics of me rn.

Élder Tucker

Photos and a quick letter

I asked Scott about his favorite memories of Youth Conferences:

"I always loved all the youth conferences I went to. The best part was always the classes given by couples in the ward or stake. So spiritual. Like one time Chris and Karen Zaharis gave a class at a youth conference and they talked about their heli skiing trip in Alaska! Another youth conference at the Bawdens cabin, The Allreds, The Stratfords, and The Bawdens all gave great classes as well about various topics. And there´s always gotta be a dance. My biggest advice would be to get the oldest youth as involved as possible because they get everyone else excited to do stuff if they are. Also making sure they all share their testimony at some point. You have a great calling!

Love you so much mom! Oscar looks like a good pup. 

CDMX, Acapulco y La Conferencia de Área

Hola Familia!

Sorry for not writing for a while, but it´s been pretty good out here in good ol´ Mexico.

Last Monday I had to travel to Acapulco and Iguala to get some pictures and signatures of missionaries that are renewing their temporal residencies and it was awesome! I took some sweet pictures at this tourist place called ´La Quebrada´ and got to hang with some ZL homies. I gotta convince Presi to send me there once I get out of the offices. I LOVE Acapulco. Its burning hot and nothing but stares, perfect for losing some lbs., and its got the costera buses that just blast regatón music all day, AND its got the beach and the best tacos of the mish, what more could an elder ask for? 

Also, a couple weeks ago, I had to go to CDMX to drop off the missionaries going home and we made a quick stop by El Ángel de Independencia which is this famous statue in the middle of a ton of skyscrapers in the middle of Mexico City. It was during Día de Muertos celebrations so there were this cool, decorated skulls everywhere in the streets between the Zócalo and a big cemetery. Mexico has some of the coolest traditions.

Yesterday for church we had an area conference with the entire country, there was a huge turnout in the stake center, overflowing with gente. The area president spake, some setentas, and Élder Rasband. It was interesting listening to white general authorities speak with worse spanish than my own, but their talks were very good. My favorite was about the importance of having a vigente recomendacion para el templo. The speaker shared the story of this one member that was about to die in the hospital who asked to be interviewed by her priesthood leaders one last time to renew her temple recommend. Not because she thought she would need it or use it, sino because she wanted that extra self confirmation that she was lista to return to Padre Celestial. Temple recommends really are they best way of showing if we are worthy to return to God´s presence. It´s kinda like the parable of the ten virgins, our lamp is a current temple recommend and the oil comes from diligently spending time in the Lord´s house.

The works been kinda slow and hard lately because we´ve been so busy in the office. I´m getting kinda excited to get outta here soon and return to being a normal missionary again, but it´s all good. I still like it and am happy out here. Can´t believe christmas is coming up!

Love you all so much! Keep writin´! I love reading emails.

Love,

Élder Tucker

¡Aventuras, nuevo compañero Elder Vakapuna!

Hola Familia!

Wow, what a great week in the Mexico Cuernavaca Mission! Arturo Flores was baptized and confirmed this weekend!!! The baptismal program went great, and I had the privilege of performing the ordinance.

One of the reasons that this baptism was so special was because it was one of the few times that I had gone through the entire process of finding, teaching, and baptizing with the same companion. Elder Bonilla and I have been stoked! It was also cool because it was so fast, hahaha. Arturo is 57 years old and had never really been very religious before we found him. He also even used to struggle with the word of wisdom. But after a member family invited him to a noche de hogar that we had in their house one night, he started listening to us, believing, and making the necessary changes in his life to be able to be right with God. This and other experiences that I have had with converts in the mission has increased my faith that they are many amazing children of our Heavenly Father ready to accept the Gospel, we just need to find them. So many of the mexican people have the extraordinary gift of being able have faith in their Savior Jesus Christ. Maybe for that Mexico is the country with the second most members in the whole world!

In other news, I got a new companion, Elder Vakapuna! His family currently lives in West Valley, Utah, but he is originally from Tonga. Finally! I've always wanted a Tongan comp. He´s the most easy going, cool guy you've ever met. I´m excited to be working with him hear in the offices. Elder Bonilla is currently training him to be the finance secretary right now and then he´ll be headed off to a new area.

I also had to do a couple tramites this week in migracion for some foreign missionaries but the changed places to this private airport in the middle of nowhere hahaha. It´s in this place called Temixco. I didn't even know there was an airport in the mission. And it´s kinda in the middle of the jungle lol. anyway, good times.

Hope everyone´s good, enjoy the pictures and have a good week!


Love,
Élder Tucker

 

Una buena semana y la Conferencia General

Hola Familia!

Sorry I haven´t had a good group letter in a while, but it was a good week topped off with a GREAT conference weekend! How ´bout that conference, eh?

My favorite talks were definitely Elder Neil L. Anderson's, M Joseph Brough's about going through hard things, Shayne M. Bowen's powerful testimony of the Book of Mormon, and of course, Elder Holland's just made me feel wonderful hahaha. If you haven´t had the chance to hear one of those talks yet, I highly suggest doing it. I also know that we will all benefit more from conference as we continue to study all of the talks for the next 6 months.

