May 30, 2011

Yes I have been studying my patriarchal blessing almost every day, and I think that is why we have had so many spiritual lessons lately. And ya I did know that Elder Gillespie was Skylers comp, in fact we just got transfer calls yesterday, and my comp is now going to be comps with Elder Gillespie, and Elder Almquist is going down to Wenatchee. We talked with them yesterday actually. Elder Almquist is a funny guy, he thinks that Stephanie is going to wait for him; definitely laughed and told him not to hate me cause I got about 10 months on him. But ya that was pretty cool hearing from him. And by the way can you find out Sara Lee's address for me, because I lost the envelope and don't know her address. I guess Alayna wrote me too, but for whatever reason she sent it to Chelan, and I am pretty sure I haven't been there for like 10 months. So I might not be writing her back for a while. But man, I am so excited right now because we have just had so many spiritually powerful lessons this week; and one of them was with the Lopez family. And well HNA Lopez was supposed to be baptized yesterday right, but she will actually be baptized this coming Saturday. But this last week we taught them. And for the first time in 2 weeks we finally taught Hno Lopez, and the last time we had contact with him, he told us he didn't want to be baptized for another year, and then left the room and went to sleep. And so we were teaching Hna Lopez, and making sure she was living all the commandments and was ready to be baptized and Hno Lopez and their autistic son Jesus are just kind of listening in. And we asked her who she wanted to baptize her and everything; and then Jesus just kind of points at his dad and says " tu, tu " Amd the spirit just hit me, and it just said this family needs to be together, and he needs to be baptized. And i asked him, "What do you need to do to be baptized?" and he was like, "Nothing", and then I asked him " Are you ready?" He said he was and I asked him, "Well what's the date then?" And he said, " This Sunday" And it was just so awesome and such a miracle. But then they weren't able to do it this Sunday because of work conflictions. But They will be baptized this Saturday as well as Josiah. So I am way excited for this coming up transfer, and I don't know my companion yet, because I will be his trainer, and picking him up tomorrow from Spokane. So pray for me that I can be a excellent role model for him and that we can pick up this area in othlleo. I love yall so much, but I don't really have time to write because my comp needs to pack and stuff. have a good week.

May 23, 2011

hola familia!!!! Esta semana fue marvillosa! Tuvimos muchos milagros, bueno todo mi distrito tuvieron una buena semana llena con milagros. We had the baptismal interview with Josiah and he will being baptized in a couple weeks and is doing awesome! we might be playing baseball with him today if it doesn't rain. And then there is hermana lopez. She has just been trying and trying to push her date of baptism back and her husband told us last week that he doesn't want to be baptized anymore, although their kids were baptized just a couple of weeks ago, and they all go pretty much every Sunday. But I guess the husband wants his son to baptize him, but the son can't baptize him till another year when he turns 16, and she wanted to wait till her family came down sometime in July. And so we havent been able to teach the husband for about two weeks, just cause he is working a ton and if he is there is just way tired. But we taught hermana Lopez and she told us that she really wanted to be baptized but was thinking the 29th was too soon. And so we told her, that if God wanted her to be baptized on the 29th than that is what she needed to do. And so on this Sunday we all fasted; us and her and her sons in order to know if the 29th was the right day. And we broke our fast at her house with a carne asada. SOOOO GOOOD! And we shared a short message and as we were heading out the door, she told us... I want to be baptized, I know i can't keep pushing it back, I'll be baptized this Sunday. Such a miracle, and such a women with faith, and just a perfect example of the power of prayer and fasting. Also another cool story. This whole transfer I've made it a goal just to talk with EVERYONE. Like, people in soccer bleachers, people walking dogs, McDonalds workers, people closing the doors to their cars, and walking inside hospitals. I haven't been perfect at it, but I have tried to do the best I can; and well a couple of weeks ago, there was a women that was fixing to walk into the hospital, and I stopped her real fast and tried to really search for the spirit while I was contacting her. And it came...I didn't even really say anything different then what I would normally say, but the words I said, I could tell they were meant for her. She gave us her address, which resided in the zone leaders area, and that was that. Well this week on exchanges with zone leaders, I was in their area, and we were trying another referral that we had given them, but she was busy or something, and so we walked down the street, and there was a women outside watering her yawn. So we contacted her. She told us that she had briefly talked to some missionaries about two three weeks ago and asked them to come by. I then recognized her, and asked her her name again. I also recognized the name, as the same lady I had contacted at the hospital. Apparently the zone leaders had lost the address and hadn't tried her. But she said, hold on I want you to teach my kids... she grabbed her 3 boys told them to sit down and listen. They were awesome kids and came to church with the zone leaders the next day. So that was pretty cool. And an awesome testimony builder to me, that God truly puts people in our path, and prepares them to accept His gospel. But ya a lot of cool things happened this week. Hermana Lopez also gave us a referral to a family, whose mom wants that her kids go to our church, after they finish the first communion in the catholic church. And we taught them this week, and they too are just awesome, and hopefully will start coming to church in the next couple weeks. But ya this transfer has soared by! We get out calls this next week as well. Oh and this same family; their dad is crazy. they have this pet bull right. And the dad is just raising it so that he can ride it when it gets older. But I guess he just got straight fed up with it cause, every time he would get on it to ride it, the bull would just sit down and not move. So a couple of days ago he just cut it lose and just straight up stabbed it with his knife, so that they could use it for food. So now they have a ton of cow intestines in their sink and a whole fridge full of bull. pretty crazy stuff. well i love yall, have a good week!

