September 14, 2015

Well I hope all is well. It sounds like many exciting things are a foot. In reference of whether I will be moved in the following week. I shouldnt be, but that is what I thought in my last area and now I am here. I will know for sure this upcoming Saturday.

It would be a bummer to leave Columbus after such a short time but whatever the Lord wants.

This week was event full to say in the least. I am going to narrow it down to three main things: The Wedding/Baptism, A Unexpected Confirmation, Temple Trip With a Miracle.

I will tell you the planning and preparation necessary for a wedding and two baptisms this Saturday was pretty stressful. Luckily the Lord was a part of it and as such all was successful.

The Wedding/Baptism
Jose Bucio finally married his wife (a member) and then was promptly baptized like immediately afterward, the marriage was only 15 minutes. I was tempted to be one of the witnesses to the wedding but they already had enough and we needed to move along. Jessica Ruiz (17 year old with a lark mom) then followed with her baptism. It was difficult because we only had access to the building for one hour, that was it as such everthing had to be crammed together but it all turn out well. There was a lot of joy and spirit in the air. I had Norma (Jessicas member friend) give a short testimony about her baptism experience. She gave a wonderful and spiritual testimony.

An Unexpected Confirmation

A very good blessed day for them and especially for us as missionaries. However a rather unexpected turn of events ensued when Jessica (now Sister Ruiz) asked if I could do her confirmation. We had not yet asked her or Jose about it. But when asked who she wanted she immediately pointed to me. I agreed but oh boy was I scared. I would of been nervous to do my very first confirmation in English, but this one had to be done in Spanish. I looked over the specific words that needed to be said and studied various words for the blessing afterward. Needless to say I pretty much forgot all my Spanish but still manage to Confirm her and dictate a few things the Spirit prompter me to. Truth be told afterwards I couldnt remember what I said to her. Its taken time and some prayer to recollect all of it. But in the end she was confirmed and is now a member. Thank goodness for the gift of tongues.

Temple Trip With A Miracle
This last Friday we had the great privilege of bringing two recent converts to the temple to do Baptisms for the Dead. Specifically a son and a mom. The son who has some special needs was flat out refusing to go in because he was nervous, uncomfortable, and just didnt want to. The situation developed to such a point he was crying and we were planning for one of us to stay with him outside while the mom went in. Finally after a half hour we were able to get him to enter. A rather marvelous thing began to occur. He started to smile and act like his normal happy self, he still was very nervous, but he had changed. Finally when it came his turn to do some baptisms rather than refused which we thought would happen he got up immediately and went right in the font. After doing two we didn't have any cards so he began to get out when the Ordinance worker asked me if he wanted to do more. I went to him and asked and no sooner had I done so he took off his glasses and went right back into the font doing another 10 names. Near the end of the trip when I talked with him about it he was smiling and laughing completely of a different mind set from when he had begun. He commented he was proud of himself. I was proud him. But I felt that more importantly heavenly father was proud of his courage to go and do, and as a result blessed him with a wonderful experience and the spirit.

Well that is the news for the week. Many a things happening. We shall see if I am lucky and get to spend my birthday here in Columbus or if they will banish me from this place. I dont know, I feel confident I should be staying but who knows. Probably I will continue to work with Elder Cruz.

As always I close with my love for you all and the hope that all is going great for you guys.

September 8, 2015

Well I hope we all give Shannon a big round of applause and a loud happy birthday shout.

I must say this week had some ups and it had some downs. I will start with the downs because thats quicker.

A family we have been teaching, who have come to church and enjoyed it, who agree with all the teachings, and have also expressed the desire to be baptized has recently dropped us. It was a little bit of a blow expecially to Elder Schoneman who originally contacted them. But while they have shut the door a little bit, they have not closed it. They wont be coming to Church but they have invited us to come back.

Now this saturday we were going to have three baptisms. Two of which will happen. But one will not. One of them has found some difficulty and some personal problems that has delayed the date. She will be baptized but needs a little more time.

