Monday, April 21, 2014

April 21, 2014

What a week!  It started out with interviews with President on Monday.  It was a lot of fun and it was awesome to be able to go to one of my old areas after the interview with President.  I got to go and say goodbye!  I really enjoyed it!  It's awesome to be able to go back after time and see the good that you have done in the lives of the people.  We had a lot planned and how they say here this week is "Holy Week".  It was fun.  We planned interchanges on Tuesday and Wednesday.  I left my area for both of the interchanges.  It was crazy on Wednesday I got to interview one of my old investigators for her baptism last week.  It was awesome talking to her and seeing really how much her life has changed and how much the gospel has blessed her life.  Her life has really changed.  It was fun seeing it and seeing the changes in her life.  She asked me to baptize her - it was an awesome experience.  Come to find out after we left the interview and throughout the day we find out that there wasn't going to be any transport on Thursday or Friday and that I was stuck there until Saturday.  It was crazy and the longest interchange I have ever been on.  I was so stressful because I wasn't in my own area basically the whole week but we had a lot of fun in the interviews.  I was able to learn and help the Elder I was with a lot.  It really blows me away how the time flies by.  God really knows his children and puts them in circumstances so that they can change and become better.  I look back on the places I've been and the people I have met and it really has been to help me change and be better.  Sadly the mission is coming to an end but it's been a good ride while it's lasted!!

April 14, 2014

This week was a good week.  I feel really weird coming down to the end of my mission.  I felt like this was one of the best weeks of all of my mission.  We worked really hard and had a lot of success in some aspects.  The sad thing is no one came to church this week.  It is sometimes so frustrating working the hardest you can and then not see the results that you want.  I did have sweet experiences this week.  I went with Pastor and Julissa in Campamento this week and we had a really awesome lesson.  We started talking with them and I asked Julissa how she felt about being baptized and it was really awesome; we felt the spirit so strong with her.  I was guided by the spirit to be able to help her feel better for her baptism.  We were talking and I just told her don't let the little things that men do interfere with what God has said.  God has told her that it is the true church and she needs to follow what she has felt.  I also went with a less active that I had met over a year ago.  He is now living with a girl and they are thinking about getting married.  About a month ago their little boy died and they have been having a really hard time but it was awesome to read in the Book of Mormon with them and see the tears come to their eyes and they they really knew that it was true.  This week as well we had interchanges on Friday and it was really sweet.  We helped a member go and buy water and she made us dinner and then gave us a reference.  We went to teach the reference that night and it was a young couple that had just moved into a little apartment; we taught them the Restoration and it was awesome.  The guy said that Joseph Smith was a good prophet and that he believe that the church is true.  It was so awesome.  Pray for them - the familia Ponce - so that they can get baptized soon.

Monday, April 7, 2014

April 7, 2014

This week was really awesome.  We got a call on Tuesday from an investigator of the other Elders; he wanted to meet with us!  It was really sweet because the Elders were having a hard time teaching him for his work and all that but we met with him and put a baptism date with him for Saturday.  It was a lot of fun.  We were working with him every day.  Every night when he got out of work he would call us and then get on his bike and we would meet up in the church.  It was sweet seeing him progress during the week.  We had originally placed the baptism date for Sunday but he called us and told us that he could not on Sunday but only on Saturday so we had to start running around on Saturday getting everything ready so that he could be baptized.  It was a really awesome day.  The conference was sooo awesome.  I really love it.  I liked what Elder Bednar taught about sharing the yoke of Christ.  Even though we can never pull the same share as he pulls but he invites us to share his yoke.  His burden really is easy and his yoke is light because we are on his side sharing it with him.  I really needed to learn that.  I feel like sometimes in life the things are really hard to continue.  We have to recognize that Christ is there to help us but we have to let him help us.  Oh we also had interviews with President this week; I love interviews with him.  It was fun to sit and talk with him.  He started explaining to me about all the changes he had seen me make here in the mission.  It is crazy how much one really changes when they give up all their desires to the Lord and try to look for what he wants!  Life is GOOD!  It's going to be a great week.

