Transfer 12 Week 4 June 8 2015

we had another really great week. but unfortunately it is getting hotter and hotter every day! But whenever i feel super hot i just think about the other missionaries in Monclova or Piedras Negras, or Bryan in Torreon and i feel much better. Because the heat is absolutely horrible in those places.

So this last tueday i spent the day with Elder Bauzan in divisions. It was an okay day. Unfortunately we didnt find many people in there houses and every meeting that i planned fell through, but we did get a lot of contacts, so the day didnt go completely to waste, but thankfully we were able to have some other really good days this week, and by sunday we actually had more lessons in the week than we have had in a while. In the mission, sometimes we have days that kind of suck, but if you keep working all through the week with a positive attitude you can still make it a great week. That is something that my mission president taught us in our last zone conference. its something that i would like to try to apply to the rest of my life, even though it can be super hard at times to keep a positive attitude when crap happens especially for me.

so like i said the rest of the week was really good. We had a ward activity on friday. we watched the movie Meet the Mormons. But it was actually Conozca a los Mormones because we watched it in Spanish (obviously) We had a really good turn out like 55 i think. A few investigators went as well.

Yesterday was great as well. An investigator that we hadn´t seen in a while went to church by herself yesterday and said that she wants to be baptized. We have a lesson with her in a couple hours and we are going to set her baptismal date for the 20th so that is super exciting! 

So ya

Elder Earl

Transfer 12 Week 3 June 1 2015

We had another really great week, and a large part of it was making sure that our investigator Ricardo would be ready for his baptism on Saturday.

On Tuesday after our regular Tuesday meeting I did divisions all day with Elder Flores. He is from Chihuahua. It was a really great day! We found some new investigators that are super cool. It is the Soliz Perez family. They are an old couple. He is 81 and she is 79. We had a really good lesson with them, and they actually accepted the invitation to be baptized in the first visit. Which was a pleasant surprise because in the past when i have taught senior citizens they usually aren`t too eager to make changes in their life. Later on in the week I was on divisions with another Elder named Elder Bauzan and we had a really spiritual lesson. We taught the Restoration. And they went to church with us yeterday, so if everything plays out right we could be baptizing in a few weeks. But it is also very possible that i will be transferred before that happens.

So on Friday We had Ricardo`s baptismal interview. Everything went super well, because he was super prepared for it. His wife is a return missionary, and she really helped him a lot as well. So on Saturday we had his baptism. He couldn´t decide who he wanted to baptize him so we decided to have my companion baptize him, and then on Sunday the Elders Quorum President from the ward confirmed him. 

On Sunday we had a capacitation at 7:00 with one of the members of the Seventy. It was really good. It was mostly for the members of the Ward council of all the wards in Saltillo, but all of the missionaries were invited as well. It was really powerful and i learned a lot. and i also got to see some missionaries and members that i have not seen in a long time, so that was cool too.

So ya i am doing great.

Elder Earl

 

Transfer 12 Week 2 May 25 2015

Well this last week was super sweet! I am getting along super well with my companion, we had a lot of fun, and we had a lot of success as well.

Well i guess the most exciting thing that happened this week was our baptism! Our investigator Paloma was baptized on friday by her father. It was a really cool and spritiual experience. Mostly because many people in the ward thought that she was never going to be baptized because she has had a lot of opportunities in the past but always decided not to. mostly because her mom is not a member of the church. But her mom has been going to church a lot recently and she was there in the baptism as well. Brother Silva (palomas dad) Baptized Paloma and his 8-year-old daughter Sarabi. then at the end of the service he bore a very strong testimony of the church. Truthfully it was one of the most powerful testimonies that i have heard. I could tell that he was super happy that his two daughters decided to be baptized. Now just his wife needs to be baptized and they can all go to the temple together to be sealed for all eternity!

Then on sunday we had the confirmation. Paloma actually wanted me to baptize her at first, but after talking it over we all agreed that it would be better for her dad to baptized her, so he asked me to do the confirmation. So i did. It was also a really great experience. I always love to participate in the ordinaces of the gospel, because i always feel so spiritually uplifted afterwards, and they really strenghten my testimony of the church and of the preisthood authority.

On saturday we had a really great lesson with another investigator named Ricardo. And he accpeted the invitation to be baptized this saturday! So we will be having another baptism on Saturday! Well it is possible that we will have to move it to the next week, because he still doesnt know his work schedule for the week. But he is definitely going to be baptized!

