Pictures from Sister Whiteheads Blog

April 6, 2016 & April 11, 2016

April 6, 2016

So things are really starting to pay off here in our area. All that time staying dillegent and working hard and the Lord is finally blessing us. I have never had so many amazing people that we are teaching. On sunday we brought another family of 5 people to church for the first time. They are good people but we are going to have to work really hard with them to help them progress. We also have another family of 6 that my just be the best family I have taught in my entire mission. The mom has to be one of the best investigators in the world right now. She understands everything we teach and loves the scriptures and is really sensitive to the spirit. She knows the church is true and she is carrying her entire family with her. We also have some other great families that we are teaching and we are looking forward to watching them progress in these next couple of weeks!

Elena is doing great and is excited to be confirmed. She has had a lot of opposition because there are a lot of people that like to gossip about her. She has had a bunch of neighbors come over and tell her that we are devil worshipers and that all we want is her money so she has had a few doubts but when we visit her she realizes that its all lies and that the gospel is true. We couldnt confirm her last week because of conference but she should be confirmed on Sunday!

April 11, 2016

Everything is going really well here. We had another really good week. The Torres family came to church with us again and the mom is so good that she also brought here sister and her niece with her! The family is doing great and they are all progressing, but the mom, Estela, is carrying the entire family. She is unreal. The other day we invited President Whitehead to come to a lesson with us to meet them and she was watching a talk from Henry B Eyring from general conference. She told us the other day that she already decided to be baptized but she is just waiting for the rest of her family to be ready so that they can do it as a family. They then invited us over for Lunch today along with 4 other missionaries and President and Sister Whitehead so that is where we will be this afternoon. Things are going great and we are looking forward to seeing them progress in these next few weeks!

Other than that everything is going well and we are trying to find more people to teach. We have a lot of people in our teaching pool but not a lot of them are ready to act on their faith so we are going to see how it goes this week and if they still dont want to progress we will drop them, and look for more people to teach.

Today I just received my flight itinerary and I will be home on June 8th at 6:30 pm. I will send you the itinerary so that you know, but I also need to set up an appointment with the stake president to be released that same night. We will talk about all that stuff on Mothers day so that we can get it planned. I am doing my best to not think about it right now but on Mothers day it will be close enough to have to talk about it! 

I hope everything is going well! I love you all. Have a great week!

Elder Hirsch

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March 21th & March 28th First Week In Toluca

Mother,

My first week in Toluca went really well! I am loving it here and its looking like we are going to have a lot of success. The bishop here is great and he loves the missionaries so it makes things really nice when it comes to the mission work! We have been working really hard and just giving it all we have. We both have such short time left that we are leaving it all on the field. We are going to have success or we are going to die trying!

We had a few new people come to church this week and we are hoping that we will have a baptism this weekend but we are going to have to see how things play out. Elder Olvera and I are getting along really well. We both have very different personalities but at the end of the day we make a pretty good companionship.

We havent had anything too impressive happen this week but we are working on it. I do like the área a lot, and I think things will go a little better than they did in Lerma. I am loving the mission and I am going to keep working hard.

Mother,

This week went extremely well. We worked about as hard as I have ever worked as a missionary and it finally payed off! We brought 9 investigators to church today and they all seem like really good people. Yesterday was the first time they had been to church so we are excited to see how their progress goes.

We also baptized yesterday!!! We baptized a woman named Elena. She is a great woman, that we have been working with for the 2 weeks that I have been here. She is an investigator that Elder Olvera found with his old companion, and she had been to church a couple times before, but in these last two weeks she has changed completely! She is a really good person and has been doing her best to understand the gospel but all week she has been saying that she still isnt ready to be baptized and that she wanted to wait a while before she made her decisions, but this whole week we went by to visit her and we had really spiritual lessons. We helped her understand that she was ready and by Friday she made her decision to be baptized! It was a great experience to see her progress and to see her make such a great decision!

Pictures March 14, 2016

Elder Farnsworth & Elder Hirsch

February 29, 2016

Family and Friends,

First of all since I haven't written an email to everyone in a while I will let you know what´s going on. I am currently serving in a small town called Lerma in the State of Mexico, which is about 30 minutes outside of Mexico City. The town is great and I am really enjoying my time working with the members in helping others come unto Christ. 

