Tuesday, August 22, 2017

Zone Leader! Less than 2 months to go!


 6/5

Brendan had gotten his Mission call and I was excited for Ty to see the video that I posted to YouTube.

He said:

LIMA,PERU???????????? SWEEEEEET!!!!! :D

I asked him how he already knew where he was going and he said:

Irving called me from Cazones. He put the video up to the phone and I only heard where he going :)

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Finally! I´ve seen the pics and the video! ahhhhhhwhwhwhwhwhhh I miss him literally by a week!!! What a drag ughh hahahaha

I sent him a picture that came up in my memories on facebook. It was of the two of us playing a video game together on the PS3. He said:

Woooooow. Well here in 4 months we shall play again :) :) :) mwahahahaha 2 years and no video games probably did a lot of good for me. There is a lot of more efficient things I will do with my time now, but video games every now and then are also a fun past time. Alrighty! Love you! I gotta get outta here. Have a good week!





I painted a superman banner for dad for fathers day, also I drew the Salt Lake Temple




6/13

It’s been very hard these past few weeks. We have been struggling so much in finding new investigators. But, I´ve felt good about the work I´ve been putting in and the efforts I´ve been giving. I had a good experience this week. We were walking home after a day filled with rejection. As we were coming down the street of our house I was pondering on the question, "Did I talk to everyone that I possibly could today?" As I was reflecting my feelings and thoughts, a man passed by. I quickly stopped him and asked him if he wanted to get closer to God. He wasn´t very receptive, but we made an appointment (that fell through last night) to go to his house. As we continued walking home, I got the confirmation feeling that I had given all I could, and I couldn´t help but smile :)

6/19

I want to gewt changed out of this area. I´m so tired. The Lord blessed us with a tender mercy and she is probably the best investigator I´ve had in my mission, but I´m running out of ideas and things to do here. She´s a reference we received on Wednesday, called, put an appointment, and taught on Friday. She is 21 and has friends who are members. She is a modern-day Joseph Smith. Maybe Josefina Smith.... Ha... she has visited a ton of different religions. Pentacostal, Presbetyrian, JW, Catholic, etc. But in all of them she never really felt comfortable nor like it was right. The Pentacostal actually scared her. But she has her friend who is a member and told her about the importance of the family in the church and she really got interested. She only heard a little bit, but she wanted to go to find out. Her friend right now is in Switzerland and it kinda made her nervous to go alone so she never went. Then we got the reference passed to us, we taught her, invited her to church, and she came! She said she loved it and she felt really good when she went. We´re helping her to recognize that her good feelings are the Spirit because she´s been saying she´s felt good in the lesson we shared, while reading the Book of Mormon (we gave her) and going to church. She is awesome! Her name is Leslie. We invited her to pray about it. We are going to share the message of the Plan of Salvation tomorrow and that is one of the better times to invite to prepare for a date. She said that upon receiving an answer that this is the true church, she will get baptized.

We went to Tajín. This is my 3rd time going but it was the first for my companion. I´m going to buy souvenirs for everyone and I was going to do it in Tajín, but a little bit ago I heard that there is a store here in Papantla that has all the artisan stuff that there is in Tajín for a lot cheaper. So I´m gonna go there to get the souvenirs. Everything is hand-made (hence artisan). You guys are gonna like it :)

6/26

I had a pretty cool experience! I have had some of the ugliest and worst rejections in my whole mission in the area I´m in right now. These past 2-3 weeks to be more specific.

I have had some of the ugliest and worst rejections in my whole mission in the area I´m in right now. These past 2-3 weeks to be more specific.

And we have been working and working and working and there has been nothing!!!! Our planning has always been super detailed, we´ve done divisions, and nothing ever came out.

Lots of things have been telling me through prayers, scriptures, and leaders that my work isn´t going unnoticed and the Lord is pleased, but its been difficult to accept it.

Then our last appt. on Saturday night before we went home we found an awesome family of 5 that we are gonna keep teaching. Their names are Jesus, María (mom and dad) America, Jesus Gerardo, and Marta. They were super receptive to the message of the Restoration, accepted baptismal date, and said they are excited to read the Book of Mormon and know that Joseph Smith was a prophet?



ZONE LEADER! He is super busy now and is always on the run.


