Crazy Times

Well everything here is going well. I guess the biggest thing that happened this week was while I was sleeping. Apparently at around 3 a.m. somebody came and rang the doorbell at the house we live in. And the member opened up the door and it was some guy and he said you got to help me. And then he forced his way inside. She asked him to leave and he wouldn't. He said his friend was shot and he needed to call 911, and so she called 911 and they got there in a few minutes. Apparently when the cops talked to her they said the guy was a mental case/strung out on drugs. But nothing bad happened. She attributes nothing happening because she has missionaries living in her house. But my companion and I slept through the whole thing. Sirens and all.

Well we have 2 people preparing to be baptized and confirmed right now. One is Silvia, she's the sister of the person we baptized last week. Before she said she didn't want to get baptized, and so we went over testified of Christ and sang "families can be together forever", we did a pretty bad job but told her to pay attention to the words not our voices. After we sang we asked how she felt/ what stood out to her and she said "if I want to live with my family I need to get baptized." And so she said she would get baptized, she just needs to figure out when her work schedule is. Then the other is Humberto. We're helping him to stop smoke and drink. He's the one that used to be in a gang and wants to change his life. So we'll see how that goes. Hopefully he'll be able to be ready by that date. If he does the stuff we tell him to he will.

Tuesday we had zone conference. It was pretty sweet. We talked about putting on the whole armor of God. It was also my last zone conference of the mission. It's pretty crazy to believe. I had to give my departing testimony. That was kind of weird. But everything is going well.

Awesome General Conference

Well it was such a good weekend. I loved conference. It's kind of hard to believe that's the last one of the mission. We started off the weekend with tickets to one session, the Sunday p.m. one, and ended up getting into the conference center for all of them. It was pretty sweet. I was able to make it in the conference center for every session of my mission. I really liked the talk by Elder Pratt about being and doing because all of those principles not only apply to kids but to our investigators as well. There were a lot of good talks though. A lot of them seemed to be focused on marriage. So that was pretty weird. I can't apply any of those. I'm looking forward to receiving the Ensign/Liahona and studying out the messages. I can't believe that before the mission I didn't look forward to conference. It's the best time of year!

It's been a tough couple of weeks. It seems like the work has slowed down a little. It's been hard for us to get into houses. It would be pretty easy to get discouraged. But I know that the Lord didn't send me here to plant seeds, he sent me here to be successfull and to baptize. I know that as I'm prepared to receive His children He'll send them to me. Even if it means He has to bring them from other parts of the world. I'm not called to fail.

The temple service went well. We set up for the solemn assembly again. So we went up to the 4th and 5th floor of the temple. It's kind of crazy I've been able to go everytime and see these things that most people never get to see or never even know are there. And I feel like I could give a tour of it.
 
We were able to have a baptism this weekend. It was kind of a crazy one. I felt so unorganized and so rushed, there weren't a lot of members there, her family couldn't go. The time we scheduled for the baptism was already occupied by another one, so we had to move the time to eight. We were ready to cancel it. I felt bad because I wanted it to be a day she would remember, and not because it was so crazy. So we were ready just to cancel it and do it next weekend when it could be more organized and all that. So we started talking to her and explaining and we gave her the option to move the baptism to next week. And she said "no we can do it this week. I'm already here, and all those things going on is just satan trying to stop it." That kind of blew me away. The faith that she had to know she was entering into a covenant with God amazed me. That's why I love this work so much. To see the change in the lives of others and to see their faith increase is amazing. This work opens up the doors of salvation to them. It's great. Anyways our baptism ended at 9:15, and the sisters had a baptism after us and they needed someone to baptize so I was getting ready and then they had somebody else do it. But by the time we were ready to leave the church it was after 9:30, our curfew. And we hear a knock on the door and it's President Winn and his wife. And I got scared I thought we were going to get in trouble, and I didn't know how he know we were there. So we explained all of that and Sister Winn went into the baptism and we stayed out in the lobby and talked about stuff with President, joked around a little bit. It was great. But by the time we got home it was around 10:10. It was a late night. Well this week we have zone conference and I'm pretty excited for it. I can't wait.

