May 20, 2013

This week has been awesome.  We started out the week with interchanges and it was awesome.  We were working hard than at night all of our appointments feel through.  We just started contacting the houses right close to where we live.  We started contacting a house and a girl walks out to talk to us.  We started talking and then she stops and starts talking in English.  We were shocked - it was super weird - to have our contact change real quickly into English and both me and my companion were shocked and stuttering speaking English.  Tuesday we were able to go to the Temple!  It was the best!  Even though in our travels to get there Satan was really trying to stop us from going.  There were a bunch of things that happened that almost caused us to not go.  When we finally got there it was such a great blessing.  It was awesome to be able to be in the temple receiving revelation from God for how we can do better and how we can help our investigators.  There is no better place to be than in the temple.  It's really God's house and he really is there. Things are all getting better here in the area.  We are working our butts off here and even though we don't have any baptism dates we are teaching a lot of positive people that will hopefully accept baptism dates this week.  The Lord blesses us for our efforts.  It blows me away being a missionary and seeing all the miracles that God does during the week changing peoples lives.

May 13, 2013

It was a great week with Mother's Day and all that good stuff.  My companion and I are really happy even though at times he really acts like a child - we get along really well.  We have really been seeing the miracles this week.  We have been visiting Leonardo just about every day trying to get him to accept a baptism date and progress more.  It just got complicated because his wife just had a baby and they are not married.  But with a lot of prayer and fasting we will see miracles.  We are also now teaching a guy named Melkis, he is the husband of a member.  He is progressing really well and we will hopefully put a baptism date with him right now when I leave from writing.  The Lord is powerful and he really answers prayers.  We had a zone conference with President this week and something that he said is that we need to be the kind of missionaries that we leave a mark on the area so that when the future missionaries come the members will say we want you to be like that Elder.  After a lot of time the branch is changing, they have all gotten excited to get working and to do what they are supposed to do.  It really is true with faith, prayers and the hope of a better future the Lord does the work.  If we do our part the Lord takes care of the outcome.  That is what matters. It doesn't matter if we baptize 100 - it matters that we do what the Lord wants!  WORK! WORK! WORK! That all there is.  We are working hard and loving life and I hope it's the same for you.  Pray for Melkis and the Ruiz Family.

May 6, 2013

 We really had an interesting week and Satan was fighting hard against us.  In one day we had really good plans and had confirmed all our plans and it was crazy to see how Satan worked against us.  We showed up to one of our first appointments and as we get there to begin teaching a Pastor from another church and a couple of the members of the other church all show up to visit this guys wife.  It was a little awkward but luckily our investigator speaks English so he told me that it was a little weird so it would be better to go back a different day.  We left that appointment to go to another appointment and we get there and the door was wide open to this guys house.  As we come to find out the firemen (which are right in front of this guys house) had just barely left - he had a fire there in the roof of his house and so he was in the process of cleaning up all the mess so we helped a few minutes and he decided it was better for us to go back the next day.  It was weird - me and my companion left laughing a little bit from all the things that had happened and not thinking anything else could go wrong.  Well we thought wrong.  We got to our last appointment of the day and it was weird - for the first time ALL the family was there.  We get there, sit down and we are talking for like 5 minutes and the power went out so me and my companion had to leave to go to our house.  It was ridiculous.  Satan has really worked hard against us this week to stop us from doing good things.  We ended the week in a fast and really the Lord is blessing us.  I started my fast pleading that we could baptize a family this month and if the Lord could send a family to church the next day.  As we showed up to the church we saw coming up the street a member and her husband who isn't a member.  It really was an answer to our fasting that the Lord wants us to baptize this month.  When they got to the church the sister told us that she wanted us to start visiting her husband so that he can get baptized and they can get married.  We have really seen a lot of miracles this week and we know that we have a great week to come.  The power of fasting and prayer is real.  Pray for Melkis and the Ruiz family so that they can get baptized this month.

April 29, 2013

This week has been interesting.  I just love when our plans fall through.  Viernes we had all of our plans set and ready for the night; all our plans were set in stone and we were really excited and then the power went out!  That is the worst thing in the world for a missionary here - when the power goes out - No power = no food, no working and you get really bored!  It was really funny - me and my companion were starving so I started to get creative.  I found a tin can, candles and a little metal cooling rack and we cooked food using that.  This week was awesome too - we found an awesome investigator - Felipe!  We taught him on Monday and then we haven't been able to go back because he has been working as a taxi driver in a different city  We saw him on Saturday and he had read from the introduction of the Book of Mormon and was about to finish 1st Nephi.  We were super excited.  Sunday came around and all of our investigators had bailed and didn't have plans to go to church.  I just started calling everyone I could to invite them.  I called Leonardo and he was like well I have this and this to do but I will try.  As we were sitting there starting the meeting he showed up!  We were both super excited.  We are really seeing the blessing even when things are rough.  We have been praying to have people come to church so that they can progress and we have been working our butts off and the Lord is answering our prayers.  He really hears and answers.  A lot of work to do but deep praying for us and we will have success!

April 22, 2013

We had a lot of success this week and it was great.  Starting out on Thursday I had interchanges with one of the Zone Leaders so that he could do Bernardos interview and he passed.  That night Elder Marin and I had a little party to celebrate our year in the mission.  Yesterday we had Bernardos baptism - it was Awesome!  He had me a little worried at first because he showed up 15 minutes late to his baptism - he really had me stressing!  One of my favorite things to do is to talk to the people after their baptism to ask them how they feel.  It just is a surety that this is the true Gospel because they all tell us how pure that they feel.  It was awesome.  Then yesterday after church we went visiting with one of the leaders from the branch and ended up finding a couple of positive families to be teaching.  The work is picking up and it looks like May will be a great month and if all goes well we will be baptizing families!  My companion and I are focusing in on teaching just families and whatever other chosen person that we can find.  Really when we put our mind to a purpose the Lord helps us fulfill it but if we don't have a purpose we don't do anything!  We have it in our minds that we are going to find, teach and baptize families and we have really been seeing the Lord bless us with many miracles in the process.  As we were teaching a family this week I asked the sister if she had received an answer to her prayers yet.  She paused for a minute and started to tell us that she had had a dream and that she thought it was her answer telling her that this is the true church.  It was awesome to see.  Now we just need to focus in on the husband so that he can have the same experience and receive his answer.  I know the Lord answers always to our prayers but we just have to look for the way he is responding.

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!