Elder Lambert wants mail - PLEASE - 30 March 2015

Elder Lambert's email address: sean.lambert@myldsmail.net

Dear friends and family,

Let me begin this weeks by telling a bit of information regarding the work. We are continuing on track with a total of four people. One individual who is having trouble with employment and a family that is dealing with....family trouble. The family was able to see a baptismal service for the investigators of our zone leaders. This may have been one of the most incredibly spiritual experiences of my mission. Seeing the mothers face after the service made every hour of work worth it.

Now, enough of the sappy stuff, I now desire to briefly describe to you all my first area. 

More often than not, missions are named after the largest city that exists in its borders, but is not exclusively that city. Monterrey West is this way. The expansive city of Monterrey lies in the middle of the state of Nuevo Leon and on the borders of the Monterrey West and East missions. I am currently situated within the smaller city of San Nicolas. My area includes a number of different colonias. Mine is situated between the run down "cholo" area of Pedregal Sto. Domingo, and the slightly more affluent Paseo de San Nicolas. Our area includes more affluent colonias such as Fuentes de Anáhuac (a gated community that we are not allowed to proselyte in) and Real Anáhuac (pronounced like Salt Lakes soccer team). 

Because of the density of the population, we never go door to door tracting. We beg for references from every person we meet and try to find people by simply talking to them on the street. When we find people, we give them either a pass-along card, a pamphlet, or a copy of El Libro de Mormón. 

With that in mind, I would make a suggestion: go to helives.mormon.org and watch the video there. We were recently given new pass-along cards directing people to this video. It is a wonderful video that really captures the essence of Christs love for each of us. It was made for the Easter season so that members of the church could share the most important part of our message with everyone. The church has provided all of its members with an abundance of resources to help spread the message of the restored gospel. I would challenge all members to use these resources, and all non members to watch this amazing video.

Sé que el señor Jesucristo vive ye que Él nos ama. Sé que podemos tener su ayuda atrávez la oración y lectura del Libro de Mormón y todos los santos escrituras.

Los amo tanto,

Elder Lambert

Elder Lambert has a camera - 16 March 2015

Dearest darlingest friends and family,

This week has been a good one, despite the weather. Wednesday's rain got us soaked to the point that we had to ring out our clothes and dry them by the heater. Beyond that, the weather was reasonably nice.

We found a new family to teach this week through playing soccer. 

For a little background: Here in the city of San Nicolás, the city is divided into small "colonias." Almost all of these colonias has a city funded Plaza that is essentially a childrens park. The things in these plazas vary from colonia to colonia, but universally they all have one thing: an asphalt or concrete floored open topped cage used for playing basketball and...you guessed it, Futból. 

Anyway, as some of you may have expected, the missionaries sometimes play football with the young people of the various colonias. It just so happened that we managed to get an appointment to teach the family of one of these young people this week. And because of this, many of the other young people want to have us over to their own homes. The work goes further in interesting ways.

It should be noted, that this Saturday, our zone leaders came over to our area to do companionship study with us. After this, we showed them around the local market that takes place every Saturday. Usually we go just to talk with a couple of people that we know who sell things there, but this time, we actually stopped and bought things. I specifically bought three things: Irish Spring soap (you don't know how much of a luxury that stuff is here in Mexico) a tie from the old Beatles song collection (Yellow Submarine) and, most importantly, a universal charger. This means that, after a good 3 months...I have a functioning camera!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you didn't know, my camera charger doesn't function here for some reason, but this one does, and it will work on almost any similar battery. These things are not available in the US.

The work goes on in this chosen country and I couldn't be happier than I am to be a part of it. Sé que soy en la obra del Señor. Sé que el Evangelio de Jesucristo puede cambiar el mundo y que puede bendicir cada familia en el mundo. 

