week 96

Week full of meetings and being sick!

Last pday I was starting to feel super sick with a fever and stuff. I woke up on Tuesday and it was even worse so Tuesday we weren't able to get much done. 

Wednesday we had our 8 week meeting for elder Lopez. It was super good and we both learned some new things on how to improve. 

Thursday we did some service at the peanut butter factory that's owned by the church. And later that day elder lopez got super sick so we were both trying to recover. 

Friday Elder Pearson from the 70 came to do a zone conference. Him and his wife were both superrrr bold haha. It was super good and I was sitting down almost sweating at the things they were saying haha. It made me realize a lot of things I need to improve on. He talked a lot about our circumstance and our attitude. Our circumstances should never effect our attitude. We can always be happy and positive no matter what our circumstances are. We were sent to this earth to be agents not objects and if we allow our circumstances to control us then we are not using our agency correctly. He talked about how there is no limit to our effort and diligence. We drew a little diagram called a frontier of faith. On the mission trials and barriers come. Great missionaries decide that they won't let that determine their diligence or effort. Average missionaries give up and make excuses. I'll send a picture of it. The way he explained it honestly blew my mind. It's a concept I have always thought but never been able to picture or heard it from someone else. He also talked about President Nelson. He said "President Nelson awakes most nights with Revelation and sometimes visits from above and immediately writes down what he received. I know this because he told me himself." I thought that was super cool. Revelation will never end and I'm so grateful for a living prophet that leads and guides us. Things will continue to change for the better. There were so many things he talked about that honestly blew my mind and I wish I could share it all with you pero no puedo. This week made me reflect a lot on the missionary I have been and who I have become these past two years. I hope and pray that I have accomplished and become what I needed to. Looking back I know there is more I could have done but one thing I've realized is that we will always feel like that in life. We are never going to be perfect in this life and we will always look back wishing we would've done something differently. We can't change the past but we can control what we are doing in the moment and in the future to be better.

Saturday Elder Lopez and I woke up still feeling super sick so we decided to go to the doctor. It turns out we both just had super bad allergies from all the pollen falling this year so it made us physically sick haha. He gave me some steroid shot thing and I'm taking allergy medicine so it's getting better.

Love y'all here's some pics. 

 

week 95 (no family letter week 94)

It was another great week! We have been working with a lot of people that have worked with the missionaries in the past. We are right on the edge to helping them resolve some concerns and be baptized. I feel like any day now we could be setting a lot of baptismal dates. One is José who has has some word of wisdom problems and another is Roberto who just needs to recognize his answer that the BOM is true. Another is Celinda who has received an answer but doesn't feel like it's a good enough answer. We are just waiting on a few things. We fasted this past week to see what else we could do to help our investigators and to give them extra strength. Keep them in your prayers!!

We got in contact with our investigator Richard. We found him a little while ago trying to visit a referral. We were waiting outside the complex for somebody to open the gate and he came up and asked if we were Mormons. He met with missionaries a couple years ago but was sever baptized. We couldnt get a hold of him for about a week but we found out he went to jail for some crazy stuff that happened haha. He really has amazing desires to change but we just need to help him get over a few issues. He's the man.

We helped paint a recent converts house in the ward for a couple days. I'll send some pictures so that. 

We also found some sick graffiti haha. Pictures below! 

This week we have a zone conference with Elder Pearson from the 70 so I'm excited for that. As well we have a meeting for Elder Lopez and all the other trainees. It's going to be another busy week and I'm excited to help these people change and get baptized!

Thanks for everything yall do for me I will talk to you next week :)

week 93

So today is the first day of the last transfer of my mission. I'm excited to finish here in Jersey Village with Elder Lopez. I got news that I will not be zone leader or anythin this transfer to finish out so it'll be fun to just focus on the area and training. I'm excited to finish my mission out strong. 

Yesterday we had a cool miracle! We were able to get in with our investigator Jose! He is a stud. He's been doing super good with the word of wisdom and reading in the Book of Mormon. We decided to teach him the plan of salvation and how he can save all his family members and ancestors through temple work. We set a date with him for May 5th and we are gonna go back to talk to him about doing baptisms for his ancestors. It was a great lesson!

I had an exchange with Elder Christensen this week. He knows a family here in the area and he said we should call them to see how they are doing. We gave them a call and it turned out that the mom of the family was in the hospital and they had been there for a couple days. They had decided not to call anybody from the church and when we called they said it was a blessing from the Lord and that they know that he watches out for them. They came to church last Sunday. The Lord really does guide his servants!  

I'm cutting this email short again today haha sorry!! Talk to yall next week 

week 92

Hey family so we another weird change. Elder Conley and I trio trained for a day in walker and then president called us that first night and said a missionary was getting transferred up to elder Conley and elder Lopez and I would go down to Jersey Village to train. It was bittersweet. I loved being with elder Conley and working in waller but in also loving it in Jersey Village and training elder Lopez. I know the Lord's hand is in every aspect of our lives no matter what and I feel that there's a big reason we were put back into Jersey Village.

Elder Lopez is such a stud. He's from Las Vegas and he understands Spanish perfectly and is getting good at talking too. His mom is from Chile and his dad is from Mexico. All the members love him already cause his last name is Lopez haha so we are getting in with them a lot. It's been fun. 

We only had about 3 days in our area this week but we managed to see lots of miracles. We went out and found 6 news and got 2 people to church in those three days. The Lord always helps us according to our faith and obedience. 

We also had a ward party and a ward baptism that we helped out with on Saturday. It was super fun and got some non members there. We set up lessons with a couple of them and should be seeing them this week. Our ward mission leader helps us out a lot too with getting in with certain people. 

