Inspiration

So transfers are in a week from tomorrow, I don't want to leave i have a lot to do here, but its not what i want, its about what the Lord needs from me so I'm happy and willing to do what He needs of me :)

We had six baptisms in the branch last Saturday it was a great time for us! way to go member missionaries and full time missionaries, it truly makes a huge difference in the progression of the investigators when they have friends in the gospel to answer their questions and to help them in times of need, and to help them and encourage them to come unto Christ. I get so upset when people don't do their home and visiting teaching, the missionaries need the members to help them with all these souls,so they may want to repent and have a better relationship with Christ and have a more happy unified family as we do ,we can only handle so much, and when people don't do it they will never progress and prepare to meet God. I'm sorry i really feel strongly about this. And i know ya'll are doing great, I am so excited for all the changes in missionary work i know that as you share the gospel with your friends and just say "would you be willing" the work will hasten. That phrase is super simple, try it out.

ok talk about inspired planning! we went down the wrong road looking for a former and then we see this man with his mom and they asked us what church we are from then we said we are missionaries of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and so they invited us in an taught them, he has taken the lessons 6 times and never wanted to be baptized till now, he is so eager to be baptized and gets sealed to all his family and his mom is less active but that's only because she doesn't know of a Spanish service near by, so we were so meant to be there. so we are teaching him all the lessons and getting is interview set up with President Sweenie because he is on parole hehe.  He is super sweet and so is his mommy.

o gee i have to go! thank you all for the letters and emails i really appreciate it makes me feel cool

Another Baptism Coming Up!

Well we have some good news! we have another baptism coming up! her name is Claudia and her husband is a less active member, and this last Monday we taught her The Restoration and then we committed her to baptism and we testified how the gospel will truly bless her family and will help her raise her children with more success. We shared Mosiah 4 :14-15 about how we need to raise our children walking in the ways of the Lord and to teach them to love and to serve one another and the Book of Mormon has instruction from a loving Heavenly father that wants us to learn to live happily and wants to help us with any problem we face. she loved it and she loved the part of the intro to the BOM about it teaches us to have peace in this life :) she sure needs it her kids are trouble makers and i finally got him ( Saul 3 years old) to pray! it was an accomplishment, i started off with: "if you can hear me touch your toes, if you can hear me touch your eyes, if you can hear me touch your belly, if you can hear me fold your arms, if you can hear me bow your head and close you eyes, if you can hear me repeat my words." And that is how i got him to laugh and obey:) so then me and my companion filled out a calender to arrange all our visits for the next three weeks in preparation to her baptism :) unfortunately she wasn't able to make it to three lessons last week, wow that was a little complex to fix it all and she didn't come to church so we will have to push her date back another week! so bummed

 

Well the next case with her father in law Saul, he works super hard all day in the heat in landscaping, so he was always too tired to meet with us, but he truly wants to follow Christ, and so we have to push his date back as well:(

Last Sunday well yesterday we reaped the fruits of our labors, we went to wake people up in the morning for church, as always, and we got five investigators to come who otherwise wouldn't have came, it was glorious! And let me tell you, i loved when the members came up to them and wanted to be their friends ! it made me so happy, for they made them feel welcomed and loved! Now the daughter of the mom is going to start coming to young women's and both her children are going to start practicing a dance at mutual in preparation for this cultural celebration that will be happening in Sep 15th. I am so glad the mother love the classes, and she will learn to come out of her shell, i am excited to see the transformation the love of Christ will bring into their lives :)

I think today we are going bowling and are all going to wear our new red zone shirts. so I'll send pictures of us next monday if i have time.

Oh ok record updating is so important folks! every night it is important to do that. so, funny story, we went to go teach a "part member family" the Dad was "not a member" and we went to teach him The Restoration, he loved it and by the way we are doing better at teaching people according to their needs, so we promised the blessings he would receive and how it will help his family stay more united and the spirit was super strong and my trainee had to take the lead in the lesson because it is part of her training and she did Fabulous! oh i am so proud of her! then she extended the invite, "Will You follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the proper priesthood of God?" ans he said yes.

We set a date and ask if he would prepare. then he said "well i already got baptized in the Mormon Church"

aaawww

well we were shocked!

then we just taught him about enduring to the end and how by small and simple things are great things come to pass.

He said he will make a better effort because he knows it is true, so we are going to be visiting that family more to make sure they are strong :)

so updating records is so important ! moral of the story 

Ok so we were riding our bikes one night as usual and i see this girl and i said hi then we went on by going to our next appointment and i thought to myself why didn't i stop to talk to her, because my companion didn't see her. and i have seen her for a few night now, but never stopped to talk to her. then the person wasn't home so i thought ok if she is still there we are so talking to her. so we rode by and there she was we introduced ourselves and she said "i am glad you two finally stopped"

Indeed, it is important to talk to everyone, forget about yourself and your awkwardness, and your inabilities and think about others instead of yourself, and share this glad message with them because they need to know that they have a Savior who loves them and this knowledge will help them with all aspects of life. I have really come a long way since the beginning of my mission I am more confident now, plus being a trainer has helped me a lot because it has made me reach out of my comfort zone because i have to be an example of what a servant of the Lord needs to be. Of course i am still working on my patience, ans other attributes, and it is great.

well i wish i can write more but we have less time today, so see you all later!

write me :)

Let the Baptizing Begin

Hi!

We have a baptism coming up on the 24th of this month! his name is Zaul Avila the father and husband of the whole less active family.

So here is what happened! we were reading with Olivia who is less active 3 Nephi 17 about when Christ came to the Americas then her husband Zaul came in and join us as soon as we were about to start and we were reading and they were super attentive, then i don't know why i just had to share Mosiah 18:8-10 about what it means to be baptized and what we need to do after and always which is to lift one another's burdens and stand as a witness of God at all times, then we said  "if this is the desire of your heart, Will you follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized by someone who holds the proper priesthood authority of God?"

