Like Wiseman!

We had interviews with President Polley this week and we also had our Christmas Conference on Thursday. Christmas Conference was so great and Sister Polley shared with us how missionaries our like Magis (Wiseman). We looked in the bible dictionary and then watched the church bible video. It was neat to see the similarities such as how we both journey, we bring gifts to others, we wear different clothing, we follow and go to Christ and several more. We also had a super good BBQ with smoked brisket, sausage, turkey, cream corn, and beans. I love Texas BBQ and we will be getting some on Christmas day from one of the members in our wards.

Also during the Christmas Conference President Polley spoke with us about the importance of the Sabbath Day and how we can get our investigator's to church. He emphasized on how we must involve members as soon as possible and help the members invite them to church and fellowship them there. Hope that we can get those that we are teaching to church on Christmas Day. We will be having a great lesson on Wednesday at an active members home. They will be inviting a non member family come and have dinner as well as have us share a Christmas message and the video Light The World. It has been great showing the #LightTheWorld video to everyone we see and come in contact with.

On Saturday it was pretty hot around 80 and then later that night around 7 o'clock it dropped down to about 30. It was crazy how fast the weather dropped down to be so cold. Cant believe it is almost Christmas and we are cherishing the time we have left to share the message of Christ during this great season were more people are receptive and open.

Change in his life!

What another great week here in Texas. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to see the Lord work many miracles in the area that I am serving in. On Saturday we had the baptism of Stephen Beck. Stephen came to church about 40 times before he was baptized and now they are looking forward to being sealed in the Temple in a year. What a blessing it was to see Stephen make a change in his life so that he will be able to live with his family forever. His wife who has been a member her whole life had her whole family come down to be apart of the baptism. Stephens father in-law was able to baptize and also confirm him a member of the church. That same night after the baptism we were able to pick up a 12 foot tree and put it up in our apartment. Because our ceiling is not that tall we couldn't put on the bottom or top piece of the tree on. Our apartment is looking very festive now!

Along with that great night on Sunday we had another miracle happen. Elder Gardner and I have been praying to find more people to teach and our prayers have been answered. Last week we reached our goal of three new investigators and we hope to get four this week. On Sunday a young couple that we didn't recognize showed up to church. After sacrament meeting we were able to talk with them. It was there first time at church and they found our church online. They have been going to many different churches and they are trying to find a church to attend in this area since they have recently moved in. We will be going by this evening and are looking forward to teaching them the message of the restored gospel. 

On Friday and Saturday at our church building there was a nativity open house that my old ward put on. We helped them set up a lot this week as they spent the whole week setting things up and making the church look festive. They had around 150 nativities that were all very different. They had many people come and were able to get many nonmembers to the church. 

I am excited for another week and am grateful that I can share the gospel during this great Christmas season. It was super cold at the beginning of the week but has been warming up a lot these last couple days. 

"The decision to BELIEVE is the most important decision you will ever make."

Stephen Beck baptism

Hoping for Success!

This week we had one of the two Christmas ward parties. We had it for the Heritage Trail Ward and we were able to shake hands with all the members that were there and introduce them to Elder Gardner. Later during the week we were able to have another lesson with Stephen Beck and continue to prepare him for the baptism. He is super excited and none of his family will be able to come to the baptism but Sister Becks family will be able to come and Stephens father in law will be the one to baptize him Saturday evening.

This week we drove down to San Antonio again on Friday for a meeting. We had the opportunity to have Elder Villarreal a 70 preside at the meeting and share what was on his mind. He talked a lot about the importance of "hoping for" success. He shared how we need always be hoping for the best and have an upbeat and positive attitude as we serve the Lord. President Polley then addressed us and talked about the importance of setting goals and doing all we can to accomplish the goal that we set personally and as a companionship.

We were able to serve at the storehouse again here in pflugerville. We helped stack a bunch of food cans and also organized the rest of the food that they had. I will be staying in this area for Christmas and also for New Years which will be really fun. Looking forward to another cold and rainy week.

Elder Biesinger

Elder Gardner

Open to the Spirit!

