Week 13: Lots of new pictures

Hi everyone,

We just had transfers today and I got a new companion! His name is Elder Bake and he is from Idaho. Seems like a stud and I'm pumped to get to work with him.

Not a whole lot of time to write this week cause it was a crazy day today with all the changes, but I wanted to include some pictures from an adventure Elder Leany and I had. We woke up at 5am to go hike a little mountain nearby. We figured there would just be a trail to follow to avoid all the cactus and plants and such, but when we got there we couldn't find anything. We had to fight our way through thorns and rocks and snakes and lions but we finally made it to the top and the view was awesome. Fun fact that right here in Guaymas Sonora is the only place in the world (supposedly..) that desert literally meets the ocean. It was perty. You can also see my failed attempt at taking a selfie, it was brighter than I thought. Going down we had to find a different way because the other way was just too hard. The whole thing ended up being like 4 hours instead of 1 but it was good.

Like I said sorry for a short letter, but the updates will continue. The work is hastening and things are just getting better and better. Hope you all are doing well!

Elder Bernal


Here are some pictures:

Week 12

Hello everyone!

First and foremost, it was Phil Fraziers birthday on the 14th, and so if you haven't already, please tell him happy birthday and then give him a nice punch in the arm for me. 

A great week once again, although not much to report. This last week was La Semana Santa and so everyone was at the beach celebrating the holidays and so it was a slow one for us. On the bright side, Spanish is becoming more and more comfortable, and I barely speak English anymore. The food is still good, almost too good because I may or may not be gaining weight already, and shout out to Rachael Duncan, Claire Constanza, Hayley Baas, and Emma Salter for their care package that made me feel like a kid on Christmas morning.

One thing that I do consider to be absolutely significant enough to include in this weeks email is that I have realized that the ability to whistle loudly is a secret weapon in Mexico, and thus I have been sucking air trying to practice for the last few weeks. And so, the other day, my companion and I were running to catch our bus that had passed us, and in a last attempt, I whistled for the bus to stop, hoping he would hear... and just then, the bus stopped; AND IT WORKED!!!! He pulled over and waited for us, and we got on. After sitting down in my seat, it may have been one of the most accomplishing feelings of my life. I now have a powerful powerful ability to control the transportation system of Mexico. Look out.

Apart from that legendary story, not much else to report.

Hope you all enjoyed a lovely Easter and remembered the significance of the Savior`s sacrifice for us. Love you all and will talk to you next week!

Elder Bernal

Week 11: "I invite you to find out for yourselves."

Hello friends and family!

This week I spent a lot of time reflecting on conference and everything that we heard over the weekend. It made me think a lot about why I am here serving a mission, and I wanted to share some of these thoughts with all of you.

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, we have an organization of Leaders, called of God, to serve as Prophets and Apostles, who devote their entire lives, 24/7, to be completely devoted in the work of the Lord. We have over 85,000 missionaries, the largest missionary force in the world, that span the globe and dedicate two years of their adolescent life to preach the gospel to complete strangers, many doing so in a foreign language. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people around the world are baptized and confirmed, and become a part of the LDS faith which consists of over 15 million members worldwide, currently the fastest growing religion. My question to you, brothers and sisters, is how?

How is it that we can claim to have a living Prophet who can communicate with God just as they did in times of old, and how is it that we also have Apostles like Christ did, that consist of intelligent men who devote their entire life to serving God and expanding his church? Is our Prophet just making it all up, and the revelations that he has are actually just his own imaginations? Are his Apostles wasting their lives in the wrong work, and are these men lying when they say that they bear special witness of Jesus Christ? How is it, that 85 thousand young men and women can put a pause on their teenage years, the time that many say to be the most exciting of our lives, and devote two years of their life to preach what they believe to be true? Are they also wasting their time? But most importantly my friends, how it is that every year, hundreds of thousands of people around the world meet with these young missionaries, claim to feel something burn in their heart, claim to receive an answer from God, and are baptized into the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day saints? Are they also making it up, and pretending to feel something that isn't actually real?

How? It is because the Church is true. I know how that sounds for many of you are not LDS, so instead of listening to someone else tell you, I invite you to find out for yourselves. Put aside your biases that you have of the church, let go of all the stereotypes you have heard about Mormonism, and just see for yourself. I promise you you will not be disappointed, and I can make that promise because I would not spend two years of my life teaching others something that isn't true.

One last favor that I want to ask all of you! My companion is from Honduras, doesn't speak a lick of English, and he is the only member of the Church in his family. He barely has any emails to check every week because no one writes him, including his family. Its tough as a missionary to give up two years and then not have your family support you, let alone even write you. No missionary should feel like there is no one who supports them. SO, if you would be so kind and if you have 5 minutes to spare, please practice your Spanish and send an email to jesser.mejia@myldsmail.net and just say anything like hey keep working hard or hey be nice to connor or hey give connor your really cool blue tie or hey we are praying for the missionaries or whatever you want to say! It would mean so much to him and he needs it right now.

