March 20, 2017

Mini Missionary...

MOMMA!!!

From the pics it looks like Cali was a good time! And I can't believe Max McBride got home that is so CRAZY!! Now we won't see each other for 3 and a half years haha. 

Things are going pretty good here, story time, so this last weekend we got a mini missionary to come along with us, which was cool! He's from Cali, like thirty minutes east of here, his name is Solomon and he is 16 and a Sophomore. On saturday we went to this fundraiser dinner for the Stake girl's camp where the auctioned off a bunch of different desserts. For the first dessert, which was a platter of like 15 cupcakes, Solomon went back and forth bidding with this other guy until he got up to $80 and won the cupcakes hahaha! It was the first item of the night and set the trend for everyone else, making all of the desserts super expensive haha. So it was a good time having him around for a bit, he didn't know too much Spanish so it made him tired on Sunday with all of our meetings and church stuff.

Sorry you have been so tired I hope you get some rest and recover quickly! I haven't seen anything from what other people do that I would really want to do yet. I don't know what President Frandsen did other than he was in the Military, and we don't see them too often unless it's at some big meeting or interviews or something. So I guess I will keep my eyes open. I still want to travel and be in the ocean but idk. Lately I have been studying a lot in True to the Faith, one of the books we bring which is pretty cool because it just clearly lays out the doctrines, and I have also been reading in the Bible a lot which is pretty good, I'm in the epistle of Paul to the Corinthians which is some good stuff.

I've got some good pics this week so those will come soon Love you so much!!

So Juan Cahua and Marcelo came from San Fran to feed us which was super awesome to see them again!! We went to this really good Peruvian restaurant called El Mono (the monkey) Good times!

And here is us eating some more dinner at a different members house! All I seem to do is eat!

March 13, 2017

Teaching Families!

MOMMA!!! So good to hear your surgury went well and you're recovering quickly! I was kind of nervous last week but I'm glad it went well. I am super jealous that y'all get to go to the beach without me haha, I sure do miss going to the beach and hanging out with the fam in Cali! Any friends going along with Mason or is it just family? 

Things are going good here nothing too knew at all, so a little while back some young couple in the Spanish ward got sealed and that was super great and we were invited but the husband's sister is a non-member and wanted to go to so instead of us going we went with her to the visitors center to explain every thing that goes on in the temple while her brother was being sealed. It was a super good time and she brought one of her sons who is 8 and I think he liked it too! Then we met with her and her husband and her 2 kids (5 and 8) and it was so awesome! It was super fun to play with the little 5 year old because he is so hyper and its just a good time, he wants to be a cowboy and he showed me by taking his little rope and tried to lasso me like 5 times hahaha, and so they all seem super interested except for the husband, he's not like against it or anything just not too interested. Esperanza (wife) has said she hasn't been able to get very good sleep for like a month but the first time she came to church she felt peace and slept really well that night so that is super cool! And she told us at another visit that sometimes she wished church was longer so she could keep that feeling with her! So that was good!

The ward and YSA branch are a real good time! On saturday we went on splits with the ysa to go see some less actives and it was really good, we found Julio who has been going through some depression problems but says he is feeling a lot better and will hopefully start coming back to activities and church and all that.

The food here is super super good! I have gotten a lot more used to spicy food since being here, and because we are constantly offered food I have learned to just make room for more haha, luckily i havent gained too much weight but I guess we'll see how that goes. (I'm 175 i think)

The package might have gotten to the mission home I just wont know until I go pick it up or someone from our zone goes and gets it:( But ya its a good time here and sometimes it sounds like a better time there haha, wish I could go to San Diego with you guys but that will have to wait! Love you so much, pics shall come in just a second!!  

Here's me with all of my friends, haha

Here's us cleaning the car just 30 min ago

So this huge killer just started following us when we were tracting, but it turned out to be super nice! haha

March 6, 2017

Baptism Day!

March 5 Celeste Ramirez was baptized! Good times!

MOMMA!!

How is it going? Well its going pretty good for us over here! The baptism for Celeste went super well! And Elder Tackett and I did a musical number for the baptism where he played piano and I sang a solo hahaha, not our best idea just having me sing, but some people told me they could feel the spirit so I guess it wasn't so terrible haha! Other than that we had a good week with some pretty good church attendance on our Spanish side of things!

I didn't get the chance to see the face to face thing but I definitly will check it out if I get the chance! But hey good for the boys reading those scriptures! The stories in the BOM are so good even if it can be kind of hard to read sometimes. But since reading it over again on my mission it just has so much more meaning for me and I can honestly say that the BOM is the word of God and translated by Joseph Smith. 

Love you Momma and boys!! Pics coming soon!

Here's a sweet pic of the zone at zone conference

here is Elder Tackett and I after the baptism

Here's the zone activity where we played some ultimate frisbee in a super muddy field and got very dirty, it was a good time, oh also there are no sisters in this zone haha

I am Caesar 

February 27, 1017

Setting Baptism Dates!

