Merry Christmas!!!

Family and friends,

Wow, Christmas is already upon us! This is insane! 

My final favorite tradition/memory is short and sweet and it will lead me into what I want to talk about in this email. This memory has to do with practically the whole Christmas season and what ties Christmas together for me. For me, it's simply just the feeling of love from family and friends and even complete strangers! 

   Charity is that special word that always rings in my mind especially during this time of year. Christmas is all about charity! And of course, the center of it; the very core, heart, and sole of the season of giving, lies a humble child of our Heavenly Father, named Jesus Christ. With Christ being the center of Christmas, it makes complete sense why Christmas is called Christmas! I see the name being a mix of English and Spanish. The name 'Christ' taken in English, and 'mas' taken in Spanish. The word 'mas' translates to 'more' in English. So the name 'Christmas' practically means, 'More Christ'! And with charity being the pure love of Christ, Christmas also means more charity. And that is exactly what we see this time of year! The is definitely still good in the world, and a lot of it! After all, these are the creations of our God so why wouldn't there still be good? 

   We learn in Mormon's epistle to Moroni, in chapter 7 of Moroni in the Book of Mormon, verses 45 to 48, a lot about charity. Mormon teaches that charity is the pure love of Christ. He says that charity will never fail and that it is by far the greatest principle, attribute, and characteristic to have. And that is absolutely true! If all we have is charity, then that is enough. Charity will bring us in and through the edges of eternity. Of course no one is ever perfect, and we're not expected to be. But we are expected to become perfect, eventually, just as our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are. Without charity, we will not be able to do so. I believe it is impossible to attain any limit of charity or express in words any sufficient understanding about how important charity is. I think of this because of the greatest example of all, the greatest example of charity that is and ever will be. That is, the Atonement. The Atonement is the eternal example of an act of charity. The completeness, the kindness, love, humility, and sincerity of this act can't ever be compared with, nor can any other act be able to stand next to it. Through this atonement, we can receive the greatest gift possible, salvation. Jesus Christ, the perfect example and mediator, voluntarily goes to Gethsemane and takes upon Him every single affliction, sin, pain, and hurt of the world. Christ was perfect and lived the only sinless life. He didn't have to do this, He was perfect. He could have walked away to enter into the presence of the Father forever. But instead, He laid down His life willingly. In His own words, no greater love does man have than this. To lay down his life for his friends. 

It is my testimony that charity can carry us from the depths of depression or anger, and lift us to eternal happiness. Never forget this important doctrine, that charity is the greatest of all and it will never fail!  Here I will leave you with a quick testimony in Spanish, maybe haha. My grammar is still further than just off but you'll get the idea.  

Yo tengo un fuerte testimonio sobre la expiación de nuestro salvador. Y también yo tengo un testimonio lo que la expiacion puede hacer por nosotros. Yo he visto que eso puede hacer. También, sin la iglesia en mi vida, no puedo progreso y llegar a ser la persona que Padre Celestial me quiere ser. Yo he visto el evangelio tocar los corazones de nuestros investigadores en un camino que no puedo explicar. Aunque no tengo mucho experiencia con español, yo se el espíritu tiene experiencia con todas idiomas en el todo mundo. Y el espíritu tiene un diferente idioma también. Pero, esta idioma es la idioma del espiritu y solo el espíritu habla este idioma. Esta es porque el espiritu es el maestro real. Solamente nosotros hablamos las cosas que el espíritu y nuestro Padre Celestial nos quieren a decir. Porque la Trinidad están en armonia perfecto. Y necesitamos estar en armonia con ellos tambien. Yo quiero a decir mas pero este pagina no puede contener todas las cosas yo puedo decir. ¡El Libro de Mormon es real y contiene el evangelio completo! Por favor guardar estas cosas en sus corazones. Y finalmente, yo testifico que Jesucristo y Dios nos aman.  En el nombre sagrado del Salvador, Jesucristo, amén.

New Area!!!

Family and friends, 

It's been a crazy week and I love it!

First, favorite tradition/memory of the holidays!   Another favorite tradition of mine that we would do was on Christmas Eve. Before going to bed and after doing the Nativity, we would all gather around our family room to open up our first gifts! We would each be given one gift and it was always new pajamas for that Christmas! It would be so wonderful to all sit in our spots and wait for our dad to hand out the presents to each of us while many of us were getting very anxious to open the gift as we had to wait until everyone got theirs. But once everyone had theirs, the wrapping paper was all off in seconds. Then we run to go change into our new pajamas and try them on. I'm happy to say that mine fit perfectly every year! Others weren't always so lucky. So they needed to be exchanged for a smaller or bigger size. 

