FELIZ NAVIDAD!‏ 12/22/2010

Feliz Navidad a todos!

Wow, this has been an AMAZING week! I don't even know where to start! We've been getting new investigators almost every single day the past couple weeks, and the Lord has been blessing us with people to teach. It's definitely a testimony to me that He prepares people everywhere to hear His Gospel and that if we just have the faith to find them, we will! When we stay busy doing what we're supposed to and being obedient, He provides the rest and shows us what to do - who needs us. We've discovered a couple families lately that I'm pretty excited about. We just finished teaching the Wilson kids, the kids with a less-active dad, and things are looking good! They asked a bunch of questions and were really thinking about it and considering what we were teaching. What was cool is that the 15-year old daughter was telling us how she didn't really like a bunch of the stuff in her Church (she's Catholic) and I was so impressed by how observant she was! She noticed all these things that just didn't seem right, and she loves to read so she's going to be reading the entire Book of Mormon in not too long.

We talked to a lot of people and it just seemed like we seemed to come at the right time to lots of the places and were at least able to teach someone there. It usually wasn't the person we initially talked to, but hey, that's how the Lord works sometimes. We're just supposed to be at that place at certain time. We're also pretty excited because this last week we found a "Little Mexico" where it's 100% Mexicans living in all the apartments. The only problem is they work all the time, but they have Sundays off so this last Sunday we taught a few and they are way excited to go to Church! So that'll be pretty sweet.

But yesterday was the best day ever. We started off this morning going tracting and chose to start at this random house down the street. This teenage guy answered the door and totally let us in! The very first door! So we went and taught him, and hopefully we'll teach the rest of his family next week. He was way open and accepted the baptismal challenge, so we'll see how everything works out as we continue teaching.

That afternoon, we were visiting places of people we had just talked to out on the streets - OYMs. The son of this lady we talked to let us come and just teach him right there on their porch! And then we went over to this family we had talked to a couple weeks ago and they invited us for dinner and a lesson!We got to teach some of their cousins too, which was a surprise.

And then, to finish off the night, we taught the mom of one of our new investigators, to find out she had been taught 10 years ago by missionaries, and she accepted a baptismal date! We had all these unexpected lessons, and we were just super surprised and happy :)

So we're all having P-day on Christmas and we're excited to talk to the fam!!

FELIZ NAVIDAD!!!!!

Me voy a quedar en Yuma!....12/15/2010

Buenos Dias!

Wow, I'm pretty excited right now! I was scared I might get transferred right before Christmas, but thankfully I'm staying here in Yuma through all the holidays so it will be fun doing it all with missionaries and people that I know. There actually weren't that many changes here- only 2 missionaries in the zone are leaving today. But what's kind of crazy is those 2 are the ones I came to Yuma with, so I've been here long enough now to see every single missionary in the zone get transferred that was here when I came in. So that's been pretty sweet. And what's also pretty awesome is I'm no longer a greenie!! I hit 6 months last week and I can't believe how fast these months have passed by.

Well, Elder Johnson and I are super excited we're staying together because we've about got everything figured out now. We've been 100% refocused as we realized some things we can do that will make us better missionaries. We've decided to do just the missionary work-outs every morning since we were getting too caught up in waking up way early and working out a ton. We're running a lot more and just going to do simple work-outs in the morning. We feel like we'll be more effective and focused this way. It's definitely going to be nice getting more sleep! :) I need that. We're definitely trying to be 100% obedient and have the Spirit with us as much as possible.

But we've already noticed some important changes and improvements in our lessons and everything. We're teaching more simply, getting the investigators more involved, and teaching shorter more focused lessons. It can be so easy to drag things out and teach long lessons, but usually that doesn't really help the investigator that much. Shorter, more powerful, lessons I feel are more effective. In fact, last night we had one of our best lessons so far, and I don't think it was more than 10 or 15 minutes. We had talked to his mom out on the street, and were going to see if we could visit. He came to the door and said they were Catholic and couldn't do it. We showed interest and talked about how much Jesus Christ has affected our lives, and testified of the blessings and happiness that can be found in His restored gospel. He really opened up and we taught a quick lesson about some basic doctrines, and just introduced baptism right off the bat. He really got to thinking and it was just amazing to just see the change that came over Him when He felt the Spirit.

We also had a pretty amazing opportunity this past week - last Thursday we had a General Authority, Elder Evans of the Seventy, come visit us and give us some very specific and helpful training on the Fundamentals of Preach My Gospel. We got some pretty amazing promised blessings and a big focus was on issuing baptismal commitments. We should be committing people to be baptized our very first lesson with them, and what will motivate us to do that is the very doctrine of Christ. When you understand the pure and simple doctrine, that alone will be enough to drive us to help them and want this for them. There's definitely a fine line between being bold and being over-bearing, but I think the vast majority of missionaries are not bold enough when it comes to baptism and commandments. Our investigators need to know our purpose immediately, and need to know where our visits are headed. So Elder Johnson and I have been making a very concious effort to do that, and it's become so much more comfortable even in our OYM's on the street! We bring it up very naturally and we've noticed a lot better responses (well, in general).

Oh, and we've been doing a lot of music around here too. I sang at a baptism last week (I Will Not Be Still - didn't sound half bad!) and then we sang a bunch on Sunday too, at a stake fireside. With 2 other missionaries I sang a cool medley of Christmas songs, and then "Mary did you know", which is now my favorite Christmas song of all time. We sang a barbershop arrangement of it and it sounded pretty awesome. It was nice doing this fireside that was just pure Christmas music - purely songs about the Savior and His birth. The Spirit was definitely strong there and I just loved being there and being a part of it.

Another highlight of the week is that we helped out with the baptism of a less-active's 8-year old daughter. She really wanted us to do it, so we fixed up everything, and worked it all out. We ended up talking, doing a special musical number, and then I baptized her. It was definitely a small baptism but had a nice feel to it all. The entire family was so happy when she got baptized and I know they could all feel how special it was. The dad hasn't had anything to do with the Church in over 3 years, but he came to the baptism and expressed a very sincere thanks to us for helping them out. Hopefully we can get the whole family back in Church again! Elder Johnson did his first confirmation in Spanish, and he was surprised because he wasn't planning on doing it! But everything turned out very nice, and we were glad we could help out. It seems like a lot of our call here in Yuma has been to re-activate families and work with recent converts.

So we are still on bike for now - hopefully we get a car soon! At least it keeps us in good shape... But we're loving it here, excited to stay in Yuma, and excited for CHRISTMAS!!!

Feliz Navidad a todos!

Not really beginning to look like Christmas...12/08/2010

Buenos Dias!

Well, it's been starting to get a little more "Christmasy" around here - but definitely not with the weather! It warmed up this past week and it's been perfect! It's been in the 70's pretty solid during the day and not much colder at nights. We used to have to wear our jackets after dinner but now it's fine. Kind of a weird winter, that's for sure. But it's getting so exciting with all the lights and everything! People get super into the decorations, and I don't think I've seen so many lights and big blow-up decorations in all my life. It's definitely pretty when we bike around at night through certain neighborhoods.

Oh, and I have some exciting news that happened this week! I got my bike back and it works great! Cesar worked on it and got it all fixed up for me. Now it's smoother and works better than ever. I had been having issues with the bike tube in there so I replaced it and guess what? On the way back from Cesar's it went super flat and would not stay inflated for any amount of time. We took everything apart and found a huge nail that had just been stuck in there destroying anything that went in, especially when the tube was inflating. That same day Elder Johnson found a nail in his tire (bigger than the one in mine) and had a problem with his tire. I don't think people realize what a workout it is riding a bike with a flat tire! It's hard!

And speaking of bikes, we've realized that our legs have turned into machines. Yes, they're pretty huge, but now they don't hurt a bit, no matter how much biking we do. We're cruising around 20-25 mph without hardly feeling a thing. It makes us feel kind of good, but also realize how ridiculous it is. Hopefully we get a car in not too long, so our nights and teaching appointments can be a little more efficient. We still get to go to a gym in the mornings (we wear ear plugs and bring Preach My Gospel to stay focused), so we get a decent amount of workout these days. It's funny though, you think with all this biking, running, and working out we'd be a little thinner, but that's definitely not the case. We eat well (actually pretty healthy too), and we're staying "well-hydrated".

We had a pretty sweet lesson with the Barraza's last night though! Well, in the terms that we know a whole lot more about what's up and what's keeping them from getting baptized. She's a very stubborn person that if you push or pressure her, she's going to 100% back off. It has to be her, and then they don't know how they're going to get by if they pay tithing. So the good thing is that they both still love church and they love what it's done for their kids. It's just these little concerns that we have to take care of. That and Cesar Jr. has been really distant, exhausted, and not in Church really since he's started wrestling. We're kind of excited because we got permission to join him for wrestling practice today and help him (with wrestling and life - you can do wrestling and all the Church stuff too!). Apparently he's been dropping a ton of weight and stuff. So yeah, we're excited to go help him out.

