Oct. 24, 2011

So this week was really good. We have been going through quite a few trials such as not finding anybody to teach and not teaching many people; and I feel like the less I teach the less I have the spirit in the lessons I teach. Like they become just a routine thing. And so we get through pretty much the whole week, and I realize that my faith had been decreasing as well as my sensitivity to the spirit. So we just stopped and we just talked it out, and decided we needed to pray. And the Spirit just hit me, and I knew that God was with me, and I just needed to put my faith in him. So after the prayer, a name popped in my head of a former investigator; and I pushed it off because I knew that his days off were Monday and Tuesday. And as we were tracting I remembered a talk I had read, that talked about if we are doing what is right the spirit will speak and will tell us something and we need to act on those impressions. And i knew that it was an impression. So i acted. Turns out that it was his first saturday off in 12 weeks. We taught him and he is on date to be baptized. After that we just started seeing miracles again and it was awesome. I love this gospel! I know that the Spirit will guide us, as we act in faith. I have seen it a thousand times over. If we are living the gospel then 9 out of 10 impressions will be from the Holy Ghost. I love yall so much and thank yall for your prayers. Also, I figure I might not fix my bike now because it is already way cold and will be cold till I leave. You got to love washington!

Oct. 17, 2011

This week was awesome! Johnny was baptized and confirmed and the work is looking good. There was just so many miracles that happened with him as he got ready to be baptized these last couple of weeks. His parents and the rest of his family were not supportive and so it definitely wasn't an easy decision for him. But one of his sisters who is way awesome and pretty supportive agreed to come to the baptism and the spirit was just so strong in the service. And she was crying and he was crying and the members were crying and she is now listening to the sister missionaries, which is way awesome. But the Lord had been really blessing us. We have recieved a couple referrals from both the bishop in the ingles ward and the spanish ward, and we contacted the one from ingles and he is way awesome, and will be baptized. And then we have a home court at the bishop's house tonight and so that is awesome. But ya. I thank yall for your prayers. And if yall were wondering if you trap a spider with a fly in a cup, nothing happens. We were positive the spider was going to eat it but it didn't happen.

Oct. 10, 2011

So this week was really good. My new companion is Elder Jones, and well he came in and pretty much went clean madness and organize madness on our area. Which is a way good thing, but man I was stressed out for a while, because he was like why is this like this and why is that like that? But man I am excited because I am going to learn a lot from him. I am really going to try to adapt these traits, Because heaven knows Elder Nelson needs organization, and well now God has put a way for me to learn it. But we really did have so many miracles this week. One just happened about a couple of hours ago. Well we were cleaning out our car, apparently that was a disaster as well haha, and it got looking good, and we were fixing to hop on in to go shopping and well...the car does not start. Awesome, so we were like what are we going to do? We are a good 8 miles out of town and everyone is working right now. So we call the members who we live with, who are out on some mountain hiking, but they called us and said we could use their car to jump start our car. But we are not allowed to drive anyone's car and so we have to put it in neutral and push. So finally, everything is set up and our car is connected to this giant deisel truck, and it's been running for a good five to ten minutes...and nothing. So we start running the gas pedal in the truck and we started to turn our car again... and can you guess what happened then...nothing. So I am starving and I go make us some sandwhiches, and Elder Jones is like we should pray. And so we prayed and I was like Heavenly Father I don't know if it is the gas or a fuse or what, but whatever it is you can make it work. And so we both just knew it was going to work this time. So we went out and we turned the key and boom it started. Miracles! But also another cool miracle was with Johnny who needed to come to church this Sunday or he would not be able to get baptized. But it's his sister's birthday party down in Spokane and his whole family is going, and it's like in a casino with beer all over the place, to watch a comedian! Oh ya this is happening Saturday. Not good. Wait he is planning to ride with his family down there. Not good. Because they're not coming back till Sunday night. So he tries to sell his ticket and can't so he leaves, but tells us that he has been lent some money and is going to drive, so everything's good. Sunday rolls around and the church starts at ten. Call him at 9:30 NO Answer.  He is not there at 10. 10:05... Worried out of our minds. 10:07 We are losing hope and decide to drive to his house and see if he's possibly there. And then we see Bro. Mccann and he had also driven there to pick him up and Johnny came out and we were like YES! He got there as they were passing the Sacrament and will be getting baptized this week! I love it. We also had a miracle with him this week, because last week he just kept falling back into coffee, and so this Monday he fasted. Tuesday morning comes and he really wants coffee, but decides to eat breakfast. He then said that after he finished the temptation left and hasn't had the urge since! Fasting + Faith = Miracles. I love yall! Thank yor for your prayers. Have a good week.

