Week 91

WHATS UP PEOPLE! this week was really good, time really has been flying by.

This week was full of activities and its been lots of fun! Monday we had the mission Christmas conference, Wednesday we had a Spanish Group Christmas party and did a white elephant gift exchange which was really fun, Thursday was Christmas eve and after 6 we couldn't proselyte so a member invited us over to play the guitar and sing Christmas songs with a bunch of other families which was super fun. Friday was Christmas and it was great to get to talk with you guys! saturday we went out to eat with Roger and José and had a really good time! after the ward did like a little talent show/music recital and a lot of people came which was really cool. 

We had some really cool lessons this week and have been working really hard lately but havent been seeing much outward results. Sometimes thats just how things go i guess! but i know it'll start getting better soon, its gotta pick up eventually! 

We are teaching a few families which is a huge blessing but so far they are all pretty non committed, the have a lot of potential to progress soon, i guess this is what makes missionary work fun! it'd be too easy to just baptize people all day haha although i wouldnt mind! but i know that this is the lords work and that things will happen in his time. 

Love you guys, hope you have a great week! 

Para siempre Dios esté con vos! 

Week 90

HEY PEOPLE! whats good! this week was a long time ago haha so today is p-day because yesterday we had the Mission Christmas Conference in New Albany Indiana which was really cool.  But to be honest I'm having a hard time remembering just about anything right now haha

Our car was in the shop for a few days this week but we got it back pretty soon (especially compared to the last time we dropped it off for 6 weeks haha) but we biked around a lot of trailer parks and met some cool people, nothing super big though.

We have been trying our best to find new investigators but right now it seems to be our challenge, we can find Hispanic people and teach them the first lesson but then many times just because of the nature of their lives and their work, i don't care how busy you think you are, i promise you, migrant workers are more busy haha

Also this week our bishop took us to the worlds largest underground Christmas lights display here in Louisville! its called Lights under Louisville and its like some huge abandoned mining cave that they decorate with Christmas lights and music which was pretty cool!

Anyway, i am excited to see you on friday! Love you, hope you have a great week and a Merry Christmas!

¡Para siempre Dios esté con vos! 

Week 89

What's up people! This week was crazy busy haha it was a good week but we had a lot going on!
 Monday is isn't after I get mailed you guys I got in a fender bender so our car is going back to the shop next week. Hopefully it won't take 6 weeks like last time haha but we'll see! Back to biking haha but it's not super bad because it's been in the 70's here all weekend so can't really complain.

Tuesday we had a new missionary training for all the new missionaries and their trainers which went really good. Wednesday we started an exchange in New Albany and it went really
good. I did a baptismal interview for an investigator they are teaching and she seemed absolutely solid.

The next day was Thursday and we had a Zone Conference for all the missionaries in the zone and the Zone leaders asked me to give a training which went really good. I gave the same training to three different groups and by the third time I had lost track of what I had said and it felt like I was repeating myself a lot haha but hopefully it made sense to everyone. Right after the zone conference I went on another exchange in New Albany and we went over to see the
investigator that I interviewed the day before and she was like laughing her head off and tripping all over herself, and then she would start crying and she told me she loved me haha she was plastered drunk! The day after I interviewed her to be baptized haha needless to say she wasn't baptized. Hopefully if she can figure everything out she will be soon.

That next day, we found out that Elder Clawson had left the phone in New Albany with me and had been in Louisville without a phone the whole day but it ended up working out and we got back to our normal companions and normal areas okay. BUT THEN I got a call that I had to do a baptismal interview for the zone leaders, but I already had one scheduled for the sister missionaries investigator at the same time, so I had been back in Louisville for like 2 hours and then went back to Indiana on an exchange to do a baptismal interview for somebody else and one of the zone leaders interviewed the sisters investigator, which went really good.