Well, we had a pretty sweet experience on Saturday as we were going to visit one of our investigators. I decided to bike down this certain avenue on the way there and as we were going down, this lady yelled and waved us over. We had no idea what was going on, but went over and talked to her. She told us how much she wanted to go to Church, and just needed a ride and where it was (for her, her husband, and kids). She told us how she had been praying that we would come by, and really thanked God that He had answered her prayers. We were excited and went to go pick them up Sunday morning. We did find out that they had been baptized in Mexico, but hey, we just built up the Lord's kingdom a little more! That's fine. I definitely know the Lord guides you when you pray and put your faith in Him. Sadly, we had the same luck with investigators at Church this week. We're just going to have to keep working, do a little more fasting and praying, and see what we can do.

We also got to teach some new people again this week! A lot of our new investigators lately haven't been terribly solid, but that's why we're trying to find new people all the time. Last Friday, we taught the wife of this less-active fire fighter guy and it actually went really well. She's way Catholic, but they teach their kids to just read the Bible, search, and pray for answers for any questions they have. Which is perfect! We're going to teach the kids later this week, so we're pretty excited about that. And at the end of the lesson she just said, "Wow, sounds like I better read this book then." We assured her that was what she needed to do :)

That and we finally taught this family Monday that we've been trying to teach for a long time. There's 4 daughters that are really open and like talking to us, and we've been trying to get in to have an official lesson. It was kind of tough, because the dad over and over agiain said how he had talked to so many pastors and gone to different churches, but he simply couldn't change. He's Catholic and that's never going to change. If it was just teaching the daughters it would be a lot simpler, but he's not really open so we're just really praying and hoping the Lord will soften his heart. It was nice to finally go in and have a real lesson though.

And I was able to go to the Christmas devotional on Sunday and it was AMAZING, like always. That's one of my favorite things of the year, and it always helps me focus on what's important in life and in Christmas. As missionaries, Christ is so central to every day that it makes it a little easier for us to always be focused on Him. But we definitely have a renewed desire to become better, more like Him, more humble. more powerful (spiritually more than anything), more willing to submit to the will of the Father.

So we're just busier than ever, really hoping that we get to stay together one more transfer here in Yuma. Life is great - always exciting, always exhausting, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I'm doing great and loving it. Hoping for a very white Christmas!!

Diciembre! Navidad pronto!‏ 12/01/01

Que tal?! This week's been pretty loco, fast-paced and somewhat confusing. Thanksgiving was actually a pretty sweet day! We had our P-day after a couple hours of proselyting in the morning. It was CRAZY windy though and fairly cold for Arizona so definitely not one to spend outside here. The wind absolutely destroys us on bikes because as we cruise it just practically stops us, and it takes like 5 times the effort. We definitely have noticed that our legs are getting pretty huge and muscular, and we're trying to decide if we want them to be...haha. I guess there's not really a choice but we just think it's kind of funny. So we only had to have one Thanksgiving dinner which was a definite relief. A bunch of the other missionaries had like 3 appointments and we felt for them. So we went to the Amparo's for a dinner and had some way good turkey, potatoes, rolls, pumpkin pie, and apple pie. Everything was way good - the pies were delicious!! We were very content and got to spend the rest of the night in our apartment, chilling and writing letters. We never really have time to do that, so it was way nice.

Well, in terms of investigators and missionary work, this week wasn't a terribly successful week. We did everything we could think of to get people to Church - taught about it, promised blessings, stopped by Saturday, went to their places Sunday morning, and out of like 10 or 12 that told us they were going to go, 1 went. So we're re-evaluating everything again and seeing what we can do to get people to understand the importance of things, and realize that we only want this so that they can have these blessings and different things they need in their life. We have found a couple very solid new investigators though and I'm anxious to see where they go.

We did have a way cool lesson this week that i want to tell you about. So Maria Hernandez, a lady who got baptized a couple months ago, has a daughter and son that we're teaching ( Liliana and Jesus). We hadn't really felt like we were making much progress but we had a lesson with them on Monday after having dinner with them and the whole mood and environment was just different. Liliana had been reading the Book of Mormon before we got there and was so much more open and willing to listen. We were teaching her about the Gospel of Christ when Elder Johnson challenged her and asked if she would get baptized. She said YES! But she wouldn't agree to a specific date just quite yet - we're thinking here in maybe 2 or 3 weeks. And she would get baptized together with her brother.

One thing that's also pretty exciting is that Cesar Barraza Sr. finally finished his baseball season so he and his wife should be getting baptized super soon. They know it's true, they know how good it's been for their kids, and they want to be 100% dedicated to the Church when they get baptized. They're going to make the best members ever.

So we've been working with a lot of recent converts and less-actives lately in the branch, and it's been awesome because we've gotten to see so many go to the temple! Over half the people I've seen baptized here have already gone to the temple and it's so amazing to see that change in their lives. We were teaching Lorena (one of the recent converts) about temples yesterday and she brought out some really cool scriptures from the Bible about temples. She asked us about a bunch of things in 1 Kings and asking us if our temples had them. She was so impressed when we said we did! I guess that's what happens when you belong to the one true church :)

We've totally talked to a lot of legitimately crazy people lately though too, and seen a lot of Anti-Mormon literature. Pretty messed-up stuff... but it definitely makes you grateful that you have a healthy mind and the real truth in your life. All we can really do in those situations is bear our testimonies to them and tell them we know without a doubt that this is true and that we got an answer from the Lord. Nobody can really argue with testimony.

So we've been setting some record lows here in Arizona (not saying that it's actually legitimately cold) and it makes it fun with a piercing wind as we ride everywhere on bike. I'm definitely grateful for my thick jacket I brought! It's been probably like 40's and 50's - of course a lot colder in the mornings and at night. So yep, Arizona has made me a pansy when it comes to temperature but it's okay because I'm still not like the people here that put on a jacket that freeze when it's below 80.

And wow, my body's pretty beat up. Since we've gotten that gym membership we go there for a solid cardio and long lifting workout. It kills but I'm glad I have a stud companion that works out super hard. With all of this biking and working out, we're not in bad shape and I just hope I can retain some of it! My legs never really get a rest from biking but it's always comforting knowing you're not being lazy. Speaking of bikes, we've had more problems - mine's still getting fixed and we've had tire and brake issues with the one that we're borrowing. I didn't know bikes required so much upkeep! But then again, I don't think people use bikes half as much as we do... probably around 20 miles a day. Sometimes closer to 30.

But anyways, I'm loving it here like always and doing great! I love hearing from everyone!!

P.S. our apartment looks awesome since we just put up this little Christmas tree and Christmas lights last night. I love December!

