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.