June 25, 2012 (Mark Of One Year)

 

OH BOY IT IS SO GREAT TO BE BACK IN DALLAS 1/DALLAS 9!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it here so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! it was great to be in Irving for two weeks but I really missed it here in Dallas!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I even got to see some very very very great people yesterday at church and I'll talk about that later!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we went to transfer meeting on Tuesday and I got to be back with Elder Saenger again and we got a new car!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The other car here got really bad hail damage from the storm last week, I heard about the car when I was in Irving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we got a new car for the area!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its now a white Chevy Malibu!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its going to be so nice to have a white car for the summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But anyways we got back to area and Elder Saenger updated me on all the investigators,he is doing so great, I am so proud of him!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we started contacting referrals that Christian gave us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He has already been telling all of his friends about the church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He gave us 38 referrals in Highland Park, I couldnt believe it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we spent a lot of time this week in Highland Park which i loved!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got to meet with Rosalinda right before dinner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so happy to see her again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I missed her a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is doing so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She got her temple recommend yesterday so now she can go to the temple and do Baptisms for the dead!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had dinner and then we had a great lesson with the Montoyas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A great first day back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on thursday we had planning in the morning which was great because I got to be even more updated with everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then in the afternoon we went to go stop by some more referrals in Hihgland Park!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we met with Rosalinda again right before dinner!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is doing so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! She is sharing the gospel with all of her friends and she invites them over when we come to meet with her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Then at night time we got to meet with the Son family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are doing great, we just need to get a translator!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The husband who is not a member, but the rest of the family is, doesnt understand english well at all!!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to read from the Book of Mormon with him, he comes to church every Sunday, I think just the language barrier is the problem, but I can definitely tell that he is feeling the spirit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the kids of that family are so great!!!!!!!!!!!! When the 11 year old son said the closing prayer, all he said was "please help my dad to know the Book of Mormon is true" and then he closed the prayer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was one of the most spiritual moments of my mission ever!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I almost started crying!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On friday we did some service at the retirement home in the morning and then we went back over to highland park to do some tracting and contacting referrals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we met with Rosalinda and some of her friends which was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! A lot of her friends speak spanish so we need to get the spanish speaking missionaries to come over with us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On saturday we had a very busy day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had coordination meeting with our ward mission leader and the spanish missionaries in the morning and then we went over by Rosalinda's!!!!!!!!!!!! We had a lesson with her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And then we rushed over to highland park to have a lesson with Christian!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we went up to park lane to meet with a new investigator that Elder Olvera and Elder Saenger started teaching while I was in Irving!!!!!!!!!!!!! Her name is Becca and she is so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Her Husband is a member and she has been going to church for like 6 months now!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love them and they live in this HUGE high rise apartment complex!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ever since I first got to this area I have been wanting to go tracting in that complex because I knew that there was someone in there that was ready to get baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And there is and her name is Becca and we are teaching her!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We shared the gospel of Jesus Christ with them and she knew everything is true and she is so excited to get baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love the gospel so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we had dinner with them!!!!!!!!!!!!! then we dropped by some investigators at night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now for sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When we walked into church guess who I saw when we walked through the doors?!?!!?!?!?!?!!?!? JEFF JARVIE AND BRODY FOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i couldnt believe it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They are here in Dallas for business and they came to the Dallas 1st ward for sacrament meeting and it was so great to see them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We took some pictures and talked a little bit and then it was time for church to start and we got to talk a little bit after sacrament meeting but not for long because we had to rush over to the 9th ward council!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was so happy to see them yesterday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They even got to meet Christian, I wanted Christian to meet them so badly!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then at night time we got to meet with the karen speaking family that we are teaching and they are doing great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They want to learn more so badly but we just cant speak the language so its become difficult to teach them more!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But i know that they feel the spirit and thats why they love us coming over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was great to be back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited to be back here!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope everyone has a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