Monday, March 31, 2014

March 31, 2014

Things are good and time is flying by.  We had interchanges this week with the assistants and in my old area again!  The assistant's area is right by the temple and we had a lesson with an investigator family in the house of some temple workers; it made me realize the power there is in the temple.  I loved entering into their house and it felt so much like home because the spirit was there so strong.  Then this Saturday when we were on interchanges in my old area it was a lot of fun.  The Sisters had called me earlier in the week and had asked me if I could go baptize a little girl that I had been teaching over a year ago; it was awesome to be able to do it.  I was talking with the little girls mom who can't get baptized yet for some problems with the commandments and it really made me realize that the people really do feel the truth of our message.  Sometime they don't accept it in the moment but they really do feel the truth of it and even if years pass that feeling doesn't go away.  It's true that when the Holy Ghost speaks to someone it is something eternal.  I love this gospel and I know it is true.  It is the true source of happiness in this life.  This week is going to be great with General Conference!  We are seeing lots of differences in the branch and in the zone but this week determines everything.  Pray for us so that we can take a couple of families to General Conference this week!

Tuesday, March 25, 2014

March 24, 2014

Another week has come and gone and there aren't many left ahead of me.  It was transfer week - I stayed in my area with my companion; it will be a good transfer.  We have been really frustrated for the lack of success in the zone and in our own area.  We sat down to talk about it the day after the changes and finally we feel good about being together and the zone.  We have a lot of work to do but we made the plans necessary to be able to have success next month.  I have been reading the Book of Mormon a lot lately; I set the goal to finish it before I come home and it has really been awesome.  Right now in the mission we have had a focus on the atonement in our studies.  I have noticed as I have been reading the Book of Mormon that it talks so much about Christ and his atonement.  I am so grateful to have the Book of Mormon because it really is the key to our knowledge of the Savior.  Without the Book of Mormon we wouldn't really understand the sacrifice that the Savior has done for us.  We really are so blessed as members of the church to have it.  I love this gospel and I love sharing it with the world.  Pray for us - we need it this week!  We are going to burn ourselves out this week inviting everyone to be baptized and to go to church.  It is going to be a lot of fun.

March 17, 2014

This week has come and gone.  I am going into my last transfer this week!!!  Crazy how fast time flies.  Time is just gone.  That's alright we are here to work until the end.  This week was a good week.  I got to do interchanges this week with one of my old areas; it was awesome.  We went to teach a family that I found and was teaching about a year ago.  It was so awesome to talk to them.  When I was teaching them a year ago the lady had a dream that the Church was true and when we gave her husband a blessing he was completely healed within a few days.  It was such a miracle being able to be with them again and being able to share with them the gospel.  We taught them the restoration and it was basically just a reminder for what I had taught them a year ago.  This week was also a multi-stake conference and it was really sweet because I got to see a lot of the people from my old area.  It made me realize without a doubt that no effort is wasted and that everything we do as missionaries is for a reason.  We also put a baptismal date with Brayan for this week.  It's going to be a lot of fun.

March 10, 2014

This week was awesome; I had some awesome experiences.  We had interchanges this week.  In the area where I stayed it was crazy because it started raining and it was a down pour; it was a lot of fun.  We were soaked within minutes so we just took advantage of it walking in the middle of the streets that were like rivers; it was so crazy!  As we were going to an appointment with the Branch President he got a call that the roof of a members business had fallen through and needed help taking all the clothes and shoes out of the building so we went to do that and in the process the power went out - it was such a disaster but so much fun at the same time.  There were like three missionaries there from the states and we all just started talking to each other in English and it was so much fun.  We had a good week.  We have a lot to do to get better this coming week.  I love the mission.  We are having fun and this is going to be a super busy week.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

Pictures

 Jackson with his gecko friend (and NO he is not bringing it home)
 Jackson with his Mission President and his wife
 Jackson and Nelson (baptism 3-1-14)
Nelson's baptism 
Companion, Nelson and Jackson

March 3, 2014

This week was a good week!  We spent a lot of time traveling; we went to the city twice and that is always really tiring.  We visited Nelson everyday this week up until his baptism Saturday.  It was awesome to see all the changes that he has made in his life.  It has been a real rough road for him to take and he has made a lot of really hard changes in his life but he is happy now.  He told me that he feels different now; he feels like a new person and he is super excited for it.  He is excited that the people are going to see him as a different person.  President invited all of us that starting last week we all started to study the atonement for the next four weeks; it has been a really awesome experience.  I have learned so much about the atonement.  It makes me realize it is the center of our message.  Everything depends on the atonement.  I loved one thing I read - the atonement is the greatest and most important act ever done in human history.  There isn't anything more important that it.  I kn ow it is true.  I am so grateful for the atonement.  Just studying it makes me want to become more and more like my Savior.  Without it we are lost.  We should thank God daily for the gift of the atonement and as we do it we will see the changes that it makes in our lives.