This week was fantastic!! We had changes this week and I am now with a new companion, Elder Mendez, in the area, Pantitlan! It was a pretty intense change because first, it came out of nowhere, I wasn't expecting it at all. Second, this new area is very far away from my older one, Tecamac. My area is the furthest south in the mission. Any farther and I would be in a different mission haha. And Tecamac is pretty far up north so it was over an hour and a half drive. But I'm now in Mexico City and closer to the temple! But here is how my Saturday night went, Elder Gonzales and I were waiting in our apartment for any changes (missionaries have to be home earlier when changes and calls are going on) and it was pretty expected that he was leaving to a new area since he had already been in Tecamac for a while, about 6 months. It seemed I was going to stay there for a while so we had planned around this. We talked about investigators and less active that my new companion and I needed to focus on and we had everything figured out. But time passed and eventually it got close to 10pm. If you don't have a call by then, that pretty much means you don't have changes. The whole time I was really nervous to find out if I was going to get a new companion but when it was getting late, we figured that we weren't getting anything new. Elder Gonzales was of course on edge as well and sending messages to our district leader to see what was going on. But nothing. I hadn't changed yet so I was still in my shirt and tie, I was just too nervous haha. But when it got closer to 10, we figured nothing was going to happen. So just as I began to go change, the phone rang in the other room! Elder Gonzales sat up in his bed quicker than ever and we both looked at each other. I motioned for him to answer it so we both go into the room and Elder Gonzales says the usual when answering. Our zone leaders ask how it's going and say they have the changes to deliver. So we break out our notepads to write the new info (new companion and new area if you have it). Both of us were thinking it was only for Elder Gonzales. He gets his change first and our zone leader says, Elder Gonzales, "The Lord has called you to be a district leader in a new area."  But I forget the name of his new area. But I'm of course congratulating him and we were about ready to say goodbye to our zone leaders, but then, he says, "Elder Markham, I have your changes now". Then I'm like, oh. He says, "Elder Markham, the Lord has called you to a new area. The new area you will be serving in is Pantitlan." He then gives all the info we need and we say goodbye. But yeah, I wasn't expecting that. But now I'm here and I love the area. It was hard to say goodbye to all the members in Tecamac but I do also love this new area. It's pretty small actually so I'm no longer on bikes! I'll send more about the new area next week! Take care everyone!

-Elder Markham

Love The Work!

Family and friends, 

To start off this email, here's the next of my favorite tradition/memory! 

Last week, I mentioned how the Christmas Eve nights go. Now I want to say how they start! As I'm sure many families do, my family has always acted out the Christmas Nativity. Which is one of my all-time favorite stories. That was always something special and a good reminder of what Christmas is really about. My parents have always done a great job of implementing this reminder into Christmas. After dinner, it was always a quick clean up and get ready for the Nativity! The excitement and rushing around to find clothes with everyone for the Nativity was always a thrill! The usual throw a towel on our heads and get a robe to wear has been the go-to. And when my Mom would narrate using the scriptures, that always gave a certain Christmas feel that nothing else could give. The Nativity will always be one of the greatest stories ever, and for good reason. I love it so much! 

  This week was fantastic!!! We had interviews and later that day, I went on divisions again with the other American Elder in my district of four (to my area, yes!). I have a small miracle that goes along with it. So after the interviews, the Elder and I stopped at a small shop for lunch before returning home after getting off a smaller bus, or as the natives call it, a 'combi.' We were sitting down for lunch and just before we were finished, I received a call from our zone leaders about how we needed to get some baptism records of new converts to our mission president back at the chapel we had just returned from. It was about 40 minutes away. So we had to rush back to the apartment, grab the papers, and rush back. The thing was, him and I have the same time out here in the field so neither of our Spanish is exactly up to par. All we had to do was hope we get to the right place. We knew what the area was called that we needed to get to so we were able to find a combi to take us to the right area. Except this particular combi we got was a Mexibus, so it goes to this station to drop people off. And that's where it took us, not where we needed to go. Earlier on the ride I had asked the driver how far Ojo de Agua (the area we needed to get to) was. He said like 20 more minutes. But he just took us to the station. When we got there, he told us there was another combi going where we needed to go so we got on that one. Still, the problem was, we knew what area to get to but didn't know how to get to the chapel once we got to the area. But oh well, we needed to get the papers there no matter what and we figured the Lord would help us get them there. And He did! Once we got on the bus and started talking to the driver, we found out he was actually a member! So he just took us right to the chapel. That was a nice blessing we received! The rest of the day was awesome! We picked up two future investigators who later became new investigators and got three extensions for attending sacrament meeting, and they did attend! It was just a good day overall. Lessons were great and full of the spirit. Everything all done in a little over four hours since we didn't get back until about 5pm from turning the papers in!

