Sept. 27, 2010

Yep I got the package but I just sent the dmv paper thing to the mission office a couple days ago so I should be getting it signed and everything next week or so and then I will send it back to you. So funny about Nick! It is good to get an email from grandma and grandpa again. Although I feel like somebody forgot to write me this week. (Alisa). That is so crazy that Grandpa Bill is 91 already! And is Alena really practicing to drive with pops cause I don't know if that should be allowed, nor dating! Alena are you 16? I could of sworn you were 15! Chiste! Ella Mientes! No es Verdad! Yo espero que mis padres No Permitan mi hermana menor para salir la casa!
Anyways back to me. This week was really good. Javier was Baptized and confirmed! IT was so awesome. Octaviano and Catlina are on date to be baptized together on the 30th of October! and came to church! And this week was really awesome because I have been praying in order to have muchas oportunidades para compartir mi testimonio y Dios ha contestado mis oraciones. It has been so awesome cause nothing brings the spirit in like a testimony and so I really have felt the spirit so strong this week. And I think it is just so awesome how you can bear your testimony on the same thing every week and the spirit never gets any weaker in fact it feels like it gets stronger. And that is just a witness in itself about our message being true, because anything else that you had to do every day would most likely get old, but a testimony just keeps growing as your desire to share and your love for the people grows. And I learned that this is the key to being bold this week. I know it says that in the scriptures it teaches us this about love, boldness, and testimony. It is one thing to read it and it is a whole other thing to feel it connect when you are teaching. Because we were teaching the Garza family here in Warden; and basically they would be baptized most likely except they aren't married. And they aren't married because if they get married then the wife will lose the aid that she has, for the 14 different types of pills she takes and they don't have the money to pay for them. But I love Elder Gillespie (He is the new Elder with us) cause he is a stud and told them our purpose and then Elder Pound who is also a stud reads 1 nephi 3:7 and I know that the spirit is telling me to bear my testimony. And it was so powerful and they knew exactly why we were there and that we wanted them to be baptized because we loved them and that God was gonna make everything work out. And I told them how I realized that this is something that is a lot to ask for; to put all your faith in God and the things that we have taught, (I mean becasue if we were wrong she could literally die because she needs the medication) but I told them how this was something that I would not ask of them if I did not know it was true. I would not take that risk because that is just not me. But how I knew it was true with all of my heart and how I would put my life on this book being true, and of course I was crying, but I knew this is exactly what the spirit wanted me to say. And so we invited them to pray about it as a family. And I don't know what is going to happen there, but I do know that God was working through me, and I knew that I truly loved them afterwards and I know they felt my love; and that is all that matters and the rest is up to them. I am really hoping they pull through. And there is of course a lot of stories like that, but I kinda felt like that one started my recognition that there is no such thing as fear in love, and faith. But that is about all I have time for. I love yall so much and thank yall so much for the prayers. Keep them up for the people here. Have an awesome week!

Sept. 20, 2010

Yes mom I got the packages but no there was no journal. Alena is a joke she didn't even write me! Tell sister Almquist that the president is mazizo and I like him a lot. He really cares about you as an individual, and he does interviews with you every other transfer. But thanks mom for the spiritual journal I liked it a lot and that was awesome to hear about Payden bearing his testimony. If you see him again let him know that one thing I have realized on my mission is that I don't have enough knowledge to convince people to believe and change their lives, or even to turn down the anti-mormon stuff they throw out at me; but every single time with every single person, they cannot deny the fact that I know and cannot dispute the contents of a true testimony. It is so awesome for me to witness the power of God going through me as I bear testimony to people, and it is awesome to see that more often than not that all their objections are withheld and they can't seem to say anything else after you have born it. But anyways news for this week, it is transfers and I will be staying here in Warden with Elder Pound and we will be having another Elder come down named Elder Gillespie. We will be co-senior companions. Elder Oliver is moving to Othello as a district leader oh and I believe Elder Schvaneveldt is a district leader now in East Wenatchee. So that is pretty cool. But back to the week. We had another cool thing happen with Javier this week. We were teaching him and he is just way excited for baptism and so he decided that he wanted to be baptized this last Saturday. But on Friday he was like actually I probably shouldn't rush it, so he will be baptized this Saturday by his best friend. And so he came to church yesterday and he found out that sam his friend was coming out to teach with us that night so he asked us if he could come out and teach as well. Mazizo! And so I went with Elder Pound and they went with Elder Oliver. And we taught some people and when we came back and asked how everything went with them they told us how it went. And it turns out that Javier just called the shots on this one kid who stopped going to church about a year and a half ago and just bore his testimony to him and told him how he was being baptized this week and stuff. Is that not so awesome! Catalina and Octaviano didn't come to church today,but we have an appointment with them tonight and so hopefully we'll find out why. But they are still an awesome family and need yall's prayers. As well as Javier with his baptism coming up this week. Please pray for my Spanish as well, I am sure yall are already doing that but if not if yall could start that would be awesome. I don't think I realized I had been out 6 months already, but I think i am supposed to be pretty much fluent and I am terrible still. But I have faith, and just need to work harder and I know it will come, but extra prayers never hurt anybody. But I love yall so much and I think that is all I have for this week, cause we did a ton of service and didn't really teach as much as we normally do. But thanks so much for your prayers. LOve you bye!

