4/24/17

fam and friends,

Last Monday was spent helping some of the people I talked about last week. We spent the whole day outside emailing helping two people who are really struggling in their situations. We had an amazing meal as usual with a member who we found out runs a food service out of her home. She only really does it for money on the weekends but she told us how much she makes, and it's a lot. 

Tuesday was an awesome day, we picked up a bunch of solid investigators and put them all on date and they will probably make it. It was the family that we helped on Monday, and we taught the mom the Saturday before. They were down to get baptized when they were meeting with elders last year, but due to pressure and some things that happened to them from their family, they disappeared. But everything is better now. Like I said they contacted us, and want to come back to church, so that's what we're going to do. 

The same day we had a lesson with German, the other investigator that contacted us out of the blue. This man is a champ. He is so spiritually sensitive and wants to follow Christ with all his heart. During our first visit we gave him a BoM and asked him to read the introduction. The next day, he called us and told us that he read that and the intro and the first 7 chapters. How amazing, he feels that the book really is from God, but is a little timid and worried about baptism. He still accepted a baptismal date. The best part is he is really easy to teach, asks really good and sincere questions, and really studies what we give him. In the lesson after he told us all this he mentioned that he read everything he read twice so he could really understand what he read. He talked about a question he had about some things in the Bible and he found an answer in the Book of Mormon that really touched him. We try to teach, but really the Holly Ghost is the one doing the real work, and I'm so grateful for that. He came to church this week and in the gospel principles class he was asking really great questions. 

Tuesday night we had a dinner with a member, we were standing outside all together about to walk in and this guy walks up to us and from across the street asked if we were "bible bashers." We told him we were just missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We explained what we do, and he was like "that's all good, but do you read the Bible?" I could already see where this was going and the guy was asking us weird questions about the apocrypha. Any way, the funny part was at one point he was talking about some passage in Deuteronomy about slavery and he was like, "what group of people does this make you think of?" I knew where he was trying to go, so all I replied was "how far back are we going, because just about every group of people have been enslaved at one time or another." I forgot to mention this guy was black, but he just paused for a second and pivoted to another point. It was more funny than anything, and the meal we had right after was super good. Props to that guy though, 5 missionaries and he still was confidant enough to try to corner us.

The Suarez family came to church again. They are so awesome. Sadly though they aren't getting baptized this Saturday, but they really want to be. The said they wanted to go to church more before they make set a solid date. The read and pray as a family every night. They really believe everything we say and connect really well with the members we have brought to lessons. Turns out one of the members we had knew the mother-in-law when they lived in El Salvador. That was a little funny. Jose has opened up a lot more and actually stays when we teach. They also ask us about church all the time. Natividad (the father) is also reading from the teachings of the prophets for Gordon B. Hinckley, and we are trying to get him a Gospel Principles book to read from as well. They fed all the missionaries in the branch Saturday and are going to do it again this week. Hilda (the mom) apparently used to own a restaurant and cooks amazing Hispanic food. We'll be having hand made pupusas today. They are going to be really good. 

Also the new restoration video put out by the church is really good. Watch it.

2017 Restoration Video

Prophets of the Restoration Videos

4/17/17

Fam and Friends,

Monday last week was a little insane. Last week a very loud horn was going off while we were doing our studies and we joked it was an air raid horn because it was just so loud. Turns out it was just a tornado warning, and it was only a test. 

The next week we had this massive rain storm, more rain coming down than I've ever seen. It drizzled all day but really started coming down mid-lesson with our golden family we are working with, and sadly the car was about 30 yards away. After the lesson we ran like crazy to no avail. We were soaked through and through, luckily my bag kept my stuff dry. We drove home in little to no visibility, and a few inches of water in the streets at some points. Once we were close to our apartment the tornado warning came on. Sadly it was dark, so even if there was a tornado I wouldn't have been able to see it. Watching a tornado form and touch down is definitely something I want to see in person before I die.