Elder Earl

 This is me and my new companion Elder Gallardo

 

 

This is us with the Silva family. They are now all members except for the mom. Paloma is our convert that was baptized on friday, her sister Sarabi was baptized as well, but she is eight so she isn´t a convert. Their dad baptized them, then on Sunday I confirmed Paloma.

 

Transfer 12 Week 1 May 18

This week was super sweet! I ended up not having time to write about the changes last week. So i will do it now. My companion was sent to another area here in Saltillo and i recieved my new companion on Tuesday at like 2 in the afternoon. His last area was in Monclova. It is like 3 hours north of Saltillo. His name in Elder Gallardo and he is from Ecuador. He is super cool! And I can already tell that he is going to be one of my favorite companions.

We had a lot of success this week. Quite a few lessons and we actually have another baptismal date for the 30th of May! so i am super excited. This Friday we are going to have one as well! It is going to be a really good couple of weeks! 

This week we accidentally left the keys in the house two days in a row! And the houses here are a lot different than the united states because when you close the door there is absolutely no way of opening it from the outside without the key. The first day wasnt too tough because we left the window open and i was able to open the door through the window with a stick. It took me a while but i did it. But the second day was super tough because we closed the window! We had absolutely no idea of what to do, so after about a half hour or so we decided to break the window and open the door with the stick again. My companion started to throw a big rock at the window a couple of times, but aparently our house has the strongest windows in the world! Because it didnt even crack. Then i picked up the rock and started to bang it against the glass and there was still not even a crack. Then i decided to do it just one more time as hard as i could. 

I was super confused for a second because it made a loud noise as if it had broken, but there was still no crack in the window. Then i realized that the blow had actually loosend the clasp on the inside of the window allowing me to open it normally. And we were able to grab the keys from the table with a long stick. We thought it was pretty funny. 

so ya. I am doing great! It was a great week.

Elder Earl

Transfer 11 Week 6 May 11 2015

Well my 11th transfer is officially over. Which is kind of scary because i am pretty sure that i only have like 6 left!

This last week was actually pretty rough for me. I all started on Monday. I woke up feeling a little bit sick to the stomach, but i didnt really think much of it because it had happened before. But then we went over to the house of the other missionaries in our ward to eat hamburgers for lunch and to play Uno. That was fun, but then later on i started to feel super sick. And to top it all off, on the way back home I stepped on a nail. It passed through my shoe and stabbed my foot. So we finally got home and I ended up throwing up about 4 times with a sore foot and everything. I finally got to sleep at about 3 in the morning.

The next day (Tuesday) we had the zone meeting in the morning. I sat through the whole thing but i felt like dying. I probably wouldn´t have gone since i was sick, but the mission president gave the capacitation so i decided to go. 

After the meeting I finally got to go to the doctor. Our ward mission leader brought us because i could barely walk. They gave me a Tetanus shot for the nail thing and a bunch of medication for my stomach. Butt i am not going to say where they gave me the shot. Oops...i gave it away. 

By the end of Tuesday my stomach was feeling better, but i couldn´t get back to really walking until Thursday. so ya it was a rough week, But i am fine now.

But despite the dificulties the week ended up being one of my favorites because i got to see my family

Elder EArl!

Transfer 11 Week 5 May 4 2015

Well this week was cool. i didnt have time to mention it last week but a week before sunday i gave a talk in sacrament meeting. It went well! It was definitely the best talk i have ever given so far in the mission. Mostly because my Bishop actually told me that i was going to give a talk a week before hand. So i had a whole week to prepare and apparently i prepared too much. i was only going to speak for 10 or 15 minutes but i took up like 20...oops. one of the missionaries in my ward didnt get to give his talk. He was pretty thankful.

Anyway the work in going really well in my area. we are going to baptize on the 22 of may so i am super excited about that.unfortunately one of our investigators decided that she cant continue taking the discussions from us anymore. which is really strange because she was super excited about being baptized, she even wanted to go on a mission! But her sister is a member and is going to continue to support and encourage her. And obviously we will do whatever we can.

Today my companion and i made hamburgers with the other two missionaries in our ward, Elder Briones and Elder Miller. It was a lot of fun and they tasted super good! I am an avocado addict now which is funny because i always said that i didnt like it before coming here. 

Well that is about it. I am doing super well, and i am so excited to talk to you guys on Sunday!

Elder Earl

April 27 2015

Well I dont have anytime to write today  because we have a lot of stuff to do and the ciber is about to close. but I am doing great! We had a lot of success this week! we found a couple of new investigators and i am sure that at least 2 of them will be baptized within the next 2 months or so. Well i guess i have to go now. I thought that the ciber was going to be open for another half hour but apparently not.

Elder Earl