Hey Everyone!

I can’t believe that a whole week has gone by already…it seems like every transfer P-days just come faster and faster. But, nonetheless, here I am again!

This week was a very tough, but pretty successful, week. Crazy enough, it rained 4 out of the 7 days this week. Needless to say, it made the work VERY interesting for us being on bike (however, my bike Rufus was quite pleased for the bath ).  More than one occasion I came in at the end of the day smelling like a soaking wet dog. I am actually taking my suits in today to get them dry cleaned…They are pretty dirty from the dirt and the grime from the streets. That and it has been a while so a cleaning is due on the both of them. :)

We also received transfer news yesterday. I will be staying in Montana del Sur for another transfer with my Hijo Elder Giles! I SUPER excited. We have a lot of things lined up for this coming transfer that we are really looking forward to. Pleased to say, we are REALLY PUMPED to stay here another transfer and see some of this through. We have some incredible investigators that we are teaching and are finding more literally everyday that show us a lot of promise. Hopefully we will be having another baptism here in a couple of weeks! 

On sadder note, we had a man (rather book of scripture) injured in the rain battle this past week. My nice Spanish triple had a grueling battle with the rain on Tuesday. We were riding home from our dinner appointment and it started to RAIN. Not anything like back home in Missouri but, for here and not really having a rainstorm for 6 months, it was HARD! Anyways, I had my scriptures in their little case and in my backpack so I thought they would be okay. But, to my sad dismay, when we made it back home…the bottom was pretty wet. As a result, Elder Giles and I had to react fast. I am really glad that I had Elder Giles with me because he just knew exactly what to do. I set down our area book and PILED books upon books on top of the thing to try and keep the pages from curling bad. They stayed like that for 2 straight days. Come Friday, I pulled them out a little curly but still in decent condition. From that point, I proceded to iron every, single page in it. I can honestly say that I have ironed the Book of Mormon!  In the end, the pages were still a little curly but the book was saved!

To end the post this week, we had another baptism this past Saturday of a girl named Grisel. We started teaching her about our 2-3 week here and Saturday she took the baptismal step. Also, the elders in the Aguila ward joined us with a baptism of their own! It was a really cool experience for me because I had taught both of the people that were baptized. I have come to appreciate each one of these services so much more since I have been out on my mission. I have come to realize just how special each one of these are. Every person has their own story, their own trails they are facing. But, each one of them that takes that important step is showing their Heavenly Father that they are willing to put their past behind and start anew. That in itself it something incredibly special!

But, sad to say but I’m out of time for this week. I hope that all of you enjoy the pictures and that you are safe and sound. Remember that you all are always in my prayers! Have a FANTASTIC WEEK!















“How great shall be your joy!”: The baptism of Grisel Alvarez performed by Chuy Lopez. This was a really cool baptism because, for the first time on my mission, this was my first month with more than one baptism! :)
















“Healing the Wounded”: Pressing the pages of my spanish triple. Talk about a long process…:)

Hey Everyone!

Well, this week was a pretty normal work week which was nice. Like I mentioned a while ago, the holidays put a little bit of a mixture into our schedule but now we have settled back into the normal mission schedule. *Whew* :)

Things are just…WOW… amazing right now! I can’t express just how blessed we are to be serving in this mission and to have the area we do. Heavenly Father is blessing us richly and is also helping us stay humble all the time. We were blessed with the chance to set two more baptismal dates this week for a couple of kids named Oscar and Stacy. That brings our pool up to 6 now. It has been a very humbling experience to see the growth of our area but to also see the adversary work hard to keep the work from progressing. Elder Giles and I are truly seeing miracles every day.

Also this week we had the chance to go help with a service project up in Cielito (an area in our stake) to help clean up graffiti and garbage around the community. The project was incredibly fun and I feel like the volunteers noticed the work we were doing. I am also glad to say that I was able to give a few pass-along cards out to people we saw while we were working. I hope and pray that something will come of it. I guess we’ll see! ;)

We were also able to welcome in another sheep into the fold this past Saturday. Elder Holden and Elder Smith, the Elders that cover the East Side of our ward, were able to baptize an hermana by the name of Nancy Landero. It was a pretty amazing experience for me to witness. She has been married to a member for quite some time and all of their children of age have been baptized but, until Saturday she wasn’t. With this baptism they were able to help complete the family. The service itself was very nice and the spirit was present in every part of it. Congratulations to them! :)

Elder Giles and I will have the opportunity to experience the baptism of one of our investigators this Saturday. We are in the process right now of making the arrangements for the baptism. Both of us are really excited and are looking forward to it! :)

