¡Yo Se Que a Traves Jesucristo y Su Expiacion Nosotros Podemos Regresar Con Su y Nuestro Padre Celestial! September 27, 2019

Family and Friends,

Wow! Already over a month! This is crazy! I leave on Monday for the field and I cannot be more excited! 

Monday will be pretty busy. We leave the CCM at around 6:20 in the morning and then we go to the mission home which is about an hour and a half away. We will eat, talk, and be interviewed with some instruction while we are there. We also get our new companions! That will be bitter sweet since I will be leaving Elder Xanthos. He has been so awesome! But we at least get to be in the same mission haha. We will be at the mission home a lot of the time. Then when we leave and get settled in at our apartments in our areas, we begin proselyting around 2:30!!! I can't wait! 

Today we got to go to the temple again! It was just as great as the first time! The spirit is so strong there. My first week in the mission will be pretty much the best way to begin. Because my first day I will be out looking for people to teach and or going with my trainer to appointments he already has. Then the following day is Tuesday which will be my new pday!!! I'll get that time to take everything in. Then I have the rest of the week to get a lot done and then that weekend is of course GENERAL CONFERENCE!!! It's gonna be awesome! Spanish is pretty good so far. I'm not having too hard of a time but my grammar can definitely improve haha. The language is just strange at times. There are ways of talking that don't exist in the English language so there is a lot that is very new haha. Well there isn't really a lot to share so I will give you all my testimony with these first 6 weeks that I've been in the mission. But first I just want to share a parable with you guys that my branch president shared with a lot of the missionaries this last week... 

The Preacher and the Sparrows¨

The Preacher entered the church building one morning with a rusty, old, bent birdcage. He set the birdcage on the pulpit, causing a few raised eyebrows. Then he began to speak; “Yesterday morning I came across a young boy who had three scared birds in a cage shivering from the cold. I asked him, ‘What you got there?’ ‘Just some dumb old birds!’ ‘What you going to do with them?’ ‘Tease ‘em, play with ‘em, and pull out their feathers!’ ‘Then what you going to do with them?’ ‘Feed ‘em to my cat; he likes birds!’ The preacher went silent for a moment, then asked, ‘How much you want for them?’ ‘Oh, you don’t want these, they’re ugly and they can’t even sing.’ ‘How much?’ came the preacher’s definite reply. The boy thought for a moment and then said, ‘Fifty bucks.’ The preacher reached into his pocket and pulled out fifty dollars. The boy took the money and vanished. The preacher picked up the cage, walked to the end of the alley where there was a tree and a small grassy spot. He opened the door and by gently tapping the bars to the cage, coaxed the birds out into the grass. They were free. That explained the birdcage on the pulpit.

Then he proceeded to tell this parable.…“One day Satan and Jesus were walking, and Satan had just come out of the Garden of Eden, he was gloating and boasting. ‘Yes sir, I caught me a whole world of people. Set a trap they just couldn’t resist. Yep, got ‘em all.’ ‘What are you going to do with them?’ came the reply. ‘Gonna have some fun with them; teach them how to hate, hurt, and kill each other.’ ‘Then what are you going to do?’ ‘Oh, then I’ll destroy them and bring them down into my kingdom.’ Jesus paused, “How much do you want for them?” “Oh, you don’t want them. They’ll just hate you, spit on you, mock you, and kill you. They don’t want you.” Jesus paused and looked straight into Satan’s soul, ‘How much?’ Satan looked at Christ and sneered, ‘All your tears... all your blood... all your footsteps... all your strengths...all your life... Jesus said, "I'll pay the price" and he went out to the grove of trees called Gethsemane, bled from every pore for each of us, was crucified on a rugged hill called Calvary, and lives again, opening the cage and letting us go free.

