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.

Stoked!

Buenasss diassss!! The weekend was GRRREAT! We had 4 baptisms. Which brings the transfer total to 7. And in the two transfers I've been here I've had 19. The whole zone together had 18, and the mission had 82 for the weekend. Then Sunday we had 9 confirmations in church. My arm was dead by the end. I baptized and confirmed the same person, so that was pretty cool.

Yesterday we had an amazing day as well. We put 2 people on date for baptism. One for the 10th, and the other for the 17th. And then we were checking past investigators the night before and felt like we should go visit one. It said they were only home on weekends, but we went anyways. It was a back up plan and the lesson we set up the night before somehow fell through. We went and she opened the door and was surprised. So then she told us a few days ago she saw some missionaries and was going to talk to them, but decided she could just go to the church building because she knew where it was at. But we showed up, so it was kind of an answer to her prayers. And she wants us to teach her sons, but I'm pretty sure she'll learn with them and her husband. So there's a potential of 4. It was great. On the weekend we saw some kids playing basketball and so we challanged them to a game of 4 on 2. We kept our suits on. And needless to say, we beat them 12-4. So that was kind of fun. I think that's about all that's been going on. We got transfers next week so I'll be e-mailing on Thursday. man this transfer has gone by so fast! It's crazy that conference is already here again. I'm Stoked.

A Quick Note

Anyways, The work here is going geat! We only had one baptism this last weekend. We were hoping for 3... But the good news is that the 2 that didn't get baptized are planning on getting baptized this weekend. So hopefully we'll have 4. Which is going to be great because there will be 12 baptisms in the stake which is pretty amazing. Hopefully the work will continue to progress. I can't really think of too much that has happened. And I don't have too much time, But I'm still seeing miracles and everything is going well. Sorry if this e-mail is kind of a let down, but I promise I will have more for y'all next week!

HAPPY ST PATRICKS DAY!

Well, I had interviews with President Sonne this week and he told me "I don't know why, but God wants you to be fluent in Spanish." Then he followed it with "I don't know maybe your girl will be a spanish speaker." He's trying to get me to think about marriage. I think he's trunky. Then I talked to him about March Madness a little bit. It was a great interview.

Anyways the work in the area is going pretty well. We were able to have 2 weddings, and a baptism on Saturday. This weekend we're planning on having 2-3 baptisms. It should be grrrreat. I'm excited. Then we have 2 or 3 baptisms set up for the 27th, and then the 3rd is General Conference, and right now we're working on getting some people on date for the 10th. Which we should be able to do. There is so much work in this area it is crazy. I don't really want to leave after this transfer. But if I do, it's all good. It just means I'll have to go baptize like crazy somewhere else. But we still have 3 weeks left in this transfer. A lot of time to work.

I can't really think of any thing that's happened. Oh Sunday, I confirmed someone a member of the church for the first time. So that was an interesting thing. I think he's going to serve a mission. I hope so. Well I know this church is true and that I'm doing the best thing with my time. I've grown and learned so much. I've seen so many miracles and changes in the lives of the people that are here, it's amazing. right now I wouldn't want to be doing anything else.

Happy Birthday to Me!

