New Schedules!

I am grateful for another great week here on the mission. It was a very busy week with a conference in San Antonio and also the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast. Tuesday is when we had the Worldwide Missionary Broadcast were we heard from several of the Brethren as they taught us missionaries of how we can better fulfill our purpose of Teaching Repentance and Baptizing Converts. Elder Dallin H. Oaks presided during this broadcast. It was amazing to see the vision that we have been given and how we can become successful missionaries. There was so much that I learned and have been applying and trying to change so that I can be who the Lord needs me to be as I serve his children and bring them the gospel of Jesus Christ.

As I'm sure y'all heard we have been given a new schedule that is more flexible and helps us exercise our agency. Some of the big changes that were made is to our Key Indicators and also to our daily schedule. We will now only have 4 of the 9 key indicators that we use to have being Baptism, Baptismal dates, Church, and New Investigators. This is a great change as it will help us stay focused on our purpose. We also will now have two more hours of preparation day from 8am to 6pm. We will also be daily planning in the morning instead of the evening which gives us an extra 30 minutes to relax and study or sleep depending on what you would rather do. These changes are great as it gives us more time to teach people and also gives us some more personal time.

Along with this meeting we had a great council on Thursday as we disused how we can exercise our agency righteously and what we can do to better our purpose of teaching repentance and baptizing converts. President Polley is very powerful and I am grateful that I can have him as my leader to help me become a greater missionary though repentance.

This week we taught Anna and she still has a great desire to learn but has a couple concerns that we will be trying to help her overcome. I had another very spiritual experience as I was able to interview Jessica Marquez that I taught when I was serving in Heatherwilde. When we first started to teach Jessica she said that she never would be baptized. After her family kept on coming to church an she continued to be taught by the missionaries she had a change of heart through repentance. It was a blessing to see first hand the happiness and joy that the gospel has brought to her and her family. In about a year they will be able to be sealed as a family in the temple.

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

Yackman P-day (The Austin Zone)

Noticed a difference!

This week was full of miracles just like every week on the mission. To start off we found another part member family. It is a single mom named Anna who has a three year old daughter that was blessed in the church. The mom is from the Ukraine and has been to our church a couple times when she lived with some Mormons and was married to a Mormon. We had two lessons with her this week and they were both very spiritual. During the second lessons we invited her to pray to know if the Book of Mormon is true. The spirit was powerful and she was emotional during the prayer as the spirit testified to her that what we shared with her and also that the Book of Mormon is true. She has talked a lot about how she has noticed a difference in the members of our church and she was wondering what is different about us. We are excited to continue to teach her and we will be helping her try and get to church.

We had another great lesson with the Coutiño family. We shared the plan of salvation and they have a goal to soon go back to the temple and be sealed as a family. It has been so fun teaching them and helping them come back to church. They are very sincere and have powerful testimonies that will bless many people in the ward as they come back.

On Sunday during one of our sacrament meetings we were pulled out by a member of our church to talk with two ladies that randomly showed up. They recently moved into the area and found our church online. These two ladies both have families of 6 so there is a total of 12 and 10 that are baptismal age. They enjoyed the church a lot and were very excited to bring the rest of the family next week. The great part is during are breakfast that morning my companion and I talked about how
we hoped that a random family would show up to church. It is amazing to see how the lord will bring them to us. They don't live in our area but we were able to refer them off to another set of missionaries.

This week will be a busy one with a worldwide missionary broadcast and a couple other meetings. Hoping that we will be able to set someone with a date this week.

Marvelous Work!

Another great week in the mission. On Sunday during our Ward conference we had one of the Less Active families the Coutiños in the Ward come and feel of the spirit and reference that church brings. We met this family last week and we shared the Restoration with them. The parents both shared their testimony of the restored gospel and also Sister Countiño told us her conversion story as she joined the church about 5 years ago. They have the greatest desire to come back and be apart of the Ward. Later this last week we had another visit as we will be able to go over a couple times a week and reteach them the lessons. During the last visit Brother Countiños sister came and also listened. She is a member but her husband and 9 year old daughter have not been baptized yet.


Tuesday night had dinner with the Sasa. The father is not a member and is from Samoa and the mother is from Hawaii. They have a couple kids who are members. They have started to come back to church over the last three months and it has been great seeing the joy that it is bringing to the family. There is a lot of less active work to do and hopefully we can continue to find and help others come to church and receive the blessings that come from keeping the sabbath day holy.

The Mejia family were busy this week so we didn't have an opportunity to meet with them. Brother Pete Mejia still wants to be baptized but we are not sure when he will until he quits his second job so that he can get to church. For the first time on my mission we were let in and talked with an atheist couple. We met the boyfriend as he was taking out trash to the dumpster in his apartment complex. We went inside and talked about who Christ is and why he is important. We will also have a lesson at the church this week and hopefully as we give them a church tour they will come to church next week. It was interesting teaching someone who doesn't believe in Christ.

Played some soccer today with some other missionaries and some Hispanic members. It always feels good to kick a ball around and have some fun. Looking forward to another great week and I am excited to continue to help the Lord with this marvelous work.

"Because you are His child you not only need Him, but He needs you."

Teach by the Spirit!

Last night we received transfer information and I will be staying here in Pflugerville,Texas for at least another 6 weeks. At the end of this transfer I will have been in this area for almost 1/3 of my mission. Thankfully I am really enjoying this area and have two great wards that we are serving in. Also my companion Elder Gardner will be staying here with me for his second transfer. 

