love this church so much

Hey everyone!

So it was another great week! They go by so fast and it doesnt feel like too much has happened since last week. We have just been helping people progress. We have a ton of people we are teaching. Our day is literally all appointments which i guess is not normal. But not too many look promising. We are probably going to have to drop some people cuz we have no time to find and there are more prepared people that we need to get to. This is so hard for me cuz you really care and love all the people. It is one of the hardest things to learn to do out here so I guess it is good I am doing it early on my mission. I went on an exchange during the week with my DL and i was the senior comp cuz we went to my area so he had me do everything. Contacting, lessons, everything was primarily me. I was nervous but it went incredibly well. I was really surprised with myself and it was just such a confidence booster for me. I am not perfect and i am sure i am kinda hard to understand but as long as they can fel the spirit it is ok and my comp helps me out when i come up short so ya. It was great for me and I have contributed tons more since then. We are getting a couple married tomorrow so the wife can get baptized. That is going to be really fun. I had to make a million phone calls on saturday to figure it all out but we got it planned and ya. We will be baptizing her next week if all goes well so pray for us please. The other missionaries had a family of 3 this last weekend it was great. Their family is so cool and funny and they will be a great addition to the church. The happiness that they had after was insane. They were completely different people and they were just glowing. Seeing that never gets old. It is why we are here and it was so fun to be a part of.

This week I have had a lot of good and deep talks with recent converts and the other elders in our spot. It has been great and I just love this church so much. It is so clear how true and incredible our church is and it is just so frustrating that people dont get it. Idk i wish they could just understand. But we cant change people they need to change themselves. Seriously tho if your testimony is a little wavering use mine for a bit while you build yours up. Whether or not our church is true is not a question at all. It is! We have the power of the priesthood and it is directed by Christ himself. I love this gospel and our savior more than anything and I am so proud to be able to represent him out here. Wearing a stupid little helmet and riding my bike all day in this heat doesnt phase me at all. I would do anything for our savior and I just love being out here. Sharing the gospel and helping someone find this truth in their lives is so rewarding and is a good way to build your testimony. I would like everyone to get more involved in missionary work because it is such a blessing and it is so important. Once i get back i am going to be so involved in this work since i have seen these things. You can do that too. Pray about and ask for someone to share the gospel with. The spirit will put someone into your mind and them you need to act. Just have confidence and invite them over for dinner with the missionaries. Then let them do their thing and ad your testimony and experiences where you feel prompted to. I love helping members do this and see how motivated it gets them. All it takes is one then they will get really involved. So i invite you to do that as well. You will see such great blessings in your life. And have the missionaries over for dinner a few times. They will uplift and bless your home.

Thank you so much everyone for the mail and all. It is such a great feeling so really thank you so much. I will get back as soon as i can. I love you all so much and thanks for supporting me while I am here and your prayers. Love you all!!!

first blessing

Hey peoples 

                   Sorry no pictures today and i forgot my journal so I wont really know what to type. O well i will do my best. So it was another good week. It flew by I feel like i just emailed everyone ha. But lets see what happened. I have a terrible memory good thing I keep a journal. There was a 3 day training this week so we had to stay at a members house for those 3 days. It was actually pretty fun the kid we stayed with is awesome. We got some cool ties which is always the best ha. We had kinda a rough start to the week but we got a lot of new investigators this week but only two look really solid. One was kinda a miracle how we found her and she is really prepared so thats good. We found an Agnostic lady. She is really cool and speaks english but she is a psychology major so she just has that analytic brain. It will go either really great or bad so I hope she accepts the truth when she feels it. She doesn't know if there is a god or anything so ya. "So this Sunday I got to give the HG to this lady Kimberly. She is the one we baptized last week. Not only was this my first time doing that but also my first blessing so I was pretty nervous and didnt know what to expect. She speaks english so I gave her the Hg in spanish and did the blessing in english ha. But it went really good and she is just loving the church. She is so converted and stoked. We bring her to like every appointment and she just kills it every time. She is a very solid convert." Elder Latu's bike has been messed up so we have been walking a lot. It is pretty rough in the heat ha but we got it figured out so we will be ok. Honestly I dont know what happened this week haha so I will include stuff next week about this week too. Sorry my memory is just terrible. But I love you all and I hope everything goes good for you this week. Letters are always appreciated :) I will continue to keep you in my prayers. Love ya!

three steps to get a testimony

Whats up!

Everything has been great here still. We have been having a lot of success it is really fun. This mission is really special and important. There is a ton of work to do. We get to play basketball with our whole zone every p day which is insanely fun. There are a few really good kids so we go hard ha. We have an amazing tie bodega here and get a huge bag of ties every p day and dig for nice ones. I cannot tell you how many ties i have. Atleast 50 and a few are like 60 to 100 dollars. I am addicted to them it is really fun but ya. If anyone wants a cool tie just let me know ha. We had something crazy happen and the cops got involved and some people will be going to prision. I am not allowed to talk about it but when i get home i can tell you guys. It was insane ha. We got another baptism her name is Kimberly. She speaks english so we are really tight cuz i can actually have deep talks with her ha. The baptism picture is the only one i took this week sorry. There is another short  and old lady in the picture but that isnt her thats the other missionaries baptism. We found a few really prepared people this week so hopefully they will turn into converts. If they put in the work I know they will turn into amazing members. The members here are really lazy it bugs me. Home teaching doesn't exisit and churh is not a priority at all. We have to do everything including stuff at church. Like we gave the talks this sunday and taught a class and we do everything for the baptisms and idk it is a lot. And we have gotten a ton of work with less active families and stuff from the ward. It is annoying because it takes all our time and that is not what we came to do but we just do what we are told and try to meet people on the way. We only have 3 members in our area and a couple of them hook us up with food a couple times a week so that is nice. I love them so much they are awesome. And one families daughter is a manager at little ceasars so we eat a ton of pizza lol. Our church building is always pretty dirty so we had a specialist come in ha. He actually taught us a lot of really good stuff and on sunday the building looked incredible. Ya idk that is about it. Everything else was just working like we do everyday. I say it casually but it is the best. The heat is awful but i love the people here. They make the mission and i wouldnt want to be anywhere else.