Tomorrow we have our Christmas zone conference and that will be a blast! During our interviews, we also found out that we are having changes early because of the big black out going on during the holidays where the church doesn't send out missionaries because of how expensive it is and how many people there are traveling. So President Parry is doing changes to get some missionaries home before Christmas, the ones that are close to leaving anyway. I guess we weren't supposed to know yet though because Sister Parry told a few of us missionaries while we were waiting for our interviews then when President Parry came out of one of his interviews, some of us started asking questions and he was like, "You guys weren't supposed to know that yet haha." But he didn't really mind so it was okay. Anyway, now we have two new baptism dates for this month and still holding on to the one we have for the first Saturday of next year!  

Quick update about the Valasces family I had received revelation about from almost two months ago!  The mother is now starting to go back to church, the daughter is the one who has a baptism date for January, and just last night the father just started taking lessons out of nowhere! It's truly amazing to see the gospel and atonement work in the lives of the people we love!

Sorry I can't send pictures until I get a new cord. My other one was stolen. And the other one in our apartment isn't all that great and can't connect. 

But I look forward to next week's emailing!! Talk to you all soon!

-Elder Markham

Pictures from his Mission

A small sandstorm off in the distance! A small tornado that we saw when going down the highway! It didn't do a lot of destruction so that's good. It was just funny to see some random  things flying around. It was moving pretty fast but we only watched for like 30 seconds haha.  Me wearing Banks colors cause I heard they made it to yet another championship!  Then me just out enjoying the mission. 

At the temple with Arnulfo and Elvia. Some of the newest members to the Church! 

Charity

Family and friends, 

What a wonderful week it's been! Sorry I didn't get an email out last week. Because of that, I will share TWO more favorite holiday traditions/memories! 

First- Like I'm sure many families do, we always do Secret Santas every year for Christmas! One of my most favorite things we would do is just a week or so before Christmas, our family would all pile into our massive van and go to the Washington square mall to pick out our gifts for who we had for Secret Santas. Listening to Christmas music on the way over at 6:00 pm ( already dark outside with it being winter ) and enjoying the feeling of Christmas was always really special. My mom always needed to know who had who so she could pair the right people up to go shopping. Then it was always really awkward running into a pair or two when we were in the same stores...  The Washington square mall is quite large so it usually takes a while to get everyone back together. We always made a plan, looking at the map, to meet somewhere at a certain time but that never works out perfectly haha. Then after a while of shopping, we all go to the upper floor at the food court to get food and pick out from a variety of restaurants. Then afterwards we just hang out and check out more of the different stores and Christmas decorations. 

Second- Christmas Eve had always been something to really look forward to! One tradition we did had to do with all my brothers and sisters. When we lived in Banks, we had a bonus room that my brothers and sisters and I would always stay in on Christmas Eve. That was always so fun because some of us literally didn't sleep and just stayed up talking or watching movies and enjoying the wonderful smell of the Christmas breakfast that my parents were preparing for the following morning. It was the time spent with my siblings that meant the most, and at the time, being one of the youngest, it was always comforting and enjoyable to have all my older brothers and sisters there. ( Really quick note-- Having many brothers and sisters, especially older ones, has been something I really enjoy and appreciate because I realize that there are many who don't have this blessing). And being a kid, it was so exciting for me to see the floor and beds covered with our pillows and blankets, knowing that this was going to be the best Christmas ever, each year. Of course we set alarms in case we all fell asleep, some of us did on occasion but that's okay. But at around 5 to 6 am, we would all rush into our parents' room to wake them up and get ready to go open the presents! 

The end of the year is the best time of year!

So this week was so great! The next baptism we have coming up is for Maria! It will be a week from this Saturday. I'm sorry I couldn't send pictures of Elvia's baptism from last week! It's such a wonderful blessing to see these investigators get so excited for their baptism. Especially this time of year when it's full of love and charity! This last Sunday being fast Sunday was great! We, again, had pancakes for the sacrament. I really hope this is some sort of tradition or something haha. But the week before, I gave a talk in sacrament meeting so that was fun! It went great! My trainer said that my grammar was about 90 percent correct so I guess I'm improving haha. The language is still of course difficult, but I get better with it each week through the blessings. I'm not by any means advanced with the language, but I'm not falling behind either. So I'm quite comfortable where I'm at. Lessons are great and full of the spirit! It's really interesting to see and feel how comfortable we get with teaching the people when we come to a better understanding about how the spirit works through the missionaries. Being missionaries, we are entitled to the special guidance of what to say and when to say it. The Holy Ghost is the real teacher! And the language of the Spirit is far stronger than Spanish or English so as long as us missionaries strive to have the spirit with us as we work and teach, everything will work out according to God's plan. It's simply about forgetting and letting go of 'how many numbers we want' and focus more on the salvation of others. Heavenly Father has a plan for each person, including us, and He put us in this mission and knows who many people we will baptize and confirm. So we are better able to accomplish this plan when we focus on the guidance of the Holy Ghost and acquire a greater desire for the salvation of the people in our mission. This is charity! The pure love of Christ! I enjoy this characteristic very much and I greatly respect and admire those who have this characteristic. My challenge to all of you this Christmas season is to find ways to express your charity for others! It will bring a peace to your heart that will make you want to continue sharing your charity with others! 