I think the changes to the Sunday block schedule starting in January are definitely inspired of God and will help us to be more active students and livers of the Gospel throughout the week with our families.

I´m also taking on President Nelson´s challenge to finish the Book of Mormon before the end of the year and I´m super excited!

Arturo passed his baptismal interview this week and is going to be baptized this weekend! Can´t wait to tell you all about it, he is so good.

Anyway, not much else to talk about this week. Hope you´re all well!

Love,

Élder Tucker

fotos- 

1, vacas en Cuernavaca jajaja

2, cute baby

Catching Up with Elder Tucker! Mi Semana en la Mision Mexico

September 17, 2018

Hola Familia!

Wow, finally get a little time to write. This week´s been crazy.

Monday was transfer day in the mission and I had to plan all the logistics for eveyone switching companions/areas. I also went to the Mexico City airport to pick up two elders coming from the Provo MTC and one from Colombia.

Tuesday I took a big group of missionaries to immigration here in Morelos to renew their temporal residency.

Wednesday I headed back to the airport to drop off all the missionaries that had finished their missions. It was actually the group that I was originally set to go home with, so I got to say goodbye to my CCM comps, Elder Stevens and Elder Contreras.

Then came the highlight of the week: early Thursday morning, we had to be back in the airport to receive Elder Amarilla coming in from Argentina so my companion Elder Bonilla and I got permission to stay wednesday night at the dorms at the Mexico City temple!!! It was so cool, we even got to do a session! Then we met the secretaries for the Mexico City East Mission who are all senior couples, and there´s six of them, hahaha! All doing the same job that us four elders do half-day here in the offices.

And then yesterday, I had to make yet another trip to CDMX to drop off an Elder who had to go home for medical reasons, unfortunately.

Anyway, it was an interesting and a bit stressful week. Needless to say, I´m starting to get to know Mexico City pretty well. All part of being executive secretary of the mission.

Arturo, Katia, and Isaac all attended church on sunday and are progressing!Also last week I went on divisions with my old companion, Elder Pacheco, to visit another one of our investigators, Magda. I actually met Magda when I was in the Iguala zone, but she´s now moved up to Cuernavaca with her family. I feel like it means that God really wants me to baptize her, haha. But she accepted the commitment to get married before the end of the month which was the only thing keeping her from being baptized before! So, we decided to be nice and get her copies of the Bible as well as the triple (BOM, D&C, and POGP)! I have a great feeling about how things are going!

Well, I hope everyone is well. Thanks for the emails and support, love you all.

September 24, 2019: Monday

Hey mom! Ya it was pretty cool visiting with Tara yesterday. She showed me her dad´s high school freshman yearbook that had a bunch of pictures with Grandpa Tucker! She also gave my companion and I a couple of cookies so that was nice. Ya I think it would be perfect to stay at that place when you guys come down here to pick me up, I didn´t realize how close it was to where I am. That's cool that you´re in Georgia, did you go with anyone else?

But ya, I´m super excited for General Conference. I think everyone´s expecting something big to happen just like last time. hahaha

Thanks for the pics you sent me of Wes! She's so cute. And super exciting for John and B to be having another one! I can´t think of any good girl names right now, but I´m sure John´s already had one planned out for a couple months now.

Thanks for the email and constant love and support and motivation! Love you too! ps, could you send me the pics that Tara sent you yesterday?

Élder Tucker


September 27, 2019: Corbatas!

Hey Mom, Thanks for sending the ties.  They just got here!  Love,
Elder Tucker

Hola Familia!

It was another good week out here.

Saturday, President Treviño´s brother, an area seventy, came out to have a mini zone conference with us and it was awesome. He had a bunch of super funny jokes and roasts and then he started talking about the importance of exact obedience and  that´s when it got spiritual. Doctrine and Covenants 82:10 says that when we are obedient, the Lord is bound to bless us no matter what. But one thing Élder Treviño said that stuck with me was that "if you ALMOST obeyed a certain commandment, you ALMOST got the blessing that corresponds with it." So if you´re gonna be good, you might as well go all the way and try to be exactly obedient. This is especially true in missionary work. Sometimes when you´ve been out for a while, you start to want to get into a comfort zone, maybe with a little complacency  and a few bad habits. But the two years you dedicate to serving the Lord really is a short amount of time, and you gotta keep pushing yourself to make the most of it. Also, as I think of it, our life here on earth is an incredibly short amount of time as well if we look at it from an eternal perspective, but it plays such an important role in what happens later. More than anything, I know that God blesses as tremendously for our obedience, more than we could know or even imagine in this life and in the life to come. We will ALWAYS find more happiness in being more obedient and "staying on the covenant path" like the prophet has invited us to do.

Normally, the secretarties of the mission have a reputation of not working much in their area and ´dying´ or ´frying´ in the office, and although I do have quite a bit of work to do in the office, my companion Elder Bonilla and I have been making a strong effort to work in our area and it feels good. I love teaching. I love seeing the progress in my ability to teach and help people understand the Gospel. We´ve been having a difficulty of helping people to accept a baptismal date and attend church, but I know if we keep working and being obedient, the blessings will come.

