Mon 5/19/2014 8:55 AM

Since this last week was so incredibly awesome, on so many levels, it will be hard for me to be able to express everything in a way that you can experience it, but I will do my best.

 

To start things off, we had some pretty amazing lessons with Rosario about the power of the Atonement and forgiveness.  We were able to help her start an action plan and we gave her some homework, an awesome talk by Jeffrey R. Holland called "Remember Lot's Wife."  We had a sweet Family Home Evening with her and Orlando (her bf) and we invited him to start taking the lessons to see and experience what Rosario has been learning.

 

The same day as the FHE, we did service at Alfredo's house who also had his non-member sister there visiting.  We had an amazing BBQ afterwards for lunch and then went over to Rosario's again later and BBQ'ed Otra Vez.

 

Sonia, Chris's mom, wants us to start teaching her the lessons as she has loved coming to church the past couple weeks, but by far, my favorite part of this whole week has got to be yesterday.  We got permission from President Packard to go down to New London, CT because Ramona Donstorg and Brandon were getting baptized! To add to that wonderful news, President Packard told us along these lines, "Hey, Jeffrey R. Holland will be down there for stake conference at 10.  You Elders are more than welcome to go to that if you'd like, you deserve it," so along with seeing a family I had come to love and care about so deeply, that the Lord put in our path to find, we got permission to go see an Apostle of the Lord speak in person!  It was amazing!  That whole Stake Conference was just jam packed with inspired words.  It was cool because the people who had things prepped, got up and changed them because the Spirit was directing them to say something else.  Let's just say I got what I needed to hear and it is amazing to me how our Heavenly Father knows each and every one of us perfectly and what we need in every moment.  Jeffrey R. Holland had a lot of jokes up his sleeve as well, which was cool to hear his sense of humor.  He invited us all, especially those 12-22 years of age, to tithe 10 years out of our lives to the Lord.  He then said that if we but did that, everything else in our lives would fall into place. The best part of it all was the Blessing that he left on all of us.  I don't feel comfortable sharing it with all of you, but right as he was saying it, he said this blessing was as if he himself was putting his hands on our heads for the blessing.  The spirit that man brings with him is just astounding.  After, Ramona and Brandon got to shake his hand, and Brandon told him how he was getting baptized.  It was cool to hear how excited Jeffrey R. Holland was.  Then after the line finished up and we were able to get Mike (our ride) up there to meet him, we too got to shake his hand.  It was pretty dang cool! After being filled and uplifted by the Spirit after an amazing Stake Conference we headed over to the church and had the baptism.  It was such a beautiful experience and one that I am grateful for, for being able to see all these wonderful people again that I had come so close to.  To see Ramona and Brandon dressed in white and to be able to baptize them having been commissioned of Jesus Christ was a remarkable experience.  The joy and peace that I felt was amazing.  Then the part that really got to me was when Ramona was bearing her testimony.  It is amazing to see how far she has come and the light that has entered her life as result of coming to know the truth for herself that this is Christ's church restored on the earth today with the fullness of His gospel.  The part that really hit home to me was when she started to talk about how it was my character, the way I carried myself, taught and bore a sincere testimony, that kept her interested and helped her feel something.  I still do not quite understand what she saw, because I find it hard to see, but I am grateful that even with my own imperfections she was able to see the love I have for this gospel and I think that is something that everyone can see when they look at everyone of us. We have that special light that can only be obtained through knowing the truth and having the Holy Ghost as our special companion always.  Truly, as the Lord said, we are a peculiar people.

 

I am so grateful for this wonderful knowledge I have come to know and am grateful that I have been able to help bring a few to come to know these things for themselves, whether for the first time or bringing them back to a remembrance of what they had come to know before. The joy that I feel as a result is a joy that I cannot come close to explain, truly what the scriptures say in Doctrina y Convenios es verdad.

 15 And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!

 16 And now, if your joy will be great with one soul that you have brought unto me into the kingdom of my Father, how great will be your joy if you should bring many souls unto me!

I know that what these scriptures say are true.  If we want to truly be happy, to truly have this great joy in our lives, this is the most fulfilling and best way that we can accomplish it.  To "forget ourselves and go to work."

 

I invite all those who are reading this to come to know what I have come to know of this great joy that can be felt through the gospel. For those who are members and have come to know how wonderful this gospel is, I invite you to think about one of your friends, family members, really just anyone that you can have a missionary experience with.  For those who are reading and are not members, I invite you to come take the missionary lessons and learn of and experience this great joy of the true and full gospel for yourselves.

I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and Redeemer, that he lives and that The church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is his church restored on the earth today.  That this church has the Priesthood of God, that the power and authority given to man to act in the name of God for the salvation and benefit of his children is on the earth once again today.  I know these things of myself and I am so grateful for them and a loving Father in Heaven who has blessed me to come to know them.  I leave these things with you in the sacred name of Jesus Christ, amen.

Mon 5/12/2014 8:39 AM

A lot has been happening lately.  It seems like it is getting harder and harder to differentiate the days, let alone the whole week :-), but last weekend we had a baptism!  It was for this awesome lady named Veronica who is in her 20's.  It is very rare to find someone so ready for the gospel.  A little background on her.  Our Sisters got a phone call from a member in Texas who gave them Veronica's number after he had been working with her.  The sisters starting meeting with her and she set her own baptismal date for the following week.  Now, normally we don't just go ahead and baptize someone, but she had all the lessons and was ready.  I had the opportunity to interview her and ask her all of the baptismal questions and it was a very special experience.  I remember the sweet Spirit that came as I sat down with her and she answered these questions correctly and knew everything she needed.  The baptism was very beautiful, especially the part as she came up out of the water.  I do not think that will ever get old to me, it sure is something to see these people's countenances change as they become new people.  She had a friend come with her, whose heart was a little hard in the beginning, but ended up crying because of the Spirit that was there.