Then, on Saturday night at like 10 I get a call from the sisters telling me that they're investigator wanted to be baptized but was moving on Tuesday, so we worked it out with the ward and the mission presidents approval and I interviewed the lady during 3rd hour of church and then immediately after church we had a baptismal service and she asked me to baptize her, so within the span of like 3 hours the sisters decided to do it today, I interviewed her and then dunked
her haha it was nuts! Later that day we went and saw the Cuban family I told you about and this was our second time meeting with them and when the mom saw us she shouted "oh children so happy to see you!" And then proceeded to grab my companion on the shoulders and give him the little cheek kiss greeting thing and then do the same to me haha it's just a cultural thing (kinda like in Italy how the kiss both sides but in Cuba they only do the right cheek) haha so you just never know what you're gunna get when you teach Cubans. Then that night we had the area Spanish fireside which I had to conduct but it went really good, I've learned a lot this week and it's definitely been busy haha anyway I love you guys, hope you have a great week!

¡Para siempre Dios esté con vos!

Week 88

Whats up people!! 

This week has been a decent week, we've come to the end of the road with a lot of old investigators which left us with a lot of time to find and we started teaching 3 or 4 families this week which was a huge blessing. Pretty much anyone we teach is new since most other investigators have gone for one reason or another. I've really re-learned the principle of relying on prayer which was really good for me. When life beats you to your knees, might as well pray while your down there haha but I've really found strength in relying on God through prayer. I know I've learned that a million times before but it was a great reminder this week.

Other than that it was a pretty normal week, doing what we can and things are slowly getting better> i feel like we've weathered most of the storm and are now slowly trying to climb out alive haha we have seriously been blessed with some awesome families! we've taught all of them the 1st lesson and have a bunch of appointments set up with them so we'll see of all of them which ones stick. We started teaching a Cuban family last night who are so cool! the english sister missionaries found them last week and told us to go by and visit them and they are like so friendly, we barely met them and immediately we were treated like family, it was pretty cool. they were asking if we were married and telling us we needed to find ourselves a Cuban wife haha so i like patted my companion and kinda gave him the "go ahead" facial expression and they thought it was really funny and they told me i was too scared and wouldnt be able to handle a Cuban women haha so i explained that i had a girlfriend that was waiting for me, and they were really confused and were like, wait the 2 muchachas you came last week? haha and i was like NO NO NO they are sister missionaries haha but im pretty excited to keep teaching them, its cool to know about other peoples cultures because they think its really cool when you know about certain foods of theirs or other cultural things, it almost like gains their trust really quick. 

Anyway i love you guys alot, hope you have a great week and that you always count your blesings! 

Para siempre Dios esté con vos! 

Week 87

Whats up people! this week was not very busy to say the least haha we have a very small teaching pool and it continues to get smaller haha but its been pretty good. 

We started teaching a very smart 11 year old girl named Naomi, she had met with sister missionaries in the past and we picked her up this week. One of the first things she asked us was if she needed to be baptized again haha to which we responded ehhhh maybe haha no im just kidding we told her she needed to get baptized again haha but the biggest problem with that is we dont know if her mom will approve it and she is going to Cuba for 4 weeks so we'll pick her back up when she returns! But i really love teaching kids, its really easy and fun. they are so much more open to the spirit and all we have to do is explain it in simple terms and bear our testimonies and they will agree every time. 

We also picked up a little family, its a grandmother (who has 12 kids in total!!) and her 30 something year old daughter who has 5 kids of her own but they are very nice and genuine people and accepted our message but are VERY set in their beliefs. They told us they would be willing to read and pray about the Book of Mormon though so we'll be following up with them for sure. We'll see what happens! 

Also just received a notice saying that my mission will be extended one week due to a change in the amount of time native speakers spend in the MTC (before was 12 days now it will be 3 weeks) so every transfer after february will be extended one week. Which means i will come home on the 23rd of March instead of the 16th!

Anyway love you guys a lot, hope you have a great week!

Para siempre Dios esté con vos! 

Week 86

Whats up people! This week was another one haha it has definitely been a finding week! but we didn't find to many people haha how do i say this, i don't wanna say that this week sucked but we are struggling to find people to teach! we've seen a ton of less active members and we've tried really hard to find new people but we just haven't had much luck. We are planning on changing a few things and i'm pretty excited to keep going. we had a lesson last night with a less active member and in the middle of the lesson his wife came in and we were able to teach her which was really difficult haha she is from Vietnam and doesnt speak much english. (or spanish haha) but she works as a nail doing lady or whatever its called and she is NEVER home but we were finally able to teach her and it went really good. before we left she made us a HUGE plate of Vietnamese food which was cool! 