Family and friends, brothers and sisters, 

Being out here has given me such a greater understanding and knowledge of the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is no greater feeling in the world to me than knowing that I am out here doing our Heavenly Father's work. This church and everything that goes along with it are true. The Book of Mormon is the most correct book out of any book on the entire planet, as stated by our first latter-day prophet, Joseph Smith. I know that we have been placed here for a divine purpose, each of us have a distinct calling designated for our personal growth as well as the growth of those around us. We were pre ordained in the spirit life we had before mortality and now we are here to fulfill our respected callings as disciples of our Savior and Redeemer. Once the veil is lifted from our eyes, we will remember everything and why we are here. There is a lot to the plan that we may not understand, but through diligence and faith, we can become what our Heavenly Father wants us to become. Faith doesn't have to be perfect. In fact, that's what faith is, not perfect. Our prophets say, even according to the Book of Mormon that faith is not having a perfect knowledge of things. We need to submit our will to the Father's and become an instrument in the hands of the Lord. Through faith we can do many things and through the power of the Holy Ghost we can know the truth of all things. And through the power of the Lord, we can do all things. Faith is one of the most important aspects of effort that we can have especially at this time in our mortality. I know that faith is key to unlocking our full potential. Moroni wrote in Ether as he abridged those records that because of the Brother of Jared's faith, he had such a great knowledge that many of the things beyond the veil could not be kept from him. I know that as we strive to follow that example of faith, we will be blessed accordingly. I know that we have a duty to be an example. In the words of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, as he taught his disciples in the New Testament and then taught in 3 Nephi, be thou an example of the believers. Let your light so shine. Don't hide it, don't keep it under a bushel. Don't be afraid. I have a testimony about these things and I know what can and will come of it. We also have such a great gift, which is the Atonement. Through the Atonement there is no way possible that we are out of reach of our Savior. He wants us to repent because He loves us. Brad Wilcox puts it when he spoke about grace, in the time of judgment, he thinks that when we are being sorted in our kingdoms, Christ will be the one begging us to stay with Him, not us begging. It won't be us asking to stay in the presence of the Lord, it will be Him asking us to stay because if we don't hold fast to the iron rod, we will not want to stay and we will not feel worthy. Our brother, Jesus Christ, will be asking us to please stay.  I agree with brother Wilcox. And I truly believe that Jesus Christ is right now asking us to please use His Atonement. We have this available, and we are in debt, so far, that it's impossible for us to pay it back. And all our Savior asks of us is that we repent and come unto Him. I can't help but feel whenever I make a mistake, that Jesus had to suffer for that sin. That I only add onto the pain that Christ felt when He had to suffer. I've tried to repent more often then just at the end of the week before Sunday, not only because I need it but in hopes that I can show my loyalty and love for our Savior. I love this work, I love the gospel, and I love my family very much. It is my testimony that if we put what the Lord asks of us first, we will receive more blessings than we can hold. Start counting your blessings and pretty soon you won't be able to count them anymore. I know that every blessing in the life to come far outweighs anything you can achieve that is of the world. Even everything combined. We are told that even the lowest of the kingdoms are a greater happiness than we can comprehend. As I am out here, I am gaining a greater love for God's children. That is also part of one of the five steps to the gift of tongues. The knowledge and blessings I receive out here are consequences of my commitment to the work and I know there is no way I could achieve anything save it be by the influence and power of the Lord and our Heavenly Father. My final part of my testimony that I will leave with you, is that God and Jesus Christ love us. They've loved us from the beginning and they will continue to love us until the end of time. Please pray to know if these things are true. I love and miss you all! You are such a large portion of my motivation and I deeply appreciate your prayers, thoughts, and contributions. These things I leave with each and every single one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

-Elder Markham

Sweater Monday! More pics of Blake with his companion and roommates, and with one of their teachers on their last day in the MTC (CCM)

HAPPY 19TH BIRTHDAY BLAKE!! September 20, 2019

We got to talk to Blake on video call with him for his 19th Birthday! He is very excited to be in Mexico and loves all that he is learning.  As a family, we sent him big birthday package with lots of treats he was able to share with his roommates.  One of his roommates, Elder Bingham, also received a gift box from his family.  So he and Blake would sit on their bunk at nights eating spoonfuls of their nutella!

Blake chatting with his family

Blake is very happy to get his Birthday treat bag

Elder Bingham and Blake enjoying their Nutella

Another Great Week! September 13, 2019

Fri, Sep 13, 1:56 PM

Family and Friends!

It's been another great week! There's been a lot since my last email so I'll try to get it all in. 

I was able to go to the temple last week and it was awesome! It's so beautiful! I think we are going to try to go again on our last pday (Preparation day is the only day missionaries have "off".  That is when they check and send emails, do laundry, shopping and sight seeing.  All other days are devoted to The Lord)  l'm here in the CCM. I've had a lot of good opportunities to increase my Spanish speaking. My first Sunday I was there, my companion and I got to bless the sacrament in Spanish! The following Sunday I gave a talk in Spanish. Mexico's independence day is coming up this weekend and they do a lot of celebrating so it's going to be pretty loud haha. And this Sunday, my companion and I are giving a lesson so we've been preparing for that. As for my Spanish speaking, I'm not even close to fluent but I've definitely learned more than I thought I would have by now! I'm able to have a small conversation with people and get to know them. But it's still not all that easy haha. Most of what we do here has to do with memorizing. So we've had to memorize things like Joseph Smith's quote of the first vision, the Missionary objective, Moroni 10: 3-5, and a lot of other topics in the Preach My Gospel. And all of it is in Spanish of course. There's also been tons of thunderstorms and power outages across the training center and it's actually raining a lot right now. It doesn't last very long though. But the people here are great! I've made some friends from places like Haiti, Tonga, and even someone from Hawaii but is Japanese! They have really neat stories! We also got to hear from some members of the Presidency of the Seventy at a devotional! They came to speak to us here. Responsibilities are getting pretty level. Yesterday my companion and I had to attend a meeting about improving the CCM. It was with the CCM President, his counselors, other officers and another few companionships. There really isn't a whole lot to improve on, one of the things I brought up was our service activities and how there aren't always enough jobs for all the elders and hermanas. There are a lot of them that either aren't doing much or just go back to their casas. So one of my solutions was to just split the groups up depending on their service days. For example, one group has their time en the morning and the rest have their service time later. They thought that might work so I guess we'll see if that changes in the next couple weeks. 

Alright I'll talk to you all next week!!!

