Aug, 15, 2011

No se preocupen familia. No olvide de mandar mi carta. solo es que fui al templo en Jueves y el lugar donde escribimos cartas era cerrado cuando llegamos. Pero mande una carta de mano, entonces debe llegar hoy dia. But ya so the temple was just so awesome, and that is so awesome about Payden! I love him. And these past weeks have been way good. Ya so this week we most definately ate at the Mongolian Barbecue and it was so good! Be Jealous Nick and Steve. But ya miracle of the week was with an investigator named Gustavo. He is somewhat crazy but ya just way too many drugs in the past or something. But for the last week and half we have been teaching him the atonement of Jesus Christ and why he needs to repent. And there has been little progress... why? Because when an investigator does not act on invitations, there is no progress! It is as simple as that... becasue with every invitation, whether, reading, church, baptism, or whatever it is, it's an invitation to repent and except fully the Atonement of Jesus Christ. And so about 4 days ago he decided to act on our invitaions; and boom! He got it! We learn ten times more through action and application than we do by listening. That was a fact given to me about a week ago. Another cool experience i had, was in a lesson with an extremely nice...basher... not the best word to describe him because we didn't really bash at all. But he told us how we needed to forget the rules and become free in Christ. I think we might have been talking about grace and works. But anyways, I learned a lot from this comment he made as he described to us how we were in chains, and that we needed to be free in Christ. And I remember the Spirit just hitting me a little while later, as I learned what it means to keep the commandments of God. Without an understanding of the purpose of the commandments, or with an understanding of we NEED to keep the commandments or we are not going to be saved... comes a false belief that commandments is equal to restrictions. Well as we know; one of the greatest gifts that God has given us is agency. If God has given us agency, has he also given us restrictions or "chains"? Absolutely not! the word agency and restriction are opposites and therefore commandments are NOT restrictions. If you love me, keep my commandments. We have been given the gift of agency for the purpose of testing our love for the Savior and for our Heavenly Father. Are the commandments chains? Is love a chain? Is love a restriction? Very simply put the truth shall set you free. Jesus said I am the truth. So in order to have the truth we must follow Jesus Christ. What is a follower of Jesus Christ? - a disciple. By this shall men know, that ye are my disciples, if ye shall love one another. By love we follow Jesus Christ and his commandments. By following Him, we in turn keep his commandments and walk in truth. And by the truth we are set free. Are commandments chains? No, but indeed are what sets us free; free in Christ. One more cool story that happened about a week and a half ago is when we were walking in the back alley to go try a potential, I saw a lady fixing to walk into her house, and I felt like we should contact her. So we ran up to her and started talking to her. and she just kept on saying how wierd this was that we showed up at this exact moment; and so of course we asked why that was. And she went on to tell us how she had moved here about 3 months ago and how she decided the day before she was going to change her life. She had told God that she was going to do everything she could to find His true church. And so as it turned out that she had just gotten back at that precise moment from buying 20 different books on Christianity from different denominations. And had just brought them inside and was just coming out at that second to shut her trunk. We then went on to teach her about the Book of Mormon and how God has restored His true church on the earth again. She agreed with everything  that we said, accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon, and asked us if we could come back in 2 weeks. We said yes. And well the lesson with her should be today, so hopefully we can complete this miracle that God has given us.Awesome! Well i Love yall so much and have a good week

Aug. 1, 2011

This week was good, but for my email I just want to bear my testimony cause I know that the most important missionary work is in the walls of our own home. I want to bear my testimony that I know this church is true, that we have a Father in Heaven who loves us personally so much. I know that he sent his son Jesus Christ to die for every single one of us. From every pore he bled, because he wants us to return to our Father in Heaven. What can we ever do to thank him? Well let me give you some suggestions...Do the little things...and watch as miracles happen in your lives. I have a testimony that God knows our weaknesses, and through little tests they can become our strengths. I know that satan works by the same method. By small and simple means, he grabs us and before we know the hole is too deep. I have a testimony that the Book of Mormon is the word of God, and as such will change our lives as we commit to read it every night. By the means of a 14 year old boy God entrusted his kingdom here on this earth. I know that Joseph Smith is and was a prophet of God. I know that I can live with my mom and dad and sisters forever as a family as I do my part to live my covenants. This is the true church of Jesus Christ, and I am a representative of Him bringing this message to all those who will listen to my words. May I be held accountable before the judgement seat of God, that these things are true, and I say them even in the sacred name of Jesus Christ Amen.

