April 15, 2013

It was an awesome week.  My companion and I are getting work done.  I have no idea where all the time is going but at least we are accomplishing something with out time!  The highlight of the week is that we HAVE A BAPTISM DATE!  This Sunday we are going to have a baptism.  A guy we just started visiting a little while ago, we went and visited him this week and started talking to him about baptism and he accepted a date and doesn't have any problems right now in being ready for his baptism.  It is awesome.  We are having a lot of fun and visiting a lot of people.  Normally in the area they  haven't been teaching much but now we are teaching more than 20 lessons and closing in on 30 lessons a week.  We are starting to see a difference in the area.  One thing President taught us a little while ago that I loved - He said when we leave the house what we have in mind is what we do!  It's true and we have been putting into our minds to teach a lot of people and to find new people.  It is awesome to see how the Lord blesses us just when we have a change of mentality.  The work is picking up.  My companion tells me every day he doesn't know what happens with all the time.  We leave and work hard and the time flies by.  Sometimes there isn't enough time to get everything we want done.  The Lord always helps us get everything done that he wants.  The Lord lives and loves us.  He helps us if we ask for it.  The majority of the time though we are too stupid to ask for help.  It's a no brainer if you need help ask him!  He answers!

April 8, 2013

Conference was awesome.  I loved Elder Holland's talk!  That man is powerful.  I love hearing his testimony and I just hope mine is powerful like his when I bear it to the investigators.  We had a good week.  We have been focusing a lot on finding new people to teach and we found 12 and 3 new families.  I just have to put my mind to finding and I love it.  We left one night just walking down a road and I told my companion as we were walking if there were any people in the street or if there was a door open we would stop and contact them.  We started walking and there was no one!  We contacted a couple of open doors and no one wanted anything to do with us; that's alright, we just going!  We finally were getting to the end of the street and I was getting anxious to find someone.  We passed a door and I saw it was closed but a light was on.  We walked past it and it was just like someone turned me around to go and contact the door.  It was about 8:40 at night and we knocked the door.  A girl came to the door and was talking to us.  She just had the door open a little bit but I got my hand in enough to shake hands.  We shared a little bit there on the door step and she told us we could come in and share a message.  We ended up finding a new family of 5!  It was awesome!  I started later this week just praying and leaving the house with the idea in mind to find new families.  We have been able to do it.  We did it 4 days straight.  It was awesome.  It really is true that the Lord blesses us with the way to be able to do it.  It has been crazy to see miracle after miracle this week being able to find new people.  The Lord is preparing the people we just have to be obedient and open our eyes.  I know this is the work of the Lord!  He lives and He loves us!  He did call Joseph Smith to be a prophet to restore the church here on the earth today.  Thomas S Monson is God's prophet here on the earth.  We have a cause to be happy because God lives and loves us!  We are members of the true church!  Be Happy!

April 1, 2013

I don't know what is happening - I feel like March just started and now it is April!! YIKES!!!  It has been a really interesting and really good week.  We started the week with Monday and the power was out so we couldn't leave and visit because that would be stupid and dangerous.  I was on exchanges with one of the Zone Leaders that night and we spent the whole night sharing stories and we even had to kill a mouse so that made for an interesting start of the week.  The next day we just got straight to work and had an awesome day.  This week we had a lot of success.  We were able to lift our numbers up higher than they have been in months find a bunch of new people.  It was crazy to see the difference in this week and last week.  It is just like what happened with Joseph Smith right before God and Jesus Christ came he was tempted by Satan and that is like what happened to us.  Last week was really sucky and this week was awesome.  I started this week that it doesn't matter who it is I at least would say hello to everyone; it was a great blessing.  It has really showed me that God guides the people to us that need us.  In the process of just talking to everyone we had 5 people contact  us.  They either asked for Books of Mormon or for us to go visit them.  The Lord really is preparing people but we have to sacrifice to be able to receive these blessings.  There really are two sides of the veil in this work.  There are people on the other side that are changing the hearts of the people so that they accept us.  The missionary work is going further along than it has in months in this area.  The members don't help at all and don't want any part of it.  It's kind of funny, I get to teach every Sunday in church and at this point all the people are starting to either really love me or really hate me.  Those that are fulfilling their callings really love me and those that are sinners and don't do anything really hate me because the spirit always puts words in my mouth that they don't like to hear.  I have really learned one thing in the past couple of weeks - it is to follow the spirit.  The spirit really can guide us in everything we do if we just pay attention.  Sometimes we follow the spirit and we don't realize it until after.  I invite you all to look for the spirit in your lives and fulfill your callings.  God hates when people don't compete. Ecclesiastes 5:5

