¡Se bautizaron Victor y Rogelio y mañana cumplo 20 años!

Hola Familia,

Wow, what a wonderful week out here in Jiutepec with Élder Bernal! Victor and Rogelio were baptized and confirmed and tomorrow I turn 20! Woohoo!!!!

Both Victor and Rogelio were so prepared yet excited on Saturday. Victor was baptized by one of his fellowshippers, Hermano Adrián, and Rogelio by Bishop Avelar. The baptismal program was perfect! As they were changing out of their wet clothes, one member, Brother Zaragoza, bore an amazing testimony about the Church and the Gospel and the Spirit was so strong. Hopefully our other investigators there were able to feel it and have the desire to be baptized as well. Now it´s on to prepare these two wonderful new members of the Church to receive the Priesthood!

The work is booming out here in Jiutepec. I could stay here for a while.

Today, we moved into our new house just in time for the end of the month hahaha! It´s a chill new crib, but we're thinking about giving it a new paint job so I´ll have to let you know how that goes.

Can´t believe tomorrow I turn 20! No longer a teen. Kinda weird, but it´s cool. No better place to spend a birthday than out in the Mission. Thanks for all the birthday wishes and emails, I really felt the love.

¡Que tengan una semana llena de felicidad! Les quiero!

Love,

Élder Tucker

Another Good Week In Jiutepec

Hola Familia!

It was another good week here in Jiutepec with Elder Bernal! I´ve been learning that any discouragement we feel about ourselves can quickly be solved with hard work, especially when it comes to missionary work.

Victor passed his baptismal interview today and is set for Saturday! He´s the best. Rogelio also has been doing good and looks like will be baptized Saturday as well! We´re pumped! Now we just need to help some others make the same decision, which I don´t think will be a problem with how great our ward is! Friday, we met, Polet, a young woman selling jerseys in a store who said she was searching for good christian movies to watch when she came across The Restoration movie! She said she really liked it and felt something different then with the other movies she watched. Then she said that she had been praying for a book to read. Elder Bernal and I were a little shocked and excitingly gave her a Book of Mormon!

Saturday, a member brought a friend, Eduardo, to an activity we had at the ward building. He says he´s trying to regain the relationship he had with God so we told him we´ve got just the way to do it ;)

The Lord really is preparing people to receive us missionaries. We´ve just gotta do our part in being obedient and hardworking!

Other than that, not much else to share this week. A Little Caesar´s just opened up by our house so that´s a blessing, I sure love being in more of a city area. Also, I bought a sweet Club Ámerica soccer jersey today that I´ll have to send pictures of the next time I school some homies in la cancha.

Have a good week! Ánimo! Send me some emails!!

Love,

Élder Tucker

pics-

1, This is a Catholic Home. We don´t accept Protestant propoganda or from other cults. Live King Christ! And the Virgin of Guadalupe, Mother of God.

2.3. Little Caesar´s

Felizmente acostumbrándome de nuevo a la mejor Misión del mundo.

Hola Familia!

Good week here in the México Cuernavaca Mission. Friday and Saturday I wasn´t feeling too hot because I must´ve eaten something wack, but it´s all just apart of getting re-adjusted to the mexican missionary life. Nothing that a little cocita y limón can´t fix lol.

Anyway, Wednesday we had a multizone conference in Cuernavaca and I got to see my other CCM companion, Elder Stevens! He´s a district leader in the Galeana Zone right now and must be doing something for his morning workouts because his arms are jacked. President Ávila never disappoints in the trainings he gives in zone conferences. I love the way he uses the scriptures. The scriptures really do have all the answers.

Friday, the ward had a family home evening activity in the church building and there was a good turnout! Elder Bernal and I brought an investigator family and they seemed to enjoy it. Unfortunately, Rogelio wasn´t baptized because he has some word of wisdom issues to get over, but we´re continuing to work with him and have hope that he´ll be able to do it. Victor is still progressing like a champ.

Saturday we did something that I think we should do more often everywhere in the Church called a Ministering Activity. The 2 other elders and 2 sister missionaries of our district came and worked with us and our members in the Jiutepec Ward. Each missionary left with a set of members to go visit less active members of the ward, investigators, and find more people to teach. Afterwards we all met back at the church building for comida. I think things like this are exactly what President Nelson talked about in general conference.

My comp Elder Bernal is such a legit missionary, but I´m just trying to get him to enjoy it a little more. Missionaries need to be happy!

Other than that, I hope you all have a good week! Please pray for Victor and Rogelio! Ecsudriñen las escrituras!!!

¡Que bendición estar de nuevo en mi bendita Misión México Cuernavaca! Barrio Jiutepec

Hola Familia!

Wow, how's everyone doing? Wednesday morning, I arrived in the Mexico City airport and was immediately received by a familiar face, Elder Schmitz, who I served with in the Pinotepa Zone. Elder Schmitz is currently the executive secretary of the mission. Since I arrived so early, we had a lot of time to wait for one of the other mission secretaries and all the elders and sisters heading home that day, so we actually got permission from President Avila to go do an endowment session in the Mexico City temple!!! It was incredible because since there's no temple in the Cuernavaca mission, I wasn't going to be able to go to one again until I had finished the rest of my mission. What a blessing! After that, we returned to the airport where I saw another familiar face, Hermana Hilker, who had originally arrived at the same time as me to the mission. She has completed her 18 months of service and was heading home! Upon finally arriving to the mission offices Wednesday evening, I saw my old CCM companion, Elder Contreras, who is now a zone leader in Cuernavaca! It was great to see him again and to give him that hug that his parents had sent to him through me.

