Week 54- August 25, 2014- Pomona

Dear everyone,

This was a great week. We got to teach over 20 lessons, so it was

super busy. We had some extremely stressful days as well, but at the

end of it all, it was worth it.

As I said in my last email, Elder Merrill and I are in a trio with

Elder Crawford who came in from Boyle Heights. We have been working

really well as a trio and are getting a lot done. Elder Crawford has a

lot of energy, which has been great to bring about miracles.

Especially since Elder Merrill and I are both pretty calm, mellow guys

haha.

This week, the biggest miracle came from Sara,p. She is the lady I

told you about last week that went to church the day after we taught

her and was crying for a majority of the time. We went and taught her

the next day and gave her the date of baptism for this upcoming Sunday

(August 31)! Which she accepted. She has been doing great progressing

and accepting the gospel along with her 9 year old daughter, Jenny. We

also took them, along with Rigo, to see a baptism in our neighboring

district. It went super awesome, all three of them seemed to have felt

the spirit strongly. 

It is really interesting to think about this miracle that God has placed in front of us. I say this because we found her due to God blessing us because of our diligence when we were doing our best to contact 10 people before the night ended right before we went home at like 8:30 at night. And of top of that, the

first lesson with her was Saturday night 3 weeks before the 31st,

which was the last possible moment we could have taught her in order

to be baptized on her date. 

I realized a lot that The Lord blesses us when we put all that we have towards Him and especially in the last moment to test our faith. Trials precede the miracles is probably the biggest lesson have learned these past weeks. As we have been doing our best to be consecrated, we understand more that the trials of

faith are always going to come. And we might always ask ourselves why

those things happen? But those are the times that we need to pray in

order to redouble our faith and continue to be diligent. So that was

the big part I wanted to share. We are doing great, Rigo is doing

really well too and we are working really hard. Love you all!!

True doctrine understood changes behavior ;)

Week 53- August 18, 2014- Pomona

Dear home,

Transfers came this past weekend and elder Merrill and I got called to

stay together in Pomona as ZLs! I am officially the ZL with the most

time as a ZL in Spanish work... I think I might be getting old... I

hit my field mark this week as well!

This week we had some awesome miracles! Firstly I will start with

Rigo. Last week we had set the goal with him to get rid of his Santa

Muerte. We found an awesome fellowshipper for him named Berenice.

Berencice has been a member all her life but went inactive for a long

time. She was a chola that went to jail, did a lot of drugs, has a

bunch of tattoos, and was even homeless at one point! But she is an

amazing member with a super strong testimony. She clicks really well

with Rigo and they stay in good contact. 

We went by on Thursday to get rid of the Santa Muerte, but Rigo didn't feel ready. We spent about almost 2 hours trying to help him, but he kept saying he didn't feel strong enough. We decided to go inside his house by the idol and after

a few minutes, even our spirit got drained and we got super tired and

weak. At this point, not even elder Merrill and I had the energy to

get rid of it! It was so crazy because we literally could feel those

idols draining us. So we set a date for the upcoming Saturday to get

rid of it. Due to some bedbugs in a sister's pad, we had to split up

with our district leader, elder Tovar, to clean the pad. So I went

with elder Tovar on Saturday morning to help Rigo get rid of his

idols. We were prepping a lot as we walked to his house. We knocked on

the door and when Rigo opened the door, the big Santa Muerte statue

wasn't there! 

This was such a big miracle and surprise! He told us he

knew or was time to let it go so he gave it away. So all we had to get

rid of were the smaller idols and junk he had. So we gathered it all

up and drove to Sodom and Gomorra (Los Angeles) with him to get rid of

it. We had to go to a special idol store where they sold a bunch of

idols and demonic stuff. We quickly dropped the stuff off and ran out

of there. The people that worked there looked enslaved by the devil,

it was pretty sad... I could start feeling our spirit being attacked,

it was crazy! But there was a huge difference in Rigos house after,

his parents seemed happy that he got rid of it . So things are going

awesome with him, he should be able to go to church this Sunday.

This week we saw some miracles of finding a really humble family, and

some unexpected people going to church. Someone that elder Mathews (my

trainer) taught over a year ago and wanted nothing to do with the

church (his wife is a member) came! After working with him for the

past months, his heart has been softened a lot. As well as a pother

returning members' father (non member) who didn't really want to

change, went to church as well. He is a bit older, so lessons are

kinda hard with him, but he went to church, so that is cool. 

We also found a lady who moved to our area about a month or so ago from a

close-by. She actually had some member friends and listened to the

missionaries for a little bit, but nothing big came out of it. But we

taught her for a short 15 minute lesson for the first time on Saturday

and the whole lesson she was crying. The next day she went to church

and brought her daughter with her. I had to leave after sacrament

meeting to do an interview with our district leader in another ward so

elder Merrill took care of our investigators. He said that after

sacrament meeting, she was crying the rest of church. So we are really

excited to continue the work. 

Obedience brings blessings. 

Exact obedience brings miracles! Love you all!