7/3
You´re welcome :) and yes, I am being transferred. I´m changing areas but I´m in the same zone. I´m gonna be a Zone Leader now. My area is called Manantiales. I´m going to the area that is next to the one I´m in now. My house is cool, but the shower is terrible. The shower is just a metal tube and it shoots one strong stream of freezing cold water :P



7/17

Mama!!! I´m so sorry. I want to send pictures but I have a bus to catch in 15 minutes. My comp and I have a meeting in Xalapa for ZL, so we have to leave in like 5 minutes :P My companion is from Bolivia. Super awesome. I love the guy. I´ve known him since he was born in the mission. He´s 24: his name is Elder Condori. But hey I gotta get outta here. I have a bus to catch in like 10 minutes. We have consejo tomorrow and our secretary already messed up our tickets once today.

We´ve been super busy with everything! I¨VE LOVED IT!!! Being a Zone Leader is great. Its kinda funny though because my first day being a zone leader I got hit with all the missionary problems of their stupidity and dumb actions. We´ve resolved a few problems. Also we have been non stop working, putting examples for the missonaries, helping them with their own goals, and trucking forward to a brighter day! :) I´ve loved it to be honest :) Last night we had a couple companionships stay in our house because we had an activity today and they live far away. This morning I ended up cutting everyones hair :) They now look like "real boys!" ;)

7/24


After he watched the video I made for Brendan’s Court of Honor:

That video was awesome!!! I loved it. Brendan really has grown so much. It did make me feel like I´m going to miss him more knowing that I´m not going to have seen him for 4 years :P

How has he been with his mission prep? Anything else he is waiting on or needs? I was thinking about sending him my speaker so he wouldn´t have to buy a new one. This thing is great! Thank you very much :) Also, I never understood how much I would appreciate my himnario until I´ve been here. I was thinking about it the other day and I felt stupid for having such a low level of enthusiasm upon receiving it. THANK YOU VERY MUCH I LOVE IT :) When I was talking to Pres. Greer, he asked me which MTC Brendan was going to. When I told him Peru, he said, "oh Darn." So I imagine that there would be something would have been able to do so I could see him. If he does change, I wanna see what I can do with my mission president to see if we could be companions for a week or something. :)

Well, I was wanting to send pictures, but when I put my memory in the computer, it wants me to format (delete) the contents of the memory before I open it. soooooo.. We´ll have to wait.

I asked him if he was enjoying being Zone Leader:

Actually more now. Last night there were some missionaries that have been having difficulties with their companions in their district. They pulled me aside and talked to me about their concerns. Then they asked if I would go on divisions with them and be with their companions to help them. So I feel happy they trust in me :) I gave them some advice and this week we are going to do some divisions. They just told me last night about their difficulties so we are going to do divisions tomorrow.

7/31

Tuesday: I went on divisions with a new Elder. All the people we visited thanked me for the level of maturity I act with, and how I listen to and answer their questions. I was grateful for the compliments and the good feeling I had to know that I´m progressing, but I had to talk to the missionaries of the area about how they are acting in their area. Because there shouldn´t be a difference between me and them.

Wednesday: Starting to get sick... The new missionary asked me to stay for another day in his area to help him. He knew nothing about his area so we wandered around with the goal to do what I call, "Chain contacting" we go to a member house, ask for the reference of a friend and another member, then we visit them and do the same (while contacting the non member reference) while doing so, we found an inactive member that came in to visit from another part of Mexico for 1 week. We shared a message with her and asked her to pray in the end. She broke down in tears during the last prayer (we asked her to offer) because she knew she´s needed to go back to church. She committed herself to go. Her name is Sandra

Thursday: Getting more sick.. My companion and I came back to our area and started to work. In the night time, we taught a man we contacted a few weeks ago. Him, his wife, his daughter, and his neighbor (who all accepted a baptismal date). In the beginning of the lesson my comp and I got kinda nervous because we realized we weren´t on the same page. I was talking about the restoration and then he pulled out a folleto of the Evangelio. We said a prayer and then he left me to talk. I felt The Spirit very strongly move as I began to work into the lesson of the Gospel and I felt the confirmation of that Spirit while continuing in the lesson. In the end, we found a family and the father of another family in our last lesson of the day.

