Elder Almen Thorpe - April 27, 2014

Hello family! 

The week went great! We had two of our investigators who have set the date for the tenth of May to be baptized, show up for church the other day! The best part is that they both stayed for the full three hours! Veronica and Antoine are brother and sister. The members did a great job in making them feel welcome and two of our members who are also brother and sister, have been asked to fellowship with Veronica and Antonio. They hit it off great. They all get along and the brother and sister that are members went and to pick up Veronica and Antonio for church. It was an amazing Sunday! Veronica is 18 and Antoine is 14. Their mom is Catholic but approves that both of them to be baptized. The great thing about this miracle is that Veronica and Antonio's older sister is married to a member. They both expressed that they want their brother-in-law to baptize them! Elder Wiedrich and I fasted for all five of our set investigators. They are all set for sometime in May. It feels like a miracle that these two came to church and are ready to enter into the waters of baptism. 

We also had a miracle in finding a lady sitting down on a log with bags of food she was carrying while taking a rest. It was no accident that we ran into her. She and her husband used to have missionary discussion's. It's just her boy and her husband that live at home. She told us that even though she is Catholic she doesn't feel like the Catholic church is for her. As soon as she said this my companion and I looked at each other with astonishment! She said "I only go to the Catholic church on Sunday because if I don't go I feel guilty for not going, but still I don't feel it fits me". This all came from just asking her if she needed help carrying her groceries! We later helped her carry her bags back to her place and met her husband and 12 year old son who is, by the way, about 6 feet tall as a twelve year old. They want us to come back this week and visit with the family and get to know them. We are excited and feel they are ready to be taught more.

What a wonderful week!! Loved it and had a blast! Still going strong and no place like doing missionary work! Hope all is well and all of you are doing great! Miss you all. Please keep all our investigators in your prayers! Love you and I'll talk to you all on Mother's Day!! 

From Elder Thorpe 

Sister Courtnee Wood - I Will Follow God's Game Plan

Sister Wood and Sister Bacalla and the Marlon Family. Basketball.....who would've thought!

Hey hey hey!

Happy Easter for all of those who are at home! I think it is still Easter there. So many of you probably wonder what Easter is like here! Well, it's nothing! Haha I am not joking. I have probably heard the word Easter maybe 4 times this last week. It is just not celebrated like it is back home. Well they have a catholic holiday that I am not too familiar with that has lasted this whole week and everything shuts down, but that's about it. Everyone here is remembering our Savior though, so I guess that is all that matters. Our sacrament meeting was really great yesterday and was all about our Savior. The Spirit was strong, my companion spoke and Sister Richards sang. It rocked. As far as Easter bunny type stuff, there is no such thing. I was just showing my companion pictures of my nephews at the easter egg hunt, and she had never seen anything like that in her life! So, we definitely snazz it up at home. Umm.... I was just randomly thinking this week and I thought you would all like to know that there is no real milk here, and no real cheese here. We used this powdered artificial milk stuff and I don't like it. Sister Richards and I just sit and talk about the taste of a cold glass of real milk and real cheese. Makes our mouth water. Anyways, there is that. The mission gives us calcium pills for the sisters to take, to make sure we get the nutrients, so no worries. 