Wednesday night we got a text from our branch president asking us to do the Easter program. just a reminder this was Wednesday night.... at least he had specific instructions haha. We met as a district and figured what we were going to do and called the chorister and she picked some filler hymns that same night. He asked us to use the choir and sing "Sus manos" which is super hard. We were able to have one practice and we only practiced "Sus Manos". We didn't do a full run though or anything, just an hour of "Sus Manos," It was really rough. We had to leave early though because things came up so we had to finish weekly planning and pack for trade offs. 

Sus Manos

When Sunday rolled around we were pretty nervous. Elder Weston thankfully organized what we were doing onto papers that we could look at. The program started and was really rough, but we really were able to pull it together. We ended with a few testimonies about Christ, and it ended super powerfully. The spirit was so strong and thankfully the Suarez family (golden fam) came and it looked like Natividad was really feeling what was going on. They are scheduled to be baptized on the 29, and this week will be when we really get ready. 

Trade offs were on Friday. Nothing really exciting happened that day. I was with Elder Waters and we taught a lesson with one of their recent converts, Berta, and her husband Jorge. I sat down in their living room, realized I forgot my planner in the car, and realized I had no idea what we were about to teach. Haha. After some small talk with the couple Elder Waters looked at me and everyone looked at me as if to start the lesson. Stalling I just said, "Well, today our lesson comes from the scriptures," and leaned down and was slowly opening my Spanish scriptures. Luckily Elder Waters said we were going to talk about the Sabbath day as I was opening my scriptures so I just opened up to the 10 commandments in Exodus. Outside that we had a decent lesson. Berta is pretty old, and has the "High Priest" sized Book of Mormon because of her vision. That thing is massive, it's pretty funny. 

Two potentials called us out of the blue. Both miracles. German is this 23 year old who is really awesome. Reading over his teaching records it sounds like he got anti-ed pretty hard by the priest at the church he used to go to. He called us out of the blue and we had a really nice lesson with him. He talked about how he feels distanced from God and wants help to come back. He talked about how he felt when he was going to church and meeting with missionaries a lot and how that's all gone now. He also said he saw different missionaries a few times in the streets and he really started thinking about what he had left. That was such a great lesson, he said the closing prayer and it was such a sweet and sincere prayer. 

The other potential was meeting with missionaries a year ago and was doing really well until her family started fighting against her about  what she was getting into. Our lesson with her was really sad because she was just telling us about everything that happened. She told us that a few days ago she was feeling especially down and decided she needed to read from that book the missionaries gave her a year ago. She opened the book of Mormon and one of our ITL or pass along cards fell out. She picked it up and our number was on the back so she texted us out of the blue. It was a super cool experience and was nothing short of a miracle. 

The scriptures are such a powerful tool. If you are not studying from them or at least reading them daily you're missing out on spiritual experiences you could be having every day. The Book of Mormon changes lives, and is truly the word of God. Give it a chance. 

Have a free copy of the Book of Mormon delivered to your home

Dual meaning words I learned this week
Wives = Esposas = handcuffs 
Married = Casadoz = hunted

4/10/17 Happy Easter

fam,

Sometimes you do all you can and things just can't line up. We had a good week as usual. We did our best but after all, we can do, we can't make other people's decisions. 

Starting off with the overwhelmingly good news, Bienvenido is safely back in the country! We heard a little more about what happened to him. So he is here legally but his wife wasn't here under the same circumstances so when her visa expired she actually returned home to the Dominican Republic. When Bienvenido arrived in country for his son's funeral at some point he was with his wife and was abducted at gun point with his wife. His wife was able to hide a few dollars but everything else of value was taken. They were held blindfolded for a little bit and were dumped off somewhere, and where able to use the few hidden dollars to return to family. Basically a crazy experience. We were able to meet with him, have a nice little lesson, and see how he was doing. He seems to be doing pretty well, obviously shaken and down from everything that happened, but still wants to get baptized and really has a testimony in the power of the Book of Mormon. Dominicans are basically impossible to understand, so this is only what Elder Guerrero told me. If everyone spoke gringo Spanish como yo (like me) it would be super easy to understand people. 