We will have the baptism in a couple weeks :)

Saturday: Now every symptom of a cold but included with stomach problems.. Started out the day as normal and did exercise with the hope of helping my body feel better.. Nope, didn´t work. I ran, got rid of all the energy I built from my good night´s rest and sat down wondering why my body didn´t love me. We live with some other missionaries right now because the wiring is fried in their house. One of these missionaries is sick too, so he sat along the side while the rest of us did our exercise. I sat down next to him and we started talking to some people who were also in the field finishing their exercise. They started talking about putting down 100 pesos each one to do something to clear up the field. (Not being part of the conversation) I spoke up and said we would do it for free. They started to say that 100 pesos isn´t that bad and they would happily pay us that amount. The other Elder started to tell about how we don´t accept money for service and we would happily do it for free. We talked a bit more and put a service project activity for Tuesday (tomorrow). When the people left, one of the women came up to us and said, "I would like to offer you a breakfast once you finish up with your service, I would also like you to pass later in the day to my house to share with me your message." She just happens to live in our area ;)

Oh and I went to the doctor and he gave me pills. I couldn´t move without almost throwing up so I laid like a firm brick all day. Then at night I started to feel a little bit better so we went to a family home evening activity we planned, found a new investigator, and he came to church the next day.



Sunday: best results in our area we have seen this whole change as far as Sunday reports go. We found 3 new investigators of a family in the afternoon and I´m not sick anymore!!!! :D

Monday: Yesterday our ward mission leader invited us to have breakfast with him today. So we went, and upon arriving, it just so happens that they had a water problem today so we ended up doing a small service and filled up every bucket of water they had in their house. With a picture :)


8/7

I was on my way to Girls Camp this day so I didn’t get to talk to him that much.

I´m online right now and then I´m gonna be getting back on at around 3. I just needed to check some stuff real quick and then I´m we´re gonna come back later when we have more time. We have a baptism coming up this week, and then next week, and the next week! We´re hoping everything goes well, we´re working super hard. Its so weird! We are now putting baptismal dates for people that can be baptized in September :P ahhhh! Time is flying.

8/14

Ya my companion and I have to go to another zone today for some documents and we`re not too sure about what time we will get back. We might write a little later but I`m not sure. It depends on how everything goes.

We baptized this past week, we will baptized this week, and next week. Hopefully the week after as well :)

I`ve been trying to help my comp and the zone understand the importance of the message of the restoration (given that it is our only unique message to the world) because that is the most efficient way to teach. ITS THE REASON TO WHY PEOPLE SHOULD LISTEN TO US!!! Tell Brendan to study in Chapter 9 of Preach My Gospel, where it says "Teach to Find and Find to Teach" the 2nd Paragraph after the italisized examples. Finally it clicked with my companion and some other missionaries and they started teaching more effectively.

As well we have had some good lessons this week. Good experiences with the hurricane, and LOTS of divisions with the zone. We should have quite a few baptisms this week in the zone so we`ll see how everything goes. Hurricane Franklin that just hit us the other day. It was kinda knarly in some parts but didn`t hit us too hard. It was only a class 2 hurricane. I`m trying to send pictures but all the computers here dont want to cooperate with me. Its difficult. But I`m gonna be home soon so you`ll see ALL my pictures shortly. We had to help a few people with mud.

But anyways. I gotta go right now. I`ll talk to you later if I get the chance. If not, love you! Have a good week!

Ahora bien, es tiempo para la verificación. Como dije, íbamos a encontrar 12 nuevos en la semana.. Tristemente solo llegábamos hasta 10. PERO este cuenta por nuestro propio área. Contando igual los divisiones que habíamos hecho, logramos 15.. Entonces si usted quiere aplicar las palabras de Elder Bednar cuando dijo citando DyC, "no importa donde sirváis," yo creo que sí pasábamos la meta ;)

Amo mi llamamiento a ser Líder de Zona... Pero híjole, a veces es difícil. He visto que hay muchas cosas para mejorar en la enseñanza. Los misioneros han progresado mucho, y somos alegres por eso, de hecho, rompemos nuestro récord de nuevos para la zona en éste cambio aun que estábamos un área menos porque el Presidente había cerrado uno.

Hoy pregunté a mi Presidente cuando hice mi llamada semanal si yo podría estudiar el Manual 2 de la organización de la iglesia para prepararme a irme a casa, y me dijo que sí! De hecho me felicitó por mi deseo a estudiarlo y prepararme por futuros llamamientos en casa.

Tuvimos un huracán esta semana.. Sobrevivimos porque no fue tan grande, pero sí hizo un daño a ciertos lugares de nuestro área. Tuvimos que ayudar varios personas que tenía lodo en su casa y sacarlo.

Y... Un pato me siguió un día mientras estábamos buscando referencias.

Translate it, see how I did. PS. Google translate isn`t always the best...

8/21

Lots of people have talked about the eclipse today! It has been quite the topic. I never saw it, my comp and I went to the beach :) I took pictures and I have my camera cord so I should be able to send quite a few today.













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