Now concerning the other two. One needs to be married to his wife which will happen this week, the other one though is all ready. They will get their interviews perhaps today.

I dont think I have mentioned this so perhaps I will now. This Friday we are going to the temple to perform baptisms for the dead, and a first time endowment. This could quite possibly be one of the most exciting fridays I will of had in a long time. We will actually have the blessed opportunity to go to the temple in October, and December with our investigators for the baptisms for the dead.

As of recent the work continues at a slow pace. But progress is being made. There are many out there who are waiting, we just need the patience and diligence to do it.

I apologize for the shortness of this letter. But as it is not our traditional p day but rather a work day we run short on time.

Now for a spiritual thought, recently we have been heavily focusing on the importance of family prayers. To sum up I think President Henry B Eyring says it best.

The generations that come after you may call you blessed for your example of prayer in your family. You may not raise a great servant of God, but you can by your prayers and your example of faithfulness help the Lord Jesus Christ raise up good and beloved disciples.

Of all that you might choose to do to help the Lord,prayer will be at theheart of it. There are apparently ordinary people who, when they pray, inspire others toopen their eyes to see who is there. You can become such a person.

Think of what that can mean to those who kneel with you in family prayer. When they feel that you speak to God in faith, their faith will increase to  also speak with God. When you pray to thank God for blessings they know have come, their faith will grow that God loves them and that He answers your prayers and will answer theirs. That can happen in family prayer only when you have had that experience in private prayer, time after time.

I am still being blessed by a father and a mother who spoke with God. Their example of the power of prayer in families is still blessing the generations who came after them.

I love you all and miss you all. I hope you are all getting ready for the lovely winter we are going to have. We certainly are hahaha.

August 31, 2015

Well here we are again. And I have something rather profound to say. SUMMER IS OVER. Yep its the beginning of fall which came up rather quickly.

This week I will run through some highlights really quickly.

First things first new people. We have met one of the recent converts sister who loves us and wants us to come visit them. She is married and the husband while a little less interested still wants to learn. They have a cute son who is 5 i think. Their names are Anaeli, and Jose. They live actually only about 5 or 6 minutes away so it makes visiting them easier.

We also tried a little outside of town a trailer park that is literally all hispanics. We found one man who had been taught before by english missionaries a little, which I am wondering how because he doesnt speak english.

In that same park we also found some young men (20's), or more specifically brothers that took the time to listen. For the first time in my whole mission they actually answered all the questions correctly such as why the apostasy happened, the importance of prophets, and why the Priesthood had to be restored. Truth be told it took us by suprise, they now want to come and play soccer.

There were other people but I am limiting this to the most interesting. The last I will mention is a man we bumped into on accident who immediatly charges up to us and says missioneros. His name is William Rodriguez he is was living in Provo, Utah before coming to Indiana about 5 weeks or so ago and he had lived in Provo for about 16 years. But he is not a member. Literally he has met and fed the missionaries for almost all of those 16 years and has gone to church but has never been baptized. He also doesnt attend a church but is deeply religious so its a little confusing whats up.

So moving off from the new people we met to whats been happening at church. The Hondurans 25 of them have still not come but supposedly they will be next week. Who knows. The branch keeps growing slowly though we could use a boost and the Hondurans could be it. Besides that the church is still the same.

So the Nehrings the people we live with were impressed that I worked as a temple worker before my mission. They also liked the story of how I got called and was really scared that I had done something wrong.

But what else. We had to move our baptism of Jose this week till next week due to him not getting married. He will be next week so we should be able to baptize him the 12th of September along with Jessica and Delayne.

Well that is a good chunk of the week sorry if I missed something. I feel I covered just about everything.

Recently I watched the movie On the Lords Errand:President Thomas S Monson, if you havent seen it I highly recommend it. Its powerful all the work that the man who would later be called to serve as the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator did before becoming the man he is now. Just more evidence the Lord prepares those he calls.