Hawaiian Luau with our investigator, Kevin

Monday we played basketball with a ton of missionaries and i hadn't played ball since my first area! so i was very rusty! it was still fun though. On Tuesday after District meeting i went on an exchange with Elder Stratford to his area and that was pretty fun! when i go on exchanges i like to go to other areas so you don't have to worry about trying to find something to do when appointments fall through. That night a member took us out to eat and guess where he took us! IN N OUT! Oh yeah baby! it was so good! I also bought a t-shirt so i could just say i went to one in Texas:) in n out is pretty new in Texas and has only been here for about almost a year now. Wednesday after exchanging back we met with our investigator Daniel Ramirez! i really love that family and its always fun to go over there. because they are super chill and aren't the kind of members that are going to tell on a missionary for doing something wrong.. not that i am a bad kid.. i'm just saying haha.

We went on another exchange Thursday with our zone leaders and i went with Elder Bishop. He is way cool and he goes home in a week from Wednesday.. We had a way awesome lesson with Kevin Harris our investigator again. He is progressing very well.. We taught him about the priesthood and also the word of wisdom. we found out he smokes like 2 or 3 cigarettes a week. which isn't bad at all and he said he would quit. He also told us that he has a Seventh day Adventist friend that has been trying to Anti him and tell him that the sabbath is on Saturday not Sunday. He told us that since he doesn't know the Bible too well.. he wanted us to give him some scriptures so he could have some fire power to throw back at her! hahaha! How awesome is that! He also told her that ever since we have come into his life he has been happier and drawn closer to god. Elder Bishop also had Elder Sinclair as a companion so we shared with each other a bunch of stories. that night we stayed up till at least 12 telling stories and laughing super hard. I'm sure our neighbors weren't too happy with us. 

Friday was a pretty slow day and we dropped by our investigator Sandra and come to find out.. she is smoking again. she also told us that she was moving so we are pretty much going to drop her because she isn't going anywhere! Later that night a storm rolled in out of no where and it was pouring down rain! We had dinner with the Hamilton's who elder ricks knows quite well.. they were the swim coaches at his High School and Elder Ricks is a swimmer! so while it was storming we had dinner in their home. They have a Great Dane dog and she is huge! i was playing with her and she is super strong and would knock me around! Earlier that day we got a referral and we ended up setting up an appointment for Saturday afternoon with him.

So Saturday rolls around and we met with another investigator Anthony Copeland. We taught him the Plan of Salvation and told him that his baptism date was 3 weeks away and that he needed to come to church 3 times before he could be baptized and he said he would come the next 3 weeks and he didn't.. so that was a bummer. We met with the referral at the church and his name was Tim Duitsman and he brought his brother Ben and sister Monica. We gave them a church tour and then we shared with them the Restoration. They told us that they went to the Manti Pageant in Utah and that's what got them interested. Towards the end of the lesson they started asking us bashing questions and so we had to pull out the bible bashing scriptures and they were caught off guard haha. They did tell us that they wanted to learn more so we will see how that goes.

Later Saturday night we had the YSA Luau and Kevin came to that. it was super fun and there was Polynesian dancers there. I am not sure if it was missionary appropriate. I did video some of them though haha! One guy came out and did the Hakka which was super cool! Sunday was a great day.. like always! Kevin came to church and he is really soaking it up! He says he is learning so much and is super excited to be baptized!

God gives us trials and tribulations so we can learn to love and forgive.

Dilan shared this video with me and thought I would share here on his blog.  What incredible strength this man had after suffering such a tragedy in his life and learning to forgive the offender.  I think that we can learn from this to forgive the very small offenses that occur daily in our lives.  I admit that it is so difficult to do at times especially when there are people that may continue to hurt us. We can only control how we deal with them.  I've learned to remove myself from the negative influences and seek positive relationships.  Having the positive relationship with our Heavenly Father and learning of his constant kindness, love and patience...he will help us through these times where we feel like we cannot do it alone.  Christ has provided a way to for all to be forgiven if we are willing to submit to him.  Enjoy the video! 

http://www.lds.org/media-library/video/mormon-messages?lang=eng&start=37&end=48#2010-07-14-forgiveness-my-burden-was-made-light

Mission miracles...they keep getting better!