Never stops...‏ 11/24/2010

Buenos Dias!
Well, the crazy life just keeps continue to get crazier... Both of our bikes this week are out of commision and we're borrowing other bikes (since they're our only source of transportation!!) until we can get them fixed and everything. Elder Johnson had to order a whole bunch of new parts and my gear changer literally fell off after I got a couple massive holes in my tube. It's just one thing after another! But "the truth of God will go forth, boldly, nobly, and indepent" - we are definitelty not slowing down in any way, and we're working as hard as ever. We haven't had a ton of success this week and it was a definite wake up call. We realized that we need to change up a little bit how we do everything and how we're finding new people. we haven't had enough new investigators and we really have to keep on expanding our investigator pool because so many of our new investigators fall through and don't work out. Elder Johnson is definitely keeping me on my toes and reminding me of how important it is to take advantage of every single second of the day. We're going to start cutting time off of lunch and making our lessons a lot more shorter and focused, so that we're fulfilling our purpose as focused efficient missionaries. It's easy for missionaries to get too used to everything and in the same old schedule/routine. They easily lose that fire and sense of urgency that we all need to have on a daily basis! This message is a big deal and every single person needs it. There's never a reason to not talk to somebody we pass on the street or see anywhere.
We had a really good zone conference this past week (my first one actually) and so we got a lot of training from the AP's and the President. It was really cool to learn about how we can be better, how we can start lessons better and be more powerful missionaries. We're still really studying the "Fundamentals of Preach My Gospel", which really focuses on the Spirit, and being led in our lessons. Our President is amazing and I learn so much from him all of the time. He talked a lot about the blessings that our Heavenly Father has for us and every single one of His children. If we saw or knew what these gifts were, it would be so powerful that it would literally take our agency away and we would do everything we could. So much comes from obedience and from doing everything we can to follow the Savior and become more like him. Everyday we come to the Savior and every day He asks us if we're willing to give ALL. There are blessings predicated for every degree of our obedience and when we do give our all, we're promised everything the Father hath. The Savior gave every bit of himself - didn't leave out the tiniest little bit. It has to be the same way with us! We can't leave out the tiniest bit or try to get by and only have some things we fall back on. It has to be 100%
We also had a pretty intense training by the AP's on how we can better use our language and have more effective Spanish studies. I know that I could be a lot better about practicing Spanish. Elder Johnson and I have started to try and just talk Spanish to each other, and it's still kind of shaky (esp since our vocabulary's aren't massive yet) but it's coming :) I've gotten compliments on my Spanish lately from random people so that's always exciting, but I feel so incredibly inadequate at times and get frustrated when I don't understand 100% of what people are saying. A lot of it just takes time I guess so it'll come. I think it's kind of funny - I've totally noticed a lot of changes in my English now, and I'm scared that my English is going to be horrible when I get back to college!
I literally don't know where all of the time goes... It seems like every day I don't have near enough time to do everything I want to. Every night I want to write a bunch in my journal about the day, but I have so many things to do that I barely get around to maybe writing a little bit.
Oh, and we have had a couple new investigators the past couple weeks that are way solid! We'll see what happens, but we've given Book of Mormon's and they promised they would read. We've passed by a couple times and they're actually reading and praying! I'm kind of excited and can't wait to teach them more. Being a missionary can definitely be addicting - I know teaching is addicting. I love it!
So it looks like we're just e-mailing today and taking our P-day tomorrow, since so many people are busy and can't do lessons tomorrow. I'm excited to have a legitimate P-day! Last week I spent the entire time doing a traffic class online and staring at a computer screen for hours. By the way, I did get all of that stuff done and took the test, so I'm pretty sure I'm done with all of it. We're having a big Thanksgiving lunch tomorrow and then we're going to one of our investigators to have a very Mexican meal a little bit later for dinner. I'm kind of excited to see what a Mexican Thanksgiving is like - apparently with them Thanksgiving isn't quite as big of a deal as it is to us, but hey if it's a reason to party they're all about it!
Speaking of giving thanks, I learned something really cool this last Sunday at a fireside we had. When you really think about it, EVERY single thing in our lives, EVERY single thing that happens to us is a gift and blessing from God regardless of how we look at it. I had always heard that trials are good for us and it's the only way to grow but I guess I had never really fully understood that. So as I'm going through every day here, I'm definitely going to thank the Lord for everything - no matter what happens.
One thing that's also is pretty sweet is that we just got a free membership to a gym here! A member owns one and we went there this morning. SO nice to have all that equipment and I'm going to be super sore. But with that and all the biking that we do, I'm actually staying in surprisingly pretty good shape - despite how much people feed us. Good thing we don't have a car!
We're still working hard with everyone, and hopefully there'll be a couple baptisms within the next couple weeks - I'll be baptizing an 8-year old girl and then hopefully Hna Amparo and the Barraza's will follow soon after.
Les quiero a todos y estoy trabajando tan fuerte como posible!

Another week in the life of a missionary...‏ 11/17/2010

Wow, well life refuses to get any less exciting or wild for us. We have had quite the week and we think it's so interesting that from the very second Elder Johnson got here, everything's been so incredibly chaotic. We definitely know the adversary's working super hard on us and our investigators but we're keeping super optimistic and just loving it. My companion has the best outlook on everything and I love how he just always has a smile on his face and is just excited to be here. It really is an adventure with the two of us together - every day is exciting and to be honest, we wonder how much more can go wrong! His bike has been falling apart like crazy this week and he's gotten into at least 2 pretty solid bike wrecks as well as almost getting run over by a truck at least 5 times. It's been pretty out of control. We had to start out the week fixing his tire and then on Sunday his pedal straight up fell off!! It's been wild.

But one thing that was SUPER cool this week is that we had a baptism, and what made it cooler was that there was a wedding too! It was quite exciting. But it was also pretty nerve-racking because we didn't know it was all going to go through until about an hour before the baptism!! We had planned it all out and gotten him interviewed, but he (his name's David Limones) was nervous about some legal issue and him owing child support from his previous marriage. He was seriously considering waiting and not doing it, and I was getting all kinds of calls from them, from the branch president, and the branch mission leader because I guess they couldn't get ahold of each other - my head was spinning as I was trying to understand all of it, all these unfamiliar terms, in Spanish. But we prayed way hard Friday night and Saturday morning, and sure enough got the call that they were going to go through with it all and we were so happy! He's been waiting for a way long time, and we did not want him to wait any longer. When you put the Lord first, the rest will work out. That's all there is to it.

So it was really cool, because I got to watch Elder Johnson baptize him. I'm such a proud "father"! He was excited to be Elder Johnson's first baptism. But yes, prayers are definitely answered and we were so lucky to be involved with it all. It was kind of funny, because it was also our branch president's first wedding, so he was about as nervous as my companion. It all went way good though, and he had support from a lot of the members here in the branch.

My legs are still 100% destroyed from all this bike riding and then running sometimes in the morning. I'm starting to get worried that some of my slacks won't fit because my legs are starting to get big from biking! But we've definitely been needing the exercise because people have been feeding us way too much lately. I'm pretty sure yesterday, I've been more filled than I've just about ever been in my entire life! We had this massive dinner with carne asada and I was totally filled. Afterwards, the member took us to a hot dog stand (that was owned by some members) to support them, and got us a massive hot dog and stuff. We visited the Barraza family afterwards and helped out Cesar Sr. with his yard. He was so grateful that guess what he did? Took us to another one of those stands and got us all these hot dogs and sopes and drinks. Oh my goodness, I don't know if I've ever felt that huge in my entire life. But I think I might finally get some hunger sometime later today. Good thing we're on bikes! Hopefully the Barraza's will finally get baptized here in the next couple weeks - he had been waiting to finish baseball (since he's the coach and feels obligated to his team) so it might have to wait a little bit. It's so frustrating when people keep postponing something this important! The Lord needs to always be our #1 priority and we shouldn't let anything ever stand in the way.

We've been making more progrsss with Francisca Amparo, and apparently her husband has been in the way of baptism too, but she always feels the Spirit and knows it's true. Make that leap of faith!! We're praying and trying so hard with all these people - I know that they will get baptized, I'm just not totally sure when.

We picked up some new investigators this week, people that we had just talked to out in the streets. It's so nice and rewarding when people will actually let you in and teach them. They all seemed genuiniely interested and are starting to read the Book of Mormon. We visited this one girl who we talked to on the street a couple weeks ago and we will hopefully be teaching her whole family next week! We gave her a Spanish Book of Mormon and found out that her dad stole it yesterday and was reading it! That was way exciting. So there's a lot of potential we've been finding lately - we just hope it all works out!

Also this Sunday, for Stake Conference there was a broadcast and we got to listen to Elder Cook and President Monson!! I totally wasn't expecting it so it was a pleasant surprise. President Monson really focused on reaching out and rescuing the less-active people, inactives, widows, and people who are struggling. He told this really cool story about the Lost Battalion in some war and how we need to really reach out to those people that need us. That's definitely what our members here need to hear. We've been spending a lot of time with less-actives that just need some visits and help, and it needs to be the members here that do that so we can be focused on finding, teaching, and baptizing others.

But yeah, we're loving life - Elder Johnson and I are ridiculously similar (even down to having 4 boys and 2 girls in the family!) and we get along so incredibly good. It definitely makes missionary work enjoyable and we love just getting out there, talking to people and teaching. So life in Yuma is good!!

