Monday, June 23, 2014
June 23rd, 2014 - Weekly E-mail
Family,
I love all the pictures that you guys send me! In every picture it looks like you guys grow more and more. And congratulations to Emma and Mikey and the girls for doing the Manti pageant and everything! I loved the pics!!! But yeah! I don't know how the weather was up there in Utah, but here in Chihuahua, the whole week was pretty much cloudy, and it rained like every night! We got a little bit drenched some of the nights!!! But this last week was a good missionary week...a good week of work.
Last Monday was really good! It was just a normal ole P-day, but we had a Zone conference, and it was super powerful! Elder Ruiz talked about Christ, just Christ. In the mission, if there's two things that we learn it is how to have a better relationship with Christ and how to recognize the spirit in our lives. For me, whenever we talk about Christ in the mission the spirit testifies so strongly, and the lessons based on Christ are always the best. So Elder Ruiz showed us a video of Christ, and how he is with us throughout the mission, and it was so spiritual. It is a talk by Elder Holland, and he talks about how as missionaries we walk a part of the path that Christ walked. As missionaries, as well, Christ is with us shoulder to shoulder, so that if we fall a little bit, he is right there to help us. It talks a little bit about how the mission is not easy, and that it never will be because for Christ it wasn't easy....salvation isn't easy. It was an amazing conference, and I felt on a spiritual high afterwards!
So Tuesday was also a really good day. So in the morning we had a lesson with our investigator Elayne. We talked about Christ....what we talked about the night before, and it went so good! The spirit was so strong, and so then we invited her to be baptized the 5th of July, and she accepted. She's super cool and understands everything that we teach her!!! After this lesson we all had worthiness interviews with President Chavez (we have these interviews like every 3 months or so). My interview went good, but President Chavez asked me a few things that was kinda like telling me that I was going to have transfers. I'm not 100% sure that I will, but from the interview I probably will have transfers, because President asked me some things that he didn't ask anyone else. Transfers are tomorrow (the 24th of June) and we find out tonight if we have them, so I guess next week you guys will find out, but I'll find out tonight!!! Also that night, Tuesday night, it rained a ton, and Elder Newman and I got drenched!! It was fun though......I love the rain!!!
On Wednesday it was kinda like a replay of Tuesday in a way. We didn't have interviews with President Chavez, but we had a cool lesson with Elayne again, and later that night it rained a ton as well!!! Oh, and in the lesson with Elayne that we had on Tuesday and Wednesday, we had members that came with us, so the two lessons were super powerful!!!
On Thursday not too much happened, but Elder Ruiz went on divisions with me for just a few hours to teach our investigator Elisa. Elisa is already ready for baptism, she just doesn't realize it. There was a Family Home Evening specifically for her, and so she got super excited for baptism, but then there were a few of the young adults who said a few things on Facebook that she didn't like, so it became a problem, and she lost her excitement for baptism. In the lesson that Elder Ruiz and I had with her it was super good, and Elisa said that she would prepare for baptism this Saturday the 28th, but then on Sunday her mom said that she wasn't sure about her baptismal date for the 28th, so we don't know what is going to happen. But I really hope that she gets baptized this weekend!!! I have enough faith....now we just have to wait to see if it is the will of God.
Friday was just a normal day. We had another lesson with Elayne, and we brought the members again, and the lesson went good again! She is so excited about everything, and already loves the book of Mormon a ton!
Saturday was normal, but then later in the afternoon Elder Ruiz called us and told us that he was going to have a baptism and that he needed help, so we went. That night we went on divisions after the baptism, and our other zone leader, Elder Palma from Honduras, went with me to our house.
Sunday was also good, but super stressful. You all thought that on Sunday we rest from our labors from the week, but as a missionary it's the complete opposite. It is the most stressful day because it's the day to find out if our investigators are going to come to church or not. Elayne was the only one that we had that came, but as always she was super excited to be there! She is always excited to go to church which is awesome!! But Sunday was stressful because we had to run around to gather up some of the little kids, and then one of the young adults was crying for a certain reason, and so we got our scriptures to help her, and then....yeah. But all in all it was a good day! Every time I partake of the sacrament I feel so good....ready for another week of work!!! Something that I have been doing during the sacrament is reading 3 Nephi 18. It is when Christ came to America and administered the sacrament to the people of the Book of Mormon. It is a really cool chapter and you really learn more about the sacrament every time you read it!
But yeah. So I just want to tell you guys that the most important thing that we do is read the Book of Mormon and pray, so just make sure that you all are always doing those things! If you do, you will be blessed more than you ever have been, and you will be guided by the Holy Ghost to do what you all need to do in your daily lives.
I love you so much, and I'll talk to you in a week! Have a good week!!! Be safe and make good choices!!!
-Elder Loveless
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
June 16th, 2014 - Weekly E-mail
Family,
So this last week was just an amazing week! Like, I couldn't see very many bad things that happened, and that felt super good, because I haven't had a week like that for a LONG time. And aside from all that, almost ALL of the days this week we had cloud cover and so it wasn't really all that hot....it got down to the lower 90s higher 80s this last week!!!
