Hi Everybody!

Well, it was a pretty interesting week this past week. Full of ups and downs. But, hey! Such is the life of a missionary! ;)

I guess to start off with the post, I hope that everyone had a safe and fun Valentine’s Day and (hopefully) had an enjoyable day off for President’s Day. We did have our P-day yesterday but, because of the holiday, we were given an hour today (Tuesday) to write.

Last week, like I said was a pretty roller coaster week. On Tuesday we had our Zone Conference up in Phoenix North. It was FANTASTIC! It was exactly what I needed: A High Powered Spiritual Boost. Our focus of the conference was “ How to Follow the Spirit”. Sister Beck started the conference by speaking to us about being bold missionaries. We discussed what types of characteristics are those of bold missionaries and how we can better develop them to further progress our work. It was really interesting, extremely helpful, and since receiving and putting into effect that council we have seen an increase in our spirituality and progress of our investigators.

After Sister Beck, President Beck talked to us about the importance of personal revelation in our role as missionaries. As always, it was extremely powerful and brought a lot of things to our attention. It was incredibly awesome for me…mostly because there were a lot of things he spoke on that I (personally) needed to hear.

Our skill training that afternoon was incredible. We focused once again on extending baptismal commitments. We were split into companionships of three and each individually practiced extending the “Customized baptismal commitment” found at the end of each lesson in Chapter 3 of Preach My Gospel. It took about an hour and a half to complete the training but it feel it has put both Elder Giles and I on a higher level of preparation for the future.

From that point on the week went fairly well. We set another baptismal date with our little grandma, Norma, that we have been teaching. She was actually the only investigator we had at church on Sunday but she just drank so deeply from the spiritual jug that was there. We feel confident that we will be having her baptism fairly soon! J However, with the sweet comes a little bitter also. We have had a bit of a hard time with our investigators keeping their commitments and had to take the step of dropping 3 investigators. I wish I could explain how sad it is for us a missionaries to do this. BUT, we know that they aren’t being taken care of. Elder Giles and I have added emphasis on bettering our Area Book record keeping and feel that, because of it, they will be found by future missionaries when they are ready.

Also this week, I had the awesome opportunity to conduct and Personal Progress Evaluation. It was extremely helpful for me and I now feel that I will be able to progress to a higher level of mental and spiritual maturity (at least that is the hope! J)

To end the post for this week, we were blessed to have another baptism this past Sunday evening of a girl named Perla. For those dedicated readers, Perla is actually the friend of our newest recent convert Grisel. For a time we taught the two of them together but Perla decided she wanted to take things a little bit slower. So, we baptized Grisel at the end of January and now Perla on Sunday. It was an incredible service. The whole relief society room was full of people and a BUNCH of Perla’s family (who are not members of the church) attended. The spirit was incredibly strong and we are praying that, by Perla’s example, others of her family will express interest in learning more.

Alright my friends, my time is up for this week. I hope that you all are alive and well! ;) Know that you all are always in my prayers. As always, thank you for the prayers you offer for the missionaries. I can truly tell you that they are felt. Have a great time and be safe this week. Until then, Hasta Luego!

 

 












  “The field is white”: The baptism of Perla Garcia. I have a feeling that she will be a major tool in the missionary work for her whole family! 

 












“Little Luis”: I taught Luis my very first transfer in the field before we were taken out of the Vineyard ward. I wish I could explain how awesome it was to see him enter the waters of baptism this Saturday. He truly is one of God’s elect!

 












“Uh…What?”: So we are welcome but it says no trespassing….a little contradictory don’t you think?