A Priesthood Blessing

Well nothing too big happened this week. We've been running into a lot of inactives and less actives lately. It's kind of depressing how many of them there are. Now I have somewhat of an idea of what Mormon was saying in Mormon 6:17-the end.

Well we have one more person on date. She's being baptized this Sunday. The mom runs a foster care home and they adopted her, and she wanted to be baptized so the parents wanted her to take lessons first. It's interesting because we teach her in English and Spanish. The mom is from Puerto Rico, and her Uncle designed the Conquistador. I thought that was pretty cool. Speaking of Puerto Rico, a lot of people here think I'm from Puerto Rico or have Latino blood in me. Puerto Rico and Brazil are the top guesses of where I'm from. Anyway, we have like 4 more people on date in September. So we're finding a way to progress, even though it gets real hard sometimes. Yesterday I had exchanges with the Zone Leaders. Our appointments fell through but we found 3 potential investigators who seemed pretty interested in the gospel. We found a english speaking kid named Seth, and he's a really cool kid. He's 18 and wants to join the church. He's been taking lessons from the South missionaries, but we're meeting with him now too. So that he can talk to us whenever and it's easier for him to meet with us.

Saturday we had New Missionary Training and we went to downtown Salt Lake and had a street contacting competition. My companion was Elder Orton. He's from Orlando. It was nice working with him. We got a long well and our assigned area was 100 s., Which is basically the Gateway Mall area. We met some interesting people there. One of them was an Anti, who told us we sinned every week by taking the sacrament because we say we'll always remember him. We were talking with a recent RM when this anti came up to us and so they started going at it while me and Elder Orton were standing there. But the RM said he repents everynight. And the anti said that if he truely repented he'd be perfect in 10 days because he would forsake the sin. It was pretty entertaining to watch.

Well, I think the highlight of my week came yesterday. We were teaching a part member family. The wife is a member and the husband isn't. They're an older couple, and he's willing to listen and talk to the missionaries but wants to keep his religion. While we were talking to them, we found out that he hadn't had a job for a couple of months. And so we were talking and started talking about how we can give blessings. So Elder Pearl said that we could come by later with the Bishop and give him a blessing of comfort. But I felt like we needed to give it then. And the thoughts came to me that I didn't have to worry about the language, and that I'd be able to say everything that I needed. And that everything would be provided to me. So I offered to give one right then. So we told him it was based on his faith, and then I gave him a blessing of comfort in Spanish. It was a good experience. I think that's about all I have for this week.

My District

Well, this week was pretty good. I can't really think of anything real crazy that happened this week. I got my driving privileges, so now I get to drive the car everywhere. We've done a lot of tracting this week, but haven't got many new investigators. We got about 3 or 4 people with a baptismal date though. So that's pretty exciting. One of them we knocked on a door, saw a 19 year-old kid and asked if he was baptized. Said no, and we asked if he'd prepare himself for Sept. 5, and he said yes. He didn't come to church though so I don't know what's going on there. Then the other 2 or 3 or 4 are from a family where the parents need to be divorced and married to each other. And both the parents want their kids to be baptized. Oh and then Saturday we met a woman who is married to an English speaking man, but she speaks mostly Spanish. We asked where she went to church and she said a christian one downtown, but she was looking for one closer. So we invited her to church the next day. She came with her husband, and they enjoyed it. Turns out the husband was less active, and a high council member went and saw them the week before. So hopefully we can re-activate him and convert her. The Spanish is going better for me. I can understand over 1/2 of what they say. So I'm making some good progress. Well we're having good success in this zone. We have something like 28 baptisms so far this transfer. We're leading the mission.


Here's a picture of my district. The one in the very back, middle is our District Leader, Elder Cruz. He's from Brazil, looks a little like Shia Labuff. Then the 2 on the sides of him are the Zone leaders. And the person next to me is Elder Morris from the MTC. And the Samoan is Elder Morrs, he's from San. Fran. Next transfer is his last. He's going to play football for the University of Utah.

