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.

Happy Wednesday before Valentine's Day!

I received the cards from the primary kids and the school kids. I'm going to have to say that Jaimie's card was probably the best. Especially when it said "have a happy valentine day with your wife. PS.- I hope you make your wife happy." Ha. Good stuff. I heard about the Saints winning the Super Bowl. They aren't the "Aint's" any more. I received a letter from Brother Tucker a few weeks ago saying that Josh got his mission call, Chris and Sam are 18 now, Tyler Callens and Brady are now Priests. Man it's crazy how fast time goes by. And to top it all off I'm turning 20 next month. I'm so old. I think I'm ready to enter into retirement and receive my Social Security check every month. I'll have 20 years. Man.

I guess I'll update y'all with what's going on here. On Friday night we were able to have our 2 baptisms. We baptized them and then confirmed them there because we didn't have church on Sunday. Because it was Stake conference. When one of them got confirmed the Spirit was so strong. He told us he wants to serve a mission. So that was a pretty good experience. I'll send some pictures of that. Stake conference was a fun little experience. Saturday someone from the spanish branch asked us to translate his talk for him so that he could read it in english. So we translated the talk and gave it to him. Then during the adult session of stake conference when it was him and his wife's turn to give their talk/testimony. They decided to do it in spanish so we had to get up and translate it. And my companion so unselfishly volunteered me do to the one we didn't translate. So I translated it, thought everything was good until Sunday during the General session of conference. Another couple from the ward was giving a talk so the wife went and gave hers in English. Then the husband got up and tried English but I guess got nervous. And asked for some help. So once again my companion refused to go, so I went. So I got up there, and he started speaking Spanish. For like a minute. He didn't give a chance to translate for that minute and the people in the congregation were giggling. But after that time he gave me a little more chance to translate. So later that night we had dinner with President Kendall. The secound councilor in the stake presidency, and the person we live with. But as we were talking Sister Kendall said that when I was translating her daughter-in-law said "I didn't know that spanish translated into 'all y'all.'" Man these Utahns are relentless when it comes to stuff like that. Then people always comment on "yes ma'am/sir." Man. Well the work is going good here. We have 2 more baptisms this friday. That will bring the transfer total to 9. Then we have a marriage set up for the 14th, the day of love, and then they're getting baptized on the 20th with one of their sons. So hopefully that will bring the transfer total to 12. That's what we're going for. Things are still going pretty rough with my companion. It's hard because he won't let go of his pride. He's pretty prideful and self-righteous. But I'm trying to help him. The other day in Zone meeting the Zone leaders made an announcement that if somebody has a perscription from a doctor for coffee or something against the word of wisdom that they can still get baptized. That's the instructions from President Sonne. In the middle of the meeting my companion started challenging them and saying that's wrong. And so later that night they came over and talked to him. They were saying that we're working on becoming a Zion mission so he shouldn't pull others down and not support leaders, because we're working on building each other up. Then my companion said that this is changing the Word of Wisdom and that it's a way that Satan is trying to get power over us. It's frustrating. If it isn't what he thinks is right or if it's something he doesn't want to do he throws a temper tantrum. But I'm learning A LOT of patience. Which is good I guess. I only got 2 more weeks. I can do it! Well here are some pictures. The first one is us with the 2 people we baptized. The younger one is the one that wants to serve a mission. Next is one of the guy we baptized with his family. Next is the family with both people we baptized. The last one is me with my sweet durag that Tiffany sent. It's pretty sick. with the shirt she sent me. It's pretty sick.

Happy Groundhog Day!

Well there's not much going on here. Just livin the mission life. We're going to have 2 baptisms tomorrow night. Which I'm stoked about. The goal for the transfer is 12, right now we're at 5 and if the 2 tomorrow go through we'll be at 7. At most we're hoping for 15. There's so much work to be done here it is crazy. We found this family of 4 that are really interested. The mom's brother is a member. We're hoping to get them baptized on the 20th. And we're helping a couple get married on the 14th, and hopefully baptized on the 20th. It's exciting all the work to be done here. This is a good area. That's about all I got with this area. I mean I don't really know what's interesting to hear, because it's what I do everyday. Things with my companion are going decent. I'm workin on patience. He get's mad pretty easy, and if you don't know how to handle it, things would get out of control.

So yesterday at the temple was pretty cool. We had 12 hours there. We did 2 endowment sessions, and 2 initiatory sessions. We had a devotional. President Sonne talked to us for a few minutes, and then the temple president talked to us for a few minutes, and Elder Ballard spoke to us for like half a hour. So it was pretty good. I learned a lot. It was a good experience. It was a good day.