July 25, 2011

This week was so good. And ya I most definitely wrote a letter to elder montagoose but I just haven't sent it. And so if I send it now he probably won't get it... so I will send it to you and maybe he will get it when he gets back. But we are just teaching so many awesome humble people right now. A lot of them are scared of going to church, and so we set up just like a church tour with seven of them so that they could see what the church looked like and we could show them where everything was at and just try to make them feel comfortable and let them feel the spirit that is in the church. Well only Steve and Selene came, but it was awesome, because they ended up coming to church the next day as well, and feeling the spirit. I think that one thing that I learned from that church tour is just the importance of silence and the role of the spirit. A lot of the times we ruin the spirit by talking, even if what we are talking about is something good and true. There are places and times where the spirit of God talks to our spirit and in these moments, we should be silent and listen, rather than talk. Often we lose many promptings of the spirit because we do or say the first thing that pops in our mind, without asking God in our minds, is there something more that I should learn here or something else i should do. But when we learn that God speaks to us little by little and precept by precept, then we can sit back and learn to understand the still small voice of the Holy Ghost. For me it has just made such the difference with investigators that really don't understand the purpose of a principle, or action such as prayer and going to church. Bear testimony, invite, wait, ignore their first answer haha and wait for the spirit to work on them... and always their answers will either change; or you will discover a real concern that they have. Its so amazing how the spirit works and how really you cannot teach without it. But ya its been an awesome week. Love yall have a good week

July 18, 2011

This week was good. It started off pretty slow but picked up at the end. I was actually studying the topic of adversity because we haven't had anybody going to church for the past couple weeks, and so I was trying to figure out why we weren't being blessed with that... and I learned a couple new things. Because adversity comes no matter what, sometimes it comes through our own mistakes and weaknesses and other times it comes because that is a part of life. But adversity basically exercises two attributes of Christ, faith and patience. Throughout my life I have always considered myself as one having faith, and in a way having patience. But I think it is the patience part that I have never understood. In fact i still don't understand it all that well. But what I think patience is... Is to have the faith to wait for problems and trials to be overcome, while never being content, with where you're at spiritually. And the reason while I say that is because I think God wants us to be disappointed when things aren't going right, but he wants us to be patient, as far as we wake up every morning with the faith that we are going to see results that day, and even when we don't have those results; we wake up with the same enthusiasm the next day as the day before by knowing that this is the day we are going to see results. And so then patience is really just long lasting faith that this is the day that we are going to see the results. Which is awesome, because if someone can learn this, then they could serve 2 years without having a single baptism, and come back with more faith than someone that had a baptism every week on their mission. I love it; because if we are truly living the gospel of Jesus Christ everyday and improving ourselves, no matter what happens in our life, we can be happy, and never decrease in our faith; which is exactly why faith is like a little seed that is grown by patience and diligence. One really cool experience that we had this week was when we were teaching with one of the members in our ward, investigators name Homero y Fernando. Like every lesson we have with them is just a bomb lesson, filled with the spirit. But they both accepted an invitation to come to church, not this week, but next week. And then the member just bore a powerful testimony of how satan was going to do everything he could after we left to put obstacles in their way of not going to church next sunday. And how they knew everything we said was true and how they wanted to go to church now, but that their desire will be tested so much in this next week. And it was awesome, because it was exactly what they needed to hear. I was thinking the exact same thing he said before he said it and was just praying that the spirit would direct him to say that. and boom he did. But man I just love bearing testimony. I was so good at it, in the beginning of my mission cause it seemed that it was all that I could say in spanish. And as I started developing more ability to speak then came a little less testimony and a little more speaking. But man testimony is where it is at. We have had so many powerful lessons this week because of it... whether that was my own testimony of that of my companion or that of a member. But I love yall so much and have a good week.