Service, One-by-one, J's ordination

Hey y’all!

This week was a little bit slow but there was still some really great experiences.

First of all we were able to do a ton of service this week. We had the chance to go and help feed the homeless at a soup kitchen which is always fun cuz you get to interact with them a bit and also serve in a capacity that is actually needed and not something that could be done without. Doing the soup kitchen actually brought me back to when my family and I would do that some Sundays at the St Anne's soup kitchen in Ogden. It was a great experience. 

Another service we did was helping a member build part of a fence in his back yard. This one pretty much consisted of us just digging a bunch of deep holes for fence posts but it was fun, and we got some fresh banana bread out of the deal so it was totally worth it - haha.

The last service I want to mention was just one of those ones that is a good memory but is not that great in the moment. We had an investigator that was moving, that we scheduled to help move like three or four times, and he bailed on us every time and tried to reschedule. But eventually we went and were able to help a little bit one evening.  He led us to a little shed in his back yard that he wanted us to grab stuff out of. He had not even opened up this shed for two years, so that gives you a little bit of an idea of what is going to happen next. We open it up and it is just dusty and gross with some rat droppings on some of the boxes. He asks us to move the stuff into the house and then when the next load of the trailer came, to throw it on the trailer. As we started moving stuff there were huge cockroaches that started appearing and crawling everywhere. Some of these things I swear were the size of my hand. It was nasty! But we started killing them and continued moving the boxes until all of a sudden we found the rat.  After that we stopped and went inside with the boxes we had moved into the house, only to find that there had been some cockroaches inside the boxes that had escaped and they were crawling on the walls!! I have no idea how many there were, but it was tons! We killed all the ones we could find, and all of us, including our investigator, determined that all the stuff in that shed was useless anyways and that it was all going to be tossed in the trash. So yeah that was a fun time finding all the roaches and rats haha.

Anyways on a more spiritual note we were able to go out with the ward this Sunday for a thing we called one-by-one ministering, where all the missionaries in our district got paired up with a member and we went and reached out to less actives to invite them to church and to a ward activity we are going to have the 5th of May.  I got paired with a guy named S and we went around at tried to find the people on our list. Unfortunately none of the people on our list were home and/or lived at that address anymore. We did get to talk to one of their neighbors named T and it was great. When I mentioned I was from Utah he started talking to me about how the Jazz won their game this weekend, and how they seem to be doing pretty dang good. Eventually our conversation lead into us inviting him to the ward activity, and him saying we could come by sometime to  teach him a little bit more about our church and what we believe. So it was fun.

This Sunday we also had the opportunity for J to be ordained a deacon in the church and receive the Aaronic Priesthood, so that was awesome! We also got another Spanish member that randomly showed up at church. His name is F and he is

J, A, Church, Baptist Parade

Hey everyone, 

This week was just an awesome week.  Even though a lot of our investigators couldn't meet with us, the ones we did meet with us were awesome!

So first of all, the most exciting news is that J got baptized yesterday! It finally happened! It was such a great time at the service for a few reasons: first of all I have never seen J smile so much! He is a pretty quiet, shy kid but during the baptism and right after he was smiling like none other, it was great! Secondly some of his extended family, who are less active, were able to come and witness it! It was awesome because the spirit was so strong and I’m confident the talks and testimonies that were shared will help J as he prepares to receive the priesthood and also help his family grow their faith.

The second awesome thing that happened this week is our lesson with A. Again he was attentive, asking questions, and taking notes. This man is awesome! We were going more in depth with the Plan of Salvation and he started to talk to us about his dad who was a pastor for many years. He told us about how his father influenced him and how excited he is that some of the things his father told him right before he died, were coming true through our teachings. The coolest example is the statement his father said to him in one of the last letters he sent. He said, "make sure to study the restoration of Christ's church." and then he referred to our first lesson when we talked about the restoration and how his knowledge of the gospel and Christ's plan for us had grown as he listened to the "restored gospel of Christ" we had been teaching him. I love teaching him and I always leave these lessons feeling happy and filled with the spirit. 

This week was great as well since we got the chance to have J, J, and T all at church  It's always great to have investigators at church.

Another super fun thing we had happen this week is that we were able to go on a prayer walk with some members of a Baptist church. Haha Elder Magee and I were on exchanges with the district leader down in New Iberia, and the first thing we did was go on that walk. Haha we were passing out pass-along cards, as well as flyers for that church’s activities. It was super funny because some of the people had megaphones and were shouting prayers to bless the city, and trying to bless the people to stay out of temptations way, and to get rid of the violence and drugs in the city. There was even a 1.5 year old girl who was the preachers granddaughter who was yelling Hallelujah from her stroller for a lot of the time, it was pretty adorable actually. 

So yea that is the week. I hope y’all have an awesome rest of the school year! 

Baptism

At the Prayer Walk

Hallelujah!

J, Conference

Hey everyone, I hope all of y’all enjoyed conference!

It was pretty dang awesome! I love how we get to hear from our prophet and apostles every 6 months! I thought it was super awesome how we are now building temples in 3 countries that have never had temples before! It really shows how the gospel really is spreading to all nations!

My favorite talk this conference was the one by President Oaks when he talked about how the small decisions we make every day in life will determine who we become and prepare us for lifes big decisions. It was awesome when he said that the biggest changes we make in life come from the countless small decisions we make. I thought it was awesome because the way we prepare for the future and the way we show Christ we are willing to follow him is doing what he would in all of our seemingly insignificant decisions we make now!

This week we also got to visit J again and he is currently praying about getting baptized. He says he believes what we have been saying so I’m confident he will get the answer he needs and start taking the steps he needs to prepare to be baptized. He is a pretty awesome guy!

Love you all, I hope y’all have an awesome week!

Nelson

Finally got my hair cut!