OH WHAT A JOY! Oh What a WEEK!

Buenas Tardes a todos!                          19 March 2012

Well it is that time of the week once again. It feels just like yesterday that I was here in this same computer emailing, but another week has come and gone full of great experiences. We had a really great week over all. We did have some pretty crazy trials and weird things happen to us, but we were able to overcome those things and finish our week strong.

The weather here has been really nice until yesterday. Basically for the whole week it was in the 60's and we were wearing short sleeves and walking a lot, but Sunday morning we woke up to snow! (Which was not very funny!) You got to love the crazy Utah weather. So we thought that it was just going to be a one day thing, but this morning we woke up to snow once again. We are hoping that it will go away today or tomorrow and the nice weather will come back, but we will see how that goes.

Sr. George Temple In the Spring!

We were able to have our semi-annual temple trip as a mission this last Wednesday. (SEE PICTURE)  It was really good, and something that I really needed. I can always feel so much peace when I go to the temple. You can really feel that it is the Lord's house on earth. I remember just sitting in there and the whole time I felt like time stopped -that nothing was going on outside of the temple, that I wasn’t a missionary, but I was in the Lord's house and was learning from those sacred things. It is a feeling that is unbelievable. 

The biggest lesson that I learned this week was that the Lord truly provides for his faithful servants. As I said before, we had some struggles at the beginning of the week. We dropped 2 investigators that we were teaching, because they weren’t interested in doing anything or changing. We also had a family get evicted from their apartment and move out of state. So it was pretty hard to see 4 people that we supposed to be baptized be gone just like that. We were really wondering what was going to happen to us this week or how we were going to be able to find people to replace them, but the Lord provides a way to be able to accomplish His work.

You may remember the family of five that I talked about last week, the Calvario family. They are still going strong and progressing really well. We were able to invite the three kids to be baptized, and they accepted to be baptized of the 7th of April. I am really beginning to love that family so much. Bro. Calvario actually said something that was pretty cool and showed me how strong his belief in the Lord is. He said, "If someone came and offered you a million dollars, of course you would take it. The missionaries are here to help you and are offering you something that is worth way more then a million dollars. It is priceless what they are offering." Eternal salvation in the kingdom of God really is priceless, and it can only be obtained by following the principles and ordinances of the gospel.

We also were able to find another new investigator, Tanya. (Pronounced TAN-ya) She actually requested to meet with us. She has been going through some really hard times lately, and she knew that she needed to bring Heavenly Father into her life. She basically grew up in a semi LDS home, but was never baptized. She wanted to meet with us to learn more and to change her life around. We are definitely excited and willing to do that. She accepted a baptismal date for the 7th of April as well. I know that the Lord truly put these people in our path and He is there helping us to continually find His children and help them return to the fold of God.

We also had a pretty intense lesson with this kid named Carlos last night. He has a baptismal date for the 24th of March, but says that he still hasn’t received his answer. So last night we had a lesson just asking him questions and trying to understand how we could help him. The thing that changed the lesson was when his step-dad, who is a member, just opened up and started to bear his testimony. We have never really heard the step-dad say anything during the lessons and has always just been a silent listener, but yesterday he let it all out. After his testimony, almost everyone in the room was crying, but especially Carlos. Carlos expressed that he really wanted to have the same feelings that we all have; to have the happiness and peace that comes from the gospel. So we all knelt down and Carlos offered one of the most sincere prayers I have ever heard in my life, asking to know if these things are true and that he would be able to recognize the answer. So we are really praying for him, and hoping that he can receive that answer and can be baptized this weekend. So keep Carlos in your prayers.

Well if those experiences weren’t good enough for one week, we also had two BAPTISMS!!!!!!!! Alma and Joselene (pronounced Jocelyn) were baptized on Saturday. It was such a great feeling to be able to have those baptisms. It was a great experience that Elder Pedersen and I each got to baptize one and to confirm one of them. It was a great feeling to be able to stand in that baptismal font with someone that I was able to find, teach, and help enter into the waters of baptism. I have said it before, but unless someone has experienced that, they won’t know the true joy that I am feeling right now. I am not going to lie, it was a pretty hectic time right before the baptism, but we made everything work and the ordinance was done by the proper authority, the Priesthood.

I was able to have my first Spanish baptism here in Cedar City. I was also able to baptize Joselene in Spanish, so that was a pretty cool experience as well. The confirmation was the thing that was nerve racking. I have only down one confirmation ever in Spanish, and that was about a year ago. So this time around I was more prepared with my Spanish, but I was still pretty nervous. The cool thing was that after I started to confirm Alma, my nervousness went away. It was at that point that I knew that it was the Spirit talking and not just me. After the confirmation, we also had to speak in the Spanish branch. We were given the subject of temples. So it was a pretty good subject that relates to missionary work.

My joy is full this week and the experiences are going to keep coming. I know that I am going about the Lord's work and that He is providing for me at this time. I wouldn’t trade this time in my life for anything!

Live it, Love it, Preach it!

con todo el amor en el mundo!  ELDER D