I got my first polygamy doubt thrown at me ha. It was tough but them the spirit hopped in and we killed it. It is so important for people to have a testimony of JS because it all ties back to him. Luckily she did :) I cannot express to you how important that is to have a testimony of that man. He is an absolute stud and I am so grateful for him. I remember when I got my testimony of him it was one of those special non forgettable moments. But this week it has grown so much more. Please get a testimony of him if you dont. If you do please strengthen it. There are three steps to get a testimony of anything. First, study the thing or person you want. In this case read JS-History, D&C, watch the JS movie, go to the JS building or all of the above. Second, Pray and ask our Father in heaven to give you that testimony throught the HG or to strengthen the testimony that you have. Fasting also helps a ton with this get a testimony of fasting too ha. That is something i have gotten on my mission as well. But third is to live the things. Live his teachings and apply what you learn for him in your lives. One thing I learned and loved was his attitude. I read it in a book but he said that when God commanded him to do something he stopped questioning why and just did it. What an amazing attitude! But I love you all and cant wait to hear from you. Hasta Luego

first area | las milpas hildalgo

Hey everyone!

                   So far the field has been amazing! O i will start at the airport. Sorry I was not able to call everyone. After a couple calls it didn't let me anymore. I think they flagged my card but I fixed it once I got to McAllen. Anyway I am super sorry I was not able to talk to everyone. Believe me I was pretty upset about it. I got 8 dollars in quarters cuz thats all I had and it wouldnt let me call long distance for some reason. I used all 8 dollars trying to and ya so I didnt forget about anyone I just got shut down. Anyway when I first got to mcallen it was insane how hot it was. Like i expected it to be hot of course but i was shocked at how hot it could actually get. It was a wall of wet heat and it punched me in the face lol. But we went over the rules, ate at presidents, put our bikes together and all that the first day. The second dat we ate at presidents then found out where we are going. I am now serving in the Las Milpas area by Hildalgo. Then we went and got our comps. I got a thick tongan named elder Latu. He is the coolest and we get along great which i was really excited about. Then we went to our area and started working. We first went to a lady named Kimberly and they met her the friday before so she was really new still. She is super prepared tho and we are actually baptizing her this next sunday! I am so stoked. We are really close cuz she speaks english too so i can actually talk to her ha. That night I got a flat tire on the way to our last appointment. Of course first day i get one. It is going to be a long two years ha. The next morning we got up and played ball. After like 5 minutes i sprained my ankle lol. It was not the worst sprain i have ever had but it is rough walking and riding on it everyday. It is just starting to heal up a little. My foot looked like a foot of a 300 pound guy ha. Idk i dont have much time so ill hurry and do some highlights.

Thursday was amazing! We went to the library and watched mormon messages which are so cool. we met with a few investigators after and one spoke english so i was able to comtribute a lot and we got a BD with her. That night we met with a referral at a members house. The lesson was in spanish so i wasnt able to help out too much but it went incredibly. Towards the end we asked her to pray and during the prayer she started crying. The spirit was there so strong and she knew it was true. After the prayer we went for a BD and my comp was inspired to do it for that weekend! So he layed it down and she accepted!
Gosh it was such an amazing miracle and we were insanely happy after that.

Friday was really fun. We had weekly planning which is not too fun but it is really helpful! While contacting we met some people who were drunk and on drugs. It was interesting i guess you could say. We taught kinberly again which went well and her aunt was there so we are now teaching her seperately too. That night we taught that miracle lady her name is Maria and it went really well. That night we had to finish weekly planning and we read a poem called "he's been there before" by troy whittle. Please please please read it for family home evening or something. We had an incredibly spiritual experience after reading that and i want you too as well. It is a very powerful poem so try to invite the spirit and you will have a great experience too.

Saturday was zone meeting which is really fun. i got to see a girl who i was in my district in the mtc so that was fun. our zone is awesome tho and i am tight with everyone there. also a kid from star valley is there. He played ball so we had seen eachother so that was pretty cool. but that took forever but was really good. When we got back we did splits and i went out to a different zone. So me and my comp have been on fire. We have lots of investigators with BD's and have set appointments all day and have just had a ton of success. They call it Green Fire ha. But this other group hasnt so we had to ride around all day and get referrals and contact people. It was definitely the non glamorous side of missionary work and it was rough. So hopefully i keep this green fire all my mission ha. Sunday was fun but stressful cuz the baptism. i loved all the people tho and there were some great testimonies. After church we had the baptism. O did i mention that i got to do it? ha how awesome is that! The zone leaders said that is a record. Find someone and baptize them in under a week in being in the field. It was an incredible experience. It went perfect (thats to some help from the spirit) and when i brought her up she dropped to her knees and we literally sat there for 15 minutes. They shut the doors and she just sat in there crying and praying. I cannot begin to tell you how spiritual it was and i am so happy i got to be a part of it. The people here are so cool and they are all so down to talk about the gospel i love it. It is going to be a great two years.

Anyway i am out of time but have a great week everyone! Please read that poem. Love you all

   ^ Sprained Ankle

   ^ Baptism!!