It was another great week in Texas and a great last week with my companion Elder Biesinger who will be going home on Wednesday. I will have a new companion Elder Gardner and  I will be staying here in Merrilltown/Hertiage Trail. I have had the opportunity to serve around Elder Gardner for a little bit and he also came out with me. I am looking forward to serving the Lord with all my heart, might, and strength with Elder Gardner. He is super tall and is really good at basketball (he can dunk). Last night we had another lesson with Brother Stephen Beck who is still preparing for his baptism on the 10th of December. As we visited with him his desire to be baptized has increased and he has been able to continue to prepare. It has been amazing to see him from my first visit when he did not want to be baptized and was very closed off from last week when his heart was open to the sprit and he was willing to change and follow Christ by committing to be baptized. Over 4 months of the sprit working on him he was is now ready to be baptized. On Sunday another part member family came to church The Shepard.  Sister Shepard is a less active member and hasn't been to church in a very long time. She just had one of her two daughters turn 9 and they want her to be baptized. We will hopefully be setting this young child who is so Christ like with a baptismal date this evening at our lesson. Sister Shepard is a single mom who is trying her best to help her kids grow up and have a strong faith in Christ.

With Christmas being in about a month we have been able to share and talk about the new Christmas video and initiative that the church has recently came out with #LightTheWorld.  The church has been stepping up with the way that they have been using technology and it is super nice to have ipads that we can show the video everywhere we go even in street contacts. 

On Saturday Jaden Marquez was baptized. We were able to support him and see another young boy be baptized and on Sunday receive the holy ghost. Although we haven't been teaching the Marquez for the last 6 weeks It has been so neat seeing the Marquez family change and start to make covenants with God. Sister Marquez will be baptized in the next couple of months and then a year from then they will be able to enter into the house of the Lord. 

A turtle!

What a great week in Texas. At the end of each week on the mission I am always amazed at the many blessings that we receive. I am grateful to be apart of the Lords church and help with the gathering of Israel. We were asked by Elder De Hoyos about a month ago to study and learn from Jacob 5. This chapter gives in detail the allegory of the olive tree and the scattering and gathering of Israel. As I have read and studied this chapter I was able to notice the Lords love for each branch (group of people) as he labored himself to help the trees bring forth good fruit.

Last night we visited with a young couple the Becks in the Ward. The wife is an active member and the husband has been a long time investigator. He has been coming to church for over a year now and has been taught by several different sets of missionaries and hasn't declined any invitations to be baptized. This was the first time Elder Biesinger and I visited them in a while and after reading from the "Family and Temple" pamphlet that the church recently came out with and going over the baptismal interview questions he accepted to be baptized on the 10th of December. It truly was a modern day miracle. The spirit has been working in his life and over the last couple of months we have seen a great change in him and the lord was preparing him for the invitation last night. It was also great to see how excited they were to be sealed in the temple a year from this December. We are looking forward to this upcoming week and are excited to meet many new people. Hopefully we can continue to find the prepared!

We had several opportunities to do service this week. On Thursday as a District we did service at "The Backpack Coalition". We helped pack up small bags and also large bags for schools and the kids that have very little food at home. It was fun serving along side the district especially since we have a very fun and funny district. We also were able to serve an older couple move their 700 + pound turtle that they have had for about 30 years. We lifted the turtle and put it into a shed for the winter. It was pretty tuff to lift and carry. It didn't want to go into the shed and already broke out once so that's why we had to lift it up. Before we put it into the shed I was able to ride the turtle for a little bit. It carried me like it was nothing. We did some more service on Tuesday and Friday at the local storehouse here in Pflugerville. Great week with a lot of service and we will hopefully be able to do a lot as well this week for thanksgiving.

So many modern day miracles!

What another great week of finding and a couple exchanges. Yesterday during our stake conference a member of our ward pulled us out of the chapel and told us that their our some investigators that have come to the church for the first time and have been asking for the missionaries. As we were able to introduce ourselves and get to know them a little bit they asked what form they need to fill out to be a part of this church. They wanted to join this true church yesterday and as we were able to explain how to become a member we were able to write down their information and send them off as a referral to another set of Missionaries. They have recently moved to Texas from Nigeria and a friend of theirs invited them to go visit our church since they have been looking for a family church to attend. It was amazing to see the promises made in Preach My Gospel become true again and again and again. "He will lead you to them or He will lead them to you."