Sept. 26, 2011

Man that is crazy about michael! I'll definitely pray for him. I haven't been too hot this week either, but nothing like that. I think I have strep throat and so I have not been able to eat sleep or swallow anything for about the past week. But I am getting some antibiotics today and it should all turn out good. But I learned some really important stuff this week in this week of self-pity. Although  I served every day and refused to take a day off. My service was not that of All my heart might mind and strength. During this week we had the blessed opportunity of listening to Elder Robbins a member of the 70, and he was just so powerful. He just talked about how in order to have a 100% agency we must take a 100% of the responsibility.  And then we talked about different ways that people try to avoid taking responsibility, and how all of those are faith killing things. Whether it is blaming others, justifying, making excuses, lying, running away, seeking pity...etc. He explained to us that rule #1 is that the customer is always right and rule #2 If you think you are in the right re read rule #2. And how it doesn't matter if we are in the right, because the customer is always right. We should never ever use these feelings for they take away our agency and weaken our faith. So a couple days later I realized just how bad I was resulting in these feelings and that my faith was truly being weakened and that I had lost my agency, because my feelings had taken control of my situation. So Saturday is rolling around and as We were driving it just hits me, and I am like I am done with this. This isn't my time, and I have the agency to choose how I react. I became happy, and my attitude became positive. The sickness was the same, in fact it started getting worse, but I had a positive attitude. So some baptisms roll around and we have one of our investigators there. It is hot! It is loud with babies and primary kids who are fighting and distracting, and the baptism is in english in which our investigator speaks very little. My companion and I are distracted because we are waiting for the warden Elders to get there with their baptism, and find some seats for ourselves. And then there was an 8 yr old baptism who had met in the chapel to close and they came out and it was just so loud! At the end of the baptism my comp who was pretty ticked off at this point asks our investigator how she feels. In which she says weird and just wants to leave, and just leaves right away. One young man who got baptized too was pretty embarrassed with everything and almost left the baptism. And so it was pretty crazy. But then I notice how the other guy who got baptized was just shining. Grinning from ear to ear despite the many distractions. I noticed the investigator of the other elders who you could just tell was feeling the spirit. Not to mention that he did not understand any english. And I just started thinking well what is the difference? my mind was brought to remembrance of a story in PMG where there was a woman who the missionaries were teaching in the same situation, hot room, flies, running kids and a frantic father...the missionaries were distracted as well, but were both hit with the impression to listen; the woman began to cry and tell how she had done what the missionaries had said. She had read and prayed, and know that the Book of Mormon was true. The Spirit filled the room. I was brought to remembrance of a personal experience I had had not too long ago. As we were doing a church tour and how it just so happened that there was a stake dance at the exact same time. But the spirit became stronger and stronger as we went through the church too a point where none of us heard the people dancing nor the music. And you know it just hit me that God always gives us our agency and the right to feel the Holy Ghost if we so choose. Even when there are variables that you cannot change, such as the distractions in the aforementioned stories. The fact is that the only distractions are those that in our mind, and therefore we are given the responsibility to act and not just be acted upon. I love it!

Sept. 19, 2011

Well this week was really good. I love miracles! I love investigators that pray! I love being a missionary! We also went to the fair this week! Not to mess around though... we mad a mormon.org booth. Bien chevere ?No? Speaking of mormon.org yall should definitely make a mormon.org profile. But ya I am pretty sure I felt like a bum, because everyone that walked passed out booth just looked the other way and walked to the other side. It was kinda funny, but it was a shame because we didn't have all that much success with it. It was a good idea though. But I did have one of the most powerful lessons in all my mission this week as well. We did a church tour with one of our investigators. It's more than just a tour though; it's a pretty inspired program, that allows us to basically have a lesson in the church. They're pretty sweet. And after the tour we invited him to listen to us for another fifteen minutes so that we could explain how that authority to baptized had been restored. And he was like ya I really want to know about that. So we taught him the restoration and the spirit was just so strong! And then we invited him to pray right then and there to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. He knelt down and asked a sincere prayer in which he said; God, send me a sign to know if Joseph Smith truly received the authority to baptize? The spirit filled the room, we asked him how he felt; and he responded by saying, that God had answered him. He told us he needed to sit down. Now just a little background info about him, is that he has came to half of church once (Not Sacrament) as well as a baptism, but when asked to be baptized he always says no because his wife is not interested and he wont get baptized without her. But we invited him to be baptized and he said, I know God just told me that I have to; and I don't know how it's going to work, but I am willing to be baptized. It was so powerful in that room! Another awesome story was with our investigator Johnny who when we went over to teach the plan of salvation too he had read the pamphlet that we left with him. He then tells how he really didn't want to be deceived and so he had prayed with all of his heart before he read it so that God would tell him if it was true or not. He then went on to say, how he knew it was true without a doubt, and then taught us the whole thing, and how he wanted to go to the celestial kingdom. Then the nest day we went over there and we had assigned him to read 2 Nephi 31. He said I read it, and before I did I prayed about it, and God told me that I needed to receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, but before I got that, I need to be baptized! How massiso is that! Oh so many miracles, I love it.But this week was really I good. I love yall and I thank yall for your prayers. Alena I did not have that one teacher, an I will definitely read that talk, and I am going to write payden. But have an awesome week!