This week has probably been one of the most spiritual weeks of my mission!! no joke! Monday night we had Family home evening with the ysa branch and they had a free car wash at the church. we were to go talk to the people while their car was being washed.. i figured to me that it was going against someones agency!! haha you have to listen to me cause your car is being washed! you know what i mean? luckily there was a storm rolling in so nobody cared to stop in and get a free car wash so it turned out to be kind of a failure! we got our car cleaned though:) Tuesday was great! we went down to Grand Prairie which is apart of our area and we were able to visit some less active members and have a lesson with our 9 year old investigator Daniel Ramirez. It was great! we taught him the Plan of Salvation and he knew almost everything. later that night we had a lesson with a member who has been inactive for a while now and we are re-teaching him the lessons because he doesn't really remember anything! His non-member wife sat in and listened but she still was saying that she doesn't want to be a Mormon. I think shes scared more of the title "Mormon" than the actual church itself. Funny thing that we found out.. Her best friend in Arizona is a member and her name is Amber Ricks and she is actually related to my companion Elder Ricks haha.

Wednesday was probably my most spiritual/miracle day of the mission so far! In the morning we went tracting in some apartments where the Spanish Elders live.. we figured since they live there and cant tract their own apartment.. we would do it for them. Well most people were not interested which is normal. but we knocked on this door and this black guy named Anthony Copeland came out and we told him who we were and what we were doing and he let us right into his house. we shared more about the Book of Mormon and that if he read it and prayed about it that he would get an answer from god that it was true. He was pretty excited to see us! he said that the last couple of weeks he had been talking to his brother about getting back into church and we just show up on his doorstep. He said that he was taking that as a sign from God! It was so cool! Right before we left we taught him about prayer and he said a prayer perfectly! He said that was the first time he had prayed in a very long time! That's not even the best part of my day!!!!!

So yesterday we received a referral from a member named David Kern that lives in the Rockwall ward. He is a lawyer and he had a co-worker named Kevin Harris that was a security guard at his law firm and was actually leaving his job for another job. Well David said that he had this impression that he should give Kevin a Book of Mormon and so he did and told him to read the introduction and Moroni's promise and then to pray about it! So we actually got a hold of Kevin and set up an appointment for Wednesday night and we went over! Brother David Kern met us there and we sat down and got to know Kevin a little bit. He told us a little about his life and that he knows there is a god but hasn't really been active in a faith. so we told him a little about what we do as missionaries and why we go out and serve! But lets get to the best part! We asked him about his experience about reading and praying about the Book of Mormon and he said as soon  as he finished praying about it.. A calm, warm Energy went all through his body! I was so overwhelmed to hear about that! Wait!! it gets better! So we explained to him that, that was the spirit and so we started teaching him the Restoration and he was asking all of the right questions! He said. "if God loves all of his children, why would he create a hell"? so we were able to teach him a little about the kingdoms of glory. Another question he asked was. "what happens to all of the people that live in Africa, or China or wherever that don't get to hear about Jesus Christ? I don't think it would be fair for them to go to hell if they didn't get that chance! So we were able to teach him a little about the Spirit World!! How awesome is this!!!?? Well as soon as we finished sharing the Joseph Smith Experience with him.. He said he had that same feeling go through his body as when he finished praying! The spirit was probably the strongest i have ever felt in any lesson on my mission!!! We invited him to be baptized on August 11th and he is super excited! Kevin is so prepared to accept the Gospel! 

Thursday was a good day! we went over to Sandra's and last Sunday we were having our lesson in gospel principles about covenant people and she said she wanted to learn more about that. so we went in and taught her more and also about the temples and i think she really soaked that lesson up! i think she is getting closer and closer to baptism. She was asking us about her husband and what he has to do to get back on the right path.. he is actually in prison right now on First Degree murder for shooting a woman. Sandra told us that he was trying to defend himself because the lady pulled out the gun to try and kill him and they wrestled for it and the trigger was pulled and it ended up killing the lady.. i don't know too much of the story but that's basically the bulk of it. We explained to her about the Repentance process and that someone can have a change of heart and if he really didn't mean to kill that lady.. then god knows that! Thursday morning we were able to have a lesson with Anthony Copeland and we taught him the restoration and that was another fantastic lesson! We set a baptism date with him for August 11th as well!

