Happy New Year!

     Hello everyone! This week went really well! We had the woman from the bread shop attend church with us this week. It was a perfect week to have her attend! We had a class talking about how to obtain a testimony about the Book of Mormon and many recent converts bore testimony on how they have obtained a testimony even though they had thought the bible was the only word of God! After the meeting we had a talk with her and she loved it! During our last meeting she began to cry as we talked about eternal families. I could feel the spirit testifying of the truthfulness of this Gospel and eternal families! 

     This week we have also found 3 new families that we are teaching. Elder Ruiz and I are really applying what it says in Preach My Gospel and that is talk to everyone! We are teaching a man named Roberto currently who doesn't have a belief in Jesus Christ but is a very humble man. He works on a ranch from from the city and doesn't earn much money. We found him as we were searching for a reference from the bishop. We asked him for directions to the house of this reference and he was very nice and directed us to it. We arrived at the house of the reference but no one was there. Elder Ruiz and I had a firm feeling from the spirit that we needed to go back an contact him. He's kind of a hard looking guy and my first thought was that he probably wouldn't let us in, but what I have learned in the mission is not to deny the power of God or to judge anyone! We approached him and said we had message that would bless his life, and without even a hesitation he let us in the door. We spoke about his beliefs, about our Savior Jesus Christ, God's plan, and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. He was so open to hear all of this and was so excited to hear something different than his beliefs, and to know he had a Father in Heaven who loved him and sent his son Jesus Christ that we may once again be able to live with Him again! We have taught him twice and he is really enjoying our message and his faith is growing as he reads and prays. 

     I was reading in the Liahona this week and was just thinking how grateful I am to have the Atonement in my life and how we can apply to every aspect of our lives. Truly the greatest sacrifice this world has ever known and will ever be! As I apply the Atonement every day of my life I feel my personal spiritual growth and closer towards my Father in Heaven. As I have said before I have never felt closer to my Father in Heaven than I have right now or relied on him this much in my life. I personally testify that we can all repent whether we have done something small or something grave through sincere repentance we can obtain forgiveness! I hope you all have a great week and a very Happy New Year I also hope that we make it our personal resolution in 2013 to be stronger and more willing to serve our neighbors and friends and of course when we do these things we please our Father and Heaven!

Love,

Elder Tanner Aiken

Merry Christmas!

Singing carols in the Plaza

     Hello everyone!  It was different spending Christmas away from home.  Here there is no snow - it's in the mid 60's.  But I am so happy to wear the name of Jesus Christ and to be his servant.
     As it says in Luke 1: 31-33:  "And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS.  He shall be great and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David.  And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever; and his kingdom there shall be no end." 
     I'm so grateful for Jesus Christ, for his sacrifice for us and to have a Heavenly Father that loves each and every one of us.  I'm grateful that I was brought up by such a great family to be able to serve in these last days and bring this gospel to the people of Mexico. We can see that God is speeding up his work, there is no more time to be a 50%-er.  You're either on the Lord's side or you're not.  We cannot serve 2 masters, for you'll love one and despise the other.  Choose this day whom you will serve.
     As I walk through the streets here in Mexico, I see such poverty.  I see sadness and pain, wives without husbands, children without fathers and a variety of people misled by the ways of the world.  I am so very grateful to have the light of Jesus Christ, his gospel and his Atonement and to share the light with others.  This  Christmas and New Year we need to be sharers of that light and share the joy we have.  Jesus born of humble birth had little, but gave us so very much.  We can show our gratitude by our willingness to serve and to follow him.  
     I think to past Christmases when we'd wake up and have a ton of gifts for us under the tree.  I think of the times of ungratefulness and wondering, "did I get everything I asked for?"  I know for sure there will be plenty of people waking up to no gifts!  My hope and prayer is that we can turn our gratitude to the Savior and be so very grateful for the wonderful blessings He has given us.  
     While being with all of you this Christmas sounds very nice, I know this is where I'm supposed to be.  I know this Church is true! I know that Jesus Christ died for us all and through his Atonement we can be healed from our sins.  I know God loves us so very much and is directing and guiding our paths back to Him!
     I love you all and hope you had the best Christmas and have a Happy New Year!  Remember, "your future is as bright as your faith!"