Most EXCITING week of my life!‏ 11/10/10

I'm not giong to lie, it has probably been the most exciting week of my entire life. And by exciting, I mean that more has happened and I've had to deal with more things than ever before. It all started out awesome when we first went out Wednesday night. We found everyone at home and had a bunch of lessons, which is super unusual. Thursday is where it started to get a little crazy though. We started out the day by waking up super early and going for a big run. We had already been running for quite a ways when we took a couple turns and ran into massive dead-ends everywhere. We hit one after the other until we eventually ended up re-tracing our steps and going back the way we came (which was not a short ways). So we were exhausted and did a sweet workout with weights. It's actually pretty cool - Elder Johnson has a ton of the P90X workouts written down so we're starting to do those every morning after we run. But anyway, after that Elder Johnson had some pretty interesting experiences with OYMs. We talked to this old lady on the street, and let's just say he saw more skin than he wanted to... We run into some pretty crazy people.
But then... the highlight of the week, I totally got into a little accident with the car! We were pulling up to this intersection, and I stopped at the stop sign - I looked both ways and then continued ahead. All of the sudden this car came speeding out of nowhere and I hit his back end. The sun was exactly where this car was coming from, so I'm pretty sure the glare from it hid it from view. So we had to wait around forever to find that nobody was sure if the other guy had insurance and I got cited for not yielding at a stop sign. So that was kind of a pain, and now I'm going to take a traffic class online (hopefully next week on P-day) so I don't have to pay quite as much and also so I don't get any points taken off my license. So we've been on bikes ever since then and our car got taken to Tempe to get worked on. But that wasn't even the end of the day. We didn't have any batteries for the LED lights that we had just bought earlier that day, so we had to go to Wal-Mart to pick up batteries (you can't ride bikes at night without lights). Somehow both of the "speedy" check-out lines we were in took 20 minutes! So we got a way late start. Then, we headed to the other side of Yuma to visit this investigator David Limones - who is actually getting baptized this Saturday - and after going miles and miles across town he wasn't there! We did catch him as we were leaving though, which was sweet, and had a quick lesson with him. We sped-rode back home to get in before 9:30 and when we got there I searched my pockets and couldn't find my keys!! I was about at the breaking point and immediately got on my knees. I'm pretty sure I prayed harder than i just about ever have. The second I opened my eyes the phone rang, David called saying the keys must have fallen out of my pocket at his place, and he brought them over as we chilled outside our apartment. Meanwhile, the mission president's wife Sister Howes was trying to call me and the phone kept on dropping her calls! It was definitely a day for the record books and life hasn't seemed to get a whole lot easier since then. But we decided if Satan's going to work that hard on us, we're just going to outwork him and show him what's up! :) So that's what we've been trying to do.
It's actually been pretty sweet - we've been having a decent amount of lessons and everything else seems to be going really well, all things considered. We've been getting greenie blessings since every day last week we got a new investigator. That's always been a tough thing here, getting new investigators every week. But even though our teaching isn't terribly great (our Spanish is getting the practice that it really needs), the people seem to feel the Spirit and things are going well. So yeah, David is getting married and baptized this Saturday morning! They're going to do it real simple and real quick, because he just can't wait any longer. We stopped by with our branch president Monday night and finally got everything worked out. I'm so excited for it - he's an absolute stud with just a radiating Spirit - and I've definitely learned a lot from him.
I also found out why Hermana Amparo hasn't been baptized yet last week! We've been really working on asking inspired questions so we can help people better, and we found out that it's because of her Catholic baptism and her parents. She really loves her parents who were super good people who didn't know the Gospel. She doesn't know how she feels about being baptized again and thinks maybe it's going to somehow take her away from them or go away from the things they taught. So we have a lesson with her tonight and hopefully we can set up a baptismal date and show the need for it. But it's been fun with Elder Johnson as we focus on the basics and really stick to the fundamentals. I think our lessons are much more effective this way and people will be more willing to act when they're more involved in the lesson and can see how much we care.
We've also been teaching and helping out this less-active woman here, because she really wants to come back to Church and have her daughter baptized. She is awesome, so full of faith, and wants me to baptize her 8-year old daughter so we're going to teach her and hopefully do it soon. Younger kids are so much easier to teach because they are so full of faith and so much more open to the truth. I wish that more people were like that. So anyways, that should be pretty sweet.
But yeah, it seems like Satan never really stops working on us. Every day is certainly an adventure, but it is definitely never easy and things have been somewhat difficult lately. We woke up this morning to find that the water had been turned off in our apartment, so we couldn't shower, use the bathroom, or do all of those somewhat necessary things. I definitely find it all somewhat amusing that this many things could all happen in one week. I do know, however, that it's going to do nothing but make me stronger and that I'm going to be all the better for it. Thank goodness for prayer and the scriptures, that help us out so often in this crazy life. I honestly don't know how people get by without it - I know I would be lost. And it's funny too - my body has been destroyed this week as I've gone from not much the past 3 months to ridiculous amounts of workouts and bike riding in one week. Hopefully I'll get adjusted to it soon and maybe we'll get a car here too.
So that's it for this week - nothing else too terribly exciting :) it's a good thing my companion's a stud and has an awesome sense of humor. We get along so good, and are so similar. I've laughed a whole lot more recently than I have in a long time. We definitely enjoy life no matter what it dishes us and work like crazy since that's what wrestlers do. So life is good and busy, and seguire adelante! Thanks for everything!

Ya soy papa!!! (por la genealogia misional) 11/4/2010

Hola todos!!
Wow, well this has been quite the week. We got transfer calls Monday night and I was scared that I might be transferred out of Yuma, which I totally do not want to happen any time soon. The first call we got though, was from the mission president - President Howes - and we were wondering what was up. He talked to Elder Cuthbertson and called him to be a zone leader (which is super sweet and exciting!) and then told him to hand the phone over to me. I was shaking like crazy and freaking out a little bit, wondering why he wanted to talk to me. Turns out he wants me to train! This time it's for real and he just said that he had every confidence that I would do a good job. Entonces en mi mision, ya soy papa! It was cool because my "great-grandfather" on the mission, Elder Ries, just extended his mission and is now an AP, and gets to see his first great grandchild so to speak. I find all these mission genealogies somewhat amusing. Trainers are your dads and their trainers are your grandparents and so forth.
So I had to go up to Tempe yesterday morning for a trainer's meeting and to pick up "my boy"! It was a fun trip going up 3 and a half hours and then back after the meeting, but I could not be more excited about my new companion. His name is Elder Evan Johnson, and he's a wrestler from Illinois! He's a total stud and I know that we are going to do awesome work here. He's super similar to me (just a tad bit taller) and we already get along perfect. In fact, we already had a bunch of lessons last night and all of them went good! He's about at the same stage I was with the Spanish when I first came in, but he does great and is good at asking questions, which is what I need a lot of practice on. You don't really get anywhere in a lesson if you're not involving the investigator and getting them to think about why they need this in their life. So it's just a process, and you always have to work at being a better teacher and studying the material more yourself to get new insights and be able to teach it simply and purely. This is another reason why I'm excited to train - as I teach him we're going to be starting over and I'm going to be able to study thoroughly those basic things that make good missionaries great! I'm also excited because since I'm a greenie training a greenie, we're going to have tons of greenie fire here and hopefully some greenie blessings as well!
We just had quite a few lessons and miraculously found basically everyone at home! That definitely does not happen often. So we got to visit everyone and all of the lessons actually went really good! He definitely came prepared and it's going to be a learning experience for the both of us. I'm pretty sure he's going to be training me at the same time I try to train him. And that's why I love this whole process! Everyone always keeps learning and improving as an individual and as a missionary. That's definitely what I need right now, because I feel totally humbled and inadequate. I have no choice but to rely on the Spirit and put my trust in the Lord, because I'm still so new to everything. I'm not perfect with my Spanish and I don't always know exactly where to go and what to do, but I know that we will be guided and helped as we do all that we can.
Halloween was definitely different for us this year... We weren't allowed to be out on the streets after dinner, so we ended up going to the trunk-or-treat at the Church. It was kind of funny - I could tell that we were combined with an English ward right off the bat. I could tell because we had gotten there I think right on time and there were actually a bunch of people there! That's when I knew it couldn't just be our branch. There's usually maybe one or two people that get there right on time, and that's usually the people that are in charge of it, and setting it up! I found it somewhat funny. So for our costumes, we just switched up our nametags and I put on one of the zone leaders'. I pretended to order everyone around while the missionary who had Elder Cuthbertson's tag (Elder Cuthbertson is our district leader) pretended to brown nose super bad and just give me all kinds of compliments. It was all pretty funny. So yeah, I didn't get any candy this year (didn't want any) but I did have some amazing agua de pina and horchata, which made me 100% happy. It was cool to see investigators and less-actives there but we felt kind of ridiculous having 10 missionaries all there at the same place not really doing anything. So we took off and went to one of the missionaries' apartment to play Monopoly. We did feel kind of worthless that night, but it was also pretty fun.
Since we couldn't do anything Sunday night either, we got to go to this way cool missionary fireside and sing Armies of Helaman with 12 missionaries! That was pretty cool and we got to hear some awesome conversion stories. The Lord definitely prepares people to accept the Gospel and it really can be throughout their life.
So last Preparation Day we went bowling, since the missionary who just finished up and was going home (Elder Bunderson) wanted to. It was way fun, and it was cool to do it with a big group of missionaries. What was even more cool is that I got to go on exchanges with Elder Bunderson last Friday and it was awesome! We biked around everywhere talking to people and individually talked to over 50 people on the streets (so 51 OYMs for the day!). That's more than some missionaries get in a week and I was glad we got to have an awesome day like that before he went home.
So yep, Elder Cuthbertson is now a zone leader and he's serving on the ASU campus, working in English. And I'm here in Yuma, training Elder Johnson and loving it. I'm finally on a solid workout schedule and excited to work hard in missionary work as well as in getting back in shape! Sweet!