Unfortunately I cant explain what I want to say perfectly in text, but I hope I got the point across. Love you all, and hope you have an awesome week!

Elder Bernal

Week 10: " "The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not for once a week, or for once a day, It is for Once and For All."

Hola,

This week we did intercambios for a day which is when another missionary will switch places with my companion, and I would work with him for the day. I was paired up with my companion in the MTC, and it was awesome because neither one of us speak Spanish's perfectly and so we were excited to see how we could do on our own! It was actually a really fun day and I felt like I grew a lot with the language because I couldn't rely on my companion understanding everything, we had to do it ourselves. But my Spanish is still bien chafa!

The best part about this week was conference. Maybe its different because I saw it while in the mission field, but I thought this was one of if not the best conferences I have ever seen. I LOVED both of Uchtdorf's talks about "Are you sleeping through the Restoration?" and the other all about gratitude. Elder Hollands, Hallstroms, and Monsons were all some of my favorites too.

I noticed there was a reptitive theme in conference that even though the world around us is changing, Gods laws do not change. We must always remember to stand strong in our faith and for what we believe in whether the world wants to agree with it or not. The most important thing that I noticed about conference was the theme about Christ like love. Elder Holland said that Christ like love is the biggest need in the world today, and I couldn't agree more.

I was going to bring my notes and leave with you with some bomb quotes, but I forgot. SO instead I will leave you with the one that I loved the most. When Uchtdorf said this, I threw my pen down and shouted "BOOM" in a room of all the other English speaking missionaries, and they all looked at me and laughed.

Here it is:

"The Gospel of Jesus Christ is not for once a week, or for once a day, It is for Once and For All."


The gospel is true, and it is something that every single person on this earth needs. It does not matter who you are or where you come from, what school you go to or how cool you think you are, Everyone needs Christ in their lives. If you do not know him, get to know him. He will change your life for the better and bring you happiness you may not have known you needed. I know this to be true because I see it happen first hand, every single day.

Life is great, I`m loving this work, and its only going to get better. Have a great week!
Elder Bernal

Week 9: "Basically don't mess with the elders"

Buenas Buenas,

So I kept a log this week of all the stuff I wanted to write you guys about, and I made quite a stellar list if I do say so myself. So without hyping it up, here it is

1. An awesome quote I heard that is so true. "You can´t give something away without God giving you more in return." reminded me of another quote that I had heard "No one was ever remembered for what they were given, but for what they gave." Some good stuff ay!

2. We had this elder named Elder Farrow acompany us for three days this week, and he was so chill. Awesome guy, super funny, and full of energy. So this one night, we were walking passed this little sport court. Practically every night we walk past it, and what it is is a basketball sized court with hoops that are basically there for decoration and soccer goals which are why the court is there. Every time we walk passed these kids are always hollering at us like "Oh its the elders come play come play come on!" and every time we are like "Nahh we can't we got work to do!" But this time the kids were like "They scared they don't wanna play" and naturally since we´re guys the three of us looked at each other and were like ok ok ok thats it lets show these boys and gave in. So the three of us tucked in our shirts real good, fastened up our italian silk ties, laced up our leather dress shoes, grabbed two other kids to join our team and played a game of 5 on 5. We played first to two goals. The bad guys scored first, but it was better that way for a more epic victory. We rallied back with a sweet goal, assisted by yours truly. Thank you, thank you, and then it was tied for a while. But of course we had the advantage because I mean let's be honest we´re missionaries so obviously we had God on our side. So naturally he guided the ball directly into our hands and Elder Farrow finished the deal and scored a sweet goal that brought an uproar from the crowd!! They were all bitter cause the missionaries beat them and we just walked away like yea no biggie. It was time well spent because we got a few contacts out of it...basically don't mess with the elders.

3. In one lesson we had, we asked if there were any questions and one of the ladies asked, "Well the one thing I'm wondering is like, when noah built the ark, like, how did the people breathe, because it says like that the flood was so big it like covered mountains and it's like hard to breathe up there you need oxygen so how does that make sense?" At first I was like.... um what... but hey it was an honest question that she really didn't know. We kind just said: God probably figured it out, and also that we didn't think it meant Mt. Everest when it said mountains...gave us a good laugh afterwards.

