The One With All the Fireworks 6/4/18

Hey everyone!

So this week we had what's called the apricot festival, a town fiesta in Patterson, and it was pretty slow... until the sun went down. The Police closed our street down and they started shooting off fireworks, and our neighbors had this massive, shake-the-block kind of party. Haha, we got a lot of fireworks and the next morning, their yard was pretty covered in Bud-Light cans.

We have been trying to keep everything balanced between the English and Spanish wards. It’s still pretty crazy but we are keeping things going right now. We had a lesson with one of the investigators that the other elders were teaching... he’s a really cool guy from the south. He’s older and really active and called my companion a "heavy brotha".. Not sure what that means but I think it’s a good thing!

We met with a prospective elder last night and had a really powerful lesson on the priesthood and the blessings that come from receiving it.

Hope you all have a great week!!

Love you all!

The One With the Peacock 5/28/18

Hey everyone!

This week we had a pretty hectic transfer going from Lodi (top of the mission) to Crows Landing (bottom of the mission). We didn't have a car but I somehow still ended up here and I honestly don’t even remember how that happened.

English work is pretty different, like basic things like prayers, certain meetings, and a lot of words I’m used to using in Spanish. But besides that I love it here. We have been meeting with some of the people the missionaries were teaching before they got transferred out. I am in a trio and all three of us are pretty new to this ward but we are getting used to it.

We have already seen some miracles in finding people to teach, and the members are awesome at giving referrals.

Also we saw a peacock on the street yesterday!

Love you all!! Happy memorial day!!

The One Where I Leave Lodi 5/21/18

Hey everyone!

So I don't have a lot of time this week. We got transfer calls last night, and I am going to a place called Crows Landing, clear at the bottom of the mission, and I am covering the two wards there. It should be a lot of fun. I've had a few companions that have been in that area before and I am really looking forward to meeting a lot of the people I have heard about. I'm gonna miss my companion a lot but we'll be in the same zone so that will be pretty fun.

Besides that, we knocked on a lot of doors this week. We branched out to the other ends of Lodi that we haven't knocked before and met some pretty cool people. We are planning a really cool activity for a coming weekend, and it should be a great time.

Sorry this letter is so short!

love you all!!

The One Where I Am Finally Considered Mexican 5/14/18

Hey everyone!

In an attempt to fit in with the culture this preparation day, my companion and I walked into a Mexican clothing store with the intention of "blending in with our surroundings". The lady at the front desk was super skeptical and asked if I was Mexican. No, I replied. And she followed up by asking why on earth I would want huaraches (which are like hand-woven, leather sandals that are generally worn in Mexico). I explained that I loved her culture so much and that I have seen so many people talk about them that I wanted to see what all the hype is about... She laughed! And when she got a hold of herself she told me where they are... I have tried for my ENTIRE mission, apparently in vain, to become Mexican but I know that once I rock the huaraches that there will be no doubt in anybody's mind that I am indeed Hispanic.

Besides that, this week was awesome. I got to call my mom on Mother's day, which was wonderful, and our investigator showed up to church on Sunday.

Sorry this is so short! Love you all!!

The One Where We Knock on Doors 5/7/18

Hey all!

This week was pretty sweet. We hadn't found any new investigators or any interested current investigators the past couple weeks so we went to work and tracted and worked on finding the entire week. We decided that we needed to improve on obedience and diligence so we worked as obediently and as diligently as we could. We saw almost zero success until Thursday when a sweet old lady named Maria allowed us to share a message with her, the lesson went great and we had a return appointment and she promised she would read the introduction by our appointment. We continued knocking doors in her complex, thrilled that we had finally found someone new to teach. Then a man walked out of the apartment we had just spoken to Maria in, rudely glared at our "Good morning, sir" and hopped in a pick up truck and peeled out. Maria opened the door and asked us to come over, and explained that her husband would not permit us to come by any more and that we had better just leave them alone. She tried to give the Book of Mormon back but I said she could hold on to it so my shoulder wouldn't hurt so bad in my bag.

Disappointed, discouraged, and a little frustrated, we decided to just ride our bikes around, when my companion felt the impression to turn right on a road we needed to turn left on to go home. We did so and when we passed by an empty park, I felt a clear impression to walk through the park and crossing into a neighborhood that was otherwise difficult to enter into. As we crossed the park and started riding in this neighborhood, we found a couple eating lunch on somebody's porch. We started to talk to them and they were super interested! They wanted to know where our church was and what time it started and what we taught. We had a great lesson that morning.

Love you all!! Happy Mother's Day on Sunday!!

The One With the Talk 4/30/18

Hey everyone!

So this week my companion and I have been working with some of the less active members in our Branch, and some of them even went to church on Sunday. We went to the first counselor's house for language study Thursday night and he assigned us to each give a twelve minute talk.... I was excited but my companion, who has only been learning spanish for a couple months looked petrified. He spent a lot of time the next two days after that preparing his talk and putting it word for word on flash cards. Sunday morning, he practiced it again as I told him that he would do great and that there was nothing to worry about.

As we were sitting on the stand, right after the branch president announced that he would be speaking, our mission president and his wife walked into the chapel and took a seat next to the other missionaries... My companion was blessed to have not noticed until about halfway through his talk. He did a great job and brought the Spirit very strongly.

We had a zone conference during the week about safety and technology, it was pretty sweet and I got to see some old companions and other missionaries I had worked with in the past.

Hope Y'all have a great week!!

The One With the Phone Call 4/23/18

Hey everyone!

So this week we had some amazing experiences. First, the brother we have been working with to go to the temple is going this Saturday and we are very excited for him.

We had a few other opportunities and visits with some investigators, but probably the most memorable was with Hermana Gauna, an older sister who really likes to speak her mind. As we were leaving her house, a lady pulled over in her car and asked to borrow my phone. I gave her the phone and she spent like thirty minutes trying to throw information at her daughter and we just had to chuckle because every few minutes she would say "I'm with the Mormons right now and they agree with me". After the phone call, she felt very obligated to tell us every detail about the phone call, while the sun was setting and our curfew drew more and more near. We politely explained that we had to leave multiple times. After the sixth time my companion pulled out his phone and said that we had to go and so we started to walk away and she started to follow us and kept talking! But then she finally said goodnight and we made it into our apartment on time.

I was really touched this week by a favorite quote from Elder Neil A. Maxwell in his talk "Murmur Not"

"...non-murmurers are permitted to see so much more. Ancient Israel was once compassed about with ‘a great host’ of hostile horses and chariots. Elisha counseled his anxious young servant, ‘Fear not: for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.’ The prophet then prayed that the Lord would “open” the young man’s eyes, ‘and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha! ‘

In a response to a recently asked question on how to be a more effective advocate and representative of the Lord, we learn that when we do not murmur but accept what the Lord gives us gratefully, and trust in the answers he gives us, we will be able to see so much more than what our physical eyes permit.

We live in a day and age where a prophetic voice is heard and is available to all that want to know the Lord's will. By humility and faith, we can know what and how He wants us to act, and by those same principles know that he hears our prayers.”

Love you all!!