Busy busy... 10/27/2010

Buenos Dias!
Well, this week's been great as we've been enjoying absolutely perfect weather! It's in the 70's and there's been a nice breeze so I definitely can't complain there. We actually went running this morning and it was pretty dark and almost just a tiny bit chilly! I loved it, even though I kind of destroyed myself. My companion has had issues with his leg so he can't really run too much - we ran with a couple missionaries here and I probably ran way too hard. My lungs were toast, but it's SO nice to get a good workout and it was nice to know that I'm at least in way good shape for a missionary :) haha.

But this week's been great, it's looking a lot better than last week, which was kind of slow. Members are coming out with us to more lessons and helping us get people baptismal dates who are ready. David, who had to wait for over a year to be officially divorced, is going to get married and baptized next Saturday and it looks like Hermana Amparo is finally going to get baptized either next week or the week after! We have this sister in our branch here, Hermana Leos, who is seriously the best missionary EVER! She brings up baptism all the time, has no fear doing it, and really helps the investigator know how much she cares about them and wants them to enjoy these blessings. It also helps so much when it comes from somebody besides us. I hope some day that I can be as good of a missionary as her, honestly. She's a branch missionary here and every single investigator she has been working with so far has gotten baptized. It's pretty sweet to be a part of, really.

Well, we haven't had a chance to visit the Barraza family too much lately. Cesar Jr.and Nathalie did get to go to the San Diego temple on Saturday though and loved it! They couldn't believe how white and gorgeous everything was inside. They said they literally felt like they were in heaven and said they've never felt anything like it before. They were asking how long it would be before they could get to sealed together as a family, and we said it could just be a year if your parents would get baptized now! Cesar Sr. also wanted to go to the temple real bad, and we told him he could if he hurried up and got baptized. They were going to do it this weekend, but it's pretty crazy with Halloween and everything so we're going to shoot for next week sometime. Maria Barraza, the mom, says she still wants to know more, but does know that she's not going to any other church and I think she wants to be more committed or something when she gets baptized. But she's sharing it with her very Catholic family, reading the Book of Mormon every day, and the kids are stronger in the Gospel than anyone else I've taught so far. It's so cool.

This week, it was pretty cool - for our missionary work fireside we had a movie night and everyone brought friends while we had some amazing agua de pina (basically the most amazing pineapple drink you can imagine) and horchata (which is super delicious as well). We got quite a few potential investigators out of the deal and we had a lot of less-active members and a few investigators there as well. So I would call it a success! It seems like a lot of our work lately has been re-activating members and working with less-active families which is way cool too. A lot of people lately have had the desire to come back to Church. Last P-day this lady came into the Church as we were playing games and talked to us in Spanish about how much she wants to come back and be involved again. So she did come on Sunday and we had a lesson with her yesterday! It's interesting that it's always the mothers that see the need for the Gospel in their lives, and I guess that's the main reason that we're teaching almost all females! They're usually a lot more open and I guess more receptive and sensitive to the Spirit in general.

Another thing that's cool is that this week we're really focusing on opening our mouths (OYM's) and we set a massive goal as a zone. It's way more than we've ever gotten before but so far it's going really well and the missionaries here are all doing their best to talk to everyone. This means talking to people about the Gospel outside of tracting and lessons and everything. But yeah, we're getting probably 3 or 4 times as many now than we were before as we seriously talk to every single person we see. So far not too much has come from it, but we definitely feel better and we know that everything is going a whole lot better with our investigators and that we are getting blessed for it.

One thing that was pretty sad is that we had one investigator, Ester, who is one of Cesar's friends, who we can't really visit any more. She's super interested and things were going awesome when we talked to her, but her mom is super against the Church and doesn't want us over any more - doesn't want her to go to Church either. Ester really wants to keep coming and learning more, but we'll just have to see how it turns out and be careful. It's sad to see parents keep their kids from such a wonderful thing. But she's awesome and I know she'll get baptized sometime.

So life is great and it looks like we're going to go to the Trunk-or-treat at the Church this weekend. We're not really supposed to be out in the streets Saturday or Sunday night so we're going to be seeing if we can have quick lessons or just go to activities and such. Most missionaries get to go to the temple Saturday, but we're too far away so we don't really have the option. Transfers are this next week, so we'll see how they go! I don't know if they're going to have me and Elder Cuthbertson together for another one... I know I want to stay though!
Well eso es todo por ahora. Gracias por todo! Que les vayan bien

Finally cooling down!‏ 10/20/10

Hola todos!
It's exciting here, because it's finally cooling down!! Last week it was over 100 degrees every day, but it took a massive jump and has been in the 70's the past couple days! People were talking about how cold they were and putting on jackets and I just had to smile and laugh a little bit. People here have absolutely no concept of snow. I asked someone if it has ever snowed here in Yuma and they told me it did once a long time ago, but basically they only know of one time in history. So it looks like I'm in for a weird warm winter...probably about like an Alaskan summer. It's fun though - I enjoy teasing people down here about not being able to handle the weather. It's been a little rainy and cloudy the past couple days - something that doesn't happen terribly often. So I totally loved it! I wanted to stand outside and get drenched in the rain, but I decided I should probably do missionary work instead.

It's been a good week, our first in a while that we haven't had any baptisms, so that's been kind of sad. We did pick up some new investigators which is awesome, and totally what we need right now. We've been hurting for people to teach and we finally have some more so that's exciting. But it's kind of funny because every single one of them was connected to a recent converts. They seriously aer the best missionaries ever. We taught Maria Hernandez's two teenagers, and they both came to Church. They were both open and pretty interested (well for teenagers), and they're just super good kids. Maria has raised them good and they have a definite sense of right and wrong. We'll see what happens, but I'm excited and I love that Maria has this incredible desire to share the Gospel with her family.

It is a little different right now because we're teaching quite a few teenagers. Cesar brought a couple friends to his confirmation whenever that was, and we've talked to them (they're both girls and teaching them is taking a little getting used to). They're both way interested and loved going to Church! So many people that we've met it's so hard to get them to Church so when this happens it's just totally sweet.

One thing that we've been kind of working on and got trained on in a district meeting recently is the importance of opening your mouth to talk to everyone. We discussed D&C 61:3 and talked about how we shouldn't be rushing from appointment to appointment and miss the people on the streets and all around us. It's so true that there are a lot of people that are looking for the truth, but they just don't know where to find it. Well, we have it! There are so many people that are prepared and so many blessings that come from talking to everyone we see. There are missionaries in our district that recently baptized a couple that they found from just walking on the streets a few weeks before. They came up to talk to him and the first thing he said to them literally was, "How long does it take to become a Mormon?" We have no idea how many people are out there ready to here the Gospel and we have no idea who they will be.

So Cesar's parents, Cesar and Maria, are probably going to get baptized this next week! It was funny going over there and talking to Cesar Sr., because he said that now his wife is more convinced and excited to get baptized than he is! He said before that he'll get baptized whenever she does and now she's way into it, and sharing the Gospel with her Catholic family!! It's so incredibly cool, and they are just an awesome family. I talked for a long time with Cesar about the Church and responsibilities as a parent. He loves the emphasis on being good parents and teaching kids responsibilities. He says that we are more mature than most guys our age and he wants that for his son, so he's that much more excited to get him on a mission.

Oh, and it's been kind of crazy having 6 missionaries here in our branch! We're not 100% sure still how exactly it is going to work out with what the area boundaries for each set of missionaries and if the others will go to our Church or the San Luis one (San Luis is seriously halfway in the US and half in Mexico - on the border). We've been going to our dinners with all six of us though, so it's always a big party wherever we go and we feel kind of bad that they have to feed all of us. But the members love it so we do too!One thing that really stuck out to me this week in my personal study was a scripture that I read - Helaman 3:35 - and I liked how it talks about waxing stronger and stronger in humility. It's so incredibly important that as missionaries we are absolutely humble and rely on the Lord for everything we do. We are nothing without Him and cannot teach without His spirit so it's so important that especially when you're having success you acknowledge that everything comes from the Lord and as to ourselves we are nothing. Which is why I want to be an instrument in His hands and make His will my will.

So yeah, I'm doing great here and going on exchanges again tonight so I'm taking the lead again! It can be kind of nerve-racking sometimes but I'm excited. I'm loving the cooler weather and everything about my mission.
Que les vayan bien! (that's what I hear approximately a thousand times every day :)

10/13/10 The scoop....