This last week was a busy one and it went by very fast. To start of the week we had a powerful lesson with a part member family the Mejia's. They have recently moved into the Ward and the father who is not a member yet was taught a while back by some missionaries. We were able to meet the family and get to know them more before we shared the message of the restoration. As we shared the Restoration and talked about the importance of the priesthood he shared a neat story with us. A while back brother Pete Mejia's uncle went into the hospital for a very critical sickness. They weren't even sure if he would be able to make it out of the hospital alive. During this short time were his uncle was in the hospital Brother Pete Mejia received a priesthood blessing from a member of the church. He mentioned how he felt Christ's hands on his head during the blessing and after the blessing an overwhelming peaceful feeling came upon him. A few days later his uncle walked out of the hospital and quickly recovered from the sickness.  The priesthood is real and our investigators was able to testify to us that it is real. Later on during the lesson as we helped him understand the role of the prophet Joseph Smith he knew that he is a prophet and had a great desire to be baptized and in a year be sealed to his family. It was a blessing to serve the Lord and to be apart of sharing the gospel to Pete Mejia and the rest of his family who wants to come back to church. 

On Friday we had a meeting with President Polley in San Antonio. We discussed how important it is that we teach by the spirit so that we can teach people and not just teach lessons. I am looking forward to improving my teaching skills by asking more questions and listening to those we teach. President Polley was sick all week but it was amazing to see him bear testimony and teach us with all the strength that he had in him. I know that he has been called by God and that he knows and can receive revelation for this mission. He is a very inspired man. After this meeting we went on exchanges with the assistance in San Antonio. I learned a lot from them and hoping that as I apply those things that we discussed we will be able to help the Lords church grow in Pflugerville.

Today we had a busy p-day as we went down to Austin with one of the returned missionaries in the Ward. We ate super crazy and tasty donuts and then we went to a graffiti place, "The Cathedral of Junk", and the capital. It was pretty fun exploring and seeing the weird and interesting things that were in downtown Austin.

This man had this in his backyard. He has been collecting junk for over 40 years and there is a second floor that we went up in his cathedral of junk. This is just the picture of the front and it goes pretty far back and also pretty high. 

The "Lake Austin District". Last district meeting of the transfer. 

New Years!

There were a couple crazy days this week. On Friday we had a church tour set up with an investigator family the Valdez. There is a single mom with three kids. We had it set for 4 oclock and we had an active member family come to help fellowship and help her know at least one family for when she comes to church on Sunday. The active family and us were there a little before 4 oclock to talk about the church tour and then we waited for almost an hour until the Valdez finally showed. We were able to show her around the church and answer some questions that she had about Mormons such as "Do we worship Joseph Smith?". She really enjoyed it and the two families got along very well maybe even to well because it was hard to have them not talk so that we could teach. Sadly they didn't come to church on sunday but hopefully next week.

After we had the church tour since we made the active family wait so long they asked us if we could help them make Tamales for a dinner they were going to have that same night with a non member family. We were able to go over and make some super good Tamales while listening to some classical Hispanic music that they put on in the background. It was fun and they actually turned out pretty tasty. We have had a lot of Tamales during the Christmas season it has been great.

Today we were able to go to the stake center with our district and play soccer. Since the 4 of the 8 Elders in the district are in the Hispanic ward they had a lot of their members and families come play soccer. We also brought one of our priest that we have and we all had a great time. It felt good to kick a soccer ball again and it reminded me of the high school days playing with almost all Hispanics. Also with our district we went to eat at Torcheys a taco place.

We still don't have anyone on date in our area but it has been amazing to see how many people we have on date in the zone. The Austin Zone is on fire and we are excited to have hopefully many baptisms this month. We also are still praying and hoping for a miracle that we will be able to find someone that is prepared and ready to make a change in there life and be baptized. We know that as we work with all our heart, might, mind, and strength we will be bale to find someone!

New year was fun. I woke up everyone in the apartment at midnight but they all just turned to the other side and went back to bed. Hope y'all had a good New Years.

"To reach a goal you have never before attained, you must do things you have never before done."

Christmas Week!

What a great Christmas and sad it was my last one on the mission. There is nothing like serving the lord during the celebration of our Savior Jesus Christ birth. I couldn't have asked for a better
Christmas being able to share the Light of Christ with the people here in Texas.

On Christmas Day during our first sacrament meeting we had one of our recent converts bring a friend of his to church. His friend is originally from Mexico and he was recently diagnosed with cancer. After the sacrament meeting we had the opportunity to participate in giving him a blessing of healing. That spirit was powerful and we hope that he will remember those feeling that he felt during church and the blessing. He doesn't live in our Ward boundary but hopefully other missionaries will be able to start to teach him.

Along with that Miracle that we had on Christmas Day we also meet a new family as we were walking around last week. We were visiting some families in a trailer park and as we were walking around a young boy came running after us and said that they just moved in and were wondering where the church is. It is a family of four and the father has not yet been baptized. The family hasn't been to church in a while but they have a desire to come back. The father is very interested but
has two jobs and works on Sunday. They are trying to work things out so he would have only one job and can come to church with the family. The lord brought them to us and we are excited to help them come closer to Christ through repentance.

We have a couple other families that we have been working with. I am amazed every day at the blessings that the Lord gives to us as we do our best to serve him. We also had another active family invite one of there friends to have desert with them and us. We were able to go over and share a Christmas message with them. They didn't seem super interested at this time but it was great to see the faith and missionary work that this active member family has. I am grateful that we can all share the greatest message to all.