This week kind of seemed to revolve around the theme of basketball. Which I am cool with. Now I will tell you why! First, a couple of weeks ago, we were at the church waiting for a fellowshipper and were watching the guys play ball. They weren't the regulars, they were actually tall and big and good. Plus, all of them were wearing REAL nike gear. In case you didn't know, all of the brands here are fake. But me being me could tell they were wearing the real stuff. Hey, it caught my interest. We had to leave, but we told ourselves we were going to find out who they were, because they obviously had money. Not to mention that one of them was super white, so I was curious what he was. They would be good potential investigators! Plus, we are seeking out the middle class. The next week at the same time they were there playing again, and so I just went up and started talking to them before they started. The more white kid is named Jason Anderson hahaha such a white kid name. He is half filipino half scottish. He is going to the UK next month to visit, so that of course sparked conversation. Plus they all spoke english. One of the first things he said was that he was born again when we went over there, but we weezled our way in and got the whole teams names, where they lived, and their numbers. And yeah, they have money. ONe's family owns the biggest gas thing here. I sat and talked to them about where they buy their nike gear and stuff and he was wearing the jordan socks i used to wear to practice in high school so i told him that haha. Too bad they were all in the Elder's area though. It's okay, we got it done and they are super sweet referrals. Not to mention, we used Brother Alcantara, the basketball fanatic to get some info on them too! Just another way to BRT. :) Second, was friday we had MCM, so we got all ready, like put make up on and stuff to go, and the church is locked. No one is there. Besides some little boys playing basketball. I wasn't just gonna sit there, so sister richards and I went and played 2 v. 3 against some little boys. In our skirts, all dressed up. We were dripping sweat, it was so disgusting. My shirt was wet and I had to put my hair up. Got a little too intense. But we destroyed them, so that's all that matters. Second to last event, we finally got a lesson appointment with the Alcantara family (basketball fanatics). Finally agreed for all of them to be there for it as well. It was a miracle quite frankly. BUT, the time they set it was the time we were supposed to have exchanges. We personally thought that this appointment (first and last one with them) was pretty important, so we kindly told the sister training leaders that we will need to reschedule exchanges for another time. I would just like to thank all of you for your prayers because since the Alcantara's finally said we could teach them, WE DIDN'T HAVE EXCHANGES!!! Hahaha. So, there is nothing to report to you all on how they went! Woohoo!!! I was terribly sad, I wanted that opportunity... Jokes. I was thrilled, but only cause we were going to be able to teach that family! Hehehe. ;) Now, on to the lesson. I will tell you how it went. Well, I had spent a lot of time preparing something for it related to basketball. I mean because it is the only way they listen and are interested. We came up with the the topic I will follow God's game plan! I made basketballs with things that are a part of God's plan and then Fouls that go against his plan! Anyways, I was so pumped to teach this because on the front of each ball or foul was something you would do in a real game. We got to their house and only the mom was there. She is kind of the stingy one that isn't very welcoming. She told us that the others aren't home and that they are still at the gym. Not giving us much hope. I texted Marlon, the dad but there was no reply. She told us that ususally if he doesn't reply he is still busy. I was kind of bugged, but i literally said a prayer in my heart that they would show up. I kid you not, right after, Kurt his son, walks in the door and then Brother Marlon follows in. I was just dying. In shock quite honestly. They had come home right then just for our lesson even though things were still going on at the gym. Such a miracle from Heavenly Father. We taught their whole family together and it was my favorite lesson I have ever taught here in Aparri. All of us were dressed in basketball jerseys because we are on God's team! It was SO MUCH FUN! We talked about God's plan and game plans. Everything was related to a ball game, but it worked so well and the Spirit was there! We talked about when we foul or we sin, we can come back. We have another chance to start again! I had brother marlon tell a story of a team that was way behind in a game and came back and won it. We related it all to the gospel and it was just so great, there isn't any other way to describe it. Not to mention they were sincerely happy! All the little basketalls and fouls we passed out and had them read some how were all the things the individually need. Don't know how it happened, but not a coincidence.

 

The "Game Plan" that Sister Wood made to teach the Marlon Family

 

They love my basketball picture, so I am giving it to them today haha. I am so grateful for Heavenly father's help with that family. Little bit by little bit, they will come back! So now, back to the sweet basketball player referrals we gave to the elders. They haven't contacted any yet, but with the transfers that happened, Sister Bacalla and I will now be in their area and will get to contact our own referrals! It is going to be so fun. I can't wait to start working in that area tomorrow! So I will be in Aparri for at least 6 more weeks! It will be good. I am now in Branch 1 and not Branch 2, so that is the only difference, plus with city area instead! Well, I think that is the low down on this week! Thanks for all your loves and emails and stuff! If you have written me a letter I love you even more, and will hopefully get them soon. No mail has been delivered out here to Cagayan for a while haha. Time is flying by quick and it is freaking me out! I am grateful for this time to really really think about our Savior. I feel like I have come to know him so much more this last little bit. I love him and am so grateful for what he has done for me. Everything really is BECAUSE OF HIM!

Ofa Atu.

- Sister Wood

xoxox

 

 

Elder Zach Taylor - April 21. 2014

 

Another week in Carlos Antonio Lopez.. it´s been great as usual.

On Tuesday I had to go to Asunción to fill out papers so that I can legally be here or something.. but it was fun. We got to go visit the Temple and the distribution center. I bought a New Testament, Book of Mormon hard cover, and Preach My Gospel small version.. I was pretty happy haha. We also got to eat Lomito arabe for lunch.. which is like a Paraguayan burrito and is one of my favorite foods here.. just to make the day even better.