Friday, February 28, 2014

February 24,2014

Well another week has come and gone! Everyone always seems to be reminding me that my time left isn't that much!  That's alright I'm here to work and not think about that! This week has been a lot of fun! I got to do interchanges twice I got to go to the areas of two of the district leaders in my zone! It was awesome! I went back to my old area and it was fun to see a lot of the people and realize that they all love me! It makes me realize almost a year after that God really puts us in an area for a reason. Sometimes we don't know why but he always puts us where he knows we need to be! This week has been great we have been working really hard! Nelson is progressing really well! He needs to have a good week this week to be able to be baptized! This week he can't fall to be able to be baptized! He is so crazy it is so fun talking to him because he says a lot of things off the wall and laughs randomly but he really is an intelligent guy and remembers everything that we teach him! It was a lot of fun we started a new class this week a "preach my gospel" class every Sunday! It was a lot of fun.  My companion and I were the ones assigned to teach it this week! It was cool because Nelson came to the class and he isn't even a member yet! He is excited to be baptized and to be a member of the church so that the people see him as a different person! It has been so awesome seeing him change! In the two weeks that we have known him it has been awesome because he has changed from a druggy with a rough future ahead to a different man with a bright future and a great opportunity to help people! He is awesome! This is going to be a great week! This morning we made a lot of plans and talked about a lot of things we need to change in our companionship to be able to have success! Going to be a great week! Love you all!

February 17, 2014

Well lets just say it was an interesting week! We have been visiting Nelson everyday this week! We found out that he has a big problem with the word of wisdom! He suffered this week with me! I took his marijuana away from him one day and flushed it down the toilet and then another day he had a can of beer and was going to drink it and I got it from him and he told me to dump it out right in front of him! It was a lot of fun! It has been a rough change for him but he is taking it like a man and making a lot of changes in his life! How he is now is completely different from how he was when we met him!! We have a lot of work to do with him this week but I know with our prayers he will be able to do it! Also this week we had a contest with some of the sister missionaries here in the zone because they are also leaders here. We started to see who could find more families in the week! It was a crazy competition both companionships ended up finding like 11 new families! It was awesome! Also in the zone we put are focus on finding new investigators and we found in total 157 and 42 families! It was an awesome week a lot of the other leaders in the mission couldn't believe that we had accomplished it but it was true and a lot of fun! We have a  lot of work to do but with the Lords help we will be able to do it! Pray for us and Nelson we really need it!

Thursday, February 13, 2014

February 10, 2014

Well another week has come and gone!  Transfers!  I got moved back to one of my old zones!  I am in Guiamaca as a Zone Leader.  We are opening the zone or in other words my companion and I are both new here.  Not only that but we are basically opening the area.  It's good.  I got to the new zone and we are basically all starting from scratch in the zone; we don't have very many baptism dates and they haven't been finding new investigators.  I just told my companion that if we want to see changes in the zone we have to be the examples to make it happen.  We just started working to find new families to be teaching.  We found 5 new families this week.  Just about every day that I was here we found a new family to be teaching.  Then as we were praying every day to put new baptism dates; I know God heard our prayers!  We had an activity here in the branch on Saturday and one guy we have never met showed up so we talked to him and he said he was going to go to church.  As we went and passed by all of our investigators to invite them to come to church every one said they were going to go but last minute they all backed out; it was really sad.  As we were sitting there waiting this guy, his name is Nelson, showed up out of no where.  We then talked to him again and we went and visited him after church.  As we were teaching him he explained his desire to change his life and we put him with a baptism date for March 1st.  It was such an awesome experience.  I know that God is hearing and answering our prayers.  It has been a really rough week with lots of problems but I know God is blessing us and if we continue to be humble and diligent he is going to bless us with more success.  This really is Gods work and nothing will stop it.  His diligent and faithful servants will have success.  Pray for Nelson and for us so we can have a great week.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

