Wed 8/28/2013 9:44 AM

Where to begin... This last week has been a fantastic week!  A very bitter, but very sweet week as well.  I have been called to go serve over in Revere, Massachusetts now and will be leaving tomorrow morning (Sept. 29, 2013) bright and early.  Elder Treseder from my MTC district is coming down here to replace me and so I am excited for that.  I love him so much, and hope he will love this wonderful area here in Bridgeport.  My new companion will be Elder Sompi, who was Elder Jones' companion before me.  I have already met him before when we went to Boston for P-Day for Elder Hawks' last P-Day.  He is a great Elder and I am looking forward to serving with him.

This last week was jammed with so much work.  For this month our Zone Leaders gave a challenge to the zone that whoever had the most members present at investigator lessons would get a nice dinner from them.  So after a lot of wonderfully hard days we WON!  It has been such a great blessing to see the power and extra Spirit that comes from having a member present at every lesson. The work picked up even more, the members get more excited to share, and we as missionaries were blessed to see others, both members and non-members alike come closer to Christ.  We ended up telling them that we didn't want a huge dinner but rather 50 cent ice cream cones from McDonalds. =D.

The past few days in particular have been weird since it is my first time during a transfer where I am leaving.  I was able to meet with all the people we were working with.  Sunday was all the investigators (most of them) and so many doors opened as a result. We stopped by Kaylas with Gabe (her bf) (she, by the way, was losing interest since we answered all of her questions), but I was able to just share with her my love and the real reason behind why we and Gabe are there.  The Spirit that came was so sweet and a great blessing.  We were able to meet with her dad and mom and found little opportunities where the door with them could open more and more.

 

Just visit after visit was such a tender blessing from the Lord.  I have come to love all these people so much and it is really hard to leave them, but I know that the Lord wants me to go to Revere now.

 

One of the sweetest things to me has been how the Lord can expand our hearts.  I loved being able to meet with these wonderful people one last time to express my gratitude and love for them and one of the most sweetest and most tender parts was when I was able to bare my testimony to them and express that love and then after leave them with a blessing.  Whether it was through prayer or offering a blessing with my hands on their heads, they were truly tender moments for me.

Every day of my mission my eyes open more and more for all that the Lord has done for me.  I am awakened more and more each and every day that truly I am nothing without him.  Everything that I have been, I am and will become is solely through his great love and mercy towards me.  He loves me so much that he has blessed me with the ability to choose for myself, but even more than that he grants me life each and every day and his Spirit to be able to go out and help his other sons and daughters come to a knowledge that He truly is there and does love them.  There is no greater blessing to me than this.  To see peoples lives change and to be able to be a part of that, to be able to be an instrument in the Lord's hands.

I can now understand greater the joy and gratitude that Ammon expressed in the book of Alma 26:11-12

11 But Ammon said unto him: I do not ^aboast in my own strength, nor in my own wisdom; but behold, my ^bjoy is full, yea, my heart is brim with ^cjoy, and I will rejoice in my God.

12 Yea, I know that I am ^anothing; as to my strength I am weak; therefore I will ^bnot boast of myself, but I will ^cboast of my God, for in his ^dstrength I can do all ^ethings; yea, behold, many mighty miracles we have wrought in this land, for which we will praise his name forever.

I know with all my heart and soul that this church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is Christ's church fully restored on the earth today.

I know that we have a prophet on the earth today as we did in the days of Moses and Abraham and that his name is Thomas S. Monson.

I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the World and that He loves each and every one of us more than we can ever come close to comprehend.  I know that He lives and oh what joy, what peace and what strength that knowledge brings. These things are ever more solidified in my heart, soul and mind more and more every day for I have felt his presence so many times in my life, felt his love, felt his guidance and have seen so many beautiful miracles in my life and in the lives of others.

I know that God truly is a God of grace, love, peace, power and miracles.  I have seen his hand more and more abundantly in my life and know that truly "I am nothing" and so I shall not boast of myself but rather "I will boast of my God, for in his strength I can do all things."  And So I will praise his name forever!

All you reading this I bare my solemn testimony that I know that these things are true and I invite you all to come to know your Savior and Redeemer, who is Jesus Christ, better than you do now and not to just know of him.   He truly is there waiting for you to turn to him and I promise you that He will prove all his words to you as he has done for me.

I leave this things with you, in the sacred and wonderful name, of Jesus Christ, amen.