Conference is Coming!

Well everything here is going great. We weren't able to have our baptism on Saturday. The person that was supposed to get baptized ended up smoking 1 cigarette on Friday. So she wasn't able to get baptized. So that was a little disappointing. But we went to temple square with two of our investigators, Angelica and Silvia, and Angelica is preparing to be baptized this weekend. We're still hoping that Silvia will be baptized this weekend too. They're sisters so it would be pretty sweet to see them get baptized together. Then we talked with another kid who agreed to be baptized next weekend. He's had a pretty rough life. He's been in some gangs and stuff but he has a desire to change. So we're helping him with that.

Sunday was the first time that the Granger 2nd branch met together in the new chapel. It was kind of crazy. Nobody really knew where things were. But it was a good beginning. Everybody is pretty excited about it. It's tough for some of the members just because it's like splitting up family, but there will be more growth now. And more people will stay active because they'll have callings. One of the families I baptized last year was at church and told me they're going to be getting their temple recommend interviews done pretty soon and enter into the temple. I'm pretty excited about that. The Lopez family, who I baptized a year ago and sang to mom for her birthday, are in the middle of their temple prep classes and will be getting sealed in late May or early June. I'm hoping that they'll be able to do it in May. It's exciting to be able to see the families I baptized still active in the church and a little sad seeing the ones that aren't. Which I guess is the reason I'm here. To help more people come to Christ and to help those I baptized return.

I'm really excited for general conference this weekend. I can't wait. Tomorrow we're going to go do temple service again. It's crazy it'll be my last time. But it's all good. I only have tickets to the Sunday P.M. session of conference. So hopefully we'll be able to find some more tickets. We don't even have enough to give to investigators. But either way I'm excited for it.  I love this gospel and I love being a missionary in the work of the Lord. There's nothing better.

March Madness, Utah Salt Lake City Mission Style

Well everything here is going well. Sunday at church President Winn came because they split the branch I'm serving in. I'm no longer in the Granger 10th branch, but in the Granger 2nd branch. It'll be good. I look forward to baptizing like crazy. It's amazing how well the mission is doing - 295 baptisms in February. We were able to have a baptism on Saturday for Brenda. She's the girl that I told y'all about last week. She's 11-years-old and she's deaf. It's kind of sad because her parents don't really give her the care/ schooling she needs. But she's an amazing kid. We should be having another baptism this weekend too. A person who just needs to quit smoking and then she can be baptized. So hopefully she'll be able to give up that addiction and follow the example of Jesus Christ. I have been able to see some of the people that I worked with a year ago which has been pretty sweet. I'm working on reactivating one of them. And some people that never got baptized,  hopefully I'll be able to help them get baptized. I did see the Lopez family yesterday. They're planning on getting sealed in the temple either in May or June. I'm hoping that they do it in June while I'm still on the mission. It would be great. So things are going well here I don't really know what else to say. March and April have been tough on me both times during the mission. It's that dang March Madness. Luckily everybody keeps us updated on how things are going. Well I can't wait to keep seeing miracles and to keep working hard. I'm excited for general conference coming up, even though I haven't received any tickets yet. I can't wait to hear the messages from the leaders of the church.

Happy Birthday to Me

Thanks for the birthday cards and for the birthday cake and ice cream. We got a call from the bishop saying somebody wanted to drop something off at our house and I was kind of confused. But then I got the surprise.

