Best Friend

 Definitely been one of my favorite transfers of the mish, me and Elder Paul were absolutely gooffinnn this week haha

Opposition continues, in my first 2 weeks here in kilometro, we brought 2 families of 4 to church, and they've both just dropped us the week after, its been so sad and kinda dissappointing but safe to say this is still the most joy i've found in the work in all my mission

Me and Elder Paul both have a fear of getting fat, so we put a goal of trying to eat "healthier" this week, oh my...it got bad. So it was Wednesday afternoon right, and I was CRAVING some cookies, so I convinced my comp to buy me some haha, then right as we bought them, this member texted us and told us she just made us 2 giant tortillas filled with ham and cheese (there so bussin), so ya we kinda just destroyed every part of our diet, never in my life has it been so hard to eat healthy, but don't worry me and Elder Paul made a pact, next person to eat unhealthy sleeps on the floor

We saw a crazy amount of miracles this week but i'll share one, me and elder paul just doin some good ole missionary work, we pass by this inactive member, and never have I seen someone so happy to see us, she was sitting outside with her 3 nephews and was trying to teach them the gospel and she said she had just been praying for help and we showed up (what can i say) haha but we put her niece on date, she pulled up to church, and she's getting baptized next Sunday, at least thats the plan, we've already lost 7 baptisms in my first 3 week here, but hey God is good

This transfer has taught me a lot about missionary work and the importance of unity in your companionship, i'd like to say a lot of the success God has given us has been a blessing of us being united as a companionship, I love my comp, he's my best friend and the work is joyful, even though not everything has gone our way we sure have worked our butts off and found a lot of joy, and hey its just like the real world, make sure you marry your best friend and your life will be joyful no matter the circumstance

https://photos.app.goo.gl/WvF1yDF9QnZbX6KA7

Understanding God's Will

 

I personally think one of the biggest influences in finding joy in missionary work has to be your companion. I think what has made my time in Kilometro these last 2 weeks so fun has had a lot to do with my companion Elder Paul. Personally one of my favorite things to do is laugh, it sounds funny just saying it, but a person that laughs is happy ya know. And me and Elder Paul this week for whatever reason could not stop laughing to save our lives. We've just made the absolute dumbest inside jokes that no one understands but we just think its so funny. So i think the highlight of my week was that, laughter, sometimes a good laugh can save a bad day

Things in Kilometro are still BOOMIN, guys i'm telling you this area is nutttyyyy. We found so many people this week, but wow the opposition was real oh my. Me and my comp last week helped a family of 4, which consisted of a grandma, 2 grandsons, and a friend that lived in the house, come to church, they were all on date for baptism for this sunday. This week everything was goin good, we got all their baptismal interviews done, coordinated with the ward, it seemed like everything was going good. Then we pass by on Friday and the grandma comes outside and goes were not getting baptized, she claimed her pastor came to her and told her not to get baptized and we were like bruhhhhh. So me and my comp invited her to pray about it and we left and told her we were coming back the next day

So that night me and my comp decided to fast so that Leonora, would recieve her answer that she should get baptized. We passed by the next day with 2 members, we testified to her but she was not budging. I'm not gonna lie it was kind of a bummer, especially because we started fasting for her and it seemed like we fasted for nothing ya know. But throughout my fast, I found myself fasting less and less for God to tell Leonora to get baptized, and more and more for the ability to understand God's will on the situation. Ima be honest I don't know why some things happen, but I do know God's plan is perfect, and that it was God's will that the family wasn't baptized yesterday, did I want them to get baptized yesterday....yes, but i've learned that God's will is always better. So a tough experience but a good learning experience for me💪

That's not to say God didn't bless us, we did get another family of 4 to church haha, a dad and 3 little girls, oh my their so cute, their 8, 7, and 6 years old. So maybe the family of 4 I was fasting for was actually them, and we found them on Saturday while fasting! God's plan is my plan🙌

Good things coming soon to theatres👀

https://photos.app.goo.gl/WvF1yDF9QnZbX6KA7

The Promised Land

 

I've made it, after suffering for 4 long months in El Cruce, i've made it....The promised land

This is the greatest ward i've ever seen in my life and I'll explain why...

1) Food, never have I ever been offered so much food in my life, after having to BEG for food in El Cruce, i get here and the members literally bring us food...EVERYDAY, without fail, we don't even do anything, the food just keeps coming, and we live right outside where a member works and sells tortillas, and if you know elder clouse, he LOVES his tortillas, and everyday she gives us a tortilla for free its nuts, the only bad thing is that all that weight i lost, ya its impossible, its called KILOmetro because its known for making every missionary fat yikes, grind never stops

2) MEMBERS, never in my life have I met members who LOVE missionaries so much, literally this first week I tried to visit all the members in my area and I kid you not after EVERY visit, the members go "elders how can we help you more, what can we do to help you", like I was stunned I was like "wait, you want to help us", i LOVE these members there insane!! There love for the gospel is increible!!!

