What my mission has done for me

9/26  This week was great! We had a wonderful few visits with Eva Maria! After our first visit, she told us that she had made the decision that she is going to quit smoking! We have been following up since then every day, and she is doing so good! We set a new baptismal date with her for the 15th of October, and she is way motivated to be prepared this time. We are so excited for her! It has been such a blessing to be able to take part in her conversion. I still remember the first time we met her. She contacted us in a bus. We weren't even supposed to be on that bus, but God prepared everything so that she could find us. It's experiences like those that I will miss most about the mission.

All of our other investigators are still doing well. Manuel didn't make it to church this week, but he and his family are still progressing a lot. Alexia is still in the same position as always. I'll always be praying that her mom will let her get baptized soon. We are teaching Angel now, an adopted child of a member in our ward, and he has a baptismal date for the 29th of October. He's a really good kid. He's only 9, but he understands everything better than most people we teach. We also found a new family this week. The son is the one we started teaching. His name is Christian, and he is 20 years old. He is super good. He's really interested in our message, and really liked the restoration. We are excited to see how he and his mother progress.

Words can never describe what my mission has really done for me, but I hope to be able to do it justice. Before my mission, I didn't know the scriptures. I didn't know the Book of Mormon or the doctrine it taught. I didn't know the lessons in preach my gospel. I didn't know how to teach. I didn't have a true testimony. I was lost. I knew that I needed to serve a mission, although I didn't understand why, and I knew that I wanted to serve a mission. For some reason or another, I found myself in Barcelona, Spain without the slightest idea of what I had gotten myself into. I didn't speak Spanish, didn't know how to preach the gospel or how to be a missionary. Now, all of that has changed. Now, I know the scriptures, the Book of Mormon and the doctrines it teaches. I know the lessons in Preach My Gospel like the back of my hand. I now know how to teach the gospel to people who have never heard it before. Now I can say I have an unshakable testimony of the gospel, and I know who I am and what my purpose is. I know why I served a mission. I can truly say that I am my strongest convert. The lessons I have learned, the experiences I have had, the
people I have met, have all changed me for the better, and I will never forget them. I truly feel like the prodigal son in Luke 20 when his father said "For this my son was dead, and is alive again; he was lost, and is found."

Love you all so much! Thank you for all the support you have given me throughout my mission!

Sebastian's baptism

God knows and loves every one of His children

9/19  This week was a really good one. Despite the fact that we lost a couple days at the conference in Barcelona, we were able to have several effective lessons, one of which was with a new investigator named Juanita. We contacted Juanita in the streets several weeks ago and gave her a restoration pamphlet. Ever since then we have been calling her to try and set up a visit, but because of work were never able to. She did, However, comment on how she loved reading the pamphlet we left her over the phone. You can imagine how excited we were when we finally set a visit with her! We had a wonderful lesson on the restoration which she loved. The only issue is that she works taking care of an elderly woman on the weekends, and for now, can't come to church on Sundays. It's a minor challenge that we will overcome, but all in all, she is golden!

Quick update on other investigators: Eva is doing very good, and we finally got her hooked on the Book of Mormon. She was having a hard time understanding it, so we gave her the children's book with pictures, and she absolutely loves it. Still struggling with a few commandments, but we are getting somewhere! Manuel and his family made it to all three hours of church this week and really enjoyed it. It was great to see the members take care of them and make sure they were where they needed to be. We didn't have to do anything. They are progressing a lot as a family, and we have seen a huge improvement in the love we see between them. We switched things up a little with Alexia and she taught us the lesson last time. She really taught a super good lesson about prophets. Her mom is still pretty firm in her decision about not letting her get baptized until she finishes this year of school.

For the next two weeks I'd like to share a little about what my mission has taught me. First and foremost, my mission has taught me that God knows and loves every one of His children with a love that we cannot comprehend. I have seen that love when He has guided me to find those of His children who are prepared to receive the gospel in their lives. During my mission, I have been able to feel a portion of that love for those I have taught, and for the members I have served with. I have also felt the love our Savior has for all of us as I have seen those I have taught make the changes in their lives necessary to bring themselves closer to Him. I have seen the effect the atonement has in the lives of those people. I have seen the joy it brings. All in all, my experiences on my mission have helped me to come to know my Father in Heaven and His son Jesus Christ in a way no other experience could. I know that they know and love each one of us.

A baptism!

9/12  This week was incredible! I was blessed with the opportunity to baptize Sebastian, the son of Gary, a less active member. We were teaching Gary and his family for a long time and had formed a very strong relationship with them when they moved to another ward. On Wednesday, Gary called me and informed me that Sebastian was going to be baptized on Saturday and that he wanted me to to it. It was an incredible experience! The baptism went very well and was very spiritual. Gary played and sang a song on his guitar that he wrote. It was very well done. I could tell it was a very special moment for Sebastian and especially for Gary. We've formed a friendship with him that will last forever!