Great Week!

Well it was another great week. It hasn't been to cold lately. I don't know, I guess I'm just used to walking around in the cold. I can't wait for it to warm up a little bit. That'll be very nice. Maybe I'll go to Wyoming in the summer time. That way it won't be too hot. It'll be AWESOME. The Nashville Tribute to Joseph Smith is a great CD. Especially The Rising, and Modern Day Sam, the Emma Smith song is pretty good too. It's crazy I've been out for 8 months now. It's going by so fast. Man. Crazy.

I didn't hear about the earthquake until a few days after it happened. I'm kind of glad I have this distance from all the bad things happening in the world. It's kind of a blessing to be cut off a little bit. I'm not totally cut off though. I know that BYU is ranked like 12th in the nation in basketball which is pretty amazing. We just finished our week of eating with the Samoan branch. That was fun. We went to Golden Corall twice, and had brisket on Sunday. it was good. Anyways, we had our 5 baptisms last weekend. Which was really good. They're a solid family. And right now we have 3 more people on date in February.

On Friday we had Zone Conference. That was really good. They talked about how to be a Zion mission. Because last year the theme was becoming Zion missionaries, and now it's about helping others to become a Zion Mission. President Sonne was talking about how there is an evil among pretty much all missions. And that is not reporting when someone does something against the rules because you don't want to be seen as a "traitor/ tattle tale." He quoted President Monson I think and said "tolerance is the mask of sin." He talked about how his brother talks about how being tolerant is "politically correct" but it's not. I was reading something about pride too, and it said that worrying about what people think about us more than what God thinks is a form of pride. And we had a training about how to pray correctly. That was interesting. Well I think that's about all going on.

Que Oonda?

Happy Martin Luthur King day!
So for transfers I got moved back to pretty much my first area. Just one stake over. So I'm still in the WVC. Hopefully next transfer I will get out of this area and maybe see more than this part of Salt Lake. It's good and there's a lot of work here, but I wouldn't mind seeing different parts of the town. But it's all good I guess. I'm living in a new apartment and working in the area, but in the same zone. The family we are living with is the Kendall's. I found out that Sister Kendall is the cousin of Brother Harris in the third ward. So that was pretty interesting. Small world. Last week on p-day we watched Forever Strong. It's pretty much the mission film. We've watched it at least 4 or 5 times since I've been here. President Sonne must really like that movie. He has us apply it to the mission life. Good stuff. This weekend we have 5 baptisms coming up. And then we have one more on date which is really exciting. We're going for 12 baptisms this transfer. We're helping a family get married too. So we're staying busy here and BAPTIZING LIKE CRAZY. The family we're going to baptize is solid. They're good. Not too much has happened this week. Elder Santos got sick so I spent a day in the apartment which was a little boring. It was like a day long personal study. So I updated the scrapbook and things like that. I think that's about all.

Another Transfer

It's pretty cold here. It's usually in the teen's or 20's. And I got transferred to a new area, but in the same zone. And I'm still without a car. It's AWESOME... Anyway quick story. One of the missionaries asked how old Clark was and I told him without thinking, "he has 6 months." I thought that's how you say it. But it's "he is 6 months old." It's because in Spanish you say "tiene 6 meses" (he has 6 months) I'm turning MEXICAN! But, the baptism went through. It was good I'll send some pictures of it. But we went to his house after the baptism and we were talking. And he asked how he could become an Elder. I explained there's a difference between the office of an Elder and a missionary Elder. And I suggested a mission. And I was so excited when he said he was thinking about serving a mission. I don't think I could of had any more joy. Actually I did when I went to say goodbye to some of my recent converts. I went to one of their houses and I told her that I don't know when I return but when I come back I want to see her active and going to church. (her husband doesn't want anything to do with missionaries, and her kids aren't interested. But she was promised her family would accept the gospel). And after I told her that she said "I'm going to be waiting." She's so solid. Oh and another one of the converts hasn't come for like 2 weeks and the same one who said she was going to be waiting asked us for her number so she could call her and see how she's doing. Man, she's going to be Relief Society President some day. I've had some other pretty good experiences lately, but there's too much to write. So we'll just have to go through the Journal when I get back to tell the stories. Because I can't really think of all of them right now. Anyways, My new companion is from Mexico and he is like 28 years old. I don't know why I keep getting all the old people for companions, but it's all good. A lot of people are trying to give me advice how to help get through the transfer, so we'll see how it goes. The new area is good though, We have 5 baptisms coming up this weekend, so we'll see how that goes. Well I gotta go.