Monday, February 23, 2015

I AM TRAINING!!!  So last night we were sitting there and we got a call from the zone leaders and he told me, "Are you ready to be a dad?"  It is crazy.  I am excited though, it will definitely be a challenge but I hope that I can just be a good example to him and start him out good.  Tomorrow I will receive my comp.  I think it is going to be a Latino but we will see.  

So this week was a good one!  The highlight obviously being the baptism from this week.  Thursday was the baptism.  All went well, she only had to be baptized once, I played the piano (with just a few mistakes)  but people were singing so hopefully it covered the mistakes up.  But it was awesome.  She looked so happy that day so that was cool.  

Now here is the story about the baptismal font.  We had problems this day.  We got there and it seems like nobody has used the font since our last baptism.  There were three big spiders in the font.  Blake won't think they are anything compared to spiders that he had in Mexico.  But for me they were big and I made my comp kill them.  A broom we found in the church was his weapon of choice.  Then after that, we cleaned the font, put the plug in and filled it up.  Had the baptism.  Then after, to get the water out, you have to pull the plug in the font.  My comp was like I am not going in.  And I said, I am not going in. finally I won the battle and he went in the font.  First I tried to push out the plug with a broom but couldn't get it.  Then he went and rollled his pants up starts to go in but it was too deep.  So he decides that it doesn't matter and goes into the font and tries to get it out with his foot, he couldn't but by that time his pants were already wet.  He comes out, rolls up his sleeves bends down his arm keeps going going going, then his shoulder, then his head.  He came out of it soaked and I was sitting there laughing so hard.  I told him that I respect him a little bit more now.  

Also on Sunday we were sitting in sacrament meeting and someone called us out of the chapel and there was a guy standing in the doorway.  We went and talked to him and he told us about a pain that he has had in his head for months.  He has gone to a bunch of doctors and everything and nobody has been able to help him.  Also he told us that he has gone to a bunch of different churches and they haven't been able to help him.  He started asking a bunch of questions and we were answering them and at the end we asked where he lived and...  He lives in our sector!!  We have an appointment with him this Wednesday.  Some of the questions he was asking were like we were playing volleyball.  For example, why are there so many churches in the world?  That is just setting it up to spike it down so I am really excited for this lesson this Wednesday and I hope that we can help him.  

I got the package today.  And I have already eaten a good amount of the candy.   Love you :)  and thank you so much for the package!   I love you all and hope you all have a fantastic week!!

Monday, February 16, 2015

I have very exciting news!!  We have a baptism this Thursday!!  Her name is _____ and she is 15 years old.  She is the cousin of Alexis that we just baptized.  We went and talked to her the other day and she is going to be baptized.  The only reason she hasn't is for her fear of water.  but At Alexis`s baptism she saw that it was quick and fast.  And so she will be baptized Thursday.  And mom, I am going to play the baptism song on the piano for the baptism.  The I like to look for rainbows one.  

This week was pretty much the same as the other weeks.  This week we have been contacting  A LOT.  We have been knocking on doors and going to the parks that we have in our sector.  Out of all of those people we found about one girl that was interested.  We told her that Jesus Christ visited America and she wants to hear more.  The only problem is that she works every single day.  She was really interested and wants us to come back so hopefully it all works out.

We had stake conference this past week so our investigators couldn't come because it was at a different time and in a church farther away.  So that was a bummer.  

Other than that it was a pretty normal week.  We are starting a new thing as missionaries.  We are going to every single members house and sharing about, la invitacion dispuesta y breve.  Put that into google translate or call Blake if you want.  This is just where the member selects a gospel principle they like.  Then they go to another person they know and say how this principle has helped them.  Then they invite the people to listen to us.  We are going around and teaching all the members in our ward about this so hopefully they all get excited and help us out!

Good Luck this week and I hope you all have a great time!  Work hard in all that you do and talk to you next week!!  Love you all!!!

Monday, February 9, 2015

I seriously can't believe how fast the time flies by!!  It has been over one year since I opened up my mission call.  Two days ago we were just walking down the street and I looked at my watch which has the date and it just hit me, wow, 1 year ago I opened my mission call!      Then I though about how we went to Cafe Rio that night, too, and I miss Cafe Rio.  A pork burrito would be so good right now.  haha and then I also thought of Sydney and how it was two years since she passed away.  That was sad but I have learned in the mission so much about the plan of salvation and how much love the Lord has for us.  Also about the Atonement of Jesus Christ how He felt every single feeling we have and every single sin that we have.  And that we can be clean from all of our sins.  And we can be forgiven for our sins and we don't have to remember them anymore.  It really is a beautiful thing.  There is nothing greater because without it we couldn't return to our Heavenly Father.  