I will try to share some pics but it seems like some of them are hard to get through so I will send as many as I can!  

-Elder Markham

Pics- Us at the temple for the Christmas lights! Also us with the stake patriarch, who is in our ward, at his home! He loves Christmas just as much as me! But he is also such a sweet man, and him and his wife now always have Christmas programs and music going on when they invite us over for meals and Sunday nights!

Blake's tan line from his CTR (Choose the Right) Ring

Crashing Bikes for Service November 12, 2019

Family and friends!

I hope you're all doing well! Things just keep getting more exciting! 

To start off, we got another baptism scheduled for Maria, next month! She is very excited and can't wait! And neither can we! We had changes this last weekend but of course, my trainer and I are staying in our area. So I'll be hanging out here for another 6 weeks! Then possibly more after that haha. It depends but it sounds like for sure that my companion will be out of here before Christmas. He has already been here for close to 5 or so months! He thinks that I'm actually gonna be doing training myself for a new missionary after this next cycle, yikes! But I do love the area! I'm not actually in Mexico City though so hopefully I can get into the city sometime in the next two years haha. Elder Gonzales is great though! Although, I'm not quite sure if he gets the concept of 'redneck.' He calls me that at least three times a week and I try explaining to him what that means. He says he knows but then calls me that again later haha. He is a funny guy but I don't think that I'll ever have a companion as hilarious as Elder Xanthos haha. But Elder Gonzales is really trying hard to learn English! Speaking of language, my Spanish has definitely improved tons while being out here and receiving help from the Lord! I can talk to my companion just fine with minor problems when there are words or phrases I don't know yet very well. But for the most part, I have it down pretty well! The people I talk to are surprised when I tell them I only have less than two months out in the field so I guess that's good. My main problem is of course grammar. At least they can understand what I'm trying to say haha. Spelling is also a problem... I don't exactly write a ton of Spanish. Anyway, the language is great, the mission is great! I love the people and culture very much! The children here are especially funny! There is this one little boy, John, who is the son of this family we eat with on occasion close to the house of the other Elders in our district. His mom says that he can speak English pretty well since his dad is from the United States, but I haven't heard any English word from him yet. Or a Spanish word for that matter. We eat outside next to their porch and John just likes to stand next to us and pretend to shoot us for whatever reason. He makes random noises too. Then occasionally he will scream at an empty bowl of soup then cough on my taco and run away, not always in that order though. Then there is a little girl who is of this family we eat with a lot but closer to our house. She always is eating a sucker when we go visit them. But she pretty much just takes whatever she wants. Like one time, I was sitting there at the table eating some noodles, then she comes up and grabs my avocado and walked away with it. I didn't really mind, it was just funny. And Diego who is a little bit older, 11 or 12 maybe, is trying to learn English from me. So I give him a few words to memorize whenever we eat with their family. And then this one little boy who is always riding his bike around likes to stop us and ask where we're going and what we're doing and everything. All these kids are members (of our church) too. Other children aren't always very nice haha. But it's all been great, we've had lots of service opportunities and we got to bless a house(use the priesthood to give a blessing, or dedication, on a house, as requested by the owner). We helped one guy get a bed installed in his home, he wasn't a member (of our church). The house wasn't really all that great, there were clothes and garbage everywhere. It took us a while to actually find the bed frame under everything. But he is a really nice guy and his mother is sick and lives in her bed. So he doesn't have a whole lot so it was nice to do what we could for him. Sundays have been fun and interesting! One time they didn't have any deacons to pass the sacrament so us elders had to go help pass... we were actually called up during the sacrament hymn so I was caught a bit off guard. Then this last Sunday, they had pancakes for the sacrament so that was interesting! We have stake choir every Sunday night and that's always fun! We have stake conference coming up this weekend and President Parry and an Area Seventy (General Authority of our church) are attending that. So pressure is on for the choir!   (A Stake is a large area of people made up of several Wards...smaller congregations of the church split up by geographical regions)

     Now time for some stories haha! 