Love,
Elder Tanner Aiken

    

Merry Christmas!

     Today was a transfer day here! I now have a new companion and his name is Elder Ruiz from Veracruz Mexico. Really funny guy!  I'm very excited to learn more things from him and progress the work we have going in our area! 
     This week Elder Velez and I had all of our baptisms fall through, so it was a bit sad to see people that said they knew these things to be true suddenly disappear.
     However, this week was also one of strengthening my testimony of the gospel. We have been teaching the sister of the bishop, she is Catholic and and doesn't have much knowledge of the gospel! This week we talked about the faith in Jesus Christ. She loved that message and shared with us the trials she has had. She said she has lost three babies, two at birth and one after 9 months! I can not imagine having to go through that pain of losing three children.  She and her husband show so much love for their only daughter. Every time we visit she asks if we are hungry and what she can get for us. Right now I'm praying so very hard that Heavenly Father may answer her prayers so that she can one day find the truth and make it a goal to go to the temple and be sealed to her family! 
     The woman in the bread shop has kept having us come back and teach her, she said that she had been having problems in her family and had been praying for somone to help her. She said she thinks we were her answer but doesn't want to change her Catholic beliefs. 
     Right now it is a bit tough with the way it has been going with investigators this week, seeing them not accept this beautiful message of the Restoration and follow our Savior.  It makes me a little sad seeing they won't have that in their lives but I have learned that it is all on God's time and His will! My testimony has strentgthened this week even though we have had our struggles we are still pressing forward. I know we will find someone soon that will come to the knowledge of the gospel! I know that if we all keep faced towards Zion nothing can stop us in keeping us from those we promised to find.   
     This Christmas I'm so very grateful for my relationship I have with my Father in Heaven, for his Son Jesus Christ who has made it possible to take away the pains and sins of every person. I have personally felt God's love for me and for others through the Atonement of Jesus Christ! I think about the new star that appeared at the birth of Jesus Christ and how it lead others to the manger to see the Son of God. I know that I can make it a new goal to better my life and the lives of others! If we follow the example of Jesus Christ I personally testify that we will have joy and peace that no one else can bring to us in this life. I know that this Church is the only true church on the earth today, and is directed by a modern day prophet called of God! I also testify that Joseph Smith saw God and his only begotten Son Jesus Christ and restored His church and authority to the earth! I can promise each and every one of you that if we open our hearts to Jesus Christ and keep those commandments which have been set for us, we will return to live with Him once again. This work is such a blessing to be a part of, to see that God can put you in the path of a person at a direct place and time and see that God has been preparing them to listen to the message. 
     I love you all so much and hope you have a wonderful Christmas time and a very good New Year!

Love,
Elder Tanner Aiken

No success without the Spirit!

     Hello everyone, I hope you all had a great week! This week was very interesting in following the promptings of the spirit! 
    Two weeks ago I was on divisions in my area with Elder Sanchez.  We both have the same amount of time here in Mexico, he is from Baja Mexico. The whole day we had been teaching lessons and we had walked 7 or 8 miles.  We were pretty hungry so we decided to stop in the Panderia - just a bread shop and other good stuff. Elder Sanchez walked in singing, "Oh Holy Night".  We were the only ones in the shop and the cashier looked at him and said, "wow you have a beautiful voice!"  I was thinking, "you've got to be kidding me!" She said that the song was beautiful as well. She saw our name tags and wasn't familiar with our church. We got to talking to her and asked if we could pass by another day. She agreed and was very excited. So about a week had passed by and Elder Velez had just finished teaching a lesson when  all of the sudden I had a prompting to go back to that bread shop. At first I was thinking, is this hunger?  Then I got the prompting again to return and talk to the cashier. I asked my companion and told him we need to go to the bread shop, so we headed that way. As we got there, she was working! I thought this is the perfect chance to share our message. We walked in and she was thrilled to see us. We told her about eternal families. She thought that message was so great that she could be eternal with her family who she loved so much, and how much of the world is trying to destroy the family. As we were about to finish our lesson, an older lady walked in and saw our pamphlet on he table. She smiled and asked, "how much does this cost"? We smiled and said it's free. We gave her our number and she left. We have now taught three lessons with this lady in the bread shop and are shooting for a baptismal date in mid December. We have three baptismal dates for the month of December and are praying to meet our goal of 5! 

