Email July 28 2013

Well like I said last week emailing is kind of a task now. I just would rather tell you in person but I’m going to highlight the best parts of the week.

-Had a couple really good lessons with a kid named W who we started teaching 2 weeks ago, he is visiting his cousin for a month or so and was just adopted by his grandma and wants to get baptized so that will happen on Sunday. That day will be full. 9:00-12:00church, baptism from 3-4 (gotta start prepping at 2), be in R by 4:30 for a dinner and my departing devotional. It will be my last day to work and we are having a baptism :) doesn't get better than that :)

-Had another investigator A who was progressing great but after our lesson Saturday he told us he couldn't do more of the church stuff right now. We were really confused and tried to get him to tell us what it was but he just said it needs to be his choice and it was nothing to do with us. So we were really bummed because he was going to get baptized the week after I left. Well we were sitting at church and guess who sits down by me. It’s A! So I guess we are still going to teach him! If it’s something that he wants he could actually be baptized on Sunday also. It’s pretty great!

-the beginning of our week was really good and then it just kind of fell apart. This next week we have some really good plans to actually have a lot of lessons. I’m glad it worked out this way because it’s looking like this is going to be the best week of my mission and it’s the last one!

Well that's about it! I love you tons and ill talk to you next Tuesday!

Email July 15 2013

 Well it has been a crazy day today.  Our truck had a "system failure" while we were driving so we had to pull off to the side and walk to the stake center which luckily wasn't too far away. The whole truck just freaked out and we thought we were going to die haha We just had a tow truck come take it. The dumb thing is that we told them we were almost back to our truck and they said they were on their way... an hour later we called and they said they would be another 20 min so we wasted over an hour of our pday waiting for the truck. So that was no fun. But this last week has been pretty great!

My birthday and the baptism were great! J made us breakfast and it was super good! I don't get a good breakfast very often. I’ve had maybe 5 real breakfasts in the last 2 years. And for lunch a couple took us to Red Robin and they sang to me and gave me free ice cream! We had 2 cool miracles happen. 1. on our way to the baptism N called and told us about a really good friend she started talking to again and she had started going to church with another friend so N said "well if you’re going to start going to church you should come with me!" So her friend came to her baptism and to church the next day and we will hopefully start teaching her this week! The baptism was great. I was able to baptize her and the turnout was great! The next day we had miracle number 2. Elder N has been sick and it attacked his voice so when he woke up he couldn't talk hardly at all. He was supposed to confirm her in church so we went to J’s and we gave Elder N a blessing that his voice would be okay for the blessing that day. When it got time for him to do his thing he spoke almost perfectly and then lost his voice again after that. The Power of the Priesthood.

We got a few referrals last week that we are going to check out this week and hopefully see some success. The only thing that is lame now is that unless we get a random move in of someone who is just ready to get baptized, then everyone we find now I won’t be here for the baptism because they have to come to church 3 times. We got some good news though. They are doing the departing devotional a week early so everyone in my group can do it together! Half of us are going home on the 6th so it would have been small if they did it with the remaining 4. But yeah. It’s been a good week! I love you tons!

EMail July 10 2013

 To Mom: 

3 things first

1. That car looks great! Thank you so much!
2. If you may recall Elder R was my MTC companion! My first comp. on my mission! haha He is a great missionary and we will be flying home together.
3. I fly out of Ontario August 6th at 3:00 our time because that morning is a Zone meeting that Elder Nn and I have to do for our zone. So we will have zone meeting and go straight to the airport haha

So we have some great news from this week! First off I’m emailing Wednesday instead of Monday because we had Zone Conference and President Interviews on Monday. So last week N finally texted us and asked if we could come over so we got the relief society president and went over and N said she has been thinking a lot about her baptism and she wants to do it. So she is getting baptized this Saturday at 7:00 :) On my birthday! :) We are really excited for her and it’s been a rough week this week because Satan is really trying to keep her away but the whole relief society presidency went over and took her some homemade Jam and just told her how excited they were for her. It made a big difference.

