Good bye!

Elisa will be going to the YSA ward now and so the missionaries there will start to teach her. We
wont be teaching her anymore. We have several other investigators and referrals from members so this week will be a full week. Things are finally starting to pick up here in this ward.

It was a fast week and I'm sure this one will be just as fast if not faster. We have service a couple days this week and I will be going to the temple for the first time on my mission this Wednesday because my companion has a convert that is going through for the first time. I am excited to go back to the temple after two years.

The work is picking up!

What a great week it was. On tuesday we drove an hour to Junction a small town in the ward. We went with the High Priest Group Leader and visited with several less actives in the area. It took up the whole day. We had a fun time. We were also able to give the sacrament to an elderly lady there which was a neat experience.

On Thursday we had Zone Conference in San Antonio. Elder Cornish of the 70 came and spoke with us on how we can work differently with the active members of the ward. We are excited to apply the different things that he talked about. These were five things that he had a focused on.



1. Earn the Trust of the members/Know them
2. Set goals together/train together/find together
3. Teach with members
4. Cottage meetings
5. “Friends Sunday”

After conference we visited with an active family the Adams and they told us of a family that they want to share the gospel with. This non member family has the perfect questions that an investigator should have. They asked the Adams "why God doesn't speak with us anymore" and they also mentioned how there are many churches that seem to teach some truth but they want to find a church that teaches all the truth. We have a family home evening set up for next Monday evening with a
BBQ and a message. We are excited to teach this family next week. We had several investigators come to church yesterday. One of are investigators Sindy wants to be baptized but before she does she wants to learn more. There is also a part member family that came to church and want us to start to teach them. The work is really starting to pick up in this area. there should be several baptisms in the near future.

"When we turn our lives over to the Lord the power is behind us is always greater than the obstacles before us."

Super good hamburger place

Mary's Taco (The mucho macho taco)

Donuts on exchanges in San Antonio

Trying to teach of Jesus Christ!

This was a fast week and a busy one. We were able to teach two people this week who don't know who Jesus Christ is. One of them is Elisa and this was are second time teaching her. She has now come to church for almost 4 months and is trying to understand and learn as much as possible. This week we helped her understand what repentance is and how we can repent. She had many questions but said that she really enjoyed learning more about the importance of repentance. We also taught her what Jesus Christ did when he was on the earth and why that is so important to us now today. She didn't come to church this Sunday but we will be meeting again with her on Wednesday. We will be seeing if she wants to go to the singles ward the only challenge is that it is almost an hour drive to the YSA ward.

The other lady we taught who didn't know who Jesus Christ is from Malaysia and is married to a less active member. This young family came to church on Sunday because they are visiting here for about a week. We taught her also about who Christ is and she had many questions such as why are there so many Christian churches and what is the difference between them all. She was born Muslim and decided for herself that she didn't want to believe that. She has a great desire to learn more about the church and we will be contacting the missionaries in Lubbock Texas where they are living.

Earlier this week we went out with are bishop on visits. We were able to contact several of the members that he felt would benefit from a visit with the missionaries and himself. We have a great bishop who is actively participating and encouraging others to participate in missionary work. It is amazing how much the topic of missionary work is discussed in this ward because it is a focus of the bishops. Still trying to find a lot of people to find and teach. Looking forward to another week.

Rainy week!

After about three months of coming to church Elisa a friend of a
member started taking the lessons. On Wednesday we were able to teach
the first lesson "The Message of the Restoration". She really enjoyed
it and said that she felt the spirit during the lessons. towards the
end of the lesson we invited her to be baptized. She said that she
doesn't want to be baptized yet but was willing to read the Book of
Mormon which she has already done a little bit of and then also pray
to God asking if the Book of Mormon is true. A few days later she came
to a baptism that happened in another ward. This was her first time
ever seeing a baptism so she had a lot of questions such as why they
wore white jump suits, and who are the two men that stood on the side
of the font. She enjoyed the baptism a lot and we are looking forward
to going over again and teaching her this week. She is very shy and
quite which makes the teaching a little more difficult.

As this was a very rainy week and we were out of miles by the end of
the month we had to bike in the rain. It was fun and we had a pretty
neat experience doing it. As we were biking in the rain we saw a man
that was sitting outside under his porch. We went up and talked with
him about the Book of Mormon and gave him a copy. After we spoke with
a few of his neighbors about 20 minuted later we biked passed him
again and he was still reading from the Book of Mormon. We had several
other great contacts during the time on are bikes. It is amazing to
see the Lord bless us as we are diligent and doing all we can to find
people to teach and bring to church.

Family mission plan!