June 18, 2012

This week was another interesting week here in Irving but it was still a lot of fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On tuesday we got to go visit one of our investigators that lives in a hotel which was a lot of fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For some reason here in irving a lot of people permanently live in hotels because there are hotels everywhere since its right by the airport!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we got to have dinner with Alex which was a lot of fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love Alex, he is such a great guy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! His love for all the missionaries is fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One wednesday we had specialized training with all the english missionaries basically all day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And let me tell you it was probably the best meeting I have ever been to!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was so emotional but the spirit was so strong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I dont think I have ever cried that badly in a church meeting before, I usually never cry in church meetings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All the missionaries that are going home this transfer got to take part in it which was great!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its going to be so sad to see all these missionaries go home this summer!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we also go to write a letter to our parents telling them how they have helped us be the missionaries that we are!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Some missionaries got to go up and read them to everyone and the spirit was so strong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its amazing to see and think about all the great examples that each one of us has had in our lives!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Especially Jesus Christ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh this work is just so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then after the meeting we took the DART from richardson all the way through downtown dallas (we got to through my area that im going back to) down to oak cliff for the baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Xavier was baptized on wednesday night which was so great to see!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even though i only got to teach about 4 times it was so great to see how much he has changed and the important decision that he has just made!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This Gospel is just so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There was a hail storm that night which was also scary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we drove back up to irving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On thursday we had planning day which was good, as you know i dont like weekly planning too much but we still got through it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! then we went to go visit our investigator thats in the hotel!!!!!!!!!! We are having problems because her husband is very abusive and he doesnt want her meeting with us and we dont want her to get hurt so its really hard to meet with her but she loves the church and she wants to get baptized so badly!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On friday i got to do a baptismal interview for the Sisters in Grand Prairie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love doing baptismal interviews!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Its so great to see the people answer the questions and I always ask them to bear their testimony to me after the questions are done and they always have such strong testimonies!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love my job as a missionary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On saturday i got to do another baptismal interview for the Sisters again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! this one was for a girl thats 15 years old and she has such a strong testimony also!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love the Spirit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was great being in the irving ward on sudnay for church and then afterwards we got to go to the YSA ward down in duncanville so we could see Xavier get confrimed which was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My assignment here in irving is done so I get to go back to dallas 1 and dallas 9 now and finish training Elder Saenger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so excited to go back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But it has been great here in Irving, Im going to miss some of the members, especially Alex!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love being a missionary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The Gospel is so great and the great thing is that it is so simple!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a great week everyone!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

June 11, 2012

This has most definitely been an interesting week, probably the hardest week of my mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok so im here in irving now and I think im only going to be here for another week and then i'll go back to Dallas!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So i got here to irving last Tuesday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After district meeting in the dallas east zone the dallas zone leaders came over to the apartment to bring Elder Hein over!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The assistants brought the irving car over in the morning before district meeting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So elder hein came over and we drove over to irving that late afternoon!!!!!!!!!!!! We arrived at the apartment and dropped off our stuff and then we headed out for the night!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had an appointment with a guy named Edgar!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is so awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is getting baptized this wednesday and I am sooooo excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have already seen how much the gospel has changed his life and it has been great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is so excited to get baptized!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We watched Finding Faith in Christ with him and the spirit was so strong!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Then on wednesday morning we met with him again and we had his baptismal interview which went great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on wednesday afternoon we went tracting so we could find some new investigators for irving!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! of course i loved it because I love tracting but my companion didnt like it to much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he doesnt like tracting!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! hes a brand new missionary and he has had a crazy first trasnsfer because of everything that has happened with his first companion!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then that night we met with a media referral that the area got earlier from the week before!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He talked to missionaries a couple years ago and he kept the pass along card and now he finally called the number!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We met with him and talked about the restoration of the church and the Book of Mormon, we used a lot of pictures which was great because the spirit was even stronger!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Recently I have decided that I want to use pictures from the gospel art book more when i teach, it has really helped a lot!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are also really great pictures to use at the front of the book of mormon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on thursday we had planning in the morning!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then we went to get michael!!!!!!!!!!!!! Michael is a 21 year old in the irving ward and he loves to go teaching with missionaries!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he basically spend the whole day with us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he needs to go on a mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but he went teaching with us in the afternoon which was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Since irving is right by the DFW airport there are a lot of hotels over here and some of our investigators live in the hotels permanently!!!!!!!!!!!!! So we were teaching a few people in the hotel and we found some other really great people also!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i cant believe so many people live in hotels!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On friday night I had to go give a baptismal interview down in oak cliff since that is in our zone!!!!!!!!!!! we got to drive through the dallas 1 and dallas 9th wards which was great, i already miss that area so much, we also got to drive through downtown dallas which is always really cool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oak cliff is a pretty scary area!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then on saturday we did some more finding and we talked to some awesome people!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then church on sunday was great because i got to meet a lot of members here in irving!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is a member here in irving and his name is Alex!!!!!!!!!!!! He is one of the nicest people I have ever met!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! he LOVES the missionaries!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! In his apartment there are tons of pictures of missionaries and his dining table has the name of every missionary that has ever walked into his apartment!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are probably over 300 names!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He even gives the missionaries that serve here in iriving his apartment key so we can stop by during the day if we ever have to go to the bathroom or if we want to get gatorade or water or something to eat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is so nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well we had lunch at his on sunday after church which was nice!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was a great end to a hard week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! i hope all of you are doing great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope to hear from you soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