-Elder Markham 

Here are some more pictures from the last couple of weeks! The are some with my roommates and I, pics of the city, us at the Temple!!!!( Which we were told that it's the largest temple outside of the United States)

Blake's Birthday treats sent from his family

Almost three weeks out! (September 6th, 2019)

   I don't have a lot of time so I'll make this a quick update! 

 Not a whole lot that´s new in the CCM but I'm still having a great time! Since I don't have a lot of time, I won't be able to send pictures this week. Hopefully I can next week! There's been more intense lightning and thunderstorms here! It gets really exciting. The language is coming along and I'm getting a better grasp on it. There's so many things to memorize haha. We just got back from the temple so that took up most of our day. We were told it's the biggest outside of the U.S.! 

 I'll just give a quick testimony before I go but I want you all to know I miss you!!! 

 I absolutely love this work and the gospel. I've never wanted to do something as much as I want to be out here. The Book of Mormon is truly the word of God and I love learning more and more about the scriptures every day! I really wish I would have been able to read more of the scriptures before I got out here because I'm so caught up in how much I love the words of our ancient prophets. It's incredible what a mission can do to the missionary only after a couple of weeks. But of course it's up to the missionary to have an open mind and an open heart to receiving the teachings. My advice to anyone who would be struggling to decide if the church is true or not would be to first pray for strength, and then read the ENTIRE Book of Mormon. It might sound like a bit much, but with making a decision such as that, that would at least require an equal effort to find out if the Book of Mormon and the church is true. It's through faith and a diligent effort that you can receive your answer. You don't get the answer just because you have a question and then you don't want to work for it. At least start with reading Moroni 10: 3-5. That is the most popular scripture around here right now. 

 It is my testimony that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the true church on this earth. I feel the same way that Joseph Smith felt when he said that he could not deny the church is true. I know that if we keep the commandments we will receive added blessings. There's a longer road ahead than just what we have here in mortality so keep going! In the name of our Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

I'll try to say more next week!

-Elder Markham

He is very busy! (August 30, 2019)

Family and Friends,

It's been a wonderful experience so far out here in the field. But it's also been very packed with things to do haha. I don't have a lot of time right now so I have to make this kind of short. 

The MTC here is called CCM since it stands for the name in Spanish. The city is wonderful and it's huge!!! I'll try to send pictures later when I get everything figured out. My first companion, Elder Xanthos, is actually from Portland Oregon!!! We got along really quick! The food is great and of course it's very different than the States. I already got a new full experience on the drive from the airport to the CCM. There were a lot of stray dogs and there were natives just standing in the middle of the road holding baskets of fruit trying to sell them. The space between them and the cars only had like half a foot or less! And the roads are going in every direction. So that's pretty crazy. The training center is an old school campus and it's actually really nice. The gates and walls surrounding the CCM are covered in massive barbed wire and spikes so we're pretty protected. I think the Provo training center is more like a really large building with other buildings too but here at the Mexico training center, i'ts more flat and spread out. So there's a lot of walking. The language is coming along and I'm able to understand quite a bit. It's a lot easier to understand than speak it. As the schedule and responsibilities go, it's very packed. I was called to be district leader on day two so it's been even more chaotic for a little over a week. But my missionaries are pretty obedient so that makes things easier haha. The CCM feels like a small community where everything is great, well organized, and peaceful. And then looking outside the walls, you can see how much of a difference the city has. There are constantly sirens going and random explosions, that I think are fireworks, They're definitely not gun shots. But they aren't loud enough to keep me up at night and plus my casa is close to the middle of the area anyway and not close to the wall.

I love you all,

-Elder Markham

Here are some pictures of the flight in! There are also pics of the smaller part of the city outside of the walls, at night and during the day. Also a pic of the kinds of food I get to have. There's also my companion and I! And a picture of where my casa is. In that same picture there is this shelf like thing with water supplies. That's our drinking water, we can't get any out of sinks since it's not clean to drink. There aren't water fountains anywhere either. It took a while to get used to the water but now it tastes normal. 

He arrives in Mexico City! (August 20, 2019)

Momma- I made it and it's incredible! It looks awesome here! I'm sorry that I had to send this to dad but my journal is in one of my luggage bags, it has the emails. But this place really is amazing, even though it's filled with barbed wire and run down buildings with homeless people. And by the way I got all my luggage back at the airport and I was able to get it loaded in the moving van. It should be here soon if it hasn't already shown up. There are stray dogs everywhere and it smells haha. But I will get used to the new change! I know I will have an incredible time. I don't have a lot of time and I should be able to send better emails in the next few weeks. We're about to eat and get to bed. I'll keep you updated, love you!

-Elder Markham

Dad- I really do like it here in the MTC and I made it without problems. Everything seems to be in order but I'll let you know if there's anything else that needs to be checked. My p days are Friday, not Tuesday. But it's just not as organized quite yet so I can't say a whole lot. They are just giving us time now to let our parents know we made it. I'm looking forward to the new place and I'll keep you updated as often as I can! I love you and tell the rest of the family I love and miss them too and I wish I had more time to say more things but I'll talk soon! 

-Elder Markham