Our investigators are still doing well. Manuel is progressing slowly but surely as is Inma. Eva Maria still wants to get baptized a lot, but she is struggling a little with a few of the requirements. She absolutely loves everything about the church though. She calls us every single day, sometimes twice a day, to tell us how she is and how happy she is for getting to know the gospel. It's just a matter of time before she too gets baptized. We had a visit with Alexia this week. She finally spoke with her mom about when she can get baptized, and her mom said she needs to pass all of her classes this year. Needless to say, nobody is really happy about that, but it's something. Now she has a goal to shoot for, and we are going to help her with that goal. It's a bummer I won't see her baptism though...

One scripture that really stood out to me this week was Alma 17:3 which says: "But this is not all; they had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting; therefore they had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation, and when they taught, they taught with power and authority of God." That last part got me thinking about what gave their teaching power and authority, and how we can teach with power and authority today. While it's true prayer and fasting helped them, I couldn't help but think of something else that gave them the power and authority. As missionaries, we are literally called by a prophet of God to teach the gospel. With such a call comes authority to teach the word of God. However, the power comes from a different source. In order to teach with power, we need to have the spirit with us, and there is no better way to have the spirit with us than by being worthy of it. Thus, the authority in our teaching comes with the call, but the power comes through our obedience. If we want to be missionaries like Ammon and Aaron, we need to fast and pray as they did, but most importantly, we need to be as obedient as they were.

¡Un abrazo querido amigo!

More prepared investigators

 9/5/16   This week was really good. We found a lot of really prepared people again, many of whom might have baptismal dates very soon. One such lady is named Delia. She was actually a reference from the elders in Ward 2. She has come to church once and has seen a baptismal service. She also has a ton of family in Bolivia who are members of the church. We had a really good first lesson with her. She commented that she believes there should only be one true church and was really confused as to why there are so many churches and so much confusion. She really liked the bit about how Joseph Smith felt the same way. At the end she said that she was going to read the Book of Mormon to see if it answered some of her questions.

Eva Maria is still in the process of preparing herself to be baptized. It seems like she may have lost a bit of enthusiasm ever since we told her that the word of wisdom is a requirement for baptism. We are still working closely with her. Her father has been sick for a long time and she has been at home taking care of him every weekend so she can't come to church, but she always comments that she wants to come. Manuel is doing good still. We had a good visit this week and plan to go over the family proclamation. We think that will help them a lot. We have faith that they will accept a baptismal date this week. Liliana, the investigator we passed to the other elders a while ago, just got baptized this weekend! It was an incredible service.

This week I learned a lot from the 4th chapter of gospel principles that talks about our freedom to choose. Our free agency is one of the greatest gifts God has given us, and it is the one thing he will never take away from us. Our agency is an essential part of our Heavenly Father's plan for us. The gospel principles manual uses a really good example that I would like to quote: "Imagine seeing a sign on the seashore that reads: “Danger--whirlpool. No swimming allowed here.” We might think that is a restriction. But is it? We still have many choices. We are free to swim somewhere else. We are free to walk along the beach and pick up seashells. We are free to watch the sunset. We are free to go home. We are also free to ignore the sign and swim in the dangerous place. But once the whirlpool has us in its grasp and we are pulled under, we have very few choices. We can try to escape, or we can call for help, but we may drown." This is a great example that shows that when we chose to follow the commandments, we are given more opportunities, but when we chose not to follow the guidelines God has set for us, we lose opportunities. Our agency is so important, and it is essential that we use it properly. As it says in doctrine and covenants, when we do what the Lord commands of us, He is obligated to bless us, but when we don't, we don't have any promises.

Finding with faith

8/29/16  We had a really good week this week and found a lot of new people with a lot of potential. One lady we contacted and set up a new visit with told us on the phone that she had read the pamphlet we left her and loved it and really wants to visit with us now! We also had a really good visit with Rodrigo. He had been visiting with missionaries before but because of work, he lost contact with them. We are finding a lot of new people, and hope to continue finding more. We will be doing everything in our power to make sure that these investigators can progress.

We had a good visit with Manuel this week, and they came to church!! They all made it on time and stayed for the first two hours. The kids liked Sunday school. After Sunday school, Manuel asked us where we do baptisms. We went and showed them the baptismal font, and Inma was interested. We could tell she was contemplating. We have seen a ton of progression in this family over the past few weeks, and I really think they can be ready for baptism by the end of September.

We were able to teach the word of wisdom with Eva this week. She expressed that it will be difficult, but we made it clear that nothing is impossible with the Lord on our side. She has still been very busy taking care of her father who is recovering slowly, but she calls us at least once a day to see how we are doing and to report on how she is. She is super excited for her baptism, we just need to work with her a little bit to make sure she is ready. She'll get baptized for sure though.

One thing I learned this week is the true power faith has in finding those who are prepared. Chapter 9 in Preach My Gospel talks all about developing the faith to find. We always talk about it in district and zone meetings. It seems like we are always hearing about having the faith to find, but somehow we always seem to fall into the rhythm of things and contact people just because that's what we do. That's not finding with faith. When we contact people because we are truly looking for the people who are prepared, that is when the Lord blesses us with miracles, and that is when he puts those He has prepared in our path. This week we were truly trying to find those who the Lord has prepared, and He put several of them in our path. Now the next step is to teach them with the spirit so that they can receive a witness of the truthfulness of the message we carry. 

with Elder Mambo who just left for his mission in Argentina