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! )