Well everything here is going great. Monday and Tuesday I went around saying bye to investigators and members and converts. Most people were surprised that I was leaving so soon. So was I. But anyways, I'll be going back and visiting the people there. I can't believe I'm down to my 2nd to last transfer. I now have like 11 weeks left. It's crazy. I'm kind of scared to go back home I want to stay a missionary. But I guess it has to come to an end sometime. So Wednesday at transfers I found out that I was getting transferred to the Granger West stake, the Granger 10th branch out in West Valley. It's in the same area I served in last year. And I'm living next door to President Kendall, which is where I lived last year. They're related to the Harris's. I'm excited to have the same success here that I was able to have last year. The baptism they had planned for this weekend fell through so we were hoping for a miracle baptism. Friday night we find out that the Sisters in the other part of the stake were having a miracle baptism for an investigator that moved from another area, and that his cousin had been waiting to get baptized but never wanted to do it alone. His cousin lived in our part of the stake, so we were able to have that miracle baptism. Her name is Wendy. We're going to start to teach her parents tonight who are also interested in learning more about the church. Then this weekend we will be having a baptism that was supposed to happen last week. It's for a little girl named Brenda. She's deaf so it makes the lessons interesting. We have to use an interpreter that knows sign language. We're working on getting this area back to being overloaded with investigators. In two weeks they will be splitting the branch. So I don't really know what will be happening with that. I guess we'll have to wait and see. Oh yeah and my new companion is Elder Zambrano. He's been out for 4 transfers now. He was trained by my last companion Elder Byrd. He's originally from Ecuador, but came out from his mission from Magnolia, Texas. So things are going pretty well here. I'm just trying to work hard and not slack off. Even though it's kind of hard not to think about home when I have to figure out everything with school, and housing, and summer jobs. Speaking of which, I applied to be a counselor and got invited back for an interview. I guess I'll have to do the interview when I get off of my mission, if I understood your e-mail right. I got a pretty scary phone call on Thursday from the mission office. They called and said "are you flying home or are your parents going to be driving and picking you up?" I didn't know what to say. I was so shocked. So I'll probably be getting an itinerary in a week or two. I can't believe it. Oh yeah and I had a pretty good birthday I guess. I didn't really do to much. I guess I've just been lost in the work and trying to stay busy.

Advice from the Elders

Everything here is going great. I guess the biggest news is that on Wednesday we had interviews with President Winn. In it he talked to me about how for my last two transfers he's going to put me back down in the valley. So I'll probably get transferred this Wednesday. The plan is to have me train again for my last transfer. He asked me if there was a particular place that I wanted to go, which I didn't have any. I figure I'll go where I'm supposed to go. I did ask if I could serve around Elder Hiatt or Elder Morris though. Then midway through the interview he realized that there weren't any new spanish missionaries coming in on the April transfer, which will be my last one. So hopefully he'll keep me here a little longer. We've been able to see so many miracles this past week. We have a copy of the consent form for getting the kid baptized. We're still waiting on the parents to humble themselves and pick a date. Then on Thursday we received a referral and checked it. The dad opened up the door and started talking to us and he said that his daughters wanted to ge baptized so they had their friend send a referral, and they had another friend send another one just in case the first one didn't work. He also wants to start coming back to church. We'll be going back to visit them next week. They're down in Vegas getting married and all that stuff. And it turns out the mom might not be a member. So we're excited about them. As we were leaving their house a man pulled up in a truck and motioned for us to come over. So we walked over and started talking to him. He told us that he has a friend that's been reading the Book of Mormon and is sincerely considering baptism. But he had a bad experience with missionaries in the past so he doesn't want to be taught by us. So hopefully we'll be able to get him baptized pretty soon as well. Then a week ago we tracted into a house with a less-active mom and a non-member dad and a kid. So we set up an appointment to go talk with the mom and dad. Come to find out the kid isn't baptized either. But the dad doesn't want them taught in their home. So we get a call the day before the appointment from the mom cancelling our first appointment. As she's talking she mentions "you know, it's a weird coincidence. The day y'all knocked my door, my son came home from a band trip and said 'mom I want to start going back to church.'" So he had been taught by the missionaries before, but the dad wanted him to wait until he was older to decide to be baptized. Well it's been a few years and the kid is now older and is leaning towards baptism.