Another great week in the Texas San Antonio Mission. This week we were
able to have interviews with President Polley. He had us come prepare
with a Christ-like Attribute that we want to develop over the next six
weeks. He is a powerful man and it is always a blessing to sit down
and talk with him. Also on Saturday evening I was able to drive to
Boerne and give a baptismal interview to a 12 year old boy named
James. James was introduced to the church by his friend at school who
happened to be one of the bishops sons. James shared how he was
invited to the church and had to go home and pray to God asking him if
he should come to the Mormon church or go to church with his mother.
He felt that he should come to the Mormon church and when he came he
really enjoyed it and felt the spirit very powerfully. For a young 12
year old boy who will soon be the only member of his family he has a
powerful testimony and will be a great example to his younger siblings
and even his parents. Hopefully the rest of the family will soon come
and join the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Being able
to conduct baptismal interviews have been some of the most spiritual
experiences that I have had while serving on my mission.
On Sunday Elder Wallace and I were able to give talks during sacrament
meeting. My talk was focused on the importance of a family mission
plan. We are going to start to visit all the active members in the
ward over the next couple weeks and ask about what there family
mission plan is and if they need help putting one together. On the way
to dinner Sunday evening we stopped by a less active brother John
Boutte who had a non-member friend over. They were recently talking
about church and the friend wants to start to come to church with John
and us. They committed to come next week and he also accepted a Book
of Mormon and was excited to read it. His name is Shawn and hopefully
he will soon start to be progressing.
In the middle of the week we did a lot of service for our ward mission
leader who moved to Utah on Saturday. We helped him load up his truck
with the stuff that is in his barn and take it into the garage so that
it was ready to be packed up on Friday. We also mowed two lawns this
week of of our recent converts neighbors. They are older and couldn't
get out in the hot humid heat that we had this week. Looking forward
to another week and hoping that the humidity and heat doesn't get to
bad.

Leave nothing behind!

What a crazy week it was. Wednesday evening shortly before we went to bed we received a text message from a member of the ward. The text mentioned that her daughter who is in high school has a friend Cameron
that wants to take the lessons. Cameron wanted to learn more about the church and take the lessons because he thought it was cool that we meet every Wednesday night for mutual and also every Sunday for church
with other activities that we sometimes have through the week. This was an answer to many prayers as we have been doing all we can to work closely with the members. We are going to hopefully be meeting Cameron this week and start helping him draw closer to Christ.

The following day on Thursday we had transfers. We had to wake up a little before 5 to get up and drive to San Antonio to where transfers were at. I said my goodbye to Elder Tiongson who I love and will miss and was able to then receive my new companion Elder Wallace. Elder Wallace is a great missionary and we are excited to give it are all as we both end are missions in about two months. It will be a fun transfer and hopefully a successful one also. We are ready to leave nothing behind and work harder than we have ever done before. Elder Wallace is from around Sacramento California. He played college football at a Jr. College in California. He loves to cook and is a really funny and energetic missionary. I have never really served  around Elder Wallace so I didn't know him to well. This will be my  third companion that I have had who has come out with me. 

To start off the transfer we spent many hours outside visiting with people and finding new investigators. We also stopped by and taught Brother Edmondson. He is a less active who hasn't been to church in about two years and came back for the first time yesterday. Hopefully he continues to come to help support and strengthen are small Elders Quorum. We had one investigator come to church named Elisa. She is a friend of a returned missionary and she has been coming to church faithfully for over three months now. She said that she doesn't want to start taking the discussions yet but we will be eating lunch with her on Saturday and we are looking forward to seeing if she is ready now. She is really shy and nice and has a lot of potential.

On the Sabbath Day we were going to be giving talks on missionary work and a family mission plan but the bishop forgot that a high councilor was going to come and speak to us. Because of this we are now going to be speaking next week with a priest or two.

Break it down!

Elder Tiongosn and I will be together for only a couple more days. On Thursday we have transfers and I will be staying here in Kerrville and receiving Elder Wallace as my new companion. Elder Wallace came out with me so we will both finish our missions together here in Kerrville as this is our last transfer. I will miss serving next to Elder Tiongson my Filipino companion from Houston but am looking forward to ending my mission with Elder Wallace. This week we had the last district meeting of the transfer. We discussed the importance of keeping lesson short and under 45 minutes. We practiced teaching each of the lessons using one sentence to cover each principle. It is hard but very powerful when we can take a principle that is so complex and break it down so that a child can understand it. The next day we went to a small town called Medina. They say that Medina is the apple capital of Texas. This small town doesn't really have anything in it besides a few houses, a BBQ place, and a bunch of apple trees. We stopped by and talked with an old bishop brother Bonnet. He is a great member who is trying his best to find people for us to teach. He is always helping and serving his neighbors and is being a great example to each of them as he strives to be Christlike. There are many members like him in this great area.