Email Jan 21 2013

WEELLLLLL I’m in O! yayy!!! If you pull out a map of the areas I’ve been in I’ve really seen the whole mission. It’s pretty crazy! My companions name is Elder B. He is from Canada!! I’ve officially now had a companion from not Utah or Idaho! haha He is really awesome and we get along really well! I’m still confused at our area but figuring it out as fast as I can. We have a total of 8 companionships in the zone including us which equals 17 missionaries because there is a sister companionship of 3. Yes we have 5 sisters in our zone.... that’s a lot haha. We have a lot of really good missionaries in the zone. I miss being in a singles ward. But don’t mind it here. Good things are starting to happen in the zone already though so we are excited. There are a lot of Spanish people here. There are even a lot of posters, stores, billboards, etc. that are all in Spanish only. We don’t have a TON of investigators but we have a few and we have 3 baptismal dates. We set one after I got here and it was a really awesome and powerful lesson but afterwards that Sunday she didn’t come to church so I’m not sure what to do with her. We have been really praying and fasting. Hopefully things will work out. We are planning on getting at least 3 new investigators this next week! And setting at least 2 more dates. Most of the people in the ward are young couples going into medical areas because there is a medical school close by in P. Met a lot of really nice people yesterday but it’s just still weird not being in a singles ward anymore. Our other 2 investigators M and C are both pretty awesome. Christina came to church on Sunday and liked it. Manuel had to work Sunday which was rough. So we have dates for M, C, and M. That’s like 3 weeks in a row! That would be soooo awesome! Oh yeah so we live with members again which is kind of awesome. We live in their upstairs which isn’t very big. But is pretty nice. The members are also Tongans! Cool huh? They are super awesome! Well that’s pretty much all for this week! Hopefully I’ll have lots to write about in the next letter! Love you tons! 

Email Jan 7 2013

I really like the picture! So I’m not going to write much again this week mostly because once again I have a really bad migraine but I want to write about R’s baptism. The baptism was yesterday and it was amazing! Stressful but amazing. So we forgot to find some keys to the building and we went to go fill up the font at 4:45 and realized we didn’t have keys so we were calling around and nobody was answering. FINALLY we got someone to come over and started filling the font about 5:30. We had waited in our truck in the pouring rain haha. Luckily it was filled in time but sadly it wasn’t warm haha. R’s best friend M baptized him which was really neat. He was so happy and so ready and there were a ton of young single adults there as support it was super super awesome and soooo spiritual. There was a girl in the ward that did a special musical number in it and it was awesome! He was talking before and was like "How do you guys know so much? I want to know as much as you and like teach a class." haha it is amazing to hear the person you helped get baptized say that. He was really really prepared and it was really really amazing to see him change is life yesterday and get baptized. Earlier today we went on a hike to an awesome little mountain called Mormon rocks and it was really fun but really windy and cold. We got some cool pictures. After that we went bowling and Elder C and I paid for a couple Spanish missionaries because they found 8 new investigators this last week and we were really proud of them. I REALLY love the missionaries in our zone they are soo awesome. After that I went and slept and tried to get my migraine to not hit me full on but oh well. So I will email a little more about our week and some interesting things in a couple of days but I need to email president about a couple problems we need taken care of. I love you tons! Have an awesome week!

 

Email Jan 2 2013

Well the libraries were closed on Monday so I’m sending you a quick email today. It was so good to see you guys! I’m sorry I wasn’t too talkative and everything it had been a really hard, stressful week. Hopefully things will be getting better soon. Starting with the baptism of R that is on Sunday! We have sooo much to do to prepare and its really neat because he told us about how his mom was really against it but he told her that it made him happy and it was his life and he said that he just always imagines himself getting married in the temple and that’s where he really wants to be. SUCH a neat guy! I’m so happy for him. I will let you know how that baptism goes when I email on Monday. Other than that things are good.  Satan is just trying to get in the way of our missionary work. We work hard but nothing seems to happen. It all just depends on the attitude we have. I love being a zone leader because I have learned so much and there is still more things I need to learn. W is still planning on getting baptized on the 19th which is really exciting and then that will be pretty much all of our investigators so we are trying to help our members do better missionary work and get them more pumped up. We had a really good lesson with a family about how to gain a desire to do missionary work because none of them really had it. They are working on organizing a breakfast where they will invite a lot of non-members and we are going to have a lesson with them. Things are going well and I’m just happy to start of this year with a baptism. My goal by the end of my mission is to have 26 baptisms total. I’m a little over halfway there. That means I get to work really hard but it should be a little easier the farther along I get because I know more of what I need to do to help people progress and how to REALLY do missionary work. Well that’s about it for the week. I have more to tell you but it will have to wait till Monday. I love you tons!