The rest of the week we were just teaching and finding new people to teach. We´re hoping to see a couple baptisms the 3rd of May, the week before my companion goes home. There´s a member here named Juana, and we´ve been teaching her two brothers, Hugo and Silvano. They´ve had problems with drinking alcohol, but they´ve been doing good so  far in stopping! Also that member has another sister, Petronila, who pretty much considers herself a member already, she just needs to be baptized. All three have been coming to church since we´ve been here. Also Hermana Beatriz, who is one of the daughters of Hermano Ramirez (which is the guy that holds the church meetings in his house), went with us to visit her neighbor María, who also came to church yesterday with her two daughters. There´s one other family, the Barrios family, that we found by ourselves that really like what we teach. We brought one of the sons, Ricardo, to church as well yesterday. It was awesome how many people showed up, the whole room was full with people spilling outside on the porch as well. That made us pretty happy! 

This week was also semana santa.. or holy week I guess you would say in English.. which is a big deal for people here. Brother Ramirez´s two sons that live in Asuncion now came over to spend the week.. they were really awesome. Both returned missionaries as well. 

Well I hope I´m giving enough details in my letters.. I know how much my mom loves details.. haha. I´m really growing to love this area and these people more and more every day. I wouldn´t hesitate to say it´s my favorite area so far. And my companion just makes it even better. He´s a lot of fun. It´ll be sad so see him go in 2 weeks. My testimony has grown in many ways and my desires to share the gospel are growing. Hope you all have a good week!

Elder Taylor

Elder Kaden Barlow - April 16. 2014

 

Elder Brockbank, Elder Barlow, and Elder Cunico

 

 

This week has been great!! :) I’ll start with the best part! We got transfer calls and I received Elder Granados here in Villa Carmen C!! :) I’m super excited.

Elder Granados and I get along great :) Seems like forever since I have had a companion that has wanted to go out and work hard :) He is from Utah, Provo I think, but he is Mexican and came to the CCM [MTC] for only two weeks because he already knows Spanish. He has the same time in the mission as me. He is helping me a lot with my Spanish because in the street we always try to speak it :) Just from lesson one with him, our unity was so much better than me and Elder Ponce's and we have had some great lessons.

Day 2 of being with him we set a baptismal date with Carolyn! I don't know if I told you the story with her. We were teaching her sister Estefani for awhile, dropped her, and then came back. But really I think it has all been for Carolyn. She has progressed a ton. She was overhearing us teach one day and came out and was basically like, why aren't you guys teaching me? Anyway we taught lesson 1 and about the Book of Mormon and she started reading and said she was really touched and started crying and just really understands! Hopefully this date doesn't fall through. We have got a bunch of new investigators this week and have been rejected a lot too.... some people are ridiculous.

As for other things. We had a great service activity this last Saturday. We spent almost all day painting a house of some people in Villa Carmen. It was super fun, although I don't recommend trusting the missionaries to paint your house...but it actually turned out very well in the end! :) Also our ward got ward missionaries!!! I think we are one of the only wards in the Dominican republic with ward missionaries I was pretty excited! We could actually have people to teach our recent converts after they are baptized!! haha

We decided to try to teach a bunch of Latinos how to play flag football. Elder Cardoso and I stayed up last night and made flags out of a bunch of old pants and shirts that were laying around. It went ok but they really didn't get the concept of when a play stops and that you don't continue passing the ball forward after the initial throw.... but it was fun! :)

Let’s see…funny story for the week. Elder Cardoso fell asleep on top of his phone and at 3 in the morning accidently called President Hernandez! Imagine being a Mission President and getting a call from a missionary at 3 am. What would you be thinking? Anyway he tried calling back, but, well, Cardoso was asleep. Then he called back in the morning, but he just laughed about it so that was good. I got a good laugh out of that.

 

Elder Barlow

Elder Zach Taylor - April 14. 2014: Yay!!

