It's what we believe and how we act....

(I met Elder Buswell when he was working here in Logan at Great Harvest.  He received his mission call to Mexico, Mexico City Northwest - John's mission!!!!  After meeting him, I knew he and John would be instant friends.  They ended up in the same zone when Elder Buswell first arrived in Mexico City - thought this would be a good picture for the excerpt from John's email this past week.)

I keep kind of stepping back and looking at what I am and where and why and it is just sooooo weird, or different, than what I would’ve been doing if I wasn’t on a mission. We are two white guys who live in Mexico City and we’re going around trying to talk to people about Jesus. It is the most awesome thing in the world!!! I guess we need to be different from others to make a difference. It’s not the skin color that’s the difference, or the height or weight, it’s what we believe and how we act to demonstrate the faith in that belief.

Amazed!!!!

I am just so amazed at the spirit and its role in our lives. I was thinking about it the other night and I figure it must just be soooo incredible for the people we teach to feel the spirit for the first time. The feelings the spirit invites into our lives are just so amazing. Sometimes, as members, we take that relationship for granted. The people we teach must just love it. I’ve seen people change everything just to feel those same feelings again and sometimes we, as members struggle to change the little things to have the spirit with us more. I love the spirit and it truly is a great comforter for me. It is worth changing everything to be able to have those feelings all the time. I so grateful that President Tervort has taught us so much about the importance of the spirit. He told me once that most people just talk about ¨God, Jesus Christ, and...the other guy.¨ The spirit’s role in our lives is just as important to us as God and Christ’s role. We need the spirit for guidance in following the commandments of God and to even know He exists, we need the spirit. For the Atonement to take full affect in our lives, we need the purifying power of the Holy Ghost to cleanse us. I love being a missionary and feeling the spirit every day, but I love even more helping other people feel the spirit. It is incredible. The Church of Jesus Christ has been restored by a prophet of God. The Book of Mormon is true. Thomas S Monson leads the church today as a prophet. God loves us, we are His children and Jesus Christ truly suffered for us that we might live. I know all of this with all of my heart, because the Holy Ghost has born witness of these truths to me many times. I love you all so much!!! Thanks for everything you do and all of your prayers for me!

new area

Welp, I was transferred today. I’m now in the area Victoria 2 in the Zone, Cuautepec! I’m with Elder Layton from Draper, UT (or maybe it was Elder Draper from Layton, UT. I’m still not quite sure - ha ha.). He seems cool beans. Half my area is flat and the other half is a sweet mountain!!! There are a lot of vochos (Volkswagen bugs) because they can make it up the mountains best. It is cool, because, no matter the color, all vochos can be taxis. What a dream come true, no?

Heavenly Father is a friend. He’s the best friend that we can have.

The church is true. Jesus Christ lives and loves us! I know that he truly is mindful of us when we feel low or sad. He has passed through all of that before and truly does understand us. The Book of Mormon testifies of that and I have had so many great witnesses of the truth of Christ’s atonement from reading that sacred book. Sometimes we don’t understand the ¨why¨ part of everything, but we can feel calm if we just tell God how we feel and move on trusting in His all-knowing power. One time I just expressed myself to my loving Heavenly Father that I didn’t really get what was happening, but that I was going to keep trying my best and doing all that I could. I felt really peaceful and I truly felt the love of God. Heavenly Father is a friend. He’s the best friend that we can have. I love talking with Him. Prayer is powerful and cleansing. Heavenly Father listens and understands our hearts! I love you all!

S.E.E.D.

This week went quite well. We had a cool experience with Pilar and her daughter Yire. We met with them Monday night and I could feel at the beginning the confirmation that the spirit was going to testify strongly to them. We talked about the restoration and sure enough, the Spirit helped testify of the truth. They felt it; we felt it and they accepted baptism for Sunday.  Sadly, her mom was sick and she couldn’t come to church. We tried all we could to get her there, but it’ll have to be this next week.  It made me think how every commitment made when the spirit is present is a commitment that the people are making with God, not us. God sends His Spirit to testify that they should commit and we extend the commitment to them. The commitment is not with us, the missionaries, but with them and God. That’s what makes it more sad when those we teach don’t keep their commitments.

This week I’ve been so humbled to see the large amount of miracles that God provides for us, His children, if we just have faith (which includes works) and trust in Him. I would say that if you haven’t seen a miracle in your day, you probably have faith, but you may not have looked deep enough to see something miraculous. I hope that makes sense. A lot of times, we live so many miracles, but we just don’t see them. I’ve been making sure to see them and it is incredible what God does for us. Elder Coulter and I did something that we called SEED (Spiritual Experience Every Day). It helps to be looking. God is not silent in out lives! He loves us and does wonderful things for us EVERY day!!! I love you!!!

Love,

Elder John Pope

WE`RE WORKING AGAIN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Thursday we got the go ahead to work half days. It has been great to

get back on it. I'm looking forward to working "full" days this coming week:)

Potential is an incredible thing. I have been praying to have more

charity for the people here in this week that we have gotten back to

work, and instead of just seeing a normal person, my thoughts about

the people we talked to changed to thoughts about their potential. I

thought of men as future priesthood holders and families going to the

temple. It is cool how my mindset changed.

Sometimes it doesn’t take much information to invite

the spirit. It is all about finding the thing that invites the spirit

quickly for them.  I love when the spirit takes over. We

need to prepare, and then we can humbly be led by the spirit. A lot of

times we can think that we can just wing it or we plan out something

memorized, but if we just plan well and humbly seek the guidance of

the spirit He truly helps us. There has been times when I don't even

know or remember what I am saying or said and the impact is felt. It

is so humbling that a member of the Godhead would show interest in us.

Cool beans!

Well, two weeks until transfers. A ver que pasa. We’ll work as hard as

Adam Pontipee did when he plowed 20 acres in one day! I love you!!!!!!