Sept. 13, 2010

But now for the week. I will start off with a funny story first cause I don't think I have given one in a while. It was about 8:50 something at night and we were walking back to our car along this path with a little iron fence right next to it. And then all of a sudden this kid runs up to us and starts beating us with one of those inflated baseball bats and just yelling Mormons over and over again. And so I do the reasonable thing and move to the other side and so that way he can't reach me. But Elder Oliver is just trying to kinda like bat the bat down and ignore it. But a swing to the face I guess broke the camel's back and the next thing I know he is asking Elder Pound to hold his bag and lifts his 220 pound self over the fence. And I am just like thinking what in the world is going on here. As I watch him chase this kid across this little park. And this kid is just yelling like bloody mary and running as fast as he can. And finally Elder Oliver stops gives this insane sounding laugh and walks back to us (the kid is still running though). And I am just hoping that nobody saw this, but wow it was just so random that I could do nothing but laugh.
But now for an inspirational story. We were on comp exchanges and I was with Elder Weidman and we were just tracting down here in Warden. And not many people were answering, and not having that much success, and Elder Weidman just kinda stops and says that he doesn't understand why we tract like this because we are missionaries and should be able to have the Holy Ghost guide us where to go. And how if we go door to door we are more salesman than missionaries. And I was like you are so right, because I remember getting mad about that same thing in my last area. And so I stopped and I asked him to give a prayer about where we should go. And we decided to just finish this street and then to go somewhere else. And a little bit later a girl steps out of this van and we start talking to her and she tells us how she is just like us and how she goes door to door as a salesman. And was I like holy cow that is just God pretty much slapping us in the face. So we stopped and got in the car and just started driving hoping that God would guide us. And I saw a girl walking and I just felt like we should pull over and talk to her. Which is most definitely weird I know but we got out and started talking to her. And she just told us about all these tough things that she was going through and how she didn't think it was by chance that we stopped and talked to her. Miracle fo sho! Hopefully we will be able to see her again this week because she doesn't have a house so she is just living in random spots everyday.
And final story before I have to go. We taught Octaviano and Catalina this week and we just felt like we needed to teach them about temples and eternal families. And this family has been taught for a long long time almost what we call eternal investigators, and had never came to church or accepted the baptismal invitation. And so we taught them about families and the temple. And it was like a light went on and she was like what do I need to do to go here and have this. And to make an awesome long story short. She is on date to be baptized and he would be too but he was sick and in bed during the lesson, But all of them and their grandkids came to church! So if you could pray for them as well as Javier, and Leonardo Davila that would be so awesome! I love yall so much and thank yall so much for yall's prayers.

Sept. 6. 2010

Hola! Pues esta semana fue bien. Y that is awesome about byu! Not that it matters but we ate dinner at a members house that night and they told us they were down 14-13at half. And I was like NOOO!!! That is awesome. But I will tell you something even more awesome. We are teaching a 17 yr. old named Javier Tapia. And he is on date to be baptized on Sep. 25th! Both Leonardo and Guadalupe are off date but we are still teaching them so that is good. But back to Javier. So we have taught him a couple times and is just a stud. He had been taught by missionaries antes pero that was awhile ago I guess. He remembered everything that they taught him almost. I was pretty impressed. But after we got done teaching him for either the 2nd or 3rd time we invited him to both come to church and to be baptized and he said yes to both. And so we then went over to one of his best friend's house named Sam who is a member. And we told him that he had to make sure that he came to church and just follow up with him and stuff; and he agreed. And then boom! He came to church. And I was like awesome! And mis companeros both went to the English ward and I and a priesthood holder both went to the spanish branch. And Elder Oliver usually translates for the speakers, because we have some english people in there to give it a little bit of a bigger feel, and we always have at least one english person give a talk as well. But of course Elder Oliver is in the English ward this week and so I am waiting for his backup translator to show up, but she pulls a no show on us and so now I get to do the translating. And because it is fast and testimony meeting and we have a small branch everybody pretty much gets up and shares their testimonies. So I have to translate for like 15 different people now. I was sweating bullets, but I said a quick prayer and I actually got through it alright. For the times where I didn't know what people were saying, I kinda just acted like I did and added a little of my own testimony in haha but it went better than I thought it would. And towards the end of the meeting, I stood up and bore my testimony about how I knew the book of mormon was true. And the meeting was coming to close and almost everybody had given their testimonies and the spirit was really strong. Which is good because some times at those meetings you never know what you are going to get. But it was way good, and the spirit was there, and then all of a sudden Javier stands up and walks up and starts giving his testimony! He was like I know I am not a member of yalls church but I am going to be baptized on the 25th! YESSIR! and then he started bearing testimony about how he knew that God was real and about the experience he had when he prayed and asked. And about the feelings he had when the missionaries came over and he came to church. And how it was a totally different feeling than all the other churches he had gone too. And I was like YESSIR! and I was so happy and excited for him and I just wanted to give him a hug. But I got to go now. I will write if I have more time later today. But I love yall so much. I will pray for you mom. And if yall could keep Javier Leonardo and Guadalupe in your prayers that would be awesome! Alena do good in school, go to the temple, and you don't suck at tennis. And if you do, esta bien porque i suck too. (I was on homecoming though) Just keep having fun. LOVE YALL

Corny Pictures of Elder Nelson

I received these pictures today from an oh so sweet sister who lives in Othello, WA.
Her and her husband house the missionaries and Ty is with them on an exchange. How kind of her to send these pictures!! I'm ever so grateful! For those of you who have been following this blog, you know that Ty lost his two front teeth in a basketball mishap back in June. I have not seen a picture of him since that time and so it was really comforting to see his smiling face and him eating corn on the cob! The dentist who did his dental work obviously did a fabulous job! yeah!