3 And my brother, Jacob, also has ^aseen him as I have seen him; wherefore, I will send their words forth unto my children to prove unto them that my words are true. Wherefore, by the words of ^bthree, God hath said, I will establish my word.  Nevertheless, God sendeth more ^cwitnesses, and he proveth all his words.

Mon 8/19/2013 2:53 PM

This past week has been amazing.  There has been a lot of new work coming our way and ideas on how to do it better and huge events going on as well.

 

For instance, on Sat. we had the Temple ground breaking for the Hartford, CT Temple and Pres. Monson came down for it.  We had a new investigator go with us to the broadcast for the event.  Her name is Victoria and it is a long story how we came in contact with her again, but it most certainly was not a coincidence.  All of the different circumstances that happened in order for us to literally be in the right place at the right time, and then for her to tell us that she was just thinking about us and praying that we would show up. When she said this I felt the Spirit hit me and confirm the words she just said.  She has a lot of faith and knows the scriptures like the back of her hand.  She is a missionary for all sorts of different churches, and we can tell that it will be a little difficult to teach her, but it will be well worth it.

 

Last night we had a missionary musical fireside where missionaries performed musical numbers, bore testimonies and read scriptures.  I was asked to recite scriptures to introduce the topics, so I shared D&C 19:16-19 on the Atonement and James 1:5 on Revelation.

All the performances were beautiful, especially the ones with our Mission President and his family.  He sang one song with his 16 yr. old daughter and one with his 13 yr. old son.  Each was so beautiful and I felt the love that they had for each other and the Spirit just overwhelmed me and that is how it was during the whole event.  His family is very musically inclined.  Elder Lefthand was able to record it, so hopefully I can get it from him.

 

We met with Silvia on Thurs. and taught the restoration lesson with a young man whose papers just went in for his mission.  It was an awesome lesson.  She is what we as missionaries call a "Golden Investigator" and truly is one of the children of God He has been preparing to receive the gospel, so it is sad she moved to New Jersey on Sat., but we went ahead and set her up with the missionaries in her area.

 

We have a new Elder in our district name Elder Nordin, who is with Elder Nielson currently (the Elders that live with us).  He is a great Elder and has been out a little over a year now.  We all bonded really easy and have the same goals, so it is awesome to see the change in the apartment and really in just everything.  We are a lot more unified.

 

Everyone has been telling me how my Spanish has improved so much and I am really grateful for that because I am a lot more comfortable at speaking it because I can understand more now.

 

We had a wedding the other day for a lady who has wanted to be baptized for 5 years and couldn't because she wasn't married and didn't have her paper work.  She has a baptismal date on the 31st of this month.  Now her husband will be able to receive the priesthood as a result, after waiting the allotted time.

 

I have been doing a study, since our District meeting, on focusing on Missionary work and the blessings and promises that we will receive if we just do it.  This is not only for full-time missionaries, but for EVERYONE (members and non members alike) and for those who have been baptized and are members of the church it is just to keep their baptismal covenant(promise) to God to stand as a witness of him in all places and at all times.  The blessings that we receive can help with ANYTHING in our lives.  Whether it be financially, family wise - like helping our families become more unified and strengthened from everything going on out in the world.  We are promised to be forgiven of sins to become more clean, more in tune with the Spirit and so many more things than I can even come close to list at this time.  So, in short, for all of you reading this and especially those who are struggling with something in your lives, whatever it may be, just be a missionary!  Find opportunities to serve others, (opening a door, sayiing hi and asking someone how they are doing, etc.) invite others to come to church with you, to activities or to dinner and invite the missionaries over. Share the gospel of Jesus Christ with people and invite them to learn more about it.  If you are worried that it will ruin your friendship, it wont.  Just let them know how much you love them and why you would like to invite them, and that if they don't want to accept, that is fine, and will not ruin the friendship.  I wish I had more time to share with you all the importance of doing these things and the great promises awaiting.  I share this with you because no matter what it is you are going through at this time in your life, no matter where you are spiritually, whether you are very strong in the gospel or just starting out, these things will bless your lives in more ways than you think possible.

 

I leave you with this invitation to put these things to the test and to prove God himself for he will deliver. "prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." Malachi 3:10

These things have been a great blessing in my life and have helped not only my life but my family's as a result.  I know that these things are true and are out there awaiting those who will just put them to the test.