If you're wondering about the subject of this letter, here is why! This happened last night actually. But yesterday morning, I had intensely prayed for a service opportunity for that day. So I was really looking for ways to help anyone throughout the day and not much happened until later that night. But first, on our way to an appointment, we got stopped by the federal police. That was the second time it's happened to me so far. They like to ask where we're going and what we're doing, kind of like the little boy I mentioned earlier. It's hard to hear them though because this is literally right next to the highway. So they ask questions like who we are and where we're from. I'm not exactly sure why they do this, but one of them takes pictures while another is talking to us. Elder Gonzales said it's to send to their office to "show that they are working." Anyway, they took up about 10 minutes of our time so we were almost late to our lesson. That was the lesson that Maria accepted her baptism date for next month! So afterwards, when it was now dark, we're going back to our town where we live to teach our last lesson for the night. We didn't get very far down the highway when all of the sudden I get this feeling to look up (when it's dark we usually look at the ground because we can't see looking up with the cars shining their lights in our eyes). My companion who is a little way ahead of me is heading right for another biker, head on. It all happened at once from when I looked up and then they ran into each other. I instantly had a little panic attack hoping none of them would tumble into the road in front of any cars but thankfully they both fell the other way. My comp caught himself but the other guy fell down completely. Thankfully no one was hurt! It was obvious that Heavenly Father was watching over them. So we stopped and help the guy up and we're apologizing tons and tons. Elder Gonzales is still kind of in shock and so is the other guy. But I'm talking to him, knowing that this was the service opportunity the Lord blessed us with, and I'm trying to offer him anything I could for the trouble. I offered some money to pay for any bike repairs which he didn't take. I offered my tie which he didn't take. But he did accept the Book of Mormon I offered him! He was a very sweet and humble guy. Of course we introduced ourselves and told him who we were. He lives out of our proselytizing area but he did say he might attend church this week so we will see what happens! It is stake conference so maybe it will be extra special for him. Either way, I'm glad I was able to help him and perhaps the biggest act of service that we could offer him at that moment was simply our kindness. Maybe that's all he needed and the Lord knew it. Again, no one was hurt. The real damage was My companion's bike! His front tire was destroyed. So we had to walk our bikes all the way back, it took about two hours. On the way back, we ran into the same officers in the same place! They pretty much just sat there for a couple hours. They asked what happened then they let us continue on our way. But we left our bikes at our apartment and went to our last appointment, which they weren't there. So yesterday was pretty wild. And now we're going around without bikes at the moment haha.     

¡Este mision es muy especial e yo se que estoy aqui a enseñar sobre el evangelio de Jesucristo! Hermanos y hermanas, podemos recibir muchas bendiciones a traves la expiacion y si podemos seguir el ejemplo de nuestro Salvador. ¡Los amo ustedes!

-Elder Markham

Here is Elder Gonzales and I at the temple! As well as an old friend and I! Also our baptism for Arnulfo! 

Here is some food we get to have! The larger plate is of one of my favorite foods here, Huaraches! The other, not quite sure what it's called. We had it at our ward mission leaders house and it had these weird stringy things that had an odd texture. I asked Elder Lopez what they were and he just said, "It's best you don't know."   Then another pic of one of my favorite streets at night. Also a pic of what I'm pretty sure are UFOs. They're definitely not hot air balloons.

Pics of some of the rainy days we have! And a crazy freaky spider I found just outside our apartment!

Parts of our area! 

Pics of some gifts that were given to me by members! The little pumpkin witch one was given to me by a nice member who had me sign her Book of Mormon. 

Sunrises from our apartment

And finally, our lizard friend who visits us every morning around 10am. I haven't named him yet so let me know if any of you have ideas haha.  Also some abandon buildings across the train tracks from us that I thought were cool! 

The Never-Ending Atonement (Nov. 5th, 2019)

Family and friends!

I'm doing well and feeling great! I love the mission so much! 

A quick thing I just wanna mention about the emailing, I'm going to have to cut my personal emails with some of you a bit shorter! I'm really sorry but I take up too much time when I write so much. I just love talking with all of you! But most of my updates will have to come from my group emails. But don't worry, you can still write as much as you want, I just won't be able to write as much. 

This week was another great week! And the week before we had the baptism for Arnulfo, FINALLY! He was one of the two I had asked to be baptized during my first week but they kept missing church so they had to wait. But I got to baptize Arnulfo and I was supposed to baptize Elvia, the other who accepted. But she wants to wait a little longer so we might just have Arnulfo do it! But we also have a new baptism date coming up for Carolina who accepted this week!