On Wednesday I was able to learn and serve with Elder Hunt down in San Antonio. What a powerful and faithful missionary he is. I learned so much from him and was able to truly feel of Gods love through him. We had another miracle on the exchange as we were walking around an apartment complex trying to find an apartment number, we ran into a Hispanic man named Ricardo who just got home from work. As we were able to talk with him he invited us into his home. Last year on Christmas his wife passed away and he also has had a son pass away. He hasn't been to church in a while but has a powerful testimony of Jesus Christ. He seems to have been lonely lately and the lord has humbled him. As Ricardo has been humbled he was very sensitive to the spirit and knew what we shared was from God and that we were the Lords servants. He accepted a baptismal date for the 24th of December and will be confirmed on the 25th which is exactly a year from his wife's death. How grateful I am for the lord showing me so many modern day miracles. I have no doubt that this is the true church and the lords work is moving forward.

On the way back from San Antonio we ate at a really good taco restaurant called "Fuegos". It's amazing how good tacos can be. I had a taco that had chicken and fried avocado, and also another taco that had a Sunday dinner in it (fried chicken, potatoes, cream corn). Who knew those kind of tacos would taste so good. We also had the opportunity to do serve activities this week at the local storehouse. We loaded the carts with food and we would take them out to their cars.

"Keep trying. Keep trusting. Keep believing. Keep growing. Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow and forever."    Elder Holland

Showed up at church!

Saturday night we were finally able to contact the Sasa family again. The mom is from Hawaii and the father is from Samoa. They have two kids and also a cousin staying with them right now. All of them are members except for the father whose father is a pastor somewhere else in Texas. One of the sons is going to school at Texas A&M and the other son is a freshman and is hopefully one day play college football. We had a great visit with them Saturday night and were able to get to know them.

The family just like all the poly families at cottonwood are very close and are always having a fun time with each other. We talked about what they feel has brought there family closer together and some things they mentioned is how they always eat family dinner no matter how late everyone gets home and how they always strive to keep Christ in the center of everything. We invited them to read from the Book of Mormon and come to church since it has been a very long time since they attended. The father and the younger son both said they have never read the Book of Mormon but that they will read chapter one tonight. Sunday rolled around and after the sacrament they all walk in. The Ward was very excited to see them and they had a very warm welcome. Also we spoke with them after sacrament meeting and they read 1 Nephi one last night. Hopefully they will continue to read even though they will be going to Hawaii this week and won't get home until next week.

Also we walked into sacrament meeting and there was a guy that we recognized but couldn't remember where we met him from. After about 30 minutes trying to remember who this man was we finally were found out. He was a street contact a couple weeks ago and he just randomly showed up to church. He wouldn't give us an address or a phone number but hopefully he continues to come even though he said he just wanted to see what a Mormon church was like. During fast and testimony meeting he clapped for a couple of the testimonies that he really enjoyed  it was great.

Friday night after eating pizza at the apartment that a member dropped off, as we were driving we saw an older lady on the ground with two dogs on leashes. We stopped and went over and there was a small puddle of blood and she had tripped on the sidewalk and hurt her face. We were able to call the ambulance and they came and took her to the hospital. It was sad but we were grateful that we saw her and were able to help her out.

Halloween night we had a lesson with some recent converts and watched part of the restoration with them. We were also able to do a couple administrative items that needed to get done. Fun Halloween! A couple nights after Halloween as my companion was backing me up in the car a couple little kids said "he must be learning how to drive". It brought a good laugh into our night. It has rained these last several days and has been getting cooler.

"God accomplishes His miracles one prayer at time, one person at a time."

The zone with Elder and Sister De Hoyos (seventy) and President and Sister Polley. 

Committ to the Lord!

Another great week in Texas. We were blessed to have Elder and Sister De Hoyos come and visit our mission. On Thursday we had our zone conference in which Elder De Hoyos and Sister De Hoyos shared their testimony and also gave us many invitation and instruction on how we can continue to improve. It was really neat hearing stories and learning what the Brethren our focusing on right now. He shared a funny story about President Monson . Elder De Hoyos was able to attend President Thomas S. Monsons 89th birthday party. President Thomas S. Monson walked into the party with his daughter by his side helping him walk. She was able to stay by his side and introduce him to all the
people that were present at his party. When he shook hands with Elder De Hoyos he started speaking in Spanish knowing that Elder De Hoyos was from Mexico and only knew a little English. Elder De Hoyos told him he had great Spanish and he said he took Spanish for three years with a big smile on his face. He then started singing a Mexican song to Elder De Hoyos. It is wonderful to see how each of us have different talents and attributes and that the lord wants us to be who we are even when we are serving him.

