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.

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.