New Start! February 4th, 2020

Family and Friends,

Many crazy things have taken place! These last few weeks have been a struggle and a blessing. We just had changes and so now this chaos of going back and forth is finally over. I learned a lot especially with being more organized because of how crazy it was. It was a nice experience to have a really tough challenge but now, we can work hard in our designated areas.

All the missionaries in my house got changes except for me. I get to stay here and help Pantitlan. My new companion is incredible! He is Elder Molina and he just finished being trained. His trainers were awesome! One of his zone leaders was Elder Salas who is very in tune with the spirit and knows very well when to chastise the other missionaries and when to show more love. And of course when to do both because the Lord chastens those He loves. Elder Salas was actually my zone leader when I was in Tecamac! Elder Molina told me how he sat down with Elder Salas at the visitors center and Elder Salas gave him some strict talking. He told him how Pantitlan is in desperate need of help because of all the things that have been going on. So now Elder Molina is here with me, ready to help change everything around. The other two Elders are Elders that I actually know! They are both from Tecamac and one of them was my district leader. I am so looking forward to the rest of the time here! It's a new district which means new opportunities to learn and serve! 

That's all I have for this week. I will have more next week, promise! 

-Elder Markham

Special Changes Coming Up January 21, 2020

Family and friends,

It's been pretty crazy these past couple weeks! Sorry I haven't been able to write in a while but here is the newest update!

And really quickly, I will be responding to personal emails next week! I went to the Temple this morning, which was absolutely incredible, so I haven't had much time for things today so I'm sorry! But I appreciate hearing from everyone!

I'll get right into it! It's been crazy for many reasons. But first, we are getting ready for special changes and that's been happening for the past week now. There is a missionary in our district that is lacking a companion at the moment so Elder Mendez and I have been going back and forth every other night to fill in and work there. And we don't know for sure yet when it's going to end. We got word from President Parry the other night about how we may have to wait until after interviews, which are Thursday, or just until the end of this cycle which is at the end of next week. So I am in a trio of missionaries half of the time and then working in a different area for the other half. It has been very chaotic but I do enjoy the difficulty! It always makes everything worth it. And on a lighter note, I did get to help with a baptism last Saturday! That leads me into a quick story...

So Elder Mendez and I ( this Elder Mendez is actually in the other area. Both him and my companion have the same name) we get to the chapel to get everything ready for the baptism and we make a horrifying discovery! There was no water going through the building! Absolutely none! It was just the two of us and we are running around trying to see if there was a problem we could fix. The baptism was in two hours from the time we arrived so we knew that we at least had some time. We of course called the bishop and told him what was going on. He said he couldn't be there for another half hour to 40 minutes. So in that time, Elder Mendez and I are looking around to see if there were problems. This was all AFTER going outside to figure out how to get the gas on. It's weird because every other building has a different way that the gas works for warm water. But anyway, the water for the building never ends up coming back on. By the time things were really getting intense, a member had shown up with his family because his son was being baptized along with our baptism, who has the name America by the way. Then not long after, the bishop arrived. We had less than an hour and a half until the baptism started. Thankfully, here in Mexico, people show up to events only 5 minutes before or 30 minutes after they start. So we were in luck because that gave us more comfort time. But time was still on the line. There was no way we could reschedule this baptism because we had invited at least 15 people to attend and they all said they could make it. Including an investigator! So we were going to fill that font somehow. Then the bishop had an idea! He knew of a rope that was stored away that he went to go grab. Then we got some buckets! The water tank sits outside this chapel, in the ground. So he throws open the cap, ties the rope to a bucket to fill others, and we start filling the baptism font with buckets of water by him lowering the bucket he had on the rope to collect the water and pour it in our buckets. We had this system going pretty well. Eventually it started raining too. So we were getting drenched. But we were eventually able to get the font filled just in time! And there ended up being nearly 40 people at the baptism! Most of them there for America, the others that were there for the little boy being baptized were only 5 others. So that was a nice miracle to see so much support for a new convert! Then Pantitlan also had a baptism that night as well. 

   Many blessings unfolded that weekend and they continue to do so! And now, that investigator who attended the baptism has her baptism scheduled for February 15th! Which is actually her birthday! Then tomorrow in the other area, I get to visit a reference that we sent to that area. I met him and talked to him for a while before we sent the reference. He actually knows pretty good English! So I'm looking forward to that. Amongst all the chaos, I'm able to find a very sweet peace through this service and I appreciate each and every moment! The Lord continues to bless us with trials to strengthen us. I am more than happy to take each and every one of them that He sends my way. This is what the mission is about! Having a good attitude while doing the will of the Lord!