Elder De Hoyos also talked about how we each need to spend more time teaching the importance of the sabbath day. He mentioned how this has been a big focus of the prophet and his apostles on how they can help people understand the importance of keeping the sabbath day holy. He shared how there are many people who show up to sacrament meeting late and many times after the sacrament.

Elder Biesinger and I have continued to do a lot of finding. We meet several new people that showed some interest. Last night we had a lesson with a older man who is a member but hasn't come to church in a very long time. His name is Brother Burck and he wants to come back to church but is a little hesitant because of past experiences. He has been able to read from the Book of Mormon and will hopefully be able to come to church next week. He shared with us how he has been talking with a co-worker who is also Mormon and hasn't been to church in a while and they talked about how they both want to get back into to church. It will be a great blessing for the Ward to have this nice man come back and share his powerful testimony with the members.

Commit to the Lord whatever you do, and he will establish your plans."

The Lord manifests himself!

We now have another set of Elders living with us in our apartment. They are full bike and are hard working Elders. One of them snores super loud and takes pills to help it a little. Luckily I'm a pretty deep sleeper but I still have woken up several times each night. Yesterday for the first time in several months we only attended two wards instead of three. It has been good being able to work a little more in each Ward since we only double cover.

On Friday there was a family named the Sasa who are members. The mother and her kids haven't been able to come to church in a long time. The father is not a member and we didn't have the opportunity to meet him since he was not at home. The mother is from Hawaii and the father is from Samoa. They showed interest in coming back to church and we will be able to meet with the whole family this week.

On Saturday as Elder Biesinger and I were walking down a street we smelled some BBQ. We kept on walking and the smell kept on getting greater and greater and finally we arrived to a house that a Muslim man was smoking up some Lamb on his front porch. We stopped and spoke with him and he gave us each a lot of smoked tasty Lamb and then he went inside and grabbed a bunch of Watermelon and salad and feed us until we were full. "The lord manifests himself through his tender mercies".We are still doing a lot of finding. To find we mostly visit with part members and less actives, street contacting, and knock some doors every now and them. We hope to help each of our wards have missionary work on the forefront of their minds and make it a greater priority. We plan to visit with a lot of the Ward leaders in the next couple weeks to discuss some of their missionary efforts as auxiliaries.

Having the time of my life out here in Texas! Weather is starting to cool down a lot and and I'm doing the greatest work! There truly is no place I'd rather be.

"If you're there for the Lord.  He will be there for you."

Marquez family!

Serve the Lord with all my heart!

What a great week. Last night we received transfer news and I will be staying with Elder Biesinger for the third transfer in a row and also for his last transfer on the mission. I am so excited to continue to work with Elder Biesinger and learn from him. He is such a great. We will be staying in Heritage Trail and Merrilltown but will not be covering Heatherwilde ward anymore. We will only cover two wards and not be triple covering which will be nice so that we can be more involved in those wards. We definitely will miss Heatherwilde especially the Marquez family. It has been fun teach them and seeing them grow closer to Christ. I am grateful for the Lord and that he was able to let me teach them the restored gospel through the spirit. Hopefully one day sister Marquez and Jayden the son will be able to be baptized by their father. Maybe I will be lucky enough to still be close and could go to their baptism.

On Saturday Marta from my last area was baptized. I wish I could have been there but due to me serving in Austin and the baptism being in San Antonio on a Saturday we weren't able to go down. I am grateful that she was able to continue to learn from my last companion and other missionaries and that her concerns were able to go away. It is amazing how as we read from the Book of Mormon and do our best to live faithfully any doubts or questions that we may have will slowly go away.

This week we taught the Marquez several times and we had lunch with them on Saturday. We ate menudo which was a pretty interesting Mexican soup. Sister Marquez has been feeling a little bit better and she will be going through another surgery this week to try and break up another kidney stone. They have continually been reading from the Book of Mormon and coming to church. We also have been making a lot of visits to part members and less actives to try and find more people to teach. We have met several new families and we hope that we can meet with them again this week. 

