Otimo Seman! Awesome Week!

So this week has been probably the best week thus far since coming into this new area. We have seen alot of success and miracles this week! One miracle we had was we contacted someone on the street one night and the next day we went by and saw him at his home. As we taught him he just opened up more and more and at the end when i asked if he wanted to be baptized he Promptly replied the nails on a chalkboard phrase to missionaries "Ive already been baptized" Of course as we were about to go into depth on the need to be re-baptized he says "...but i feel as though i need to be re-baptized..." We literally almost started laughing at how he said it. It was like the spirit was like here you dont need to say anything, "i got this one". Because he literally said it as we were opening our mouths to answer him.

So we are planning on April 13th hopefully. He came to church this sunday and stayed for sacrament and said he loved it so pray for him. His name is "L". We also have a baptism this sunday for a guy named "R". he has had some issues in his past but he has made such a remarkable turn around in his life. He Has dropped all issues with The word of wisdom and Law of chastity and has committed to paying tithing! He is soo awesome! Crazy news this week.......... Elder Reids visa got somehow rejected because of one small mistake on one page so the First presidency has assigned him a new mission call and He is going to Cape Verde! Portuguese speaking. He is sooo nervous. This has really strengthened our relationship. We hope to continue to stay strong and keep this work progressing! Pray for the baptism that is supposed to happen this sunday! LOVE YOU ALL!!!!

District

 

I was going for "what's up?"

Sketchy painting of Harry Houdini on a house near our apartment

E-mail on Wednesday

Hey sooo I will get to email all of yall on wednesday. I went to the Sequioa National Park today and tomorrow we have Zone Conference all day so I will email you all the first chance I get on wednesday! LOVE YOU!!

Another 6 weeks in Visalia

So transfer call happened on saturday and I will be staying in visalia 7th YSA for another 6 weeks with Elder Reid still as my companion! We had a Baptism yesterday for "A" and it seriously was sooooooo AMAZING!!!!!! I gave the talk on baptism and Elder Reid was able to baptize her! Really awesome for him cause it was his first time baptizing!

 

I have been learning soooooo much!!! Missionary work is crazy fun! YSAs are such funny people they are always so flaky.... Haha but I love them none the less! Unfortunately my allergies have really set in and I'm weezing quite hideously.. haha but there was this really nice member in another ward that i met who is a doctor at a prison who bought me allegra and also got me an inhaler all for no charge! He reminded me a ton of Dr. Hopkins! haha the members here are awesome! i love you all soooooo much! Keep up the awesome work!!!!

finally got a name tag in English (was previously in Portuguese)

Great Week!

This week has been awesome! The biggest miracle of the week is that we now have a baptism set for this sunday! Her name is "A" and she is a friend of a one of the members in our branch. She has come to church three weeks in a row and with each lesson we teach her she continues to increase in faith and her desire to be baptized continues to be fortified.

She has such a stong spirit and we had such a powerful 1st lesson with her where she was crying because of how strong she felt the spirit! We, Elder Reid and I, are trying to work much harder in the final weeks of this transfer. I look forward to the next transfer as well in seeing whatever the Lord has in store for me! I love being here in The California, Fresno Mission and look forward to each day I have to spend here! I love every experience I have here whether it be trying or whether it be awesome. They are all beneficial in the eternal plan! 

 

The Zone (a group of missionaries in a certain area)

 

About to be 19!!!

haha you have no idea how long I have been waiting to be able to say that I'm not an 18 year old missionary! Haha luckily many people don't guess I'm18 but still it will be nice to be 19:)

This week has been a good one. Nothing really that stands out but just a solid week all around. Having President interviews this week was awesome! It was really good getting to talk to him! This week has been one with many positives which has been a really good thing for me. I have been praying for some success in this area. We have finally had a member home here! Her name is "S" and she is a former who has some amazing questions. We also are having a lot of success with working with some of our ward members. A friend of a girl in our ward came to church with her this week and LOVED it apparently and now she wants to meet with us which is great!

We are still trying to find through our own efforts but no one seems to be very solid yet, but we will continue to work! I'm indeed grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary! I love my calling. A favorite quote that I have recently come across that has really helped me realize that I can always improve is "the Lord doesn't call the qualified, he qualifies the called!"

I am sooooo stinkin proud to be serving out here! the YSA here is small but i love it soo much. They are soo sincere and im so glad to be here! Sounds like Everyone is having great missionary opportunities! Keep up the awesome work! Love ya!

Great Week to be a Mormon Missionary!