Our Digs

I'm in a Spanish branch. And we only cover that branch out of the whole stake. Place I'm staying is pretty nice. It's like a mini apartment. Well I don't really know what to talk about. I participated in 3 confimations this Sunday so that was a good experience. I didn't really understand much of what was being said. But I'm starting to be able to understand more! It's slowly coming along. I don't know. It still seems like I'll never really pick it up. It's tough. Me and my companion are getting a long all right. It's crazy how fast time is going out in the field. The days are long, and the weeks are short. This time is going by a lot faster than the MTC. Which I'm happy about. Well I don't really have any of my own investigators yet. Like ones that I've found and we've started teaching. All of them are from the previous Elders. But mayble I'll get one soon. Last night we went on exchanges, and we visited an investigator and that took about an hour, then we went to different places trying to talk to investigators but they weren't home. So it was 8:25 and i prayed to see where we should go. And I felt like we should go to the Chapel. I didn't know if it was just me wanting to be with someone that speaks english or what. So we went and there was a less active member that lives next door to the chapel working on his car. So we talked to him, and to the guy that lives under them in the basement. (that's what they do here to get cheaper housing). And the guy that wasn't a member agreed to let us come back. We can't knock the door to this house because they have 2 dogs that are always outside fenced in. So this was the first time we could actually talk to them. Well I got to go write a letter to the Primary kids.

Baptism

Well I've felt the Spirit so strongly and it's been great being an instrument in the Lord's hand. We have a baptism of a 9 year old set up this saturday. His name is Diego. His dad wanted to baptize him, but they had trouble finding the membership records of the dad. And his dad is getting deported next month. It was really sad, but as we set a date for this week I felt strongly that everything would be alright. So I told the dad that, and we actually got a call today that they found his record so that was an answer to my prayers.

The other day we were trying to decide who we should go see, and I felt like we should go visit someone in the area book named Alex that we tried visiting before, but he wasn't there. So I was wondering why we felt like we should go there and started looking for people. As we drove (we have a car, but try to walk when we can) down the next street over we found a guy named Martin who was interested in learning about the Gospel. Also, we were driving visiting people on the Progress record and they weren't home. And as we were trying to leave a house, Elder Pearl forgot his number that we have to enter into a black box (a thing the mission uses to track where we are, if we're breaking speed limit, who's driving, all that stuff). So I started looking for someone to talk to. And all of a sudden we see this teenager walking down the street and gave him a Book of Mormon and got his details. After we talked to him Elder Pearl remembered his number and couldn't figure out how he forgot it. But that's the stupor of thought the scriptures talk about. I don't know if anything will turn out because of it, but we'll see.

This weekend we're set up for 3 conformations, (what counts for the records) but none of them are people we found. But we have one more little girl that was adopted into a member family that runs a foster home, and the little girl wanted to be a member so we have a date for her too. So with these 4 people it counts as 4 baptisms under my name. And we're hoping we can get this one guy who's been coming to church for a while but needs to clear up some things. So the Missionary work is progressing pretty well here. I think it might be because of the Spirit of Elijah. With so many of the temples being built here in the valley, I think there are Spirits helping us so that their work can get done. And as President Sonne says, "when temples are dedicated, Satan's power is deminished over the area". Something like that. So hopefully they keep helping us and help us with these baptisms.

A few random things...we have a mission tour with Elder Christensen of the 70 tomorrow. The area we're at is highly populated by Spanish speakers, We actually talked to a few gang members so that was kind of fun. Umm we do get fed pretty much everynight, unless appointments fall through or something like that. I still can't understand spanish when they talk fast. There's a lot of work to be done in this area so I don't really get to write in my journal as much as i would like, but I try. Well I think that's about it for now.

Finally...I'm in the Field!

