April 3, 2012

i was able to go to general conference again, and it was my last one as a missionary.  I was able to attend 3 of the 5 session. Becuase i am going home in the next 6 months the mission provided us with one of the tickets and they got us amazing seats. We were about 10 rows back from the front. For once in my life in the conference center i didn't have to look at the huge screen! the messages were all good. The one that i enjoyed the most was Elder Bednar's talk during priesthood about the priesthood. But as far as the work goes, i think this week is going to be a slow one. the reason why i say that is becuase it is spring break out here and pretty much everyone is gone out of here for warmer weather. So we are just going to have to hang in there this week and hopefully be able to catch some lesson in there. Anyways hope that you have a good week!

 

March 27, 2012

Things have been going really good out here in the Thayne Wyoming Stake. this past week it has been on the 50's. which i guess still kind of seems a little cold but that is really warm out here for us! we are loving it. we found out some good news the other day. the little girls that we baptized, Madison and Kayla. Her mom and her boyfriend are getting married pretty soon, so that is awesome. they have been living together for a couple of years now and since they started coming back to church they have decided to get married and their marriage date is on June 19th! so that is a good thing. we were able to meet with someone who was a non-member who wanted to ask some questions about baptisms for the dead and stuff. but it turned out that this guy was a Christian that went to some other church in town and he was trying to put together a lesson plan about paul in the book of acts. and he was going to talk about what other christian religions have to say about certain passages.we taught him a little about the chruch and he was a really nice guy and not argumentative which was really nice becuase honestly when put into a situation like that people get defensive and missionaires try to convert people like that... but we just taught him what he wanted to know and we went on our way.but anyways our one baptismal candidate, Mickel, is doing really good, she is set for baptism on april 17th.so we are excited for that.  

 

Mar. 13, 2012

this week has been ok other than my health. we were able to get 3 baptisms so that was really awesome. but these sisters got baptized and they were the ones that were the really funny ones that we have been teaching. but their names are madison and kayla and madison is 10 and kayla is 9. but during the baptism madison read a poem that she wrote about baptism and it was really really good. sometimes on my mission i think that when i teach people they really don't understand what we are talking about but when she read that it was really awesome to see that she really does understand baptism! but the other baptism here was girl named tania who is 16. but anyways she was the one that was supposed to get baptized yesterday. but her mom isn't a member and her step-dad and brother recently converted to the church about 4-5 months ago. but it was really awesome to be at her baptism and we were really excited for that. our teaching pool is dropping becuase we are just baptizing our investigators... which is probably the best problem that i would have. but elder ortiz and i are doing well. 

Mar. 6, 2012

this week has been pretty good. we almost had a baptism on saturday but it didn't work out becuase the Tania, who is a 17 year old girl was supposed to get baptized had some woman issues to deal with so the baptism was delayed until this next week. but that is ok becuase we are going to have some 3 baptisms this saturday so we are really excited for that. but the other baptism is of these 2 little grls named madison and kayla. madison is 11 and kayla is 9, and honestly they are the funniest little girls that i have taught on my mission and everytime we teach them we just end up laughing the whole time.

 

but we also picked up another girl to teach named Mickel. anyways the story with her is that she is 10 and she isn't baptized. but anyways the ward mission leader here in the Etna ward is amazing. we always keep in close contact with him and he always gives us people to go visit. but anyways we thought that Mickel was on the do not visit list and then we found out that she wasn't on the do not visit list at all. But we went ahead and visited her and her parents were super nice and we found out her step dad was a convert. but they haven't been to church in a while and Mickel really wants to be baptized so we set a baptismal date for the 7th of april. so we are exited for that. we are also teaching a kid in her class named connor.

Feb. 28, 2012

elder ortiz and i have been working really hard and honestly he is my favorite companion on my mission and has become one of my best friends. we get along really well. things have been going really good for us out here. and transfer calls are today and we are staying together so we are pretty happy about that.. we had a baptism this week and it went really well. our investigator austin got baptized so that was really awesome. but funny thing happened. in our building, the baptismal font room is pretty small, so we usually start the baptismal service in the relief society room and then we move to the baptismal font room for the actual baptismal ordianance. anyways when we got to the building there was just this dead guy in a casket in the relief society room. which was a little wierd and it kind of freaked out elder ortiz. even though he is from one of the most dangerous places in the united states...camden, new jersey. Anyways, the work is going really good out here. we are going to have another baptism out here this saturyday and then 2 the next saturday. so we are really excited for the baptisms!!
 

Feb. 21, 2012

things have been going really good the past couple of days. i am really enjoying serving out here in star valley wyoming. honestly i thought that i would hate it becuase i have mostly been in city areas my whole mission but honestly i really like it out here becuase everybody is just way chill out here and i have a good compaion. but honestly if i didn't have elder ortiz i think i would be killing myself right now. becuase companions make a big difference in the area. but anyways. this week we had a baptism so it was really good. it was this girl named Adriana. We honestly really didn't teach her at all. i think i mentioned her to you before about how the only reason why she wasn't baptized was becuase her parents wouldn't let her get baptized until she was 18. but we also have another baptism happening this next weekend which is also awesome! and then we have 1 for the 3rd of march and then we have 2 baptisms on the 10th of march and then another one for the 17th. so if everything goes as planned will have baptized 5 weeks in row which will be awesome!

Feb. 14, 2012

but this week has been really good for us in the sense of missionary work here in star valley. This week we weren't really able to pick up 6 new investigators like we had hoped for but we did pick up 3 and we are going to be able to pick up 1 more this week. but we are also going to have a baptism on this weekened which is going to be pretty exciting. it was pretty much just a free baptism for us. we haven't even taught this girl, but she had been taught by missionaries before us for several years and the only reason why she wasn't baptized was becuase her parents wouldn't let her be baptized btu she has finally turned 18 and has just decided to to it anyways and i guess her parents are still pretty cool with it, which is really good.

but this week i almost got sent out of star valley. but anyways it is called emergency transfer, and it wasn't my fault!! haha but what happens in the mission is that you usually have a possibility of being transferred every 6 weeks. but sometimes missionaries (like me at one point) need to go home or either they can't get along with their compaion and they can't stand each other anymore, but anyway there were 2 companionships in the mission that weren't getting along and rather than just switching them around they decided to involve us, so the AP's called me up and said that i was going to be transferred. and so i said ok. and then i thought about it a little bit and i thought this is not right becuase i have only been here for 4 weeks and have been having really good success with Elder Ortiz and the member out here really like us and all sorts of good stuff. so i called President Olson and told him everthing that was on my mind and about how i shouldn't be transferred and he said, well those sound like pretty good reasons to me not to be transferred. let me get back with you. and so an hour later i found out that i wasn't going to be transferred. but anyways. i am really liking here even though it is cold. but everyone is super nice to us and we are having good success.