Be your Best July 13, 2013

Family and others who seem to care,

This week in Mexico has gone really well. The work has gone really good and we are working really hard to find more investigators. We should be having a lot of success in the next few weeks. Starting off with Juan Bosco who has a baptism date for Sunday!

We found Juan Bosco about a month ago. We were in the street contacting people and we contacted a woman. She was really nice but wasnt at all interested in what we had to say. As always we asked her if she knew of anyone close by that we could go and visit. She said she works in a house of a family that is very catholic and that they won't want to hear us, but we could check with her boss, Jorge. Well we went and knocked on Jorges door and Juan Bosco answered. He said that his brother, Jorge, wasn't home. We then started talking to him about the church and asked if we could share our message of the restored gospel with him. He told us that he was really busy and that he doesn't have time for this kind of stuff, but we used a little bit of strategy with him and said it would only take 10 minutes. He said "If it's only ten minutes come on in!" Since that day we have been visiting him regularly and he has been reading the book of Mormon. Since day one he has accepted everything that we have taught him and on Sunday he will be getting baptized! 

We have some other really good investigators that are progressing and looking forward to these next few weeks! Thank you for all of your love and support. Have a great week. 

Be Your Best

Elder Hirsch

Keltons new child Elder Reyes

Juan Bosco Baptism

Great Day!!!

Another Brand New Companion! July 6, 2015

Family and Friends,

Well we had transfers today but I stayed in my area and my companion got sent to another area. I am still serving here in the city and I received ANOTHER NEW COMPANION. Today is his first day in the mission. He is from Mexico and he seems like a good guy. This will be my 7th transfer in a row as a trainer. Its not the easiest thing I have ever done, but I am learning more and more every single day. 

We are working with some great investigators right now who are really close to being baptized. The people here are great and are very accepting of the gospel. Sure there will always be those people who shut you down, slam the door in your face, or give you a few unpleasant words, but they dont slow us down. The Lord blesses us every single day and helps us stay focused on the work.

Its been raining every day here, and its not going to stop for the next couple of months so I am looking forward to that, but the people feel bad leaving us out on the street in the rain so they usually let us in! There are positives to everything.

A lot of times when we are passing through trials Satan likes to highlight all of the bad things that are going on around us. We forget about all the blessings that we have been given and focus on all the bad. The trick to getting through our trials is rocognizing how blessed we are. I can promise each and every one of you that there are more good things going on around you than bad. Its your decision to choose which things you want to focus on. If you want to be happy, I invite all of you to focus on the good, and allow the bad to take itself out of our lives.

I love you all and thank you for all of your love and support! Have a great week! 

Elder Hirsch

New Companion Elder Reyes

Our Zone

More Pictures June 29, 2015

Back In The City June 29, 2015

Family and Friends,

Its been a while since I have sent everyone an email so I thought I would throw in a couple of good stories to make up for being really bad at sending an email to everyone! Right now I am working in Mexico City, a few weeks ago I got transfered from working in one of the smallest pueblos in the mission to the city again so its been a fun time trying to adapt to the city life again. We have been working really hard and having a ton of success. Even though we spend a lot of time in the streets looking for people to teach, its all worth it because the Lord puts the right people in the right place at the right time.

This week was difinitely a trial for me. We had a lot of really awesome things happen and a lot of really frustrating times, but it all turned out well! This week we didnt have a baptism but the sisters in our ward had one that we have been helping them with.

The guy that got baptized this week is Mario. He has been listening to the missionaries for about 2 months now and had a ton of desire to get baptized, but because of some health problems he hasnt been able to come to church on a few different occasions. This last few weeks he has been super excited to get baptized and every time we see him he tells us that his baptism is getting closer! Well yesterday was the day. The thing about Mario is that he doesnt have legs and he is in a wheelchair, and yesterday the Adversary did his best to try to stop Mario from getting baptized.

We start church at 8 in the morning is this ward and we finish at 11 but we had the baptism planned at 4 in the afternoon. So we all left the church and we planned to go pick up mario at 3 or 330. He lives about a half mile from the church so we needed a little time to walk with him to the church. Well right at 3 oclock it started pouring rain, and its not like Utah rain, its the real deal here, and nobody has cars so it wasnt like we could just swing by and pick him up really early and we couldnt delay the baptism because another ward had a baptism at the same time. We had 1 umbrella for My companion, Mario and me. Three guys and one umbrella doesnt work normally and when one of us is in a wheelchair makes it impossible. So what we did was gave the umbrella to Mario and we pushed him in his wheelchair a half mile in the pouring rain to get him to his baptismal service! haha it was quite the experience but we got him there! Everyone was asking us if we were the ones that got baptized because of how soaking wet we were, but things turned out really well and he was extrememly grateful that he could get baptized!

I am so grateful for this gospel and all the amazing experiences I am having here on the mission. We are working hard every day to help more people change their lives! Thank you for all of your love, and support. Hope all is well. have a great week, and trust in the Lord in all that you do. Be your best every day!

