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