Here's english and spanish elders emailing!

MOMMA!!

Sounds like Utah was a party and a half! Glad you guys got to go and enjoy the temple up there! And holy cow Mason's hair is so flipping long!! haha thats awesome! The weather here is pretty good it rains every now and then but never too terrible, its still sweater weather, but I think its warming up a little bit!

So, the people that we are working with right now are Celeste, Esperanza and Fam, and Alex. Celeste is on date for baptism this upcoming sunday and is doing awesome, she is from Guatemala and came here when she was like 12 and is now working as a nurse so she's doing pretty good! Esperanza is the sister of a recent convert who just got sealed in the temple, so while her brother was being sealed we went to the temple with her and just waited in the visitors center and just watched a ton of stuff and she really liked it and one of her sons was there and he liked it to, she still wants to learn more but she wants to be baptized with her whole family! Alex is a YSA investigator dating a YSA member and has been investigating for a little while but says he wants a deeper understanding of everything before he gets baptized so were just going over everything pretty slowly and clearly and all that. And there are more investigators that we have but those are out main focus, and a couple less active familys that we have visited with pretty consistently are doing pretty good!

I think I just want to share my testimony on the gift of tongues, since moving to this new area, Richmond, I have progressed so much more in my Spanish here it is so crazy! Someone from SF that became AP (Assistant to the President) came to our area for exchanges with the zone leaders and said,"hey back in SF you didn't speak speak spanish and now you do" haha I just thought that was so satisfying that others could see some sort of improvement. I know not everyone is trying to learn another language but there is a common language that everyone can speak and that is the language of the spirit, and I know that if we are seeking for the gift to be able to hear, understand, and speak the language of the spirit, the Lord with help us with that!

This is carlos the cactus, he's on the hunt for Ice agents haha. Sorry I didnt take any pics this week with me in them give me a sec

February 20, 2016

Six Month Mark!

here is one of the temple pics i didn't send on Thursday

MOMMA!!

Hey momma hope things are good and did the boys not take a single pic of the dunes?! Who else went with them? Dad said some of the friends went? But anyways ya time is super weird here! When I hear 6 months it sure sounds like a long time, and a lot of time has passed, but man it's taking a while at the same time jajaja! (Do you play the piano lots?)And lucky for me because Elder Tackett is so good I usually never have to play:) Because we've pretty much been together for my whole mission except for when I got ETed so no I dont play too often. Dang I wish I could go with y'all to Utah and see Jax and all them! I miss that guy so much jaja!

Teaching is going awesome! We aren't teaching too many people but we are teaching Celeste who is consistently just doing fantastic! Last sunday she paid tithing!! haha We barely covered it and she tried to give it to Elder Tackett! lol She is just so prepared! And she is going to bring her mom next time we have a lesson because her mom has heard things that aren't true so we'll get to answer some questions which will be awesome!! We get to share our testimonys pretty much every time we teach, just about what were teaching which is always a good time! The other day Elder Tackett and I were doing a practice teaching thing during studies and it was in English because it was for one of our YSA investigators and as we taught, and I asked him to see if he did this too, we have to translate what we would say in Spanish into our minds in English to be able to teach because the lessons are just more familiar in Spanish, jaja weird huh!

The gospel message I want to share with you guys is for you guys to share the gospel! We were out the other day and talked to this guy named Dexter and when we finished he said ,thank you I really needed to hear that today, sometimes we dont know when people are going through a hard time and sometimes all they need to hear is that they have a loving Heavenly Father that understands what they're going through! Love you! Pictures are coming soon!!




I think the sun was in my eyes or something in this one?

Here is Elder Tackett and I enjoying some food/music at our local taco bell. we have fun here

February 13 & 16, 2017

Two P-days this week!

Here is a generational pic of Grandfather, father and sons!

2/13/17

MOMMA!!!

Yes I got the packege with the sweatshirts and all that jazz thank you so much it was awesome!! Sorry I never responded about that! I have not seen a JJ's nearby and I guess you can just send it to the mission home because I dont know my address yet haha! The ward and branch here are awesome! The Spanish ward feeds us like every night and the English YSA branch is super awesome and feed us mondays for FHE.

We had the greatest sacrament meeting in the YSA branch yesterday, the first counselor did this thing where he talked about music and the role it plays in our lives and inviting the spirit, then what we did is shared a favorite hymn of ours and why it was our favorite and we all sang those hymns for all of sacrament meeting. it was super cool and the first time I had cried in a sacrament meeting from the spirit in a really long time, the closing hymn was I believe in Christ, it was super awesome!

That's super cool your going to her (Devin Dayton's) homecoming! Give them all a big hug from me!! I hope you have a good time in Utah! And yes I'm happy and tired all at the same time! I love you so much and I will also be emailing on Thurday because its temple day so yee haa! Pictures are coming soon!




And here's me next to some pokemon toys that a member from SF sent me when he figured out I love pokemon lol











I apologize I realize I took this in my G's but look! A pasta bread bowl! Home made!