March 25, 2013

This week has been interesting.  If something could have gone wrong this week it surely went wrong - that is for sure.  Everything fell through this week - it was kind of an ugly week.  Our baptism dates fell through; everyone that was progressing isn't right now.  No one could come to church and when we were contacting no one wanted to receive us.  It was great fun.  Me and my companion really learned a lot.  Sometimes it is not about what you are able to accomplish during the week - it is about the effort that you put into working.  The Lord doesn't bless us for the results, the Lord blesses us for the efforts that we make.  I was really able to learn a lot about that and see the Lord bless us.  We were able to finish the week really well though.  Yesterday we had District Conference and one of the converts received the Melchizedek Priesthood.  It really was a blessing and to be able to see someone progress and to be able to have such a sacred responsibility.  Then in afternoon we went looking for a contact and we found him.  We had a really awesome lesson with him and we just talked with him and he said that before he was able to go to church and that he loved it and feels that the church is true but sometimes the circumstances effect your life and that he felt bad that he hasn't been back.  He just expressed a sincere desire to change his life and to be able to make his relationship with God better.  It made me realize what a great blessing it is to  no matter where we are in life we can always repent and make it back.  God loves us all so much that repentance is always there for us.  Let's take advantage of it then - we all should repent daily to partake of these blessings.

March 18, 2013

It was a great week.  Besides the fact that I had to travel just about every day this week, that's alright - it was fun!  Tuesday me and one of the Elders in my district went to Tegucigalpa for a meeting for the leaders and we were there just about all day.  We got back at about 6 that night so I just told him that he was stuck with me for the rest of the night and we were going to go and take advantage of the situation.  We went and spent about all night knocking doors (which is great fun with a good companion)!  We went and were rejected like 10 consecutive houses it was rough!  We then just passed by a member to see how they were and then went contacting again.  The first door we knocked, the people asked who it was and we just responded "the missionaries", the lady and her husband then opened the door and told us to enter.  They are a family and super positive; we have hopes to put a baptism date with them.  Another lade that we are visiting (Lela) is super nice.  We went to teach her the other day and she told us that she wanted to be baptized so clearly we put a date with her.  The highlight of the whole week was that we got to see the broadcast of the temple dedication.  It was so awesome; I am so grateful to speak English and to have understood the words that left President Uchtdorf's mouth!  It was awesome!  It was just a testimony builder that this really is the Lord's church.  I learned and understood a lot more as well about the Lord's blessing in the temple.  I also noticed that the prophet and apostles are all happy and fun loving guys!  It's true - this gospel brings happiness so why the heck aren't we happy all the time.  Sometimes we just have to close our eyes to the bad things and only see the blessings.

March 11, 2013

What a week!  I am now training and my companion is from San Pedro Sula.  He is a really nice Elder but he doesn't understand a lot of the doctrine or know a lot of the doctrine but it will be a lot of fun.  I am super excited to be with a Latin again to just be speaking Spanish all the time!  Changes were super interesting - President threw me a curve ball this change.  Not only am I training but I have been called to be a district leader here in my area.  So it will be a really awesome transfer.  We had a really sweet experience this week.  We went to go visit this old guy from the branch and for the past three months I have been asking this man for references but haven't received a single one until the other day.  We went looking for these two ladies that are less actives and we ended up finding them and their families.  It was sweet.  We went with the member and he talked to them forever but he got them convinced that the church where they were going was completely incorrect and that they were lost in that church and then he convinced them to come to our church and even invited them.  They were super nice people and they came to church on Sunday.  It just helped me realize that it doesn't matter how many times you have to ask someone for a reference they will eventually give one if you keep asking.  I have really learned a lot this week and have been really humbled by the spirit with these new opportunities I have.  The spirit really is living and he can guide our every step if we just learn to listen to his voice.  The more we listen the more he speaks.  This has to be the Lord's work because if it wasn't there wouldn't be so many miracles like there are.  Look for the miracles in your lives - they are there and there are many - you just have to look for them.

March 4, 2013

Transfers are this week and it's going to be a good time!  I know for sure that I am going to have a new companion.  President called me this past week one morning right before I was going to start my personal study.  I answered and he said Elder Lake and asked me how I was, the basics like normal and then said, "the Lord has called you to be a trainer and you need to come to Tegucigalpa tomorrow."  I am super excited!  It will be a lot of fun to be able to train a new missionary again.  While we were at the meeting for trainers President had a copy of Doctrine and Covenants Section 4 that he gave out to all of us and we all read it.  He then said this is a covenant that we are all going to make.  He had us all sign one that he kept.  I have been studying a lot about it this week and it really hit me.  The Lord doesn't call the people that are perfect to serve.  It really hit me.  He just wants us to have a desire to serve and to be better.  The Lord has a lot of trust in us and we have a lot of work to do.  It will be awesome though.