To close off the post for this week, I would like to share an experience I had this past Sunday/Monday. The past couple of days have been very special for me. Sunday, I was blessed with the opportunity to ordain Carlos, our Recent Convert, to the priesthood. I was so nervous the whole time leading up to it…I had never done the blessing before (in English, let alone in Spanish) and I was studying and praying so hard to know what to say. When the time came…It was amazing. I won’t share what happened exactly but I will say that Heavenly Father blessed me with the words to say. The last couple of things that happened occurred yesterday. During my language study, I finished my goal to read the Book of Mormon for the first time in Spanish. It took me about 6 months to complete but, alas, it is done!  It was an awesome feeling. I have truly come to realize the true divinity of that Book and the blessings it promises us when we abide by its precepts. Lastly, I finished my first journal of the mission last night. It was a pretty cool feeling and I am excited to start another one. Just a side note, this was the first journal I have completed ever in my life so it carries quite a bit of personal significance to me. 

Well, my time is up for this week. I hope that all of you are doing well. You are in my prayers! Also, thank you very much for the prayers that you have offered in our behalf. They have been felt! Hasta Luego! (P.S. Baptism Pictures next week. STAY TUNED! )

Hey Everybody!

So, things are just going really well down here. The Lord has really been blessing us in this part of his worldwide vineyard. We actually were so busy this week the AP's came down on Wednesday to help us all get it done. But, apart from that, some pretty interesting things happened....

Tuesday was a very good work day. We actually set 2 more baptismal dates with two girls that were found off tracting about 4 months ago. They have been showing a lot of interest in the church and really have a desire to learn more. They will be baptized on the 23 of this month if all goes well with our lessons and the interview.

Wednesday, the AP's came down and did splits with us to help us finish all of the work we had to do. It was a pretty interesting day. We were able to get 4 hours of tracting in and contact all of the referrals we received. All in all it was a great work day. But, check this, I was actually attacked by a crazed dog. He was MASSIVE about 1 foot long and about 8 inches high with teeth the size of a pen tip. That's right, I was bitten by a crazed chihuahua! I was out tracting with Elder Clarke when we came to this door. I saw that the dog was on a chain and the chain looked really short. Well, when I started going to the door, the chain started to grow...and grow...and grow...until *BAM* I had this little dog attached to my knee! It was pretty crazy. To make a long story short, he fell off and we decided to skip the door. :)

The rest of the week proved to be pretty uneventful. We just worked a lot and ended our days exhausted beyond all belief.

Saturday, however, was a special day. We had the baptism for Juan Carlos Islas Patino. For those who were able to read my post from last week, this is the same Carlos I had that amazing experience with last Sunday. The baptism was incredible. There were a TON of people there, It actually started on time, and the spirit was incredibly strong. All in all, it was something incredibly special for me. For certain, it will be a baptism I will never forget.

Yesterday was just a typical Sunday. Meetings, work, and study. Elder Smith and I have been given the steady assignment now to teach the Principios del Evangelio class until a teacher is called. So, we taught the class on Sunday. It went really well. There weren't a lot of people there but the spirit was still very much present.

But, that is about all for this week. I apologize for the small post but my time is running really short (as always :)) I hope that you all are alive and well. Remember that you all are always in my prayers ! Thank you (as always) for the prayers you offer in my behalf...they are felt! Until next week be safe, have fun, and enjoy the pictures!














"Man Down!": The battle scars of my epic fight with the chihuahua. That little bugger actually drew blood...















"You must be BAPTIZED!": The baptism of Juan Carlos Islas Patino. This will be, by far, one of my most cherished stories in my life. Incredible person, Incredible spirit, Convert for life :)

"It's Amazin'!": The epic Christmas Day Shackball throwdown. This is all of us in our Shackball uniforms right before we started the mayhem. Right now we are trying to figure out how we are going to get this approved as an Olympic sport. :)

Why, Hello Everybody!

I hope that you all were able to enjoy your holiday break (for those back in school already) and that those who are continuing to have theirs have an enjoyable rest of their time off. As a missionary, we have had a successful working “holiday” filled with success and miracles beyond number. I am grateful for the Holiday season we had but am more grateful for the ability to get back into a normal schedule.