Jose is doing super good, he is still fighting some pretty big battles but he has been doing super well and progressing a lot. I really love that guy! we were talking with him this week and he was telling us that he was a different kind of convert because he was never religious before like he wasnt catholic before or baptist before but he said he feels like he's 100% Mormon haha the more i think about it the more i realize how Golden he was! like because he knew nothing about religion or God before he had like no preconceived notions of false teachings embedded into him and even though he wasnt actively searching, just because he was open all we had to do was teach him true doctrine and the spirit worked in him and conversion was a natural process. Super cool to be a part of and to see the change in him. 

Well people, hope you have a great week and a happy thanksgiving! Love you! 

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!

Week 85

People! whats going on! this week was another crazy one. 

Tuesday i said goodbye to Elder Weeks and picked up my brand new companion, Elder Clawson. he's from Silverdale, Washington and took a few years of Spanish in high school which is great. He knows a lot more than i did when i first came out haha but it's been a pretty decent first week. i wouldn't say we've exhausted all out efforts with baptizing José but we have definitely come to the end of the road with a lot of other investigators this week, a lot of the people we used to teach we haven't seen in a while so we're kinda in a finding mode, we teach a lot of new people for one time and then they disappear and we never can find them again, so were just like cycling through the people trying to find the prepared ones.

 I've learned so much about charity this week. Without it, its almost impossible to do anything successfully in missionary work. and i think that's the reason or motive for anything Gospel related. We can keep the commandments out of fear of being punished or because we want blessings but we don't actually avoid the punishment or receive the blessings until we keep the commandments because we love God. (John 14:15) and the same applies to missionary work. You cant do it unless you love everyone involved in it, that lesson has been clearly impressed on my mind this week. 

That's pretty much everything, i love you guys and i hope you have a great week! Pray for José, he needs all the prayers he can get! 

Para Siempre Dios esté con vos!

Week 84

HEY PEOPLE! i don't even know what to say about this week haha i guess i can start with the biggest news, José got baptized! i was so dang excited i had to like restrain myself from doing the baptism dance after haha but it went really good, it was really stressful because we had to like organize everything because none of the leaders of the church speak Spanish so like we were in charge of everything haha but it ended up being really good. José was really happy after, before he was a nervous wreck though haha he's like really timid and kinda quiet and this week before the baptism we asked him if he would like to share his testimony immediately after his baptism and he just said no way haha he said he really didn't like to talk in front of people, his actual words were "maybe after a year of being a member I'll give my testimony" haha so we said okay that's fine no big deal, so we didn't put it in the program. Well the member who was conducting the meeting decided to just say to heck with the program and he invited José to give his testimony, and he just looked at me and said "nooooo!" haha but he got up and gave his testimony and it went really good! it was a lot of work but it was so worth it, it was probably the most amazing experience to see him from start to finish, he has come a long way and learned a lot and it has been so rewarding to teach him and get to know him more. but its not ending there! to the surprise of everyone I'm not getting transferred! President Brough called and asked me to train another brand new missionary haha so I'll be staying here in Louisville for at least 2 more transfers! (and i only have 3 left haha) but I'm super excited to train a new missionary again but i think the biggest feeling is shock haha i really didn't see that one coming! So maybe there's something i didn't learn the first time that i need to learn this time haha

Other than all that this week was like CRAZY! i had to do an emergency exchange with the Zone Leaders to interview a 16 year old girl for baptism and it was up in the air if she would qualify for baptism or not but with some help from President Brough we decided that she would so she got baptized on Saturday which was pretty cool. Also a lady who Elder Weeks contacted on the street on an exchange like 2 months ago got baptized on Saturday also which was pretty cool!

anyway, i love you guys a lot and im so grateful for you! keep on keeping on!

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!  

​

Week 83

Whats up people! another one down! this week was pretty good! i feel like there's a lot that's been going on. we've been staying busy for sure! 

This week we have been seeing José a lot to prepare him for his baptism this week and were pretty excited for him, he feels really nervous and apprehensive but is ready and willing to take the step so this Saturday he's getting dunked! its pretty exciting. 

