¡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