12-15-14

I got to talk in sacrament this week! I talked about the Book of Mormon and Pride though. I based if off of a few scriptures, mainly Mormon 8: 34-41, Mosiah 3:19 4:10-11, and Moroni 9:37. i talked about how the purpose of the Book of Mormon is to help us in our times. The Nephites and Lamanites never had it, Mormon put it together for us. He tailor-made it according to the needs of our day and our trials and temptations. The scriptures in Mormon 8 explain so clearly our days! :D So we should always have that in mind as we read the Book of Mormon; it´s for us! It´s like what Elder Uchtdorf talked about in one of his talks from this last conference, ¨Lord, is it I?¨ Many times we disclude ourselves when we say, the Book of Mormon is for us, or Jesús suffered for our sins. When truly those words should have deep personal meaning for us. The Lord loves the world, and yet focuses on the one. Something incredible that I wish to emulate in my life. I wish to be able to find the needs of one person in need and then help them, whether spiritually or temporally, even it is as small of a deed as a kind Word or a smile. Those things do make a difference. :) Taking the time to help someone new at church feel comfortable can be all the difference in coming back.

 

Something interesting about my week: sometimes people here when they see us walking down the street will make the cross sign at us, so that means that they are wanting to ward off demons... I saw that like 8 times yesterday. So that´s fun. We taught 29 lessons this week, one short of our goal. And actually, yes! I used all your decorations and the house is christmassy :D haha I love it. 

 

I do get the American dollars, and all my companions have received them, but now they just sit in a pile :D Maybe I should give them to Ward members :D And some places do accept our money, but I can always go to the bank and switch out the money. some ATMs give the option of taking out american dollars. That sounds really cool! about the sd cards :D I would love it!

 

 

 

 

12-8-14

Woo so big changes this week! but first, here is a lesson I learned that I wrote to president just now,

 

We learned a wonderful lesson on obedience though, the landlord of the house last night invited us to a dinner in her house to celebrate the day that the missionaries entered into her house and we went downstairs and saw a beautiful set of dishes and plates ready for us, and we sat down. And then we realized it was just the hermana mamá and us, and we weren´t comfortable with it (me and Elder Evans at least). So we politely asked her if she could bring her husband, and she replied that he was sleeping. So we explained our rule about not being alone with people of the opposite gender and she said, ¨well take your plates upstairs then! You want to be obedient to ¨El Papá¨, pointing up, and we always receive blessings doing that! But for all 20 years those missionaries have been here and they´ve always sat here and ate with me!¨ So we took the plates upstairs and ate happily as we were obedient. I took the time to explain to the other elders that we had done the right thing, even though every one of us was tempted to stay in fear of offending la hermana. But as we learned, it is always better to do what we know is right, and the Lord will take care of us. La hermana wasn´t offended at all, she agreed with us! :D I hope the other elders remember that lesson forever.

So we had our transfers this week! And I´m training again, and still in Camiri! So i might be here like 9 months of my misión :D My new companion is named Elder Dyer, and he´s from Las Vegas Nevada. He doesn´t speak spanish :D But he´s really great. We are going to work really hard and baptize!! And learn Spanish! We are now 4 north americans here. haha I´ve never seen anything like it! the picture is me with Elder Dyer and Elder Corrales, my trainer, who right now is one of the assistents to President Willard. I love Camiri, so I´m happy to be here still.

 

(I asked if I could help anyone there, and if I could send him Christmas $)

Dont worry about the people here, you can´t pay for anything :) It´s agaisnt the rules, so maybe I could do a secret santa or something, but that´s about it. As for my card... I lost my card from you. One of the machines ate it awhile back, like 7 or 8 months ago :D I think it´s just sitting in some bank in santa cruz. I was outside of the city so i never had time to go and get it, I had no idea how. I have my card from dad still, but I don´t remember the pin. If I´ll buy stuff, itll be at the end of my misión. I don´t want to carry stuff around all the time :D

 

So funny story, Elder Dyer almost didn´t serve as a missionary. He is the same age as me, he went a year to college, he used the excuse...just one year at college and then I´ll go. But he told me, ¨That was really just my excuse, I didn´t really want to go on a misión.¨So he said that it was because he went out with the missionaries a lot, and one day with a group of his friends, and the missionaries, he received his testimony from the spirit. He knew he had to go.

 

I must share this with you,

¨Misunderstanding God´s justice and mercy is one thing; denying God´s existence or supremacy is another, but either will result in our achieving less --- sometimes far less --- tan our full, divine potential. A god who makes no demands is the functional equivalent of a God who does not exist. A world without God, the living God who establishes to govern and perfect His children, is also a world without ultimate truth or justice. It is a world where moral relativism reigns supreme.¨  by Elder D. Todd Christofferson, ¨Free Forever, to Act for Themselves

 

have a great week my times up.... gosh I wish I had more time to write wade and mckade.