Elder Hirsch

Letter to Mom One Year Mark June 25, 2015

Mother,

This week went really well. We baptized Maribel and her daughter Estafania!!!! It was awesome to see them join their family as members of the Church! We are only missing one more! Her name is Abie and we are going to try our best to start teaching her but she isnt very interested in listening or committing to live the priciples of the Gospel. Its not going to be easy but thats the goal we have to complete the family!!! We are soo close!!! 

The best thing that happened this week were the baptisms. We had two baptisms but the cool thing is that every area in my district baptized someone this weekend! It was the first time that we have done that so that was pretty cool!

The worst thing this week is that we had a bunch of good people that are preparing to get baptized and had a baptism date, but none of the 5 came to church on Sunday so we lost all of the baptism dates, and we are going to have to work really hard this week to be able to get them back on schedule to be baptized!

Juan Bosco went on vacation this weekend to visit his family, so he didn't come to church this week. We sent him the address to the church where he was going and we are going to go check if he went. If he went he is still on track to be baptized on July 5th but if not we are going to have to move it back a week. Its a bummer, but he is a good guy so I am not too worried!

We havent found the member that is working on my memory card this week so we arent sure if we are going to recover the pictures or not we are going to visit him tonight so we will see how it goes!

Time is going by super fast, I can't believe it has already been one year! I feel like it is going to go by even faster this year and before I know it, all of it is going to be coming to an end. My thoughts are that I dont have another second to lose and that if I can have another year like I have had, I will be happy for the rest of my life. I have learned more in these 12 months than the first 18 years of my life!

My companion still struggles but I think he is getting better. He drives me crazy sometimes because he doesn't love all of the rules, but I am doing my best to stay patient and remember how I felt when I had 3 months in the mission. 

Another thing if you can keep President Whitehead and his family in your prayers. His daughters husband passed away last week, and they have 5 little kids. His wife is back in the States right now with their daughter, but if you can it would be great to keep them in your prayers.

Everything is great here mother, I love you so much! Give Braden a big hug from me for his birthday! Tell everyone I love them! Have a great week!

Elder  Hirsch

Pictures June 9, 2015

Elder and Sister Nash live in Centerville

picture with the two Centerville Elders

The Zone with Elder Nash

Transfer Day May 25, 2015

Family and Friends,

My time working in Ixtlahuaca has come to an end. I have loved my time here and made a ton of lifelong memories. I am super grateful for the opportunity that I had to work with the Ward and do what I could to help them become stronger. I can honestly say that I left the área better than I found it!

This week in Ixtlahuaca finished up awesome! We baptized a woman named Yosi. She has a pretty cool story. About a month ago we contacted a small family in the Street and they didnt have even a Little bit of intrest in learning about the góspel, but as we always do we asked if they knew anyone that we could visit that might be interested. They sent us with a woman named Ana. When we got to Anas house she basically said that she had no interest in learning either, but she told us to come back the next day and see if her sister in law wanted to learn more. Well, her sister in Law ended up being Yosi. She is great, she goes to church every week, reads her book of mormon, and is going to be a great member of the Church. he family has basically rejected her, and dont want to talk to her for her decisión that she has made to follow our Savior Jesús Christ. Its tough to see how hard satan Works when people try to do the right thing, but all he does is help us become stronger people.

Other awesome thing that happened this week is that Elder Nash from the Quórum of the Seventy came to the mission! He is living in Centerville right now and I actually played basketball with his son Spencer Nash, so it was cool to be able to talk to him. He is super powerful and I learned a lot in the short time that he was here with us!

It was super hard for me to say goodbye to all the wonderful people we are teaching and especially the big family that we are teaching. They are great people and are passing some serious family problems. it was tough to leave but I am grateful for the opportunity that I had to be a part of their conversión. All seven of the kids are great and are going to be terrific missionaries one day!

I just want to share my testimony of the hidden blessings that the Lord sends to us and how everything we go through is so we can become stronger and have the ability to bless the lives of others. I am 100 percent convinced that every single trial that I have passed in my life has only prepared me to be able to help all of the people that I have come in contact with so far in my mission. I have seen so many people that have experienced or are experiencing right now so many things that are similar to the life that I have lived. I know I am here for a reason and that the Lord is allowing me to help others.

The other day I was thinking. "What is a blessing?" and I came to the conclusión that a blessing is something that the Lord has given us that can help us to help other people or allows us to become stronger. Its not something that makes life easier. I have realized that every single trial or difficulty that we have is a blessing from the Lord. It allows us to become stronger and also allows us to help others in the future. I know that my savior lives and loves each and every one of us. Trust in the Lord and he will help you with whatever your problem may be.

I love you all and hope all is well.

Elder Hirsch

 Yosi's Baptism

Family that is getting Baptized next week