This week we've been doing a ton of service for people, we've helped paint a deck, cut down a tree, helped someone move out, helped someone else move out and in haha we've definitely been putting in the service hours! but its been good, i feel like service is the very essence of missionary work, its what Christ did and we have the opportunity as missionaries to serve all different types of people so its been really good. 

I've also been really impressed with the power that the Scriptures have in peoples lives, especially the Book of Mormon. ITS TRUE PEOPLE!! yall should read it sometime its pretty good haha (read Doctrine and Covenants 84:85) Other than that not much to report on, love you guys hope you have a great week! 

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!

Week 82

People! whats going on! this week was another crazy one.

Tuesday i said goodbye to Elder Weeks and picked up my brand new companion, Elder Clawson. he's from Silverdale, Washington and took a few years of Spanish in high school which is great. He knows a lot more than i did when i first came out haha but it's been a pretty decent first week. i wouldn't say we've exhausted all out efforts with baptizing José but we have definitely come to the end of the road with a lot of other investigators this week, a lot of the people we used to teach we haven't seen in a while so we're kinda in a finding mode, we teach a lot of new people for one time and then they disappear and we never can find them again, so were just like cycling through the people trying to find the prepared ones.

 I've learned so much about charity this week. Without it, its almost impossible to do anything successfully in missionary work. and i think that's the reason or motive for anything Gospel related. We can keep the commandments out of fear of being punished or because we want blessings but we don't actually avoid the punishment or receive the blessings until we keep the commandments because we love God. (John 14:15) and the same applies to missionary work. You cant do it unless you love everyone involved in it, that lesson has been clearly impressed on my mind this week. 

That's pretty much everything, i love you guys and i hope you have a great week! Pray for José, he needs all the prayers he can get! 

Para Siempre Dios esté con vos!

Week 81

Whats up people! This week went pretty good! days and weeks and eventually months just keep running together so ill try to remember what happened this week haha i think the most important and excited thing is that Jose finally accepted a baptismal date! its been a long time coming but we have 3 investigators with a date and their dates are all for like the Saturday before ill probably be transferred here so i'm working really hard to get them baptized before i get transferred haha  but its been going really good.

Tuesday we had a multizone conference which went really good and after i went on an exchange with the new albany Elders and did more tracting than i had ever done in my whole mission haha it wasnt very successful or fun but it was a good learning opportunity! I interviewed one of their investigators who got baptized on saturday which was cool.

One of our baptismal dates texted us at 3 in the morning this week and told us, and i quote, "brother, he is here and he is telling me to be submerged in the river of his spirit, hallelujah praises be the lord" and so at 3 in the morning i read that and thought to myself, no im probably just not reading it right since its 3 in the morning so i went back to bed and the next morning sure enough it said the same thing haha so we were a little concerned but he ended up moving to Texas a few days latter haha so the missionaries in Texas will get to keep teaching him. 

Later that week i did another baptismal interview for some spanish sisters here in Louisville which was pretty cool.  it took up a long time because it was a pretty far drive but it was a good interview.

Over all things are going really good here, time is going faster and faster everyday its crazy!

Love you guys, hope you have a great week! 

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!  

Week 80

Whats up people! this week went really good!

Monday after our normal P-day stuff we spent pretty much all our day cleaning and throwing away stuff. The old apartment had missionaries living there for the past 9 years so you can imagine how that went haha

Tuesday we had a lesson with Wanda and had what we call a "come to Jesus talk" with her and it went really well! she is learning alot and progressing pretty well but she just doesnt feel ready yet. I think time will tell with her.

Wednesday we went on an exchange with our Zone Leaders in Jeffersonville Indiana which was super good, i learned a lot. I think it makes being a leader so much easier when you have good leaders above you haha its a pretty cool cycle.

Thursday was a pretty good day, we had District Meeting in New Albany and later that day had a sit down meeting with our bishop here to see how we could organize the ward efforts and the missionary efforts better which was pretty cool. Our bishop is a pretty young guy and hes a convert but he's one of the best bishops I've had on my mission. We also had a lesson with Miguel that went really good, except he told us he was moving to Texas and that he was gunna get baptized there haha so we'll see what happens with that. 

