Servants of Christ

Well it's been a pretty interesting week. Wednesday we had transfers, and we stayed together. It was kind of sad to see some of the people go. I can't believe that it'll be me the next one. I'm not gonna lie, it's hard to focus sometimes but I'm doing my best to work hard.

We've had a lot of trials this week. We've continued to drop a lot of investigators and trying to find new ones. So one of the days we went out and tried to find some, and the whole day nobody answered the door. That was hard. I felt a little discouraged that day. So when we got home we sat and talked and tried to figure out what we were doing wrong that was preventing us from finding new investigators. We talked it over and figured some things out and decided to change. So we started changing it that night and started updating the teaching records. The next day we went tracting and one of the first few doors we knocked there was a white guy that opened up. And he started to try and bash us and pick all the things out of our church that were wrong. I was tempted to open the Bible and start bashing back, but I restrained myself because it wouldn't get us anywhere. So we just stood there I defended our points, through a few scriptures out and was just smiling and laughing about how ridiculous this guy was. Then towards the end of the conversation he started criticizing us for going by the title Elder. And how we don't deserve the title because we're too young and that we couldn't go around with that title when he has grandkids older than us and telling people about what they need to do. And I kind of got mad at that and explained about it again, and told him that only prideful people would get offended by that and that prideful people wouldn't want to listen to Servants of Christ that are younger than them. And he got defensive about that and so we left. That took about a hour and a half. Then later on we found a lady who seemed pretty interested. We talked to her for a few minutes but she had to go so we're going back this week.

Then Saturday we had the baptism of Humberto. I baptized him. Everything turned out well. There were almost no complications. The Spirit was strong the whole time. Sunday we were asked to give talks in sacrament meeting. So we were waiting for Humberto to show up and get confirmed but he didn't show up, so we started giving our talks. I talked about the Atonement. I think it went pretty well. It's my favorite thing to talk about. There's so much to it. But half way through Elder Zambrano's talk Humberto walked in. So he finished his talk, I gave mine, and they had Humberto come to the front to be confirmed. So the day went on and we were planning for Silvias baptism. The plan we came up with was for her to attend an english ward and have a translator. So she went to the english ward, it went well. So we had her baptism and confirmation on Sunday night. It was great as well. The Spirit was strong, there were a lot of people, it was great. Oh and Sunday we were able to contact someone we've been trying to talk to for a week or two. We found the whole family there and we talked with them. They've been talking to missionaries for a few years now. We talked to them, had a pretty good lesson, and at the end me and my companion sang a hymn for them. The Spirit filled the room, and we invited them to "follow the example of Jesus Christ by being baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority of God." Each one of them said yes. The son needs to get married and we're going to help him with that. We're going to the temple with them this Thursday. It should be good. It was a great way to end such a tough week. 2 baptisms and 4 people on date to be baptized!

Go Karts

Things here are going alright. We aren't sure if we are going to baptize Silvia because her schedule changed and she now works on Sunday mornings. So we don't know what we're going to do with that. We don't want to baptize her into a situation that wouldn't be good for her. And Humberto is still doing well. He's been reading and he came to church on Sunday with his family. So we're still planning on that. We're pretty excited for it. Things are going well for them. As for the work in the area, we're still working on getting the work going again. It's been tough. We've been dropping a lot of our investigators that haven't been progressing or that don't want to progress, and trying to find some new ones. We aren't doing so well in finding new ones. We're getting a lot of people that are not ready to hear the gospel. But we're still trying. We know that as we work hard the Lord will bless us and find those who are ready. It's been a little bit tough. But oh well.

Today we went Go Karting with a few missionaries and Sis Winn. It was pretty fun. They took a lot of pictures so you'll probably see some of them on Sister Winn's blog (http://www.mamawinnsplace.blogspot.com/). Other than that everything is going well. We found out on Sunday that we are going to be giving a talk on Easter Sunday next week. So that'll be good. I'm ready for that. I'm just trying to keep working hard and keep being diligent. It's kind of tough though. The area I'm in has planes that fly over it all the time. I can't believe that I'll be going home in 6 weeks. We have transfers on Wednesday. So I'll probably be staying in the area. This transfer has been going by so fast. It's crazy.

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.