Monday, April 25 2011

Hey Family!! Wow im not sure how time flies by so fast!! Its so crazy! This week has been pretty awesome, quite difficult but it didnt feel like it. We baptised a kid this week who is 24 years old, next week he gets the aaronic priesthood and he heads off to serve a mini mission!! How cool is that, one of my investigators already has his goal of serving a full time mission but for the moment hes going to serve for a transfer somewhere here in my mission. His name is Jose, pretty cool kid. This week we had a lot of success!! We brought the Franco Family, to church, the 6 of them are going to get baptised the day before my birthday, and we brought another family of 9, the Britez family to church, 7 of which are going to get baptised the 21st, we have a lady, Claudia, of 55 years old, who owns a HUGE motorcycle, she told us last night that she is going to get baptised, she has come to church 3 times but we have only been able to talk to her twice, she knows nothing of the doctrine but last night we read Alma 7:11-15 with her and she told us that shes going to get baptised! So shes going to spend alot of time praying and reading this week haha, it was a very spiritual lesson. Also Pablo, my long time investigator, he was going to get baptised this saturday but he has diabetes and couldnt get up sunday, so he will get baptised next tuesday, because that will be my last day here, i think. It has always happened that when im having a lot of success i tend to leave the area, i would love to stay and to see the fruits of my labors but we will see, i hope i stay but im not sure what will happen. We focused alot of our lessons this week on Alma 7 and it sure had a huge impact on the investigators, we didnt find anyone new this week but we did see a huge jump in progress of all of our investigators. It was a tuff week, i got distracted alot, but im happy that i was able to pull it off in the end, and im working pretty hard. Im hoping that this week will be even better, i cant believe next week is May, time flies by so fast! Good luck abbey on your student council thing, i hope you win, and man steph push through these last few days there!!! and i understood a little of your email hehe, google translator? Go collin go, swim your butt off man, and ya that would be a fun project to redo the bathroom at grandpas house, ive been wanting to do projects like that for soooo long now. Ive built a house here and painted a few but thats about the extent of work that ive done here. Well i dont know much more to say, ill be calling in two weeks hehe, so let me have the info i need, ive completely forgot. Time flies!! Thanks Carrie and Lindsay for writing me!! (Even if what linsday said was three words hehe) And thanks for the photos! Well i love you all! See ya next week!

Monday, April 18 2011

HEY FAMILY!! Wow steph, im suprised that you wrote a whole letter in spanish, the gift of tounges eh haha, first off, man dad, i almost fell out of my chair of excitement to hear that Andy is planning on getting married in the temple, its interesting the excitement that comes to me about the things of the church, before the mission it wouldnt have meant much, but wow now its like reciveing a huge truck
for my birthday, full of adrenaline. Im super happy for him, what an awesome change. About adrenaline, this week was full of it, i dont think ive worked so effeciently in my whole mission, every lesson i tried to focus on the guidance of the spirit, and man how cool was the reactions of my investigators, because of the lessons that we have had, EVERY SINGLE ONE KNOWS IN THIER HEARTS THAT ITS TRUE!! The only problem that we are going to have is helping them to act on the truth that they know, to help them overcome their problems, fears and for some to recognize that they know the truth, because just by the way they act and talk, by the way i feel their spirit i know they know its true, we brought a family of 6 to the church, and then 5 other people who will be baptised this week and next week, ive never focused so much on other people, my `prayers have turned from begging for help for me, to begging for help for them, i dont study at all for me, but for them, ive changed so much in these past weeks because of them, im pretty excited, these last few weeks here in formosa are going to be great!! I know realize like i said last week that if i focus on others that i naturally become better also, its great.

So a interesting story, we found a girl who, like judds investigator, knew it was true the first time we talked to her, we passed by the third time to visit her and when we got there a little boy,6 years old, was crying, grabbing his leg, i thought he had fallen or something, anyways the mom didnt come out, as we got closer, we
realized that a HUGE fishhook was buried deep into his leg, really deep, anyways the mom, 24 years old, came staggering out, about 15 mintues before her dresser had fallen on top of her, knocking her out, during that time the kids where out side exploring and found this huge fish hook and wire, because they live next to a little river, so after she came back to consience she found us out there with the kid, we
took a taxi to the hospital where they had a tuff time getting the hook out, first because it was so deep it was hard to get the barbed part to come back to where they could cut it, and when they finally did, the pliers that they had were completely rusted and they wouldnt cut the big hook, ive never heard such screaming from a little boy, quite stressful, finally they got it cut and had to give him more
shots for the rust that entered... The hospitals are super ghetto, but an adventure. After a few mins he was alright, we gave him a huge candy bar. hehe
That was saturday, and during that day we had alot of oprotunities to help people, first with her, helping two ladies with their bags, stuff like that, and it was awesome to see the way god served us, we had alot of sucess this week and im super happy for that. Im learing alot and im glad for this opprotuninty, although p days are the hardest days of the week, haha, the rest of the week im too busy to think alot about home, but man mondays are full of it haha. today i went to a supermarket, I FOUND PEANUT BUTTER! DORITOS! GATORADE! AND DOUGHNUTS!!! oh man it was sweet! I speant alot of money because ive never seen this happen before haha, so im sure ill ahve a good stock for a while hehe.

well i dont know much else to say, oh mom please send me more photos as a family, ever since my scriptures got destroyed i havent found the pics that i had, so i need some more. I love you all so much, ill let you know how this next week goes, oh i got to hear the testimony of one of my converts, a 12 year old girl and i pretty sure that i balled my head off, i super underestimated her love of the gospel, at such a young age she understands it so much better than i do, i learned alot from her testimony, everyone was moved by it. So Collin and abbey i challenge you guys to understand the gospel, i wasnt even close to understanding it until i got here, i just saw the gospel as something that stopped me from watching rated r movies and going to church on sunday but its so much more, its everything to me right now. I love teaching such great news to people. LOVE YOU ALL!!!

