7/26/2021

Hey y'all! 

This week was amazing! We were so busy that the time just went by so fast.

We found a person named Marcel along with his family last week. We were able to get them to church on Sunday which was awesome. We had a few others come to church as well. 

On Tuesday I went on exchanges into Herritage area with Elder Brinkworth. It's a bike area too. We did some service in the morning and helped some members move lots of boxes and furniture upstairs. They got pizza after. On the way home from service Elder Brinkworth crashed on his bike. His gears caught and stopped the bike so he got thrown from his bike. He's all good now, just a few bumps and bruises. The impressive part was that Elder Brinkworth's Helmet cracked but his head was perfectly fine. It was a miracle that nothing else happened. We just rested and called people for the rest of the day. 

On Wednesday we helped out our friend Adolfo. We have been teaching him for quite a while now. He's been in a rough place for a while but we were able to share the Book of Mormon with him and he was able to watch Church through zoom on Sunday. He is trying to change his life around and it's really awesome. 

On Thursday we went to a member’s house for dinner. Their name was the Cifuentes's. The cool part was they all spoke mainly Spanish. It was really awesome to get to practice my Spanish and give a message in Spanish as well. The spirit was really strong there.

On Friday we did service almost all day. From 9 in the morning up until 4. We helped do some yard work moving mulch and weeding at the military base at a building called Fisher House. After we went and helped move a family’s stuff out of a storage unit and into the U-Haul. It was a lot of work. We lifted these really heavy glass tables that were about 250 lbs each. After that service we traveled home and saw that 2 people were trying to move in but they lived on the 2nd floor. The 6 of us all helped them get it all done and we finished it in about 30 minutes. It was so awesome and they were so grateful. The cool thing was that they live right next door to the sister and us. Then a little later me and Elder Larson went to the Hardy's home for dinner in the ward. When we got there we found them moving lots of wet clothes out onto the drive way. It turns out that their washing machine broke and water had flooded their house a tiny bit. We helped them clean the rest of it up and wrung their clothes and towels. It was a crazy day but full of amazing opportunities to help other people. 

Sunday was super good as well. We found a new person named Gracie. She was taught by the missionaries back in 2013. She is actually really interested in learning more. We went to this apartment complex and found 3 other people to teach. There was a lot of people there that we were able to help. We actually saw some people who needed a car jump. While we helped, Elder Larson got shocked by the wires which was kinda funny. He's all good as well.

Well it's been a good week. I hope everyone's doing good. Talk to you more later! 

Pictures for the week:

1. The helmet that cracked. 

2. Elder Brinkworth after his bike crash

3. Me and Elder Brinkworth on Exchanges

 7/19/2021

Hey everyone! This was such a great week. 

The highlight of my week was on Friday when we got to go to the temple. It was one the best experiences I have ever had in my life. I love the temple so much and it’s brought so many blessing into my life. The San Antonio Texas Temple is such a beautiful temple and it's even more beautiful on in the inside. I learned so much from going to the temple and my testimony as been strengthened and knowledge of our Heavenly Father’s plan has increased as well. 

If I was to give anyone any advice it would be to prepare yourself to go to the temple because you will feel God’s love at a new level and feel closer to him than ever. I know this to be true for myself.

I got to go on exchanges with the Assistants this week. I was able to go with Elder Hoffman into the Deerfield area. It was such a fun day and I learned so much about being a missionary. I learned a lot that you don't have to always be in a hurry, that it’s better to slow down and look around. There are so many people around and each one is a child of God. We got to talk to a lot of people on that exchange and it was really amazing. 

This week I also went on exchanges with Elder Hafen in Hondo. It was such a good experience as well. We did service for a member named Brother Greaves. He is like half active because of his job but one of the strongest members of the church I have ever met. We helped strip some wood for a shed he's making. He taught me and Elder Hafen so much that day about the scriptures and the church. 

On Sunday we did a blitz with the sister Missionaries in Heritage. Their names are Sister Huntington and Tobler. It was a super great day and me and Elder Larson had a really awesome contact. We were walking and talked to this man named Marcel Arispe. He was super interested and we ended up going inside and sharing the Restoration with Him and his family. He really liked the Book of Mormon and wants to know if it's really true. One of my favorite things he said a lot was that Jesus is first and so he gathered all his family because Jesus is really important to him. He wants to bring his whole family to church on Sunday this week so we are going to have another lesson with him soon. We are so excited to start teaching this family. 