We had an awesome Mother's day breakfast.  All of the men, and us missionaries got to the church early and made breakfast and served all the mothers.  The Spanish culture sure knows how to party, that is for sure!  It was a blast.  They had a lot of the mothers come up and had them do karaoke and dance.  It was pretty funny.  Sonia, a recent convert, and her non-member mother came and then also came to church as well, and loved it.  I am starting to feel that it might be about time to start meeting with her and see if she is interested in learning more about the church, so that will be pretty awesome.

We had transfers come up, and so now Elder Hunter and Wenner got transferred.  Wenner is in Framingham and Hunter is now in my old area in New London!

With that said, Ramona (investigator that I found in New London) is getting baptized this coming Sunday!  President Packard gave Elder Meservy and I permission to go down to attend and also to stay for Stake Conference because Jeffrey R. Holland will be speaking!  It wil be awesome!

My new companion is Elder Cathcart and is from Glendale AZ.  He is awesome!  He has only been out for 4 months, but his Spanish is so good already.  This last week we also got in contact with the Lapop family again, finally!  Oh how I love them! They were a less active/inactive family that Elder Somppi and I were able to start meeting with when I was here in this area last and we were having good success with them, but after I left, the missionaries lost contact with them.  This week we are planning on a Family Home Evening with them and Rosario at Rosario's house!  It will be awesome!  We met with Rosario and found out more about what is holding her back and committed her to talk to her boyfriend about her desire to be baptized and everything.  She said she would, which is huge! 

Skyping home yesterday was pretty awesome as well.  I am so grateful for my family and my mothers.

There is a lot of good stuff going on lately, but Elder Cathcart and I need to make sure that we get organized.  It is something I have been trying to get done for awhile, but now we actually can.

I know that this is the Lord's work, that he is in charge and that all things are possible if we but turn to him and rely on him.  I say these things in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

4/28/2014 9:56 AM

This last week has been pretty eventful.  On Tuesday we had the opportunity to go to where the Book of Mormon play was showing in Boston and stand outside and contact everyone.  It was such a blast!  There was one man who I went and talked to that had already seen the play before and hated it because it mocks not only us as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, but all religions.  He only came back to see it because his girlfriend, who hadn't seen it, really wanted to.  It was a pretty amazing experience that I was able to have to get to know him, his beliefs and then share with him the story of the Restoration and bear my testimony to him as I taught him.  There was a point where he started to get pretty teary eyed as I bore my testimony on how this has changed my life.  The Spirit that was there was so strong.  Then his girlfriend came and I started to share it with her as well.  There were so many other great conversations like this one where we were able to plant seeds and help others understand a little bit more what we actually believe.  One of my favorite parts of this night was that this elderly couple drove up and and asked for help with getting the elderly man out of the car and into his wheelchair.  I jumped on the opportunity.  His name is Al and hers is Mary.  After I got him in the wheelchair I offered to push him to their seat in the theater.  It sure was something else to see other people's reactions as they saw a real missionary pushing a man to his seat in the theater that was making fun of us.  As I was doing this I just felt this great love for Al and Mary as well as everyone else I saw. Mary and Al sure were something else, and meeting them and serving them was the highlight for me of this night.  As I left, a lot of the workers were very friendly to me thanking me for being willing to help them out.  It is cool to think about how many seeds we were able to plant this night with everyone we came in contact with. 

 

Another great thing that happened was that we were able to attend a city clean up service project with the church.  It was cold, rainy, but a blast and the mayor drove around and met with us and we got a picture with him.  Then after the service there was a huge BBQ at the City Hall in Revere.  This was another great opportunity for us to talk to people.  As I was in line I started to talk to a guy named Mike who is in his 30's and just opened up his own lawyer office. He is a very friendly guy and had a lot of really good questions for me and so it was my pleasure to answer them for him.

 

Some other really good news is that we picked up 3 new investigators this week.  One of their names is Carlos who was actually a former that we contacted again and answered a lot of his questions and taught the Restoration.  We have an appointment with him again this week and he is making us Pupusas, one of the most delicious foods from El Salvador.  The other two are Nidia and Casandra.  Nidia is one of the ladies that walked into church a few Sundays ago and we gave a blessing to and Casandra is her daughter.  It was just a "get to know you visit," where we were able to answer questions and teach part of the Restoration.  The other lady, whose name is Dunia, that we gave a blessing to, wants to come and learn as well.  So this next week we will be able to teach all three and hopefully pick one new investigator up.

 

On Saturday after the service project we met with Rosario and had a Family Home Evening with them.  Her boyfriend was not able to make it unfortunately, but that is ok because we have another one planned for this Saturday as well.

 

This past week has been an amazing week in which I have had some very wonderful spiritual experiences where they Holy Ghost has helped increase my understanding of a lot of things.  I am so grateful for the great gift of being able to have the Holy Ghost with us always.  I know that God lives, that he loves us and is aware of us and if we but seek him we can come to know Him and how great this knowledge is!  I leave these things with you in the name of Jesus Christ, amen.