Friday was the big day. we woke up at 6:30 and started packing and cleaning and when the truck came to move us at 10 is exactly when the rain started haha but it turned out okay and we got it hammered out by about 6 that night we were all situated and ready to go.

Saturday we had a lesson with our new investigator Milton who is super super Solid, he is just soaking up all the lessons and he is progressing pretty well. Other than that the only real note worthy story from saturday was when i contacted a lady at like 8:30 at night who proceded to tell me she was intoxicated and she could talk because she had to take her kids to the store, i then said "well you arent going to drive are you?" to which she responded "no no no no.....i am." haha so we tried our best to get her to not drive but werent succesful so we tried to get off the streets where she would be driving quick haha

Sunday was a pretty good day, Milton came to church and loved it haha he is super solid! a little on the quiet side but he is great. We also had a Spanish fireside here in Louisville that went pretty good, i had to organize it and conduct it but it turned out really good.

Other than that, not much to report! Just trying to save some souls here haha love you guys, have a great week!

¡Para siempre Dios esté con vos!

Week 79

Whats happening people? this week was pretty good, it went by like crazy fast haha we did a few exchanges which was good and we had some crazy experiences! Wednesday i went on another exchange in New Albany Indiana and had a really good day with the Elder serving there, he is about to finish his mission but has been working really hard in his little area so our day was super fun. Later when i got back to Louisville we went and saw an investigator named Yoel, and we brought a member of our ward and this guy Yoel told us that he didnt pray about the book of mormon because he already knew it wasnt true because he watched a video on youtube about how José Smith mistranslated the book of abraham haha it was like shocking how oblivious he was but we gave him the best chance he could to find out for himself what was true and he just blatantly shot it down so there was nothing we could do for him! it was a good learning experience for me of how important the spirit is in missionary work, without it we couldn't convince anyone of anything! After that lesson we got a ride down to Shelbyville to do a baptismal interview for a guy named Luis that the Hermanas are teaching, who i taught like a year and a half ago in Shelbyville, but it was a really cool experiance to see him from where he was when i left to where he was now, i was pretty grateful to get to be a part of that process. 

The next day the Assistants to the President came and picked me and Elder Weeks up and drove us to their area which is downtown Louisville, so not very far haha, but we all four worked in their area all day and did whats called a Blitz, where we trade companions and work the same area which was super fun! there are some VERY interesting people in Downtown Louisville haha it was so crazy. 

Later that week we had a huge like tri-stake Hispanic Cultural Fiesta which was super cool! they did like a bunch of different foods from different countries and did like dances and different little acts from a bunch of different places which was super fun.

Yesterday was the first week this transfer we didnt have anyone at church so we spent the whole day running around trying to track everybody down to see what happened. We did have a pretty cool experience sunday morning though, so earlier in the week when i went to New Albany, i left elder Weeks in louisville to take car of everything by himself since the other missionary doesnt speak spanish, so they were biking by and a car started honking at them and motioning for them to come over, so elder weeks bikes over and meets this cuban guy named Luis, now the thing about cubans is they speak CRAZY! like their spanish is almost unrecognizable! the speak very fast and dont pronounce the first sound in the word or the last sound so they just like mumble like crazy, so long story short my brand new companion couldnt understand what this guy was saying but he managed to give him our phone number. So sunday morning i get a call from this guy and i couldnt understand a word haha he sounded like the cuban darth vader haha but i was able to make out that he wanted to know the address of the church so i gave it to him and told him when it started and when we got to church sure enough there he was! turns out he is a member and recently moved here from spain where he was baptized and because he saw my companion biking around he was able to find the church haha pretty cool how it worked out! 

Other than that, not much to report, love you guys and thanks for all your support! 

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!

Week 78

WHATS UP MY PEOPLE!! this week went super good! we finally got our car back on Friday which was awesome!

Just a quick run down of the week, Tuesday we had a new missionary training for all the new missionaries and their trainers which was super good and kind of a cool change of pace. After that we did two back to back exchanges with the New Albany elders so i worked in Indiana 2 days this week which was pretty fun haha but we had some cool experiences and taught some cool Hoosier fans.