3) The People, we are in a pretty poor area, and literally EVERYONE wants to get baptized, i'm not even kidding, EVERYONE, we put 11 people on date for baptism, like its nuts, this is my first area where like I don't have time to do anything because everyone wants to listen, every time we ask someone if they want to listen we just get "si" WITHOUT fail!!! And we met this like family of 8 this week, brought them all to church, and 4 of them are getting baptized this weekend, and possibly another lady who was supposed to get baptized yesterday so 👀, this area is NUTTY, literally the promised land

4) the house, welp theres good and bag things, good news is we live behind active members who help us with EVERYTHING, our house is HUGE, and on wednesday we got Air condicioning installed (literally the promised land), bad news, Elders are DISGUSTING , never have I seen such a dirty house in my life, so if you know Elder Clouse first thing I did when I got to the house...clean, i looked at my comp and said "how do we expect to baptize if our house looks like this", so first thing we did was go to the store, buy huge garbage bags, and we filled 10 FULL sized black garbage bags of trash amd dumped it, then today we swepped up about 5 pounds of dirt, and we mopped the floors and it took about 6 hours in total but now shes NARLYYYY, and now were back to the elder clouse way...no shoes in the house, also the bathroom light and toilet didn't work, and my comp was like its been like that for over a month, so i asked the member who lives in front and he fixed it haha! Literally were living BOUJEE, video of the before and after of the house on the google fotos

I'll give all you missionaries a tip, if you want to find more people to teach, CLEAN ur house and I GUARENTEE you will find more people, we've seen so many miracles just from cleaning the house, pls do it, and do it good!

In other news my comp is a DAWG, training this kid has been so fun, Elder Paul is a dawggggg, love this kid to death

Also just texted my missionary pres and told him to keep me here for the next 9 months until im done with the mish so lets get itttttt

https://photos.app.goo.gl/WvF1yDF9QnZbX6KA7

Testimony Of Jesus

 Lets just get this out of the way, i'm officially leaving el Cruce and my new area is Kilometro 26a, still a DL and welp i'm now training another kid lol, haha guess God just needs me as a full time trainer, but i'm so hype, i've heard that this ward LOVES missionaries lets get itttttt!!!!

We had the oppourtunity as a mision to go to the temple. Probably one of the most spiritual experiences of my life, before going to the temple I just kept thinking of President Nelson's promise to us last conference when he said

 "Every sincere seeker of Jesus Christ will find Him in the temple"

So thats what I did, I went into the temple "seeking for Jesus Christ", throughout my mission this has been something I have been earnestly searching for, a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ. During the endowment session I looked for all the references to Jesus Christ, and then after I sat pondering in the celestial room praying "earnestly" for Jesus Christ, it was in that moment when i "found" Jesus Christ. It was as if I felt an imcomprohensible feeling of love, like someone just wrapping their arms around me giving me a hug. I now know for myself that President Nelson's promise is true, as we seek for Jesus Christ in the temple, he will manifest himself unto us! A powerful/life changing moment for me

I would say this week was a good week, definitely was tested a few times this week, one of those times was Friday Night. Every Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday as a District Leader I call the zone leaders to give them a report basically. Well so ya, me and my comp had been having a really good week of work and my ZL's were upset that we weren't finding enough people through members. I expressed, maybe not in the best way, a little frustrated, that I really was trying my best to work with the members (something I really do need to get better at) and that me and my comp had been having a great week of work and had found a ton of great people and that people are people no matter how we find them. Bad decision apparently, never in my life had I been ripped into as hard I as i got ripped into after saying that, i felt like I expressed my feelings and thoughts on the situation but hey what do I know, after they finishing ripping into me for 15 minutes, I was this close from lashing back, but I figured Christ wouldn't do that so I left it at that

I'm not gonna lie the advice the ZL's gave to me was really good, they helped me a ton, but I did learn 2 things from this experience

 1) sometimes we have GREAT intentions of helping other people, but the thing that matters is HOW we offer the help to them

Using strong words helps no one, never has never will, i messed up first by getting upset and maybe raising my tone, but we should always think of Christ when trying to correct another person, and I promise that doing this will be a guide to know HOW to express yourself and correct them in an uplifting and helping way, correction is necessary, but there is a way to do it, the Savior's way

2) when correcting someone we must always point to Christ's example, the word "you are" or "you shouldn't do this" or "you did that" should never be used, and thats where both of us messed up in this situation, instead we should point everything to Christ. Christ gave us the perfect example and pointing to him at all times will help us correct and direct at the same time

But this week I feel as if my testimomy of Jesus Christ became as real as its ever been. At church we sang "I know that my redeemer lives" and as we sang the part that says "He lives, he lives who once was dead" and the spirit just fell upon me, It was a testimony/confirmation that Christ truly lives, I truly do know that Jesus Christ lives!!!! And thats the greatest and most precious thing that I have learned in these last 15 months

A cool experience to end the email! Thursday night me and my comp needed to find more people to complete our goals, we our outside a department complex of about 40 buildings, we prayed and we sat pondering and I felt guided to a specific building and door, we knocked the door, and the first words we heard were "enter", it was crazy, she later told us how she had prayed the night earlier and asked God to send her angels and then we knocked on her door!!! She told us that we were the angels that she asked for!!!!

Love yall, sorry for the long email

https://photos.app.goo.gl/WvF1yDF9QnZbX6KA7