The Work of the Lord

Before I forget, I found out what the name of the illness is that the kid has that I talked about last time. It's "Leucodistrofia", in English I think that it's Leukodystrophy.


Anyways, everything here is going well. That family that I told y'all about last week, the one that came to church and read together after one day, offered to feed us lunch on Saturday. So we went over and we set up a trip to go to Temple Square on Sunday. So Sunday we passed by their house before church to invite them to church. We talked to the dad. And he told us "well the kids said they're feeling a little pressured/ not used to the change. (Because before they didn't go to church at all). So y'all can probably come over 2 times a week like Wednesday and Saturday. We'll still go to church today but probably won't go to the temple tonight" So we kept talking to him for a little bit more, and then left to walk to church. On the walk to church the whole time I was in shock and just felt like crying. We waited in the foyer for them and they came. So we took them to their classes (they do sacrament last here). So we took everyone and the classes were going. I looked at my companion and told him we had to pray. But since all the classrooms were occupied there weren't many places to kneel down and pray. Luckily we were next to the custodial closet, so I opened the door and told him to get in. So in the custodial closet we knelt down and prayed. We prayed that their hearts would be touched while at church, and that they may continue to have a desire to learn about the church, and that they would go to the temple with us that night. So we went back to the Elders quorum. Then had Gospel Principles class (luckily the teacher there is amazing and they all liked his class/ way he teaches). And then we went to sacrament meeting. Which luckily, it was me and my companion giving the talks. I talked about how missionary work and love are inseparable. And taught the members to do missionary work through service to others and their examples. And my companion talked about our purpose as missionaries and their responsibility of member missionary work. And there was a baby blessing that day, so there were a lot more people that weren't members and a lot of people at church, just a little more pressure. But anyways after church we talked to them and they said that they would go to the temple that night. So that was good. We got to their house like 5 or 10 minutes late and they weren't there so we called. They told us "we're on our way to the temple" and so they came back and got us. We saw the statue of Christ, then we saw the presentation of "Our Heavenly Father's Plan for the Family." Then we saw the movie of Joseph Smith. They said that they loved the temple, and everything. They wouldn't stop taking pictures of them in front of the temple, and other sights. When they dropped us off at our house they all got out of the car and gave us some handshakes, and told us we could come by whenever we want and we didn't even need appointments. And the wife in relief society signed up to feed us 2 times during the week. I know that our prayers are heard and answered. I know that this is the work of the Lord.

Buenas Dias!

Well we're still working on finding new investigators. It's pretty tough. We did find a family though that seemed like they should be pretty good. We talked to the dad and he was telling us that they don't go to any church, but are looking for a church to go to. They don't want their kids to grow up and fall in to the pattern most do. Which is going to church sometimes, as a kid then growing up and never going. We've only talked to them once, but we have an appointment with them tonight. So hopefully it will be able to go well. We're still doing a lot of tracting and contacting referrals. On Sunday we went to an english ward and talked with some english bishops and the stake president. The bishops were glad to see a missionary and gave us a bunch of referrals. I guess the english ones haven't really worked too much with them. So I guess some of the members don't trust missionaries. Hopefully we'll be able to turn that around. Things with my companion are going pretty well. He's kind of a little different, but it's part of learning to get a long with different personalities. I've been pretty tired lately. I'll go to sleep and wake up at 6:25 and it doesn't feel like I've even slept. The family that I wrote bout last week, the one with the kid that's been sick is still the same. I found out the name of the sickness but I don't remember what it's called. It was something like "leo" something. Well, the weather is starting to warm up here which is nice. But right now we're getting a thunderstorm. Which reminds me of home a little bit. I think it's the first one I've seen since I've been out. I can't really think of too much more that's been going on. We don't have any baptisms coming up, but we should be able to put some people on date this week. I'm working on getting the Master Teacher award so I've been memorizing a lot of scriptures in Spanish. It's fun and gives me something to do.

Malo Lei Lei

Hola!

Well things in the new area are going pretty well. All the people that the missionaries before us had, aren't really too good. So I'm kind of having to start over here. We're doing a lot of tracting and working on finding new people to teach. We've found two families that look pretty good and then yesterday we found a guy that seems pretty solid. One of the families has a little boy who is 5, almost 6, years old. And apparently like 3 months ago he was a normal kid, but now he's having problems talking and walking, like he's lost a lot of body control. They said the doctor said it was terminal, and that of the 4 types of the disease, this is the rarest. The dad didn't really want to talk to us, but we just kept talking about the plan then he said "someone from your church told us they were going to come over and give a blessing, but he said it would be in a couple of days." So we told him we have the same authority and offered to give the blessing. So we gave it, and then they became open to talking about the gospel. It was grrrreat. Then the guy yesterday we were talking to him and he told us "I don't like those Christian churches that yell and sing, and say they start speaking of tongues, and hit people on the head and say they're healed." That kind of surprised us, but then he said something more surprising. He said "two weekends ago I was watching something, I think it was from your church, I liked the way they explained everything. It was simple and I liked what they taught." So we told him it was probably General Conference, because he said it was Saturday and Sunday two weeks ago, and that the people he listened to were the Apostles and prophet. And so we talked to him a little bit and we're going to return on Saturday. Hopefully something good can come from these people we've found.
 
My companion doesn't really know much about the area. I've been in it 6 weeks less than him and I think I know it and the investigators better. I feel like I'm training, in a white wash area. It's tough but oh well. The work here is going well, and hopefully we'll continue to find more people to teach! Oh one last story. So yesterday we went to check a referral and we knocked the door and an old lady answers and she tells us "I'm a Southern Baptist and I don't want to hear about your... I'm not even going to call it a religion because it's a cult!"" So I was trying to stay calm and I said "why would you say it's a cult?" and she started saying a bunch of stuff and then they said "but don't worry serving a mission is going to make you a successful person, the head of a company, and rich." Then her and her daughter started saying a bunch more stuff so I said "I can tell y'all have a strong faith in Christ. Keep manifesting it..." and they said "Amen. We do!" and so we started walking away when a spanish guy pulled up, the guy we were trying to contact, and so we started talking to him. Trying to see if he's interested and these crazy ladies were yelling "Adios! What don't you understand about leave! This is private property!" and then the old lady yells "Call 911! and tell them to get over here!" Which I wasn't worried about, because the police probably are mormon and wouldn't do anything to us. So we ended up not being able to talk to the spanish guy. But while the old lady was still yelling at us I offered to help with anything, cutting the grass or anything, then her countenance changed but she still hated me. So that was a fun experience.

Transfers

Happy Thursday!

Well I got transfered to another part of West Valley. Now I'm in the Granger East stake. We have one person with a baptismal date, but I'm going to see if I can change that. I'm thinking about 6 baptisms this transfer. My new companion is from Ecuador. He's kind of a quiet kid and he's been out for a few months. Everything in my life is going pretty well. Our new area is pretty big, and we don't have a car. Last night it took us about 30 minutes to walk to one of our appointments. I guess I'm pretty excited to work in this area. It's always a good thing to go to new stakes and meet new people. I can't really think of too much to write about. We're supposed to have a baptism on Saturday so hopefully that goes through. We talked to him last night and he said he was a little unsure. But I talked to him a little bit and I think he feels better about it.  That's all for now.