I give thanks to each and every one of you for all the love and support you share! You all play a part in this gathering going on in Mexico because of the examples you have been to me so I hope you all know that! It's a blessing to work with so many wonderful missionaries out here and to also have a wonderful mission president. And his wife is just as wonderful with her love and support. These are very noble and honorable missionaries that I get to work side by side with! So many humble and kind missionaries make it all that much better! I will share more next week! 

-Elder Markham

A Final Testimony of 2019

Family and friends,

This week was a blast! I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas! Mine was great! After waking up, the Elders in the house and I went to do a small service for some members that live behind our block. We swept up, pulled weeds, and painted lamp posts! Afterwards they invited us in for a wonderful Christmas morning breakfast! Later, we had lunch with some incredible members and I got to talk to my family which was awesome! I think that was the first time I got to talk to all of them at once since being out here haha. 

Well now we have 2020 coming up and I'm excited! We were invited by two different families to join them for dinner tonight so I'm looking forward to that! But now I would like to share a special testimony. It's the end of 2019 and we are entering into the year of the 200th anniversary of the first vision which lead to the restoration of the church and the fullness of the gospel! I know this next year will be amazing! Just recently in an email, our mission president's wife shared how that 20/20 vision means perfect vision. She explained how we can apply that to this upcoming year with it being 2020. As we become more acquainted with the church and its true doctrine in this next year, especially with it being the 200th anniversary of the moment Joseph Smith conversed with God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, we can have a better vision of ourselves and the truth! So now, I would like to talk about some things and share part of my testimony, specifically of the Book of Mormon. What I want to do in the upcoming year is share my testimony more often of the Book of Mormon so now is a good start to do that.     

   I would like to begin by explaining that a testimony and knowledge of the Book of Mormon always begins very small. And yet, that doesn't mean it's insignificant by any means. Because that small seed that is planted in your heart is the very core of your foundation of your testimony and where it all began. Whether it began by learning of the incredible stories of Captain Moroni's army and the cunning strategy that Teancum used to bring down the kings of the Lamanites, or the incredible journey of Lehi and his family to the promised land, or Jacob's articulate allegory of the olive tree, or the fulfilled words of the prophet Ether who prophesied the destruction of millions of the Jaredites, or the sweetness of the story of Jesus Christ in the presence of the Nephites, or even the testimonies of the eleven witnesses, this can all bring about a wonderful beginning for each individual. Every one of these stories brings about profound testimonies. One recognizable one is that of President Joseph Fielding Smith's, who had already read the Book of Mormon twice from cover to cover by the age of ten! His testimony and knowledge of the Book of Mormon is incredible! The Book of Mormon is incomparable to any book for numberless reasons. One of which is because it is the only book that has the power to touch the hearts of the children of men the way it does. No other book has its sealing power and no other book contains the love of our Savior that we can feel which has the intensity to bring any person who reads it close to tears. I testify of the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. I also echo the promise of so many prophets that have testified that those who read the Book of Mormon completely and with a fullness of heart will come to the truth and know for a surety that Jesus is the Christ and our Savior. That is the purpose of the Book of Mormon, to convince the Jews and Gentiles that Jesus is truly our Lord and Savior and that He will come again. Remember the teachings of Alma! If you read the Book of Mormon with real intent, if you pray to know of its surety, you can know that it's true by what you feel. The feeling is exactly like a seed. And if you feel good inside, if you feel the purity of the book and of its works, you will know that it is good. Like Alma said, if this seed brings about good things, then you may know that this is good. By that, you may know that the Book of Mormon is true. Never forget, every piece of knowledge is gained little by little. Just as 2 Nephi 28:30 teaches. We learn precept upon precept. It's not everything all at once and that is a reason why we are told to read the Book of Mormon many times over. We won't learn it all after reading it once, nor will we learn it all in this mortality. 2 Nephi 28:30 also teaches that if we think we know enough then we lose what we already had, we get our knowledge taken away. If you can take anything from what I have written, I would ask you to know of my everlasting testimony of the Book of Mormon. I know it's true and I will constantly testify of that. It's also our promise to read and pray and then the mysteries of God will be unfolded to us. I promise that the Book of Mormon is true and I lovingly testify of it. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

-Elder Markham  

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!