"yes, i will"

(at this point our spirits are on fire and smiled really big)  "we will be holding a date, will you prepare yourself for that day?"

 "yes we need to prepare because i am not ready"

"we know you are not ready, and we are here to help you.'

We are so so happy for him and we know he will be such a strength to his family and he can help us be a missionary with his son ans daughter in law who we are teaching. we also chose someone to fellowship him which is super important, so everyone back home please do your home and visiting teaching it is so important to bring others unto Christ.

We found 4 new investigators this week and it was glorious, we have learned that we should always go with our plans even if they aren't as convenient as other people that we can go visit. We've been cleaning up the area book an have found a few formers and as we were looking for one we found out she moved and the new neighbors were  a brother and sister and they are teenagers and they are really nice, we are super excited to teach them. We testified that Jesus Loves them and what the Book of Mormon teaches us, and the Saviors Atonement that made it possible for us to be forgiven and to have a way to return back to our Heavenly Father with our families, and they were so interested and my companion explained how they will feel the spirit testify to them that it is true and we helped them recall some spiritual moments they've had while reading the Bible and that when they read the Book of Mormon they can feel that same peace and happiness! i am so proud of her she is really applying what we practice in the mornings!

The other is a mom of an investigator that wants to get baptized now but his mom wont let him toil he turns 16 and he is 14 right now, he also wants to go on a mission, and he says that the Catholics are getting stricter in missionary work, but he doesn't want to go on a Catholic mission like his mom wants him to,he wants to go serve as a missionary as a Mormon. haha 

We were called the MOB which stands for Mormons on Bikes, this lady told us that when her little brother sees the Elders he yells the MOB is coming! it was way funny.

So we are teaching the mom which is super nice she is really nice and she loves us talking to her son, because she knows we teach about God, so we taught her a 10 minute lesson on the Restoration and also "How to begin teaching" because we had to go another appointment wow that is something I've never done before it is actually harder than teaching a 40 minute lesson! i love her! we have a lot of faith in her.

We also met this man his name is Juan, we got to know him in his front porch and taught him the restoration and gave him to read the BOM and he said he will,then we visited him and he wasn't home, then we went again another day and he was just leaving but we go to talk to him a lot and he said he hasn't had the chance to read it but he wants to, and he will let us know if he has any questions..:)

Well i gotta go toodalooo!

Four Months In!

Hola Amigos como estan!?:D

well my life is great and full of love and learning. Ok we found this new family last week and we finally got to teach her and i am so excited, yes her because her kids went to their rooms to play video games and we asked if they wanted to join us, but they didn't so we just taught the mother, i felt the spirit of love as we talked and she shared some wonderful miracles about her life. One of them was her twin boys: they were born at 6 months and the doctor said that they probably will have disabilities in the future , but no they are perfectly healthy ten year old and she knows that God lives because of them and she know that they were born for a great purpose. another experience she had was with her brother, he was shot in the head and the doctor said "no more monkeys jumping on the bed!" ha ha not really, he said that he was going to die or if he lives he will be paralyzed from half his body, but he lived had some side effects, and now he is perfectly healthy, so she know God preserved him and she  had this strong desire to express gratitude to Him. As we started the lesson with "how to begin teaching" we assured her that no matter what we are going through, what challenges we face, Jesus Christ and his teachings will help her, and that our message was not going to be learned in one session, but her understanding will come with time through,prayers, experience, and keeping Gods commandments. 

My companion is so cute i love her, she is really trying with the language and she is such a good reader i can promise you that she will get the language perfectly in like 4 months :) because she is a smart cookie. I am so excited for this family.

Jesus Sanchez: he set a baptismal date, this is the Cancer survivor, he cannot deny that God has, preserved his life for a purpose ans he recognizes that, he knows he needs to get baptized and sealed to his family', i love the family's attitude about the whole situation because they said it has brought them to be more united, and they don't even worry because their faith is so strong!

Claudia Avila and the whole Avila family:

so the mom is less active and her husband is not a member his name is Zaul, we talked to him the other day and somehow we started talking about The Book of Mormon and i ask if he has read it, he said yes, and that i read it occasionally (in Spanish of coarse)

then i asked "have you prayed to know if it is true?"

"yes, yes i have"

"so, did you get and answer?"

"yes"

what was the answer, how did you feel about it?"

"i know the book is true. i just felt peace."

wow right?

 so we are going to work on him some more

then Luis their son is 18 and we want to prepare him to go on a mission, but its not easy,

then we have Hector (L.a) and his wife who is not a member yet and we are teaching them

so we are teaching everyone in this house, what a miracle it would be if they all  were converted unto the Lord.

so did i mention that Me and my companion are planning a wedding soon, our investigator Nancy wants to marry  her boyfriend so she can get baptized. We testified that she will be so much m ore happier and blessed as she makes that decision and keep her promises with God and she said "i know, i am always so much happier when i study with you sisters, and when you leave my day just goes by so much better.

I also know that i have to do those simply things like reading, going to church, praying , doing good to others, because i don't drink or do drugs but i know i need to make these changes and i know i need to get married, so i can get baptized."

Me and my companion were so happy! i just jumped on her and kissed her cheek, well its very Mexican over here so every one greets each other with a kiss on the cheek, except for the men. So  you may think its weird, but its totally normal over here :)

well i gotta send you some pictures before i leave aah!

i wish i had more time to tell you all the stories. oh and i live we live in one big house with 5 hermanas, so much fun! we actually just finished our monthly deep cleaning:D so wonderful!