Orange trees are everywhere!

     I have learned that without the spirit it is impossible to have success! We must follow every prompting we receive! I have seen how promptings can bless lives, and strenghten the testimonies of those who receive them! I truly love these people here in Mexico - they are so warm and loving and willing to share everything! The weather here is great.  Yesterday and today have been in the upper 70's! I hope you all have a great week!!

Love,
Elder Tanner Aiken

Thanks for cutting me down!

    Hi everyone!  What a wonderful week it was, probably the best here on the mission.
     I have been having severe headaches the past few weeks and was getting stressed about it.  I also think it was hard being away from home during this time of the year with Thanksgiving and Christmas coming up, that's never easy.  
     This week I was praying for guidance and for strength to lift me up and help me with this trial.  After I prayed, a talk came to mind, one by Todd D. Christopherson. One gardener had a giant bush on his recently purchased farm. It was bringing forth fruit so the gardner decided to cut it back drastically until there were only a few stumps left.  When the gardener finished, he saw a drop of water like a tear as if the bush was crying. He thought as if he could feel the bush saying, "how could you do this to me, cut me down, my growth was tremendous and now you have cut me down." The gardener exclaimed to the bush, "little bush, I am the gardener here, and I know what I want you to be, I don't want you to be a giant fruit tree or shade tree, I want you to be what I have planned you to be, and one day when you have grown from this and bear fruit, you will say thank you gardener for loving me enough to cut me down." Later this gardener was a lieutenant and was perfectly qualified and ready to be promoted to be general. He was denied the opportunity to become general because he was a Mormon.  He was furious, he threw his fists in the air and said, "God how could you do this to me, how could you do this to me, after all my growth."  Then he heard a voice, his own voice saying, "I am the gardener here, I know what I want you to be." The bitterness left and he fell to his knees, saying "thank you God for cutting me down, and loving me enough to hurt me." We all need to see that at times of trials, sometimes they are God inspired.  He is showing us His love because He knows what he wants us to be. Maybe we all aren't going to be millionaires, star athletes, or the high school prom king or queen, God has a plan for us. Put trust in Him, and He will show us the way. He is the Gardener here and I have truly witnessed this. 
     Yesterday in the chapel, a miracle happened. I was still a little stressed with all these past weeks of headaches when a sister tapped me on the shoulder in Sacrament meeting and asked Elder Velez and I to go out to the hall with her and three others. One was without a spouse, the other a married couple. They asked if we could talk to them about God's plan. The married couple explained to us they had troubled marriages in the past but that they had finally found the person to be with and they felt through God's love that their marriage could last longer than just here on earth. We shared God's plan on how we can be eternal families after this life, through sacred covenants in the temple.  The spirit filled the room and I couldn't hold back the tears, I hadn't felt the spirit that strong in such a long time, it was simply incredible! We showed them the baptismal font where they could make their first covenant with Heavenly Father. The other woman's husband had left her for another person, so she was so happy to see she could be with someone she loved for eternity. 
     I will never forget the feeling I felt in that room with God's love. He is preparing his people in this moment, hearts are being changed I know why I am here and I won't give up. I will trust in the Gardener and follow His plan!

     Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Tanner Aiken 

Scripture Power!