On Saturday a little before we went to dinner we met a really nice lady named Shane. It was a miracle and a great experience of how we ran into her. For several hours before we met Shane we were walking around visiting less active families in apartment complexes. We talked with a lot of people and had some crazy and interesting contacts as we tried and had no success visiting these less actives that we had planned. On the way back to the car there was a lady who looked sad sitting on a bench waiting for the bus stop. As we started talking with her she told us how she doesn't belief in God anymore because of the many trails that she has been through. She was a single mom with a seven year old son. As we continued to talk with her and read a couple verses from the Book of Mormon she started to open up. By the end of the conversation she said how grateful she was that we stopped and talked with her. She expressed how she really needed it and as we left she said God bless. She didn't come to church but we hope to meet with her sometime this week and continue to help her gain a stronger faith in God.

It truly is a humbling experience being able to serve the Lord with all my heart, might, mind, and strength. 

Marta

Overcome challenges!

I just recently found out that Marta from my last area will be getting baptized this Saturday. I probably wont be able to go to the baptism since its about two hours or less away. I am so excited for her and I hope that all goes well this week. It was so fun teaching her and seeing her overcome challenges including the word of wisdom.

Sister Marquez is still felling very sick and I think she had another surgery this Friday and we haven't seen them since but they texted us today and we will be able to stop by tonight and share a message with her and the rest of the family.

We don't have to many people to teach right now so we have been doing a lot of finding. hopefully this week we will be able to find a family that will be prepared and ready to hear the message. 

One of our members who works at the capital give us a private tour today. It was so cool seeing all the different rooms. He also told us a little about how the government and the legislative works. It was really neat seeing the building and seeing the old structure that it had. The capital is so big and is such a beautiful building.

Capital

Powerful Leaders!

This was another great week! One of the miracles for this week happened during our weekly planning on Thursday. As we were discussing our area and how we can continue to help our part of the lords garden grow we received a phone call from an unknown number. Picking it up, Sister Marquez called from the emergency room in the hospital asking if we would be able to come and give her a priesthood blessing. As she was sitting in the emergency room in pain waiting to get surgery so that they could brake up the kidney stone she exercised her faith and called us asking for a blessing. We quickly but safely drove over to the hospital and had the opportunity to exercise the power of God that he has given to us his servants. Sister Marquez, unable to speak with her husband who just started a new job a day earlier gave us a call. I am so grateful to have been able to see a faithful nonmember recognize my companion and I as the lords servants. Her surgery went well and she is still recovering from the pain that she has been feeling.

This week was also filled with many insights from the prophet and his apostles as well as President Polley during a meeting we had on Friday. President Polley spoke about the joy that comes from finding. He said that we all enjoy teaching but that the joy of missionary work very much so also comes from a full day of finding and talking with many people. He also spoke about the power of the Book of Mormon and how we need to use it more in our teaching and also need to lovingly invite all to read and pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. It was amazing to see how inspired President Polley is. During conference they spoke about many of the important principles that he has been focusing on. One was the talk on  “stone cut out of the mountain without hands”. We have been able to study this a lot lately and it was neat to hear what an apostle also had to speak about this story in Daniel.  

This General Conference was powerful and inspiring. I loved the many talks that focused on missionary work.

President Dieter F. Uchtdorf – “Let us take courage and trust in the guidance of the Spirit. Let us in word and deed share with our fellowmen the amazing … message of God’s plan of happiness.”

Elder Craig C. Christensen – “… Because Joseph was a prophet, we have witness upon witness, testimony upon testimony, that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and Savior of the world. … Joseph Smith was and is the Prophet of the Restoration. The priesthood and authority of God are again on the earth. May we fearlessly declare our witness and our gratitude for this wonderful prophet, seer, and revelator of the Lord is my prayer.”

Elder Neil L. Andersen – “Please don’t see your efforts to share the love of the Savior with another as a pass/fail test with your grade determined by how your friends respond to your feelings or invitation to meet the missionaries. With our mortal eyes, we cannot judge the effect of our efforts, nor can we establish the timetable. When you share the love of the Savior with another, your grade is always an A+.”