This past week was filled with some experiences that, in all honesty, have caused me to reflect on my own personal position in life, as a trainer, and especially as an individual missionary. Our week was a normal work week until New Year’s Eve night. We needed to be IN our apartment at 6:00 because of how crazy it gets at night (especially in South Phoenix ) So, that evening we did our weekly planning while listening to some much needed music. Friday, New Year’s Day, was a normal work day for us. Up at 6:30, out by 11:00…the usual. Friday we actually went and did a Zone Blitz for part of the day. Some of our English elders were struggling with people to teach so we decided to help them out a bit. It was tough…we found 1 New Investigator after 2 hours of tracting. I gotta be honest, I have a LOT more respect for stateside English speaking missionaries…they put up with so much more than us foreign language missionaries do…But, from that point on our week changed. On our way back I (not intentionally) upset my companion. We were joking around and I apparently hit a bit of a soft spot. That just….wow, drove the spirit out of our friendship in a heartbeat. When we made it back to our house, I didn’t dare push him to go out. If there is one thing I will never forget Elder Bingham telling me is “Don’t EVER go out of the house if the spirit is not in your companionship. You will only do damage to the work.” So, we took an hour and a half to try and bring the spirit back in. I spent an hour praying, reading, studying, writing…for those of you who read Elder Scott’s talk from last conference, that was exactly what I did. By the time dinner rolled around, things were going much better. I felt more confident in my training abilities, things seemed to be smoothed over, plus I felt a little more spiritually boosted myself. We worked the rest of the night, had a couple of really good lessons with investigators, then came back to our house to prepare Elder Giles for the split we were going to do that night. Well, to make a long story short, the house came down…something triggered an angry spot in both of us and we just…it was bad. Strangely enough, after the fallout and after the chance that we FINALLY had to get everything out in the open ( it took us a couple of minutes to calm down) our companionship just evolved. Like a simple snap of the finger and things were better. We haven’t had any other problems since. Let it be known folks, don’t hold stuff up inside. Talk about it in a nice way, write things out. It makes a world of difference.

Saturday we did a split with Elder Bingham. I had his companion, Elder Chipman, with me for the day. It was incredibly good. We actually set 2 more baptismal dates we weren’t expecting to set, found 5 or so more potential investigators, found a couple of other investigators we had (a continual struggle of ours. We still don’t know where everyone lives…) and had a great lesson with Hector, our Recent Convert. We were supposed to have an appointment with Carlos, one of our Invs. with a date but he called and canceled on us. By the end of the day, we were beat with just riding and working. Man, there is nothing like that type of tired. We ended the split that night and ended our day with a fantastic nights sleep.

Then Yesterday came… A day that, quite literally, changed my life. We started our 9:00 meetings this week in our ward. As missionaries we attend the meeting with the Bishop, his counselors, auxiliaries, etc. every week. Well, it starts at 7:00 Sunday mornings. After our meeting we simply stayed at the church and tried to make up for some of our lost study time that we missed. At 8:30, Hector showed up to the church. Now, for those faithful readers, this was the same Hector that was baptized the weekend before I entered the field, the first person I confirmed, the first Recent Convert I had to receive the priesthood, and (for a while) the one Recent Convert we struggled to get to church every week. Well, after a little night of disobedience to the Word of Wisdom, he has come to church all but one week, received the Priesthood, and has helped us with some of our other investigators. Well, yesterday, we witnessed a miracle when this same Hector blessed the Sacrament for the first time. It was quite an experience for me and one that started a definite change of perspective of this work. The second experience that happened took place that afternoon. Elder Giles and I went out with a couple of new elders (both of them are thinking about a mission and one just came home a little early from a mini mission because he was sick) to go do some split tracting. When I was on my split on Saturday with Elder Chipman, we passed a trailer park where I had a very distinct thought that we needed to go tract it soon. The opportunity presented itself and we took it. We were blessed in such an incredible way. Altogether, we found 16 new investigators, well over a third of them have shown us some great promise. Chuy, the mini mission elder, basically told him that he was thinking about going back to finish his mini mission but, has changed his mind because he feels that there is too much work for him to do here in our area. He will be accompanying us this whole week.

The final (and most sacred) of these experiences occurred last night when we went to go visit Carlos. I will not include all the details of this experience because, many of which, are too special to share to the world through the internet. Basically said, I saw with my own two eyes, with my spiritual eyes, and felt with my heart and soul the power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. I saw it change someone right before my eyes. I want to testify to you that I know Heavenly Father knows each and every one of us. He knows our needs and he knows our righteous desires. Trust in his ample arm. Lean and trust in the council we receive in our scriptures. Allow him to change you, to be clay in his hands. With humility, meekness, faith, hope,... all those attributes we need he WILL change us into our best selves. I know this to be true because I saw it, I witnessed it. I am forever changed by what I witnessed last night, in that old, cold trailer, here in South Phoenix. The Atonement is real…The Atonement is real.

Well everyone, my time is running short. I love you all…more than many of you can even know. I feel all your prayers offered in my behalf and I hope the same can be said for mine. You all are loved, missed, and are included in every one of my personal prayers. Thank you to all those who sent Christmas cards, wishes, letters…etc. I will be replying to those as fast as I can. Until next week, LOVE YOU ALL!