Well I am super happy and doing really good. This Spanish is doing great as well! I hope y'all have a great week!

Pictures for this week:

1. Our temple group on Friday.

2. The Ray's, Elder Thatcher and me

3. Me and Elder Hoffman on exchanges. 

 7/12/2021

Hey y'all this week was a really great week! Although it rained a ton. Each day this week it felt like San Antonio was getting dumped on and flooded. 

There was one day when me and Elder Larson were trying to get to a lesson and the road had flooded at least a foot high. We made giant splashes as we drove by which was super epic and fun. One of the things the rain caused was lots of mosquitoes so we had to double spray the bug spray. The nice part about all the rain was that it cooled things down so it wasn't so hot. 

Now it's pretty back to normal, hot and humid as Texas gets. 

We found out that as a district we are getting to go to the temple this week on Friday. We are so excited! 

We lost contact with a lot of the people we are teaching this week sadly but we had lots of opportunities to find new people to teach. Me and Elder Larson were able to find a person in our area through Facebook which was really awesome. Sometimes it can be pretty hard to do that. 

Now that transfers are over for now, being a Zone Leader has been so much fun. It's also been a lot of planning as well. We had a zone leader call yesterday at 9:30 with President Tveten and we talked about the plans for this transfer and zone conference and such. This month we are going to be focusing on PMG chapters 2 and 9 and the missionary purpose. New scripture of the Month is Alma 37:37 which says

"Counsel with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day."

I'm personally doing super great and having such an amazing time here. I hope you all have a really great week!

Pictures for the week:

1. A tiny turtle that we saw at person’s house we were at.

2. In Lytle Texas, there is a "wave zone" sign because of this man who was famous for always waving at people from his porch. He was famous for this tiny town.

3. At a member dinner we saw some really cute puppies. 

4. Me and Elder Larson were stuck at the train tracks while a really long train passed by.

 7/5/2021

Hey y’all! This week was really good. 

Last Monday we got to teach Isabel the Plan of Salvation. It went really good. She really likes meeting with us. The only thing was we couldn't meet with her this week because of her work schedule. She has been reading in the Book of Mormon though. We are planning to try and get her to come to church in our next lesson. 

On Tuesday we did some service at Brother Perez's house. He's the 2nd counselor in the bishopric. We helped him fix some fence posts that his dogs were wearing down. We traveled to Lytle Texas later that night for Dinner at the Flores home. Lytle is one of our biggest drives and usually takes a ton of miles. Funny thing we already were just about out of miles for the month so we had to be careful. It was pretty fun for dinner. We had tacos and sang karaoke.  

On Wednesday it was the last day of the month and we were all out of miles. We got permission to go 15 extra miles so we ended up using our bikes for a little bit.  We got to go on base and eat with the trainees again. It was so much fun. All the trainees had also gone on missions as well. They told us a few of their experiences they had and it was really amazing. 

On Friday we helped a family move some things into storage. They are moving in but not for a while, they just wanted to start moving stuff over. We visited and street bike contacted for most of the day. We met this family from the Philippines who are actually members. They haven't been active for a long time but wanted to get active again. We invited them to read the Book of Mormon and study it daily. We helped them download gospel library as well. 

On Sunday we also did a lot of finding and talked to a lot of people. It was awesome because it was the 4th of July. We went to a BBQ that the Perez family was doing. Some other members in the ward came as well. They lit a few fireworks off as well while we were there. On the way home we could see fireworks all over San Antonio. I was so surprised of how much Texas loves fireworks. They have firework stands all over the place. 

Today we went with the Heritage Elders to a members house to work out. Brother Parkinson is super big into working out so we went all out. He even brought a giant tire for us to flip. After, we had some chicken and waffles. 

I also got my transfer news yesterday and I'm going to be a zone leader now. I'm staying in my area as well. I'm so excited and nervous at the same time. 

It's been hot and humid like Texas always is but I'm enjoying while it lasts. I have loved so much serving here in the mission. I've felt so happy and the Spirit has been so strong here. 

I hope everyone is doing well and that you have a great week.  

Pictures for the week:

1. A picture of me in a sombrero.

2. All of us at the Base on Wednesday for dinner.

3. We saw this firework of Donald Trump and thought it was funny.

4. The 4 of us with Brother Parkinson after we worked out his morning.

5. The chicken and waffles we ate after working out.