Week 52- August 11, 2014- Pomona

Dear everyone,

     Sorry I wasn't able to write last week, we had to help with an ET. But everything is good now. 

This week, we had MLC with President Villanueva. He has a really great vision for the mission and is really excited to be here. I wish he could teach in Spanish, though. It's almost like he is a different person in English than he is in Spanish since he can't quite fully express himself. But when he speaks Spanish, he is hilarious! He has a really good sense of humor and a very Mexican accent to back it up haha. We had a good zone meeting afterwards, as well. We did a lot of role plays which turned out to be pretty fun and a good learning experience. We focused on companionship studies and the preparation to help others. Brother Elieson's quote about preparation came to mind: "When the time for performance has arrived, the time for preparation has past." Something like that! 

This week as we visited Rigo, we've seen a lot of progress. We set a date (this Thursday) with him to get rid of the Santa Muerte along with a baptismal date for September (he has to go to work one more Sunday). It's crazy how much progress he's been making and without being able to go to church! He and we are very excited for him to go so he can continue to progress even more. Other than that, he has been doing well with reading and understanding the lessons. He's a funny guy. He's cholo looking, but he's very sincere. It's funny because a lot of times when we talk to him he always catches himself when he's about to swear and switches his words real quick. Eg: "there is so much crazy sh-stuff happening" haha. But I think he is learning a lot from the spirit, which is the best way to do so! 

Elder Merrill and I have been working really hard on getting help from The Lord these past few weeks. We have been finding a lot, and at the same time, dropping a lot. So we are continuing to be diligent in our work so that we may find the elect investigators who are ready to change. 

We also started a 40 day fast to leave behind all the things that could be holding us back from having the spirit more. That has been hard, not going to lie haha. But I know it will be worth it when we find more of those elect people. So, something I read that I wrote down in the MTC a year ago (crazy!!) is: el milagro es algo que resulta naturalmente cuando aplicamos verdades eternas correctamente. I don't know how to translate it without butchering it, but that idea has been helping me a lot. Love you all!!

Week 51- August 4, 2014- Pomona

Yeah I got to see Matt! I may or may not be able to write too much today because there is an emergency transfer in our zone and we have to take a companionship completely out to another district... But tell Kami I said happy Birthday! I will send something as soon as I can. Of course I read the letters. No one else writes me, así qué tengo que!  

The visit from Matt went really well. President Becerra was the one that gave me permission to do so right before he left. Which was pretty surprising that he let me, because that is usually a big no. But it went really well, I didn't get distracted or anything. If anything, it helped me gain more focus. The lesson was really cool. We had it in the Arcadia foothill building, the nicest chapel I've ever been in. (Ask bro. Palazzo about it, they call it the Arcadia Temple hahah). And he prayed at the end, so that was cool. Haha well sorry I haven't been able to study German too much here!

Week 50- July 28, 2014- Pomona

Dear home,

This week went well. We focused a lot on finding and we were able to

find a lot and set up a lot of future appointments. I got to go on

exchanges with the Assistants this week as well. I stayed in my area

with Elder Mancia for the third time! I think he just really wants to

be my companion at this point hahaha. 

Later in the week, I went on exchanges with Elder Chapman and Marchan, I went with chapman in his area. Their are covers Arcadia, Monrovia, Duartr, etc.. In total, they

cover the equivalent of 5 English wards, a Chinese ward, and a Samoan

ward. So their era his huge and white, it still is kind of weird to me

baptized be and work in places like that haha.

This week, we got to teach Rigo about every other day. It is really

fascinating to see how the Spirit works on him. Like I mentioned in my

last email, even though he believes in the Santa Muerte and all that

stuff, he is very spiritually sensitive. Every time we talk with him,

he always tells us how much he feels the spirit and how "he sees

something in our eyes." But at the same time, I think the adversary

knows about his spiritual sensitivity because he always tells us of

these crazy, devilish, spiritual experiences. We explained to him how

when he disobeys the commandments, he opens the door for satan to come

in and do stuff like that. It's been interesting to teach him lately.

This past district meeting, we focused on Christ-like attributes and

too the attribute test. At the beginning of my mission, faith and hope

were the lowest and charity/patience the highest. But this past week,

it was completely opposite. I don't know why my charity and patience

has decreased, probably because I have to deal with complaining and a

bunch of situations now, but that is what I want to work on now. And I

think teaching Rigo is really helping me develop that more. At times,

it gets a bit fuzzy on how the atonement can really apply to people.

How it can really bring light into our lives. How it can help us come

closer to Him. How it can change people's hearts. But something about

his situation has been helping me open up my heart more and understand

that more. He really wants to change and be baptized, but it is only

through the atonement that he is going to be able to unlock the chain

and ball that satan has placed on him. He realizes now that all this

SM stuff is bad, but he's a bit afraid to take the leap and just get

rid of it. Apparently, some pretty crazy stuff happens of you get rid

of it. So he is going to talk to some SM priest to see how he can get

rid of it. Also, he works on Sundays, but has been really on top of it

at work to get those days off. Hopefully he will be free on Sundays

soon.