     This week was great here in San Luis Potosi! To start off the week, in our our district meeting, we realized we had a bad month of baptisms! Only 46  people were baptized in the whole mission.  We are usually up in the two hundreds.  We have been asked by our President to focus our month on the introduction of the Book of Mormon and start using this more and more for our conversions. I have never really focused too much on it besides reading the three paragraphs for our investigators, but it is so powerful and the message it contains is truly amazing!  We have an absolute promise from our Father in Heaven that if we read, and ask in His name if the book is true, we can know for a surety.  We just have to open our hearts and listen to the whisperings of the Spirit! 
     So in our weekly planning, Elder Velez and I turned our focus to this message and when we were planning we vowed to step up our efforts this month. We wanted to make our goal for baptisms this month and we were not certain what it should be. So Elder Velez and I separated and went to different corners of the room and knelt down in prayer. We both prayed on the focus of our investigators. When I had fineshed praying I felt the number 5 come across my mind, so I wrote my goal on the piece of paper.  Elder Velez also had his answer written on his piece of paper. We opened them together and they both read 5!! God had answred our prayers in both the same way, it was so amazing to see! We now had our goal and it was time to go forward and find them! 
     Two days later, we went to one of our members homes - his name is Jorge. When we arrived he was having a get- together with some of his co-workers. We didn't think much of it, but we saw a perfect opportunity to share a message with all of them! We gave the restoration lesson to them and they were all on the edge of their seats and the Spirit was so strong! We gave them four Books of Mormon and shared our testmonies on the promise of this great book! They were all very interested. Two of them are in our area but the others are not so we are praying very hard for our Father in Heaven to give them an answer. 
     The following day, we decided to look to the back of our area book to see what investigators had been kind of left behind. We picked out three families and went to the streets! The first one we picked was a woman named Norma and she has three kids.  They hadn't heard from the missionaries in almost a year because their lives were too busy at the time and they didn't want to hear more. We knocked on her door but no one was there. We started to turn and walk then out of nowhere a car began to honk at us and wave us down! It was Norma and her kids! She was so excited to see us. We asked if may talk with her and maybe share a message, she said yes I have all the time in the world! We talked with her and at this moment her life has been very hard for her. She has had a hard time with money but is striving to become a fire fighter here in San Luis. She was so hampered down by the ways of the world, I could see pain all across her face. We shared a message with her and she was so thrilled to hear God's plan for all of us.  She knows our message is true but she has trouble with her husband because she is not sure what he'll say about us sharing with her. But he was a very nice man when we met him, and we are hoping that God will let this message into all their hearts that they can enter into a covenant with our Father in Heaven! 
     This work becomes more and more amazing to me each week! I am seeing miracles before my eyes! God truly prepares people to hear the message from his called servants! We pray! We listen and we act! 
     Have a great week! I challenge you all to read the introduction of the Book of Mormon and see what you can do to reach out and share it with someone! You never know who is ready to accept it!!


Love,
Elder Tanner Aiken

God's protection!

      Monday was p-day and we played soccer longer than usual.  Soccer is big here in Mexico.  My legs are returning quite nicely - I scored 2 goals!
    My companion had to leave for Leon recently to re-sign his visa. I had to go with him to the bus station and then to the zone leaders house to stay there for the night, so I was allowed to take a taxi alone to the zone leaders which was only about 15 minutes away. We were driving to their area and as we were getting close I saw the zone leaders walking down a street, so I told the driver to pull over and I would get out. I got out and went back to the street where they were walking, but they weren't there anymore. My heart dropped, as I had no way to call them because I had no phone! I kept looking and they were nowhere to be found. I was pretty nervous at this point because it was starting to get a little dark and a white guy walking in a scary neighborhood in a different country is never good! I felt the urge to pray so I said a prayer in my heart that I would find them. I felt a very comforting feeling and two minutes later they walked out of their house at the direct moment I was passing it! Such an answer to prayer! I was so filled with joy as I knew God had heard my prayer and had lead me to be there at that precise moment! 
     I´m really loving it here in San Luis Potosi! It's beautiful and the people are so great here! I even found 3 flies in my soup recently and didn't freak out!  
     I hope everyone has a great week!

Love,
Elder Tanner Aiken