This week we also taught the young women in one of the wards for their mutual activity. It was kind of weird. I can't even talk to girls any more. I guess that's a good sign? But it went well, there wasn't much participation though. Yesterday we had lunch with the young womens leader who has been helping us with one of our investigators, Kayla. So we went over there after church and talked with Sister Adams and her husband and Kayla, just chatting. And one of the laurels came over that is Kayla's friend and Sister Adams told her to ask us for relationship advice about a boy she likes that is going on a mission. Naturally I deferred to Elder Byrd because I don't have any experience with girls. So I let him take that question. We came up with a plan for her. So that was pretty fun. Then at the end when we had to leave Kayla said that she wanted to start meeting with us more often. So that was sweet. It's been an amazing week.

So a little fun story for y'all. Saturday was prom here. And it is A LOT different than back home. They go out on an all day date starting in the morning, then go home get ready, go out to dinner, then go to their prom. They only have junior prom here, not senior. They have Senior ball. Anyways what they do for prom is have them walk out with their escort, introduce each of them and who their parents are, then do a choreographed dance that they've learned for the past two weeks before school starts, then have a dance with their mom/dad. And then it's pretty much over. So it's more of a community event here. But it's what they've grown up with, so to each his own I guess.

Oh and for the month of February the zone had 27 baptisms and 26 confirmations, which beats the Wyoming zone record. This weekend we had 9 baptisms and 10 confirmations and have 38 people on date as a zone. So we're doing pretty well. And as a mission we finished with 283 baptisms for the month, which is also a record. And there were 86 baptisms and confirmations that weekend. Another record.

Last Day of February

Everything here is going well. We were able to have our baptism on Saturday. Everything went well with it. He was baptized and confirmed at the baptism. The story I told y'all a few weeks ago about the kids who's dad went apostate and wouldn't let them get baptized is still not over. We sent him a copy of the baptism record on Thursday and received a call from him on Saturday saying that he sent a consent form on Tuesday to the Bishop. So we cleared that hurdle. But the thing is, is that he wants to be at the baptism and the family doesn't want him to, so now we have to wait until they let down their pride. It's kind of funny how they're the ones holding him back from being baptized now. Other than that nothing new has happened. We've been doing everything we can to find new investigators lately. We've found a few spanish people. But they're pretty prideful. And they really love their virgin of Guadalupe. So we haven't been able to get them away from that. So that's always fun. But the work keeps going on. Something I've noticed and seen a lot is pride. I've seen how big of a stubling block it is for everyone. It's what keeps missionaries from reaching their potential. It's what keeps investigators from giving up their past ways. It's what keeps inactive and less active members from coming back to the church. It's what keeps active members complacent with where they're at and reaching their potential. It's so sad to see all the effects that pride has on people. But it's a universal sin and as the scriptures say, either you can humble yourself or God will humble you. It's a pretty scary thought of having God humble me, so I'm working on humbling myself. There was a referral we received a few weeks ago and we finally contacted him on Monday. This guy had been married and now divorced to a member of the church, and used to receive home teachers. But he never got baptized. So we went by him and started talking to him. And he seemed pretty focused on finding out who sent us. He thought it was one of his friends he talks to a lot. But we assured him it wasn't and told him who sent us. And he was surprised and said he hadn't talked to him for a while. We come to find out that earlier in the week, or last week he was diagnosed with cancer. And so we were talking with him and told him it wasn't a coincidence that we showed up that day. And we talked to him for a while he was trying to find out how the answer would feel and all that. He was kind of shut down to it the whole time. Then before we left we offered to give him a blessing. He agreed. We gave him one and after that his countenance changed and he was more receptive to us. So we're planning on visiting him again this week to see how he's doing. It was pretty sweet.