We are still working with Claudia and Sam to be baptized pretty soon.

They are so close, but the mom is still holding them back a bit. So

tonight we are having the last lesson we need to teach them and see

what happens. One of her biggest doubts has been that she doesn't know

enough, when in reality she does. We are pretty anxious to have the

lesson with them tonight.

This week we will have interviews with President Villanueva, pretty

excited for that. So far, so good. Love you all!

            

Week 49- July 21, 2014- Pomona

Dear everyone,

This was an interesting week, filled with ups and downs. We had exchanges this past week with Elder Tovar and Buchanan. Elder Tovar is the district leader in Pomona and he came to my area where I stayed. We started in the afternoon, and it was a bit of a strange evening. We started off with a lesson with Claudia and her daughter and it did not go well at all. It seems like we are going to have to postpone their baptism for later now... 

Later, we went to our next appointment with a less active Hermana. What I forgot was that she just rents part of the house she lives in and the owner doesn't like us for some reason. So the second we knocked the door the owner came out pretty mad and threatening to call the police and telling is to go to hell. 

We decided to keep walking down the street in which we came across a house where there was a girl in a wheelchair sitting in the front. We stopped and decided to talk to her. Her mom came out and it turned out that they were visiting from Mexico. We showed them the "Because of Him" video on our iPads and the second it finished, out came this bald cholito looking guy. He asked us if we were Christians and he went on to explain how he was thinking of going to some church that evening but decided not to. He told us about how his brother got killed a while ago and he got mad and stopped believing in God and started praying something called the Santa Muerte. The best way I can describe it, is that it is a grim reaper image/statue that people give money and belongings to in order for them to be protected by it. It is a pretty crazy belief that is common among Mexican drug dealers and such (apparently). (Well pretty much it's a false idol of a grim reaper thing. The deal is that you give it money and whatever it wants and it'll protect you from death and such. It's pretty devilish. 

We picked up a new investigator who is into that and the first thing you see when you open his door is a 2-3 foot statue of the Santa Muerte with red eyes and candles around it and a bunch of creepy stuff. So the times we've gone by this past week we have had the lessons outside so we don't have to feel like satan is watching us hahaha)

He showed us is little shrine and it kind of

freaked us out, but we set up an appointment to come by the next day.

So the exchange goes on and we're walking down the street and we see a guy that looked kind of sad just leaning on his truck. Elder tovar and I decide to talk to him and he started getting mad pretty fast and telling us to leave. It got to the point where he took out a knife and threatened us with it, so we decided it be better that we leave him alone haha. And the night continued with stuff like that hahah. 

The next day, Elder Tovar and I started off with the lesson with Rigo (Santa Muerte guy). Neither of us really knew what to expect since we had never taught someone like him, but we braced ourselves for whatever to come. It turned out to be a great lesson. He is very spiritually sensitive so through out the whole lesson he kept saying how he felt peaceful and calm. What even impressed us more is how much the spirit taught him. 

By the end of the lesson he made a comment how he feels like he might be being ignorant with the Santa Muerte stuff when through out the whole lesson we didn't mention it once. He told us how previously he feels like he is starting to come back to God and believe in Him more, so it seems like he has been prepared and it was pretty cool because right before he was going to say the last prayer to ask if what we shared was true, his neighbor was walking to her house and he called her over and her sit down with us for a bit. We had a lesson with him yesterday as well and he was just as awesome, so we are excited to continue teaching him. Only setback right now is that he is on probation for a bit, so we will see what happens with that...

We didn't end the week super well, but elder Merrill and I are determined to pick it back up and find more of those prepared people out there.

The church is true, God and Jesus Christ live and they both really appeared to Joseph Smith to restore His gospel on earth for us.

Love you all!

Week 48, July 14, 2014- Pomona

Dear everyone,

This week was Elder Merrill and I's first week together. We have

been having a pretty good time together. He is a pretty cool guy,

really calm and kinda quiet but we are getting along pretty well. We

had a pretty up and down week.

Desiree, the girl who we found and were working with ended up moving

with her dad and her bishop in the other ward, who she is very

attached to, I think had something to do with it... But she is getting

baptized, just not in Pomona. So once again, a trial of faith! 

But we have been working pretty well and we feel pretty confident that we can

help others get to baptism this month. There is a lady with a 14 year

old daughter and a 7 year old daughter that lives with a member. The 7

year old is amazing, she keeps on talking about how she can't wait til

she turns 8 so she can be baptized, and she somehow knows the answers

to everything. And on top of that her other daughter just went to

girls camp with all the girls from the stake, so things are looking

great, the daughters are being a great support, now it's the mom who

we are working with.

Something we've been working on a lot is talking to more people. So

far it's been pretty good. We met a young lady who we gave a date on

the first visit and she is an awesome person. I think things will

start picking up. We are focusing a lot on not letting our faith down

no matter what.

Things are going great, we're super excited to move the work forward!

Love you all!