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!