I've learned a lot while being out here. So here are some things I've had the pleasure of learning about. First, I was able to read the president Thomas S. Monson memoriam (here) on the way back from the Temple one day. I really enjoyed it and it gave me a better understanding of his love he had for all of us and the people he served. It reminded me of a very dear person to me who I respect and admire very much, my mom's dad. My grandpa is a very caring and loving person. He is also a great leader and has had the opportunities to serve in many callings including Stake President (presiding/serving over a large area of church members) and Temple President. He now also serves as a Patriarch (Ordained Melchizedek Priesthood holder who gives special blessings to worthy members of the Church) and I had the blessing and privilege of receiving my Patriarchal blessing from him! As I was reading the Thomas S. Monson memoriam, a certain story came to my mind where my grandpa had exhibited his love and care for others. (My mom can correct this or better tell it if it's not as accurate haha). So, one Christmas season, my grandpa was driving somewhere, probably back home from work. On the way, he noticed a small family on the side of the road selling bundles of wood to make money for Christmas. Well, the weather wasn't all that great and it was raining a lot. And the wood was not that great of quality (green) and it was very damp. Because of that, the family was not able to sell any of it. With compassion and care in his heart, my grandpa pulled over and bought the family's entire pile of wood. They were of course very thankful and it warmed the parents' hearts during this cold and muggy season.  (Mom's addition: when the family arrived to deliver the wood, they were invited inside to enjoy homemade hot cocoa from my Grandma). What I learned from this story and from reading the loving acts of President Monson, is simply how to love better and be able to show it as well. Thomas S. Monson has said, "What is most important almost always involves the people around us. Often we assume that they must know how much we love them. But we should never assume; we should just let them know." This is what brings my mission more meaning and more purpose. Everything out here has to do with those around me. It's the difficult things in life that make it worth it for me. Joy comes with in, and happiness is a consequence from it. Charity has always been and always will be the pure love of Christ. For Him, it was always about never shrinking from the opportunity to help someone. This is why Jesus Christ is our perfect example. When we turn outward, we open up ourselves to receiving more blessings, even though the blessings we receive aren't the reason we turn outward. Elder David A. Bednar describes it well when he spoke about the love and service of Christ in an MTC devotional at the Provo MTC. He talked about Christ's final acts in mortality. The way He turned outward. He also mentioned one of His first acts when Jesus had sent angels to minister to John the Baptist when he was in prison. This was AFTER Jesus had suffered from fasting forty days and forty nights and then being directly tempted by Satan. Instead of keeping the angels to minister to Him, Christ sent them to minister to John. Another example of Christ's love is when he was on the cross. When He said to the Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. While He was nailed to the cross in agony, in pain, in sorrow, He thought of the people who had done this to Him in a very tender way. He thought of those Jews that yelled for Him to be crucified, He thought of those Pharisees who mocked Him and spat upon Him and smote Him, He thought of the guards who whipped Him, who nailed Him to the cross, who cast lots for His garments in mockery of fulfilling the prophecy, He thought just how excruciating this will be for them when the day comes that they stand before Him and realize the pain they caused Him and how they will realize, they crucified our beloved Savior. And finally, He thought of His very dear sweet mother, Mary. He asked John to take care of her. I believe that as Jesus was carrying His cross to the hill in Calvary, He was not thinking, "Wow this is miserable." I would think that He thought of all of us, all of us who He suffered for. I think that if anything, He felt relief. Relief to finally have completed the Atonement. That we can finally access this every time we repent. So, it's very important to know that when you feel alone, when you feel forgotten, lost, weak, frustrated, helpless, insignificant, sad, upset, depressed, or pointless, remember that there is one who felt the pains, sicknesses, and afflictions of every person who has lived, is living, and will yet live upon the face of the whole earth. Even all of them combined. This was not just some agony that Jesus felt where it was a single pain that is greater than them all. This was agony filled with different pains and afflictions, agony that allowed Him to understand each and every one of us. Beyond than how we even understand ourselves. The Atonement is something we cannot comprehend because of how great the pain was. But we can at least understand that when we feel the pain of emotion or physical affliction, we can know that our Savior is watching us, trying to comfort us and just thinking how miserable this is for us. He would be thinking this because He knows and is also thinking, "I'm very sorry. I felt that and I understand. I know exactly what it is you are going through and I'm sorry." I believe it still brings Him to tears, every time. Even though death isn't the same to God and Christ as it is for us, He still mourns with us and Christ still feels sorrow for our losses. For those of us that have the blessing of knowing what is after death, it is still difficult to let go of our loved ones that leave mortality, sometimes what seems like too soon. It's not about the idea that we won't ever see them again, we have that blessing to know that we will see them again. It's the idea that we miss them. That we know we will continue to miss them for the rest of our mortal lives until we get to see them again in the next life. So, brothers and sisters, never forget why we are here and where we are going. We are here to serve and grow. We don't get a second chance at mortality, so make careful choices. This mission has taught me love beyond compare to what I had before I left. I love and miss my family so very much and I deeply appreciate every little bit of contribution from all of you, my friends and family. I miss you all and I wish each and every single one of you well! Keep living your best lives and I hope to meet all of you at some point in two years time! 

Love you all!

