March 2014

Well it has been a very interesting week. We lost 4 investigators, we
might get 2 back soon though. One of them called us last week and
cancelled our appointment. He said something about a gunshot and
possibly going to jail again. And we haven't heard from him since, so
we assume he is gone. Then, on Sunday we were supposed to have 2
sisters, one is 13 the other is 15, come with one of their friends to
church. The 2 girls are our investigators, not members. Just making
sure you don't get confused with the word sisters. Anyways, they
didn't show up. So we tried their house and nothing, until Wednesday.
Turns out the older sister moved 4 hours away to live with her older
sister and the younger one doesn't want to learn anymore. The older
sister might come back though. We are teaching her over FaceBook. And
then the last one is a 15 year old boy. He loved listening to us and
was trying to change, but apparently the cops found him with some guy
he shouldn't have been with and on top of that he was drunk... So he
is now in Juvi. We talked with his mom and she said we could visit
him. She also said he told her everything we taught and he loved it.
He was trying to change he just hangs out with the wrong crowd. :/ so
we will see. We might get him back soon too. So yeah, that was our
week with investigators. :) haha oh, the life of a missionary. :)

Now for the rest of the week. On Saturday we had a big party for a
Tongan lady who just got baptized that day. All the missionaries in
the area were invited. So there were 8 of us. It was awesome! The food
was delicious and it was super cool. I know the family that hosted the
party from when I was a Zebra. They are all Tongan and they are so
cool. Also, because of transfers there are a couple elders going home.
One of them is in the English ward and he was part of the baptism.
They had him get up and bear his testimony and then they did a dance
for him. It is a tradition for when people leave and also for other
things. But what they do is someone dances and people get up and go
throw money at them. All of this money is then given to the person who
is leaving. It is just one of their traditions. It is how they show
that they care. So, Elder Bennion got $370!! It was crazy! It was
super cool though. And then after that we had transfer calls... Well,
I'm staying again with Elder Salas and Elder Hall and Park are both
staying also. So nothing changed for us. They completely white washed
an entire apartment down in Fort Meyers though. There were 6 elders
living there. And all of them are gone now. That was pretty crazy. But
yeah, I'm staying. :)

There are a couple families we are pretty close to. The Estrada family
definitely. Their oldest daughter actually lives in Murray. Haha that
was pretty crazy when we found that out. The Calvillo family, the
Sedillo family, the Partida family. Those are probably the closest.

Spiritual moment for this week: yesterday, the other elders had a
baptism!! One of the members had a family member come visit and she
wanted to be baptized. She is 10 and is super smart. They had the
baptism yesterday and it was amazing. The spirit was super strong and
a lot of people were crying. It was amazing! She is only 10 and she
can already see how much joy this gospel brings to her life. It was
really amazing.

Alright, the scripture this week is 2 Nephi 33: 15. Nephi is making a
promise here. The rest of the chapter talks about it more in detail,
but what he is saying is that we will be held accountable for what he
has written. Sometimes we feel like life is too hard or we don't know
where to go. We often forget that we have an instruction manual right
in front of us. Nephi has told us everything that we need to do to
return to live with our Heavenly Father. It is right there! We have an
instruction manual for our life. If you read the introduction to the
2013 version of the Book of Mormon and compare it to the old one,
there is a significant difference in the first paragraph. It isn't a
huge change, but the small change is significant. I will let you look
that up and find out what it says. We have the fullness of the gospel
in the Book of Mormon and sometimes we forget that we are told EXACTLY
what we need to do. It doesn't mean it will be easy, it just means we
have no excuses because God has told us what to do. We just need to do
it. I love you all and I hope you all have a great week!

Holy cow! You guys had a seriously busy week. Haha it is super weird to think that all of that used to be normal. ;) haha I wish I could come see the games. I'm sorry T got sick. :/ I hope you get better soon! You have to be better for Spring Break! the spring break here started last Friday so it is going on this week. 

It sounds like you guys had a really good Stake Conference. :) I really love hearing about people I know speaking about the same stuff as we are here. It's nice to hear their thoughts and input. Thank you! So, new stake presidency? Weird. I'm excited though. They will do great. :) I can't picture President Hutchison, but I know the other two. :) that is awesome. 

So, interviews.... They got cancelled last week, so now they are this week. :) haha I was not happy when they got cancelled. We were already at the building and we found out they were cancelled. So we had to drive all the way back home. Now we get to do it again. Oh well. I hope they go well.

So on Saturday we did some service for one of the families in our branch. They wanted to turn this extension to their house into a patio. So we completely destroyed it. :) it was awesome! We took out the windows and doors and completely blew out the walls. It was fun. We used sledgehammers. It was super fun. But of course, I was taking apart a window and the glass exploded. It went through my glove and cut my hand. It isn't anything serious just a cut. I washed it and put a bandaid put on it, then kept working.  I love sledgehammers. :) that was our Saturday, from 9:00 to 4:00. I got sunburnt too. It was fun though.  