Wednesday was a little bit of a bummer. It was a little over freezing and just pouring, a great day to knock doors. 

Luckily I stayed mostly dry and we had a really good conversation with a 7th day Adventist. Other than that we didn't get a lot done that day due to cancellation and the visible success rate of door knocking.

Monday was super cool though. Things fell a little too perfectly in place. Our Malibu doesn't have a CD reader so we were back to just talking and no music, but Elder Rencher graciously let us borrow his USB drive to listen to some music and talks he has. We have a crappy old CD player in our apartment that can also play off USB drives. I was going to leave the USB in the car but had a thought to bring it inside to listen to music at the end of the day. We were listening to this great talk by this guy that I wanted to finish so I hoped it would start where we left off. Once we were in our apartment I plugged it in to listen and it would only play this one story that wasn't what I wanted to hear. I turned the CD player off and ignored it. I had this feeling to try again, so I did. Still the CD player wouldn't change and was stuck on this random talk. For a third time I felt the need to try again, still nothing, but this time Elder Guerrero heard the first few seconds and said he really liked that talk and that it was really good. As he was saying this, for the 4th time I felt being drawn to listen. I realized it was the spirit pushing me, and that it was that specific talk that I needed to hear, so I did. I started listening and the spirit was just so strong, I was basically sucked in and before I realized I had listened to the whole thing. Once I finished I was just a little confused. I have no idea why I needed to watch that, but the feeling was undeniable. Its called "The Conversion Story of Brother Carpenter." To say the least, it's pretty good. A quick google search and it'll pop right up, and I hope everyone listens to it.

The Conversion Story of Brother Carpenter (youtube)

Last week I also expressed concern over one of our investigators. We've had a lot of trouble contacting them, but they're basically golden. They connect SUPER well with the Rosales family and are such and awesome family. We finally contacted Natividad over the phone and he told us he has been reading a chapter of the Book of Mormon every night with his family and has been reading one of the Teachings of the Prophets books which was given to him by Brother Rosales. Golden. We have them on date on April 29, and we have a lot to do. There are a few things that need to happen before they are ready, but they want to be baptized. Spring break didn't help us at all, because they've been in Chicago for awhile. 

The same way we had a little bit of a disappointment. We stopped by a less active man we've been working with to remind him we were going to give him a ride to a dinner and lesson at a member's home. We saw him outside and he kinda walked into his house once he saw us. We knocked 3 times on his door and nothing. Wanting to really get this kid's attention, I knocked a 4th time kinda loud haha. He opened and was clearly high. We told him we were going to pick him up after our lesson and go to dinner at a member's home. We got an okay and left. We came back after our lesson and wasn't home. The worst part is we haven't been able to talk with him since. On the bright side our dinner with the member was SO GOOD. Tacos.

Sunday we had a mixture of really good and awkward ITL's. One really good ITL was like the first house of the day with this old lean guy who was pretty raggedy looking and had a shaggy beard down to mid chest. At first he said he didn't want anything to do with us, which happens a lot. I was able to get out of him that he didn't want anything to do with us because he said we wouldn't accept him or that he wouldn't fit in and that we only wanted him for his money. My goodness, the spirit was so strong, for some reason I just felt such a love for this old man. Elder Guerrero and I talked about Christ a little but we weren't able to do much besides invite him to see the Easter video the church has put out and give him a pass along card. (Watch it with the link provided) 

Easter Video
I hope he was able to feel at least a little of what the Lord's love for him that I felt at his door. That was such a cool experience. He didn't accept what we said, but we are just out here planting seeds. 

4/3/17 Pitbulls, new malibu, church tour

3 months!