Love Elder Markham

A Very Special Email Oct. 22, 2019

Family and friends,

I first want to apologize for not sending anything for a while! It's been super busy and I now finally have more time to actually send a full email haha. So this is going to be pretty long, but definitely worth the read! I have some good spiritual stories to share along with lessons learned. 

Quick side note ***I'm not going to really do much self editing on my emails since that takes up too much time haha. So sorry if something is spelled wrong or is messed up or just doesn't make sense!

   Alright! There is a lot to catch up on! So first, I would like to give more detail about my mission and area. My area is one of the largest in the mission (second or third I think) and so we have to travel on bikes when we don't use any other public transportation. So far I've used about pretty much any kind of transportation by vehicle. It takes anywhere between 15 minutes to an hour to get to some other villages or towns on bikes in our area to either contact or teach lessons. We don't have enough money to always use buses so we have bikes haha. By the way, most of the buses here are just vans with all the seats turned inwards. There are also speed bumps EVERYWHERE. That gets pretty annoying. Our church building is about 30 to 35 minutes of travel time including walking if we take a *van* and over an hour on bikes. But we rarely travel on bikes to the church. My area is in kind of the north west part of the mission and so it takes anywhere from two to three hours with public transportation to get to the temple which is south in our mission. My area is called Tecamac. There are all kinds of living in my area. Sometimes we spend time in the larger parts of towns with better houses, teaching and contacting on the streets. But for the most part, there is a lot of country to cover out in the middle of no where. Those places aren't as good. The houses are basically just concrete forts with dirt floors and blankets to cover the doorways. But these people are so kind and thoughtful! The food is great and literally everything has some sort of spice level to it haha. So far the weirdest things I've eaten are grasshoppers and locusts (which I really like a lot!) and maggots... yep, maggots! They actually aren't that bad but I still have mixed feelings about them just because of what they are. They actually harvest them here! They have what are actually maggot farms! And the grasshoppers and locusts are everywhere so they aren't hard to find. We practically live with them since they're always in our house haha. There are also a lot of rainstorms sometimes. Like HEAVY rain storms with thunder and lightning. Which leads me into a spiritual story that hasn't ended yet!   

    About three weeks ago, after traveling about 40 minutes to an area to contact, my trainer (Elder Gonzales) and I were getting ready to find people to teach. He then wanted me to say a quick prayer for inspiration on where to go and who to find. So I did and almost immediately, I received the impression to find a blue door with bars on the side. So I told my companion and we began to search. Not even 10 min later, we found it! I knocked and the father of this family of 3 answered. He and his wife have just one daughter. But we found out that his wife is a member but he isn't. He then proceeded to tell us how he is not at all interested in the church. Although, he is a very nice man. I felt prompted to share my testimony with him and give him a Book of Mormon. So just before leaving, I did. And he accepted the Book of Mormon! Shortly after departing, I then received the impression to return in two weeks. So my companion and I set a time to do so, but they didn't know that. That day of going back was probably one of the roughest days though! It began with going to the temple to get a tour of the visitors center in the morning (in which I got to reunite with my buddies from the CCM which was awesome!) and then after the journey back from the temple, we had to quickly go teach a lesson first. The rough part was, there was a rain/thunderstorm going on. Nevertheless, we pushed through and continued. As we were leaving the area we live in, the nastiest experience of my life occurred! A quick explanation of what happens sometimes when it rains a lot, the sewage in the middle of the streets burst out of the ground through the caps! I didn't know this before. So we were biking really slowly through the streets so we didn't kick any gross water up even though we were already soaked. And the water reached about half way up the wheels of our bikes in some parts. As we were biking through, I noticed a lot of small pieces of trash floating through the small river that we were biking through. Things like toilet paper and wrappers. I thought it was very unusual but I didn't think much of it. I mean, it's Mexico, a lot of weird things happen. Then all of the sudden, this awful smell nearly explodes my nose! I then hear my companion call out, in his best English possible, "This is poop!" I look up and see one of the caps bursting with sewage! It looked exactly like a fountain of some sort. Going about 2 to 3 feet high. I think the amount of rain changes pressure somehow so the sewage just empties into the streets. The only option was to bike through it since we couldn't go around. It was tricky because we couldn't see the bottom so there was no way to tell if we would hit a pothole or something and accidentally kick sewage up. But that idea was basically shattered when all of the sudden, a car comes zooming right past us and splashes sewage all over us!!! So we go the rest of the day with human waste, and whatever else people flush down the toilets here, all over us. There was no time to go all the way back and change. Either way, we continued with faith and hope for the rest of the day. We had a good lesson regardless of how I looked and smelled. Then finally, the time came to return to the family I had received revelation for. So it's another half hour biking in the rain but I was able to leave my bike outside to get washed in the rain during our previous lesson. So it no longer had mud and poop on it. But we get to that area and we spend about a half hour looking for the house and trying to remember the street. It was getting dark and we soon had to get to a dinner appointment with a member. But I was prepared to stay and look long past dinner. Luckily we found it early enough and we said a quick prayer before knocking. Then we knocked. And the wife answered this time. We asked her about her family and got to know them a bit more. Though, we found out that she is a less active member. But she was interested in our message for her and her family. We also found out that her husband works from early in the morning to late at night! And he is only at home during lunch in the day for about an hour. So the Lord had timed our arrival the first time perfectly! After sharing some things with her, she accepted a return appointment! Which was yesterday! And that lesson was very special. The father was at work of course so we sat outside with the mother and daughter teaching them. We also found out that the daughter is 8 years old! We will be working with them to get the father and daughter baptized! But the mother does struggle with her faith and trust in the Lord. She has been sick for quick some time and she has felt abandoned. But Elder Gonzales and I are doing the best we can to show her that Heavenly Father has sent help for her! The mother has not been to church in a long time. She doesn't know much about the gospel. But she accepted another appointment for later! I cannot wait to see the blessings unfold in their lives. So after the lesson, Elder Gonzales and I gave her a blessing of health. We are now trying to figure out how to get the father involved with the lessons. Regardless of what happens, the Lord has remembered them and has not forgotten them. They are deeply loved and it's time for them to come unto Christ. I just wish I knew more Spanish to express my love for them better and explain more things! I can't wait to share with all of you the following experiences of what happens in the future! I will try to share more next week!!! I miss you all and I appreciate all of your prayers and support! 