This week has been one of the hardest working weeks I´ve had so far. Since we´re kind of on our own here, we´ve just been clapping doors most of the time.. but it´s actually been pretty great! People kind of have a natural interest in who we are since there have never been missionaries here before. It´s kind of nice. We had 5 investigators show up to church, too, which is the most I´ve had in one meeting so far. It´s mostly thanks to my companion, he´s helping me learn how to work harder. There´s also this member here that has a few siblings that haven´t been baptized, and we´ve been helping them out this week. Her two brothers and one of her sisters came to church. There´s just so much to do here! We´re also in the process of renting out a building for the church, since surely there are going to be more people in the weeks that come. I just have this image in my mind of the church well established here.. it´s so exciting to be able to start the whole process!

We had kind of a weird experience this week... we were teaching this catholic lady named María about the book of mormon, and her brother walked in. He asked us if we believe in the virgin mary, and we said we respect her because whe was the mother of Jesus, but we don´t pray to or worship her. Usually people are okay with that and respect our beliefs..but he got mad and told us we need to repent, to go to his church and confess our sins, even grabbed my head, looked me in the eyes, and basically told me that if I don´t start praying to Mary I¨m going to hell. You know, if people don´t like what we believe, I´m okay with that. I´m okay if they tell me their beliefs, there´s nothing wrong with that. Pretty sure this guy was just...a little different. it was pretty interesting. Definitely one of the weirdest moments I´ve experienced so far. 

I get to go to Asunción again this week for visa stuff.. so that should be fun. We´re hoping to even surpass our accomplishments this week, so we´ll see how it goes! Talk to you next week, 

Elder Taylor

Elder Almen Thorpe - April 13. 2014

Up date on my week! Hey family!

This weekend was just so filled with meetings after meetings after meetings...and yes I did fall asleep in some part of the meeting but only because I went into a deep sleep of revelation...joking, I just accidentally zoned out on one or two general conference talks.

So, since New Zealand is a day a head, the people in the states had to record the General Conference program for us. It  took a week for us to get the video so if any of you are wondering why my last email wasn't about conference that would explain much hopefully.

Conference was a spiritual uplift for me! Wow, how powerful was Elder Hollands talk on the first day!? My companion and I looked at each other in awe because Elder Holland challenged every single member of the church with boldness but also kindness! I still can't get over how power and strong he was in delivering his message. It is true what he said because we as members can't be afraid of our religion. That is an everyday life for a missionary being tested by others who believe in another religion. I never thought about how big religion was and how big of a war we are in, in standing up for our own beliefs.

I also loved President Eyring's talk on "Hero's". Even though we have athletic, comic, and storytelling hero's, the most important hero's we have are the Priesthood Hero's! When I think about it, I have been surrounded in my life by a lot of good Priesthood holders who are hero's. At the time I wasn't thankful for all the examples that God put in my life and now I am very grateful for that. If it wasn't for all those priesthood holders who were an example to me, I wouldn't be here. It is so important to be that example for the next generation because they are the special generation. The kids growing up don't know what is in store for them. We as priesthood holders, family, friends, and parents need to be that hero for the little ones. They are growing up in a world were technology will become big in their life. Being out a mission has shown me how blessed I was to be using technology. Now, not using it every day helps me even more because I can concentrate and open my mind and eyes to what I want in life rather than what I "wanted" life to be like. Life is not all about money, big houses, shoes, clothes. What you need and what you want is different than what is needed for the family.

Overall, all the speakers were great! It is amazing to hear from the prophets of the Lord. When you think of it, they know so much but they teach with the level that everyone can understand and grasp the message. They don't teach to tell us "hey we are smarter than you" kind of teaching, but a teaching of "hey we know what you are going through is tough, we love you for your hard work and effort and we are here to help, and we know you aren't perfect that is why we are here to help".  The prophets teachings are teachings like Jesus Christ's   teachings when he was here on the earth. 

 

Also during this week my companion and I found another person to teach. His name is brother Maka. We found him on a TWE (talk with everyone). We showed up at his house and taught him the restoration. From there we figured out that Brother Maka is an aviation engineer! Similar to President Uchtdorf. Brother Maka works on planes and tests them out to make sure they are good for the pilots to fly. We is seeking!! As we were teaching we found out that he didn't know that having the authority is something really important because anybody can get baptized and dunked under, but if you don't have that true authority, that dunking down in the water and back up doesn't mean much. He wants to learn more and is seeking to learn more! He is an elect soul! He sets an hour a day to read the Bible so we are going to give him a Book of Mormon and he will be reading that. We will be meeting up with him today, later tonight! It will be exciting! We found him about two weeks ago randomly on the road. The Lord works in many ways! He has truly put someone for us to teach in our path! Please keep him in your prayers! 

