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!