 

I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World, and that He loves us more than we can ever come close to comprehend.  I know that He wants us to turn to him that he may heal us and help us to become like him.  I know that he took upon himself the sins, sicknesses, infirmities, and injustices of this life upon himself so that he could do this.  I know that He lives and because He lives there is always hope and He will help us.  I say these things in his sacred name, even the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

 

Mon 8/12/2013 9:03 AM

We have had a lot of work going on.  We have six investigators right now and around 12-14 really good referrals/potentials and all of which are growing.  The work has been picking up a lot and hardly any time to do anything between all the less actives, and member work.

 

We went to the temple on Sat. to help out our Branch since we need priesthood holders.   It was a wonderful experience.  Milena was going to go, but couldn't last second.  

 

Yesterday at church we had 95 people in the Branch, so our numbers are finally back and we had a member bring a non member family member who wanted to learn more.  Her name is Silbia and was a news anchor in Puerto Rico.  She is very friendly and not afraid to speak up or do things we ask her to do, so that is awesome.  It was actually a cool experience how it worked out.  I was praying hard that the Lord would put someone in our path that He has been preparing, for truly the field is white all ready to harvest.  And next thing you know she is there.  I feel that it was indeed an answer to my prayer, so I am excited to teach her more.

 

The temple ground breaking is this Saturday for the Hartford, CT Temple, so I am exited for that.  I can not wait!

 

Also on Sunday there was a farewell for a Raquel who is leaving on her mission and reports to the MTC on Wed.  There was a lot of good food and people there.  A member brought her husband who is not a member who we just started working with.  So it was a great experience.

 

We had Zone Conference last week as well which was amazing. We had the whole Mission Presidency speak.  Pres. Clayton Christensen and Pres. Hate.  It was amazing!  We got to see what our digital missionaries are working on and it is awesome.  It will be a great tool in getting the whole digital way of doing missionary work going.  It is a great blessing to be here when there is so much going on. 

 

I am out of time, but I just want to bear my testimony that I know this church is true and that this is the Lord's work.  I know that because I can feel His Spirit daily in blessing the lives of others as we teach them about the gospel.  I know that the Lord has a plan for all of His children and it truly is a plan of happiness where we can be sealed to our families for all time and eternity in holy temples through Priesthood authority from God.  Meaning, we can live with our families (the people we love most) forever!  I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer.  I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Mon 8/5/2013 11:07 AM

There is so much to write about and not enough time, since we are all leaving soon to go bowling today and I was the last to get on a computer.  I will try to hurry and get everything in.

This past week has been really focusing on having members presents at our lessons with investigators.  This has been turning out really, really well.  Especially because a lot of the people we are teaching are referrals from members.  We have done a lot of praying for each individual and have received a lot of answers on things we need to do, so I am excited to be able to do those things. 

 

I have learned a few more songs on the guitar, and just working hard.

 

On Sunday we had a wonderful fast Sunday and there was a descent turn out at church since it has been slow lately, but it is finally starting to pick up.  It was at 88, and when people get back from vacations it should be back to around 100ish.  During sacrament as I was looking around a lot of people came to mind that I needed to talk to and start working with.  A lot being part member families.  So, we set up our planner with a ton of stuff to do this next week.  We are now going to be booked.

 

After sacrament we went with Gabe Maldonado (a youth whose girlfriend we are teaching) and a return missionary and helped a member move.  It was a great experience.  We didn't have time to change so we did it in our church clothes and stopped and talked to a guy who was curious about us.  He was interested in going to church and everything!  It was cool.  We got done around 4:30 and had to hurry and head up to the chapel in Trumbull to practice for the interfaith musical that night.  I was so nervous, but it turned out really good!  There were so many very talented people there!  It was amazing to see all of these people come together from different faiths but united in Christ.  It was amazing!  The Spirit and love that was felt in the chapel was overwhelming.  One of my favorite parts was hearing the primary kids sing.  It was beautiful.  They are getting CDs, so I will get one and send it out.  There may be video as well, but I am not sure.  It was awesome and the people who were putting it all together had a lot of opposition as they were trying to get it all done.  After much fasting they succeeded and it was truly beautiful.  We had Kayla's parents there sitting in front of us and the Spirit was just pressing on my mind to talk to them a lot that night.  After the performances there was a lot of dessert and goodies, and I talked to them quite a bit, they are very nice people. I hope we will be able to get that family to become interested and put these things to the test so they can come to have a greater peace and joy in their lives.

 

I have to go right now, but I want you all to know that I know that the Church is true, I know Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world and as we all seek him he will come to us.

 

I know that the song of the righteous is truly a prayer unto the Lord and that we receive blessings as a result!  I love this gospel and being a missionary.  There truly is nothing better than serving other people.  I leave these things with you all in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.