I have been thinking a lot lately about the importance that living the gospel plays in our lives. As a missionary you see it all. The rich, the poor, the happy the sad, the sick, the healthy, the point is that you see it all. It´s such an amazing blessing to be able to see life from the outside in, and you can genuinely see the difference that the gospel makes in the lives of those who live it.

I am not saying that you can't have a happy, successful life if you don't live the gospel. Everyone, whether they have the gospel or not, can live a happy, satisfying life, but what most don´t recognize is that it could be better. The gospel brings us a different kind of satisfaction. Eternal.

The gospel is simple. There are five simple steps that lead us to have eternal happiness. Faith, Repentance, Baptism (Covanents), The gift of the Holy Ghost, and enduring to the end. It´s really simple but sometimes we make it difficult and choose to take other paths that lead to different rewards. I have genuinely seen the blessings that come to the people that live the gospel, and early in my mission I asked the question "Why does living the gosple change lives?" and I couldnt quite figure it out until I broke things down.

Faith- If we have faith in Christ and his atonement we can't feel down for too long. Sure we will feel saddness or guilt or failure, whatever it may be, but if we truely understand that Christ suffered for each of us and for each and every one of our sins, pains, and sicknesses, then we can't stay in a state of unhappiness. It's impossible!!!

Repentace- We make changes to become better people. We accept Christ in our Lives and we accept his atonement!  Who wouldn't feel happy seeing changes in their lives that make them better people and help them feel closer to God!

Baptism and Other Covanents- They are litterally promised blessings! They are contracts that we make with God that if we do the right thing that he will give us blessings. If we do our part he has to do his. How great is that to be able to know that if we keep the commandments we are promised blessings that can never be taken from us!

The gift of the Holy Ghost- This one explains itself. I dont know anyone that doesn't want the third member of the Godhead as a constant companion to guide them throughout their lives. I know that the spirit guides us in every moment if we remain worthy of his guidance.

Endure to the End- As we continue doing these things every day. Having faith that things will be better. Repenting and making changes to become better people. Keeping our convanents that we have made, and following the guidance of the spirit I know that we will be happy, and not only for this life but for the eternities!

I love each and every one of you. I love this gospel and the blessings that it has brought me in my life. It´s not always easy but it is always worth it. If we put the gospel first in our life we will find happiness.

Have a great week. 

Elder Hirsch

Miracles This Week!! February 10, 2016

Mother,

This week was a lot of fun. Susana got confirmed and she was really excited. She is going to be a great member of the church. Now the struggle is going to be getting the rest of her family on board. At least that is what we thought. We went to visit her family the other day,and they started telling us about their experience at Susana´s baptism. They said that they felt normal at first and a little bit bummed out that their daughter was changing religions but then they said that when I said the prayer and she went under the water they felt something inside them that made them feel at peace and happy for Susana. We then shared a couple of scriptures with them about the Holy Ghost and they were shocked that they had felt the spirit so strongly. They said that all week things just seemed to go better and that they could really feel the influence of God. 

It was awesome to hear that from her family. We are hoping to be able to get them baptized as well. Its going to be a little difficult because they work so much but we are going to do what we can to help them out.

Then we had another miracle this week. We walked into church on Sunday and there was this 16 year old kid in a wheelchair. I had never seen him before, but during testimony meeting a little 12 year old girl (Kenya) got up and shared her testimony about how the gospel has helped her and how excited she was that her brother came to church that day (Jonathan-kid in wheelchair). Well after sacrament meeting their Mom came over to us and said "We would like you to come over tomorrow because me son is ready to receive the lessons" It was awesome. We went over on Monday and he is awesome. He slurrs his words a lot because of his handicap but he is one of the smartest kids I have met. We taught him a little bit and he is preparing to be baptized in a couple weeks! He is a great kid and has a really special heart. Its a blessing to be able to teach him.

I am super excited that I am officially an Uncle now!!!! I have been praying that everything goes well with the baby and it looks like everything went great and thats awesome that Braden got to be there too! The baby is 100 percent healthy? I am super happy for them. They have a long few years ahead of them but thats awesome! 1 down and 1 to go!

Have a great week Mom. Love you.

Elder Hirsch 

Brandon and Vanessa had their Baby!!!

 Our New Baby Tinsley was born on February 8, 2016

She will get to meet Uncle Kelton on her 4  month birthday!!

Our Family

Grandma loves this baby!

Uncle TJ and Aunt Aimee

Uncle Braden

Family Joke! Braden no longer the favorite?

Tinsley Jade

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Pictures February 1, 2016