Due to the weird P day schedule we had two Sundays between emails. Last Sunday was awesome. We had fast and testimony meeting, where people just share their testimonies on anything they want so it can be interesting sometimes. Sadly we weren't able to get any investigators out, but the meeting was fantastic. We had a few really powerful lessons that week where members participated with us, and they shared their testimonies on those experiences and it was incredible. I was just so happy, it was kind of weird. So many people where trying to share their testimonies, so the branch president finally said we had time for one last quick one. I feel like everything we do with the members starts 15 minutes late and goes 30 minutes over. Half way through the meeting Luis, the less active kid we are working with, showed up. I heard the door open and was super happy to see him walk in. Elder Guerrero was sitting in the back with someone and Luis sat with him. The only thing stopping him from going to church is his inability to go to sleep and wake up on time haha. 

Spectrum Health Grand Rapids

That night we got called to give a blessing to someone who has been in the hospital for the past few weeks. That was such a beautiful night. The hospital is massive, like crazy big. Spectrum Health Grand Rapids. We parked in the wrong building and there are sky bridges from building to building, but we just walked outside. It was a perfect night at dusk. We meet up with one of the members of the branch and walked to the room. I've had a few opportunities to give blessings, none in Spanish...yet, but they are always really touching moments. 

The next day we had a fantastic lesson on the Plan of Salvation with the family we found. They asked some really good questions and offered to feed us after. It was great. We had handmade pupusas which were awesome. We had another lesson with them later on in the week in the church where we gave a little tour and finished next to the baptismal font. 

We put them on date! They were super excited to come to church to watch conference but last minute had to cancel because "something came up." We asked if there was anything we could do for them and if everything was alright. They just said "pray for us," so I'm slightly worried for them. They are awesome though. They pray as a family, do a bunch of family oriented activities, and have read a little of the Book of Mormon. 

Tuesday was a little funny. We spent a fair amount of time knocking doors and one guy opened the doors asked if we were Mormons and I said, "Yes". He then said he wasn't interested in talking with us and started closing the door. I asked why he wasn't interested and he said we were one of the "false religions". I asked him why he thought that and couldn't say why. I asked if we could maybe talk with him about our church and he said he didn't want to waste time talking with someone about a false religion. That was a little funny, I wish we could have talked with him. Door knocking just makes me think of the scripture in Mark about how people with ears to hear will hear. Door knocking is not the way to find people ready to hear. I cannot stress the importance of member missionary work enough. We also had a funny dog encounter the same day. We were talking with this lady, and after she left we were writing down her info to call later and this massive pitbull walks out of its dog house. It charged at us, but luckily was chained to the little doggy house. We laughed a little bit until it started dragging the doggy house towards us, we crossed the street and the owner came out and yelled at the dog. Never have I seen a more muscular dog. My goodness.

Friday we picked up our new Malibu! It rained our whole way down to Lansing and the people weren't ready for us once we got there, which wasn't that good. We chilled in the mission office, and once we made all the calls we could to potentials and investigators we ran out of things to do. We played ping pong and read through sections of "Mormon Doctrine" by McConkie that are not scripturally backed up and are not actually doctrine. That was fun, there are some weird things in that book haha. After a few hours we were able to take the car. It's sweet. Its color is "nightfall grey steel," but best of all TIWI wasn't working on the way home so I drove home at a comfortable pace. 

Saturday and Sunday were pretty great. Every six months we get to hear from the Apostles and Prophets who lead our church. Saturday my favorite talks were definitely Elder Holland's talk on the hymn "There is Sunshine in my Soul" 

Elder Holland's talk

and especially Elder Sabin's talk on being fully committed to the gospel. He made a point of connecting the symbolism of baptism with being fully committed to the gospel. The ordinance of baptism needs to be done correctly, and if the person isn't fully submerged it must be done again. For the gospel of Jesus Christ we need to be all in, and when we are truly all in we are eligible to receive the greatest blessings God can give. 

Elder Sabin's talk

In the Priesthood session, President Eyring made a really good point on leadership and service. He said the Lord's work is not to solve problems, but to build people. When we help people we need to be thinking of what will actually help them, instead how to fix the situation. Once they can help themselves they can fix the situation on their own. This builds off the idea of the importance of building strong capable people, instead of making life easier. Capable people solve problems while people who haven't had to learn and grow shrink at challenge.

