Week 97-July 22, 2015

They're the master chefs. The hermano made some amazing pastrami
sandwiches and he showed me how to make them. So I'll give them a try
when I get back

“If we are no better tomorrow than we are today, we are not very useful.”

Week 94-June1, 2015

Week 93-May 25, 2015-Tujunga

Dear Home,
This week went by super fast. I don't really know what to write anymore...
We had zone conference, that went well. My last one in the mission.
This week we tried to get to know the area a little better so we
branched out to some parts where we usually don't go. It was alright.
It starts looking a lot like the San Fernando mission, all
desert-like. We were able to find a part member family-former who is
interested in coming back. There are so many part member families it
is a little overwhelming. We are still trying to find out who
(concerning less-active members) we still need to focus on, so we have
been visiting around here and there. The good thing is our ward
mission leader is really on top of it so he is a great help to us.
Eduardo is doing really well. It's been great to be able to visit him
and see him so receptive. He is a great man. He came to church and
really enjoyed it. He made some good friends and the ward is doing
really well in fellow shipping him and his son.
I'm pretty tired, so I don't really know what else to write. But
things are going well.
Love you!

Week 92-May 18, 2015

Culinary Restoration!

Best crepes I've ever had. A less active member made us the best food
ever. He used to own a restaurant in downtown LA. He said he would
sell these crepes for like 7 bucks each and he gave us like 5! And
he'd just make them up as he went.





Dear home,
This week started off with an interesting turn. We started with
exchanges from Monday to Tuesday, so Elder Bailey, Saunders, and I
were in Tujunga. We were planning for the next day when all of a
sudden we get a call from the APs. They were calling to emergency
transfer Elder Clark. So, long story short, Elder Clark is not in our
companionship anymore. Which has been a bit interesting because we are
almost whitewashing now hahah. But it's not too bad since I only have
to focus on teaching one person Spanish instead of two.
Nevertheless, we had a great week with a lot of miracles. On our
exchange, we helped an Hermana from the ward paint some of her house.
She wanted us to stop by someone she had helped out a few times named
Eduardo. We called him and set up a time with him for a couple days
later. The lesson we had with him was awesome. He was so eager to
learn and listen to what we had to say. I have a lot of respect for
him because he has had a pretty hard life but diligently tries to be
closer to God. He had a wife that passed away about 8 years ago and an
8 year old son with disabilities and a 16 year old son in
rehabilitation center. I'm used to seeing the single moms having to
deal with stuff like this, but he's the first one I've seen in a
situation like his. We had another lesson with him on Saturday to
introduce the Book of Mormon with him. He liked it a lot. Turned out
he had a boss that was Mormon that would invite him to church, but he
would never go. We set a goal for baptism with him for late June and
invited him to church. And lo and behold he came! It was a great sight
to see him there with his son so eager to learn and enjoy his
experience there.
Then, we had a few lessons with a lady named Rocelia. She is the
sister of a returning less active who was visiting from Las Vegas. We
had a really spirit packed lesson on Saturday in which we had her pray
and invited her to be baptized and she accepted a date as well. She
came to church the next day, which was awesome. We went by later in
the day to set up an appointment with her and she was gone...:( her
daughter had come and picked her up to take her back to Las Vegas... I
hope that is not the last we see of her, though. But we'll see what
happens, there.
We also had Juanitas baptism this weekend. It went well and it was
great to see her be happy. She has a great spirit.

Things are going great. We're still trying to figure out the area, but
it's been great getting to kind of reset the area on our own.

Week 91-May 11, 2015-Tujunga

Dear home,
Happy Mother's Day!
It was great to get to see my family again. It's weird because I feel
like it was just a few days ago that we were doing the Christmas
calls.
We had a pretty good week. We were blessed to be able to teach a lot
of lessons. It definitely helps a lot when you have a car. My
companions are picking up on their Spanish, poco a poco. I try to
speak to them in Spanish regularly and I've kinda made them step it up
in lessons. Which isn't always the most pleasant to go through, but it
helps them a lot.
We had some pretty neat experiences on relying on prayer. Earlier in
the week, we had challenged ourselves to teach 20 lessons this week.
There was at least one point in each day where we didn't know what to
do because of all our plans falling through. Each time, we stopped and
prayed to see where we should go. And each time, the impression we had
to go to a certain place always resulted in us finding someone to
teach and bring the Spirit to. So that was cool. We ended up hitting
the goal we set.
Juanita is doing really well, too. We changed her date to this weekend
due to some schedule stuff, but she is doing well. I always feel the
spirit around her.
But so far, things are going great. Crazy to think I am where I am
right now in my mission. I am trying to make the most of it and love
each moment as I build my testimony of Jesus Christ and his atonement.
love you!

Week 90-May 4, 2015

Hello Heidy!
Your favorite missionary works in my ward right now and we are enjoying his special spirit! He is a strong and faithful missionary and we are happy to have him with us! 
I know this picture will brighten your day!
Happy Mother's Day!!
Sincerely, 
Cecilia Covinos 

Week 89-April 27

Week 88- April 20 , 2015

I am in a ward called Tujunga. It is huge hahah. And a lot of white. It is actually part of an English stake. And there are a lot of members who are American but speak Spanish, like the bishop is a white guy Haha. So from what I hear and I understand it is the best ward organizational wise in the mission, which is awesome. 