Thanksgiving Week

ahhhhhhh how adorable is my new cousin!!! :) He´s so cute. And well we did kind of celebrate (Thanksgiving). haha I forgot until Elder Evans told me, so he cooked some mashed potatoes his mom sent him, with gravy, and I cooked some french fries and we celebrated together :D So some highlights of this week, President Willard came to Camiri for Sunday and he and Sister Willard gave talks on tithing. They were pretty great. We had two more baptisms on saturday, I forgot my camera though so i don´t have pictures. But they were for the other Elder´s. So we´ve 6 weeks of miracles. Baptisms or reactivations every single week. A total of 5 people baptized and 8 people reactivated. Wonderful miracles. :) I´ve never seen anything like this in my misison up until now! I can testify of hard work and faith. They go hand in hand :)

 

Mmm actually we didn´t really get to meet with President Willard while he was here. When he visits the wards or branches he usually only has time for the members there.As for the BYU thing, that´s a big bummer. I didn´t realize that all my credits wouldn´t transfer... I thought someone told me they would. Who did you ask about that?

 

I am learning to work harder and give more to the Lord. This morning I did a study from PMG that really helped me reflect on my duty as a representative of Christ. It was a personal study from Seccion 1 where I studied about the ¨voice of warning.¨ Scriptures such as D&C 1:4, 88:81 Ezekiel 33:1-12, 3: 7-12 and Jacob 1:19. I really liked the scriptures in Ezekiel, because we as missionaries are the ¨watchmen¨ We are the ones called to warn others of the danger that lies ahead if they don´t repent. So we must help others understand what sin is, and then help them to repent. I think many times I get a little lost in just teaching the lessons and not focusing on helping people actually repent and come unto Christ. Our Savior is the focus of everything. He wants us to come unto Him, so if i´m not inviting others to come to Him the way He would, I´m doing something wrong. But I really love Jacob 1:19, which talks about magnifying your calling. Taking upon one´s self the responsibility to help others. I will do my best this week to invite others to Christ and to repent!

 

Another interesting thing; we are in the process of painting our apartment. It´s a disaster! haha but it looks so much better now. There´s a guy working on it at the house. So now it isn´t that horrid aquamarine color :D I´m learning lots of interesting things in the mission. It´s interesting to note what things Heavenly Father is having me learn. hahaha Yes we hired someone, and it was the landlord. But, we had to pay everything. So I told her that we would decide on the colors and how we would do it. She had some things she wanted to do, but since she didn´t want to pay I took control. She is a wonderful lady, just likes to take advantage of others. Our house situation has been a headache, but I´ve learned pretty well how to deal with it :) Also with having to work with the money of the mission and making sure nobody is taking advantage of us because we´re young and white haha. And going and paying for supplies and managing money and using facturas? haha not sure how to say that in english, it´s when you buy something with a NIT or number, so like buying stuff through the mission. Just interesting things.

 

Sorry we can´t write more, I´m always doing a ton for the mission in this time as well. Have a wonderful week! I love you tons and send my love to everyone for me!

A surprise baptism!

Happy Thankgiving I think! haha I´m not sure if that´s now or when, but President Willard said that it was!

So we had a suprise baptism this week!!! Luis, the older brother of Noé, just didn´t want to be baptized. He fought against it so much. hahaha we always asked him when he´d be baptized and always replied he didn´t want to. But when he went to the baptism of his little brother, he decided that he actually did want to be baptized!! We also actived his father, so we really saved the whole family :) So we were super happy!

And the father just got a calling as the secretary of the Elder´s Quorum. So we were really happy :)

We also went on Pday to this place called  ¨El Chorro¨ which means the stream. It was like a 3 hour hike there and back and it was really cool. It was up a canyon, so it was beautiful. And there was a tunnel.

 

11/10/14

The first is a picture of me for Cary, I´m holding a book of Mormon in Portuguese! We have one area in the mission that is in Brazil.

The second is of a baptism that we had last night, Aurora Lopez, the young lady in the middle. (but a baptism for the other elders)

 

And then we celebrated saturday night, it was the birthday of Elder Evans and the night of the baptism!