Ever since we got the car back on Friday we haven't hardly had time to eat we've just been flying all over the area trying to get to the places we hadn't been all transfer but its been super good! we started teaching a few new people and yesterday found a guy named Miguel who had talked with missionaries on the street before so we came by and taught him the Restoration and he was really excited so we invited him to be baptized and he actually thanked us for inviting him which was a first haha so we set a baptismal date for him in early November and he seems pretty excited which is great! So we'll be working with him pretty closely for the next little while, it never ceases to amaze me how the lord works in preparing people to accept the Gospel. I feel really confident and excited for Miguel, so hopefully he'll be getting dunked!

Other than that not anything too note worthy. Lately I've noticed more and more how much I've learned on my mission, i think i really have learned how to live the Gospel in everyday life not just as a missionary and I'm glad i spent these 2 years to  serve God, i can already tell that this is shaping the rest of my life!

Love you guys, hope you have a great week!

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!

Week 77

Whats happening people? this week was pretty good, it went by like crazy fast haha we did a few exchanges which was good and we had some crazy experiences! Wednesday i went on another exchange in New Albany Indiana and had a really good day with the Elder serving there, he is about to finish his mission but has been working really hard in his little area so our day was super fun. Later when i got back to Louisville we went and saw an investigator named Yoel, and we brought a member of our ward and this guy Yoel told us that he didnt pray about the book of mormon because he already knew it wasnt true because he watched a video on youtube about how José Smith mistranslated the book of abraham haha it was like shocking how oblivious he was but we gave him the best chance he could to find out for himself what was true and he just blatantly shot it down so there was nothing we could do for him! it was a good learning experience for me of how important the spirit is in missionary work, without it we couldn't convince anyone of anything! After that lesson we got a ride down to Shelbyville to do a baptismal interview for a guy named Luis that the Hermanas are teaching, who i taught like a year and a half ago in Shelbyville, but it was a really cool experiance to see him from where he was when i left to where he was now, i was pretty grateful to get to be a part of that process. 

The next day the Assistants to the President came and picked me and Elder Weeks up and drove us to their area which is downtown Louisville, so not very far haha, but we all four worked in their area all day and did whats called a Blitz, where we trade companions and work the same area which was super fun! there are some VERY interesting people in Downtown Louisville haha it was so crazy. 

Later that week we had a huge like tri-stake Hispanic Cultural Fiesta which was super cool! they did like a bunch of different foods from different countries and did like dances and different little acts from a bunch of different places which was super fun.

Yesterday was the first week this transfer we didnt have anyone at church so we spent the whole day running around trying to track everybody down to see what happened. We did have a pretty cool experience sunday morning though, so earlier in the week when i went to New Albany, i left elder Weeks in louisville to take car of everything by himself since the other missionary doesnt speak spanish, so they were biking by and a car started honking at them and motioning for them to come over, so elder weeks bikes over and meets this cuban guy named Luis, now the thing about cubans is they speak CRAZY! like their spanish is almost unrecognizable! the speak very fast and dont pronounce the first sound in the word or the last sound so they just like mumble like crazy, so long story short my brand new companion couldnt understand what this guy was saying but he managed to give him our phone number. So sunday morning i get a call from this guy and i couldnt understand a word haha he sounded like the cuban darth vader haha but i was able to make out that he wanted to know the address of the church so i gave it to him and told him when it started and when we got to church sure enough there he was! turns out he is a member and recently moved here from spain where he was baptized and because he saw my companion biking around he was able to find the church haha pretty cool how it worked out! 

Other than that, not much to report, love you guys and thanks for all your support! 

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!

Week 76

Whats up people! this week was pretty good, no crashes or nothing haha it was busy and it went by super quick! the days and weeks are slowly starting to blend in together and i cant even remember half the stuff that goes on anymore haha but ill try my best to remember! 

This week i went on an exchange in Indiana which went pretty good, really like the city of New Albany, its a lot different than Louisville! this week i had 3 baptismal interviews as well which was a little nerve wracking but they all went pretty good! 

We've made some good progress with wanda as well, she accepted a baptismal date for late October so we'll be working with her a lot here soon! she still has some barriers but for the most part i feel like she could make her date! We've also seen some pretty good success with José, he's slowly but surely moving along. 

