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!