A couple of mormon messages  I saw recently; one about a man that goes to chop wood and gets his truck stuck in the snow and another called The Music of the Gopel. I suggest you all to watch them and think about how our trials actually bless us and how we can learn to hear the music of the gospel. That one of the most important things I´ve been learning on the mission, is to learn why we do the things we do and not just learn to do them.

Anyway, have a great week! Love you all.

Love,

Élder Tucker

Hola Familia!

Another good week out here in La Gran Misión México Cuernavaca! We´ve been crazy busy everyday in the office and in our area lately, but we´re finally starting to have some promising investigators!

Katia is a joven that met the old missionaries of our area a while ago. She really likes listening to us and learning more about Dios, but wants to get a stronger testimony of the Book of Mormon before being baptized, which I´m not even worried about because honestly, everyone of my investigators that have done their commitments and really read the Book of Mormon and prayed have received an answer that it´s all true and got baptized. That´s why we can be so bold in our promises with people because if they ask with real intention, God comes through everytime.

Arturo is a middle-aged man who has a couple things he wants to get over in his life and he´s starting to realize what we know that following Jesus Christ is the perfect way to do it. He´s a little timid and afraid of commitment right now, but poco a poco we´ll try our best to help him receive the blessings waiting for him. Our first lesson with him was a noche de hogar in a members house. We watched one of those Living Scriptures cartoon movies; King Noah and Abinadi. I hadn´t seen one of those since I was a little kid, it was awesome!

It´s going to be another big week this week as well. Elder Pino of the quorum of the seventy is coming to visit us! He has two general conference talks, check em out! Also, saturday is Mexican Independence Day so make sure you all get some tacos.

Love you all,

Élder Tucker

heres an awkward pic of me the desk I siempre work at in the offices of the mission, sorry its a lil unorganized rn

Hola Familia!

It was another good week out here, pretty normal, not much to write about really. But one elder´s mom sent him a copy of the worldwide youth devotional that President and Sister Nelson had in June so I decided to give it a read and WOW, what powerful stuff. I suggest everyone who hasn't watched it yet to watch it. 

Sister Nelson started by teaching about our premortal life. She mentioned some very specific things I had never heard before like how we weren't just passive followers of Christ before coming to earth, rather we were righteous and valiant defenders of Him. We learned and knew that Heavenly Father´s plan was the only way we could really become like Him and achieve an eternal joy. Sister Nelson also said that although our Heavenly Father wisely blurred our knowledge of this before we came here, if we can just learn and remember this truth, we will be able to gracefully endure any trial in our life. 

Now what the prophet shared was that every one of the prophets from Adam all the way to the present have seen our day and labeled it as the most important time in the history of the world. Why? Because it is the ´final phase´of the gathering of scattered Israel before the Second Coming of Jesus Christ! President and Sister Nelson specifically addressed themselves to all the youth between the ages of 12 and 18 and described them as the chosen generation and the Lord's Battalion. All of this corresponding perfectly with a quote I read from Gordon B. Hinckley this week as well that says, "The reason why there are so many sister missionaries in the world today is because in the next generation, our Heavenly Father will send his priesthood army to the earth. And He wants to send them to mothers that have received the adequate training and that have been taught the Gospel, and the best training a woman can receive is to serve a mission." 

So now I've been thinking, what does all this mean? I think what it means is that the best missionaries and most powerful leaders in the history of the Church have yet to fulfill their life's calling, but they are among the Church's youth today and they are preparing. It also means that they will finish the work which was started generations before them of bringing the message of the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ to all those that will receive it in this world. 

And finally it means that the Second Coming that has been prophesied in all the holy scriptures is very near. What an exciting and blessed time! The time to prepare is now, today! Sister Nelson even shared an experience of meeting someone from every one of the 12 Tribes Scattered Tribes of Israel in a time period of 24 hours which means the tribes are all here. We just need to finish gathering them!

Honestly, I know without a doubt that President Nelson is the Lord´s prophet on the earth today and that this Church is true. What exciting times we live in and what responsibility we have! I'm so lucky to be a missionary.

Love you all! Have a good week!

Love,

Élder Tucker

Xochicalco

Hola Familia!

Sorry for the overload of pictures, but we had another great week out here and a sweet p-day activity at Xochicalco!!

Xochicalco is this city of ancient ruins and pyramids about an hour and a half outside of Cuernavaca and I'll tell you what, it puts Tepoztlán to shame! I felt like I was at Machu Picchu. Supposedly, a big part of it was a school for the warriors and military leaders around 400 AD, but there's also parts of it that were used for markets and housing governing leaders. This is definitely another place I'm taking my family back to someday, so cool to see and learn about the history of the ancestors of the people I'm teaching in the present day and how all these descendants come from the people of the Book of Mormon.

Anyway, it was another good week in the work as well. Still working and praying to find some new people to teach that can really progress. We thought we had found a solid one on Tuesday who accepted the invitation to be baptized and everything, but it turned it she´s been a member all along and didn't even know it lol. Oh well, we know the fruits of our labors will start manifesting themselves soon.

Have a great week everyone! Love you.

Love,

Elder Tucker