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."