Thursday morning, I had my welcome-back interview with President Avila. He gave me two big hugs and was so happy to see me again. As was I.

I've been assigned to the Jiutepec area/ward in the Civac zone which is just outside of Cuernavaca. I'm glad that I will never be cold again like I was in Portland, or at least not for a while. My companion is Elder Bernal from Tamaulipas, Mexico and he is great. He's the district leader and has about 13 months in the mission. We're opening the area which means we arrived to it together for the first time on Thursday. It's a little intimidating because the area is bien gigante and we have to find a new place to rent before the end of the month, but luckily, we have the best ward I think I've had so far in my mission. Around 120 members attend church each Sunday and they are so focused on missionary work and helping us out. We are already planning a baptism for this Saturday for a man named Rogelio. We visited him for the first time on Friday. Supposedly, he was a member of the Church with his family when he was young, but went totally inactive and after all these years and finally coming back to the Church, no one can find any record of him or his family so he needs to be baptized and confirmed again. Also, on Saturday, the members that fed us introduced us to Victor who they've been fellowshipping and going to church with now for around 6 months! Victor might be the most prepared person for baptism I've met in my life and he's on date for the 28th! Needless to say, there's a lot of work for us here.

More than anything, I can testify that the Lord really does direct this work. How else do you explain a 20 year old mexican and a 19 year old guero who don't know each other walk into a place in southern Mexico they've never been to before and not get completely lost the whole time, let alone find children of God that are open to receiving the message of His Gospel. It's honestly the coolest feeling in the world knowing that someone as small and insignificant as me can be converted into an instrument in the Lord's hands to bring His children back into His fold. We as missionaries give, compared to God, something so little and He truly blesses us ten times over because of it.

I'm so happy to be back in the Cuernavaca Mission. It's been a long journey and I still have a long way to go for the Lord, but it's always worth it. My spanish is good I just need to regain that confidence and trust in myself to talk like a native again. hahaha jk, but I'm so excited!

Sad to hear about the passing of dear Grampy Norberg. He was a tremendous blessing in the lives of so many many people. I'll never forget all of the wonderful moments we had on the 4th of July at Coronado or all of those swear words that slipped out whenever the Suns/Cardinals/Dbacks/referees sucked. He was a great man and I know he's enjoying a round of 18 in spirit paradise right now. I'll continue trying to follow in his footsteps by working as hard as I can out here on my mission.

Love you all! ¡Ánimo!

Love,

Elder Tucker

Elder Tucker and Elder Contreras

Querido Portland...y la Conferencia General

Hola Familia!

So how bout that conference, right?! I honestly loved this weekend's General Conference so much. The Solemn Assembly and priesthood organization and home/visiting teaching changes were just testaments that the Lord really is hastening His work and preparing us for the Second Coming. We just got one step closer! I know without a doubt that Russell M. Nelson is God's prophet on the earth today. One of my favorite talks of conference was Elder Robbins' about failure and success. Our failures are just as much a part of Heavenly Father's Plan as our successes. We need to trust in the Plan and in scriptures like Ether 12:27 "I give unto men weakness that they may be humble." How would we ever learn humility if we were perfect and succeded at everything? I also enjoyed the correlation between Elder Wilson's, President Oaks', and President Nelson's talks in the Sunday morning session about receiving revelation and increasing our spiritual capacity. The world we live in today is too wicked for us to just casually float down with the flow of the river. We need to constantly be paddling upstream and figure out how to receive our own personal revelation from the Spirit in order to stay spiritually safe. Following other people's footprints is not enough.

This was a great last week in Portland and the WVM (Washington Vancouver Mission)! My flight leaves from Portland tomorrow night at 11:30 PM and I'll be arriving in Mexico City at 6:50 AM Wednesday morning. I'm so unbelievably excited to return to my mission in Cuernavaca and to President Ávila. It's been a long journey.

I will miss Portland, though. I've made some amazing friends, like Elder Vance, that I'll definitely be hanging out with once I finish my mission.

The Cherry Park Ward is wonderful! There are so many members that supported Elder Valentine and I tremendously and gave us referrals. Two of our most promising investigators, Larry and Daniel, are getting baptized because of some members that found them and told us when they were ready. Brother Wells has to be the best ward mission leader I've ever met and Bishop King showed so much love towards all those that he presides over and so much devotion to fulfilling his calling.

I'll honestly miss the incredible public transportation system here in Portland. It made missionary work without a car possible.

And as different as he is from me, I'll honestly miss Elder Valentine. We witnessed so many miracles together these last two transfers.

Thank you so much, Mom, for sending me that Easter/birthday package this week!!! And shout out to my cousin, Eric Hironaka, for that new temple that got announced in Nicaragua! Your work made a difference!

Hope you all have a great week! Love you all.

¡Hasta la próxima!

Love,

Elder Tucker