Monday, April 11 2011

Well Hello Family, how goes it? Im doing great this week, ive found alot of answers to my problems and the weather has been fantastic, thank goodness! The members say im alot skinnier and im going back to normal! I just got done playing an intense game of soccer, which you will be quite suprised to see Nathan Horrocks so athletic, since it was never his strong aspect hehe. I love sports now, its great! This week i practically was not in my area, i did splits with the zone leaders and was with Elder Mohlman from Murray, it was fun, since we know all the same people from the times that i always went to murray with hannah we talked alot about all of the kids we knew, i learned alot about how to use more powerfully the book of mormon, they rarley ever clap houses, yet they have 6 or 7 families who are going to get baptised this month! They have read more than half of the book of mormon, i learned that conversion comes from the book and the church and not from what we teach. It was super cool. Well i have been having some super hard problems as always, and pretty trunky last week also, after talking with Elder Molhman one morning about a character from ¨The Illiad¨, Diomedes, i started thinking alot about what made him and many others like him heros, i thought alot, it intrigued me, well the answer i came up with was an answer to many of my prayers, it was so simple, something that i had been taught thousands of times, Villians only think about themselves, and Heros think about everyone else, its when the heros become egoistic that they become weak and dont measure up to their potential, it just clicked, I read the story of Capitan Moroni, many talks from Conferences Past and i set some goals, well even though its still been tuff im focusing on everyone else, i think thats what they meant when they meant loose yourself in the work, its not being so busy that you forget about you but that truly its just serving other people, putting others first. Well ive been alot happier, the weight i used to feel before has disappeared and im teaching in a different way, im myself. My studies are more profound and i just feel better, im magnifying my calling and obeying alot more. It was a super big change that came super fast, now i just need to keep it up and never slack, haha or else ill fall back into the pit, my area still is a mess, but im sure its going to pick up, families that we taught along time ago but dropped are starting to ask us to come back, wanting to go to church and are starting to do what they need to do. Im loving the mission more than before and i feel like im gaining the trust of many people, i had an interview with Pres DelCastillo, it was great, kind of wierd at first since he just started at me for a while but he told me alot of cool things, he says he just feels when a missionary is prepared to take on more responsibility, he might not talk with us everyday, but he sure knows us!
Well to answer Lindsays question, i now have 6 months left in the mission! So she wanted to know what are some of my goals for the rest of my mission, well the people still struggle to understand what im saying, haha but it was the same in english, i mumble and only my friends can understand, so i want to be able to pronouce and be able to speak well. I want to master the simple principles of the gospel, prayer, meditation, and how to set goals.
Haha wow stephs about done with her first year in college! Man im excited for college, its great, yet as i think i dont think ill have anytime to do anything haha! I have alot i want to do, and yes mother and father, i miss the temple alot and im sure ill be doing the same thing as tay tay haberwoman,hehe. Good luck Abbey running for SBO, your pretty outgoing i dont doubt that youll get in. I dont think ill recognize anyone when i get home. But i still got a while, but mom maybe you can see what i can do so that ill be able to keep my scholarship at UVU, we told them i would be home for fall semester, but that wont happen, maybe if we advise them early i might be able to keep it. Well i love you guys!! I miss everyone alot, but not too much hehe. BYE!

Monday, April 4 2011

Hey Family, wow that was a great conference, but it made me feel so trunky, oh man. The only desires that i felt was to become a better person after the mission haha. Its too hard here hehe, i felt the spirit alot, and i treasured those ten hours more than anything else in my life, i literally was crying when it ended, it made me miss the temple alot, i guess i havent had that level of spirituality for so long. The spirit was finally able to break the walls around my heart and talk to me, i never felt so much peace when surrounded by so many problems. I dont know how the apostles can do it, im barely making it by with what i have and they are able to do this all with thier family without a time limit on their calling. I think what it comes down to is i feel like i have alot of desires to become better but its like im trying to push a buldozer up a mountain, i dont go anywhere. This has been a hard week as usual, i dont know what i need to learn but man ive had problems finding people to teach, those that are progressing are starting to stall and are going backwards. But at least we have one man who is going to get baptised no matter what, he was a investigator a while ago but we had to drop him and when we went back something had happened and he was dead set on getting baptised so im excited for that. Im learning to put super small goals so at least ill be able to accomplish some haha. Thanks for always praying for me, im pretty sure i wouldnt be able to push on without it, i dont know why its so hard for me to preach the gospel. Well there is not much else going on, lifes the same. Thats cool taylor will get married the same day as mom and dad, that will be fun. Oh also during conference i never could stop thinking about my family and i want to thank mom and dad for their examples, grandpas and grandmas for their examples of service that they have been for me and for my aunts and uncles and their desires to fight to the finish in everything they do and for my cousins, oh man if i could be anything close to them. For collin, steph abbey and hannah, thanks amigos. I Love you all.