Los Amo,

Elder Sean Lambert  (photo is Joseph a new convert)

Sean's week - 9 March 2015

Dearest friends and family,

So, dealing with changes first off: despite his six months in this particular area, he stayed for another month and a half. We have had trouble in the past with his burnout with the area and attitude that he already knows everyone here and that he has nothing more to do in Los Andes, but we are still doing good work. Also, we got a new Elder in the ward named Elder Chuquin who is from Ecuador. We have three consecutive baptisms already planned out, but each comes with its individual challenges. Beyond that, we are continuing to encounter people and maybe even people that we can teach.

Yesterday presented new challenges for the area in the form of contention. My companion and the senior companion of the other area in our ward got into a small spat about one thing or another and both ended up being offended by something the other said. Both of these young men have very dominating personalities, so Im not sure how it will turn out. I never really expected this kind of struggle on the mission. Contention is just not my thing, in case any of you didnt notice.

If there is one thing that I think that I have neglected to talk about in my emails home thus far, it would probably be the food. Those who know me well will recall that I quite enjoy a variety of foods and that I am one of those that "lives to eat." Well, here in Mexico, the food is quite wonderful. We eat pretty much every day with a member of the ward, and they almost always make us one of two things: some kind of typical mexican dish (tacos, sopes, carne con papas, mole, barbacoa, etc.) or....spaghetti! To say the least, I have been happy with my eating situation thus far. When we do not have someone to feed us, we make our way to a restaurant not far from the internet cafe I am writing you in, and order a dish that is very well known by every missionary in this city: The Campechana! This dish is a taco made with a flour tortilla filled with grilled beef, pork, and onions. While I dont fully comprehend the extreme hype about this dish among the missionaries around me, it is really, really good. Thought you should all know.

The work continues, and I still push on. Se que nuestro padre celestial nos ama mas que podemos entender. Se que podemos tener un gran relacion con El atravez de los principios del Evangelio de Jesucristo. Se que La Iglesia de Jesucristo de los Santos de los Ultimos Dias es la Iglesia verdadera de Dios y es La Iglesia que Jesucristo Estableció en la tierra.

Los Amo,

Elder Lambert

2 March 2015 - Change is in the wind

My dear friends and family,

This week has been interesting just like all of them. First thing is the fact that it has been cold and dreary every single day this week. I was not expecting this type of weather here in Mexico. Second thing is that today we find out who is changing areas. It is likely that my trainer will be changed out this week and I will get a new one because Elder Alexander has been in Los Andes A for six months already. I am exceedingly nervous regarding this, but also excited since it may help us to revive the work in the area.

My companion has been feeling burnt out over the past weeks. He feels that he knows everyone in the area and that the ward is not upholding it's responsibility to help the missionaries find people to teach. We have a few investigators that will likely be baptized soon, but after that, we are unable to find anyone who genuinely wants to listen. Things will always be challenging, but we will push on.

An interesting thing happened the other day: Israel, our English speaking investigator who has been involved in gang activity, had a dream recently. He has an understanding of Christianity and has his own form of faith, so he has a tendency of argue points of doctrine with us whenever we teach. For this reason, we have been treating him as more of a friend than an investigator. In his dream, Elder Alexander was teaching him and then began to tell him how it hurt us when he argued with us and didn't accept what we had to say. In the dream, my companion began to cry. This made Israel think about us and how, maybe, he should listen to us more intently. I felt inspired to tell him the story of Alma the Younger and the sons of Mosiah and how, when they went out on missions it said that "Now they were desirous that salvation should bedeclared to every creature, for they could not bear that anyhuman soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble."

In closing, I encourage ALL of you to do two things: 1. Read the Book of Mormon if you have not begun already and 2. find the missionaries and tell them of at least one person who may benefit from our message.

Se que Dios quiere que podemos tener exito en nuestras vidas y que podemos tener paz y felicidad atraves del evangelio de Jesucristo. Se que los desafios de la vida son importantes para nosotros y que tenemos los desafios para progresar y aprender.

With great love,

Elder Sean Joseph Lambert

Sean's trainer and companion, Elder Alexander is on Sean's left.