May 16, 2011

Man Payden was looking so good in that suit and tie he is going to do work. I am beyond excited and proud for him. And holy miracle story about Elder adam bangeter! The church is true and God still speaks with men. But you know it is crazy mom because I have been having this impression that I need to read my patriarchal Blessing for like the past week, and I haven't done it yet. But I definitely will take the challenge cause I know it is something I need to do. So Follow up with me next week on that and make sure i am doing it.But ya about the work; it probably wasn't our best week, with a couple big bumps on the road; but its all good because that just means miracles are just around the corner. In fact I was thinking a lot about this past week and how we had felt that we just didn't have the Spirit with us very much. And it just hit me this morning. That sarcasm is a spirit killing thing. It doesn't seem like it is while you're just going about your normal day; but joke after joke and laugh after laugh is the reason while your ability to feel the spirit weakens and weakens. Its crazy, because you can think that you're just having a good time, and then when the days over, you realize that you haven't really done anything, and you feel like you are lacking so much. Not to say that joking and laughing are the bad things, but sarcasm is just not something that comes from God. And so I am extremely thankful that i received this revelation today, and am excited for this coming week. And also bashing is just not good, although sometimes it is funny. We got in this bash with an apostolic guy who just did not want anything to do with Joseph Smith, Paul, David, or the angel Moroni, and the virgen maria; just Jesus. And well he contradicted himself about 27 times, but of course when he got called out for it; he went back to how he would never follow the adulterer Smith, and the angel Moroni, or King David or any sinner man, but only Jesus Christ. And so I told him 1, Joseph Smith is not an adulterer, 2 All men are sinners, but God still calls them to his work and qualifies them, 3 Without the prophets we would have no knowledge of Jesus Christ, and with every prophet we can learn even more 4 You say you want to know Jesus Christ more than anything, but deny all men who have the ability to help you know more. and 5 You're relying on an incomplete, imperfect book to have complete and perfect answers and therefore your doctrines have many flaws and is imperfect. But ya he didn't like that too well ( and I shouldn't have said all this) and he stood up, and yelled I am full of the spirit, all you need is Jesus and the bible is perfect. And I was thinking well this guys full of spirit is going to full on punch me and my companion in the face... easy cowboy. And then we showed him two blatant conflicting parts in the bible. And he was just irate and was like well these contradictions were just the errors of men... and so we talked a little bit more, but we both knew that we had to go because it was not going anywhere. But it is just ridiculous because people are so blinded by the subtle craftiness of men and don't listen to what we have to say because they think they have the answers. But it's not by my knowledge that someone is going to be converted but rather by the spirit of my testimony, and I think I forgot that for a little while. And So that will be my goal this week to testify of everything. But I love yall so much and I hope yall have a good week. Thanks for the extra food ma y por los fotos de Payden.