June 4, 2012

Wow this week has been super busy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On tuesday we had district meeting in the morning and then afterwards we did some tracting which was really good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We went tracting in kind of a crazy neighborhood haha everyone was african american!!!!!!!!!!!!! In our area there are some really nice parts like highland park and university park but then there are also some really ghetto neighborhoods which makes it fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We talked to some great people and introduced the Book of Mormon to a lot of people which was great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then after that we got to meet with Rosalinda and she is doing awesome!!!!!!!!!!!! Then that night we got to meet with our Karen family, I dont think I have talked about them before!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We are teaching this family from Thailand except they dont speak thai, they speak a language called Karen which is similar to Burmese!!!!!!!!!! They just moved here from Thailand a year ago!!!!!!!!!!!! Most of the people in the apartment building that they live in only speak Karen and Burmese!!!!!!!!!!! I guess they have formed their own community!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They love us so much and we love them except the only problem is that we cant speak Karen and they dont know english very well at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We have been trying to do the best we can with the Spirit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They dont make the Book of Mormon in Karen or Burmese which is sad!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The mission office did find a Testimony of the prophet Joseph Smith in Burmese which is great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The wife can read thai so we gave them a Thai Book of Mormon that the wife has been reading from every night and translating for them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love them so much!!!!!!!!!! They keep bring over all the Karen friends when we come over so their apartment is filled with like 20 peeople when we come over to teach them!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There is a missionary in the Dallas 9th ward that just got home from his mission and he served in Minnesota and he said that they had two Karen speaking missionaries in their mission because I guess there is a group of them over in Minnesota!!!!!!!!!!! So we are going to somehow get in contact with those missionaries!!!!!!!!!!!! They are the only two karen speaking missionaries in the world!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On wendesday Elder Olvera had to go to a meeting all day with Elder Reed (one of the spanish speaking missionaries in the dallas 1 ward) so Elder Reed's companion spent the day with Elder Saenger and I which was great!!!!!!!!! We talked to some great people!!!!!!!!!!!!! Then that night we got to teach Cantrina and she is doing awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! On friday we went to the mission office in the morning because we needed to pick up the Burmese pamphlets, its great being so close to the mission office!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Elder Olvera went on exchanges to the Lake Highlands ward so it was just Elder Saenger and I!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well while we were at the mission office I got some very interesting news!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! President Durrant told me im going to have to go to irving for two weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!! There was a missionary that just went home about a week ago because he has been having stomach problems!!!!!!! So his companion went into a trio with the Dallas zone leaders and that made us think that nothing was going to happen to our trio!!!!!!!!!!!!! Well President Durrant told me he wants me to go over to irving to finish training Elder Hein and so that the area can get some work done in it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But after two weeks when the transfer is done i get to come back here over to my area!!!!!!!!!!!! This is going to be interesting because I dont know irving at all and neither does Elder Hein because he has only been there for three weeks!!!!!!!!!!!! But we are going to work work work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This will be an interesting part of my mission!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am so thankful to be a missionary!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love it here in Texas and I have learned so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope all of you have awesome weeks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You can do all things through Christ!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

May 28, 2012

Another fantastic week being a missionary!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry everyone but my email is not going to be very long this week since I'm emailing at the apple store right now and I don't want to take too long on the computer!!!!!!!!!!!!! SMU is closed today since its memorial day so we can't email there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But anyways this week was great!!!!!!!!!!!!! On tuesday we had a new missionary meeting for Elder Saenger up at the meandering way building so we took the DART up there for that which was really great!!!!!!!!! We get to pass out a lot of pass along cards on there!!!!!!!!!!!! We got to meet with Caul that night!!!!!!!!!!! Caul is a guy we are teaching and we are also teaching his family except the only problem is that they only speak Bermese and Karen, and they don't make the Book of Mormon in those languages!!!!!!!!!!! So we got a Thai book of mormon because his wife can read thai!!!!!!!!!!! They are such an awesome family, they are so nice to us and they love when we come over!!!!!!!!!! We just have to teach with a lot of pictures and we rely on the spirit a lot which is great!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Rosalinda was confirmed on sunday which was great!!!!!!!!! She is so awesome, i love her!!!!!!!!! She is such a great example of humility and meekness!!!!!!!! Every time i see her she is just so happy and she loves the church!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  Elder Olvera and I got to speak at a baptism on Sunday which was great!!!!!!! I felt bad for Elder Saenger, i wish he got to take my place!!!!!!!!!!! I have spoken at plenty of baptisms!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry again everyone that my email is so short!!!!!!!!!! I miss you all!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I love being a missionary and I love this church so much!!!!!!!!!!! The spirit can soften anyones heart!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Have a great week!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!