Well, I'm finally in the field. My companion's name is Elder Pearl. He's from South Africa. Before he came on his mission he was a High school teacher, he's 27. He's a pretty good companion. He was originally english speaking and had to learn Spanish out in the field. He speaks Dutch too. He's got the type of humor that most British influenced people have. Yesterday, the first day, We went to temple square and learned how to use that as a tool with our converts. I'm in an area called West Valley. I'm living in a member's home in the basement. They don't really talk to us that much, but it's a decent living place. After we got settled in we went and visited with a person that was supposed to be baptized he's 10, and both his parents are members but went inactive... I think. I'm not really sure. I'm able to follow some Spanish but not everything. Anyways after that we had a meeting with our branch mission leader. I didn't get too much out of it. But I couldn't really talk, because I lost my voice. It's a little better now but it's still a little messed up. After we met with them we went and tracted a little bit. First person we talked to was smoking a cigarette on his porch and grew up in SLC. He accepted the book of Mormon and an appointment for Friday. We also tracted into a Latino guy who accepted the Book of Mormon and said he'd let us come teach him and his family and would think about being baptized. We also gave a LDM to a kid who was interested in what we were doing. And was interested in the church. Then, we talked to this lady who has members in her family and been around the church but didn't feel it was for her. And she said she was willing to hear what we had to say. So we got about 4 appointments in about an hours work. The week before I got here they had 82 baptisms. The President said this isn't a seed planiting mission it's a baptizing mission. And they said to expect a baptism this weekend. They had something like 176 last month. It's crazy how fast the missionary work is going here. This morning I woke up at 5 and we went to the English Elders apartment and then went to the Temple with a member. It was a way neat experience going through the Salt Lake Temple. My companion said we're going every week which is good. Our p-days are usually on wedneday by the way. But and then today we went grocery shopping bought some stuff, went to get a copy of the key to the house and while we were leaving a member came up to us and gave us some money for lunch. So us 4, Elder Moors, Beck, Pearl, and I went to Cafe Rio. It was good.

First Talk in Spanish

Last Sunday I got called on to give a talk in Sacrament meeting in Spanish. The talk I prepared wasn't the best, but I made it through it. I had a good experience with it th ough. Usually I go into Sacrament meetings nervous because I didn't know who they would call and thought they might call on me everyweek. But this week, I felt calm and relaxed. So I kinda knew it was going to happen but it's all good. So that was a pretty good. We taught the Second lesson in the TRC this week along with the Word of Wisdom. I had more fun with it this week because I wasn't as focused on what I was going to say, but used what I know to answer questions and explain. I didn't have to worry about a written out script i had. Oh and I got my travel plans yesterday. I leave the 29th at 6 in the morning. It's kind of crazy. our teachers are starting to focus more on what we'll be doing out in the field(area book, planning to investigators needs, etc.) and not as much about how to teach general lessons and stuff they focused on before.I'm getting more and more excited, but at the same time I'm getting nervous. Knowing that i'll be in a latino's home in 2 weeks teaching them is a scary thought. It'll be fun though. We finally get to play basketball at the MTC. We played the first day i was here then they stopped because of swine flu, and two days ago they finally allowed us to play 3 on 3. It was a long time without playing real basketball.

Brother Steuer talked to us on Tuesday. Hmm and Spanish is coming along pretty well. I can't think of anything else to say so I'll end by bearing my testimony in Spanish. Sorry for not putting the accents on some of the letters.

Yo se que la iglesia de Jesucristo es verdadera, y que ha sido restaurado en el mundo hoy. Tambien se que tenemos un profeta vivienda en nuestro mundo, se llama Thomas S. Monson. Yo se que Jose Smith fue un profeta verdadero, y que por medio la Espiritu traduccio El Libro de Mormon. Yo se que por medio el evangellio de Jesucristo es posible para nosotros a vivir con nuestras familias por eternidad. Tambien se que cuando seguimos los mandamientos de Dios recibiramos bendiciones. Y yo se que Jesucristo es nuestra salvador y redentor. Y que Dios envio Jesucristo a la tierra para expiar los pecados de nosotoros. Y cuando el fue en la gardin de Gethsemane vio la caras de todos personas en el mundo. Y se que Dios nos ama. Y contesta nuestras oraciones. Digo estas cosas en el nombre de Jesucristo. Amen.

4th of July

Well, nothing really new or exciting to talk about. I heard the Jonas Brothers on 4th of July, they were playing at the Stadium of Fire. We got to watch the fireworks to. So 4th of July wasn't too bad. Brother Abrea talked to us on Tuesday. He gave a good talk. Tuesday I taught the first lesson in Spanish for the second time and I did alright. My companion doesn't think i speak good enough spanish or something, so he felt the need to repeat what I taught, teach his section, then take my next section. Which was kind of annoying. I'm ready to get out in the field, and out of the MTC. Only 3 more weeks. Well I guess that's about it. Here's a few fun pictures of what we do to chill...