Then came Saturday night.. We had another lesson with Kevin Harris! We brought a member from the ysa branch named Xavier Salazar.. he is actually a convert of about a month ago. so that made Kevin feel even better knowing that anybody can join the church. Xavier shared with Kevin the change that has come about in his life and how he doesn't want to do the bad stuff that he used to do. Kevin really like that! Well we taught Kevin about the Plan of Salvation and again he was answering all of the right questions! He told us that a lot of his life time questions were being answered and he was so excited! He told us that he is super excited for his baptism date on August 11th. He also told us that he would be at church the next day. So Sunday rolls around and Brother Kern came to the singles branch to support Kevin and when Kevin walked into the chapel. He looked like a member! He was wearing a suit with a white shirt and tie! He stayed all 3 hours and told Brother Kern afterwards that he thought that since church was 3 hours he would be struggling to stay awake! But he did and he said it actually went by super fast and that he learned so much! He asked another awesome question in Elders Quorum. He said "When i help people out i feel super good! Do you think God feels that same way about us"? So Spiritual! And to end my week off with a bang!!! He walks up to Xavier after church and says to him.. My baptism is on August 11th.. I want you to baptize me! I was so so excited to hear him say that and so was Xavier! This week has been such an amazing week on my mission! Very Very Spiritual!

"Pray with the right attitude in order to receive answers"

Our week here in Duncanville has probably been the best since i have been in this area! Monday night we had a lesson with our investigator Sandra at Bro. Selfs house.. That lesson was a disaster! Sandra was not happy at all and we have been asking her lots of questions to gauge where she is at and Elder Ricks told her to ask God why there are so many different churches around the world and this was her reply "i will do that.. but i am going to come to you the next day and tell you that i didn't receive an answer!" so i responded to her.. "in order to receive answers to our prayers we need to do pray with the right attitude" and she just snapped!!! She said "WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE RIGHT ATTITUDE" and that is where the lesson went down hill! she has been struggling financially for a very long time and she lives off welfare! Go figure! so it was nice to get out of that lesson! i was about ready to blow up!

Tuesday was a great day and we visited with an inactive member Bro. Robles and he has been inactive for about 15 years take or give.. We had a great lesson and he said that he knows he needs to get back to church and originally he wasn't going to come unless his wife came with him and so i told him that if he would come.. he would set that example for his wife and she would follow him! so he agreed to come this Sunday.. unfortunately he did not. But we did visit some other members that night was able to share more with them about the gospel! Wednesday was the 4th of July and it was hard because everyone was with family.. But we went tracting that morning and we found a new investigator named Chrystal Williams and she has never heard of the Book of Mormon.. Which is really weird to think that people here have never heard of it but they haven't strange right?! Another person we tracted into came bolting out the front door and she said. " are you Mormons" and we said yes! and she said " you need to get out of that religion.. Mormons don't believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God!" This lady was super crazy! She had like inch long hairs growing out of her chin and upper lip! She again told us that we needed to get out of our religion and then laughed way crazily.. kind of like a witch and then went inside! I was so freaked out! That night it was about 8pm and we decided to stop in at sonic for some ice cream.. well this sonic was right across the street from the Duncanville community park where they were going to be lighting off fireworks soon! So this sonic was jam packed! people weren't even in their cars.. they were just standing next to the intercom's ordering food.. Elder Ricks and I were so uncomfortable! There were so many people and just being a missionary and around all of those people was sketchy! So we went home and the rest of the night we heard fireworks until I fell asleep!