May 9, 2011

Ok entoces el regalo para Alena y tambien la carta y regalo para mama va a llegar en miercoles probablemente. Pero, Nick is lame i have most definitely worked... ok maybe not but now I am a work aholic. But ya definitaly have a long time to go holy cow. But ya sounds good. I was just thinking about that though because if there is nothing to do when I get home I am going to go absolutely crazy. But I don't know if there is any way I can get a job at like deseret books or anything, cause I just see these books all the time, and I am like oh man I want to read them so bad, but they aren't needed at this time in my life, so I will read them when I get back. But anyways. So one thing that I just love about hispanics is that they are 7 times out of ten willing to just feed you when they are having una fiesta. You say you are hungry and you have become part of the party. De hecho hay muchos misioners que no planean una hora para cenar porque creen que van a encontrar hispanos que estan comiendo. And so this week I had grilled oysters for the first time. I am not going to say that I am a fan, but they tasted better than they looked. I also got gold glitter all over my hair and helmet cause a little girl decided to steal my helmet and run off with it. And sis. gerber the lady we live with, asked us to help her cooking on Sunday, and I went 3 for 3 on butchering everything. Oh it was somewhat funny but man I felt way bad. Who would have known that mayonnaise and miracle whip are not the same thing, or that pie filling burns if you are not stirring it constantly, or when she asked me if I could clean the seeds out of the pitcher that she did not mean just get rid of all the lemon juice that she had just squeezed in there. Ya i guess i am not the best man to have in the kitchen. But as for the missionary work of things we had a way good week. We are starting to get a lot of potentials and teaching a lot and so that is way good. We have made it a goal to use the book of mormon in our contacts and holy cow is just works miracles. you get to see peoples immediate concerns or peoples interest just increases and then it is just an amazing opportunity to testify and bring in the spirit. And there was also this youth conference that my companion and I taught at and all the youth wrote down their testimonies in the books that we are giving out. So that was pretty cool. We also got a couple referrals out of it and taught 3 non members that came with their friends, which was pretty cool. But ya it was a way good week. And I love yall so much and it was so awesome hearing yall; and have an awesome week.

May 2, 2011

Pues something is telling me that Alena really needs a cell phone for her birthday, but then again that something might just be Alena. Well this week as far as the missionary work goes was massiso. We were once again blessed to find more people who accepted a baptismal date, as well as investigators coming to church. I also learned that it is not just elders that our disobedient. Flipping hermanas, they're killing me right now. I guess the zone leaders found them at their house still in there pajamas at 12:00 in the morning. Turns out that this is an almost every day occurrence according to the members they live with as well. But they are doing way good with everything else. right? I mean baptisms and lessons, so it is all good. Sorry, but that is not how it works. This is God's work, and a lot of times he will bless disobedient missionaries, just as much as He will obedient missionaries. The rain falls on both the wicked and the righteous. Just because our lives are good, and everything is going right, does not mean that we personally are doing what is good nor doing what is right. So what does obedience do? I have been thinking about this a lot. It seems to me that the times where I have been the most obedient has brought about two different results. It was towards the begging of my mission, and I was pretty close to 100% obedient or so I thought and all it did was make me use the word irate a ton, and judge other people, I had begun to think I was better than the other missionaries, and really looked down on the disobedient ones. I was living the law perfectly and i loved being obedient to it. But I never found the joy in the gospel doing this. Then something changed, as I realized how this is not the type of obedient that God wanted me to be. there's a quote that says. "When obedience ceases to become an irritant, and rather becomes the desire of our hearts, at that precise moment we are endowed with power from on high." Obedience has recently become something that I chose to do not as a duty or something that my mind loved, but rather something that my heart wants to do. Everything in the gospel is all about motives. I can honestly say that I am beginning to understand the joy of the gospel, the power that God has entrusted me with, so that I can teach his children. to truly experience this joy and power, cannot be experienced by a disobedient missionary. I don't think I am better than a single missionary out here, but i do feel saddened when I know the joy and power that they are missing. They still have success a lot of the time, they have fun, and they change peoples lives; but there is nothing compared to the purification power of the Holy Ghost, as it purifies all of your motives. I have failed to many times at this already... It seems the more I try to be obedient or to be purified God puts another test in our path. Sadly a lot of the times I fail the test, in fact I almost beat this guy down as he started back talking us on something completely false this week. I was like well are you going to fight with us or are you actually going to listen. And then my companion and I just shut him down with the bible.But that's the beauty of the Atonement. But ya hopefully by the end of this I will be a purified vessel in the hands of God...be able to righteously choose amandas husband, and beat down the guys that knock on our door for Alena...2nd thought something is telling me she does not need a cell phone. But i love yall so much and have an awesome week. talk to yall later LQM