Elder Dallin H. Oaks – “As an Apostle of the Lord, I urge every member and family in the Church to pray for the Lord to help them find persons prepared to receive the message of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.”

These were some of the many highlights that I had during this Conference. I really enjoyed President Henry B. Erying during Priesthood Session and how he spoke about his leaders that he has had. I have also been blessed with powerful and loving leaders. I am grateful for all they have taught me and I pray that I may continually learn from leaders in my life as well as the leaders that God calls in the church. I know and have received another witness that God has called President Thomas S Monson as a prophet seer and revelator. I know that we also have twelve apostles on the earth today just as there was during Christ earthly ministry.

Gift of Tongues!

It was another great week. I was able to experience the gift of tongues while I was on exchanges with a Spanish called missionary. This Elder has only been in the mission field for about three weeks now and he taught part of the restoration and also set up a return appointment all in Spanish. Afterwards he said that he has never talked that much in Spanish and couldn't even remember some of the things he said. It was a great experience for the both of us.

Last night we had dinner with an active young family the Sechrist and sister Sechrist younger sister Naomi just recently moved into there home. Naomi is not a member but said that she would be willing to learn more about the church. During dinner we were all able to share how we came to know the Book of Mormon was true and hopefully one day Naomi will be able to share that as well. She has had many challenges in the past but has moved to Texas wanting to start over. We will be able to go back on Wednesday and share more. The lord has truly been placing people for us to teach in our path.

Everything is still going very well with the Marquez family. Still no date for Jayden's baptism but the whole family especially Sister Marquez have been learning a lot. She shared an experience how a couple weeks ago she was tired and was thinking about staying home and missing church. As she continued to think about this she felt that it was the wrong choice and that she was needed at church. She came and once again felt the spirit. We were grateful that she has been able to listen to the light of Christ that was able to tell her that she needed to come to church.

Along with all these miracles in the middle of the week we had a lesson with a LA father Brother Odreman whose son is 10 years old and hasn't been baptized yet. The mother comes to church often but the dad works mostly Sunday's. The son doesn't know to much about the church and about Christ but the father the last couple days has been able to teach his son. They have talked about Christ, baptism, and the scriptures. We will be able to stop by and teach the whole family tonight including the son and help them all come to church as a family and hopefully one day see their son be baptized.

So many great families in the area. After many hot and sunny days we were able to have a rain storm and some cool stormy weather today and yesterday. We are looking forward to conference this weekend. Conference on the mission is the greatest. Love y'all.

Following Christ!

On Saturday Zachary Call was baptized and yesterday he was confirmed. It was such a great experience and it was so great to see another child be so humble and follow Christ through baptism. Many friends and Ward members were able to come and support him as he was baptized. The
Ward has helped a lot as they have reached out to Zachary but especially to Sister Call. I am glad that we will still have the chance to teach him the new member lessons because he soaks in everything we teach.

Word of Wisdom lesson!

Once again another great week here in Texas. Zackery Call and his mother came to church for the third time in a row now and he will be baptized this Saturday. Also the Marquez family came to church. The other day at one of the lessons with the Marquez family we had a fun activity to teach the word of wisdom. We had an empty backpack and had them run and jump and do push ups with it on. They were able to easily do all of this. After we started to fill the backpack with old area books that resembles one of the five different substances we shouldn't put into our bodies. Then we had them try and run around, jump, and do push ups. They struggled trying to work out with all of this weight in the backpack. It is amazing how God will truly bless us with health and strength as we live the word of wisdom. I have no doubt that the word of wisdom is true and was revealed to the Prophet Joseph Smith.

We also received a referral from online this week. The ladies name is Erma Jones and she is a true Native American (Apache). She ordered a bible from Mormon.org and we went over to deliver the bible and gave her a Book of Mormon. She shared with us how she has been watching several different pastors from TV talk and she has been confused because most of them don't use the bible as they speak and also if they do she thinks they interpret the scripture wrong. She also mentioned how she use to be catholic but doesn't believe the catholic church is true. We were able to teach her only for a short amount of time due to being late in the night but she understood what we shared and said she would read from the Book of Mormon. She didn't come to church because her grandchildren were sick and she had to take care of them. Hopefully we can meet with her in the next couple days and share more about the restored gospel. She has had many hardships in the past and I know that the gospel will be able to bring her more happiness and joy then she has yet felt. The restored gospel is just so great!