   And now a special shout out to my best friend who is now on his mission! He is preparing in the Provo MTC right now and getting ready to speak the Korean language to serve in Seoul South Korea! He's always been a great friend and a great brother to me! He has always been a good example and I appreciate his support through these years! Love ya Elder Beatty!!!  

 

I will try to get pictures sent if I can!

-Elder Markham 

Best Two Years of My Life! Oct. 8, 2019

Family and Friends, 

This last week was great! Full of spiritual experiences. General conference was especially spiritual! I can't wait for next conference. These next six months will be crazy full of the Book of Mormon. 

Before I go on to sharing a story, I'll give a quick update. This last week was very moving. I love the people of Mexico very much! They are some of the nicest people in the whole earth. That also means that they aren't very stubborn so they accept the gospel pretty well compared to other places. Like just this last week, we got 4 new baptism dates scheduled! I was really nervous for the first one because my trainer had me offer the invitation to be baptized. So after I talked about one of the points to a lesson, enduring to the end, I asked if they would be baptized. After that, it seemed like they were more nervous than I was haha. But they accepted! I'm really happy for them and I hope they have a wonderful experience. It ended up not being too bad because my trainer and his companion before me had already been teaching them for a while. 

I'm out of time now so I will need to share the story next week!

-Elder Markham

Into the Field! October 1, 2019

Family and friends!

Today is my second day in the field! It's been great so far! The first day I got to have some really good food. I'm not sure what it's called but it's really good. It's actually my companion's favorite. I also got a new companion! His name is Elder Gonzales and he is from Santa Cruz. He doesn't really speak English but that's alright. I prefer it that way cause it helps me learn Spanish faster! I will be with him in my area for about 12 weeks. My first area is called Tecamac. It's one of the largest in my mission so we have to ride to bikes. I would rather walk but this is fine haha. Mexico City is crazy busy!  Yesterday we were teaching after 2:30. It's really hard to get people to teach but if they don't want to listen then it's at least preparing them for the next missionaries they meet! I love the mission so much and I'm having the best time of my life! I'll send more next week! 

-Elder Markham

Here are a couple pics! Me outside our apartment and a pic of where we live. I'll try to send more next week! 

He Made it! October 1, 2019

Dear family of Elder Markham,

I send you Greetings from Mexico City! I would like you to know that Elder Markham arrived safely in the field this morning. The group left the MTC early this morning and arrived at the mission home at 8:00 am. They had a good breakfast where they got to know President and Sister Parry a little better.

After breakfast, the President had a personal interview with each missionary in the group, where he was assigned his new area and his trainer. Elder Markham will be serving in the Tecámac 2 Ward in the Tecámac Stake.

His new companion will be Elder Gonzales from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, one of the finest missionaries in the field.

His preparation day will be on Tuesdays, starting tomorrow, at which time he will be contacting you.

I am attaching some photos to this email that include a photo of the whole group that arrived this morning and a photo of Elder Markham, President and Sister Parry.

Please know that all is well and Elder Markham is very happy to begin his mission.

Sincerely,

Secretary of the Mission

 Hna. Augustus

Blake and his Mission Pres. Parry and Sister Parry