Here is my new comp Elder Tackett! He came from san fran so were already homies! He is from Tennessee and is way good at the piano!



2/16/17
MOMMA!

So it's only been a couple of days but things are good still! I've got a couple more pictures that I'll send here in a sec. We just went through the temple and got some pizza afterwords which was awesome and now i'm super tired and ready for a nap! What have the boys been up  to recently? Is mason still trying to fix that bike or is that a lost cause? How was valentines day? Make any cool quilts recently haha. Dont forget to take pics of the boys and what not like you always do! Love you here comes the pictures!

Oh and I am very sorry but the pictures are not coming today because i dont have my cord and the one elder tackett has doesnt work for my computer sooo my bad!

I only have like 5 min left but im so jealous they're going to the dunes and they need to take vids and pics and send them to me!! Tell Sis Zimmerman that I say hi and thank you!! The temple today was really good just like always!! Elder Tackett and I are having a really good time, we get along super well and have a lot of laughs! We will probably go change and window shopping in toys r us or something hehe. I cant afford to take a nap on my one free day!

love ya

February 6, 2016

New Month!

Awkward missionary pose, hehe

MOMMA!!!

Sorry for the nurse scaring you hehe, my retainer just has a wire poking me so I was going to get it removed, hope thats ok, I'm not sure how to get the bill sent to you, but I will try for sure! We have one investigator on date and a new investigator that wants to be baptized and we will give her a date when we teach her on Tuesday!! So things are going pretty good in our area! We have transfers on Tuesday also so I get a new companion because Elder Jones is leaving! My new comp is Elder Tackett who was in my same district in SF so I'm super excited for that!

We had a pretty good fast and testimony meeting with the Spanish and YSA wards, I just shared an experience that had happened this past week while elder jones and i were tracting, we ran into this lady and we kind of did our intro and she told us she was Christian, she then asked what church we were from again, and I said the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, but a lot of people know us as Mormons, she then said, oh so you believe the opposite of what I believe. We cleared up some stuff about our beliefs as latter day saints but she still wasn't very interested. It just makes me think how many people out there don't know our beliefs or even the correct name of our church. How many people think we don't believe or worship Christ. So I guess my invitation is just to spread the gospel with those that don't know what were about, and there are many ways to do that, explaining some simple beliefs, being an example to others, and service. Mosiah 2:17 says, "When you are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God (or something like that)." 

Oh and speaking of Clara one of our investigators, I think eternal investigator is a perfect name and I have heard that used a couple times, we also use golden investigator if they are super prepared! So my orthodontist thing got moved to Wednesday just now so thats good because transfers were going to get in the way, I hope every thing goes good for the surgeries I will for sure be praying and I believe temple day is next week, oh and I think I heard the temple here is shutting down for a while but I dont know when or for how long soo ya. Pictures will come soon LOVE YOU!!! 

We also went by the temple last night!

Here is Elder Jones and I in front of a Laotian temple or something or other

Here's us at the end of a road!

Here is us pre nerf war with the zone!!!  We set up a bunch of stuff in the gym and it was a party and a half! I hope all these pics make up for that lack of pics last week! Love yall!!

January 30, 2017

New Area - Richmond, CA

MOMMA!!

So this past week was pretty good! Elder Jones and I get along super well! And the area is not that dangerous! What seems to happen a lot when we talk to people is they say, be careful around this area its dangerous, but it never actually is dangerous!! This week has been super full of lessons! We teach so much more here than in my last area it's crazy! So I feel like my Spanish has been getting a lot better now because it has to be since Elder Jones and I are both white, hehe. We got one new investigator last week and we found someone that has a lot of potenial and we will start teaching them this upcoming week. We didn't have too much time knocking on doors, but when we did the crazyest thing happened! This guy answered the door and he looks exactly like Albert Einstein! But he only spoke spanish haha, we started off in English so he turns to one of his grandaughters and says, diga les que somos cristianos, and then I was like, esta bien, hablamos espanol, but then he still wasn't interested haha, but its still cool speaking another language! 

Ya, I've met sister Coasta she's super cool! She is a Spanish speaking missionary but she's not in our area right now. The new schedule is pretty neat too! We have way more time in the morning and what not, but now we only have half an hour for lunch :( but its all good! And for p days we have so much more time to do stuff its awesome!! I guess something cool I saw last week was when elder Jones and I were teaching one of our investigators, Clara, Who's is pretty old and set in her Catholic ways, anyways we were teaching her and she just kept ranting on about how the catholic church is so awesome and how they have authority and how the Pope is a saint and it's just so hard to teach people that dont have an open mind, the best thing you can do is just bear your testimony. The problem is with Clara is she is like bipolarly interested in the gospel, sometimes she wants to hear about it and sometimes she's just not interested!

But I miss you and The boys and everyone else and I hope everything is going good and you enjoy your Monday! Love you!!

We also played some tennis this morning