WOOOOOOOO!!! The big 2-0. Man I spent my birthday with a CrAzY party! It started around 10:30 at night. We said a prayer. And went to bed. I think I woke up around 4:30 told myself "happy birthday" and went back to sleep. I probably had a sick birthday in my dreams. Then I celebrated by sleeping in 2 minutes until 6:25 A.M. Went to the study room and read my birthday cards and then, celebrated by running a mile. Shortly after I took a cool down shower, then ate some breakfast. A banana and a Slim-fast Shake ( I'm trying to cut the lb's before General Conference). Then I had some Personal and companion study. We made a baptismal program. During language study, my colleague in the work of Zion, Elder Hiatt, brought me a wonderful birthday surprise. He made me the best birthday card I have ever received, and some cosas to make S'mores. Subsequently, this later got us in trouble with the Zone Leaders and District Leader because it was midway through language study. But I'm alright with it. Because 1) It was Elder Hiatt. 2) It was my birthday 3) My spanish is perfect and I don't need language study 4)It was an act of love not of selfish sin. 5) I sinned in ignorance. 6) We had a lesson to help them with at 11 so they needed us to come over anyways. So I'm pretty sure that justifies it all! Then we helped him with his lesson. I had the opportunity of having 2 lessons with Elder Hiatt that day! Then our dinner appointment last night was sick. The guy offered to take us golfing whenever we want, so we'll probably go next P-day. Then to finish off the day we had a baptism and confirmation of one of our investigators. Probably the best thing to do on my birthday. Then when we returned to the apartment, we got chastised a little by the Zone Leaders about Elder Hiatt coming over. But it was all gravy, because it was my birthday. That was pretty much the highlight of the week. Oh and Sunday when we got to church the person that we baptized yesterday, asked us to give her baby a blessing to give it a name. So I figured my companion would do it because it was in spanish, but she was like "no you" so I got to bless a baby and give it a name for the first time, and the best part is, is that it was in spanish. Oh man. I went to Temple Square Monday night. The investigators we went with felt the Spirit pretty strong. The girl/wife ( who has been the hardest to convert) cried at one point. Then one of them said that they felt a little sad at the end of the Joseph Smith movie because he died. The guy that said that is getting baptized on saturday, and his sister and her boyfriend are getting married on Saturday. So this weekend should be good. 2 Weddings and 1 baptism! Well I think I've said about all that needs to be said.

The first two pictures are of the baptism. The kid in picture 2 is always dressed in slacks and converse it's sick. The next picture is the banner that we all sign.  The last picture is the of the SLC Temple that night.

Transfers

Well, we had transfers yesterday and it turns out I stayed in the area So it's pretty good I guess. I wouldn't mind seeing a little more of Salt Lake. I've been here for pretty much my whole mission. But it's all gravy. It got pretty crazy last week. The family that we helped get married ended up getting baptized on Saturday, and so did the other family where the dad came back for some reason. So we had our 5 baptisms and confirmation last weekend. It was amazing! It turned out to be a pretty good transfer. We had 12 baptisms and confirmations. Which brings my total to 25 baptisms/confirmations during the mission. Hopefully I'll be able to have this much success again next transfer. It was sad seeing all they missionaries that went home. There were some good missionaries there. But oh well. My new companion is Elder Dominguez. He's from El Salvador, but spent the last year in Jamaica Queens, New York. Pretty rough part. So we're a little different. I don't think he likes too much fun. He's pretty serious, but I'll be able to change that. The lady that we found had to go to California for a little while, so she kind of fell off date. But when she comes back we can baptize her. But I'm not too worried about it. There's so much work here. Last night we found a family that seems really receptive. We should be able to baptize a lot again this transfer. At least that's what we're hoping for. Well I think that's about all that's going on around here.

Pictures from the baptism. The family with the three little boys is the other family we baptized. Those 3 are always wearing matching outfits.

HERMANOS! HERMANOS!

The marriage turned out pretty well. We got a Samoan bishop to marry them because the english ones didn't want to/ some were out of town. And the Spanish one was working. But we got them married. We went down to the marriage license office on Thursday and got the license with them. So I got to see how that whole process works. It was great. And the two baptisms we were supposed to have last week fell through because he got called to work early. But he left early and he came back the other day. So if all goes well, we will have 5 baptisms this weekend. The other day a miracle happened. We were walking in the trailer parks the other day towards an appointment and this little girl comes running out of one of them and says "HERMANOS! HERMANOS! Mi mama quiere hablar con ustedes" Something like that. So we went to the house to see what was up. So we got to the door and their were two women standing there and we started talking. And one of them just moved here from California a few days ago. Before she went to California, She was talking to the missionaries and going to church in Mexico. When she moved to California she looked but didn't find the church. And then she came here and 4 days later found us. I have no idea how they saw us, but it's good they did. She's preparing for baptism on March 13. It was amazing. Well that's all about the work right now.

Here are pictures from the wedding we helped with. A Samoan bishop performed it.