4. We taught a lesson in English this week because one the of families we taught is from Tucson and English is more comfortable. I gave the opening prayer, and it was SO bad I had to apologize after because I have been praying in Spanish for 2 months now. I like spaced out on how to say it in English. It was really weird at first but I was kind of happy because it meant that my Spanish is coming along :) Cool to teach in English though. Easier to bear my testimony and finally be able to say everything I feel inside, as opposed to having it locked up inside because I dont know how to say it.

5. It was cloudy this week a lot, and it made me miss seattle sooo much. Next time it rains, stand outside and get drenched for me.


Sorry for the long email, but it was a good one this week. Love you all!
Elder Bernal

Week 8: "I took my first actual nap since before I left, twas good."

Hello!

This week we had a special training in the center of Hermosillo for all of the rookie missionaries, which included everyone who has under 12 weeks in Mexico. It was led by the president of our mission and his two assistants, and it was great. We got to listen to some really good advice from experienced missionaries, and we got to ask some questions about things in the mission. They gave us some pretty good tips for our first few months in the mission and I thought it was pretty helpful. My favorite part might have been the long bus ride to and from Hermosillo because it was maybe the nicest Greyline bus I have ever been on, the seats felt like they were clouds from heaven, and I got to take my first actual nap since before I left. So yea twas good.

Another thing that I thought to be particularly interesting this week was something that a member told me that blew my mind. In the legitimate mexican history, that you can probably find on Wiki and also inscribed on many ruins that are in Mexico, such as the ones in Chicken Itza (lol cant remember how to spell it) and Teohawackan (even worse) in Mexico city, it describes of an event where a man descended from the sky, dressed in all white, and visited the people at the pyramids, but there seems to be no explanation to it. Even better, near a waterfall between the border of Guatemala and Mexico, that stil exists today, there is a mural sketched on a wall of a man's dream of a tree with an incredibly white frute, an iron rod, and a tower a little ways off separated by a body of water. Like are you kidding me. Nobody knows where and why this is there, but anyone who knows anything about the Book of Mormon will know exactly why these are there. Of course I dont know the whole story and Im sure there is more to it. But still, this is like common Mexican history knowledge, and its pracically straight out of the Book of Mormon. who knew right?

So that is about it for this week. Talk to you guys soon.
Elder Bernal

Week 7: "The Lord loves all his children equally"

Hello all!

Today was transfers day, so we had a few missionaries leave our area and some new ones come. Unfortunately one of my best friends in the mission Elder Mitchell got transferred to Hermosillo, but hopefully I´ll get paired up with him sometime down the road...

Some highlights of the week:

1. We had a special conference this week with Elder Johnson of the seventy who is the president of the Mexico Missions. He was awesome. We spent a large majority of the time talking about how important it is as missionaries to have strong personal testimonies of God. There is power behind a testimony, and everyone needs to continually strengthen there testimony with each day if they want it to have an effect on others. Having faith is not to have a perfect knowledge, but to believe in something that you cant see, but is true. Alma 32, where that scripture is found, was a chapter that really resonated in me this week, and is one that I encourage you all to give a second look at.

2. I started teaching English lessons to Elder Mejia, which consisted of reading the book of Mormon in english and clarifying words he cant pronounce. It took us 2 HOURS to finish two pages! but it was actually pretty fun, and helped him understand a little bit better what I am trying to do with Spanish. 

3. The coolest thing I got to do this week was give a blessing to a family that hasnt been to church in a few years. There were a couple things that made this special. It was the first blessing I was going to give on my mission, and the first blessing I would give in Spanish (for those of you who dont understand, a blessing is essentially a prayer of comfort to someone who needs it). What made this even more special was that I would be giving it to the familys daughter. Her name is Ivon, shes 27, and she has a severe case of down syndrome and other illnesses. Shes been in a wheelchair her entire life, and has the body of an 8 year old. When Elder Mejia told me that I was going to be doing the blessing, in all honesty I started to worry. I didnt know if I was going to say it right, i didnt want to say anything in spanish that would have been uncomfortable for the family, I was just all around nervous. But the second I put my hands on her head and began saying a prayer, I had a feeling of peace overtake me, one that took away all feelings of nerves and worries, and in that moment I know exactly what to say. The words just came right out, without any second thought, almost as if i didnt even realize that it was me saying it. What I took away from the experience was an even greater understanding that the Lord loves all of his children equally. Every single one. Homeless or healthy, poor or rich, disabled or not, God is no respecter of persons. All of us have trials that are unique to us, and we cant understand why they have to happen. I dont know why Ivon has to be one to suffer from these disabilities, or why other people have hardships in their lives that seem unfair, but all we need to know is that God loves all of us the same and has a purpose behind everything. It was an awesome experience, and I hope it gave Ivon and her family a little more peace that they had been needing. They all made it to church that Sunday.

This Wednesday makes 6 weeks, but whos counting? Talk to you all next week!

Elder Bernal