We had a few other neat things happen. We had a training last week about better contacting and actually have conversations with people not AT them. So on the 4th of July we got to go to J’s brother’s house in C (now part of the mission) and he had some of his non member neighbors over and a PM family that were really good friends with them. We spent a bit of time just talking to them. We played soccer a little bit with the PM family’s dad who isn't a member but we totally thought he was but had a great conversation with him. Then later I ended up talking to one of his neighbors and amazing things happened! I was just making easy conversation and he asked if I live here so I took that opportunity to tell him a little about missions but he just changed subject so I went along with it and asked him about his home in T where he moved from and about his family and all of a sudden he started asking me questions first about missions, then about the church! Just from having a good conversation it changed and they opened up ways to share the gospel. A couple days later we went to help J at his house and his brother F came over (the one whose house we had been at) and I was helping him clean out J’s garage and he told me that he really appreciated us talking to the non members at his house and how every time he turned around it seemed like we had just been gravitating to the non members. He also said how much more comfortable he was now to try to talk to his neighbors about the Gospel. We had a good talk for a bit about missions and how to make the work move faster and then we ended up a few minutes later going over to J’s neighbors house to see how they had redone their backyard and made it look like old school wild west.  It was really really awesome and F and I were talking to one of the brothers that was showing us the house and he asked if we were Mormon and we just were able to talk to him a little about it and found out his brother is taking lessons in … and getting ready to be baptized. Then it clicked that we were talking to the brothers of C  who was someone who told us to come back and teach her but had gone to college. Her brothers were just as nice and willing to let us come back so we are going to go over to teach them hopefully tomorrow! It was quite the miracle!

 Those are pretty much the highlights of our week! We had some good experiences and are just continuing to look for people to teach. The R mission has banned tracting and from what I hear ours is about to do the same. It’s a good thing though because its soooo ineffective. Well I love you tons and can’t wait to see you In a couple of weeks!

To Dad:

I can finally buy beer!!! haha well on Saturday I can ;) hah 21 Birthday doesn't mean a whole lot in our church. We have had a great week! N is getting baptized on Saturday and Js confirmation went really really well. He just fits right in with the ward. He is a goofy guy but just makes people laugh which is good for everyone to do. On the 4th of July we went to a parade in the morning with … and his family and it was really fun. There were a lot of people in it and it was about 2 hours long. We also had pretty much the best dinner ever at J’s house a couple days later. We had been doing service from 1-5, and chopping through rock solid dirt and digging a ditch for sprinklers and moving things around a really big garage. So we went to dinner and because of lack of time weren't able to go change before dinner so we washed down a little bit with his hose in the backyard and just went with no shoes. We ate outside under a covered area and had some awesome Mexican food. It was just really relaxing. It’s been so so so awesome to see how strong of a member J has become since choosing to come back to church and get his priesthood back. I think that is pretty much all that wasn't in the other email. Had some really great miracles this week which just go to show that God still does love us today :) I hope you have a great week! I love you!

Email June 30 2013

To Mom:  It got hot everywhere it sounds like. it was around 107-110 lately and our AC doesn't work very well and we live upstairs so we had a couple nights of not much rest. But last night was great! It cooled off a lot and even rained for a little bit so we got some good sleep!

Right now we don't have much work. So we are focusing this week on visiting members and less actives. During our weekly planning we prayed about who we should see and came up with a list of about 11 people that we will work with this week. We will let you know how it goes! I’m looking forward to the 4th of July here! It will be fun! Also yesterday a man who recently got his priesthood back spoke in church and did an absolutely amazing job. I wish that I could reach the level that he is on right now. He is truly converted to the Gospel. For him it took him through some pretty low points to get there but he is there and that is what matters.

There isn't too much to say for this week. It was good but didn't see a ton of fruit yet. Sadly we helped the G family move this week which was an awesome family who I liked a lot. They reminded me so much of Becky and Joey. Like a ton. They even have 2 little boys ages 3 and 5 so pretty close to Hailey and Kaitlyn. A few people have moved out which has been sad but some new people are moving in who seem great. I love you a ton and miss you but will see you in a few weeks!