We saw a big miracle with a guy that has investigated the church in the past. His son is on a mission and is the only member in the family. His name is Jose. He really wants to change his life around and quit some habits he has. We talked to him and made some goals with him so he can quit and be baptized before his son gets home. 

I'm so excited for my last General conference as a missionary. General conference as a missionary is the best. Elder Lopez was telling that a 70 went to the MTC and spoke while he was there. He invited them to ponder about a question they have in their life and he promised them that they would receive an answer if they pondered and prayed about it. I'm going to do that and if you havens question or something you are strugglin with, ponder and pray about it and in general conference you will receive an answer. 

Elder Jones came to visit too

This mission is so fun and time is flying by way too fast. I hope to make a difference in as many people's lives as I can. Love yall thanks for all the emails have a great week! 

week 91

There is so much I need to update on haha so much stuff has happened... 

Im going to start from the beginning. Elder Conley and I have now been in Waller together for 2 weeks. Waller is a small spanish branch with a lot of fire about missionary work. We have had more referrals in 2 weeks than I have my whole mission. People call us everyday with new people to teach and the members set up member presents and everything for us its amazing. We just show up and teach and the members do the rest. In a perfect world, that is how missionary work should work so if you arent helping the missionaries... talk to your friends and give them people to teach! Success comes through the invitation. 

We had a lesson this week with a pastor from a church that a member set up for us. We pick up a couple members to come with us and then they told us that they had invited a couple more people so we show up with 6 members and us haha. We brought the whole ejercito!! We walk in and sit down and everything was pretty normal until we started talking. They started to criticize our teaching because it wasnt the same way they teach and they wouldnt really let us teach anything to them. They would just throw out random info to us that we already knew. We ended up sharing about the book of mormon and testifying with the members and then we left. It was a good experience haha.

We taught a lady last week named Aurora. A member in our branch who is a straight cholo from compton called us and said he talked to the lady that cuts his hair about the church and she wanted us to come by. We showed up for the lesson and the member had invited three other members and the lesson was at the barber shop. So we go inside with four other people in suits and sit down while she is cutting hair and start teaching her along with everybody in the barber shop haha. Luckily everybody in there spoke spanish so they all understood. The lesson went super well and she even came to church on sunday. 

We got a sick book of mormon referral and went by to visit her. Her name was Angie and she said she said a commercial about the church on tv and felt she should get online and order a book of mormon. She sadly didnt speak spanish so we referred her to the english elders but she came to church and the elders are preparing her for baptism. 

We helped build a ramp going up to a trailer for some neighbors of a member family in the branch. The branch is super sweet because when somebody has service to do or anything for anybody the whole branch helps out. We had a bunch of members helping. They just wanted us to do a ramp but the whole trailer was in bad condition so we ended up fixing the whole trailer and yard. We trimmed trees, cleaned, did yardwork and many other things. It looked like a new house. The english elders are now teaching them too. 

Saturday was the coolest day ever. We got to go down to Sealy where I served over a year ago to go to a baptism of an investigator that Elder Conley and I have both taught there. He had been investigating the church for like 5 years and finally made the decision to be baptized. On our way there we stopped at the famous bellville meat market. They have the best barbecue ever. When we go to sit down at our table we hear somebody in a super thick southern accent say "hey elders!" I look up and it was a guy that used to own the missionary apartment complex out there when I was there named Marshall. He LOVES missionaries. I ate with him on new years last year. I gave him a big hug and talked to him for a while. It was so good to see him. Then we went to the baptism and I got to see the Garza family that I was able to find and baptize over a year ago. We all started to cry when we saw each other. The amount of love that I feel for that family is indescribable. I saw a bunch of people that I missed a ton. Tom was baptized on his 80th birthday. It was a very special experience and Im so glad I could be a part of it. On our way back we stopped by Marshalls house because he wanted to give us brownies haha and then we went back to waller. On our way back we got stopped by a bunch of african american cowboys. They were all riding horses and pulling trailers and stuff, blasting music in the middle of nowhere haha it was insane. We were stopped for about 45 minutes and there was about 1000 people on horses hah. It was the best day ever!

Elder Conley was here for 3 days before I got here and we didnt know anything about the branch or anything and on our first sunday it was fast and testimony meeting so we decided to introduce ourselves. We talked how excited we are to be here and change the branch into a ward. Every testimony after that was about missionary work and how excited they are to work with us. In priesthood all they did was make goals and talk about ways to improve missionary work. This branch is so fun and we are seeing so many miracles. Missionary work is contagious, If you get someone excited about it then it will catch to other people. You can be the difference. 

Tonight Elder Conley and I will be receiving a new trainee. His name is Elder Lopez and we are excited to meet him! I will be trio training til I go home. This is honestly the most fun Ive had my whole mission. Im so happy doing the lords work and big things will be happening here in Waller! Love yall.

week 90

No family letter

week 89

Hey everybody! Here's a quick update. A missionary in the Spanish program went home and I was in a trio so they put me with the missionary that didn't have a comp. His name is Elder Conley and he is the freaking man haha our whole mission we have been praying to be comps and we were literally talking like a week ago that all out chances of being comps was gone but then it happened! We have been having so much fun and working hard. My trainee is supoosed to come in 2 weeks so we will see what happens when he comes. 

I'm now living out in waller and covering my area at the same time so it's been crazy haha. We do two days in my area and then 2 in waller and switch like that. We went to church in waller and it was super sick. It's a little branch out in the sticks and they are all stoked about missionary work. Elder Conley and I both shared our testimonies on how excited we were to be there and to change the branch into a ward. Everybody loved it and the whole Sunday was a about missionary work. Good things are gonna happen! 

We had a ward party in JV for some kids in the ward that have their mission calls. They are the first missionaries to leave from the ward. They are brothers and they leave the same day to mexico city and brazil. I'll send some pics. Love y'all so much I'll take to ya next week!