Elder Eyring's talk

I hope everyone reads or watches at least one talk. These people truly were called of God, and that's a powerful gift.

3/25/17 Wards/Branches, Baptism, Racoons, Malibu

Family and friends,

Apparently our last P-day in each transfer is on a Saturday, idk I don't make the rules, but here we are.

Elder Rencher, from our district has been keeping statistics on church attendance during the past few weeks. This last Sunday was a little crazy based on how many people showed up. In order from my first week until now, church attendance was 64, 58, 67, 80. A few members brought their friends, and we had more less-active members than ever. Sadly, the member's friends live in the area of the other companionship in the district. That Sunday the idea of the Spanish ward was planted into our minds. Apparently the branch has grown significantly over the last year. When it started, only around 13 people or so would show up every week. We average around 5 times that now. Last night Elder Guerrero felt really strongly that we were called specifically to this mission to build and turn this branch into a ward. We used the little free time we had to set some goals and outline what needs to be done to make this goal. 

Find out about wards and branches here

From what we know, we need 15 worthy Melchizedek priesthood holders who are willing to fill the church leadership positions. We are currently at around 9. The most important thing we can do is strengthen the members and get their help in our mission efforts. Strong members build strong members. There are a few men who are mostly active that we can work with to make this goal happen. This is the benefit of the area I was called to, this is the only Spanish branch in the state so I'm staying for quite a while. The president was at the baptism we had today and talked about the progress this branch has had. When I first got here 6 weeks ago he also told me that I'll be in this area for more than half my mission. So while it seems like a lot of time, there is a ton of work to be done. This week we set some insane weekly goals. We'll see how that goes. It truly feels like the Lord wants a strong Spanish ward.

So like I said we had a baptism today. It's been along time since I've gone to one, which is too bad, because the spirit was so strong. We are working on Latino time, so it started almost 40 minutes late, and people were filtering in slowly almost the whole time. Berta was working with the other missionaries, and we weren't able to get any of our investigators out to it which was too bad. We invited everyone we met this week. A few people talked and it really was a great opportunity to see how far I've come in Spanish, I understood 95% of what was said, but missed a few jokes. I also translated a little for the zone leader and Assistant to the president that came to our baptism. 

Monday we had an awesome lesson with our Golden Family. I'm pretty sure their last name is Soreano, but I'm not sure. We found Natividad walking to a park to play soccer with his son. We had a really great lesson with him where we talked about the restoration and I led out that lesson. The spirit was pretty strong, and we could see that Natividad felt the same. We gave him a Book of Mormon and asked him to read the intro and Joseph Smith's testimony. He said he would. We taught another lesson with him on Thursday. We brought the Rosales family with us and we talked about the Plan of Salvation. We had them teach a little and they gave testimonies on how the gospel has changed their lives. The Rosales family just clicked with Natividad and his wife, We really hope they will come to church tomorrow. Our lesson also on Thursday Natividad was talking about when we first talked to him he saw a light in us and felt something in his heart that was different. In the lesson I was thinking, what the heck that's so freaking awesome. He went on to say that when he was reading the intro, and the lessons we've had with him he feels that same thing. Elder Guerrero and I were looking at each other thinking this isn't happening. Natividad is so ready. We haven't put him on a baptismal date yet, but he is starting recognizing the spirit and is reading the Book of Mormon with an open heart. It is so cool to watch people accept the plan God has for them.

That same day we had a lesson with a less active who's husband we were able to pick up as an investigator. We talked about the restoration with him and he really is starting to show a little interest. He comes to church but is a little hesitant to join another church. He seems like the kind of man who isn't going to make a decision without knowing all he can know, which is awesome especially because he is finally showing interest. We had an Hermana from the branch come with us to the lesson and she taught really well. I asked how the message of the restoration of Christ's church has blessed her family and she gave a really nice testimony on how she can receive guidance to raise her family and the blessings that come from it. The less active lady that was there went on this tangent that I was only able to get the theme of, which was something about her daughter and a picture that shouldn't have been possible, we brought the lesson back, and Pedro really seemed receptive to what we said and also really felt the spirit. We finished the lesson and Hermana Sifontes gave a really powerful testimony on the Book of Mormon, it was crazy. 