So nothing really happened between Monday and Wednesday, they were just normal days of work.....
Everything really started happening on Thursday. So on Thursday we had planned like 4 or 5 really cool visits, so we just prayed the night before that these people would be there when we passed by to visit them....and our prayer was answered. All of the people were there at their houses. So this is how it all started.
-In the morning when we left the house we went to a referral that the bishop gave us named Elayne. Bishop had told us that this lady had been reading the Book of Mormon for the last month, and so we needed to pass by to visit her. So we visited her. She is 25 years old and received the Book of Mormon from a friend that said that the book changed his life, so she wanted to see why. After teaching Elayne on Thursday and also on Saturday she told us that she would like to be baptized and also that she would go to church. She works from 6 p.m. on Saturday until 6 a.m. on Sunday, and still went to church. She told us on Sunday that she had only gotten 40 minutes of sleep, and was ready to go church and everything in the morning.
-Later we visited our investigator named Elisa and had a really cool visit about service and baptism, and how they go hand in hand. In the end we invited her to be baptized and she told us she would think about it but most likely yes. We put the baptismal date for this month, the 28th of June.
-After we visited one of our investigators named Ruth, who actually speaks English better than Spanish. We taught her about Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon and everything, and it was all in English. Let me just say it is so weird to teach in English. That was like the very first time in my whole mission, and in the beginning it was very hard, but in the end I got a hold of the language and it was super good!!! She is super excited and wants this to be the only true church more than anything because she wants to know the truth.
-And later we visited an older lady named Alicia (of like 70 years of age). Me and Elder Mendoza have been visiting her for a long time, but she always told us that she would never change religion, but this day she literally told us that she would like to be Mormon, so that was just crazy.
-And then the next day on Friday, we visited an investigator named Brillanda, and went to a huge park in front of her house to teach her, and it was super cool! We invited her to baptism, but literally right before we were going to put the baptismal date with her it started to pour rain. We still put the baptismal date, but we were all soaken wet after! haha.....but we put the baptismal date with her for the 26th of July.
So as you can see we saw SO many miracles this last week! It has shown me that God does really watch over us and that if we work hard and trust in Him with all of our might, mind and strength, then he will provide for us! Seeing these miracles helps me remember how great of a work we are in, and I love every step of it!!!
Thanks for all of the love and help you guys send my way! Remember that I love you all, and that everything is okay here in good ole Chihuahua, Mexico!!! Todays actually good too because there's cloud cover!!!
Have a good week all of you, and good luck Emma in the Manti Pageant!!!
-Elder Loveless
P.S. Because of the World Cup, everyone is crazy here in Mexico. I think the World Cup is like celebrated here more than Christmas!!! haha
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Tuesday, June 10, 2014
June 9th, 2014 - Weekly Letter
Family,
So how's everything going? It sounds like everything is good! Summer time is always the best right?! The summer is good here too, but let me just say one thing......it is HOT! (I have never sweated as much as I have been sweating here) Here, let me help you all get an idea of the heat here. So it's still Spring, and it got up to just about 110 degrees this last week. We have a new rule in the mission that we have to be inside somewhere from 3:00-4:30. So we usually eat with the members from 2:00-3:00, and then after if we don't have a planned visit we have to go back to our house to study, because it is hot enough that if we are out in the sun during that time we can get heat stroke and stuff like that, so yeah, this last week was kind of weird because we had to go to our house a few days to stay inside, and then like 1 or two days we had to stay with members for the whole time, so we had long visits with them!!! But honestly, besides the heat, things have been going good.
So how's everything going? It sounds like everything is good! Summer time is always the best right?! The summer is good here too, but let me just say one thing......it is HOT! (I have never sweated as much as I have been sweating here) Here, let me help you all get an idea of the heat here. So it's still Spring, and it got up to just about 110 degrees this last week. We have a new rule in the mission that we have to be inside somewhere from 3:00-4:30. So we usually eat with the members from 2:00-3:00, and then after if we don't have a planned visit we have to go back to our house to study, because it is hot enough that if we are out in the sun during that time we can get heat stroke and stuff like that, so yeah, this last week was kind of weird because we had to go to our house a few days to stay inside, and then like 1 or two days we had to stay with members for the whole time, so we had long visits with them!!! But honestly, besides the heat, things have been going good.
Monday was a good day! We had a normal p-day and then later we had a district meeting with our new district leader, Elder Huerta. Funny story about that though.
Tuesday we found out that 6 missionaries were being taken out of our zone, and Elder Huerta went with them, so we were found district leaderless. Later that night, Elder Ruiz, who is our zone leader, called us and told us that he was going to be our new district leader....and zone leader at the same time, so that is pretty interesting! So on Tuesday we also had a zone meeting that was super awesome! Everything was set up like a formal meeting. We had our names where we were sitting, and it was just a super cool meeting about being courageous.