Well, for the spiritual happening this week. We went to a less actives house and her mom answered. Her mom is from New York and was just visiting. Well, she is a member so she invited us in and was super excited and was talking with us and made us some empanadas. They were really good. Well, the less active showed up and both of her kids weren't feeling very well. One hasn't been sleeping and the other is having some anxiety attacks. So we gave them blessings. It was really cool. The older one said that when she prays her anxiety goes away and that she felt a whole lot better after the blessing. It was super cool. The mom was holding the younger girl while we gave the blessing and she said that she could feel it too. It was just a really cool experience. Every time we go over there we make the mom cry.

So scripture of the week is Matthew 6: 25-26. This is around where I was reading this week and I thought it was a good scripture. God takes care of all the animals on the earth. So why would he not take care of us? All we have to do is keep his commandments. We just need to do what he asks of us and we will be taken care of. We don't need to worry. He is on our side. He loves us.

You guys had an amazing stake conference! That is super awesome! I know exactly which video you guys watched. :) we show that one sometimes. I love it. :) I wish I could have seen that stake conference, it sounds like all the speakers did amazing! We have some good speakers here too, but most of our branch speaks no English so we have to translate and it isn't the same. 

Oh, I haven't told you guys about English class I don't think. So, I'm teaching English class every Tuesday and Thursday. :) haha it is super fun. We have taught them colors, the alphabet, parts of the body, and now we are moving on to clothing. I love it. :) it really helps my Spanish, and I can see how far I've come. It also helps me understand English better because once you have to explain something, it makes sense to you. Haha it is super fun. We have three classes. Ours is the beginning class and we have 4 students. Elder Park and I teach it. Elder Hall teaches the intermediate class, and Elder Salas teaches the advanced. Which makes no sense, Elder Salas is fluent so shouldn't he teach the beginner class, where they know no English? Idk. Haha I love it. :)  

This past week was somewhat slow. It was a good week, but not a lot happened. Well, we had interviews this past week. :) they actually went really well. We mainly just talked about the branch and how we can better help them. We are supposed to be getting 20 lessons a week. And 1 out of every 12 referrals becomes progressing. So that is 240 referrals in one week. And there are 2 companionships so that is 480 referrals that we need from our branch. :) the branch was shocked when we threw that at them. So we will see how this week goes with all that.  

So, spiritual experience for the week was probably yesterday during fast and testimony meeting. It was amazing! We had a member from the stake presidency there and he doesn't speak any Spanish, so Elder Salas was translating for him so he would know what everyone was saying. I was thinking back to when I was just learning Spanish and how I could still feel the spirit even though I didn't know what they were saying. It is so amazing how sometimes I still can't understand anything that people say, but then once I feel the spirit, I understand everything. I love it. :) it is so amazing how it works and I just wish I could feel it that strongly all the time. :) I love it so much. 

So, scripture for this week is going to be Mosiah 28: 3. This is a fairly well known scripture and if you don't know the scripture, I'm sure you at least know the story. So Alma and the sons of Mosiah now realize what they have done and have repented. And they want to go on missions to preach to the Lamanites. I think that this scripture is SO amazing because the Lamanites want to kill the Nephites. They are complete enemies. But the sons of Mosiah want to go preach because they cannot bear even the thought of any soul not making it to the Celestial Kingdom. These are their ENEMIES. So, should we not feel the same way about our friends? We don't need to go on a mission to share this gospel. The sons of Mosiah knew that their home was being taken care of. Alma the younger stayed behind to teach the people there, so they had the opportunity to go elsewhere. As missionaries we leave our hometowns to help people elsewhere because we know that our families and friends are taking care of the people back home who have not felt this joy. So go find your friends and invite them! That's all you need to do. It's a simple invitation. :) The mission President shared a short experience he had the other day. He was at a restaurant and he turned to his waiter and invited him to church. Very very simple. He gave him a card with the missionaries number, exchanged their own numbers, and the missionaries followed up. Now, that waiter has a baptismal date in April. All of this from a simple invitation to a waiter. People are EVERYWHERE! It doesn't have to be shoving it down their throats and dragging them to church. It is a simple invitation. They are already your friends and it shows that you care. "Hey! My church is something that I hold very dear and you are my friend.  I want to show you what makes me happy. Will you come to church with me this Sunday?" It's that simple. As missionaries we aren't the driving force in this. We are called to serve full time so that we can help the members with THEIR JOB! This isn't our job. Our job is to invite, teach, and baptize. It is much easier when the members invite and then help us teach. 

I love you all!!! Thank you so much for all the birthday wishes and for the presents! You are the best! Have a great week!