Elder Merrill with his parents and one of his brothers

Week 87- April 13, 2015

Week 86- April 6, 2015-El Molino

(We are having p-day on Friday as well since it's our temple day so I
will be writing more then)


Dear Home,
This has been a pretty good past week and half. But I'm not going to
lie, I'm extremely tired... Pero ahí vamos.
Conference was awesome. It was cool to see that the two general
authorities that have come to this mission both spoke at conference
(Elder Brent Nielsen and Elder Sitati, the one from Africa). I really
enjoyed it and I feel like it gave me a good refocus for the last bit
of my mission and post mission. Kind of sad to think that was my last
general conference as a missionary. I got to see Elder Fellows (future
roommate) and talk to him a bit. It's weird to think he and Elder
Merrill, two of my past companions are going home so soon! But it was
good to talk to fellows since I haven been able to see him in so long
because of all his assistant responsibilities. It seems like there's a
good chance I might not be finishing my mission as "extra
responsibility free" as I thought. But we'll see. Transfers are next
week so a ver que pasa.
We found a really great family not too long ago. They are a young
couple with two baby boys who live under a recent convert couple from
the English ward. The recent converts are super cool, the Regalado
family. They are in their 80s and are originally from Mexico but go to
the English ward. They referred this couple to us. They are very
prepared and have a lot of desires to know and come closer to God.
Alex, the husband, has gone through some crazy stuff in the past. But
it impresses me that even though he passed through the things he has,
he still believes in God and has desires to do what's right. The
lessons we've had with them have been great because they have a ton of
questions and they are really humble and willing to learn. Elder
Stuart and I both feel very blessed to have the opportunity to teach
these great people.
I got to go to the temple today as well. Always an awesome experience.
I know that God is our Heavenly Father and knows each one of us
personally and by name. I know that through the atonement of Jesus
Christ we can be clean and be able to be with our families forever.
This life is for us to enjoy and to prepare to meet God in the next. I
love the words of Isaiah when he says "through his wounds, we may be
healed." I know that's true, because I have felt it.
Love you all!

Week 85- March 30, 2015

Dear home,
"Daddy why do we always sit like this when the elders come?"
"It's because we're creatures of habits, honey"
"Oh"
This was a dialogue between Helaman (member we are working with) and
his six year old daughter haha. Made me laugh, because Helaman is a
scientist and his conversations with his daughters are funny.
This week was pretty good, we had Mateo's confirmation this weekend
which I was able to do. It's always an awesome experience to confirm
someone and literally feel the Holy Ghost through me. He's doing
really well and it's been great to see how happy he is.
We had a really great lesson with Chris and his mom. The unfortunate
part is that we found out Chris pretty much got baptized for all the
wrong reasons in San Bernadino. But! On the other hand, his mom is
really prepared to make changes in her life to come closer to God. She
accepted a baptismal goal for mid-May. And on top of that, Chris is
wiling to start over and take it for real this time.
Lusitania is still doing well, we're going to change her goal for late April.
But nothing too crazy this week. I'm super excited to go to general
conference this weekend and hear the new instruction we will receive
from the Lord and his prophet and apostles. Love you all!

Luis (recent convert) and I riding my bike

Week 84- March 23, 2015-El Molino 4

Dear home,
This was an excellent week.
Mateo got baptized this past weekend! It was a really awesome
experience to be there and to see how strong he was feeling the
spirit. It was really great to be able to see him grow and change so
much. I got to, and will continue to, learn a lot from him. We had a
really great lesson with him on Wednesday with our Ward mission
leader. The spirit was really strong and afterwards, Mateo was
determined to leave alcohol and get baptized. It's been a,axing to see
the change in him as he has applied the gospel of Jesus Christ in his
life It was really cool because his family came as well! Hopefully
they were receptive to the spirit and will be more open to us visiting
them this week.
Other than that, we had a pretty good week as well. We found a less
active kid (17 years old) that moved into our Ward about 6 months ago.
He's a good kid, but has some problems with certain commandments, so
we are trying to start him up again. He is the only member of his
family, but his mom is really prepared! She has a testimony of the
Book of Mormon and is really prepared to come closer to God. The only
problem, is she has a lot of work, including on Sunday's. But
nevertheless, we are pretty excited to work with her.
Then we had another lesson with a new investigator who is Randy's
neighbor (the Guatemalan guy that moved in recently). That was crazy
he had A LOT of questions. We were there for like two hours and didn't
end up getting home til like 10:40. We kept trying to cut it, but he
had a lot to say. He has a lot of potential to, just gotta see if he
will keep his commitments. It's cool, because he read and investigated
the mormon.org website we gave him and he is a pretty sharp dude.
Lupita is also doing pretty well, she is slowly and steadily
progressing for baptism in April. So overall. Things are great! Love
you all!