This week, I don't have a lot to report.  On Thursday we had intercambio.  I went to another sector with Elder Hulet from Texas.  I have more time than him but it was awesome.  We taught some awesome lessons.  One, about the Word of Wisdom and another about the 10 commandments.  When we taught the 10 commandments the spirit was so strong.  We were teaching a couple and normally with the 10 commandments It is pretty brief just because it is what it is.  I always felt like there wasn't a ton of explanation needed just because it is pretty simple.  But when we were teaching more and more things just came to my mind and the mind of my comp and it was great.  That was this day and in this sector I swear like everybody spoke English.  There was so many people that just wanted to speak English with us and we even had to teach a recent convert in English.  I have officially decided that it is easier to teach in Spanish.  I think I talk smoother in Spanish in a lesson than in English.  

So we have 3 people with a baptismal date.  One is this lady that is about 50 and in the first lesson she told us that she wants to change her life and be reborn spiritually and in our heads we were just like oh wow, perfect!  And she accepted baptism the first lesson!  We have another lesson with her tonight.  It is tough for her to come to church because she works but we are praying that she will be able to get work off so that she can come but we will see.  

Then the other people that have a baptismal date are _____and _____.  They are a young couple, 28 years old mas o menos and they are excited.  They love listening to us.  Anyway in the morning we went by and _____ was really excited and saying he can't wait to go to church.  In the afternoon we went to pick them up and NOBODY was home.  I thought he would be in the church, nope.  We were calling and  calling and no answer.  It was a bummer, we saw them in the night and they had a family reunion come up and went to that.  Hopefully this next week we can get them to church.

One more thing, the first vision is so powerful.  When it is quiet and you say the first vision in a lesson the spirit just fills up the room.  We were teaching a new investigator and at first it was funny.  She likes to talk and we asked her what she has heard about Mormons and she said, "that you brain wash people"  we all started laughing and explained that we aren't trying to convince them.  So anyway we started teaching and the spirit was so strong.  Especially when I said the first vision.  The fact that Joseph Smith saw God The Father and Jesus Christ is so powerful.  This really is the church of Jesus Christ.  The same church he established on the earth when he lived here.

That is my report for this week.  I hope that you all have a great week!!  I love you all.  

Monday, February 2, 2015

Hola familia,  yesterday I didn't remember it was the super bowl and then we were about to go home and we knocked on the door of a member's house and the girl answered and said, "hi, my dad is watching the super bowl right now."   I about lost it haha.  I just said my family is eating so good right now.  Ahhh the super bowl.  I lost my bearings for a little bit but I got it together haha.  

This week was mas o menos.  We had some ups and downs.  The first up is that Alexis, the recent convert received the priesthood yesterday!  And we now have plans to go to the temple with him on 27 of February (for baptisms).  Another up was that the family that I told you all about accepted a baptismal date for March 7!  They love it when we come over.  The dad said that before these people from a different church tried to teach him and he didn't like it because he felt like they were just teaching him just to teach.  But he said that he feels like we actually care!  Which is true.  All this missionary work that we do is because we care about these people.  If we didn't care, we wouldn't be doing this for two years or 18 months!  It is so rewarding when you can see that someone feels the spirit in their life.  We taught them with examples and they said it all makes sense.  The only hard part about teaching this lesson was that the little girl just wanted me to play with her the whole time haha.  We were in there and she just started calling me her uncle!  Uncle uncle uncle!  I don't know why but she kept it up for a long time haha.  And she would just hand me her toys.  It was such a good lesson.  They couldn't come to church yesterday but they are coming next week!

Another cool thing was that we received a reference of a girl that wants to get baptized!  She is the cousin of Alexis that got baptized two Saturdays ago.  She has gone to church for years and years now but she is scared of drowning and for this reason she hasn't wanted to get baptized.  She went to a baptism and the girl had to get baptized 5 times so she is scared of drowning.  But she came to Alexis's baptism and it was quick and easy so she decided that she wants to overcome her fear.  We are going to go to her house today to talk to her!  Hopefully all goes well!

The bad, we just had a couple people drop us this week.  They said they weren't really that interested.  And our investigator who doesn't have permission to get baptized, we were at her house and talking to her mom and she told us how she is sick and it might be fatal.  She has to wait for the results to come back.  But she said if we pray for her every day during the week then she will come to church.  We prayed every day and she came to church.  It was testimony meeting so I was like oh sweet, this is perfect.  Then afterwards it was just the opposite.  She said that nobody respects the speaker.  That it was irreverent.  The kids she was fine with but she said that adults were playing on their tablets, phones and those things and that they were talking and that there was no respect.  She said these things and then she left.  We are going to go back to her house to talk to her today or tomorrow so hopefully we can get things figured out and get her to come back.  Hopefully that one experience didn't destroy any desire she had.  The examples of the members of the church for other people are so important.  There are always people watching.  And sometimes people won't like our examples, like this Sunday, but other times maybe they will.  And that could be the difference so we always have to be good examples, in every place and in every moment. 

                              MORE PICTURES IF YOU SCROLL DOWN PAST ALL THE POSTS.