Members are such powerful examples and when they bear their testimonies it's incredibly powerful. We left with a prayer and commitments to read the intro and J. smiths testimony.

Introduction to the Book of Mormon

The last three nights we've been woken up by an intruder. The first night Elder Guerrero woke me up thinking someone was breaking into the apartment. We live on the third floor and the noise was coming from our balcony. He grabbed my flashlight and we saw a raccoon pulling aside the plastic siding and trying to dig through the 2x4. 

I checked the damage that morning and there is a solid 6 inch diameter whole behind the siding into our wall from the outside. In our studies in the morning we started hearing the little guy walking around above us which was a little funny. We really need to report this. The next day in the early morning around the same time, not thinking straight I had the bright idea to poke him with our broom and scare him away so that he wont come back. He hissed really loud at me and started climbing down really fast to come and get me. I closed our glass door and he clawed at it for a minute and retreated like a little coward. Our apartment is on a little man-made lake and we have a bunch of wildlife that stops by. We have a squirrel that comes by for bread at 9 am every day, and the lake we have outside our balcony has a bunch of geese and ducks.

Thursday we got the news that we won a 2017 Malibu like we wanted. We are going to go pick it up next week. Elder Guerrero and I switch who drives each day, but as long as we don't move our car fast day I'll be driving it back from Lansing. I'm excited for that. 

Also some bad news. Our investigator who's son died is kind of stuck in the Dominican republic. He only brought enough money to get back and was robbed at gun point and was attacked. From the little we know he is doing well aside from the being stuck part. Our missionary phones wont call out of country so its really hard to impossible to contact him, but Luckily he is with family and should be back in two or so weeks.

3/20/17 Meals-on-Wheels, Lamb of God

Elders Johnson and Guerrero

Dear family and friends,

Once again a pretty solid week. 

We were fed by members most of the days this week and were always cooked amazing food. 

On Tuesday we started doing service at this place called Meals-on-Wheels. The Sister Trainer leaders invited us to go there because a lot of the staff speak Spanish and one guy has shown some interest in learning more about our church, so obviously we followed. We talked with this guy named Pedro who is super cool, super open, and super kind. We picked him up as a potential and taught a lesson to him about who we are and what we do. At Meals-on-Wheels we just got a bunch of chicken thighs ready to be cooked. It was pretty easy. We got approximately 490 lbs. of chicken ready for cooking. 


Wednesday I hit the Month mark of being in the field which is a little crazy. Time flies. That day we also had a pretty large time set out to knock doors. We were working on being more bold, loving, and using the Book of Mormon, and it really helped a lot. We were able to teach two lessons off door knocks, which is a miracle in itself. The second lesson was so cool though. This Hispanic family had just moved in and we were waiting for a bus to come so we could make it to our dinner with one of the branch members. We knocked on their door and seemed like no one was home, then we knocked the next house and they pulled up in their car. They looked at us with the, "oh man it's the Mormons/JW's/Fed look" and we walked over and talked with them. Turns out they've met with missionaries before and want us to come back. We taught a little lesson and left to catch our bus. Earlier that day we talked with this guy smoking outside his house. We talked a little about the Bible and scriptures and he invited us in. Super interesting guy with a crazy back story. He told us about how he grew up in a rough foster home and one day in the middle of the night one of the foster kids stabbed him in the chest and cut him open. He showed us the scar. Its big. haha that was fun. We passed him off to the other English elders.