To Dad:  I really like those pictures! It is sooo pretty there! I miss the ocean a lot. Someday I want to travel the world to see all the most beautiful and amazing places here. It was a pretty good week sort of. haha kind of weird.

We had transfers which was full of anxiety since we didn't know what was going on but I stayed here with Elder N so that was good. Elder U sadly isn't in the mission anymore but I got to say goodbye last week and we are going to hang out after the mission.

 We had our baptism yesterday which went great but only J got baptized.  Other than that not much else really new has happened this week. We got some new missionaries in the zone but a couple of them were like "oh great..." but we got some good ones. Like Elder D is in our zone now which made me super happy! He is doing fantastic and going to do well in the ward he is in. Also Elder G and C got a surprise and got to stay together for a third transfer which doesn't usually happen when you train. They also got a third companion who was in San B with me and he is awesome! His name is Elder H and the three of them together make a great team. They are using their tripanionship perfectly! One of them will go to an appointment with a member while the other ones work around the area so they are doing twice the work. They are a huge relief to have in the zone because of how diligent they are. Sadly at this transfer we lost one of the best missionaries in the mission who was doing awesome. But I can’t complain we got him one transfer longer than he was supposed to have.

So that was our week! This week we will be focusing on finding and visiting tons of members and sharing what we learned at the broadcast last week! I love you tons! Have a fun week!

Email June 17 2013

Things are going great! I’m really enjoying this last leg of the mission and finally feel like I know what’s going on! It’s been a great and long ride but is going to end even better than it started! I’m sorry to hear about your finger that is not good at all! That’s really good to hear about Jordan though! He is a great kid and is going to be great at teaching Lyndsi. I will be finding out next Tuesday whether I come home on the 13 or the 6th apparently though the president said that because it was kind of thrown on us and we might already have plans for before the 13th we would be able to go home on the 6th still so I just need to think about it.

The baptism on Saturday went really really well. He had a lot of support from the ward and was just happy to be getting baptized. Other than the baptism this week was kind of rough. We realized that we really overworked ourselves the first 3 weeks and it took its toll on us this week. This next week we have plans to pick it back up and make sure we end this transfer really well. We were supposed to have a baptism this next Sunday too but there is too much stuff going on and so we have to push it to the 30th and we are doing it at 7:00 which means that we might have the last baptism of the San Bernardino mission! That would be pretty funny!

Other than the baptism the real highlight of the week was Wednesday when I had my temple trip. It was great to be with the missionaries that I came out with and spend time with them. The temple was great and I was able to ask a lot of questions about what I’m supposed to do when I get home. I feel good about being a PA and think that I will pursue that when I get home. It just feels right. I also got the impression that my mission was just supposed to start me in my missionary work and that I would do more missionary work back home than I did here on my mission. It was kind of an interesting thought and I was kind of confused but it’s true. As I have watched the way our member J P works with everyone he meets and always brings up the gospel there is a lot that members can do and I want to be like Josh in that way. I think a big reason I was sent to this ward was to meet J because he has become somebody that I want to be like after my mission.

After the temple we went to café rio and then to the mission office where my interview was supposed to be at 6 but didn't end up happening until 8:30 so I was at the office from 2-9:30. It was a long time. The interview went really well and we just talked about my mission and everything and afterwards he gave me a blessing and it was really neat to be able to have that experience with President Godwin.

That’s pretty much the highlights of the week. It’s been pretty slow but we are recommitting ourselves to do awesome this week! I love you tons and hope you have a great week!!

Email June 3 2013

Okay well I didn't email last week because the library was closed and so we were told that we didn't get to email that week. I wasn't too thrilled with that but what can ya do? I have a lot to email about this week because a lot happened in the last 2 weeks.

Last week.

