Week 35

At the Market Place in Saltillo 

 Music anyone?

 Historic Downtown Saltillo

 Cathedral in Downtown

 Elders Smith and Shipley

 The streets of Saltillo

 Packing day!

Ward Activity

Dear Family and Friends,

This was another great week in the Corona Ward here in Saltillo. We are heading into the last week of this transfer! It's hard to believe how fast this transfer has gone! We are hoping to finish this transfer strong with a great week! 

This was a crazy busy week! I am honestly happy that it is over! A week ago, when I was writing my update I was pretty stressed out! I knew I was going to have to prepare a 1 hour training for my district on Tuesday, a Ward Activity in the church, a talk for Sunday along with all of my other regular activities! I felt like I spent the whole week preparing for the next big event! However, I am very pleased and satisfied with the week we had! I received a few compliments from the members of my district on my message, the ward loved the activity we had on Friday, and my talk went well! 

However, the highlight from this week was when I went on splits with my district leader and spent the day in the Brisas area of Saltillo. I was able to offer my first service hours of my entire mission! It's kinda strange because usually I hear about missionaries doing a ton of service, so finally for the first time in 8 months, I was able to perform service! We ended up helping a member of the Quorum of the 70 here in Mexico pack boxes to help them move! My companion for the day was Elder Florez from Columbia.   We had two Sisters help us, one from Guatemala, and the other from Peru! How cool is it that!  An American, Columbian, Peruvian, and Guatemalan helped a Mexican family pack up their house and move!  I just felt super happy to be able to be a missionary and serve other people! I can truly testify to the importance of service! 

The other is our ward activity that the missionaries put on! It was great and we had over 50 people there! It was a great activity and each missionary had his own station where the members played games and then we shared a gospel principle with them! It was great! I want to share with you what I shared with my ward on Friday night in the activity. At my station, the members were able to do a team building activity and then I shared with them a message about Family Unity. 

I asked them what they learned from the activity, and how important it was that all members of the team worked together in order to achieve their goal. Afterwards, I shared the scripture Mosiah 18, verse 21.  It says: 

 And he commanded them that there should be no contention one with another but that they should look forward with one eye, having one faith, and one baptism, having their hearts knit together in unity and in love towards another. 

I really like the phrase, "Hearts knit together in unity".  We all have problems within our families at times. Sometimes siblings fight or we don't do our chores or we don't help mom with the dishes. Whatever it may be, there are always going to be problems and issues that create contention and strife within a family. However, I know that the small and simple things like Family Home Evening, family prayer, and scripture study as a family, make a huge difference in creating more love and family unity. 

I want to extend an invitation to each one of you that you can take a moment tonight and offer a prayer to God and ask him to reveal to you one thing that you can do to improve the level of unity in your own family. Perhaps, you will feel the desire to help do chores without asking or wake up early to make your Mom or Dad breakfast. Whatever your answer may be, I encourage you to act upon the answer to help your family grow closer and more full of love this week. 

I know that the church is true and that the work I am doing right now is the most important thing I could be doing during this time of my life. I know that the Savior lives and that He loves me! And each one of you! Thank you for the continued support! 

Much love from Saltillo, 

Elder Shipley