February 3, 2014

Well another week has come and gone. Crazy how time flies by! This week are transfers and a lot of my really good friends from the first of the mission are going home this week. It blows me away how fast the time goes! This week was a great week! WE have been working hard! This week we had two more baptisms! IT was a lot of fun! We have been working a lot with the zone that we haven't really been working in our own area! WE have been helping the other Elders with a wedding so we have been all over the place trying to get all the paperwork ready! We had a really sweet experience yesterday! We were planning on doing divisions with the young single adults in our branch but as we get there no one had showed up so we had to go look for two! We went and actually found the guy that got married last week and his friend! WE just showed up and luckily they were still in there white shirts and we told him hey lets go we need help! IT was sweet because they didn't even hesitate and we went and did divisions! I went with Yahir the guy that got married last week and it was sweet because we were able to go with a  family that has been having problems! I wasn't expecting him to talk that much but it was awesome because he was able to share some experiences that he had. HE was also able to learn how to prepare to have a  successful marriage! They are soo excited right now they are really experiencing the blessings of the gospel and are so excited to prepare to go to the temple next year! I love this family they are so great! This week we are still working with ELias to get his papers so he can get married! Pray for him so everything goes well! Love you all

Sunday, February 2, 2014

January 27, 2014

Well yet another week has come and gone and I don't really know where all the time is going but I wish it wouldn't go away so fast. This week was awesome! We started working with the two families to get the married this week but things didn't worked out as we planned. WE had some problems with the papers for one of the weddings so we are still working with them for this week. The other family Diana and Yahir were able to get married. It was so crazy and we had some many problems we basically sent them all over the country trying to get their papers to get married this week. It was fun and all worth it in the end because they were able to get married and Diana was baptized on Saturday! Her Little brother was baptized as well! IT was awesome. I don't know where so many people have come from. I don't think I have ever seen this many miracles in my whole mission. God has been helping us so much. This week in the zone we had 10 baptisms and 2 families it was crazy. A lot of the people we weren't even planning on baptizing at the start of the week but as we started talking to all of our missionaries more and more people kept coming out of no where. It was awesome because we were able to be zone of the month again for two months straight. God is really blessing us a lot he is providing the people that really need him. WE were comparing the other day my companion and I that the investigators are like the talents. The More investigators that we have and work and help baptize the more God gives us and trusts in us to baptize and as for the missionaries that don't have baptism it's because they don't work their investigators diligently. We have really seen that in this week. Those that work  hard and diligently God blesses them with more elect people but those that aren't diligent don't receive the same blessings! I love this work! IT is the best!

January 20, 2014

This week has been a CRAZY week! We have been working so hard trying to help people accept to be baptized and to come unto Christ! We started last week with a baptism date to see how God opens up the doors for us to help the people! It has been soo fun! Yesterday we had a lot of work to do trying to get the people to church and the Lord blessed us and four of the families that we are teaching came to church with us! We are seeing sooo many miracles in our zone. You can really see the missionaries that are doing their best and that are diligent because the Lord is blessing them and they are having miracles in their areas! WE have seen so many miracles! So many people in these weeks we have found so many chosen people and put baptism dates with the majority of them! I know the Lord knows us better than we know ourselves! HE blesses us for our best efforts. He knows we will not be perfect so he just wants us to be the best we can be! This week is going to be crazy! Pray for Diana and for Elías so that they get married and baptized this week!

Sunday, January 19, 2014

January 13, 2014



Well it was probably the best week of all of my mission. We were soo busy this week. WE went to the temple on Thursday and it was such an awesome experience being able to go and feel the spirit. I love being in the temple and I love being able to go and learn from our father in heaven. I am pretty sure I always leran more in the celestial room and in the rest of the temple. It was an awesome experience. These past couple weeks we have been having some problems in the zone we werent finding that many nw investigators and we didnt have very many baptism dates. AS we started working last week we talked with everyone that we needed to put more baptismal dates and that we had to find a lot of new investigators. We saw soooo many miracles this week. In my area we found 30 new investigators and 6 families,. It was sooo awesome. We just started contacting street by street looking for ne wpeople and as we prayed seeking guidance from our father in heaven he guided us to the elect people. We were able to find a lot of people that need the gospel and are willing and ready to follow it. It was awesome as we came to the end of the weekw e found a young couple.- The lady is a member and her future husband isnt. The girls mom was so stressed out because her daughter is pregnant and they are both really young but it was a sweet experience being guided to there house even though it wasnt planned and being able to s hare the gospel with them. We had been teaching them just two days and the guy his name is Elías accepted a baptism date and will be getting baptized the last weekend of this month. We have seen soo many miracles from only having two baptism dates in the zone to this week we have 13 and 4 families. It has been sooo awesome to see how much the Lord trusts in us and how he works miracles here when we were exercizing our faith in him and when we do our part! We have sooo much work left to do this week in going with all of the families and inviting them to be baptized and helping them so that they can receive all the blessings God has for them.  Our area is soo awesome too they madea  huge change right now with all of the leaders they released ALL of the leaders only the branch president and his councilers stayed. Everyone is so excited for the change and to be able to have leaders that are ready to work and make things happen in this branch so it becomes a ward! GOd has worked soooo many miracles for us and now we have to do our part and help these people come to him,.  I learned this week God wants to work miracle sin our lives but a lot of time we dont let him do it! Our faaith a lot of times is just TOO weak! I know he lives and I know he is going to tcontinue working miracles to help us outt!