HOLA!!!!
Well I guess it was kind of a false alarm last week. That 5% chance that I wouldn't train is apparently what's going to happen. We just found out a couple days ago that Elder Cuthbertson and I are staying together here and that they're going to do a little swapping in the mission. Apparently they're splitting up a random Spanish companionship and having one stay there to train in that area and one is coming here to train in Somerton (a fairly small town just outside of Yuma). So we are going to have 6 missionaries in our little Spanish branch and in the past few weeks our zone has gone from 10 missionaries and 1 district to 16 missionaries in 2 districts! President Howes said he knows there's a lot of work to do here and that Yuma's ready for some big progress. He said it wasn't that I couldn't train or wouldn't do good, but that there's been so many changes in our zone lately, and that he thinks it would be better if we stayed together. So for now, my address is the same and I'm still with Elder Cuthbertson.

We did have a good week though! Lorena Ruiz got baptized last Friday and it was a super good baptism. Elder Cuthbertson baptized her, and I sang a duet with another spanish elder here. She's way solid, and knows more about religion and the Bible than anyone I've taught so far. She's super perceptive and recognizes how persecuted the Church is and that the true Church of Jesus Christ has always been rejected and persecuted. She said whenever she was going through rough times she would have a dream about her grandma (only member in family) and the Book of Mormon. It was pretty sweet, and we were excited for her baptism. She never once had doubts or second thoughts about it, which definitely isn't common here.

And Sunday was awesome because we had 3 confirmations!! Rene and Nathalie Barraza, and then Lorena were all confirmed and the branch was way excited and kind of surprised to see so many. Nathalie really wanted me to confirm her, and told me I could do it any language I wanted. I told her I was going to do it in Arabic but in the end I decided on Spanish :) It was way cool and I felt the Spirit super strong. My Spanish must not have been terrible because a lot of members were coming up, complimenting me, and asking if my Spanish was getting better or if it was the Spirit. I told them I'm pretty sure my Spanish is getting better but it's always the Spirit. We've really been working with the Barraza parents to get them baptized, because their kids are so strong in the Church and really want it for their parents. They were all at Church, and the dad told us when he gets baptized he wants to be 100%, doing everything, not missing a day of Church, and really give it his all. So apparently he wants to finish his baseball league since he's a coach and they have a couple weeks of games that are on Sunday. We're working hard on the mom is ready whenever he decides to go through with it.

I'm on exchanges with Elder Green right now again, and it's been way cool. It's always funny though, since he's so lost at all these Spanish places we go. He has no idea what's going on and just nods his head and acts like he does. We visited Maria Hernandez last night and she was talking about how excited she was to get her kids to Church and baptized!! These kind of visits are the best, and she brought them to the last baptism so they could see how it would be when they get baptized. Hopefully that can happen way soon! She's also trying to bring friends to Church and wants to talk to anyone who is having doubts or second thoughts about baptism. She is just so awesome, and it was cool to take the lead on the lesson and really talk to her.

Apparently there was a fire the other night and the firemen were banging on our door between 12 and 1 in the morning. I didn't wake up of course, but eventually I got up and saw like 3 fire trucks outside and like all the people who live in the Camelot apartments outside. They had evacuated everyone but I had just barely woken up when they told everyone they could go back inside. I was just ahead of the game... So that was a little bit exciting.

Oh, and it's been pretty sweet - we've been riding bikes all the past couple days and it's been a welcome break. I hate riding in the car everywhere and we get to talk to more people when we're out on bikes as well as get a little bit of a workout. Our white shirts get kind of nasty but we definitely feel like we're doing more work and I love riding bikes! So yeah, we've been really working on finding people, since there's been a lot of people baptized lately and we're needing more people to teach. We'll see how it goes this week. I'm excited and loving it!!
Hasta luego! Nos vemos!

Hola! Que pasa? 10/06/10

Hola! Que pasa?
Holy smokes this last week really was unusually crazy and busy. We had all these trainings and meetings and General Conference so we definitely didn't get as much missionary work done as we wanted to. But that's how we always feel so that's expected, huh?
Conference was AWESOME though!!! I feel like I never really took advantage of it like I should have growing up. It's so much better than holidays for us as missionaries. Because we all talked about it together and decided that it's better than all the holidays put together, because all a holiday really means here is that the post office is closed and we have no chance for mail!! But yes, conference definitely was a spiritual feast and we all learned so incredibly much. What never ceases to amaze me is the nature of the talks that they all deliver. They are simple enough for investigators and new members to understand, yet way deep and profound for members and missionaries. They are all definitely inspired men called of God and are guided in every word they say. We loved how President Monson opened the conference talking about the importance of missionary work, preparing young men for missions, and the fact that we need more missionaries! We really do need more missionaries and the Lord's work is being accomplished all around the world. It really is amazing to think about what gets accomplished daily by missionaries all around the world and what is possible with even more. The field is white and we simply need more harvesters!
It definitely seemed like there were some major themes, and we wish that all of our investigators could have heard all of it! At first there was a lot about following the prophet, and the importance of having a prophet. There were a lot of bold statements about the fact that a living prophet is more important than a dead prophet and more important than the standard works. We know that we are so incredibly blessed to have a prophet to help lead us and guide us and make the Lord's will known to us. It's definitely something that sets us apart from other churches. There was also a lot about agency and using it wisely, in order to avoid or overcome addictions, and choose to do the best things with your time. I loved when President Uchtdorf talked about slowing down and taking time to prioritize your life and spend your time doing the things that are most important, instead of being all stressed out and hectic doing a bunch of things that are ultimately not important. I love the boldness of the general authorities and am consistently amazed at their knowledge of the scriptures! The more I study them, the more I can recognize how much they really use them in their talks. They study them so much and it ultimately becomes a part of how they think. It's definitely amazing.
But yeah, my companion had a big 2-day training last week and I stayed with the other 2 new Spanish elders here. It was wild because they had moved most of their stuff out of their apartment into their new one, but they found out they couldn't move in yet, so we were sleeping on pieces of furniture and things. And then the next day, we moved ALL of their things in, washers and dryers and beds and cabinets and everything. I'm pretty sure I've helped move in at least 10 different people or families the past few days, but it's way cool and I enjoy it. It was fun being with the other elders and it's always cool to just have a break and something new. We talked to a LOT of people out in the streets and things, since they didn't have many scheduled lessons and are working on finding people. We've met some pretty ridiculous crazy people, agnostic people who like to fight, and some guys that seriously love missionaries but refuse to listen to the mission. One guy the other day said that he wasn't sure how right we are. "You are SO right! I love you guys and what you're doing. I don't think you know how right you are! I don't know about the whole Joseph Smith thing, but you are SO right!"
It was pretty funny.
Speaking of that, I went on exchanges with this little Mexican elder for a little bit on Sunday, Elder Martinez (he speaks perfect English - grew up mostly in Utah), and we were out talking to people on the streets. We were walking down the side of this big road and I told him we were going to go about this differently. We were just going to walk and have people pull over and come to us. He said there was no way, and a few minutes later, this guy pulls up to us from the other side of the road and runs out of his car to talk to us. He had heard about our church through his uncle and really needed something in his life - he wanted missionaries over and to get a Book of Mormon. He was this massive bald guy covered in tattoos and honestly a little intimidating. But it was sweet, because we got his address and number and sent some English missionaries over to teach him. It was so crazy, and Elder Martinez kept asking me how i knew that was going to happen. I told him I honestly had no idea, but it was a super cool experience!! We talked to a lot of people that day, crazy drunk guys and old redneck guys, and people that keep saying to come by another day to teach them. It's always "otro dia" or next year or something. But I've definitely noticed I'm not afraid to talk to people, even sketchy people that I would never dream of talking to before.
We did have Nathalie and Rene's baptism on Friday and it was AWESOME!!!! They loved it all and had a HUGE crowd of people there. We didn't even have room to fit everyone. But yeah I got to talk and we sang this sweet a capella version of Be Still My Soul. It was kinda crazy because I've never seen anyone baptized someone as fast as Cesar baptized Nathalie! He put her in and out of that water so incredibly fast! I had to compliment him on his efficiency. He must have been a little nervous. It was also a little funny because he also had torn a hole in his baptismal suit sometime and he was walking around really funny so that people couldn't see it. I was amused. Their dad loved the whole thing and he said he definitely wants to get baptized as soon as we can get his wife to be baptized. He said this coming week! But it looks like it's going to be a week from Saturday so that should be super cool.
We are having one baptism this week that we're super excited for - Lorena Ruiz - and the other one fell through because of issues with her husband. It seriously tears me apart to see people keep postponing baptism and the help that they need in their life. But we're super excited for what we have, and I know they will all get baptized :) So yep, we're working hard at finding new people and loving the work. I had my first interview with the President yesterday and it was way cool because I have an assignment that I'm really excited for. But anyways, life is great and the weather is 100% PERFECT!!!! it's like in the low 80's and just feels like heaven. So hasta luego! Que les vayan bien!