We saw 2 really big miracles. That guy we taught on his doorstep is awesome. We went back to teach him and when we finished his sister came in and said hold on before you leave I have some questions to ask you. She is REALLY interested! We taught her and set a baptismal date with her. Throughout the rest of the week we ended up getting the whole family as investigators there are the parents, their 2 kids, and N’s daughter have both now come to church! She is sooo ready for baptism. It’s been amazing to see how much happier she is than when we started teaching her. After one of our visits we got a text from N that said this: “Thank you guys. It felt very good to end the evening with your visit. Your words to me are priceless. It doesn't matter what others think, I am certain I want to become a lifelong member of your church. I know my life will be fulfilled so much more after I’m baptized. Your duties as missionaries will not have been in vain.”  It was super super awesome to get that and she is just so awesome!

The other miracle was when we were knocking on doors and we were on team-ups. We had one of our APs with us, and we knocked on a door and this teenager let us in. We taught him and his mom and dad about baptism just from the Bible out of Matt 3 and they accepted to be baptized. The son spoke English the dad spoke a little English and the mom spoke hardly any but we gave the referral to the Spanish elders and they taught the mom and said that she really is interested! It was really really awesome. Those were our major miracles from last week.

THIS WEEK

It has been a rough week. We knocked on a lot of doors and lots of people were just really rude. They would tell us how we were just deceiving people and that Joseph Smith was a false prophet and just definitely not respecting our religion at all. So that was pretty rough.

Saturday we had exchanges. I was in the Spanish ward on bike with Elder Graff. haha it was fun introducing ourselves to people and see their confused looks. Well it was 104 degrees on Saturday. And from 11-3 nobody let us in. So we biked around in the heat and it was no good. Finally we had a really good lesson with one of their investigators. We talked about the atonement and baptism and invited her to be baptized and she said no. We then talked to her about how she could know if the church was true and the Book of Mormon is true. We told her how to pray and how her answer would feel. We then had her pray right there with us to know if the Book of Mormon was true. After the prayer we asked how she felt and she said. "I know this sounds weird but I feel clean. I feel peaceful." We were able to help her see that that was the Spirit and told her she could feel that ALL the time after she was baptized because of the gift of the Holy Ghost. The Spirit was really strong! After that we biked around some more and right before dinner we both ended up with flat tires because of a patch of dirt we had to ride through for 2 seconds and we got stickers in our tires. So we spent the rest of the night walking and inviting their investigators to church. It was fun being with Elder Graff though and even though he has only been out for 3 months he is doing awesome!

Well that is pretty much it! I love you tons and I’m glad you had a great birthday! I will get that stuff all sent in this week!

Email May 20 2013

Well my new comp issss................................................. actually not new! He’s an old comp! It’s Elder N!! I was super excited and we are doing awesome so far! It’s crazy how good of a missionary he has become. He has definitely become a better missionary than I was at his time and has a lot of really awesome strengths. We had a really good week but I only have a few minutes to email so this will be the only email to the family.

We had to do stake coordination this last week which takes up a ton of our week. Almost a full day plus we had transfers where we got 3 new companionships in the zone. There are now 6 missionaries in the Spanish ward and they split one of the English wards to have 4 missionaries.

Although our week was crazy when we were able to get out and look for people we saw miracles happen. We devoted all our time to trying to find and we found 3 new people this week. 1 was a former investigator. One lives across the street from J but I want to talk about the last one we found.

We had some extra time so we decided to knock on some doors. We knock on one door and a lady answers and it turns out she used to go to her brothers in Long Beach to ask the missionaries there questions. She said we could come by this next Tuesday. So that was really cool! Then we saw a guy sitting on his porch so we talked to him and he said he would listen to our message because he "is looking for the true church and has been praying for an answer" WOAH! We had a really good lesson and set a baptismal date with him. After I recited the first vision Elder N asked him how he felt about that and he said "I feel awesome! I feel peaceful." Holy cow that never happens! So we will be seeing him again on Wednesday! That was really the highlight of the week and it was just cool to see that even though we were REALLY busy with other things that as we were diligent we received blessings. Just thought id share that little miracle with you! We will let you know what happens with him and next week I’ll have more time to email.

Today the computer lab was down and so we just barely got on after waiting for awhile but have somewhere to be in a few min. I love you tons though!