Life and Miracles

So yeah this week was just amazing. Let me tell you! Lots happened and I don’t know where to start!

First if any of you were wondering, yes Ramona did get baptized and confirmed 2 weeks ago. And no she didn’t drink coffee. #blessed She shared her testimony and said she was so happy about her decision and so grateful she found the Lord’s church! Always so gratifying to hear a recent converts testimony. :)

Next! We had transfers and I’m with Elder Juarez! He’s from Tamaulipas. (That’s a state in the north east side of Mexico, right above Veracruz) He has almost a year in the mission and we are killing it! Elder Juarez has all of his non-member relatives here ... and they live in our area!!! Talk about opportunity! He hadn’t seen them in over a year so we went to them and everyone was in a crisis! His aunt was sick, his cousin was having problems with her husband, and they had been praying and praying for help from God. And then boom we show up!!! Now we are teaching them and they are going to church! It just makes me so happy to see how much God loves His children and really knows them. Plus He hears and answers our prayers. :D Overjoyed to be apart of it.

We are also teaching a guy named Ismael and his 9 year old son Paul. (Shout out to Elder Murphy) They are also going through some family issues and decided to look for help from God. They are progressing very well and have a date to be baptized the 18th of February! Yay! 

Every day this week we have been going with our investigator Lazaro and reading 2 chapters in the Book of Mormon with him. It has been a miracle to see the changes in his appearance. And I mean his appearance spiritually. He’s literally being lit up with light more and more! He’s been kind of an eternal investigator, meaning the missionaries have tried and tried to teach him but he never wants to get baptized. His whole family is baptized and his son in law is actually the stake president. While planning what chapter we should read with him my companion and I both had the impression to read Alma 32. (Which talks about faith and compares it to a seed that we have to nurture.) We read and it was the perfect chapter to read because Lazaro is a farmer, so the analogy made perfect sense to him! We committed him to be baptized this week and it looks like he will!! Miracles! Just love it!

In other trippy news I had my last zone conference on Saturday. I had to give my testimony at the end because I’m leaving and honestly it was really surreal. My mind still can’t comprehend what’s going on and I don’t think I will until I’m on the airplane home.

Any ways that’s all for now. I hope you all have a terrific week! I am so tired about hearing about Donald Trump down here. Seems like every where we go he comes up. (Even in church.) But hey I believe in God and trust in Him and know that it His will and His plan whatever happens or is happening. I love you guys. I love this gospel! God lives and loves us! Keep the commandments and I promise you and your families will all be blessed and protected! Love you all!!

2017: It's cold, pictures, and nerf war

Hey family and friends and future grandchildren and great grandchildren that may one day find these emails! 

It got cold this week out of nowhere! Like I’ve gone almost all my mission without putting on a jacket because I’m usually always in the heat but I finally got to experience a little bit this week. It probably wasn’t even that cold but I’m so used to humidity and sweating that I was freezing. And we don’t have hot water in out house, so you know mornings are just a blast!

We are teaching this hilarious old lady named Ramona who is just the sweetest thing you will ever meet. She has a date to get baptized this Saturday and we hope all will go through! She has a problem with the word of wisdom (coffee) that we have been helping her and verifying with her every day. I asked her once "sister have you been drinking any coffee lately?" and she says "oh ya i had some this morning" and I was like "SISTER WHY??" and she starts laughing and says " nah man of course not what are you thinking!" Hahahha such a jokester. I love her to death. :)

In my studies I’ve been reading a lot of cool talks. Moral discipline by D. Todd Christoffersen and Self Mastery by James E. Faust. Such a great read! They talk about doing the right thing even when its hard, having a vision, achieving goals, mastering christlike attributes and lots of cool stuff! I could share a lot of things about them but I’ll just share a quote from a poem called Invictus that they use that really touched me “I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul." In this new year of 2017 I bet everyone made goals and looked at the things they can be better in and I hope one of those goals is becoming more converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ. Our conversion and salvation is something so personal between us and our Savior and it requires that we become very self disciplined in keeping His commandments and covenants and striving to always have His spirit with us. That’s one of my many goals for this year. :)

I love you all! Have a great week! 

PS these are some pictures off my companions camera that are from Christmas, my birthday and meals that we eat. Also today we had a nerf battle. Pretty intense. And yes we stacked chairs up. ;)