Finding was a great success this week! Elder Reid and I truly had a miracle happen this past week! We were doing a new member lesson with a girl that was recently baptized and also teaching one of her friends at The College here and after we finished the lesson as we were about to leave but we saw a poster talking about how on the next day was this thing called "Club Rush" where any organization can come and set up a table and talk about their club with the students. We were kinda disappointed when we saw that registrations were due like two weeks earlier but we figured we would go in a talk with the head women any way. So we started talking to her and turns out our branch here has a LDS student association on the campus and all we had to do was go get a teacher (obviously Mormon) to sponsor our club so that we could get a table! But the only problem was that we had to get a LDS teacher to fill out the form within like 20 minutes because they closed at like 4:30.. So Elder Reid racked his brain and remembered the dad of one of our ward members worked at COS (College of the Sequoias) and funny enough practically right next door and was working at the exact time we needed him! So long story short he filled out the form, we got a table at the Club Rush and we got like 30 Potential Investigators that we are trying to contact now!

That is the table we set up at club rush! haha my floral arrangement skills have payed off... Just kidding but i think we did a heck of a job with the presentation!;)

It seriously was a huge blessing because like I said last week finding has been difficult and I have been praying for better finding opportunities and We have been richly blessed! Oh how great it is to be a Mormon Missionary! Hope all is well in everyones lives! Not to much happened that stands out, just a solid week all around! Been reading alot of talks this week and I loved the ones you sent Dad as well as the recent talk given by Tad R. Callister of the 70 in January entitled "What is the Blueprint of Christ's Church" I encourage EVERYONE to read it! If you read it you will know that this Church is in fact the True Church of Jesus Christ. Not to say others are bad, but Christ himself established one church when he was here thus there is only one that is indeed his Church and you can read all about it in that talk! I love you all!! Tem um Bom Semana! (Have a Good Week)!

Check out that part! Haha we have to have a part in our hair every day! It sets us A-Part!!

Bom Semana!

Good Week this week. Although it is practically impossible to find new investigators here the work is still super fun! Our finding efforts are starting to get pretty hard because we are limited to just a college campus and a mall to find YSA's so we have really been trying to work with the members ALOT!!!!!

The softball game going on at COS the local college.. Of course it was raining so no one wanted to talk to us!

Continue to pray for us that we can find solid investigators please! Obrigado! (thank you) Soo Some fun stuff from this past week:

Went Golfing On preparation day last week! Haha i was soooo bad but it was soooo much fun! It was like 5 Dollars and we (me and 3 other elders) played in our proselyting clothes! So crazy! Check the pics!

 

Can you see my ball 330 Yards down the middle?? good cause i cant either..... But hey that form is impeccable!!

 

GOLFING! my companion is on the left! (my right)

Haha sooo i figured the time would come when i would have to eat a sandwich loaded with mayo (Dallas can't stomach mayo, if you ever get a chance ask him about his "surprise birthday lunch" when mom showed up with a burger from a fast food place during his lunch time and a class mate ratted him out for throwing away his lunch because his sandwich had mayonnaise on it) and that time came this week when we went to a members home for dinner and she had on each plate a huge sub sandwich loaded with meat veggies and MAYO... And guess what... i choked it down without any hesitation! haha! Funny thing was was that my companion hates mayo too so we both just smiled and chomped away! 

I went on an exchange with an elder in a spanish area in a place called farmersville.... you can imagine what the city was like with a name like farmersville- pastures and spanish people everywhere. We stayed in a shack! But it was really funny cause i could understand alot of what they said but i couldnt say anything. 

 

THE SHACK! and yes that is a dish but dont worry it isnt connected to anything;)

 

 

So alot of the time i would say i speak portuguese and they would just smile and they would correct me on the words that werent the same in spanish haha but it was fun! 

On that exchange we met with an investigator who they had only taught like twice and when i said I was waiting to go to Brazil He was like Oh i have a soccer jersey from brazil and so long story short he gave it to me for free! It is stinkin sweet! I will send a pic next week hopefully! 

Did service literally all day saturday! Helped move two different members and it was the first day thus far that i havent put on a white shirt and tie all day! We started at like 8:30 and went to like 9:15! 

And cool story this week is that California has been really suffering from a drought during this winter season and hadnt seen rain in like a month and a half. So last sunday for fast sunday the entire state held a fast for rain... And it rained like three days this week! Of course one of the days being when i was on a bike in the spanish area but it rained!!!! 

Mission life is hard but sooooooo stinkin fun! Been reading this week through the gospels in Matthew and I just love reading about all the miracles christ performed!!! The priesthood truly is the power of God! 

I love you all sooooooo much!!! Keep me updated on the FBI clearance thing because it is bothering me that it hasnt come in yet..... But it is all in the Lords Timing! Keep up all of the awesome work! Any cool missionary moments this week?!

 

 

Dairy farms out here.... We probably werent supposed to touch them but we couldnt resist...

The cows out here are sketchy! haha so funny!