 

(About Mandy Bon's call to SLC Temple mission)

Wow that´s so cool! That´s a very unique mission! That´ll be so wonderful! I´m so happy for her. But now her family can´t go to Salt lake for a year and a half! :D

 

Next week we should have a baptism as well! We are activating a less active family, and the dad wants to baptize his son!  His name is Noé Poca. The book of mormon was what has activated him. He started reading and came back. it was wonderful to see.

 

(I told Josh I sang One Voice in RS Sunday with Tally and another older sister from our ward) 

One Voice...I ran into that song in the mission! I had it for a little while. It was a wonderful song. That´s great. It´s a beautiful song, and i don´t know the lady from the relief society but two other incredible voices were singing! So i know it was amazing :)

 

(Cary teased him about his grimy third-world country missionary apartment that reminded him of his own in Brazil)

hahaha thanks Cary :D haha but hey we clean every week!! But this house is a little bad. We are planning on painting it and buying totally new desks and everything. Wowowo ok times up!! I love you tons mom! Have a great week! :)

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Josh's emails from 11/3/14

Haha daylight savings doesn´t exist here! It´s always the same.

(We're sending off our Christmas letters to Josh this week, and the boys wanted to send Josh a pop in a package) haha I know it! i´m already writing your christmas letters as well! haha and i don´t think a soda would make it. don´t send one!! :D ... well I´ll think. I´m not sure. :D Glad to hear you all prayed together in the morning! I know we never did because I was already up and going at 6 :D (no one wanted to wake up with me!)

I got a package today! I haven´t opened it yet..  But I did read a card I got from Grandma KK, it was wonderful! Tell her I love her so much and thank you!

I'm having a wonderful week! Why? Oh every week is wonderful in the mission. :D That´s why. However, we are making miracles here in Camiri. The work is going along very well, and we are reaching new limits! I am a very very happy district leader :) There are no problems here. Just miracles and helping people change and love the gospel.

Ahh I love Grandma and Papa so much! :) They´re the best. :) I will honor their sacrifices for me by working as hard as I can. Just so you know, all of my kids are going to go on missions!!!! Every one of them! hahaha I will talk about my mission always. All the time. They won´t know a world that exists where people don´t go on missions. And I´m going to go and serve with my wife someday. We are going to be a mission serving family! There truly isn´t a greater blessing in all the world. My kids are going to share books of mormon and baptism invitacions, and pamphlets,  the first day they go to school!! hahahaha :D

My packages come in the mail. I´m always receiving stuff. :D I´m very loved. :) But yeah halloween almost doesn´t exist here! It´s all about the 1st and 2nd. And it´s all the catholic people. The graveyard was sooooooooo full of people it was totally crazy. But we went and shared like 50 pamphlets of the plan of salvation with people :D Day of the soul they say. It´s full of horrible traditions that blind people from the truth...

Wow!!! Dallin is a dad! That´s so crazy!! How exciting for him and Stormy. i hope everything is going well for them  :)

Speaking of Christmas gifts... The most wonderful things in the whole world I could receive are these emails, hand written letters, music from the Tabernacle Choir, and Old Ensigns!!!! the old ensigns are absolute treasures. I don´t know if you´d still have some, but the older the better. Especially the general conference ones. If you have one with Neal A. Maxwell, or Joseph B. Wirthlin please send one!!! Joseph B. Wirthlin is my favorite of all time :) His talks just make me love life. :) But times up! Love you!!!!! :)

30 investigator lessons!

So this week we have been seeing miracles in our área. I´m in just a small little district of 4 missionaries, in an área that other missionaries think is a hard place to be. There haven´t been a ton of baptisms and there aren´t too many members either. But in the last couple of weeks, we´ve been working a ton with the members! And now theý´re super excited. We had 30 investigator
​ lessons this week with members, and only 3 others, not to mention all the other lessons we have with less actives with members present. That is a true miracle for our misión! And, Camiri is the only branch with 100 percent retention in all the misión. We´ve brought back 13 souls in this year to the Lord, perhaps not a huge number, but theý´re still here!

I try my very best to help Elder Peña, but he´s always joking that he´ll only remember me because I say no all the time :D hahaha I´m working on that. I´m hard-headed at times, but I´m very obedient. :) My head is a lot of yes or no´s, black or White. True or false. But that can be a problem for me too. Sometimes I´m a little extreme. But talking of awesome trainers, last week, my trainer, Elder Corrales, was made assistant to the president! I was so happy for him. he´s the best. He really did teach me a ton.

Here are the four missionaries of Camiri with President Silva, one of the counselors of the misión. and yes one is from america! His name is Elder Evans. haha Elder Evenson and Elder Evans. People get our names confused :D He´s from Logan, and he´s a new missionary as well. A farm boy, so he works his butt off! He´s a great great missionary.