Thursday after our weekly planning we decided to go on an exchange with the Waxahachie Elders (Johnson & Payne). They live about a half hour away so were meeting them halfway! we got a phone call from them and they said that they blew a tire about 2 miles away from our meeting point and they needed our help! so we drive down there and the tire is just shredded! so we call up the mission vehicle coordinator and hes telling us what we need to do.. anyways he just tells us to get the spare on and once we do that then he will figure out what we need to do next.. So i guess about a month ago or so.. these elders had one of their tires and lug nuts stolen from the car.. so when the tire company replaced the tire, they put on all 4 of the same lug nuts and one different one and different size. so the tire iron they had in their car didn't fit the odd lug nut! so we had to go to O'reilly Auto Parts. We get there and we found 2 different sizes of a four way tire iron and the guy at the register told us.. Who knows how tight those lug nuts are on that car and even with all the strength of Joseph Smith on your side.. you still probably couldn't get them off.. so go with the bigger one! That was super funny! He told us that his Brother was a member and he just couldn't resist saying that! Well we didn't end up buying one cause they were way too expensive.. but a discount tire shop let us borrow their tools which was very nice of them and we went back to switch out the tires! It was a good thing that I was around because I was the only one that knew how to change a tire! How Sad! So when we finally went on our exchange I drove down with Elder Payne to Grand Prairie for our lesson with Daniel Ramirez. He is a 9 year old and his family is less active.. His dad is super funny too! So we taught Daniel the restoration and Elder Payne is a brand new missionary and has only been out for like 4 weeks and Bro. Ramirez said.. How long have you been on your mission.. and Elder Payne replied About 4 weeks. and Bro. Ramirez said... yeah i can tell! hahaha! that was kind of funny! I'm not being rude or anything but I don't remember being that shy about teaching people.. Anyways the rest of the night was great!

On Friday we drove into Irving for Interviews with President Durrant! That was great cause there were alot of my missionary buddies that i got to see including my MTC companion Elder Flitton! Which by the way.. He is an assistant now.. I guess i am not that righteous?! I don't really like interviews with president Durrant.. Usually in an interview.. the person would ask you questions and you would answer them.. but president Durrant just says. okay what do you want to talk about? I have no idea what i want to talk about other than how my area is going and how i love my companion.. I don't know.. Just kind of different i guess! Anyways.. that took up almost all of our time that day. But on Saturday we were able to meet with Sandra again.. She seemed a little upset.. and she would not tell us why she was upset. So we just decided to ask her questions and come to find out that she was upset because Bro. Self told Bro. Daley about her financial problems and they went over there earlier in the week and tried to tell her how to budget her own money. They also tried telling her to get a job and she is physically incapable of doing that. She has Diabetes and she has lost all of her toes on one foot and cant stand long! So that's why she was upset.. in her own words she told us that what Bro. Self did "hurted her" keep in mind that she is black and they talk a little different haha! Once she was able to talk about her feelings she opened right up and we had a great lesson with her.. we ended up sharing the Baptismal interviews with her and almost all of those questions she answered right.. She said.. i am not ready still but i am close! I sure hope so!:)

Sunday was a great day and we were able to have Sandra join me at church.. But about half way through gospel principles we have to leave to go to the YSA Branch.. Well right as the branch started is when the Gospel principles class got out.. and we were talking to some people in the hall way so we were not in the sacrament meeting quite yet... and we had to get to the other side of the building so we walked through the gym to the other sided and as i opened the door into the hallway.. i slammed it into a person and i pull back the door and guess who it is........ of course! Sandra! OH man i felt so bad.. She told me that payback is coming to me! hahahaha! But that's basically how my day at church went.. We taught a new member discussion to a recent convert named Amythest after church and then had dinner with The Smith Family.. his name is Joseph.. no joke! ha! he is actually from Nampa, Idaho and lived there with his wife about a year ago! He is a dentist and just started up his practice here a couple months ago. He knows Bro. Payne my Orthodontist too! For the rest of the night we dropped by the Ramirez family and shared with them a lesson on chapter 22 of Alma! That's how my week went here in D.Ville!!!!

BUSY week! "Mr. Fix-it" mows lawns, repairs bike flats and his waterbed.