Sunday, January 12, 2014

January 6, 2014

Well it has been an awesome week. We have been working hard. Things are getting better but we have a lot of work to do right now! We had some super sweet experiences this week! On Saturday night we decided after all the appointments fell through that we were going to contact so we just decided to contact one road. As we started contacting there we didn't find anyone that positive at first but we just kept praying with the hope to find a new family there. WE kept going having fun and contacting as many people as possible! We got to one of the last houses and we knock on the door and the wife comes out and we start talking about the families and she was really interested so we went in and taught the whole family. It was a really sweet experience as we got in we talked with all of them and the husband had told us that he had seen  a Book of Mormon in his dads house and that it interested him and he had wanted to read it but for some reason he didn't take it. Then like a few days later it was when we got there and started teaching him. IT was so awesome. The spirit was so strong and they are a really awesome family! Then yesterday as well we went to teach one of our families most positive and as we are teaching the lady told us at the end of the lesson that when she went to the temple with us that she had felt a spirit that filled something with in here that she had been looking to fill for a long time. It was awesome to see in her how the spirit worked and how she had felt it and now to see how strong her desire is to progress and change. Then we went with another family and the husband sometimes his heart is like a rock and doesn't want to change but we had a really awesome lesson with him sharing some experiences that we have had and explain to him that he needs to change and be a better man and husband,. It was really awesome to see him change in the lesson because he had told us that we could only visit him once a week and then in the lesson he accepted that we could now visit him a couple times a week. It was so awesome. Things are going well we are teaching a lot of families that are really positive that want to learn and change. Pray for the family Nuñez and Amador so that this week we can put baptism dates with them

Thursday, January 9, 2014

December 30, 2013

Well yet another week and year has come and gone!  I am super excited 2014 is going to start.  I learned a lot this week.  I am sure the Lord always has his ways of humbling us so that we can learn and come to him.  Things are good though.  Our zone won the trophy and we are the zone of the month.  The bad news is that for January we don't have anything going.  We've got to get working.  Things are good though.  We had a lot of interchanges this week; it was a lot of fun.  I always love working with the other elders and helping them out.  On Monday I had a really sweet experience one of the Elders got to a point that he just had a breakdown from all the stress and pressure that he feels and he just didn't feel like he could change and be better.  It was a really awesome experience to be able to go and sit and talk with him for a while and help him get through it.  I have really learned that wherever the Lord puts us it doesn't matter.  He always puts people in our path that we can help.  The more we look for these people the more people that we can find.  It was a testimony builder for me that there is always someone out there that needs my help but I need to do my part in finding them so that they can receive the help that they need.  This week we were working hard with Christmas and all that it was hard but we did our best.  It was sad when Sunday came around, I was so excited we were supposed to have a bunch of investigators go to church.  As we went to pass by everyone this week no one was home or they couldn't go for other reasons.  It was really hard for me not having any investigators in the sacrament meeting.  I just sat by myself during sacrament meeting thinking how can I get better and asking for forgiveness for all the weakness that I have.  It was a really sacred experience feeling the Saviors love in my life.  I know that he lives and he loves each and every one of us.  It made me realize that we all need help and a lot of time we are just instruments in helping the people find Christ.  He is the helper that we all need in our lives.  He is the only one that can help in every situation in our lives.  It doesn't matter how many or how big our problems are he can help us.  This year my goal is to look for him and to gain a greater testimony of him.  I know he lives and loves us and that he can help us in every situation in our life.  I hope we can all find Christ in our lives this year.