Elder Biesinger and I had the opportunity to speak on Sunday in one of our three wards and share with them the ward mission plan. I spoke on the importance of daily family prayer for missionary opportunities. I know that with the faithful members in our wards that as they pray and find people to share the gospel with we will be able to see many miracles in the weeks and months to come. Another great week that flew by and another one to look forward to. We also have been able to tell that the Longhorns have had a great start to the season! Football is crazy here.

"May we be DIFFERENT in order to make a DIFFERENCE in the world"

Focus on Prayer!

Another transfer over and Elder Biesinger and I will be both staying here in Heatherwilde/Heritage Trail/Merrilltown wards. Last Monday we had Yacktman pday. The Yacktmans are a family that live in the zone and every now and then they will have the missionaries in the Austin Zone come over and feed us and let us play different things around the house. We played soccer, ping pong, baseball on their baseball field next to their house, and tennis. It was a super fun p-day.

On Friday we had the opportunity to go down to San Antonio and have a council with President Polley. He is an inspired leader and I'am grateful for his guidance and direction. He focused a lot on prayer and unity and Sister Polley talked about meekness. I have been able to study prayer and gain a greater understanding of how to pray and the importance of prayer. I hope that as I teach prayer to the investigators that I will be able to show them the importance of asking and receiving answer from our Heavenly Father. What a great blessing it is that we can have a two way communication with God.

Zachary Call is still on date for the 17th of this month. Him and his mother have been meeting with us twice a week and have been coming to church for the last two weeks now. I have never taught a 9 year old kid or someone close to his age that is so excited to learn and has great answers. He is also very reverent during lessons and it has been amazing to see how close him and his mom have become since she has been coming back to church after many many years as he is preparing for baptism. The gospel truly does unite our families together as one. I have been able to feel how close children are to God and it is a blessing that I have the opportunity to teach Zachary and also the young kids in the Marquez home. The Marquez are also doing great and Brother Marquez had another meeting with bishop and we will hopefully be able to have him baptize his 9 year old son Jaden who we have been teaching. It should be this month or next that Brother Maquez will be able to baptize Jaden.

Mowed my first lawn since I left Utah. It was for an old man that just got out of the hospital. He was very nice but wasn't to receptive. I'm sure that he will accept the gospel at another time.

district meeting

Front yard of the Yacktmans

Yacktmans P-Day

Yacktmans P-day/Backyard lake that they boat on.

Mowed my first lawn since I left Utah!

A lady from India has this as her pet!

Caught two lizards

He communicates to us today!

What another great week! Every week seems to go faster and faster. It has been raining almost every day this last week which has been really nice prepared to the 100 degree weather. We drove down to San Antonio again this week for exchanges with the Assistance. I was able to go serve with Elder Hanson for the day and we taught several lessons with people on the street and also had a couple set lessons. We had great success and had a lot of fun. I learned so much from him and he helped me work on several different things including having greater street contacts. He is a powerful teacher and I am grateful for the time that I had to learn from him. During our last lesson of the night with a recent convert aged 18 we asked him what he thought when we the missionaries first shared with him that we have a living prophet on the earth today. He said that it was something he had thought about before and he knew that it was true because he always knew that God would not leave us alone but that he would still continue to communicate to us today. What a great blessing it is that we have the opportunity everyday to tell people that God has continued to show his love to us by speaking his word through a living prophet. I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet, seer, and revelator.

The rains came down!

The trio is done. Elder Arroyo got picked up by the assistance on Friday and his parents came and picked him up today. Back to only 1 companion. Funny how Elder Arroyo is now my only companion who is home and the rest of them including my trainer our still out here serving. He was a great Elder and I was glad that I got to serve with him for a couple weeks.

Friday as we were out visiting people with a priest it was about 106 degrees and then starting Saturday morning it hasn't stopped raining and has cooled down a lot. It is a miracle to have it cool and rainy in the middle of August in Texas. I'm enjoying while I can because it won't last to long.

"Each one of us has a part to play, and no matter how small or how insignificant you think your part is, it matters to the whole.  We have something very important to do.  We were born to lead and change the world."