We had a really good zone conference/training. One of the Assistants to the president was leaving and they had a few of the zone leaders give trainings. I'm guessing that was done so the president of the mission could see who might fill the spot the best. I think my favorite training was on Charity. We went over a few scriptures, a few being Moroni 7:43-48, John 3:16, Mathew 25:34-40, and Mathew 22:39, and how they pertain to missionary work. We need to be looking for ways to serve everyone we meet, and use each door knock as an opportunity to teach and help instead of just to knock. Knocking to teach instead of knocking to knock, that's something I need to work on because knocking is not fun. The zone conference went a little long, like 1.5 hours long, which was a little awkward because we had to cancel a lesson with a less active, and showed up late to another.

Friday was fun. We woke up to a little bit of snow and we had a few lessons planned. Our first lesson fell through so we knocked doors into the area and meet this nice black guy who had a crazy deep voice. Turns out he was a JW and spent the time mostly trying to teach us, and he said a few things that were pretty interesting and are provably false. The guy was nice though. We asked him why did he chose to join the Jehovah Witness church, he talked about how to him it fits the bible the best and how the church is the same through out the whole world. He talked about the bible says in what I think is Ephesians 4:5, that there is one lord, one faith, and one baptism, and how that pertains to the JW church. In my head I was thinking about everything he said for his JW church fit for our church as well. It was kind of interesting to me that no one talks about using prayer to find out which church is the church they need to be apart of. Everyone we talk to say it either fits their reading of the bible or fits what they look for. I really like the scripture in Mark 7:19-21. It talks about how what is in the heart of someone that really matters, because the heart is where our actions and desires come from. Everyone we seem to talk to only make reference to thinking out their question and making the best decision off that. Which is good, but it is only the first step. John 1:5 talks about if we lack wisdom we need to ask God who will give us the answers to anything we ask for, that and Moroni 10:5 we know that it's through the Holy Ghost that we receive these answers. 

Friday afternoon was crazy. We, like every week if we don't have a lesson, had indoor soccer again. It was insane. So many people were there. It was also getting really competitive, it was pretty funny. We were doing teams of 4-5 and we had around 5 teams, loser switches at each point. Elder Guerrero and this other guy were so good. We basically dominated the first 8 or so games. I got a few assists, but my ball skills don't match more than half of the people there. We invited a few of our potentials and investigators and we saw someone we've been talking too for a little there as well. Everyone had a good time, and only a few people were angry at the end.

Saturday we went to the lamb of God concert, written by Rob Gardner. IT was so good. The production was put on by one of the local universities as well as a bunch of professional soloists. The orchestra was incredible. It was a little weird because we were instructed that we couldn't go with our missionary tags on, and I didn't think that was going to be as weird as it turned out to be, but the music was fantastic. I realized how much I missed music. The members who brought us were super gracious and bought us dinner and a CD of the lamb of God. We've been rocking out to that for the last few days. 

Each day we are seeing improvement in Spanish, unity as a companionship, in teaching, and our investigators.

3/13/17 Jails, dog walkers, polygamy, immigration and people getting ready for baptism

Family and friends,

Every week is better from the last. Every day we meet interesting people I don't think I would have ever talked to, and we've definitely had some small miracles this week.

Monday was fun. We knocked doors and met some interesting people. We normally struggle getting into people's home from the doorstep in order to teach a lesson, which is understandable, but we had an awesome experience with this mid 20's black guy. He was a little hard to understand, but Elder Guerrero and I talked to this guy for a few minutes. We taught him about repentance and that God can help him with the things he said he was struggling with. He seemed openly touched by what we were saying, and he talked about how he used to be in this gang and the life he had that was destroying him on the inside. He talked about the horrible things he did and how it changed him for the worse, and that after he got out of jail he has been working to put that behind and clean himself up for the daughter he had before he was incarcerated. 

The spirit was there and I'm certain he felt the power of what we were talking about. Elder Guerrero and I taught with more unity than ever and it was perfect. It was a little crazy. We both testified that through the atonement we can really come back from anything we have ever done, and become the people we want to be. It was a great moment, but at the same time once we left, we knew we had to pass him off to the English elders who cover the area we were knocking in. 