Because im the only District leader that speaks spanish here in Louisville i got a call the other day asking if i could come and do a baptismal interview in Shelbyville next week which will be super exciting to go back! Its actually kind of cool because the person getting baptized is someone that i taught last year when i was there! after the elders area got closed the sisters started teaching him and now he's getting baptized and i have to go back to interview him which is pretty crazy haha but i was excited to get that call!

other than that this week was pretty normal, still waiting to get the car back, its been a month now haha but other than that everythings going really good here! love you guys, have a great week! 

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!

Week 75

Whats up people! this week was crazy haha so its week 4 of the transfer and we STILL havent gotten the car back haha so its been really interesting and we've been biking alot! good news is i didnt get pooped on by anything this week but the bad news is that i did get hit by a truck again haha its a long stroy but the short version is im alive and fine haha and other than that this week went pretty good!

We saw a lot of less active families this week which was really good, a few that i've never met so hopefully we'll see a difference there. Also last week in my email i talked a little about a sister named Isabel who has been investigating for a long time, basically right now there is a lot of drama going on but when things calm down a little and she gets her situation figured out she will be getting baptized! so we'll see what happens there.

Also José is doing pretty good, he came to church again and he's learning slowly but surely. Actually as we were walking away from talking with the cop after i got hit on my bike he called me and told me he got in an accident and needed help translating to the cop he was talking to so we did and about an hour later he called us again and said that as him and his brother were driving home somebody else hit his brothers car haha so i had to talk to a few police officers on the phone and 2 or 3 tow truck guys haha so i think we've all been in enough accidents for one week.

other than that everything is pretty normal out here, just living the dream haha i really hope we'll get the car back this week but we'll see! love you guys, have a great week!

Para siempre Dios esté con vos! 

Week 74

WHATS UP PEOPLE! this week was another one haha not too bad! just to sum it up we still havent gotten the car back so we're still biking every where but no more fire works or trucks hitting us but we did get pooped on by a bird hahaha but other than that not much to complain about! 

We've had some pretty Good lessons with Wanda and José this week, José couldn't make it to church yesterday but wanda came and had a really good time. and we had a really good come to jesus talk with José this week and he is really motivated to read the Book of Mormon and get an answer, so were really excited for him. His progression is a little slow right now but he's making great steps in the right direction. Wanda is pretty much the same, slow but steady progression. Other than that right now we're kind of hurting for investigators! we actually saw Emanuel this week for the first time in like a month and he has gotten worse, still says he wants to change his life but not sure theres much he's willing to change. 

So here in the ward there is a lady named isabel who has been coming to church for over a year and a half but still hasnt been baotized because of some complications with her kids father, but yesterday we went and visited him in the hospital and he seems to be opening up to the gospel so hopefuly we will be able to take advantage of this situation! 

 This week we have interviews with the mission president which will be really good! Other than that nothing new, just working our hearts out here in Louisville! Love you guys, hope you have a great week! 

Para siempre Dios esté con vos! 

Week 73

 Translating Relief Society for all the Spanish Speaking women!

Whats going on people! this week has been one crazy week haha so last monday we dropped our car off at the body shop and so its been nothing but biking all week haha i also picked up my new missionary on tuesday! he's name is Elder Weeks and he is from a itty bitty place called Clarston Utah (pop. 530 something) and he just graduated high school! I'm super excited to work with him, he's a stud worker and knows his stuff so i got really lucky! training him should be a breeze. 

So right after transfer meeting on tuesday we had an appointment with the Carillo family, so we biked down there and the lesson went really well, Wanda is really starting to get a strong testimony. On the way back we were biking and a car drove by and threw a fire cracker at us haha nothing happened it was just really loud and i thought it was super funny because it happened in like the first 2 hours of Elder Weeks mission haha 

Later this week we were biking to an appointment on the sidewalk and a guy in a truck turned right in front of me into a parking lot and i couldnt stop fast enough so i slammed into the side of the truck and put a huge dent in his truck haha it didnt hurt at all but i like bounced off and landed on my feet and the guy jumped out of his car and asked if i was okay and i like thought it was my fault so i like apologized and told the guy i was sorry and the guy just made sure i was alright and then left super quick so i thought i got lucky that he didnt get mad at me but after i realized i didnt do anything wrong and i should of pretended like i was injured or something haha but oh well it was too late!