9/29/2010 Conference pronto!!‏

Buenas Tardes!

Wow, there has been a lot going on and I don't think I've ever been so incredibly excited for General Conference before!! We've been talking about it with everyone and really working on getting investigators to watch or listen to it. There's no better way people will be able to feel the Spirit than watching apostles and a prophet of the Lord testify of the truthfulness of the Gospel and the divinity of the Savior.

So the baptism we had on Saturday was awesome, and Maria is so happy to be a member. The members here have really welcomed her in and she is loving it. She got baptized with her friend's little daughter so it was really cool to see the two of them taking this step together. What was way cool was that when we were taking pictures afterwards she kept talking about us being her missionaries and that she would always remember us. That's something that's super special and that makes me so glad I'm here! I had the opportunity to confirm her on Sunday, and although it was a little nerve-racking at first it went really well and I didn't struggle with the words. It's a little tough because we normally talk to people in the "usted" form to be formal and respectful, but we used the "tu" form in baptisms and confirmations and such for closeness and familiarity. But it was great, and investigators were surprised that I was able to do what I did without having it written down. So that's a good sign, right? We had 2 more confirmations there and there were quite a few people at Church. What was awesome was seeing Cesar's entire family at Church, all dressed up and loving being together there as a family. The mom couldn't come to Church until she had a really nice outfit so they were all spiffed up, with the guys in suits and the girls in nice dresses. Speaking of their family, Rene and Nathalie are getting baptized this Friday!! They couldn't wait any longer so we set it up and ordained Cesar a Priest last night so he would be able to baptize his sister. We were hoping the parents would maybe get baptized this weekend or next, but it looks like it might be the 16th or something. The good thing is that I had never heard them so positive about being baptized! They love what the Church has done for their kids and they know they are going to go as a family together to this one, but she wants to be more familiar with it and go to Church 1-2 more times. Cesar Sr. said he was going to get baptized when his wife does and she says she knows she is going to get baptized, but it's just a matter of time.
One thing that was also sweet was that on Sunday we joined another set of elders here in fasting for their investigators. We prayed and fasted specifically for them, and then the Lord definitely answered and the very next day, one of them called the elders up and said she wanted to get baptized ASAP!!! Last transfer they had a baptism set up for this investigator and she just didn't show up, calling later to say she wasn't coming - saying she felt nervous and took it as a sign to not get baptized. But she got baptized last night and it definitely strengthened our testimony of fasting, and we know that it was because of that that it happened.
It's been kind of tough lately to find new investigators as we're getting people ready for baptism. We're busy with appointments and setting all these things up, and we really need to spend more time finding new people to teach. Cesar brought over some friends to Church and it looks like we'll be able to start teaching them this week! They loved Church and said they wanted to come back! That's one of the hardest things to get people to do, so we get way excited when people go to Church and want to keep going.

It's also different having twice the missionaries in our branch but I like it a lot. We go to dinners together and there's definitely enough work to keep all of us busy. They've been finding all kinds of new people to teach and it's cool to just see them on fire, going out and doing lots of finding to teach. It's also nice not being the youngest one here - I'm the oldest greenie in Yuma out of like 5 here, and it's kind of crazy that we have so many new missionaries down here! I guess it's the best way to get missionaries introduced to Spanish though. Elder Matheson and Elder Lindquist here with us are super good missionaries and we work together a lot so it's nice not having quite as big of an area.

It looks like the next couple of days I'm going to be with the other 2 elders since my companion is going to training in Tempe. Teaching is a lot of fun, and it's always exciting to go out and teach with different people to see how they do it and get to know the different people they are teaching. I'm excited!!

Shoot, well I think that's about all that's really happened this week. I'm excited for the baptisms Friday and for General Conference, so it's going to be a SWEET weekend!!

Hola! Todavia estoy in Yuma y tan animado! 9/‏/22

Hola!

Hey well today is transfer today, and yeah Wednesday is Preparation Day for the entire mission. It is a good day to have it, and it's a nice break in the middle of the week. But anyways, we found out that just about everyone is staying here. Our zone leader (Elder Robinson- super awesome elder) is going home today- his 2 years are up- and his companion is getting moved too. But the rest of us are all still here and I'm so grateful! I was worried that I would be moved and that I would have to leave all these people we've been teaching. So Elder Cuthbertson and I are still here, and they are splitting our area in two and bringing down two more Spanish missionaries. We're anxious to see which half of Yuma we have and which people we're going to end up teaching. My companion is also now a district leader, so we're all going to be a little extra busy.

But the most exciting part of the week was last night! We've been meeting with the Barraza family a lot this week (the ones I talked about last time), and all of the kids came to church on Sunday. And then Cesar Jr. told us he couldn't wait any longer and wanted to get baptized Tuesday! We said no problem so we set up everything and got him baptized last night. It was super cool and especially special for me because he asked me to baptize him, so I performed my first baptism and it was just sweet. I don't know if I've ever seen anyone so happy, excited, and glowing as he was after that baptism. He hugged everyone there (there was actually a pretty huge crowd- over 60 people!) and he just set such a great example for the rest of his family. His 2 little siblings are going to get baptized soon and they are both excited. We sang a really cool baptism song, partially in Spanish, and the whole thing was just such an amazing experience. This family is just making such progress and growing so much!

We had another pleasant surprise when we found a fellowshipper for one of our investigators (for Maria Hernandez), we asked her about getting baptized this week and she said yes! So we're going to have another one this Saturday and she's so excited too. She's so ready and willing to take this step and is just so full of faith. She has no doubts or concerns and I know she's going to be a super strong member. It's so nice having members go out with us, who really help these people and become their friends. Especially when you see their sincerity and genuine concern. I am just a tiny bit nervous because I'm going to confirm her on Sunday and that definitely involves quite a bit of Spanish, but I'm going to really pray and prepare for it and I know it will all work out.

We're singing more than ever, probably 6 or 7 times in the next few days, and I've played the piano a little bit. It can be tough sometimes to come up with so many songs to sing! But it's super cool and fun, and usually enjoyable.

Oh, and Hermana Amparo is going to get baptized the weekend after General Conference, and she's so ready. We've loved teaching her and her family, and she is bringing her husband to lessons. Hopefully soon their entire family will be members together and be able to go to the temple! She brought her family to this big Mexican party we had on Friday. Since it was Mexican Independence Day Thursday our branch had a big party Friday night that was awesome. We had a lot of investigators come and have fun and make friends, so I think it was a definite success. Some of the food was definitely interesting, some very hot, but I guess that would be kind of expected, huh?

So we've got a lot of people preparing for baptism and getting baptized real soon, and I love it! They're making huge changes in their lives, and embracing what they know to be true. You can see their immense faith in Jesus Christ and their desire to follow him and do what He wants. In a lesson we just had yesterday we asked how an investigator felt about the Church and the Book of Mormon and at first she said,"I believe it's true", and then she said no, "Yo se que si". I know it's true. So we've really been blessed and really focusing on commitments like going to Church, reading, and praying, so people have the chance to really know the truthfulness of this wonderful Gospel. I've been learning so much from every single person we teach, and I'm definitely growing all the time.

I LOVE it here and I'm so glad I get to stay this next transfer!!

Doing great and loving it :)

Siempre bien ocupado (Always very busy) 9/15/10

HOLA!

It's been a way good, busy week like always. We're really doing a whole lot of teaching and finding through members and it's really paying off. First of all, the most exciting thing that happened this week was that we had a baptism last Saturday!!! It was Helaman's wife Wendy, and it went super super good. It was kind of funny though, because we had a ton of members and friends all at the Church and Wendy's family were the last ones to get there. We were a little nervous because they were late but all went well. It was definitely amazing being able to participate in the baptism and see the happiness and Spirit that this family felt. Her husband has been really supportive and working together with her as we've been teaching her. I think she has actually been the one teaching him more than anything, but it was just incredible to be a part of the baptism.

It was actually pretty sweet because once again, I got to be very active in the baptism. I found out the night before that I was giving the talk on the Holy Ghost. So I got to give a talk, sing a duet with my companion (he said we've already sung 10x more than he has his entire mission), bear my testimony, and be a witness at the baptism. It was sweet being able to look at them as I talked and to see her just glowing with that Spirit. I also think I must have done a decent job talking and everything because I had a lot of members say that my Spanish is improving and that they really enjoyed it. It can be tough because sometimes when I'm up giving a talk, I get a little tongue-tied and can't really speak Spanish that well.