Tuesday we had a little miracle. We were getting ready to go knock doors and were sitting in the car. We said a prayer to find someone ready for our message as well as some other things. Literally the second we were stepping out of the car, someone pulled into the driveway of our first house. Elder Guerrero and I looked at each other, laughed a little and walked over to the lady. We talked with her and she talked about the miracles she has seen in her life, it was a pretty nice experience and she was really open to listening to more about what we had to say. 

Wednesday we had trade-offs again. I went with Elder Rencher. We did a fair amount of door knocking that day. We talked with this lady who was walking her dog for almost 10 minutes. It was a little funny, because she never stopped walking, but after a minute or so I realized she was in a hurry so we just walked with her. Really an awesome lady, we talked about how we are here to become more like our father in heaven and that that doesn't mean going to church on Sunday and then going crazy the rest of the week. We were able to pick her up as a potential. 

We knocked some more doors and found a lady who said she already read the Book of Mormon. That got me so excited, in my head I was thinking of all the crazy stories of people who randomly find the Book of Mormon, read it, pray about it, and find out on their own its truthfulness. I asked her what she thought about it, and she said it was alright, she just hated the part where it said that men had to have multiple wives. That was a little more than surprising because the Book of Mormon actually has a chapter that talks about the evils of polygamy when it isn't commanded of God (Jacob 2). If she didn't slam the door on our face before we could say anything of value it would have been awesome to actually talk more about it.

That same day we had a lesson with one of Rencher's and Water's investigators who has really been progressing. We just talked about baptism and its importance, showed one of the bible videos about Jesus' baptism, and walked her through the baptismal questions. 

Video depicting Jesus' baptism

Going through the questions was SO cool. She bore her testimony multiple times, and I was just sitting there loving every second. The Gospel has changed her life so much. She talked about how she has always had doubts about God and when the Elders found her, taught her, and invited her to both read the Book of Mormon and follow the promise/challenge found in Moroni 10:3-5 she found all the answers she was looking for. It was incredible to see that there are people out there ready to hear the word of God, and that truly their only barrier is that they don't know where to find it. 

Friday we stopped by a less active teen we have been working with. We didn't plan on teaching him anything but were just planning on seeing if there was a time we could come back and talk more. We walked in and he was happier than I've ever seen him. He has been to church the last three weeks and has started praying again. 

https://www.mormon.org/worship

(This link has very helpful FAQs about attending LDS church meetings and you can enter your zip code to find the closest meetinghouse.  Visitors are welcome!)

He talked about things he has been struggling with. As a missionary I've never felt more guided by the spirit. We were sitting with this kid, and all these ideas kept coming to me to tell him, and we had an powerful conversation about repentance with him. He said he really has felt a difference now that he is coming back to church. We read through Ether 12 which is pretty awesome. My favorite part is verse 27 "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." (italics added). It's super rewarding to watch people's testimonies grow and watch them feel the truth of what we talk about.

Chicago, IL LDS Temple

Saturday was by far the best day. We got permission to go to the Chicago temple with the branch. Our branch is pretty small, only around 60 people are there each Sunday. Saturday we had nearly 40 people go. It was such an awesome experience. We were planning on doing everything you can do in the temple, but everyone showed up late in the morning so we lost about an hour of temple time. We were able to do an endowment session and baptisms. We missed the start time of the Spanish session, but the temple president was able to switch some things around and created a new Spanish session just for us. The temple is such a powerful place. The spirit inside and around is like no other place I've ever been, it truly is the house of the lord. The nearest temple to our area is 3.5 hours away, and many of the branch members go once or even twice a month, which is at a considerable sacrifice to many based on the economic status of much of the branch. It really is inspiring. 

Sunday we learned some interesting things about the new executive orders and laws surrounding illegal immigration. Everyone is really nervous and just scared about getting deported. Turns out one of the Catholic churches in the area has been working with illegal immigrants to gain citizenship, which is great, but have told everyone who is illegal to not open their doors to anyone they don't know. That kind of explains a lot. When we knock areas with a lot of Hispanics, we never get a door open, and this has happened in the past two weeks or so. It's pretty sad. People are just scared.