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!