But I've had a lot of growing opportunities lately, for sure. My companion was super sick last Wednesday so he had to stay inside all day. I got a LOT of studying in that day - reading the Book of Mormon and Preach My Gospel, english and in spanish. And then later that day I got to go on splits with an English elder and visit quite a few people. It was definitely different being the main person to talk and deliver the lesson. We visited 3 families that all speak Spanish and I had to really do all of the communicating. It was definitely tough at times, because I totally couldn't understand all of what they were saying, but it made me step up and lead the discussions and really practice my Spanish a whole lot. We also met an AMAZING family that these other elders had found - the Barraza family. I went to the lesson because the mom speaks only Spanish and can't understand English very well. But the entire family is so amazing and so prepared. They've been to Church once and been taught for maybe a couple weeks, and they all have desires to be baptized. They all felt the Spirit and Church, and have felt that this is the right one. There's Caesar and Maria, with their kids Caesar Jr., Natalie, and Rene. Caesar Jr. is 16 and he's such a stud - he already wants to go on a mission and feels like he's going to go to Spain! He's already handed out 2 Book of Mormons and shared the Gospel with a few of his friends. The kids are all reading in the Book of Mormon every day, and the husband is really trying to get his wife more involved in the Church. He said she called him the other day to tell him that she was reading it! It was a random call and she was just at home. He was super excited and we absolutely love going to their family to teach them. After being there for only a few minutes, I felt like part of the family and there was just an amazing feeling in their house.

One thing that we've been working on this past week is getting Hna, Amparo ready for her baptism. She has this family thing this weekend in Mexico so she won't be able to do it this week. We had a huge Family Home Evening the other night, and we talked to her about still doing it very soon. It's tough because she's still nervous and thinks she has to know more. She always feels like she doesn't know enough. We assured her that she is ready and that the Spirit will help teach her after she's baptized. What's most important are our desires to follow Christ and get the Holy Ghost to guide and direct us. She is so prepared and we are going to have a lesson with her tonight so we'll be praying real hard about how we can help her.

So my companion had his 21st birthday this past Sunday and he has gotten a ridiculous amount of cake and presents from everyone here! Everywhere we went for like 3 days was a party. As soon as they found out it was his birthday, people were getting all kinds of gifts and making a ton of cakes for him. I was stuffed for so long and I had to eat a lot of cake that I didn't really want to... but it was way cool, and everyone around here is so generous. They all asked me when my birthday is and I had to say that sadly it's not for quite some time. But...if they wanted to celebrate any time, I would be cool with that.

Our lesson last night was also way good. We had a lesson with a less-active and his wife, who has been investigating for quite some time. We didn't really get anywhere for quite some time, because we felt like there was this barrier and that we weren't really getting through to her. But then all of the sudden it got quiet and she was just speechless. We started asking her questions about how she felt and could see that she was feeling the Spirit. We bore pure testimony of the truthfulness of the Gospel and she was getting way emotional. She said that she had been asking these questions in defense of her church (catholic) but then that her mind was cleared and that she had just really opened up. She felt the Spirit very strong and said that she guessed she needed to be reading and praying about the Book of Mormon. We said yep, that would be a pretty good idea. Anyways, the husband felt it too and they're going to read and pray together. So the Spirit is amazing and definitely is the true teacher of all things.

This week is transfers and we'll see what happens! I really really want to stay here with my companion because we have a lot going on here, and I love the members and people we're teaching. But I will definitely go where the Lord wants me to go!

Mucho trabajo que hacer‏ (Much work to do) 9/7/10

Hey hey!!!

Well this last week has been way good and super busy... that's one thing about the mission that I love and find really cool. The work never stops and there's always so much to do! There's no time to take breaks and there's no time to really think about anything else than teaching and visiting people. There have been a lot of new people popping up everywhere - friends of members and referrals, random people at Church. We're getting so many new people to teach and it's so incredibly exciting!! We had a referral from the mission office the other day that has a ton of potential. It's a Mexican man named Benito in his 50's who lives alone, and he called to get a Book of Mormon. We visited and taught him a little bit and he's already reading quite a bit. It's such a blessing when people will actually take the time to read the Book of Mormon to know the truth of it.

We also had another cool experience with a recent convert's friend. Some of the investigators and recent converts here are just amazing and some of the best missionaries I've ever seen. They're so excited about the Gospel and bring all kinds of friends to Church and everything! This one new investigator, her name is Lorena, is from Veracruz and seems to really like the Church already. She loves to read, which is like the best thing ever for missionaries to hear, and she said that she's going to read the whole book. She has quite the crazy story about her daughter though. Apparently one of her daughters was abducted and they had to pay $20,000 to get her back. I guess she had been gone for 2 months by the time they got her back. But Lorena has been going to Church, reading the Book of Mormon, and likes everything so far - hopefully she sticks with it and everything works out!

We have a baptism this weekend, which I'm super excited for! Wendy is getting baptized and is the mom in a part-member family. She has been really doing well, reading and praying. She is very shy and doesn't like to talk much, so we have to be careful when teaching her to not make her super uncomfortable or anything. But she's been doing a great job of reactivating her husband Helaman (awesome name!) She has been helping him pray and read and come to Church. It's really an amazing feeling to be part of a work like this. We've been able to work with this family and see them grow so much stronger and closer together as they become more involved with the Church and more converted to Jesus Christ.

There's been a lot of commotion in this area, and a lot of people are going through tough times. It definitely humbles people and tests their faith at times, but it can also bring them closer to God. When we realize that everything comes from the Lord, and that He really is always there for us, we'll be a lot more willing to do those simple things that we know we should do. Our ward mission leader is a really on-the-ball guy who wants to get a ton of missionary work done. We have quite a few branch missionaries now (mostly couples) and we're starting to take them out with us more to show them how to teach and to help them be missionaries. They're studying Preach My Gospel and we're starting to train them as missionaries on what to teach and how to teach by the Spirit. If all of this continues, there's going to be growth down here at a ridiculous rate. The Lord has prepared so many people and when we have more missionaries, we are able to find and teach more people! We have plans to do more splits and really increase the number of people and lessons that we teach.

Church was really sweet this week - we had a lot of investigators come, and even more new faces that I've never seen before. I sat by Hermana Amparo, with her son Edward, and it was just so incredibly amazing. He is the most spiritually mature kid I've ever met and is really just helping his mom out in so many ways. There's a bond that you develop with these people that's just really hard to describe. Like there's so much love and charity there - they know how much we care about them and they know how happy and excited we are when they are doing well and are happy. I've also seen their family grow a lot closer, even though the dad is a strict Catholic.

We also had a bunch of less-active families come to Church this week which was surprising. We've been visiting a lot of less-active families and helping them get back in the Church and feel that love and happiness that they felt before. We had a couple full families come, and we could see how much it helped them and how much the members really reached out to show them their love. We've even had some people just come up to us and ask us to be taught! This less-active named Freddy has been working on coming back to Church and asked us to come over and teach him and his non-member wife who has been investigating for a long time. We are so excited!!! It's not too often that these kind of people come up and ask for appointments. That was just super cool, and we've really seen the Lord's hand in the work down here.

We did have an interesting experience with a Jehovah Witness woman the other day. One of our really strong investigators (his name is David - he's just waiting for divorce papers to be finalized to be baptized) was with his girlfriend (a less-active woman named Martha) and her sister when we visited them. She was trying to have a bible study with them and show them the "right" way. When we came over she shut her Bible and just stopped, because she saw us. We talked to all of them for quite a while and then she was trying to convince us of her Church a little bit. We were determined not to Bible bash or anything, so we just talked a little about the Restoration and testified to her of the truth of it. She wasn't willing to hear any of it though, so that didn't really work out, but it was quite the visit. She would entirely avoid the questions we ask and would talk about some crazy random stuff. What was super cool about all of this is what David did. He was totally unfazed by everything she was saying and kept on referring to our Church as the right church or the true church. He kept on inviting her to Church and saying he would pick her up!!! That was so so sweet. He just really impressed me, and he's going to be an awesome member. Hopefully, he will be getting baptized the end of this month.

We also found that softball is a really good fellowship activity - we've had quite a few games the past couple weeks and lots of investigators and less-actives will show up at these games. I'm actually not bad at it either! I hit a home run the other day and scored a couple more! That was pretty exciting. We've also been trying to be a bit more active since we literally sit down almost all day - studying, teaching lessons, sitting in the car, etc. Our area is just too big to ride the bike much, and we don't really have a choice. There's too much to do!! I've also had tons of opportunities to sing now that people know I can sing. We sing at ALL of our lessons - sometimes multiple songs - and it's so sweet because it always brings the Spirit.

But yeah, that's basically what's going on right now! We have a lot of investigators progressing and getting close to baptism, and we have a lot of new ones to teach as well, so we'll see how that goes!!

Hasta la proxima vez!

(Until next time !)