 

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! Miss you all and love you! from Elder Thorpe.

Can't wait until mothers day! Keep up the good work! 

Elder Brandon Wallis - April 8. 2014

Elder Wallis

 

Between moving, transfers, and General Conference it was a pretty slow week, but we were able to set up a lot of stuff for this next week! We're keeping our fingers crossed that we can get some more people on date for Baptism. We have 7 that we could potentially get on date, that have either had a date before and need to reset it, or have progressed enough to where we can extend an invite. Open with prayer, spiritual thought, TESTIFY AND INVITE THE SPIRIT!, then INVITE THEM TO BE BAPTIZED while the spirit is really strong. Works more often than not. Getting them to progress and keep commitments is where people tend to struggle. We did commit Jennifer (the Wilson's daughter who's 28) to come to church this Sunday! We have some members that are going to pick her up. May Wilson (the mother) said she would come the following week. Mike Wilson... we have to figure out his work schedule. He has a testimony, he has to act on it though and ask for Sundays off. Keep your arms crossed and heads bowed praying that it'll work out! There's a few other investigators that we're starting to be able to meet with again, they've become more receptive and willing to have us over again. That's been pretty cool. The Scotts are a returning to activity family and we're teaching 3 of their daughters. Ages 8 and two are 9. They are on date for the 26th of this month! They seem pretty solid, two of them have some autism, and the lessons can be pretty interesting and hard to keep their attention. But they are learning and want to be Baptized. They also committed to come to church on Sunday. Janice Rivera is a less active that we teach and she's been doing pretty well. She really struggles with the spiritual side of the Gospel. She tries to live the Gospel but has a hard time believing that it comes from God. BUT she knows that it's a good thing. She has two twin sons that are 7 years old. They're awesome. We teach them as well and they've been absorbing a lot of it. They come to Church pretty much every Sunday now. Jonathan and Justin have asked if I'd Baptize them! I was so touched. I can't remember when their b-days are, hopefully I'm still in this area!!! Other than that, not a whole lot else has happened. We have several people that we're hoping to pick up as official "new investigators" this week. We've talked to them before and have their info. We'll see how it

General Conference was the BOMB!!! I've loved every General Conference on my Mission. can you believe that I only have one more??? That blew my mind. In a way I'm kind of sad. Dad you're right, something about being on a mission and watching General Conference, you seem to get so much more out of it. A couple of my favorite parts were President Uchtdorf's talk on Gratitude, and President Packer's talk... his was a powerhouse! Did you catch his round about way of saying that he's seen the Savior? That gave me chills. President Uchtdorf gave me a lot to think about... Am I only grateful during times of happiness and ease? Or am I also grateful for the hard times that make me grow and mature? In hindsight I'm grateful for my trials because I learned from them and grew, but what about when I'm experiencing them? So I've been trying to change my attitude of picking when I'm grateful depending on my blessings, to having a attitude of gratitude, just like President Uchtdorf counseled. Right away I've been able to see a difference. Generally I'm more happy and I'm able to not only endure trials and temptations but enjoy almost relish the challenge because God knows what my limits are and will only give me tribulations that will help me. IF, I have the ATTITUDE OF GRATITUDE. I know that we have modern day Prophets. There's no way that this Church could be false. There's too much good in it... it is PURE TRUTH. Like I've told some people on my Mission, why would I come out here for two years to tell people a lie? Why would 15 million people be so firm and steadfast in a lie? It is only through Jesus Christ that people are able to be this steadfast and immovable. Above all my other goals in life, my first priority is to be able to call myself confidently, a Man of God. The Gospel is where I have found the most joy in this life. So naturally, this is where I will stay. There is so much I have to learn, there's an infinite amount of knowledge if we use the Gift of the Holy Ghost. I love this Church, not because I think it's a good church or because of the people, I love this Church because it is Jesus Christ's Church. By continuing to progress in this Gospel and sharing our testimonies, we can all become truly converted to Christ. It is that point that I am striving to get to, where anything we do in this life is a conscious decision to do good and to bring us closer to Christ. This is my testimony and my witness of the Savior, that He lives, He loves us, and wants us to use His Atonement to return to our Heavenly Father. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I love you all! I hope you enjoy the other pictures that I've been uploading! I hope you have an awesome week. Stay safe, stay healthy/get healthy.

Love,

Elder Wallis