Here it is

7/9/2012

This week has been great! R got baptized and I got to do the ordinance after. He got out of the font, gave me a huge hug and was soooo emotional. We had a great program. President Greer and a bunch of other missionaries with their investigator were there. Elder Stewart and I shared a lesson on the Gospel of Jesus Christ, using the Robles Family video( have you seen it yet???) As we were sharing it, you could tell everyone was feeling the Spirit. I am soo grateful for the blessings Heavenly Father has given me in this life. I'm sooo happy to be on my mission here. I hope we'll continue to find more people like Robert.

Elder Stewart and I also have a baptism tomorrow. It'll be D and D Dooley. The 14 and 11 year olds I've talked about before. Also, we just put another on date for the 4th of August. His name is G Smith. He is the only non-member in his family, everyone else is active, it's just him. So we're excited for this next 4 weeks!

7/3/2012

This week, we have R Morris' baptism scheduled and we are super excited for it! We will have pictures and everything from it next week. President is interviewing him tonight. Also, we went to the Temple today. Elder La R is here in the same zone as me. And right now he is training a new missionary. So there's a picture of our zone; our district; and Elder La R, his new missionary Elder C, and I. I love serving here and we have been finding so much success here. I love it!!!!

And now as a spiritual thought. Ever since I got out President Greer has been drilling us with the Doctrine of Christ which is: Faith, Repentance, Baptism, receiving the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. If you didn’t already know, this is what the "gospel" is. That was something that I didn’t really know that I knew. We're taught it our whole lives, but it never dawn on us that the gospel is a specific thing. Before my mission, anytime I would here "the gospel" I thought it just meant anything that had to do with church. But it is a specific pattern and process. If you look at 2 Nephi 31:21 it says that "this is the way, and there is no other way" So, something that I want to do is commit you and the family to set up an appointment with the missionaries in the ward, and ask them to teach you about the Doctrine of Christ using the "Robles Family Video" they should know what that is. The Doctrine of Christ is true, and without it, nothing else in this church works. It is the only way the Priesthood, the Atonement, or even the scriptures work. I promise you as you learn and study about the Gospel of Jesus Christ, you will gain a greater understanding for the call to missionary work Heavenly Father has extended to all of us, tag or not. I love you, and know that this is true. Hope you have a great week!!!!

6/8/2012

This is a letter he wrote to President Greer this week. He wanted me to post it on here for you all to read.  

Hello President,
So I’m just gonna warn you hand that this might be a long email. I have two different experiences I'd like to share, and it correlates with a scripture I've loved as long as I can remember.  First off, Elder S and I are very pleased with the numbers we attained this week. I know it's because of our constant prayers and diligence, but there's still a lot of room for improvement. So we only hope to get better. But the first experience started on Tuesday at district meeting. Elder J was retelling us the counsel you gave him and the rest of the zone leaders at ZLC about making a colomn for questions when taking notes. He then invited us to try the process out in district meeting and see what type of questions come from it. Throughout the whole meeting, the only question I wrote down was: "Why doesn’t God just give us the referrals?" I already, to a point, knew the answer, but it had come to my mind, so I wrote it down. As I did, not even 5 minutes later Sis W calls and told us about a man who had called the mission office and was wondering where the closest church building was in his area. She then called and gave us his information. After district meeting we called him and set up an appointment with him for that night. We conveniently had our bishop in that ward coming out with us that night already. When we knocked his door, he opened it and invites us in. After he closes the door behind us, he begins to relay his story of how he and his wife had just gotten divorced and that because of some of the choices she was making he left. He did not want his two sons to be in that environment. He also has been out of work for 5 years or so and at this point had nowhere to go. But his sister had been taking the lessons for a while and he had remembered how the missionaries had been nice to him and knew that if he called us he would be okay. As we continued to talk with him, he brought up baptism, and asked if that was available for him and his 2 sons. We gladly assured him that it was. the three of them came to church, and we have a third lesson set for them on Wednesday night, where if all goes to plan, we'll have him set up for a date of baptism.Thats my first experience, now for my second one.

On Friday, my companion and I were filling our time by contacting a list of less active members that our ward council had no information on. As we knocked one of the doors, a woman answered the door but would only talk through the chain lock so we had little to no face to face conversation, but still was able to talk to her. We talked for about 40 minutes and most of it was about her. She did not believe in the church or God. She had been diagnosed with cancer, and from the look of it she wasn't older than 40. For quite some time she had been trying to get her name off the records of the church, and was very annoyed with the number of people that have knocked her door asking if she would like to come to church. As we talked with her, all I could do was ask: "Is there anything we could do for you? Anything we can help you with?" And every time I asked, she would decline. I think that happened 5 or 6 times in our conversation. It just hurt me to see someone at such a depressing time in their life to still not accept help.

My point from both of these experiences is that God is watching over all of his children. We are loved by someone that wants our happiness to be eternal, he pleads with us every day of our lives that we can be humble and willing to do the things that we need to do to be happy. and accept help."...we see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth" (Alma 26:37).

I know this is true and that as missionaries, we can be the help that His children need. As we teach of Christ, others will rejoice of his gospel. In the name of Jesus Christ amen.

6/4/2012

Side note: I got a call this week from a sister in Washington wishing me Happy Birthday from my missionary son.

 Hey Mom and family, I'm glad she called you. We were driving back from service and her husband and she were talking about what they were gonna do for her birthday and I asked her when her birthday was, then the rest is history. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!! (It was a wonderful gift to know my son was serving on my birthday.)

Anyways how’s everything going? Elder S and I are teaching a family of two kids, the mom is a member but she’s been in and out of jail and such so we are working through the grandparents. They are preparing for baptism on the 30th so we are excited about that. Their names are D and D Dooley. So I'll keep you in touch about that. So far elder S and I are just trying to fix this area up. We have been meeting various members of the two wards trying to get to know people and find referrals. But other than that, it's pretty norm right now. My clothes are doing great, same with the shoes.

5/21/2012

In our new area we're building it from ground zero but, it's good. I can see why heavenly father wants us here. We do have another baptism this weekend. It’s a 9 yr old that we just finished teaching. That'll be fun.