Other than that we had a really good and busy week, we've managed to put in a lot of really good work even being on bikes all week! We are teaching one of the members brothers named José and both him and Wanda came to church and we had a really good showing of members this week too, so they both really enjoyed it which was sweet. 

Other than that every things going swell, living la vida loca haha love you guys, hope you have a great week! 

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!

Week 72

FAMILY! Whats up people! So this week we got some pretty exciting news! On Saturday we got a call from President Brough and he told us Elder Birky would be getting transferred and that I would be training a new missionary! I'm super excited!  President also told me Ive been called to be the District Leader here in the New Albany District, so the pressure is on haha I'll be working over time with an Elder fresh out of the MTC and a District to take care of so I'm really excited for the opportunity and think it will help me grow a lot. 

Other than that this week went great, pretty normal! right now we are teaching a few part member families and have seen a few progress! one thing I've learned a lot lately in my mission is that investigators get so much farther when the ward is involved! 

We are teaching a 25 year old named José who is the brother of a member here and he came to church this week and seemed to like it! it was his first time in any church ever so it was a pretty new experience for him! the sister in sacrament gave a 35 minute talk on the pioneers and it was reaaalllyy dry and not very applicable but the good thing about our investigators not speaking English is we do the translation for the sacrament meeting so we can pretty much twist whatever the speakers say and make it applicable and more interesting for the Spanish speakers haha so that's always fun! 

We are teaching the Carillo family still too, they are teh ones who moved here recently from Venezuela and its going good! they have some concerns and its hard to find them all home at the same time but hopefully things will start picking up with them soon. We are helping with a little bit of English too and the only thing the mom remembers how to say is "girl you crazy" in a super think Venezuelan accent haha its pretty funny!  

We also had a fun little family night activity last night for the Spanish group and watched meet the Mormons and had popcorn with lime and hot sauce haha that's one thing about Hispanics they put lime salt and hot sauce on nearly everything! but we had a few investigators come and it went super well! 

Love you guys, hope you have a great week!

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!

Week 71

WHATS UP GUYS! This week was a pretty good one! definitely a big learning experience haha Something that I love about missionary work is that every mistake is an opportunity to grow. Not that this whole week was a big mistake but it wasn't the best week we've had and I've learned and grown a lot.  Our focus to work with less active members has been good and we've seen success but i think we've neglected finding for our own efforts and our number of lessons kind of took a hit but I think I learned a great lesson about finding balance in our work.

Monday we had a really weird experience with some ward members, we had been asked by an older guy in our ward to help him move a desk or something and we didn't really know what he meant but we told him we could come help him but later got a call from the Elders quorum president asking us to help another family move and then later go help this brother with his desk and when we got to the house to help the family move some of the members heard we we going to help the guy move his desk later and pretty much just told us no, we cant do that and we weren't allowed to go... it was just really weird and I'm not really sure what happened but we were pretty much just put in a really awkward situation with the members.

Tuesday we had a really good experience we had been biking all day and it was about 8 o'clock and we had felt like we needed to go visit a certain investigator, so we head out on the bikes and we see the sky start to storm really bad and there was like flash flood warnings and stuff and  we ended up getting to this guys house on the bikes but we were super wet and he ended up not being there, so we thought about what to do and we decided to visit a lady who had been part of the church previously in our life and we knocked her door and she told us with tears in her eyes that she had been praying for help and five minutes later we knocked her door which was really cool! 

Wednesday we were on an exchange with our zone leaders and it was a really good day. We met a lot of cool people and a lot of people who weren't to friendly with us haha but over all it was a good day.

Thursday was not as good haha we were driving to an appointment and we were stopped in traffic and got rear-ended really hard and the guy took off and so our car is totally smashed in the back, our bike rack went like into the trunk haha but the worst part was that it was literally like right in front of a strip club haha so we had to pull over in the strip club parking lot to fill out the accident reports and one of the witnesses for the police has a stripper and the other one was the bartender haha so that was not the best and it probably means we'll be with out a car for a while but we'll see what happens! we are so far just driving around with it haha 

Other than that this week has been pretty normal! working hard and seeing lots of little miracles! love you guys, hope you have a great week!

Para siempre Dios esté con vos!