Wednesday I'm pretty sure was just a normal day, except for the fact that we ate two meals again because two different sisters had signed up.....so we got stuffed to the point of explosion that day! haha
Thursday was a good and crazy day....we weren't actually even able to work at all. So we started the day with a meeting with President Chavez which was really good! We talked about obedience and sacrifice. With these two principles God will give us success. When we are perfectly obedient and sacrifice things, that is when the Lord gives us success, and I have seen that here in our area (now called Rio Sacramento 1). So after the meeting the other two elders that were here in the Lagos area had to move areas, and we got all of their area....so now we have a LOT more area to work. That day we also switched houses, so we moved into the house that the other two elders lived in because it's a LOT bigger. It's such a nice house, and it's a member's house, so he is always making sure we have everything we need, and he is actually washing our clothes on p-days to help us out! Such a nice brother. His name is Brother Raya!!!!
Friday and Saturday were just pretty much normal days!!! On Saturday though we found a new investigator that is super awesome! Her name is Ruth, and is the daughter of a less active member. All of her family are members. She has her dad and brother in California who are members, and her mom here in Mexico, she's just the only one who's not, but she literally told us that she has hunger to learn and do the things of God, so that was super cool! Oh, it's super cool because she speaks English better because she grew up in California! So we taught her the Plan of Salvation on Saturday ALL in English, so that was super cool! She understands and likes English better, so she's super cool!
On Sunday, we passed by the houses of quite a few investigators, but sadly we had none at church. But even though we didn't have anyone at church, I feel good about the work that we did last week. When that happens you know you did your part! We did our part, but because everyone has agency, they didn't come! Although it was kinda sad, I still felt fine! It was a good Sunday!
And later today we get to go to President Chavez's house to eat with them because my companion is in one of the mission's special choirs, and since I gotta go with him I get to eat too :) But yeah, everything's been going good! I have a strong testimony that in every type of situation, if we have faith, diligence, and patience (the hardest one), the Lord with always bless us with success...not just in the mission but also in the real world!
Thanks for everything my wonderful family! I feel like with every passing week my love grows for each one of you!!!
Love you all and have a good week!!!
-Elder Loveless
P.S. This last week I got two packages.....1 from Grandma Barbara and 1 from the youth from the ward!!!! :)
Friday, June 6, 2014
June 2nd, 2014 - Weekly Letter
Family,
Hey my great ole loved ones!!! I can't believe all the crazy
things that have been happening out there in Utah Moab ,
I'm here in Mexico
But yeah...so Monday last week was a very hard day.....very disappointing.
So we got the same reference from like 3 people, which was an old widow, and so
we were all excited to visit her because the people that gave us the reference
were telling us that she would be the next baptism and that she was super cool,
and so we arrived......and she rejected us. Yep.....didn't want anything to do
with us. So after that I was thinking to myself, well at least we have the new
investigator named Hermano Loya, and then literally 10 minutes later we found
him on the street and he said that we couldn't visit him anymore because he
didn't want us to. So that night I went back to the house just plain out
depressed. But apart from that, we had a zone activity and we played dodge ball
and soccer and this game where we had to pop the balloons that were attached to
each other's ankles, so that was fun.
Tuesday was also pretty hard in the beginning because it is just
super hot and we are very low on investigators so we were pretty much in the
street all day. At the end of the day though we had a really cool lesson with a
new investigator named Brillanda. We talked to her about God and her relationship
with him and everything like that and it was an amazing lesson. It was a good
way to end the day.
On Wednesday we ended up having a little more fun, and one of the
members gave Elder Mendoza and I a sombrero. I now wear it not everyday, but
when I want because it does protect our faces from the sun, but at the same
time it makes my head and hair super sweaty.....ugghhhh. So on Wednesday night Elder Mendoza got a call
from the assistants! He got called to be zone leader again for the last little
bit of his mission, so we got transfers.
So Thursday we spent the morning finishing packing for Elder
Mendoza and then at about 11:00 a.m. we went to the offices for the transfers.
Also, one of the other elders from Lagos , Elder
Neuman, got transfers, so the other elders from Lagos Lagos
Friday and Saturday were just both hot days, but we made two
baptismal invites and both the people said yes to the invite!!!!
Sunday was good as welll!!!!!! Very good!!! So we went to the new
ward for the first time called Rio Sacramento, and it is a big ward, and they
work really hard. So we brought an investigator to church named Elisa, and in
this new ward there are actually young women, and so they talked with Elisa and
everything, and so everything is going good with her! Today we are going to
visit Elisa and we are planning on putting a baptismal date with her for the
21st of June, so pray for us!!! But yeah, so Sunday the meals weren't planned
out very good, so we had to eat 2 whole meals in like the space of 2 hours...oh
man.....I've never ate so much food in my life! But Sunday was very good!!!
But yeah......so everything is going very good here, apart from
the extreme heat! I've really been increasing my own testimony as I've been
reading the Book of Mormon. I started a few months ago and now I'm on 3 Nephi
20, just after Christ came to America America
Thanks for everything, and I hope you all enjoy where you're at
this summer!! I love you all!! Have a good summer!!!
-Elder Loveless
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