This week has been up and down and left and right! Kind of Crazy! But way Awesome! Tuesday was District Meeting day as usual and the rest of the day we visited with less active members and one of them was bro. Art Robles and he has been inactive for who knows how long.. he actually use to serve in a bishopric when he was active.. well now we are trying to get him and his wife back to church and we are not sure what her hold up is.. i haven't met her yet too. but bro. Robles has a few concerns about the church now since he has been inactive for so long.. He has been trying to read out of the Book of Mormon and he came across Jacob where its talking about Polygamy and how that's an abomination in Gods eyes and he couldn't grasp why the early church practiced Polygamy and why it was so necessary. So we shared with him a lot of stuff out of the scriptures and probably went deeper than we should have. but it all came down to praying and seeking the lords guidance on that and he said he would do so! Later that night we had dinner with the Mendoza family.. We actually eat dinner with them every Tuesday night and there daughter invited a guy over to have dinner also and we ended up sharing with him the Restoration.. That was pretty sweet!

Wednesday we went to mow the lawn for a less active/part member family that we wanted to help out.. They didn't have a lawn mower and there lawn was like 3 feet tall! So we packed all of our ward mission leaders Lawn care stuff (mower, weed eater, blower and gas) in the back seat of the lords car and we went to give service:)! it took us 2 hours to mow that lawn and it was way smaller than my lawn at home! We first had to weed eat all of the tall grass down and then we mulched the yard.. In Texas.. No body bags their grass! But it was a great blessing to be able to help a family in need! Thursday was really slow we had our planning day and during lunch i was laying on my bed and my sheets were wet.. so i get off and i found a little whole in my bed.. you are probably wondering why my bed is leaking but its because i sleep on a water bed! yep thats right:) we fixed the hole with a bike tire patch and so far it is holding up! That night we found a Buddhist Temple in our area and we went to look at it and there was monks everywhere! They were super nice to us and they allowed us to take as many pictures as we wanted so that was a neat experience!

Friday was my year mark! yayyyyyy!!!! We were invited to attend the Youth Conference and we were asked to teach about the importance of having a testimony about the Book of Mormon and how we can share that with our non-member friends. There was 5 groups and the lessons were about 45 minutes each! It was great! Each youth got their own Book of Mormon and we asked them to highlight one of their favorite versus and then write their testimony in the front. We invited them all to give that copy of the Book of Mormon to one of their friends! After Youth Conference, My companion and I had the opportunity to go to the Dallas Temple! OH was that one of the most spiritual experiences I have had on my mission! This was my first time going since back home and we are supposed to go every 6 months or so! So it was a very nice opportunity to be able to go and feel how strong the spirit is in the House of the Lord! Later that night some members took us to a restaurant called Cheddar s. Oh man it is so good! and i also got a dessert.. The monster cookie! (it is this huge 6 inch cookie with ice cream on top and chocolate syrup with nuts, whipped cream and a cherry! Texas food isn't quite the healthiest but is sure dang tasty!

Saturday was a good day at the start and then right before our appointment with a less active member at 5. he calls us and told us that he really needed us and that we needed to hurry and get to his house asap! when we arrived at his house there was 3 police cars parked out front and we walked in and he was sitting on the couch crying and his wife who is a Buddhist and some of her friends over and they were chanting prayers really loudly! Come to find out.. Bro. Moffette's son passed away. He was 19 years old and had a severe case of Autism and had about 5 seizures a month.. and apparently he had a seizure while he was sleeping and he ended up suffocating himself. It was a very sad situation and i felt horrible! Bro. Moffette was a wreck! we gave him a blessing and then we stayed with him for about 3 hours comforting him and teaching him about gods plan of happiness for all of his children! You could tell that by us being there he felt a lot better!

Sunday in the young single adults sacrament meeting was probably one of the most powerful testimony meetings i have been to in a long time! the spirit was so strong there and the testimonies that were bore were so powerful! we taught gospel principles since our branch mission leader is a failure at his calling and never comes to church so we have to wipe his butt for him! but that's okay. more blessings for us i guess! haha! After church we had whats called break the fast with the ysa branch and we all had a big dinner! Then we went back to Bro. Moffette's house with the 1st counselor bro. Esquivel, His home teacher bro. Pina, and bro. Eubanks and we planned out his sons funeral for this upcoming Saturday! so this will be my second funeral since i have been on my mission! but like i said at the beginning of my letter.. This week was Crazy!